Child Development
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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006
by Pearson Education.
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Child Development
I.
What Are the Central Issues of
Development?
II.
How Does Physical Development Proceed?
III.
How Does Thought Develop?
IV.
How Do Social and Emotional Development
Proceed?
V.
What Environmental Factors are Important
for Social Development?
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What Are the Central Issues of
Development?
•
Developmental Psychology
– Study of lifelong, often age-related,
processes of change
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What Are the Central Issues of
Development?
A. Issues in Developmental Psychology
1. Nature or Nurture?
2. Stability or Change?
3. Activity and Passivity
4. Continuity or Discontinuity?
5. Culture
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What Are the Central Issues of
Development?
B. Research Designs
1. Cross-sectional
2. Longitudinal
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Physical Development
• Prenatal
– Development that occurs before birth
• Neonatal
– Development that occurs in the month
after birth
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Physical Development
A. Prenatal Development
• Stages of Development
-- Zygote: fertilized ovum
– Embryo: From implantation until the 49th
day after conception
– Fetus: From the 8th week until birth
– Differentiation: Formation of organs and
other parts of the body from the cells of
the zygote
– Placenta forms
• A mass of tissue attached to the uterine
wall that acts as a life-support system
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A. Prenatal Development
2. Harmful Environmental Effects
– Embryo / fetus is especially sensitive to
such effects during critical periods
– Teratogens
– Substances that can produce birth defects
– Especially harmful during embryonic period
– E.g., Alcohol Use may cause Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome (leading cause of preventable Mental
Retardation)
-- Smoking during pregnancy restricts oxygen to the
unborn: greater risks for several problems
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Physical Development
B. Newborn Development
1. Growth
– Rapid physical growth
– Walking and beginning to talk by ~18
months
– Infancy ends ~18 months when use of
abstract language begins
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Physical Development
B. Newborn Development
1. Growth
– Cephalocaudal trend
– Head develops first
– Proximodistal trend
– Center of body develops before
extremities
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Newborn Development
1. Newborns’ Reflexes
– Babinski reflex
– Moro Reflex
– Fanning toes
– Rooting reflex
– Outstretching
arms and crying
– Turning head
– Sucking Reflex
– Grasping reflex
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Infant Perception
a. Fantz’s (1961) Viewing Box
– Present two stimuli simultaneously
– See if infant looks at one longer
– A longer gaze indicates infant can tell
the difference between the two stimuli
– Infants prefer some stimuli over others
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2. Infant Perception
b. The Visual Cliff (Gibson & Walk, 1960)
– By 9 months, infants will not cross over
the “drop”
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Newborn Development
Evolution and Newborn Preparedness
– Newborns are biologically prepared to
perceive and experience the world
– However, experience is necessary for
optimal brain development
– Infants actively explore the world
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Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s insights
– Swiss psychologist (1896 – 1980)
– Focused on HOW people think, not WHAT
people think
– Emphasized biology
• Believed development follows the same
path in all social environments
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Jean Piaget’s Insights
a. Schema
• Developed through three processes
– Adaptation
– Assimilation
– Accommodation
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Piaget’s Central Concepts
b. Stages of cognitive development
• Believed order doesn’t change
• Believed all children go through same four
stages
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Stages of Cognitive Development:
PIAGET
i. Sensorimotor Stage
– Birth through age 2
– Develops object permanence
• Piaget believed this occurs by ~9 months
• Recent research shows it may develop as
early as 4 months
– During second half of this stage, children
begin to use language to represent the world
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Stages of Cognitive Development
ii. Preoperational Stage
– Ages 2 to 7
– Represent the world symbolically
– Can not think abstractly
– Egocentrism (self-centerdness) is prominent
– At the end of the stage, decentration begins
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Stages of Cognitive Development
iii. Concrete Operational Stage
– Ages 6 or 7 to 11 or 12
– Children understand
• Rules and reasons
• Difference between appearance and reality
• How to think ahead
– Hallmark of this stage is an understanding of
conservation
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Stages of Cognitive Development
iv. Formal Operational Stage
– Begins about age 12
– Individual can
• Think hypothetically
• Consider future possibilities
• Use deductive logic
• Engage in abstract thought
– New form of egocentrism develops
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Jean Piaget’s Insights
2. Putting Piaget in Perspective
– Piaget asserted parental interaction is
essential to cognitive development
– However, several problems with his
approach:
• Underestimated children’s abilities
• Miscalculated ages of transitions
• Paid too little attention to the social world
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Ecological Systems Theory
– Bronfenbrenner
• Argues that children develop within a
system of complex human relationships
• Stresses the role of culture and social
relations in development
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Cognitive Development
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
– Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)
– Emphasized cultural context
– Believed children need the help of others
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Cognitive Development
Theory of Mind
– An understanding of mental states such as
feelings and intentions, and their causal role
in behavior
– Develops around age 3
– Develops through social activities
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Cognitive Development
Thought in a Social Context
– Projects such as Head Start provide an
enriched environment
• Basic skills that lead to complex
learning strategies are emphasized
• Parental involvement is central
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Cognitive Development
