U1 AOS1: DP1 The Complexity of Psychological Development

Psychological development

is the development of human beings' emotional, cognitive, and social capabilities and functioning over the course of the lifespan

Heredity

involves the transmission of characteristics from biological parents to their offspring via genes

The biological perspective is the view

that heredity primarily determines our psychological development.

Attachment

describes the psychological bond between a child and their
caregiver during development.

Attachment is formed

during infancy, particularly in the first 12 months of life.

Attachment has a considerable

influence on a person's emotional development throughout the lifespan.

Bowlby's 4 characteristics of attachment

•Proximity maintenance
•Safe haven
•Secure base
•Separation distress

Proximity maintenance

the infants desire to be near the person(s) to whom it is attached

Safe haven

the ability to return to the attachment figure for comfort and safety when scared or feeling threatened

Secure base

the ability to perceive the attachment figure as a base of security from which the infant can explore the environment

Separation distress

anxiety experienced when the attachment figure leaves or is absent.

Without attachment?

Emotional, social and cognitive
problems occur:
• Anxiety, depression and anger
• Social difficulties
• Cognitive difficulties (stress during infancy can inhibit neuorological development)

Secure Attachment

• Infants feel safe, showing a balance between dependence and exploration.
• Use the caregiver as a safe base from which to explore an unfamiliar environment
• Show some distress and decrease exploration when their caregiver departs
• About 65% of one-year-olds are securely attached.

Avoidant Attachment

• Infant does not seek closeness or contact with the caregiver and treats them much like a stranger
• Rarely cries when caregiver leaves the room and ignores them upon their return
• About 20% of one-year-olds are in this category

Anxious/Resistant Attachment

• Infant appears anxious when their caregiver is near.
• Become very upset when separated from the caregiver.
• When the caregiver returns, the infant cries to be picked up, then squirms or fights to get free, as though they are unsure about what they really want.
• Thought to result from caregivers who aren't very responsive to their infant's needs.
• About 12% of one-year-olds in this category

Adult attachment styles are influenced

by a variety of factors, one of which is the way our caregivers raised us, but other factors also come into play like our life experiences (eg. past relationships)

Harry Harlow - Conclusions

Harlow concluded that contact comfort was more important than feeding in the formation of an infant rhesus monkey's attachment to its mother.

Strange Situation Test

A parent-infant "separation and reunion" procedure, testing the security of a child's attachment

Harry Harlow

Studied theory of attachment in infant rhesus monkeys

Harry Harlow - Why use monkeys?

• Apes and monkey are the most closely related to humans behaviorally, anatomically, and physiologically.
• Nonhuman primates can offer tremendous insights into human development.
• Rhesus monkeys share over 90% of their genes with those of humans

The view that the environment

in which an individual is raised and lives is primarily responsible for determining what they will become.

Environment

refers to a combination of all the objects and events to which we are exposed throughout our lifetime e.g. family, friends, SES, education etc.

interactionist approach

trying to understand how heredity and environmental factors combine or interact in influencing our thoughts, feelings and behaviour

Fraternal twins

- develop from 2 sets of egg and sperm
- same sex or one of each

identical twins

- develop from same egg and sperm
- same sex

Development

is a combination of both nature and nurture.

Developmental Norms.

We develop certain skills and abilities at a set time

sensitive period

is a period of time when an individual is more responsive ('sensitive') to
certain influences from their environment

Emotional development

refers to the way our emotions change and develop over time with a close focus on attachment

Attachment theory:

states that an infant needs a secure relationship with an adult caregiver in order to have healthy emotional development

Attachment Target

- infants cannot discriminate between people, so behave similarly with everyone
- After that infants usually form a strong attachment with one particular person (attachment target)
- Infants can however form attachments to more than one person

Bowlby considered attachment to be important for two reasons:

1. Bond forms the foundation for healthy emotional development
2. The bond has an 'evolutionary' function, which improves infant's chances of survival.

Bowlby proposed infants form attachments with those people

most closely involved with them, usually the main caregiver.

Factors influencing attachment

Parenting style
• Consistently available, sensitive, and responsive caregivers tend to have babies that are securely attached
Infant temperament
• Aspects of an infant's behaviour and emotional responsiveness that are genetically determined
• Difficult
• Easy

Cognitive Development

The process of acquiring intelligence and increasingly advanced thought and problem-solving ability from infancy to adulthood.

Stages of Development

Stage 1: Sensorimotor (0-2 Years)
Stage 2: Pre-Operational (2-7 Years)
Stage 3: Concrete Operational (7-12 Years)
Stage 4: Formal Operational (12+ Years)

Piaget suggested that at each stage

there are certain cognitive limitation as well as specific major achievements.
These achievements would signal the end of one stage, and the child's movement to the next stage of cognitive development.

Stage 1: Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Years)

infants learn about their world primarily through their senses (sensori-) or through physical action or movement (motor).

Stage 1: Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Years)
Key Achievements:

At approximately 9 months, children develop:
OBJECT PERMANENCE
GOAL-DIRECTED BEHAVIOUR

object permanence

• Understanding that objects still exist when they cannot be
sensed (seen, felt, heard)

GOAL-DIRECTED BEHAVIOUR

• Behaviour carried out with a specific purpose in mind

Stage 2: Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years)

Children begin to think symbolically (will use words or pictures to represent objects),but thinking remains very intuitive (can't think very abstractly)

Stage 2: Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years)
Key achievements:

• Egocentrism
• Animism
• Centration
• Transformation

Egocentrism

Children are unable or have difficulty seeing things from another person's perspective

Animism

The belief that everything has a consciousness
e.g. toys have thoughts and feelings.

Centration

The child can only focus on one quality or feature of an object at a time

Transformation

A child can understand that something can change from one state (form or structure) to another but not understand/explain the process.

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 Years)

Characterised by a clear understanding of cause and effect.
Thinking revolves around what they know and what they can experience through their senses; that is, what is concrete.

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 Years)
Key achievements:

• Reversibility
• Conservation
• Classification

Reversibility

Ability to follow a line of reasoning back to its original starting point.

Conservation

Idea that an object does not change its weight, mass, volume or area when the object changes in shape or appearance.

Classification

Ability to organise information (things or events) into categories based on common features that sets them apart from other classes or groups (categories).

Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage (12+ Years)

Characterised by evidence of higher order thinking

Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage (12+ Years)
Key Achievements:

• Logical thinking
• Abstract thinking

Logical Thinking

Able to develop strategies to solve problems, identify solutions to problems, develop hypotheses, and systematically test solutions.

Abstract Thinking

A way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see or visualise things in order to understand concepts

Piaget proposed the 4 stages were sequential. However,

individuals may pass through at different rates.

Stages of Development - Criticisms

- Children are getting 'smarter', and may be achieving these stages earlier today than in the 1970's
- May have overestimated children's language abilities - they didn't understand the task
Sample size - primarily based on observations of his own children

Later Piaget state that formal operations was influenced by

experience (e.g. experience and training influences whether an individual will reach this stage or not).

adoptive studies

assess hereditary influence by examining the resemblance between adopted children and both their biological and their adoptive parents

twin studies

assess hereditary influence by comparing the resemblance of identical twins and fraternal twins with respect to a trait