Types of development that occur in

childhood
• Physical development
– Development of body structures
Child Development • Motor development
– Motor skills (ex: walking)
• Cognitive development
General Psychology – Ability to think
47.101 • Language development
• Social development
– How child perceives and deals with others

Development as Orderly Progression Physical Development

• Human infant relatively helpless at birth
• Fixed sequence of steps
– Both physical and psychological… – Brain is far from mature
• Size only (only 23% of cranial capacity at birth)
– Examples
• # of neural connections very sparse
• Motor development (physical)
– Hold up head, roll over, crawl, sit, stand, walk • Physical growth
• Cognitive development (psychological)
– Language: coo, babbles, first word, two word, and so on…
– Spurts…
• What contributes to orderly process? – Nature versus nurture…
– Maturation (nature)
• Genetically programmed
– Practice (nurture)
• Experience

Motor Development Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive

•Reflexes
•Rooting reflex: touch cheek, turn towards sensation and open
Development
mouth
•Grasping reflex: objects touch palm, child closes hand and grasps
• 4 Stages
– Sensory Motor (0-2yrs)
• But for most motor skills, maturation is critical
– Pre-operational (2- 7yrs)
– Concrete operations (7-11 yrs)
– Formal Operations (11+ yrs)

1
 Symbolic thinking in children…

Sensory-Motor Stage (0 - 2 yrs)

• World defined only by direct sensory or motor
experience

• Lack ability to represent object’s in one’s mind

– Lack object permanenceÆ
– Out of sight out of mind…

• Lack the ability to think symbolically

Pre-operational Stage (2-7 yrs) 3 mountain problem

• While can represent objects in the mind (develops ability
to think symbolically) lack coherence…

• Conservation failure
– Quantity
– Mass
– Number
– Why?
• Failure to connect
different dimensions
of situation
• Liquid example
– Height and width of glass
(#5 Developing Child- Disc. Psych.
Clip: 10min-11:25min)

• Egocentrism
– Only understand their perspective
• Three mountain problem

Concrete Operations Formal Operations

• Ability to apply logical thinking to abstract
• Able to apply logical thinking problems and hypothetical situations
to concrete objects
– Can apply rules
– Develops conservation
– Reversibility
– Any change in the shape,
position, or order of matter
can be reversed mentally

2
 Piaget revisited…

• Overall Phenomena are reliable & robust

• Main CriticismsÆ
– Underestimated children’s abilities (especially
the very young)
• New methods.. (Video clip ~11:30-14:30)

– Stages may not be so rigid, more continous…

• More variability than Piaget proposed…

Information Processing Approach to

Cognitive Development Social development
• Gradual process rather than stages like process
• Temperament
– Focus on three types of cognitive abilities
• Attachment
1. Processing speedÆ Increase as children grow • Socialization
2. Memory Æ critical for knowledge acquisition – Parenting styles
• 18 months – 1 item in STM
• 3 ½ - 3 items STM
– Peer Influences
• 4 ½ - 4 items STM – Environment
• Versus 7 + 2 in adult life

3. Meta-cognition Æ Limited in “thinking about their thinking”

• Problem solving, Perspective taking, Strategizing
– Ex: Children taught a memory strategy for one set of itemsÆ will not
apply to another set

Temperament Attachment
• Early close
• Behavioral style relationship formed
– Strong heredity component but also influenced by between infant and
parenting caregiver

• Dimensions of temperament
– Activity level
• Why do children get
– Sociability (approach) attached?
– Inhibition (shyness) – Harlow studies
– Negative emotionality (Monkeys)
• Wire vs. cloth mother
– Effortful Control
• Contact comfort is the
key…
• Video clip from 20-25 mins (Discovering psych??– Check)
– Early attachment
predicted monkey’s
later behavior…

3
 Attachment styles Socialization
• Ainsworth • Process by which children learn the rule of
– “Stranger situation” paradigm society Æ regulate their own behavior
• Mother and child in strange room with toys – How to behave and how not to behave; understand the
• Stranger enters and talks to mother& mother leaves intentions of others and how to convey their intentions
• Mother returns – Some rules are…
– What happens?
• Universal
– E.g. Bodily control (toilet training)
• Culture specific
• Patterns of attachment – What is “polite”?
– Secure
• Important influences
– Resistant
– Parents
– Avoidant – Peers
– Environment
• Early attachment predicts later behavior
• Secure Æ socially competent, impacts adult love relationships;
protection from other risk factors

Parenting Styles Peers

• Autocratic • Programmed to seek out peer relationships
– By 8months prefer to look at another child than at an adult
– Dictator model
• Children Æ Low intellectual performance; Lack of social skills and
heightened aggression (especially in boys) • ~4yrs: “Play pretend”
– Agree about roles and themes
• Permissive • Provides opportunity to express desires and feelings
– Laissez-faire model
• Children ÆImmature, impulsive, dependent • School age: Friends become a source of companionship,
stimulation and fun
• Authoritative-reciprocal
– High but realistic standards • Adolescence: Psychological intimacy - support and
• Children Æ Mature, self-reliant, socially competent, higher affection
academic performance
• Note: Not necessarily negative…
• Note: Correlation not causation…

Environment
• Television

• Neighborhood

• Culture