Chapter 3 Human Development

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Chapter 3Human Development
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Heredity and Genes

• Developmental Psychology The study of
  progressive changes in behavior and abilities
• Heredity (Nature) Transmission of physical and
  psychological characteristics from parents to
  their children through genes
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) Molecular structure,
  shaped like a double helix that contains coded
  genetic information
• Genes Specific areas on a strand of DNA that
  carry hereditary information
• Dominant The genes feature will appear each
  time the gene is present
• Recessive The genes feature will appear only if
  it is paired with another recessive gene

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Figure 3.3
FIGURE 3.3 Gene patterns for children of
brown-eyed parents, where each parent has one
brown-eye gene and one blue-eye gene. Because the
brown-eye gene is dominant, one child in four
will be blue-eyed. Thus, there is a significant
chance that two brown-eyed parents will have a
blue-eyed child.
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Temperament and Environment

• Temperament The physical core of personality
• Easy Children 40 relaxed and agreeable
• Difficult Children 10 moody, intense, easily
  angered
• Slow-to-Warm-Up Children 15 restrained,
  unexpressive, shy
• Remaining Children Do not fit into any specific
  category

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Environment

• Environment (Nurture) All external conditions
  that affect development
• Sensitive Periods A period of increased
  sensitivity to environmental influences also, a
  time when certain events must occur for normal
  development to take place

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Environment (cont'd)

• Teratogen Anything capable of causing birth
  defects (e.g., narcotics, radiation, cigarette
  smoke, lead, and cocaine)
• Deprivation Lack of normal stimulation,
  nutrition, comfort, or love
• Enrichment When an environment is deliberately
  made more complex and intellectually stimulating

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The Mozart Effect Real or Rubbish?

• Rauscher Shaw (1998) claimed that after college
  students listened to Mozart they scored higher on
  a spatial reasoning test
• Original experiment done with adults tells us
  nothing about infants
• What effect would listening to other styles of
  music or other stimuli have?
• Most researchers unable to duplicate the effect
• Conclusion Those who listened to Mozart were
  just more alert or in a better mood

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Maturation

• Physical growth and development of the body,
  brain, and nervous system as a child gets older
• Increased muscular control occurs in patterns
• Cephalocaudal From head to toe
• Proximodistal From center of the body to the
  extremities

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Emotional and Social Development

• Social Smile Smiling elicited by social stimuli
  not exclusive to seeing parents
• Invites parents to care for them
• Infants focal distance approx 12 inches
• Distance from parents cradled arms to their
  faces
• Infants especially interested in faces
• Motherese
• All these promote bonding / attachment

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Figure 3.9
FIGURE 3.9 Infants display many of the same
emotional expressions as adults do. Carroll Izard
believes such expressions show that distinct
emotions appear within the first months of life.
Other theorists argue that specific emotions come
into focus more gradually, as an infants nervous
system matures. Either way, parents can expect to
see a full range of basic emotions by the end of
a babys first year.
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Mary Ainsworth and Attachment

• Separation Anxiety Crying and signs of fear when
  a child is left alone or is with a stranger
  generally appears around 8-12 months
• Quality of Attachment The Strange Situation
• Secure Stable and positive emotional bond upset
  by mothers absence
• Insecure-Avoidant Tendency to avoid reunion with
  parent or caregiver
• Insecure-Ambivalent Desire to be with parent or
  caregiver and some resistance to being reunited
  with Mom

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Figure 3.10
FIGURE 3.10 In the United States, about two
thirds of all children from middle-class families
are securely attached. About one child in three
is insecurely attached. (Percentages are
approximate. From Kaplan, 1998.)
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Attachment

• Predicts later outcomes resiliency, curiosity,
  problem-solving abilities, social skills in grade
  school
• Possibly on into adulthood

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Optimal Caregiving

• Maternal Influences All the effects a mother has
  on her child
• Paternal Influences Sum of all effects a father
  has on his child
• Goodness of Fit (Chess Thomas) Degree to which
  parents and child have compatible temperaments
• Example

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Parenting Styles (Baumrind, 1991)

• Authoritarian Parents Enforce rigid rules and
  demand strict obedience to authority. Children
  are obedient and self-controlled.
• Overly Permissive Give little guidance. Allow
  too much freedom, or dont hold children
  accountable for their actions. Children tend to
  be dependent and immature and frequently
  misbehave.
• Authoritative Provide firm and consistent
  guidance combined with love and affection.
  Children tend to be competent, self-controlled,
  independent, and assertive have higher
  self-esteem.

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Types of Child Discipline

• Power Assertion Using physical punishment or a
  show of force fear, hatred, lack of warmth
  spontaneity defiance aggression, low
  self-esteem
• Withdrawal of Love Withholding affection
  refusing to speak to a child or threatening to
  leave insecure, dependent, perfectionistic,
  low self-esteem
• Management Techniques Combine praise,
  recognition, approval, rules, and reasoning to
  encourage desirable behavior self-control,
  higher self-esteem

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Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development

• Piaget believed that all children passed through
  a set series of stages during their intellectual
  development like Freud, he was a Stage Theorist.
• Transformations Mentally changing the shape or
  form of a substance children younger than 6 or 7
  cannot do this. (Clay ball vs. flat Water
  tall/thin vs. short/fat)
• Assimilation Application of existing mental
  patterns to new situations. (nail/screw
  dog/cow)
• Accommodation Existing ideas are changed to
  accommodate new information or experiences.

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Jean Piaget Sensorimotor Stage

• Sensorimotor (0-2 Years) All sensory input and
  motor responses are coordinated most
  intellectual development here is nonverbal.
• Object Permanence Concept that objects still
  exist when they are out of sight.

