"Classical Piagetian theory is outdated and no longer useful."Critically evaluate this statement in relation to life-span development.

Developmental Psychology Essay Submitted to: Conor McGuckin Submitted by: Ruth Lennon Student No.: 1061022 "Classical Piagetian theory is outdated and no longer useful." Critically evaluate this statement in relation to life-span development. Life-span development is the scientific study that seeks to understand the ways in which all people change and how they do not change from conception to death. Until recently developmental psychology focused mainly on childhood and adolescence but, as a greater understanding of adult "crises" arose, developmental psychology has "enlarged to encompass the entire lifespan." (Bee & Boyd, 2003). One of the most influential theorists in the realm of development was Swiss born psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget specifically studied the cognitive development of children and adolescents. Unfortunately Piaget failed to recognise that development continued past adolescence and right the way through an individual's entire life. It is because of this omission that many criticise and question the validity of Piaget's theories. Classical Piagetian theory is a theory of cognitive development centred on adaptation, accommodation and assimilation. Unlike Locke's proposal of the "tabula rasa", Piaget believed that a child's mind is not a blank slate. "On the contrary, the child has a host of ideas about the physical and natural world, but

  • Word count: 2266
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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"Compare Grice's Conversational Maxims with Sperber and Wilson's Theory of Relevance"

"Compare Grice's Conversational Maxims with Sperber and Wilson's Theory of Relevance" This essay will compare the conversational maxims of Grice with Sperber and Wilson's Relevance theory, concluding that Grice has the more useful approach, and bodes well for the future of Natural Language Processing. The two theories attempt an analysis of language that goes beyond mere syntax or semantics - to discover the pragmatic meaning conveyed by a sentence, above and beyond the truth-conditional meaning of what is said. Crudely, pragmatics is the process of relating a sentence to the context in which it occurs, the context being either linguistic or non-linguistic. In the former, the meaning of a sentence may depend upon surrounding sentences - both preceding it and those whose meaning may be influenced by the sentence in question. So we might determine the reference of pronouns: Anthony Burgess used to avoid Monday-morning Linguistic lectures. His tutors scarcely saw him all term. Whereas non-linguistic contexts provide knowledge about the person producing the utterance, and what they wish to achieve from the communication: Has anyone seen Anthony Burgess? (a) ie, Has anybody visually perceived him? (b) A sarcastic comment that Burgess is rarely in his lectures And so on. Pragmatics, and semantics, need recourse to knowledge about the world or the domain modelled. There is,

  • Word count: 2812
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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"Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label" Becker. How have symbolic interactionists applied this idea to explain the presence of deviancy in society?

"Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label" Becker. How have symbolic interactionists applied this idea to explain the presence of deviancy in society? The definition of the word 'deviant' is explained as; (a person or thing) deviating from normal behaviour. This automatically assumes that 'normal' behaviour is the correct and appropriate actions of society; therefore those who do not conform to this are seen as deviant. The concept of deviance is a relative term, meaning its fluid rather than fixed, changeable rather than static. One can discern that the idea of what is deviant according to the above classification is continually up for reinterpretation depending on the context in which it's set in. for example in the 1950's homosexuality was viewed by the majority of society as an illness but today as a legitimate and accepted lifestyle choice. Symbolic interactionist's translation of 'deviance' is that it is socially constructed, retaining a remnant that is so central to sociologists such as Beccaria, that the social realm is 'constructed' by actors. Becker (1974 pg 51)1 argues that 'deviant action is not an unknown, mystical force but that in fact 'we see that social rules, far from being fixed and immutable, are continually constructed anew in very situation.' Deviance according to deviance and labelling theories is the non-conformity with a set of norms

  • Word count: 1872
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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"Discuss ways in which Milgram's obedience experiment could have broken current B.P.S (British Psychological Society) guidelines."

