Sylabusses can be obtained at:
www.a-levelpsychology.co.uk
www.nec.ac.uk/courses
www.a-levelpsychology.co.uk/aqaa/spec2006.asp
and other places no doubt..
Monday 18 June 2007
Personality development
Personality Development.
What is personality?
Personality develops from ‘temperament’ which is greatly influenced by those around them
If the way they are treated is reasonably consistent they will develop a stable set of behaviours, attitudes, interests and capabilities which are typical of them and which can be used to predict what their likely reaction to any particular circumstance will probably be.
These characteristics have some coherence – we don’t just posses a list of characteristics, but they all combine somehow into a ‘personality’.
It is an individual difference, a means of distinguishing between people.
Explanations of personality development.
Ranges from entirely genetic to entirely social.
Two major and contrasting theories:
Psychodynamic theory;
Social learning theory.
· Psychodynamic theory was one of the first and massively influential explanations and combined with genetic and biological forces with social experiences to explain how personality is acquired through childhood and how unsatisfactory childhood experiences can shape adult mental health.
· An extension of the theory has been a set of therapeutic procedures for those with adult neuroses – psychotherapy.
· Social learning theory stresses the importance of social experiences and largely excludes any biological contribution. Essentially it states children learn by observing other peoples behaviour and copying some of it. In turn, this shapes their personality.
Freud’s Personality Theory:
Sigmund Freud was a Viennese doctor with a special interest in causation and treatment of neurotic disorders. He advances a psychoanalytical theory – modified over 40 years of analysis and writing.
Hailed as the person who destroyed the notion that man is a rational animal. (The third great blow to mans uniqueness..)
He identified three aspects of the self that shaped personality development:
1. The Id
Present from birth;
Embodies the pleasure principle;
Irrational and demands satisfaction immediately;
With the id in control the individual behaves impulsively;
During development, the individual seeks gratification from different organs in the body;
Erogenous zones vary with age, beginning with the oral stage.
2. The Ego
Develops at age 2 years;
The executive of the personality;
This is the equivalent of our rational mind;
Uses the reality principle and seeks logical solutions to satisfying the child’s needs;
Acts as a censor and hides from conscious awareness the Id’s impulses;
Focuses on the anus as the erogenous zone during this anal stage of personality development
By the age of 3 to 5 years the erogenous zone has shifted to the genitals (The phallic stage) and the child now experiences ‘pre-genital’ sexual feelings towards the opposite sex parent and some jealousy of the same sex parent;
This creates anxieties since the child also loves the same sex parent.
3. The superego
A largely unconscious part of the self that acts as the moral part fo the self;
The origin or source of guilt;
Provides a sense of right and wrong;
AKA the morality principle, which influences the child’s behaviour and he or she resolves the dilemma by identifying with the same sex parent.
Unconsciously adopts the moral standards of their parents;
Monitors the Ego and influences it to substitute socially acceptable outlets for the Id’s immoral impulses (Sublimation);
By the end of this stage the personality is pretty well formed – ‘calm after the storm.’ And a ‘Latency period’ occurs. During the latency period identification with the same sex is consolidated.
Final Psychosexual period occurs at puberty when they enter the genital stage.
Freud argued that early personality growth is a struggle between two further groups of instinctive urges which are called the libido. Libidos are life instincts (Eros) sexual urges, fulfilment, creativity etc. and death instincts (Thantos) which drive us to behave dangerously, to risk our own safety in seeking thrills and excitement. If some trauma, over indulgence or deprivation occurs during a specific stage of psychosexual development, some aspects of libido become fixated in the unconscious mind (Stuck and unable to move forward) and might have effects well into adulthood. E.g. someone who was weaned too early may well develop and ‘oral personality’ and take up seeking gratification through smoking.
Freud concluded that girls never develop quite the same sense of justice as boys as they do not experience quite as strong a resolution of their genital conflicts.
‘Females desire for a baby is an unconscious desire to make up for a lack of having a penis…’
The Id and the Superego are inevitably in conflict. Conflicts cause anxiety, and in order to reduce anxiety the ego uses ‘Defence mechanisms.’
These ego defences are unconscious and are a key dynamic of the personality.
In the long term, ego defences may cause abnormal personality development because they exert pressure through unconsciously motivated behaviour.
Handling conflict
Summing up:
The id irrationally demands satisfaction immediately;
The Ego seeks logical means for satisfying needs;
The superego mediates between these two when issues of right and wrong are resolved
One way to solve this conflict is through dreams, (refer to ‘The interpretation of dreams’ 1900) which act as a safety valve to release the pressures that have occurred, especially during the day before the dream. Freud regarded dream analysis as a major tool for investigating the unconscious mind (“The royal road to the unconscious.”) He also claimed that the anxieties are too intense to be released through dreams when we unconsciously trigger an ego defence mechanism.
The notion of unconscious was another key element of Freud’s theory. He proposed there were three levels of the mind:
The conscious consists of those thoughts that are currently the focus of attention;
The preconscious consists of information and ideas that could be retrieved easily from memory and brought into consciousness.
The unconscious consists of information that is either very hard or almost impossible to bring into conscious awareness.
Stages in psychosexual development
Consistency of the unconscious and conscious parts of the mind in terms of the id ego and superego varies, however, we may represent them in the following diagrams:
Freud did not intend the idea of personality structures to suggest real entities; “…he was not literally dividing the mind into three parts, but was describing the experience of being pulled in different directions by conflicting influences.” Jarvis (2000)
Empirical evidence
Empirical evidence interpretations subjective.
Biased sample may have existed, most of his patients being Viennese women.
Freud (1909) case of little Hans documented the Oedipus conflict in a little boy (Little Hans) where he competed for his mother’s affection with his father and sister.
Myers and Brewin (1994) studied repressors and found that :
Repressors are low on anxiety and high on defensiveness;
Took much longer to recall childhood memories than other personality types.
Therefore suggesting there is a tendency for some personality types to repress memories rather than others.
Evaluation:
Contributions and Strengths:
1. Freud made the first major attempt to identify the possible forces from within the human psyche that shape aspects of our behaviour.
2. Accounts for rationality and irrationality. The introduction of the unconscious permits us to explain how someone can be both rational and irrational and accounts for many aspects of behaviour, such as the fact that people predict they will behave in one way and then do something quite differently.
3. He produced an enormous body of work identifying the importance of early childhood experiences on later behaviour — a theme taken up later by many other researchers such as John Bowlby.
4. Psychoanalytic theory is a coherent and comprehensive explanation of the acquisition of personality.
5. Freud’s explanations have had a huge influence on the way that psychologists in the middle of the twentieth century saw childhood development and adult mental health.
6. Psychoanalytic theory has practical applications in psychoanalytic therapy as applied to adults and children — for example, for eating disorders, and in other areas of child development such as explaining gender roles and aggression.
7. Freud’s greatest and most lasting contribution is not what he did for psychology in particular as what he did for society in general. Freud has become a cultural phenomenon — a happening that has inspired and challenged many, many others. Whatever the scientific status of his theories, his cultural contribution has been very significant.
8. The view that personality is somewhat flexible with some potential for change was different from the then popular view that people were born with their personality preformed.
9. The concept of unconscious motivation
Negative aspects include the following:
1. Freud is accused of ‘having an answer for everything’ without providing any scientifically valid evidence to support them.
2. It is impossible to find support for the existence of id and ego, libido or death instincts that Freud hypothesised — despite his claims to have made a scientific breakthrough.
3. Freud’s methods such as the interpretation of dreams and the interpretation of slips of the tongue are not scientifically acceptable by the standards of science that we demand today.
4. His patients were not representative of the people to whom he was generalising his findings. They were, by Freud’s own definition, neurotic. A large number were middle class, and often Jewish, women living in Vienna between the 1880s and 1920s.
5. Freud’s claim that personality was just about formed by the age of five seems incredible. Our characteristic responses to stimuli continue to change well beyond that age.
6. Freud also claimed that boys have a stronger moral sense (including conscience) than girls because of the increased pressure on them to identify through fear of castration.
7. No evidence for castration anxiety, penis envy or Oedipus complex.
8. Lack of evidence, testability, validity and Possible experimental bias
Social Learning Theory:
· Behaviourists reject the unscientific nature of psychodynamic theory with its many references to ‘uncontrollable forces.’
· They don’t have much regard for the concept of ‘personality’ either.
Since ‘personality’ simply describes what people are likely to do, why do we need another term when typical or predictable behaviour covers it anyway?
Behaviour unlike unconscious forces is direct and observable and is open to scientific control and manipulation to discover causal relationships between independent and dependant variables.
· With many animal experiments in the 1930’s Skinner proposed that all behaviour is the result of reinforcement. Albert Bandura believes that, whilst reinforcement was important, it was not the only factor in explaining how children acquire their characteristic social responses.
· Children learn much through observing others who are successful in accomplishing a goal. If the other person is important to the child, such as a parent has a higher status, then it is so much the more likely that the persons behaviour will be modelled upon.
· Learning theory is based on the principles of classical and operant conditioning.
o The development of personality is probably best explained in terms of the latter any behaviour that results in a rewarding consequence is more likely to be repeated in the future.
o Rewards reinforce the probability of that behaviour being repeated.
o Punishments decrease future probabilities.
This can explain how any behaviour is acquired, including the behaviour we are interested in — the acquisition of personality characteristics.
For example, individuals might acquire the personality trait of friendliness because they are rewarded when displaying such behaviour (operant conditioning).
· However, Albert Bandura felt that learning theory was not sufficient to explain all learning; it would simply take too long to learn everything through trial and error, reward and punishment. He formulated an extension of learning theory, which would incorporate the social context. He suggested that reinforcement or punishment could take place indirectly. If an individual sees someone else being rewarded, they are likely to imitate that behaviour. This is called ‘vicarious reinforcement’.
· Bandura’s classic studies using the Bobo doll showed that children do acquire new behaviours by imitating the behaviour of others.
· Simply watching the behaviour of another may lead to the imitation of that behaviour. This is made more likely if the observer identifies with the model (e.g. they are the same gender or age), or if the model possesses desirable qualities (e.g. they are a TV personality), and if the model is rewarded or praised for their actions.
· This element of reward highlights the difference between learning and performance. A child may learn a new behaviour simply through observation.
· Behaviour will only be repeated if there is an expectation of a reward and if the child possesses appropriate skills.
· Subsequent repeating of the behaviour occurs only if the behaviour turns out to be rewarding for the child (direct reinforcement).
· If the behaviour doesn’t produce rewards, then the behaviour will not be repeated. Thus social learning relies on observation, vicarious reinforcement and imitation, and, finally, is maintained through direct reinforcement.
· Bandura (Bandura and Walters 1963) developed a theory of personality development based on the principles of social learning theory. According to this view, all aspects of personality are learned. A child may learn novel behaviours through direct or indirect reinforcement, or through punishment. Punishment reduces the probability that behaviour will be repeated. Subsequently, personality characteristics that are in the child’s repertoire may be strengthened or weakened depending on whether the child is indirectly rewarded or punished.
Demonstrating social modelling
· Bandura’s Bobo studies are given as evidence that specific behaviours are learned through observation and vicarious reinforcement, and also that general aggressiveness is learned in this way.
· Bandura (1965) also demonstrated the difference between learning and performance. If children were offered rewards after the observation of a model, then they repeated the model’s behaviour even if they had originally seen the model punished. This shows that what is learned is (a) a behaviour and (b) the expectation of reward or punishment. The latter affects the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.
· Walters and Thomas (1963) demonstrated how someone will learn to reduce rather than produce behaviour. Here participants were paired with experimental confederates and told to give the learner a shock following each error that was made on a learning task. After each error, the participant was given the opportunity to select the level of shock to use for the next trial. Prior to the experiment all participants had been shown a film. Those participants who watched a violent scene were found to select higher shock intensities than those watched a non-violent movie scene. Bandura and Walters explained this in terms of ‘disinhibition’. The participants observed socially unacceptable behaviour in the film and this weakened the pro-social behaviour they had previously learned.
Reciprocal determination and self-efficacy
To explain personality development further, Bandura (1977) introduced two important concepts:
· Reciprocal determinism — Both learning theory social learning theory portray the individual as controlled by their environment. Things happen to the individual, which increase or decrease the likelihood of any future behaviour. However, Bandura recognized that learning is not merely passive — it is reciprocal.
As the individual acts, this changes the environment, thus affecting subsequent behaviour.
· Individuals are also capable of reinforcing themselves. They are capable of making their own choices and this ultimately affects what they imitate.
· Self-efficacy — Bandura (1977) claimed that a person’s sense of their own effectiveness (or ‘efficacy’) influences what they ultimately achieve. If you believe that you cannot jump over a two-metre hurdle, this will affect the way you approach the task and thus what you achieve. Your sense of self efficacy is an important personality trait derived from direct and indirect experience.
Evaluation of Bandura’s theory:
Strengths:
· The theory is successful in explaining aspects of behaviour, although there are other aspects of behaviour that are not covered by the social learning approaches.
· Well supported by research evidence:
Bandura’s theory consists of testable propositions which means that the validity of the concepts can be demonstrated.
Numerous ways to apply theory to real life situations.
Limitations:
· Methodological problems
Research generally conducted in contrived laboratory environments.
Behaviour may be the effects of demand characteristics.
· Lack of detail and cohesiveness as an account of personality development.
Sketchy on how we influence our environment and make choices
· As an explanation of the fairly coherent, usually consistent, patterns of behaviour that characterise personality the theory is not successful.
· Alternative perspectives abound:
E.g. Biological perspectives – Eysenck’s (1963) in which he suggested three main types of personality dimensions:
Intropvert / Extrovert
Neurotic / stable
Normality / Pychoticism
· Thomas and Chess (1980) demonstrated that babies are born with certain characteristic patterns of emotional response or temperament which develop in childhood, and these traits tend to endure throughout life. Temperament interacts with life experience to produce adult personality.
Situationalism:
Mischel (1968) argues that ‘personality’ is not a consistent set of predictable behaviours but a response that will vary widely according to different situations.
Others claim that humans have several sub personalities. The exact nature and function of these sub personalities is yet to be revealed but rowan calls for a redical re-think of our current understanding of the concept of personality.
Evaluation of Mischel’s theory
Whilst we may not be entirely consistent across every situation, and may act ‘out of character’ occasionally, that does not mean that there is not a basic set of behaviours that characterise us – and which we display on most occasions.
To suggest that we only respond to situations doesn’t allow for individual responses that are at odds with the situational requirements. The anti conformist who refuses to do what everyone else does, the eccentric who doesn’t understand why everyone needs to behave in a similar manner, individualists who can afford not to care about what other people think or expect and simply do what they want to do, are all examples of people whose personalities transcend situational determinants. And we all sometimes do something just for the hell of it.
Mischel pointed out that the reason we may think that personality is consistent is because we tend to see people in similar situations, and offer excuses for occasional lapses. One advantage of Mischel’s theory, therefore, is that it can explain personality inconsistency.
A further reason why we think of personality as being consistent is because that is the way our minds are organized. The notion of consistency is a useful tool for organizing our perceptions about others and ourselves, and it allows us to be able to make predictions about subsequent behaviour. We all intuitively recognize the situational element whenever we say, ‘She is never late except when her children are ill’. However, Mischel suggests that this is a ‘personality paradox’, because we think that we and others have consistent personalities but this is not true.
Behaviour specificity
Mischel used the term ‘behaviour specificity’ to describe how the choice of how to behave is determined by the specific situation in which a person finds themselves, It is determined by past experiences of reward and punishment. Certain behaviours are rewarded in certain situations but not in other situations, so that the probabilities are altered from situation to situation. Mischel’s theory is an example of the social learning approach because it suggests that we learn through selective reinforcement — we learn that certain behaviours are most appropriate or successful in certain situations. This leads us to behave in the same way in those situations, but not in the same way in other situations.
This is similar to the concept of ‘context-dependent learning’ (or retrieval): things that are learned in one situation are more easily remembered when the circumstances are the same.
Mischel and Peake’s (1982) Carleton Study
Interactions between person variables and the situation:
Mischel (1973) introduced a second strand to his theory: “Person variables” These include the following:
Competencies: Skills, problem solving strategies, concepts about the world based on experiences.
Encoding strategies and personal constructs:
Attention strategies and individual schemas.
Expectancies:
Expectancies based on past experiences with similar situations.
Subjective values
Ones own personal values.
Self regulating systems and plans:
Using past experience to determine future goals and plans.
Evaluation: Mischel’s Situationalist perspective
Limitations:
Social learning accounts deny free will.
People are actually more consistent.
Suggests that personality traits do influence behaviour.
Strengths:
Telling it like it is.
A combined approach:
Mischel and Shoda (1998) suggest its possible to combine situationalism and consistency. People are consistent in their situational differences i.e. you may be shy in a large group of strangers but not with your friends. You always behave in a particular way in particular situations thus you are consistent, but also exhibit behavioural specificity.
Consistency versus situationalism:
Buss (1989) propose that situational factors will be strong in situations which are novel, formal, brief and where there is little choice in how to behave.
In situations which are more informal, longer in duration and where one is more free to act according to personal inclination, then dispositional factors will outweigh situational factors.
References of note:
Jarvis (2000) - Freud did not intend the idea of personality
structures to suggest real entities; “…he was not literally dividing the mind into three parts, but was describing the experience of being pulled in different directions by conflicting influences.”
Freud (1909) - Case of little Hans and a documented
Oedipus conflict in a little boy (Little Hans) where he competed for his mother’s affection with his father and sister.
Myers and Brewin (1994) - Studied repressors and found that :
Repressors are low on anxiety and high on defensiveness;
Took much longer to recall childhood memories than other personality types.
Therefore suggesting there is a tendency for some personality types to repress memories rather than others.
Bandura and Walters (1963) - Developed a theory of personality
development based on the principles of social learning theory. According to this view, all aspects of personality are learned. A child may learn novel behaviours through direct or indirect reinforcement, or through punishment. Punishment reduces the probability that a behaviour will be repeated. Subsequently, personality characteristics that are in the child’s repertoire may be strengthened or weakened depending on whether the child is indirectly rewarded or punished
Bandura (1965) - Demonstrated the difference between
learning and performance. If children were offered rewards after the observation of a model, then they repeated the model’s behaviour even if they had originally seen the model punished. This shows that what is learned is (a) a behaviour and (b) the expectation of reward or punishment. The latter affects the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.
Walters and Thomas (1963) - Demonstrated how someone will learn to
reduce rather than produce behaviour. Here participants were paired with experimental confederates and told to give the learner a shock following each error that was made on a learning task. After each error, the participant was given the opportunity to select the level of shock to use for the next trial. Prior to the experiment all participants had been shown a film. Those participants who watched a violent scene were found to select higher shock intensities than those watched a non-violent movie scene. Bandura and Walters explained this in terms of ‘disinhibition’. The participants observed socially unacceptable behaviour in the film and this weakened the pro-social behaviour they had previously learned.
Eysenck’s (1963) - Biological perspectives –in which he
suggested three main types of personality dimensions: Intropvert / Extrovert; Neurotic / stable; Normality / Pychoticism.
Thomas and Chess (1980) - Demonstrated that babies are born with
certain characteristic patterns of emotional response or temperament which develop in childhood, and these traits tend to endure throughout life. Temperament interacts with life experience to produce adult personality.
Mischel (1968) - Argues that ‘personality’ is not a consistent
set of predictable behaviours but a response that will vary widely according to different situations.
Concepts to note:
Define these terms:
· personality
· psychoanalytical / psychodynamic theory
o ego
o superego
o id
o erogenous zones
o anal stage
o oral stage
o phallic stage
o genital stage
o morality principle
o pleasure principle
o reality principle
o defence mechanism
o libido
o Eros
o Thantos
o Sublimation
· Empirical
· Situationalism
· Social Learning Theory
o Reinforcement
o Vicarious reinforcement
o Direct reinforcement
o Reciprocal determinism
o Self-efficacy
o behaviour specificity
What do they say or do?
· Bandura
· Freud
· Mischel
· Myers and Brewin
· Skinner.
What is personality?
Personality develops from ‘temperament’ which is greatly influenced by those around them
If the way they are treated is reasonably consistent they will develop a stable set of behaviours, attitudes, interests and capabilities which are typical of them and which can be used to predict what their likely reaction to any particular circumstance will probably be.
These characteristics have some coherence – we don’t just posses a list of characteristics, but they all combine somehow into a ‘personality’.
It is an individual difference, a means of distinguishing between people.
Explanations of personality development.
Ranges from entirely genetic to entirely social.
Two major and contrasting theories:
Psychodynamic theory;
Social learning theory.
· Psychodynamic theory was one of the first and massively influential explanations and combined with genetic and biological forces with social experiences to explain how personality is acquired through childhood and how unsatisfactory childhood experiences can shape adult mental health.
· An extension of the theory has been a set of therapeutic procedures for those with adult neuroses – psychotherapy.
· Social learning theory stresses the importance of social experiences and largely excludes any biological contribution. Essentially it states children learn by observing other peoples behaviour and copying some of it. In turn, this shapes their personality.
Freud’s Personality Theory:
Sigmund Freud was a Viennese doctor with a special interest in causation and treatment of neurotic disorders. He advances a psychoanalytical theory – modified over 40 years of analysis and writing.
