I NTRODUCTION TO P SYCHOLOGY U NIT T WO : T HE L IFE S PAN C HAPTER T HREE - I NFANCY AND C HILDHOOD

The Developing Person z Developmental Psychology y study of physical, cognitive, and social changes across the life span

D EVELOPMENTAL I SSUES Nature versus Nurture How much is human development influenced by our heredity (nature) and how much by our experience (nurture)? Continuity versus Stages Is development gradual and continuous or does it proceed through a sequence of separate stages? Stability versus Change Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age?

U NION OF E GG AND S PERM

P RENATAL D EVELOPMENT Zygote fertilized egg enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division develops into an embryo Embryo developing human organism from 2 weeks through second month Fetus developing human organism from 9 weeks to birth

P RENATAL D EVELOPMENT Teratogens agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm chemical, e.g., alcohol, some medicines, cocaine, nicotine viral, e.g., HIV, Rubella Fetal Alcohol Syndrome physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking

T HE C OMPETENT N EWBORN Rooting Reflex tendency to turn head, open mouth, and search for nipple when touched on the cheek Preferences human voices and faces smell and sound of mother preferred

I NFANCY AND C HILDHOOD Maturation biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior relatively uninfluenced by experience sets the course for development while experience adjusts it At birth3 months15 months Cortical Neurons

I NFANCY AND C HILDHOOD Schema a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information Cognition mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering Sensorimotor Stage stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impression and motor activities

I NFANCY AND C HILDHOOD Object Permanence the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived Preoperational Stage stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend mental operations of concrete logic Conservation the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects part of Piaget’s concrete operational reasoning

P IAGET ’ S T HEORY OF C OGNITIVE D EVELOPMENT Typical Age Range Description of Stage Developmental Phenomena Birth to nearly 2 yearsSensorimotor Experiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing) Object permanence Stranger anxiety About 2 to 6 years About 7 to 11 years About 12 through adulthood Preoperational Representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning Pretend play Egocentrism Language development Concrete operational Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations Conservation Mathematical transformations Formal operational Abstract reasoning Abstract logic Potential for moral reasoning

P IAGET ’ S T HEORY OF C OGNITIVE D EVELOPMENT Egocentrism the inability of the preoperational child to take another’s point of view Theory of Mind people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states Concrete Operational Stage stage during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events Formal Operational Stage stage during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT Stranger Anxiety fear of strangers that infants commonly display beginning by about 8 months of age Attachment an emotional tie with another person shown in young children by seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

H ARRY H ARLOW ’ S S URROGATE M OTHER E XPERIEMENT infant monkeys were separated from their mothers at six to twelve hours after birth raised instead with substitute or 'surrogate' mothers made either of heavy wire or of wood covered with soft terry cloth In one experiment both types of surrogates were present in the cage, but only one was equipped with a nipple from which the infant could nurse Some infants received nourishment from the wire mother, and others were fed from the cloth mother. Even when the wire mother was the source of nourishment, the infant monkey spent a greater amount of time clinging to the cloth surrogate. Principles of General Psychology (1980 John Wiley and Sons)

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT Harlow’s Surrogate Mother Experiments Monkeys preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother, even while feeding from the nourishing wire mother

H ARLOW -R ESULTS "...the actions of surrogate-raised monkeys became bizarre later in life. They engaged in stereotyped behavior patterns such as clutching themselves and rocking constantly back and forth; they exhibited excessive and misdirected aggression..." Sex behavior was, for all practical purposes, destroyed; sexual posturing was commonly stereotyped and infantile. "The behavior of these monkeys as mothers -- the 'motherless mothers' as Harlow called them -- proved to be very inadequate... These mothers tended to be either indifferent or abusive toward their babies. The indifferent mothers did not nurse, comfort, or protect their young, but they did not harm them. The abusive mothers violently bit or otherwise injured their infants, to the point that many of them died."

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT Critical Period an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development Imprinting the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror-stricken when placed in strange situations without their surrogate mothers

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT Groups of infants who had and had not experienced day care were left by their mothers in a unfamiliar room Percentage of infants who cried when their mothers left Age in months Day care Home

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT Basic Trust (Erik Erikson) a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

S OCIAL D EVELOPMENT The correlation between authoritative parenting and social competence in children Parenting style (e.g.,authoritative) Child’s traits (e.g., self-reliant socially competent) Harmonious marriage, common genes, or other third factor

P ARENTING S TYLES Authoritarian (child can not express his/her opinion or exercise his/her own judgment) Democratic/Authoritative (children are most confident; stems from responding to the child and setting boundaries for the child; children gain responsibility slowly; independence gradual) Permissive/Laissez-Faire (child has responsibility too soon, child has no boundaries, difficulty with ethics and morals)

C HILD A BUSE Physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, neglect, or mistreatment of a child under the age of 18 by adults entrusted with the child’s care (pg. 81 in textbook) Many abusive parents were abused children. Overburdened or stressed parents are more likely to abuse their children. Low birth weight and hyperactive children are more likely to be abused (more difficult to work with/handle; parent has few parental rewards)

E FFECTS OF C HILD A BUSE Loss of childhood Loss of trust, guilt, anti-social behavior, depression, identity crisis, loss of self-esteem Severe emotional problems Potential abuser later in life

S OURCE : Kasschau, Richard, A. Understanding Psychology. McGraw-Hill, Glencoe, New York, New York, 2008.

N EXT CLASS Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development Freudian Psychosexual Development Language Development