developmental area

• assumptions

  • studies focus on development, particularly childhood
  • human development is an interaction of nature vs nurture although aging influences behaviour
  • people change and develop with age
• strengths of the area

  • useful applications
  • high ecological validity
• weaknesses

  • not very ethical to test on children who are unaware of what's going on
  • children may lack introspective ability
• nature debate examples

  • bandura - boys are more aggressive than girls naturally
  • Kohlberg - theory of moral development suggests within everyone is an innate predetermined set of stages to develop through
• nurture debate examples

  • bandura - the effect of society tells children who is okay to be aggressive and who isn't
  • Chaney - the use of operant conditioning
  • lee - the environment the children were brought up in altered their morality
• reductionism debate examples

  • Chaney - only looks at how positive reinforcement can be used to manipulate behaviour
  • Kohlberg - takes complex process of moral development and reduces it to product of biological maturation
• holism debate examples

  • bandura - number of factors considered e.g., appropriateness of the model
  • lee - socio-cultural and age factors influence morality
• free will debate examples

  • Chaney - compliance did not increase for all ps, therefore still some control over usage of the device
  • bandura - the children imitated to different degrees
• determinism debate examples

  • bandura - the child has no choice whether to imitate or not, the model determines their behaviour
  • Kohlberg - stages of moral development are predetermined and not everyone will go through all of them but there is little choice involved
  • lee - situation and culture determines the moral development
• individual debate examples

  • Kohlberg - predetermined stages are individual responses to dilemmas are individual and unique to us
• situational debate examples

  • bandura - the rates of imitation were different depending on the condition the children were in and the situation of the role model was specific to the child
  • Chaney - the funhaler was a device in the environment of the children which is what determined the behaviour.
  • lee - the culture that a child is brought up with alters their morality
• applications

  • 9pm watershed
  • age certificates on movies
  • Social learning theory 
  • Operant conditioning 
  • anything from behaviourist perspective 
  • moral development stages