Chapter 8
Issues in Developmental Psychology
Nature and Nurture
n
Heredity
imposes some limits on what a person can become.
n
Home,
education, nutrition, etc. can evoke positive and negative influences.
• Resilience: the
ability to bounce back
• Vulnerabilities
n
Difficult
temperament, genetic disorders
• Protective factors
n
High
intelligence, good coordination, easy-going personality
Stages or No Stages
n
Quantitative
changes — height
n
Qualitative
changes —
advancements in logical thinking
Theories of Development
n
Developmental Psychology
• The study of how humans grow, develop, and change
throughout the lifespan
n
Approaches to Studying
Development
• Longitudinal study
n
Same group of
participants is followed at different ages
• Cross-sectional study
n
Groups of participants of
different ages are compared on various characteristics to determine age-related
differences
Stages of Prenatal Development
Development from conception to
birth
n Conception
• Marks beginning of prenatal period
• Usually takes place in the fallopian tubes
• Fertilization of an egg by a sperm
n Zygote
• Cell that results from union of sperm and an ovum
• During first two weeks after conception, rapid cell
division occurs
• A zygote is about the size of the period at the end
of a sentence.
Critical Periods in Prenatal
Development
Stages of Prenatal Development
n
Germinal
• Zygote
• 1 to 2 weeks
n
Embryo
• 3-8 weeks
• Developing human organism
• Major systems, organs, and structures of the body develop
Stages of Prenatal Development
n
Fetus
• From week 9 to birth
• Rapid growth occurs
n
Organs,
structures, and body systems
• Fetus can
respond to outside stimuli
n
Especially sounds
n
DeCasper &
Spence research
• Infants showed preference for story that had been
read during final 6 weeks of pregnancy.
n
Critical
Period
• Period so important to development that a harmful
environmental influence at this time:
n
Can
prevent a bodily structure from developing normally
• Body structure will not form properly, nor will it
develop later
n
Can
impair later intellectual or social development
Stages of Prenatal Development
n Teratogens
• Harmful agents in the prenatal environment that can
negatively impact on prenatal development or even cause birth defects
n
Impact
depends on both intensity and the time at which it is present during prenatal
development
n
Most
devastating consequences occur during the period of the embryo
•
Heroin, Cocaine, and Crack During
Pregnancy
n
Linked
to:
• Miscarriage
• Premature birth
• Low birth weight
• Breathing difficulties
• Physical defects
• Fetal death (at times)
Stages of Prenatal Development
n Teratogens
•
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
n
Condition
caused by maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy
n
Baby is
born:
• Mentally retarded
• With a small head
• With facial and/or organ deformaties
n
Commonly
includes wide-set eyes and a short nose
• With behavioral abnormalities
n
Hyperactivity
and short attention span
n
Alcohol
crosses the placental barrier
• Alcohol levels in the fetus almost match those levels
in the mother’s blood
• Fetal Alcohol Effects
n
Children
prenatally exposed to alcohol with some characteristics of FAS but in less
severe form
Stages of Prenatal Development
n Teratogens
•
Smoking
n
Decreases
the amount of oxygen in placental barrier
n
Increases
the amount of carbon monoxide in placental barrier
n
Exposes
embryo or fetus to nicotine and thousands of chemicals
n
Increases
probability of prematurity or low birth weight
•
Caffeine
n
Researchers
disagree on effect of high caffeine intake
n
Recommend
restricting caffeine to less than 300 milligrams (3 cups of coffee) daily
n Low-birth-weight
• A baby weighing less than 5.5 pounds
n Preterm
infants
• An infant born before the 37th week and
weighing less than 5.5 pounds is considered premature
n
Greater
risk for learning disorders, behavioral problems, severe retardation,
blindness, hearing loss, and even death
Infancy
Perceptual and Motor Development
n
Neonate: newborn up to 1 month old
n
Reflexes: inborn, unlearned responses
n
Maturation: genetically determined biological pattern of individual development
n
Newborns
have preferences for odors, tastes, sounds, and visual configurations
• Fantz (1961): an infant’s interest can be gauged by length
of time fixated on it
n
Human
face preferred
n
Demonstrated
infants have
clear preferences and powers of
discrimination
Results of Fantz
Study(1961)
A viewing box was used to
observe and record infants’ eye
movements
Fantz found that they preferred faces to abstract
black-and-white patterns.
