Infancy and Childhood

Developmental Psychology

The field of study in which psychologists study how people grow and change throughout the life span.

Why Study Infancy and Childhood?

1. Early childhood experiences affect people as adolescents and adults.

2. Psychologists can learn about developmental problems—what causes them and how to treat them.

3. Psychologists can learn what types of experiences foster healthy and well-adjusted children and adults.

Longitudinal Method

A method to study change where a group of participants is selected and observed for a period of time.

Cross-sectional Method

A method to study change where a sample includes people of different ages, and the participants in the different age groups are compared.

Two General Issues of Development

1. The ways in which heredity and environmental influences contribute to human development. 2. Whether development occurs gradually or in stages.

Nature

Heredity; the genetic influences on development.

Nurture

Environment; the environmental influences on development.

Maturation

The automatic and sequential process of development that results from genetic signals.

Critical Period

The concept of "readiness"; a stage or point in development during which a person or animal is best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern.

Arnold Gesell's View on Development

Proposed that maturation is the most important role in development, including both physical and social development.

John Watson's View on Development

Believed that nurture, or the environment, will have the greatest effect on the newborn's development (concept of "tabula rasa").

Modern Consensus on Nature vs. Nurture

Today, psychologists agree that both nature and nurture play key roles in children's development.

Stages (in Development)

A period or a level in the development process that is distinct from other levels; used by maturation theorists like Arnold Gesell and Jean Piaget.

Gradual Process (in Development)

J.H. Flavell argued that cognitive development is a gradual process because the effects of learning cause gradual changes.

Reflex

An involuntary reaction or response.

Infancy (Age Range)

The period from birth to two years old.

Height and Weight at Birth

On average, a newborn is 7 pounds and 20 inches long.

Height and Weight in Infancy

Weight triples during the first year of life, and the infant grows 10 inches.

Childhood (Age Range)

The period from two years old to adolescence.

Height and Weight in Childhood

Children gain two to three inches and four to six pounds each year.

Motor Development

The development of purposeful movement.

Motor Development at 4 Months

Turn from stomach to side.

Motor Development at 5-6 Months

Turn from stomach to back.

Motor Development at 6-7 Months

Turn from back to stomach.

Motor Development at 8 Months

Sitting.

Motor Development at 9 Months

Crawls.

Motor Development at 10 Months

Kneeling to pulling up.

Motor Development at 13 Months

Standing.

Motor Development at 13-15 Months

Walking.

Nature of Reflexes

Inborn, not learned, occur automatically, without thinking.

Grasping Reflex

A reflex at birth where the infant grabs your finger.

Rooting Reflex

A reflex where the infant turns toward stimuli that touch their cheek or the corners of their mouths.

Moro Reflex

A startle reflex where the infant pulls up legs and arches back.

Babinski Reflex

A reflex where the infant raises the big toe when the soles of their feet are touched.

Survival Reflexes

Breathing, sucking, and swallowing.

Other Reflexes

Sneezing, coughing, yawning, and blinking.

Perceptual Development

The process by which infants learn to make sense of the sights, sounds, tastes, and other sensations to which they are exposed.

Infant Visual Preferences

By two months old, infants prefer pictures of human faces.

Infant Hearing vs. Vision at Birth

Hearing is better at birth than vision.

Infant Taste and Smell

Newborns distinguish strong odors and have "a sweet tooth."

Social Development

The ways in which infants and children learn to relate to other people.

Attachment

The emotional ties that form between people.

Early Attachment Preference

Infants prefer being held or being with someone—not alone.

Specific Attachments

By four months, infants develop specific attachments to their main caregivers—usually their mothers.

Stranger Anxiety

A fear of strangers that develops at about eight months of age; most distressed if the strangers actually touch them.

Separation Anxiety

Develops at eight months of age; infants cry or behave in other ways that indicate distress if their mothers leave them.

Contact Comfort

The instinctual need to touch and be touched by something soft; shown by Harlow's monkey studies to be stronger than the need for food.

Harlow's Monkey Studies

An experiment with a wire mom with a bottle versus a soft terry cloth mom with no bottle, demonstrating the importance of contact comfort.

Imprinting

The process by which some animals form immediate attachments during a critical period.

Secure Attachment

A form of attachment where caregivers are affectionate and reliable.

Insecure Attachment

A form of attachment where caregivers are unresponsive or unreliable.

Outcomes of Secure Attachment

Secure infants mature into secure children who are happier, friendlier, and more cooperative with parents and teachers and get along better with other children.

Warm Parents

Parents who show a great deal of affection to their children.

Cold Parents

Parents who are not as affectionate towards children or appear to enjoy them.

Strict Parents

Parents who impose rules and supervise their children closely.

Permissive Parents

Parents who impose fewer rules and watch their children less closely; less concerned about neatness and cleanliness.

Authoritative Parenting

Parents combine warmth with positive kinds of strictness.

