Development

IGCSE Edexcel Psychology – Revision Guide

Development - Specification
Development - Revision Document - Mark Scheme

Key terms 1
Early Brain Development 4
Exam Practice 6
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development 7
Piaget’s theory of the development of intelligence 8
Exam Practice 9
Carol Dweck’s mindset theory 10
Exam Practice 12
Daniel Willingham’s theory 13
Exam Practice 14
Piaget and Inhelder (1956) - Three Mountains Task 16
Exam Practice 18
Gunderson et al. - Parent Praise to 1-3 year olds predicts child’s motivational framework 5 years
later 19
Exam Practice 23
Issues and Debates - The Development of Morality 23
Exam Practice 26
Extra Practice 26

Key terms
Brain: the organ in your head made up of nerves that processes information and
controls behaviour.
Forebrain: the anterior part of the brain, including the hemispheres and the central
brain structures.
Midbrain: the middle section of the brain forming part of the central nervous
system.
Hindbrain: the lower part of the brain that includes the cerebellum, pons and
medulla oblongata.
Anterior: directed towards the front, when used in relation to our biology.
Posterior: directed towards the back, when used in relation to our biology.
Cerebellum: an area of the brain near to the brainstem that controls motor
movements (muscle activity).
Medulla oblongata: connects the upper brain to the spinal cord and controls
automatic responses.
Involuntary response: a response to a stimulus that occurs without someone
making a conscious choice. They are automatic, such as reflexes.
Neural connections: links formed by messages passing from one nerve cell
(neuron) to another.
Cognitive: thinking, including problem-solving, perceiving, remembering, using
language and reasoning.
Operations: how we reason and think about things.
Object permanence: knowing something exists even if it is out of sight.
Symbolic play: children play using objects and ideas to represent other objects and
ideas.
Egocentrism: unable to see the world from any other viewpoint but one’s own.
Animism: believing that objects that are not alive can behave as if they are alive.
Centration: focusing on one feature of a situation and ignoring other relevant
features.
Irreversibility: not understanding that an action can be reversed to return to the
original state.
Morality: general principles about what is right and wrong, including good and
bad behaviour.
Schema/schemata(s) (development): mental representations of the world based on
one’s own experiences. The plural of schema is ‘schemata though ‘schemas’ can
also be used and is more common.
Adaptation: using assimilation and accommodation to make sense of the world.
Assimilation: incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
Accommodation: when a schema has to be changed to deal with a new experience.
Equilibrium: when a child’s schemas can explain all that they experience; a state of
mental balance.
Subjective: based on personal opinion or feelings.
Validity: when the results of a study represent the situation they are testing (in real
life).
Mindset: a set of beliefs someone has that guides how someone responds to or
interprets a situation.
Ability: what someone can do, such as maths ability or ability to play tennis.
Dweck suggests ability can be seen as either fixed and innate or as able to be
improved.
Effort: when you try to do better using determination.
Fixed mindset: believing your abilities are fixed and unchangeable.
Growth mindset: believing practice and effort can improve your abilities.
Short-term memory: our initial memory store that is temporary and limited.
Rehearse: repeat information over and over to make it stick.
Long-term memory: a memory store that holds potentially limitless amounts of
information for up to a lifetime.
Motor skills: actions that involve muscles and brain processes, resulting in
movement.
Decentration: being able to separate yourself from the world and take different
views of a situation, so not being egocentric.
Social learning: learning by observing and copying others.
Self-regulation: limiting and controlling yourself without influence from others.
Nature: explanations of behaviour that focus on biological and innate factors (the
things we are born with).
Nurture: explanations of behaviour that focus on environmental factors (the
things that happen to us).
Qualitative data: data that is descriptive, not numbers, such as words or pictures.
Reliability: the consistency of an outcome or result of an investigation (a measure).
Framework: a basic understanding of ideas and facts that is used when making
decisions.
Person praise: someone praises the individual rather than what they are doing.
Process praise: someone praises what is being done, not the individual.
Entity theory/motivational framework: a belief that behaviour or ability results
from a person’s nature.
Incremental theory/motivational framework: a belief that effort drives behaviour
and ability, which can change.
Ecological validity: the extent to which the findings still explain the behaviour in
real life situations.
Ethics: moral principles about how someone should behave in a society.
Debrief: after an investigation, participants are given full disclosure of the study.
Generalisability: the extent to which the results of a study represent the whole
population, not just the sample used.
Morals: standards of right and wrong behaviour that can differ between cultures
and can depend on the situation.
Moral development: children’s growing understanding about right and wrong.
Heteronomous: rules put into place by others.
Autonomous: rules can be decided by the individual person.
Norms: society’s values and customs, which a person in that society would be
governed by.
Nativist theories: theories that view morality as part of human nature.

