Developmental Psychology - Part 2

Front 1

How does Piaget think of children

Back 1

He believes them to be little scientists that actively explore the world and so this explains there cognitive development

Hint 1

Scientists

Front 2

How did Piaget believe that childrens thinking changed

Back 2

Qualitatively and it differs to the way that adults think

Hint 2

Not quantitatively

Front 3

What does information processing refer to?

Back 3

The use of an analogy to compare the human cognitive system to that of a computer, meaning that it starts with an input (stimuli) and ends in and output (response).

Hint 3

Computer analogy

Front 4

What are the four stages to Piagets theory of development and the age ranges?

Back 4

Sensorimotor stage - birth to 2 yrs

preoperational stage - 2yrs to 7yrs

Concrete operational stage - 7yrs to 11yrs

formal operational stage - +11yrs

Hint 4

Operational x3 SPCF

Front 5

How is thinking characterised in the sensorimotor stage?

Back 5

Thinking is very limited and there is a link between sense and actions, there is the lack of mental representations. A not B error - the child will always reach for A not B

Hint 5

Liminted

Front 6

How is thinking characterised in the peroperational stage?

Back 6

the child can now hold mental representations. Knowledge will represent the world and there is symbolic thought - they can use imagination and pretence. Thinking is still limited. The child is unable to relate dimensions and can not perform mental actions. This can be seen in conversion tasks - where they do not have the understanding of he liquid in jugs being the same amount, due to the water level being higher in one of the jugs.This is because they cannot perform reverse mental function of pouring back

Hint 6

Jugs with water - pretence, no mental actions

Front 7

How are organisation and adaptation important in paigets theory?

Back 7

Through development the child's view of the world becomes organised into increasingly more complex cognitive structures. This means that the childs understanding of the world is built up around schemas that they develop. Hence adaptation is important for the child as they need to adjust their thinking when their schema does not fit the situation. This is also accommodation.

Hint 7

Schemas, organisation, adapting for accommodation.

Front 8

How does Piaget define operations?

Back 8

The ability of the child to use and create schemas that are based on internal mental activities rather than overt physical ones.

Hint 8

mental activities over physical ones

Front 9

What does Piaget mean by assimilation and accommodation?

Back 9

Assimilation is when the child tries to use existing schemas in a new situation, sometimes this may work and the schema is correct other times the schema fails, this then means that the child has to modify their information to fit the new situation, modifying the existing schema to fit the new siutation in called accommodation

Hint 9

Does schema work, do i need to accommodate for it in the new situation?

Front 10

How is thinking characterised in the concrete operational stage

Back 10

The thinking of the individual is tied to concrete reality and hence the child can only probem solve when the information and tools are physically present. The child is however able to think form the view point of other people and imagine what they are thinking and seeing. There are limitations to this though as they can not imagine things beyond what they experience and their thinking is disorganised due to lacking logic

Hint 10

Concrete reality

Front 11

How is thinking characterised in the formal operational stage

Back 11

Thinking is now abstract and they can think in increasingly more conplex ways. It is possible to think about may different dimensions of problems and to solve then when they have no basis in reality.

Hint 11

Not confined

Front 12

What are the main strengths of Piagets theory ?

Back 12

He introdced a braod spectrum of information and issues whihc lead to a lot more research inot child development. Particularly his constructionist theory about children beaing active learners rather than passive as in behaviourism.

Hint 12

Research further

Front 13

What are the criticisms of Piagets theory?

Back 13

Piagte is considered to have underestimated the knowledge that children have espeically when suggesting that children have no innate knowledge and only a learning mechanism - however childten can infact immitate at only 6hrs old and it is also possible for them to habituate and sensitise. Evidence also suggest that there is not stage like development but that in fact learning is accumulative and continuous, which can be observed when watching a child solve a problem over hours or even days. (Berger and Alibali who did an alternative conservation task. He also does not take into consideration the social aspect of learning.

Very few people actually reach the formal operational stage - Watson slection task with four cards and have to prove that the rule is true.