Introductory Psychology
Growth of the Mind Growth of the Mind and Person and Person
Index
Questions
• At which age do children begin to hear sound?• At which age can we teach children to swim?• After which age do children become less likely
to develop a close bond with the adoptive parents?
• At which do children begin to understand 1+1=2 or 2-1=1?
Index
… Could you tell me how to grow, or is it unconveyed, like melody or witchcraft?
--- Emily Dickinson (1862)
Index
Part I. Developmental Psychology
Index
Developmental Psychology
• A scientific study of the development of behavior and mind from conception to death– Prenatal development
– Infancy (0 - 2 years)
– Childhood (2 - 12 years)
– Adolescence (12 - 20 years)
– Adulthood (20 -65 years)
– Aged & aging (65 year +)
IndexMajor Areas of Developmental Psychology• Physical development
– bodily structures– motor development
• Cognitive development– Sensation, perception, memory, thinking (reasoning),
language
• Chapter 11• Social development
– Emotion, social knowledge, morality, personality
• Chapter 12
IndexMethodology of Developmental Psychology
• Observation– Naturalistic observation– Controlled observation
(experiments)
Index
Example of Naturalistic Observation• Craig & Pepler (1992)
– Bullying & victimization in the playground
• Bullying occurred every 7.5 min.
• Average length: 38 sec.
• Adults intervened in 3% of the time
• 36% involved objects, 24% racially motivated
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
% o
f th
e ch
ildr
en
male female
bullies victims bully-victims
Index
Example of Experimental Study• Bandura (1965)
– Observational learning
• Whether children would imitate aggressive behaviors
– Conditions• no consequence
• model rewarded
• model punished 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3n
um
ber o
f acts
im
ita
ted
no consequence model rewardedmodel punished
Index
Patterns of Development
Ascending pattern
0102030405060708090
Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4
Index
Patterns of Development
Descending pattern
0102030405060708090
100
Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4
Index
Pattern of Development
U-shaped pattern
0102030405060708090
100
Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4
IndexDevelopmental functions: Reversed U-shaped pattern
Reversed U-shaped pattern
0102030405060708090
100
Age 1 Age 2 Age 3 Age 4
IndexDevelopmental functions: Stage-like pattern
Stepwise pattern
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4 Age5 Age6
IndexImplications of Developmental Psychology
• Theoretical– Adult mind &
behavior– Human evolution– Philosophy– Curiosity
• Practical – Clinical– Educational– Parenting– Legal
Index
Part 2. Physical Development
Index
Genetic Inheritance
Index
Genetic Inheritance
Index
Dominant & Recessive Genes
Index
Conception
Index
Prenatal Development• Conception
• Zygote stage (<2 weeks)
• Embryo stage (2 - 8 weeks)
• Fetal stage (2 - 9 months)
5 weeks 7 weeks 12 weeks 14 weeks
Index
Onset of Key Body Parts• Central nervous system: 2 weeks
• Heart: 4 weeks
• Eye, arm, & leg: 4 weeks
• Teeth, ear: 6 weeks
• External genitalia: 8 weeks
Index
Teratogens
• Cocaine and Heroin – Miscarriage,
premature birth, birth defects
• Alcohol– Fetal alcohol
syndrome, motor development problems
Index
Teratogens
• Smoking – Reduces oxygen flow,
increases CO2, increases odds of premature birth, low birth weight, and miscarriage
• Medicine– Thalidomide
Index
Maternal Age & Down’s Syndrome
010
2030
4050
6070
8090
100
<24 25 - 29 30 - 34 35 - 39 40 - 44 >45
% cases
Index
Body Growth
• Physical growth– Weight– Height– Growth
spurt
Index
Brain growth• Brain weight
– 25% of an adult’s at birth, 60-70% at 1 year, 90% at 5 years, 100% at 6 years
• Neurons– 50% die during prenatal period
• Connections– 50% more connections than an adult’s
Index
Motor Development: Reflexes
• Rooting (birth to around 1 year)
• Sucking (present at birth)
• Swallowing (present at birth)
• Crying (present at birth)
• Breathing (starts at full-term birth)
Index
Motor Development: Reflexes
• Grasping reflex: disappears around 3-4 months
• Tonic neck reflex: 28 weeks gestation age & disappears around 3-4 months
Index
Motor Development: Reflexes
• Stepping reflex: 6 weeks optimal & disappears around 3 months
• Swimming reflex (birth onset): disappears around 4-6 months if not used
