Examples include stepping, sucking, rooting, grasping, swimming, tonic neck, Babinski, Moro, and Babkin reflexes.
Table 3.2 details neonatal reflexes and when they disappear.
Moro:
Response: Arch back, extend arms and legs outward, bring arms together swiftly
Stimulation: Hold baby under arms with feet touching floor and dip downward suddenly, or loud sounds
Disappears by: 2 months.
Babkin:
Response: Mouth opens, eyes close, head tilts forward.
Stimulation: Press and stroke both palms.
Disappears by: 3 months.
Sucking:
Response: Sucking.
Stimulation: Object or substance in mouth.
Disappears by: 3 months.
Rooting:
Response: Turn toward touch.
Stimulation: Touch on cheek or mouth.
Disappears by: 4 months.
Grasping:
Response: Hold tightly.
Stimulation: Object placed in palm.
Disappears by: 4 months.
Swimming:
Response: Holds breath, swims with arms and legs.
Stimulation: Baby is immersed in water.
Disappears by: 4 months.
Tonic neck:
Response: Head turns to side, legs and arms take "fencing position" with arms and legs extended on side head is turned, flexed on the other side.
Stimulation: Baby laid on back
Disappears by: 4 months.
Babinski:
Response: Foot twists in, toes fan out.
Stimulation: Stroke sole of foot.
Disappears by: 8 months.
Perceptual Abilities
Visual abilities:
Develop quickly beyond initial range of eight inches.
Can distinguish contrasts, shadows, and edges.
Other senses: Allow the baby to discriminate between a caregiver and a stranger.
Hearing (Cat in the Hat study).
Taste.
Touch.
Olfaction.
Attachment
Attachment begins with physical touching and cuddling between infant and parent.
Contact comfort: Importance of contact comfort and attachment for infants (and adults).
Bowlby’s Characteristics of Attachment
Safe Haven: Child returns to caregiver for comfort when threatened.
Secure Base: Caregiver provides a dependable base for exploration.
Proximity Maintenance: Child stays near caregiver to remain safe.
Separation Distress: Child becomes upset when separated from caregiver.
The Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth)
Ainsworth studied attachment with Bowlby in London.
Studied attachment between mother and child in natural settings in Uganda.
Developed the “Strange Situation” procedure.
Types of attachment:
Secure Attachment (Type B):
Reaction to stranger: Child is indifferent to the stranger when mother is present, but when alone will ignore the stranger (stranger fear).
Reaction to separation: Becomes upset and distressed when the mother leaves, will usually cry and cannot be consoled by stranger.
Reaction to reunion: Happy when reunited at both reunion stages and is quickly calmed down when the mother returns, so can continue exploring.
Anxious-Avoidant Attachment (Type A):
Reaction to stranger: Child plays with the stranger regardless of mother's presence, and doesn't check for the mother's presence.
Reaction to separation: Is not distressed by the mother's absence, and can seek comfort from the stranger.
Reaction to reunion: Shows no interest in the mother's return (was not distressed by their departure either).
Anxious-Resistant Attachment (Type C):
Reaction to stranger: Child shows fear of stranger and avoid them whether or not the mother is present.
Reaction to separation: Severe reaction to the mother's absence, clearly distressed.
Reaction to reunion: Child will want the mother's comfort but may push her away when approached.
Types of Attachment (Summary)
Secure: Baby is secure when the parent is present, distressed by separation, and delighted by reunion.
Insecure (Avoidant): Baby doesn’t care if the parent leaves and does not seek contact upon return.
Insecure (Anxious): Baby clings to the parent, cries at separation, and reacts with anger or apathy to reunion.
Harry Harlow and Rhesus Monkeys
Harlow hypothesized that “love comes from touch not taste.”
Studies on Dependency in Monkeys.
Infants need cuddling as much as they need food.
Infant rhesus monkeys preferred a cuddly terry-cloth “mother” over a bare-wire “mother” that provided milk.
The infants would cling to the cuddly mother even when they were not being fed and would run to her for comfort when frightened.
Cognitive Development (Jean Piaget)
Argued that cognitive development consists of mental adaptations to new observations.
Schemas: Categories.
Two adaptive processes:
Assimilation: Absorbing new information into existing cognitive structures.
Accommodation: Modifying existing cognitive structures in response to new information.
Equilibration: Striking a balance between Assimilation and Accommodation.
Proposed a 4-stage theory of cognitive development.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Stages
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth – 2 years):
Infant learns through concrete actions: looking, touching, putting things in the mouth, sucking, grasping.
“Thinking” consists of coordinating sensory information with bodily movements.
Major accomplishment is object permanence: The understanding that an object continues to exist even when you cannot see or touch it.
Object Permanence - Stewie
A not B error
Preoperational Stage (2 – 7 years):
Language and symbolic thought develop.
