Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY

(5th Ed)

Chapter 3

The Developing Child

James A. McCubbin, PhDClemson University

Worth Publishers

The Developing Child

Developmental Psychology study of changes across the life span

Developmental IssuesNature versus Nurture

How is our development influenced by our heredity (nature) and by our experience (nuture)?

Continuity versus Stages Is developmental change gradual and

continuous or does it proceed through a sequence of separate stages?

Stability versus Change Do we grow into older versions of our early

selves or do we become new persons?

Union of Egg and Sperm

Genetic Influences

X- Chromosomes sex chromosome found in both males

and females females have two, males have one an X-chromosome from each parent

produces a femaleY-Chromosomes

sex chromosome found only in males when paired with a X-chromosome from

the mother, it produces a male child

The Developing ChildTestosterone

most important of the male sex hormones both males and females have it additional testosterone in males

stimulates growth of male sex organs in the fetus

stimulates development of male sex characteristics during puberty

Gender characteristics, whether biologically or

socially influenced, by which people define male and female

Prenatal DevelopmentZygote

fertilized egg enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division develops into an embryo

Embryo developing human organism from 2 weeks

through 2nd monthFetus

developing human organism from 9 weeks to birth

Prenatal DevelopmentTeratogens

agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

chemical, e.g. alcohol, some medicines, cocaine, nicotine

viral, e.g. HIV, RubellaFetal Alcohol Syndrome

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by drinking in pregnancy

The Newborn

Rooting Reflex tendency to turn head, open mouth, and

search for nipple when touched on the cheek

Preferences human voices and

facesfacelike images-->

smell and sound of mother preferred

Infancy and Childhood

At birth 3 months 15 months

Cortical Neurons

Maturation biological growth

processes that enable orderly changes in behavior

relatively uninfluenced by experience

sets the course for development while experience adjusts it

Infancy and Childhood

Babies only 3 months old can learn that kicking moves a mobile- and can retain that learning for a month (Rovee-Collier, 1989).

Infancy and Childhood

Rats reared in an environment enriched with playthings show increased development of the cerebral cortex (Rosenzweig, et al., 1972).

Impoverished environment

Enriched environment

Infancy and Childhood

Plasticity the brain’s capacity for modificationevidence for plasticity

•brain reorganization following damage

–especially in children•experiments on the effects of

experience on brain development

Infancy and Childhood

A finger-tapping task activates more motor cortex neurons after training (right).

Infancy and ChildhoodCognition

mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering

Schema a concept or framework that organizes and

interprets informationAssimilation

interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas

Accommodation adapting one’s current schemas to

incorporate new information

Typical Age Range

Description of Stage

Developmental Phenomena

Birth to nearly 2 years SensorimotorExperiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing)

•Object permanence•Stranger anxiety

About 2 to 6 years

About 7 to 11 years

About 12 through adulthood

PreoperationalRepresenting things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning

•Pretend play•Egocentrism•Language development

Concrete operationalThinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations

•Conservation •Mathematical transformations

Formal operationalAbstract reasoning

•Abstract logic•Potential for moral reasoning

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Object Permanence the awareness that things continue to exist

even when not perceivedConservation

the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

part of Piaget’s concrete operational reasoning

Egocentrism the inability of the preoperational child to

take another’s point of view

Cognitive Development

Habituation decreasing responsiveness with repeated

stimulation newborns become bored with a repeated

stimulus, but renew their attention to a slightly different stimulus

Cognitive Development

10

20

0

30

40

50

60

70

80

Familiar stimulus

Novelstimulus

Percentage of time spent looking

Cognitive Development

0

40

30

20

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Time spentlooking(seconds)

Presentation

Cognitive DevelopmentBaby Mathematics

Shown a numerically impossible outcome, infants stare longer (Wynn, 1992)

1. Objects placed in case.

2. Screen comes up.

3. One object is removed.

4. Possible outcome: Screen drops, revealing one object.

4. Possible outcome: Screen drops, revealing two object.

Social Development

Stranger Anxiety fear of strangers that infants commonly

display beginning by about 8 months of age

Attachment an emotional tie with another person shown in young children by seeking

closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Social Development

Harlow’s Surrogate Mother Experiments Monkeys preferred

contact with the comfortable cloth mother, even while feeding from the nourishing wire mother

Social Development

Critical Period an optimal period shortly after birth when an

organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Imprinting the process by which certain animals form

attachments during a critical period very early in life

Temperament a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity

and intensity

Social Development

Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror-stricken when placed in strange situations without their surrogate mothers.

Social Development

Basic Trust (Erik Erikson) a sense that the world is predictable and

trustworthy said to be formed during infancy by

appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Self-Concept a sense of one’s identity and personal

worth

Social Development

Groups of infants who had and had not experienced day care were left by their mothers in a unfamiliar room.

0

20

40

60

80

100

3.5 5.5 7.5 9.5 11.5 13.5 20 29

Percentage of infantswho criedwhen theirmothers left

Age in months

Day care

Home

Social Development

Percentage of children experiencing school problems in the previous year

Percentageof children

Live with both biological parents

Live with formerly married mother and no father

Repeated school grade

Expelled or

suspended

Treated forproblems in last year

0

15

10

5

20

Social Development- Child-Rearing Practices

Authoritarian parents impose rules and expect

obedience “Don’t interrupt” “Why? Because I said so.”

Authoritative parents are both demanding and

responsive set rules, but explain reasons encourage discussion

Social Development- Child-Rearing Practices

Permissive submit to children’s desires make few demands use little punishment

Rejecting-neglecting disengaged expect little invest little

Social Development- Child-Rearing Practices Three explanations for correlation between

authoritative parenting and social competence

(3) Some third factor may be influencing both parents and child.

(1) Parent’s behavior may be influencing child.

Authoritative parents

(2) Child’s behavior may be influencing parents.

Self-reliant,Socially competentchild

Authoritative parents

High education, ample income, harmonious marriage, common genes

Authoritative parents

Self-reliant,Socially competentchild

Self-reliant,Socially competentchild

Gender and Child-Rearing

Gender Identity one’s sense of being male or female

Gender-Typing the acquisition of a traditional masculine or

feminine roleSocial Learning Theory

we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished

Gender Schema Theory children learn from their cultures a concept of

what it means to be male and female adjust behavior accordingly

Gender and Child-Rearing

Rewards and Punishments

Observation andImitation of

models

Gender-typedbehavior

Social learning theory Gender schema theory

Cultural learningof gender

Gender schema(looking at self andWorld through a gender “lens”)

Gender-organizedthinking

Gender-typed behavior