copyright © horizon textbook publishing 2007 child development chapter 11 conception through...

Copyright © Horizon Textbook Publishing 2007

Child Development

Chapter 11Conception through Childhood

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Slide authors:

Larry D. Thomas

Landon O. Thomas

Book authors:

R. H. Ettinger


Basic Issues and Methodology

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


Prenatal Development

Stages of prenatal development– Conception

Occurs the moment a sperm cell fertilizes the ovumZygote

– The single cell that forms when a sperm and egg uniteSometimes the zygote divides into two cells, the result of

which is identical, or monozygotic, twinsThere are also times when more than one egg and sperm

unite, resulting in fraternal, or dizygotic, twins



Stages of prenatal development– Germinal, embryonic, and fetal stages

Germinal stage– The 2-week stage when the zygote travels to the

uterus and attaches itself to the uterine wall; this is also when rapid cell division occurs

Embryonic stage– When the embryo develops all of the systems, organs,

and structures of the body– Lasts from the end of week 2 through 2nd month

Fetal stage– Lasts from the end of 2nd month, when bone cells form,

until birth



Fetal behavior– Several studies of newborns have shown that they

remember sounds to which they were exposed in utero

– DeCasper and SpenceHad 16 pregnant women read The Cat in the Hat to their

developing fetuses twice a day during the final 6 weeks of pregnancy

After the births, the children showed a preference for the familiar sound of The Cat in the Hat



Negative influences on prenatal development– When the mother suffers from a viral diseases such

as rubella, chicken pox, or HIV, she may deliver an infant with physical and behavioral abnormalities

– TeratogensHarmful agents in the prenatal environment, which can

have a negative impact on prenatal development or even cause birth defects

Critical periodsA period that is so important to development that a harmful

environmental influence at that time can keep a bodily structure from developing normally or can impair later intellectual or social development



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


Infancy

Reflexes and motor development– During the first few days after birth, neonates’

movements are dominated by reflexes– Neonates

Newborn infant up to 1 month old

– ReflexesInborn, unlearned, automatic responses to certain

environmental stimuli


Infancy

Reflexes and motor development (continued)– Most motor milestones result from maturation– Development also proceeds from the center of the

body outward– Experience may also accelerate motor development


Infancy


Infancy

Sensory and perceptual development– Vision

Newborns focus best on objects about 9 inches away, and they can follow a slowly moving object

By 2 to 3 months of age, most infants prefer human faces to other visual images


Infancy

– VisionDepth perception

– Gibson and Walk Designed an apparatus called the

visual cliff to measure infants’ ability to perceive depth

– Visual cliff An apparatus used to test depth

perception in infants and young animals

Sensory and perceptual development


Infancy

Sensory and perceptual development (continued)– Depth perception (continued)

Campos and others– Found that 6-week-old infants had distinct changes in

heart rate when they faced the deep side of the cliff, but no change when they faced the shallow side

– The change in heart rate indicated interest and showed that the infants could perceive depth

– Hearing and other sensesAt birth, the newborn’s hearing is much better developed

than her visionNewborns also prefer their own mother’s voice to that of

an unfamiliar female


Infancy

Learning– Habituation

A decrease in response or attention to a stimulus as an infant becomes accustomed to it

– Swain and othersDemonstrated that 3-day-old newborns could retain in

memory for 24 hours a speech sound that had been presented repeatedly the day before

MeltzoffDemonstrated observational learning in 14-month-olds


Infancy

Temperament– A person’s behavioral style or characteristic way of

responding to the environment– Defining temperament

Thomas, Chess, and Birch– Studied 2- to 3-month-old infants and followed them

into adolescence and adulthood– Three general types of temperament emerged from the

studyEasyDifficultSlow-to-warm-up


Infancy

Temperament (continued)– Defining temperament (continued)

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


Infancy

Temperament (continued)– Origins and significance of temperamental

differencesResearch indicates that temperament is strongly

influenced by heredityEnvironmental factors, such as parents’ childrearing style,

also affect temperamentStudies suggest that the various dimensions of

temperament can predict behavioral problems that may appear later in childhood or in adolescence


Infancy

Attachment– The strong affectionate bond a child forms with the

mother or primary caregiver– Attachment in infant monkeys

Harry Harlow– Conducted studies on attachment in rhesus monkeys– Studies suggested that physical nourishment alone is

not enough to bind infants to their primary caregivers– Constructed two surrogate monkey mothers– One was a plain wire-mesh cylinder with a wooden

head; the other was a wire-mesh cylinder that was padded, covered with soft terry cloth, and fitted with a somewhat more monkey-like head

– A bottle could be attached to either for feeding


Infancy


Infancy

Attachment (continued)– Attachment in infant monkeys (continued)

Harry Harlow (continued)– Found that it was contact comfort – the comfort

supplied by bodily contact – rather than nourishment that formed the basis of the infant monkey’s attachment to its mother

– Development of attachment in humans

The primary caregiver holds, strokes, and talks to the baby and responds to the baby’s needs

In turn, the baby gazes at, listens to, and moves in synchrony with the caregiver’s voice


Infancy

Attachment (continued)– Development of attachment in humans (continued)

John Bowlby– Believes that attachment behavior serves the

evolutionary function of protecting the infant from danger

Separation anxiety– The fear and distress shown by toddlers when their

parent leaves, occurring from 8 to 24 months and reaching a peak between 12 and 18 months

– Stranger anxiety

– A fear of strangers common in infants at about 6 months and increasing in intensity until about 12 months, and then declining in the second year


