complexity of psychological development

• Theory of Mind


  Ones ability to attribute and understand mental states, beliefs, experiences and emotion of oneself and others
• Emotional Intelligence


  Individuals’ ability to monitor their own and others’ emotions and use this information to guide their thoughts and behaviors
• Emotional Development


  The continuous, lifelong development of skills that allow individuals to control, express and recognize emotions in an appropriate way
• Theory of Attachment


  Specifically refers to the bond between an infant and their primary caregiver. Has the potential to enhance or reduce their ability to understand and express their own emotions, as well as recognize the emotions of others throughout their lifespan
• Harry Harlow: 'He experimented to investigate the factors influencing the development of attachment between infant monkeys and their mothers. Aimed to determine the role of food provision in the formation of infant-mother attachments. Concluded that contact comfort (provided by the softness of the cloth covering) was more important than feeding in the formation of an infant rhesus monkey’s attachment to its mother'
• Cognition


  Conscious mental activities – the activities of thinking, understanding, learning and remembering
• Emotions


  Temporary feelings which arise from personal experiences, usually occurring as an unconscious response
• Cognitive development


  Gradual and lifelong process somewhat reliant on biological and physical development
• Accommodation


  Changing an existing mental idea in order to fit new information
• Jean Piaget: 'Other psychologists believed infants were not capable of much thinking, infant behaviours were seen as random and without purpose'
• Schemata

  Mental structures that organise past and future experiences. These mental frameworks are altered by the processes of accommodation and assimilation
• Assimilation


  The process of taking in new information and fitting it into and making it part of an existing mental idea about objects or the world
• Piaget’s Theory

  Four distinct and sequential stages from birth to adulthood. Each stage is linked to an approximate chronological age range. Individuals do not develop mental capabilities of a later stage without first having acquired those of an earlier stage. Mental capability is referred to as ‘cognitive accomplishments’
• Sensorimotor Stage


  0-2 years. Coordinating sensory experiences and motor abilities. Object Permanence – understanding that an object continues to exist, even after the infant can no longer see it. Goal Directed Behaviour – carrying out a behaviour with a particular goal in mind
• Pre-Operational Stage

  2-7 years. Child is learning to assimilate and accommodate and internally represent events. Egocentrism – inability to see things from others point of view. Animism- belief that everything has a consciousness. Transformation – understanding that something can change from one state to another. Centration – the child can only focus on one quality or feature of an object at a time
• Criticism of Piaget’s Theory

  · researchers have discovered infants know a lot more a lot sooner than Piaget expected.

  · He overestimated young children’s language ability – they may not have understood the task or be able to explain their answer.

  · Small number of participants were used to test the idea.
• Concrete Operational Stage

  7-12 years. The thinking revolves around what they know and what they can experience through their senses. Reversibility – the ability to mentally follow a sequence of events or line of reasoning back to its starting point. Conservation – the understanding that certain properties of an object can remain the same even when its appearance changes. Classification – the ability to organise objects or events into categories
• Formal Operational Stage


  12+ years. More complex thought processes, does not rely on being able to see or visualise things to understand concepts. Abstract Thinking – a way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see or visualise things to understand concepts. Logical Thinking – refers to the ability to think in a systematic way and develop a plan to solve problems
• Results of Bandura's Experiment
• Elements of observational learning

  • Attention: Learner actively watches models' behaviour
  • Retention: Learner stores the memory in a mental representation to be used later
  • Reproduction: Learner is physically and mentally able to replicate what was observed
  • Motivation: Learner must want to perform the learned behaviour
  • Reinforcement: The learner is reinforced or punished when the behaviour has been performed
• Bandura's Experiment


  1. Conducted a series of experiments to investigate the effectiveness of observational learning in preschool children

  2. Aim was to investigate if aggression could be learnt through observational learning
• People

  • Need and actively seek out social interaction
  • Rely on friendships to avoid loneliness and boredom and to provide physical comfort to give emotional support
  • Any interaction between 2 or more people is social behaviour
• Social learning theory by Albert Bandura

  • Social behaviour is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others
  • Social behaviour is also influenced by being rewarded and/or punished
  • Form of social learning is observational learning
  • Vicarious learning = learning through watching others
  • Modelling = observer demonstrates the learned behaviour by imitating it
• Psychological development refers to an individual's changes and lifelong growth across emotional, cognitive and social aspects. It is observable but more complex and hidden
• Stages of the experiment

  1. Stage 1 - Modelling: Children were shown into a room containing toys and played in a corner for 10 minutes in three conditions

  2. Stage 2 - Aggression Arousal: All children were subjected to 'mild aggression arousal'

  3. Stage 3 - Test for Delayed Imitation: Children were observed in a room with aggressive and non-aggressive toys for 20 minutes
• Psychological development refers to an individual’s changes and lifelong growth across emotional, cognitive, and social aspects
• Operant conditioning

  Learner is reinforced or punished when the behaviour has been performed
• Emotional changes


  • Changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feelings are expressed, interpreted, and dealt with
• Social changes


  • Changes in an individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in interacting with others
• If either environmental or inherited factors are lacking, there may be atypical development
• Nature refers to our hereditary facts, full collection of our genes
• Mum praises child for making yum pancakes


  Child is more likely to repeat the behavior in the future
• Cognitive changes


  • Changes in an individual’s mental abilities, such as reasoning, problem solving, decision making, perception, learning, memory, and use of languages
• Factors influencing psychological development

  • Emotional attachment, Sociocultural environment, Learning environment, Prenatal environment, Physical environment
• Nurture refers to environmental factors and the things within it that shape us
• Mental wellbeing


  • State of emotional and social wellbeing in which individuals realize their own abilities, can cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively, can contribute to their community
• The Biopsychosocial Approach is an interdisciplinary holistic framework for understanding the human experience in terms of biological, social, and psychological factors
• Factors influencing mental wellbeing

  • Internal genetic or physiological factors, Internal factors pertaining to mental processes, External factors about interactions with others and their external environment
• Mental wellbeing is influenced by the interaction of biopsychosocial factors
• Mental wellbeing is represented on a continuum of mentally healthy, mental health problem, and diagnosable mental disorder