Infancy and Childhood Chapter 3

Transcription

1 Infancy and Childhood Chapter 3 SECTION 1 NOTES Physical, Perceptual, and Language Development Nature versus Nurture Developmental psychology the study of changes that occur as an individual matures. Developmental psychologists study: Continuity versus stages of development Stability versus change Nature versus nurture Newborns Babies are born with certain reflexes: Grasping reflex Rooting reflex Physical Development Within two years an infant transforms into a little boy or girl with many capabilities. This is due to: Maturation - the internally programmed growth of a child Learning a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. Psychologists have been able to develop an approximate timetable for maturation, which helps doctors and other professionals spot problems. Each child is unique, so the age range on some milestones varies.

2 Perceptual Development Newborns have mature perception skills. They prefer human faces and patterned materials. They benefit from being held and touched by their parents. Infants older than 6 months display depth perception. Language Development Chimpanzees develop at least as far as a 2 year-old-human; however, they cannot apply grammatical rules. Grammar a set of rules for combining words into phrases and sentences to express an infinite number of thoughts that can be understood by others. Psychologists argue over whether language is reinforced or inborn. Some people also claim that there is a window of opportunity for learning language. Steps to learning language: A person must learn to make signs, either by hand or mouth. He or she must learn the meaning of the signs. Then he or she must learn grammar. At the age of 2, a child s language is known as telegraphic speech the kind of verbal utterances in which words are left out, but the meaning is usually clear. Once children begin to learn grammatical rules, they tend to overgeneralize those rules until they truly understand them.

3 SECTION 2 Cognitive and Emotional Developmental Cognitive Development Jean Piaget believed that intelligence, or the ability to understand, develops gradually as the child grows. Intellectual development involves: Quantitative changes (growth in the amount of information) Qualitative changes (differences in the manner of thinking) A schema is a conceptual framework a person uses to make sense of the world. Assimilation and accommodation work together to produce intellectual growth. Assimilation: Accommodation: When events do not fit into an existing schema, a new one must be formed. Object permanence is a big step in a child s second year of life. Achieving object permanence usually signifies representational thought. The realization of conservation occurs between the ages of 5 and 7. Before the age of 5, children are egocentric. Piaget s stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor stage the infant uses schema that primarily involve his body and sensations. Preoperational stage the child begins to use mental images and symbols to understand things. Concrete operations stage children are able to use logical schemas, but their understanding is limited to concrete objects. Formal operations stage the person is able to solve abstract problems. Emotional Development Konrad Lorenz experimented with baby geese. He learned that 13 to 16 hours after birth is a critical period in which the animals imprint on the first thing they see (usually their mother).

4 Harry Harlow concluded that monkeys clung to their mothers because of the need for contact comfort, not necessarily food. Some psychologists also believe that human babies form an attachment to their mothers around 6 months. Stranger anxiety the fear of strangers that infants commonly display. Separation anxiety distress that is sometimes experienced by infants when they are separated from their primary caregivers. Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby devised a technique called the Strange Situation to measure attachment. Patterns of attachment include: Secure attachment Avoidant attachment Resistant attachment Disorganized attachment SECTION 3 PARENTING STYLES AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT Has the style in which you were raised affected you? Distinct styles of parenting: Authoritarian family Democratic/authoritative family Permissive/laissez-faire family Uninvolved parents Children who grow up in the democratic family setting seem to be more confident than other young people. The parents establish limits for the child. They also respond to the child with warmth and support.

5 The results of a democratic family setting include: The child is able to assume responsibility gradually. The child is more likely to identify with parents who love and respect him or her. Child Abuse Child abuse includes: Physical or mental injury Sexual abuse Negligent treatment Mistreatment of children under the age of 18 by adults entrusted with their care Reasons for abuse: The abusive parents were abused as children. Parents are overburdened and stressed. The children are high maintenance or mentally/physically challenged. Social-cultural stresses present obstacles. Abuse can have many developmental effects on the victims. Every state has social service agencies that intervene when abuse is discovered. Socialization Socialization is 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 Anal stage Phallic stage Latency stage Genital stage During the phallic stage, the child wants to claim the parent of the opposite sex for him or herself, but then begins the process of identification (a child adopts the values and principles of the same-sex parent). During the latency stage, the child learns the process of sublimation. Erikson s theory of psychosocial development is based on life periods in which an individual s goal is to satisfy desires associated with social needs.

6 Freud and Erikson believe that learning social rules is innate. Many psychologists believe that that social development is a matter of conditioning and imitation. Cognitive theorists view social development as a result of a child s acting on the environment and trying to make sense out of his experience. Game playing is one way that children learn such as role taking. Lawrence Kohlberg conducted studies to show how important being able to see other people s points of view is to social and moral development. Stages of moral development: Stage one Children are egocentric. Stage two Children have a better idea of how to receive rewards as well as to avoid punishment; they act in terms of consequences. Stage three Children become acutely sensitive to what other people want and think. Stage four Children are concerned with law and order and less with approval of others. Stage five People are concerned with whether the law is fair or just. Stage six People accept ethical principles that apply to everyone.