1. CHILDHOOD: THE WONDER YEARS

2. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
Refers to progression of muscular coordination required for physical activity
Grasping, reaching, crawling, walking, etc…

3. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
1: Cephalocaudal trend: head-to-foot direction of motor development
Children tend to gain control of their upper body before the lower
2: Proximodistal trend: center-outward direction of motor development

4. MATURATION
Early motor dev. depends partially on physical growth; uneven in infancy
Early motor dev. attributed to Maturation: development that reflects the gradual unfolding of one’s genetic blueprint

5. DEVELOPMENTAL NORMS
DEF: the median age at which individuals display various behaviors and abilities
Useful as benchmarks in the life span

6. CULTURAL VARIATIONS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
Cross-cultural research shows a relationship btwn experience and maturation
As age increases, maturation becomes less influential and experience is more critical

7. EASY AND DIFFICULT BABIES
Temperament: characteristic mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity
Alexander Thomas and Stella Chase studies
Longitudinal study: observe one group repeatedly over a period of time
Cross-sectional study: compare groups of differing age at a single pt. in time

8. THOMAS AND CHASE FINDINGS
Temperament is established btwn 2 or 3 months old
3 basic styles:
Easy children: 40%; happy, regular sleep and eating, adaptable, not easily upset
Slow-to-warm-up: 15%; less cheery, less regular sleep and eating, slower adaptation to change
Difficult children: 10%; glum, erratic sleep and eating, irritable, resistant to change
--remaining 35% were a mix

9. OTHER RESEARCH Jerome Kagan
15-20% of infants: inhibited temperament: shy, timid, wary of unfamiliar
25-30% of infants: uninhibited temperament: not shy, approach unfamiliar

10. EARLY EMOTIONAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

11. ATTACHMENT
DEF: close, emotional bonds of affection that develop btwn infants and their caregivers
Usually to the mother
Not instantaneous
Separation anxiety: emotional distress seen in many infants when they are separated from people with whom they have formed an attachment

12. PATTERNS OF ATTACHMENT
Secure attachment: infant is comfortable when mother present, visibly upset when she leaves, calmed when she returns
Anxious-ambivalent: anxious when mother present, protest when she leaves, not calmed when she returns
Avoidant attachment: seek little contact w/mother, not distressed when she leaves

13. EFFECTS OF SECURE ATTACHMENT
Children tend to become competent toddlers w/high self-esteem
Preschool years: leaders, self-reliant, better peer relations
Age 11: better social skills, more close friends
More advanced cognitive development
All correlational data

14. BONDING AT BIRTH
Some believe that skin-to-skin contact btwn newborn and mother is important
Can create a more effective attachment

15. DAY CARE Do infant-mother separations effect attachment?
2/3 of children under 5 are in day care
Research by Belsky shows 20+ hrs per week increases development of insecure attachment

16. CULTURE AND ATTACHMENT
Separation anxiety emerges c. 6-8 months
Peaks about months
Attachment is culturally universal
Differences occur due to child-rearing practices

17. EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES ON ATTACHMENT
Attachments may depend on the character of the environments
Secure environments create sensitive parents, which leads to secure attachment
Harsh environments create unresponsive parents; leads to insecure attachment

18. BECOMING UNIQUE: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Freud came up w/1st theory of personality development
Erik Erikson revised the stage theory of Freud
Stage: developmental period during which characteristic patterns of behavior are exhibited and certain capacities become established

19. ERIKSON’S STAGE THEORY
8 stages
Each has a psychosocial crisis involving transitions
Personality is shaped by how we deal with these crises

20. STAGE 1 Trust vs. Mistrust In the 1st year of life
Babies rely on others for care
If biological needs are seen to, secure attachments form

21. STAGE 2 Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt 2nd and 3rd years of life
Toilet training and other ways of regulating behavior
Child must begin to take some responsibility
Parent-child conflicts may create shame and self-doubt

22. STAGE 3 Initiative vs. Guilt Ages 3-6
Children take initiatives that conflict with rules
Overcontrolling parents may instill feelings of guilt, damaging self-esteem
Be supportive while maintaining control

23. STAGE 4 Industry vs. Inferiority Ages 6-puberty
Learning to function socially beyond the family
Effective functioning leads to higher sense of competence

24. GROWTH OF THOUGHT: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive development: transitions in children’s patterns of thinking, including reasoning, remembering, and problem solving

25. OVERVIEW OF PIAGET’S STAGE THEORY
Jean Piaget
Wanted to study how children use intelligence
Believed the way children think is altered by interaction w/environment and maturation
4 major stages…

26. STAGE 1 Sensorimotor Period From birth to age 2
Development of coordination of sensory input
Transition from innate reflexes to use of mental symbols
Object Permanence: recognition that objects continue to exist even when no longer visible

27. STAGE 2 Preoperational Period Age 2-7 Principles:
1: Conservation: awareness that physical amts remain constant in spite of changes in shape and appearance
2: Centration: tendency to focus on one feature of a problem, ignoring others

28. STAGE 2 CONTINUED
3: Irreversibility: inability to envision reversing an action 4: Egocentrism: limited ability to share another person’s point of view ---notable feature of egocentrism: animism: belief that all things are living

29. STAGE 3 Concrete Operational Period Development of mental operations
Reversibility and decentration occur
Leads to decline in egocentrism and mastery of conservation
Problem solving skills enhance

30. STAGE 4 Formal Operational Period C. 11 yrs old Abstract operations
Problem solving becomes systematic, logical, and reflective

31. ARE COGNITIVE ABILITIES INNATE?
Habituation: gradual reduction in strength of a response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly
Dishabituation: occurs if a new stimulus elicits an increase in the strength of an habituated response

32. CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE MIND
Age 2: distinguish btwn desires and emotions
Age 3: realize other’s thoughts and beliefs
Age 4: begin to understand how thoughts and desires effect behavior

33. PROGRESS IN INFORMATION PROCESSING
Info. processing theory focuses on how people receive, encode, store, organize, retrieve, and use information
Has shown developmental changes in attention and memory

34. ATTENTION Attention span lengthens as age increases
More conscious control is acquired
Gradually able to filter out irrelevant data

35. MEMORY
Infantile Amnesia: inability to remember experiences from early years
Memories usually start around 3 or 4 yrs old
Development of language skills improves memories
Strategies for enhancement of information storage and retrieval:
Rehearsal: repetition; verbal or thinking (age 5)
Organization: grouping based on similarities(age 9)
Elaboration: building additional associations(age 11)

36. DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL REASONING

37. KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY
Lawrence Kohlberg
Theory focus: moral reasoning
Three levels: Preconventional, Conventional, Postconventional
Each as 2 sublevels (6 stages in all)

38. KOHLBERG’S LEVELS
Preconventional: thinking in terms of external authority---based on punishment or reward
Conventional: internalize rules to be virtuous and win approval---rules are absolute
Postconventional: working out personal code of ethics; moral thinking is flexible