Infancy
Perceptual and Motor Development
nMaturation
•
Changes
that occur according to one’s
genetically determined
biological timetable
of development
Infancy
Perceptual and Motor Development
n
Hearing
is better-developed than vision
• Turn head in direction of a sound
• Preference for female voices
•
Preference
for familiar sounds
n
Newborns
are sensitive to pain
n
Newborns
are responsive to touch
• Especially stroking and fondling
n
Vision
• 20/600 at birth
• 20/20 reached at about 2 years
• Newborns focus best on objects 9 inches away
• Newborns prefer color stimuli to gray
n
Can’t distinguish all colors
Infancy
Perceptual and Motor
Development
n Visual
Cliff
• Apparatus used to test depth perception in infants
and young animals
• Most babies aged 6 to 14 months can be coaxed to
crawl on shallow side
• Babies prior to 6 months will cross onto the deep
side
• Gibson & Walk concluded visual
discrimination begins with crawling
n Habituation
• Decrease in response or attention to a stimulus as an
infant becomes accustomed to it
Infancy
Temperament
n
Maturation
• Person’s behavioral style or
characteristic way of responding to the environment
• Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1970) studied 2- to 3-month-old
infants into adolescence and into adulthood.
n
Children show distinct
individuality in temperament in the first weeks of life independently of their
parents’ handling or personality
style
Infancy
Temperament
n Thomas
and Chess (1970) outlined three general types of temperament:
n Easy Children
n
40% of
the study group
n
Pleasant
moods
n
Adaptable
n
Approached
new situations and people positively
n Established regular sleeping, eating, and elimination
patterns
n Difficult
Children
n
10% of
the study group
n
Generally
unpleasant moods
n
Reacted
negatively to new situations and people
n
Intense
in their emotional reactions, irregular in bodily functions
•
Slow-to-Warm-Up Children
n
15% of
the study group
n
Tended to
withdraw
n
Slow to
adapt; somewhat negative in mood
•
35% of children studied were too inconsistent to
categorize
Infancy
Temperament
• Personality
is molded by the continuous
interaction of temperament and environment (Thomas and others 1970)
n
Environment
can intensify, diminish, or modify the inborn behavioral tendencies
n
The
original temperament tend to persist in most children
over the years.
• Adjustment in children is a fit between individual temperament
and the accommodation of family and environment to behavioral style.
n
A
difficult child may stimulate hostility and resentment in parents and others
• May perpetuate the negative behavior
n
An easy
child elicits a positive response from parents and others
• Reinforces the behavior and likelihood it will
continue
Infancy
Temperament
•
Under-controlled or impulsive children at a young age
tend to become:
n Aggressive
n Danger-seeking
n Impulsive
adolescents
n Full of
strong negative emotions
•
Over-controlled children are prone to:
n Social
withdrawal
n Lack in
social potency as adolescents
•
Submissive
•
Not fond of leadership roles
•
Little desire to influence others
Infancy
Attachment
• Strong affectionate bond a child forms with mother or
primary caregiver
n
Harry
Harlow’s Rhesus
Monkeys
•
Contact Comfort
n
Comfort
supplied by bodily contact develops attachment
n
Who
provides nourishment is not as important as contact comfort
n
‘Comforting’ figure allowed monkeys to explore new items
Infancy
Attachment
•
Separation Anxiety
n
Fear and
distress shown by a toddler when the parent leaves
• Occurs from 8 to 24 months
• Reaches a peak between 12 and 18 months
•
Stranger Anxiety
n
Common
in infants at about 6 months
n
Increases
in intensity until about 12 months
n
Declines
in intensity in the second year
n
Greater
in an unfamiliar setting, when a parent is not close at hand, and when a
stranger abruptly approaches or touches the child
Infancy
Attachment
n
Four patterns of attachment identified by Mary Ainsworth and others
•
Secure Attachment
n
About 65%
of American infants
n
Initially
distressed when separated from their mother
n
Eagerly
seek to reestablish the connection
n
Then show
interest in play
n
Use
mother as a safe base to explore
n
Typically
more responsive, obedient, cooperative, and content
n
Preschoolers
show more advanced social skills and maintain friendships
