Developmental Psychology Test Questions – Flashcards

How are moral values acquired? Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg held that they are learned, as children develop the ability to think and reason. Through moral development, we acquire values, beliefs and thinking abilities that guide responsible behaviour. To study moral development, Kohlberg posed dilemmas to children of different ages. His core sample comprised 72 boys. From his tests Kohlberg identified 3 levels and 6 stages of moral development The stages do not have set age ranges however the stages are progressed through in order.

A woman was near death from a unique kind of cancer. There is a drug that might save her. The drug costs $4,000 per dosage. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000. He asked the doctor scientist who discovered the drug for a discount or let him pay later. But the doctor scientist refused. Should Heinz break into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

Moral thinking based on the consequences of one's choices or actions (punishment, reward, or an exchange of favours)

the stage of punishment and obedience The child assumes that powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules which they must unquestioningly obey. Children do not yet speak as members of society. Instead they see morality as something external to themselves, or as that which 'big' people say they must do (Crain, 1985). This stage takes an egocentric point of view as children in this stage do not relate two points of view. Actions are judged on what the physical consequences will be (punishment), rather than the psychological interests of others. EG: 'He shouldn't steal the drug because he could get caught and sent to jail' (avoiding punishment: obedience).

the stage of individual instrumental purpose and exchange In this stage, the child can separate their own interests and points of view from the interests and points of view of others and the authorities. Children will begin to realise that everyone has their own needs to pursue and these may conflict with others Therefore Kohlberg felt that a sense of reciprocity is in action in this stage; that is, children will do the right thing mostly to satisfy their own needs, but they also realise that others have needs to be met as well. EG: 'It won't do him any good to steal the drug because his wife will probably die before he gets out of jail' (self interest).

Moral thinking based on a desire to please others or to follow accepted rules and values

There is a considerable degree of conformity during this stage, since children will learn that they must live up to rules in order to get praise or approval from others. They are better at being able to 'put themselves in another person's shoes', to be less egocentric in their way of thinking and more aware of shared feelings, agreements and expectations. EG: 'He shouldn't steal the drug because others will think he is a thief. His wife would not want to be saved by thievery' (avoiding disapproval).

the stage of social system and conscience maintenance In this stage the individual will start to feel more like it is their duty to uphold the rules of the social system in which they live so as to maintain the welfare of the whole society or group. Instead of a couple of people being in agreement, the person's conscience in this moral development stage looks at the societal point of view to maintain order. It does not matter whether or not two people agree - we all have to do what is 'right' for our society. EG: 'Although his wife needs the drug, he should not break the law to get it. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, and his wife's condition does not justify stealing' (traditional morality of authority).

Moral thinking based on carefully examined and self chosen moral principles

the stage of prior rights and social-contract or utility In this stage, the person will uphold the basic rights, values and legal contracts of a society, even when they are not in accordance with the rules and laws of the group. This is really a stage where the social contract or utility is upheld and when emotional bonds and relationships are put aside. This may cause some difficulty for a person to come to terms with. An individual will consider the moral point of view and the legal point of view; they will recognise the conflict and then find it difficult to integrate them EG: 'He should not steal the drug. The pharmacist's decision is reprehensible, but mutual respect for the rights of others must be maintained' (social contract).

the stage of universal ethical principles At times when facing a moral dilemma, an individual may be guided by universal ethical principles that all humanity should follow. When a law or society's rules violate these principles, then one would act in accordance to the principle. A universal principle is a 'rule' that would be applied all around the world. Some of the universal principles include things like the principle of justice, that all men and women are equal and have equal rights, and we should have respect for the dignity of the individual. EG: 'He should steal the drug and then inform the authorities that he has done so. He will have to face a penalty, but he will have saved a human life' (self-chosen ethical principles).

criticised Kohlberg because he only tested males and it was found that female generally did not reach levels as high as males. She considered that the socialisation process was different between girls and boys, resulting in different values. Males are more independent and achievement oriented leading them to a morality of justice (stage 4) Females are more nurturing and socially responsible leading them to a morality of care (stage 3)

Level 1: Self-interest. Women justified their responses solely in terms of their own needs and wishes Level 2: Self-sacrifice. Women at this level argued in terms of the rights of others, referring to the wishes of the partner or the rights of the unborn child Level 3: Care as a universal obligation. Women reasoning at this level tried to reach balance between care for others and personal well-being.

believed that his research methods led hi to 'impose stage classifications upon informants from other cultures that both distort the meaning of what they have to say and fail to take account of implicit structures in their views of their own social order' Shweder presented people from Indian culture a differing version of the Heinz dilemma and found they only reached a lower level due to differing cultural rules and laws. He concluded that Kohlberg's coding system didn't allow him to take into account the reasoning of a man with a sophisticated understanding of his own culture and the dilemma would have to be altered for each culture it was asked in.

The process of intellectual development in humans is referred to as cognitive development - the progressive changes that occur in human thinking, knowing, understanding, problem solving an information processing. Piaget studied children's reasoning abilities in hundreds of experiments. The data he collected led to the development of the theory that children experience a series of developmental stages from infancy through to adolescence. According to Piaget, at each of these stages children become able to reason in a qualitatively different and more advanced way.

Piaget was convinced that intellect grows through processes he called assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation = The application of existing mental patterns to new situations (that is, the new situation is assimilated to existing mental schemes) Accommodation = The modification of existing mental patterns to fit new demands (that is, mental schemes are changed to accommodate new information or experiences.

