Chapter 3 Human Development

Chapter 3Human Development

Heredity and Genes • Developmental Psychology: The study of progressive changes in behavior and abilities • Heredity (Nature): Transmission of physical and psychological characteristics from parents to their children through genes • DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid): Molecular structure, shaped like a double helix that contains coded genetic information • Genes: Specific areas on a strand of DNA that carry hereditary information • Dominant: The gene’s feature will appear each time the gene is present • Recessive: The gene’s feature will appear only if it is paired with another recessive gene

Figure 3.2 FIGURE 3.2 (Top left) Linked molecules (organic bases) make up the “rungs” on DNA’s twisted “molecular ladder.” The order of these molecules serves as a code for genetic information. The code provides a genetic blueprint that is unique for each individual (except identical twins). The drawing shows only a small section of a DNA strand. An entire strand of DNA is composed of billions of smaller molecules. (Bottom left) The nucleus of each cell in the body contains chromosomes made up of tightly wound coils of DNA. (Don’t be misled by the drawing: Chromosomes are microscopic in size, and the chemical molecules that make up DNA are even smaller.)

Figure 3.3 FIGURE 3.3 Gene patterns for children of brown-eyed parents, where each parent has one brown-eye gene and one blue-eye gene. Because the brown-eye gene is dominant, one child in four will be blue-eyed. Thus, there is a significant chance that two browneyed parents will have a blue-eyed child.

Temperament and Environment • Temperament: The physical “core” of personality • Easy Children: 40%; relaxed and agreeable • Difficult Children: 10%; moody, intense, easily angered • Slow-to-Warm-Up Children: 15%; restrained, unexpressive, shy • Remaining Children: Do not fit into any specific category

Environment • Environment (“Nurture”): All external conditions that affect development • Sensitive Periods: A period of increased sensitivity to environmental influences; also, a time when certain events must occur for normal development to take place • Congenital Problem: A problem or defect that occurs during prenatal development; “birth defect”; becomes apparent at birth

Environment (cont'd) • Genetic Disorder: Problem caused by inherited characteristics • Anything capable of causing birth defects (e.g., narcotics, radiation, cigarette smoke, lead, and cocaine) • Deprivation: Lack of normal stimulation, nutrition, comfort, or love • Enrichment: When an environment is deliberately made more complex and intellectually stimulating • Enriched Environments: Environments deliberately made more novel, complex, and stimulating

The Mozart Effect: Real or Rubbish? • Rauscher & Shaw (1998) claimed that after college students listened to Mozart they scored higher on a spatial reasoning test • Original experiment done with adults; tells us nothing about infants • What effect would listening to other styles of music have? • Most researchers unable to duplicate the effect • Conclusion: Those who listened to Mozart were just more alert or in a better mood

Newborns (Neonates) and Their Reflexes • Grasping Reflex: If an object is placed in the infant’s palm, she’ll grasp it automatically (all reflexes are automatic responses; i.e., they come from nature, not nurture). • Rooting Reflex: Lightly touch the infant’s cheek and he’ll turn toward the object and attempt to nurse; helps infant find bottle or breast. • Sucking Reflex: Touch an object or nipple to the infant’s mouth and she’ll make rhythmic sucking movements. • Moro Reflex: If a baby’s position is abruptly changed or if he is startled by a loud noise, he will make a hugging motion.

Maturation • Physical growth and development of the body, brain, and nervous system • Increased muscular control occurs in patterns • Cephalocaudal: From head to toe • Proximodistal: From center of the body to the extremities

Emotional and Social Development • Social Smile: Smiling elicited by social stimuli; not exclusive to seeingparents • Invites parents to care for them

Figure 3.6 FIGURE 3.6 Motor development. Most infants follow an orderly pattern of motor development. Although the order in which children progress is similar, there are large individual differences in the ages at which each ability appears. The ages listed are averages for American children. It is not unusual for many of the skills to appear 1 or 2 months earlier than average or several months later (Frankenberg & Dodds, 1967; Harris & Liebert, 1991). Parents should not be alarmed if a child’s behavior differs some from the average.

Figure 3.8 FIGURE 3.8 The traditional view of infancy holds that emotions are rapidly differentiated from an initial capacity for excitement.

Figure 3.9 FIGURE 3.9 Infants display many of the same emotional expressions as adults do. Carroll Izard believes such expressions show that distinct emotions appear within the first months of life. Other theorists argue that specific emotions come into focus more gradually, as an infant’s nervous system matures. Either way, parents can expect to see a full range of basic emotions by the end of a baby’s first year.