Infancy
Attachment
•
Avoidant Attachment
n
About 20% of American
infants
n
Usually not responsive to
their parent when present
n
Not troubled when parent
leaves
n
Actively avoids contact
when parent returns
n
Not much more attached to
the parent than to a stranger
n
Mothers of avoidant
infants
• Tend to show little affection and are generally unresponsive
to the infant’s needs and cries
Infancy
Attachment
•
Resistant Attachment
n
10-15% of American infants
n
Seek and
prefer close contact with their mothers
n
Tend to
branch out and explore
n
Act angry
and may push the mother away or hit her upon her return
n
Is hard
to comfort and may continue crying when picked up
•
Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment
n
5-10% of
American infants
n
Most
puzzling and least secure pattern
n
Infant
acts contradictory and disoriented when reunited with mother after separation
n
May
purposely look away when being held
n
May
approach mother with expressionless or depressed demeanor
n
Dazed and
vacant expressions or frozen posture when being calmed
Infancy
Attachment
n Fathers
• Can be as responsive as mothers
• Attachments can be just as strong
• Many enduring positive influences on children
n
Children
who regularly interact with fathers:
• Have higher IQs
• Do better in social relationships
• Cope with frustration better
• Persist longer in solving problems
• Less impulsive and less likely to do something
violent
n
Father-son
relationships associated with higher quality parenting behavior by sons with
own children
• Engage in more exciting and arousing physical play
n
Mothers
more likely to cushion against overstimulation and injury
• More supportive of a child’s confidence and identity development
n
Fathers
remain further away, allowing more individual exploration and contact with
novel situations
• Ideally children need both mother’s and father’s influences
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Important Concepts:
n
Changes
in schemes underlie four stages of cognitive development
n
Each
stage reflects a qualitatively different way of reasoning and understanding the
world
n
Stages
occur in fixed sequence
n
Accomplishments
of one stage provide the foundation for the next stage
n
Children
throughout the world seem to progress through the stages in the same order, but
they show individual differences in the rate they pass through them
n
Each
child’s rate
is influenced by the level of maturation and experience
n
Transition
from one stage to another is gradual, not abrupt
n
Children
often show aspects of two stages while going through transitions
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
n
Organization
• Mental process that uses specific experiences to make
inferences that are generalized to new experiences
n Schemes
• A cognitive structure or concept used to identify and
interpret information
n Assimilation
• The process by which new objects, events, or
experiences, or information is incorporated into existing schemes
n
A child
who calls any male stranger “Daddy”
n Equilibration
• Mental process motivating humans to keep schemes in
balance
n Accommodation
• The process by which existing schemes are modified
and new schemes are created
• Incorporates new objects, events, experiences, or information
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
n
Sensorimotor Stage
(0-2 years)
• Infants gain an understanding of the world through their senses and their motor
activities
n
Actions
and body movements
n
Infant’s behavior gradually moves from mostly reflexive to
complex and intelligent
n
Infant
learns to respond to and manipulate objects and use them in goal-directed
activity
• Object Permanence
n
Realization
that objects continue to exist, even when they can no longer be perceived
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
n
Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
• Symbolic Function
n
The
understanding that one thing can stand for another
• An object, a word, a drawing
• The use of words to present object
n
Orange -
both a color and a fruit
n
Pretend
Play
• Imagining a block is a car
• Imagining a doll is a real baby
• Egocentricism
n
Child’s belief that everyone sees what he/she sees, thinks
as he/she thinks, and feels as he/she feels
• Results in illogical thinking
n
“A cookie
is only good if it is unbroken.”
