48d ago
EE

Lifespan domains of development

Harlow (1958):

Through rhesus Monekys

  • investigate the provision of food either by a surrogate motehr or a cloth to create an attachment

  • consisted of 8 rhesus monkeys-separated from the mother

  • group 1 — 4 monkeys in isolated cages where a cloth surrogate mother provided food and a wire surrogate didnt

  • group 2 — 4 monkeys isolated in cages where a wire surrogate mother provided food and a cloth surrogate didn’t

  • IV-food/comfort given by surrogate

  • DV-amount of contact time spent with surrogate

  • Results: he discovered that monkeys grew up healthy but weren’t able to get along with other monkeys. When he placed the monkeys in individual cages with a blanket, they became attached to the blanket. Attachment formation requires contact comfort. Infant monkeys raised by cloth surrogate mothers didn’t develop properly and when fully grown, rarely socialised with other monkeys. Comfort trumps feeding in forming attachments

Bowlby (1969, 1988):

  • Primarily interested in teh development of attachment in children. Believed that attachment occurs in the first few years of life

  • development of attachment is biological and genetically inherited

  • monotropy (a close bond with usually the mother) is vital for child development

  • fundamentally different from attachment with other caregivers (unique-first to develop and remains strongest)-(two way street-child and mother influence on another)

  • Critical period -first 12 months of life is vital for monotropy to develop

How the theory works

  1. attachment bonds: children are biologically programmed to form attachments with caregivers for survival. This provides a sense of security and comfort, mainly in times of distress

  2. critical period: there is a critical period (2.5 in 1969(later extended to 5 in 1988) years), where attachments must form. If they don’t it could lead to long term cognitive, social and emotional difficulties)

  3. internal working models: through interactions with caregivers, children develop internal working models (the mental representation of themselves, caregivers and relationships, which influence future social interactions)

  4. attachment behaviours: bowlby identified behaviours such as crying, clinging, and following as instinctive actions that help maintain proximity to the caregiver. These behaviours are activated when the child feels threatened/insecure

  5. secure base: the caregiver acts as a secure base from which the child can explore the world. This secure attachment allows the child to develop confidence and independence

1969 v 1988

  • (critical v sensitive period): emphasised a critical period for attachment formation, of 2.5 years to avoid long term impacts. This was later extended to a sensitive period up to 5 years, acknowledging that attachment can still develop beyond the initial timeframe

  • (internal working models): introduced the concept, yet further elaborated how the models influence not just childhood but also adult relationships including romantic bonds

  • (secure base concept): initially described as the caregiver providing a safe haven for the child, which was later expanded to highlight the caregiver’s role in providing mental and emotional stability throughout life

  • (broader implications): the focus was primarily on the mother and their impact on child development, but was expanded to the role of fathers and discussed the implications of attachment theory for mental health

Internal working model: attachment leads to developing the internal working model (the working model changes according to experiences in relationships, and is established in the first few years of life, flexible in children but because resistant to change through age)

3 parts-model of others being trustworthy, self as valuable, self as effective at interacting with others

Maternal deprivation hypothesis

  • maternal deprivation is the consequences an indivdiual experiences when they are separated from their care giver-usually mother

  • consequences include: intellectual development delay, or weirdly low IQ, emotional developmental delay, inability to have empathy (bowlby calls this affectionless psychopathy), difficulties forming social and intimate relaitonships

contributions and criticisms:

  • highlighted the importance that early bonds significantly impact emotional and social development

  • introduced the idea that early attachment experiences form metal frameworks for future relationships

  • work inspired other later researchers and studies into child development

  • overemphasis on the mother

  • delinquency could be due to family conflict, not maternal deprivaiton

  • doesn’t distinguish between loss of attachment and total deprivation

Mary answorth (1978) + link to bowlby’s thoery:

  • created a method known as the strange situation, involving a series of episodes where the infant interacts with their mother and a stranger (introduction, acclimatisation, first separation, first reunion, second separation, second reunion)

