COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

1

• COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

2

• Cognitive development focuses on how children
  learn and process information.
• It is the development of the thinking and
  organizing systems of the brain.
• It involves language, mental imagery, thinking,
  reasoning, problem solving, and memory
  development.
• Learning is a relatively permanent change in
  behavior that occurs through experience.

3

• Do children think and develop cognitively like
  adults?
• It was believed that they did until a Swiss
  psychologist Jean Piaget observed his own
  children and others and concluded that in many
  respects children do not think or reason like
  adults.

4

• JEAN PIAGET
• Swiss child psychologist 1896 1980.

5
Perspectives of Cognitive Development

• Structural-functional approach
• Information processing approach

6
Structural-functional approach

• Developed by Jean Piaget
• According to Piaget, intelligence has two
  components structures and functions.
• He believed that psychological structures- the
  childs organized way of making sense of
  experience- change with age.
• He referred to these specific structures as
  schemes.
•  

7

• Structures are involved in the processing of
  information (such as schema organized mental
  representation of the world that is adaptive and
  formed by experience)
• Functions help a child adapt to his or her
  environment.
• Unlike structures, which change with age,
  functions remain the same throughout development.
• Piaget believes that at each stage of development
  a child uses a qualitatively different form of
  intelligence.

8
Information processing approach

• An approach which has moved beyond the framework
  described by Piaget.
• Focuses on quantitative changes in basic
  information processing systems like memory,
  attention, and learning.
• This means that the child becomes a faster, more
  efficient processor of information, as the child
  grows these functions get better.
• They believe we are born with certain cognitive
  abilities that grow and develop into better
  cognitive abilities.

9
Two most basic FUNCTIONS for Piaget

• Adaptation- involves building schemas through
  direct interaction with the environment. It
  consist of two complementary processes
  assimilation and accommodation.
• Organization- takes place internally. Once
  children form new schemas, they start to
  rearrange them, linking them with others.
  Initially, these schemas operate independently
  but with development they are organized into an
  integrated behavior.

10
Assimilation and Accommodation

• Assimilation- Through assimilation we use our
  current schemes to interpret the external world.
  It occurs when we incorporate new information
  into an existing schema.
• Accommodation- changing or revising an existing
  schema as a result of new experiences. We create
  new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing
  that our current ways of thinking do not fit the
  environment completely.

11
Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development  

• Called a stage theory (see handout)
• Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years)
• Preoperational stage (2 years-7
  years)
• Concrete Operational stage (7 years -11 years)
• Formal Operations stage (12 years and up)

12
Criticisms of Piagets Theory

• He underestimated
• the cognitive talents of infants and young
  children, eg. Object permanence.
• young children's understanding of conservation.
• the importance of social interactions between
  children and caregivers in the childrens
  cognitive development.
• Piagets theory gives little attention to the
  impact of language development.

13

• However, Piagets theory made great contributions
  to the field of Psychology. He showed that
  children are not passive during the development
  process but rather active participants in their
  own cognitive development.

14
Moral Development
15

• Refers to changes in the ability to reason about
  what is right and what is wrong in a given
  situation.
• Lawrence Kohlberg has a stage theory of moral
  development.
• Kohlberg came up with 3 levels of moral
  development with two stages at each level.
  Result- six stages of moral development
• (Table 8.3 page 309 OR see class handout)
•  

16
Criticisms of Kohlbergs Theory

• One criticism states that we have to consider the
  cross-cultural aspect.
• Concern about gender differences in moral
  development of morality. Does Kohlbergs theory
  apply to females?
• Concern with the consistency of moral judgments.

17
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TEMPERAMENT
18
At what age do infants begin to experience and
demonstrate discrete emotions?

• Research in this area focuses on facial
  expression outward signs of distinct emotions.
•  
• 2 month old infants demonstrate social smiling in
  response to human faces.
•  
• 2 month old infants show pain expressions more
  than anger expressions. A few months later they
  show anger more frequently than pain.
• 3- 4 month old infants show laughter.