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
n Concrete
Stage
(7-11 or 12 years)
• Reversibility
n
Realization
that any change in the shape, position, or order of matter can be reversed
mentally
• Conservation
n
Concept
that a given quantity of matter remains the same despite being rearranged or
changed in appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away
Piaget’s Conservation Tasks
Conservation of Volume
n
Show a preschooler two glasses of the same size and then fill
them with the same amount of juice.
n
After
the child agrees they are the same, pour the juice from one glass into a
taller, narrower glass and place that glass beside the other original one.
n
Now ask
the child if the two glasses have the same amount of juice, or if one glass has
more than the other.
n
Children
at this stage will insist that the taller, narrower glass has more juice,
although they will quickly agree that you neither added juice nor took any
away.
n
Now
repeat the procedure with a school-aged child.
n
The
older child will be able to explain that even though there appears to be more
liquid in the taller glass, pouring liquid into a different container doesn’t change the quantity.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
n Formal
Operations
(11 or 12 years and beyond)
• Preadolescents and adolescents can apply logical
thought to abstract, verbal, and hypothetical situations and to problems in the
past, present, or future
• Hypothetic-Deductive Thinking
n
Ability
to base logical reasoning on a hypothetical premise
n
Comprehend
abstract subjects like philosophy and politics and become interested in the
world of ideas
n
Begin to
formulate their own theories and think of what might be
• Conceive of “perfect” solutions to the world’s and their own problems
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
n Formal
Operations (continued)
• Naïve
Idealism
n
A type of
thought in which adolescents construct ideal solutions for problems
n
Teens
with divorced parents may idealize the non-custodial parent
• Imaginary Audience
n
Adolescents
believe that they are or will be the focus of
attention in social situations and that others will be as critical or
approving as they are
of themselves
n
Teens
spend many hours in front of the mirror trying to please this audience
• Personal Fable
n
An
exaggerated sense of personal uniqueness and indestructibility
• May be the basis for adolescent risk taking
• Many believe they are somehow indestructible and
protected from misfortunes that befall others
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Approach
Vygotsky hypothesized that much of a child’s cognitive development results from the
internalization of information acquired socially, primarily through language.
•
Children come equipped with basic skills
n
Perception
n
Ability
to pay attention
n
Certain
memory capacities
•
Zone of Proximal Development
n
Range of
cognitive tasks that a child cannot yet complete but can learn to do through
the guidance of an older child or adult
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Approach
n
Scaffolding
• Type of instruction in which an adult adjusts the amount of guidance
provided to match a
child’s
present level of ability
• Direct instructions are given
n
First for
unfamiliar tasks
n
As
competency increases the teacher or parent gradually withdraws from direct and
active teaching
n
The child
continues toward independent mastery of the task
n
Parent
helps child ride bike by holding it, lets go as child
can balance and ride by themselves.
• Naturally occurs within the context of parent-child
interaction
n
Helping a
child learn how to put shapes
into the right holes
Information Processing
n
Sees the
human mind as a functioning system like a computer
n
Development
viewed as a gradual process
n Processing
Speed
• Increases dramatically from infancy through childhood
• Increased speed associated with improved memory
n Memory
• Develops dramatically during first year
• Use strategies:
n
Rehearsal,
organization, and elaboration
n Metacognition
• Process of thinking about how you or others think
• Understanding people differ in what they know and
believe
Language Development
n
Cooing
• Begins during 2nd or third month
n
Babbling
• Begins between 4 and 6th month
• Vocalization of basic speech sounds (phonemes)
n 18-20
months
• Vocabulary is about 50 words
• Nouns, verbs, and adjectives put together into
phrases and sentences
n
Intonation
used to indicate questions, statements, or possession
n
One-word Stage
• Occurs about 1 year old
• First words involve objects that move or ones the
infant acts upon
• 270 words known by two years of age
Language Development
n Overextension
• Using a word, on the basis of some shared feature, to
apply to a broader range of objects than is appropriate
n
Any man
is “dada”
n Underextension
• Restricting the use of a word to only a few, rather
than to all, members of a class of objects
n
The
family poodle is “doggie” but the neighbor’s Labrador is not
n Telegraphic
Speech
• Short sentences that follow a strict word order and
contain only essential content words
n
“Mama drink milk.”