During this stage children are mainly concerned with learning to coordinate purposeful movements with information from the senses by looking at, touching and mouthing objects in their immediate environment. During this stage they gradually learn that there is a relationship between their actions and the external world. They learn that they can manipulate objects and produce effects. Object permanence, or an understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight, emerges at this stage. At approximately 18 months of age, children begin to actively pursue disappearing objects. By age 2 years, they can anticipate the movement of an object behind a screen.

Before the age of 6 or 7 years, children's thinking is very concrete. Younger children cannot make transformations. This means they are not able to mentally change the shape or form of a substance. During this stage, children begin to think symbolically and use language. In addition, the child's use of language is not as sophisticated as it might seem. Children have a tendency to confuse words with the objects they represent. If a child calls a toy block a 'car' and you use it to make a 'train', they may be upset. To children, the name of an object is as much a part of the object as its size, shape and colour. During the preoperational stage, the child is also quite egocentric. The child's ego seems to stand at the centre of their world. (Do you remember thinking as a child that the sun and the moon followed you when you took a walk?)

From age 7 years onwards, there is a definite trend toward more logical, adult-like thought. An important development during this stage is mastery of conservation, the concept that mass, weight and volume remain unchanged when the shape of objects changes. Children begin to use concepts of time, space and number. Another important development at this time is the ability to reverse thoughts or mental operations.

At this stage thinking is based more on abstract principles, such as democracy or honour. In the formal operations stage, children can think about their thoughts, and they become less egocentric. Older children and young adolescents also gradually become able to consider hypothetical possibilities. Full adult intellectual ability is attained during the stage of formal operations. Older adolescents are capable of inductive reasoning (logical reasoning that begins with the specific and moves to the general) and deductive reasoning (logical reasoning that begins with the general and moves to the specific), and they can comprehend more advanced mathematics, physics, philosophy, psychology and other abstract systems.

Piaget's theory suggests that the ideal way to guide intellectual development is to provide experiences that are only slightly novel, unusual or challenging. His emphasis on children as active beings who construct understanding through their interactions with the world has transformed education and removed the notion of children as empty vessels waiting to be filled.

Piaget's theory is a valuable 'road map' for understanding how children think. Some more recent research suggests that intellectual growth is not as related to age and stage as Piaget claimed. Today, many psychologists are convinced that Piaget gave too little credit to the effects of learning. For example, children of pottery-making parents can correctly answer questions about the conservation of clay at an earlier age than Piaget would have predicted

Piaget has been criticized because of: 1. He underestimated young minds 2. He failed to distinguish between competence and performance 3. He gave insufficient attention to social influences on performance

Modified Piaget's tasks involving egocentricism as he believed the materials and situations where unfamiliar to them meaning they failed due to lack of familiarity rather than a lack of cognitive skill. The policeman task was created which involved hiding a baby doll from the sight of a policeman (see figure). 90 per cent of children could correctly hide the toy. Donaldson was then able to argue that the policeman task was more successful than Piaget's mountain task because because they are more familiar with the concept of hiding something.

argues that younger children's inability to conserve can be explained by adults breaking the conversational rules that children hold. Problems arise when experimenters ask questions where the answer is obvious or repeat questions when an answer has already been given. Young children are likely to assume their first answer must be wrong so they change their response to please the examiner.

Believed Piaget placed too little emphasis on how children's minds develop through interactions with others, especially with more competent peers and adults. Vygostky believed cognitive growth developed from children's social interactions and occurs in a socio-cultural context.

Hermannsburg project testing isolated Aboriginal children on piagetian tasks compared to Aboriginal children taught in missions. He found that Aboriginal children were able to match white children in thinking levels at the same age as long as the children had been immersed and taught in white culture. All other Aboriginal children raised outside of white culture lagged considerably behind in types and levels of thinking.

Sir Francis Galton: influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution Spearman: Two-factor theory (g and s) Simon - Binet: Mental Age and IQ Wechsler: "The aggregate or global capacity to act purposefully, think rationally and deal effectively with the environment." Intelligence as a general capacity with a number of different abilities that can be measured. Gardner: 7 multiple intelligences Raven's Matrices: cultural fair testing

Developed 'maze tests' to identify mentally defective students. He found that Aboriginal Australians in central regions outperformed Kalumburu and Beagle Bay groups due to the presence of missions and some schools.

Tested Aboriginal children using the Queensland test to determine whether the extent of contact with western culture had an effect on performance on intelligence tests. They claimed to prove that cultural experience (western schooling) affected test performance.

Found that Aboriginal people have exceptional knowledge and skills that enable survival in the natural world. She altered intelligence tests to help demonstrate survival skills possessed by desert living Aborigines as examples of intelligence skills. She found that they demonstrated high visual-spatial memory skills. Kim's game was used and it was found that Aboriginal children and adolescents performed significantly better than white Australians, even controlling for familiarity of materials.

Are commonly used in psychological research, particularly when investigating the development of abilities and trends across the lifespan. Usually, twin studies select identical twins to be participants. As identical twins have identical genetic make-up, they are most likely the best indicator of whether biology affects certain traits and psychopathology in human beings. In twin studies, one twin is allocated to the experimental condition and the other to the control condition. An independent variable is given to the twin in the experimental condition and the results are measured. Twin studies reduce participant extraneous variables, and strengthen the conclusion that any difference between the two groups is due to the IV and not personal differences.

Also used to help to distinguish the effects of nature versus nurture on various traits and characteristics. Typically, traits of children are compared with those of their adoptive and biological parents. Any similarities the children have to their biological parents are explained by heredity and genetics and any similarities to the adoptive parents are attributed to environmental factors.