Shelby Smith

Evaluate psychological research (through theories and/or studies) relevant to developmental psych

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

  • According to Piaget, interaction w/ the environment changes people, and cognitive development is dependent on how the individual child interacts w/ the social and physical world. This is known as the constructionist approach.
  • Suggests that children use strategies in thinking and problem solving that reflect different stages of cognitive development
  • Develops a clinical interview- an open-ended, conversational technique that can provide insight into the child’s own judgments and explanations of what happened. Difficult method, much training of researchers.
  • According to Piaget, knowledge consists of schemas- mental representations of how to deal w/ the world. Schemas develop and change.
  • Piaget’s theory of “genetic epistemology” focused on the way that new schemas emerge.
  • Adaptation- limited innate repertoire of schemas which are modified as a result of experience. Children actively construct knowledge when interacting and interpreting new objects and events based on existing knowledge
  • For ex: sucking, reaching and grasping.
  • Has two forms:
  • Assimilation- when new info. Can be integrated into existing cognitive schemas
  • Accommodation-occurs when existing cognitive schemas have to be altered because they no longer match new experiences
  • Piaget claimed that children’s intelligence progresses through a series of cognitive stages:
  • 1. Sensorimotorstage (0-2 years)
  • Relies on innate reflexes and has limited knowledge. Child learns through movements and sensations. Knowledge comes from looking, touching, hearing, sucking, grasping, and putting things in mouth.
  • At first, child’s movements aren’t all purposeful because there is no control. When acquiring more control, learns that specific movements have specific consequences.
  • Around 8 months, children develop object permanence- idea that objects continue to exist even when they can no longer be seen. Between 8 and 12 months, child will keep looking for object where last seen, even when they saw it be put in another location (not until 18-24 months that obj. permanence is full developed.)
  • 2. The pre-operational stage (2-7) years
  • Child learns to speak
  • Capable of thinking in symbolic terms- form ideas, but can only focus on one aspect at a time
  • Cannot transfer knowledge from one situation to another
  • Understanding of world is based on egocentricism- child sees world through own viewpoint- this is a cog. Limitation
  • 2nd limitation is that thinking is dominated by appearance at this age
  • Can’t understand concept of conservation- physical properties remain same even if object’s appearance changed
  • Ex: 2 similar glasses of water then pours one into a tall, narrow glass and child sees the water poured into the tall glass, but still thinks the taller has more
  • Children focus on visible change
  • 3. The Concrete Operational Stage (7-12)
  • Formal schooling
  • Use some rules of logic in problem solving- only concrete tasks
  • Problem solving is generally random and not systematic
  • 4. Formal operational stage (from age 12)
  • Use formal, abstract logic
  • Mental manipulate ideas, concepts, or numbers and can think hypothetically
  • Approach problem in systematic way
  • Piaget believed that everybody reaches the formal operational stage when they are 20, but modern research has demonstrated that it depends on education to a large extent
  • Evaluations
  • Theory is very influential, especially in primary schools
  • Changed tradition view of children as passive, suggesting that children are active in searching out knowledge and constructing mental representation of the world
  • Suggested inventive research representations of the world
  • Limitation in explanation:
  • Methodology-small sampling, mainly his own children were used
  • Cultural bias
  • Arguable that Piaget underestimated children’s cognitive abilities

Jeffrey Taboada

Outline physical changes in adolescences. Discuss how such physical changes during adolescences relate to development of identity.

Adolescence, in modern industrial societies, is the transition from childhood to adulthood. It lasts from age 11 or 12 until the late teens or early twenties.

