Development Conception to Adolescence...Brain Development • Over 23 billion neurons were produced in the child by birth • From age 3-6, the brain’s neural system starts to grow

Development

Conception to Adolescence

Developmental Psychologists

Study physical, cognitive, and social

changes throughout the human life cycle,

and find common patterns which are

important.

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

•Only 1 of 5000 of a woman’s eggs will be mature enough to be released

•Men can produce over 1000 sperm in a second, this rate will decrease over

age

•The mating of the egg and sperm include:

•Sperms going up to an egg which is 85000 times bigger than itself

•The sperm releases digestive enzymes to dissolve the egg’s protective

layer

•The egg will block other sperm out once one sperm penetrates the

protective layer

•Fingerlike projections will sprout around the sperm and full it in

•By the end of the day, they will fuse

Prenatal Development

• Zygotes are fertilized eggs

• In the first week, the cell divides to produce a zygote of about 100 cells

• After the first week, the cell will differentiate and specialize in structure and function

• After ten days, the zygote will attach to the mother’s uterine wall

• The placenta and the embryo are then formed

• After nine weeks, the embryo is known as the fetus

Prenatal Development • After six months, the organs like

the stomach will be able to function and perform

• The fetus starts to respond to noise during the sixth month

• Both genetic and environmental factors can affect the prenatal development

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is usually seen with children born with mental as well as physical deformities. Over 1 in 750 kids are born with this syndrome

• FAS is the leading cause of mental retardation

• Pregnant women who have been stressed during their pregnancy have children who are less competent in motor skills, emotional as well as learning deficiency. Increased proclivity of depression

Infants born to mothers who drink,

even in modest amounts, may be

born with fetal alcohol syndrome,

which often consists of growth

retardation, unusual facial features,

and mental retardation.

The Competent Newborn • the rooting reflex is when

newborns are prompted to open their mouth and turn towards the nipple when touched on the cheek

• William James presumed that newborns experiences where similar to that of buzzing confusion

• Research from the 1960’s revealed that newborns were born preferring sights and sounds which facilitate social responsiveness. They are more drawn into pictures that are associated to humans (Mondlock’s study)

The Competent Newborn

• Habituation is the decrease in responding with repeated stimulation

• Janine Spencer and Paul Quinn did a study which revealed that 4 year olds like adults focused on the faces of animals. (cat and dog experiment)

• Alan Slater explained that in order to recognize a new stimulus as different, an infant must remember the initial stimulus.

Brain Development • Over 23 billion neurons were

produced in the child by birth

• From age 3-6, the brain’s neural

system starts to grow in the

frontal lobes, enabling rational

planning

• Maturation sets the basic

course of development. It is the

genetically designed biological

growth process.

• Maturation is uninfluenced by

experiences

• While genetic growth

tendencies are inborn

Motor Development • The order in which physical

coordination occurs like crawling before walking is due to the maturing of the nervous system and has nothing to do with imitation

• Individual differences in timing occur

• Genes play a role in the timing of each coordination. Identical twins would be able to walk more or less on the same day

• Biological maturation includes the rapid development of the cerebellum at the back of the brain

• Experiences will not have a major effect on the child’s physical skills until after age 1

Maturation and Infant Memory • Pillemer’s study concluded

that the average age of earliest conscious memory was 3.5 years of age. (infantile amnesia before 3.5)

• Starting at 4 years old, a child can start to remember their experiences

• From age 3-4 , the brain cortex matures , thus enabling toddlers to increase their long-term storage

• However , the child’s memories during this time may not be interrupted properly later on in life

Maturation and Infant Memory • Association can be remembered for the

maximum time of a month for a 3 month

old child.

• When the conscious mind does not know

and cannot express in words, the nervous

system may remember through increased

physiological responses like through skin

perspiration

Cognitive Development • Jean Piaget’s works revolved

around the errors give by children by each age.

• Before Piaget, people thought that children “simply knew less, not differently than adults.”

• Later it was discovered that “children reason in wildly illogical ways about problems whose solutions are self-evident to adults.”

• A child’s mind also develops through many stages

Cognitive Development • Piaget revealed that schemas develop when the brain

builds concepts. The schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

• There are two ways which we could adjust our schemas. By assimilating as well as accommodating them.

• When we assimilate new schemas, we interpret them into our current schemas

• When we accommodate our schemas, we adjust our present schemas to fit the particulars of new experiences. You refine the category.

Assimilation/Accommodation Ex. (Piaget)

A child seeing a zebra for the first time and calling it a horse. The child assimilates this information into her schema for a

horse. When the child accommodates information, she takes into consideration the different properties of a zebra

compared to a horse, perhaps calling a zebra a “horse with stripes”. When she eventually learns the name of zebra, she

has accommodated this information.

Piaget’s Cognitive Stages

1. Sensorimotor (birth to 2)

2. Preoperational (2 to 7)

3. Concrete Operational (first grade to early adolescence)

4. Formal Operational (Adolescence)

SM

PO

CO

FO

(“some pots cost four $”)

Piaget’s theory and Current

Thinking • Cognition refers to all the mental

activities associated with thinking, knowing , remembering and communicating.

• The sensorimotor stage is from birth to age 2. This is when the babies will take in the world through their sensory and motor interactions interacting with objects.

• Many use their mouths to investigate the world.

• Object Permanence is the awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived

• Before 8 months, the child lacks object permanence

Piaget’s theory and Current

Thinking • Many argue that Piaget

underestimated the intelligence of a child. He claimed that children did not have the ability to think. Today’s researchers see development as more continuous than Piaget. However, his views were contradicted when babies seem to have a more intuitive grasp of objects, when it was found that toddlers had a sense of numbers (Karen Wynn’s study).