Early Brain Development

- A long tube develops in the brain at 3-4 weeks old

- It contains the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain
- At around 5 weeks, the forebrain and hindbrain split into two separate tubes
- The forebrain = anterior (front) and posterior (back)

- At 6 weeks, the cerebellum can be seen

- A year after birth, the cerebellum is 3x the size
- The cerebellum controls physical skills which develop a lot during this time
- It is also involved in fear responses and processing sensory info.

- By 20 weeks, the medulla oblongata should have developed

- It is involved in involuntary responses such as breathing, sneezing and controlling heart

rate and blood pressure
- It connects the rest of the brain to the spinal cord

- There are 700-1000 new neural connections each second when the baby is 0-3 years old
- These connections allow for very fast communication between the many different parts
- of the brain.
- Neural connections are said to be crucial at this time and are reinforced by use so it is
important that children get plenty of simulation
 - Brain size is said to double after the baby turns 1
- It reaches 80% of its size by the time the baby is 3

Exam Practice
1. Finlay is a boy who was born with a healthy brain. He likes to dance and run around. His
mother has two other children who like to chase Finlay. When he was 18 months old,
Finlay fell out of his cot bed in his bedroom and banged his head. He was taken to the
hospital where they discovered that he had damaged his medulla. Explain one way that
Finlay could be affected by the damage to his medulla. You should refer to the role of the
medulla in your answer.
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2. During early brain development the cerebellum develops.

Describe the role of the cerebellum during development.
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 Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Ways to help:
- Sensorimotor development:
- Sensory stimulation including colours and sounds etc. (stim helps to build
schemas)
- singing and rhythm
- oral explanations

- Pre-operational development:
- Children must do things other than watching experimenting and
interacting with the environment is key
- Acknowledge the child as an individual
- Concrete operational development:
- As children can understand different viewpoints, teachers should
encourage this
 - Formal operational development:
- Children can discuss abstract concepts and be asked complex questions
involving mental reasoning e.g different group roles, conflicting roles etc.

Piaget’s theory of the development of intelligence

Adaptation: using assimilation and accommodation to make sense of the world.
Assimilation: incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
Accommodation: when a schema has to be changed to deal with a new experience.
Equilibrium: when a child’s schemas can explain all that they experience; a state of
mental balance.
Exam Practice
1. Georgia is four months old and from England. Her father is playing with her one
day with her favourite toy duck, Mrs Duckie. Georgia’s father is ‘quacking’ and she
is laughing. She reaches for the toy duck but her father hides the toy duck behind
the sofa. Georgia sits still and begins to cry.
(a) Explain what Georgia's reaction to her father hiding the toy duck shows regarding
her cognitive development.
You should refer to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in your answer. (2)
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(b) Explain one strength and one weakness of using Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development to account for Georgia’s behaviour after her father hides the
toy duck. (4)

Strength
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Weakness
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2. Beth is investigating the level of cognitive development of eight-month-old infants. She is

playing with her eight-month-old daughter in her living room at home. Beth shows her
daughter a ball and she reaches for it. Beth hides the ball behind a cushion. Her daughter
reaches behind the cushion to get the ball back.
(a) Explain what this shows regarding Beth’s daughter’s cognitive development.
You should refer to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development in your answer. (2)
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(b) Explain one strength and one weakness of Beth’s investigation into the level of
cognitive development of eight-month-old infants. (4) (Research methods link)

