Development. Developmental Psychology Developmental psychology – The study of how organisms change over time as the result of biological and environmental.

Development

Developmental Psychology

• Developmental psychology –The study of how organisms change over time as the result of biological and environmental influences

Gradual versus Abrupt Change

• Continuity view vs. Discontinuity view

Age

Per

form

ance

Continuity view

Discontinuity view

Developmental Tasks of the Fetus, Infant, and Child

• The ability to form social relationships (i.e., attachment)

• The ability to think and reason (i.e. Cognitive Ability)

• The ability to speak and communicate

Prenatal Development

• Three stages over 9 months from conception to birth– Zygote (conception to 10 days)

• Rapid growth through cell division

– Embryo (approx. 10 days to 8 weeks)• Cells specialize into specific organ systems

through differentiation

– Fetus (8+ weeks to birth)• Considerable growth, spontaneous movement

Prenatal Development

• Teratogens– Substances from the environment that cause

damage to the developing organism– Sensitive periods when the organism is more or

less sensitive to exposure to teratogens

• Examples– Drugs and alcohol– Lead– Viruses

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Growth deficiency in the fetus and newborn (e.g., head circumference, weight, height)

• Delayed development and mental retardation (mild to severe)

• Facial abnormalities including small head; small upper jaw; short, up-turned nose; smooth and thin upper lip; and narrow, small, and unusual-appearing eyes with prominent epicanthal folds

• Heart defects

• Limb abnormalities of joints, hands, feet, fingers, and toes

Child with FAS

Simian Crease

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development –The process by which thinking changes over time

• Schemas –Mental structures orprograms that guide adeveloping child’s thoughts


• Assimilation – Mental process that modifies new information to fit it into existing schemes. – learning how to use Powerpoint after mastering MS

Word and Excel– Learning that both Chihuahuas and Great Danes are

dogs

• Accommodation –Mental process that restructures existing schemes so that newinformation is better understood – E.g., Learning that a butterfly (which is a flying

animal) is not a bird– Learning that all things with wings that are above your

head are not birds


Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

SensorimotorSensorimotor

PreoperationalPreoperational

Concrete Concrete OperationalOperational

Formal Formal OperationalOperational


SensorimotorSensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Operational

• Birth to about age 2

• Child relies heavily on innate motor responses to stimuli

• Sensorimotor intelligence

• Mental representations

• Object permanence


Sensorimotor

PreoperationalPreoperational


Formal Operational

• About age 2 to age 6 or 7

• Marked by well-developed mental representation and the use of language

• Egocentrism

• Animalistic thinking

• Centration

• Irreversibility


Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Concrete OperationalOperational

Formal Operational

• About age 7 to about age 11

• Child understands conservation but is incapable of abstract thought

• Conservation

• Mental operations

Formal Operational

• Ages 11 years and up ability to think abstractly and to use deductive reasoning

– Can think logically about abstract concepts (e.g., love, fairness, reasons for existence)

– Can test hypotheses systematically


Sensorimotor

Preoperational


Formal Formal OperationalOperational

• From about age 12 on

• Abstract thought appears

Criticism of Piaget

• Development is less abrupt and more fluid (or continuous) than Piaget proposed

• Children are more intellectually sophisticated than Piaget suggests

– Findings due more to method than to children’s abilities

W. W. Norton

Development. Developmental Psychology Developmental psychology – The study of how organisms change over time as the result of biological and environmental.

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