• The preoperational stage is Piaget’s theory that from age 2 to about age 7, a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Piaget’s theory and Current

Thinking • Conservation is the principle that quantity remains the same despite

changes in shape. (Like when closed beakers seem to hold more volume as another open beaker with the same volume.)

• Judy DeLoache revealed that if the child was prompted to find a hidden object in a room, they could easily find it, but they could not locate the location on another map or painting. This was found for ages 2-3

• From age 3, the child could locate the hidden location in a map. Thus showing that they could use the symbols for the room. This went against Piaget’s theory of children not being able to think

• Piaget found that preschool children were egocentric. They had much difficulty to perceive things from another’s point of view. Asking whether the child’s brother had a brother (which was the child being asked) the child would reply that he did not.

Piaget’s theory and Current

Thinking • Parents often abuse their children since they do not understand

their egocentric thoughts.

• The theory of mind is the ability to read intentions, formed starting when a child is in pre-school.

• From age 3, children start to realize the difference between false beliefs

• Jennifer Jenkins and Janet Astington performed the band aid experiment in which they would ask children what they thought was in the box, then recorded what their reaction would be if found that the box was filled with something else. From 4 years old, the children were able to respond to theory of mind, claiming that their friends would probably think that the box was filled with band aids instead of pencils. Before they responded that they would think that the box was filled with pencils.

Piaget’s theory and Current

Thinking • First children realize that sad events can cause sad

feelings and then they realize that thought can cause feelings. From age 5-8, children realize that spontaneous self-produced thoughts can also create feelings.

• Children with autism were found to have difficulty understanding someone’s state of mind differs from their own. They also have difficulty reflecting on their own mental states. They are less likely to use personal pronouns such as I and me. Deaf children also have problems with such usage.

• Lev Vygotsky revealed that children no longer thought aloud from age 7. They start to rely on inner speech. Talking to themselves allows children to control their behavior and emotions and master new skills.

Piaget’s theory and Current

Thinking • Concrete Operational Stage was Piaget’s

theory of cognitive development. From 6-11 years of age. Children start to gain the mental operations what enables them to think logically about concrete events. Children also start to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation.

• Formal Operation stage is by age 12, when reasoning expands from concrete experiences to abstract thinking. Children start to solve hypothetical propositions and deduct consequences starting from adolescence.

Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory • Researchers start to see

development more continuous

than did Piaget.

• Piaget identified significant

cognitive milestones and

stimulated interest on how the

mind develops.

• Piaget’s major revelation was

that children construct their

understandings from

interactions with the world.

Social Development

• Stranger Anxiety- fear of strangers,

starting at around 8 months. They have

schemas for similar faces.

• The intense mutual infant-parent bond

develops by 12 months.

Origins of Attachments • Harry Harlow and

Margaret Harlow revealed in their monkey studies that monkeys brought up in isolated cages with cheese clothes, became distressed when the cheesecloth was taken away from them.

Origins of Attachments When they created two

mothers , by inserting a wire cylinder with a wooden head and another cylinder with terry cloth, they found that the monkeys they found that the monkeys did not prefer the nourishing mother, but instead the comfy mother.

Origins of Attachments

• This revealed that much of the parent-infant attachment comes from touch

• A safe haven as well as a secure base also strengthens attachment

• Critical period is known as an optimal period shortly after birth when certain events must take place to facilitate proper development.

• Imprinting is the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.

• Children do not imprint

• Familiarity is more comfortable to children

Attachment Differences • Mary Ainsworth studied attachment differences

by observing mother infant pairs at home during their first six months.

• Securely attached children play and explore comfortably when a mother is present and then becomes distressed when she leaves.

• Insecurely attached children meanwhile explore less in the mother’s presence and may cling to her, cry loudly when she leaves and remain upset until she returns.

• Sensitive responsive parents tend to have securely attached children

Attachment Differences • Genetically influenced temperament may evoke

responsive parenting, but parental sensitivity

has been taught and does increase infant

attachment security.

• Both father and mother love is a predictor to a

child’s well-being.

• Adult relationships tend to reflect the secure or

insecure attachment styles of early childhood

Erick Erickson’s idea prompted that basic

trust is formed in infancy through our

experiences with responsive caregivers.

Deprivation of Attachment • Children become withdrawn and frightened

when they are deprived of attachment and may not be able to develop speech properly

• Childhood abuse can lead to physical, psychological as well as social problems, it may alter the brain’s production of serotonin.

• This effect can be minimal before 16 months of age, by age 2 problems start to develop if abuse persists.

• Extensive time spent in day care is linked to increased aggression and defiance

Self Concept • Self concept is the sense of

their own identity and personal worth.

• It emerges around 6 months

• At 15-16 months, children start to recognize themselves in the mirror

• When they start school, they can describe many of their own traits

• By age 10, their self conception is rigid and stable

• The children’s views of themselves affect their actions. Children who form a positive self concept are more confident, independent and optimistic

Child Rearing Practices • Kids with the highest self esteem and reliance

come from homes were their parents are

authoritative

• Those with authoritarian parents tend to have

less social skills, self esteem

• Those with permissive parents are more likely

to be aggressive and immature

• The association between certain parenting

styles and certain childhood outcomes is co

relational. There are many other explanations for

a child’s behavior other than parenting styles.

Child Rearing Practices

• Permissive parents submit to children’s demands ask little and punish rarely

• Authoritarian parents impose rules and expect obedience.

• Authoritative parents are demanding but responsive to their children

• Sharing genes may lead to a temperament that is comfortable with an authoritative parenting style and that manifests itself in agreeable easygoing social interactions.