Psychology 456 Mid-term!! – Flashcards
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What are the characteristics of a good scientific theory?
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A theory with few principles that accounts for a large number of empirical observations is much more useful than a second theory that requires many more concepts and propositions to explain the same number (or a lesser number) of observations. This is why a good theory must have parsimony. You want a few evaluating principals to cover the broad observations. You want to be able to test your theories so it must be falsifiable. If it cannot be disproven then it is not a good scientific theory. Finally it must have a heuristic value, it must stimulate new research and new discoveries otherwise its heuristic value is low. Also, you must be able to formulate a hypothesis about what you will see in the experiment.
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Parsimony
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a criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories; a parsimonious theory is one that uses relatively few explanatory principles to explain a broad set of observations
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Falsifiability
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a criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories; a theory is falsifiable when it is capable of generating predictions that could be disconfirmed.
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heuristic value
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a criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories. An heuristic theory is one that continues to stimulate new research and new discoveries.
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(E) Describe the "invention" of adolescence. What purpose does it serve for Western cultures?
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As immigrants poured into the workforce and took jobs that were once meant for children and teens. The young people became economic liabilities or worthless to the workforce. The increase in technologies also required more training to use and so more educated workers were needed. So in the 19th century child labor laws were enacted and school became compulsory. In western society, now adolescent's serves as a point to further their education and better prepare them for the modern workforce.
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Compare and contrast the social philosophical doctrines of original sin, innate purity, and tabula rasa.
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original sin the idea that children are inherently selfish egoists who must by controlled by society, while innate purity the idea that infants are born with an intuitive sense of right and wrong that is often misdirected by the demands and restrictions of society. Finally Tabula rasa, a term coined by John Lock, is the belief that infants come as a "blank slate". The first idea is more of that children come preprogrammed with negative anti-social habits we must curb, Innate purity is that the children is born with an innate since of right and society corrupts them. Tabula rasa is that they don't come programmed at all and we must shape them. The first two are the idea that nature is stronger, and that we must use nurture to either protect or guide them. Tabula rasa is that nurture is the major factor in how children will be and that nature does not play a role.
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(E) State the two sides of the debate in each of the following controversies among developmental theorists: nature versus nurture; activity versus passivity; continuity versus discontinuity; and universal vs particularistic development.
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nature versus nurture issue debate within developmental psychology over the relative importance of biological predispositions (nature) and environmental influences (nurture) as determinants of human development. activity/passivity issue debate among developmental theorists about whether children are active contributors to their own development or, rather, passive recipients of environmental influence. continuity/discontinuity issue debate among theorists about whether developmental changes are best characterized as gradual and quantitative or, rather, abrupt and qualitative. Finally, theorists often disagree about whether the most noteworthy aspects of development are universal (that is, normative outcomes that everyone is said to display) or particularistic (trends or outcomes that vary from person to person). Stage theorists typically believe that their developmental sequences apply to all normal people in all cultures and are therefore universal.
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Describe and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of interview, case study and clinical data collection methods.
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structured interview or structured questionnaire a technique in which all participants are asked the same questions in precisely the same order so that the responses of different participants can be compared. Very early if kindergartners are already thinking along stereotyped lines. A very creative use of interview or questionnaire methodologies is the so-called diary study, in which participants (usually adolescents or young adults) respond, in a diary or a notebook, to one or more standardized questions, either at a specified time (for example, at the end of the day) or whenever they are instructed to respond by a prompt from an electronic pager. Despite their versatility, interviews and questionnaires have some very real shortcomings. First, neither approach can be used with very young children who cannot read or comprehend speech very well. Second, investigators must hope that the answers they receive are honest and accurate and are not merely attempts by respondents to present themselves in a favorable manner. Despite these potential shortcomings, structured interviews and questionnaires can be excellent methods of obtaining large amounts of useful information in a short period of time. The clinical method is a very close relative of the interview technique. The investigator is usually interested in testing an hypothesis by presenting the research participant with a task or problem of some sort and then inviting a response. When the participant has responded, the investigator will typically ask a second question or introduce a new problem in the hope of clarifying the participant's original answer. Jean Piaget, a famous Swiss psychologist, relied extensively on the clinical method to study children's moral reasoning and general intellectual development. Like structured interviews, clinical methods are often useful for gathering large amounts of information in relatively brief periods. Proponents of this approach also cite its flexibility as an advantage: By asking follow-up questions that are tailored to the participant's original answers (as Piaget did in the cited example), it is often possible to obtain a rich understanding of the meaning of those answers. However, the flexibility of the clinical method is also a potential shortcoming. Consider that it may be difficult, if not impossible, to directly compare the answers of participants who are asked different questions. Furthermore, this non-standardized treatment of participants raises the possibility that the examiner's preexisting theoretical biases may affect the particular follow-up questions asked and the interpretations provided. Because conclusions drawn from the clinical method depend in part on the investigator's subjective interpretations, it is always desirable to verify these insights using other research techniques. case study- a research method in which the investigator gathers extensive information about the life of an individual and then tests developmental hypotheses by analyzing the events of the person's life history. The baby biographies of the 19th and early 20th centuries are examples of case studies, and Sigmund Freud prepared many fascinating case studies of his clinical patients. Although Freud and many other developmentalists have used case studies to great advantage, there are major drawbacks to this approach. For example, it is often different to directly compare cases who have been asked different questions, have taken different tests, and have been observed under different circumstances. Case studies may also lack generalizability; that is, conclusions drawn from the experiences of the small number of individuals studied may simply not apply to most people. In fact, one recurring criticism of Freud's psychoanalytic theory is that it was formulated from the life histories of emotionally disturbed patients, who are hardly typical of the general population. For these reasons, any conclusions drawn from case studies should always be verified through the use of other research techniques.
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Describe and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the naturalistic-observational method in comparison to structured observation. What major advantage does structured observation have over other observation methods? What is the major criticism of this method?
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Often researchers prefer to observe people's behavior directly rather than asking them questions about it. One method that many developmentalists favor is naturalistic observation—observing people in their common, everyday (that is, natural) surroundings. To observe children, this would usually mean going into homes, schools, or public parks and playgrounds and carefully recording what happens. Rarely will the investigator try to record every event that occurs; he or she will usually be testing a specific hypothesis about one type of behavior, such as cooperation or aggression, and will focus exclusively on acts of this kind. One strength of naturalistic observation is the ease with which it can be applied to infants and toddlers, who often cannot be studied though methods that demand verbal skills. But perhaps the greatest advantage of the observational technique is that it is the only method that can tell us how people actually behave in everyday life. However, naturalistic observation also has its limitations. First, some behaviors occur so infrequently (for example, heroic rescues) or are so socially undesirable (for example, overt sex play, thievery) that they are unlikely to be witnessed by a strange observer in the natural environment. Second, many events are usually happening at the same time in the natural setting, and any (or some combination) of them may be affecting people's behavior. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the causes of participants' actions or of any developmental trends in behavior. Finally, the mere presence of an observer can sometimes make people behave differently than they otherwise would. Children may "ham it up" when they have an audience, whereas parents may be on their best behavior, showing a strong reluctance, for example, to spank a misbehaving child. time-sampling procedure: Each child was observed during three 10-minute play sessions on three different days. To minimize their influence on the play activities, observers stood outside the play area while making their observations. One way is to conduct structured observations in the laboratory. In a structured observational study, each participant is exposed to a setting that might cue the behavior in question and is then surreptitiously observed (via hidden camera or through one-way mirror) to see whether he or she performs the behavior. Aside from being a most feasible way of studying behaviors that occur infrequently or are not openly displayed in the natural environment, structured observations also ensure that every participant in the sample is exposed to the same eliciting stimuli and has an equal opportunity to perform the target behavior—circumstances that are not always true in the natural setting. Of course, the major disadvantage of structured observations is that participants may not always respond to a contrived laboratory setting as they would in everyday life.
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(SA) What kind of conclusion can be drawn from research utilizing experimental method that cannot be drawn from research utilizing correlational method?
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From an Experimental method you can see causation between independent and dependent variable; the correlational method just shows if there is a relationship, id does not show causation
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(SA) On what is a dependent variable dependent?
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A dependent variable is called "dependent" because its value presumably depends on the independent variable.
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Compare and contrast cross-sectional, longitudinal, sequential and microgenetic experimental designs.
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In a cross-sectional design, groups of children who differ in age are studied at the same point in time. In a longitudinal design, the same participants are observed repeatedly over time. Sequential designs combine the best features of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies by selecting participants of different ages and following each of these cohorts over time. Microgenetic designs are used in an attempt to illuminate the processes that are thought to promote developmental changes.
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What can cross-cultural methods tell us that no other method can illuminate?
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Detailed ethnographic portraits of a culture or subculture that arise from close and enduring contact with members of the community can lead to a richer understanding of that community's traditions and values than is possible through a small number of visits in which outsiders make limited observations and conduct a couple interviews. In fact, these extensive cultural or subcultural descriptions are particularly useful to investigators hoping to understand cultural conflicts and other developmental challenges faced by minority children and adolescents in diverse multicultural societies
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Socialization
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the process by which individuals acquire the beliefs, values, and behaviors considered desirable or appropriate by their culture or subculture
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• developmental stage
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a distinct phase within a larger sequence of development; a period characterized by a particular set of abilities, motives, behaviors, or emotions that occur together and form a coherent pattern.
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• observer influence
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tendency of participants to react to an observer's presence by behaving in unusual ways.
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• cross-generational problem
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the fact that long-term changes in the environment may limit conclusions of a longitudinal project to that generation of children who were growing up while the study was in progress.
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• scientific method
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an attitude or value about the pursuit of knowledge that dictates that investigators must be objective and must allow their data to decide the merits of their theorizing.
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• dependent variable
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the aspect of behavior that is measured in an experiment and assumed to be under the control of the independent variable
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• independent variable
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the aspect of the environment that an experimenter modifies or manipulates in order to measure its impact on behavior.
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• cohort-effect
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age-related difference among cohorts that is attributable to cultural/historical differences in cohorts' growing-up experiences rather than to true developmental change.
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• ecological validity
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state of affairs in which the findings of one's research are an accurate representation of processes that occur in the natural environment.
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• heuristic value
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a criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories. An heuristic theory is one that continues to stimulate new research and new discoveries.
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Charles Darwin
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Most influential baby biographer
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G. Stanley Hall
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Founder of developmental psychology
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Sigmund Freud
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Psychoanalytic theory
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Thomas Hobbes
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Doctrine of original sin
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Jean Jacques Rousseau
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Doctrine of innate purity
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John Locke
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Tabula rasa
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List the major criticisms of the theories of Freud, Erikson, Bandura and Piaget
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Freud: Few developmentalists today are strong proponents of Freud's theory. There is not much evidence that any of the oral, anal, and genital conflicts that Freud thought so important reliably predict one's later personality. One reason for this may be that Freud's account of human development was based on the recollections of a relatively small number of emotionally disturbed adults whose experiences may not apply to most people. Perhaps Freud's greatest contribution was his concept of unconscious motivation. Erikson: Erikson's theory can be criticized for being vague about the causes of development. Erikson's theory is really a descriptive overview of human social and emotional development that does not adequately explain how or why this development takes place. Bandura: Biological theorists argue that the social learning theory completely ignores individuals biological state. Also, they state that the social learning theory rejects the differences of individuals due to genetic, brain, and learning differences Piaget: Critics main argument was that Piaget described tasks with confusing and abstract terms and using overly difficult tasks. Basically Piaget under estimated children's abilities; Researchers have found that young children are capable and can succeed on simpler forms of tasks requiring the same skills. Second, Piaget's theory predicts that thinking within a particular stage would be similar across tasks; Belief that all of children's learning is internal and did not consider the social aspect of learning.