Infancy

Attachment (continued) – Ainsworth’s attachment categories

Ainsworth and others– Identified four patterns of attachment: secure,

avoidant, resistant, and disorganized/disoriented– Secure attachment is the most common pattern across

cultures


Infancy

Attachment (continued)– Origins and significance of attachment differences

Researchers have studied infant-caregiver attachment in foster relationships

In these settings, the primary factor affecting attachment seems to be the age of the infant at the time of placement in a foster home

In childhood and adolescence, securely attached infants are likely to be more socially competent than less securely attached infants


Infancy

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


Infancy

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


Infancy

Father-child relationship (continued)– Mothers are more likely to cushion their children

against overstimulation, while fathers tend to pour it on, producing a wider range of arousal

– When the mother and father have a good relationship, fathers tend to spend more time with and interact more with their children


Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Schemes: the foundation of cognitive development– Organization

Piaget’s term for the mental process that produces schemes

– SchemesAn action plan to be used in a specific circumstance

– AssimilationThe process by which new objects, events, experiences,

or information are incorporated into existing schemes



Schemes: the foundation of cognitive development (continued)– Equilibration

The process of keeping schemes in balance with the environment

– AccommodationThe process by which existing schemes are modified and

new schemes are created to incorporate new objects, events, experiences, or information



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)– Preoperational stage (continued)

The ability to use symbols greatly advances the child’s ability to think beyond what was possible in the sensorimotor stage

Centration– A preoperational child’s tendency to focus on only one

dimension of a stimulus and ignore other dimensionsBecause of egocentrism and centration, children in this

stage have problems understanding any activity that is governed by rules



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,

or order of matter can be reversed mentally



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

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005



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



An evaluation of Piaget’s contribution

– Today’s developmental psychologists point out that Piaget relied on observation and on the interview technique, which depended on verbal responses

– Newer techniques requiring nonverbal responses have shown that infants and young children are more competent than Piaget proposed

– Few developmental psychologists believe that cognitive development takes place in the general stage-like fashion proposed by Piaget

– Another criticism comes from research showing that formal operational thought is not universal


Other Approaches to Cognitive Development

Vygotsky’s sociocultural view– Lev Vygotsky

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


Freud’s Psychosexual Development

The psychosexual stages of development– Psychosexual stages

A series of stages through which the sexual instinct develops

– FixationArrested development at a psychosexual stage occurring

because of excessive gratification or frustration at that stage



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



The psychosexual stages of development (continued)– The phallic stage (3 to 5 or 6 years)

During the phallic stage, children learn that they can derive pleasure from touching their genitals, and masturbation is common

– The latency period (5 or 6 years to puberty)The sex instinct is repressed and temporarily sublimated in

school and play activities, hobbies, and sports

– The genital stage (from puberty on)In the genital stage, the focus of sexual energy gradually

shifts to the opposite sex for the vast majority of people



Information-processing approach– Processing speed

Robert Kail– Found that information-processing speed increases

dramatically as children move from infancy through childhood

Increased processing speed is associated with improved memory

– MemoryShort-term memory develops dramatically during an

infant’s first yearChildren use strategies for improving memory increasingly

as they mature cognitively



Information-processing approach (continued)– Memory (continued)

One universal strategy for holding information in short-term memory is rehearsal

Organization is a very practical strategy for storing information in such a way that it can be retrieved without difficulty

– Theory of mindA fundamental developmental task for children is coming

to understand how people may differ greatly in what they know and what they believe



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 of the Child

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)– Authoritarian parents

Parents who make arbitrary rules, expect unquestioned obedience from their children, punish transgressions, and value obedience to authority

Most American families have at least one authoritarian parent

Found preschool children disciplined by authoritarian methods to be withdrawn, anxious, and unhappy

Parents’ failure to provide a rationale for rules makes it hard for children to see any reason for following them



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)– Authoritative parents

Parents who set high but realistic standards, reason with the child, enforce limits, and encourage open communication and independence

Knowing why the rules are necessary makes it easier for children to internalize and follow rules, whether in the presence of their parents or not

Most independent, behave but able to challenge rules appropriately through communication and most importantly behave when parent is not present

Does one Authoritarian parent and one Permissive parent make a Authoritative parents?



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


Baumrind’s Parenting Model

Neglectful Authoritarian Permissive Authoritative

Limits NO YES NO YES

Love NO NO YES YES

Effect

Angry, anxious and rebellious because they remain unsure of their worth and social rules.

Withdrawn, anxious, unhappy and learns to misbehave behind parent’s back (lil’ sneak syndrome)

immature and seem to be the least self-controlled and self-reliant (seems to think rules are made for others)

Independent, challenges rules appropriately through communication behaves when parent is not present



Peer relationships– Infants begin to show an interest in each other at a

very young age– Friendships begin to develop by 3 or 4 years, and

relationships with peers become increasingly important

– By middle childhood, friendships tend to be based on mutual trust, and membership in a peer group is central to a child’s happiness

– The peer group serves a socializing function by providing models of behavior, dress, and language



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



Television as a socializing agent– Surveys indicate that parents are keenly aware of

the potentially damaging effects of television, especially violent programs, on their children’s development

– Literally thousands of studies suggest that TV violence leads to aggressive behavior in children and teenagers

– Other studies show that excessive TV viewing is linked to childhood obesity



Television as a socializing agent (continued)– The socializing effect of television begins before that

of schools, religious institutions, and peers– Singer and Singer

Suggest that such programming can lead to a shortened attention span

– Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood has been found to increase prosocial behavior, imaginative play, and task persistency in preschoolers



Culture and child development– Urie Bronfenbrenner

Proposes that we think of the environment in which a child grows up as a system of interactive, layered contexts of development

Contexts of development– Bronfenbrenner’s term for the interrelated settings in

which a child grows upAt the core of the system are what he calls microsystems,

which include settings in which the child has personal experience

The macrosystem includes the larger culture

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