Brain Development
Sociocultural Factors in Development
Stage Theories and Continuous Models
Theory of Mind
General
100
What brain region is considered the brain's executive control centre and is heavily involved in moral reasoning?
The PFC
100
A child who grows up with little or no normal human social contact, often living with animals or in severe isolation.
Feral child
100
Which psychologist proposed that cognitive development occurs in four distinct stages?
Jean Piaget (just last name is fine)
100
What is theory of mind?
The ability to understand that other people have different thoughts, feelings, and beliefs from your own.
100
True or False? In the Paper 1 exam, you must write an essay about one of the human development topics.
False - you will have two essay questions from two different contexts and you pick one. There's a good chance neither of the essay questions will be on human development.
200
What two neurological processes help the adolescent prefrontal cortex mature between about ages 10 and 25?
Synaptic pruning and myelination.
200
Which cultural belief was suggested to explain why many Chinese participants preferred not to pull the trolley lever?
Fatalism
200
Which Piagetian task is used to test whether children understand conservation?
The water-level (or conservation) task.
200
Which emotion is positively correlated with theory of mind? (and thus influences our moral decision-making).
Empathy
Better theory of mind abilities allows empathy, which could lead to more dentological decisions over utilitarian ones.
200
What type of moral reasoning is based on judging the utility of the act - if it has the greatest good for the greatest number of people?
Utilitarianism
300
The brain's ability to change its structure or function in response to experience.
Neuroplasticity
300
How did Gold et al. create a realistic trolley problem where the decisions had real-world impacts?
They used computers for participants to divert a ball on screen which would knock out (remove) donations of meals to orphans in Uganda.
300
What are the four stages in Piaget's model?
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
300
What does the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) measure?
Theory of mind, but more specifically the ability to infer other people's emotions.
300
What type of moral reasoning is based on judging the act by the act itself?
Deontological
400
Which famous longitudinal experiment found that adoption after an average age of 22 months was associated with long-lasting reductions in grey matter?
The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP)
400
According to Social Identity Theory, what are the three key processes that explain prejudice?
Social categorisation, social identification and social comparison
400
What are the two key concepts in Vygotsky's theory of learning?
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).
400
What are two childhood experiences that can influence the development of theory of mind?
Being read stories
Drama and role playing
Free play and playing with other kids
Having siblings
400
True or false: you might be asked specifically about moral development in the exam.
False. You can write about any type of development including social, cognitive, moral or language.
500
According to the BEIP findings, what do the results suggest about early childhood brain development? Tip: CP
They suggest there is a critical period in which early environmental stimulation is necessary for normal brain development.
500
How does social identity influence moral judgements?
We're more likely to help people (i.e. in the trolley problem) when they're part of our in-group.
500
Why is Vygotsky's theory considered a continuous model of development rather than a stage theory?
Because learning happens gradually as the learner's Zone of Proximal Development continually changes rather than progressing through fixed stages.
500
Tell the Sally-Anne false belief test story out loud.
Clues:
Sally has a marble and a basket
Anne has a box.
500
There is only one topic in the human development context that's also a topic in the approaches (it's in the sociocultural approach). What is it?
Enculturation