Developmental Psychology
Study of physiological, cognitive, and social changes across lifespan
Set stage for cognitive revolution in 1950s
Behaviorism dominated
Developmental psychologists found it important to study mind
Worked on children’s intelligence tests
Alfred Binet thought…
Intelligence increases with age
Young children has less knowledge than older children
Piaget
Reasoning skills change as age increases
Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotoer
Birth-2 years
Experience world through senses and actions
Gain understanding of actions’ effects
Hit blocks → Fall over
By 9 months, they acquire object permanence
Preoperational
2-7 years
Symbolic thought
Use objects in different ways
Irreversibility
Can’t mentally reverse events
Display egocentrism
Cannot take another person’s perspective
Doesn’t grasp conservation
Concrete Operational
7-11 years
Understand conversation
Overcome irreversibility
Can’t think about hypothetical situations
Formal Operational
11-adulthood
Think scientifically and have hypothetical situations
Barbel Inhelder (1913)
Piaget’s student
Discovered formal operational stage
Abstract and hypothetical thinking emerges in adolescence
Mentored next generation of developmental psychologists
Lev Vygotsky (1896)
Russian researcher
Developed theory of cognitive development
Scaffolding
Parents structure learning environment to aid in development
As children master tasks, parents remove those structures
Training a kid to ride a bike
Zone of Proximal Development
Phase when children are ready to learn new skills
Phases…
Children can’t learn new skill
Children want to learn new skill (scaffolding)
Children can learn new skill
They learn at different rates
Erik Erikson
Became psychoanalyst after being analyzed by Anna Freud
Popularized gerontology
Development occurs throughout lifetime and emphasized social development
Compared to Freud thinking development stops after childhood and emphasized sexual development
8 stage model of development
Each stage, a person confronts different psychosocial crisis
Attachment Theory
Research involving how infants and parents form bonds
Early views on attachment
Psychoanalysis
Mother is a source of nutrition
Baby associates full belly with mother
Behaviorism
Primary drive is hungry
Secondary drive is love from mother when fed
3 Psychologists
Harry Harlow
Student of Lewis Terman
Studied effects of social isolation in monkey
Baby monkeys were separated from mothers
Lived in cage
Cloth mother + wire mother with bottle
Anxious baby goes to…
Cloth mother
Not wire mother
Nourishment
Contact comfort is most important
Not nourishment
Cloth mother gave safe spot for monkey, calming its anxiety
John Bowlby
Studied under Melanie Klein
Studied effects of mother-child separation
Infants securely bond with mothers → happy adults with good relationships
Infants cannot securely bond with mothers → Maladjusted adults, extended separation that led to pathology
Mary Ainsworth
Collaborated with John Bowlby
Discovered secure/insecure attachments
Secure Attachment
Baby distressed when mom leaves, calmed when returned
Avoidant Attachment
Baby not distressed when mom leaves, not interested when returned
Anxious Attachment
Baby distressed when mom leaves, anxious when returned
Social Learning
Behaviorism used animals to study learning
Principles correspond to people
Developmental Psychologists
Operant and classical conditioning doesn’t explain how children socialize
3 Psychologists
Robert Sears
Colleagues
Lewis Terman
Clark HullNeal Miller
Proposed Social Learning Theory
Children learn how to navigate world by copying parents’ behavior
Leads to behaviors and personality traits
Eleanor Maccoby
Worked with Robert Sears
Researched parent-child relations and gender identity
Children shape their personality and gender identity
Select traits from parents they want to copy
Emphasized nature/nuture
Internal factors interact with social environment to influence child’s personality and gender identity
Albert Bandura
Colleague of Robert Sears
Modeling
Adult demonstrates behavior
Child observes, remembers, and chooses to copy behavior
Eleanor Gibson (1910)
Studied under Clark Hull
Married J.J. Gibson (Ecological Psychologist
Perceptual Learning
Become more attentive to important aspects of visual scene
Visual Cliff Experiment
Solid table top
Half was a checkerboard
Half was clear with checkerboard on bottom
Baby doesn’t crawl across clear top
Social Development
Develop sense of self
What are our roles in society?
3 Psychologists
Kenneth Clark
Inspired by Francis Sumner
Searched developmental effects of prejudice, discrimination, and segregation on children
Findings crucial to Supreme Court decision making segregation unconstitutional
Mamie Clark
Collaborated equally with husband
Couldn’t find teaching job due to race and gender
Founded Northside Center for Child Development
Therapists for behavioral problems
Vocational advice
Parental training sessions
Aptitude testing
Both Clarks…
Young black children shown 2 dolls
Identical except for skin and hair color
Which doll looks like you? (Black dool)
Which doll you want to play with? (White doll because it was prettier)
Compared attitude of black children growing up in North and South
Northern children were angry at difference between self-identity and how others saw them
Southern children accepted their lesser social roles
Martha Bernal
First Hispanic-American woman to earn PhD in Psychology
2 Career goals
Fight racism within psychology
Denied access to reseach
Rejected for jobs due to her gender and ethnicity
Other minority students had same experiences
Psychology was multicultural and provided diversity in schools and research
Help children of color with behavioral issues
Minority psychologists
Studied effects of racism on social development