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Infancy and Early Childhood. Unit 3: Developmental Psychology. Overview. Infancy and Childhood Physical, cognitive, emotional development Language acquisition Parenting styles and attachment Social development Adolescence Physical and sexual development
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Infancy and Early Childhood Unit 3: Developmental Psychology
Overview • Infancy and Childhood • Physical, cognitive, emotional development • Language acquisition • Parenting styles and attachment • Social development • Adolescence • Physical and sexual development • Personal, social and moral development • Gender roles and differences • Adulthood and Old Age • Adulthood and lifestyle changes • Death and dying
Developmental Psychology The specialized study of how an individual’s physical, social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development occur in sequential, interrelated stages throughout the life cycle. Developmental Psychologists study 3 main issues: • Continuity and Stages of Development • Stability vs. Change • Nature vs. Nurture
Infant Physical Development Infants on average weight 7.3 pounds at birth and are between 18-22 inches long. Unless a child is underfed, severely restricted in his/her movements, or deprived of human contact and stimulation he/she will develop more or less according to a typical schedule of maturation. Maturation: Internally programmed growth that all children go through.
Newborns At birth, the newborn is capable of certain inherited, automatic, coordinated movement patterns called reflexes, that can be stimulated by the right stimulus. Doctors use reflexes to determine the health of infants. Absent reflexes or those that persist beyond the normal age can be signs of damage to the CNS or brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V4x0iQODTk
Reflex Research For the reflexes listed you must gather the following information: • Name of reflex • Description • Purpose (if any) • Duration (when it starts and when it should disappear) Use the chart to record the data you find. Ensure you are using credible sources.
Reflexes Recap Reflexes: Inherited, automatic, coordinated movement patterns that newborns are born with and that can be triggered by the right stimulus. • Some are linked to survival ex) Rooting Reflex • Others are used as signs of normal development ex) Babinski Reflex
Development of Language Language and thought are closely intertwined. Both use symbols to represent objects and they go hand-in-hand when it comes to cognitive development. No other species on the planet uses language, as humans do, to communicate an infinite number of ideas (sentences) with a limited set of symbols (speech sounds and words). Crash Course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9shPouRWCs&index=16&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6
During the game you can only speak with your groups’ phonemes. During “time outs” you may speak English but may not discuss the game with group mates. You can take notes (in English) At the end each group will showcase their language with a group activity. Learning Language Activity Your goal is to form a language using a limited list of phonemes.
Language Game Reflection • Define phonemes. • The Whole Object Constraint occurs when someone makes an assumption that a novel word refers to the entire object rather than a part or quality of that object. Give an example from yesterday’s activity. • What is the difference between over-extension and under-extension?
Language Game Reflection • Define phonemes. Basic units of sound in language such as the “ch” sound in chug. • The Whole Object Constraint occurs when someone makes an assumption that a novel word refers to the entire object rather than a part or quality of that object. Give an example from yesterday’s activity. ex) Thinking “oot” meant triangle when it was supposed to refer to the colour.
Language Game Reflection • What is the difference between over-extension and under-extension? Over-Extension • Using a word to refer to more than its intended referent. ex) “Ball” to refer to balloons, eggs, and marbles. Under-Extension • Using a word to refer to less than its intended referent. ex) only soccer balls are “Ball” but not basketballs or volleyballs.
Structure of Language • Phonemes: The smallest distinguishable units of language. ex) Puh, Mmm, Ahh, Eee, Ooo • Morphemes: The smallest meaningful units of language. ex) The word disliked has 3 morphemes - “dis”, “like”, and “ed” • Grammar: The system of rules that governs how words and sounds can be meaningfully arranged to form sentences. ex) One rule of syntax is that an article such as “the” must come before a noun, not after: “Read the book,” not “Read book the.”
Stages of Language Acquisition • Prelinguistic Sounds • Cooing Stage • crying, cooing, gurgling • Birth - 4 months • Babbling Stage • sounds and environmental responses • 5 - 12 months • One-Word Stage • Sounds used as symbols • First words, and single word sentences (one word for entire thought) • 12 - 18 months
Stages of Language Acquisition • Telegraphic Speech • two and three word expressions • begin to show awareness of basic linguistic rules • 18 - 24 months • Speech using Grammar • longer sentences with more elaborate syntax • learning 20 - 30 words per day • 2 - 3 years • Adultlike Speech • complete sentences with proper grammar • continued building of vocabulary • 4 years +
Early Theories Skinner (1957) • As one of the pioneers of behaviourism, he believed language acquisition occurred as a result of environmental influence. • Argued that children learn language based on the positive or negative reinforcement they receive after utterances. Ex) A child says “milk” and the mother smiles and gives her some.
Universal Grammar Noam Chomsky (1950’s) • Criticizes Skinner’s theory heavily, believing the process would be too slow to allow children to acquire the infinite sentences we use in language. • He proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea that children possess an innate knowledge of the grammatical principles that govern language. • Implied that all the world’s languages have common structural rules called general principles. • Each language then has its own specific parameters that dictate the variability in syntax.
Zone of Proximal Development Lev Vygotsky • Focused on social learning and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) • The amount of learning a child can accomplish with guidance from others. The difference between what they can do on their own, and what they cannot do. • Language is obtained when children engage in social interactions with others. • Designated 3 types of speech: • Social speech (out loud, to others) • Private speech (out loud, to oneself) • Inner speech (silent, thoughts to oneself)
Critical Period Hypothesis Eric Lenneberg • Believed that the ability to acquire language is subject to critical periods • limited spans of time during which a person is sensitive to external stimuli and capable of acquiring certain skills • Proposed a critical period for language acquisition from age 2 to around age 12 (before puberty) • After the onset of puberty, based on the structure and organization of the brain, one cannot learn and utilize language in a fully functional manner. Ex) The Case of Genie (1970)
Jean Piaget Who is he? • Swiss psychologist • Studied cognitive development in children • Used his daughter for much of his research What did he do? • Stressed the active role of the child in gaining knowledge. • Developed a stage theory for the cognitive development of children from birth to the onset of puberty.
