Psych 125Human Development

Christopher GadeOffice: 1031-G

Office hours: Tu 12-1:30 and by apt.Email: gadecj@gmail.com

Class: T 1:30-4:20 Room 2210

Reviewing the Exam

• Mean – 42.2• SD – 8.6

• Lowest – 24• Highest – 56

• F’s = 11• D’s = 14• C’s = 10• B’s = 8• A’s = 6

A Closer Look at All Grades• The exam scores were adjusted to account for two

questions that got a large % of the class.• Paper grades correlated very highly with exam grades.

If you did well on the paper and not the exam, come see me.

• Some papers were atrocious, and 1/5 of you decided not to turn one in. Papers are 1/3 of your grade. That means that you can’t get any better than a D if you skip them.

• Remember, this is considered an upper division undergraduate course. You need to put work into the class in order to do well.

Moving On…• In this class, we’re covering development in three

different sections.

– Physical basedlifespan development

– Cognitive basedlifespan development

– Socioemotionalbased lifespandevelopment

Looking at Cognitive Development• Cognitive psychology – the scientific study of

thought and processes of the mind• What is thought?– Information Processing (class 1 and 2)– Learning (Class 1, 2)– Planning (Class 1, 3)– Metacognition (Class 2)– Attention (class 2)– Memory (class 2)– Intelligence/Creativity (Class 3)– Language (Class 4)

Where to start?

• If there’s so many topics that cognitive psychology covers, how do we choose where to start when looking at development?

The Leader in Cognitive Development Research : Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

• While earning his education, Piaget worked with Alfred Binet in his administration of intelligence tests

• As he studied intelligence, Piaget became interested in the cognitive development of children

• Began research by observing the development of his children; Laurent, Lucienne and Jacqueling

Piaget’s Conclusions• From his observations, Piaget

was able to establish his own terminology and theories of how “normal” children develop cognitively

• Believed that children are constantly “adapting” to their environment through the demands that are put on them

• How?

• Schema – a concept or mental framework that organizes and interprets information in the world– Equilibrium – a cognitive state of mind that comes

from harmony between a child’s environment and present schema

– Disequilibrium – a cognitive state of mind caused when new information contradicts current schemas

• When we encountered disequilibrium, children had two choices:– Assimilation – interpreting one’s new experience in

terms of one’s existing schema– Accommodation – adapting one’s current schemas

to incorporate new information• Equilibration – shifting from one frame of mind to

the next

Doggy

Doggy???

More on the Process of Equilibration• According to Piaget, children develop in a consistent

manner that causes them to start noticing different cognitive schema conflicts as they age

• When a child reaches a certain stage, they start to recognize numerous conflicts with their current schema

• After multiple exposures, children begin to alter their schema until the conflict subsides

• Once that happens, they reach a temporary stage of equilibrium until they enter the next stage of development

Piaget’s Proposed Stages

of Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Stage’s Substages

More on the Sensorimotor Stage (1-2)• This stage is primarily

focused on learning different outcomes through the senses and then learning the ways to increase the frequency of desirable outcomes

• However, other cognitive challenges also appear– Object permanence

• 11:50-14:00

– Sense of self

The Preoperational Stage (2-7)• Representing things with words and images but

lacking logical reasoning• Struggle distinguishing appearance from reality• The Symbolic Function Substage (2-4)– Egocentrism– Pretend play– Animism

• Intuitive Thought Substage(4-7)– Symbolism• 14:00-18:15

– “Why”

The Concrete Operational Stage (7-11)• Able to do operations –

mentally reverse actions that were first done physically– penny example

• Analogies–Run Walk– Fast ???• Slow, Heart, Run

• Conservation • Metacognition

Types of Conservation Issues

Formal Operational Stage (11-15)• Abstract reasoning– Focus on the ideal and hypothetical– Easy recognition of logic problems– Move toward hypothetical-deductive reasoning

• “if I do this, the most likely outcome will be…”

• Adolescent egocentrism – a heightened sense of self-consciousness– Imaginary audience – perception of being the constant center

of attention– Personal fable – perception of being unique and invincible

• Note: there’s skepticism about this stage occurring for everyone, if people ever completely master this stage, and if everyone experiences it in the same way

• If everyone in this class works hard on the next assignment, everyone in this class will earn an A.– Everyone in this class works hard…

• John and his sister Sally both want to go home from school, but they only have one bike. This means that one of them will get to ride the bike home, while the other will have to walk. – John rode his bike home…

• Tommy can run faster than Jenny. Jenny can run faster than Mark. Mark can run faster than Beth. Who can run faster, Tommy or Beth? (transitivity – is this formal or concrete operational?)

Reviewing Piaget’s Theory of Development

• Children go through different, set stages of development as they progress toward adulthood.

• These stages are distinct, age specific, and can’t be sped up through adult help.

Criticisms of Piaget• Inaccurate age of

stage related issues– Early

(conservation and object permanence)

– Late (abstract thinking)

• Culture impacts stages– Training and

exposure related

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

• Researched the ideas of cognitivedevelopment that were describedby Jean Piaget

• Agreed with the idea that a developmental process in cognitive skills does take place

• Argued against Piaget’s idea that this cognitive development is set, and cannot be accelerated

Vygotsky’s Theories of Development• Cognitive development occurs through gradual

and continual growth

• Instead of being in different developmental stages, we progress through different “zones of proximal development”– Scaffolding – the process of teaching a child

slightly above their current level of cognitive development in order to help that child learn cognitive concepts quicker• NOTE: there is a stress in communication and proper

dialog in order to help children master cognitive skills

A Side Effect of Communication• Vygotsky believed that communication also helped

children create their own private thoughts– Public speech –

communication of ideasand plans through verbalinteraction

– Inner speech – communication of ideasand plans throughinternal thoughts• Develops at 3 to 7 years• Increases social skills

(theorized)• Increases problem solving skills (proven later)

Applying these theories…• If I were a parent, how would I apply Piaget’s

ideas to help my child do better in school?

• How would I apply Vygotsky’s ideas?

A Final Related Idea: Adult Cognitions• Adult cognitive development is difficult to pinpoint. However,

we assume that adults advance their approach to thinking…but how?– Pragmatic thinking – applying past knowledge to new, novel situations

(Schaie, 1977)– Dualistic/reflective thinking – something isn’t either right or wrong,

and that there are grey areas (Perry, 1970)– Relativist thinking – recognizing multiple perspectives in situations and

conflicts (Labouvie-Vief, 2006)– Note: this has been proposed to be an additional stage of development

by some theorists: Postformal Thought

Moving on…• In the next class, we’ll discuss some current

research that has examine cognitive development in the areas of:

– Procesing– Memory– Attention– Thinking– Metacognition