5 Perspectives on Human Development

Question 1

LEARNING PERSPECTIVE 1/2:

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 1

Classical Conditioning
-dogs learned to salivate at the sound of a bell that rang at feeding time
-involuntary (food likes and dislikes)
(fear responses)

Question 2

What type of theory is Behaviorism?

Answer 2

Mechanistic Theory

• describes observed behaviour as predictable response to experience
• consider development as reactive
• continuous

Question 3

Behavioral research focuses on associative learning (mental link between two events)

What are the two kinds of associative learning?

Answer 3

1) Classical Conditioning

2) Operant Conditioning

Question 4

LEARNING PERSPECTIVE 2/2:

B.F. Skinner

Answer 4

Operant Conditioning

• behaviour can produce a desirable consequence
• learns from the consequences of “operating” on the environment

Question 5

SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE:

Albert Bandura

Answer 5

Social Learning Theory

• reciprocal determinism
• people learn appropriate social behaviour by observing and imitating (observational learning) (modeling)
• through feedback of behaviour, children develop a sense of confidence (self-efficacy)

Question 6

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE 1/3:

Jean Piaget

Answer 6

Cognitive-Stage Theory

• sensorimotor
• preoperational
• concrete operations
• formal operations

Question 7

Cognitive Development begins with an innate ability to adapt to the environment
What are the 3 processes of cognitive development?

Answer 7

1) Organization
(tendency to create categories, called schemas)
2) Adaptation - occurs through 2 processes
(assimilation) new info into old schemas
(accommodation) new schemas and new info
3) Equilibrium
(shift from assimilation to accommodation)

Question 8

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE 2/3:

Lev Vygotsky

Answer 8

Sociocultural Theory

-people learn through social interaction

Question 9

Sociocultural Theory (Lev Vygotsky)

Answer 9

• adults or more advanced peers must help direct learning
• ZPD, zone of proximal development
• the gape between what they can do by themselves, and what they can accomplish with assistance

Question 10

Scaffolding

Answer 10

Temporary support to help a child master a task

Scaffolding moves someone from the low end, to the high end of ZPD, to maximize learning

Question 11

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE 3/3:

Information-Processing Approach

Answer 11

observes and analyzes mental processes involved in perceiving and handling information
(e.g. memory, planning strategies, goal setting, decision making)

Question 12

CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE:

Urie Brofenbrenner

Answer 12

Ecological theory

Question 13

Ecological theory has 5 levels of environmental influence

Answer 13

1) Mircosystem
2) Mesosystem
3) Macrosystem
4) Exosystem
5) Chronosystem

Question 14

Name an example for each ecological system: Micro, Meso, Macro, Exo, Chrono

Answer 14

Micro: home, school, church
Meso: interaction of any two microsystems (relationships between teachers and parents, parent teacher conference)
Exo: Government policies, workplace policies
Macro: Dominant beliefs, ideologies, political systems
Chrono: Dimension of Time, changing societal conditions over life course

Question 15

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE:

E.O. Wilson, Darwin, Bowlby

Answer 15

• Ethology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• the perspective that behaviour is evolved through natural selection