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(SA) Freud and Erikson are both psychoanalysts, although their theories differ. On what points do they agree? How is Erikson's psychosocial theory different from Freud's psychosexual theory
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Erikson's theory is different in that he believes children are active and curious and not slaves to biological urges, also he believed in the ego and that it adapts to social realities rather than internal conflict of all three. Lastly, less emphasis on sexual influences and more emphasis on cultural influences. Like Freud, Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages.
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Describe Bandura's view of the relationship between children and their environments. How is Bandura's viewpoint different from that of John B. Watson?
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Bandura believed that a good portion of our learning comes from cognitive processes and observation. We learn by observing those around us and then conceptualizing our observations. Watson believed we developed solely though behavioral learning experiences. We have to have some kind of reinforcement or punishment to learn a behavior.
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Describe Bandura's observational learning theory. How does this differ from B. F. Skinner's operant learning?
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Observational learning is simply learning that results from observing the behavior of other people. Operant learning is where voluntary acts (or operants) become either more or less probable, depending on the consequences they produce. So instead of just learning by viewing a behavior, we learn because our voluntary act elicits a response. Think of child learning to kick a toy because it makes noise.
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Describe Bandura's reciprocal determinism.
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Interaction among three elements: behavior (motor/verbal responses, social interax), environment (family/friends, physical surroundings, other social influences), and person (cognitive abilities, physical characteristics, beliefs/attitudes).
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What finding from the Bobo doll experiment supports Bandura's belief that learning can occur without imitation? How did the child's perception of whether he/she would be punished affect his/her behavior?
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Deferred imitation- ability to reproduce actions in future. Child doesn't engage in activity which he thinks he'll be punished for, and but will for something he believes he will be praised for.
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Can newborns imitate? State the various explanations of this phenomenon. With which do you agree? Why?
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Yes. They can imitate facial expressions made at them. They want to connect with the person interacting with them and do not fully understand the implications of their mimicry. Mirror neurons are one great explanation for this. I agree with this idea because of brain scans that have seen the mirror neurons light up as a person views an activity, also how we can observe an action them mimic it pretty well even if never really having done it before.
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(E) What does Piaget mean when he describes the child as a "constructivist?" Describe the processes or intellectual functions that children use to construct and modify their intellectual schemes (organization, assimilation, disequilibrium, and accommodation), according to Piaget.
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What he means is children build their own understanding by taking old ideas and building upon them into new ideas. They actively explore their world and wish to understand it. , children are able to construct new schemes because they have inherited two intellectual functions, which he calls organization and adaptation. Organization is the process by which children combine existing schemes into new and more complex intellectual structures. The goal of organization is to further the process of adaptation. As its name implies, adaptation is the process of adjusting to the demands of the environment. According to Piaget, adaptation occurs through two complementary activities: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is Piaget's term for the process by which children interpret new experiences by incorporating them into their existing schemes. Accommodation is Piaget's term for the process by which children modify their existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences. Disequilibrium happens when the child's schemes don't match what already exists thus making that opportunity to learn.
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According to Piagetian theory, why might adolescents become more idealistic as they make the transition to formal operations? How might this influence parent-child relations?
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They can reason about hypothetical process, understand ideas/propositions, so they think more about the ideas, thus become more idealistic. Question everything, including parents
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Describe the process of hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
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A form of problem solving. When faced with a problem, a person starts with a hypothesis, or prediction about variables that might affect an outcome, from which they deduce logical, testable inferences. Then they isolate and combine variables to see which of these inferences are confirmed in the real world
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• Egocentrism
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is the inability to differentiate between self and other. Although egocentrism and narcissism appear similar, they are not the same.
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• punisher habits (according to Watson)
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any consequence of an act that suppresses that act and/or decreases the probability that it will recur
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• reinforce
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any consequence of an act that increases the probability that the act will recur
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• mirror neurons
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Neurons found in differing areas of the brain that light up when you are viewing an action.
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• deferred imitation
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reproduction of a modeled activity that has been witnessed at some point in the past
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• emulation
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reproduction of a modeled outcome by use of means other than those that the model displayed
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• object permanence
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the realization that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or detectable through the other senses.
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• invisible displacement
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The understanding that an object is still there but not where they can see it.
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• conservation
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the recognition that the properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way.
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• personal fable
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allegedly a form of adolescent egocentrism in which the individual thinks that he and his thoughts and feelings are special or unique
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• imaginary audience
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allegedly a form of adolescent egocentrism that involves confusing one's own thoughts with those of a hypothesized audience and concluding that others share your preoccupations
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• social cognition
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thinking that people display about the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors of themselves and other people.
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Erik Erikson
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Psychosocial Development
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John B. Watson
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Father of Behaviorism
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B. F. Skinner
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Operant Learning Theory
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Albert Bandura
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Observational learning
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David Elkind
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Adolescent egocentrism
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Jean Piaget
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Cognitive Developmental Viewpoint
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assimilation VS accommodation
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Piaget's term for the process by which children interpret new experiences by incorporating them into their existing schemes Piaget's term for the process by which children modify their existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences.
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behavioral schemes VS. symbolic schemes
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organized patterns of behavior that are used to represent and respond to objects and experiences internal mental symbols (such as images or verbal codes) that one uses to represent aspects of experience.
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perceptual perspective-taking VS. conceptual perspective taking
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inferring what others can see and hear that is, correctly inferring what another person may be feeling, thinking, or intending.
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reciprocal determinism VS environmental determinism
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the notion that the flow of influence between children and their environments is a two-way street; the environment may affect the child, but the child's behavior will also influence the environment the notion that children are passive creatures who are molded by their environments.
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Ethology
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Humans are born w/ biologically determined behavors that promote adaptive developmental outcomes. Emphasizes that adaptive behavors are added continuously but that some adaptive capabilities emerge abruptly during sensitive periods. Biologically programmed adaptive behaveors stressed although enviromen is necessary for success. organismic. The originator of this point of view was Charles Darwin. Modern Ethology came from Lorenz and Tinbergen. behaviors that are (1) products of evolution and (2) adaptive in that they contribute to survival. John Bowlby not only believe that children display a wide variety of preprogrammed behaviors, they also claim that each of these responses promotes a particular kind of experience that will help the individual to survive and develop normally. Ethologists believe that the first three years of life are a sensitive period for the development of social and emotional responsiveness in human beings.
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Modern Evolutionary Theory
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humans born with adaptive attributes that have evolved through natural selection and channel development in ways that promote adaptive outcomes. influenced by experiences and claim certain chars likely to develop during sensitive periods, provided enviroment fosters this. Ethological notion that preselected adaptive behaviors are those that ensure survival of the individual. Modern evolutionary theorists disagree, arguing instead that preselected, adaptive motives and behaviors are those that ensure the survival and spread of the individual's genes. Modern evolutionary theorists view this long period of immaturity as a necessary evolutionary adaptation. Evolutionary theorists also believe that we humans have evolved in ways that predispose us to develop and display prosocial motives such as altruism that contribute to the common good and permit us to live and work together in harmony. Evolutionary approaches are hard to test. "just-so" stories lack one important characteristic of a useful scientific model—they are nearly impossible to falsify. Evolutionary theories have also been criticized as being retrospective or "post hoc" explanations of development. Finally, proponents of other viewpoints (mostly notably, social-learning theory) have argued that, even if the bases for certain motives or behaviors are biologically programmed, these innate responses will soon become so modified by learning that it may not be helpful to spend much time wondering about their prior evolutionary significance.
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Behavior Genetics
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by virtue of genetically influenced chars, we elicit responses from others and we select envier niches for ourselves. genotype/environment interact occur continuously. emphasis on nature but genes exert heavy influence on enviromwnr where develop takes place. organismic. study of how genotypes and environment contribute to phenotypes. look at non-shared and shared enviromental influences. Criticized as incomplete theory of development that does not explain how either genes or enviro influence us. R. C. Tryon's Selective breeding experiment with rats. Twin studies/ adoption studies/ family studies to see the environment/gene interaction and what is contributing more to development of intelligence, personality and mental health. According to behavioral geneticists David Rowe and Robert Plomin , the aspects of environment that contribute most heavily to personality are nonshared environmental influences—influences that make individuals different from each other. passive genotype/environment correlations, evocative genotype/ environment correlations active genotype/environment correlations. behavioral genetics approach is merely a descriptive overview of how development might proceed rather than a well- articulated explanation of development.). Genes are encoded to manufacture proteins and amino acids, not to produce such attributes as intelligence or sociability. The critics contend that one has not explained development by merely postulating that unspecified environmental forces influenced in unknown ways by our genes somehow shape our abilities, conduct, and character
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Ecological Systems Theory
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humans actively influence enviroment context that influence their develop. emphasize transactions btwn ever-changing individuals and ever-changing enviroments lead to quantitative develop changes. discontinuous personal/enviro events can produce abrupt changes. nurture, although bio attributes can affect enviroment. contextual. Bronfenbrenner The theory is characterized as a bioecological model, it really has very little to say about specific biological contributors to development. Even though the system's theory helps explain the interactions we must still understand how children and adolescents process environmental information and learn from their experiences before we can fully comprehend how environments influence human development.
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Sociocultural Theory
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Vygotsky's perspective on development, in which children acquire their culture's values, beliefs, and problem-solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society. Theorist is Vygotsky. (1) human development occurs in a particular sociocultural context that influences the form that it takes, and (2) many of a child's most noteworthy personal characteristics and cognitive skills evolve from social interactions with parents, teachers, and other more competent associates. Many of Vygotsky's writings are only now being translated from Russian to other languages and his theory has not received the intense scrutiny that Piaget's theory has. Vygotsky emphasized may be less adaptive in some cultures or less useful for some forms of learning than for others. collaborative problem solving among peers does not always benefit the collaborators and may actually undermine task performance if the more competent collaborator is not very confident about what he knows or fails to adapt his instruction to a partner's level of understanding.
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Social Information Processing Theory
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social-cognitive theory stating that the explanations we construct for social experiences largely determine how we react to those experiences. Social information-processing theorists depict human beings as active processors of social information who are constantly generating explanations, or causal attributions, for their own and other people's behavior. Theorizing about attributional processes can be traced to Fritz Heider ,a social psychologist who believed that all human beings are characterized by two strong motives: (1) the need to form a coherent understanding of the world and (2) the need to exert some control over the environment and thus become the "captain of one's own ship." To satisfy these motives, a person must be able to predict how people are likely to behave in a variety of situations and to understand why they behave in these ways. social information-processing theorists can be rather vague about the factors responsible for developmental changes in the attributions children make. found that while social information processing theory holds true for people with high individualist values, the same could not be said for those with high collectivist values.
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Explain Martin Hoffman's belief that the concept of survival of the fittest implies altruism.
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Survival of the fittest implies altruism because in self-sacrifice you are promoting the survival of your genes. This is in such acts of kinship altruism where a parent sacrifices themselves to keep their children alive. "His arguments hinge on the assumption that human beings are more likely to receive protection from natural enemies, satisfy all their basic needs, and successfully reproduce if they have genes that predispose them to be socially outgoing and to live together in cooperative social groups."
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What evidence has been found that empathy is present at birth? How do neuroscientists explain newborn empathic responding?
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Hoffman believes that even newborn babies are capable of recognizing and experiencing the emotions of others. This ability, known as empathy, is thought to be an important contributor to altruism, for a person must recognize that others are distressed in some way and sympathize with them before he or she is likely to help. So Hoffman is suggesting that at least one precursor of altruism—empathy—is present at birth. Mirror neurons are what create the empathetic response.
