Unit 2

Infancy and Childhood

Nature vs. Nurture

• Developmental psychology– Study of how an individuals physical, social,

emotional, moral and intellectual development occur in sequential, interrelated stages throughout the life cycle

• Continuity vs. states of development• Stability vs. change• Nature vs. nurture

Newborn

• Have ability at birth to see, hear, smell and respond to environment

• Born with some reflexes– Grasping reflexes– Rooting reflex

• Response in turning toward the source of touching anywhere around his/her mouth

Physical development

• Maturation

• Internally programmed growth of a child

• Unless a child underfed, restricted in movements, deprived of human contacts and things to look at she will develop according to schedule

• If not at maturational readiness a child will no master the skill

Perceptual development

• Look at faces and patterned materials most and benefit from parent touch

• Visual Cliff

• Young infants were unafraid but infants 6 months and up found changes in hear rate= danger

Language Development

• Nature vs. nurture• Steps

– Make signs-hand or mouth – Learn meaning– Learn grammar

• 1 year-babbling, • late first year-sounds more like their

language– They imitate and are praised

Language Continued

• 2 years old– Sounds as symbols

• End of 2nd year2 word phrases– Telegraphic speech

• Words are left out but the meaning is usally clear “where my apple?”

• **Between 18 months and 5 years they add 5-10 words a day!

Cognitive and Emotional development

• Cognitive Development• Hide and seek with a 4 year old vs. 7 year• Intelligence develops gradually as child grows• Schemas

– Mental representations of the world

• Assimilation– Try to use existing schemas in new situation

• Accommodation– We change our schema to fit the new object

Cognitive Development Cont

• Object Permanence– Object exists even when they cannot

see/touch it– Hiding a toy=cease to exist

• 7-12 will find under blanket but not your back

• 12-18 will search last place she saw

Cognitive Development

• Representational Thought– Ability for a child to picture something in their

mind– Witness a tantrum and next day do it

Principal of Conservation

• Conservation– 5-7quantitiy does not change when its

appearance changes– Water in a jar– Egocentric

• Inability to understand another persons perceptive

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage– Schemas that involve body and sensations

• Preoperational stages– Mental images or symbols to understand

• Concrete operation– Use logical schemas but understanding still

limited to concrete objects

• Formal operational stage– Person is able to solve abstract problems

Emotional Development

• Attachment

• Imprinting– Inherited tendencies or responses that are

displayed by newborn animals when they encounter a new stimuli

– Geese

• Critical period– Best time in development to learn a skill

• Harlow monkey research– Wire monkey vs. cloth monkey

Parent child attachment

• 6 months – 3 years

• Strong attachment

• by 3 years child can remember and maintain relationship with mother

• Separation anxiety– Sudden separation

Stranger Separation

• Secure attachment– Good balance between explore and close

• Avoidant attachment– Ignore mother when goes and returns

• Resistant attachment– Not upset when goes but will be angry when

returns

• Disorganized attachment– Behavior inconsistently

Parenting Styles

• Democratic family– Children participate in decisions that impact

them– Parents can veto

• Benefits• More confident-responding to the child• Assuming responsibility• Identify with parents• Model good social skills

Parenting styles cont

• Authoritarian Family– Parents are the boss– No explanations

• Permissive family– Children have the final say– Give in to children

Social Development

• Socialization

• Process of learning the rules of behavior of the culture

• Acquiring identities

• Living with other people and yourself

Freud’s Psychosexual Development

• 5 stages– Conflict between parent and child– child wants immediate gratification of needs while parent

restricts that gratification in some way– Born with powerful sexual an aggressive urges, learning to

control impulses results in acquiring sence of right and wrong

• Oral– Birth -18 months– Pleasure seeking focused on mouth

• Anal– 1 ½ years – 3 years– Pleasure seeking centered on functions of elimination

Frued Continued• Phallic

– 3-6 years– Pleasure seeking focused on the genitals– Conflict with opposite sex parent– Identification-adoption of values of same sex parent

• Latency– 6 years-puberty– Sexual thoughts repressed, focuses on developing social and

intellectual skills– Sublimation-process of redirecting sexual impulses into learning tasks

• Genital– Puberty-adulthood– Sexual desires renewed, individual seeks relationships with others

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Psychosocial-life periods in which an individuals goals is to satisfy desires associated with social needs

• Recognizes the child’s sexual, aggressive and social approval

• Life long interactive process between 2 people

• Many different challenges

Cognitive-Developmental Approach

• Emphasis on thinking in development

• The child acts on the environment and makes sense out of experiences

• Games-Make up rules=structure

• Role taking-assuming adult roles to allow them to experience different points of view

Moral DevelopmentRight and wrong

• Kohlberg• 6 stages

– Pre-Conventional Level (stages 1 &2)• Stage 1-egocentric• Stage 2-help them if they help you• Conventional Level (stages 3&4)• Stage 3-social approval• Stage 4-law and order

– Post-Conventional (stages 5&6)• Stage 5 -is the law fair?• Stage 6- do unto others