Development

• The four stages of development

  Pre-natal, childhood, adolescence, adulthood
• Nervous system


  A network of nerve cells and fibres that transmits impulses between parts of the body; the body's control centre
• Central Nervous System (CNS)


  Brain and spinal chord
• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)


  Nerves that branch out from the brain and spinal chord throughout your body.
• How neurons work

  Dendrites receive information from other neurons and transmit it to the cell body via an electrical impulse. The cell body then transmits this electrical impulse through the axon, covered in a myelin sheath, to the axon terminals, where neurotransmitters are released into the synapse. Neurotransmitters diffuse across the synapse, binding to specific receptors on the next neuron.
• Pre-natal stage of development


  At 16 days, the neural tube develops. At 2 months, the neural tube divides into brain cells and nerve cells, and the cerebral cortex is formed. At 4-6 months, 100 billion neurons have formed. At 5 months, synapses form. Brain development in this stage can be affected by what the mother consumes during pregnancy, e.g. alcohol consumption causing Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.
• Childhood stage of development


  Brain develops 1000 neural connections per second. By 5 months, the baby can see in colour and 3D. At 3 years, the density of synapses in the prefrontal cortex peaks, so children can start to use past experiences to understand the present, and understand cause and effect. Later, unused connections are pruned.
• Adolescence stage of development


  Grey matter reaches maximum density. Limbic system matures first (regulation of emotions and forming new memories). Frontal lobes mature around age 16.
• Adulthood stage of development


  Prefrontal cortex matures at age 25, so can make rational decisions and focus on long term consequences of actions. Later, can develop neurodegenerative disorders, e.g. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, due to death of neurons in the brain.
• IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests


  Initially developed by Alfred Binet for use in identifying children who had exceptionally high or low intelligence, who needed extra support. IQ tests measure memory, attention, and problem-solving.

  Examples: Stanford-Binet test, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Yerkes' test in World War One.
• Criticisms of psychological testing as a form of social control

  1. Unreliable and invalid due to cultural specificity in Yerkes' tests
  2. Illiterate recruits were still given the Alpha test, disadvantaging them
  3. Average age of white American males was 13, black people and those from Eastern/Southern Europe were found to be less intelligent
  4. Results used as "evidence" that those with low IQ should not be allowed to immigrate to the USA, which stopped those fleeing persecution from Nazis, e.g. Anne Frank
• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: key features

  Stages are universal (same for all children) and invariant (do not change and always happen in the same order).

  Schemas: mental pictures/frameworks for understanding the world around us

  Assimilation: new information is merged into an existing schema

  Accommodation: new information results in a new schema being formed or an existing schema being altered.
• Sensori-motor stage of cognitive development(0-2 years)


  Children use their senses to explore the world. Towards the end of the sensori-motor stage, object permanence develops.
• Pre-operational stage of cognitive development (2-7 years)


  Animism (believe inanimate objects have feelings), egocentrism (can only see from their own point of view), lack reversibility (cannot think about things in reverse order)
• Concrete operational stage of cognitive development (7-11 years)


  Conservation (if the shape changes, this doesn't mean the amount changes), decentration (focusing on more than one aspect of a situation), seriation (can put things into rank order), linguistic humour (can use language to make jokes)
• Formal operational stage (11+ years)


  Abstract thinking, logical thinking, comparing/contrasting different sides of debate, hypothetical thinking.
• Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development: criticisms

  1. Underestimated the age of each stage
  2. Researchers have found that only half of adults reach the formal operational stage
  3. Piaget describes the stages but doesn't explain them
  4. Research was too complicated for the children to understand
  5. Reductionist as Piaget didn't take into account the role of teachers in learning
• Piaget's study into conservation of number: method

  Design: natural experiment, cross-sectional study, independent measures

  IV: age of children

  DV: ability to conserve number

  Sample: small sample of Swiss children in Geneva, including Piaget's own children

  Procedure: two equal rows of counters shown to child, asked "is there the same number of counters per row?", then counters in one row spread out and asked again
• Piaget's study into conservation of number: results/conclusions

  Results: 3-4 year olds (pre-operational stage) stated there were more counters in the transformed row, 5-6 year olds (end of pre-operational stage) stated the number of counters remained the same, but couldn't justify this, children in the concrete operational stage could recognise that both rows contained the same amount of counters, and correctly explain this judgement

  Conclusions: children in the concrete operational stage were more likely to be able to conserve number than those in the pre-operational stage
• Piaget's study into conservation of number: criticisms

  1. Methodological problems caused by demand characteristics since the children may have thought they were expected to give different answers
  2. Artificial since adult moved counters, therefore children may have thought the adult changed something
  3. Culture bias, so lack of population validity, cannot generalise to other cultures
• Learning theories of development: Dweck

  Fixed mindsets: when people think that their intelligence is innate, so it cannot be changed. See failure, feedback, and challenge as negative, so they try to avoid them. Failure can lower their self-esteem.

  Growth mindsets: when people think they can develop their intelligence over time. See failure, feedback and challenge as an opportunity to improve. People with growth mindsets are less aggressive and exhibit more pro-social behaviour.

  People can have different mindsets for different abilities.

  Praise for effort rather than intelligence.
• Learning theories of development: Dweck criticisms

  1. Alfie Kohn suggests praise for effort conveys the child is not very good at what they are doing
  2. Places failure firmly on the student
  3. Challenged by large-scale study by the EEF
  4. Focuses on nurture; ignores nature
• Learning theories of development: Willingham

  Learning styles (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) are a myth. Meaning is more important. Disagrees with children learning like "little scientists" since years of study are required to do so.
• Learning theories of development: Willingham criticisms

  1. Many argue that there is a benefit to children learning like "little scientists"
  2. Certain things may benefit from being drilled
  3. Focuses on nurture; ignores nature
  4. Ignores the fact that some children may be kinaesthetic learners due to how they wee conditioned when they were very young
• Blackwell et al. Study 1: method

  Design: longitudinal, correlational field study

  Co-variables: student's theories of intelligence, achievement-related beliefs, and maths achievement in 7th and 8th grade

  Sample: 373 7th graders from New York, USA

  Procedure: gained informed consent from parents and students, informed about right to withdraw. took motivational questionnaire on a 6-point Likert scale in 7th grade, maths scores taken in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.
• Blackwell et al. Study 1: results and conclusions

  Results: no significant correlation between motivational scores and maths test scores in 7th grade. theory of intelligence was a significant predictor of 8th grade maths achievement.

  Conclusion: participants who held the belief that they can change their intelligence showed greater improvement.
• Blackwell et al. Study 2: method

  Design: independent measures, correlational field study and experiment

  IV: whether the participant was in the intervention group or not

  DV: levels of motivation and achievement on maths assessments

  Sample: 99 7th graders from New York, USA

  Procedure: motivational questionnaire taken at the start of 7th grade, random assignment to intervention or control group, students given a quiz about the workshops. three weeks later, they were asked to redo the motivational questionnaire. maths scores in 7th and 8th grade recorded.
• Blackwell et al. Study 2: results and conclusions


  Results: intervention caused increase in growth mindset, 27% in experimental group more motivated according to teachers

  Conclusions: positive effect on motivation and achievement with growth mindset
• Blackwell et al: criticisms

  1. culture bias
  2. experimental group in study 2 had more anti-stereotyping training than those in the control group
  3. impact of the effect was small
  4. reductionist, as it only focused on students' mindsets
• Application of development

  Readiness: children are not ready to learn in certain ways until they have reached the relevant developmental stage, so questions should mirror children's developmental stage

  Key stages are based on Piaget's stages of cognitive development