3A Self Flashcards
(24 cards)
Developmental Psychology
Classics in field as they provided the beginning basis of understanding
Piaget Theory - Adaption
- Adaption
- > Continuous process of using the environment to learn
- > Learning to adjust to changes in the environment
Piaget Theory - Assimilation
- Assimilation
- > Process of taking in new information, fitting it into and making it part of an existing mental idea about objects or the world.
-> Making sense of new information by applying it to existing knowledge
Piaget Theory - Accommodation
- Accommodation
- > Advanced process
- > Changing an existing mental idea in order to fit in new information
Piaget Theory - Schema
- Schema
- > Organised mental representation of what something is and how to deal with it
Piaget 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
- Sensorimotor
- Pre-operational stage
- Concrete operational stage
- Formal Operational Stage
Object Permanence
Understanding that objects still exist even if they can not be seen or touched
Goal-orientated behaviour
- Behaviour carried out with a particular purpose in mind
e. g. reaching the table to collect things
Sensorimotor Stage - Piaget
- > Birth- 2 years
- > Infants construct the understandings of their world by co-ordinating sensory experiences with motor abilities
- > Learn object permanence
- > Goal orientated behaviour
Pre-Operational Stage - Piaget
- 2-7 years
- > Increasingly able to internally represent events
- Ego Centrism
- > Children have difficulty seeing from another person’s perspective
- Animism
- > Belief that everything which exists has some kind of consciousness or awareness
- Transformation
- > Smoething can transform from one state to another
- Centration
- > Child can only focus on one quality or feature at a time
- Reversibility
- > Ability to follow a line of reasoning back to original starting point
Concrete Operational Stage
- Revolves around what the child know and that they can experience through their senses
- Conservation
- > Object does not change its weight, mass, volume or area when object changes appearance
- Classification
- > Ability to organise information into categories based on common featuers that sets them apart from other categories
- 7 to 12 years old
Formal Operational Stage
- 12 years and over
- > Complex thought processes become evident and thinking becomes increasingly sophisticated
- Abstract thinking
- Logical Thinking
Abstract Thinking
- A way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see or visualise things in order to understand concepts
Logical Thinking
- Able to develop strategies to solve problems
- Identify range of solutions
- Develop hypothesis
- Systematically test solutions
Piaget Criticisms Overall
- Underestimated young minds
- Fail to distinguish b/w competence and performance
- Little emphasis on how children’s minds develop through interactions w/ others
Piaget Contributions
- Emphasized children are active
- Construct understandings through interactions w/ the world
- Develop from concrete to abstract thinking and reasoning
As they develop -> less ego centric, think systematically, reason abstractly
Follow up studies On Piaget: Donaldson and McGarrigle
- Show that children as young as 4 could conserve number if situation is given meaning
- Also important to note that Piaget concentrates entirely on mathematical skill and logic
Tests conservation of 6 year olds
- > Humans messed up 2 rows, 16% can identify
- > Bears mess up 2 rows, 62% can identify
Shows that children are better able to conserve than Piaget proposed
Follow Up Studies on Piaget: Siegal and Gilligan
- Problems arose when experimenter asks questions where the answer is obvious
- or repeat question when answer is given
- Answer is changed maybe to:
- > Please experimenter
- > Makes child rethink answer due to repeating Q
- > Piaget assumed if child failed cognitive task, lacked competence.
- > Many factors can affect whether a person successfully performs a task
- > Results in follow up studies changing the way that the question is being asked.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
- Universal sequence to the dev of morality
- > Morality : Principle concerning the distinction of right and wrong
- Found stages based on children’s responses to various moral dilemmas
- > Dilemmas focus on value of human life.
Stages of Kohlberg’s Theory Level 1
- Level 1: Pre-conventional ( up to 9 years)
- > Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience Egocentric
- -> Does not recognise different POV
- Stage 2: Instrumental Relativist Orientation
- > Aware of different interests and that these may conflict
- > Instrumental exchange of services, goodwil and fairness
Stages of Kohlberg’s Theory LEVEL 2
- Level 2: Conventional ( 10 to adolescence)
- > Stage 3: Interpersonal expectations, conformity and relationships
- > Following rules, living up to expectations of others, maintaing trust, gratitude, respect.
- > Stage 4: Authority and social order
- > Doing ones duty
- > Uphold social order
- > Take the view of the system
Stages of Kohlberg’s Theory LEVEL 3
- Level 3 Post conventional (Adulthood)
- > Stage 5: Social contract Orientation
- > Asserting and integrating basic rights, values, legal contracts
- > Stage 6: Universal ethical principles and morals orientation
- > Commitment to the universal principles of justice
- > Respect for others
Kohlberg based stages on children’s responses to various moral dilemmas
-> Considered that stages occur in the same sequence throughout the world.
Kohlberg Criticism
- Centred around only male participants
- Choice of dilemmas were western views of moral development.
Shweder (1991)
- > Moral development systems did not follow reasoning form other cultures due to western bias
- > Theory is cross-sectional / not longitudinal
- > Doesn’t allow assessment of moral reasoning over-time.
Kohlberg Contributions
- Gilligan (1982)
- > Difference b/w genders w/ regards to moral decision making
- > Was due to socialisation of the genders
- > Found that men focus more on justice
- > Women focus more on caring when answering q about moral development.
- > Males are achievement orientated, independent
- > Women are socially responsible, nurturing.
- > Found that females had 3 different levels of reasoning:
- > level 1: self interest
- > level 2: self sacrifice
- > level 3: care as a universal obligation
