developmental psychology
study of human development concerned with changes in people that begin with conception and continue throughout lifespan, involves relatively permanent changes
schema
an idea about what something is, cluster of interrelated concepts that tell us about how things function in the world
- built through active information in our environment
assimilation
interpret new experiences and information in terms of current understanding of something, cognitive process of making new info fit in with existing understanding
accomodation
changing or adjusting our schemas to include new information that cannot fit into existing schemas
sensorimotor stage
preoperational stage
how is egocentrism measured
centration
tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation at a time (preoperational stage)
animism
belief inanimate objects have human feelings and intentions for children in preoperational stage world of nature is alive conscious and has a purpose
concrete operational stage
conservation
(in concrete operational stage) understanding an object does not change its weight, mass, volume or area simply because it changes shape
- measured by providing two balls of plasticine of same size and roll one into a long skinny shape, child who has conservation knows there is still same amount of plasticine
classification
(concrete operational stage) able to classify groups of events by features that they have in common e.g colour, size
seriation
(in concrete operational stage) ability to order objects with respect to common properties e.g biggest to smallest
formal operational stage
logical thinking
in formal operational stage, individuals develop strategies to work through problems systematically, developing hypothesis and testing them until a solution is found
logical thinking testing
using pendulum problem, children are provided multiple weights and lengths of string, children were asked to workout which factors (weight, length of string, height it’s released from, force) affected the rate the pendulum swings at
Key features of piagets theory
criticisms of Piaget
piagetian tasks with indigenous Australians
Heinz dilemma
woman near death with rare cancer, drug that may save her however costs 4000 each dose and Heinz only has 2000 (and tried every legal means/ asked everyone he could to borrow money) he asked scientist who owned the drug for a discount or to pay later but scientist refused, should Heinz break into laboratory to steal drug for his wife
Kohlberg interviewed 72 boys aged 11-17
level one preconventional: stage one:
level one: preconventional morality: stage 2
Level two: conventional morality: stage 3
level two: conventional morality: stage 4