Thought in a Social Context
– Research shows that to be most successful,
such interventions need to
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Begin early
Continue over a long period
Be intensive
Utilize direct intervention
Use multiple routes
Emphasize individual differences
Have support at home and in the community
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Social and Emotional Development
Attachment
– A strong emotional
bond a person feels
toward special people
in his or her life
– May hold first key to socialization
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Attachment
Classic Work: Attachment in Rhesus Monkeys
– Harry Harlow (1905 – 1981)
– Put baby monkeys in cages with two
monkey-shaped wire figures
• One was covered in soft cloth
• One was bare wire
– Baby monkeys spent more time
on cloth-covered figure, even
when it did not provide food
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Classic Work: Attachment in
Rhesus Monkeys
• Demonstrated the importance of comfort in
attachment
– However, all monkeys grew up abnormally
• More fearful and aggressive
• More self-destructive
– Healthy attachments require
more than just physical comfort
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Attachment
Attachment in Infants
– John Bowlby (1907 – 1990)
– Argued that attachment evolved because it
promotes survival
– By 7–8 months of age, strong attachment
may lead to separation anxiety
– Attachment is studied with the strange
situation technique
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Attachment in Infants
• Types of attachment
– Secure attachment (~60%)
– Avoidant attachment (~20%)
– Resistant attachment (~15%)
– Disoriented attachment (~5%)
• Time spent with babies promotes secure
attachment
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Attachment in Infants
• Once established, early attachment is fairly
stable
• There are cultural variations in attachment
• In general, children who lack close
attachment are more likely to become
anxious and overly dependent
– Attachment alone does not determine adult
adjustment, however
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Attachment
Attachment and Child Care
– ~30% of preschool children are in daycare
– Majority of studies find minimal negative
effects
4. Evolutionary Perspective and Attachment
– Attachment is an evolved adaptation
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Social and Emotional Development
Temperament
– Long-lasting individual differences in
disposition
– The intensity and quality of emotional
reactions
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Temperament
• New York Longitudinal Study
– Found four types of infants
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Easy (~40% of children)
Difficult (~10% of children)
Slow-to-warm-up (~15% of children)
Unique (~35% of children)
• Some temperamental traits may be more
biologically based than others
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Social and Emotional Development
Moral Reasoning
– Individuals develop moral reasoning
beginning in childhood
• A system of learned attitudes used to
evaluate right or wrong
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Moral Reasoning
Piaget and Kohlberg
– Piaget found young children’s ideas about
morality to be rigid and rule-bound
– Older children possess moral relativity
– Lawrence Kohlberg (1927 – 1987)
• Central concept is justice
• Three levels of moral development
a. Level 1: Preconventional morality
b. Level 2: Conventional morality
c. Level 3: Postconventional morality
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Moral Reasoning
Men and Women: Carol Gilligan’s Work
– Kohlberg’s theory was sexist in that he thought boys
and men had more sophisticated moral reasoning
– When Gilligan studied women, she found gender
differences but not gender inferiority
• Sex refers to biological differences
• Gender refers to social or culturally constructed
differences
• Thus, “gender differences” refer to how men
and women differ cognitively or behaviorally
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Carol Gilligan’s Work
• Kohlberg emphasized justice
• Relationships are also important considerations
in moral decision making
– Boys gravitate toward a “morality of justice”
– Girls gravitate toward a “morality of caring”
• She thought the difference was due to the
mother-child relationship
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Carol Gilligan’s Work
• A morality of caring develops over time
• Criticisms of Gilligan’s work
– Research was performed mainly with middleclass, White children and adults
• Importance of Gilligan’s work
– Highlights the element of caring
– Both men and women are likely to focus on caring
and justice
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Social Development
A. Early social development and child rearing
1. The role of Fathers
• Affection from both parents is equally
important
• There is variation in the
level of fathers’ involvement
– Play is prominent
• The mother’s attitude
affects the quality of the
time a father spends with
his children
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Early Social Development and Child
Rearing
2. The First Two Years
– Infants are unable to recognize needs other
than their own
– As attachment develops, so do social
behaviors
– By the end of the second year, a sense of self
is developing
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Early Social Development and Child
Rearing
3. Sharing
– Young children do not spontaneously
understand the concept of sharing
• Most can share when asked to by a parent
• Sharing helps children understand
reciprocal arrangements
• Sharing is more likely after kindergarten
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Social Development
B. Gender Roles
– A set of expectations held by society about
how women and men are supposed to
behave
– Parents can emphasize or de-emphasize
gender roles
• Rigid gender role expectations can place
children at risk for problems in adulthood
• Flexible views about gender roles are
associated with fewer relationship problems
as adults
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Social Development
C. Erik Erikson and the Beginning of the
Search for Self
– Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Stages of
Development
– Each stage contributes to the
development of a unique self
– Each stage involves a dilemma or crisis,
with a potential positive or negative
outcome
– Self-perception begins when the child
realizes s/he is separate from others
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
Development
1. Basic Trust vs. Basic Mistrust
– Birth to 12–18 months
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
– 18 months to 3 years
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
– 3 to 6 years
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
– 6–12 years
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