Developmental Psychology: Understanding Infancy and Childhood

1. Chapter 10 Infancy and Childhood

2. 1. Study of Development • Developmental Psychology – study of how people grow and change through life • Early childhood experiences effect people as adolescents and adults • Study of development helps uncover roots of developmental problems, such as low self-esteem • Psychologists use longitudinal and cross-sectional method to study change • Longitudinal – observe group over a period of time, years even decades, time consuming, expensive • Cross-sectional – select sample of people of different ages, compare at one point in time, quicker, cheaper • Developmental psychologists concerned with two main issues: • Ways heredity and environment influence development • Whether development occurs gradually or in stages

3. Roles of Nature and Nurture • Nature – heredity • Nurture – environment • IN human development, heredity primarily effects maturation • Maturation – automatic sequential process of development resulting from genetics • Ex – crawl, stand, walk • Rate of maturation determined by genetics, difficult to alter

4. Roles of Nature and Nurture • Critical period – stage or point in development during which a person or animal is best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern • Young children seem to learn language more easily that older children and adults • Gesell – psych., believed maturation played most important role in development • Watson – environment has greatest impact, much stronger that heredity • Today, psychologists agree that nature and nurture play key roles in child development

5. Stages vs. Continuity • Stage development– period or level in development process distinct form others • Ex. Sitting, crawling, walking • Maturation theorists – when child's legs strong enough to support him, infant stands and soon begins to walk • Piaget – prolific stage theorists, focused on cognitive development • Continuous development – happens slowly and gradually • Ex – growth in height and weight • Debate remains between stage and continuity theory in psychology community

6. Physical Development • Examples: • Changes in reflexes • Gains in height and weight • Motor development • Perceptual development

7. Height and Weight • Infants typically double birth weight in 5 months, triple it in one year • Grow ten inches in height in first year of life • Second year, another 4-6 inches typical, 4-7 lbs in weight • Age 2 through adolescence, typically gain 2-3 inches, 4-6 lbs per year

8. Motor Development • At first, babies just reflexes and random movements • Soon, begin purposeful movements, or motor development • MD proceeds in stages (roll, sit, stand, walk, etc) • Timetable different bteween infants and cultures • Uganda, infants often walk before 10 months • US, often do not start walking until 1 year • Possible explanations: Uganda, more time riding on parents, close contact, upright position, vs. more time in US in cribs, lying down

9. Reflexes • Reflexes inborn, not learned • Essential to survival • Some examples: breathing, sneezing, coughing, yawning, blinking • Rooting reflex – babies reflexively suck and swallow what touches cheeks or corners of mouth • Without rooting, babies would not eat, evolutionary • Moro “startle” reflex – babies pull up legs and arch backs in response to sudden sounds or bumps • Babinski reflex – babies fan toes when soes of feet are touched

10. Perceptual Development • Process by which infants learn to make sense of sights, sounds, tastes, etc. • Infants seem to be preprogrammed to survey environment, learn about it • Infants prefer to look at most complex things they are capable of seeing well • Infants prefer faces to other images • Older children understand depth perception better than newborns, back away from illusion “drop offs,” a learned reaction through experience • Image on p. 233 • Hearing, more developed at birth than sight • Newborns immediately recognize strong odors

11. 3. Social Development • Ways in which infants and children learn to relate to others • Ex. Sequential: cling to mom, venture off, contact strangers, play w/ toys by self, play w/ toys with others. • Factors which affect SD: • Attachment • Parenting styles • Child care • Child abuse and neglect • Self-esteem

12. Attachment • Emotional ties that form between people • As dependent infant, feelings of attachment essential to survival

13. Development of Attachment • Ainsworth, attachment in infants around world • Infants initially prefer being held by anyone over being alone • By 4 mos., infants develop attachments to mothers, grows stronger by 6-7 mos. • By 8 mos., some infants develop fear of strangers, or stranger anxiety • Same age, infants develop separation anxiety, show distress when mothers leave • Attachment to primary caregiver due to: contact comfort and imprinting

14. Contact Comfort • Harlow experiment • Infant monkeys chose cloth monkey over wire monkey with bottle/food • Picture, p. 235 • Contact comfort – instinctual need to touch and be touched by something soft, such as skin or fur • CC need stronger than need for food • Harlow – infant monkeys w/ cloth mothers had greater sense of security which allowed them to explore new toys in cage, monkeys w/ wire mothers fearful of toys

15. Imprinting • Process by which animals form immediate attachments shortly after birth, attach to first moving objects they see • Konrad Lorenz, present at birth of goslings, allowed them to follow them, form attachment through imprinting • Picture on p. 235 • Children, however, do not imprint on first moving object, takes several months to form attachment to mother

