Chapter 9 (Human Development)

1. Chapter 9 (Human Development) Michael L. Farris Psychology 101

2. Nature vs. Nurture (Pgs. 72, 306) Heredity (“nature”) refers to the transmission of physical and psychological characteristics from parents to offspring through genes. When psychologists attribute development to “nature”, they are referring to the effects of heredity and genetics. Nurture is about one’s environment, and how it effects development.

3. Temperament (p.305-306) • A characteristic style of behavior or disposition (p.305). • The physical foundation of personality, including emotional and perceptual sensitivity, energy levels, typical mood, and so forth. • A psychologist describing differences between two individuals in terms of activity levels, irritability, and distractibility is describing aspects of temperament.

4. Temperament (Pgs. 305-306) • Newborn babies differ noticeably in temperament • easy children, about 40 percent of those observed, are relaxed and agreeable; • difficult children (about 10%) are moody, intense, and easily angered. • Slow to warm up children (about 15%) are restrained and unexpressive, or shy. • The remaining children don’t fit neatly into any single category of temperament. • Environmental influences soon enter the picture (like expectations), so they still have an impact, even where temperament is concerned.

5. Imprinting (p. 307) • The formation of a strong bond of the newborn animal to the first moving object seen after birth. • A rapid and relatively permanent type of learning that occurs during a limited time period early in life. • Ducklings follow whoever is present when they hatch. The tendency for young ducks to follow their mother is called imprinting. Imprinting normally serves to attach a young animal to its mother. It also guides the selection of a mate of the same species at sexual maturity. • Imprinting clearly demonstrates the existence of critical periods in development.

6. Prenatal Influences (Pgs. 296-300) • Environmental effects actually start before birth. • Normally the intrauterine environment (interior of the womb) is highly protected. Nevertheless, environmental effects reach the developing child. • For example, fetal heart rate and fetal movements change in response to stimuli such as sounds or vibrations.

7. Prenatal Influences (Pgs. 296-300) • If a mother’s health or nutrition is poor, if she contracts diseases such as German measles, syphilis, or HIV, uses drugs, or is exposed to x–rays or atomic radiation, the fetus may be harmed. • The result is a congenital problem (a defect that originated during prenatal development). • Congenital problems (or “birth defects”) are different from genetic problems, which are inherited from parents. • Reduced oxygen flow to the fetus is a consequence of a mother who smokes, a mother who drinks alcoholic beverages, or the use of general anesthesia during birth.95 percent of births in the U.S. and Canada use painkillers. • They can have an effect on the baby. • all of these MAY harm the fetus.

8. Maturation (Pgs. 296, 321) • The physical growth and development of the body, brain, and nervous system. Maturation will be especially evident as a child learns various motor skills, such as crawling and walking. • Of course, the rate of maturation varies from child to child. Nevertheless, the order is virtually universal. • For instance, the strength and coordination needed to sit without support will appear before a child has matured enough to crawl. Therefore, infants the world over typically sit before they crawl (and crawl before they stand, stand before they walk, and so on). • Toilet training will usually be completed around 30 months, or when maturation has progressed sufficiently. (Coon, p. 90) • All basic human emotions appear before the age of 2 years (Coon, p. 90).

9. Play Any activity done for sheer enjoyment. While fun, it is also serious business for children, who use play to explore the world and to practice skills (especially social skills). Solitary Play: Playing alone. Generally, under age 4 or 5 children engage in solitary play. By 4 or 5, they will have progressed from solitary play to cooperative play, in which 2 or more children must coordinate their actions. Please see Coon page 95 for more information.