Hailed as the person who destroyed the notion that man is a rational animal. (The third great blow to mans uniqueness..)
He identified three aspects of the self that shaped personality development:
1. The Id
Present from birth;
Embodies the pleasure principle;
Irrational and demands satisfaction immediately;
With the id in control the individual behaves impulsively;
During development, the individual seeks gratification from different organs in the body;
Erogenous zones vary with age, beginning with the oral stage.
2. The Ego
Develops at age 2 years;
The executive of the personality;
This is the equivalent of our rational mind;
Uses the reality principle and seeks logical solutions to satisfying the child’s needs;
Acts as a censor and hides from conscious awareness the Id’s impulses;
Focuses on the anus as the erogenous zone during this anal stage of personality development
By the age of 3 to 5 years the erogenous zone has shifted to the genitals (The phallic stage) and the child now experiences ‘pre-genital’ sexual feelings towards the opposite sex parent and some jealousy of the same sex parent;
This creates anxieties since the child also loves the same sex parent.
3. The superego
A largely unconscious part of the self that acts as the moral part fo the self;
The origin or source of guilt;
Provides a sense of right and wrong;
AKA the morality principle, which influences the child’s behaviour and he or she resolves the dilemma by identifying with the same sex parent.
Unconsciously adopts the moral standards of their parents;
Monitors the Ego and influences it to substitute socially acceptable outlets for the Id’s immoral impulses (Sublimation);
By the end of this stage the personality is pretty well formed – ‘calm after the storm.’ And a ‘Latency period’ occurs. During the latency period identification with the same sex is consolidated.
Final Psychosexual period occurs at puberty when they enter the genital stage.
Freud argued that early personality growth is a struggle between two further groups of instinctive urges which are called the libido. Libidos are life instincts (Eros) sexual urges, fulfilment, creativity etc. and death instincts (Thantos) which drive us to behave dangerously, to risk our own safety in seeking thrills and excitement. If some trauma, over indulgence or deprivation occurs during a specific stage of psychosexual development, some aspects of libido become fixated in the unconscious mind (Stuck and unable to move forward) and might have effects well into adulthood. E.g. someone who was weaned too early may well develop and ‘oral personality’ and take up seeking gratification through smoking.
Freud concluded that girls never develop quite the same sense of justice as boys as they do not experience quite as strong a resolution of their genital conflicts.
‘Females desire for a baby is an unconscious desire to make up for a lack of having a penis…’
The Id and the Superego are inevitably in conflict. Conflicts cause anxiety, and in order to reduce anxiety the ego uses ‘Defence mechanisms.’
These ego defences are unconscious and are a key dynamic of the personality.
In the long term, ego defences may cause abnormal personality development because they exert pressure through unconsciously motivated behaviour.
Handling conflict
Summing up:
The id irrationally demands satisfaction immediately;
The Ego seeks logical means for satisfying needs;
The superego mediates between these two when issues of right and wrong are resolved
One way to solve this conflict is through dreams, (refer to ‘The interpretation of dreams’ 1900) which act as a safety valve to release the pressures that have occurred, especially during the day before the dream. Freud regarded dream analysis as a major tool for investigating the unconscious mind (“The royal road to the unconscious.”) He also claimed that the anxieties are too intense to be released through dreams when we unconsciously trigger an ego defence mechanism.
The notion of unconscious was another key element of Freud’s theory. He proposed there were three levels of the mind:
The conscious consists of those thoughts that are currently the focus of attention;
The preconscious consists of information and ideas that could be retrieved easily from memory and brought into consciousness.
The unconscious consists of information that is either very hard or almost impossible to bring into conscious awareness.
Stages in psychosexual development
Consistency of the unconscious and conscious parts of the mind in terms of the id ego and superego varies, however, we may represent them in the following diagrams:
Freud did not intend the idea of personality structures to suggest real entities; “…he was not literally dividing the mind into three parts, but was describing the experience of being pulled in different directions by conflicting influences.” Jarvis (2000)
Empirical evidence
Empirical evidence interpretations subjective.
Biased sample may have existed, most of his patients being Viennese women.
Freud (1909) case of little Hans documented the Oedipus conflict in a little boy (Little Hans) where he competed for his mother’s affection with his father and sister.
Myers and Brewin (1994) studied repressors and found that :
Repressors are low on anxiety and high on defensiveness;
Took much longer to recall childhood memories than other personality types.
Therefore suggesting there is a tendency for some personality types to repress memories rather than others.
Evaluation:
Contributions and Strengths:
1. Freud made the first major attempt to identify the possible forces from within the human psyche that shape aspects of our behaviour.
2. Accounts for rationality and irrationality. The introduction of the unconscious permits us to explain how someone can be both rational and irrational and accounts for many aspects of behaviour, such as the fact that people predict they will behave in one way and then do something quite differently.
3. He produced an enormous body of work identifying the importance of early childhood experiences on later behaviour — a theme taken up later by many other researchers such as John Bowlby.
4. Psychoanalytic theory is a coherent and comprehensive explanation of the acquisition of personality.
5. Freud’s explanations have had a huge influence on the way that psychologists in the middle of the twentieth century saw childhood development and adult mental health.
6. Psychoanalytic theory has practical applications in psychoanalytic therapy as applied to adults and children — for example, for eating disorders, and in other areas of child development such as explaining gender roles and aggression.
7. Freud’s greatest and most lasting contribution is not what he did for psychology in particular as what he did for society in general. Freud has become a cultural phenomenon — a happening that has inspired and challenged many, many others. Whatever the scientific status of his theories, his cultural contribution has been very significant.
8. The view that personality is somewhat flexible with some potential for change was different from the then popular view that people were born with their personality preformed.
9. The concept of unconscious motivation
Negative aspects include the following:
1. Freud is accused of ‘having an answer for everything’ without providing any scientifically valid evidence to support them.
2. It is impossible to find support for the existence of id and ego, libido or death instincts that Freud hypothesised — despite his claims to have made a scientific breakthrough.
3. Freud’s methods such as the interpretation of dreams and the interpretation of slips of the tongue are not scientifically acceptable by the standards of science that we demand today.
4. His patients were not representative of the people to whom he was generalising his findings. They were, by Freud’s own definition, neurotic. A large number were middle class, and often Jewish, women living in Vienna between the 1880s and 1920s.
5. Freud’s claim that personality was just about formed by the age of five seems incredible. Our characteristic responses to stimuli continue to change well beyond that age.
6. Freud also claimed that boys have a stronger moral sense (including conscience) than girls because of the increased pressure on them to identify through fear of castration.
7. No evidence for castration anxiety, penis envy or Oedipus complex.
8. Lack of evidence, testability, validity and Possible experimental bias
Social Learning Theory:
· Behaviourists reject the unscientific nature of psychodynamic theory with its many references to ‘uncontrollable forces.’
· They don’t have much regard for the concept of ‘personality’ either.
Since ‘personality’ simply describes what people are likely to do, why do we need another term when typical or predictable behaviour covers it anyway?
Behaviour unlike unconscious forces is direct and observable and is open to scientific control and manipulation to discover causal relationships between independent and dependant variables.
· With many animal experiments in the 1930’s Skinner proposed that all behaviour is the result of reinforcement. Albert Bandura believes that, whilst reinforcement was important, it was not the only factor in explaining how children acquire their characteristic social responses.
· Children learn much through observing others who are successful in accomplishing a goal. If the other person is important to the child, such as a parent has a higher status, then it is so much the more likely that the persons behaviour will be modelled upon.
· Learning theory is based on the principles of classical and operant conditioning.
o The development of personality is probably best explained in terms of the latter any behaviour that results in a rewarding consequence is more likely to be repeated in the future.
o Rewards reinforce the probability of that behaviour being repeated.
o Punishments decrease future probabilities.
This can explain how any behaviour is acquired, including the behaviour we are interested in — the acquisition of personality characteristics.
For example, individuals might acquire the personality trait of friendliness because they are rewarded when displaying such behaviour (operant conditioning).
· However, Albert Bandura felt that learning theory was not sufficient to explain all learning; it would simply take too long to learn everything through trial and error, reward and punishment. He formulated an extension of learning theory, which would incorporate the social context. He suggested that reinforcement or punishment could take place indirectly. If an individual sees someone else being rewarded, they are likely to imitate that behaviour. This is called ‘vicarious reinforcement’.
· Bandura’s classic studies using the Bobo doll showed that children do acquire new behaviours by imitating the behaviour of others.
· Simply watching the behaviour of another may lead to the imitation of that behaviour. This is made more likely if the observer identifies with the model (e.g. they are the same gender or age), or if the model possesses desirable qualities (e.g. they are a TV personality), and if the model is rewarded or praised for their actions.
· This element of reward highlights the difference between learning and performance. A child may learn a new behaviour simply through observation.
· Behaviour will only be repeated if there is an expectation of a reward and if the child possesses appropriate skills.
· Subsequent repeating of the behaviour occurs only if the behaviour turns out to be rewarding for the child (direct reinforcement).
· If the behaviour doesn’t produce rewards, then the behaviour will not be repeated. Thus social learning relies on observation, vicarious reinforcement and imitation, and, finally, is maintained through direct reinforcement.
· Bandura (Bandura and Walters 1963) developed a theory of personality development based on the principles of social learning theory. According to this view, all aspects of personality are learned. A child may learn novel behaviours through direct or indirect reinforcement, or through punishment. Punishment reduces the probability that behaviour will be repeated. Subsequently, personality characteristics that are in the child’s repertoire may be strengthened or weakened depending on whether the child is indirectly rewarded or punished.
Demonstrating social modelling
· Bandura’s Bobo studies are given as evidence that specific behaviours are learned through observation and vicarious reinforcement, and also that general aggressiveness is learned in this way.
· Bandura (1965) also demonstrated the difference between learning and performance. If children were offered rewards after the observation of a model, then they repeated the model’s behaviour even if they had originally seen the model punished. This shows that what is learned is (a) a behaviour and (b) the expectation of reward or punishment. The latter affects the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.
· Walters and Thomas (1963) demonstrated how someone will learn to reduce rather than produce behaviour. Here participants were paired with experimental confederates and told to give the learner a shock following each error that was made on a learning task. After each error, the participant was given the opportunity to select the level of shock to use for the next trial. Prior to the experiment all participants had been shown a film. Those participants who watched a violent scene were found to select higher shock intensities than those watched a non-violent movie scene. Bandura and Walters explained this in terms of ‘disinhibition’. The participants observed socially unacceptable behaviour in the film and this weakened the pro-social behaviour they had previously learned.
Reciprocal determination and self-efficacy
To explain personality development further, Bandura (1977) introduced two important concepts:
· Reciprocal determinism — Both learning theory social learning theory portray the individual as controlled by their environment. Things happen to the individual, which increase or decrease the likelihood of any future behaviour. However, Bandura recognized that learning is not merely passive — it is reciprocal.
As the individual acts, this changes the environment, thus affecting subsequent behaviour.
· Individuals are also capable of reinforcing themselves. They are capable of making their own choices and this ultimately affects what they imitate.
· Self-efficacy — Bandura (1977) claimed that a person’s sense of their own effectiveness (or ‘efficacy’) influences what they ultimately achieve. If you believe that you cannot jump over a two-metre hurdle, this will affect the way you approach the task and thus what you achieve. Your sense of self efficacy is an important personality trait derived from direct and indirect experience.
Evaluation of Bandura’s theory:
Strengths:
· The theory is successful in explaining aspects of behaviour, although there are other aspects of behaviour that are not covered by the social learning approaches.
· Well supported by research evidence:
Bandura’s theory consists of testable propositions which means that the validity of the concepts can be demonstrated.
Numerous ways to apply theory to real life situations.
Limitations:
· Methodological problems
Research generally conducted in contrived laboratory environments.
Behaviour may be the effects of demand characteristics.
· Lack of detail and cohesiveness as an account of personality development.
Sketchy on how we influence our environment and make choices
· As an explanation of the fairly coherent, usually consistent, patterns of behaviour that characterise personality the theory is not successful.
· Alternative perspectives abound:
E.g. Biological perspectives – Eysenck’s (1963) in which he suggested three main types of personality dimensions:
Intropvert / Extrovert
Neurotic / stable
Normality / Pychoticism
· Thomas and Chess (1980) demonstrated that babies are born with certain characteristic patterns of emotional response or temperament which develop in childhood, and these traits tend to endure throughout life. Temperament interacts with life experience to produce adult personality.
Situationalism:
Mischel (1968) argues that ‘personality’ is not a consistent set of predictable behaviours but a response that will vary widely according to different situations.
Others claim that humans have several sub personalities. The exact nature and function of these sub personalities is yet to be revealed but rowan calls for a redical re-think of our current understanding of the concept of personality.
Evaluation of Mischel’s theory
Whilst we may not be entirely consistent across every situation, and may act ‘out of character’ occasionally, that does not mean that there is not a basic set of behaviours that characterise us – and which we display on most occasions.
To suggest that we only respond to situations doesn’t allow for individual responses that are at odds with the situational requirements. The anti conformist who refuses to do what everyone else does, the eccentric who doesn’t understand why everyone needs to behave in a similar manner, individualists who can afford not to care about what other people think or expect and simply do what they want to do, are all examples of people whose personalities transcend situational determinants. And we all sometimes do something just for the hell of it.
Mischel pointed out that the reason we may think that personality is consistent is because we tend to see people in similar situations, and offer excuses for occasional lapses. One advantage of Mischel’s theory, therefore, is that it can explain personality inconsistency.
A further reason why we think of personality as being consistent is because that is the way our minds are organized. The notion of consistency is a useful tool for organizing our perceptions about others and ourselves, and it allows us to be able to make predictions about subsequent behaviour. We all intuitively recognize the situational element whenever we say, ‘She is never late except when her children are ill’. However, Mischel suggests that this is a ‘personality paradox’, because we think that we and others have consistent personalities but this is not true.
Behaviour specificity
Mischel used the term ‘behaviour specificity’ to describe how the choice of how to behave is determined by the specific situation in which a person finds themselves, It is determined by past experiences of reward and punishment. Certain behaviours are rewarded in certain situations but not in other situations, so that the probabilities are altered from situation to situation. Mischel’s theory is an example of the social learning approach because it suggests that we learn through selective reinforcement — we learn that certain behaviours are most appropriate or successful in certain situations. This leads us to behave in the same way in those situations, but not in the same way in other situations.
This is similar to the concept of ‘context-dependent learning’ (or retrieval): things that are learned in one situation are more easily remembered when the circumstances are the same.
Mischel and Peake’s (1982) Carleton Study
Interactions between person variables and the situation:
Mischel (1973) introduced a second strand to his theory: “Person variables” These include the following:
Competencies: Skills, problem solving strategies, concepts about the world based on experiences.
Encoding strategies and personal constructs:
Attention strategies and individual schemas.
Expectancies:
Expectancies based on past experiences with similar situations.
Subjective values
Ones own personal values.
Self regulating systems and plans:
Using past experience to determine future goals and plans.
Evaluation: Mischel’s Situationalist perspective
Limitations:
Social learning accounts deny free will.
People are actually more consistent.
Suggests that personality traits do influence behaviour.
Strengths:
Telling it like it is.
A combined approach:
Mischel and Shoda (1998) suggest its possible to combine situationalism and consistency. People are consistent in their situational differences i.e. you may be shy in a large group of strangers but not with your friends. You always behave in a particular way in particular situations thus you are consistent, but also exhibit behavioural specificity.
Consistency versus situationalism:
Buss (1989) propose that situational factors will be strong in situations which are novel, formal, brief and where there is little choice in how to behave.
In situations which are more informal, longer in duration and where one is more free to act according to personal inclination, then dispositional factors will outweigh situational factors.
References of note:
Jarvis (2000) - Freud did not intend the idea of personality
structures to suggest real entities; “…he was not literally dividing the mind into three parts, but was describing the experience of being pulled in different directions by conflicting influences.”
Freud (1909) - Case of little Hans and a documented
Oedipus conflict in a little boy (Little Hans) where he competed for his mother’s affection with his father and sister.
Myers and Brewin (1994) - Studied repressors and found that :
Repressors are low on anxiety and high on defensiveness;
Took much longer to recall childhood memories than other personality types.
Therefore suggesting there is a tendency for some personality types to repress memories rather than others.
Bandura and Walters (1963) - Developed a theory of personality
development based on the principles of social learning theory. According to this view, all aspects of personality are learned. A child may learn novel behaviours through direct or indirect reinforcement, or through punishment. Punishment reduces the probability that a behaviour will be repeated. Subsequently, personality characteristics that are in the child’s repertoire may be strengthened or weakened depending on whether the child is indirectly rewarded or punished
Bandura (1965) - Demonstrated the difference between
learning and performance. If children were offered rewards after the observation of a model, then they repeated the model’s behaviour even if they had originally seen the model punished. This shows that what is learned is (a) a behaviour and (b) the expectation of reward or punishment. The latter affects the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.
Walters and Thomas (1963) - Demonstrated how someone will learn to
reduce rather than produce behaviour. Here participants were paired with experimental confederates and told to give the learner a shock following each error that was made on a learning task. After each error, the participant was given the opportunity to select the level of shock to use for the next trial. Prior to the experiment all participants had been shown a film. Those participants who watched a violent scene were found to select higher shock intensities than those watched a non-violent movie scene. Bandura and Walters explained this in terms of ‘disinhibition’. The participants observed socially unacceptable behaviour in the film and this weakened the pro-social behaviour they had previously learned.
Eysenck’s (1963) - Biological perspectives –in which he
suggested three main types of personality dimensions: Intropvert / Extrovert; Neurotic / stable; Normality / Pychoticism.
Thomas and Chess (1980) - Demonstrated that babies are born with
certain characteristic patterns of emotional response or temperament which develop in childhood, and these traits tend to endure throughout life. Temperament interacts with life experience to produce adult personality.
Mischel (1968) - Argues that ‘personality’ is not a consistent
set of predictable behaviours but a response that will vary widely according to different situations.
Concepts to note:
Define these terms:
· personality
· psychoanalytical / psychodynamic theory
o ego
o superego
o id
o erogenous zones
o anal stage
o oral stage
o phallic stage
o genital stage
o morality principle
o pleasure principle
o reality principle
o defence mechanism
o libido
o Eros
o Thantos
o Sublimation
· Empirical
· Situationalism
· Social Learning Theory
o Reinforcement
o Vicarious reinforcement
o Direct reinforcement
o Reciprocal determinism
o Self-efficacy
o behaviour specificity
What do they say or do?
· Bandura
· Freud
· Mischel
· Myers and Brewin
· Skinner.
Gender Development (A2)
Personality Development.
In order to understand this topic fully you should have an understanding of behaviourist and social learning theory, psychodynamic theory, and a basic appreciation of evolutionary ideas.
What is gender:
In society
A set of culturally defined expectations that describe how males and females should think, act, and feel
= Gender Role
There are beliefs about the behaviour and attitudes typical of and appropriate for males and females
= Gender Role Stereotyping
There are beliefs about differences between the sexes
= Gender / sex difference
Individuals are treated differently according to sex
= Sex typing / Gender typing
Individuals…
Are usually biologically of one sex or another
= Sexual Identity
Feel themselves to be either male or female
= Gender Identity
May understand and accept different roles for males and females
= Gender role identity
May behave in ways which are typical for a particular gender
= Gender Role Identity
Often have preferences about the gender of their sexual partners
= Sexual Orientation
Sex is the biological differences between males and females.
Gender is the psychological differences between them.
By the age of three, children have a good idea of their own and other peoples gender identities. Schemas of each child being gradually adapted over time to ensure understanding.
Gender Constancy
Jean Piaget states that children use appearance as the main feature in understanding objects properties. Since its appearance is so important to children it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they believed their gender could change whenever their appearance did.
Sometime after their third birthday children grasp that their own sex won’t change, but its not until age 5 that they realise that other peoples wont either. This is the stage of gender stability. The realisation that gender remains constant, even when external features change e.g. hair length.
Social Learning Theory:
Direct re-inforcement can shape appropriate or inappropriate gender behaviour.
Parental praise acts as a powerful re-inforcer, encouraging similar behaviour in future.
Direct reinforcement:
Influence of parents:
Children learn gender appropriate and gender inappropriate behaviour through the application of reward and punishment.
Much direct reinforcement is unconscious.
Smith and Lloyd (1978) videotaped women playing with a 4 month old baby. The baby was dressed either as a boy or a girl and was introduced with an appropriate name. There were seven toys present. They found that each woman’s choice of toy varied with the perceived gender of the infant. Women also responded differently with gross motor activity from boys and girls. In other words women were reinforcing gender stereotypes, probably with very little conscious thought.
It is possible however, that the women displayed demand characteristics of the experiment – they only had one clue to guide their behaviour which was the apparent gender of the infant.
In real life parents behaviour will be affected by many other factors and thus people might behave in a les stereotyped fashion.
Influence of peers:
Peers are also important in this process of direct gender behaviour reinforcement.
Lamb and Roopnarine (1979) observed a group of nursery schoolchildren that found the children generally reinforced peers for a gender appropriate play (By giving them more attention or imitating them) and were quick to criticise gender inappropriate play.