Physical changes in adolescence:

Puberty is triggered by hormonal changes, which may affect moods and behavior. Puberty takes about four years, typically begins earlier in girls than in boys, and ends when a person can reproduce. A secular trend toward earlier attainment of adult height and sexual maturity began about 100 years ago, probably because of improvements in living standards.
During puberty, both boys and girls undergo an adolescent growth spurt. Primary sex characteristics (the reproductive organs) enlarge and mature, and secondary sex characteristics appear.
The principal signs of sexual maturity are production of sperm (for males) and menstruation (for females). Spermarche typically occurs at age 13. Menarche occurs, on average, between the ages of 12 and 13 in the United States.
Until puberty both sexes receive the same amount of testosterone and estrogen for both sex. At puberty, girls produce more estrogen, boys more testosterone. Result is a "growth spurt with increase in distribution of fat and muscle. Girls experience growth spurt 2-3 years earlier from ages 10-13 (development of breasts, widening of hips), while boys experience a broadening of shoulders, increase in muscle strength

Physical changes in relation to development of identity:

Legal, sociological, and psychological definitions of entrance into adulthood vary.
Adolescence is full of opportunities for physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth, but also of risks to healthy development. Risky behavior patterns, such as drinking alcohol, drug abuse, sexual and gang activity, and use of firearms, tend to be established early in adolescence. About 4 out of 5 young people experience no major problems.

Psychological effects of early or late maturation depend on how adolescents and others interpret the accompanying changes.The physical changes result in an emerging sexual identity which includes learning how to handle desires, sexual attitudes and values, and integrating all of this into a new self-image

Johnia Murray

Evaluate theories of cognitive development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Constructionist Approach: interaction w/ the environment changes people; cognitivedevelopment dependent on how the individual child interacts with the social and physical world

Suggests that children use strategies in thinking and problem solving that reflect different stages of cognitive development

Knowledge consists of cognitive structures – schemas – which are representations of how to deal with the world; schemas develop or change

Genetic Epistemology: focus on the way that new schemas emerge

  • Child’s first experiences based on limited innate repertoire of schemas which are modified as a result of experience (adaptation)(2 forms of adaptations
  • Assimilation: happens when new info can be integrated into existing schemas
  • Accommodation: occurs when existing schemas are altered because they no longer match new experiences

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage / Approx. Age (Years) / Characteristics
Sensiormotor / 0 – 2 / Knowledge develops as a result of sensations and actions
Pre-Operational / 2 – 7 / Increase use of symbolic thought and self awareness; dominated by visual appearance of things; language development; egocentrism
Concrete Operational / 7 – 12 / Logical reasoning based on real objects that can be manipulated; understand conservation
Formal Operational / 12+ / Ability to use abstract reasoning and logic

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Approach to Cognitive Development

Argued it’s not possible to describe the process children acquire knowledge w/o taking into account the child’s social environment or culture

Theory suggest a child’s cognitive development is based on interaction w/ other people, as well as the cultural tools to understand the world provided by the child’s culture

Knowledge transferred via imitation, instructions, or collaborative learning

Language is primary form of interaction adults use to transmit to the child the knowledge that exists in the culture, and as the child grow older, language come to serve as the most important tool of learning.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Range between the level a child can solve a problem alone and the level a child solves a problem w/ assistance from someone else.

When working w/ instructor, child will work close to upper limits of capabilities

Child will eventually work at high level independently

As upper limit is achieved, it becomes new lower limit of child’s ZPD

Mary Ainsworth

  • Conducted “Stranger Situation Test” of attachment
  • Securely attached children will:
  • Will explore freely while mother’s present
  • Will engage with strangers
  • Will be visibly upset when mother departs
  • Will be happy to see mother return
  • Will not engage stranger when mother isn’t in the room
  • Insecure – avoidant: not distressed at mother leaving or stranger arriving; cool response as mother returns (caused by distant mothers)
  • Insecure – resistant: clingy to mother; traumatized at every stage of experiment; distrustful of mothers (caused by over bearing, controlling mothers)

