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AP Psychology 1.1 Developmental Psychology 16 Views


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Description:

Some people can’t fart. "What does this have to do with developmental psychology?” you ask. Watch this video to find out.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

And here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Jean Piaget ,

00:07

the Camille Pissarro of developmental psychology. [Photographs of both people]

00:10

Who’s Camille Pissarro?

00:12

He’s the Michael Jordan of Danish Neo-Impressionism. [Photo of Michael Jordan]

00:15

Who’s Michael Jordan?

00:16

He’s the Jean Piaget of the NBA.

00:19

Full circle.

00:20

Here’s the question:

00:21

Jean Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development that encompassed four stages.

00:26

In which of these stages does symbolic thought develop, while the child still remains egocentric? [Asks question]

00:31

And here are your potential answers…

00:36

Alright, let’s start out with the basics: who is this Jean Piaget and what are the stages

00:40

to his theory of cognitive development?

00:43

Jean Piaget, noted Swiss psychologist and beret enthusiast, was the first psychologist

00:48

to make a systematic study of cognitive development.

00:51

He concluded that children weren’t just dumber versions of adults- or less competent [Children playing]

00:56

thinkers, whatever, we’re paraphrasing- but that actually, their brains just thought

01:00

in much different ways than those of a fully developed mind.

01:05

Kind of like weird uncle Carl who likes eating glue. [Person eating glue]

01:08

Piaget proposed four stages to cognitive development: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational,

01:17

and Formal Operational.

01:19

You can remember them in order by remembering the acronym: SPCF [Child reading]

01:23

Hmm…on second thought, maybe that’s not that helpful.

01:26

Let’s try it as a mnemonic....

01:27

Some. People. Can’t. Fart.

01:29

That's why they pay us the big bucks, people.

01:33

But enough farting around, let’s get to the stages:

01:36

Sensorimotor is the first stage, and deals with children before they hit the Terrible Twos. [Playing with ball]

01:41

Preoperational is the second stage, beginning when children start speaking, and lasting

01:46

until the age of about 7. [Child smiling]

01:47

Then comes Concrete Operational, which occurs during preadolescence, roughly the ages of

01:52

7-11; before, finally, we have… [Putting money into piggy bank]

01:55

Formal Operational, which covers adolescence into adulthood.

01:59

The crux of the question deals with an egocentric viewpoint, meaning that the child can’t

02:02

see the viewpoints of others. [Refusing to eat broccoli]

02:04

But to be fair, our parents still don’t see things from our perspective- especially

02:08

when it comes to trends that should never, ever, ever be repeated.

02:11

Seriously.

02:12

Bell-bottoms are dead and buried. [Holds up bell-bottom pants]

02:14

But they're at least aware that we…and people in general…have a point of view that’s

02:18

different from theirs..

02:20

Now looking back at our answers, we can probably eliminate Formal Operational, because we expect

02:23

people growing into adulthood not to be egocentric…

02:26

…Which apparently, is sometimes too much to ask.,,

02:29

We can also get rid of Sensorimotor, because a pre-talking baby isn’t really aware enough

02:34

to be egocentric yet, and it also hasn’t developed symbolic thought. [Baby opens mouth]

02:38

And we can eliminate Centration, because it isn’t even one of the four stages.

02:42

Oh, the AP test…always keeping us on our toes.

02:45

That leaves us with Preoperational and Concrete Operational, answers C and D.

02:50

So which is it? [Highlighed choices]

02:51

While Concrete Operational deals primarily with the development of reasoning and logic

02:55

in preadolescence, the Preoperational stage deals mostly with the Egocentrism we were

02:59

just discussing.

03:01

So the correct answer is D, Preoperational. [Correct answer circled]

03:05

Basically, Piaget says that in the Preoperational stage, children can generally only focus on

03:10

one thing, and that one thing is usually themselves. [Baby playing with ladle]

03:13

For example, when a group of children in this age group play in the same room, they are

03:17

normally playing next to each other, not playing with each other; and when they talk, they’re

03:21

talking to get out what’s in their brain, not to communicate.

03:24

So basically like that one person you never want to work with in a group project, but

03:28

someone always get paired with. [People in lab coats]

03:30

Man, we hate that guy…

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