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Figure 3.16
FIGURE 3.16 The panels on the left show a
possible event, in which an infant watches as a
toy is placed behind the right of two screens.
After a delay of 70 seconds, the toy is brought
into view from behind the right screen. In the
two panels on the right, an impossible event
occurs. The toy is placed behind the left screen
and retrieved from behind the right. (A duplicate
toy was hidden there before testing.)
Eight-month-old infants react with surprise when
they see the impossible event staged for them.
Their reaction implies that they remember where
the toy was hidden. Infants appear to have a
capacity for memory and thinking that greatly
exceeds what Piaget claimed is possible during
the sensorimotor period.
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Jean Piaget Preoperational Stage

• Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years) Children begin
  to use language and think symbolically (e.g.,
  words), BUT their thinking is still intuitive and
  egocentric.
• Intuitive Makes little use of reasoning and
  logic.
• Egocentric Thought Thought that is unable to
  accommodate viewpoints of others. Examples
• View from the backseat
• mystery pronoun use

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Jean Piaget Concrete Operational Stage

• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11Years) Children
  become able to use concepts of time, space,
  volume, and number BUT in ways that remain
  simplified and concrete, not abstract.
• Conservation Mass, weight, and volume remain
  unchanged when the shape or appearance of objects
  changes. (Water poured between different
  containers)
• Reversibility of Thought Relationships involving
  equality or identity can be reversed. (Clay
  shape)

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Jean Piaget Formal Operations

• Formal Operations Stage (11 Years and Up)
  Thinking now includes abstract, theoretical, and
  hypothetical ideas.
• Abstract Ideas Concepts and examples removed
  from specific examples and concrete situations.
• Hypothetical Possibilities Suppositions,
  guesses, or projections.
• Deductive Scientific thinking

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Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory

• Childrens cognitive development is heavily
  influenced by social and cultural factors.
• A childs thinking develops through dialogues
  with more capable persons
• Zone of Proximal Development Range of tasks a
  child cannot master alone, but can master with
  guidance from a more capable partner. Optimal
  challenge / learning.
• Scaffolding Adjusting instruction so it is
  responsive to a beginners behavior and so it
  supports the beginners efforts to understand a
  problem or gain a mental skill.
• Implications for teaching / helping

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Lawrence Kohlberg and Stages of Moral Development

• Moral Development When we acquire values,
  beliefs, and thinking abilities that guide
  responsible behavior
• Three Levels
• Preconventional Moral thinking guided by
  consequences of actions (punishment, reward,
  exchange of favors)
• Conventional Reasoning based on a desire to
  please others or to follow accepted rules and
  values
• Postconventional Follows self-accepted,
  universal moral principles (justice, dignity,
  equality)
• Stage theorist, like Freud and Piaget

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Erik Eriksons Eight Stages ofPsychosocial
Dilemmas

• Stage One Trust versus Mistrust (Birth-1)
  Children are completely dependent on others
• Trust Established when babies given adequate
  warmth, touching, love, and physical care
• Mistrust Caused by inadequate or unpredictable
  care and by cold, indifferent, and rejecting
  parents
• Stage Two Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt (1-3)
• Autonomy Doing things for themselves
• Shame Doubt Overprotective or ridiculing
  parents may cause children to doubt abilities and
  feel shameful about their actions

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Erik Eriksons Eight Stages of Psychosocial
Dilemmas (cont'd)

• Stage Three Initiative versus Guilt (3-5)
• Initiative Parents reinforce via giving children
  freedom to play, use imagination, and ask
  questions
• Guilt May occur if parents criticize, prevent
  play, or discourage a childs questions
• Stage Four Industry versus Inferiority (6-12)
• Industry Occurs when child is praised for
  productive activities
• Inferiority Occurs if childs efforts are
  regarded as messy or inadequate

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Erik Eriksons Eight Stages of Psychosocial
Dilemmas (cont'd)

• Stage Five (Adolescence) Identity versus Role
  Confusion
• Identity For adolescents, answering, Who am I?
  Hopefully through exploration of possibilities.
• Role Confusion Occurs when adolescents are
  unsure of where they are going and who they are
• Stage Six (Young adulthood) Intimacy versus
  Isolation
• Intimacy Ability to care about others and to
  share experiences with them
• Isolation Feeling alone and uncared for in life

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Erik Eriksons Eight Stages of Psychosocial
Dilemmas (cont'd)

• Stage Seven (Middle adulthood) Generativity
  versus Stagnation
• Generativity Interest in guiding the next
  generation
• Stagnation When one is only concerned with ones
  own needs and comforts
• Stage Eight (Late adulthood) Integrity versus
  Despair
• Integrity Self-respect developed when people
  have lived richly and responsibly
• Despair Occurs when previous life events are
  viewed with regret experiences heartache and
  remorse

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Effective Parenting

• Have stable rules of conduct (consistency)
• Makes childs world secure and predictable
• Show mutual respect, love, encouragement, and
  shared enjoyment
• Have effective communication
• Use I-Messages Tells children the effect their
  specific behavior had on you
• Avoid You-Messages Threats, name-calling,
  accusing, bossing, criticizing, or lecturing

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Effective Parenting

• Use Natural Consequences Effects that naturally
  follow a particular behavior intrinsic effects
• no coat cold
• Use Logical Consequences Rational and reasonable
  effects
• broke friends toy replace it
• Give them choices (all of which work for you)
• Rather than carry a child You can either hold
  my hand or walk on your own.