Edexcel GCSE Psychology, development paper1 Questions and Answers

Edexcel GCSE Psychology, development paper1 Questions and Answers Brain The organ in your head made up of nerves that processes information and controls behaviour Forebrain Anterior part of the brain covering hemispheres and central brain structures Midbrain Middle section forming part of nervous system Hindbrain Lower part of the brain which includes the medulla oblongata, cerebellum and pons When does the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain form in a foetus? 3 or 4 weeks What is below the hindbrain Spinal chord Anterior Front part of the forebrain Posterior Back part of the forebrain What does the hindbrain divide into? It splits down the middle Which part of the brain does not divide? Midbrain At what part of the foetus' life do cavities form in the brain? 5 weeks Cerebellum Area of the brain towards the brainstem which controls motor movement (muscle activity). It is involved in responses such as fear and processing sense information When does the cerebellum develop? 6 weeks What part of the brain and where controls blood pressure, sneezing, heart rate and breathing? Medulla oblongata, hindbrain Medulla oblongata Connects upper brain to spinal cord and controls involuntary/ automatic responses When does the medulla oblongata develop? 20 weeks Involuntary response A response to a stimulus without someone making a conscious choice like a reflex Neural connections Links formed by messages passing from one nerve cell to the other How many neural connections form every second and how is this usefull? 700-1000 which allow fast communication to many different parts of the brain Outline Piaget's 4 stages of development theory We go through distinct stages of development. Each stage is quite long and our thinking does not change much unless we are transitioning. Showing features of two stages can happen in transition to the next stage Age of sensorimotor stage Birth to 2 Age of pre-operational stage 2-7 Age of concrete operational stage 7-12 Formal operational stage age 12+ What does "operations" mean how we reason and think such as arranging building blocks in order What does the name "sensorimotor" mean how babies use their senses and movements Cognitive Thinking, including problem solving remembering ,reasoning Adaptation Using assimilation and accommodation to make sense of the world Assimilation Incorporating new experiences into your schema Accommodation A schema no longer works and has to be changed to deal with a new experience Equilibrium The child understands and their schema can account for all experiences Strengths of Piaget's cognitive development theory Practical application, promotes discovery learning, lots of research to support his theory Weaknesses of Piaget's cognitive development theory Did not consider culture or social situation, all data gathered from interviews so subjective and bias, lacked internal validity Pierre Dason's study 1994 Found that Aboriginal children developed the ability to conserve later than Piaget's swiss stages did Mindset A set of beliefs someone has that guides how someone responds to a situation Fixed mindset Believing your abilities are fixed and unchangeable Growth mindset Believing practice and effort can improve your abilities From birth, how does Dweck say a fixed mindset is adapted? If a child is not praised for behaving a certain way, they will think it is pointless trying to achieve it From birth, how does Dweck say a growth mindset is adapted? If a child is praised for effort rather than ability, they believed they have achieved something so they carry on Key points of Dweck's mindset theory A child with a fixed mindset will feel their intelligence is limited and they cannot succeed. A child with a growth mindset will feel their intelligence is a result of effort and will try challenges. A teacher with a fixed mindset will think a student is lacking in ability. A teacher with a growth mindset will think a student can improve with perseverance Mueller and Dweck (1998) findings Praising intelligence will lead to fixed mindset because they are more vulnerable to setbacks affecting the children, praising effort leads to growth mindset as it results in trying harder Yeager and Dweck (2012) findings Out of 1500 students, low-achieving students who learnt to have a growth mindset did better than a control group who did not have that learning Strengths of Dweck's mindset theory practical application, positive theory, experimental evidence to support the theory Weaknesses of Dweck's mindset theory most research to support his theory was done in artificial settings which lacks ecological validity, studying the mindset of a child can affect their progress as they focus on the praise not the quality of work, they also may ignore the effects of giving feedback with no judgement Working memory Has different parts for processing information coming in from our senses. This includes visual and sound data and decision making Willingham's learning theory Don't practice till you get it right, practice till you can't get it wrong What does Willingham say knowledge does in the working memory? What someone already knows leaves them more processing power to solve a problem. Visual information is processed and stored differently from sound information What is willingham's theory about practice? We must practice enough to leave enough working memory to learn new things Which skills use working memory? problem-solving and creative thinking List the strategies teachers could use to support cognitive development Use problems that are new to challenge a student's effort, understand a student's likely stage of development, remembering a child's ability can vary from day to day, knowing a child may not understand the task List the strategies you could use to develop physical development Focus on what movements are best suited , practice the movement to make the muscle commands automatic, use conscious effort to develop motor skills List a strategy you could use to develop social development about egocentrism Build on a child's ability to see other viewpoints. Willingham disagreed with Piaget's statement that children are egocentric until 7 years and said it was more like 18 months List a strategy you could use to develop social development about observation demonstrate appropriate social skills so the child will use social learning Social learning Learning through observing and imitating others List a strategy you could use to develop social development about productivity Help a child stop impulsive behavior to use the energy they put into the behaviour more productively. This helps them develop more suitable responses and you do this by controlling the environment Nature Biological factors that affect our development Nurture Environmental factors that affect our development List a strategy you could use to develop social development about nature/nurture Encourage practice which requires self-regulation. This can be done and is affected through nurture and nature Self-regulation limiting and controlling yourself with out the influence of others Betty Repacholi and Alison Gopnik's study (1997) Children tasted crackers which they liked and broccoli which they did not like. They then saw the researcher liking the broccoli and not liking the crackers. They were asked to give the researcher either crackers or broccoli. 14 months gave the crackers and 18 months gave the broccoli. This supports Willingham's theory that children are non-egocentric until 18 months and disproves Piaget's Three Mountain Task experiment that they were egocentric until 7 years Strengths of Willingham's learning theory practical application to a child's learning, studies which supports the theory such as Repacholi and Gopnik's study, evidence from other scientific areas to support his theory such as neuroscience and cognitive science Weaknesses of Willingham's learning theory Did not emphasise the importance of recognizing individual differences except from the explicantion that genes can account for social impulsive behaviour. Even here, strategies cannot be used to change a child's genes. The Repacholi and Gopnik's study lacks ecological validity Three Mountain Task background Piaget's four stages of development theory states a child is unable to see the world from different viewpoints and is egocentric until 7 years when they move to the concrete operational stage Three Mountain Task aims See the extent to which children cannot see other people's views and the child's way of putting together different views