Development Over the Lifespan (Chapter 14)

1. Development Over the Lifespan (Chapter 14) Second Lecture Outline: Jean Piaget’s stage theory Moral development Videotape on preschool cognition (Magna M19)

2. Concrete operational stage • Age 7 until 12; children can manipulate internal representations • Conservation of liquid quantity experiment: children now pass • Conservation of volume: Flubber or silly-putty • Concept of identity: A girl in boy’s clothes is still a girl

3. Formal-operational stage • 11 or 12 years of age onward; children can manipulate abstract concepts • Second-order relations: They can understand relationships between relations, e.g., division and multiplication are opposite • Algebra, geometry, ven-diagrams

4. A moving cannon shoots a cannonball straight in the air. Ignoring air resistance-effects, where does it land? Formal operations can get this right. Concrete operations may get it right, or need it demonstrated. ? ? ?

6. Problems with Piaget’s theory • Changes between stages are not as pervasive as Piaget suggested: Development may be continuous, e.g., reading skill • Children do better than Piaget thought: Failing tasks may be because of complexity of materials • Preschoolers not as egocentric as Piaget thought: Theory of Mind by age four • Adults do not always show formal operations: Tim and the fire alarm • What about culture? Is theory was too biological

7. Vygotsky: Russian psychologist • Environment is critical: children internalize what they see and experience • Zone of proximal development Ability Ability Capacity Effective teaching Effective parenting Mediated learning

8. Moral Development Scenario In Europe, a woman was near death from a very unusual kind of cancer. The doctors thought that one drug -- a form of radium discovered by a druggist in the same town -- might save her life. The druggist paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. Heinz, the sick woman's husband, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only raise $2000, half of the drug's selling price. Heinz pleaded with the druggist, explaining to him that his wife was dying. He presented several options to the druggist: sell the drug to Heinz at a cheaper price, let Heinz pay for the drug in installments or let Heinz pay for it at a later date. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it." Heinz is now considering breaking into the drug store and stealing for his wife. Question #1 Should Heinz steal the drug? Question #2 Should Heinz steal the same drug if the dying person is a "not particularly close" friend, rather than a spouse or relative?

9. Moral Development • Kohlberg’s model: Should you steal medicine for a sick friend? • Preconventional morality age 7-10: Punishment and obedience; TROUBLE • Conventional morality age 10-16: Social rules internalized, conscience; SHOULD’NT • Post-conventional morality 16+: Internal moral principles outweigh social rules; SHOULD • Problems: Care and compassion are important too, inconsistent responding, reasoning is unrelated to behavior

11. Gender Development • In preschool and early school years, children tend to play in same-gender groups • Young boys and girls have identical hormones and physiology, yet boys are more dominant and girls are more passive when in mixed groups • Gender schemas develop and are strongly modelled • Parents are more tolerant of boy misbehavior and more reinforcing of boy assertive behavior • Activities can be gender-typed, e.g., figure-skating vs. hockey; brownies vs. cubs; choir vs. drums; toys can be gender-typed; of course there are exceptions!! • Gender-schemas change with age and education, sex-typed behavior decreases