Chapter 3: Child Development

1. Chapter 3: Child Development

2. Heredity and Genes • Developmental Psychology: The study of progressive changes in behavior and abilities from conception to death • 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

3. 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 • Polygenic: Characteristics that are controlled by many genes working in combination

4. Figure 3.2

5. Figure 3.3

6. Table 3.1

7. Temperament • Temperament: The physical “core” of personality • Includes sensitivity, irritability, distractibility, and mood

8. Newborns’ Temperaments • 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 (Chess & Thomas, 1968)

9. Environment (“Nurture”) • All external conditions that affect development, especially the effects of learning • Sensitive Periods: A period of increased sensitivity to environmental influences; also, a time when certain events must occur for normal development to take place

10. Developmental Problems • Congenital Problems: Problems or defects that occur during prenatal development; “birth defect” • Genetic Disorder: Problem caused by inherited characteristics from parents or defects in genes

11. Teratogens • Anything capable of causing birth defects (e.g., narcotics, radiation, cigarette smoke, lead, and cocaine) in a developing fetus • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Caused by repeated heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy

12. Deprivation and Enrichment • Deprivation: Lack of normal stimulation, nutrition, comfort, or love during development • Enrichment: When environments are deliberately made more complex, intellectually stimulating, and emotionally supportive during development

13. The Mozart Effect: Fact or Fiction? • 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 children

14. The Mozart Effect: Hypothesis and Conclusion • 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

15. Developmental Level • An individual’s current state of physical, emotional, and intellectual development

16. 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 nipple or food

17. More Neonatal Reflexes • 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

18. Figure 3.7

19. 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

20. Readiness • Exists when maturation has advanced enough to allow rapid acquisition of a particular skill

21. Basic Emotions • Anger, fear, joy • Take time to develop • Appear to be innate

22. Emotional and Social Development • Social Smile: Smiling elicited by social stimuli; not exclusive to seeing parents; occurs at 2-3 months • Social Development: Development of self-awareness, attachment to parents or caregivers, and relationships with other children and adults

23. More on Social Development • Self-Awareness: Awareness of oneself as a person; can be tested by having infants look in a mirror and see if they recognize themselves; occurs at about 15 months • Social Referencing: Observing other people in social situations to get information or guidance

24. Figure 3.10

25. Separation Anxiety • Crying and signs of fear when a child is left alone or is with a stranger; generally appears around 8-12 months

26. Mary Ainsworth and Attachment • Quality of Attachment • Secure: Stable and positive emotional bond • Insecure-Avoidant: Tendency to avoid reunion with parent or caregiver; anxious or emotional bond • Insecure-Ambivalent: Desire to be with parent or caregiver and some resistance to being reunited; also anxious emotional bond

27. Figure 3.11

28. 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

29. Optimal Caregiving • Proactive Educational Influences: A parent’s warm, educational interactions with her child • Goodness of Fit (Chess & Thomas, 1986): Degree to which parents and child have compatible temperaments • Paternal Influences: Sum of all effects a father has on his child

30. Figure 3.13

31. Parenting Styles (Baumrind, 1991) • Authoritarian Parents: Enforce rigid rules and demand strict obedience to authority; children tend to be emotionally stiff and lacking in curiosity • 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

32. Parenting Styles (cont.) • Authoritative: Provide firm and consistent guidance combined with love and affection; children tend to be competent, self-controlled, independent, and assertive

33. Types of Child Discipline • Power Assertion: Using physical punishment or a show of force • Withdrawal of Love: Withholding affection • Management Techniques: Combine praise, recognition, approval, rules, and reasoning

34. Side Effects of Child Discipline • Power Assertion: Children tend to be aggressive, violent, defiant, not spontaneous, and hate their parents • Withdrawal of Love: Children tend to be self-disciplined, anxious, insecure, and dependent on adults

35. Spanking • No long-term damage if backed up by supportive parenting • Frequent spanking leads to increased aggression and more problem behaviors

36. Language Development • Cooing: Spontaneous repetition of vowel sounds by infants; at 6-8 months • Babbling: Repetition of meaningless language sounds (e.g., babababa); 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”)

37. Figure 3.14

38. Noam Chomsky and the Roots of Language • Biological Disposition: Presumed hereditary 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, repetition, and exaggerated voice inflections

39. Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development • Piaget believed that all children pass through a set series of stages during their cognitive 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

40. More Piagetian Concepts • Assimilation: Application of existing mental patterns to new situations • Accommodation: Existing ideas are changed to accommodate new information or experiences

41. 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

42. Absence of Object Permanence

43. Presence of Object Permanence

44. 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

45. Preoperational Conservation of Quantity

46. 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

47. Concrete Conservation of Quantity

48. Concrete Abstract Reasoning

49. 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

50. Formal Abstract Reasoning