Chapter 3
Infancy and
Childhood
Physical, Perceptual, and
Language Development
• Developmental Psychology – the study
of changes that occur as an individual
matures
Nature vs. Nurture
Newborns
• Grasping Reflex – an infant’s clinging
response to a touch on the palm of his
or her hand
• Rooting Reflex – an infant’s response
in turning toward the source of
touching that occurs anywhere around
his or her mouth.
Physical Development
Perceptual Development
The Development of Language
Can Animals Use Language?
How Children Acquire Language
• Telegraphic Speech – the kind of verbal
utterances in which words are left out,
but the meaning is usually clear.
Cognitive and Emotional
Development
How Knowing Changes
• Schemas - a specific plan for knowing
the world.
• Assimilation – the process of fitting
objects and experiences into one’s
schema.
• Accommodation – the adjustment of
one’s schemas to include newly
observed events and experiences.
Object
Permanence
• Object Permanence
– a child’s
realization that an
object exists even
when he or she
cannot see or touch
it.
Representational Thought
• Representational Thought – the
intellectual ability of a child to picture
something in his or her mind.
The Principle of Conservation
• Conservation – the principle that a given
quantity does not change when its
appearance is changed.
• Egocentric – a young child’s inability to
understand another person’s perspective.
Experiments With Animals
Imprinting – inherited tendencies or responses that
are displayed by newborn animals.
Critical Period – a specific time in development
when certain skills or abilities are most easily
learned.
Surrogate Mothers
Human Infants
Parenting Styles
• Authoritarian Families – parents attempt to
control shape, and evaluate the behavior
and attitudes of children in accordance with
a set code of conduct.
• Democratic/Authoritative Family –
adolescents participate in decisions
affecting their lives.
• Permissive/Laissez-Faire Family – children
have the final say; parents are less
controlling and have a nonpunishing,
accepting attitude toward children.
Effects of Parenting Styles
Child Abuse
Social Development
• Socialization – the process of learning the
rules of behavior of the culture within which
an individual is born and will live.
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual
Development
Oral Stage
Infant’s pleasure seeking focused on the mouth.
Ages: first 18 months of life
Anal Stage
Infant’s pleasure seeking centered on functions of elimination.
Ages: 1 ½ years to 3 years
Phallic Stage
Infant’s pleasure seeking focused on the genitals.
Ages: 3 – 6 years
Latency Stage
Sexual thoughts repressed; child focuses on developing social and
intellectual skills.
Ages: 6 years to puberty
Genital Stage
Sexual desires are renewed; individual seeks relationships with others.
Ages: Puberty through adulthood
• Identification – the process by which a
child adopts the values and principles of
the same-sex parent.
• Sublimation – the process of redirecting
sexual impulses into learning tasks.
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial
Development
Games and Play
Role Taking – children’s play that involves
assuming adult roles, thus enabling the child to
experience different points of view.
Moral Development
Stages of Moral Development