Transcript Styles of Language

Psychological
Processes
Reciprocal
Determinism
Cultural-Historical Theory
Social Issues and Conflicts
 Early Language Development

Noam
Chomsky
III. INFANCY AND TODDLERS
RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Creator: Albert Bandura
Reciprocal Determinism:


The world and a person’s behavior cause each other.
Both Environment and behavior cause each other.
Personality is viewed as an interaction among three elements:
 Environment
 Behavior
 Person’s Psychological Process
RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Psychological processes consist of our ability to:
 Entertain images in our minds.

Images prohibit Bandura from being a strict behaviorist

Language comprehension.

Imagery and Language allow Bandura to theorize much more
than B. F. Skinner about two key concepts:
 Observational Learning (Modeling)
 Self-Regulation
RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Bobo Doll Studies:
 Film
Adult beating up a bobo doll.


The adult:





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Inflatable, egg-shaped balloon creature with a weight in the bottom that makes it bob
back up when you knock it down.
Punched the clown, shouting “sockeroo!,”
Kicked it.
Sat on it.
Hit it with a little hammer.
Shouted various aggressive phrases.
Presented to groups of kindergartners.


Afterwards they were allowed to play.
Inside the playroom:


Bobo doll.
Hammers.
RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Observed Behavior:
 Kids beat the bobo doll.
 They punched it and shouted:

“sockeroo”
Kicked it.
 Sat on it.
 Hit it with the hammers.
 They imitated the young lady in the film.
__________________________________________
Social Learning Theory:
 Children changed their behavior without first being rewarded
for approximations to that behavior!

RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Modeling Process:

Attention:



Have to be paying attention.
Anything that disrupts attention will decrease learning.
Pay more attention to models that are:

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Attractive
Prestigious
Colorful
Dramatic
Appears competent
Retention:


Must be able to retain what you have paid attention to.
Imagery and language:


We store what we have seen the model doing in the form of mental images or verbal descriptions.
Once stored-You can later “bring up” the image or description, so that you can reproduce it with
your own behavior.
RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM

Reproduction:



Must translate the images or descriptions into actual behavior.
Have to have the ability to reproduce the behavior.
Example:

“I can watch Olympic ice skaters all day long, yet not be able to reproduce
their jumps, because I can’t ice skate at all!”



If I could skate, my performance would in fact improve if I watch skaters who are
better than I am.
Our abilities improve even when we just imagine ourselves performing!
Motivation:


Must be motivated to produce the behavior.
Potential motives:

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Past Reinforcement (Traditional behaviorism)
Promised Reinforcements (Incentives)
Vicarious Reinforcement (Seeing and recalling the model being reinforced)
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
LEAD POISONING

14 million children are at risk:

Locations of lead deposits

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Older homes
Gasoline
Ceramics
Lead-soldered pipes
Dust and water
Areas near large cities
Areas near automobile traffic
Older Playgrounds
Low SES children are at the highest risk.
Most hazardous health threat to children under the age of 6.
Even very small amounts can permanently harm children.
Exposure to lead can lead to:

Low Levels

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High Levels
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Lower intelligence
Problems in verbal and auditory processing
Hyperactivity and distractibility
Antisocial behavior, aggression, delinquency
Very High Levels
Illness and death
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
TOILET TRAINING
Remember
Training should begin only when the child is ready.

Even though they are toilet trained during the day does not mean they are ready to
hold it in during the night.

Children often still have accidents at night.
Signs your child might be ready to toilet train:
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Staying dry for at least two hours at a time during the day.
Waking up from naps dry.
Predictable bowel movements.
Telling you they are about to go.
Facial expressions depicting their intent to go or that they are presently going.
Major discomfort with soiled diapers.
Desire to wear underwear.
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
HANDEDNESS
Preference for handedness begins early:

Handedness is inborn

Nothing you can do to make them prefer one hand over the other.
Preschoolers


90% right handed
10% left handed
More boys are left handed than girls.
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
EMOTION

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Emotions:
 Feelings occurring when in a state or interaction with something that is
important to the person; stronger if well-being is involved
Emotions vary in intensity from subtle to dramatic
Darwin: human facial expressions are innate

Emotions linked to early development of:
 Limbic system
 Brain stem

Neurobiological systems can exert more control over limbic system as
child’s self-control develops
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
EMOTION

Caregivers influence infant’s neurological development and regulation of
emotions

Emotions are first form of communication

Infants react to others’ facial expressions, tone of voice, emotions

First form of attachment is emotion-linked

Two broad types of emotions develop:

Primary: appear in first 6 months of life

Self-conscious: appear from about
age 1.5 years to about 2.5 years
The First Appearance of
Different Emotions
3 months
2 to 6 months
First 6 months
6 to 8 months
1 ½ years
2 ½ years
Primary Emotions
Joy, sadness, disgust
Anger
Surprise
Fear (peaks at 18 months)
Self-Conscious Emotions
Empathy, jealousy, embarrassment
Pride, shame, guilt
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
EMOTION

Most important ways of communicating in the youngest infants are crying
and smiling

Stranger anxiety involving fear

First appears about 6 months of age

Intensifies about 9 months of age, escalating past the 1st birthday

Intensity of anxiety depends on

Proximity of mother

Where stranger meeting occurs

Stranger’s behavior
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
GENDER IDENTITY
Defined:
 Perception of oneself as male or female.
 Concept of gender begins in preschool.
Gender Schema:
 Cognitive framework that organizes information relevant to the
gender to aide them in this process.
 Boys act this way and girls act that way.
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
PLAY TIME!: “THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF PLAYING”

Functional Play:
 Play that involves simple, repetitive activities
typical of 3-year-olds.