Access Psychology: Level 3: Introductory Module: Assignment For this assignment I have been asked to, "Discuss ways in which Milgram's obedience experiment could have broken current B.P.S (British Psychological Society) guidelines." I will look at Milgram's experiment, compare and discuss the ways in which he would have broken current B.P.S guidelines. Milgram would have broken a number of different guideline that is in place today, Milgram's experiment has been said to be unethical and would not have taken place based upon these grounds. The guideline that would have been broken, stopping Milgram's experiment been able to take place were: > Consent client did not give > Misleading clients > Debriefing was not appropriate > Protection of participants > Right to withdraw Although Milgram's experiment would have broken these guidelines he could have argued that his experiment was a good thing and his actions were justified, not breaking current B.P.S guideline, these were: > The methodology > Right to withdraw > Debriefed and reassured after the experiment > Protection of participants The ways in which Milgram's experiment broke current B.P.S guidelines, how he could have broken these guidelines are: Consent, client did not give: Researches are obliged, whenever possible, to obtain the informed consent of participants in a psychological study.

  • Word count: 1100
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Is Eyewitness testimony reliable and accurate? Include case studies to back this up.

Eyewitness Testimony (EWT) essay Is Eyewitness testimony reliable and accurate? Include case studies to back this up. EWT refers to evidence supplied by people who witness a specific event or crime, relying on their own memory. Statements often include descriptions given in a criminal trial and subsequent identification by individuals who were present at the crime scene. EWT is likely to dependent on reconstructive memory(Bartlett,1932) which describes how memory is more than a passive recall. It is the active process of building up memory using fragments to fill gaps of an event in memory plus the expectations and assumptions (schema) of that event. This form of EWT is not 100% accurate as it is relying on the schema to fill in these gaps and varies from person to person. Reconstruction is not the only form of distortion in EWT as language; leading questions and post-event information may even distort reconstruction, further leading to memory to use and confabulation. Loftus and Palmer found that changing the wording of one critical question ("About how fast were the cars going when they (hit/smashed/collided/ bumped/contacted-the five conditions) each other?") posed to eyewitnesses of a car accident had a significant effect on the estimated speed of the vehicles. Loftus and Palmer found that estimated speed was influenced by the verb used. The verb implied information

  • Word count: 1018
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Outline the main features of experimental social psychology and consider the influences that led to its emergence. What do you think are its strengths and weaknesses?

Outline the main features of experimental social psychology and consider the influences that led to its emergence. What do you think are its strengths and weaknesses? Social psychology has many different theoretical perspectives. The focus of this essay will be the cognitive social perspective and its central method of research; experiments. I will therefore refer to this approach as experimental social psychology (ESP). My aim is to argue that despite some downfalls, ESP provides an indispensible contribution to understanding how the mind is structured by society (Haslam, 2007, DVD 1, DD307). To argue this I will outline the key characteristics of the approach which will involve looking at its historical development. This will give us an insight into how the discipline became grounded within scientific principles and was the dominant approach for much of its 100 year history (Holloway, 2007). I will then draw out what features undermined the perspective and will place the favourable and questionable aspects of the approach within four analytical themes called power relations; situated knowledge; individual-social dualism and agency-structure dualism (Holloway, 2007). These will also be used to critically evaluate ESP. Other perspectives will be incorporated to illustrate strengths and weaknesses but I will not go into detail about them. The intent is to finish the essay with

  • Word count: 1732
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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The person centred approach

Essay 1 :The person centred approach The person centred approach has had a major impact in psychology, particularly the counselling field. This approach began formally by Carl Rogers (Hough, 2006).Although this approach is used by other professionals such as social workers, it is particularly important to counsellors as it can be used as a guideline for counsellors as it introduces conditions which are essential in counselling practice. The approach also establishes what is needed in the relationship between client and counsellors to make progress and it helps counsellors to empathize with client to empower the client to want to change for the better and reach their full potential. PC Personality Theory The person centred theory stands out to other personality theories by psychologist such as Freud or Erickson because development is not described in stages or phases. Rogers described personality development using the term 'self concept', he took into account how a person perceives themselves (Hough, 2006). Individuals 'self concept' is said to be affected by their interactions with other people and the environment. Rogers concentrated on the way in which an individual's perception of self is developed by other people's appraisal and expectations. For instance from a young age children aim to satisfy their parents/carers. However the actualising tendency has some similarity

  • Word count: 1439
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Critically assess the value of behaviourism as a psychological approach?