Indirect and Vicarious reinforcement
Social learning theorists stress the importance of observation as a means of social learning. The media contains countless such images. Thus if you are in some way rewarded for indirectly imitating behaviour of a set gender you may repeat this action, similarly should you be punished in some way you may refrain from this course of action in future.
Even if children do not acquire gender roles totally in this way its difficult to believe that they do not gain some impressions by being exposed to these sorts of stereotypes in the media.
Cultural attitudes are conveyed through stereotypes. Our society has many persistent gender stereotypes. E.g. a typical male is assertive, independent, and good at maths. A typical female is dependant, relatively passive and good at verbal tasks.
· Williams (1985) Notel / Multitel experiment shows the impact and effects of media on gender roles.
o Natural experiment;
o Residents of a small Canadian town received TV for the first time;
o Town is called ‘Notel’ nearby town with TV being named ‘Multitel’
o Used both subject and control to asses the impact of TV on local behaviour.
o Observed for period of 2 years.
o Findings were that Notel gender stereotypes became more traditional with gender role attitudes;
o Williams suggested that US TV portrays men and women in traditional roles and this influenced the gender role attitudes of children;
o He felt that the effects of TV were stronger in developing countries where children have relatively less information to influence their attitudes, whereas children in the developed world would be less influenced by TV stereotypes.
Leary et al. (1982) found that children who watched TV frequently were more likely to hold stereotypical ideas about gender and more likely to conform to gender-role preferences of a culturally appropriate nature. N.B. Correlation does not mean Causation.
Other studies have found gender stereotypes in children’s books. E.g. Crabb and Bielawski (1994) compared books from 1938 and 1989 in terms of how they represented the way men and women use equipment such as washing machines, lawn mowers and so on and found relatively little change
Social Cognitive Theory:
Portrays the child as a passive part of the process of gender identity development.
Individual motivation, self regulation, and cognitive processes play a crucial role in gender identity development.
Three influence sources are claimed to affect gender development. That is:
· Modelling; - They acquire knowledge of stereotypes
by observing others.
· Enactive experience; - As soon as the child begins to develop gender
related behaviours then this is selectively reinforced. This explains why opposite sex behaviour is not imitated, despite frequent exposure. This leads to ‘outcome expectancies’ for the individual. These form the cognitive part of the theory.
· Direct tuition. - Parents reinforce gender behaviours through direct
tuition. i.e. this is or is not apt. Fathers are even more likely to encourage apt behaviour and discourage inapt. behaviours (Lee and Fagot 1997)
Bussey and Bandura (1992) has a process of independent self evaluation of how children themselves feel when engaged in either gender apt. or cross gender play.
· By age 4 girls and boys showed opposite preferences for toys based on gender stereotypes. Bandura concluded that early in life there are sanctions against cross-gender behaviour and they start to regulate their own behaviour accordingly.
· N.B. In studies such as this we must take every effort to avoid the inclusion of demand characteristics within the experiment.
Evaluation of Social Learning Theory:
Social learning theory claims:
However:
Social factors do influence children’s knowledge and understanding
These are also influenced by biological differences such as hormone levels and maturational states
Parental gender-role behaviour will be socialised into their children
No link was found in one study between strength of gender behaviour between parents and their children. But different levels of enforcement of social rules.
The child is fairly passive absorber of external influences
Children are actively involved in their own socialisation, driven by emotional and motivational as well as cognitive states.
Strengths
Reducing gender-role stereotypes.
Explains cultural differences:
Whiting and Edwards (1988):
Examined 11 different cultures and concluded that “We are the company we keep.” However, the general principle is that any behaviour which increases an individual’s survival and reproduction is desirable and ‘adaptive’. Any gender behaviour that promotes survival is likely to be retained in an animal’s repertoire.
Limitations:
Alternative perspectives:
Research has demonstrated the importance of biological factors in gender role development, which means that social learning theory is not a sufficient explanation of gender-role development on its own.
Conflicting evidence:
Some evidence conflicts with the empirical data outlined above. E.g. Jacklin and Maccoby’s (1978) study found that boys and girls are not treated differently in terms of the kinds of gender reinforcements they receive.
Daglish (1977) found that parents who exhibited more gender-stereotypical behaviour did not necessarily have children who were equally gender-stereotyped, whereas social learning theory would predict such a link.
Artificial research:
Research is largely removed from natural situations (Katz 1987) and overlooks the fact that children may actually pay little attention to adult models of gender behaviour, especially when they are young.
Adevelopmental
This theory does not explain why children’s behaviour changes as they get older, yet there is much evidence to demonstrate that this is the case. As we will see when looking at cognitive-developmental theories.
Cognitive-developmental theories (e.g. Kohlberg’s Theory):
Childrens experience of gender begins with a label. This expands and eventually they are able to conserve gender in the same way that they learn how to conserve number
Lawrence J. Kohlberg also offered a theory of how children learn about their own gender. This is a development of Piaget’s ideas and comprises the three stages shown below:
Age
Stage of understanding of gender
Description
2-3 years
Gender Identity
Child recognises that she is a boy or a girl.
3-7 years
Gender Stability
Awareness that gender is fixed. The child accepts that males remain male and females remain female.
7-12 years
Gender Consistency
Children recognise that superficial changes in appearance or activities do not alter gender. Even when a girl wears jeans or plays football etc. a child’s gender remains constant.
These three stages can be observed in children both in the west and in other countries and may well be universal.
Empirical support for Kohlberg’s theory.
Slabley and Frey (1975) tested children from 2 years and found that they did not develop a sense of gender constancy until about seven years. This is required for a sense of gender appropriate behaviour. However, western research shows that younger children can acquire gender constancy about themselves sooner than they can about others.
Shortly after gender constancy has developed rigid rules are applied as to what is regarded as their appropriate own behaviour as a member of their own sex.
Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory:
Kohlberg’s Explanation:
Evaluation:
Offers a stage theory about a child’s understanding about sex and gender roles.
Changes may be more subtle and gradual than is explained by stage theory
Understanding about sex and gender roles develop parallel to the child’s cognitive development.
Slabey and Freey’s (1975) research findings support this claim.
Kohlberg sees gender roles being the result, not the cause, of acquiring ones gender identity.
Behaviourists see gender roles emerging as a result of reinforcement and identification with other members of ones own sex.
Kohlberg says the child is active in socialising itself.
Behaviourists claim that other people socialise the child.
Disagreement exists between psychologists over ages and stages formation times.
Bem (1989) showed photographs of real children, first nude with full sexual anatomy visible, and then dressed in gender inappropriate clothing, almost half of the 3 to 5 year olds knew that the child’s gender had not changed.
Universal sequence of development appears to occur in this case. Munroe et al. (1984) observed the same sequence of identity, stability and constancy in children from many different cultures. This suggests that the sequence is biologically controlled because people in different cultures will have different social experiences.
However, Martin and Little (1990) suggest that Kohlberg was wrong in suggesting that children do not begin collecting information about appropriate gender behaviour before they achieve constancy. They measured gender concepts, sex typed preferences and stereotyped knowledge in children from 3 to 5 years. Gender concept measures included ability to identify and discriminate sexes, understanding gender group membership, temporal stability of gender and gender consistency over situational changes.
Gender Schema Theory:
A schema is an idea about what something is, what it is like, what it does, how it works, what it can be used for. Schemas (Or schemata) can be strategies that help us interpret information
Gender schema theory proposes that as soon as the child has discovered his or her own sex (Basic gender identity), he or she will actively seek out information to help enrich an apt. gender schema.
This departs from Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s view that children must have gender constancy or consistency in order to develop gender typing.
N.B. Gender consistency and constancy is the same thing…
Martin and Halverson’s (1983) alternative cognitive development approach differs from Kohlberg insofar as they suggested that children are motivated to begin to acquire knowledge about their gender at a much younger age.
The term Schema refers to concept clusters that a child acquires in relation to the world around them. Gender schemas are theories about how men and women should behave which help children both to organise and to interpret their experience. It is the readiness to categorise gender information that drives the development of gender.
Empirical Evidence for gender schema theory.
Support for the importance of in group schemas is related to how such schemas affect the processing of information.
Libden and Signorella (1993) showed young children pictures of adults engaged in stereotypical opposite-gender activity (Such as a male nurse).
They found that the children disregarded the information missed the point or forgot it completely, insisting that the nurse was a woman.
This supports the notion that children only notice information that is consistent with their existing stereotypes and underlines the importance of stereotypes in acquiring further knowledge.
This is again ‘confirmatory bias’.
Evaluation of Gender Schema Theory:
Theory:
Evaluation:
Gender socialisation begins with inflexible gender stereotypes.
This is true in the west. Other societies (For example the Arapesh, studied by Margaret Mead) may not have rigid gender stereotypes.
Schema Theory assumes that children need categorical rules to make sense of that world
This needs further cross cultural research to verify.
Children actively construct their own gender concepts
This is true where there are rigid stereotypes to adapt.
There is a relationship between awareness of ones own gender and behaving appropriately
There’s little actual evidence for any such relationship. Children’s state of awareness and what they do are often quite contradictory.
The progress of the acquisition of gender based
Also:
The persistence of stereotypes may be a problem in that people are more likely to remember information that is consistent with their schemas and to forget or distort gender inconsistent information.
Research support such as Fagot (1985) shows that teachers tend to reinforce ‘feminine’ behaviours in both boys and girls, however, as both display both behaviours its suggested that boys gender schema overrides the reinforcement.
Gender awareness and gender typed behaviour research fails to find anything but a weak connection between gender awareness and gender typed behaviour (Bee 1999).
In terms of resolving contradictions, Stangor and Ruble (1989) suggest a way to resolve contradictions between the two types of theories. Gender schemas and gender consistency may represent different and complementary processes that occur during development. They suggest that gender schemas have two separate aspects:
The schema contains knowledge about gender appropriate differences in such areas as activities, behaviours and attire. Such knowledge is acquired early and facilitates memory about gender schema.
The schema encompasses the degree to which the knowledge is used to guide behaviour i.e. how motivated a child is to repeat certain behaviours.
Biological theories:
Although the syllabus does not specify biological theories of gender development in order to assist in evaluating behaviourist and cognitive developmental theories you will find it useful to have some knowledge about this approach.
Psychodynamic theory:
According to Freud and his pupil C G Jung, the child driven to identify with its same-sex parent in order to resolve Electra and Oedipal conflicts caused by its feelings of attraction towards the other parent. As a result of the identification process, it acquires its gender identity, and gender roles follow as the child matures. Same sex parents become role models.
However, how do these complexes develop in single parent families?
Evolutionary views:
If gender-related behaviour promotes reproductive success and survival long enough to maximise it, then it may become naturally selected and stay as part of the human behavioural repertoire.
The influence of hormones:
Male hormones given to pregnant women (To prevent miscarriage) were found to cause female foetuses to develop some male sexual characteristics and subsequently behave in a more ‘Tomboyish’ manner.
Beach (1974) found that female dogs that were exposed pre-natal to male hormones were subsequently likely to urinate in the manner of males.
Similarly, Young et al. (1964) found that female monkeys exposed to male hormones during the critical pre-natal period were more likely to engage in rough and tumble play in their early years. There is also some evidence of the same effects on human behaviour.
This treatment was stopped when it became apparent that the mothers gave birth to genetic females with male genitals. The girls received corrective surgery, but appeared to behave in a more tomboyish fashion when assessed later in childhood. - Money and Ehrhardt (1972)
Evaluation of Gender Schema Theory:
References of note:
Smith and Lloyd (1978) - Videotaped women playing with a
4 month old baby. The baby was dressed either as a boy or a girl and was introduced with an appropriate name. There were seven toys present. They found that each woman’s choice of toy varied with the perceived gender of the infant. Women also responded differently with gross motor activity from boys and girls.
Lamb and Roopnarine (1979) - Observed a group of nursery
schoolchildren that found the children generally reinforced peers for a gender appropriate play (By giving them more attention or imitating them) and were quick to criticise gender inappropriate play.
Williams (1985) - Notel / Multitel experiment shows
the impact and effects of media on gender roles.
Leary et al. (1982) - Found that children who watched TV
frequently were more likely to hold stereotypical ideas about gender and more likely to conform to gender-role preferences of a culturally appropriate nature.
N.B. Correlation does not mean Causation.
Crabb and Bielawski (1994) - Found gender stereotypes in
children’s books. E.g. compared books from 1938 and 1989 in terms of how they represented the way men and women use equipment such as washing machines, lawn mowers and so on and found relatively little change
Lee and Fagot (1997) - Example case of how parents
reinforce gender behaviours through direct tuition. i.e. this is or is not apt. Fathers are even more likely to encourage apt. behaviour and discourage inapt. behaviours.
Bussey and Bandura (1992) - Has a process of independent self
evaluation of how children themselves feel when engaged in either gender apt. or cross gender play. By age 4 girls and boys showed opposite preferences for toys based on gender stereotypes. Bandura concluded that early in life there are sanctions against cross-gender behaviour and they start to regulate their own behaviour accordingly.
N.B. In studies such as this we must take every effort to avoid the inclusion of demand characteristics within the experiment.
Whiting and Edwards (1988): - Examined 11 different cultures and
concluded that “We are the company we keep.” However, the general principle is that any behaviour which increases an individual’s survival and reproduction is desirable and ‘adaptive’. Any gender behaviour that promotes survival is likely to be retained in an animal’s repertoire.
Slabley and Frey (1975) - Tested children from 2 years and
found that they did not develop a sense of gender constancy until about seven years. This is required for a sense of gender appropriate behaviour. However, western research shows that younger children can acquire gender constancy about themselves sooner than they can about others.
Bem (1989) - Showed photographs of real
children, first nude with full sexual anatomy visible, and then dressed in gender inappropriate clothing, almost half of the 3 to 5 year olds knew that the child’s gender had not changed.
Munroe et al. (1984) - Observed the same sequence of
identity, stability and constancy in children from many different cultures. This suggests that the sequence is biologically controlled because people in different cultures will have different social experiences.
Martin and Little (1990) - Suggest that Kohlberg was wrong in
suggesting that children do not begin collecting information about appropriate gender behaviour before they achieve constancy. They measured gender concepts, sex typed preferences and stereotyped knowledge in children from 3 to 5 years. Gender concept measures included ability to identify and discriminate sexes, understanding gender group membership, temporal stability of gender and gender consistency over situational changes.
Martin and Halverson’s (1983) - Alternative cognitive development
approach differs from Kohlberg insofar as they suggested that children are motivated to begin to acquire knowledge about their gender at a much younger age.
Libden and Signorella (1993) - Showed young children pictures of
adults engaged in stereotypical opposite-gender activity (Such as a male nurse). They found that the children disregarded the information missed the point or forgot it completely, insisting that the nurse was a woman.
Fagot (1985) - Shows that teachers tend to reinforce
‘feminine’ behaviours in both boys and girls, however, as both display both behaviours its suggested that boys gender schema overrides the reinforcement.
Stangor and Ruble (1989) - Suggest a way to resolve
contradictions between the two types of theories. Gender schemas and gender consistency may represent different and complementary processes that occur during development.
Beach (1974) - Found that female dogs that were
exposed pre-natal to male hormones were subsequently likely to urinate in the manner of males.
Young et al. (1964) - Found that female monkeys exposed
to male hormones during the critical pre-natal period were more likely to engage in rough and tumble play in their early years. There is also some evidence of the same effects on human behaviour.
Money and Ehrhardt (1972) - Practices cited in Young et al. (1964)
This treatment was stopped when it became apparent that the mothers gave birth to genetic females with male genitals. The girls received corrective surgery, but appeared to behave in a more tomboyish fashion when assessed later in childhood.
Concepts to note:
Define these terms:
· Basic Gender Identity;
· Cognitive-Developmental Theory;
· Counter-Stereotype;
· Electra and Oedipal conflicts;
· Gender Constancy;
· Gender Role;
· Gender Role Stereotype;
· Gender Schema Theory;
· Gender Stability;
· Gender Typing;
· Sex Typing;
· Vicarious Reinforcement;
· Social cognitive theory:
o Modelling
o Enactive Experience
§ Outcome expectancies
o Direct tuition
What do they say or do?
· Bern
· Kohlberg
· Liben and Signorella
· Martin and Little
· Paiget
· Slabey and Frey
In order to understand this topic fully you should have an understanding of behaviourist and social learning theory, psychodynamic theory, and a basic appreciation of evolutionary ideas.
What is gender:
In society
A set of culturally defined expectations that describe how males and females should think, act, and feel
= Gender Role
There are beliefs about the behaviour and attitudes typical of and appropriate for males and females
= Gender Role Stereotyping
There are beliefs about differences between the sexes
= Gender / sex difference
Individuals are treated differently according to sex
= Sex typing / Gender typing
Individuals…
Are usually biologically of one sex or another
= Sexual Identity
Feel themselves to be either male or female
= Gender Identity
May understand and accept different roles for males and females
= Gender role identity
May behave in ways which are typical for a particular gender
= Gender Role Identity
Often have preferences about the gender of their sexual partners
= Sexual Orientation
Sex is the biological differences between males and females.
Gender is the psychological differences between them.
By the age of three, children have a good idea of their own and other peoples gender identities. Schemas of each child being gradually adapted over time to ensure understanding.
Gender Constancy
Jean Piaget states that children use appearance as the main feature in understanding objects properties. Since its appearance is so important to children it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they believed their gender could change whenever their appearance did.
Sometime after their third birthday children grasp that their own sex won’t change, but its not until age 5 that they realise that other peoples wont either. This is the stage of gender stability. The realisation that gender remains constant, even when external features change e.g. hair length.
Social Learning Theory:
Direct re-inforcement can shape appropriate or inappropriate gender behaviour.
Parental praise acts as a powerful re-inforcer, encouraging similar behaviour in future.
Direct reinforcement:
Influence of parents:
Children learn gender appropriate and gender inappropriate behaviour through the application of reward and punishment.
Much direct reinforcement is unconscious.
Smith and Lloyd (1978) videotaped women playing with a 4 month old baby. The baby was dressed either as a boy or a girl and was introduced with an appropriate name. There were seven toys present. They found that each woman’s choice of toy varied with the perceived gender of the infant. Women also responded differently with gross motor activity from boys and girls. In other words women were reinforcing gender stereotypes, probably with very little conscious thought.
It is possible however, that the women displayed demand characteristics of the experiment – they only had one clue to guide their behaviour which was the apparent gender of the infant.
In real life parents behaviour will be affected by many other factors and thus people might behave in a les stereotyped fashion.
Influence of peers:
Peers are also important in this process of direct gender behaviour reinforcement.
Lamb and Roopnarine (1979) observed a group of nursery schoolchildren that found the children generally reinforced peers for a gender appropriate play (By giving them more attention or imitating them) and were quick to criticise gender inappropriate play.
Indirect and Vicarious reinforcement
Social learning theorists stress the importance of observation as a means of social learning. The media contains countless such images. Thus if you are in some way rewarded for indirectly imitating behaviour of a set gender you may repeat this action, similarly should you be punished in some way you may refrain from this course of action in future.
Even if children do not acquire gender roles totally in this way its difficult to believe that they do not gain some impressions by being exposed to these sorts of stereotypes in the media.
Cultural attitudes are conveyed through stereotypes. Our society has many persistent gender stereotypes. E.g. a typical male is assertive, independent, and good at maths. A typical female is dependant, relatively passive and good at verbal tasks.
· Williams (1985) Notel / Multitel experiment shows the impact and effects of media on gender roles.
o Natural experiment;
o Residents of a small Canadian town received TV for the first time;
o Town is called ‘Notel’ nearby town with TV being named ‘Multitel’
o Used both subject and control to asses the impact of TV on local behaviour.
o Observed for period of 2 years.
o Findings were that Notel gender stereotypes became more traditional with gender role attitudes;
o Williams suggested that US TV portrays men and women in traditional roles and this influenced the gender role attitudes of children;
o He felt that the effects of TV were stronger in developing countries where children have relatively less information to influence their attitudes, whereas children in the developed world would be less influenced by TV stereotypes.
Leary et al. (1982) found that children who watched TV frequently were more likely to hold stereotypical ideas about gender and more likely to conform to gender-role preferences of a culturally appropriate nature. N.B. Correlation does not mean Causation.
Other studies have found gender stereotypes in children’s books. E.g. Crabb and Bielawski (1994) compared books from 1938 and 1989 in terms of how they represented the way men and women use equipment such as washing machines, lawn mowers and so on and found relatively little change
Social Cognitive Theory:
Portrays the child as a passive part of the process of gender identity development.
Individual motivation, self regulation, and cognitive processes play a crucial role in gender identity development.
Three influence sources are claimed to affect gender development. That is:
· Modelling; - They acquire knowledge of stereotypes
by observing others.
· Enactive experience; - As soon as the child begins to develop gender
related behaviours then this is selectively reinforced. This explains why opposite sex behaviour is not imitated, despite frequent exposure. This leads to ‘outcome expectancies’ for the individual. These form the cognitive part of the theory.
· Direct tuition. - Parents reinforce gender behaviours through direct
tuition. i.e. this is or is not apt. Fathers are even more likely to encourage apt behaviour and discourage inapt. behaviours (Lee and Fagot 1997)
Bussey and Bandura (1992) has a process of independent self evaluation of how children themselves feel when engaged in either gender apt. or cross gender play.
