Developmental%20Psychology

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Developmental Psychology

• Chapter Three

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• Development involves the
• processes and stages of growth
• from conception across the life
• span. It encompasses changes in
• physical, cognitive, and social
• behaviors.

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I. Prenatal/Infant Development
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A. Heredity-Environmental Issues

• Continuity versus stages of development.
• Stability versus change.
• Nature versus nurture.
• Nature the result of inheritance (heredity)
• Nurture the result of what we have learned
• Most people today see it as interaction between
  nature and nurture

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• 40 days 45 days 2 months
  4 months

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B. Prenatal Development

• 1. Zygote (day 1 to day 8)
• The fertilized egg
• Enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division
• Develops into an embryo
• 2. Embryo
• The developing human organism from 2 weeks
  through 2nd month
• Milestones heartbeat begins (day 25), facial
  features form, critical neurological development
  occurs
• 3. Fetus
• The developing human organism from 9 weeks after
  conception to birth
• Organ systems begin to function

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B. Prenatal Development

• 4. Teratogens
• agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can
  reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal
  development and cause harm
• Includes alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, lead,
  prescription drugs, or viruses
• 5. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
• physical and cognitive abnormalities in children
  caused by a pregnant womans heavy drinking.
• symptoms include facial misproportions

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C. Infant Development

• Infants can see, hear, smell, and respond to the
  environment.
• 2. Infants are also able to do quite a bit
  physically
• 3. Goes from an environment in which he/she is
  totally protected from the world to one which
  he/she is assaulted by lights, sounds, etc.
• 3. Born with certain inborn movements called
  reflexes
• Grasping reflex- an infants clinging response to
  a touch on the palm of the hand (can be lifted in
  the air)
• Rooting reflex- an infants response to a touch
  near the mouth (turns toward the source of touch)
  

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C. Infant Development

• 3. Major motor milestones
• 2 months Lifts head up
• 2 ½ months Rolls over
• 3 months Sits propped up
• 4 months Smile
• 5-6 months Grasp objects
• 6 months Sits without support
• 6 ½ months Stands holding on
• 8-10 months Crawling
• 9 months Walks holding on
• 11 months Stands alone
• 12 months Walks alone
• 17 months Walks up steps

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D. Maturation

• 1. The internally programmed growth of a child.
• 2. It is as important as learning or experience.
• Very important during the first year
• 3. Children normally develop according to a
  general schedule unless underfed, restricted in
  movements, or deprived of human contact
• 4. Children can only do such skills when their
  bodies are physically ready (maturational
  readiness)
• No amount of pushing or coaching by a parent will
  make a child maturate before they are ready.

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E. Perceptual Development

• 1. Infants are born with perception skills
• 2. Robert Fantz showed that infants different
  faces and discovered that they prefer looking at
  human faces and patterned materials the most.
• Infants also benefit greatly from being touched
  by their parents
• 3. Another experiment used a visual cliff
• Platform part has a checkerboard pattern and the
  other part consists of a sheet of glass with a
  checkerboard pattern a few feet below it
• Older infants (6 months and older) refused to
  cross over the cliff
• Young infants seemed unafraid but had changes in
  heart rates

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II. Cognitive Development
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A. What is Cognitive Development?

• 1. Process where a childs understanding of the
  world changes based on their age and experience
• 2. Children think differently from adults in many
  ways
• They form their own hypotheses about how the
  world works

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B. Works of Jean Piaget

• 1. Swiss psychologist
• 2. Spent years studying the intelligence, or the
  ability of the child
• Will develop as the child grows
• 3. Also spent time observing, questioning, and
  playing games with babies and young children
• 4. As childrens intelligence grows, the amount
  of information they know increases the way they
  think also changes

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C. How Toddlers Learn

• Able to understand the world by the construction
  of schemas (mental representations of the world)
• 2. Assimilation
• The process of fitting a new object into ones
  schemas
• 3. Accommodation
• The process where we change our schema to fit the
  characteristics of the new object
• 4. When events do not fit into existing schemas,
  new and grander schemas have to be created

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D. The Principle of Conservation

• 1. Happens between ages 5 to 7
• 2. Means that they understand that the amount of
  something does not change when its appearance
  changes
• 3. Conservation is closely related to egocentrism
  
• Means that they cannot understand someone elses
  viewpoint

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Preconserving child will say that one stick is
longer. Conserving child will say that they are
the same length
Preconserving child will say that the long piece
has more clay. Conserving child will say that
they have the same amount of clay.
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E. Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage Approximate Age General Characteristics
Sensorimotor Birth 2 years Behavior consists of simple motor responses to sensory stimuli lacks concept of object permanence.
Preoperational 2 7 years Lacks operations (reversible mental processes) exhibits egocentric thinking lacks concept of conservation uses symbols (such as words or mental images) to solve simple problems or to talk about things that are not present.
Concrete operations 7 11 years Begins to understand concept of conservation still has trouble with abstract ideas classification abilities improve masters concept of conservation
Formal operations 11 years onward Understands abstract ideas and hypothetical situations capable of logical and deductive reasoning.