UNIT 8: "Development" PART I: INFANT TO CHILD

Early Development: A baby’s beginnings How a child develops physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally The influences of friends and family Development is the study of how people change over their lifespan. Typically, psychologists are concerned with 3 forms: physical, social, and cognitive. Development occurs throughout the lifespan, though most texts are focused mostly on child development.

And there he G R O W S!

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Good News While in the womb, you produce almost ¼ million brain cells per minute. Bad News That is basically all you are ever going to develop. Although the brain does not develop many new cells, the existing cells begin to work more efficiently- forming more complex neural networks.

Aidan's Ultrasound

GERMINAL STAGE: Weeks 1 and 2: 30 HOURS: Fertilization and formation of zygote at DAY 4: Formation of blastocyst DAY 5-8: Attachment of blastocyst DAY 8: Appearance of amniotic cavity

EMBRYONIC STAGE: Week 3: Development of neural tube (day 18), Beginning of blood circulation (day 24) Possible abnormal events: Twins, Teratogens (foreign substances that influence the developing fetus) are very damaging from week 3 to week 8. Weeks 4-8: Formation of head, tail, and lateral folds. Formation of primitive gut. Heart moves to normal position. Appearances of brain, limbs, eyes, ears, & nose. Development of human-like appearance.

No, this is NOT photoshopped. Some babies are born with tails. Typically they are removed by surgeons. Why do you think we call it a "tail bone" ?

FETAL STAGE: Weeks 9-12: Fetal head makes up ½ of fetal body. Eyelids fused. Upper Limbs develop to normal proportions. Male and female genitalia recognizable by 12 weeks. Weeks 13-16: Rapid fetal growth. Fetus doubles in size. Kidneys secrete urine. Fetus appears human. Placenta is fully formed. Weeks 17-23: Fetal growth slows. Lower limbs formed. Fetal movement at 20 weeks. Fetal heartbeat begins. Weeks 24-27: Skin growth is rapid. Eyes open. Fetus is viable at 27 weeks. Weeks 28-36: Weight gain is steady. Fetus has a good chance of survival.

FULL TERM: Weeks 37-40: Fingernails and toenails grow. Skull is fully developed. Fetus is ready for birth. Brain development occurs during the entire process. The brain starts to develop early (around 4 weeks) and continues to develop both neurons and connections for the entire gestation period. However, once birth occurs, neural development slows down (some argue that it stops), and pruning occurs. During pruning, connections are made among cells, and connections that are redundant are “trimmed.”

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Maturation Physical development continues throughout the life span, but little attention has been paid to development after puberty in the research literature. After birth, other major maturation milestones include sitting up (by 7 months), walking (1 year), running (18 mos to 2 yrs), and fine motor control (2-4 yrs) There is a great deal of variability in when children reach these milestones, but these are general guidelines.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT During formative years, children are learning much about how to navigate the world. How to get along in a social environment is one of the many important issues that children learn. Attachment Theory has been proposed as one way to understand social development. According to Bowlby and Ainsworth, children develop an attachment style to their primary caregiver early in development. Attachment leads to an internal working model for relationships later on. Attachment is an emotional and cognitive set of behaviors that are tested through the strange situation.

Securely Attached: Child is upset but can be calmed. Suggests that the child uses the parent as a safe base to explore the environment. The child can return if there is trouble or if he is upset. Insecurely Attached: If a child is unable to be comforted or is violent or distant upon return, he may be insecurely attached. These two styles have shown to be related to later relationships. Children who are insecurely attached have more difficulty trusting others later in life. Securely attached people tend to be more comfortable in relationships. Why do children develop a special attachment to their mothers?

Attachment: The close, emotional bond of affection between an infant and its caregiver. Securely attached: greater curiosity more persistence greater leadership

Behaviorist Theory of Attachment

In the mid-1950s, the behavior theory of attachment came into question as a result of Harry Harlow's famous studies of attachment in infant rhesus monkeys. Harlow removed newborn monkeys from their mothers at birth and raised them in the laboratory with two types of artificial mothers. Which mother do you think the monkey will choose?