· By age 4 girls and boys showed opposite preferences for toys based on gender stereotypes. Bandura concluded that early in life there are sanctions against cross-gender behaviour and they start to regulate their own behaviour accordingly.
· N.B. In studies such as this we must take every effort to avoid the inclusion of demand characteristics within the experiment.
Evaluation of Social Learning Theory:
Social learning theory claims:
However:
Social factors do influence children’s knowledge and understanding
These are also influenced by biological differences such as hormone levels and maturational states
Parental gender-role behaviour will be socialised into their children
No link was found in one study between strength of gender behaviour between parents and their children. But different levels of enforcement of social rules.
The child is fairly passive absorber of external influences
Children are actively involved in their own socialisation, driven by emotional and motivational as well as cognitive states.
Strengths
Reducing gender-role stereotypes.
Explains cultural differences:
Whiting and Edwards (1988):
Examined 11 different cultures and concluded that “We are the company we keep.” However, the general principle is that any behaviour which increases an individual’s survival and reproduction is desirable and ‘adaptive’. Any gender behaviour that promotes survival is likely to be retained in an animal’s repertoire.
Limitations:
Alternative perspectives:
Research has demonstrated the importance of biological factors in gender role development, which means that social learning theory is not a sufficient explanation of gender-role development on its own.
Conflicting evidence:
Some evidence conflicts with the empirical data outlined above. E.g. Jacklin and Maccoby’s (1978) study found that boys and girls are not treated differently in terms of the kinds of gender reinforcements they receive.
Daglish (1977) found that parents who exhibited more gender-stereotypical behaviour did not necessarily have children who were equally gender-stereotyped, whereas social learning theory would predict such a link.
Artificial research:
Research is largely removed from natural situations (Katz 1987) and overlooks the fact that children may actually pay little attention to adult models of gender behaviour, especially when they are young.
Adevelopmental
This theory does not explain why children’s behaviour changes as they get older, yet there is much evidence to demonstrate that this is the case. As we will see when looking at cognitive-developmental theories.
Cognitive-developmental theories (e.g. Kohlberg’s Theory):
Childrens experience of gender begins with a label. This expands and eventually they are able to conserve gender in the same way that they learn how to conserve number
Lawrence J. Kohlberg also offered a theory of how children learn about their own gender. This is a development of Piaget’s ideas and comprises the three stages shown below:
Age
Stage of understanding of gender
Description
2-3 years
Gender Identity
Child recognises that she is a boy or a girl.
3-7 years
Gender Stability
Awareness that gender is fixed. The child accepts that males remain male and females remain female.
7-12 years
Gender Consistency
Children recognise that superficial changes in appearance or activities do not alter gender. Even when a girl wears jeans or plays football etc. a child’s gender remains constant.
These three stages can be observed in children both in the west and in other countries and may well be universal.
Empirical support for Kohlberg’s theory.
Slabley and Frey (1975) tested children from 2 years and found that they did not develop a sense of gender constancy until about seven years. This is required for a sense of gender appropriate behaviour. However, western research shows that younger children can acquire gender constancy about themselves sooner than they can about others.
Shortly after gender constancy has developed rigid rules are applied as to what is regarded as their appropriate own behaviour as a member of their own sex.
Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory:
Kohlberg’s Explanation:
Evaluation:
Offers a stage theory about a child’s understanding about sex and gender roles.
Changes may be more subtle and gradual than is explained by stage theory
Understanding about sex and gender roles develop parallel to the child’s cognitive development.
Slabey and Freey’s (1975) research findings support this claim.
Kohlberg sees gender roles being the result, not the cause, of acquiring ones gender identity.
Behaviourists see gender roles emerging as a result of reinforcement and identification with other members of ones own sex.
Kohlberg says the child is active in socialising itself.
Behaviourists claim that other people socialise the child.
Disagreement exists between psychologists over ages and stages formation times.
Bem (1989) showed photographs of real children, first nude with full sexual anatomy visible, and then dressed in gender inappropriate clothing, almost half of the 3 to 5 year olds knew that the child’s gender had not changed.
Universal sequence of development appears to occur in this case. Munroe et al. (1984) observed the same sequence of identity, stability and constancy in children from many different cultures. This suggests that the sequence is biologically controlled because people in different cultures will have different social experiences.
However, Martin and Little (1990) suggest that Kohlberg was wrong in suggesting that children do not begin collecting information about appropriate gender behaviour before they achieve constancy. They measured gender concepts, sex typed preferences and stereotyped knowledge in children from 3 to 5 years. Gender concept measures included ability to identify and discriminate sexes, understanding gender group membership, temporal stability of gender and gender consistency over situational changes.
Gender Schema Theory:
A schema is an idea about what something is, what it is like, what it does, how it works, what it can be used for. Schemas (Or schemata) can be strategies that help us interpret information
Gender schema theory proposes that as soon as the child has discovered his or her own sex (Basic gender identity), he or she will actively seek out information to help enrich an apt. gender schema.
This departs from Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s view that children must have gender constancy or consistency in order to develop gender typing.
N.B. Gender consistency and constancy is the same thing…
Martin and Halverson’s (1983) alternative cognitive development approach differs from Kohlberg insofar as they suggested that children are motivated to begin to acquire knowledge about their gender at a much younger age.
The term Schema refers to concept clusters that a child acquires in relation to the world around them. Gender schemas are theories about how men and women should behave which help children both to organise and to interpret their experience. It is the readiness to categorise gender information that drives the development of gender.
Empirical Evidence for gender schema theory.
Support for the importance of in group schemas is related to how such schemas affect the processing of information.
Libden and Signorella (1993) showed young children pictures of adults engaged in stereotypical opposite-gender activity (Such as a male nurse).
They found that the children disregarded the information missed the point or forgot it completely, insisting that the nurse was a woman.
This supports the notion that children only notice information that is consistent with their existing stereotypes and underlines the importance of stereotypes in acquiring further knowledge.
This is again ‘confirmatory bias’.
Evaluation of Gender Schema Theory:
Theory:
Evaluation:
Gender socialisation begins with inflexible gender stereotypes.
This is true in the west. Other societies (For example the Arapesh, studied by Margaret Mead) may not have rigid gender stereotypes.
Schema Theory assumes that children need categorical rules to make sense of that world
This needs further cross cultural research to verify.
Children actively construct their own gender concepts
This is true where there are rigid stereotypes to adapt.
There is a relationship between awareness of ones own gender and behaving appropriately
There’s little actual evidence for any such relationship. Children’s state of awareness and what they do are often quite contradictory.
The progress of the acquisition of gender based
Also:
The persistence of stereotypes may be a problem in that people are more likely to remember information that is consistent with their schemas and to forget or distort gender inconsistent information.
Research support such as Fagot (1985) shows that teachers tend to reinforce ‘feminine’ behaviours in both boys and girls, however, as both display both behaviours its suggested that boys gender schema overrides the reinforcement.
Gender awareness and gender typed behaviour research fails to find anything but a weak connection between gender awareness and gender typed behaviour (Bee 1999).
In terms of resolving contradictions, Stangor and Ruble (1989) suggest a way to resolve contradictions between the two types of theories. Gender schemas and gender consistency may represent different and complementary processes that occur during development. They suggest that gender schemas have two separate aspects:
The schema contains knowledge about gender appropriate differences in such areas as activities, behaviours and attire. Such knowledge is acquired early and facilitates memory about gender schema.
The schema encompasses the degree to which the knowledge is used to guide behaviour i.e. how motivated a child is to repeat certain behaviours.
Biological theories:
Although the syllabus does not specify biological theories of gender development in order to assist in evaluating behaviourist and cognitive developmental theories you will find it useful to have some knowledge about this approach.
Psychodynamic theory:
According to Freud and his pupil C G Jung, the child driven to identify with its same-sex parent in order to resolve Electra and Oedipal conflicts caused by its feelings of attraction towards the other parent. As a result of the identification process, it acquires its gender identity, and gender roles follow as the child matures. Same sex parents become role models.
However, how do these complexes develop in single parent families?
Evolutionary views:
If gender-related behaviour promotes reproductive success and survival long enough to maximise it, then it may become naturally selected and stay as part of the human behavioural repertoire.
The influence of hormones:
Male hormones given to pregnant women (To prevent miscarriage) were found to cause female foetuses to develop some male sexual characteristics and subsequently behave in a more ‘Tomboyish’ manner.
Beach (1974) found that female dogs that were exposed pre-natal to male hormones were subsequently likely to urinate in the manner of males.
Similarly, Young et al. (1964) found that female monkeys exposed to male hormones during the critical pre-natal period were more likely to engage in rough and tumble play in their early years. There is also some evidence of the same effects on human behaviour.
This treatment was stopped when it became apparent that the mothers gave birth to genetic females with male genitals. The girls received corrective surgery, but appeared to behave in a more tomboyish fashion when assessed later in childhood. - Money and Ehrhardt (1972)
Evaluation of Gender Schema Theory:
References of note:
Smith and Lloyd (1978) - Videotaped women playing with a
4 month old baby. The baby was dressed either as a boy or a girl and was introduced with an appropriate name. There were seven toys present. They found that each woman’s choice of toy varied with the perceived gender of the infant. Women also responded differently with gross motor activity from boys and girls.
Lamb and Roopnarine (1979) - Observed a group of nursery
schoolchildren that found the children generally reinforced peers for a gender appropriate play (By giving them more attention or imitating them) and were quick to criticise gender inappropriate play.
Williams (1985) - Notel / Multitel experiment shows
the impact and effects of media on gender roles.
Leary et al. (1982) - Found that children who watched TV
frequently were more likely to hold stereotypical ideas about gender and more likely to conform to gender-role preferences of a culturally appropriate nature.
N.B. Correlation does not mean Causation.
Crabb and Bielawski (1994) - Found gender stereotypes in
children’s books. E.g. compared books from 1938 and 1989 in terms of how they represented the way men and women use equipment such as washing machines, lawn mowers and so on and found relatively little change
Lee and Fagot (1997) - Example case of how parents
reinforce gender behaviours through direct tuition. i.e. this is or is not apt. Fathers are even more likely to encourage apt. behaviour and discourage inapt. behaviours.
Bussey and Bandura (1992) - Has a process of independent self
evaluation of how children themselves feel when engaged in either gender apt. or cross gender play. By age 4 girls and boys showed opposite preferences for toys based on gender stereotypes. Bandura concluded that early in life there are sanctions against cross-gender behaviour and they start to regulate their own behaviour accordingly.
N.B. In studies such as this we must take every effort to avoid the inclusion of demand characteristics within the experiment.
Whiting and Edwards (1988): - Examined 11 different cultures and
concluded that “We are the company we keep.” However, the general principle is that any behaviour which increases an individual’s survival and reproduction is desirable and ‘adaptive’. Any gender behaviour that promotes survival is likely to be retained in an animal’s repertoire.
Slabley and Frey (1975) - Tested children from 2 years and
found that they did not develop a sense of gender constancy until about seven years. This is required for a sense of gender appropriate behaviour. However, western research shows that younger children can acquire gender constancy about themselves sooner than they can about others.
Bem (1989) - Showed photographs of real
children, first nude with full sexual anatomy visible, and then dressed in gender inappropriate clothing, almost half of the 3 to 5 year olds knew that the child’s gender had not changed.
Munroe et al. (1984) - Observed the same sequence of
identity, stability and constancy in children from many different cultures. This suggests that the sequence is biologically controlled because people in different cultures will have different social experiences.
Martin and Little (1990) - Suggest that Kohlberg was wrong in
suggesting that children do not begin collecting information about appropriate gender behaviour before they achieve constancy. They measured gender concepts, sex typed preferences and stereotyped knowledge in children from 3 to 5 years. Gender concept measures included ability to identify and discriminate sexes, understanding gender group membership, temporal stability of gender and gender consistency over situational changes.
Martin and Halverson’s (1983) - Alternative cognitive development
approach differs from Kohlberg insofar as they suggested that children are motivated to begin to acquire knowledge about their gender at a much younger age.
Libden and Signorella (1993) - Showed young children pictures of
adults engaged in stereotypical opposite-gender activity (Such as a male nurse). They found that the children disregarded the information missed the point or forgot it completely, insisting that the nurse was a woman.
Fagot (1985) - Shows that teachers tend to reinforce
‘feminine’ behaviours in both boys and girls, however, as both display both behaviours its suggested that boys gender schema overrides the reinforcement.
Stangor and Ruble (1989) - Suggest a way to resolve
contradictions between the two types of theories. Gender schemas and gender consistency may represent different and complementary processes that occur during development.
Beach (1974) - Found that female dogs that were
exposed pre-natal to male hormones were subsequently likely to urinate in the manner of males.
Young et al. (1964) - Found that female monkeys exposed
to male hormones during the critical pre-natal period were more likely to engage in rough and tumble play in their early years. There is also some evidence of the same effects on human behaviour.
Money and Ehrhardt (1972) - Practices cited in Young et al. (1964)
This treatment was stopped when it became apparent that the mothers gave birth to genetic females with male genitals. The girls received corrective surgery, but appeared to behave in a more tomboyish fashion when assessed later in childhood.
Concepts to note:
Define these terms:
· Basic Gender Identity;
· Cognitive-Developmental Theory;
· Counter-Stereotype;
· Electra and Oedipal conflicts;
· Gender Constancy;
· Gender Role;
· Gender Role Stereotype;
· Gender Schema Theory;
· Gender Stability;
· Gender Typing;
· Sex Typing;
· Vicarious Reinforcement;
· Social cognitive theory:
o Modelling
o Enactive Experience
§ Outcome expectancies
o Direct tuition
What do they say or do?
· Bern
· Kohlberg
· Liben and Signorella
· Martin and Little
· Paiget
· Slabey and Frey
Adolescence and the formation of Identity
Adolescence and the Formation of Identity
Adolescence is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, although it isn’t possible to define either childhood or adulthood precisely.
Childhood ends around puberty adulthood starts shortly afterwards.
In the west during the last couple of centuries economic and social conditions have demanded that more young people should be educated to meet the needs of industry and commerce. As education extended into teenage years fewer than a hundred years ago in England, a gap was created between childhood and adulthood and the young people who filled it were described as ‘adolescents’. This appears to be a cultural creation amongst western societies.
We will now study major explanations for psychological changes during adolescence and weather they inevitably culminate in conflict.
Blos’ Psychoanalytic view
Thirty years ago Blos’ reinterpreted Freud’s Views of the genital stage. He thought it was a time when young people started to reassert themselves and challenge parents in order to establish their own individuality. Since such challenges produce conflict the young person seeks the company of others in a similar position.
Blos (1967) took up Freud’s ideas and suggested that adolescence was like a second period of ‘Individuation’, the first being when the infant becomes a self reliant toddler.
Adolescents become separated from parents, according to Blos, results in an emotional emptiness that is satisfied by group experiences.
The striving for independence may also lead to regression to more childlike behaviour, which Blos regarded as a healthy and necessary response. Regression may be to an infantile state in order to receive substitute parenting, or regression may take the form of hero worship that can act as a substitute parent. Blos also believed that rebellion was important as a means of ego defence in order to prevent adolescents becoming dependant on their parents again.
More recent research suggests that autonomy develops best when it is accompanied by continuing attachment to parents. Independence and connectedness leading to healthy development. Connectedness does not mean dependence but describes how independence can only occur when an individual continues to have a secure base, in the same way that infant exploration is related to a secure base and secure attachment. - Ainsworth et al. (1970)
Adolescents who are securely attached to their parents have greater self esteem better emotional adjustment, are les likely to engage in problem behaviours and are physically healthier. Cooper et al (1998)
Erikson’s account of Psychosocial development
Ericson (1968) claims that psychosexual factors are more influential for personality growth than sexual urges identified by Freud. He replaces Freud’s four stages of personality development during childhood and adolescence with eight stages, covering the whole of ones life.
In order for our personalities to reach psychological and emotional maturity he claims we have to resolve certain crises or dilemmas in each of these stages. The extent to which each of these is resolved before passing to the next stage will determine the adults personality. With adolescence, children’s physical appearance and abilities change as does the way they think about the world. Their earlier ideas about their identity must change accordingly. The task of adolescence is to establish this sense of identity and overcome the role confusion about whom they are and where they are going.
Erikson (1968) suggested that these conflicts were psychosocial rather than Freud’s psychosocial crises – resolving social rather than physical conflicts. During adolescence the crisis to be resolved is the conflict between identity and role confusion.
If the crisis is resolved the outcome is a ‘Subjective sense of an invigorating sameness and continuity.’ This enables and individual to cope well with the demands of life and importantly to be able to form adult relationships. If the crisis is not resolved, the result is identity confusion, when an adolescent remains uncertain and usable to make commitments to life choices. Erikson identified four kinds of behaviour related to identity confusion:
Negative Identity:
Adopting an extreme identity, such as taking on the role of a delinquent or a drug abuser, provides some sense of control and independence from others.
Intimacy
The Adolescent avoids intimacy because of fear of losing their own fragile sense of identity. This may result in isolation or the formation of stereotyped relationships, such as the kind of pop star worship characteristic of some teenagers.
Time perspective:
The role-confused adolescent avoids making plans for the future because such plans mean thinking about the future and the complexities of being an adult, all of which provoke feelings of anxiety.
Industry
Adolescents find it difficult to get their level of ‘industry’ right. They either compulsively overwork or they find it hard to concentrate.
During the stage of adolescence, role confusion is healthy. The adolescent considers different roles, what job do I want to do, what beliefs should I hold and so on. During this period of confusion the adolescent will experience a ‘psychological moratorium’ – A temporary suspension of activity. Role sampling occurs here till we find the ‘best fit’ for our lives.
Support for Erikson’s theory:
Empirical support:
Some exists, most notably Marcia’s research. This was based on his own experience as a psychoanalyst working with adolescents and adults. He also based his developmental ideas on extensive interviews with Dakota Indians.
Adolescence as crisis:
Smith and Crawford (1986) found that 60 percent of students in secondary school reported having suicidal thoughts. This is contradicted by other studies.
Challenges to Erikson’s theory:
Andocentric:
This theory is written by a man from more of a male perspective and therefore is thought to be andocentric
Euro centrism:
Identity development is important to individualistic societies but may be unimportant to collectivist groups that emphasise the importance of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. Kroger (1996) suggests that identity and role choice only occur in industrialised societies where there are choices.
Historical Bias:
Erikson’s conception that identity formation is related to role decisions may be dated. The notion of finding a ‘Job for life’ may be less true than 40 years ago.
Adolescence is not a time of turmoil:
Erikson’s theory was based on life histories of abnormal individuals.
Evaluation of the Psychosocial Approach.
Coleman (1974) challenges the notion that identity is fluid during adolescence, claiming that instead the adolescents sense of present identity is fairly stable, whereas ideas about future identity are likely to be confused. The idea of identity as a unitary concept has also been questioned .
Archer (1982) found that most adolescents had different identity statuses for occupational choice, gender role and religious and political beliefs.
Marcia’s Theory:
Marcia (1966) interviewed adolescents to establish the extent to which their feelings of identity were established. He suggested four stages:
Each of the stages begins with a ‘crisis’ ‘What should I be thinking, feeling, and doing about this or that issue?’ Having evaluated or re-evaluated their position, the individual then becomes committed to it. The below table summarises the main stages of identity formation during adolescence in terms of crisis and commitment.
Evaluation: Marcia’s approach:
Meilman (1978) and Waterman (1982) tested for the existence of each of Marcia’s stages and found that there is not sufficient conclusive evidence since the estimates of the percentage of people placed in each stage varies more than could be expected by chance.
Studies of other social influences (e.g. parenting styles) are unconvincing. Therefore they select cultural and social concerns at the time they were growing up.
Oversimplification is another concern. The idea of a single identity may be an oversimplification. Archer (1982) used Marcia’s interview technique and found that only 5 % of those interviewed were classed in the same identity status for:
Occupational Choice;
Gender Role;
Religious values;
Political Ideology;
90% were in 2 or 3 different stages across all 4 areas.
Evaluation of the psychosocial approach:
· Received some support from empirical studies of Marcia and others;
o Possible empirical bias due to all being middle class male Americans, therefore do not generalise;
· Coleman (1974) challenges the notion that identity is fluid during adolescence - claims that adolescence is fairly stable, whereas ideas about future identity are likely to be confused;
· Idea of identity as a unitary concept has also been questioned.
o Archer (1982) found that most adolescents had different identity statuses for occupational choice, gender role and religious and political beliefs.
Storm and Stress, or not?
Some adolescents it appears experience a difficult time during adolescence, less true in some cultures than in others and almost entirely true in western cultures.
Rutter (1976) reported that adolescent turmoil was rare:
· Isle of Wight study;
· 2000 participants
· 14-15 year olds and parents and teachers.
· Clinical depression rarely found
· 1 in 5 reported often feeling miserable and depressed, therefore leading psychologists participating to question whether this period in life is any different to any other.
Cross Cultural Evidence:
Culture = everything we have learned about growing up in our society.
All differences can be simplified into ‘norms’ and ‘values’ that are relative to a given culture.