Constructive Play:
 Play in which children manipulate objects to
produce or build something.
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
PLAY TIME!: “THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF PLAYING”
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Parallel Play:
 Action in which children play with similar toys, in a similar
manner, but do not interact with each other.
Onlooker Play:
 Action in which children simply watch others at play, but do
not actually participate themselves.
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
PLAY TIME!: “THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF PLAYING”
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Associative Play:
 Two or more children actually interact with one another by
sharing or borrowing toys or materials, although they do not
do the same thing.
Cooperative Play:
 Play in which children genuinely interact with one another,
taking turns, playing games, or devising contests.
SOCIAL ISSUES AND CONFLICTS:
PARENTING STYLES
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Authoritarian Parents:
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Permissive Parents:
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Parents who provide lax and inconsistent feedback and require little of their children.
Authoritative Parents:
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Parents who are controlling, punitive, rigid, and cold, and whose word is law.
Value strict, unquestioning obedience from their children
Do not tolerate expressions of disagreement.
Parents who are firm, setting clear and consistent limits, but who try to reason with their
children, giving explanations for why they should behave in a particular way.
Uninvolved Parents:

Parents who show almost no interest in their children and indifferent, rejecting behavior.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Wild or feral children are raised in isolation and unable to recapture normal
language development despite intensive intervention later
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For example:
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Victor, Wild Boy of Aveyron
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Genie: 13-year-old found in 1970 in Los Angeles
Both cases raise questions about biological and environmental
determinants of language
Language is a system of words, symbols, and gestures that create shared
communication that transcends time (future, present, and past)
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Language develops in infants throughout the world along a
similar path and sequence.

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Infant’s ability to recognize native
language, for English speakers this
includes distinguishing “r” from “t”
On average, a child:

Understands about 50 words at age 13 months

Speaks first word at 10–15 months of age

Can speak about 50 words at 18 months of age
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Average 2-year-old can speak about 200 words

Vocabulary spurt begins at approximately
18 months of age
 Two-word
utterances occur at about
18–24 months
 Overextension
and underextension of words are common
EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Defined:
 The systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols, which provides the
basis for communication.
Noam Chomsky:
 Language-Acquisition Device (LAD)



Explains language use and development.
LAD is a neural system of the brain that permits
understanding of language.
Developed the concept of morphemes and phonemes.
EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
BASIC ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE ACCORDING TO NOAM CHOMSKY
Phonology:

Basic sounds of language (phonemes) that can be combined to produce words
and sentences.

The English language uses 40 phonemes to create our language.
Morphemes:

Smallest language unit that has meaning.

Some are complete words while others are added to complete a word.
Semantics:

Rules that govern the meaning of words and sentences.

If a sentence is correctly written or spoken it is said to be semantically correct.

Many scientists believe that the ability to form complex speech is a uniquely
human characteristic and is what separates us from the other animals.

It is because of our speech that we are able to ask such higher-order thinking
questions like:

“What is mortality, Is there a God, Is there a life after death, Are there other beings in
the universe?”
EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
BASIC ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE ACCORDING TO NOAM CHOMSKY
Babbling:
 Making speech-like but meaningless sounds.
 Through repetition and brain growth human language begins to form and
become meaningful.
Holophrases:
 One-word utterances that stand for a whole phrase.
 Their meaning depends on the particular context in which they are used.
 “Ball” means = “I want to play with the ball”
Telegraphich Speech:
 Speech in which words not critical to the message are left out.
 “Play ball” means = “I want to play with the ball”
EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
BASIC ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE ACCORDING TO NOAM CHOMSKY
Underextension:

Overly restrictive use of words, common among children just mastering spoken
language.

“Ball” means = Just that one ball

Not all the different types of balls and all the balls in the world.
Overextension:

Overly broad use of words, over-generalizing their meaning.

When a child thinks of a bird, she is thinking of all flying things from planes, to
helicopters, to vultures, to kites.
Styles of Language:
Referential Style: Style of language used to label objects.
Expressive style: Style of language used to express feelings.
Some Language Milestones in Infancy
Age
Language Milestones
Birth
1 to 2 months
Crying
6 months
8 to 12 months
Babbling begins
Use of gestures (showing and
pointing); comprehension of words
appears
10–15 months
First word spoken
18 months
Vocabulary spurts starts
Use of two-word utterances; rapid
expansion of understanding of words
18 to 24
months
Cooing begins
EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT


There is evidence that :

Language has a biological basis

Everyone “knows” its rules and has ability to create infinite
numbers of words and sentences
Specific regions of the brain are predisposed to be
used for language.

Broca’s Area

Wernicke’s Area
Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area
Broca’s
Area
Wernicke’s
Area
Level of Maternal Speech and Infant Vocabulary
800
Infant’s vocabulary size (words)
High
Mother’s
level of
speech
600
400
Medium
200
Low
0
12
14
16 18
20 22
Infant’s age (months)
24
26
EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
Learning Theory Approach:
 Language acquisition follows the basic laws of reinforcement
and conditioning.
 Modeling.
 Positive and negative reinforcement.
 Punishment and Rewards.
Nativist Approach:
 There is an innate part of our physiology that allows us to form
speech.
 We will learn language with or without other people present.