Developmental area + Behaviourist perspective

• Describe developmental area.

  The developmental area is interested in how people change and develop over time. Developmental psychology says human development is an interaction of both nature and nurture.
• Strengths of developmental area.

  Has improved our understanding of people at different ages - e.g knowing that children aren't the same as adults.

  AND

  Has helped us positively influence children's behaviours.
• Weaknesses of developmental area.

  Research can lack scientific features.

  and

  Ethical issues involving experimenting on kids.
• Describe the behaviourist perspective.

  This perspective sees all behaviour as learnt through our environment. It also states that we are born as a blank slate and our environment shapes us- completely on the nurture side.
• What are classical and operant conditioning.

  Classical conditioning is learning through associations e.g dogs link opening a can to food. - This was demonstrated by Pavlov.

  Operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement - e.g positive reinforcement.
• What is social learning (theory).

  Learning through imitation of role models, we are more likely to imitate behaviour that we see is rewarded.
• Strengths of the behaviourist perspective.

  Many practical applications- e.g putting age restrictions on tv shows.

  AND

  Has used experimental methods so therefore extraneous variables are controlled.
• Weaknesses of the behaviourist perspective.

  Can lack ecological validity because of the use of laboratory settings.

  and

  This perspective is reductionist.
• Bandura theory/background.

  Looked at social learning theory (behaviour, in this study aggression is learnt through imitation), Also looks at vicarious reinforcement- we are more likely to imitate aggressive behaviour if we see it rewarded.
• Bandura design.

  Laboratory experiment with an independent measures design.
• Bandura iv and dv.

  Iv- 1. whether the child saw an aggressive/non aggressive or no model

  2. sex of the model

  3. sex of the child.

  DV- was the amount of aggressive acts imitated noted through observations.
• Bandura sample.

  72 children all from Stanford university nursery.
• Bandura procedure.

  1.Levels of aggression measured beforehand.

  2.Children taken to a room and played with potato prints+stickers.

  3.In aggressive model conditions model played with toy for 1 minute then physically and verbally assaulted bobo doll for remaining 9 (in non-aggressive the model plays with toy for whole 10 mins).

  4. children then taken to anteroom and subjected to mild aggression (denied them chance to play with toys).

  5. Taken to third room with bobo doll and observed for 20 minutes.
• Bandura results.

  imitative acts physical:

  aggressive male model with boys- 25.4.

  non-aggressive male model with boys- 1.5

  aggressive female model with boys- 12.8
• Bandura conclusions.

  Children learn behaviour through observation and imitation AND physical aggression is more likely to be learned from a man than woman.
• Chaney theory/ background.

  Looks at operant conditioning- a form of associative learning . Any behaviour that brings a pleasurable outcome is more likely to be repeated. Looks at positive reinforcement.
• Chaney design.

  Was a field experiment with a repeated measures design.
• Chaney iv and dv.

  iv- whether a child used standard breath-a-tech or a funhaler.

  dv- how well the child managed the prescribed medicinal routine.
• Chaney sample.

  32 children used in total all selected randomly from a local GP.
• Chaney procedure.

  1. Parents sent a questionnaire to establish existing attitude and usage.

  2. Then asked to use funhaler for 2 weeks.

  3. After two weeks the parents were sent a second matched questionnaire to indicate usage and attitude to funhaler.

  4. Parents also called randomly for a phone interview to see if they had medicated their child the previous day.
• Chaney results.

  60% more children took the recommended dose when using the funhaler.
• Chaney conclusion.

  Positive reinforcement devices can encourage desired behaviours.
• Kohlberg theory/ background.

  Looks at moral development- how children begin to construct, cognitively a system of beliefs about interactions with other people. Kohlberg was inspired by the work of Jean piaget- proposed moral reasoning developes through childhood.

  Kohlberg proposes stage theory of moral developement.
• What are the 6 stages in the STOMD.

  1. obedience and punishment orientated

  2. self-interest orientation

  3. conformity to rules

  4. boy-good-girl orientation (what gets approval)

  5. law and order orientation

  6. Universal principles orientation ( goes a step further than law and order- weighing things up).
• Kohlberg aim.

  To assess the development of moral reasoning and early adulthood. A secondary aim was to look at this across cultures.
• Kohlberg Research method.

  Was a longitudinal study- followed the same group of boys for 12 years. Presented them with moral dilemmas.
• Kohlberg sample.

  75 american boys (andocentric and ethnocentric).
• Kohlberg procedure.

  1. Participants presented with moral dilemmas in the form of short stories to solve.

  2. The stories were to determine each participant's stage of moral reasoning, topics were things like the value of human life

  3. once they understood the dilemma they were asked what the character should do.
• Kohlberg results

  Participants showed progress through stages with increased age and all passed through one stage at a time always in the same order.

  +similar in other countries
• Kohlberg conclusion.

  Moral development fits with Kohlberg's Stage theory.

  Each stage comes one at a time and always in the same order.
• Lee theory/background

  Wanted to look at morality across different cultures- especially with individualistic views vs collectivist views.
• Lee aim.

  This study aimed to investigate cross-cultural differences in children's understanding and moral evaluation of lying. (chinese and canadians)
• Lee research method.

  laboratory setting with an independent measures design.
• Lee ivs and dvs.

  ivs- whether participants heard social or physical story.

  AND whether participants heard a prosocial/ antisocial story with a good/bad deed.

  
  

  dvs- the rating given to the characters deed AND the rating given to what the character said.
• Lee sample.

  120 Chinese children and 108 Canadian children.
• lee- procedure.

  1. participants either assigned to social story or physical story.

  2. participants then had 4 stories read to them - 2 prosocial, 2 antisocial.

  3. during each question they had to say whether the character was good or naughty and after each question they had a rating chart.
• lee results.

  Chinese children and Canadian children both negatively rated lying in anti-social situations. Chinese children rated lie telling in prosocial though.
• Lee conclusion.

  Moral reasoning can be influenced by the culture and society we live in. e.g Chinese kids are taught modesty .
• methodological issues- research method.

  Bandura- was a lab experiment so lacked ecological validity but had control over extraneous variables.

  Chaney- social desirability bias, high ecological validity but not so much control over extraneous variables.

  Kohlberg- longitudinal study so has lots of data for analysis but participants may have lost interest because it was so long.

  Lee- cross cultural studies are good at increasing the representativeness of the sample AND for identifying whether behaviour down to culture or not.
• Methodological issues- sampling.

  Bandura- not many children in each condition so lacks population validity.

  Chaney- random sampling good for eliminating sampling bias but sampling size small.

  Kohlberg- androcentric sample and ethnocentric as all american.

  Lee- large sample size but less canadians.