Many people argue that it is impossible to try and understand and interpret the psychology or practices of someone from a different cultural experience.
To do so you would require one of two approaches:
Researchers must suspend all their own cultures norm as and values and become ‘value free’ in order to make an unbiased, objective observation.
They must become integrated into a new culture and try to take on its norms and values, so as to understand it ‘from the inside.’
Both of the above have been attempted it is very unlikely that they were very successful.
Broffenbrenner (1974) compared child-rearing patterns in the USSR and the USA and found that Russian adolescents showed more pro-social behaviour and less of the antisocial behaviour common in American adolescents. He argued that USSR adolescents had more opportunity to integrate into society than USA youths whom are segregated and discouraged from entering adulthood.
Evaluation: Storm and Stress in adolescence.
What causes storm and Stress?
Western culture
Does occur in any society however, it may be due to the way in which adults handle adolescence rather than as a consequence of the stage of transition itself.
Accuracy of cross cultural research:
We have to be cautious when considering cross cultural research;
Freeman (1983) argued that one such study had one woman admitting she had not been honest about her sexual experiences.
Explaining Adolescent Turmoil:
Being no longer a child yet ‘officially’ not an adult can lead to anxiety, storm and stress.
Coleman’s Focal Theory of Adolescence:
Coleman (1974) argues that by concentrating on one problem at a time they pass through adolescence without any major ‘storm and Stress’ – i.e. focal theory.
Evaluation of Focal Theory:
Research support:
Coleman and Hendry (1990):
800 boys and girls
Aged 11 to 17 years
Questioned about topics that were anxiety provoking;
Self image;
Living alone;
Occupational choice
Peer sexual and parenting relationships.
Each issue had a different distribution curve, peaking in importance over a particular age
Practical Applications:
Coleman’s theory has clear practical applications related to dealing with adolescent stress. Can you actually focus on only a couple of issues at a time or do life factors make this impossible?
Alternative explanation
Eccles et al. (1993) suggested that the reason many adolescents experience stress is because of the mismatch between developing needs and opportunities afforded to them by their social environments.
Adolescent Relationships:
Relationships with parents:
Autonomy, Identity and conflict.
· Autonomy:
Apter (1990) studies 65 mother and daughter pairs in the US and UK and found that the most of the adolescent girls said that the person they felt closest to was their mother.
They might have minor quarrels, but these might be best understood as attempts to change the power balance of the parent-child relationship from a one-sided one of parental authority to a more equal adult relationship.
· Identity:
Waterman (1982) reviewed a number of studies that looked at the relationship between parenting styles and identity development.
Concluded that domineering parenting is associated with identity foreclosure, whereas moratorium and identity achievement are connected with a warmer, democratic style.
· Conflict:
Santrock (2001) argues that adolescence results in conflict which is at its highest in early adolescence, but decreases with age.
Laurenson (1995) reported that most adolescent conflicts were with mothers followed by friends, romantic partners and fathers.
Relationships with parents are definitely affected by parenting style. Baumrind (1991) suggested that there are two key dimensions to parenting styles: responsiveness and demandingness.
Evaluation: Research into relationships with parents:
Oversimpification of family relationships:
Adaptive parenting strategy may be the best approach. Where a parent responds to different situations with permissiveness, authoritativeness and authoritarianism as appropriate (Sandtrock2001)
Two Way process:
Parents are socialised by their adolescent children.
Parents benefit from their relationships with adolescent offspring.
Montemayor et al (1993) found mid life stress in fathers was negatively correlated with quality of interaction between them and their adolescent children.
Parental conflict
Gender and cultural differences:
Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) argue that parental relationships have been found to be more important for boys than girls.
In India adolescents’ continue to have a closer more subordinate relationship with parents. (Larsen 1999)
Relationship with peers:
· Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) found that adolescents had twice as many relationships with peers than family.
· Piaget (1932) argued that parent-child relationships consist of unilateral control whereas peer relationships are more egalitarian. Children conform to parents rules and regulations because parents have authority and greater knowledge. Peers eveolve standards of behaviour that are mutually acceptable.
· Autonomy:
· Blos (1967) offered an explanation for the importance of the peer group. HE suggested that peers provide a ‘way-station’ on the road to achieving separation and individuation because they help the adolescent to avoid feelings of loneliness without having to make any commitment
· Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) suggest that the security of peer acceptance provides adolescents with the necessary confidence to break away from parental dependence.
· Identity
Erikson (1968) suggested that peers are important for healthy identity development because they allow adolescents to explore ideologies, test their ability to form intimate relationships with others and help them to relinquish their psychological dependence on parents
Brown and Lohr (1987) assessed self esteem in students in US high school and found that those who did not have a clique did not have as high self esteem as those in popular cliques.
· Conflict and peer conformity:
Berndt (1979) conducted a classic study of peer conformity with American adolescents. He asked them questions about the likelihood of conformity in particular situations.
From early to mid adolescence there is an increase in anti-social conformity but this then declines. Peer conformity probably declines in later adolescence because there is a growing focus on individual identity and individual romantic attachments, so interest in the peer group wanes.
Cultural Differences in Adolescent Behaviour
I will now outline the main differences on the development of autonomy, identity and conflict:
· Autonomy:
o Jensen (1999) reviewed research on adolescence and concluded that some of the difficulties reported during adolescence might be related to a living in an individualistic society.
o This contracted with collectivist society uch as Japan, where dependence rather than independence is regarded as a central part of becoming an adult. (Doi 1973)
· Identity:
o Individualistic versus collectivism
Dien (1983) argues that in china, contrasting to the US, the little me (Yourself) is sacrificed for the big me (Group identity)
o Urban Vs Rural
Chisholm and Hurrelmann (1995) argue that society becomes more pluralised and fragmented leading to the transition from child to adult becoming more delayed because the choices become greater and less clearly defined in more complex societies.
o Ethnic Minorities:
Phinney (1996) defined ethnicity as ‘enduring, basic aspect of the self that includes as sense of membership in the ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings related to that membership.
Berry (1997) proposed that there are four routes that can be taken by members of an ethnic minority:
1. Assimilation – Identifying with dominant culture and rejecting their origins.
2. Integration – Identifying with both dominant and ethnic cultures.
3. Separation – Focus exclusively on ethnic culture and reject dominant culture.
4. Marginality – remain on fringes of both cultures.
White and Burke (1987) found that integration is associated with better adjustment in adolescents.
· Conflict:
o Historical Change:
Shaffer (1993) claimed adolescence is an invention of the 20th century.
Evaluation: Cultural Differences:
· The importance of Cross Cultural Research:
Cultural influence is not surprising since adolescents are being socialised into becoming members of their society.
· Problems with cross cultural research:
Local understandings may lead to globally being criticised for being biased in sampling etc on preconceived expectations.
· Minimising cultural differences:
Exposure to global media may result in lower differences culturally.
References of note:
Blos (1967) - Took up Freud’s ideas and suggested
that adolescence was like a second period of ‘Individuation’, the first being when the infant becomes a self reliant toddler.
Adolescents become separated from parents, according to Blos, results in an emotional emptiness that is satisfied by group experiences.
Ainsworth et al. (1970) - More recent research suggests that
autonomy develops best when it is accompanied by continuing attachment to parents. Independence and connectedness leading to healthy development. Connectedness does not mean dependence but describes how independence can only occur when an individual continues to have a secure base, in the same way that infant exploration is related to a secure base and secure attachment.
Cooper et al (1998) - Adolescents who are securely
attached to their parents have greater self esteem better emotional adjustment, are les likely to engage in problem behaviours and are physically healthier.
Ericson (1968) - Claims that psychosexual factors are
more influential for personality growth than sexual urges identified by Freud. He replaces Freud’s four stages of personality development during childhood and adolescence with eight stages, covering the whole of ones life.
- suggested that these conflicts were
psychosocial rather than Freud’s psychosocial crises – resolving social rather than physical conflicts. During adolescence the crisis to be resolved is the conflict between identity and role confusion.
Smith and Crawford (1986) - Found that 60 percent of students in
secondary school reported having suicidal thoughts. This is contradicted by other studies.
Kroger (1996) - Suggests that identity and role choice
only occur in industrialised societies where there are choices.
Meilman (1978) and
Waterman (1982) - Tested for the existence of each of
Marcia’s stages and found that there is not sufficient conclusive evidence since the estimates of the percentage of people placed in each stage varies more than could be expected by chance.
Archer (1982) - Used Marcia’s interview technique
and found that only 5 % of those interviewed were classed in the same identity status for Occupational Choice; Gender Role; Religious values; Political Ideology; 90% were in 2 or 3 different stages across all 4 areas.
Coleman (1974) - Challenges the notion that identity is
fluid during adolescence, claiming that instead the adolescents sense of present identity is fairly stable, whereas ideas about future identity are likely to be confused. The idea of identity as a unitary concept has also been questioned .
Archer (1982) - Found that most adolescents had
different identity statuses for occupational choice, gender role and religious and political beliefs.
Rutter (1976) - Isle of Wight study.
Attempted to assess whether storm and stress occurred or not.
Broffenbrenner (1974) - Compared child-rearing patterns in
the USSR and the USA and found that Russian adolescents showed more pro-social behaviour and less of the antisocial behaviour common in American adolescents. He argued that USSR adolescents had more opportunity to integrate into society than USA youths whom are segregated and discouraged from entering adulthood.
Eccles et al. (1993) - Suggested that the reason many
adolescents experience stress is because of the mismatch between developing needs and opportunities afforded to them by their social environments.
Coleman and Hendry (1990): - 800 boys and girls; Aged 11 to 17
years; Questioned about topics that were anxiety provoking; Self image; Living alone; Occupational choice; Peer sexual and parenting relationships. Each issue had a different distribution curve, peaking in importance over a particular age
Apter (1990) - Studies 65 mother and daughter pairs
in the US and UK and found that the most of the adolescent girls said that the person they felt closest to was their mother.
They might have minor quarrels, but these might be best understood as attempts to change the power balance of the parent-child relationship from a one-sided one of parental authority to a more equal adult relationship
Waterman (1982) - Concerns adolescents ability to
identify with their parents. reviewed a number of studies that looked at the relationship between parenting styles and identity development. Concluded that domineering parenting is associated with identity foreclosure, whereas moratorium and identity achievement are connected with a more warm, democratic style.
Santrock (2001) - Argues that adolescence results in
conflict which is at its highest in early adolescence, but decreases with age.
Laurenson (1995) - reported that most adolescent
conflicts were with mothers followed by friends, romantic partners and fathers.
Baumrind (1991) - Relationships with parents are
definitely affected by parenting style.
Baumrind suggested that there are two key dimensions to parenting styles: responsiveness and demandingness.
Sandtrock (2001) - Oversimpification of family
relationships: Adaptive parenting strategy may be the best approach.
Where a parent responds to different situations with permissiveness,
authoritativeness and
authoritarianism as appropriate
Montemayor et al (1993) - Found mid life stress in fathers was
negatively correlated with quality of interaction between them and their adolescent children.
Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) - Argue that parental relationships
have been found to be more important for boys than girls.
Larsen (1999) - In India adolescents continue to have
a closer more subordinate relationship with parents.
Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) - Found that adolescents had
twice as many relationships with peers than family.
Piaget (1932) - Argued that parent-child
relationships consist of unilateral control whereas peer relationships are more egalitarian. Children conform to parents rules and regulations because parents have authority and greater knowledge. Peers eveolve standards of behaviour that are mutually acceptable.
Blos (1967) - Offered an explanation for
the importance of the peer group. He suggested that peers provide a ‘way-station’ on the road to achieving separation and individuation because they help the adolescent to avoid feelings of loneliness without having to make any commitment
Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) - Suggest that the security of
peer acceptance provides adolescents with the necessary confidence to break away from parental dependence.
Erikson (1968) - Suggested that peers are
important for healthy identity development because they allow adolescents to explore ideologies, test their ability to form intimate relationships with others and help them to relinquish their psychological dependence on parents
Brown and Lohr (1987) - Assessed self esteem in
students in US high school and found that those who did not have a clique did not have as high self esteem as those in popular cliques.
Berndt (1979) - Conducted a classic study of
peer conformity with American adolescents. He asked them questions about the likelihood of conformity in particular situations.
From early to mid adolescence there is an increase in anti-social conformity but this then declines. Peer conformity probably declines in later adolescence because there is a growing focus on individual identity and individual romantic attachments, so interest in the peer group wanes.
Jensen (1999) - Reviewed research on
adolescence and concluded that some of the difficulties reported during adolescence might be related to a living in an individualistic society.
Doi (1973) - This contracted with
collectivist society such as Japan, where dependence rather than independence is regarded as a central part of becoming an adult.
Dien (1983) - Individualistic versus
collectivism. Argues that in china, contrasting to the US, the little me (Yourself) is sacrificed for the big me (Group identity)
Chisholm and Hurrelmann (1995) - Urban Vs Rural. Argue that
society becomes more pluralised and fragmented leading to the transition from child to adult becoming more delayed because the choices become greater and less clearly defined in more complex societies.
Phinney (1996) - Defined ethnicity as
‘enduring, basic aspect of the self that includes as sense of membership in the ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings related to that membership.
Berry (1997) - Proposed that there are four
routes that can be taken by members of an ethnic minority:
Assimilation – Identifying with dominant culture and rejecting their origins.
Integration – Identifying with both dominant and ethnic cultures.
Separation – Focus exclusively on ethnic culture and reject dominant culture.
Marginality – remain on fringes of both cultures.
White and Burke (1987) - Found that integration is
associated with better adjustment in adolescents
Concepts to note:
Define these terms:
· adolescence
· focal theory of adolescence
· identity
· Role Confusion
· identity achievement
· identity diffusion
· identity foreclosure
· identity moratorium
· identity versus role confusion
· Connectedness
What do they say or do?
· Blos
· Bronfenbrenner
· Coleman
· Erikson
· Floyd and South
· Freeman
· Fulini and Eccles
· Marcia
· Mead
· Meilman
· Rutter
· Waterman
Adolescence is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, although it isn’t possible to define either childhood or adulthood precisely.
Childhood ends around puberty adulthood starts shortly afterwards.
In the west during the last couple of centuries economic and social conditions have demanded that more young people should be educated to meet the needs of industry and commerce. As education extended into teenage years fewer than a hundred years ago in England, a gap was created between childhood and adulthood and the young people who filled it were described as ‘adolescents’. This appears to be a cultural creation amongst western societies.
We will now study major explanations for psychological changes during adolescence and weather they inevitably culminate in conflict.
Blos’ Psychoanalytic view
Thirty years ago Blos’ reinterpreted Freud’s Views of the genital stage. He thought it was a time when young people started to reassert themselves and challenge parents in order to establish their own individuality. Since such challenges produce conflict the young person seeks the company of others in a similar position.
Blos (1967) took up Freud’s ideas and suggested that adolescence was like a second period of ‘Individuation’, the first being when the infant becomes a self reliant toddler.
Adolescents become separated from parents, according to Blos, results in an emotional emptiness that is satisfied by group experiences.
The striving for independence may also lead to regression to more childlike behaviour, which Blos regarded as a healthy and necessary response. Regression may be to an infantile state in order to receive substitute parenting, or regression may take the form of hero worship that can act as a substitute parent. Blos also believed that rebellion was important as a means of ego defence in order to prevent adolescents becoming dependant on their parents again.
More recent research suggests that autonomy develops best when it is accompanied by continuing attachment to parents. Independence and connectedness leading to healthy development. Connectedness does not mean dependence but describes how independence can only occur when an individual continues to have a secure base, in the same way that infant exploration is related to a secure base and secure attachment. - Ainsworth et al. (1970)
Adolescents who are securely attached to their parents have greater self esteem better emotional adjustment, are les likely to engage in problem behaviours and are physically healthier. Cooper et al (1998)
Erikson’s account of Psychosocial development
Ericson (1968) claims that psychosexual factors are more influential for personality growth than sexual urges identified by Freud. He replaces Freud’s four stages of personality development during childhood and adolescence with eight stages, covering the whole of ones life.
In order for our personalities to reach psychological and emotional maturity he claims we have to resolve certain crises or dilemmas in each of these stages. The extent to which each of these is resolved before passing to the next stage will determine the adults personality. With adolescence, children’s physical appearance and abilities change as does the way they think about the world. Their earlier ideas about their identity must change accordingly. The task of adolescence is to establish this sense of identity and overcome the role confusion about whom they are and where they are going.
Erikson (1968) suggested that these conflicts were psychosocial rather than Freud’s psychosocial crises – resolving social rather than physical conflicts. During adolescence the crisis to be resolved is the conflict between identity and role confusion.
If the crisis is resolved the outcome is a ‘Subjective sense of an invigorating sameness and continuity.’ This enables and individual to cope well with the demands of life and importantly to be able to form adult relationships. If the crisis is not resolved, the result is identity confusion, when an adolescent remains uncertain and usable to make commitments to life choices. Erikson identified four kinds of behaviour related to identity confusion:
Negative Identity:
Adopting an extreme identity, such as taking on the role of a delinquent or a drug abuser, provides some sense of control and independence from others.
Intimacy
The Adolescent avoids intimacy because of fear of losing their own fragile sense of identity. This may result in isolation or the formation of stereotyped relationships, such as the kind of pop star worship characteristic of some teenagers.
Time perspective:
The role-confused adolescent avoids making plans for the future because such plans mean thinking about the future and the complexities of being an adult, all of which provoke feelings of anxiety.
Industry
Adolescents find it difficult to get their level of ‘industry’ right. They either compulsively overwork or they find it hard to concentrate.
During the stage of adolescence, role confusion is healthy. The adolescent considers different roles, what job do I want to do, what beliefs should I hold and so on. During this period of confusion the adolescent will experience a ‘psychological moratorium’ – A temporary suspension of activity. Role sampling occurs here till we find the ‘best fit’ for our lives.
Support for Erikson’s theory:
Empirical support:
Some exists, most notably Marcia’s research. This was based on his own experience as a psychoanalyst working with adolescents and adults. He also based his developmental ideas on extensive interviews with Dakota Indians.
Adolescence as crisis:
Smith and Crawford (1986) found that 60 percent of students in secondary school reported having suicidal thoughts. This is contradicted by other studies.
Challenges to Erikson’s theory:
Andocentric:
This theory is written by a man from more of a male perspective and therefore is thought to be andocentric
Euro centrism:
Identity development is important to individualistic societies but may be unimportant to collectivist groups that emphasise the importance of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. Kroger (1996) suggests that identity and role choice only occur in industrialised societies where there are choices.
Historical Bias:
Erikson’s conception that identity formation is related to role decisions may be dated. The notion of finding a ‘Job for life’ may be less true than 40 years ago.
Adolescence is not a time of turmoil:
Erikson’s theory was based on life histories of abnormal individuals.
Evaluation of the Psychosocial Approach.
Coleman (1974) challenges the notion that identity is fluid during adolescence, claiming that instead the adolescents sense of present identity is fairly stable, whereas ideas about future identity are likely to be confused. The idea of identity as a unitary concept has also been questioned .
Archer (1982) found that most adolescents had different identity statuses for occupational choice, gender role and religious and political beliefs.
Marcia’s Theory:
Marcia (1966) interviewed adolescents to establish the extent to which their feelings of identity were established. He suggested four stages:
Each of the stages begins with a ‘crisis’ ‘What should I be thinking, feeling, and doing about this or that issue?’ Having evaluated or re-evaluated their position, the individual then becomes committed to it. The below table summarises the main stages of identity formation during adolescence in terms of crisis and commitment.
Evaluation: Marcia’s approach:
Meilman (1978) and Waterman (1982) tested for the existence of each of Marcia’s stages and found that there is not sufficient conclusive evidence since the estimates of the percentage of people placed in each stage varies more than could be expected by chance.
Studies of other social influences (e.g. parenting styles) are unconvincing. Therefore they select cultural and social concerns at the time they were growing up.
Oversimplification is another concern. The idea of a single identity may be an oversimplification. Archer (1982) used Marcia’s interview technique and found that only 5 % of those interviewed were classed in the same identity status for:
Occupational Choice;
Gender Role;
Religious values;
Political Ideology;
90% were in 2 or 3 different stages across all 4 areas.
Evaluation of the psychosocial approach:
· Received some support from empirical studies of Marcia and others;
o Possible empirical bias due to all being middle class male Americans, therefore do not generalise;
· Coleman (1974) challenges the notion that identity is fluid during adolescence - claims that adolescence is fairly stable, whereas ideas about future identity are likely to be confused;
· Idea of identity as a unitary concept has also been questioned.
o Archer (1982) found that most adolescents had different identity statuses for occupational choice, gender role and religious and political beliefs.
Storm and Stress, or not?
Some adolescents it appears experience a difficult time during adolescence, less true in some cultures than in others and almost entirely true in western cultures.
Rutter (1976) reported that adolescent turmoil was rare:
· Isle of Wight study;
· 2000 participants
· 14-15 year olds and parents and teachers.
· Clinical depression rarely found
· 1 in 5 reported often feeling miserable and depressed, therefore leading psychologists participating to question whether this period in life is any different to any other.
Cross Cultural Evidence:
Culture = everything we have learned about growing up in our society.
All differences can be simplified into ‘norms’ and ‘values’ that are relative to a given culture.