16. Secure vs. Insecure Attachment • SA: primary caregivers are affectionate and reliable, infants form secure attachment, cry when they leave, happy upon return • IA: caregivers unreliable, unresponsive, infants do not mind when caregiver leaves, do not seek contact w/ caregiver upon return, insecure infants may cry when picked up • Secure infants, often lead to secure children, more well adapted than I-children, more successful

17. Styles of Parenting • Differ along 2 dimensions • Warmth/coldness • Strictness/permissiveness

18. Warm or Cold? • Warm - show affection towards child • Cold – do not show affection toward child • Studies show children do better with warm parents • Children of warm more likely to develop sense of right and wrong • Children of cold more likely to merely try to escape punishment

19. Strict or Permissive • Strict – many rules, supervise children closely, often concerned with order • Permissive – few rules, watch children less closely, less concerned about order, structure • Parents fit into these two categories for many reasons • Authoritative parents – combine warmth with positive strictness • children often independent, achievement oriented • Authoritarian parents – obedience for its own sake, expect children to follow rules without question, often cold and rejecting personalities • Children often resistant to or dependent on others, tend to be less friendly and spontaneous

20. Child Care • Care by those other than parents • Studies found children accustomed to CC suffered less separation anxiety from parents, still bonded however • CC children tend to be more: • Social • Independent • Self-confident • CC Children also tend to be: • More aggressive (with less attention, may compete with other children more) • Less cooperative

21. Child Abuse and Neglect • 5 % US parents admitted to physical abuse - beating, hitting, kicking that results in bodily injury. • Neglect – more common, failure to give adequate food, shelter, clothing, emotional support, schooling • Factors associated with child abuse and neglect: • Stress • History of child abuse • Acceptance of violence as coping mechanism for stress • Lack of attachment to children • Substance abuse • Rigid attitudes about parenting

22. Child Abuse and Neglect • Abused children: • Higher risk of psych problems, such as anxiety and depression, others • Tend to be insecure • Less self – confidence • More likely to become aggressive themselves • Child abuse tends to run in families • Children imitate parents behavior • Children often adopt parents strict view on discipline, see violence as normal

23. Self-Esteem • Value or worth people attach to themselves • High self-esteem helps people cope with difficulties

24. Influences on Self Esteem • Ways parents react to children, warm but structured best • Unconditional positive regard – parents love and accept their children no matter how they behave • Children develop high self esteem • Conditional positive regard – parents show love only when child behaves in acceptable fashion • Children may feel good only when meeting parents expectations, may be overly needy, seek approval, low self-esteem • Sense of competence at something raises self esteem

25. Gender and Self-Esteem • 5-7, children begin to value thesmelves on basis of physical appearance and performance in school • Grade school: • Girls better at reading and genral academic skills • Boys better in math and physical skills • May be affected by gender roles, what boys and girls are supposed to be good at

26. Age and Self-Esteem • Competence grows with age • However, self-esteem tends to decline during elementary school years • Low point around 12 or 13 yrs old, increases during teenage years

27. 4. Cognitive Development • Development of people’s thought processes • Two psychologists who have made great impact: Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg

28. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development • Piaget, Paris, worked on Binet intelligence test • Found children gave certain types of wrong answers • Wrong answers fit patterns

29. Assimilation and Accommodation • Piaget believed humans organize new info in two ways: Assimilation, Accommodation • Assimilation – new info placed into categories that already exist • Ex: child’s family has a Black Lab, child sees new species of dog, Poodle, adds to category of ‘doggie’ based on similar characteristics • Accommodation – new info needs a new category • Ex: family has Black Lab, child sees cat and calls “doggie”, corrected by parents, adds new category, “cat.” • Piaget theorized development happens in stages • Sequence same for all, though some may go faster or slower • Piaget’s four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

30. Sensorimotor Stage • Infants start off acting reflexively, react to environment, do not initiate • By one month, act with more purpose • Senorimotor stage – begin to understand there is a relationship between physical movements and results they sense and perceive • By 4-8, become fascinated with cause and effect, I push, it moves

31. Sensorimotor Stage • Before six months, do not realize that objects out of sight still exist • Object permanence – begin to understand that object exist even when they cannot be seen or touched, typically around eight months • Piaget thought this happened due to brain development • At 8 months, children could picture missing item in mind, did not lose image when hidden

32. Preoperational Stage • Begins about 2 • Begin to use words and symbols, language to represent objects • One dimensional thinking, see only one aspect of a situation at a time • Preop. children do no understand law of conservation – properties of substance (weight, volume, number, stay same even if shape or arrangement has changed, basic properties conserved • Ex: image on p. 243, child thinks tall beaker contains more water, even though witnesses tall beaker poured into fat, short beaker

33. Preoperational Stage • P. 243