CHAPTER 3
Infancy and Childhood
PHYSICAL, PERCEPTUAL, AND LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
 Developmental Psychologists study main issues:
 1. Continuity versus stages of development
 2. Stability versus change
 3. *Nature versus nurture
 *Behavior develops as a result of the interactions of both heredity and
environment
NEWBORNS
 Before birth some: hiccup, suck thumb
 Capacities:
 See, hear, smell, and respond at birth
 Most have: grasping reflex and rooting reflex
 Smile, show signs of surprise or fright
 Average: 7.3 pounds at birth (20 -25 by first year) and 18 – 22 inches
 Space of 2 years: will be able to walk, talk, and feed themselves
MATURATION
 Infants grow/develop according to a built in plan:
 3 mos. – lift head
 4 mos. – true smiling
 5-6 mos. – grasp objects
 8-10 mos. – crawling and pulling self up
 Approx 12 mos. – will begin walking
 *Unless underfed, restricted movement or deprivation of human contact
or things to look at, will develop more or less to this schedule*
MATURATION
 Maturation plan is unique to each child
 May vary on time frames (Ex: walking: happen 9 – 18 mos; not walk by
about age 2, tests to determine if something is wrong)
 Infants also have own temperament:
 Active vs quiet, cuddly vs aloof, criers vs hardly whimpering
 Infants may not mature according to the same timetable, but progress
through same sequential steps
PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
 Prefer looking at human faces and patterned material
 Benefit greatly from human (parental) touch
 Depth perception:
 Very young, little to no depth perception
 6 mos and older – gain depth perception (crawling/movement
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 Reinforced vs Inborn behavior
 Ist year: cooing and babble (includes every sound humans can make
 Imitate speech of parents and brothers and sisters
 First real words usual refers to things they can see and touch
 By early 2nd year beginning to speak more clearly
 500 – 1500 words – telegraphic speech
 From 18 mos. To 5 years, add approx. 5 to 10 words a day
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 Piaget – intelligence or ability to understand develops gradually
 Object permanence = about 7 – 12 mos.
 Representational thought = approx. 14 mos.
 Conservation = between the ages of 5 and 7
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
 Begins by attaching to specific people
 After attachment bond; most infants will experience:
 Stranger anxiety
 Separation anxiety
4 PATTERNS OF ATTACHMENT
 Secure attachment – need to explore, welcomes mother back when returns
 Avoidant attachment – avoid/ignore mother when leaves and returns
 Resistant attachment – not upset when mother leaves, acts angrily when
she returns
 Disorganized attachment – behave inconsistently
PARENTING STYLES AND SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
 Parenting Styles:
 1.) Authoritarian – parents boss, children have no say
 2.) Democratic (authoritative) - children participate in decision;

but parents have right to veto plans
 3.) Permissive (laissez-faire) - children have final say; parents give up their
child-rearing responsibilities (no rules) ignoring the young people
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
 Learning the rules of behavior of the culture in which you were
born and grow up.
 Acceptable vs Unacceptable behavior
 What is meaningful and valuable
 Learning to live with other people and yourself
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
 Freud’s Psychosexual Development - (child want immediate
gratification and parent restricts it in some way)
 Erikson’s Psychosocial Development – individual goal is to satisfy
desires with social needs
 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development – stages of importance of
being able to see other people’s point of view – deciding what is right
and wrong