Psychology paper 1

• Context of Piaget

  -Famous developmental psychologist from Switzerland

  -Says all children develop through 4 fixed stages

  -Wants to prove children can conserve at young age - supports stages

  -1952
• Theory

  kids can only coserve at concrete operational stage
• Different stages

  sensori motor - 0-2

  pre orperational - 2-7

  concrete operational - 7-11

  formal operational - 11+
• Hypothesis of piaget's study

  Children in concrete operational stage will be able to conserve however children in the pre operational stage will not be able to conserve
• What does conservation mean

  The ability to think logically and determine that a quantity will remain the same even though there is a change in shape/size
• IV of piaget's study

  Age of children
• DV of piaget's study

  Ability to conserve
• Measure of piaget's study

  independent
• Sample of piaget's study

  Small group of kids from switzerland including some of his own
• Procedure of piaget's study

  -Kids were shown 2 rows of counters

  -He would ask if there are the same number of counters in each row

  -One row would be spread out

  -Repeated the question
• Resultsof piaget's study

  -children at the age of 7+ (concrete operational stage) could conserve

  -Kids in the pre operational stage could not
• What did piaget's study show

  we develop in stages as we can conserve at a certain age
• Criticisms of piaget's study

  -Piaget could confuse the kids by repeating the question into changing their answer

  -Reduces potential validity

  -Low population validity - sample was from one school in switzerland

  -Not generalisable for a wider group
• What does cognitive development mean

  the development of the mind + mental procceses
• What is Piaget's theory

  every child goes through 4 invarient stages
• What are schemas

  mental pockets of information
• What changes schemas

  Assimilation - add to schemas

  Accomidation - schema changes
• Sensori motor stagS
• senori motor stage

  struggle with object permanence
• pre operational stage

  Egocentric

  Animism

  Have object permanence
• What does animism mean

  Belief that inanimate objects have feelings
• Concrete operational stage

  Less egocentric

  Decentration

  Reversability

  Can conserve
• What is decentration

  Deal with two bits of information at the same time

  eg a car is big and red
• Formal operational stage

  Abstract thinking

  Overcome egocentrism
• Criticisms of Piaget's theory

  Too reductionist - doesn't take into account nature or nurture eg education and upbringing or genes
• What questionaire was used in blackwell et al's study

  motivational
• What type of study was study 1 of blackwell et al's study

  correlational longitudinal field
• What was the aim of study 1 of blackwell et al's study

  to find out whether mindset had an effect on maths scores
• sample of study 1 of blackwell et al's study

  323 7th and 8th graders
• procedure of study 1 of blackwell et al's study

  -Maths scores taken from end of 6th grade

  -In grade 7 they did a questionaire

  -Maths scores taken from end of grade 7 and grade 8
• Results of study 1 of blackwell et al's study

  Those with a more growth mindset showed the greatest improvements
• What was the design of study 2 of blackwell et al's study

  correlational longitudinal field study with experimental section
• Sample of study 2 of blackwell et al's study

  99 children from different school
• Aim of study 2 of blackwell et al's study

  To find out whether teaching mindsets affected maths grades
• Procedure of study 2 of blackwell et al's study

  -Same as study one

  -Experimental part:

  Participants split into 2 group, experimental and control

  Experimental went to a workshop where they taught about both mindsets

  Control went to a workshop where they taught about memory

  Took teachers notes on behaviour
• Results of study 2 of blackwell et al's study

  Experimental group were more likely to develop growth mindset
• Criticisms of blackwell et al

  -Only used maths scores, very different to other subjects, can only be applied to maths

  -Culture bias, only American schools, low population validity