10. Affectional Needs (Coon, p.96) • Emotional needs for love and affection. A baby’s affectional needs are every bit as important as his or her physical needs. • All things considered, creating a bond of trust and affection between the infant and at least one other person is a key event during the first year of life. • Parents are sometimes afraid of spoiling babies with too much attention, but for the first year or two this is nearly impossible. In fact, a later capacity to experience warm and loving relationships may depend on it. • Inexperienced parents of newborn infants should be advised that their child’s affectional needs are at least as important as his or her physical needs. (Coon, p.96)

11. Language Acquisition (p. 234-235) • Children normally begin to say their first word and make connections between words and objects at about 12 months (Coon, p. 97). • The development of language is closely tied to maturation. Babies can cry from birth on. Babies use crying as an attention getting device as early as one month of age. Typically, parents can tell if an infant is hungry, angry, or in pain from the tone of the crying. • Around 6 to 8 weeks of age, babies begin “cooing” (the repetition of vowel sounds like “oo” and “ah”).

12. Language Acquisition (Coon, p. 97) • By 6 months of age, a child’s nervous system has matured enough to allow him or her to grasp objects, to smile, laugh, sit up, and babble. In the babbling stage, consonants are combined with vowels to produce meaningless language sounds. Children babble more when parents talk to them. • At about 1 year of age, children can stand alone for a short time and respond to real words such as “no” or “hi”. Soon afterward, the first connection between words and objects forms, and children may address their parents as “Mama” or “Dada”.

13. Language Acquisition (Coon, p. 97) • By age 18 months to 2 years, children have learned to stand and walk alone. By then, their vocabulary may include from 24 to 200 words. At first there is a single word stage, during which the child says one word at a time such as “go”, “juice”, or “up”. Soon after, words are arranged in simple two word sentences called telegraphic speech: “Want teddy” or “Mama gone”. • Just before age 2, the child’s comprehension and use of words takes a dramatic leap forward. From this point on, vocabulary and language skills grow at a phenomenal rate. By first grade (age 6 or so), a child will be able to understand around 8,000 words and use about 4,000.

14. Egocentric Thought To say that a child is egocentric means that he or she is unable to assume the viewpoint of others. (Coon, p. 102) The child’s ego seems to stand at the center of his or her world. • If you show a 2-7 year old child a two sided mirror, then hold it between the two of you so she can see herself in it, then ask her what she thinks you can see, she imagines that you see her reflected image instead of your own. • This is part of what Piaget called the pre-operational stage of development (during which children begin to think symbolically and use language, but the child’s thinking is still very intuitive in that it makes little use of reasoning and logic). • A child may think the sun and the moon follow them when they take a walk, or that it gets dark at night so that they can sleep. • If a child blocks your view of the TV by standing in front of it, he may assume that you can see it as well as he can. If you ask him to move so that you can see, he may move closer to the TV so HE can see better! He’s not being selfish in the ordinary sense; he just doesn’t realize that your view differs from his. (Nevid, Pgs. 315-318, Coon p.102)

15. Cognitive Development (Piaget) (Nevid, Pgs. 313-318) • Piaget is mainly known for studying cognitive development. He believed that all children pass through a series of distinct stages in intellectual development. • Piaget was convinced that intellect grows through processes he called assimilation and accommodation. • Assimilation is the use of existing mental patterns in new situations. • In Accommodation, existing ideas are modified to fit new requirements. New situations are assimilated to existing ideas, and new ideas are created to accommodate new experiences.

16. Piaget’s Stages • Sensorimotor (0-2 years): Object permanence (an understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight). • Preoperational (2-7 years): Children think symbolically and begin to use language. Egocentric; intuitive (little use of reason or logic). • Concrete Operational (7-11 years): conservation (the concept that mass, weight, and volume remain unchanged when the shape of objects changes). Reversibility of thought: 3+4=7, but 4+3 also =7. A conversation with a 4 year old boy in the preoperational stage shows what happens when a child’s thinking lacks reversibility: “Do you have a brother?” “Yes.” “What’s his name?” “Jim.” “Does Jim have a brother?” “No.” Formal Operations Stage (11 years and up): Characterized by thinking that includes abstract, theoretical, and hypothetical ideas. A good way to encourage development of a child’s intellectual capacity (according to Piaget) is to present challenges slightly beyond the child’s current level of development. (Coon, Pgs. 113-114)