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(E) Define "shared environmental influences" and "nonshared environmental influences" and describe how each impacts similarities and differences between family members.
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Nonshared environmental - influence (NSE) an environmental influence that people living together do not share and that should make these individuals different from one another. Shared environmental influences -(SE) an environmental influence that people living together share and that should make these individuals similar to one another. The nonshared environmental influences are unique to the individual, so while they are a part of a family, this experience which does not affect the others will cause other traits to come through. The shared environmental traits are shared by all in the family and will make people similar. In an anti-social family, they may be socialized to not interact as much with others, however one person may be involved in a school activity that promotes interaction, thus causing one member to be more extroverted than the others.
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(E) Define and describe the differences between "active", "passive" and "evocative" gene influences (aka genotype/environment correlations).
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(i) Passive gene-environment correlation refers to the association between the genotype a child inherits from her parents and the environment in which the child is raised. Parents create a home environment that is influenced by their own heritable characteristics. Biological parents also pass on genetic material to their children. When the children's genotype also influences their behavioral or cognitive outcomes, the result can be a spurious relationship between environment and outcome. For example, because parents who have histories of antisocial behavior (which is moderately heritable) are at elevated risk of abusing their children, a case can be made for saying that maltreatment may be a marker for genetic risk that parents transmit to children rather than a causal risk factor for children's conduct problems.[3] (ii) Evocative (or reactive) gene-environment correlation happens when an individual's (heritable) behavior evokes an environmental response. For example, the association between marital conflict and depression may reflect the tensions that arise when engaging with a depressed spouse rather than a causal effect of marital conflict on risk for depression. (iii) Active gene-environment correlation occurs when an individual possesses a heritable propensity to select environmental exposure. For example, individuals who are characteristically extroverted may seek out very different social environments than those who are shy and withdrawn.
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In terms, of Scarr and McCartney's theory explain how separated identical twins might show uncanny similarities and, at the same time, noteworthy differences in personality and social behavior.
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Children's innate attributes affect the way people treat them and influences their environments they are given. Also, genes affect the types of environments people seek. Genes may function differently in different environments, therefore different parents may give different environments and react in different ways to different attributes of the child.
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Explain Sandra Scarr's ideas about "good enough parenting." Discuss Diana Baumrind's criticisms of these ideas?
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Scarr believed that children and adolescent's' development is so heavily influenced by the reactions he/she evokes from people other than parents and by the environmental niches he or she constructs that parental child-rearing practices have little effect on development—provided that these practices are "good enough" (that is, within the range of what might be considered normal for human beings). Diana Baumrind , for example, points out that different child-rearing practices that fall well within what Scarr considers the range of "good enough" parenting produce very large differences in children's and adolescents' developmental outcomes. In her own research, Baumrind consistently finds that "highly demanding-highly responsive" parents have children and adolescents who perform better academically and who show better social adjustment than do parents who are only moderately demanding or responsive but well within the "normal range" on these parenting dimensions. Diana Baumrind's studies support the high-demand, high-response of authoritarian parenting. Diana also argued that just because children are active agents in their own development and shaping of their own enviroments, does not in any way rule out parents as a powerless influence on them. Parents can and do influence their children/ adolescent environment and find ways to promote (or inhibit) adaptive outcomes. Baumrind also gains concern that telling a parent they only must be good enough may cause them to become less invested in their child.
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How does Bronfenbrenner's viewpoint on environmental influences differ from the viewpoints of Skinner and Bandura?
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Skinner viewed the environmental influences as all and any external forces that shape the individual's development (environment influences development). Bandura had backed away from this extremely mechanistic view by acknowledging that environments both influence and are influenced by developing individuals, they continue to provide only vague descriptions of the environmental contexts in which development takes place (individual influences the environment, environment influences the individual). Bronfrenbrenner view was that the natural environment of the child was a major factor in development. He also believed there was varying levels of influence that he processed out into his systems theory, giving different levels of interaction between the child and the influential factors from the environment. Bronfenbrenner's concepts highlighted the idea that the developing person is said to be at the center of and embedded in several environmental systems, ranging from immediate settings such as the family to more remote contexts such as the broader culture
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(E) Define microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem and provide an example of influences of each on child development.
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The Microsystem refers to the child's personal interactions between parents, care providers and their immediate surroundings and activities. For most young infants this interaction is limited to the family. The influence expands as the child are exposed to microsystem influences such as daycare and school. And interactions between any two individuals in a microsystem are likely to be influenced by third parties. Fathers, for example, clearly influence mother/infant interactions The Mesosystem refers to the connections or interrelationships between microsystems. The child is connected to school family and daycare and these things are in the microsystem, interconnection of these things are the mesosystem and affect a child's development because a child success in school not only depends on the quality of teachers, but the parents dedication to their children's learning. The Exosystem refers to those influences that children are not a part of but are affected by. A parents' work environment is an exosystem influence, and children's emotional relationships at home and at school can be influenced considerably by whether their parents work regular hours. Similarly, children's experiences in school may also be affected by their exosystem—by a social integration plan adopted by the school board, or by a plant closing in their community that results in a decline in the school's revenue. The Macrosystem refers to the cultural, or subcultural, or social class context in which microsystems, mesosystems, and exosystems are embedded. The macrosystem is really a broad, overarching ideology that dictates (among other things) how children should be treated, what they should be taught, and the goals for which they should strive. Different cultures have different values and this can affect the development of a child in the context of what aspects of child rearing is important. This can also greatly impact the experiences they have in other aspects of the other system zones. To cite one example, the incidence of child abuse in families (a microsystem experience) is much lower in those cultures (or macrosystems) that discourage physical punishment of children and advocate nonviolent ways of resolving interpersonal conflict. The Chronosystem refers to changes in the individual or the environment that occur over time and influence the direction development takes. The child develops over time and those changes in their physical and mental capabilities have a ripple effect through the other system parts. Cognitive and biological changes that occur at puberty, for example, seem to contribute to increased conflict between young adolescents and their parents
question
(SA) What is the most common attribution error made by preschool children
answer
the attributional error most often made by preschool children is to assume that most effects that other people produce are intentional; consequently, children younger than 6 or 7 may often fail to distinguish deliberate acts from either accidents or from other behaviors that produce consequences the actor could not have foreseen.
question
(SA) According to social information-processing theorists, what must children understand about their own and others' behaviors before they are likely to describe the self and others in trait-like terms?
answer
Understanding the implications of traits is an important advance in person perception because it enables us to more confidently predict how associates who display the traits we attribute to them are likely to behave in a variety of social settings.
question
What is a "world view"? Distinguish between the following mechanistic, organismic and contextual world views
answer
mechanistic model- view of children as passive entities whose developmental paths are primarily determined by external (environmental) influences. organismic model- view of children as active entities whose developmental paths are primarily determined by forces from within themselves. contextual model-view of children as active entities whose developmental paths represent a continuous, dynamic interplay between internal forces (nature) and external influences (nurture).
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• natural selection
answer
an evolutionary process, proposed by Charles Darwin, stating that individuals with characteristics that promote adaptation to the environment will survive, reproduce, and pass these adaptive characteristics to offspring; those lacking these adaptive characteristics will eventually die out.
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• tools of intellectual adaptation
answer
Vygotsky's term for methods of thinking and problem-solving strategies that children internalize from their interactions with more competent members of society.
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• empathy
answer
the ability to experience the same emotions that someone else is experiencing
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• scaffolding
answer
process by which an expert, when instructing a novice, responds contingently to the novice's behavior in a learning situation so that the novice gradually increases his or her understanding of a problem.
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• zone of proximal development (ZPD)
answer
Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks that are too complex to be mastered alone but can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from a more skillful partner
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heritability
answer
the amount of variability in a trait that is attributable to hereditary factors.
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• collaborative learning
answer
The process of learning or acquiring new skills that occurs as novices participate in activities under the guidance of a more skillful tutor
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• causal attribution
answer
conclusions drawn about the underlying causes of our own or another person's behavior
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• kinship
answer
the extent to which two individuals have genes in common
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• private speech
answer
Vygotsky's term for the subset of a child's verbal utterances that serve a self-communicative function and guide the child's activities
question
• good-enough parenting
answer
The belief that the child's environment is going to be far more impactful to the child than the parent and therefor the parent only has to do a "good enough job" for them to turn out well. Scarr
question
• trait
answer
a dispositional characteristic that is stable over time and across situations
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von Bertalanffy
answer
general systems theory
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Robert Plomin
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behavioral genetics
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Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen
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evolutionary basis of behavior in animals
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Sandra Scarr
answer
good enough parenting
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Lev Vygotsky
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sociocultural theory
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Urie Bronfenbrenner
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ecological systems theory
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Fritz Heider
answer
attribution theory
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Martin Hoffman
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infant empathy
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Diana Baumrind
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parenting effects on development
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sensitive period VS critical period
answer
period of time that is optimal for the development of particular capacities or behaviors, and in which the individual is particularly sensitive to environmental influences that would foster these attributes period is a short part of the life cycle during which the developing organism is uniquely sensitive or responsive to specific environmental influences; outside this period, the same environmental events or influences are thought to have no lasting effects
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heritability VS inherited
answer
- the amount of variability in a trait that is attributable to hereditary factors The reception of genetic qualities by transmission from parent to offspring
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genotype VS phenotype
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- the genetic endowment that an individual inherits - the ways in which a person's genotype is expressed in observable or measurable characteristics
question
List the 4 components of emotion and make-up your own example illustrating these 4 components in action
answer
1. feelings (generally positive or negative in character) 2. physiological correlates, including changes in heart rate, galvanic skin response (that is sweat gland activity), brain wave activity, and so forth. 3. cognitions that elicit or accompany feelings and physiological changes, and 4. goals, or the desire to take such actions as escaping noxious stimuli, approaching pleasant ones, influencing the behavior of others, communicating needs, or desires, and so on.
question
Describe how developmental researchers study/measure infant emotions.
answer
infants' emotional expressions by videotaping babies' responses to such events as grasping an ice cube, having a toy taken away, or seeing their mothers return after a separation. So they used facial expressions.
question
What cognitive element is one of the strongest elicitors of surprise and joy among 2 to 8-month-old infants? What cognitive element is one of the strongest elicitors of negative emotion among 2 to 8-month-old infants?
answer
Smiles is the strongest elicitors of surprise and joy. Stranger danger and separation anxiety is the strongest negative emotion elicitors.
question
(SA) Describe two particular fears that most infants display between 7 and 8 months of age.
answer
Stranger danger, or fear of new people who are not their caregiver and Separation anxiety is fear when the care giver leaves them.
question
(E) Compare the evolutionary interpretation with the cognitive-developmental interpretation of stranger and separation anxiety.
answer
Evolutionary theorists claim that many situations that infants face qualify as natural clues to danger—situations that have been so frequently associated with danger throughout human evolutionary history that a fear or avoidance response has become biologically programmed. infants may be programmed to fear, once they can readily discriminate familiar objects and events from unfamiliar ones, are strange faces. The evolutionary viewpoint also explains an interesting cross-cultural variation in separation anxiety. Infants from many nonindustrialzed societies, who sleep with their mothers and are nearly always in close contact with them, begin to protest separations about two to three months earlier than Western infants do. Cognitive-developmental theorists view stranger anxiety and separation anxiety as natural outgrowths of an infant's perceptual and cognitive development. Jerome Kagan suggests that 6- to 10-month-olds have finally developed stable schemes for (1) the faces of familiar companions and (2) these companions' probable whereabouts at home (if they are not present). Suddenly a strange face that is discrepant with the infants' schemes for caregivers appears and upsets children because they can't explain who this is or what has become of familiar caregivers.
