Psychology of Infancy Infant Development Daniel Messinger, Ph.D.

Today Introducing infancy Introducing the course Introducing ourselves

Human infancy From 0 to 2 or 3 years of age Most rapid, profound change in the lifecycle In multiple areas of functioning Produce a new individual

Multiple areas of infant development Motor jerky hand movements to walking Communication crying to talking Social No sense of self/other to complex relationships Emotional crying to laughing and the beginnings of pride Cognitive ‘Where’s that breast’ to make-believe

Infancy in its own terms Nature wants children to be children before they are men. If we deliberately depart from this order, we shall get premature fruits which are neither ripe nor well flavored and which soon decay. We shall have youthful sages and grown up children. Childhood has ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling, peculiar to itself; nothing can be more foolish than to substitute our ways for them. Jean Jacques Rousseau (quoted in Bjorklund)

Developmental canalization which developmental trajectories are becoming more fixed (canals are becoming deeper); said another way, the probability distributions of potential outcomes are becoming more peaked (likely outcomes are ever more likely). (Waddington) Messinger

Children over developmental time Teddy 0-1 and 1-2 (smiley; 2 mins each) http://time.com/3698728/baby-one-year-growth-timelapse/ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_453795591&feature=iv&src_vid=Crk2lcfxZts&v=NUHfQ1NIINo) Indigo (1st year; 6 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtgzTr8iopk Time lapse of a baby playing with his toys. 9 months http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vNxjwt2AqY Stages of Walking (Newbie to Pro in 90 Seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOIgR4o9Iu8