19

• 3-months they become upset when their mothers are
  upset.
• As they grow older, infants acquire increasing
  capacities to read the emotional expressions of
  others.
• 8- 10 months, they actively seek information
  about other peoples feelings and begin to
  demonstrate growing understanding of their own
  mental states and those of others.
• Age 1, when a child falls he/she will look to
  their caregiver and depending on their
  caregivers reaction they will either cry or
  laugh.
•  

20
WHAT IS TEMPERAMENT?

• Stable individual differences in characteristic,
  mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity.
• Differences in temperament are present early in
  life

21

• 3 categories of temperaments
• Easy children (40) generally cheerful, adapt
  readily to new experiences and quickly
  establishes routines for many activities of daily
  life.
• Difficult children (10) are irregular in daily
  routines, are slow to accept new situations or
  experiences and show negative reactions more than
  other infants.
• Slow--to-warm-up-children (15) relatively
  inactive and apathetic and show mild negative
  reactions when exposed to unexpected event or new
  situations.
• Remaining 35 cannot be classified.
•  

22
ATTACHMENT
23

• Strong affectional bond between infants and their
  caregivers
• According to a theory developed by John Bowlby,
  attachment involves a balance b/w infants
  tendencies to seek to be near to their caregivers
  and their willingness to explore new
  environments.
• Bowlby contended that the quality of attachment
  is revealed by the infants reaction to
  separation b/w themselves and their caregivers,
  as well as, their reaction to the return of their
  caregiver(s).

24
STRANGE SITUATION TEST

• A situation in which a caregiver leaves a child
  alone with a stranger for a few minutes and then
  returns. Researchers proposed 4 patterns of
  attachment.
• Secure attachment
• Ambivalent Attachment
• Avoidant Attachment
• Disorganized attachment

25
SECURE ATTACHMENT

• An appropriate display of distress when
  caregivers depart and then a warm and
  enthusiastic greeting upon their return.
• Parents of these children tend to respond quickly
  and appropriately to the behaviors of the child.
  
• Distress is met with comfort.
•  

26
INSECURE/ AMBIVALENT ATTACHMENT

• Intense clinging and resistance to separation.
  When parent returns the child goes b/w approach
  and avoidance of the caregiver.
• Parents of these children appear inconsistent in
  their responses to their child. At times, they
  respond appropriately and other times they
  respond inappropriately or fail to respond.

27
INSECURE/AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT

• Failure to express distress on departure of
  parents and then avoidance of parent on return.
• Parents of these babies appear aloof, detached,
  rejecting and neglectful. Children learn that
  their caregivers are not available and cannot be
  trusted.
•  

28
DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT

• Also called disoriented attachment
• Behavior is inconsistent and contradictory.
  Child may begin to approach the returning parent
  and then turn away or behave in a confused manner
  neither approaching nor avoiding, but rather
  freezing.

29
LONG TERM EFFECTS OF ATTACHMENT STYLES

• Secured attached infants are more sociable, more
  tolerant of frustration and more flexible and
  persistent in many situations. As adults they
  able to use their partners as a secure base and
  serve as a secure base for their partners when
  compared to adults who experienced insecure
  attachment as a child. Seen as happier and more
  trusting in adult relationships.
• People who were avoidantly attached seem to worry
  constantly about losing their romantic partners
  they didnt trust their caregivers as infants and
  dont trust their spouses or lovers when they are
  adults.

30

• HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• ADOLESENCE
• ADULTHOOD

31
ADOLESCENCE
32

• Period of time from the dependence of childhood
  to the independence of adulthood.
• Begins with puberty (sexual maturity readiness
  to reproduce) and lasts through the teen years.
• Onset of puberty marked by 2 biological changes
  
• physical changes -increase height and weight
  known as a growth spurt
• sexual maturation.

33
Cognitive Development during Adolescence

• Development of problem-solving skills, an
  increased reliance on the use of symbols, logic
  and abstract thinking.
• Capable of logical thought, but not all
  adolescents demonstrate this kind of thinking
  (Formal Operations Stage- Piaget).

34
Social and Emotional Development during
Adolescence

•  
• Adolescence can be a time of turmoil, joy,
  confusion, depression (mood swings), increased
  drug use and sexuality - an overall challenging
  period in life.
• It is believed that adolescents are emotional
  have swings of mood.
• Studies show that adolescents have more swing in
  moods when compared to older individuals.

35
CHALLENGES OF ADOLESCENT PERIOD

• DRUG USE- increase in the use of marijuana and
  alcohol. Exploring other drugs
• SEXUALITY- Adolescence is marked by an increase
  in sex hormones. Sex hormones give rise to sex
  drives which lead to sexual behaviors.
•  

36
PARENTING STYLES THEIR EFFECTS ON ADOLESCENTS

• Authoritarian restrictive and rejecting.
  Children are later seen as insecure,
  apprehensive, socially withdrawn, and low in both
  self-reliance and self-control.
• Authoritative parenting parental warmth, and
  inductive and nonpunitive style of discipline
  (talking and explaining), consistency in child
  rearing. Children are socially assertive,
  competent, and responsible.