question
Describe stranger behaviors that reduce the likelihood of upsetting a wary infant? What stranger behaviors might increase negative infant reactions.
answer
Trying not to look strange, being sensitive and unobtrusive, keeping familiar companions available. Dressing weird or separating the child from the adult, not having a warm environment
question
Why are the secondary (complex emotions) known as self-conscious emotions? When do they emerge?
answer
Secondary emotions are emotions that require self-awareness in order for them to be expressed. They are called self-conscious emotions for this reason. These are such emotions as embarrassment, shame, pride and envy. When "sense of self" is obtained around age 18 months. Self-awareness is necessary for embarrassment whereas the self-evaluating emotions such as pride, shame and envy require also an understanding of social rules.
question
What are some cognitive strategies that parents use to help children learn to regulate their emotions?
answer
Parents link emotions, goals and desires together. They can demonstrate an understanding of what the child is feeling, explaining why something is the way it is and explaining an outcome. Desire language. Some use a highly elaborative style in which they frequently ask their children open-ended questions about the emotions of storybook characters or provide ample background information and pose open-ended questions when conversing with their children about past events that have evoked noteworthy emotions.
question
(E) How does the culture in which a child is raised affect his/her emotional self-regulation and later display of emotion? Illustrate by describing culturally specified rules that differ between collectivist and individualistic peoples.
answer
Depending upon what culture you are raised in is what emotions are socially acceptable to express. American parents love to stimulate their babies until they reach peaks of delight. By contrast, caregivers among the Gusii and the Aka tribes of central Africa rarely take part in face-to-face play with their babies, seeking instead to keep young infants as calm and contented as possible. So American babies learn that intense displays of emotion are okay as long as they are positive, whereas Gusii and Aka babies learn to restrain both positive and negative emotions.
question
List and describe Rothbart & Bates six dimensions of temperament
answer
1. Fearful distress (fearfulness) — wariness, distress, and withdrawal in new situations or in response to novel stimuli. 2. Irritable distress — fussiness, crying, and showing distress when desires are frustrated (sometimes called frustration/anger). 3. Positive affect — frequency of smiling, laughing, willingness to approach others and to cooperate with them (called sociability by some researchers). 4. Activity level — amount of gross motor activity (for example, kicking, crawling). 5. Attention span/persistence — length of time child orients to and focuses on objects or events of interest. 6. Rhythmicity — regularity/predictability of bodily functions such as eating, sleeping, and bowel functioning.
question
Describe Jerome Kagan's research findings related to behavioral inhibition. Which groups of children displayed long-term stability.
answer
Jerome Kagan and his associates found while conducting longitudinal studies of a temperamental attribute they call behavioral inhibition: the tendency to withdraw from unfamiliar people or situations. Children were tested at 4 months then again at 12 months. Children at 4 months who were classified as "inhibited" showed quick fussy and heightened motor activity to novel objects like bright colors. toddlers classified as inhibited were rather shy and sometimes even fearful when they encountered unfamiliar people, toys, or settings, whereas most uninhibited children responded quite adaptively to these events. When tested at 4 ½ 5 ½ years they were shown to be socially and less sociable with peers. Both the highly inhibited and highly uninhibited were the ones with the most stability.
question
Describe the three broad temperamental profiles that Thomas and Chess identified in their classic longitudinal research. Which profile(s) are thought to place children at risk of future adjustment difficulties, and what seems to determine whether or not children with such profiles actually experience adjustment problems?
answer
1. Easy temperament (40 percent of the sample): Easygoing children are even-tempered, typically in a positive mood, and quite open and adaptable to new experiences. Their habits are regular and predictable. 2. Difficult temperament (10 percent of the sample): Difficult children are active, irritable, and irregular in their habits. They often react very vigorously to changes in routine and are very slow to adapt to new persons or situations. 3. Slow-to-warm-up temperament (15 percent of the sample): These children are quite inactive, somewhat moody, and can be slow to adapt to new persons and situations. But, unlike the difficult child, they typically respond to novelty in mildly, rather than intensely, negative ways. For example, they may resist cuddling by looking away rather than by kicking or screaming. temperamentally "difficult" children are more likely than other children to have problems adjusting to school activities, and they are often irritable and aggressive in their interactions with siblings and peers. Difficult infants are especially likely to remain difficult and to display behavior problems later in life if their parents are often impatient, angry, demanding, and forceful with them
question
• stranger anxiety
answer
a wary or fretful reaction that infants and toddlers often display when approached by an unfamiliar person.
question
• separation anxiety
answer
a wary or fretful reaction that infants and toddlers often display when separated from persons to whom they are attached.
question
• temperament *
answer
"constitutionally based" individual differences in emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation"
question
• emotional display rules
answer
culturally defined rules specifying which emotions should or should not be expressed under which circumstances
question
• social referencing
answer
the use of others' emotional expressions to gain information or infer the meaning of otherwise ambiguous situations
question
• Goodness-of-fit model
answer
Thomas and Chess's notion that development is likely to be optimized when parents' child-rearing practices are sensitively adapted to the child's temperamental characteristics
question
• behavioral inhibition
answer
a temperamental attribute reflecting the fearful distress children display and their tendency to withdraw from unfamiliar people and situations
question
Carroll Izard
answer
infant emotional expression
question
Thomas and Chess
answer
IBQ and CBQ; goodness of fit
question
Jerome Kagan
answer
behavioral inhibition
question
Michael Lewis
answer
self-conscious emotions
question
Mary Rothbart
answer
temperament profiles
question
discrete emotions theory VS functionalist perspective
answer
a theory of emotions specifying that specific emotions are biologically programmed, accompanied by distinct sets of bodily and facial cues, and discriminable from early in life a theory specifying the major purpose of an emotion is to establish, maintain, or change one's relationship with the environment to accomplish a goal; emotions are not viewed as discrete early in life but as entities that emerge with age.
question
(E) Describe the phases infants pass through as they become attached to their caregivers.
answer
1. The asocial phase (0-6 weeks). Very young infants are somewhat "asocial" in that many kinds of social or nonsocial stimuli will produce a favorable reaction, and few produce any kind of protest. By the end of this period, infants are beginning to show a preference for such social stimuli as a smiling face. 2. The phase of indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks to 6-7 months). Now infants clearly enjoy human company but tend to be somewhat indiscriminate: They smile more at people than at such other life like objects as talking puppets and are likely to fuss whenever any adult puts them down. Although 3- to 6-month-olds reserve their biggest grins for familiar companions and are more quickly soothed by a regular caregiver, they seem to enjoy the attention they receive from just about anyone (including strangers). 3. The specific attachment phase (about age 7-9 months). Between 7 and 9 months of age, infants begin to protest only when separated from one particular individual, usually the mother. Now able to crawl, infants may try to follow along behind mother to stay close and will often greet her warmly when she returns. They also become somewhat wary of strangers. According to Schaffer and Emerson, these babies have established their first genuine attachments. 4. The phase of multiple attachments. Within weeks after forming their initial attachments, about half the infants in Schaffer and Emerson's study were becoming attached to other people (fathers, siblings, grandparents, or perhaps even a regular babysitter). By 18 months of age, very few infants were attached to only one person, and some were attached to five or more.
question
Use the information in Topic Comments to expand Shaffer's description of emotional attachments on page 135.
answer
Shaffer defines attachment as "the strong affectional ties we feel for the special people in our lives". It is also a system of behaviors with an individual that organizes our feelings about the person we are attached to. Out attachment to someone creates a set of behaviors either signaling (crying, babbling, cooing) and approaching behaviors (clinging following and reaching). The attachment is focused on specific individuals who illicit the attachment behavior, involve psychical proximity seeking and produce separation distress.
question
Contrast synchronous interaction during parent/infant play with asynchronous infant/parent interaction during parent/infant play?
answer
synchronized routines generally harmonious interactions between two persons in which participants adjust their behavior in response to the partner's actions and emotions. Parents who are involved witn synchronized play with their infant attends carefully to the baby's state, provides playful stimulation when the child is alert and attentive, and avoids pushing things when an overexcited or tired infant. Asynchronous play between the parent/child is where the parent may try to keep the child interacting beyond the child's limit or when the child is not ready to. which messages go unheeded and interactive errors persist—one that is undoubtedly much less pleasant for both the mother and her baby than the highly affectionate, synchronous interplay described earlier
question
Based on what is known from available research, describe the strategies that parents might use to make necessary separations more tolerable for infants and toddlers.
answer
1. Provide an explanation for the separation. 2. Provide some reminder of home. 3. Choose a sensitive substitute caregiver.
question
Describe the 4 patterns of attachment usually characterized by observers of Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure.
answer
1. Secure attachment. About 60-65 percent of l-year-old American infants fall into this category. The securely attached infant actively explores while alone with the mother and may be visibly upset by separations. The infant often greets the mother warmly when she returns and, if highly distressed, will often seek physical contact with her, which helps to alleviate that distress. The child may be outgoing with strangers while the mother is present. 2. Resistant attachment. About 10 percent of 1-year-olds show this type of "insecure" attachment. These infants try to stay close to their mothers but explore very little while she is present. They become very distressed as the mother departs. But when she returns, the infants are ambivalent: They remain near her, although they seem angry at her for having left them and are likely to resist physical contact initiated by the mother. Resistant infants are quite wary of strangers, even when their mothers are present. 3. Avoidant attachment. These infants (about 20 percent of l-year-olds) also display an "insecure" attachment. They often show little distress when separated from the mother and will generally turn away from and may continue to ignore their mothers, even when she tries to gain their attention. Avoidant infants are often rather sociable with strangers but may occasionally avoid or ignore them in much the same way that they avoid or ignore their mothers. 4. Disorganized/disoriented attachment. This recently discovered attachment pattern characterizes the 5-15 percent of American infants who are most stressed by the Strange Situation and who seem to be the most insecure. It appears to be a curious combination of the resistant and the avoidant patterns that reflects confusion about whether to approach or avoid the caregiver. When reunited with their mothers, these infants may cringe and look fearful, freeze, or curl up on the floor; or they may move closer but then abruptly move away as the mother draws near.
question
A mother returns after a separation and is reunited with her 1-year-old as part of the "Strange Situation." How does the infant respond to this reunion if he is securely attached? resistant? avoidant? disorganized/disoriented?
answer
If the child is securely attached he greets his mother warmly, if highly distressed he will seek physical contact with her. If the child is resistant, they become very uspet when the mother leaves and resists physical contact. If avoidant, they show little distress if the mother leaves and turns away from her and ignores her if she tries to gain her attention. If Didorganized/disoriented, they cringe and look fearful, freeze or curl up on the floor or move away when she comes near.
question
(SA)What attachment pattern is most often related to maternal depression and/or child abuse/neglect.
answer
disorganized/disoriented
question
Describe the long term outcomes of secure and insecure attachments. Is attachment history destiny?
answer
Is attachment destiny? No. Secure attachment with one person can offset an insecure attachment with the mother. Secure can become insecure as life events change
question
Describe Bowlby's ideas about the development of "internal working models." What kind of caregiving is related to an infant's developing a positive working model of others. What factors are related to the quality of an infant's working model of herself?
