BESC1120 Study Guide - Final Guide: Mental Chronometry, Moral Reasoning, Decision-Making

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EXAM NOTES - Developmental Psychology
Adolescence
Lecture 8:
Chapter 10: Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence
Adolescence = The stage of development between childhood and adulthood, from about 12 to 20 years of
age.
Cognitive Development
ļ‚·Revolution in way able to think
ļ‚·Show a type of logical thought, allowing them to systemically manipulate a number of different
factors simultaneously (which is not apparent in younger childrenā€™s modes of thinking)
ļ‚·Capable of weighing up pros and cons of such issues such as experimenting with drugs, or
embarking on a sexual relationship
ļ‚·Able to think abstractly ā€“ entertaining possibilities that are freed from the constraints of the here
and now ā€“ hypothetical situations (for example ā€¦ā€™What would happen to society if a nuclear war
broke out?ā€™ OR ā€˜What if I was born into a really poor family?ā€™) ā€“ they can imagine what these
situations might be like even though theyā€™ve never experienced them
ļ‚·These new skills in speculative thought ā€“ stimulate to think critically about their own actions /
feelings and others as well (eg. ā€˜perhaps she said she didnā€™t want to go out with me because sheā€™s
grossed out by my pimplesā€™)
ļ‚·2 major theoretical viewpoints have emerged in relation to this thinking in adolescence.
Piagetā€™s Theory: the stage of formal operations:
ļ‚·Between aprox ages 12-15, cognition undergoes a qualitative transformation from ā€˜concrete
operational thoughtā€™ to ā€˜formal operational thoughtā€™ (a more abstract way of thinking)
ļ‚·Thinking characterised by mental manipulations using internal representations alone
ļ‚·Logic, abstract thought
ļ‚·Typifies adolescence and adulthood
ļ‚·Concrete thought involves mental manipulations (operations) performed on observed situations or
actual objects ā€“ whereas formal thought is on ā€˜operations on operationsā€™ ā€“ can perform mental
manipulations (operations) using internal representations (thoughts) alone ā€“ not tied to observable
situation and things
ļ‚·Hypothetico-deductive
ļ‚·Propositional
ļ‚·Combinatorial
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning:
ļ‚·A logical form of thinking in which hypotheses are systematically tested using scientific method
ļ‚·Systematic, scientific approach
ļ‚·Piaget found, around age 13 individuals are first able to make hypotheses from own observations
and can test them systematically
ļ‚·This ability is called hypothetico-deductive reasoning
ļ‚·It underpins the scientific method used in experiments in all science branches
ļ‚·Dealing with multiple factors / dimensions of a problem
ļ‚·Pendulum problem ā€“ experiment with strings (multiple variables effecting the speed)
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Propositional Reasoning:
ļ‚·Thinking that involves making inferences from premises which are presented as true, so that the
concluding statement is also true
ļ‚·Understanding of this reasoning is part of formal operations stage
ļ‚·Eg. A premise might consist of ā€œcats run faster than sports carsā€ , the second premise might be
ā€œsports cars run faster than family sedansā€ ----- with the logical conclusion that ā€œcats must therefore
run faster than family sedansā€ ā€“ correct in this situation in formal stage, however in concrete stage
the child would say it isnā€™t realistic because sports cars are faster than cats and therefore the
conclusion is invalid
ļ‚·Inability of concrete operational children to distinguish the factual content of the problem from the
logic of the argument
ļ‚·Older adolescents aged 15-18 are able to do this
Variations in the development of formal operations:
ļ‚·Horizontal decalage = the sequential acquisition of concepts across different content areas within a
single stage of cognitive development
ļ‚·Not all types of formal thinking emerge at the same time so Piaget applied this ā€“ assumed
horizontal decalage
ļ‚·Some things are learnt before others ā€“ sequential ā€“ developmental sequencing in cognitive tasks
ļ‚·Wide individual differences in formal operational thinking
ļ‚·Depends on environmental circumstance ā€“ class, location, etc
ļ‚·Development of formal operations is heavily dependant on sociocultural context including the
degree to which the environment calls upon different types of thinking (not purely on
accommodation and assimilation proposed by Piaget)
ļ‚·Later researchers argue these formal operations tasks might only apply in academic settings,
everyday problem solving involves much less of this systematic reasoning
ļ‚·Everyday problem solving ā€“ more about considering circumstances surrounding a problem to lead
to the best or most mature outcome (post formal thinking)ā€“ not necessarily the fully logical solution
like Piaget suggests
Impact of formal operations on adolescent behaviour:
ļ‚·The development of formal operational thought impacts adolescents behaviour in number of ways
ļ‚·Enables teens to think more critically and flexibly about things such as parents authority ā€“argue
with their parents more skilfully than they could as children often using multiple viewpoints
ļ‚·Has lead to expansions in education and social relationships
ļ‚·Able to better assimilate the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of their culture, and to
understand philosophical and abstract topics at school eg. literary analysis, and abstract concepts in
science at highschool that couldnā€™t be done in primary school
Information-processing theories and adolescent cognitive development:
ļ‚·Human cognition is a complex system of information storage and retrieval with several distinctive
processes (attention, encoding, memory and thinking)
ļ‚·Continuous process, no stages
ļ‚·Development in cognition leads to greater knowledge, improved skills, improved memory,
improved attention
ļ‚·Later advances are built upon a foundation of earlier cognitive achievements
ļ‚·One of the most fundamental components of info processing is attention (capacity to focus
cognitive resources on a task)
ļ‚·Sustained attention ā€“ individual maintains attention over prolonged period of time
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Document Summary

Chapter 10: physical and cognitive development in adolescence. Adolescence = the stage of development between childhood and adulthood, from about 12 to 20 years of age. Show a type of logical thought, allowing them to systemically manipulate a number of different factors simultaneously (which is not apparent in younger children"s modes of thinking) Capable of weighing up pros and cons of such issues such as experimenting with drugs, or embarking on a sexual relationship. 2 major theoretical viewpoints have emerged in relation to this thinking in adolescence. Between aprox ages 12-15, cognition undergoes a qualitative transformation from concrete operational thought" to formal operational thought" (a more abstract way of thinking) Thinking characterised by mental manipulations using internal representations alone. A logical form of thinking in which hypotheses are systematically tested using scientific method. Piaget found, around age 13 individuals are first able to make hypotheses from own observations and can test them systematically.