CHILD DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
(93 cards)
what is development
the sequence of physical and psychological changes that human beings undergo as they grow older through a whole life span
what is development psychology
the scientific study of age-related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotion and personality
what are the 3 big topics in developmental psychology
- continuity and change
- sources of development - nature vs nurture
- individual differences
continuity and change
to what extent is development characterised by continuous change, and to what extent does it evolve discontinuities that result in the emergence of new forms and processes of change
we are different to other but then we aren’t
something has to happen for development to not happen normally
what is continuous and non-continuous
continuous - something that we can measure/calculate
non-continuous - a lifecycle, turn into something different (eg. frog to tadpole). it is a qualitative change that you can’t measure
sources of development
is development guided primarily by genetic programme locked in to the body’s cells, or is it the external environment the driving force that produces change?
nature vs nurture - none is just one they all have a bit of another both bio and the enviro
individuals differences
no two humans beings are exactly alike. how do people come to have stable characteristics that differentiate them from all the other people
- often it is how we are brought up that show our differences
4 was to for data collection in developmental psychology
- self-report
- observation
- experimental methods
- clinical interviews methods
self reports
- hard to do a child as you can’t ask them lots of stuff as they won’t understand
- memory is an issue
- social desirability
experimental method
introduce a change and see what happens
2 research designs used in developmental psychology
- longitudinal (study across time - Dunedin one)
- cross-sectional (take different aged children at one time)
what is cognitive development and then processes
basically means intellectual growth
are those by which we get to know ourselves and our world, for example memory, learning etc.
who is the ‘father’ of cognitive development and what did he do/discover
Jean Piaget
he observed children
and proposed a sequence of development that all normal children follow
he cam up with 4 stages if cognitive development
stage one - Sensorimotor Stage
age: birth - 2
cognition closely tied to external stimulation (rely on what people do in front of them) - thinking is doing
tasks they have to achieve to move to the next stage
1. object permanence
2. schema formation
3. representation throught
Sensorimotor Stage - object permanence
the idea that objects do not cease to exist when they are out of sight
@birth-3months: look at visual stimul and turn their heads towards noise
@3 months: follow moving objects with eyes, but when it goes missing they won’t look for it
@5 months: grasp and manipulate objects, and they anticipate the future position of the object
@8 months: searches for the hidden object. A not B effect ( this is when the baby will look for the disappeared object in the last place they found the object but not the place they last saw it)
@12 months: they will search in the last place they saw it
Sensorimotor Stage - Schema Formation
a schema is a mental representation or set of rules that defines a particular behaviour category. they develop overtime and get more in depth
two processes
- Assimilation: the processes by which new information is modified to fit in with an existing schema
- Accomodation: the process by which an existing schema is modified or changed by new experience
Sensorimotor Stage - Representational Thought
ability to form mental representations of others’ behaviour
the occurs towards then ends of this stage
in
- imitation
- deferred imitation (imitate actions one has seen in the past)
- symbolic play
- the use of words to represent objects
stage two - Preoperational Stage
age: 2-7 years old
ability to think logically as well as symbolically
rapid development of language ability
need to achieve -
- counting
- object manipulation
Preoperational Stage - Object Manipulation
conservation - the understanding that specific properties of objects remain the same despite apparent changer or arrangement of these objects (odd and even numbers)
egocentrism - a child’s belief that others see the world precisely the same way as the baby does (3 mountains and the clown)
stage three - Concrete Operations Stage
age: 7-12 years old
- ability to perform logical analysis
- ability to empathise with the thoughts of others
- understanding of complex cause-effect relations
BUT they don’t have abstract thoughts
stage four - Formal Operations Stage
age: 12+ years old
abstract reasoning
metacognition (thinking about thinking)
dependent on exposure to principles of scientific thinking
what was the one biggest criticisms overall that Piaget got on his studies on children
that he underestimated children’s abilities at many ages
he had the basics right overall though
Piaget’s 2 Criticisms
- babies don’t seem to start with nothing
- he said that under 1 babies had basically nothing but this it not true - cognitive development isn’t an all-or-nothing phenomenon
- he was very move to stage to another
3 main topics of criticism one he got wrong
- space and objects
- number and math reasoning
- social cognition