Strength
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Weakness
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3. Janet is a psychologist investigating cognitive development. She visits a local primary

school and uses a task to assess the stages of cognitive development of the pupils at the
school.
Firstly, sweets were arranged in Line A.
• Line A: Ten sweets in a row with 1cm between each of them.
Then, later the sweets were arranged in Line B.
• Line B: The same 10 sweets in a row but with 2cm between each of them.
Danielle says there are 10 sweets in line A, but she says there are 20 sweets in line B.
(a) Explain what stage of cognitive development Danielle is in according to her
response.
You should refer to a theory in your answer.
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Carol Dweck’s mindset theory

Strengths Weaknesses
- Practical application: - Low ecological validity:
Teachers/parents can focus Many of the studies that
on praising effort, rather look into mindset have been
than ability. experiments in artificial
settings - doesn’t represent
real life (exception:
Gunderson et al.)
- Positive theory – it shows - Weakened validity: Studying
that change is possible, the mindset of a child may
which helps society. result in the child becoming
the focus if there are
problems with their
progress, rather than the
quality of lesson content
 and teaching

- Experimental Evidence: - Weakened validity due to

Yeager and Dweck’s (2012) reductionism: studies
study found that testing mindset theory tend
adolescents could deal to ignore effects feedback
better with not fitting in if without any judgement
they had a growth mindset. about the child or their
ability, (ex: ‘add a
conclusion’ to an essay.)
The ‘type of praise’ is seen
as an important variable,
but there is a need to
consider behaviour where
praise does not feature.

Exam Practice
1. Carol Dweck used the terms ‘fixed mindset’ and ‘growth mindset’ as part of her theory.
(a) State what is meant by a ‘fixed mindset’. (1)
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(b) State what is meant by a ‘growth mindset’. (1)
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2. Malik and Ruhi are trying to solve a puzzle. After every attempt, Malik is told that he has
high intelligence. After every attempt, Ruhi is told that she must try harder and not give
up.
(a) State, according to Carol Dweck’s mindset theory, which type of mindset Malik is
most likely to develop. (1)

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(b) State, according to Carol Dweck’s mindset theory, which type of mindset Ruhi is
most likely to develop. (1)

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Daniel Willingham’s theory

Link to Resource

Strengths Weaknesses
- Practical application: - Too deterministic:
Willingham’s work can be Willingham did not
applied to education and emphasise the importance
other situations to promote of individual differences for
a child’s development learning, though some
positively features of his theory apply
to genes, like self-regulation
and impulsivity being, to
some extent, inherited.
While he gives strategies to
support development, what
is in someone’s genes
cannot be changed easily
using strategies.
- Experimental Evidence - - Holistic : Willingham’s
Increased Validity : other ideas come from many areas
studies support of cognitive science,
Willingham’s work and his including neuroscience ,
arguments against Piaget’s working memory theory,
view of decentration.. and cognitive development,
Repacholi and Gopnik which means his ideas are
(1997) study shows that not one singular theory that
young children were not as can be tested by gathering
 egocentric as Piaget data.
thought. Experiments
control everything that
might affect a study’s
results, allowing researchers
to make deliberate changes
to see the effect these have
on something.

- Experimental Evidence -
Increased Validity : other
studies support
Willingham’s work and his
arguments against Piaget’s
view of decentration..
Repacholi and Gopnik
(1997) study shows that
young children were not as
egocentric as Piaget
thought. Experiments
control everything that
might affect a study’s
results, allowing researchers
to make deliberate changes
to see the effect these have
on something.

Exam Practice
1. (a) Identify which of the following is the correct concept in Daniel Willingham’s
learning theory. (1)

A Assimilation precedes accommodation

B Skill precedes factual knowledge
C Accommodation precedes assimilation
D Factual knowledge precedes skill
 (b) Identify which of the following Daniel Willingham emphasised the importance of
in his learning theory. (1)

A Schemas in learning
B Practice and effort
C Reaching equilibrium
D Accommodation and assimilation

2. Molly and Mack are struggling with their social development at school. Their teacher, Mrs
Kumar, has noticed that Molly and Mack snatch toys from other children when they want
to play with them. They push other children in the playground and shout in their faces
when they are eating their lunch. Mrs Kumar wants to help improve Molly and Mack’s
social development. Explain one strategy that Mrs Kumar could use to help support the
social development of Molly and Mack.
You should refer to Daniel Willingham’s learning theory in your answer.
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3. Mario is a teacher who works at a primary school. His new class of pupils are
struggling with their physical development.
(a) Explain, using Daniel Willingham’s learning theory, one way Mario could support
his pupils’ physical development.