  • there are 4 characteristics of attachment (proximity maintenance, safe haven, secure base, separation distress)

  • method is used to study the differences in quality of attachment between children and caregiver

  • attachment is based on the Childs reaction and is placed into 3 different categories

  • these attachment styles are kept thorughout life as believed by researchers

  • exposed to 7 eipisodes in the same order each lasting around 3 minutes

  • ainsworth developed 3 attachment styles

  1. Type a-insecure avoidant (insecurity showed by ignoring mothers, failing to look at her or not being close)

  2. type b-secure attachment (used mothers as a secure base from which to explore

  3. type c-insecure resistant-insecurity indicated by resisting mother, clinging on to her or by kicking and pushing her away

Type a (approx 20%-insecure avoidant)

Infant behaviour: The infant doesn’t seek proximity with the mother. Is happy to explore but doesn’t use the mother as a secure base. Shows very little anxiety. No sign to distress when mother leaves. Infant shows little interest in mother when she returns and may avoid eye contact.

Mother’s behaviour: The mum ignores the infant, causing the child to believe that communication of needs doesn’t have an influence to the mother

Type b (approx 70%-secure attachment)

Infant behaviour: The infant is happy to seek proximity to the mother, is happy to explore and uses the mother as a secure base. The child has moderate stranger anxiety and separation distress, finding happiness and seeking comfort from the mother

Mother’s behaviour: mother is sensitive to the infants needs

Type c (approx 10%-insecure resistant)

Infant behaviour: infant seeks great proximity to the mother, explores very little and doesn’t use the mother as a secure base. Has high levels of stranger and separation anxiety, and may approach mother but resists comfort.

Mother’s behaviour: Mother is inconsistent with primary care, sometimes ignores needs sometimes meets them

simplified:

Typa a-ignores parent upon return, little emotion, similar response to stranger

type b-seeks contact after separation, easily comforted, returns to exploration

type c-seeks yet resists contact, difficult to soothe, shows anger and distress

contributions:

  • provided the first empirical evidence for Bowlby’s attachment theory

Criticisms:

  • infants were sometimes taken into unfamiliar environments and left for a few minutes, not counting for real life examples. This was only valid in western countries

Link to bowlby’s theory:

primary care givern rejects the child and isn’t sensitive to their needs (type a)-child develops negative internal working models of self as they believe themselves to be unworthy

primary care giver is sensitive to the needs of the child(type b)-child develops a positive internal working model of the self, others and relation between self and others

Primary caregiver is inconsistent with primary care (type c)-child develops a negative internal working model of the self and tries to receive attention by exaggerating their emotional responses

enriched v deprived environments:

enriched-rich in sensory experiences, provides learning environments and needs supportive caregiving from adults

deprived-resource deprivation, lack of exposure to learning environment, can reduce cognitive skills and lead to poor social skills

extreme deprivation-includes neglect/abuse

social deprivation-limited access to learning materials and environments

enriched leads to larger brain volume, better cognitive functions, increased synaptic connections, wherever deprived environments lead to smaller brain size, impaired cognitive function, stunted neural development and reduced synaptic density

critical (essential and fixed window) v sensitive period (optimal but not exclusive)

e.g., if something isn’t learnt in childhood it may never develop

sensitive-learning a second language is easiest during early childhood but still possible later (motor skill development)

enriched environments provide stimulation, interaction and learning opportunities during sensitive periods

deprived environments lack essential stimuli such as language, social contact, or care. it can lead to delays or permanent deficits especially if occurring during critical periods

piaget (1936):

schema-mental frameworks or building blocks that organise past experiences and provide an understanding of future experiences

  • many theories are based off of his theories

stages of cognitive development:

  • sensorimotor

  • preoporational

  • concrete operational

  • formal operational

cognitive processes

  • schema

  • assimilation

  • accommodation

  • equilibration

  • schema is a mental idea about what something is and how to deal with it

process of schema formation

  • assimilation-the process whereby new experiences are combined with pre-existing schemas. It is to add or combine new knowledge to existing knowledge

