Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology

• The scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life.

Jean Piaget

4 stages of cognitive development

4 stages of cognitive development

• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational

Sensorimotor

An infant's knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities.

Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.

Key characterisitics

Object permanence means knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation of the object, eg peekaboo

A very young infant will believe that the other person or object has actually vanished and will act shocked or startled when the object reappears

Egocentrism is where the child has no understanding of the world other than her own current point of view.

Preoperational Stage

Children begin to engage in symbolic play (pretending) and learn to manipulate symbols.

Still egocentric

Mountain Task

Children are asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed.

Next, children are asked to select a picture showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint.

They can't.

Children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene because they are unable to take on another person's perspective.

Conservation

Equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers. The liquid in one container is then poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup or a short and wide cup.

Children are asked which cup holds the most. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, they almost always choose the cup that appears fuller.

Piaget found that few children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the age of five.

Concrete Operational Stage

Become more logical about concrete and specific things, they still struggle with abstract ideas.

Can conserve = understanding that when something changes in shape or appearance it is still the same

Logic

Inductive logic involves going from a specific experience to a general principle.

Hot stove is hot. ALL stoves are hot.

Formal Operational Stage

Emergence of abstract thought and hypothetical reasoning.

Deductive logic: the ability to use a general principle to determine a specific outcome. This type of thinking involves hypothetical situations and is often required in science and mathematics.

Abstract thought: Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions.

Name the stages, in order

• S
• P
• C
• F

Stages in order are

• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete operational
• Formal operational

Define the following words

• Conservation
• Egocentrism
• Inductive logic
• Deductive logic

Criticisms

Hughes (1975)

• Thought the mountain task was too unfamiliar
• Created the Policeman task

Hughes (1975)

• Showed children a model with two intersecting walls, a 'boy' doll and a 'policeman' doll.

Hughes (1975)

• He placed the police doll in various positions and asked the child to hide the boy doll from the policeman.

Hughes (1975)

• Child was asked to hide the boy from police, in other words he had to take account of two different points of view.

Hughes (1975)

• Sample comprised children between three and a half and five years of age.
• 90% gave correct answers.

Done

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