answer
internal working models—that is, cognitive representations of themselves and other people—that are used to interpret events and form expectations about the character of human relationships. Sensitive, responsive caregiving should lead the child to conclude that people are dependable (positive working model of others), whereas insensitive, neglectful, or abusive caregiving may lead to insecurity and a lack of trust (negative working model of others). Children who had specific types models had those models reflected into their future relationships. infants who construct positive working models of themselves and their caregivers are the ones who should (1) form secure primary attachments, (2) have the self-confidence to approach and to master new challenges, and (3) be inclined to establish secure, mutual-trust relationships with friends and spouses later in life. By contrast, a positive model of self-coupled with a negative model of others (as might result when infants can successfully attract the attention of an insensitive, overly intrusive caregiver) is thought to predispose the infant to form avoidant attachments and to "dismiss" the importance of close emotional bonds. A negative model of self and a positive model of others (as might result when infants sometimes can but often cannot attract the attention and care they need) should be associated with resistant attachments and a "preoccupation" with establishing secure emotional ties. Finally, a negative working model of both the self and others is thought to underlie disorganized/disoriented attachments and an emerging "fear" of being hurt (either physically or emotionally) in intimate relationships
question
Describe the long term correlates of social deprivation in infancy. Can children recover from it?
answer
Children who suffer social depravity have great difficulty forming secure attachment, score lower on IQ tests, were socially immature, were remarkably dependent on adults, had poor language skills, and were prone to behavioral problems as well as aggression. Fortunately, socially deprived (or otherwise maltreated) infants and toddlers can overcome many of their initial handicaps if placed in homes where they receive lots of attention from sensitive, responsive caregivers. Recovery seems to go especially well when children have not been abused and are placed by age 6 months with highly educated and relatively affluent adoptive or foster parents who themselves have positive (that is, secure) working models of attachment relationships. On the other hand, the lingering deficiencies and reactive attachment disorders that some early abuse victims and many late adoptees display suggest that the first six months of life may be a sensitive period for developments that would help infants to establish secure affectional ties and other capacities that these ties may foster. Can they make complete recoveries? We don't really know yet.
question
Describe a concern about early day care raised by the NICHD study? How robust are those findings?
answer
It was once feared that regular separations from working parents and placement into day care might prevent infants from establishing secure attachments or undermine the quality of attachments that were already secure. However, there is little evidence that either a mother's employment outside the home or alternative caregiving will have harmful effects unless children face the dual risks of insensitive care at home and poor day care
question
How is a working mother's attitude about working and child care related to her child's social and emotional well-being?
answer
If she is happy with her job and her role as mother the child's social and emotional well-being with thrive. She will be more sensitive to the child's needs
question
• synchronized routines
answer
generally harmonious interactions between two persons in which participants adjust their behavior in response to the partner's actions and emotions.
question
• secure base
answer
use of a caregiver as a base from which to explore the environment and to which to return for emotional support.
question
• preadapted characteristic
answer
an innate attribute that is a product of evolution and serves some function that increases the chances of survival for the individual and the species.
question
• reactive attachment disorder
answer
inability to form secure attachment bonds with other people; characterizes many victims of early social deprivation and/or abuse
question
• learned helplessness
answer
the failure to learn how to respond appropriately in a situation because of previous exposures to uncontrollable events in the same or similar situations
question
John Bowlby
answer
integrative theory of infant/caregiver attachments
question
Ed Tronick
answer
internal working models
question
Grazyna Kochanska
answer
interactional synchrony
question
Mary Ainsworth
answer
caregiving hypothesis & strange situation paradigm
question
Harry Harlow
answer
effects of social deprivation on rhesus monkeys
question
Mary Main
answer
causes of disorganized/disoriented attachments
question
caregiving hypothesis VS temperament hypothesis
answer
Ainsworth's notion that the type of attachment an infant develops with a particular caregiver depends primarily on the kind of caregiving he has received from that person. Kagan's view that the Strange Situation measures individual differences in infants' temperaments rather than the quality of their attachments.
question
maternal deprivation hypothesis VS. social stimulation hypothesis
answer
the notion that socially deprived infants develop abnormally because they have failed to establish attachments to a primary caregiver. the notion that socially deprived infants develop abnormally because they have had little contact with companions who respond contingently to their social overtures.
question
Describe three research observations that suggest newborn infants can distinguish self from the surrounding environment.
answer
newborns cry at hearing a recording of another baby's cries but not upon hearing a recording of their own cries, thus implying that a differentiation of self and others is possible at birth. Furthermore, newborns anticipate the arrival of their own hands at their mouths and, seem capable of using proprioceptive feedback from their own facial expressions to mimic at least some of the facial expressions their caregivers display. Research of this type reveals that infants only 4 to 5 months old seem to treat their own faces as familiar social stimuli. Marie Legerstee and her associates (1998) found that 5-month-olds who viewed moving images of themselves and an age-mate (on videotape) could clearly discriminate their own image from that of the peer, as indicated by their preference to gaze at the peer's face (which was novel and interesting to them) rather than at their own (which was presumably familiar and hence less interesting).
question
Trace the development of self-recognition from birth through 3 years.
answer
Research of this type reveals that infants only 4 to 5 months old seem to treat their own faces as familiar social stimuli. these 9-month-olds pay more attention to the mimicking adult than to their own images, but they were much more inclined to treat the adult as a "playmate" by smiling and trying to reengage this person when the video paused and the mimicry stopped. When infants 9 to 24 months old were given this rouge test, the younger ones showed no self-recognition: They often did nothing or tried to wipe the rouge off the person in the mirror. Signs of self-recognition were observed among some of the 15- to 17-month olds, but only among the 18- to 24-month-olds did a majority of children touch their own noses, apparently realizing that they had a strange mark on their faces. The kid knew exactly who that kid in the mirror was. And many 18- to 24-month-olds can even recognize themselves in current photographs and will often use a personal pronoun ("me") or their own name to label their photographic image. Not until age 3½ will they retrieve a brightly colored sticker placed surreptitiously on their heads if their first glimpse of it comes after a 2-3 minute delay on videotape or in a photograph. 1996). Apparently 2- to 3-year-olds who display some self-recognition do not retrieve the sticker because their concept of self is limited to that of a present self, and they don't yet appreciate that events that occurred in the past have implications for them now. By contrast, 4- and 5-year olds quickly retrieve the sticker after a brief delay but do not retrieve it if the videotape depicts events that happened a week earlier. These older preschoolers have developed the concept of extended self: They recognize that the self is stable over time and that (1) events that happened very recently have implications for the present, whereas (2) a sticker they see a week later on film is not still on their heads because this event happened to them a long time ago.
question
Define "theory-of-mind" and describe its developmental course. Compare theory-of-mind with Bowlby's ideas about internal working models
answer
A theory of mind—an understanding that people have mental states, such as desires, beliefs, and intentions, that are not always shared with or accessible to others, and that often guide their behavior. The first step toward acquiring a theory of mind is the realization that oneself and other humans are animate (rather then inanimate) objects whose behaviors reflect goals and intentions. 2-month-old infants are making some progress; they are already more likely to repeat simple gestures displayed by a human rather than an inanimate object, thereby suggesting that they may already identify with human models. By age 6 months, infants perceive human actions as purposeful and know that humans behave differently toward people than they do toward inanimate objects. By age 9 months, infants can discriminate an adult's negative intent (teasing them by withholding a toy) from a more positive one (attempting to give them the toy). Age 9-12 months is also when infants engage in a good deal of joint attention, often pointing at or otherwise directing a companion's attention to objects or events, thus implying that they perceive a social partner as capable of understanding or sharing their own perspectives and intentions. And by 18 months, toddlers have discovered that desires influence behavior, and can often reason accurately about other people's desires. So having seen a woman express disgust at the thought of eating crackers, they know that she would prefer vegetables to the crackers that they personally favor when offered a choice between these snacks. Two- to 3-year-olds often talk about their feelings and desires and even display some understanding of the connections between different mental states. They know, for example, that a child who desires a cookie will feel good (happy) if he receives it and feel bad (sad, angry) if he doesn't. even though 3-year-olds have become more mindful of the human mind and an emerging private self, they still have a primitive understanding of such constructive and interpretive mental products as beliefs and inferences. Between ages 3 and 4, most children develop a belief-desire theory of mind in which they recognize, as we adults do, that beliefs and desires are different mental states and that either or both can influence one's conduct. 4- to 5-year-olds display a belief-desire theory of mind: They now understand that beliefs are merely mental representations of reality that may be inaccurate and that someone else may not share. According to Bowlby , the emotional bond between an infant and their main caregiver affects their later social, psychological and biological capacities through the construction of internal representations or internal working models (IWMs). IWMs are internalized representations of the "self" and "other" based on a child's interactions with their main caregivers. It is hypothesized that these representations contain information about whether the caregiver is perceived as a person who responds to calls for support or protection (IWMs of other), and whether the self is worthy of receiving help from anyone, in particular the caregiver (IWMs of self). For instance, Bowlby maintained that a child experiencing their parents as emotionally available, responsive, and supportive will construct a self -model as being lovable and competent. Conversely, experiences of rejection, emotional unavailability, and lack of support will lead to the construction of an unlovable, unworthy, and incompetent self -model. An understanding that people are cognitive beings with mental sates that are not always accessible to others and often guide their behavior verses cognitive representations of themselves and other people that are used to interpret events and form expectations about the character of human relationships. It's a point of we are each individual and our mental states are not able to be seen by others and the cognitive representations of themselves and other people that are used to interpret events and understandings about humans and human relationships.
question
Explain Simon Baron-Cohen's ideas SAMMs and TOMMs and the underlying cognitive deficit in autism.
answer
the shared attention mechanism (SAM), which is said to develop between 9 and 18 months of age and allows two or more individuals to understand that they are attending to the same thing. Another such mechanism is the theory of mind module (TOMM), which allegedly develops between 18 and 48 months of age and permits children to eventually discriminate and interpret such mental states as intentions, desires, and beliefs. Baron-Cohen claims that autistic individuals lack a TOMM and display profound deficits in reading minds, or mindblindness.
question
(SA) Contrast the content of people's self-concepts in individualistic societies with that of people in collectivist societies.
answer
Self-concepts in individualistic societies value competition and individual initiative and tend to emphasize ways in which people differ from each other. Collective societies value more cooperative, and interdependent rather than competitive and independent, and their identities are closely tied to the groups to which they belong (for example, families, religious organizations, and communities) rather than to their own accomplishments and personal characteristics. Individual cultures will have a self-concept more based on the individual identity and the collective will be more on a group identity.
question
Does self-esteem "dip" in adolescence? Support your answer with research references
answer
Yes. These declining competency beliefs may partially reflect the more realistic self- appraisals that older children provide as they move from smaller elementary schools to larger junior high schools, encounter much larger peer groups, and discover that they may not be as skilled as they thought they were in one or more competency domains. Entering into larger environments than what they experienced in elementary or middle school exposes them to others who may be more skilled.
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How does Susan Harter explain the positive ratings 4 to 7 year-old children give themselves on a Self Perception scale. How do children's self appraisals change around age 8?
answer
According to Harter, 4- to 7-year-olds could be accused of having inflated egos because they tend to rate themselves positively in all domains. Some researchers think that these very positive assessments reflect a desire to be liked or to be good at various activities rather than the foundation for a firm sense of self-worth. However, the self-appraisals of 4- to 7-year-olds are not totally unrealistic because they are modestly correlated with children's achievement test scores and with ratings teachers give them on the same competency domains. Starting at about age 8, children's own competency appraisals began to more closely reflect other people's evaluations of them. Thus they become more realistic.
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(E) Describe "adolescent identity crisis" including Erikson's teachings and James Marcia's four identity statuses. (Be sure to be able to describe each of the four statuses.)
