1. Myers PSYCHOLOGY Seventh Edition in Modules
Infancy and Childhood
James A. McCubbin, Ph.D.
Clemson University
Worth Publishers

2. Brain Development
In the womb: develop a quarter million nerve cells per minute (the developing brain overproduces brain neurons)
The day you are born: you have the most brain cells you will ever have
From 3-6: brain’s neural network forming rapidly in the frontal lobes which allows rational thinking

3. Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development
Maturation
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior
relatively uninfluenced by experience
At birth
3 months
15 months
Cortical Neurons

4. Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development
We seldom have memories before our 3rd birthday due to
The lack of neural connections when we are younger
We organize our thoughts differently from 4 years old and on

5. Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development
Babies only 3 months old can learn that kicking moves a mobile--and can retain that learning for a month (Rovee- Collier, 1989, 1997).

6. Motor Development
A few exceptions, but motor development chiefly universal.
In the U.S., 25% of babies walk by 11 months, 50% walk within a week of their first birthday, and 90% walk by 15 months
Identical twins usually begin walking and talking on about the same day, which shows that genes play a major role in motor development.

7. Cognitive Development
“Who knows the thoughts of a child?”
Jean Piaget – became intrigued by children’s wrong answers
Piaget saw intelligence at work – strikingly similar wrong answers made by children of the same age.
Until Piaget, most people thought children “simply knew less, not differently, than adults.” (Their solutions to problems are illogical to adults.)

8. Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget
Thought that the driving force behind the intellectual progression in children was the never ending struggle to make sense out of our experiences.
Children are “active thinkers.”

9. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Typical Age
Range
Description
of Stage
Developmental
Phenomena
Birth to nearly 2 years
Sensorimotor
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

10. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation
interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas

11. Cognitive Development
Schema or schemes is the maturing building concepts ranging from cats and dogs to our concept of love.
Assimilation in children is when they categorize a dog into the four legged category, they then associate all four legged animals as dogs.
Accommodate to fix the old schemas to fit into our new experiences

12. The Devil’s Tuning Fork (pg. 139)
We have no schema for this impossible object (no category for it).

13. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Accommodation
adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
Cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

14. - A child may learn about a cow and make a schema for it.
-If they see a moose and call it a cow, then that is assimilation.
-If the child accommodates, they adapt their current knowledge of a cow to incorporate new information.

15. Note: All the following sides with just pictures serve to demonstrate Schema, Accommodation, and Assimilation
For example: This is a car, but could also be categorized as a “sedan” or “four door” or “Ford” depending on how many categories you have – based on your experiences

21. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Object Permanence (Sensorimotor)
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Occurs in infants older than 6 months
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22. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Baby Mathematics (Sensorimotor)
Shown a numerically impossible outcome, infants stare longer (they are not
responding to a change in
number but a greater or smaller
mass of objects) (Wynn, 1992)

23. 1. Objects placed
in case.
2. Screen comes
up.
3. Object is removed.
4. Impossible outcome:
Screen drops, revealing
two objects.
4. Possible outcome:
one object.

24. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Conservation (Preoperational)
the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

25. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Egocentrism (Preoperational)
the inability of the preoperational child
to take another’s point of view
“Do you have a brother”
“Yes”
“What’s his name?”
“Jim”
“Does Jim have a brother?”
“No”
The child cannot see the situation from another’s point of view.

26. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Theory of Mind (Preoperational)
people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict
Autism(Preoperational)
a disorder that appears in childhood
Marked by deficient communication, social interaction and understanding of others’ states of mind

27. Is Autism Increasing?
During the 1990’s, the number of children being treated for autism increased significantly.
People with autism have trouble inferring others thoughts, feelings, etc.

28. Theory of Mind

29. Formal and Concrete Stages
Concrete operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
Formal operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

31. Social Development Stranger Anxiety Attachment
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 their seeking closeness to the caregiver and displaying distress on separation

32. Stranger Anxiety

33. CHILD ATTACHMENT

34. Social Development Harlow’s Surrogate Mother Experiments
Monkeys preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother, even while feeding from the nourishing wire mother

35. Social Development
Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror-stricken when placed in strange situations without their surrogate mothers.

37. Pictures Showing Harlow’s Experiment

38. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Baby Holding Program The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Baby Holding Program operates under the premise that nurturing is critical to infant survival. In conjunction with the NICU nursing staff and the Child Life Team, volunteers go through a formal full day training session to prepare for their assignment. Classes are held once a year. Upon completion of the course, the volunteer has received sufficient training to hold and nurture babies in the NICU, under the supervision of a nurse. This service is used, in the absence of a parent, to hold a baby, and provide warmth and comfort. The program has been well-received since its inception in 1997.

39. Social Development- Familiarity
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

40. Konrad Lorenz
“What would ducklings do if he [Lorenz] was the first moving create they observed?”
Everywhere he went, the ducks would follow.
Once formed, the attachment was difficult to reverse.
Children do not imprint, but instead they become attached to what they know (familiarity).

41. Social Development 20 40 60 80
100
3.5
5.5
7.5
9.5
11.5
13.5 29
Percentage
of infants
who cried
when their
mothers left
Age in months
Day care
Home
Groups of infants left by their mothers in a unfamiliar room (from Kagan, 1976).

42. Social Development-Responsive Parenting
Secure attachment
60% of infants
Happily explore new environment
Distressed when mom leaves, and seek contact when she returns
Insecure attachment
Less likely to explore surroundings
May cling to mothers
Either cry and upset when mom leaves or are indifferent about her leaving and returning

43. Mary Ainsworth
Securely attached babies had moms that noticed what their babies were doing and responded appropriately
Insecurely attached babies had mothers that ignored them at times and attended to their babies when they felt like it

44. Social Development Basic Trust (Erik Erikson) Self-Concept
a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy
said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers
Self-Concept
a sense of one’s identity and personal worth

45. Deprivation/Disruption of Attachment
Adoption- if children placed in a more positive environment, most infants recover
Children between 6 and 16 months initially have trouble eating, sleeping, etc.
When these children were again studied at age 10, there were very little visible effects remaining

46. Erik Erikson With his wife, attributed basic trust to early parenting
Infants blessed with sensitive, loving caregivers, form a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear.
Secure attachment
Trusting attachment
Insecure attachment
Anxious or avoidance attachment

48. Deprivation/Disruption of Attachment
One study of kids in 10 cities, found that kids who had earlier spent the most time in daycare were advanced in thinking and language skills but had an increased rate of aggression and defiance

49. Social Development: Child-Rearing Practices
Authoritarian
parents impose rules and expect obedience
“Don’t interrupt.” “Why? Because I said so.”
Permissive
submit to children’s desires, make few demands, use little punishment
Authoritative/Democratic
both demanding and responsive
set rules, but explain reasons and encourage open discussion
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50. This is permissive parenting because the mom bird keeps punishing her baby bird but he is still misbehaving due to little punishment
This is authoritative parenting because they are explaining to each other the rules of the house and reasons why the child got punished
This is Authoritarian parenting by making his child go to his room; being demanding and the child is being obedient

51. Social Development: Child-Rearing Practices
Uninvolved
The parents needs and desires come before the child’s.
The parents are unresponsive as well as undemanding of their child (which makes it hard to encourage them to do good, sometimes this type of parenting ends up in neglect of the child).

53. Social Development: Child-Rearing Practices