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Developmental psychology– The study of how humans grow, develop, and
change throughout the life spanControversial issues in developmental
psychology– Some developmental psychologists have argued
that the best way to resolve the nature-nurture debate, and to explain why some children exhibit resilience in response to unsupportive or harmful environments, is to think of each child as born with certain vulnerabilities, such as a difficult temperament or a genetic disorder
Controversial issues in developmental psychology (continued)– Through childhood and adolescence, vulnerabilities
and protective factors interact with variables in the environment so that the same environment can have different effects, depending on the characteristics of each child
Approaches to studying developmental change– Cross-sectional Study
A type of developmental study in which researchers compare groups of participants of different ages on certain characteristics to determine age-related differences
At different ages, different subjects are studied
– Longitudinal StudyA type of developmental study in which the same group of
participants is followed and measured at different agesAt different ages, same subjects are studied
Negative influences on prenatal development (continued)– Fetal alcohol syndrome
A condition, caused by maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy, in which the baby is born mentally retarded, with a small head and facial, organ, and behavioral abnormalities
Low birth weightA baby weighing less than 5.5 pounds
Thomas, Chess, and Birch (continued)– Three general types of temperament – Easy – had generally pleasant moods, were adaptable,
approached new situations and people positively, and established regular sleeping, eating, and elimination patterns
– Difficult – had generally unpleasant moods, reacted negatively to new situations and people, were intense in their emotional reactions, and showed irregularity of bodily functions
– Slow-to-warm-up – tended to withdraw, were slow to adapt, and had a medium mood
Father-child relationship– Children whose fathers exhibit antisocial behavior,
such as deceitfulness and aggression, are more likely to demonstrate such behavior themselves
– Children who experience regular interaction with their fathers tend to have higher IQs and to do better in social situations and at coping with frustration than children lacking such interactions
– Positive father-son relationships are also associated with parenting behavior by sons when they have children of their own
Father-child relationship (continued)– Because the effects of fathers on development are
overwhelmingly positive, father absence is associated with many undesirable developmental outcomes
– Father absence is also related to children’s reduced self-confidence in problem solving, low self-esteem, depression, suicidal thoughts, and behavioral problems such as aggression and delinquency
– For girls, father absence predicts early sexual behavior and teen pregnancy
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development– Sensorimotor stage
Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development (ages birth to 2 years), culminating in the development of object permanence and the beginning of representational thought
Object permanence– The realization that objects continue to exist even
when they can no longer be perceived
– Preoperational stagePiaget’s second stage of cognitive development (ages 2 to
7 years), characterized by rapid development of language and thinking governed by perception rather than logic
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (continued) – Concrete operations stage
Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development (ages 7 to 11 years), during which a child acquires the concepts of reversibility and conservation and is able to apply logical thinking to concrete objects
Reversibility– The realization that any change in the shape, position,
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (continued) – Concrete operations stage (continued)
Conservation– The concept that a given quantity of matter remains
the same despite rearrangement or change in its appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away
– Formal operations stage
Piaget’s fourth and final stage (ages 11 or 12 years and beyond), characterized by the ability to apply logical thinking to abstract problems and hypothetical situations
Intellectual Development If at first you do not succeed, Too many cooks The early bird Better safe than Where there is a will Don’t put off until tomorrow Early to bed, early to rise, An apple a day Don’t count your chickens All work and no play A penny saved When the cat is away Don't cut off your nose He who hesitates Don’t cry over A watched pot Strike while the iron Time flies when
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (continued) – Formal operations stage (continued)
Because of their ability to construct an imaginary reality that is linked to present reality, adolescents exhibit types of thinking that are virtually nonexistent in younger children
Teenagers also have an exaggerated sense of their own uniqueness: the personal fable
They cannot fathom that anyone has ever felt as deeply as they feel or has ever loved as they love
Believed language-based spontaneous behaviors exhibited by children were important to the process of cognitive development
Maintained that human infants come equipped with basic skills such as perception, the ability to pay attention, and certain capacities of memory not unlike those of many other animal species
Believed that talking to oneself – private speech – is a key component in cognitive development
Saw a strong connection among social experience, speech, and cognitive development
Vygotsky’s sociocultural view (continued)– Lev Vygotsky (continued)
Maintained that a child’s readiness to learn resides within a zone of proximal development
This zone is a range of cognitive tasks that the child cannot yet perform alone but can learn to perform with the instruction, help, and guidance of a parent, teacher, or more advanced peer
The psychosexual stages of development (continued)– The oral stage (birth to 1 year)
During the oral stage, the mouth is the primary source of an infant’s sensual pleasure
Freud claimed that difficulties at the oral stage can result in personality traits such as either excessive dependence, optimism, and gullibility or extreme pessimism, sarcasm, hostility, and aggression
– The anal stage (1 to 3 years)During the anal stage, children derive sensual pleasure,
Freud believed, from expelling and withholding feces
Information-processing approach (continued) – Theory of mind (continued)
Reaching a level of cognitive maturity in which an individual is aware of his or her own thoughts and has an understanding about their nature of thought involves acquiring what is referred to as a theory of mind
More broadly, the process of thinking about how you or others think is known as metacognition
Socialization– The process of learning socially acceptable
behaviors, attitudes, and values
Parents’ role in the socialization process– To be effective, socialization must ultimately result
in children coming to regulate their own behavior– Diane Baumrind
Studied the continuum of parental control and identified three parenting styles—the authoritarian, the authoritative, and the permissive (later added neglectful)
Parents’ role in the socialization process (continued)– Permissive parents
Parents who make few rules or demands and allow children to make their own decisions and control their own behavior
Children raised in this manner are the most immature and seem to be the least self-controlled and self-reliant
These children seem to be given too much responsibility too soon and as a result it appears these children get over their head and question their own skill and decision making abilities
Parents’ role in the socialization process (continued) – Neglecting parents
Parents who make few rules or demands because they are not involved in their children’s lives
These are permissive parents that do not express love for their children well. I know you are there but quite frankly just do not want to deal with you!
Infants of neglecting parents are more likely than others to be insecurely attached and continue to experience difficulties in social relationships throughout childhood and into their adult years
Peer relationships (continued)– Physical attractiveness is a major factor in peer
acceptance even in children as young as 3 to 5 years, although it seems to be more important for girls than for boys
– Low acceptance by peers is an important predictor of later mental health problems
– Most often excluded from the peer group are neglected children, who are shy and withdrawn, and rejected children, who typically exhibit aggressive and inappropriate behavior and who are likely to start fights