  • accomodation-when new experiences can cause schema to change or modify. Existing schemes are altered or new ones are formed as a person learns new information. You can change schema to accommodate the new information

  • equilibration (the balance between assimilation and accomodation): equilibrium-occurs when existing schemas can successfully incorporate new information. Disequilibrium-arises when existing schemas cannot accommodate new information

stages of development continued (from infancy to adolescence)

  1. sensory motor stage (0-2 years): understanding is developed through sensory and motor interactions including mouthing, looking, listening, grasping or pulling. Infants begin to gain an understanding of object permanence, understanding that an object still exists even if it’s unable to be touched or seen

  2. pre-operational stage (2-7 years): children continue to develop and use symbols, images and language to represent their world. They often engage in pretend play. Symbolic thinking (develop symbols to represent objects/events), centration (children can only focus on one thing at a time), animism (inanimate objects are alive), egocentrism (inability to differentiate between self and others, can’t view the world from someone else’s POV)

  3. concrete operational (7-11 years): children can perform basic mental problems and think logically involve physical objects. Start to use concepts like time, space and number. Conservation (mass and volume remain unchanged when the form of an object is altered), seriation (grouping objects by multiple characteristics, arrange a collection of items into a logical series)

  4. formal operational (11 + years): children are able to think logically and methodically about physical and abstract problems. Children possess the ability to use abstract logical thinking for problem solving. Abstract thinking is formed

Strengths and limitations about piaget’s stages of development

strengths

  • support in all aspects of culture and location

  • fundamental aspects are valid

  • applied to educated

  • generated critical research

limitations

  • stages occur earlier than expected

  • overestimated peoples formal operational abilities

  • more of a description not an explanation

  • neglects cognitive factors that account for individual differences

  • underestimates the effect of social factors

  • unscientific method

Piagetian tasks: (*STUDY THESE)

Task

Method

Stage

Findings

Invisible Displacement

A toy is placed under one of several covers while the child is watching. Then, while the child is not looking, the toy is moved to another location without being directly visible to the child. The child is then asked to find the toy.

Sensorimotor Stage (Birth – 2 years)

Findings: Infants who have not yet developed object permanence (typically younger than 18 months) will struggle to find the toy when it is moved without direct observation.

Three Mountain Task

A child is shown a model of three mountains of different sizes and features. A doll is placed at different viewpoints around the model. The child is asked to describe what the doll can see.

Preoperational Stage (2 – 7 years)

Younger children tend to describe the scene only from their own perspective, showing egocentrism—the inability to understand viewpoints different from their own. Older children (around 7+) start to correctly identify the doll’s perspective.

Conservation Task

Piaget used various conservation tasks to assess whether children understand that properties of objects (such as volume, number, mass) remain the same despite changes in their form or arrangement. For example:
Liquid Conservation: Pouring the same amount of liquid into two different-shaped containers and asking the child if they contain the same amount.
Number Conservation: Spreading out a row of coins and asking if there are more coins than before.

Concrete Operational Stage (7 – 11 years)

Children in the preoperational stage struggle with conservation and believe that a taller or wider object means more quantity. In the concrete operational stage, children develop logical thinking and understand conservation.

Pendulum Problem

A child is given a pendulum (a string with a weight attached) and asked to determine what affects the speed of its swing. They are given different string lengths, weights, and heights from which the pendulum can be dropped.