Many people argue that it is impossible to try and understand and interpret the psychology or practices of someone from a different cultural experience.
To do so you would require one of two approaches:
Researchers must suspend all their own cultures norm as and values and become ‘value free’ in order to make an unbiased, objective observation.
They must become integrated into a new culture and try to take on its norms and values, so as to understand it ‘from the inside.’
Both of the above have been attempted it is very unlikely that they were very successful.
Broffenbrenner (1974) compared child-rearing patterns in the USSR and the USA and found that Russian adolescents showed more pro-social behaviour and less of the antisocial behaviour common in American adolescents. He argued that USSR adolescents had more opportunity to integrate into society than USA youths whom are segregated and discouraged from entering adulthood.
Evaluation: Storm and Stress in adolescence.
What causes storm and Stress?
Western culture
Does occur in any society however, it may be due to the way in which adults handle adolescence rather than as a consequence of the stage of transition itself.
Accuracy of cross cultural research:
We have to be cautious when considering cross cultural research;
Freeman (1983) argued that one such study had one woman admitting she had not been honest about her sexual experiences.
Explaining Adolescent Turmoil:
Being no longer a child yet ‘officially’ not an adult can lead to anxiety, storm and stress.
Coleman’s Focal Theory of Adolescence:
Coleman (1974) argues that by concentrating on one problem at a time they pass through adolescence without any major ‘storm and Stress’ – i.e. focal theory.
Evaluation of Focal Theory:
Research support:
Coleman and Hendry (1990):
800 boys and girls
Aged 11 to 17 years
Questioned about topics that were anxiety provoking;
Self image;
Living alone;
Occupational choice
Peer sexual and parenting relationships.
Each issue had a different distribution curve, peaking in importance over a particular age
Practical Applications:
Coleman’s theory has clear practical applications related to dealing with adolescent stress. Can you actually focus on only a couple of issues at a time or do life factors make this impossible?
Alternative explanation
Eccles et al. (1993) suggested that the reason many adolescents experience stress is because of the mismatch between developing needs and opportunities afforded to them by their social environments.
Adolescent Relationships:
Relationships with parents:
Autonomy, Identity and conflict.
· Autonomy:
Apter (1990) studies 65 mother and daughter pairs in the US and UK and found that the most of the adolescent girls said that the person they felt closest to was their mother.
They might have minor quarrels, but these might be best understood as attempts to change the power balance of the parent-child relationship from a one-sided one of parental authority to a more equal adult relationship.
· Identity:
Waterman (1982) reviewed a number of studies that looked at the relationship between parenting styles and identity development.
Concluded that domineering parenting is associated with identity foreclosure, whereas moratorium and identity achievement are connected with a warmer, democratic style.
· Conflict:
Santrock (2001) argues that adolescence results in conflict which is at its highest in early adolescence, but decreases with age.
Laurenson (1995) reported that most adolescent conflicts were with mothers followed by friends, romantic partners and fathers.
Relationships with parents are definitely affected by parenting style. Baumrind (1991) suggested that there are two key dimensions to parenting styles: responsiveness and demandingness.
Evaluation: Research into relationships with parents:
Oversimpification of family relationships:
Adaptive parenting strategy may be the best approach. Where a parent responds to different situations with permissiveness, authoritativeness and authoritarianism as appropriate (Sandtrock2001)
Two Way process:
Parents are socialised by their adolescent children.
Parents benefit from their relationships with adolescent offspring.
Montemayor et al (1993) found mid life stress in fathers was negatively correlated with quality of interaction between them and their adolescent children.
Parental conflict
Gender and cultural differences:
Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) argue that parental relationships have been found to be more important for boys than girls.
In India adolescents’ continue to have a closer more subordinate relationship with parents. (Larsen 1999)
Relationship with peers:
· Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) found that adolescents had twice as many relationships with peers than family.
· Piaget (1932) argued that parent-child relationships consist of unilateral control whereas peer relationships are more egalitarian. Children conform to parents rules and regulations because parents have authority and greater knowledge. Peers eveolve standards of behaviour that are mutually acceptable.
· Autonomy:
· Blos (1967) offered an explanation for the importance of the peer group. HE suggested that peers provide a ‘way-station’ on the road to achieving separation and individuation because they help the adolescent to avoid feelings of loneliness without having to make any commitment
· Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) suggest that the security of peer acceptance provides adolescents with the necessary confidence to break away from parental dependence.
· Identity
Erikson (1968) suggested that peers are important for healthy identity development because they allow adolescents to explore ideologies, test their ability to form intimate relationships with others and help them to relinquish their psychological dependence on parents
Brown and Lohr (1987) assessed self esteem in students in US high school and found that those who did not have a clique did not have as high self esteem as those in popular cliques.
· Conflict and peer conformity:
Berndt (1979) conducted a classic study of peer conformity with American adolescents. He asked them questions about the likelihood of conformity in particular situations.
From early to mid adolescence there is an increase in anti-social conformity but this then declines. Peer conformity probably declines in later adolescence because there is a growing focus on individual identity and individual romantic attachments, so interest in the peer group wanes.
Cultural Differences in Adolescent Behaviour
I will now outline the main differences on the development of autonomy, identity and conflict:
· Autonomy:
o Jensen (1999) reviewed research on adolescence and concluded that some of the difficulties reported during adolescence might be related to a living in an individualistic society.
o This contracted with collectivist society uch as Japan, where dependence rather than independence is regarded as a central part of becoming an adult. (Doi 1973)
· Identity:
o Individualistic versus collectivism
Dien (1983) argues that in china, contrasting to the US, the little me (Yourself) is sacrificed for the big me (Group identity)
o Urban Vs Rural
Chisholm and Hurrelmann (1995) argue that society becomes more pluralised and fragmented leading to the transition from child to adult becoming more delayed because the choices become greater and less clearly defined in more complex societies.
o Ethnic Minorities:
Phinney (1996) defined ethnicity as ‘enduring, basic aspect of the self that includes as sense of membership in the ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings related to that membership.
Berry (1997) proposed that there are four routes that can be taken by members of an ethnic minority:
1. Assimilation – Identifying with dominant culture and rejecting their origins.
2. Integration – Identifying with both dominant and ethnic cultures.
3. Separation – Focus exclusively on ethnic culture and reject dominant culture.
4. Marginality – remain on fringes of both cultures.
White and Burke (1987) found that integration is associated with better adjustment in adolescents.
· Conflict:
o Historical Change:
Shaffer (1993) claimed adolescence is an invention of the 20th century.
Evaluation: Cultural Differences:
· The importance of Cross Cultural Research:
Cultural influence is not surprising since adolescents are being socialised into becoming members of their society.
· Problems with cross cultural research:
Local understandings may lead to globally being criticised for being biased in sampling etc on preconceived expectations.
· Minimising cultural differences:
Exposure to global media may result in lower differences culturally.
References of note:
Blos (1967) - Took up Freud’s ideas and suggested
that adolescence was like a second period of ‘Individuation’, the first being when the infant becomes a self reliant toddler.
Adolescents become separated from parents, according to Blos, results in an emotional emptiness that is satisfied by group experiences.
Ainsworth et al. (1970) - More recent research suggests that
autonomy develops best when it is accompanied by continuing attachment to parents. Independence and connectedness leading to healthy development. Connectedness does not mean dependence but describes how independence can only occur when an individual continues to have a secure base, in the same way that infant exploration is related to a secure base and secure attachment.
Cooper et al (1998) - Adolescents who are securely
attached to their parents have greater self esteem better emotional adjustment, are les likely to engage in problem behaviours and are physically healthier.
Ericson (1968) - Claims that psychosexual factors are
more influential for personality growth than sexual urges identified by Freud. He replaces Freud’s four stages of personality development during childhood and adolescence with eight stages, covering the whole of ones life.
- suggested that these conflicts were
psychosocial rather than Freud’s psychosocial crises – resolving social rather than physical conflicts. During adolescence the crisis to be resolved is the conflict between identity and role confusion.
Smith and Crawford (1986) - Found that 60 percent of students in
secondary school reported having suicidal thoughts. This is contradicted by other studies.
Kroger (1996) - Suggests that identity and role choice
only occur in industrialised societies where there are choices.
Meilman (1978) and
Waterman (1982) - Tested for the existence of each of
Marcia’s stages and found that there is not sufficient conclusive evidence since the estimates of the percentage of people placed in each stage varies more than could be expected by chance.
Archer (1982) - Used Marcia’s interview technique
and found that only 5 % of those interviewed were classed in the same identity status for Occupational Choice; Gender Role; Religious values; Political Ideology; 90% were in 2 or 3 different stages across all 4 areas.
Coleman (1974) - Challenges the notion that identity is
fluid during adolescence, claiming that instead the adolescents sense of present identity is fairly stable, whereas ideas about future identity are likely to be confused. The idea of identity as a unitary concept has also been questioned .
Archer (1982) - Found that most adolescents had
different identity statuses for occupational choice, gender role and religious and political beliefs.
Rutter (1976) - Isle of Wight study.
Attempted to assess whether storm and stress occurred or not.
Broffenbrenner (1974) - Compared child-rearing patterns in
the USSR and the USA and found that Russian adolescents showed more pro-social behaviour and less of the antisocial behaviour common in American adolescents. He argued that USSR adolescents had more opportunity to integrate into society than USA youths whom are segregated and discouraged from entering adulthood.
Eccles et al. (1993) - Suggested that the reason many
adolescents experience stress is because of the mismatch between developing needs and opportunities afforded to them by their social environments.
Coleman and Hendry (1990): - 800 boys and girls; Aged 11 to 17
years; Questioned about topics that were anxiety provoking; Self image; Living alone; Occupational choice; Peer sexual and parenting relationships. Each issue had a different distribution curve, peaking in importance over a particular age
Apter (1990) - Studies 65 mother and daughter pairs
in the US and UK and found that the most of the adolescent girls said that the person they felt closest to was their mother.
They might have minor quarrels, but these might be best understood as attempts to change the power balance of the parent-child relationship from a one-sided one of parental authority to a more equal adult relationship
Waterman (1982) - Concerns adolescents ability to
identify with their parents. reviewed a number of studies that looked at the relationship between parenting styles and identity development. Concluded that domineering parenting is associated with identity foreclosure, whereas moratorium and identity achievement are connected with a more warm, democratic style.
Santrock (2001) - Argues that adolescence results in
conflict which is at its highest in early adolescence, but decreases with age.
Laurenson (1995) - reported that most adolescent
conflicts were with mothers followed by friends, romantic partners and fathers.
Baumrind (1991) - Relationships with parents are
definitely affected by parenting style.
Baumrind suggested that there are two key dimensions to parenting styles: responsiveness and demandingness.
Sandtrock (2001) - Oversimpification of family
relationships: Adaptive parenting strategy may be the best approach.
Where a parent responds to different situations with permissiveness,
authoritativeness and
authoritarianism as appropriate
Montemayor et al (1993) - Found mid life stress in fathers was
negatively correlated with quality of interaction between them and their adolescent children.
Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) - Argue that parental relationships
have been found to be more important for boys than girls.
Larsen (1999) - In India adolescents continue to have
a closer more subordinate relationship with parents.
Frey and Rothlisberger (1996) - Found that adolescents had
twice as many relationships with peers than family.
Piaget (1932) - Argued that parent-child
relationships consist of unilateral control whereas peer relationships are more egalitarian. Children conform to parents rules and regulations because parents have authority and greater knowledge. Peers eveolve standards of behaviour that are mutually acceptable.
Blos (1967) - Offered an explanation for
the importance of the peer group. He suggested that peers provide a ‘way-station’ on the road to achieving separation and individuation because they help the adolescent to avoid feelings of loneliness without having to make any commitment
Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) - Suggest that the security of
peer acceptance provides adolescents with the necessary confidence to break away from parental dependence.
Erikson (1968) - Suggested that peers are
important for healthy identity development because they allow adolescents to explore ideologies, test their ability to form intimate relationships with others and help them to relinquish their psychological dependence on parents
Brown and Lohr (1987) - Assessed self esteem in
students in US high school and found that those who did not have a clique did not have as high self esteem as those in popular cliques.
Berndt (1979) - Conducted a classic study of
peer conformity with American adolescents. He asked them questions about the likelihood of conformity in particular situations.
From early to mid adolescence there is an increase in anti-social conformity but this then declines. Peer conformity probably declines in later adolescence because there is a growing focus on individual identity and individual romantic attachments, so interest in the peer group wanes.
Jensen (1999) - Reviewed research on
adolescence and concluded that some of the difficulties reported during adolescence might be related to a living in an individualistic society.
Doi (1973) - This contracted with
collectivist society such as Japan, where dependence rather than independence is regarded as a central part of becoming an adult.
Dien (1983) - Individualistic versus
collectivism. Argues that in china, contrasting to the US, the little me (Yourself) is sacrificed for the big me (Group identity)
Chisholm and Hurrelmann (1995) - Urban Vs Rural. Argue that
society becomes more pluralised and fragmented leading to the transition from child to adult becoming more delayed because the choices become greater and less clearly defined in more complex societies.
Phinney (1996) - Defined ethnicity as
‘enduring, basic aspect of the self that includes as sense of membership in the ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings related to that membership.
Berry (1997) - Proposed that there are four
routes that can be taken by members of an ethnic minority:
Assimilation – Identifying with dominant culture and rejecting their origins.
Integration – Identifying with both dominant and ethnic cultures.
Separation – Focus exclusively on ethnic culture and reject dominant culture.
Marginality – remain on fringes of both cultures.
White and Burke (1987) - Found that integration is
associated with better adjustment in adolescents
Concepts to note:
Define these terms:
· adolescence
· focal theory of adolescence
· identity
· Role Confusion
· identity achievement
· identity diffusion
· identity foreclosure
· identity moratorium
· identity versus role confusion
· Connectedness
What do they say or do?
· Blos
· Bronfenbrenner
· Coleman
· Erikson
· Floyd and South
· Freeman
· Fulini and Eccles
· Marcia
· Mead
· Meilman
· Rutter
· Waterman
The Development of Thinking (A2)
Topic 10: The Development of Thinking.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development.
Ideas of Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) have dominated thinking in developmental psychology for many years. Probably the best known psychologist after Sigmund Freud. Recently some alternative answers to his questions have been proposed.
Piaget asked children questions observing them playing and noted the frequencies and circumstances of various interactions such as behaving selfishly or altruistically. Much of his research was conducted on his own three children born in 1925, 1927 and 1931.
In IQ tests it was noticed that some errors were consistent across ages. These errors were predictable and could be described in terms of a stage theory.
In other words errors made at certain ages formed a sequence. Piaget suggested that children’s thought changes quantitively as they pass through stages.
Two strands of Piaget’s theory therefore exist:
An account of the causes of developmental changes (Adaptation.) We will begin by examining the causes.
An account of what changes during development. The cognitive activities at each stage.
The causes of development and the stages of development he argued are biologically driven they occur as a consequence of the maturation of innate forces and structures. Piaget acknowledged the role of experience in cognitive development, intertwining nurture with nature.
The Structure of Intellect
All babies are born with similar biological equipment (Aka ‘Structures.’)
These structures are the senses, the brain, and reflexes.
“…Intelligence is a particular instance of biological adaptation…”
Intelligence “…is the form of equilibrium towards which the successive adaptations and exchanges between the organism and his environment are directed.”
“‘Equilibrium’ is a term used in physics to denote a well balanced adjustment between at least two factors – in this case, between the persons cognitive structures and her or his environment.”
Human infants shortly after birth have approx fifty reflexes – a child’s way of dealing with stimuli.
Piaget argued that these reflexes formed the basis of schema (Mental representations) that a child would develop.
As a child grows their scheme expands.
Piaget called this process of taking on board more cognitive information “Assimilation.”
Once assimilated the knowledge has to be stored in the right place if we are to access it in future. This process is called “Accommodation.”
After assimilation and accommodation, his knowledge (And future behaviour) has changed.
Therefore assimilation and accommodation are the basis of learning!
New learning is an adaptation of previously acquired knowledge.
There must be a balance between assimilation and adaptation for accommodation to occur.
IF the child is being exposed to too much stimulation, that they can’t accommodate, it’s likely to become frustrated rather than educated.
When the child has assimilated, accommodated, and adapted its mental structures she or he is said to be in a state of “Cognitive equilibrium”
If introduced to something new e.g. a horse instead of a dog, then, the child’s mental processing is then in a state of imbalance (Equilibration) and schemas are adapted
Cognitive growth is a constant shift between states of equilibrium and equilibration.
Assimilation _ Accommodation è Adaptation.
An example of a schema would be a mental representation of the human face – there is evidence that infants are born with an innate ability to recognise faces (Fantz - 1961)
Stages in development
Piaget argued that a child’s cognitive abilities are acquired through a series of stages. When a child has achieved a stage of cognitive readiness it will be able to understand things, (e.g. numbers) and its schemas will undergo a major overhaul.
A new stage of development is reached when two things happen:
The child’s brain has matured to a point of ‘Readiness’.
Some new information or experiences that cannot be assimilated challenge the child’s thinking.
Each stage is characterised by a coherent series of principles that operate at that time.
In general studies support Piaget’s observations as to what children can do but greatly underestimate the age at which they could do them – as we will see below.
1. Sensorimotor stage
Young infants have no idea of the permanence of objects once they are out of sight i.e. Object permanence. It will take at least eight months of interaction with the environment for the child to realise that the objects are still there.
Tom Bower (1966) conducted experiments between ages 1 and four months to assess object permanence.
This was a glorified peekaboo exercise using a screen…
In another experiment babies were shown an object they might like to take, the lights turned off as they tried to reach for it. IR camera shows them continuing to reach for the object despite not being able to see it. These infants appeared to possess object permanence despite Piaget’s claims that they were too young to have it.
Mundy-castle and Anglin sat four month olds in from of portholes for an object permanence experiment. They possessed this prior to eight months predicted by Piaget.
2. Pre-operational Stage
· Here children are acquiring many new schemas.
· Each new experience expands mental structures, and as they develop language and communication skills the opportunities for further development expand greatly.
· The child asks questions and makes what sense it can of the answers.
· Despite this, some of Piaget’s descriptions of the cognitive skills of this age group appear rather negative.
· He appears to emphasise what children can’t do rather than what they can. The title ‘Pre-operational’ indicates that children in this stage can’t think in operational (Logical) ways.
3. Preconceptual thought – (2-4 years of age.)
· Childs thinking is dominated by unrealistic ideas one of which is animism:
o Animism = the belief that inanimate objects are alive.
· Since he/she has emotions therefore everything else including inanimate objects must also have them.
· Preconceptual thinking also involves Egocentrism.
o Egocentrism is the child’s own inability to see things from another viewpoint other than their own.
o The ability to take others views into account is called Decentring – Piaget argued this occurs around 7 years of age.
· Intuitive thought is thought to be the second sub stage of the pre-operational stage. This occurs between the ages of four and seven years.
o Conservation is the ability to understand that the more physical characteristics of objects remain the same even though the appearance of them may change. E.g. rolling one of two identical balls flat.
Piaget offered two reasons why children under about seven couldn’t conserve:
They can only attend to one process. They can’t perform the mental operation required to answer the question “What would happen if we reversed the process we have just performed?” ‘Reversibility’ is a complex schema.
The other reason is called Centration. This is the tendency to concentrate on only one aspect of a situation at a time, while ignoring all others that are necessary to solve the problem. The child concentrates on either the shape of the plasticine or the amount but not both.
Egocentrism + }
Irreversibility + } = Some limitations in pre-operational thought.
Centration }
Concrete operational stage
One of Piaget’s most famous conservation tasks involves two identical tall thin jugs containing the same amount of liquid. The content of one of the jugs is emptied into a shorter, wider jug and the child is asked which jug has the most liquid. The pre-operational child will say the tall thin jug; they can’t imagine what liquid level in the first jug would be if the liquid was poured back into it Piaget claimed that mental reversibility would not appear until the child is around 8 years old.
Donaldson (1987) suggests that in the three mountains task children are unsure as to what to do where as in the policemen problem they can use all their knowledge to understand and interpret the questions asked.
John Flavell (1985) showed 3 year olds some cards with a drawing of a cat on one side and a dog on the other. Holding the card vertically between the experimenter and the child, so that the child could see the dog he asked them what they could see. The three year olds had no difficulty in showing what they could decentre by saying that they could see the cat.
Therefore at the very least Piaget was pessimistic about the ages at which these skills occur. He made similar pessimistic judgements about the age for conservation.
McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) devised a game to test conservation of number in which two identical rows of sweets were placed in front of the child. A glove puppet called ‘naughty teddy’ then spread the sweets in one of the rows while not moving the others. Of the 4 and 5 year olds tested, fifty said that the number of sweets remained the same and so showed that they could conserve number. However when adult researchers moved the sweets themselves only thirteen out of the eighty said they were the same number
Moore and Frye (1986) found that these early results were to some extent explained by the children’s absorption in the game and ‘naughty teddy’ was a distraction. When running a modified version of the research they found that even quite young children observed the changes taking place.
Concrete Operational Stage (Cont..)
Here intuition is replaced by use of logical rules.
Understanding is limited as it deals with the actual concrete world.
These children have difficulty in considering anything hypothetical or abstract.