How Knowing Changes Each of us constructs schemas, applying them and changing them as needed. We try to understand new objects by relating them to one of our existing schemas. Schemas: Mental representations of the world Assimilation: The process of fitting new objects into existing schemas Accommodation: The adjustment of one’s schema to include new experiences Ex)
How Knowing Changes Assimilation and Accommodation work together to produce intellectual growth and the child begins to understand things in new ways. Along the developmental pathway there are certain markers psychologists have come to recognize that can be used to measure a child’s cognitive development. Ex) Object Permanence Representational Thought Conservation Egocentrism
Object Permanence A child’s realization that an object exists even when he or she cannot see or touch it. • An infant’s understanding of things lies totally in the present, they cannot imagine it, remember it, or picture it in their mind. • If you take a toy and hide it from view, it no longer exists. • Fades around 7-12 months.
Object Permanence This represents a huge stage in development where the child now realizes that people and objects exist apart from his/her own actions.
Representational Thought The intellectual ability of a child to picture something in his or her mind. • The achievement of object permanence suggests that a child has begun to engage in what Piaget calls representational thought. • Occurs at about 14 months of age • Another example of representational thought is imitation. Ex) A child observes another child having a temper tantrum and later imitates the same behaviour, having never done it before.
Conservation The principle that a given quantity does not change when its appearance is changed. • Begins to appear between ages 5 and 7 • Ex) Children under 5 are unable to think about two dimensions, such as height and width, at the same time.
Egocentrism A young child’s inability to understand another person’s perspective. • This causes many of the errors kids make in conservation. • Lasts until about age 7 • The “3 Mountains” Test is one of Piaget’s inventions to test egocentrism.
Experiments with Animals Imprinting • Konrad Lorenz discovered that some animals become attached to the first moving object they see (usually their mothers) in a rapid, virtually permanent learning process called imprinting. • Imprinting occurs during a critical period, much like language acquisition Surrogate Mothers • Harry Harlow studied this critical period for attachment in his famous rhesus monkey experiment. • He attempted to discover what it was about an animal's mother that causes such an important attachment to form.
Human Infants Many psychologists have seeked to answer the question of whether or not there is a critical period when human infants need to become attached to a caregiver. • Infants begin to form an attachment to their mothers at about 6 months, once they are able to distinguish one person from another. • This attachment remains strong between the ages of 6 months and 3 years. • By 3 years an infant has achieved the ability to represent their mothers in thought and can maintain attachment even when she is absent.
Mary Ainsworth Ainsworth and her partner, John Bowlby, studied attachment between mothers and children using the Strange Situation experiment. Based on this research she found three patterns of attachment and other psychologists have since added a fourth: • Secure Attachment • Avoidant Attachment • Resistant Attachment • Disorganized Attachment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU
Parenting Styles The way children seek independence and the ease with which they resolve conflicts depends in large part on the parent-child relationship. Diana Baumrind (1971) observed and interviewed nursery school children and their parents. Follow-up observations were conducted when the children were 8 or 9 years old. Her observations led to conclusions about the impact 3 distinct parenting styles on children: authoritarian, democratic, and permissive.
From the section you read identify the effects of each parenting style and record them on looseleaf. ex) Democratic - Authoritarian - Permissive - Read pg. 78-80 Parenting Styles
Authoritarian • In authoritarian families parents are the bosses. • They do not believe they have to explain their actions or demands. • Parents may believe children have no right to question parental decisions.
Democratic • In democratic families children participate in decisions affecting their lives. • There is a great deal of discussion and negotiation. • Parents listen to their children’s reasons for wanting to do something and make an effort to explain their rules and expectations. • The children make many decisions for themselves but the parents retain the right to veto plans of which they disapprove.
Permissive • In permissive families children have the final say. • The parents may attempt to guide the children but give in when the children insist on having it their own way. • The parents may simply give-up their child-rearing responsibilities - setting no rules about behaviour, making no demands, voicing no expectations, virtually ignoring the children in their house.
Effects of Parenting Styles Studies suggest that children who grow up in authoritative or democratic families are more confident of their own values and goals than other young people. This seems to come from two features: • The establishment of limits on the child • Responding to the child with warmth and support
Effects of Parenting Styles There are several reasons for this confidence in themselves • The child is able to assume responsibility gradually • Not denied the opportunity to use judgement • Not given too much responsibility too soon • The child is more likely to identify with parents who demonstrate love and respect as opposed to those who treat the child as incompetent or who seem indifferent • Finally, through their behaviour toward the child democratic parents present a model of responsible cooperative independence for the child to imitate.
Social Development Socialization is the process of learning the rules of behaviour of the culture within which an individual is born and will live. • Some social rules are clear and inflexible while others leave room for individual decisions. • Every society has ideas about what is meaningful, valuable, beautiful. • Every society classifies people according to their family, sex, age, skills, personality characteristics, and other criteria. • Involves learning to live with other people and with yourself.
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking id become focused on certain erogenous areas. • Id - primitive, instinctual motives to satisfy basic needs and desires • Ego - largely conscious, realistic part of our personality that mediates the needs of the id in socially acceptable ways. • Superego - source of conscience in personality, counteracts the id. Psychosexual energy, or libido is the driving force behind behaviour. If a person fails to progress fully through a stage fixation can occur. Fixation - persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage.
