U1-theories

• Piaget's Model

  A sense of self develops as children develop the cognitive skills to understand the world around them.
• Piaget's stages of cognitive development

  1. sensorimotor (0-2 years)

  2. preoperational (2-7 years)

  3. concrete operational (7-11 years)

  4. formal operational (11-18 years)
• egocentric thinking (Piaget)


  a form of thinking typical of the preoperational child in which the child can only view the world from his or her own perspective and can't take the perspective of others.
• Schema (Piaget)


  a concept framework that organizes and interprets info, e.g

  timmy drops pot down stairs = "dropping schema"
• Criticism of Piaget's Theory

  Piaget's theory lacks concrete evidence. Most people don't believe that people actually develop in these stages. He has overestimated the mind of adults and underestimated infants.
• sensorimotor stage


  Infants learn about their environment and develop early schemas (concepts) by using all their senses to physically explore the world.
• preoperational stage


  Children begin to control their environment by using symbolic behaviour, including representational words and drawings, and pretend play but are not yet able to think logically.
• concrete operational stage


  Children use practical resources to help them understand the world, such as counters for mathematics. They classify, categories and use logic to understand things they see
• formal operational stage


  young people have the capacity for abstract thought, rational thought and problem solving.
• Piaget's Schematic Development theory

  Assimilation

  Equilibrium

  Disequilibrium

  Accommodation
• assimilation

  child constructs an understanding or concept (schema)
• equilibrium


  child's experience fits with their schema
• disequilibrium


  a new experience disturbs the schema
• accommodation


  Child's schema changes to take account of new experience
• John Bowlby's Attachment Theory

  children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments with caregivers as a means of increasing the chances of their own survival
• Disrupted attachment may cause.....

  anxiety, difficulty forming relationships, depressive disorders, delinquency, learning disorders
• attachment


  a strong emotional connection between a child and caregiver
• deprivation

  being deprived of a caregiver to whom an attachment already exists.
• separation anxiety


  the fear and apprehension infants experience when separated from their primary caregiver
• Criticism of John Bowlby's Theory of attachment

  - oversimplified his theory.

  Rutter argues that maternal deprivation in itself may not result in long-term problems. Rutter suggests privation is far more damaging.

  
  

  - critics argue it is not a biological process, its more learned behaviour influenced by factors such as the environment.
• Schaffer and Emerson stages of attachment

  0-3 months: responds to any caregiver

  
  

  4-7 months: shows preference for primary caregiver but accepts care from others.

  
  

  7-9 months: prefers primary caregiver and seeks comfort from them

  
  

  9 months+: begins to develop attachments with others who respond to them.
• Privation

  It occurs when a child has not had the opportunity to form an attachment at all.

  (Rutter' criticism of bowlby as more important deprivation??)
• Schaffer and Emerson


  suggest that babies are more likely to form attachments to caregivers who respond effectively to their signals. Therefore, not necessarily the person who feeds, changes them and spends the most time with them but the person who plays and communicates with them.
• Stress-Diathesis Model

  explains how both nature and nurture play a part in the development of psychological disorders.

  It explains how stress caused by life events (nurture) can interact with an individuals genetic vulnerability (nature) to impact on their mental well being.
• Bandura's Social Learning Theory (nurture)

  Based on an understanding that the environment influences development and that children learn through imitation and role modelling
• Gesell's Maturation Theory

  helps to explain how biological maturation (the process of maturing) is related to overall development. He believed that development is genetically determined from birth - a biological process. He also said children follow the same sequence in their development and that the pace may vary depending on PI development.
• characteristics and differences not observed at birth but emerge later in life, are referred as

  define maturation
• Positives of Gesell's theory


  - remains influential in our understanding of child development.

  
  

  - determined typical norms of development that are still used today.

  
  

  - used an advanced methodology in observations of behaviour of large numbers of children - therefore representative
• criticism of Gesells maturation theory


  - did not consider the influence of individual or cultural differences in children.

  he believed that the 'norms' of development he described were desirable.
• Bandura's four principles of social learning

  1. ATTENTION

  2. RETENTION

  3. REPRODUCTION

  4. MOTIVATION
• ATTENTION


  learning takes place when a child focuses their attention on a person who 'models' the behaviour. Children are likely to model behaviour of someone they admire.
• RETENTION


  what the child has observed is retained in their memory to be used when an opportunity occurs
• REPRODUCTION


  what has been learned is reproduced, or imitated.
• MOTIVATION


  children feel motivated because they anticipate intrinsic or extrinsic rewards (vicarious enforcement). Children will be motivated to repeat or stop the behaviour depending on reinforcement.
• Bobo doll experiment


  children were shown adults being aggressive or non-aggressive towards the Bobo doll. The aggressive adults where either rewarded, reprimanded or had no consequences for their behaviour. The experiment was designed by Bandura to show that:

  children would copy the aggressive behaviour of another person

  the outcome for the adult impacted on the likelihood of children copying the behaviour
• Results of the Bobo doll experiment

  - children learned aggressive behaviour through observation

  - children were more likely to imitate an adult who was rewarded for aggressive behaviour than one who was reprimanded
• Rosenthal and Doherty (1984)

  suggests children who are in rivalry with their siblings or involved in bullying behaviour are quite often bullied by their primary carers. This can be a way of children trying to gain control and power in a household in which they feel powerless.
• Holmes-Rahe social readjustment rating scale

  said there was a correlation (relationship) between psychological illness and stressful events.

  The study:

  - list of 43 potential life events

  - they applied a score to each life event, depending on the level of stress it was likely to cause.

  - patients were asked to indicate the life events they had experienced from the list.

  - patients added up the scores of their life events
• The results of the Holmes-Rahe Social readjustment rating scale

  they found that there was a correlation between the number of units and their illness.
• Social Disengagement Theory (Cummings and Henry 1961)

  - theory that older people withdraw from social participation.

  - this is because of reduced physical health and loss of social opportunities