1. Chapter 3 – Infancy & Childhood
Psychology

2. Physical, Perceptual, & Language Development
Infants are born equipped to experience the world. As infants grow physically, they also develop perceptions and language.
Nature v Nurture
Developmental Psychology is the specialized study of how an individual’s physical, social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development occurs in sequential interrelated stages throughout the life cycle.
Physical, Perceptual, & Language Development

3. Developmental Psychologists study the following main issues:
Continuity versus stages of development
Stability versus change
Nature v nurture

4. Newborns
Capacities
Grasping reflex in response to a touch on the palm of their hands, infants can grasp an object, such as a finger, so strongly that they can be lifted into the air.
Rooting reflex occurs when an alert newborn is touched anywhere around the mouth, he will move his head and mouth toward the source of the touch

5. Physical Development Average infant birth weight = 7.3 pounds
By one year old, average weight = pounds
Maturation is internally programmed growth
Newborns can’t hold their own head up, but by about 1 year old, they are walking!!!

6. Perceptual Development
Gibson & Walk (1960) realized infants 6 months old and older recognize cliffs/drop-offs and refuse to go over them
Fantz (1961) completed a study and found that infants prefer to look at human faces and patterned material the most.

7. Development of Language
Language and thought are closely intertwined
Both involve using symbols
Can animals use language?
Gardners raised a chimp names Washoe and taught her to use American Sign Language for the Deaf
By 3 ½ years old, Washoe knew and accurately used 87 signs for words
By 5 years old she was using more than 160 signs!

8. How children acquire language
Children imitate the speech of their parents and older siblings
The first real words usually refer to things an infant can see or touch
Critical period for learning language?
The leap to using sounds as symbols occurs sometime in the second year
By 2 years old, a kid’s vocabulary should be between 500 and 1500 words
Speech is telegraphic – they leave words out, but can still get the point across

9. Cognitive & Emotional Development
As the thought processes of children develop, they begin to think, communicate and relate with others, and solve problems.
Cognitive Development
Piaget (20th Century)
Intelligence, or the ability to understand, develops gradually as the child grows
Cognitive & Emotional Development

10. How Knowing Changes Schemas are mental representations of the world
We construct these and apply and change them as necessary
Assimilation is trying to fit new objects into our schemas
Accommodation is when we change our schema to fit the characteristics of the new object

11. Assimilation and accommodation work together to produce intellectual growth
Object permanence happens when a small child realizes an object is till there even when it cannot be seen (peek-a-boo)
Representational thought occurs once object permanence has been achieved. A small child can see something and imitate it later.
The Principle of Conservation means that a child can understand that the quantity did not change even though the appearance did
Usually does not occur until after age 5

12. Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development
Egocentric is when kids can only see and think of the world from their point of view
Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Birth – 2 years
Behavior consists of simple motor responses to sensory stimuli; lacks concept of object permanence
Preoperational
2-7 years
Lacks operations (reversible mental processes); exhibits egocentric thinking; lacks concept of conservation; uses symbols (such as words or mental images to solve simple problems or to talk about things that are not present

13. Concrete Operations Formal Operations 7-11 years
Begins to understand concept of conservation; still has trouble with abstract ideas; classification abilities improve; masters concept of conservation
Formal Operations
11 years – onward
Understands abstract ideas and hypothetical situations; capable of logical and deductive reasoning

14. Emotional Development
Experiments with Animals
Imprinting is a sudden, virtually permanent learning process
Baby geese think the first thing they see is their mother
Critical period is a time in development when an animal or human is best able to learn a skill or behavior
Surrogate Mothers
Harlow (20th Century) discovered baby monkeys chose comfort over food when forced to choose between a soft cloth mother figure and a wire one with milk

15. Human Infants
Attachments begin to form to a mother or surrogate mother at about 6 months old
The attachment is strongest between 6 months and 3 years old
Stranger anxiety may be displayed even when the mother is present, but will go away
Separation anxiety occurs whenever the child is suddenly separated from the mother

16. Other psychologists later added the one below:
Ainsworth and Bowlby (1991) conducted an experiment called Strange Situation and found three forms of attachment between children and their mothers:
Secure attachment – infants balance the need to explore and the need to be close
Avoidant attachment – infants avoid or ignore the mother when she leaves and returns
Resistant attachment – infants are not upset when the mother leaves but reject her or act out angrily when she returns
Other psychologists later added the one below:
Disorganized attachment – these infants never act the same way twice

17. Parenting Styles and Social Development
Children face various social decisions as they grow and progress through the stages of life
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Families – parents are the bosses
Parents do not believe that they have to explain their actions or demands
Democratic/Authoritative Families – children participate in decisions affecting their lives
There is a great deal of discussion and negotiation in such families
Permissive/Laissez-faire Families – children have the final say
Parents may attempt to guide the children but give in when the children insist on having their own way
Parenting Styles and Social Development

18. Effects of Parenting Styles
Studies have shown that adolescents who have grown up in Democratic/Authoritative Families are more confident of their own values and goals than other young people. This comes from two features:
Establishment of limits
Responding to the child with warmth and support
Children of democratic families tend to want to make their own decisions
The child is able to assume responsibility gradually
The child is more likely to identify with parents who love and respect him or her than with parents who treat him or her as incompetent
Democratic parents present a model of responsible cooperative independence for the growing person to imitate

19. Child Abuse
Child abuse includes the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment, or mistreatment of children under the age of 18 by adults entrusted with their care
Social problem resulting from a variety of causes
Many abusive parents were abused
Many abusive parents have little patience and unrealistic expectations
Overburdened and stressed parents are more likely to abuse
Low-birth weight infants and children who are hyperactive, mentally or physically disadvantaged are more likely to be abused

20. Social Development
Socialization is learning the rules of behavior of the culture in which you are born and raised.
Learning what the rules are
Learning when to apply them
Learning when to bend them
Learning to live with other people and with yourself

21. Freud’s theory of psychosocial development
Oral Stage
First 18 months of life
Infants pleasure seeking focused on the mouth
Anal Stage
1 ½ years – 3 years old
Infants pleasure seeking centered on the functions of elimination
Phallic Stage
3-6 years old
Infants pleasure seeking focused on the genitals
Latency Stage
6 years – puberty
Sexual thoughts are repressed, child focuses on developing social and intellectual skills
Genital Stage
Puberty though adulthood
Sexual desires are renewed, individual seeks relationships with others.

22. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
Trust v Mistrust
Early infancy
Is my world predictable and supportive?
Autonomy v shame and doubt
1-3 years
Can I do things myself or must I rely on others?
Initiative v guilt
3-6 years
Am I good or bad?

23. Industry v Inferiority
6-12 years
Am I successful or worthless?
Identity v Role Confusion
Early teens
Who am I?
Intimacy v Isolation
Young adult
Shall I share my life with someone or live alone?
Generativity v Stagnation
Middle adult
Will I succeed in life?
Ego integrity v Despair
Older adult
Have I lived a full life?

24. Cognitive-Development Approach
Games and Play
Children’s games are serious business
They like to make up and stick to the rules
A child’s role taking involves trying to be like adult role models

25. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Pre-Conventional
Stage 1 – obedience and punishment
Self oriented
Stage 2 – Instrumental Relativist
Immediate family
Conventional
Stage 3 – Good/Nice girl
Extended family
Stage 4 – Law and order
Self-serving view of society
Post-Conventional
Stage 5 – Social Contract
Interactive view of society
Stage 6 – universal Ethics Principle
Balanced cost/benefit analysis of self/society