Developmental Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive and social changes

throughout the lifespan.

Prenatal Development

• Conception begins with the drop of an egg and the release of about 200 million sperm.

• The sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to penetrate the eggs surface.

Once the sperm penetrates the egg- we have a fertilized egg called……..

The ZygoteThe first stage of prenatal development. Lasts

about two weeks and consists of rapid cell division.

The Zygote Stage

• Less than half of all zygotes survive first two weeks.

• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall.

• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta (which filters nutrients).

After two weeks, the zygote develops into a

Embryo

The Embryo Stage

• Lasts about 6 weeks.• Heart begins to beat

and the organs begin to develop.

• The “baby” is more vulnerable to damage at this stage than any others. Don’t drink or do drugs!

By nine weeks we have something that looks unmistakably human…

A Fetus

Brain at 22 weeks

The Fetus Stage

• By about the 6th month, the stomach and other organs have formed enough to survive outside of mother.

• At this time the baby can hear (and recognize) sounds and respond to light.

Teratogensharmful agents to the prenatal environment

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant women’s heavy drinking.

• Severe cases symptoms include facial disproportions.

So what will a healthy newborn do?Reflexes• Rooting Reflex- a babies tendency, when touched on

the cheek, to open mouth and search for a nipple.

Turn towards human voices.Gaze longer at human face like images.

Maturation• Maturation is the physical

development of a person.• First you roll over, then

crawl, then walk, then run.• Some babies skip crawling

but that can be bad for cognitive development.

Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget did not conduct formal experiments, but rather loosely structured interviews in which he posed problems for children to solve, observed their actions carefully, and questioned them about their solutions

– Was particularly interested in children’s error, which would provide insights into children’s thought processes

– Assumed that a child is an active seeker of knowledge and gains an understanding of the world by operating on it

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Birth - age 2

Preoperational 2 - 6 years

Concrete Operational 6 - 12 years

Formal Operational 12+ years

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage 0-2

• Infant learns about the world through their sensory and motor interactions (including reflexes)

• Lack object permanence, the knowledge than an object exists independent of perceptual contact

• Symbolic representation of objects and events starts to develop during the latter part of thesensorimotor stage (e.g., use oftelegraphic speech)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8y-JVhjS0&feature=related

Preoperational StageThe child’s thinking becomes more symbolic and language-based, but remains egocentric and lacks the mental operations that allow logical thinkingEgocentrism is the inability to distinguish one’s own perceptions, thoughts, and feelings from those of others

– Cannot perceive the world from another person’s perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj0IZFLKvg&feature=related

Animism

• Giving animal qualities to inanimate objects

Preoperational Stage

• Conservation is the knowledge that the quantitative properties of an object (such as mass, volume, and number) remain the same despite changes in appearance– Some grasp of conservation

marks the end of the preoperational stage and the beginning of the concrete-operational stage

– The liquid/beakers problem is a common test of conservation ability

Preoperational Stage

• A major reason why a preoperational child does not understand conservation is that the child lacks an understanding of reversibility, the knowledge that reversing a transformation brings about the conditions that existed before the transformation

• Child’s thinking also reflects centration, the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem at a time

Tests of Conservation

Concrete Operational Stage• Children (age 6-12) gain a fuller understanding

of conservation and other mental operations that allow them to think logically, but only about concrete events– Conservation for liquids, numbers, and

matter acquired early, but conservation of length acquired later in the stage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA04ew6Oi9M&feature=related

Concrete Operational Stage

• Can demonstrate concept of conservation.

• Learn to think logically

Click the penguin to see kids try to grasp concrete logic.

Formal Operational Stage

• What would the world look like with no light?

• Picture god• What way do you best

learn?

• Abstract reasoning• Manipulate objects

in our minds without seeing them

• Hypothesis testing• Trial and Error• Metacognition• Not every adult

gets to this stagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJdcXA1KH8&feature=related

Criticisms of Piaget

• Some say he underestimates the abilities of children.

• Information-Processing Model says children to not learn in stages but rather a gradual continuous growth.

• Studies show that our attention span grows gradually over time.

Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory

1. Not all people reach formal operational thought

2. The theory may be biased in favor of Western culture

3. There is no real theory of what occurs after the onset of adolescence

4. Despite refinements, recent research has indeed shown that cognitive development seems to proceed in the general sequence of stages that Piaget proposed

Infancy and Childhood

Social Development

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RP4abiHdQpc

Stranger Anxiety

Attachment• An emotional tie with another person;

shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress in separation.

