PSYC 251 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Plants And Animals, Essentialism, Broccoli
4 Apr 2020
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Dividing concepts into categories: young children organized knowledge into 3 informal theories, physics (inanimate objects) i. e. furniture, vehicles, psychology (people) i. e. europeans, asians, biology (other living things) i. e. animals, plants. Informal theories viewed as having innate core but also incorporating learning processes like association, observation. Informal theories share 3 important characteristics with formal scientific theories: Identify fundamental units for dividing all objects & events into few basic categories: explain main phenomena in terms of few fundamental principles, explain events in terms of unobservable causes. If mom likes broccoli she will eat broccoli, even though child hates broccoli: still show little understanding that beliefs are likewise influential. Knowledge of living things: kids have fascination with animals early on almost always in first words, often fail to understand difference between artifacts built by people for specific purpose & living things, not created for any purpose.
