Development Conception to Adolescence

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DevelopmentConception to Adolescence
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Developmental Psychologists

• Study physical, cognitive, and social changes
  throughout the human life cycle, and find common
  patterns which are important.

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Prenatal Development and the Newborn

• Only 1 of 5000 of a womans 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 eggs 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

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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
  mothers uterine wall
• The placenta and the embryo are then formed
• After nine weeks, the embryo is known as the fetus

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

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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.

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Brain Development

• Over 23 billion neurons were produced in the
  child by birth
• From age 3-6, the brains 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

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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
  childs physical skills until after age 1

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Maturation and Infant Memory

• Pillemers 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 childs memories during this time
  may not be interrupted properly later on in life

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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

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Cognitive Development

• Jean Piagets 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 childs mind also develops through many stages

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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.

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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.

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Piagets Cognitive Stages

• Sensorimotor (birth to 2)
• Preoperational (2 to 7)
• Concrete Operational (first grade to early
  adolescence)
• Formal Operational (Adolescence)
• SM
• PO
• CO
• FO
• (some pots cost four )

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Piagets 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

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Piagets 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. Todays
  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 Wynns study).
• The preoperational stage is Piagets 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.

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

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Piagets 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.

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Piagets 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 someones 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.

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Piagets theory and Current Thinking

• Concrete Operational Stage was Piagets 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.

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Reflecting on Piagets Theory

• Researchers start to see development more
  continuous than did Piaget.
• Piaget identified significant cognitive
  milestones and stimulated interest on how the
  mind develops.
• Piagets major revelation was that children
  construct their understandings from interactions
  with the world.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 mothers 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

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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
  childs well-being.
• Adult relationships tend to reflect the secure or
  insecure attachment styles of early childhood
• Erick Ericksons idea prompted that basic trust
  is formed in infancy through our experiences with
  responsive caregivers.

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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 brains 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

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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 childrens views of themselves affect their
  actions. Children who form a positive self
  concept are more confident, independent and
  optimistic

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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 childs
  behavior other than parenting styles.

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Child Rearing Practices

• Permissive parents submit to childrens 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.