Psychological Development Notes

Heredity and Environment

  • Nature vs. nurture debate: both heredity and environment interact continuously.
  • Locke: newborn mind is a tabula rasa, knowledge from senses.
  • Darwin: emphasized biological basis.
  • Behaviorists (Watson, Skinner): environment is all-important.
  • Brain development: influenced by genetics and early stimulation.
  • Maturation: genetically determined sequence.
  • Abnormal uterine environment, maternal malnutrition, smoking, alcohol/drugs can disrupt maturation.
  • Motor development: sequence is universal, but rates vary.
  • Speech development: requires neurological development and environmental interaction.

Stages of Development

  • Stages imply organized behaviors, qualitative differences, and universal order.
  • Critical periods: crucial times for normal development.
  • Sensitive periods: optimal for specific development; lack of exposure may limit potential.

Capacities of the Newborn

  • Newborns have functioning sensory systems.
  • Vision: poor acuity, nearsighted, attracted to high contrast and complex patterns.
  • Facial Preference: prefer normal faces over scrambled ones, but learning occurs rapidly.
  • Hearing: turn heads toward sound, prefer mother's voice and language.
  • "Motherese": high-pitched speech, preferred by infants.
  • Taste and Smell: prefer sweet tastes, discriminate odors.
  • Learning and Memory: can learn and remember shortly after birth, even prenatally.

Cognitive Development in Childhood

  • Piaget's Stage Theory:
    • Interaction between maturing abilities and environment.
    • Children construct schemas (theories) about the world.
    • Assimilation: fitting new experiences into existing schemas.
    • Accommodation: modifying schemas to fit new information.
  • Stages:
    • Sensorimotor (0-2 years): discovering action-consequence relationships, development of object permanence.
    • Preoperational (2-7 years): symbolic thinking, egocentrism, lack of conservation.
    • Concrete Operational (7-11 years): logical manipulation, mastery of conservation.
    • Formal Operational (11+ years): abstract reasoning, systematic hypothesis testing.
  • Critique of Piaget:
    • Underestimated children's abilities.
    • Tasks require multiple skills.
  • Alternatives to Piaget:
    • Information-processing approaches: focus on specific skills.
    • Knowledge-acquisition approaches: emphasize growing knowledge base.
    • Sociocultural approaches: emphasize cultural and social context (Vygotsky).
  • Theory of Mind:
    • Understanding that others have different thoughts and beliefs.
    • Develops in stages: simple desires (age 2), beliefs (age 3), understanding of false beliefs (age 4).
  • Development of Moral Judgment:
    • Piaget: understanding of rules develops in stages.
    • Kohlberg: stages of moral reasoning (preconventional, conventional, postconventional).

Personality And Social Development

  • Temperament: Mood-related personality characteristics.
  • Early Social Behavior:
    • Smiling: innate response, strengthens parent-child bond.
    • Stranger Anxiety: wariness of strangers, appears around 7-8 months.
    • Separation Anxiety: distress upon separation from caregiver.
  • Attachment:
    • Seeking closeness to particular people.
    • Harlow's monkey experiments: contact comfort is important.
    • Ainsworth's Strange Situation: assesses attachment security.
    • Securely attached: seek interaction upon reunion.
    • Insecurely attached (avoidant): avoid interaction upon reunion.
    • Insecurely attached (ambivalent): resist interaction upon reunion.
    • Disorganized: contradictory behaviors.
  • Parenting Styles:
    • Sensitive responsiveness leads to secure attachment.
  • Self-Concept:
    • Develops through stages, includes body awareness and social roles.
  • Self-Esteem:
    • Preschoolers: unrealistically positive views.
    • Middle childhood: social comparisons influence self-esteem.
    • Adolescence: social comparison becomes key.
  • Gender Identity and Sex Typing:
    • Gender Identity: sense of self as male or female.
    • Sex Typing: acquisition of culturally appropriate behaviors.
    • Social Learning Theory: rewards/punishments for sex-appropriate behaviors.
    • Cognitive-Developmental Theory: gender identity motivates sex-appropriate behavior.
    • Gender Schema Theory: culture emphasizes gender as a lens for viewing the world.

Adolescent Development

  • Sexual Development:
    • Puberty: sexual maturation, rapid growth.
    • Menarche: first menstrual period.
    • Ejaculation: first ejaculation.
  • Psychological Effects of Puberty:
    • Storm and stress: not fully supported by research.
    • Early vs. late maturation affects self-image and behavior.
  • Identity Development:
    • Erikson: major task is to develop a sense of identity.
    • Marcia's Identity Statuses:
    • Identity achievement: crisis passed, committed to ideologies and occupation.
    • Foreclosure: committed but no crisis.
    • Moratorium: in crisis, actively seeking answers.
    • Identity diffusion: no integrated sense of self.