Chapter 3
List and discuss the stages of prenatal development
List harmful influences on prenatal development
List and discuss the motor and sensory capacitites of
newborns and infants
Define terms associated with the concept of
attachment, and describe the research methodology
http://www.babycenter.com/100_fetaldevelopment_5214615.bc
 Maturation = the sequential unfolding of genetically influenced behavior and physical

characteristics

3 Stages of prenatal development
Germinal Stage: 0-14 days: fertilized egg (zygote)
divides and attaches to the uterine wall; outside
becomes placenta, inner part becomes embryo
 Embryonic stage: after implantation (about 2 weeks) to
8th week: embryo develops, organs and limbs develop
(heart and liver), testosterone is secreted in males
 Fetal Stage – after 8th week, further development and
brain weight marked increase in nervous system
development and brain weight.
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4th month = movement
5th month = can identify gender
6th month = organs more fully developed (baby could survive
outside of womb)
 Harmful
influences that can cross the
placental barrier
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German measles
Radiation
Toxic chemicals
STDs
Cigarette smoking
Heavy alcohol consumption
Prescription and nonprescription drugs
 Premature
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birth
Smaller in weight, though not always in length
Less physically & cognitively developed
Usually up to 2 months early still has a fighting chance
 Teratogens
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Noxious substance or factors that can disrupt prenatal
development
X-rays: disrupt development of brain cells
Drugs: abnormal physical & psychological development
Alcohol: FAS; mental retardation, facial disfigurement

Physical abilities
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Newborns have functional motor reflexes
Newborns are able to see, but are nearsighted
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Will show evidence of depth perception within a few
months
Prefer faces
Many aspects of development depend on cultural
customs
Attachment – provides a secure base from which
children can explore
The Harlows demonstrated the importance of
touching, or contact comfort
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsA5Sec6dAI
 Between 7 and 9 months, babies may show stranger
anxiety and separation anxiety until the middle of the
second year or later


Ainsworth experiment: the Strange Situation in
which the baby’s behavior is observed when the
mother leaves the baby with a stranger
Securely attached children are clearly more attached
to the mother
 Insecurely attached children show avoidance or
anxiety
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU
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
Factors affecting attachment
Neglect, abuse, and deprivation adversely affect
attachment, however, differences in normal childrearing practices have no effect
 Daycare does not affect attachment
 Temperament, chronic stress, and rejection can
affect attachment


Cultural expectations play a role
Describe the stages of language
development
List and explain the fundamental principles
of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Describe the stages of Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development
Evaluate Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development
Explain the principles of Kohlberg’s theory
of moral development and describe the
stages
Summarize the criticisms of Kohlberg’s
theory of moral development

From cooing to communicating
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In first months, babies responsive to pitch, intensity
and sound of language; people talk to babies with
more varied pitch and intonation
By 4-6 months, babies have learned many basic
sounds of their language, and over time lose ability
to perceive speech sounds in another language
Between 6-12 months, babies enter the babbling
phase; infants become more familiar with the sound
structure of their native language
Starting at around 11 months, babies develop
repertoire of symbolic gestures; gestures spur
language learning
Between 18-24 months, 2-3 word combinations are
produced; first combinations have a telegraphic
quality
 The

Chomsky observed that children can figure out a
sentences deep structure from the surface
structure, therefore the brain must contain a
language acquisition device that enables children
to develop language if they are exposed to it
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innate capacity for language
Children everywhere go through similar stages of
linguistic development
Children combine words in ways that adults never
would, so they could not simply be imitating adults
Adults do not consistently correct their children’s
syntax
Language development depends on both
biological readiness and social experience; there
is a critical period for language development
 Piaget
proposed that children must make two
types of mental adaptations
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Assimilation – fitting new information into
present system of knowledge, beliefs, and
schemas (categories of things and people)
Accommodation – must change or modify
existing schemas to accommodate new
information that doesn’t fit
 Piaget’s
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cognitive stages
Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years old)
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Infants learn through concrete actions; “thinking”
consists of coordinating sensory information with
bodily movements
Begin to understand object permanence at around six
months; involves understanding that something
continues to exist even if you can’t see it or touch it
Object permanence represents the beginning of
representational thought-ability to use mental
imagery and other symbolic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBh9ld_yIo
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Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 7)
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Accelerated use of symbols and language in play and in imitation of
adult behavior
Limitations
 Cannot reason or use abstract principles (called operations)
 Piaget believed thinking was egocentric – that preoperational
children are unable to take the point of view of another
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=OinqFgsI
bh0&NR=1&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
 Cannot grasp conservation – notion that physical properties do
not change when forms or appearances change
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj0IZFLKvg
Concrete operations stage (ages 7 to 11)
 Accomplishments – understand conservation, reversibility, cause
and effect, identity, mathematical operations, serial ordering
 Thinking is still concrete, not abstract – grounded in concrete
experiences
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA04ew6Oi9M
Formal Operations Stage (ages 12 to adulthood)
 Beginning of abstract reasoning
 Can reason systematically, think about the future, think about
situations they have not experienced firsthand
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJdcXA1KH8

