Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Psychology and Sociology

What are the Functions of Assessment?

The role of assessment includes formative assessment, diagnostic evaluation, forecast evaluation, and function-oriented evaluation.

What is Diagnostic Assessment?

Diagnostic assessment is performed prior to the development of the educational process. To perform a diagnostic evaluation, different procedures can be used, such as written questions, oral exchanges with the group on the topic of interest, and observing the student in their work related to the themes.

What is Formative Assessment?

This assessment is the most important in the educational process because it provides the student with feedback (and of course, feedback to the teacher) regarding their performance. It indicates what has been achieved, what... Continue reading "Understanding Educational Assessment: Types, Functions, and Tools" »

Understanding Participant Observation Nuances

However, there are nuances. Systematic observation (excluding verbal interaction) is easy to perform in open spaces. It is also relatively smooth when the researcher is introduced as a participant but primarily functions as an observer (e.g., journalists).

The researcher undergoes a progressive process, starting from initial integration into the observed group. Initially, they are inevitably guided by their pre-existing theoretical assumptions (etic approach). This continues until they grasp the group's own interpretation of reality, which the group uses to classify, arrange, and organize their experiences (emic approach).

It is crucial to gain an insider's perspective on the field and systematize... Continue reading "Participant Observation: Field Access and Research Dynamics" »

Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) are characterized by significant difficulties in several areas of development, including social interaction, communication, behavior, interests, and activities.

Rett Syndrome

Rett syndrome is primarily diagnosed in girls. Development appears normal until 6-18 months, when parents notice a regression or loss of skills (gross motor, language, reasoning, and hand use). Repetitive, meaningless gestures (e.g., hand washing) may appear.

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder is an extremely rare disorder involving regression in multiple areas of functioning (e.g., motor skills, bowel and bladder control, and social and language skills) after at least... Continue reading "Understanding Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum" »

Preconscious

The preconscious system is located between the unconscious and the conscious. Although its contents are not endowed with consciousness, it differs from the unconscious in the following ways:

• They have been forbidden passage to the conscience but have not been repelled by it through repression.
• Their representations are linked to language and operate with the laws of logic and language.

Although the information in memory would be in the area of the preconscious, some traces of certain experiences that have been subjected to repression are inscribed in the unconscious.

Conscious

Consciousness, for Freud, need not be characterized as coinciding with the consciousness of which philosophers and everyday speech speak. Freud seems to overlook... Continue reading "Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: Key Concepts Explained" »

Motivation and Emotion: Key Concepts and Theories

Altea's Goal Setting and Test Adoption

Altea intends to adopt this test and look good in front of their peers to meet their goals. One goal is the implementation of the test.

McDougall's Instinct Theory

According to McDougall, which instinct corresponds to the following pattern: If a body is determined to achieve goals, despite difficulties, frustrations, and rages, it will be guided by the instinct of fight.

Incentives and Student Behavior

A student of motivation and emotion, after receiving a teacher's positive comment for a statement made in class, decides to increase their "class participation" behavior. In relation to this student's conduct, the teacher's comment served as a positive secondary,

Analysis in Participant Observation

The final report will depend on a thorough job of collecting and analyzing information, in which only meaningful data are included. But to reach that point, one must pass through successive descriptive and interpretative phases, which are reflected in different types of field notes, culminating in the final report. This process can be summarized as follows:

Types of Field Notes

• Immediate Notes: These include all kinds of notes on what the observer sees, hears, or feels. They are concise, spontaneous, and sometimes include multiple keywords taken behind the observed subject. It is important to stress the verbatim record of the terms used by people observed (technical language, specific jargon, etc.), distinct

Precautions in Qualitative Observation

It is impossible to observe all phenomena that occur in selected scenarios. Events that occur less frequently can only be captured by a lucky or very careful choice of situations. One way to counter this problem is to extend the fieldwork.

Reliability problems arise from differences among various observers and the evolution of the researchers themselves. Criteria should be set for specific observation, and reviewing the journals of the field to carry out self-observation is recommended.

Denzin talks about some possible threats to internal validity:

• Historical factors that occurred before the observation, the disregard of which can cause errors of interpretation. It is proposed to use documents and interviews

**Principles of Personality**

An individual's personality comprises attributes that represent ongoing behavior. These attributes may be acquired through unique personal experiences or shared experiences with others. They can also result from hereditary influence or the interaction of heredity and environment.

**General Factors Influencing Personality**

Regardless of the theory proposed to explain personality, two general factors influence its development: a person's experiences within their environment and the individual's hereditary basis.

**Environmental Experience**

Experiences within a person's surrounding environment can significantly affect the development of personality characteristics. These experiences can be unique to an individual or... Continue reading "Understanding Personality: Factors, Development, and Freud's Theory" »

Observational Learning

Social Cognitive Theory

Social cognitive theory argues that much human learning occurs in the social environment. By observing and imitating others, human beings acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes, etc.

Components of Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura synthesizes elements of reinforcement schemes and the theory of information processing.

Conduct + Personal Factors + Environment

Another basic component of this theory is Bandura's distinction between active learning and vicarious learning. While active learning is learning by doing, vicarious learning is learning by watching others.

Vicarious learning accelerates behavior and helps avoid negative consequences.

Bandura distinguishes well between the acquisition of knowledge (learning)

Characteristics of the Self in Preschool Years

Children in preschool tend to describe themselves based on observable attributes.

Egocentrism

According to Piaget, egocentrism is the inability to understand another person's perspective.

Schemas and Scripts

Schemas and scripts help children organize and recall events in a structured way.

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem develops from a concrete understanding to a more abstract and multi-dimensional one.

Operational Thinking

False: Operational thinking is not characterized by irreversibility of thought.

Event Schemas

Temporal relationships connect the elements of an event schema or script.

Self-Concept (2-6 years)

False: Children between 2 and 6 years old are not typically hypercritical of themselves.

Reversibility

Reversibility,... Continue reading "Child Development: Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth in Preschool Years" »