Formal Operational Stage (12+ years)

Younger children in the concrete operational stage tend to test variables randomly or change multiple factors at once. In contrast, adolescents in the formal operational stage use systematic testing—changing one variable at a time while keeping others constant—to determine the effect of each factor on the pendulum’s swing.


case study:

genie genie the wild child

  • she had been isolatted, neglected and aused by her father since infancy

  • confined to a small rom and often restrained to a chair or crib and had minimal exposure to language or social interaction

psychological significance of thed case

  • genies case became a unique opportunity to study critical periods in development, particularly for language acquisition



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Lifespan domains of development

Harlow (1958):

Through rhesus Monekys

  • investigate the provision of food either by a surrogate motehr or a cloth to create an attachment

  • consisted of 8 rhesus monkeys-separated from the mother

  • group 1 — 4 monkeys in isolated cages where a cloth surrogate mother provided food and a wire surrogate didnt

  • group 2 — 4 monkeys isolated in cages where a wire surrogate mother provided food and a cloth surrogate didn’t

  • IV-food/comfort given by surrogate

  • DV-amount of contact time spent with surrogate

  • Results: he discovered that monkeys grew up healthy but weren’t able to get along with other monkeys. When he placed the monkeys in individual cages with a blanket, they became attached to the blanket. Attachment formation requires contact comfort. Infant monkeys raised by cloth surrogate mothers didn’t develop properly and when fully grown, rarely socialised with other monkeys. Comfort trumps feeding in forming attachments

Bowlby (1969, 1988):

  • Primarily interested in teh development of attachment in children. Believed that attachment occurs in the first few years of life

  • development of attachment is biological and genetically inherited

  • monotropy (a close bond with usually the mother) is vital for child development

  • fundamentally different from attachment with other caregivers (unique-first to develop and remains strongest)-(two way street-child and mother influence on another)

  • Critical period -first 12 months of life is vital for monotropy to develop

How the theory works

  1. attachment bonds: children are biologically programmed to form attachments with caregivers for survival. This provides a sense of security and comfort, mainly in times of distress

  2. critical period: there is a critical period (2.5 in 1969(later extended to 5 in 1988) years), where attachments must form. If they don’t it could lead to long term cognitive, social and emotional difficulties)

  3. internal working models: through interactions with caregivers, children develop internal working models (the mental representation of themselves, caregivers and relationships, which influence future social interactions)

  4. attachment behaviours: bowlby identified behaviours such as crying, clinging, and following as instinctive actions that help maintain proximity to the caregiver. These behaviours are activated when the child feels threatened/insecure

  5. secure base: the caregiver acts as a secure base from which the child can explore the world. This secure attachment allows the child to develop confidence and independence

1969 v 1988

  • (critical v sensitive period): emphasised a critical period for attachment formation, of 2.5 years to avoid long term impacts. This was later extended to a sensitive period up to 5 years, acknowledging that attachment can still develop beyond the initial timeframe

  • (internal working models): introduced the concept, yet further elaborated how the models influence not just childhood but also adult relationships including romantic bonds

  • (secure base concept): initially described as the caregiver providing a safe haven for the child, which was later expanded to highlight the caregiver’s role in providing mental and emotional stability throughout life

  • (broader implications): the focus was primarily on the mother and their impact on child development, but was expanded to the role of fathers and discussed the implications of attachment theory for mental health

Internal working model: attachment leads to developing the internal working model (the working model changes according to experiences in relationships, and is established in the first few years of life, flexible in children but because resistant to change through age)

3 parts-model of others being trustworthy, self as valuable, self as effective at interacting with others

Maternal deprivation hypothesis

  • maternal deprivation is the consequences an indivdiual experiences when they are separated from their care giver-usually mother

  • consequences include: intellectual development delay, or weirdly low IQ, emotional developmental delay, inability to have empathy (bowlby calls this affectionless psychopathy), difficulties forming social and intimate relaitonships

contributions and criticisms:

  • highlighted the importance that early bonds significantly impact emotional and social development

  • introduced the idea that early attachment experiences form metal frameworks for future relationships

  • work inspired other later researchers and studies into child development

  • overemphasis on the mother

  • delinquency could be due to family conflict, not maternal deprivaiton

  • doesn’t distinguish between loss of attachment and total deprivation

Mary answorth (1978) + link to bowlby’s thoery:

  • created a method known as the strange situation, involving a series of episodes where the infant interacts with their mother and a stranger (introduction, acclimatisation, first separation, first reunion, second separation, second reunion)