Two such important abilities are associated with this stage are:
Serration:
Allows the child to arrange sets of items in order of dimensions e.g. dolls in order of height.
Transivity
This is the ability to recognise logical relationships in a series. E.g. who is taller than whom in relation to whom
Piaget liked to asses children’s thinking by presenting them with a ‘conservation task’ – i.e. the logical rule that quantity does not change even when the way it is displayed is transformed..
Pre-operational children fail at this task because they cannot conserve quantity, whereas the concrete operational child comprehends the rule and applies it to this concrete situation.
Formal Operational stage:
Concrete operational stage = children learning to manipulate objects mentally.
Formal operational thinking does not require this direct experience. Basic mental arithmetic and hypothetical questions may now be answered.
The most important shift that people make when moving from concrete to formal operations is in extending their reasoning abilities to objects and situations that they have not seen or experienced at first hand and that they cannot manipulate to see directly. Where the pre-schoolchild may dress up and pretend to be someone else the teenager may think about the different roles they might occupy in the future A major feature is the appearance of deductive logic rather than its forerunner inductive logic.
However, psychologists argue that some people never reach this stage. About 70% of adults go through their lives without fully being able to make logical, reasoned predictions Further than this an individual may be able to do this on one topic but not another. There may be another stage beyond this in which philosophers and great thinkers can reason about society and community in ways that most people cant .
Piaget and Inhelder (1956) demonstrated this with a beaker problem:
· Participants were given four beakers of colourless liquids
· They were asked to find what combination produced a yellow liquid.
· Younger children tried all sorts of random combinations and may or may not have found the answer.
· Older children took a systematic approach systematically excluding possibilities until they found the correct solution.
· They used abstract deductive reasoning forming a principle deriving a hypothesis and testing this to confirm the hypothesis.
Dasen (1994) claims that one third of adults do not reach Formal Operational Stage
Wason and Shapiro (1971) tested students using abstract reasoning tasks they found only 10% could work out the solution but this rose to 62% if the task was given in concrete form.
Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory:
Piaget underestimated the age at which children can do things as he failed to distinguish between Competence (What your capable of doing) and Performance (How you perform in a particular task.) He simply assumed that they lacked the cognitive structures needed to succeed on that task.
Timetable of development is too prescriptive.
But it is not only about age boundaries, but also about universal qualitative, biologically regulated cognitive changes that occur during development. This is supported by cross cultural research that has replicated Piaget’s findings
(E.g. Smith et al. 1998)
If you’re not biologically ready then practice should not improve performance.
Borke (1975) demonstrated that children as young as 3 or 4 years could overcome egocentrism with practice.
Piaget underplayed the role of language and social factors in cognitive development. Sinclair-de-zwart (1969) supports Piaget. However, in an earlier experiment she found children who were non-conservers differed in terms of the language they used from children who were non conservers. This suggests cognitive linguistic development comes together. Which comes first? Sinclair-de-zwart tried the apt verbal skills to the non conservers. However, 90% of these children were still unable to conserve. This supports Piaget’s view that cognitive maturity is a prerequisite for linguistic development.
Despite its shortcomings, the strength of Piaget’s approach and theory should not be overlooked. Like all good theories it has generated research.
Vygotsky’s Theory
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Выготский) (November 17 (November 5 Old Style), 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet developmental psychologist and the founder of the Cultural-historical psychology.
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky believed that neither nature nor nurture alone could explain human cognitive development and that it must emerge from complex combinations of influences from both sources.
A contemporary of Piaget though they never met.
His most influential work “Thought and language”
Published in 1934 in Russian, translated to English in 1964.
Died of TB.
The influence of culture:
Russian upbringing emphasised social norms of co=operation and collective action;
Emphasised nurture over nature (The prevailing western thought at the time.)
He disagreed with Piaget’s idea that each child egocentrically struggles to make sense of their own world.
Disagrees with Piaget’s more biological role at the role of language development.
For the 1st two years babies development does reflect sensory motor skills.
Vygotsky rejects Piaget’s description of the passive child waiting until it is cognitively ready to acquire a skill such as object permanence ;
He sees aspects of cognitive development appearing as a result of babies making some active attempt to solve problems such as where things are, who has possession, and so on.
This is described as evidence of pre verbal thought
Babies can also use vocalisation to attract and communicate with adults;
This is called pre-intellectual speech.
· As vocabulary and comprehension develop after the age of 2, both pre-thought and vocalisation come together and language begins to play an important part in shaping how the child perceives the world.
· For Paiget language is a system of labels for schemas that we already have. Words help us to define our thoughts and actions, but can only attach to our thoughts.
· For Vygotsky, language actively shapes the thoughts. The process of trying to communicate with others leads to the child acquiring the word meanings that form the structure of the child’s consciousness. This is inner speech and it exists only as a result of social interaction.
· Intellect consists of Elementary and Higher Mental Functions.
Elementary functions are innate capacities such as attention and sensation.
· Vygotsky’s view was that these will develop to a limited extent through experience but cultural influences are required to transform them into higher mental functions such as:
Decision making ;
and comprehension of language.
· Therefore without culture individuals would not progress further than the elementary functions.
· Therefore according to Vygotsky, cultural knowledge is the means by which cognitive development takes place.
There are several examples of this:
Papua New Guinea Counting Systems;
· If higher mental functions are dependant of cultural influences, then we would expect to find different higher mental functions in different cultures.
o Grendler (1992) cited Papua New Guinea children being taught a counting system that begins on the thumb and progresses up the arm. In consequence they can count to 29 using this method therefore it is difficult to add and subtract. This therefore becomes a higher mental function in that culture.
· Use of enculturation in animals is also an example:
o Rumbaugh (1991) taught Bonobo chimpanzees to use human language as well as to use number and quantity concepts by immersing the chimpanzees in a human learning environment. In the wild higher mental functions are not transformed, however, give the right learning environment (Culturally) they are able to develop some of these.
· Availability of knowledge:
o Evidence also exists for the influence of culture from research on IQ.
o IQ’s in many different cultures have been steadily increased in recent decades.
o One explanation is improved diet but another is increased knowledge that surrounds children
The zone of proximal development (ZPD)
· This is the area between what the child knows and what it is capable of knowing.
· Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) used the term scaffolding to describe the support (Guidance) that an adult might offer a child to help it reach a solution.
· Instruction “…wakens a whole series of functions that are in a stage of maturation lying in the zone of proximal development.” (Vygotsky 1987)
· Zygovsky predicted that the greatest learning occurred at the edge of the ZPD.
Refer to McNaughton and Leyland (1990)
Semiotic Meditation
The cognitive development process is mediated by semiotics (Language and other cultural symbols.) Semiotic mediation is a social process.
The Social and Individual Planes.
Learning starts off as a shared, social activity. In time it becomes a sole responsibility of the learner.
Wertsch (1985) have shown how self regulation increases with age and experience.
The Role of Language:
One of Vygotsky’s real interests was the relationship between language and thought. Refer to panel below:
· Language and thought are separate functions here in children below the age of two.
· Vocal activity and pre-intellectual language is a form of social interaction and emotional expression. At the same time children use pre-linguistic thought, mental activities such as problem solving which do not use verbal operations. This is a period of practical intelligence when mental functions are developing.
· After age 2 the child begins to us external symbols or signs such as language or other cultural tools to assist in problem-solving.
· A young child will often talk out loud when solving problems, a kind of egocentric speech. After the age of 7 this self talk becomes silent (inner speech) and differs in the form of social speech. Inner dialogues are used as a means of self regulation to control ones cognitive processes. Learning has moved to the individual plane but continues to be mediated by language.
· Language throughout life serves the dual purpose of being for social communication and thought.
Stages in the development of thinking:
Vygotsky’s theory is not a stage theory as such, though he did propose stages in the development of language and thought. He also proposed stages in the process of concept formation derived from a research study (Vygotsky 1987)
Children were given wooden blocks of varying height and shape. Each was labelled with a nonsense symbol. “ZAT” was used to label tall and square blocks. The child’s task was to identify what these labels meant. Vygotsky observed that the children went through three stages before achieving mature concepts.
See table below:
Evaluation:
· Very little empirical support exists for Vytgotksy’s theory.
o Focuses on the process of cognitive development rather than the outcome, and this is harder to test.
· Strengths and limitations:
o Limited negative criticism as the empirical studies for this theory have only slowly become available.
· The role of biological and individual factors:
o Overemphasises the importance of social influences and underemphasise the biological and individual factors in cognitive development.
o If social influences alone were necessary development then we would expect learning to be faster than it is.
· Individual versus social construction:
o Piaget suggests that knowledge was something that a child creates for themselves (Individualistic and western.) Vygotsky saw knowledge as a collaborative social process (Collectivist.)
o In short both are constructive approaches but one is individualistic versus the other which is collective.
· The role of egocentric speech:
o Piaget argued the causation here was from person to the social world.
o Egocentric speech occurs because the child is unable to share a perspective of another.
o In contrast Vygotsky suggests that development moves from the social to the developmental plane where learning is internalised.
o Egocentric speech is the transition between social context and inner speech.
· Development or learning? Which comes first?
o Piaget suggests that development precedes learning;
o Vygotsky suggested learning comes first and this promotes development.
· Scope for assisted learning:
o Piaget argues you can only wait.
o Vygotsky argues that scope exists for assisted learning.
· Individual differences in learning:
Both approaches reflect cultural differences but also individual differences
· Glassman (1999) argues that it is wrong to see Piaget and Vygotsky as opposites, as they’re remarkably similar at their core. Piaget focused on the natural laws of intellectual development while Vygotsky concentrated on the impact of social processes and culture.
o An integration of both views might therefore be highly productive.
Practical Applications of these Theories to Education.
Having some understanding of the ways in which children’s thinking occurs and develops should help us design an education system for 5 year olds and older children that takes account of their skills and abilities. In those parts of the world that have an education system, children’s knowledge and understanding increases dramatically compared with those in the countries that do not.
The table below recaps on the main differences between the two schools of thought.
Piaget’s discovery learning.
Piaget’s ideas have been applied to the classroom of primary and junior schools.
i.e. Infant school deliver for a pre-operational stage learning environment.
i.e. Junior schools reflect the concrete operational thinking of their pupils.
The social dimension and play remains the least explored aspect of Piaget’s work. Donaldson (1987) “Children’s minds” argues that schooling helps to create disembedded thinking or the ability to solve problems that involve hypothetical, abstract entities rather than concrete objects. This is due to the fact that disembedded thinking is not natural for the human mind no matter how much the child explores.
Vygotsky: The Social Context
· Did not accept that teachers should wait for a child to be ready to learn and claimed that ‘…what a child can do with assistance today he/she can do by him/herself tomorrow.’
· Social context enables learning.
· “There are times when a child should be left alone there are also times when they require assistance (A scaffold)” – Wood et al. (1976)
Collaborative Learning:
Bennett and Dunne (1991) found that children who engaged in cooperative group work were less competitive, less concerned with status and more likely to show evidence of logical thinking than those who worked alone.
Peer tutoring:
Peers can also be experts and peer tutoring was seen as an effective form of learning. Research has also found that peer tutoring may have the greatest benefit for the more expert peer. Cloward (1967)
Evaluation of Vygotsky’s Approach:
Individual differences:
· There are individual differences in the effectiveness of these techniques.
· E.g. Blaye et al some children working at home did not outperform those working alone.
The role of experts:
· Relies on the role of experts to recognise the limits of ZPD and know when and how to respond. Skilful application of this approach may be an unrealistic goal.
The importance of social influences:
· It’s educationally more important to know what children can achieve with assistance than what they can achieve unaided. But this may stifle creativity and understanding.
A combined approach:
· One science programme has combined the Piagetian approach to setting situations that create cognitive conflict with the Vygotskian approach to collaborative learning to produce improved performance in experimental groups, in maths science and English – CASE, i.e. Cognitive acceleration through science education. (Adey and Shayer – 1993.)
References of note:
Fantz (1961) - An example of a schema would be a mental
representation of the human face – there is evidence
that infants are born with an innate ability to
recognise faces
Tom Bower (1966) - Experiments into object permanence with babies
and infants.
Mundy-castle and Anglin - Sat four month olds in from of portholes for an
object permanence experiment. They possessed this
prior to eight months predicted by Piaget.
Martin Hughes (1975) - Hughes hiding from a policeman task
John Flavell (1985) - Showed 3 year olds some cards with a drawing of a
cat on one side and a dog on the other. Holding the card vertically between the experimenter and the child, so that the child could see the dog he asked them what they could see. The three year olds had no difficulty in showing what they could decentre by saying that they could see the cat.
Donaldson (1987) - Suggests that in the three mountains task children
are unsure as to what to do where as in the policemen problem they can use all their knowledge to understand and interpret the questions asked.
McGarrigle and
Donaldson (1974) - Devised a game to test conservation of number in
which two identical rows of sweets were placed in front of the child. A glove puppet called ‘naughty teddy’ then spread the sweets in one of the rows while not moving the others. Of the 4 and 5 year olds tested, fifty said that the number of sweets remained the same and so showed that they could conserve number. However when adult researchers moved the sweets themselves only thirteen out of the eighty said they were the same number
Moore and Frye (1986) - Found that these early results were to some extent
explained by the children’s absorption in the game
and ‘naughty teddy’ was a distraction. When
running a modified version of the research they
found that even quite young children observed the
changes taking place.
Piaget and Inhelder (1956) - Beaker problem proposed to assess the achievement
of the Formal Operational Stage.
Dasen (1994) - Claims that one third of adults do not reach
Formal Operational Stage.
Wason and Shapiro (1971) - Tested students using abstract reasoning tasks they
found only 10% could work out the solution but this rose to 62% if the task was given in concrete form.
Smith et al. (1998) - Cross cultural research that supports Piaget.
Borke (1975) - Demonstrated that children as young as 3 or 4 years
could overcome egocentrism with practice.
Sinclair-de-zwart (1969) - Supports Piaget. However, in an earlier experiment
she found children who were non-conservers
differed in terms of the language they used from
children who were non conservers. This suggests
cognitive linguistic development comes together.
Which comes first? Sinclair-de-zwart tried the apt verbal skills to the non conservers. However, 90% of these children were still unable to conserve. This supports Piaget’s view that cognitive maturity is a prerequisite for linguistic development.
Vygotsky (1934) (1962) - “Thought and language”
Vygotsky’s’ most popular work
Grendler (1992) - Example of higher mental functions being
dependant on different influences. Cited Papua New Guinea children being taught a counting system that begins on the thumb and progresses up the arm. In consequence they can count to 29 using this method therefore it is difficult to add and subtract. This therefore becomes a higher mental function in that culture.
Rumbaugh (1991) - Taught Bonobo chimpanzees to use human
language as well as to use number and quantity concepts by immersing the chimpanzees in a human learning environment. In the wild higher mental functions are not transformed, however, give the right learning environment (Culturally) they are able to develop some of these.
Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) - Zone of proximal development research. Used the
term scaffolding to describe the support (Guidance
that an adult might offer a child to help it reach a
solution.
Vygotsky (1987) - Instruction “…wakens a whole series of functions
that are in a stage of maturation lying in the zone of proximal development.”
McNaughton and Leyland (1990) - The ZPD and Jigsaw Puzzles.
Wertsch (1985) - Have shown how self regulation increases with age
and experience.
Vygotsky (1987) - Speech stage age and function for the development of
language and thought.
Glassman (1999) - Argues that it is wrong to see Piaget and Vygotsky
as opposites, as they’re remarkably similar at their
core. Piaget focused on the natural laws of
intellectual development while Vygotsky
concentrated on the impact of social processes and
culture.
Donaldson (1987)
“Children’s minds” - Argues that schooling helps to create
disembedded thinking or the ability to solve
problems that involve hypothetical, abstract entities
rather than concrete objects.
Wood et al. (1976) - “There are times when a child should be left alone
there are also times when they require assistance (A scaffold)”
Bennett and Dunne (1991) - Collaborative Learning. Found that children who
engaged in cooperative group work were less
competitive, less concerned with status and more
likely to show evidence of logical thinking than
those who worked alone.
Cloward (1967) - Peer tutoring. Peers can also be experts and peer
tutoring was seen as an effective form of learning. Research has also found that peer tutoring may have the greatest benefit for the more expert peer.
Adey and Shayer (1993.) - One science programme has combined the Piagetian
approach to setting situations that create cognitive conflict with the Vygotskian approach to collaborative learning to produce improved performance in experimental groups, in maths science and English (CASE, i.e. Cognitive acceleration through science education.)
Concepts to note:
· Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development;
o Intelligence
o Equilibrium
o Schema
o Assimilation
o Accommodation.
o Equilibration
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development:
Sensorimotor stage
Object permanence
Pre-operational stage (2-4 years)
Animism = the belief that inanimate objects are alive.
Egocentrism = the child’s own inability to see things from another viewpoint other than their own.
Decentring = The ability to take others views into account .
Piaget argued this occurs around 7 years of age.
§ Intuitive thought is thought to be the second sub stage of the pre-operational stage. This occurs between the ages of four and seven years.
Conservation = The ability to understand that the more physical characteristics of objects remain the same even though the appearance of them may change. E.g. rolling one of two identical balls flat.
§ Reversibility;
§ Centration.
Concrete operational stage
Formal operational stage
Vygotsky’s Theory.
· Cultural-historical psychology.
· Scaffolding is the term used by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) to describe the support (Guidance) that an adult might offer a child to help it reach a solution. I.e. the zone of proximal development.
Disembedded thinking - The ability to solve problems that involve hypothetical,
abstract entities rather than concrete objects. Donaldson (1978)
Collaborative learning;
Peer tutoring.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development.
Ideas of Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) have dominated thinking in developmental psychology for many years. Probably the best known psychologist after Sigmund Freud. Recently some alternative answers to his questions have been proposed.
Piaget asked children questions observing them playing and noted the frequencies and circumstances of various interactions such as behaving selfishly or altruistically. Much of his research was conducted on his own three children born in 1925, 1927 and 1931.
In IQ tests it was noticed that some errors were consistent across ages. These errors were predictable and could be described in terms of a stage theory.
In other words errors made at certain ages formed a sequence. Piaget suggested that children’s thought changes quantitively as they pass through stages.
Two strands of Piaget’s theory therefore exist:
An account of the causes of developmental changes (Adaptation.) We will begin by examining the causes.
An account of what changes during development. The cognitive activities at each stage.
The causes of development and the stages of development he argued are biologically driven they occur as a consequence of the maturation of innate forces and structures. Piaget acknowledged the role of experience in cognitive development, intertwining nurture with nature.
The Structure of Intellect
All babies are born with similar biological equipment (Aka ‘Structures.’)
These structures are the senses, the brain, and reflexes.
“…Intelligence is a particular instance of biological adaptation…”
Intelligence “…is the form of equilibrium towards which the successive adaptations and exchanges between the organism and his environment are directed.”
“‘Equilibrium’ is a term used in physics to denote a well balanced adjustment between at least two factors – in this case, between the persons cognitive structures and her or his environment.”
Human infants shortly after birth have approx fifty reflexes – a child’s way of dealing with stimuli.
Piaget argued that these reflexes formed the basis of schema (Mental representations) that a child would develop.
As a child grows their scheme expands.
Piaget called this process of taking on board more cognitive information “Assimilation.”
Once assimilated the knowledge has to be stored in the right place if we are to access it in future. This process is called “Accommodation.”
After assimilation and accommodation, his knowledge (And future behaviour) has changed.
Therefore assimilation and accommodation are the basis of learning!
New learning is an adaptation of previously acquired knowledge.
There must be a balance between assimilation and adaptation for accommodation to occur.
IF the child is being exposed to too much stimulation, that they can’t accommodate, it’s likely to become frustrated rather than educated.
When the child has assimilated, accommodated, and adapted its mental structures she or he is said to be in a state of “Cognitive equilibrium”
If introduced to something new e.g. a horse instead of a dog, then, the child’s mental processing is then in a state of imbalance (Equilibration) and schemas are adapted
Cognitive growth is a constant shift between states of equilibrium and equilibration.
Assimilation _ Accommodation è Adaptation.
An example of a schema would be a mental representation of the human face – there is evidence that infants are born with an innate ability to recognise faces (Fantz - 1961)
Stages in development
Piaget argued that a child’s cognitive abilities are acquired through a series of stages. When a child has achieved a stage of cognitive readiness it will be able to understand things, (e.g. numbers) and its schemas will undergo a major overhaul.
A new stage of development is reached when two things happen:
The child’s brain has matured to a point of ‘Readiness’.
Some new information or experiences that cannot be assimilated challenge the child’s thinking.
Each stage is characterised by a coherent series of principles that operate at that time.
In general studies support Piaget’s observations as to what children can do but greatly underestimate the age at which they could do them – as we will see below.
1. Sensorimotor stage
Young infants have no idea of the permanence of objects once they are out of sight i.e. Object permanence. It will take at least eight months of interaction with the environment for the child to realise that the objects are still there.
Tom Bower (1966) conducted experiments between ages 1 and four months to assess object permanence.
This was a glorified peekaboo exercise using a screen…
In another experiment babies were shown an object they might like to take, the lights turned off as they tried to reach for it. IR camera shows them continuing to reach for the object despite not being able to see it. These infants appeared to possess object permanence despite Piaget’s claims that they were too young to have it.