n
Plurals,
possessives, conjunctions, articles, and prepositions are omitted
n Over-regularization
• Inappropriately applying the grammatical rules for
forming plurals and past tenses to irregular nouns and verbs
n
A child
who uses words such as “goed” “comed” and “doed”
Language Development Theories
n Learning
Theorists
• Language is acquired through reinforcement and
imitation
n
Parent’s criticize incorrect speech
n
Parent’s reinforce correct speech via praise, approval, and
attention
n
Babies
vocalize more when parents respond to babbling
n Nativist Position
• Language ability is innate
• Enabled via the brain’s language acquisition device
• Biological maturation underlies language development
• Accounts for children all over world going through
stages of language development at same time
n Nature
and Nurture
• Both learning and inborn capacity are important
• First acquired in social setting
• Heredity plays role in capability
Learning to Read
n Phonological
awareness
• Sensitivity to sounds patterns of a language and how
they are represented by letters
• Word play helps children learn phonological awareness
n
Nursery rhymes
• Good phonological skills help children learn to read
more easily
• Formal reading instruction at school helps improve
phonological awareness skills
Social Development
Socialization
n
The
process of learning socially acceptable behaviors, attitudes, and values
n
Children
of “warm,
affectionate parents were more likely to be socially accomplished adults…mentally healthy, coping adequately, and
psychosocially mature at work, relationships, and generativity”
Three parenting styles:
§ Authoritarian
Parenting
• Parents make arbitrary rules
• Expect unquestioned obedience from the children
•
Punish
transgressions, often physically
• Value obedience to authority
• Parents tend to be uncommunicative, unresponsive, and
distant
• Preschool children tend to be withdrawn, anxious, and
unhappy
• Has been associated with low intellectual performance
and lack of social skills, especially in boys
Social Development
n Authoritative
Parenting
• Parents set high but realistic standards
• Reason with the child
• Enforce limits
• Encourage open communication and independence
• Willing to discuss rules and supply rationales for
them
• Are generally warm, nurturant,
supportive, and responsive
• Show respect for their children and their opinions
• Children are more mature, happy, self-reliant,
self-controlled, assertive, socially competent, and responsible
• Authoritative parents are associated with middle
children and teens who have:
n
Higher
academic performance
n
Independence
n
Higher
self-esteem
n
Internalized
moral standards
Social Development
o
Permissive Parenting
• Make few rules or demands
• Do not enforce rules when they are made
• Allow children to make their own decisions and
control own behavior
• Children of permissive parents are:
n
Immature
n
Impulsive
n
Dependent
n
Least
self-controlled and self-reliant
• Parenting styles are:
n
Indifferent
n
Unconcerned
n
Uninvolved
• Associated with:
n
Drinking
problems, promiscuous sex, delinquent behavior, poor school performance
Social Development
n
Peer Relationships
• At 6 months, infants look at, reach for, touch, smile
at, and vocalize towards other infants
• At 3-4 years old, friendships begin
• Early relationships based on peer activities
• Middle childhood friendships based on mutual trust
• Peer groups
n
Composed
of same race, sex, and social class
n
Model
dress, behavior, and punishment for deviant behavior
n
Measure
to weigh own traits and abilities
n
Learn to
get along with age-mates
• Physical attractiveness
n
Major
factor in peer acceptance
n
Negative
traits associated with unattractiveness
• Low acceptance by peers a predictor of later mental
health problems
n
Peer
rejection linked with loneliness, unhappiness, poor achievement
Social Development
Television as Social Agent
n
Cognitive
Effects
• Infants and toddlers focus on different items than
preschoolers
n
Programming
may help enhance their cognitive development
• No TV recommended for children under 2 years old
n
Additional
research required before firming recommendation
n
Social
and Emotional Development
• Children imitate modeled aggressive behavior on TV
• Prosocial behaviors can also be taught
n
Ethnic
stereotyping
• Emotional impact
n
Children
cognitively understand viewed trauma
n
Easily
manipulated by advertisements
• Linked with sleep and obesity problems
Social Development
Culture and Child Development
n
Contexts
of Development
• Bronfennbrenner’s term for interrelated and layered settings in which a child grows up
n
Microsystems
• Settings where personal experiences occur
• E.g., family
n Exosystem
• Indirect experiences that affect child via
influencing microsystem
• Parents’ jobs, neighborhood, culture, etc.
n Macrosystem
• All aspects of culture
• Ideas and institutions filter down to child via microsystem