Erik Erikson

Stage Theory of Psychological/Cognitive Development

Stage 1 / Trust v. Mistrust / From birth to 18 months / Feeding is the major event
Stage 2 / Autonomy v. Shame / From 18 months to 3 years / Toilet training, feeding, and self dressing
Stage 3 / Initiatiave v. Guilt / From 3 to 6 years / Independence
Stage 4 / Competence v. Inferiority / From 6 to 12 years / Attendance at school
Stage 5 / Identity v. Role Confusion / From 12 to 18 years / Establishing peer relationships
Stage 6 / Intimacy v. Isolation / From 19 to 40 years / Love relationships
Stage 7 / Generativity v. Stagnation / From 40 to 65 years / Parenting
Stage 8 / Ego Integrity v. Despair / From 65 years to Death / Acceptance of one’s life

Failure to address and resolve a developmental challenge results in conflict throughout childhood

Lawrence Kohlberg

  • Stage Theory of Moral Development
  • We make moral decisions based on “ethic of justice”
  • 4 – 10 yrs: Preconventional: Avoid punishment and gain reward
  • 10 – 13 yrs: Conventional: gain approval and avoid disapproval from others; duty and guilt
  • Age 13+: Post Conventional: agreed upon rights and personal moral standards

Imani Ross

Discuss potential effects of deprivation or trauma in childhood on later development. / Discuss psychological research (theories and or studies) related to the potential effects of deprivation or trauma in childhood on later development.

As a child there are events that occur that are vital to a successful and healthy adult life. These events are influenced by factors such as having loving individuals around, good nutrition, conversation, and physical and mental stimulation

A child that has to grow up without an adequate supply of all or some of these factors can have serious developmental issues

  • Deprivation in childhood can be seen as living in a state of various forms of neglect to provide basic needs – physical, emotional, or social. Deprivation is often related to institutionalization, growing up in poverty, and parental problems (e.g. alcoholism or mental illness.
  • Trauma in childhood can be seen as experiencing a powerful shock (e.g. divorce, death of a parent, physical or sexual abuse, natural disasters, or war. Such experiences may have long-lasting effects on development.
  • It is not possible to make a clear-cut distinction between effects of deprivation or trauma: they are much the same. Experiences of deprivation can also be traumatizing for the child.

Potential effect of trauma: PTSD Children who have experienced severe and repeated trauma may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which could interfere with normal development. If left untreated children may exhibit impulsivity, agitation, hyper-vigilance, avoidance behavior, and emotional numbness.

Carion et al. (2009) performed fMRI scans and found that children suffering from PTSD after experiencing extreme stressors such as abuse or witnessing violence performed worse on a simple verbal memory test and showed less hippocampal activity compared to a control group. The participants who performed worst on the test were those who also showed specific PTSD symptoms such as withdrawal from those who wanted to help them. They also had difficulties remembering the trauma, felt cut off from others, and showed lack of emotion.

Yehuda et al. (2001) studied the mental health of 51 children of Holocaust survivors who were raised by traumatized parents and made comparisons to a control group. The mean age of the sample was 40.9 years. The results showed that children of Holocaust survivors were more likely to develop PTSD (33.3 % compared to 12.2% in the control group). Childhood trauma was associated with parental PTSD and the results indicate that PTSD can be transmitted from parent to child.

Potential effects of deprivation: cognitive impairment and attachment disorderThis is a longitudinal study of 324 Romanian adoptees that entered the UK between February 1990 and September 1992. The aim was to investigate potential long-term effects of severe deprivation in childhood. All the children had been reared from infancy in very deprived institutions in Romania and adopted into UK families at various ages up to 42 months.

Rutter et al. (2004) investigated a sample of 144 children who were, at that time, six years of age. The parents were interviewed at home and answered questionnaires on the family and the child’s behavior. Three months later the child was assessed using observations and standard cognitive and developmental measures including tests on general cognitive functioning and attachment behavior. The focus was on cognitive impairment and attachment disturbance in children who had spent more than six months in the institutions. The study found no major deficits in children who had spent less than six months there.

Attachment disorder

  • Data was collected in semi-structured interviews with parents to assess the child’s behavior toward the parent and other adults in both novel and familiar situations.
  • There was a relationship between length of institutional deprivation and attachment disorders. No significant deficits were found in the children who entered the UK below the age of six months.
  • A number of children showed an insecure attachment pattern called disinhibited attachment disorder or Reactive Attachment Disordercharacterized by:
  • lack of preference for contact with caregivers versus relative strangers (i.e. lack of differentiation among adults)
  • definite lack of checking back with the parent in anxiety provoking situations.