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According to Erik Erikson, the major developmental hurdle that adolescents face is establishing an identity—a firm and coherent sense of who they are, where they are heading, and where they fit into society. Forging an identity involves grappling with many important choices: What kind of career do I want? What spiritual, moral, and political values should I adopt? Who am I as a man or a woman, and as a sexual being? Just where do I fit into society? All this is, of course, a lot for teenagers to have on their minds, and Erikson used the term identity crisis to capture the sense of confusion, and even anxiety, that adolescents may feel as they think about who they are today and try to decide "What kind of self can (or should) I become?" James Marcia has developed a structured interview that allows researchers to classify adolescents into one of four identity statuses—identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement—based on whether they have explored various alternatives and made firm commitments to an occupation, a religious ideology, a sexual orientation, and a set of political values. These identity statuses are as follows: 1. Identity diffusion: Persons classified as "diffuse" have not yet thought about or resolved identity issues and have failed to chart future life directions, Example: "I haven't really thought much about religion, and I guess I don't know exactly what I believe." 2. Foreclosure: Persons classified as "foreclosed" are committed to an identity but have made this commitment without experiencing the "crisis" of deciding what really suits them best. Example: "My parents are Baptists and so I'm a Baptist; it's just the way I grew up." 3. Moratorium: Persons in the status are experiencing what Erikson called an identity crisis and are actively asking questions about life commitments and seeking answers. Example: "I'm evaluating my beliefs and hope that I will be able to describe what's right for me. I like many of the answers provided by my Catholic upbringing, but I'm skeptical about some teachings as well. I have been looking into Unitarianism to see whether it might help me answer my questions." 4. Identity Achievement: Identity-achieved individuals have resolved identity issues by making personal commitments to particular goals, beliefs, and values. Example: "After a lot of soul-searching about my religion and other religions too, I finally know what I believe and what I don't."
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Describe 4 factors that influence adolescents' progress toward identity.
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Cognitive development plays an important role in identity achievement. Adolescents who have achieved solid mastery of formal operational thought and who can reason logically about hypotheticals are now better able to imagine and contemplate future identities. Consequently, they are more likely to raise and resolve identity issues than are age-mates who are less intellectually mature. Parental Influences: The relationships that adolescents have with their parents can also affect their progress at forging an identity. Adolescents in the diffusion status are more likely than those in other statuses to feel neglected or rejected by their parents and to be distant from them. At the other extreme, adolescents in the identity foreclosure status are often extremely close to and may sometimes fear rejection from relatively controlling parents. Foreclosed adolescents may never question parental authority or feel any need to construct a separate identity. These youth are more likely to forge independent identities when they move out of the house as opposed to living at home during the college years. By contrast, adolescents who move easily into the moratorium and identity achievement statuses appear to have a solid base of affection at home combined with considerable freedom to be individuals in their own right. Scholastic Influences: Attending college does seem to push people toward setting career goals and making stable occupational commitments, but college students are often far behind their working peers in terms of establishing firm political and religious identities. some collegians will regress from identity achievement to the moratorium or even the diffusion status in certain areas, most notably religion. But let's not be too critical of the college environment, for, like college students, many adults will later reopen the question of who they are if exposed to people or situations that challenge old viewpoints and offer new alternatives. Cultural-Historical Influences: Finally, identity formation is strongly influenced by the broader social and historical context in which it occurs- a point Erikson made. In fact, the very idea that adolescents should choose a personal identity after carefully exploring many options may well be peculiar to industrialized societies of the 20th century. As in past centuries, adolescents in many nonindustrialized societies today will simply adopt the adult roles they are expected to adopt, without any soul-searching or experimentation: Sons of farmers will become farmers, the children of fishermen will become (or perhaps marry) fishermen, and so on. For many of the world's adolescents, then, what Marcia calls identity foreclosure is probably the most adaptive route to adulthood. In addition, the specific life goals that adolescents pursue are necessarily constrained somewhat by whatever options are available and valued in their society at any given point in time
question
During what age period are children most likely to describe others by using a. behavioral comparisons? b. psychological constructs? c. psychological comparisons? Give an example of each type of description.
answer
behavioral comparisons increased between ages 6 and 8 and declined rapidly after age 9. (Billy Runs fast or Jenna draws the best) psychological constructs, or traits, that the person is now presumed to have. So a 10-year-old who formerly described one of her acquaintances as drawing best of anyone in her class may now convey the same impression by saying that the acquaintance is very artistic. psychological comparisons when describing others the majority of 12- to 16-year-olds in Barenboim's second study were actively comparing their associates on noteworthy psychological dimensions. (Billy is more shy than Ted).
question
What do current developmentalists believe is the "best" way to combat ethnic prejudice?
answer
Developmentalists now believe that the best way to combat ethnic prejudice is for parents and teachers to talk openly about the merits of ethnic diversity and the harmful effects of prejudice, beginning in the preschool period when strong favoritism of one's own in-group and early indications of prejudice often take root.
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Explain how disagreements between friends foster interpersonal understanding.
answer
that disagreements among friends are particularly important because children tend to be more open and honest with their friends than with mere acquaintances and are more motivated to resolve disputes with friends. As a result, disagreeing friends should be more likely than disagreeing acquaintances to provide each other with the information needed to understand and appreciate their conflicting points of view.
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• personal agency
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the recognition that one can be the cause of an event or events.
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• self-concept
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One's perceptions of one's unique combination of attributes
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• categorical self
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a person's classification of the self along socially significant dimensions such as age and sex.
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• self-recognition
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the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror or a photograph, coupled with the conscious awareness that the mirror or photographic image is a representation of "me."
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• looking-glass self
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the idea that a child's self-concept is largely determined by the ways other people respond to him or her
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• present self
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early self-representation in which 2- and 3-year-olds recognize current representations of self but are largely unaware that past self-representations or self-relevant events have implications for the future
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• extended self
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more mature self-representation, emerging between ages 3½ and 5 years, in which children are able to integrate past, present, and unknown future self-representations into a notion of a self that endures over time
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• false self-behavior
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method of assessing one's understanding that people can hold inaccurate beliefs that can influence their conduct, wrong as these beliefs may be.
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• relational self-worth
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feelings of self-worth within a particular relationship context (for example, with parents, with male classmates); may differ across relationship contexts
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• identity diffusion
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identity status characterizing individuals who are not questioning who they are and have not yet committed themselves to an identity.
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• foreclosure
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identity status characterizing individuals who have prematurely committed themselves to occupations or ideologies without really thinking about these commitments
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• moratorium
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- identity status characterizing individuals who are currently experiencing an identity crisis and are actively exploring occupational and ideological positions in which to invest themselves.
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• identity achievement
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identity status characterizing individuals who have carefully considered identity issues and have made firm commitments to an occupation and ideologies
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• intimacy vs. isolation
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the sixth of Erikson's psychosocial conflicts, in which young adults must commit themselves to a shared identity with another person (that is, intimacy) or else remain aloof and unconnected to others
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• ethnic identity
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sense of belonging to an ethnic group and committing oneself to that group's traditions or culture
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• role-taking
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the ability to assume another person's perspective and understand his or her intentions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
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desire theory of mind vs. belief - desire theory of mind
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Desire: think a person's actions generally reflect his desires and do not yet understand that what a person believes might also affect his behavior. Belief: recognize that beliefs and desires are different mental states and that either or both can influence one's conduct (3-4 yo)
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Robert Selman
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Role-taking Theory
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Simon Baron-Cohen
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SAM, TOMM and mindblindness
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James Marcia
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identity statuses
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Michael Lewis/Jeanne Brooks Cole
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rouge test
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(E) Describe McClellan's motivational view of achievement and contrast it with Crandall's behavioral view of achievement. How does Susan Harter's research resolve the conflict between the motivational view and the behavioral view of achievement?
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David McClelland and his associates speak of the child's need for achievement (n Ach), which they define as a "learned motive to compete and to strive for success whenever one's behavior can be evaluated against a standard of excellence". In other words, high "need-achievers" have learned to take pride in their ability to meet or exceed high standards, and it is this sense of self-fulfillment that motivates them to work hard, to be successful, and to try to outperform others when faced with new challenges. McClelland measured achievement motivation by asking participants to examine a set of four pictures and then write a story about each as part of a test of "creative imagination." These four pictures show people working or studying, although each is sufficiently ambiguous to suggest any number of themes. A person's need for achievement (n Ach) is determined by counting the achievement-related statements that he or she includes in the four stories (the assumption being that participants are projecting themselves and their motives into their themes). Achievement through motivation. In contrast to McClelland's viewpoint, Vaughn Crandell and his associates define achievement in behavioral rather than motivational terms. According to Crandall, Katkovsky, and Preston, "Achievement is any behavior directed toward the attainment of approval or the avoidance of disapproval for competence in performance in situations where standards of excellence are operable" . Crandall and associates argue that there is no single, overriding motive to achieve that applies to all achievement tasks. Instead, they propose that children will show different strivings in different skill areas (for example, art, schoolwork, sports), depending on the extent to which they value doing well in each area, and they expect to succeed and be recognized for their accomplishments. Notice that McClelland and Crandall clearly differ on the issue of what reinforces achievement behavior. McClelland argues that the sense of personal pride stemming from one's high accomplishments is reinforcing (and will sustain achievement behavior in the future) because it satisfies an intrinsic need for competence or achievement. However, Crandall and his associates counter argue that one need not talk about internal needs that must be satisfied in order to explain why people strive to meet exacting standards. Instead, they propose that achievement behaviors are simply a class of instrumental responses designed to win the approval (or to avoid the disapproval) of significant others, such as parents, teachers, and peers.
question
Describe the three phases through which children progress in learning to evaluate their performances in achievement situations.
answer
Stipek and her colleagues found that children progress through three phases in learning to evaluate their performances in achievement situations, phases we will call joy in mastery, approval seeking, and use of standards. ✦Phase 1: Joy in mastery. Before the age of two, infants and toddlers are visibly pleased to master challenges, displaying the mastery motivation White wrote about. However, they do not call other people's attention to their triumphs or otherwise seek recognition, and rather than being bothered by failures, they simply shift goals and attempt to master other toys. They are not yet evaluating their outcomes in relation to performance standards that define success and failure. ✦Phase 2: Approval seeking. As they near age 2, toddlers begin to anticipate how others will evaluate their performances. They seek recognition when they master challenges and expect disapproval when they fail. For example, children as young as 2 who succeeded on a task often smiled, held their heads and chins up high, and made such statements as "I did it" as they called the experimenter's attention to their feats. Meanwhile, 2-year-olds who failed to master a challenge would often turn away from the experimenter as though they hoped to avoid criticism. It seems, then, that 2-year-olds are already appraising their outcomes as mastery successes or nonsuccesses and have already learned that they can expect approval after successes and disapproval after failures. ✦Phase 3: Use of standards. An important breakthrough occurred around age 3 as children began to react more independently to their successes and failures. They seemed to have adopted objective standards for appraising their performance and were not as dependent
question
(SA) At what age does competition begin to influence children's performance?
answer
It seems that by 33-41 winning seems to impact their performance.
question
What did Atkinson add to McClelland's "Need Achievement Theory"? What role does expectancy play in Atkinson's theory?
answer
Virginia Crandall, for example, found that children high in n Ach outperformed their low-need-achieving age-mates in fewer than half the studies she reviewed. Other studies reveal that McClelland's measure of n Ach is a better predictor of future success in entrepreneurial activities, such as establishing a business, than it is of success in the sciences or professions. Finally, John Atkinson noticed that people who actually do accomplish a lot (high achievers) often differed from people who accomplish much less (low achievers) in their emotional reactions to achievement contexts: High achievers welcomed new challenges, whereas low achievers seemed to dread them. In outlining his theory of achievement motivation, Atkinson proposed that: in addition to a general disposition to achieve success [called the motive to achieve success(Ms), or the achievement motive], there is also a general disposition to avoid failure, called motive to avoid failure [Maf]. Where the motive to achieve might be characterized as a capacity for reacting with pride in accomplishment, the motive to avoid failure can be conceived as a capacity for reacting with shame and embarrassment when the outcome of performance is failure. When this disposition is aroused in a person, as it is aroused whenever it is clear . . . that his performance will be evaluated and failure is a distinct possibility, the result is anxiety and a tendency to withdraw from the situation.
