McGarrigle and Donaldson’s Naughty Teddy study was important as it demonstrated that children younger than the age of seven (7) could conserve which contradicted Piaget’s theory. There were limitations however as over 30% of children still failed to conserve when Naughty Teddy made the changes. Subsequent replication of the study has also found similar findings although the results were not as high as McGarrigle and Donaldson’s original findings.

Animal studies have been used to demonstrate how nurture is important for early brain development. One study compared two groups of rats with one group having toys to stimulate them while the other did not. The results found that the rats that lived with the stimulating toys developed bigger brains and showed better problem-solving skills compared to rats living on their own without stimulation. This shows how nurture can affect brain development.For example, children may be encouraged to play with water and discover for themselves which objects float and sink. Children may also be given science problems to solve either on their own or in a group to allow them to learn from their experiences. Teachers can also look to present opportunities for children to learn new concepts only when they are at the right stage of intellectual development and ready to learn. Children may be provided with materials and taught in a child-centred way where they discover answers for themselves. Piaget's Four Stages of Development Mark Jones is Head of A Level Psychology at a large and successful FE college in Bristol. Mark has many years' examining experience and has also worked as an advanced practitioner, liaising with teachers and colleges to help improve performance.

This book has everything I would need as a teacher. It provides ideas/inspiration for teaching by providing a range of ‘getting started’ activities and ‘building skills’ activities that will save hours of planning time and allow teachers to embed an interesting range of practical activities into their lessons. Animal studies also have their limitations as we have to be careful when we draw conclusions on human development based on the findings of animal-based studies. This is because what applies to animals may not necessarily generalise to humans because human development is very complex and could be different.

A students ability to store the information is ultimately more important than how they learn this information. Willingham believed that students should be taught using the best method based on the content they were being taught. Identical twins may have twins that appear to have similar characteristics and it can be easily thought to be down to nature but this may not be the case. Jean Piaget believed that a child’s intelligence developed from them discovering things for themselves and they needed to explore objects and situations to learn about them. Piaget also believed that children needed to be ready to learn and that they could only gain new concepts and understanding if they were at the right stage of their development as predicted by his stage theory of cognitive development. Aim: McGarrigle and Donaldson conducted a study to see if children developed conservation skills at an age that was earlier than Piaget’s theory predicted if the change to the materials (counters) was accidental. This guide basically gives you a dedicated step-by-step overview on how the subject can be approached and broken down complimented by the content we have created on in our books and online content. Is psychology a hard GCSE?

Many potential students often ask "is psychology a hard GCSE subject?". The tutorial above will hopefully answer this question but in short, the answer is no, GCSE psychology is not a particularly hard subject to learn provided you revise sufficiently and learn the key theories and how to evaluate them. For AQA GCSE Psychology students, teachers and parents, our outstanding resources cover the latest 9-1 specification in immense detail and depth for the entire course. Results: 90% of the children aged between 3.5yrs and 5yrs were able to hide the boy doll from the two policeman dolls.

Qualifications

The development of the human brain is one of the most fascinating subjects you can study in GCSE psychology. Humans are distinctively different from all the other animals on the planet and that is solely down to how the human brain has evolved.

Newborn babies are useful to study as there is little chance for nurture (environmental influences) to have impacted the child. Psychologists have found that besides being able to cry, they can also recognise faces. This would suggest that nature is responsible for these abilities. The brain stem is shaped like a widening stalk and connects the spinal cord to the brain. It controls basic autonomic functions such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and sleeping. At the sixth week of pregnancy, the baby’s heart is beating regularly and blood pumps through the main vessels.Ruth Jones is a practised teacher with examining experience and is Head of Psychology at a school ranked 'outstanding' by Ofsted in its last two inspections. Ruth also has a Masters Degree in Education. In response to his theory nurseries and primary schools place a heavy focus on discovery-based learning where children are given a variety of objects and allowed to explore them in their own way. After some trials, the actual experiment was conducted but this time with two policeman dolls with the child tasked with placing the boy doll in such a way that neither police doll could see it. The experiment was conducted three times so that a different section of the grid was left as the only hiding place each time. Twins share exactly the same genetic makeup whereas non-identical twins do not. If identical twins are found to have similar characteristics then this is seen as evidence that supports nature as the cause. Other researchers have found evidence to support McGarrigle and Donaldson’s findings when replicating Piaget’s conservation of numbers study. In one such study psychologists asked the children only once in terms of how many counters there were and the study was conducted in complete silence. They showed children two rows of counters and then spread one row out asking the child only once “is there the same amount in each row?”. This study found that more 6yr olds got the answer correct than Piaget had found demonstrating that children can conserve before the age of seven (7).