child cognitive and social-emotional development

egocentrism/selfishness

shows that kids are just on path cognitively, irritating, but something to celebrate

egocentrism

excessive interest in oneself, doing things for the benefit of themselves at the expense or disregard of others

jean piget

studied the errors in cognition made by children in order to understand what ways they think differently than adults

scale error

when children attempt to do something with an object without understanding its size. inability to understand scale (relative scale). ex: sliding down mini toy slide, trying to sit in mini car

schemas

internal, mental representations of categories of objects (and what actions can be performed on the objects)

2 ways schemas develop

assimilation, accommodation

assimilation

the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas.
ex. all little animals with four legs are dogs.

accommodation

the process by which an existing schema expands or changes to fit ew information (that doesn't fit into existing schemas). even though many little animals have fur legs and fur, not all are doggies. there are different kinds of animals and each has a name.

schema development with toy block example

infant has schema for toy blocks, thy stack. assimilation: other block-like objects can stack, so even though it has a different shape, it can still be conceptualized as a "toy block." accommodation: when stacking block on open box, it falls in. infant has to accommodate this new piece of Information - that some things look like blocks but can't stack.

jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development

sensorimotor, pre operational, concrete operational, formal operational

sensorimotor (birth to ~2 years)

-experiences the world through senses and actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping)
-object permeance, stranger anxiety

pre operational (2 to 6/7)

-representing things with words and images, using intuition rather than logical reasoning
-pretend play, egocentrism

concrete operational (~7 to ~11 years)

-thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies ad performing arithmetical operations
-conservation, mathematical transformations

formal operational (~12 years through adulthood)

-abstract reasoning
-abstract logic, potential for mature moral reasoning

object permeance

the idea that objects exist even when they can't be seen. develops through games like peekaboo

understanding magic

requires an understanding of possible and impossible events in the physical world. the preferential looking method (habituation and dishabituation) shows that infants as young as 3.5 months look longer at physically "impossible events." babies are like little scientists and try to form hypotheses to explain these events

Piaget's conservation task

water beakers (short round poured into tall skinny); pre operational children will answer that the taller beaker contains more water, a concrete operational child will understand that the amount of water actually remains the same

theory of mind

the ability to understand that others have their own thoughts and perspective

3 years old

at this age, children can understand enough language to explain peoples behaviors in terms of mental constructs. (she is crying, she is sad). however, tt this age children can't understand false believes (that they or other people might believe something that is not true). this is because they have not yet developed a theory of mind that allows for perceptive-taking, false beliefs, or deception. this more sophisticated theory of mind tends to develop by age 4-4.5

stranger anxiety

develops around 9-13 months, in this stage a child notices and fears new people.
how does this develop? as children develop schemas for the more primary people in their lives, they start to notice when strangers don't fit into those schemas. however they do not yet have the ability to assimilate faces
why does this develop? children are learning to walk at this age, some children who walked towards unfamiliar creatures might have died before having a chance to pass on genes.

attachment

emotional bonds between an infant and a caregiver

attactchment process

harry Harlow does infant rhesus monkey experiment to see if the foundation of infant attachment is feeding

human infant attachment

attachment is strongest between 6 months and 3 years

styles of dealing with separation, Mary Ainsworth "strange situations" experiment

a mother and infant are alone in n unfamiliar room, child explores room as mother sits. stranger enters room, talks to mother, and approaches the child. mother leaves room. after few moments, mother returns.

secure attatchment

most children (60%) feel distress when mother leaves and seek contact with her when she returns

insecure attachment (anxious style)

clinging to mother, less likely to explore environment, and may get loudly upset with mothers departure and remain upset when she returns

insecure attachment (avoidant style)

seeming indifferent to mothers departure and return

temperament

a persons characteristic style and intensity of emotional reactivity
some infants have "easy" temperament - happy, relaxed, calm, with predictable rhythms of needing to sleep and eat. others are "difficult" - irritable, unpredictable needs and behaviors, intense reactions.

what causes attachment style

- Mary Ainsworth believed that sensitive, responsive, calm parenting is correlated withs cure attachment
-monkeys with unresponsive artificial mothers show anxious insecure attachment
-training in sensitive responding for parents of temperamentally-difficult children led to doubled rates of secure attachment

effects of children experienced severe, prolonged, deprivation or abuse

difficulty forming attachments, increased anxiety and depression, cognitive deficits, and increased aggression
however, genetics and biology still play a role

authoritarian

"too hard", parents impose rules "bc I said so" and expect obedience

permissive

"too soft" parents submit to kids' desires, not enforcing limits or standards for child behavior

authoritative

"just right" parents enforce rules, limits, and standards but also explain, discuss, listen, and express respect for child's ideas and wishes

authoritative parenting

parenting style. out associated with high self-reliance, social competence, and self esteem, and low aggression