Evaluating Piaget
Shifts from stage to stage not as sweeping or clearcut as Piaget implied
 Children understand more than Piaget gave them
credit for
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Infants as young as 4 months show understanding of some
physics principles
Children advance more rapidly in their symbolic activities
Preschoolers are not as egocentric as Piaget though
Children’s cognitive development depends on
education and culture
 Piaget overestimated the cognitive skills of many
adults
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Some people never develop the capacity for formal
operations
Other people continue to think concretely unless a
specific problem requires abstract though
Most psychologists accept Piaget’s major point, that
new reasoning abilities depend on the emergence of
previous ones
Most people agree that children actively interpret
their worlds
List the various parental styles
of child-rearing and discuss the
effects of each
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Power Assertion
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Involves threats, physical punishment, denial of
privileges
Associated with a lack of moral feelings and behavior,
and with negative outcomes for children
Leads to aggressiveness and poor impulse control in
children
These parents do not: state clear rules, require
compliance, consistently punish violations, or praise
good behavior
Induction
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More successful at teaching moral feelings and behavior
The parent appeals to the child’s own resources,
affection for others, and sense of responsibility
Tends to produce children who behave morally on many
different measures and who have high self-esteem
Used by authoritative parents who give emotional
support and encourage two-way communication
Most parents are inconsistent depending on
mood, stress, etc.
 Some children turn out different DESPITE
parenting. WHY?
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The child’s temperament affects parenting style
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Peers affect the child enormously
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Authoritarian with impulsive
Permissive with easy going, punitive with defiant
Children respond differently to discipline
How successful are your peers? Does that influence your
success? Are they hard-workers? What is “nerdy”?
So do parents matter??
They affect a child’s behavior and social development
 Self-esteem

Piaget pioneered the study of moral reasoning in
children
 Lawrence Kohlberg took it a step further
 Kohlberg developed a theory that states that
there are three levels of moral reasoning that
are universal and occur in invariant order – moral
stages determined by answers people give to
hypothetical moral dilemmas
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Levels and stages
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Level 1 – preconventional morality
 Stage 1 – fear and punishment for disobedience
 Stage 2 – in their best interest to obey
Level 2 – conventional morality, typically reached around
10 or 11 years of age
 Stage 3 – based on conformity and loyalty
 Stage 4 – a “law-and-justice” orientation
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Level 3 – postconventional (“principled”) morality
 Stage 5 – values and laws are relative and change:
recognition that people hold differing standards
 Stage 6 – standard based on universal human rights
Limitations
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Stage theories tend to overlook cultural and
educational influences on reasoning
People’s moral reasoning is often inconsistent across
situations
Moral reasoning and behavior are often unrelated
 Gilligan
said that males base moral reasoning
on justice and females base moral reasoning
on care
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Most research finds no gender difference in
moral reasoning
Both genders use justice and compassion in moral
reasoning
Distinguish between gender
socialization and gender identity
List and discuss the explanations that
have been given for sex-typing
 Sex
– a biological distinction determined by
anatomical and physiological attributes
 Gender – cultural and psychological
attributes that children learn are appropriate
for the sexes
 Gender identity – fundamental sense of
maleness or femaleness regardless of what
one wears or does