  • there are 4 characteristics of attachment (proximity maintenance, safe haven, secure base, separation distress)

  • method is used to study the differences in quality of attachment between children and caregiver

  • attachment is based on the Childs reaction and is placed into 3 different categories

  • these attachment styles are kept thorughout life as believed by researchers

  • exposed to 7 eipisodes in the same order each lasting around 3 minutes

  • ainsworth developed 3 attachment styles

  1. Type a-insecure avoidant (insecurity showed by ignoring mothers, failing to look at her or not being close)

  2. type b-secure attachment (used mothers as a secure base from which to explore

  3. type c-insecure resistant-insecurity indicated by resisting mother, clinging on to her or by kicking and pushing her away

Type a (approx 20%-insecure avoidant)

Infant behaviour: The infant doesn’t seek proximity with the mother. Is happy to explore but doesn’t use the mother as a secure base. Shows very little anxiety. No sign to distress when mother leaves. Infant shows little interest in mother when she returns and may avoid eye contact.

Mother’s behaviour: The mum ignores the infant, causing the child to believe that communication of needs doesn’t have an influence to the mother

Type b (approx 70%-secure attachment)

Infant behaviour: The infant is happy to seek proximity to the mother, is happy to explore and uses the mother as a secure base. The child has moderate stranger anxiety and separation distress, finding happiness and seeking comfort from the mother

Mother’s behaviour: mother is sensitive to the infants needs

Type c (approx 10%-insecure resistant)

Infant behaviour: infant seeks great proximity to the mother, explores very little and doesn’t use the mother as a secure base. Has high levels of stranger and separation anxiety, and may approach mother but resists comfort.

Mother’s behaviour: Mother is inconsistent with primary care, sometimes ignores needs sometimes meets them

simplified:

Typa a-ignores parent upon return, little emotion, similar response to stranger

type b-seeks contact after separation, easily comforted, returns to exploration

type c-seeks yet resists contact, difficult to soothe, shows anger and distress

contributions:

  • provided the first empirical evidence for Bowlby’s attachment theory

Criticisms:

  • infants were sometimes taken into unfamiliar environments and left for a few minutes, not counting for real life examples. This was only valid in western countries

Link to bowlby’s theory:

primary care givern rejects the child and isn’t sensitive to their needs (type a)-child develops negative internal working models of self as they believe themselves to be unworthy

primary care giver is sensitive to the needs of the child(type b)-child develops a positive internal working model of the self, others and relation between self and others

Primary caregiver is inconsistent with primary care (type c)-child develops a negative internal working model of the self and tries to receive attention by exaggerating their emotional responses

enriched v deprived environments:

enriched-rich in sensory experiences, provides learning environments and needs supportive caregiving from adults

deprived-resource deprivation, lack of exposure to learning environment, can reduce cognitive skills and lead to poor social skills

extreme deprivation-includes neglect/abuse

social deprivation-limited access to learning materials and environments

enriched leads to larger brain volume, better cognitive functions, increased synaptic connections, wherever deprived environments lead to smaller brain size, impaired cognitive function, stunted neural development and reduced synaptic density

critical (essential and fixed window) v sensitive period (optimal but not exclusive)

e.g., if something isn’t learnt in childhood it may never develop

sensitive-learning a second language is easiest during early childhood but still possible later (motor skill development)

enriched environments provide stimulation, interaction and learning opportunities during sensitive periods

deprived environments lack essential stimuli such as language, social contact, or care. it can lead to delays or permanent deficits especially if occurring during critical periods

piaget (1936):

schema-mental frameworks or building blocks that organise past experiences and provide an understanding of future experiences

  • many theories are based off of his theories

stages of cognitive development:

  • sensorimotor

  • preoporational

  • concrete operational

  • formal operational

cognitive processes

  • schema

  • assimilation

  • accommodation

  • equilibration

  • schema is a mental idea about what something is and how to deal with it

process of schema formation

  • assimilation-the process whereby new experiences are combined with pre-existing schemas. It is to add or combine new knowledge to existing knowledge

