Psychology of Infancy (430W)
Daniel Messinger, Ph.D.
Today
Introducing infancy
 Introducing the course
 Introducing ourselves
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Human infancy
From 0 to 2 or 3 years of age
 Most rapid, profound change in the lifecycle
 In multiple areas of functioning
 Produce a new individual
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Multiple areas of infant
development
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Motor
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Communication
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no sense of self/other to complex relationships
Emotional
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crying to talking
Social
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jerky hand movements to coordinated walking
crying to laughing and the beginnings of pride
Cognitive
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‘Where’s that breast’ to make-believe
United by a process
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Infant subjectivity
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Stern’s ‘emergent self’
Rapidly forming action/sensation patterns
 Create new competencies and new
challenges
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Infancy in its own terms
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Nature wants children to be children before they
are men. If we deliberately depart from this order,
we shall get premature fruits which are neither
ripe nor well flavored and which soon decay. We
shall have youthful sages and grown up children.
Childhood has ways of seeing, thinking, and
feeling, peculiar to itself; nothing can be more
foolish than to substitute our ways for them.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (quoted in Bjorklund)
Development—Please describe
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Natalie Time Lapse: Birth to 10 years old in 1 minute
25 sec.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTjHLF3xKWo Child
growth face morph time-lapse (from birth to
almost 4).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm_DiUhqCkc&featur
e=related Lex is Three. Removed from youtube
– Write down 1-36
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vNxjwt2Aq
Y Time lapse of a baby playing with his toys. 9
months
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http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/09/ag
ing-timelapse-anthony-cerniello/ a face
from infancy to adulthood from family stills
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From cross-sectional photos with digital
animation
Class description
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Critical questions class-by-class
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Critical questions, final project
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Focus of class sessions
Weekly papers
Select for in-depth study
Final paper
Empirical project
Honors credit available
Research opportunities
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Psych 367-368