Child Psychology
What this domain tests
You are tested on the major developmental theories and their practical implications for a creche or pre-school - Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, attachment theory and social learning - and on applying them to real behaviours.
Core rules
- Piaget. Sensorimotor stage (0–2): learning through senses and action, object permanence develops, circular reactions. Preoperational stage (2–7): symbolic play and language, but egocentrism, centration, animism, irreversibility, and failure at conservation. Egocentrism is cognitive, not selfishness.
- Vygotsky. Learning is social; the zone of proximal development is what a child can do with help today and alone tomorrow; scaffolding, language and private speech drive thinking.
- Erikson. Trust versus mistrust (0–1), autonomy versus shame and doubt (1–3), initiative versus guilt (3–6). Toileting battles are autonomy struggles, not defiance.
- Attachment. Bowlby and Ainsworth: secure, insecure-avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised patterns. Separation anxiety peaks around 8–18 months; stranger anxiety around 7–9 months.
- Others worth citing. Bandura's modelling, Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems, Kohlberg's pre-conventional morality, Gardner's multiple intelligences.
Worked example
A three-year-old insists the tall narrow glass holds more water than the short wide one, though both hold the same. Reasoning: this is a preoperational child failing conservation because she centres on height and ignores width - a normal cognitive limit, not a reasoning defect. Drilling the right answer will not change it. The correct response is to provide plenty of water, sand and pouring play, and to compare containers side by side; conservation typically emerges around seven.
Traps that cost marks
Calling egocentrism selfishness; expecting three-year-olds to share readily before perspective-taking develops; labelling an autonomy-seeking toddler 'stubborn'; treating a theory name without its classroom implication as a complete answer.