Mary Ainsworth and Attachment • Separation Anxiety: Crying and signs of fear when a child is left alone or is with a stranger; generally appears around 8-12 months • Quality of Attachment (Ainsworth) • Secure: Stable and positive emotional bond; upset by mother’s absence • Insecure-Avoidant: Tendency to avoid reunion with parent or caregiver • Insecure-Ambivalent: Desire to be with parent or caregiver and some resistance to being reunited with Mom

Figure 3.10 FIGURE 3.10 In the United States, about two thirds of all children from middle-class families are securely attached. About one child in three is insecurely attached. (Percentages are approximate. From Kaplan, 1998.)

Play and Social Skills • Solitary Play: When a child plays alone even when with other children • Cooperative Play: When two or more children must coordinate their actions

Optimal Caregiving • Maternal Influences: All the effects a mother has on her child • Goodness of Fit (Chess & Thomas): Degree to which parents and child have compatible temperaments • Paternal Influences: Sum of all effects a father has on his child

Figure 3.11 FIGURE 3.11 This graph shows the results of a study of child care in homes other than the child’s. In most cases, parents paid for this care, although many of the caregivers were unlicensed. As you can see, child care was “good” in only 9 percent of the homes. In 35 percent of the homes, it was rated as inadequate

Figure 3.12 FIGURE 3.12 Mother-infant and father-infant interactions. These graphs show what occurred on routine days in a sample of 72 American homes. The graph on the left records the total amount of contact parents had with their babies, including such actions as talking to, touching, hugging, or smiling at the infant. The graph on the right shows the amount of caregiving (diapering, washing, feeding, and so forth) done by each parent. Note that in both cases mother-infant interactions greatly exceed father-infant interactions.

Parenting Styles (Baumrind, 1991) • Authoritarian Parents: Enforce rigid rules and demand strict obedience to authority. Children are obedient and self-controlled. • Overly Permissive: Give little guidance. Allow too much freedom, or don’t hold children accountable for their actions. Children tend to be dependent and immature and frequently misbehave. • Authoritative: Provide firm and consistent guidance combined with love and affection. Children tend to be competent, self-controlled, independent, and assertive.

Types of Child Discipline • Power Assertion: Using physical punishment or a show of force • Withdrawal of Love: Withholding affection; refusing to speak to a child or threatening to leave • Management Techniques: Combine praise, recognition, approval, rules, and reasoning to encourage desirable behavior

Language Acquisition • Cooing: Repetition of vowel sounds by infants (like “oo” and “ah”); starts at about 8 weeks • Babbling: Repetition of meaningless language sounds (e.g., babababa); starts at about 7 months • Single-Word Stage: The child says one word at a time • Telegraphic Speech: Two word sentences that communicate a single idea (e.g., Want yogurt)

Figure 3.13 FIGURE 3.13 Infant engagement scale. These samples from a 90-point scale show various levels of infant engagement, or attention. Babies participate in prelanguage “conversations” with parents by giving and withholding attention and by smiling, gazing, or vocalizing.

Figure 3.14 FIGURE 3.14 This graph shows the development of turn-taking in games played by an infant and his mother. For several months, Richard responded to games such as peek-a-boo and “hand-the-toy-back” only when his mother initiated action. At about 9 months, however, he rapidly began to initiate action in the games. Soon, he was the one to take the lead about half the time. Learning to take turns and to direct actions toward another person underlie basic language skills.

Noam Chomsky and the Roots of Language • Biological Disposition: Presumed readiness of ALL humans to learn certain skills such as how to use language • Chomsky: Language patterns are inborn • Parentese (Motherese): Pattern of speech used when talking to infants • Marked by raised voice; short, simple sentences and repetition

Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development • Piaget believed that all children passed through a set series of stages during their intellectual development; like Freud, he was a Stage Theorist. • Transformations: Mentally changing the shape or form of a substance; children younger than 6 or 7 cannot do this. • Assimilation: Application of existing mental patterns to new situations. • Accommodation: Existing ideas are changed to accommodate new information or experiences.

Jean Piaget: Sensorimotor Stage • Sensorimotor (0-2 Years): All sensory input and motor responses are coordinated; most intellectual development here is nonverbal. • Object Permanence: Concept that objects still exist when they are out of sight.

