1. The
Developing
Person

2. Developmental psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive,
and social change throughout the life span.
Developmental psychologists research these three issues:
Nature/nurture
Continuity/stages
Stability/change

3. 1. Nature/Nurture
How much does our genetic inheritance and the nurture we receive influence our development?
Nature= the way we were born
Nurture= the way we were raised

4. 2. Continuity/Stages 3. Stability/Change
Are we as human beings continually developing or do we develop during different stages throughout our life?
3. Stability/Change
Do we remain the same person throughout our whole life or do we become different people as we age?

5. The competent newborn
The rooting reflex occurs when someone touches a babies cheek.
They open their mouth and “root” for their mother’s breast.

6. The competent newborn Babies turn towards human voices.
They stare longer at human face like images
Unlike this figure
This figure to a baby looks like a human face because it appears to have two eyes and a mouth.

7. The competent newborn
Habituation -decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.
Newborns become bored with the same visual stimulus.
This is why parents get their children new toys.

8. The Brain and Infancy The brain does not develop new cells ever.
The existing cells begin to work more efficiently- forming more complex neural networks.

9. Physical Development Nerve cells form before birth.
Through maturation and experience their interconnections multiply rapidly after birth.
It is very unlikely that someone will remember something that happened when they were three years old or younger– why?
Maturation- a biological growth process that enables orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

10. How do brain and motor skills develop?
Good News
While in the womb, you produce almost 250,000 brain cells per minute.
Bad News
That is basically all you are ever going to develop.

11. Maturation
Biological growth process that enables orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
To a certain extent we all maturate similarly– but time can vary depending on the person.

12. Motor Development Sequence is the same- but once again timing varies.
First learn to roll over, sit up unsupported, crawl, walk etc…

13. Walking
Walking: in US 25% learn by 11 months, 50% within a week of 1st birthday, 90% by 15 months.
Varies by culture- if the culture emphasizes walking then babies can walk at younger ages (NURTURE).
Identical twins tend to learn to walk on the same day (NATURE).

14. Toilet Training
Babies need physical maturation to hold their bladder or bowel movements before toilet training.
Toilet training will not work if the child is not physically ready.

15. Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget.
He was developing IQ tests and noticed that many children got the same answers wrong.
Thought to himself, “maybe these kids are not stupid, but instead think differently than adults.”

16. Cognitive Development
Piaget was convinced that a child’s mind is not a miniature model of an adult’s.
Schemas- or concepts or framework that organizes and interprets information
our concept of love, cats, dogs

17. Cognitive Development
Assimilation – interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas
-A child may call all four legged animals doggies.
Accommodation- adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
-Child learns that the doggie schema is too broad and accommodates it by refining the category
-maybe to include all four legged, furry animals, with floppy ears, that bark???

18. Cognitive Development
Assimilation – Use Selena Gomez as an example. Where does she fit in your existing schemas???
I assume you are putting her into female pop artist, right?
Accommodation- She may not fit; so we may need to adapt our schemas to incorporate new information.

19. Cognition
All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing and remembering.

20. Piaget’s Cognitive Development
Experiencing the world through senses. Looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping.
Kids don’t have Object permanence- the awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived (peek-a-boo)
Stranger Anxiety- Infants around 8 months old may develop a fear of strangers.
Sensorimotor Stage
Birth – 2 years
Representing things with words and images but-- lacking logical reasoning.
Child lacks conservation – the principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.
Preschool children are egocentric – cannot put themselves in other people’s shoes.
Learn to use language
Preoperational Stage
About 2 to 6 years

21. Sensorimotor Stage

22. Preoperational Stage

23. Piaget’s Cognitive Development
Concrete Operational
They can think logically about concrete events; grasp concrete analogies and perform arithmetical operations.
Children fully gain the mental ability to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation.
About 7 to 11 years
Formal Operational
Most are able to use Abstract reasoning
Many become capable of solving hypothetical
propositions and deducing consequences.
About 12 through adulthood

24. Concrete Operational Stage
5+9 is the same as 9+5, also known as reversibility.
Learn to comprehend more abstract ideas.

25. Formal Operational Stage
Abstract Reasoning

26. Autism
Autism- disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others’ states of mind.
Autistic children have trouble interacting with others and do not appreciate that playmates and parents might view things differently.

27. Autism

28. Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind: Preschoolers begin forming a theory of mind.
Rather than thinking of people as breathing wind-up dolls, they come to realize that people have minds.
Ex. Children begins to learn what might make their sibling angry and what might make a parent buy a toy.
Ex. Many children realize that crying for a long period of time may help them get what they want.

29. Boys vs Girls

30. Attachment
At 12 months, infants cling to a parent when they are frightened or expect separation.
This bond is called attachment.
Infants also prefer their father or mother because they are comfortable.

31. Factors of Attachment
Body Contact
Familiarity
Responsive Parenting

32. Body Contact
It was first assumed that infants became attached to those who satisfied their need for nourishment.

33. Body Contact Harry Harlow… Would a baby monkey
prefer an artificial wire mother that food and nourishment that he needed to survive?
preferred the mother made of comfortable cloth?

34. Harry Harlow and his Monkey
Monkeys actually preferred the soft body contact of a cloth mother, over the nourishment of a wire mother.