Child DevelopmentChapter 9

Part I

William G. Huitt

Last revised: May 2005

Summary

– biological

– able to be conditioned– sensing & perceiving– emotional– intelligent – knowledge creating– think rationally– language using– social

•A human being is inherently

– motivated

– patterned

Basic Issues and Methodology• Developmental psychology

– The study of how humans grow, develop, and change throughout the life span

• Controversial issues – Nature-nurture debate– Characteristics and environmental variables

interact so that the same environment can have different effects, depending on the characteristics of each child

Basic Issues and Methodology• Approaches to studying developmental change

– Cross-sectional study• A type of developmental study in which researchers

compare groups of participants of different ages on certain characteristics to determine age-related differences

– Longitudinal study• A type of developmental study in which the same group of

participants is followed and measured at different ages

Stages of Prenatal Development• Germinal stage

– The 2-week stage when the zygote travels to the uterus and attaches itself to the uterine wall; this is also when rapid cell division occurs

• Embryonic stage– When the embryo develops all of the systems,

organs, and structures of the body– Lasts from the beginning of week 3 through week 8

• Fetal stage– Lasts from the end of week 8, when bone cells form,

until birth– Several studies of newborns have shown that they

remember sounds to which they were exposed in utero

Prenatal Development• Negative influences on prenatal development

– Smoking and drinking alcohol– Poor diet (especially protein in last trimester)– Fetal alcohol syndrome

• A condition, caused by maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy, in which the baby is born mentally retarded, with a small head and facial, organ, and behavioral abnormalities

– Drug addictions– HIV/Aids– Low birth weight

• A baby weighing less than 5.5 pounds

Infancy• Reflexes and motor development

– During the first few days after birth, neonates’ movements are dominated by reflexes

– Neonates• Newborn infant up to 1 month old

– Reflexes• Inborn, unlearned, automatic responses to certain

environmental stimuli

Infancy• Reflexes and motor development

– Most motor milestones result from maturation– Development also proceeds from the center of the

body outward (proximal – distal)– Experience may also accelerate motor development

Infancy

Infancy

Sensory and Perceptual Development

• Vision– Newborns focus best on objects about 9 inches

away, and they can follow a slowly moving object– By 2 to 3 months of age, most infants prefer human

faces to other visual images• Depth perception

– After children beginning crawling, become aware of depth

• Hearing and other senses– At birth, the newborn’s hearing is much better

developed than her vision– Newborns also prefer their own mother’s voice to

that of an unfamiliar female

Learning• Habituation

– A decrease in response or attention to a stimulus as an infant becomes accustomed to it

– Major technique in studying infant learning

• Memory– 3-day-old newborns could retain in memory for 24

hours a speech sound that had been presented repeatedly the day before

Attachment• The strong affectionate bond a child forms with

the mother or primary caregiver• Harry Harlow’s study of infant monkeys

– Studies suggested that physical nourishment alone is not enough to bind infants to their primary caregivers

– Found that it was contact comfort – the comfort supplied by bodily contact – rather than nourishment that formed the basis of the infant monkey’s attachment to its mother

Attachment• Development of attachment in humans

– The primary caregiver holds, strokes, and talks to the baby and responds to the baby’s needs

– In turn, the baby gazes at, listens to, and moves in synchrony with the caregiver’s voice

• John Bowlby– Believes that attachment behavior serves the

evolutionary function of protecting the infant from danger

Attachment• Separation anxiety

– The fear and distress shown by toddlers when their parent leaves, occurring from 8 to 24 months and reaching a peak between 12 and 18 months

• Stranger anxiety– A fear of strangers common in infants at about 6

months and increasing in intensity until about 12 months, and then declining in the second year

Attachment• Ainsworth’s attachment categories

– Identified four patterns of attachment:• Secure• Avoidant• Resistant• Disorganized/disoriented

– Secure attachment is the most common pattern across cultures

Father-Child Relationship• Children who experience regular interaction

with their fathers tend to– have higher IQs – do better in social situations and at coping with

frustration – Sons display positive parenting when they have

children of their own

• Children whose fathers exhibit antisocial behavior, such as deceitfulness and aggression, are more likely to demonstrate such behavior themselves

Father-Child Relationship• Father absence is also related to

– children’s reduced self-confidence in problem solving

– low self-esteem– depression– suicidal thoughts– behavioral problems such as aggression and

delinquency– early sexual behavior for girls and teen

pregnancy

Father-Child Relationship• Mothers are more likely to cushion their

children against overstimulation• Fathers more likely to engage in stimulating

activity • When the mother and father have a good

relationship, fathers tend to spend more time with and interact more with their children

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

• The oral stage (birth to 1 year)– The mouth is the primary source of an infant’s

sensual pleasure– Freud claimed that difficulties at the oral stage can

result in personality traits such as either excessive dependence, optimism, and gullibility or extreme pessimism, sarcasm, hostility, and aggression

• The anal stage (1 to 3 years)– During the anal stage, children derive sensual

pleasure, Freud believed, from expelling and withholding feces

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

• The phallic stage (3 to 5 or 6 years)– During the phallic stage, children learn that they can

derive pleasure from touching their genitals– The latency period (5 or 6 years to puberty)– The sex instinct is repressed and temporarily

sublimated in school and play activities, hobbies, and sports

• The genital stage (from puberty on)– In the genital stage, the focus of sexual energy

gradually shifts to the opposite sex for the vast majority of people

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• The process of cognitive development– Schemes

• An cognitive action plan to be used in a specific circumstance

– Equilibration• The process of keeping schemes in balance with the

environment

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• The process of cognitive development– Adaptation

• The process of modifying perceptions or cognitive schemes in order to attain equilibrium with the demands of the environment

– Assimilation• The process by which new objects, events, experiences, or

information are incorporated into existing schemes

– Accommodation• The process by which existing schemes are modified and

new schemes are created to incorporate new objects, events, experiences, or information

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• An evaluation of Piaget’s contribution– Piaget relied on observation and on the interview

technique, which depended on verbal responses– Newer techniques requiring nonverbal responses

have shown that infants and young children are more competent than Piaget proposed

– Few developmental psychologists believe that cognitive development takes place in the general stage-like fashion proposed by Piaget

– Another criticism comes from research showing that formal operational thought is not universal

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural View

• Believed language-based spontaneous behaviors exhibited by children were important to the process of cognitive development

• Infants have innate capacities– perception– ability to pay attention– capacities of memory

• Believed that talking to oneself – private speech – is a key component in cognitive development

• Saw a strong connection among – social experience– speech– cognitive development

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural View

• Zone of proximal development– range of cognitive tasks that the child cannot yet

perform alone but can learn to perform with the instruction, help, and guidance of a parent, teacher, or more advanced peer

Information-Processing Approach

• Processing speed– Robert Kail

• Found that information-processing speed increases dramatically as children move from infancy through childhood

– Increased processing speed is associated with improved memory

Information-Processing Approach

• Memory– Short-term memory develops dramatically during an

infant’s first year– Children use strategies for improving memory

increasingly as they mature cognitively – One universal strategy for holding information in

short-term memory is rehearsal– Organization is a very practical strategy for storing

information in such a way that it can be retrieved without difficulty

Information-Processing Approach

• Theory of mind– A fundamental developmental task for children is

coming to understand how people may differ greatly in what they know and what they believe

– Reaching a level of cognitive maturity in which an individual is aware of his or her own thoughts and has an understanding about their nature of thought involves acquiring what is referred to as a theory of mind

– Metacognition—the process of thinking about how you or others think