Index
Motor Milestones
Index
Motor Milestones
Index
Principles of Motor Development
• Proximal-distal direction– the tendency of body
movement development in a trunk to extremities direction (near to far)
• Cephalocaudal direction– tendency of body
movement development in a head to foot direction (head to tail)
Index
Part 3. Cognitive Development
Index
Sensation
• Hearing– 28 weeks gestation
age (100-110 db: Dr. Kisilevsky)
– localizes sound at birth, disappears at 2 months, reappears at 4 months (Dr. Muir)
• Taste• Smell
Index
Sensation
• Vision– visual acuity
• 20/300 at birth, 20/150 at 1 month, 20/70 at 4 months, 20/35 at 8 months, 20/20 at school ages
Index
Sensation
• Vision– Imprinting (Lorenz)– Critical period
• period during which the organism is most sensitive to certain external stimuli
– Visual input is critical as early as the infant is born
Index
Long-term consequence of early visual deprivation (Le Grand et al., 2001)
• Congenital cataracts– configural
processing deficit
Index
Sensation
• Vision– color vision
• yellow, red, green at birth
• blue, gray at 1 month
• categorical perception at 4 months
– peripheral vision
Index
Infant Research Methods• Habituation method
– Habituating stimulus until infant loses interest– Dishabituating stimulus to see whether infant
regains interest
Index
Infant Research Methods• Preferential looking
method
– Presenting a pair of stimuli to see whether infant looks longer at one of them
Index
Perception
Index
Perception
• Depth perception– crawling study– heart rate study
Index
Perception
• Depth perception
Index
Perception
• Size constancy
• Shape constancy Habituating Stimulus
Habituating Stimulus
Index
Perception• Inter-sensory integration
– Meltzoff & Borton (1979)• 1-month-olds
• sucking on one of the pacifiers and then seeing the pair
• 72% looked longer at the previously sucked pacifier
Index
Perception
• Sensory-motor integration– Imitation (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977)
Index
Memory
• Short-term memory– Capacity
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8digit span
Index
Memory
• Short-term memory– Processing
speed
Index
Memory
• Long-term memory– Reinforced kicking
paradigm• mobile with or
without string
• 2-, 3-, 6-month-olds
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
0 7 14 21days (retention interval)
kicking
ratio
2 month 3 month6 month
Index
Memory• Memory Strategies
– rehearsal
• Metamemory
– memory monitoring
Index
Thinking & Reasoning• Piaget’s theory
– Schema: the mode in which thinking is carried out
• behavioral schema• symbolic schema• operational schema
– Assimilation
• children change new experience to fit the existing schema
– Accommodation
• children change the existing schema to fit new experience
IndexPiaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Index
Object Permanence
• Object permanence– the notion that an object continues to exist
even out of sight (out of sight is not out of mind)
Index
Egocentrism
• Three mountain task– Piaget’s results
– 4-6-year-olds choose their own view
– 6-9-year-olds randomly choose other views
– 9-10-year-olds choose a correct view
Index
Conservation
• Liquid conservation task– pre-operational
child fails the task
– concrete operation child succeeds in the task
Index
Formal operational thinking• Balance Beam Task
– Concrete operational children fail the task
– Formal operational children succeed in the task because they are able to consider more than two factors simultaneously and use hypothesis testing
Index
Counter evidence
• Object permanence– impossible event
studies
Index
Count evidence
• Object permanence– Infant
addition and subtraction
Index
Count evidence• Egocentrism
– theory of mind studies
• Displacement Task
0
20
40
60
80
100
3 years 4 years 5 years
% of children who were correct
Index
Count Evidence• Egocentrism
– Representational Change Task (theory of mind task)
• Gopnik & Astington (1988)
00.20.40.60.8
11.21.41.61.8
2
3 years 4 years 5 years
False belief
Representationalchange
Index
Counter evidence
• Balance beam task– Siegler:
• Rule 1: weight only• Rule 2: weight &
distance when weights are the same on both sides
• Rule 3: weight versus distance
• Rule 4: weight X distance
Index
Counter evidence• Balance beam task
– Rules 1-2: <9 years, Rules 2-3: 9-17 years, Rule 4: >17 years