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(b) Explain one strength and one weakness of using Daniel Willingham’s learning theory with
Mario’s pupils.

Strength:
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Weakness:
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 Piaget and Inhelder (1956) - Three Mountains Task

Decentration: being able to

separate yourself from the
world and take different views
of a situation, so not being
egocentric. (Piaget believed
that this developed in the
concrete operational stage)
Egocentrism: unable to see
the world from any other
viewpoint but one’s own.
 Piaget and Inhelder (1956)
Research
Sample Method Aim Procedure Results Conclusion

100 Field To look at the - The child was asked to Pre-Operational -Piaget and
children experiment extent to which use the cardboard shapes Stage Inhelder
(not children of to show how the - A child from the concluded
confirmed) different ages ages of 4 to 6.5
mountain scene looked that children
were able to years in the
take the view from different up to about 7
preoperational
of another viewpoints. years old
stage showed signs
person and of egocentrism.
were
children’s - The child was shown 10 (saw the three egocentric –
overall system pictures of the model mountains from they could
of putting and asked to pick out the not ‘see’ from
their own pov, even
together a picture which a viewpoint
for the doll)
number of
represented the image in other than
different views
of what they see.
which they saw. Concrete their own.
Operational Stage -Older
- The child chose a -7 to 9 years old: children were
picture and then had to start to understand non-egocentr
position the doll so it that others looking ic.
could 'see' at that at the model in a
-Provided
viewpoint. different
perspective saw the
evidence for
model differently. stages of
development
-9 to 10 years old,
children can
understand that
the doll has a
different view if in
a position
that is different
from their own.
Exam Practice
1. Sarah is investigating whether her daughter is able to see the world from the perspective
of other people. She took her daughter to the local park and asked her to look at the
playground equipment. She placed a toy robot in a different location to her daughter (see
Figure 1).

Sarah then asked her daughter to tell her what the toy robot can see.
Her daughter stated that the toy robot can see the swings at the front and the slide at
the back.
(a) Explain which stage of cognitive development Sarah’s daughter is in according to
her statement.
You should refer to Piaget and Inhelder (1956) Three Mountains task in your
Answer.
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(b) Explain one strength and one weakness of Sarah’s investigation.

Strength:
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Weakness:
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2. (a) Identify the number of 20 x 28cm pictures the participants were shown in Piaget and
Inhelder’s (1956) Three mountains task. (1)

A8
B9
C 10
D 11

(b) Identify the overall sample size in Piaget and Inhelder (1956) Three mountains Task.
(1)

A 90
B 100
C 110
D 120

Gunderson et al. - Parent Praise to 1-3 year olds

predicts child’s motivational framework 5 years later
- Elizabeth Gunderson et al. 's (2013) study
set out to see whether looking at parents
praising children in the home – a natural
setting (high ecological validity) – would
support these experimental findings that
the way parents praise their young
 children impacts a child’s later ideas about reasons for behaviour and
beliefs.
- Gunderson et al referred to two types of praise:

Person Praise Process Praise

- Someone praises - Someone praises

the individual what is being
rather than what done, not the

⬇️ ⬇️
they are doing. individual.

Entity theory/motivational Incremental theory/

framework motivational framework

- A belief that - A belief that

behaviour or ability effort drives
results from a behaviour
person’s nature. and ability,
- Person praise seems which can
to lead children to the change.
idea that they are born with - Process praise leads children
or without an ability. to see a link between effort
- The result is that children and success.
might not try as hard on a - They are likely to see (not
task they think they are not consciously) ability as
good at. changeable and are more
likely to keep trying to do
better.

➔These ideas draw on Dweck’s

mindset theory (Carol Dweck was
involved in this study).
 ➔Mindset theory uses experimental evidence from lab
experiments. However, using an artificial environment
can measure unnatural
behaviour and then
unnatural findings (lack
ecological validity).
➔Consequently, Gunderson et
al. wanted to use a natural
setting when gathering their data.