37

• Rejecting/ Neglectful parenting parent lack
  involvement and supervision with their children.
  Children are irresponsible, even about matters
  that affect physical health and well being.
• Indulgent/ Permissive parenting parents dont
  have rules and give into their children.
  Associated with children that are involved in
  drug and alcohol and are indisciplined
  (misconduct in school).
• Which would you consider to be the ideal style?
• Which style do you believe is most evident in the
  Caribbean situation?

38

• CHECK FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PARENTING STYLES
• 1. Impact of Parenting Styles - Alfred Adler
  ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/parentin.
  htm
• 2. Diana Baumrind's Theory of Parenting Styles
  Original Descriptions of the Styles (1967).
  www.personal.psu.edu/users/k/x/kxg190/
  teaching/parenting_styles.html

39
Social Development Friendship and the Quest for
Identity

• During this period the adolescent is trying to
  answer the question, Who Am I?
• One way to answer that question is through the
  formation of friendships.
• Adolescent try to seek relationships with people
  who are similar to them gender and interest.

40

• Eriksons Psychosocial Stages/Theory of
  Development
• 8 stages
• (see class handout)

41

• Family Configuration and its Effects on the
  Adolescent
• Divorced
• Parent-Absent
• Blended Families

42
DIVORCE

• More than ½ of marriages end in divorce means
  that a large proportion of children and
  adolescents will spend part of their lives in
  one-parent homes. Adolescents react to divorce
  with fear, anxiety, and guilt.

43
PARENT-ABSENT HOMES

• Adolescents in parent-absent homes (typically
  father is absent) have an increased risk for
  delinquency, depression, anxiety, impaired
  cognitive and school performance, and
  difficulties in forming meaningful relationships.

44
BLENDED (STEP) FAMILIES

• Children reared in blended (step) families are
  more likely to have problems with aggression,
  school dropout, and drug abuse when compared to
  children from nuclear families.

45
ADULTHOOD

• As an adult, health may become a concern.
  Psychological adjustments need to be made to
  marriage, parenthood, career, the death of
  friends and family, retirement, and ultimately,
  ones own death

46
Development during Early Adulthood

•  
• Stage 6 Early/Young adulthood is a time for
  finding our niche, for working through
  aspirations, of our youth, for raising a family.
  
• It is also a period of stress, finding the
  right job, taking on parenthood, and
  maintaining a balance among self, family, job and
  society at large.

47
Challenges of Early- Middle Adulthood

• Marriage and family
• Transition to parenthood
• Career choice

48

• Marriage and Family
• Stage 6- intimacy vs. isolation
• Three factors influence the choice of marriage
  partner.
• Availability need the opportunity to develop
  the relationship first
• Eligibility age, race, religion, politics, and
  background comes into play here.
• Attractiveness physical attractiveness,
  psychological attractiveness understanding,
  emotional supportiveness and similarity in values
  and goals.

49

• 2. The Transition to Parenthood
• Stage 7 Adulthood/Middle Adulthood concern
  for family and future generations, becoming
  parents.
• Changes in marriage relationship becomes more
  stressful, have less time for each other, less
  spontaneity.
• Marital satisfaction goes down during the child
  rearing years, but increases when the children
  leave the nest.
•  

50

• 3. Career Choice
• Choice of occupation and satisfaction goes a long
  way toward self-esteem and identity.
•  
• Stage 7 Women experience menopause, men sometimes
  experience mid-life crisis.
•  

51

• Development during Late Adulthood

52

• Stage 8 Maturity/Later Adulthood during this
  period children have long left the nest and now
  there are grandchildren.
• Retirement is welcomed by most.
• With age, mental speed is reduced, memory loss is
  apparent, some sensory capacity diminish
• Ageism is the name given to discrimination and
  prejudice against a group on the basis of age.
•  

53
Death and Dying 

• Elizabeth Kubler-Ross 1960s. - Stage theory
• 1). Denial a firm, simple avoidance of the
  evidence a sort of no this cant be happening
  to me reaction.
• 2). Anger often accompanied by resentment and
  envy of others, along with a realization of what
  is truly happening a sort of Why me? Why not
  someone else? reaction.

54

• 3). Bargaining a matter of dealing, or
  bartering, usually with God a search for more
  time a sort of If youll just grant me a few
  more weeks, or months, Ill go to church every
  week no, every day reaction.
• 4). Depression a sense of hopelessness that
  bargaining wont work, that a great loss is
  imminent a period of grief and sorrow over both
  past mistakes and what will be missed in the
  future.
• 5). Acceptance a rather quiet facing of the
  reality of death, with no great joy or sadness,
  simply a realization that the time has come.