Factors of Attachment

• Body Contact• Familiarity• Responsive Parenting

How not to hold a baby!

Body Contact• It was first assumed that infants

became attached to those who satisfied their need for nourishment.

Then this guy came along……..

Harry Harlow and his

Discovered that monkeys preferred the soft body contact comfort of a cloth mother, over the nourishment of a hard/wirily mother.

Familiarity

• Attachments based on familiarity are formed during our critical periods.

In general, a critical period is a limited time in which an event can occur, usually to result in some kind of transformation. A "critical period" in developmental psychology is a time in the early stages of an organism's life during which it displays a heightened sensitivity to certain environmental stimuli, and develops in particular ways due to experiences at this time. If a child does not attach during the critical period for attachment, then it may be impossible to attach later. Same for language acquisition. Can you learn language at 4 years old?

Konrad Lorenz

• Konrad Lorenz studied how goslings (baby geese) will imprint themselves to a human if they get human exposure during a critical period

Same with dogs

Deprivation of Attachment

• Often withdrawn, frightened and in extreme cases speechless.

•Harlow’s monkeys would either cower in fright or act extremely aggressive. Many could not mate and if they could, the mothers were unresponsive parents.

•Is there a connection between crime and lack of childhood attachment?

Cognitive Development

• Rats who are raised in a rich environment have more neurons.

Daycare

• High Quality daycare has shown no detrimental effects on children over the age of two.

•The studies go both ways for children under the age of two- no clear answer yet.

Child Attachment Styles

based on Ainsworth’s (1971) “The Strange Situation” studies

• Mary Ainsworth studied children's’ attachment styles. She would place a mother and young child in a room. The independent variable was a “strange situation” like a stranger or have the mother leave the room. The dependent variable was how the child would react.

Ainsworth’s attachment styles• Mary Ainsworth would have a stranger enter the

room. Children with a secure attachment would go to the mother for comfort when a stranger entered the room. The child would cry when the mother left but was happy when the mother returned.

• Most common (66%)

Ainsworth’s attachment styles

• Insecure-avoidant (20%) – not distressed at mother leaving or stranger arriving; cool response when mother returns

• Probably caused by distant mothers

Strange situations studies

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU

Ainsworth’s attachment styles

• insecure- resistant (12%) – clingy to mother; traumatized by every stage of the experiment; distrustful of their mothers

• Caused by over-bearing, controlling mothers

General Parenting Styles

• Based on Diana Baumrind’s studies• They are:• Permissive• Authoritarian• Authoritative

Permissive Parents

• Parents submit to their children’s desires, make few demands and use little punishment.

Authoritarian Parents

• Impose rules and expect obedience.

•“Why, because I said so!!!!”

•What word that begins with A describes an authoritarian?

Authoritative Parents

• Parents are both demanding and responsive.

• Exert control by setting rules, but explain reasoning behind the rules.

• Encourage open discussion.

Do you remember this FRQ?The Smith-Garcias are planning for their first baby. Both parents-

to-be have had a psychology course and are looking forward to applying the principles they learned from theories and research that address child development.

A. Summarize one main idea or finding of each of the following four researchers.

• Skinner’s operant conditioning • Bandura’s social learning theory B. Provide a specific example of actions the Smith-Garcias might

take to raise their child to produce positive outcomes using each of the theories below to address the corresponding psychological concept.

• Skinner’s operant conditioning: tantrum management • Bandura’s social learning theory: sharing behavior

Now, answer the rest….The Smith-Garcias are planning for their first baby. Both parents-to-be have

had a psychology course and are looking forward to applying the principles they learned from theories and research that address child development.

A. Summarize one main idea or finding of each of the following four researchers.

• Skinner’s operant conditioning • Bandura’s social learning theory • Ainsworth’s attachment research • Baumrind’s research on parenting styles B. Provide a specific example of actions the Smith-Garcias might take to raise

their child to produce positive outcomes using each of the theories below to address the corresponding psychological concept.

• Skinner’s operant conditioning: tantrum management • Bandura’s social learning theory: sharing behavior • Ainsworth’s attachment research: self-reliance • Baumrind’s research on parenting styles: self-esteem