Infancy & Childhood
Chapter 10
Section 1: The Study of Development
Prenatal Care
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Must get enough to eat
Take folic acid
Best to be under age 40
No smoking, alcohol, or drugs
• STDs can be detrimental
Prenatal Development
• Zygote
• Embryo
• Fetus
Infants
• APGAR Test (1-10 Score range)
Developmental Psychology
• Study of growth and change of people
throughout the life span
• Longitudinal Studies vs. Cross-Sectional
Studies
Nature vs. Nurture
• Nature –
– Maturation –
– Critical period – time
when human / animal is
best suited to learn a
particular skill or behavior
pattern
Nature vs. Nurture
• Nurture –
environment
– Tabula Rosa – John
Locke believed the
mind of the infant is a
blank slate
Stages vs. Continuity
• Does development occur in stages or as one
continuous process?
• Both, depending on the situation
– Sit / crawl / stand / walk in stages
– Growth in weight and height from ages 2-11 is
continuous
Section 2: Physical Development
Height and Weight
• Most dramatic gains in
height and weight occur
before infant is born
• Slows down throughout
rest of childhood
Motor Development
• Purposeful
movement that
usually occurs in
stages
Reflexes
• Involuntary reaction or
response (inborn)
– Examples: breathing,
blinking, swallowing,
sucking, etc.
– Rooting Reflex
– Moro Reflex
– Babinski Reflex
Perceptual Development
• Vision
– At first, prefer pictures with complex patterns
– Eventually prefer pictures of human faces
• Depth Perception – the visual cliff experiment
Perceptual Development (cont’d)
• Hearing
– Respond more to high-pitched sounds &
mother’s voice
• Smell and Taste
– Respond immediately to strong odors
Section 3: Social Development
Development of Attachment
• Attachment – emotional ties that form
between people
• Stranger Anxiety –
• Separation Anxiety –
Contact Comfort
• Used to believe we became attached to those
that fed us
• Harlow’s monkey experiments proved we
have a basic need to touch and be touched
by something soft (skin or fur)
– Stronger than need for food
Imprinting
• Attachment can be instinctual
• Some animals attach during a critical period
just after birth
• First moving object is imprinted on young
animal
Secure vs. Insecure Attachment
• When parents are affectionate and reliable,
infants become securely attached
• Unresponsive and unreliable parents cause
insecure attachment
Styles of Parenting
•Strict
Demanding
Possessive
Controlling
Dictatorial
Antagonistic
• Cold
Neglecting
Indifferent
Careless
Negligent
Detached
Supportive
Protective
Affectionate
Flexible
Caring
Lenient
Democratic
Inconsistent
Overindulgent
•Permissive
• Warm
Styles of Parenting
Warm Parents
• Lots of affection
• Enjoy kid’s company –show
it
• Better off with warm
parents
• Better adjusted
• Develop a conscious
Cold Parents
• More interested in escaping
punishment than doing the
right thing
Styles of Parenting (continued)
Authoritative
• Warmth and positive
strictness
• Expect a lot, but explain
why and offer help
Authoritarian
• Obedience for the sake of
obedience
• Strict without questions
• Cold and rejecting
Styles of Parenting (continued)
Uninvolved
• Tend to leave their children
on their own
• Make few demands, show
little warmth or
encouragement
Permissive Parents
• Easygoing
• Less rules and let kids do
what they want
• Warm and supportive, but
poor communicators
Childcare
• More than half of mothers work outside home
• Effects of day-care
– Quality important: learning resources,
individualized attention, many caregivers
important
• Effects on parent-child attachment
• Can be positive and negative
Child Abuse and Neglect
• Abuse –
• Seriously
underreported
• Neglect – failure to give
kid adequate food,
shelter, emotional
support, clothing, etc.
• Effects:
– Usually causes more
problems
Why does abuse happen?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Stress
History of abuse
Substance abuse
Lack of attachment
Abuse runs in families
• Kids imitate
behavior
• See it as normal
• Pattern usually
doesn’t continue
Self-Esteem
• Value or worth that people attach to
themselves
• Unconditional positive regard
– Accept kids for who they are, kids know they’re
not terrible people if they do something wrong
• Conditional positive regard
– Parents show love only when behaving in
accepted ways
– Kids will seek approval from others as adults
Other factors that effect Self-Esteem
• Feeling
competent
about a skill /
task
• Gender
• Age
Section 4: Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s Stages
of Cognitive Development
• Sensorimotor Stage
• Preoperational Stage
• Concrete Operational Stage
• Formal Operational Stage
Kohlberg’s Theory
of Moral Development
• Pre-conventional Level (stages 1 & 2)– base
judgments on consequences of behavior
• Conventional Level (stages 3-4)–
• Post-conventional Level (stages 5-6) – Reasoning
based on a person’s own moral standards of
goodness