Authoritarian Parenting

Parents believe in obedience for its own sake; have strict guidelines that they expect their children to follow without question.

Effects of Daycare

Children who go to daycares show less distress when mom leaves them; more likely to share their toys, be independent, self-confident, and outgoing.

Child Abuse/Neglect Statistics

3 million children per year are abused/neglected; 1/2 a million suffer serious injuries and thousands die.

Factors Associated with Child Abuse/Neglect

Stress (unemployment and poverty), history of child abuse in one parent's family, acceptance of violence as a way of coping with stress, lack of attachment to the child, substance abuse, rigid attitudes about child rearing.

Effects of Child Abuse

Abused children run a higher risk of developing psychological problems like anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

Cycle of Abuse

Child abuse tends to run in families; reasons include children may imitate their parent's behavior.

Self-Esteem

The value or worth that people attach to themselves; it helps protect people against the stresses and struggles of life.

Factors Influencing Self-Esteem

Secure attachment, the ways in which parents react to their children (authoritative parenting), and a sense of competence.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Parents love and accept their children for who they are, resulting in high self-esteem.

Conditional Positive Regard

Parents show their love only when the children behave in certain acceptable ways, which results in lower self-esteem.

Gender and Self-Esteem

Girls are better at reading and general academic skills; boys are competent in math and physical skills.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

People live up to the expectations that they have for themselves and that others have for them.

Age and Self-Esteem

Self-esteem reaches its low point at ages 12-13 and increases again during adolescence because they compare themselves to their peers and may see themselves as less competent.

Cognitive Development

The development of people's thought processes.

Piaget's Source of Theory

Worked on the Binet intelligence test trying out potential test questions on children.

Assimilation (Piaget)

The process by which new information is placed into categories that already exist (e.g., calling a new animal "doggie").

Accommodation (Piaget)

A change brought about because of new information.

Sensorimotor Stage (Age Range)

Birth to 2 years.

Sensorimotor Stage (Characteristics)

Learning to coordinate sensation and perception with motor activity; infants are fascinated by their own hands and feet. Before six months old, objects that leave sight are out of mind.

Object Permanence

The understanding that objects exist even when they cannot be seen or touched; exists by 8 months old (in the sensorimotor stage).

Preoperational Stage (Age Range)

2 to 7 years.

Preoperational Stage (Characteristics)

Starts when children begin to use words and symbols to represent objects. One-dimensional thinking; can see only one aspect of a situation at a time. Demonstrates egocentrism.

Law of Conservation

Key properties of substances (weight, volume, number) stay the same even if their shape or arrangement changes. Not understood in the preoperational stage.

Egocentrism

The inability to see another person's point of view; characteristic of the preoperational stage.

Artificialistic Thinking

The belief that natural events are made by people; characteristic of the preoperational stage.

Animism

The belief that objects are alive and conscious; characteristic of the preoperational stage.

Concrete-Operational Stage (Age Range)

7 to 11 years.

Concrete-Operational Stage (Characteristics)

Begin to show signs of adult thinking; can focus on two dimensions of a problem at the same time; understand the laws of conservation; are less egocentric.

Formal-Operational Stage (Age Range)

11 to 15 years.

Formal-Operational Stage (Characteristics)

Represents cognitive maturity; think abstractly; ideas can be compared and classified mentally just as objects can; can deduce rules of behavior from moral principles; capable of dealing with hypothetical situations.

Criticism of Piaget's Theories

His methods caused him to underestimate the abilities of children; preschoolers are less egocentric than his research suggested.

Kohlberg's Preconventional Level

Base their judgements on the consequences of behaviors.

Kohlberg's Stage 1

Age: Birth to 9. Moral Reasoning Goal: Avoid punishment.

Kohlberg's Stage 2

Moral Reasoning Goal: Satisfy needs.

Kohlberg's Conventional Level

Make judgements in terms of whether an act conforms to conventional standards of right and wrong; derive from the family, religion, and society.

Kohlberg's Stage 3

Age: 13 years. Moral Reasoning Goal: Meets one's needs and the expectations of other people.

Kohlberg's Stage 4

Age: 16 years. Moral Reasoning Goal: Based on maintaining the social order; have high regard for authority.

Kohlberg's Postconventional Level

Reasoning based on a person's own moral standards of goodness.

Kohlberg's Stage 5

Age: Adulthood. Moral Reasoning Goal: Recognized that laws represent agreed-upon procedures.

Kohlberg's Stage 6

Moral Reasoning Goal: Regards acts that support the values of human life, justice, and dignity.

Bias in Kohlberg's Theory

Boys appear to reason at higher levels of moral development than do girls.

Carol Gilligan's Explanation for Bias

Believes this occurred because of what adults teach children about how they should behave as boys or girls. Girls are taught to consider the needs of others over right and wrong (empathy, Stage 3). Boys are taught to argue logically rather than with empathy; life has greater value than property (reasoning, Stage 5).