Gunderson et al. (2013)

Research
Sample Method Aim Procedure Results Conclusion
53 Natural To look at whether The study followed • 3% of all parental -A clear
children experim • children are parents’ use of praise at comments to the
(29 boys affected by
relationship
ent home when their children were praise. was found
and 24 different types of
children were 14 months, • Process praise was
girls) parental praise between
given in a 26 months and 38 18%of all praise and
-64%: White months old. Five years person praise was 16%, parents’ use of
natural situation
-17%:African-
• parents give girls later, the children’s ideas • 24.4% of praise for boys process praise
American
-11%Hispanic less process praise about behaviour were was process praise and a child’s
-8%:
Multiracial
and more person measured and related to compared later use of an
praise than boys the type of praise they with 10.3% for girls.
• parents’ use of
incremental
had received. Researchers • There is a relationship
process or person between (process praise)
motivational
praise in early looked at a child’s gender framework
and
childhood predicts and influences of the
the child’s framework - No
a child’s reasoning type of
when older (believing relationship
five years later praise on later ideas that effort between
about what Double-blind technique1 is worthwhile), which was
motivates and was used. The person praise
causes as predicted (the
behaviour
participants thought the correlation and entity
(whether it is down study was about language was 0.35). framework
to ability or effort). development. • There was no - Gender
relationship between
differences:
parents giving person
praise and children later boys receive
showing an entity more process
motivational praise
framework (this time, the
correlation was -0.05).

1
when the aims of the study are withheld from both participants and researchers.
Exam Practice
1. (a) Identify the age of the children when being video recorded with their parents as
part of the study by Gunderson et al. (2013). (1)

A 14 months, 22 months, 30 months

B 14 months, 18 months, 38 months
C 14 months, 26 months, 34 months
D 14 months, 26 months, 38 months

(b) Identify which parental comment from Gunderson et al. (2013) is an example of
process praise. (1)

A ‘You must have tried hard’

B ‘Good girl’
C ‘You’re so smart’
D ‘Wow’

Issues and Debates - The Development of Morality

Morals: standards of right and wrong behaviour that can differ between cultures
and can depend on the situation.
Moral development: children’s growing understanding about right and wrong.
 Kohlberg’s (1958) theory of moral development
Link to Resource

Strengths Weaknesses
- High reliability: As - Low ecological validity:
Kohlberg carried out a Both Piaget and Kohlberg
longitudinal study, he could used stories that were
see clear changes in moral artificial and might not
development over time. represent real thinking
Colby et al. interviewed his (they lack ecological
 participants after 3-4 years, validity).
ensuring his findings were
reliable.
- Experimental evidence : - Weakened generalisability
Kolberg (1968) Study of (androcentric2) : Carol
Moral Development, Gilligan (1977) criticised
Thompson (1975), Slaby and Kohlberg, saying his
Frey (1975), Munroe et al. male-only sample meant his
(1984) all provided theory was about male
experimental evidence for
morality
Kohlberg’s theory.

- Strengthened - Low validity : Responses

generalisability: This was a given may also lack validity
large sample of 75 as participants may want to
Americans and their results appear as more moral to
were compared to different impress the researcher
cultures. (demand characteristics)

Damon (1999) on developing a moral self

- William Damon’s (1999) theory explains how children develop an idea of
their moral self, which links to their development of understanding of
morality and morals
- He discusses how moral development is explained by
some as being in our biology, by others as coming
from social experiences or developing with a
child’s intellectual development (as Piaget and
Kohlberg explain).
- Nativist theories (theories thinking morality is in
our nature) hold that emotions are within us, such as
babies being able to feel empathy more or less from
birth.
- Damon gives evidence that such emotions are found
in babies universally, which emphasises the ‘nature’
argument about moral development.
2
focused or centred on men.
 - ‘Nurture’ theories show how children are affected by environment and
social influences. For example, Diana Baumrind found that the type of
parenting affected moral development in children. Damon concludes that
moral identity (which is someone’s commitment to morals) comes from the
many social influences a child experiences.
- Therefore, children must hear a consistent message about shared standards
in order to develop moral understanding.

Exam Practice

1. Define the term ‘morality’. Use an example in your response.

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2. Describe the difference between pre-conventional and conventional stages of morality.

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Extra Practice
Quizlet
Resource