Still lack the cognitive abilities necessary for understanding abstract principles and mental operations.
Egocentric: Cannot grasp conservation.
Concrete Stage (7–12 years):
Thinking is still grounded in concrete experiences and concepts, but children can now understand:
Conservation.
Reversibility.
Cause and effect.
Mental operation.
Formal Stage (12 or 13 to adulthood):
Beginning of abstract reasoning.
Can reason about situations not personally experienced.
Can think about the future.
Can search systematically for solutions.
Can draw logical conclusions.
Vygotsky
Zone of Proximal Development:
Tasks that are too hard for the child to learn alone but they can manage them with guidance.
More competent others (teachers, parents, peers) help students by providing them with information and temporary support which is gradually decreased as the student's competence increases.
This type of assistance is called Scaffolding.
Erikson’s Theory
Trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst
Felt social interactions were more important in development
Dismissed Freud’s emphasis on sexual development
Focused infant and child’s relationship to significant others in the immediate surroundings—parents and then later teachers and even peers
Erikson proposed that life consists of eight stages, each with a unique psychological challenge, or crisis, that must be resolved.
Erikson’s stages do not occur in the same order for everyone.
Trust vs. Mistrust (Stage 1):
Baby’s first year
Challenge: Baby depends on others to provide necessities.
If needs are not met, child may never develop essential trust of others.
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Stage 2):
Toddler
Challenge: Young child must learn to be independent without feeling too ashamed or uncertain about his or her actions.
Initiative vs. Guilt (Stage 3):
Preschool age
Challenge: Child acquires new physical and mental skills, but must also learn to control impulses.
Danger lies in developing too strong a sense of guilt over his or her wishes and fantasies.
Competence vs. Inferiority (Stage 4):
School age
Challenge: Child learns to make things, use tools, acquire the skills for adult life.
Children who fail lessons of mastery and competence may come out of this stage feeling inadequate and inferior.
Identity vs. Role Confusion (Stage 5):
Adolescence
Challenge: Identity crisis Teenagers must decide who they are, what they are going to do, and what they hope to make of their lives.
Those who resolve the crisis will emerge with a strong identity, ready to plan for the future.
Those who do not will sink into confusion, unable to make decisions.
Intimacy vs. Isolation (Stage 6):
Young adulthood
Challenge: The young adult must share himself or herself with another and learn to make commitments.
People are not complete until they are capable of intimacy.
Generativity vs. Stagnation (Stage 7):
Middle years
Challenge: Will the adult sink into complacency and selfishness, or experience generativity—creativity and renewal?
Integrity vs. Despair (Stage 8):
Late adulthood and old age
Challenge: As a person ages, he or she strives to reach the ultimate goals of wisdom, spiritual tranquility, and acceptance of his or her life.
James Marcia – The Paths to Identity
Identity-diffusion status: The individual does not have firm commitments regarding the issues in question and is not making progress toward them.
Foreclosure status: The individual has not engaged in any identity experimentation and has established an identity based on the choices or values of others.
Moratorium status: The individual is exploring various choices but has not yet made a clear commitment to any of them.
Identity-achievement status: The individual has attained a coherent and committed identity based on personal decisions.
Adolescence
Personal fable: Adolescent believes he/she is unique and protected from harm.
Imaginary audience: Adolescent believes others are just as concerned about his/her thoughts and characteristics as much as they, themselves, are.
Morality is the ability to take the perspective of, or empathize with, others and to distinguish between right and wrong.
Some researchers suggest that morality may be prewired and evolutionarily based.
Biopsychosocial model highlights the psychological and social factors that explain how moral thoughts, feelings, and actions change over through childhood.
Lawrence Kohlberg
Developed ideas further from Piaget's theory of moral development.
Used Piaget’s story-telling technique to tell people stories involving moral dilemmas.
Presented a choice between the rights of some authority and the needs of some deserving individual who is being unfairly treated.
The Heinz Dilemma
In Europe, a cancer-ridden woman was near death, but an expensive drug existed that might save her.
The woman's husband, Heinz, begged the druggist to sell the drug at a lower price or to let him pay later.
The druggist refused.
Heinz became desperate and broke into the druggist's store and stole it.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Kohlberg developed a model of moral development with three broad levels, each composed of two distinct stages.
Individuals at various levels may or may not support Heinz's stealing of the drug, but their reasoning changes from level to level.
Assessing Kohlberg’s Theory
Moral Reasoning Versus Behavior: Knowing the moral choice is not the same as behaving in a moral way.
Cultural Differences: May be more reflective of an individualistic culture.
Possible Gender Bias: May emphasize more typically male values (Gilligan’s model).
Carol Gilligan argued that women score “lower” on Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development because they are socialized to assume more responsibility for the care of others.