Develops at age 4 or 5
 Gender
typing – society’s expectations
governing male and female attitudes and
behavior
Biological factors – toy and play preferences may
have a biological basis
 Cognitive factors
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Children develop gender schemas (mental network of
beliefs and expectations about what it means to be male
or female) as they mature; these schemas influence their
behavior
At 9 months most babies can discriminate male and
female faces
Once children can label themselves as boys or girls, they
begin to prefer same-sex playmates and sex-typed toys
Boys express stronger preferences for masculine toys and
activities than girls do for feminine ones; differences
appear to be related to gender differences in status
As abilities mature, children understand exceptions to
gender schemas
Gender schemas change throughout our lives, but
continue to influence us
 Gender
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and Learning
Differences between boys and girls are also the
result of gender socialization
Assertiveness is rewarded more in boys; verbal
behavior is rewarded more in girls
Children learn to adjust their behavior, making it
more gender-typed
Parents’ stereotypical expectations influence
children’s performance and feeling of
competence in math, English, and sports
 Gender
over the life span – gender
development has become a lifelong process
Describe the events that signal the
onset of puberty in males and females,
and the relationship between age of
onset and later adjustment
Summarize the evidence on the
relationship between adolescence and
emotional turmoil
 Adolescence

Period of development between puberty (the age
at which a person becomes capable of sexual
reproduction) and adulthood
 Puberty
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and the onset of reproductive capacity
Males – more androgens
Females – more estrogens
Males – sperm from testes
Females – eggs from ovaries
Menarche – menstruation and breasts develop in
females
Males – nocturnal emissions, growth of testes,
scrotum and penis
Hormones are responsible for secondary sex
characteristics in both sexes
Growth spurt occurs in both sexes; earlier for girls
Timing of puberty significant; early and late
maturers may have special problems
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Studies find that extreme turmoil and unhappiness are the
exception (common, but not typical to be unhappy)
One’s peer group is particularly influential during
adolescence
Teens are trying to develop own standards and values. Often
look to peers rather than parents
 Rejection by peers more upsetting than parents
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Common problems: conflict with parents, mood swings and
depression, higher rates of risky behavior
During adolescence externalizing problems become more
common in boys, internalizing problems become more
common in girls; suicide rates increasing in boys
Preteens who encounter problems are often reacting to
specific changes in the environment; conflicts often stem
from their need to individuate
The extent to which parent and teens quarrel depends on
cultural norms
Describe the stages of Erikson’s theory
of psychosocial development
Explain how the “social clock”
influences reactions to life transitions
Describe the impact of menopause and
midlife on the physical and
psychological well-being of men and
women
Describe the changes in mental
functioning associated with aging
 Erikson’s
psychosocial theory says that all
people go through eight stages in their lives,
resolving an inevitable “crisis” at each one
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Trust vs mistrust (during 1st year)
Autonomy vs shame and doubt (toddlerhood)
Initiative vs guilt (preschool)
Competence vs inferiority (elementary school)
Identity vs role confusion (adolescence)
Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood)
Generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood)
Ego integrity vs despair (old age)
 How
easily one passes between stages
depends on cultural and economic factors
 Erikson showed that development is an
ongoing process that is never finished
 Erikson’s stages are not universal; do not
occur in the same order for everyone
 Today’s
theories of adult development
emphasize the transitions that mark adult
life, rather than a rigid developmental
sequence
 Starting out: The Social Clock
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Most people still unconsciously evaluate their
transitions according to a social clock
Adjusting to anticipated transitions is easier than
adjusting to unanticipated transitions is “nonevent transitions”
People who wish to do things “on time” and are
not able to do so may feel depressed and
anxious. The biological clock
 The
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middle years
The years between 35 and 65 are considered the
prime of life for most Americans
Menopause – midlife cessation of menstruation;
ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone
Only about 10% o all women have severe physical
symptoms
Most postmenopausal women view menopause
positively
Menopause itself has no effect on most women’s
mental and physical health
Men lack biological equivalent of menopause
For both sexes, physical changes of midlife and the
biological fact of aging do not predict how people
will feel about aging or how they will respond to it

Old age
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The definition of “old” has gotten older
Various aspects of mental functioning decline with
age
In aging, fluid intelligence tends to decline, but
crystallized intelligence remains stable or improves –
may compensate for the brain’s declining efficiency
late in life
Many problems in old age and not inevitable and are
correctable
Short-term training programs can boost memory and
other cognitive skills dramatically
People who have complex or challenging occupations
and interests and who are flexible are most likely to
maintain their cognitive abilities in later life
Many people get happier and calm with age
In extreme old age rates of cognitive impairment and
dementias rise dramatically
Explain the concept of resilience as it
applies to recovery from trauma
 Traumatized
children are more likely to have
emotional and behavioral problems
 Evidence from the following suggest that
negative effects are not inevitable
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Recovery from war
Recovery from abusive or alcoholic parents
Recovery from sexual abuse
 Resilience
can come from one’s personality,
other supportive people, and meaningful
activities