  • accomodation-when new experiences can cause schema to change or modify. Existing schemes are altered or new ones are formed as a person learns new information. You can change schema to accommodate the new information

  • equilibration (the balance between assimilation and accomodation): equilibrium-occurs when existing schemas can successfully incorporate new information. Disequilibrium-arises when existing schemas cannot accommodate new information

stages of development continued (from infancy to adolescence)

  1. sensory motor stage (0-2 years): understanding is developed through sensory and motor interactions including mouthing, looking, listening, grasping or pulling. Infants begin to gain an understanding of object permanence, understanding that an object still exists even if it’s unable to be touched or seen

  2. pre-operational stage (2-7 years): children continue to develop and use symbols, images and language to represent their world. They often engage in pretend play. Symbolic thinking (develop symbols to represent objects/events), centration (children can only focus on one thing at a time), animism (inanimate objects are alive), egocentrism (inability to differentiate between self and others, can’t view the world from someone else’s POV)

  3. concrete operational (7-11 years): children can perform basic mental problems and think logically involve physical objects. Start to use concepts like time, space and number. Conservation (mass and volume remain unchanged when the form of an object is altered), seriation (grouping objects by multiple characteristics, arrange a collection of items into a logical series)

  4. formal operational (11 + years): children are able to think logically and methodically about physical and abstract problems. Children possess the ability to use abstract logical thinking for problem solving. Abstract thinking is formed

Strengths and limitations about piaget’s stages of development

strengths

  • support in all aspects of culture and location

  • fundamental aspects are valid

  • applied to educated

  • generated critical research

limitations

  • stages occur earlier than expected

  • overestimated peoples formal operational abilities

  • more of a description not an explanation

  • neglects cognitive factors that account for individual differences

  • underestimates the effect of social factors

  • unscientific method

Piagetian tasks: (*STUDY THESE)

Task

Method

Stage

Findings

Invisible Displacement

A toy is placed under one of several covers while the child is watching. Then, while the child is not looking, the toy is moved to another location without being directly visible to the child. The child is then asked to find the toy.

Sensorimotor Stage (Birth – 2 years)

Findings: Infants who have not yet developed object permanence (typically younger than 18 months) will struggle to find the toy when it is moved without direct observation.

Three Mountain Task

A child is shown a model of three mountains of different sizes and features. A doll is placed at different viewpoints around the model. The child is asked to describe what the doll can see.

Preoperational Stage (2 – 7 years)

Younger children tend to describe the scene only from their own perspective, showing egocentrism—the inability to understand viewpoints different from their own. Older children (around 7+) start to correctly identify the doll’s perspective.

Conservation Task

Piaget used various conservation tasks to assess whether children understand that properties of objects (such as volume, number, mass) remain the same despite changes in their form or arrangement. For example:
Liquid Conservation: Pouring the same amount of liquid into two different-shaped containers and asking the child if they contain the same amount.
Number Conservation: Spreading out a row of coins and asking if there are more coins than before.

Concrete Operational Stage (7 – 11 years)

Children in the preoperational stage struggle with conservation and believe that a taller or wider object means more quantity. In the concrete operational stage, children develop logical thinking and understand conservation.

Pendulum Problem

A child is given a pendulum (a string with a weight attached) and asked to determine what affects the speed of its swing. They are given different string lengths, weights, and heights from which the pendulum can be dropped.

Formal Operational Stage (12+ years)

Younger children in the concrete operational stage tend to test variables randomly or change multiple factors at once. In contrast, adolescents in the formal operational stage use systematic testing—changing one variable at a time while keeping others constant—to determine the effect of each factor on the pendulum’s swing.

case study:

genie genie the wild child

  • she had been isolatted, neglected and aused by her father since infancy

  • confined to a small rom and often restrained to a chair or crib and had minimal exposure to language or social interaction

psychological significance of thed case

  • genies case became a unique opportunity to study critical periods in development, particularly for language acquisition