DEVELOPMENTAL

PSYCHOLOGY
Studies physical, cognitive and
social development throughout
the life span

Give your best estimate of the age (in months) at

which about 50 percent of children begin to:
1. Laugh

2 months
2. Pedal a tricycle 24 months
3. Sit without support 5-6 months
4. Feel ashamed 24 months
5. Walk unassisted 12 months

6. Stand on one foot for 10 seconds 4.5 years

7. Recognize and smile at mother/father 4-5 months
8. Kick a ball forward 20 months
9. Think about things that cannot be seen 24 months
10. Make two-word sentences 20-22 months

THREE MAJOR ISSUES

Nature and Nurture:

How does our genetic inheritance interact with our experiences
to influence development?
biological forces & genetic inheritance in combination with
environmental forces & life experiences

The debate: is development due mostly to internal or external

influences?

THREE MAJOR ISSUES

Continuity and stages:

What parts of development are gradual and continuous and which

are changed abruptly in separate stages?
Debate These stages reflect specific world views and adult life
progressing through fixed, predictable stages

THREE MAJOR ISSUES

Stability and Change:

Which of our traits persist through life? How do we change as
we age?
We experience both stability and change in who we are
Temperament is stable
One study followed 1000 three year old New Zealanders
Those who were low in conscientiousness and self-control were more
vulnerable to ill health, substance abuse, arrest and single parenthood.

Social attitudes are more likely to change

MATURATION
The development of the brain unfolds based
on genetic instructions, causing various bodily
and mental functions to occur in sequence
e.g. standing before walking, babbling before
talkingthis is called maturation.

Maturation sets the basic course of

development, while experience adjusts it.

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they
sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk.
Experience has little effect on this sequence.
Profmedia.CZ s.r.o./ Alamy

Phototake Inc./ Alamy Images

Jim Craigmyle/ Corbis

Renee Altier for Worth Publishers

TOILET TRAINING
Bowel and bladder control are other examples of
behavior where experience has a limited impact
Pleading or punishment are not going to produce
successful toileting before muscular and neuronal
maturation

HOW WE KNOW THE BEHAVIOR

IS DUE TO MATURATION?

Criteria:
1. universal
2. sequential
3. relatively uninfluenced by
experience

NATURE/NURTURE
Maturation: A key nature concept
Critical Period: A key nurture concept
A critical period is a specific time period
during development when a specific kind of
stimulation (or lack of stimulation) can have a
profound effect on later development

STAGES OF PRENATAL
DEVELOPMENT
conception (fertilization)
zygote (0-2 wks)
embryo (2-8 wks)
rapid cell division; major organs present

fetal period (8 wks-birth)

further refining of organs, etc

CONCEPTION

INTO A ZYGOTE

 AND THEN AN EMBRYO AND

INTO A FETUS

40 days

45 days

2 months

4 months

TERATOGENS: AGENTS HARMFUL

TO AN ORGANISM
Drugs
cigarettes; alcohol (FAS); cocaine; heroin;
marijuana

Diseases
Rubella and critical periods

Zika virus
microcephaly

NEWBORN CAPABILITIES

Reflexes

Personality
Easy, Difficult, Slow-to-Warm

Preferences
High contrast;
movement;
face-like objects;
smell and sound of mom!

NEWBORN CAPABILITIES
Reflexes

rooting; sucking; grasping; Babinski;

Moro; swimming; habituation

NEWBORN CAPABILITIES
Reflexes

rooting; sucking; grasping; Babinski;

Moro; swimming; habituation

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT:
ATTACHMENT IN INFANTS
Secure Attachment:
prefers contact with loved one
can be soothed
follows loved one
cries when loved one leaves

Attachment is evidenced by:

Stranger Anxiety: infant is apprehensive when confronted by a
stranger (approx 6 mo. old).
Stranger anxiety is seen in all cultures (maturation?)

LOVE IN INFANT MONKEYS:

EXPERIMENTS IN ATTACHMENT
HARLOWS STUDIES 1950S
Harry and Margaret Harlow

Investigated prevalent notion that

children became attached because
parents fed them

Harlows Surrogate Mother

Experiments

Monkeys preferred the comfortable

cloth mother, to the nourishing wire
mother

EXPERIMENTS IN ATTACHMENT
Evidence of Attachment in Harlows Studies:
1. Contact comfort
2. Fear reduction
3. Secure base (for exploration)

Monkeys raised by
artificial mothers were
terror-stricken when
placed in strange
situations without their
surrogate mothers

SECURE ATTACHMENT IN
HUMANS
Comes from
Body Contact
Familiarity/Consistency
Responsive Parenting

RESPONSIVE PARENTING
Responsive parents: are sensitive to childs needs and
meet them quickly
Unresponsive parents: attend to baby when they feel
like it, and ignore the baby at other times

PARENTING STYLES
Warm
Cold
Lots of
Authoritative
Punitive
Authorita
Guidance (High Self-Esteem rian
(Aggression)
and Achievment)
Little
Permissive
Neglectful
Guidance (Low Self-Control) (Low SelfEsteem)

THE CONTINUITY QUESTION

Do neglected children become unresponsive
parents?
The answer: its common but not
inevitable.

FAMILIARITY

Critical Period for imprinting

Imprinting: at 12 hours after birth, ducklings attach to objects that

move

PIAGETS STAGES OF COGNITIVE

(MEANS TO KNOW) DEVELOPMENT

Stages are sequential but are they stage-like as he suggested or are

they continuous?

Performance

Rate depends on maturation and experience

Continuity view

Discontinuity view
Age

PIAGETS STAGES OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT
Piaget proposed that
children move through
four stages.
Periods of time are
consistent in age and
developmental
sequence.

Age ranges are averages.

Some children are in transition
from one stage to the next.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Both photos: Courtesy of Judy DeLoache

Piaget believed that the driving force behind

intellectual development is our biological development
amidst experiences with the environment. Our
cognitive development is shaped by the errors we
make.

STAGE 1: SENSORIMOTOR (0-2)

Child knows world mostly through motor schemes
Proof?
After sucking on one of these, babies looked longer at the
nipple they had felt in their mouth

STAGE 1: SENSORIMOTOR (0-2)

Child knows world mostly through motor schemes
Child is learning connections between sensations and motor
actions (sensorimotor)
Key development: Object Permanence
objects continue to exist even when not visible

STAGE 2: PREOPERATIONAL
(2-6)
Child is not logical
Key development: Egocentrism
incapable of seeing another
point of view

STAGE 3: CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL (7-11)
Thinks logically about concrete events
Key development: Conservation
objects stay the same even when their form changes

STAGE 4: FORMAL OPERATIONAL

(11-)
Able to reason and think logically
Key development:
reasoning
abstract thinking