Mundy-castle and Anglin sat four month olds in from of portholes for an object permanence experiment. They possessed this prior to eight months predicted by Piaget.
2. Pre-operational Stage
· Here children are acquiring many new schemas.
· Each new experience expands mental structures, and as they develop language and communication skills the opportunities for further development expand greatly.
· The child asks questions and makes what sense it can of the answers.
· Despite this, some of Piaget’s descriptions of the cognitive skills of this age group appear rather negative.
· He appears to emphasise what children can’t do rather than what they can. The title ‘Pre-operational’ indicates that children in this stage can’t think in operational (Logical) ways.
3. Preconceptual thought – (2-4 years of age.)
· Childs thinking is dominated by unrealistic ideas one of which is animism:
o Animism = the belief that inanimate objects are alive.
· Since he/she has emotions therefore everything else including inanimate objects must also have them.
· Preconceptual thinking also involves Egocentrism.
o Egocentrism is the child’s own inability to see things from another viewpoint other than their own.
o The ability to take others views into account is called Decentring – Piaget argued this occurs around 7 years of age.
· Intuitive thought is thought to be the second sub stage of the pre-operational stage. This occurs between the ages of four and seven years.
o Conservation is the ability to understand that the more physical characteristics of objects remain the same even though the appearance of them may change. E.g. rolling one of two identical balls flat.
Piaget offered two reasons why children under about seven couldn’t conserve:
They can only attend to one process. They can’t perform the mental operation required to answer the question “What would happen if we reversed the process we have just performed?” ‘Reversibility’ is a complex schema.
The other reason is called Centration. This is the tendency to concentrate on only one aspect of a situation at a time, while ignoring all others that are necessary to solve the problem. The child concentrates on either the shape of the plasticine or the amount but not both.
Egocentrism + }
Irreversibility + } = Some limitations in pre-operational thought.
Centration }
Concrete operational stage
One of Piaget’s most famous conservation tasks involves two identical tall thin jugs containing the same amount of liquid. The content of one of the jugs is emptied into a shorter, wider jug and the child is asked which jug has the most liquid. The pre-operational child will say the tall thin jug; they can’t imagine what liquid level in the first jug would be if the liquid was poured back into it Piaget claimed that mental reversibility would not appear until the child is around 8 years old.
Donaldson (1987) suggests that in the three mountains task children are unsure as to what to do where as in the policemen problem they can use all their knowledge to understand and interpret the questions asked.
John Flavell (1985) showed 3 year olds some cards with a drawing of a cat on one side and a dog on the other. Holding the card vertically between the experimenter and the child, so that the child could see the dog he asked them what they could see. The three year olds had no difficulty in showing what they could decentre by saying that they could see the cat.
Therefore at the very least Piaget was pessimistic about the ages at which these skills occur. He made similar pessimistic judgements about the age for conservation.
McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) devised a game to test conservation of number in which two identical rows of sweets were placed in front of the child. A glove puppet called ‘naughty teddy’ then spread the sweets in one of the rows while not moving the others. Of the 4 and 5 year olds tested, fifty said that the number of sweets remained the same and so showed that they could conserve number. However when adult researchers moved the sweets themselves only thirteen out of the eighty said they were the same number
Moore and Frye (1986) found that these early results were to some extent explained by the children’s absorption in the game and ‘naughty teddy’ was a distraction. When running a modified version of the research they found that even quite young children observed the changes taking place.
Concrete Operational Stage (Cont..)
Here intuition is replaced by use of logical rules.
Understanding is limited as it deals with the actual concrete world.
These children have difficulty in considering anything hypothetical or abstract.
Two such important abilities are associated with this stage are:
Serration:
Allows the child to arrange sets of items in order of dimensions e.g. dolls in order of height.
Transivity
This is the ability to recognise logical relationships in a series. E.g. who is taller than whom in relation to whom
Piaget liked to asses children’s thinking by presenting them with a ‘conservation task’ – i.e. the logical rule that quantity does not change even when the way it is displayed is transformed..
Pre-operational children fail at this task because they cannot conserve quantity, whereas the concrete operational child comprehends the rule and applies it to this concrete situation.
Formal Operational stage:
Concrete operational stage = children learning to manipulate objects mentally.
Formal operational thinking does not require this direct experience. Basic mental arithmetic and hypothetical questions may now be answered.
The most important shift that people make when moving from concrete to formal operations is in extending their reasoning abilities to objects and situations that they have not seen or experienced at first hand and that they cannot manipulate to see directly. Where the pre-schoolchild may dress up and pretend to be someone else the teenager may think about the different roles they might occupy in the future A major feature is the appearance of deductive logic rather than its forerunner inductive logic.
However, psychologists argue that some people never reach this stage. About 70% of adults go through their lives without fully being able to make logical, reasoned predictions Further than this an individual may be able to do this on one topic but not another. There may be another stage beyond this in which philosophers and great thinkers can reason about society and community in ways that most people cant .
Piaget and Inhelder (1956) demonstrated this with a beaker problem:
· Participants were given four beakers of colourless liquids
· They were asked to find what combination produced a yellow liquid.
· Younger children tried all sorts of random combinations and may or may not have found the answer.
· Older children took a systematic approach systematically excluding possibilities until they found the correct solution.
· They used abstract deductive reasoning forming a principle deriving a hypothesis and testing this to confirm the hypothesis.
Dasen (1994) claims that one third of adults do not reach Formal Operational Stage
Wason and Shapiro (1971) tested students using abstract reasoning tasks they found only 10% could work out the solution but this rose to 62% if the task was given in concrete form.
Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory:
Piaget underestimated the age at which children can do things as he failed to distinguish between Competence (What your capable of doing) and Performance (How you perform in a particular task.) He simply assumed that they lacked the cognitive structures needed to succeed on that task.
Timetable of development is too prescriptive.
But it is not only about age boundaries, but also about universal qualitative, biologically regulated cognitive changes that occur during development. This is supported by cross cultural research that has replicated Piaget’s findings
(E.g. Smith et al. 1998)
If you’re not biologically ready then practice should not improve performance.
Borke (1975) demonstrated that children as young as 3 or 4 years could overcome egocentrism with practice.
Piaget underplayed the role of language and social factors in cognitive development. Sinclair-de-zwart (1969) supports Piaget. However, in an earlier experiment she found children who were non-conservers differed in terms of the language they used from children who were non conservers. This suggests cognitive linguistic development comes together. Which comes first? Sinclair-de-zwart tried the apt verbal skills to the non conservers. However, 90% of these children were still unable to conserve. This supports Piaget’s view that cognitive maturity is a prerequisite for linguistic development.
Despite its shortcomings, the strength of Piaget’s approach and theory should not be overlooked. Like all good theories it has generated research.
Vygotsky’s Theory
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Выготский) (November 17 (November 5 Old Style), 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet developmental psychologist and the founder of the Cultural-historical psychology.
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky believed that neither nature nor nurture alone could explain human cognitive development and that it must emerge from complex combinations of influences from both sources.
A contemporary of Piaget though they never met.
His most influential work “Thought and language”
Published in 1934 in Russian, translated to English in 1964.
Died of TB.
The influence of culture:
Russian upbringing emphasised social norms of co=operation and collective action;
Emphasised nurture over nature (The prevailing western thought at the time.)
He disagreed with Piaget’s idea that each child egocentrically struggles to make sense of their own world.
Disagrees with Piaget’s more biological role at the role of language development.
For the 1st two years babies development does reflect sensory motor skills.
Vygotsky rejects Piaget’s description of the passive child waiting until it is cognitively ready to acquire a skill such as object permanence ;
He sees aspects of cognitive development appearing as a result of babies making some active attempt to solve problems such as where things are, who has possession, and so on.
This is described as evidence of pre verbal thought
Babies can also use vocalisation to attract and communicate with adults;
This is called pre-intellectual speech.
· As vocabulary and comprehension develop after the age of 2, both pre-thought and vocalisation come together and language begins to play an important part in shaping how the child perceives the world.
· For Paiget language is a system of labels for schemas that we already have. Words help us to define our thoughts and actions, but can only attach to our thoughts.
· For Vygotsky, language actively shapes the thoughts. The process of trying to communicate with others leads to the child acquiring the word meanings that form the structure of the child’s consciousness. This is inner speech and it exists only as a result of social interaction.
· Intellect consists of Elementary and Higher Mental Functions.
Elementary functions are innate capacities such as attention and sensation.
· Vygotsky’s view was that these will develop to a limited extent through experience but cultural influences are required to transform them into higher mental functions such as:
Decision making ;
and comprehension of language.
· Therefore without culture individuals would not progress further than the elementary functions.
· Therefore according to Vygotsky, cultural knowledge is the means by which cognitive development takes place.
There are several examples of this:
Papua New Guinea Counting Systems;
· If higher mental functions are dependant of cultural influences, then we would expect to find different higher mental functions in different cultures.
o Grendler (1992) cited Papua New Guinea children being taught a counting system that begins on the thumb and progresses up the arm. In consequence they can count to 29 using this method therefore it is difficult to add and subtract. This therefore becomes a higher mental function in that culture.
· Use of enculturation in animals is also an example:
o Rumbaugh (1991) taught Bonobo chimpanzees to use human language as well as to use number and quantity concepts by immersing the chimpanzees in a human learning environment. In the wild higher mental functions are not transformed, however, give the right learning environment (Culturally) they are able to develop some of these.
· Availability of knowledge:
o Evidence also exists for the influence of culture from research on IQ.
o IQ’s in many different cultures have been steadily increased in recent decades.
o One explanation is improved diet but another is increased knowledge that surrounds children
The zone of proximal development (ZPD)
· This is the area between what the child knows and what it is capable of knowing.
· Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) used the term scaffolding to describe the support (Guidance) that an adult might offer a child to help it reach a solution.
· Instruction “…wakens a whole series of functions that are in a stage of maturation lying in the zone of proximal development.” (Vygotsky 1987)
· Zygovsky predicted that the greatest learning occurred at the edge of the ZPD.
Refer to McNaughton and Leyland (1990)
Semiotic Meditation
The cognitive development process is mediated by semiotics (Language and other cultural symbols.) Semiotic mediation is a social process.
The Social and Individual Planes.
Learning starts off as a shared, social activity. In time it becomes a sole responsibility of the learner.
Wertsch (1985) have shown how self regulation increases with age and experience.
The Role of Language:
One of Vygotsky’s real interests was the relationship between language and thought. Refer to panel below:
· Language and thought are separate functions here in children below the age of two.
· Vocal activity and pre-intellectual language is a form of social interaction and emotional expression. At the same time children use pre-linguistic thought, mental activities such as problem solving which do not use verbal operations. This is a period of practical intelligence when mental functions are developing.
· After age 2 the child begins to us external symbols or signs such as language or other cultural tools to assist in problem-solving.
· A young child will often talk out loud when solving problems, a kind of egocentric speech. After the age of 7 this self talk becomes silent (inner speech) and differs in the form of social speech. Inner dialogues are used as a means of self regulation to control ones cognitive processes. Learning has moved to the individual plane but continues to be mediated by language.
· Language throughout life serves the dual purpose of being for social communication and thought.
Stages in the development of thinking:
Vygotsky’s theory is not a stage theory as such, though he did propose stages in the development of language and thought. He also proposed stages in the process of concept formation derived from a research study (Vygotsky 1987)
Children were given wooden blocks of varying height and shape. Each was labelled with a nonsense symbol. “ZAT” was used to label tall and square blocks. The child’s task was to identify what these labels meant. Vygotsky observed that the children went through three stages before achieving mature concepts.
See table below:
Evaluation:
· Very little empirical support exists for Vytgotksy’s theory.
o Focuses on the process of cognitive development rather than the outcome, and this is harder to test.
· Strengths and limitations:
o Limited negative criticism as the empirical studies for this theory have only slowly become available.
· The role of biological and individual factors:
o Overemphasises the importance of social influences and underemphasise the biological and individual factors in cognitive development.
o If social influences alone were necessary development then we would expect learning to be faster than it is.
· Individual versus social construction:
o Piaget suggests that knowledge was something that a child creates for themselves (Individualistic and western.) Vygotsky saw knowledge as a collaborative social process (Collectivist.)
o In short both are constructive approaches but one is individualistic versus the other which is collective.
· The role of egocentric speech:
o Piaget argued the causation here was from person to the social world.
o Egocentric speech occurs because the child is unable to share a perspective of another.
o In contrast Vygotsky suggests that development moves from the social to the developmental plane where learning is internalised.
o Egocentric speech is the transition between social context and inner speech.
· Development or learning? Which comes first?
o Piaget suggests that development precedes learning;
o Vygotsky suggested learning comes first and this promotes development.
· Scope for assisted learning:
o Piaget argues you can only wait.
o Vygotsky argues that scope exists for assisted learning.
· Individual differences in learning:
Both approaches reflect cultural differences but also individual differences
· Glassman (1999) argues that it is wrong to see Piaget and Vygotsky as opposites, as they’re remarkably similar at their core. Piaget focused on the natural laws of intellectual development while Vygotsky concentrated on the impact of social processes and culture.
o An integration of both views might therefore be highly productive.
Practical Applications of these Theories to Education.
Having some understanding of the ways in which children’s thinking occurs and develops should help us design an education system for 5 year olds and older children that takes account of their skills and abilities. In those parts of the world that have an education system, children’s knowledge and understanding increases dramatically compared with those in the countries that do not.
The table below recaps on the main differences between the two schools of thought.
Piaget’s discovery learning.
Piaget’s ideas have been applied to the classroom of primary and junior schools.
i.e. Infant school deliver for a pre-operational stage learning environment.
i.e. Junior schools reflect the concrete operational thinking of their pupils.
The social dimension and play remains the least explored aspect of Piaget’s work. Donaldson (1987) “Children’s minds” argues that schooling helps to create disembedded thinking or the ability to solve problems that involve hypothetical, abstract entities rather than concrete objects. This is due to the fact that disembedded thinking is not natural for the human mind no matter how much the child explores.
Vygotsky: The Social Context
· Did not accept that teachers should wait for a child to be ready to learn and claimed that ‘…what a child can do with assistance today he/she can do by him/herself tomorrow.’
· Social context enables learning.
· “There are times when a child should be left alone there are also times when they require assistance (A scaffold)” – Wood et al. (1976)
Collaborative Learning:
Bennett and Dunne (1991) found that children who engaged in cooperative group work were less competitive, less concerned with status and more likely to show evidence of logical thinking than those who worked alone.
Peer tutoring:
Peers can also be experts and peer tutoring was seen as an effective form of learning. Research has also found that peer tutoring may have the greatest benefit for the more expert peer. Cloward (1967)
Evaluation of Vygotsky’s Approach:
Individual differences:
· There are individual differences in the effectiveness of these techniques.
· E.g. Blaye et al some children working at home did not outperform those working alone.
The role of experts:
· Relies on the role of experts to recognise the limits of ZPD and know when and how to respond. Skilful application of this approach may be an unrealistic goal.
The importance of social influences:
· It’s educationally more important to know what children can achieve with assistance than what they can achieve unaided. But this may stifle creativity and understanding.
A combined approach:
· One science programme has combined the Piagetian approach to setting situations that create cognitive conflict with the Vygotskian approach to collaborative learning to produce improved performance in experimental groups, in maths science and English – CASE, i.e. Cognitive acceleration through science education. (Adey and Shayer – 1993.)
References of note:
Fantz (1961) - An example of a schema would be a mental
representation of the human face – there is evidence
that infants are born with an innate ability to
recognise faces
Tom Bower (1966) - Experiments into object permanence with babies
and infants.
Mundy-castle and Anglin - Sat four month olds in from of portholes for an
object permanence experiment. They possessed this
prior to eight months predicted by Piaget.
Martin Hughes (1975) - Hughes hiding from a policeman task
John Flavell (1985) - Showed 3 year olds some cards with a drawing of a
cat on one side and a dog on the other. Holding the card vertically between the experimenter and the child, so that the child could see the dog he asked them what they could see. The three year olds had no difficulty in showing what they could decentre by saying that they could see the cat.
Donaldson (1987) - Suggests that in the three mountains task children
are unsure as to what to do where as in the policemen problem they can use all their knowledge to understand and interpret the questions asked.
McGarrigle and
Donaldson (1974) - Devised a game to test conservation of number in
which two identical rows of sweets were placed in front of the child. A glove puppet called ‘naughty teddy’ then spread the sweets in one of the rows while not moving the others. Of the 4 and 5 year olds tested, fifty said that the number of sweets remained the same and so showed that they could conserve number. However when adult researchers moved the sweets themselves only thirteen out of the eighty said they were the same number
Moore and Frye (1986) - Found that these early results were to some extent
explained by the children’s absorption in the game
and ‘naughty teddy’ was a distraction. When
running a modified version of the research they
found that even quite young children observed the
changes taking place.
Piaget and Inhelder (1956) - Beaker problem proposed to assess the achievement
of the Formal Operational Stage.
Dasen (1994) - Claims that one third of adults do not reach
Formal Operational Stage.
Wason and Shapiro (1971) - Tested students using abstract reasoning tasks they
found only 10% could work out the solution but this rose to 62% if the task was given in concrete form.
Smith et al. (1998) - Cross cultural research that supports Piaget.
Borke (1975) - Demonstrated that children as young as 3 or 4 years
could overcome egocentrism with practice.
Sinclair-de-zwart (1969) - Supports Piaget. However, in an earlier experiment
she found children who were non-conservers
differed in terms of the language they used from
children who were non conservers. This suggests
cognitive linguistic development comes together.
Which comes first? Sinclair-de-zwart tried the apt verbal skills to the non conservers. However, 90% of these children were still unable to conserve. This supports Piaget’s view that cognitive maturity is a prerequisite for linguistic development.
Vygotsky (1934) (1962) - “Thought and language”
Vygotsky’s’ most popular work
Grendler (1992) - Example of higher mental functions being
dependant on different influences. Cited Papua New Guinea children being taught a counting system that begins on the thumb and progresses up the arm. In consequence they can count to 29 using this method therefore it is difficult to add and subtract. This therefore becomes a higher mental function in that culture.
Rumbaugh (1991) - Taught Bonobo chimpanzees to use human
language as well as to use number and quantity concepts by immersing the chimpanzees in a human learning environment. In the wild higher mental functions are not transformed, however, give the right learning environment (Culturally) they are able to develop some of these.
Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) - Zone of proximal development research. Used the
term scaffolding to describe the support (Guidance
that an adult might offer a child to help it reach a
solution.
Vygotsky (1987) - Instruction “…wakens a whole series of functions
that are in a stage of maturation lying in the zone of proximal development.”
McNaughton and Leyland (1990) - The ZPD and Jigsaw Puzzles.
Wertsch (1985) - Have shown how self regulation increases with age
and experience.
Vygotsky (1987) - Speech stage age and function for the development of
language and thought.
Glassman (1999) - Argues that it is wrong to see Piaget and Vygotsky
as opposites, as they’re remarkably similar at their
core. Piaget focused on the natural laws of
intellectual development while Vygotsky
concentrated on the impact of social processes and
culture.
Donaldson (1987)
“Children’s minds” - Argues that schooling helps to create
disembedded thinking or the ability to solve
problems that involve hypothetical, abstract entities
rather than concrete objects.
Wood et al. (1976) - “There are times when a child should be left alone
there are also times when they require assistance (A scaffold)”
Bennett and Dunne (1991) - Collaborative Learning. Found that children who
engaged in cooperative group work were less
competitive, less concerned with status and more
likely to show evidence of logical thinking than
those who worked alone.
Cloward (1967) - Peer tutoring. Peers can also be experts and peer
tutoring was seen as an effective form of learning. Research has also found that peer tutoring may have the greatest benefit for the more expert peer.
Adey and Shayer (1993.) - One science programme has combined the Piagetian
approach to setting situations that create cognitive conflict with the Vygotskian approach to collaborative learning to produce improved performance in experimental groups, in maths science and English (CASE, i.e. Cognitive acceleration through science education.)
Concepts to note:
· Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development;
o Intelligence
o Equilibrium
o Schema
o Assimilation
o Accommodation.
o Equilibration
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development:
Sensorimotor stage
Object permanence
Pre-operational stage (2-4 years)
Animism = the belief that inanimate objects are alive.
Egocentrism = the child’s own inability to see things from another viewpoint other than their own.
Decentring = The ability to take others views into account .
Piaget argued this occurs around 7 years of age.
§ Intuitive thought is thought to be the second sub stage of the pre-operational stage. This occurs between the ages of four and seven years.
Conservation = The ability to understand that the more physical characteristics of objects remain the same even though the appearance of them may change. E.g. rolling one of two identical balls flat.
§ Reversibility;
§ Centration.
Concrete operational stage
Formal operational stage
Vygotsky’s Theory.
· Cultural-historical psychology.
· Scaffolding is the term used by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) to describe the support (Guidance) that an adult might offer a child to help it reach a solution. I.e. the zone of proximal development.
Disembedded thinking - The ability to solve problems that involve hypothetical,
abstract entities rather than concrete objects. Donaldson (1978)
Collaborative learning;
Peer tutoring.
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