Podcast
Questions and Answers
What is the primary focus of nativism in cognitive development?
What is the primary focus of nativism in cognitive development?
Which research design studies the same individuals at various stages throughout their life?
Which research design studies the same individuals at various stages throughout their life?
What does qualitative change in development indicate?
What does qualitative change in development indicate?
According to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, what primarily shapes cognitive growth in children?
According to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, what primarily shapes cognitive growth in children?
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What is the concept of cognitive equilibrium?
What is the concept of cognitive equilibrium?
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In the context of delay gratification studies, which factor was compared between Japanese and American children?
In the context of delay gratification studies, which factor was compared between Japanese and American children?
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What role does the child play in the process of constructivism?
What role does the child play in the process of constructivism?
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Which method allows researchers to establish causal relationships in experimental designs?
Which method allows researchers to establish causal relationships in experimental designs?
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What is the primary purpose of scaffolding in education?
What is the primary purpose of scaffolding in education?
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Which attachment style is characterized by strong separation anxiety and resistance to contact with caregivers?
Which attachment style is characterized by strong separation anxiety and resistance to contact with caregivers?
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What is meant by the term 'over imitation'?
What is meant by the term 'over imitation'?
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What ability allows infants to track and represent small numbers of objects accurately?
What ability allows infants to track and represent small numbers of objects accurately?
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Which of the following is NOT a main aspect of cognitive control or executive functions?
Which of the following is NOT a main aspect of cognitive control or executive functions?
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What does the term 'phonological analysis' refer to in language development?
What does the term 'phonological analysis' refer to in language development?
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What describes the 'Zone of Proximal Development'?
What describes the 'Zone of Proximal Development'?
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Which of the following is NOT a process involved in how children learn to read?
Which of the following is NOT a process involved in how children learn to read?
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Which age range is typically associated with the specific attachment phase in infants?
Which age range is typically associated with the specific attachment phase in infants?
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Which type of learning occurs through observation of others being rewarded or punished?
Which type of learning occurs through observation of others being rewarded or punished?
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At what age do children show significant phonemic awareness that predicts future reading skills?
At what age do children show significant phonemic awareness that predicts future reading skills?
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What is the primary focus of the phonics approach to teaching reading?
What is the primary focus of the phonics approach to teaching reading?
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Which statement regarding parental verbal instruction is true?
Which statement regarding parental verbal instruction is true?
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What concept explains why infants can learn to segment speech into individual words?
What concept explains why infants can learn to segment speech into individual words?
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Which of the following correctly describes a characteristic of a child with secure attachment?
Which of the following correctly describes a characteristic of a child with secure attachment?
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What is indicated by the phrase 'innate universal grammar' in language acquisition theory?
What is indicated by the phrase 'innate universal grammar' in language acquisition theory?
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What does 'vicarious punishment' refer to in the context of observational learning?
What does 'vicarious punishment' refer to in the context of observational learning?
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Which of the following best describes 'word segmentation' in early language development?
Which of the following best describes 'word segmentation' in early language development?
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What is 'theory of mind' primarily concerned with?
What is 'theory of mind' primarily concerned with?
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What does the phrase 'critical period' indicate in language acquisition?
What does the phrase 'critical period' indicate in language acquisition?
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How does slowing processing speed in children relate to cognitive capacity?
How does slowing processing speed in children relate to cognitive capacity?
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What is a key reason why learning sounds of words is more effective than learning letter names for reading development?
What is a key reason why learning sounds of words is more effective than learning letter names for reading development?
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What characterizes selective imitation in children's learning?
What characterizes selective imitation in children's learning?
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What is the primary distinction between whole word reading and phonics?
What is the primary distinction between whole word reading and phonics?
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Which ability reflects the cognitive capacity to perceive approximate magnitudes of stimuli?
Which ability reflects the cognitive capacity to perceive approximate magnitudes of stimuli?
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What aspect of language must children analyze to comprehend its structure?
What aspect of language must children analyze to comprehend its structure?
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What indicates a child's remarkable ability as a general purpose learner?
What indicates a child's remarkable ability as a general purpose learner?
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What does the Sally Ann task primarily assess in children?
What does the Sally Ann task primarily assess in children?
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What is a key assumption of the cultural intelligence hypothesis?
What is a key assumption of the cultural intelligence hypothesis?
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Which of the following concepts refers to the understanding that an object's properties are defined by its essence?
Which of the following concepts refers to the understanding that an object's properties are defined by its essence?
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At what age do infants start demonstrating an understanding of causation?
At what age do infants start demonstrating an understanding of causation?
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According to the theory theory, how do children explain the world around them?