Figure 3.16 FIGURE 3.16 The panels on the left show a possible event, in which an infant watches as a toy is placed behind the right of two screens. After a delay of 70 seconds, the toy is brought into view from behind the right screen. In the two panels on the right, an impossible event occurs. The toy is placed behind the left screen and retrieved from behind the right. (A duplicate toy was hidden there before testing.) Eight-month-old infants react with surprise when they see the impossible event staged for them. Their reaction implies that they remember where the toy was hidden. Infants appear to have a capacity for memory and thinking that greatly exceeds what Piaget claimed is possible during the sensorimotor period.

Jean Piaget: Preoperational Stage • Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years): Children begin to use language and think symbolically, BUTtheir thinking is still intuitive and egocentric. • Intuitive: Makes little use of reasoning and logic. • Egocentric Thought: Thought that is unable to accommodate viewpoints of others.

Jean Piaget: Concrete Operational Stage • Concrete Operational Stage (7-11Years): Children become able to use concepts of time, space, volume, and number BUT in ways that remain simplified and concrete, not abstract. • Conservation: Mass, weight, and volume remain unchanged when the shape or appearance of objects changes. • Reversibility of Thought: Relationships involving equality or identity can be reversed.

Jean Piaget: Formal Operations • Formal Operations Stage (11 Years and Up): Thinking now includes abstract, theoretical, and hypothetical ideas. • Abstract Ideas: Concepts and examples removed from specific examples and concrete situations. • Hypothetical Possibilities: Suppositions, guesses, or projections.

Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory • Children’s cognitive development is heavily influenced by social and cultural factors. • A child’s thinking develops through dialogues with more capable persons • Zone of Proximal Development: Range of tasks a child cannot master alone even though they are close to having the necessary mental skills; they need guidance from a more capable partner in order to complete the task. • Scaffolding: Adjusting instruction so it is responsive to a beginner’s behavior and so it supports the beginners efforts to understand a problem or gain a mental skill

Lawrence Kohlberg and Stages of Moral Development • Moral Development: When we acquire values, beliefs, and thinking abilities that guide responsible behavior • Three Levels • Preconventional: Moral thinking guided by consequences of actions (punishment, reward, exchange of favors) • Conventional: Reasoning based on a desire to please others or to follow accepted rules and values • Postconventional: Follows self-accepted moral principles • Stage theorist, like Freud and Erikson

Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Dilemmas • Stage One: Trust versus Mistrust (Birth-1): Children are completely dependent on others • Trust: Established when babies given adequate warmth, touching, love, and physical care • Mistrust: Caused by inadequate or unpredictable care and by cold, indifferent, and rejecting parents • Stage Two: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt (1-3) • Autonomy: Doing things for themselves • Overprotective or ridiculing parents may cause children to doubt abilities and feel shameful about their actions

Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Dilemmas (cont'd) • Stage Three: Initiative versus Guilt (3-5) • Initiative: Parents reinforce via giving children freedom to play, use imagination, and ask questions • Guilt: May occur if parents criticize, prevent play, or discourage a child’s questions • Stage Four: Industry versus Inferiority (6-12) • Industry: Occurs when child is praised for productive activities • Inferiority: Occurs if child’s efforts are regarded as messy or inadequate

Figure 3.17 FIGURE 3.17 Dramatic differences in physical size and maturity are found in adolescents of the same age. The girls pictured are all 13, the boys 16. Maturation that occurs earlier or later than average can affect the “search for identity.”

Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Dilemmas (cont'd) • Stage Five (Adolescence): Identity versus Role Confusion • Identity: For adolescents; problems answering, “Who am I?” • Role Confusion: Occurs when adolescents are unsure of where they are going and who they are • Stage Six (Young adulthood): Intimacy versus Isolation • Intimacy: Ability to care about others and to share experiences with them • Isolation: Feeling alone and uncared for in life

Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Dilemmas (cont'd) • Stage Seven (Middle adulthood): Generativity versus Stagnation • Generativity: Interest in guiding the next generation • Stagnation: When one is only concerned with one’s own needs and comforts • Stage Eight (Late adulthood): Integrity versus Despair • Integrity: Self-respect; developed when people have lived richly and responsibly • Despair: Occurs when previous life events are viewed with regret; experiences heartache and remorse

Effective Parenting • Have stable rules of conduct (consistency) • Show mutual respect, love, encouragement, and shared enjoyment • Have effective communication • I-Message: Tells children the effect their behavior had on you (Use this) • You-Message: Threats, name-calling, accusing, bossing, criticizing, or lecturing (Avoid this)

Consequences • Natural Consequences: Effects that naturally follow a particular behavior; intrinsic effects • Logical Consequences: Rational and reasonable effects

Chapter 3 Human Development