Infancy and Childhood

Chapter 3

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is the study of how physical, social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development occur

Nature vs. Nurture is a common issue for developmental psychology

Perceptual Development

Infants prefer looking at faces and patterns over any other stimulus

Infants also greatly benefit from being touched by their parents and several studies have shown newborns have some perceptual abilities

Newborn Capacities

Newborns have the ability to see, hear, smell, and respond to their environment at birth

Most newborns are capable of reflexes that are triggered by stimulus such as the grasping reflex and the rooting reflex

Physical Development

Maturation is internally programmed growth, and children mature at similar rates in most cases

Maturational readiness will occur when a child is physiologically ready for a new skill (ex: walking)

Language Development

Most children say their first word by one year old

By the time children are 2, they have a vocabulary of 500-1500 words

Children use telegraphic speech- they leave out words or use the wrong tense, but the meaning is usually clear

Cognitive Development

How knowing changes: Schemas- mental

representations of the world --->

Assimilation- the process of fitting new information into pre-existing schema --->

Accommodation- the process of changing schema to fit new information

Object Permanence

When an infant’s toy is hidden, he or she acts as if it has ceased to exist

By the second year of life, this changes and a child begins to realize things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen or touched- called object permanence

Representational Thought

Representational thought is the ability of a child to picture something in his or her mind

Comes after object permanence

Conservation

Between 5 and 7, a child will begin to understand conservation- that a given quantity does not change when its appearance is changed

This is because children are egocentric- unable to understand other perspectives

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Emotional Development: Animals

Experiments with animals have shown that early in life, attachment occurs

Imprinting is an inherited tendency or response displayed by newborn animals when they encounter new stimuli

Emotional Development: Human Infants

Infants begin to form attachment around 6 months of age

Avoidant attachment: Infants ignore mother when she leaves or returns

Resistant attachment: Not upset with mother when she leaves, but ignore when she returns

Disorganized attachment: Behave inconsistently

Secure attachment: balance need to explore and need to be close

Parenting Styles

Authoritarian: Parents attempt to control behavior of children in accordance with a set code of conduct

Democratic (authoritative): Children participate in decisions affecting their lives

Permissive (laissez-faire): Children have final say, parents have non-punishing attitude

Child Abuse

Includes the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, or negligent treatment of children under 18 by an adult

Abuse happens for a variety of reasons, and has different effects on each victim

Social Development

For children to develop normally, they must learn socialization, or the process of learning behavior in the culture in which you live

This includes finding your role and a place in society, as well as learning to live with others

Freud’s Psychosexual Development

Identification- the process by which the child adopts the principles of the same-sex parent

Sublimation- The process of redirecting sexual impulses into learning tasks

Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson took a broader view of human development than Freud

He said the need for social approval is the driving force in development

Learning Theory of Development

Many psychologists disagree with Freud or Erikson, and believe children learn social rules because they are awarded for conforming, and social development is a matter of conditioning

The Cognitive-Developmental Approach

The opposite of Learning Theory, Cognitive-Developmental approach states the child is the instigator of learning socially

This is demonstrated by games and play and role taking