OCR GCSE Psychology: Development

• Pre-natal


  From when a baby is conceived to when a baby is born. affected by alcohol, smoking, drugs, quality of sperm and egg.
• Childhood

  0-12 years. rapid development, new skills acquired, totally reliant on parents/carers.
• Adolescence


  13-19 years. puberty, independence, sense of identity.
• Adulthood

  20-death. continual development. new responsibilities eg. parenthood.
• What does the nervous system act as? What is its function?

  - A network of nerve cells and fibres that transmits impulses between parts of the body- Acts as the body's control centre- Interprets sensory information that enter body via senses (e.g. touch) and sends info through to glands + muscles with orders for how they should react
• The Central Nervous system

  Brain and spinal cord.
• The Peripheral Nervous system


  Nerves branching out to rest of body from brain and spinal cord.
• Cerebellum


  Controls co-ordination and posture, some types of memory and influences musical and mathematical skills.
• Brain stem


  Connects the brain to the spinal chord. for muscle control via pathways from brain to spinal cord.
• Spinal cord


  Surrounded by vertebrae, made of nerve cells, controls important reflexes, muscle movement and sends messages to the rest of the body (from the brain), conveys sensory info to the brain.
• Frontal lobe


  Reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving.
• Pareital lobe


  Senses touch, pressure, temperature and pain.
• Occipital lobe


  Controls vision.
• Temporal lobe


  Recognition of memory and hearing.
• Cerebral cortex

  The outer layer of the cerebrum (the cerebral cortex ), composed of folded grey matter and playing an important role in consciousness.
• Hippocampus


  Involved with memory
• Piaget's stages of cognitive development

  Sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational.
• Sensori-motor stage


  0-2 years. - Develops object permanence: ability to understand objects exist even when not present- Develops motor movement- Learns through the senses
• Pre-operational stage


  2-7 years. Animism: treat inanimate objects as if they are alive.Egocentrism: child can only see the world from their point of view - don't understand others see or think differently.Reversibility: unable to work backwards in their thinking.
• Concrete operational stage

  7-11 years. - Decentration: can consider multiple aspects of a situation.- Conservation: the ability to understand that properties of objects remain (e.g. volume, mass) the same even when changed in shape/ appearance.- Seriation: ability to put things into rank order- Linguistic humour: ability to use language to create jokes
• Formal operational stage


  11+ years. - hypothetical thinking: think about abstract ideas more- capable of forming and testing hypothesis- can think logically
• Criticisms of Piaget's theory

  - criticised for underestimating the age at which children can achieve different parts of the stages. - reductionist - doesn't take into account the role teachers play in children's learning and development.- Piaget describes the stages but doesn't explain how they occur and what prompts the changes in thinking.- some of his experiments have been criticised for being too hard for children to understand.- research shows only around 1/2 adults actually reach formal operational stage with many incapable of abstract thinking (so Piaget fails to understand not everyone reaches final stages of development, so theory isn't universal)
• Piaget research study (1952) aim

  To demonstrate that children in the concrete operational stage are more able to conserve number than those in the pre-operational stage.
• Piaget research study (1952) sample

  Sample size unknown. consisted of a small group of Swiss children in Geneva, including Piaget's 3 children.
• Piaget research (1952) method


  - Natural experiment (IV was naturally occurring - age)- DV was ability to conserve number- Cross-sectional study as he tested children at different ages- Independent measures (each age group represented a different condition of IV)
• Piaget research (1952) results

  3-4 year olds stated that the row of counters that had been moved had more counters. most kids at the end of the pre-op stage gave correct answer but couldn't justify it. many kids in concrete op stage gave correct answer and could justify it.
• Piaget research (1952) conclusions


  His hypothesis was correct (children in the concrete operational stage were more likely to conserve number than children in pre-op stage). They were also more likely to be able to justify their answer
• Piaget research (1952) criticisms


  Methodological problems - children asked same questions twice before and after transformation, so could be showing demand characteristics (they might've thought they had to give a different answer)too artificial - adult deliberately moving counters may make children believe something has changed because of themCulturally biased - based in Switzerland, results can't be applied to other school systems.
• Dweck's theory


  - learning theory that focuses on how children learn in the classroom and what influences their ability to succeed- children should be praised for effort as it leads to growth mindset; praise for intelligence leads to fixed mindset
• Growth mindset

  Intelligence can develop over time. Everyone has the same potential but dedication, practising and challenging can result in improvement. Setbacks are challenges and opportunities rather than failures.
• Fixed mindset


  Intelligence is innate and cannot be changed. Little effort is put in to change. May avoid things that they are not good at as failure can affect self-esteem.
• Criticisms of Dweck's theory

  It conveys to children that they are not very good at what they are doing.It places failure very firmly on the student (doesn't take into account external factors e.g. bullying)Not all research relating to mindsets has been published due to not finding significant results.Dweck fails to consider the side of nature - her theory is heavily based on nurture. Innate traits could have a greater impact on a child's ability to succeed than she recognises
• Willingham's theory

  Learning styles (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic learners) are a myth - no evidence to support benefits of these in learning and findings supporting them may not be valid (could be due to confirmation bias).Teachers should focus on meaning, rather than learning style by creating links between information and developing true understanding of the meaning (rather than give students a list of facts to remember).Students then learn information deeply (can recall it from long-term memory).
• Criticisms of Willingham's theory


  - Many teachers and lecturers would disagree with Willingham's views that there's little benefit in students trying to be like actual scientists/historians- Certain things might benefit from being drilled (eg. times tables)- The theory is on the nurture side of the debate (children with differently-wired brains may need to be taught in a specific way to assist their learning)
• Blackwell et al (2007): Study 1 aim


  to see whether theories of intelligence correlate with academic achievement in mathsto test the impact of academic intervention
• Blackwell et al (2007): Study 1 sample


  373 students from a public secondary school in NYC. varied in ethnicity, achievement and socioeconomic status.
• Blackwell et al (2007): research method/design


  - longitudinal study (took place over 5yrs)- correlational field study- natural setting (their school in NY)
• Blackwell et al.: Study 1 variables


  IV: students' theories of intelligence (fixed or growth mindset) and achievement-related beliefsDV: maths score at end of 7th and 8th grades.
• Blackwell et al.: Study 1 materials

  - scores on standardised maths test taken from 6th grade- standardised maths test at end of 7th and 8th grades to measure achievement. motivational questionnaire using 6 point likert scale assessing: theory of intelligencelearning goalseffort beliefshelpless response to failure.
• Blackwell et al.: Study 1 results

  - no correlation between theory of intelligence and maths scores at start of 7th grade- theory of intelligence did become a significant predictor of maths achievement in 7th and 8th grade exams.- those with growth mindset showed greater improvement than fixed mindset, who thought their IQ was fixed at birth