Psyc2002 Lab Report: The Field Of Developmental Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY LAB REPORT
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Abstract
In the field of Developmental Psychology, it has been noted that the importance of “pretence”, conducted in the act of playing, relates to an individual’s development of his/her emotional, cognitive, physical, and social skills, as well as his/her well-being. This is due to the fact that he/she could relate himself in terms of what others feel, think, or perceived. This framework is dominant in the field of ToM, which believes that this ability of human beings developed through time gradually, but starts in the age of four and above. In this study, forty children from the ages of four above were employed in order to understand this relationship. The main methods employed include an interview and a quantitative analysis using the independent t-tests to determine whether there is a “statistically significant difference” between the two variables. In conclusion, the researchers found out that despite the lack of statistically significant difference, the data gathered pointed out that children with high level of pretence in their play scores higher than those who have lower ones. In conclusion, this means that the higher level of pretence, which means impersonating a role, function, or a status, also relates to one’s ability to understand others and the possibility that his/her beliefs could possibly be wrong.
Introduction
In developmental psychology, the importance of play is deemed as one of the most important experiences that shapes a child’s behavior and perspective as he grows. It is widely believed that play is indeed important in terms of cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development CITATION Gin07 \l 1033 (Ginsburg, 2007). In the field of Social Cognition (Theory of Mind), play is seen as an important aspect for a child to develop a sense of what others think and feel, in relation to our own perspectives. As according to Astington and Edward (2010), this importance is about our understanding of people as mental beings, each with his or her own mental states. However, it must be noted that not every individual has this kind of perception for a number of factors, and one of it being age and development. One of the requirements in order to relate one’s thoughts with others is that the individual must be able to differentiate what is appearnce from what is real. In the case of children, studies have shown that this difference is acqured by children by the age of 4-5 years by acquiring “a host of related insights about the mind, including an understanding of the distinction between appearance and reality” CITATION Tay971 \l 1033 (Taylor & Carlson, 1997). Following from this, it is apparent that an individual must be able to realize that there is the possibility of having his beliefs regarded as false. In the study done by Wellman and Estes (1986), it was also found out that this type of realization comes within the same age bracket as described above, which are the ages of four and above. One of the main beliefs that relates to these processes stated above, is that the role of “pretence” (or pretend play) plays a crucial role in that it allows the child to play the role/function of the other while learning more about how they feel, think, and/act in a simulated fashion CITATION Lil94 \l 1033 (Lillard, 1994). In other words, as the child plays with his friends and/or other family members in while portraying a role (e.g. father), he/she learns how his father think, feel, or act. In line with the Theory of Mind framework, the author of this article wanted to know what factors contribute to the child’s development in terms of relating his realities with one another by measuring their ability to determine “false beliefs”. Generally, if a child is presented with a false belief and was able to recognize it, then it is generally believed that they know that people do not always act based on reality, but rather on their beliefs CITATION Aus17 \l 1033 (Australian National University, 2017). However, since there are many factors that might affect a child’s perception of other people’s actions, focus would be given on pretend play. By being able to isolate this variable, the author of article, believes that this study could add to the existing pool of knowledge in the field of ToM, regarding the importance of pretend play (and play in general) and for the development of a child and how differences in terms of pretend play affect the child.
Methodology
In the study, 40 children within the age bracket of 4;0 years old to 4;11 were recruited. The process of recruitment was done using the referral method, in which the researchers have contacted their own friends, family members, peers, and other people whom they know or those who they knew through the help of a contact person that they are familiar with. In order to gain permission, all of the participants’ parents or guardians were contacted and were asked if they would allow their children to be a part of the study. But before the study was conducted, the researchers made sure that free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) was verified from the parents even if most of the participants were close to the researchers themselves. During the test, it was estimated that the mean age of the participants was about 4;4 years old, while data and further calculations have shown that the standard deviation was about 0;3. With regards to the gender distribution of the children, the study had a “skewed distribution” with 24 males but only 16 females.
In terms of grouping the population, the researchers have patterned the populations with Taylor and Carlson’s (1997) High and Low pretence groups in order to quantify individual differences. And, in order to make sure that ...