Developmental Psychology Overview

Authoritarian, Permissive, and Uninvolved Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian: Characterized by strict rules and minimal explanation provided to children.
• Permissive: Features few rules while being highly responsive to children's needs.
• Uninvolved: Represents a detached style, where parents are indifferent to their child's needs.

Erikson's Psychosocial Stages

• Trust vs. Mistrust: Occurs during infancy, establishing a sense of trust when caregivers provide reliability.
• Autonomy vs. Shame: Takes place in toddlerhood, fostering independent decision-making but potentially leading to feelings of shame when autonomy is restricted.
• Initiative vs. Guilt: Found in preschool age, encouraging initiative in activities, with possible guilt arising from overstepping boundaries.

Gender Development

• Gender Roles: Socially constructed expectations regarding appropriate behaviors for males and females.
• Gender Identity: The personal identification as male, female, or nonbinary, typically develops by preschool age.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years): Knowledge is derived from sensory experiences and interactions with the environment.
• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): A time of language and imaginative play development with egocentric thinking; children struggle with logical reasoning.

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• Describes the difference between what a child can accomplish independently versus with guidance.
• Learning is most effective when support is targeted just beyond the child's current understanding.

Language and Counting Skills

• Language capabilities grow, and foundational numeracy skills, such as counting, begin around preschool age.

Theory of Mind

• The cognitive ability to comprehend that others have distinct thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives, usually develops between ages 4 and 5.

Types of Play

• Solitary Play: Engaging in play alone without interaction with others.
• Parallel Play: Playing next to peers without communication or interaction.
• Cooperative Play: Engaging in shared activities with others, coordinating and collaborating.

Early Childhood Attachment Styles (Ainsworth)

• Secure Attachment: Caregivers consistently meet the child's needs, fostering a sense of security.
• Avoidant Attachment: Children exhibit clinging behavior and a fear of abandonment when needs are unmet.
• Ambivalent Attachment: Often appears independent while avoiding contact, resulting from inconsistent caregiver responses.

Middle Childhood Development Characteristics

• Physical Growth: Notable progress in height, weight, and motor skills.
• Cognitive Skills: Development in language and symbolic processing, entering the concrete operational thought stage (ages 7-12).
• Concrete Operational Stage: Children can logically solve problems tied to concrete, physical realities, gaining skills such as conservation and reversibility.

Moral Development (Kohlberg)

• Preconventional Morality (Stages 1 and 2): Obeying rules primarily motivated by rewards and punishments.
• Conventional Morality (Stages 3 and 4): Judgments are based on adherence to societal norms and responsibilities.
• Postconventional Morality (Stages 5 and 6): Moral reasoning is guided by universal ethical principles that transcend specific societal norms.

Social and Emotional Development (Erikson)

• Kids develop feelings of industry (competence) or inferiority during their elementary years.

Adolescent Development

• Puberty: Marks the start of reproductive functionality signified by growth spurts and physiological changes influenced by hormones (testosterone in males and estrogen in females).
• Leading cause of death: Accidents are statistically prevalent among adolescents and young adults.

Adolescent Cognitive Development (Piaget)

• Formal Operational Stage: During adolescence, individuals begin to think abstractly and engage in hypothetical reasoning.