Sources

For an AMAZING PowerPoint that outlines this question really well

Jan’TaviaWerts

Discuss how sociocultural factors influence the formation and development of gender roles.

Family

(Maccoby, 1993)

Children who experience the security of loving parents, have strong attachements. This makes them more able to reach out to others and relate. They use the relationship of their parents as a support to venture out and explore their environment. They reach out to others and return to their parent for support just to venture out further into the social world of their environment (Ainsworth et al., 1978). As they expand out into the work they are likely to learn and experience from their social interactions.

(Dorsey, 2003)

Authoritative Parenting

Parents that have rules and they expect the child to follow them. These parents also listen to their children. If the child were to get into trouble they would listen to the child's side and base a punishment off of their actions and reasoning.

Authoritarian Parenting

Parents that have the motto "because I said so," these parents do not listen to their children and expect things to be done when said. Their children are usually over obedient and proficient, or the opposite and become delinquent. They act as so because they are unhappy; the parents intentions were to make their kids successful in life.

Permissive Parenting

These parents have very few rules and treat their children as if they were their friend. These rules are barley enforced and the child has no sense of wrong and right. In later years the child will become reserved because they do not know how to act around others.

Dismissive Parenting

Parents are totally unresponsive to their children, leaving the child to fend for themselves emotionally. These children grow up quicker than needed and often have behavioral issues in school. They do worse academically and remain socially and emotionally isolated.

Gender

Fathers are more likely to engagewith their son who's interested in sports related things.

Sandra Bem,1981

Gender schema theory: a cognitive theory that explains how individuals become gendered in society, and how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture. According to this theory, gender-associated information is predominantly transmitted through society by way of schemata, or networks of information that allow for some information to be more easily assimilated than others.

Amanda Pinto

Define attachment. Discuss how childhood attachment may affect the formation of relationships later in life.

Introduction

  • Attachment behavior: babies seek proximity to the mother and react with anxiety to separation
  • John Bowlby believed that attachment was an innate pattern and that it helped infants to survive.
  • Internal working model: cognitive schema of expectations concerning attachment figures. Has three important elements:
  • Ideas about attachment figures and what can be expected from then
  • Ideas about the self
  • Ideas about how the self and others relate
  • Attachment theory assumes that the internal working model continues through the lifespan.
  • Research indicates this is relatively stable, although they can be modified.

First Study

  • Ainsworth 1967 and 1971
  • 1967:
  • Longitudinal study carried out in Uganda using home visits and natural observations of mother-child interactions in a strange situation
  • 28 unweaned babies. Study began with ages of 15 weeks to 2 years.
  • Observed every two weeks for two hours at a time for nine months
  • At the end of the study, she classified the babies unto three attachment groups based on their reactions in a strange situation and found they correlated with the mothers sensitivity
  • 1971
  • Replicated the Uganda study in Baltimore
  • 26 infant-mother pairs who were visited every 3-4 weeks for the first year of the babies life
  • Found the same distribution of attachment patterns
  • Types of Attachment based on Ainsworths Strange Situation Classification
  • Type A: Avoidant
  • 20% of children
  • Child shows indifference when mother leaves room and avoids contact with her when she returns
  • Child is apparently not afraid of strangers
  • Mother tends to be insensitive and do not seem interested in children's play
  • Type B: securely attached
  • 70% of children
  • Child is upset when mother leaves and happy to see her again
  • Child is easily comforted by their mother
  • Mothers are very interested in their childs play and actively support play and communicate with the children during play
  • Type C: Ambivalent
  • 10% of children
  • Child is upset when mother leaves room and has difficulty soothing child when she returns
  • Child seeks comfort but at the same time rejects it
  • Mothers tend to be inconsistent in their reactions toward their children

Second Study