This document answers all the questions that you need to know for the child development exam. All the answers come from the prescribed book (Berk, 2013). The answers are in an essay format.
Works nicely to orientate yourself in the text book but some questions need further info
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CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
Answers to the 21 questions
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Question 1 (20 marks)
Theorists have a certain point of view or take a certain stand on the basic issues underlying child
development. Berk (2006) refers to the following issues:
• What is the course of development (continuous/discontinuous)?
• Is development characterised by both universal and unique individual features (one course of
development or many)?
• What factors determine development (nature/nurture)?
Determine, discuss and evaluate the point of view with regard to these issues
Underlying child development of
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory AND the Information-Processing approach.
Definition of concepts:
Continuous development: a process of gradually adding more of the same type of skills that
were there to begin with.
Discontinuous development: a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to
the world emerge at specific times. Thus the child moves through a series of developmental steps
until he reaches the highest level of functioning.
Theories that accept the discontinuous perspective, regard development as taking place in stages
– qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of
development.
One course of development or many?
Stage theorists assume that people everywhere follow the same sequence of development at the
same time; the field of child development is becoming increasingly aware that children grow up in
distinct contexts, or unique combinations of genetic and environmental circumstances that can
result in different paths of change.
Relative influence of nature / nurture?
Each theory takes a stand on a major question of underlying causes: are genetic or environmental
factors more important in influencing development (NATURE / NURTURE controversy)
By nature, we mean inborn biological givens - the hereditary info we receive from our parents at
the moment of conception.
By nurture, we mean the complex forces of the physical and social world that influence our
biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth.
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Vygotsky’s sociocultural approach
Focuses on how culture (the values, beliefs, customs, and skills of a social group) is transmitted to
the next generation. According to Vygotsky, social interaction – in particular, cooperative dialogues
between children and more knowledgeable members of society – is necessary for children to
acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community’s culture.
Both continuous and discontinuous development
Children undergo certain stage wise changes, for examples language acquisition and schooling yet
at the same time Vygotsky emphasizes that dialogue with expert’s leads to continuous changes
that may vary from culture to culture
One course of development or many
Vygotsky believes that there are many courses of development and that socially mediated changes
in thought and behaviour vary from culture to culture, he did however place less emphasis on a
child’s ability to shape their own development.
Nature vs. nurture
Both nature and nurture are important factors. He believes that hereditary, brain growth and
dialogues with more expert members of society contribute to development (both early and later
experiences are important).
However there is a neglect of the biological side of development due to Vygotsky’s focus on social
and cultural experiences, although he does recognize the importance of hereditary and brain
growth he said little about their role in cognitive change, proving that despite believing in both
nature and nurture he has a slight inclination towards the influence of nurture.
Vygotsky Conclusion:
In contrast to the biological emphasis of other the majority of other cognitive-development theories
(Piaget, Core-knowledge perspective), Vygotsky stresses social and cultural contribution to
children's thinking. The major step here is away from the individualistic view of the developing child
to that of a socially formed mind.
Vygotsky extends this to the concept of "private speech" in which he considers that a child
communicates with themselves much as they would converse with others. Over the past three
decades studies have supported Vygotsky's perspective to the extent that children's self-directed
speech is now called private speech.
The considerations of course of development, individuality, and the factors of nature and nurture
are neatly converged in Vygotsky's theorizing that development takes place within a child's "zone
of proximal development" – which is a range of tasks too difficult for a child to do alone but
possible with the help of adults or more skilled peers. The three main aspects of this development
are given as:
Intersubjectivity – the process whereby two participants begin a task with different
understandings and arrive at a shared understanding.
Scaffolding – whereby the level of support offered during a learning session is adapted to fit
the child's level of performance.
Guided participation – refers to shared endeavours between expert and less expert
participants.
A key element of Vygotsky's theory then also becomes apparent in education where his theory
leads to emphasis on social context and collaboration and educators today are embracing his
ideas which promote assisted discovery fostered by peer collaboration.
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Instruction is most efficient when students engage in activities within a supportive learning
environment and when they receive appropriate guidance that is mediated by tools.
Vygotsky's theory helps to explain the wide cultural variation in cultural skills, and to expect highly
diverse paths of development a criticism of Vygotsky's theory is the lack of attention given to
biological contributions. His theory is also vague in his explanation of how cognitive change occurs.
Information processing approach
Assumption is that human mind might be viewed as a symbol manipulating system through which
info flows a perspective termed information processing.
The design that digital computers that use mathematically specified steps to solve problems
suggested to psychologists that:
The human mind might also be viewed as a symbol – manipulating system through which
information flows – called information processing.
Continuous development
This approach view children as actively making sense of their experiences and as modifying their
own thinking in response to environmental demands, it does not however divide development into
stages rather the thought processes studied are regarded as similar at all stages but present to a
greater/lesser degree, therefore, the view of development is continuous.
One course of development or many
One course of development - research that studies changes found them to be characteristic in all
children, however although this theory is good at analysing theory into components it ignores
aspects of children’s cognition that are not linear or logical such as imagination / creativity.
Nature vs. nurture
This theory advocates that both nature and nurture are important, children are active, sense
making beings that modify their thinking as the brain develops and they confront new
environmental demands (early and late experiences are important).
Strength of Information-processing theory has been its attention to careful, rigorous research
methods and it has led to some teaching interventions that assist children in problem solving in
advanced ways.
Aspects of cognition which are not linear and logical such as imagination and creativity have
been ignored.
Also Information-processing research has primarily been carried out in laboratories rather than
real life situations.
Information-processing approach is said to hold promise for future understanding of the
mechanisms of cognitive development. For instance in the case of gender stereo typing the
information-processing approach proposes the "Gender Schema theory" which combines
elements of social learning and cognitive-development into a unified picture of how gender
orientations emerge and are maintained.
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