According to the theory theory, how do children explain the world around them?
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How do 3-month-olds demonstrate their ability to categorize seen data?
How do 3-month-olds demonstrate their ability to categorize seen data?
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What does the term 'induction' refer to in conceptual development?
What does the term 'induction' refer to in conceptual development?
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What is a common misconception among children when considering the identity of objects?
What is a common misconception among children when considering the identity of objects?
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What is a significant finding regarding young children's executive function and belief skills?
What is a significant finding regarding young children's executive function and belief skills?
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What do probabilistic summaries in adult concept learning suggest?
What do probabilistic summaries in adult concept learning suggest?
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Which idea presents that cognition is shaped by unique social skills in humans?
Which idea presents that cognition is shaped by unique social skills in humans?
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What does the concept of 'core knowledge' imply about infants?
What does the concept of 'core knowledge' imply about infants?
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In the context of the mind as a 'swiss army knife', what is the main idea?
In the context of the mind as a 'swiss army knife', what is the main idea?
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What misconception might 4-year-olds have regarding an animal's identity, such as Eilidh the cow?
What misconception might 4-year-olds have regarding an animal's identity, such as Eilidh the cow?
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Study Notes
Differential psychology
Between person differences (i.e. people differ on attributes we can measure such as height)
Identifying stable patterns to compare individuals
Two disciplines of scientific psychology
Experiments: experimental psychologist manipulate conditions to see what happens
Correlations: correlational psychologist measure free standing patterns of nature that we cannot directly control
- Both fail to acknowledge the impact the other has on their findings
Kinds of differences
Demographic status = age, sex, marital status, religious affiliation, political views
Lifestyle factors = diet, exercise, alcohol consumption
Experiences and upbringing = wealth, educational opportunities
Psychological attributes = motivation, goals, risk tolerance, gender identity, sexuality
Psychological attributes
Differences create ‘noise’ or error in psychology experiments, this is domain – specific i.e. rarely all error not just noise
Statistically this is called variance – differences that develop over time
Traits
- A characteristic that can produce a particular kind of behaviour
- Psychological traits are assumed to…
o Lie within individuals
o Distinguish among individuals
o Stable over time
Intelligence
- The way we can understand and obtain knowledge
Personality
- The combinations of characteristics that make us unique
Variation differences
- Differences in personality and intelligence predict life outcomes (if you are more intelligent you are more likely to do well in school)
- These relationships are not pre-determined, our traits are not our fate
Difficulties is measuring
- Cannot directly observe many of the characteristics we are interested in
- Difficult to find consensus on defining the trait (not everyone agrees)
Personality and intelligence
Classic hierarchy model – mid blobs are obituary depending on test stricture, could create more layers. Arrows suggest that variation in ‘g’ causes variation in underlying abilities
Pervasive idea – different types of intelligence e.g. verbal, emotional etc
Fluid intelligence
- Biologically fixed cognitive capacities, can be applied to anything
- Uses figural tests
Crystallised intelligence
- Acquisition of knowledge and procedural skills
- Uses verbal tests
Personality
- An individual’s characteristic style of thinking, behaving, and feeling
- There is little agreement as it incorporates lots of qualitatively difference elements
Similarity and differences
- Both are heritable, develop over time but remain stable cross sectionally
- People take an active role (consciously or unconsciously) in their own personality development, constrained by environment
- Typical performance – what you do when you are not under pressure
- Maximal performance – what you do when under maximum pressure
How are tests used
In research:
- Description
- Prediction
- Explanation
In practice
- Selection
- Diagnosis
- Classification (are they part of a certain group)
How traits develop
Development = a property decreasing or increasing, or the emergence of something new over time
Genetics
Genetic potential of both parents being passed to offspring
Dominant = traits are expressed if the relevant gene is inherited from at least one parent
Recessive = traits are expressed only if the gene is inherited from both parents
Polygenic = more than one gene contributes to a trait
Pleiotropic = one gene can influence two or more unrelated traits
History and measurement
- Although people have some background they all differ from each other in terms of psychological differences
- Early personality psychologists developed the lexical hypothesis and the idea that personality is encoded in language through traits
Eugenics
- That humans can be improved through selective breeding
Negative eugenics = discouraging or stopping reproduction in people with undesirable traits
Positive eugenics = encouraging increased reproduction in people with superior traits
- Based on flawed / oversimplified understanding of genetics