question
Weiner proposes that the causal attributions children make about their achievement outcomes in a given domain affect their future achievement strivings in that domain. Describe the two major dimensions (stability and locus of control) on which these causal attributions differ and their implications for future strivings.
answer
1. Stability: this dimension determines achievement expectancies. Outcomes associated with stable causes lead to stronger expectancies than those attributed to unstable causes. Ability and Task difficulty fall into the stability category. If you believe that your ability is stable, not because of the amount of effort you put into that one object, then you will be more willing to work to improve your ability. Also, if you believe a task difficult to remain stable instead of assuming you were lucky on a task, you will also be more likely to search for improvement. 2. Locus of Control: judgements about whether something was caused by external or internal cases can determine its value to the perceiver. For instance, if something is attributed to an internal cause such as ability or effort, one is more willing to try and improve. If you associate your failures or your successes with luck or task difficulty (things you don't have control over) you are less likely to search for improvement.
question
(SA) Explain Weiner's belief that it is adaptive to attribute successes to ability and failure to low effort.
answer
it is adaptive to attribute our successes to high ability, for this internal and stable attribution causes us to value what we have accomplished and leads us to expect that we can repeat our successes. By contrast, it is more adaptive to attribute failures to low effort (rather than low ability) because effort is unstable and we are more likely to believe that we can do better in the future if we just try harder.
question
Why does Weiner's theory fail to explain achievement attributions of preschool children?
answer
Before age 7 or so, children tend to be unrealistic optimists who think they have the ability to succeed on almost any task, even those they have repeatedly failed to master in the past
question
(E) What is a "learned helplessness" orientation? According to Carol Dweck, how does it develop? Explain how praise can be dangerous.
answer
learned helplessness orientation- tendency to give up or to stop trying after failing because these failures have been attributed to a lack of ability that one can do little about. According to Dweck parents and teachers may unwittingly foster the development of a helpless achievement orientation if they simply note that the child worked hard when she succeeds but criticize her lack of ability when she fails.
question
Describe how attribution retraining can be used to treat learned helplessness.
answer
one effective therapy might be a form of attribution retraining in which children are persuaded to attribute their failures to unstable causes—namely insufficient effort—that they can do something about, rather than continuing to view them as stemming from their lack of ability, which is not so easy to change. They focused on telling children who failed that they needed to try harder, that they did not make enough effort. When they did this children did better.
question
Contrast individualistic versus collectivistic cultural perspectives on achievement.
answer
In individualistic societies such as the United States, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe, child-rearing practices promote self-reliance and individual assertion, and children are given a great deal of freedom to pursue personal (and often highly creative) objectives. By contrast, collectivist societies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America emphasize the importance of maintaining social harmony and pursuing goals that are considered honorable by other members of one's social network and/or that maximize social welfare. Participants were Arctic Eskimos, members of an individualistic society who are forced by their geography to hunt and fish for a living, and the Temne of Sierra Leone, a collectivist people whose livelihood depends on their pulling together to successfully plant, harvest, and ration a single crop (rice). To a person from an individualistic culture, individual accomplishments and evidence of personal merit are the most common indications that one has achieved. By contrast, to a person from a collectivist culture, achievement implies that one must often suppress individualism and pull together with partners or coworkers to work for the greater good of the group. This does not mean that collectivist people never compete with one another.
question
Discuss three factors that contribute to ethnic variations in academic achievement.
answer
(1) subtle subcultural differences in parenting practices, (2) differences across ethnic groups in peer endorsement of academics, and (3) the negative influence of social stereotypes on academic performance.
question
Describe two methods of compensatory intervention that have been shown to effectively produce long-term results.
answer
compensatory interventions (Head Start being the best known) that were aimed at (1) compensating for the cognitive disadvantages that poverty-stricken children typically display upon entering school and (2) placing them on a roughly equal footing with their middle-class peers. Long-term follow-ups of some of the better of the early compensatory interventions suggested that they rarely produced any permanent boosts in the IQs of disadvantaged children.
question
What childrearing strategies appear to foster high achievement in children?
answer
achievement training—setting high but attainable standards for children to meet and stressing the objective of doing things well—also fosters achievement motivation. Children may need a helpful hint now and then (that is, a little parental scaffolding) to work to the best of their abilities and reach lofty objectives. Yet it is important for parents not to become too directive, for they should want their child to believe that it was she who actually mastered the challenge, rather than the parent. We see, then, that parents of youngsters high in achievement motivation possess three characteristics: (1) They are warm, accepting, and quick to praise the child's accomplishments; (2) they provide noninvasive guidance and control by setting reasonable standards for the child to live up to and then monitoring her progress to ensure that she does; and (3) they permit the child some independence or autonomy, allowing her a say in deciding how best to master challenges and meet their expectations.
question
incremental view of ability VS entity view of ability
answer
belief that one's ability can be improved through increased effort and practice. belief that one's ability is a highly stable trait that is not influenced much by effort or practice
question
mastery orientation VS. learned helplessness orientation
answer
a tendency to persist at challenging tasks because of a belief that one has the ability to succeed and/or that earlier failures can be overcome by trying harder a tendency to give up or to stop trying after failing because these failures have been attributed to a lack of ability that one can do little about
question
trait praise VS process praise
answer
praise focusing on desirable personality traits such as intelligence; this praise fosters performance goals in achievement contexts praise of effort expended to formulate good ideas and effective problem-solving strategies; this praise fosters learning goals in achievement contexts.
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learning goal VS performance goal
answer
state of affairs in which one's primary objective in a achievement context is to increase one's skills or objectives state of affairs in which one's primary objective in an achievement context is to display one's competencies (or to avoid looking incompetent).
question
• mastery motivation
answer
an inborn motive to explore, understand, and control one's environment
question
• achievement motivation
answer
a willingness to strive to succeed at challenging tasks and to meet high standards of accomplishment
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• achievement value
answer
perceived value of attaining a particular goal should one strive to achieve it
question
• n Ach
answer
McClelland's depiction of achievement motivation as a learned motive to compete and to strive for success in situations in which one's performance can be evaluated against some standard of excellence
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• causal attributions
answer
conclusions drawn about the underlying causes of one's own or another person's behavior
question
• authoritative parenting style:
answer
flexible, democratic style of parenting in which warm, accepting parents provide guidance and unintrusive control while allowing the child some say in deciding how best to meet challenges and obligations
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• compensatory interventions
answer
special educational programs designed to further the cognitive growth and scholastic achievements of disadvantaged children.
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• stereotype threat
answer
a fear that one will be judged to have traits associated with negative social stereotypes about his or her ethnic group.
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Carol Dweck
answer
learned helplessness theory
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John Atkinson
answer
motive to achieve success vs. motive to avoid failure
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Henry Murray
answer
taxonomy of human needs
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Head Start
answer
best known compensatory intervention
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Bernard Weiner
answer
attribution theory
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Bettye Caldwell & Robert Bradley
answer
HOME Inventory
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David McClelland
answer
Theory of Achievement Motivation
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(no particular person)--evolutionary theory
answer
We choose our mate based on characteristics that will facilitate survival. Men are aggressive because they are genetically predisposed to be to protect themselves and their offspring. Woman are nurturing and caring to care for mate and child. males and females may be psychologically similar in many ways but should differ in any domain in which they have faced different adaptive problems throughout evolutionary history. It fails to recognize how important socialization is and how even if a female lacks the Y chromosome, they still carry the same capabilities as a male, even spatial skills, which may be better in men due to socialization. It is still true that we are the result of natural selection, but no to the point this theory suggests. Is not as considered as other theories. Most theorists use it carefully and argue both for biological and social influences.
question
Money and Ehrhart--biosocial theory of gender-role development
answer
development gender role is developed by some critical episodes or events which will affect the person's decided prescribed roles. These important factors are whether or not they inherit an X or Y chromosome and what kind of hormones are present during genital development. Sometimes testosterone is not present around 4-6 months after conception and the embryo that is male, will develop feminized genitals. Once a child is born, social factors immediately come into play. The combination of both your biological characteristics as well as your socialization affects the outcome of your gender identity. Evidence being that several of the developmental disorders more commonly seen among boys may be X-linked recessive traits for which their mother is a carrier. Furthermore, timing of puberty, a biological variable regulated in part by our genotypes, has a slight effect on visual/spatial performances. However, later research indicates that the spatial performances of both boys and girls are more heavily influenced by their previous involvement in spatial activities and their self-concepts than by the timing of puberty. You are socialized to be that way...may not be biological. this theory is more considered in very early (prenatal) and puberty development. ESPECIALLY BIRTH
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Diane Halpern--psychobiosocial viewpoint on gender-role development
answer
a psychobiosocial model to explain how nature and nurture might jointly influence the development of many gender-typed attributes. boys, who receive more early spatial experiences than girls do, may develop a richer array of neural pathways in areas of the brain's right cerebral hemisphere that serve spatial functions, which in turn may make them ever more receptive to spatial activities and to acquiring spatial skills. By contrast, girls may develop a richer array of neural interconnections in areas of the brain's left cerebral hemisphere serving verbal functions, thereby becoming ever more receptive to verbal activities and to acquiring verbal skills. Has more influence on the development of birth to 3 years.
question
Sigmund Freud--psychoanalytic theory
answer
Freud believed that our sexual instinct was inborn. However, he believed that one's preference for a particular gender role emerges during the phallic stage of psychosexual development as children begin to emulate and to identify with their same-sex parent due to desire to be with parent. Our sexuality is inborn but we identify with our same sex parent and through our desire to be with them do we build our gender identity. Many 4- to 6-year-olds are so ignorant about differences between male and female genitalia that it is hard to see how most boys could fear castration or how most girls could feel castrated as Freud says they do. Furthermore, Freud assumed that a boy's identification with his father is based on fear; but most researchers find that boys identify more strongly with fathers who are warm and nurturant rather than overly punitive and threatening. Finally, studies of parent/child resemblances reveal that school-age children and adolescents are not all that similar psychologically to either parent.
question
Albert Bandura--social learning theory of gender-role development
answer
parents are actively involved in shaping the child's gender identity. This is called Direct Tuition teaching young children how to behave by reinforcing "appropriate" behaviors and by punishing or otherwise discouraging inappropriate conduct. fact, parents who show the clearest patterns of differential reinforcement have children who are relatively quick to (1) label themselves as boys or girls, (2) develop strong gender-typed toy and activity preferences, and (3) acquire an understanding of gender stereotypes. Peers will uphold these roles by disrupting children who are playing with the incorrect gendered toy. First, through direct tuition (or differential reinforcement), children are encouraged and rewarded for gender-appropriate behaviors and are punished or otherwise discouraged for behaviors considered more appropriate for members of the other sex. Second, through observational learning, children adopt the attitudes and behaviors of a variety of same-sex models. there is a lot of evidence that differential reinforcement and observational learning contribute to gender-role development. However, social-learning theorists have often portrayed children as passive pawns in the process: Parents, peers, and TV characters show them what to do and reinforce them for doing it. Think of those children who do what they wish despite the gender stigma (tomboys). It rates well especially in early child development as the child learns through observation. *Before the age of 3*. However, as the child grows into themselves it is no longer valid.