Foundations of psychology 1 Critically assess the value of behaviourism as a psychological approach? In his essay I will provide information related to the assessment criteria. I will demonstrate my understanding of behaviourism from a psychological approach. The behaviourists that I have chosen to compare and discuss are, Watson, Pavlov, Thorndike and Skinner. From a psychological approach I will seek into the different behaviour therapies. The value of behaviour changes as a result of experience. The behaviourists approach to psychology started in America in the early years of the twentieth century. John Broadus Watson (1878-1955) was the founding father of behaviourism. Watson believed that the most important thing for psychology was that it should be scientific. His idea of this was that introspection was too broad and confusing. To study the mind would be time consuming and virtually impossible, because we cannot see directly into it. All that we can see is physical skin behaviour. Watson's approach rested on five fundamental assumptions. His first assumption was the most important factor in understanding behaviour, so understanding learning would lead to understanding of all behaviour. Secondly, that learning arose from the association between an external stimulus and a behavioural response. Thirdly that only measurable information counted as valid scientific data

  • Word count: 1757
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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The Effects of Classical Conditioning on Human Salivation Rate by Utilising Sweets and the Term "Cellar Door".

The Effects of Classical Conditioning on Human Salivation Rate by Utilising Sweets and the Term "Cellar Door" ABSTRACT: The aim of this experiment was to test the theory that the salivation rate of humans could be manipulated by means of Classical Conditioning. The two-part experiment was performed at S:t Eskils Gymnasium on several classes with an average of ˜ 15 students in each class. The participants were required to complete a form concerning the rate of their salivation level at the moment on a six-grade scale comprised of the following options; "None", "Little", "Normal", "Slightly more than usual", "Much more than usual" and "Extreme amounts", afterwards each participant aquired a sour-tasting sweet. Awaiting our command the participants were required to lick the sweet after hearing the term "Cellar Door ", a term chosen due to its neutral nature free of associations with sweets. We repeated the term ten times with a slight pause in between and after ten trials the participants were allowed to eat the sweet. The participants were then left briefly, without further exposure to the researchers for approximately fifteen minutes. After re-entering the classroom the term "Cellar Door " was repeated without the presence of the sweet. The participants were again required to estimate their rate of salivation on the six-grade scale. Our statistical calculations mainly based

  • Word count: 1989
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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In this study we generated number sequences at two different speeds, which relatively are one number every second (1Hz) and one number every four seconds (4Hz) in order to test varying conditions in which individuals might act randomly.

Running head: RANDOMNESS AND RANDOM IDENTIFICATION Determining Randomness and Random Identification Li Howe Tan (SID: 308142659) University of Sydney Tutorial: Tuesday (4.00pm - 5.00pm) Abstract In this study we generated number sequences at two different speeds, which relatively are one number every second (1Hz) and one number every four seconds (4Hz) in order to test varying conditions in which individuals might act randomly. Specifically we are interested the extent at which individuals were to make stereotypical errors in generating numbers at different speed, and how they would take into account of their previous responses of their decisions in order to formulate a new sequence. Also, to confirm if individuals are capable of being random under stipulative conditions. The result obtained was highly correlated, however we cannot determine on how good individuals are at generating numbers randomly, as 'random' is a term which has been stereotyped as being not the same, however could be argued that a sequence is not random if an individual uses effort to think of the following number he or she wants to generate. Determining Randomness and Random Identification It has long been discussed that individuals uneducated in probability theory will often deviate from the statistical notion of randomness (Reichenbach, 1934/1949, as cited in Rapoport & Budescu, 1992). This

  • Word count: 1742
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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