Psychological constructs
- Not directly observable (laten variables)
- We observe patterns of behaviour or performance (observed variable) and make assumptions about hidden psychological characteristics that could be causing them
Basic measurement
- Measurement typically requires `ground truth’ or real fixed quantity (e.g. height) that we can get measurement units from (e.g. cm)
- These often use ratio scales which have scalar units starts at 0 (total absence)
- Each unit spans the same amount e.g. 1cm->2cm is the same as 35cm->36cm
- Our measurement should be consistent over time
- After a certain point height measurements should be consistent (height does not change with context)
Error in measurement
- Difference between the observed value and the ‘true’ value
- Operationalising height using a ruler = small amount of error
- Bias is anything that systematically distorts how accurately a test captures it’s target construct
Inferences about results
- Hight is measured is never changing but interpretation is
- 160cm is ‘short’ for a man but ‘typical’ for a woman
Reliability = how constant is our measurement
Validity = does our test measure what it is supposed to
Correlation = measure of association between two variables
Personality of measurement
A priori = creating sub tests within a test
A posteriori = factor analysis (measurement of association between many variables i.e. patterns of correlations within a test)
Personality traits
- A persons ongoing adaptions of capacities to the social and physical demands of the surrounding environment
Personality ‘type’ models
Central tenet = people can be organised into discrete, discontinuous categories
Dynamic = traits only have modest correlations with behaviour
Interactionist perspective = personality traits reflect stable patterns of corresponding personality ‘states’ (behaviour is the product of trait environment interactions)
Big five / five factor model
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Emotional stability / neuroticism
Lots missing…
- Antisocial behaviour
- Social dominance, competition, ambition
- Morality, spirituality, religiosity
Why does it work?
- personality influences our behaviours and life choices
- Despite cloudy definitions they are psychologically relevant
What are ABCD’s
Affect; what we feel
Behaviour; what we do
Cognition; what we think
Desire; what we want
How do we measure personality
Personality inventories = self or other reports of the extn tot which statement =s or adjectives apply to respondents
Projective techniques = free from reactions to ambiguous situations or stimuli (reaction / responses interpreted by test administrator)
Empirically designed objective tests
- Match groups differing in some crucial way in ither factors (e.g. good pilot)
- Administer tests to both groups
- Identify items that distinguish the sub group
Limitations of questionnaire measures:
- People can easily ‘fake good’
- People can often lack insight to how others see them
- Difficult o wrote items interpreted one way
Advantages:
- Information breadth (we are the best witnesses)
- Practicality
- Motivation to report (we are all interested in ourselves)
Self-presentation bias
- Modified personality items to be more neutral e.g. “make plans and sticks to them” -> “avoid departing from a plan once I have made one”
Measurement of intelligence
IQ = a score on a specific test, typically follows a normal distribution
Cognitive ability = used non systematically to either refer to intelligence or to similar cognitive constructs e.g. working memory
Vocabulary = relations among words, similarities, opposites
Identifying sequence progressions = numbers, letters, diagrams
Short term and working memory = lists of numbers, unrelated words, keeping track of multiple tasks
Speed of processing = identifying or coding symbol, reaction time
Disadvantages of intelligence tests
- Artificial, very limited context, low real world fidelity
- No time to evaluate, extremely fast paced
- Testing situations re often intimidating
The Flynn effect
The secular rise in IQ scores – since they were developed, population average scores have gone up steadily
- If this were ‘real’; WW1 soldiers would be considered intellectually disabled today
Development of differences
- People differ from each other in varied ways throughout their lives (differ in rates and directions of development of these differences)
- We ned to establish whether individual differences are stable
- To identify we need data (childhood/adulthood intelligent scores)
- Collect a good sample (must represent the whole relevant population)
- Identify an appropriate research design
Cross sectional design = asses a group of 20 year olds and a group of 80 year olds and compare
Advantages
- Much faster and cheaper
- Fewer concerns about drop outs
Disadvantages
- Can evaluate prior influences on individual differences
- Development is change, cant evaluate directly
- Cohort effect (millennial vs gen z)
Longitudinal design = assess a group of 20 year olds once, then again 4 years later then again 4 years later and so on
Advantages
- Actually measures change and differences in individuals
- Can evaluate prior influences
Disadvantages
- limited to one cohort typically
- Some participants drop out
- Age and time of measuring effects are tangles
Population representation
- It is rarely practical to sample the whole population
- Bigger is usually better (law of large numbers)
- Participating in studies is usually voluntary and subject to selection bias (not everyone is willing)
Kinds of change
Quantitative = implies a simple difference in magnitude, but with the same mechanisms. Requires a common measuring rode, used in the same way
Qualitative = implies capacities have appeared or disappeared, implies there is no common measuring rod. Prevalent in childhood and other life transitions
Measuring change over time
Studies tend to summarise individual differences to mean patterns, we asses change / stability based on:
Mean level – do average trait scores increase or decrease
Rank order – do relative standings change or stay the same
Change in intelligence
- Relatively stable over the lifespan, but declines in older age
- Studies affected by drop out and decline
- These mean level smoothed population level patterns miss a lot of individual differences
Change in personality
- Personality is relatively stable development over the lifespan
- The ‘maturation principle’ – we tend to become more conscious, emotionally stable, and agreeable over the lifespan
Genetics and heritability
All psychological characteristics are heritable
- Intelligence
- Personality
- Psychopathology
- Motivations / goals
- Interests
- Happiness
- Even junk behaviours like chewing gum
Key terms
G = genes
E = environment
P = phenotype
h = heritability
e = environmental effects
r = gene-environment correlations
Twin studies
Natural experiment: monozygotic and dizygotic twins
- Raised together and separately, could teaser apart from the strength of genes that effect of shared vs non shared environment
- - compare the strength of the correlations between traits in mz and dz
- Varies the amount of genetic material that they share
- Can examine the amount of environmental influence
What is heritability
The proportion (the ratio / fraction) of population variance that can be attributed to genetic influences (genetic variance) calculated by genetic variance over observed variance
- Heritability is specific to populations and environmental circumstances
- Experiment:
- Plant genetically identical corn seeds in different fields = different plant outcomes are all due to variation in conditions
- Plant genetically diverse seeds in the same field = different plant outcomes all die to genetic variation
What about the rest
- The rest of the variance is shared or non-shared environmental factors
Shared environmental factors = refers to environmental factors that actually act to make family members more similar e.g. parenting styles
Non shared environmental factors = refers top environmental factors that act to make family members different e.g. educational experiences
Laws by behavioural genetics
Developed by Turkheimer
1. All human behavioural traits are heritable
2. Shared environmental influences tend to be weaker than genetic influence
3. Neither accounts for all variance
4. A typical human trait is associated with very many genes, each of which accounts for miniscule amounts of variance
- We cant assume that correlations between life circumstances and alter outcomes are casual
- Environmental influences are idiosyncratic
o They transact with genes in individual ways
o There are very few direct main effects out there – we have not identified many specific effects of non-shared environmental influences
How can we find genes
- Genome technology = scans peoples genotypes (their genetic profiles) and examine the relations with their phenotypes
- Can now identify specific genetic components (alleles, variants for genes)
Influences of environment
Faith in nature and the role of environment is an extremely strong implicit belief in psychology
Standard social science model
- Develop ideas about certain environment causes (e.g. social priming) and some ‘outcome’ (e.g. specific behaviour)
- Test for associations between causes and outcomes
- Problem; other variables are connected too
In twin studies we describe and distinguish genetic environmental influences using the ACE model
A = (addictive) genetic variance
C = common environmental variance (parenting)
E = (non-shared) environmental variance
- Parents are important but they do not make a difference; peers are far more developmentally significant than parents
Non-shared environments
- These influences are often studied through life events (time discrete transition that mar the beginning or end of a specific status)
- These are stable, come with clear punishment and reward structures and generalise across many traits i.e. they influence broadly
- Many life events are universal, but we do not experience identical ones thus they are non-shared (universal effects don’t create a difference)
- Problems; are life events independent of traits? Everyone equally likely to get a divorce, have children, be fired, go back to school etc
Educational exposure – IQ
Education reforms bringing longer schooling results in a higher average IQ
- But they influence a cohort alike, so does not explain individual differences
- Going to school earlier because of birth date mean higher IQ at lower ages but fades off since later starters catch up with schooling years
- Being at school longer is associated with higher IQ
- But staying at school fort longer is not random but related to pre-existing IQ
Taking an active role in development
Our genes predispose us to select ourselves into certain experiences that enables us to develop our traits
- Intelligent people enter higher education
- Extroverted people go to parties
Our genes and the environment we choose are intertwined and both are heritable
- These interactions are called gene-environment correlations
Peroanlity dynamics
We can think of change at different time scales;
- Short term (traits influence how we respond to momentary situational cues)
- Long term (environments constrain of facilities the development of our traits)
How is the five factor theory represented
Personality is made up of two core attributes
- Basic tendencies (biological, innate, genetic)
- Characteristic adaptions (learned beliefs, attributes and behaviours derived from basic tendencies and our environment)
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Description
Explore the essential concepts of developmental psychology, focusing on how organisms change over time and the various developmental stages. Delve into nativism versus empiricism, learning abilities, and key research designs such as cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Understand the complexities of parental development and gaze studies in infants.