question
Eric Kohlberg--cognitive developmental theory
answer
Believes children are active in achieving their own gender identity via cognitive development. 1) Basic gender identity. By age 3, children have labeled themselves as boys or girls 2) Gender stability. Somewhat later, gender is perceived as stable over time. Boys invariably become men and girls grow up to be women, 3) Gender consistency. The gender concept is complete when the child realizes that one's sex is also stable across situations. Gender-role development depends on cognitive development; children must acquire certain understandings about gender before they will be influenced by their social experiences. Children actively socialize themselves; they are not merely passive pawns of social influence. Kohlberg's three stages of gender identity in the sequence he describes and that attainment of gender consistency (or conservation of gender) is clearly associated with other relevant aspects of cognitive development, such as the conservation of liquids and mass. Furthermore, children who have achieved gender consistency display more gender-stereotypic play preferences and begin to pay more attention to same-sex models on television; and boys now clearly favor novel toys that male models prefer to those that female models like—even when the toys they are passing on are the more attractive objects. The major problem with Kohlberg's theory is that gender typing is well underway before the child acquires a mature gender identity. Kohlberg badly overstates the case in arguing that a mature understanding of gender is necessary for gender typing to begin. - it has some merits but it would fall mostly on the ages 7 to puberty range
question
Martin & Halverson--gender-schema theory
answer
"gender schema" theory, establishment of a basic gender identity motivates a child to learn about the sexes and to incorporate this information into gender schemas—that is, organized sets of beliefs and expectations about males and females that will influence the kinds of information the child attends to, elaborates, and remembers. First, children construct a simple "in-group/out-group schema" that allows them to classify some objects, behaviors, and roles as "for boys" and others as "for girls" (for example, trucks are for boys; dolls are for girls; girls can cry but boys should not, and so on). In addition, children are said to construct an own-sex schema, which consists of detailed plans of action that they will need to perform various gender-consistent behaviors and enact a gender role. Once formed, gender schemas "structure" experience by providing a framework for processing social information. They must build their in group/out group schemas and own-self schema. 4- to 9-year-olds were given boxes of gender-neutral objects (for example, burglar alarms, pizza cutters) and told that these objects were either "boy" items or "girl" items. As predicted, boys subsequently explored "boy" items more than girls did, whereas girls explored more than boys when the objects were described as things girls enjoy. One week later, boys recalled much more in-depth information about "boy items" than girls did, whereas girls recalled more than boys about these very same objects if they had been labeled "girl" items. If children's information-gathering efforts are consistently guided by their own-sex schemas in this way, we can easily see how boys and girls might acquire very different stores of knowledge and develop different interests and competencies as they mature. Not only does this model describe how gender-role stereotypes might originate very early and persist over time, but it also indicates how these emerging "gender schemas" might contribute to the development of strong gender-role preferences and gender-typed behaviors long before a child may realize that gender is an unchanging attribute. It also shows why myths about genders are so hard to kill. Gender schemas theory fits for the 3-6 year olds as well as the puberty and beyond class. It also holds up very well against others because it shows why it is so hard to get rid of those socially prescribed beliefs about gender differences
question
David Shaffer--integrative theory
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Biological theories account for the major biological developments that occur before birth. The differential reinforcement process that social-learning theorists emphasize seems to account rather well for early gender typing. As a result of early socialization and the growth of categorization skills, 2½- to 3-year-olds acquire a basic gender identity and begin to construct gender schemas which tell them (1) what boys and girls are like and (2) how they, as boys and girls, are supposed to think and act. And when they finally understand, at age 6 or 7, that their gender will never change, children begin to pay more and more attention to same-sex models to decide which attitudes, activities, interests, and mannerisms are most appropriate for members of their own sex (Kohlberg's viewpoint). integrative theorist would emphasize that from age 3 on, children are active, self-socializers who will try very hard to acquire the masculine or feminine attributes that they view as consistent with their male or female self-images. All theories of gender-role development would agree that what children actually learn about being a male or a female will depend greatly on what their society offers them in the way of a "gender curriculum." In other words, we must view gender-role development through an ecological lens and appreciate that there is nothing inevitable about the patterns of male and female development that we see in our society today.
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(SA) List three biological influences on gender-role development.
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What chromosomes were you given (XX XY), What hormones were present or absent during development, Genes.
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Describe three research findings that are evidence against Freud's psychoanalytic theory of gender typing.
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1. 4-6 year olds are ignorant about the differences between male and female genital. 2. Boys don't identify with their fathers out of fear, they are more incline to identify with a warm nurturing father. 3. Child and parent are nowhere near psychologically similar.
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What parts do "direct-tuition" and observational learning play in Bandura's social learning theory of gender role development?
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Direct tuition is a parent's set "curriculum" of what they prescribe a male or female to be. They enforce this by rewarding or reinforcing correct gender behavior or punishing or discouraging incorrect gender behavior.
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Describe Martin and Halverson's gender schema theory in action. What are the constructs? Describe the process.
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Martin and Halverson's gender schema theory, children who have established a basic gender identity construct "in-group/out group" and own-sex gender schemas, which serve as scripts for processing gender-related information and socializing oneself into a gender role. Schema-consistent information is gathered and retained, whereas schema-inconsistent information is ignored or distorted, thus perpetuating gender stereotypes that have no basis in fact.
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Discuss the gender-typing process from the perspective of an integrative theorist.
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Biological theories account for major biological developments that occur before birth -Social learning theories account rather well for early gender typing -2 ½ -3-year-old acquire a basic gender identity and begin to form gender schemas -At age 6-7, children pay more attention to same-sex models
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What developmental topic/line of research did Maccoby and Jacklin's classic 1974 review start? ( Pages 243-249).
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1. Verbal ability. When differences are found, girls display greater verbal abilities than boys on many measures. Girls acquire language and develop verbal skills at an earlier age than boys and display a small but consistent verbal advantage on tests of reading comprehension and speech fluency throughout childhood and adolescence. Boys, however, perform slightly better than girls on tests of verbal analogies. 2. Visual/spatial abilities. Boys outperform girls on some tests of visual/spatial abilities—that is, the ability to draw inferences about or to otherwise mentally manipulate pictorial information. The male advantage in spatial abilities is moderately robust, detectable by age 4, and persists across the life span 3. Mathematical reasoning. Beginning in adolescence, boys show a small but consistent advantage over girls on tests of arithmetic reasoning. Girls actually exceed boys in computational skills and even earn higher grades in math, in part because girls are more inclined than boys to adopt learning rather than performance goals, thereby working harder to improve their mathematical competencies. Nevertheless, boys feel more self-efficacious in math than girls do and have acquired more mathematical problem-solving strategies that enable them to outperform girls on complex word problems, geometry, and the mathematics portion of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). 4. Aggression. Finally, boys are more physically and verbally aggressive than girls, starting as early as age 2, and are about 10 times more likely than girls are to be involved in violent crime during adolescence. 5. Activity level. Even before they are born, boys are more physically active than girls and they remain more active throughout childhood, especially when interacting with peers. 6. Fear, timidity, and risk-taking. As early as the first year of life, girls appear to be more fearful or timid in uncertain situations than boys are. They are also more cautious and less assertive in these situations than boys are, taking far fewer risks than boys do. 7. Developmental vulnerability. From conception, boys are more physically vulnerable than girls to prenatal and perinatal birth hazards and to the effects of disease. Boys are also more likely than girls to display a variety of developmental problems, including autism, reading and language-related disabilities, attention-deficit, hyperactivity syndrome, emotional disorders, and mental retardation. 8. Emotional expressivity/sensitivity. As infants, boys and girls do not differ much in their displays of emotion. But from toddlerhood onward, boys are more likely than girls to display one emotion—anger—whereas girls more frequently display most other emotions. 9. Compliance. From early in the preschool period, girls are more compliant than boys to the requests and demands of parents, teachers, and other authority figures. And when trying to persuade others to comply with them, girls are especially inclined to rely on tact and polite suggestions whereas boys, who are quite capable of being tactful and who usually do collaborate amicably, are nevertheless more likely than girls to resort to demanding or controlling strategies. 10. Self-esteem. Boys show a small edge over girls in global self-esteem. This sex difference becomes more noticeable in early adolescence and persists throughout adulthood
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List five gender-role stereotypes that appear to be cultural myths and are not supported by research. Why do these inaccurate gender-role stereotypes persist when there is a great deal of empirical evidence to suggest that they are inaccurate?
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1. Girls are more "social" than boys. The two sexes are equally interested in social stimuli, equally responsive to social reinforcement, and equally proficient at learning from social models. At certain ages, boys actually spend more time than girls with playmates. 2. Girls are more "suggestible" than boys. Most studies of children's conformity find no sex differences. However, sometimes boys are more likely than girls to accept peer-group values that conflict with their own. 3. Girls are better at simple repetitive tasks, The evidence does not support these assertions. whereas boys excel at tasks that require Neither sex is superior at rote learning, probability learning, or concept learning.- higher-level cognitive processing. 4. Boys are more "analytic" than girls. With the exception of the modest sex differences in cognitive abilities that we have already discussed, boys and girls do not differ on tests of analytical or logical reasoning. 5. Girls lack achievement motivation. No such differences exist! Perhaps the myth of lesser achievement motivation for females has persisted because males and females have generally directed their achievement strivings toward different goals. Myths are a powerful thing and it is hard to change. They are so well integrated into our social thinking and cognitive schemes that we use to interpret and often to distort the behavior of males and females List five gender-role stereotypes that appear to be cultural myths and are not supported by research. Why do these inaccurate gender-role stereotypes persist when there is a great deal of empirical evidence to suggest that they are inaccurate?
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What is psychological androgyny? What evidence has been offered to support the proposition that androgynous people are "better off" than their non-androgynous counterparts?
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Psychological androgyny is a term used to describe someone whose personality traits fall somewhere in between the traits that are typically associated with males and those that are typically associated with females. Recent research shows that androgynous people do exist, are relatively popular and well adjusted, and may be adaptable to a wider variety of environmental demands than people who are traditionally gender typed. However, androgyny may not be that advantageous in childhood and early adolescence, when such aspects of identity as gender typicality and gender contentment predict adaptive psychosocial outcomes.
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• gender-role standard
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a behavior, value, or motive that members of a society consider more typical or appropriate for members of one sex.
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• gender-typed behavior
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the process by which a child becomes aware of his or her gender and acquires motives, values, and behaviors considered appropriate for members of that sex
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• self-fulfilling prophecy
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phenomenon whereby people cause others to act in accordance with the expectations they have about those others
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• gender identity
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one's awareness of one's gender and its implications. Basic gender identity is the stage of gender identity in which the child first labels the self as a boy or a girl
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• gender segregation
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children's tendency to associate with same-sex playmates and to think of the other sex as an out-group.
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• gender intensification
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a magnification of sex differences early in adolescence; associated with increased pressure to conform to traditional gender roles
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• androgenized females
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females who develop male-like external genitalia because of exposure to male sex hormones during the prenatal period
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• Psychological androgyny
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is a term used to describe someone whose personality traits fall somewhere in between the traits that are typically associated with males and those that are typically associated with females.
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• congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH
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a genetic anomaly that causes one's adrenal glands to produce unusually high levels of androgen from the prenatal period onward; often has masculinizing effects on female fetuses.
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• testicular feminization syndrome (TFS)
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a genetic anomaly in which a male fetus is insensitive to the effects of male sex hormones and will develop female-like external genitalia.
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instrumental role VS expressive role
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a social prescription, usually directed toward males, that one should be dominant, independent, assertive, competitive, and goal-oriented a social prescription, usually directed toward females, that one should be cooperative, kind, nurturant, and sensitive to the needs of others
