Chapter 1 The Study of Child Development Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory o Behaviorist A psychologist who emphasizes the importance of the environment in determining behavior explains behavior in terms of processes of learning o Behaviorism Social Learning Classical Conditioning Stimulus response The pairing of a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a particular response until the stimulus that was originally neutral elicits the same response Example Pavlov s Dogs o Dogs naturally salivate at the sight of food Pavlov decided to pair the food with a bell Eventually the dogs would salivate at just the sound of the bell Meat powder unconditioned stimulus unlearned Stimulus generalization Salivation unconditioned response Bell conditioned stimulus learned o Kindra 18 mos visits the doctor Every time she goes she feels pain shots She associates this pain with the doctor so every time she sees him she cries o Kindra may also exhibit this response with a number of other people who look similar to the doctor o Discrimination Experience will teach her to differentiate between the doc and people of similar appearance o Extinction Perhaps after many pain free visits Kindra will no longer cry in response to the situation Operant Instrumental Conditioning Reinforcements and punishments Consequences control actions Things that increase behavior o Rewarding things reinforcers increase the chance behavior will continue Positive if behavior leads to something pleasant ex praise attention candy Negative if behavior stops an unpleasant condition ex Things that decrease behavior yelling whining o Punishment discourages behavior from occurring again Imposing something unpleasant ex spanking Removing something pleasant ex new toy Not reinforcing a behavior can lead to extinction Social Cognitive Approach Social Learning Theory Modeling Observational vicarious Much of child s learning comes from his her actively imitating what is seen and what he she hears other people say and do Value observed consequences more likely to imitate If consequences are bad less likely to imitate o Behavior Modification Behaviorism and SLT has impacted guidance and management practices with children Behavior modification combines conditioning and modeling to eliminate undesirable behaviors and raise desirable responses Cognitive Theorists Piaget Vygotsky o Psychoanalytic theory stresses the importance of unconscious thought o Behavioral Theory stresses the importance of the environment no thought o Cognitive Theorists emphasize children s conscious thought o Piaget Development involves the continuous alteration and reorganization of the way A child s way of thinking is qualitatively different from an adults As children mature their ways of knowing the world change that people deal with and understand the environment Development is defined by 4 principal factors o Maturation gradual unfolding of one s genetic plan for life o Experience active interaction of the child with his or her environment o Social transmission information and customs that are transmitted from parents or other people in the environment to the child o Process of equilibration the balance a child seeks between what they know and what they are experiencing When faced with info that calls for a new and different analysis or activity children enter a state of disequilibrium leads to learning adaptation We adapt in 2 ways o Assimilation new information is added to what we know Ex toddler puts a grape in its mouth and it squirts so they assume all other grape shaped things do too o Accommodation adjusting your knowledge to fit a new situation Piaget suggested that children s cog dev occurs in a sequence of 4 age related stages of cognitive development Consist of distinct ways of thinking Stages qualitatively different not quantitative 4 stages in understanding the world o Sensorimotor B 2 Infants think by acting on their world with their mouth eyes ears hands etc They invent ways of solving sensorimotor problems such as pulling a lever to hear the sound of a music box finding hidden toys and putting objects in and taking them out of containers o Preoperational 2 7 Preschoolers use symbols to represent their earlier sensorimotor discoveries Development of language and make believe play takes place Thinking lacks logic o Concrete Operational 7 11 Reasoning becomes logical They can organize objects into hierarchies of classes and subclasses Yet abstract thinking is not efficient or mature o Formal Operations 11 Capacity for abstract systematic thinking Scientific thinkers Vygotsky Sociocultural Cognitive Theory o Like Piaget believed that kids actively construct their knowledge o Interaction and culture important role in cognitive dev o Emphasized how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development o The development of memory attention and reasoning involves learning to use the inventions of society Ex analog clock vs digital clock o Knowledge is constructed can best be advanced through interactions with who more advanced skilled adults and peers o This is how the kids learn to use the tools that will help them adapt and be successful in the culture
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