Half of the monkeys were fed by a wire mother and the other half fed by the cloth mother. The young monkeys' attachment to their substitute mothers was measured by monitoring how much time the monkeys spent with each type of mother. Which mother do you think the monkey will choose?

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT. One of the pioneers is Jean Piaget. Piaget noticed that his children were able to handle logical problems differently at different ages. Further, he noticed that as children age, their ability to handle logical problems changes. Piaget then spent years studying how cognitive development occurred on average. From this intensive study, Piaget developed a theory of cognitive development that described how people are able to deal with logical problems differently at different points in their lives.

Piaget focused mainly on STAGES of Cognitive Development.

According to Piaget, the most important issue that children are concerned with is adapting to their environment (adaptation). To adapt, children use different strategies at different ages. This accommodation process relies on the notion that we develop a series of schemas to ease the adaptation process. Schema is an organized body of knowledge. They are not part of the inborn knowledge structures of children.

Once we develop schema, we spend a lot of time fitting new experiences into existing schema. That process is called assimilation. Piaget argues that we both accommodate and assimilate throughout life. They need to be developed through experience. The process of developing new schema is called accommodation.

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STAGE THEORY Piaget believes all human beings pass through all stages in the same order, and we all go through ALL stages during our lifespan. Object permanence: a concept that would be acquired in stage 2. Lack of object permanence is why babies love the game peekaboo. But it is no longer interesting for toddlers. Conservation: the principle that things stay the same no matter if the form changes. Lack of conservation also can be seen in length, mass, number and volume.

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Piaget believed that babies up to 18 months lacked the development to determine if an object is still there or not: Object Permanence

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How to Memorize Piaget’s Stages 1. Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs: Object Permanence) 2. Preoperational (2-7 yrs: Magical Thinking, Conservation of Energy is difficult, Egocentric, Assimilation) 3. Concrete Operations (7-12 yrs: Logical Thinking, Accommodation) 4. Formal Operations (Adult: Abstract Thinking) SPCF -or- “SPeCiFy”

How to Memorize Piaget’s Stages Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fruit 1. Sensorimotor - “motor” --> Motorcycle Object Permanence: “Pair of Ants” (stage is to age 2) 2. Preoperational - “opera” or “operation” or “preacher” Magical Thinking: “rabbit out of a hat” Conservation: “Smokey the Bear” Assimilation: “Ass (or donkey)” or “Butt!” 3. Concrete Operations - Logical Thinking, Accommodation “Concrete Block” “Logs” “Comb” 4. Formal Operations - Abstract Thinking “Suit” “4 Males”

How to Memorize Piaget’s Stages Peg Word System: 1 is a “Bun”-- the “buns” are the wheels on the 2 ‘motorcycle’ Pair of Ants are riding the motorcycles. 2 is a “Shoe” -- PREacher, with a rabbit coming out of his hat; Smokey the Bear with the stupid shoes on as well; AND a donkey (ass) - each with ridiculous shoes on! 3 is a “Tree” -- Tree with logs, & comb 4 is a “Door” -- Big Wide Door - 4 Males with great abs.

Critics of Piaget: Some believe Piaget greatly underestimated children’s skills on one end and greatly underestimated their skills on the other end. Several researchers rephrased Piagetian tasks and found that younger children were able to understand the questions and respond appropriately. Children seem to acquire cognitive abilities earlier than Piaget predicted. In addition, the children seemed to have internal representation prior to Preoperational ages. On the other end, another researcher gave a variety of Piagetian tasks to college freshmen & found that only 40% of them displayed characteristics of formal operations. Of course, 100% should have been in formal operations, according to Piaget. So perhaps children enter formal operations later in life.

Kohlberg built upon Piaget's ideas. Stage Theory: people pass through stages and substages of moral reasoning.