How does psychology explain children's attachment, development and the influences that shape them?
Child psychology option: attachment and deprivation, intelligence and development, autism, and external influences such as advertising and day care, with background, key research and application.
An OCR A-Level Psychology answer to the child psychology option, covering attachment (Bowlby, the strange situation), deprivation and privation, intelligence and development, autism, the impact of advertising and day care, key research, and application to novel scenarios for Component 3.
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What this dot point is asking
Child psychology is one of the four optional applications in Component 3; you study two. OCR structures each option as background, key research and application to novel situations. For child psychology you must know attachment and deprivation, development and intelligence, autism, and external influences such as advertising and day care, and be able to apply them.
The answer
Attachment and deprivation
Development and intelligence
Children's cognitive development is explained by stage theories (such as Piaget's) and by how intelligence is defined and measured. OCR expects awareness that intelligence tests can be culturally biased (linking to Gould) and that development reflects both maturation and experience.
Autism and external influences
Application
OCR's child-psychology questions often ask you to apply this knowledge to a novel scenario (for example, improving a nursery or reducing advertising's effect on children), justified with named research.
Examples in context
Example 1. Why day-care quality matters more than day care itself. Research suggests that day care does not automatically harm children; outcomes depend on quality, with consistent, sensitive caregivers and good ratios linked to neutral or positive social development. So a nursery worried about harm should focus on staffing and consistency rather than on whether children attend, an application that turns attachment theory into practical policy.
Example 2. How theory of mind links the option to a core study. Autism's social-communication difficulties are explained partly by an impaired theory of mind, the same construct Baron-Cohen measured with the Eyes Task. Bringing this core study into the child-psychology option shows how Component 2 knowledge supports Component 3 application, which strengthens an answer on autism.
Try this
Q1. Name the three attachment types from the strange situation. [3 marks]
- Cue. Secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.
Q2. Distinguish between deprivation and privation. [2 marks]
- Cue. Deprivation is losing an attachment that had formed; privation is never forming one, with privation linked to more serious effects.
Q3. Suggest one way to reduce the impact of advertising on young children, with justification. [3 marks]
- Cue. Limit advertising during children's programming, because young children struggle to recognise persuasive intent, so reducing exposure protects them from being unduly influenced.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR 201910 marksDescribe one piece of key research from child psychology and explain what it tells us about children's development. [10 marks]Show worked answer →
A description and interpretation item (AO1 and AO2). Using attachment research as the example.
Key research: Ainsworth's strange situation is a controlled observation assessing infant attachment through a series of episodes (the caregiver and a stranger entering and leaving) measuring separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and reunion behaviour. Ainsworth identified three attachment types: secure (distressed at separation, comforted at reunion, about 70 per cent), insecure-avoidant (little distress, avoids the caregiver) and insecure-resistant (very distressed, hard to comfort).
What it tells us: attachment quality is measurable and varies between infants, and is linked to the caregiver's sensitivity (the caregiver-sensitivity hypothesis). Secure attachment is associated with better later social and emotional outcomes, supporting the importance of early caregiving for development.
Markers reward an accurate description of the key research (the strange situation procedure and attachment types) and a clear statement of what it reveals about development (measurable attachment linked to sensitivity and later outcomes).
OCR 202115 marksA nursery wants to reduce the negative effects of day care on young children. Using your knowledge of child psychology, suggest how this could be achieved and justify your suggestions. [15 marks]Show worked answer →
An application item: apply child psychology to a novel scenario (AO2) with justification (AO3).
Suggestions and justification: keep a consistent key worker for each child, because attachment research (Bowlby, Ainsworth) shows children benefit from a stable, sensitive attachment figure, reducing the disruption that high staff turnover causes; maintain a low child-to-staff ratio so caregivers can respond sensitively, supporting secure attachment; provide stimulating, age-appropriate activities to aid cognitive and social development; settle children gradually with a parent present to reduce separation anxiety; and train staff to respond warmly and consistently.
Evaluation: acknowledge that high-quality day care can have neutral or positive effects on social development, so the aim is quality rather than avoiding day care, and that individual differences mean some children cope better than others.
Markers reward practical, clearly justified suggestions grounded in named child-psychology research (attachment, day-care studies) and some evaluation of their effectiveness.
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Sources & how we know this
- OCR Level 3 Advanced GCE in Psychology (H567) specification — OCR (2015)