EXPLORING

PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Edition in Modules)
David Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University

Worth Publishers, © 2008

Infancy and Childhood
Module 8
 Infancy and Childhood

Infancy and Childhood

 Physical Development
 Cognitive Development
 Social Development
 Infancy and Childhood
Infancy and childhood span from birth to the
teenage years. During these years, the
individual grows physically, cognitively, and
socially.

Stage Span

Infancy Newborn to toddler

Childhood Toddler to teenager

 Physical Development
Infants’ psychological development depends on
their biological development. To understand the
emergence of motor skills and memory, we
must understand the developing brain.
 Developing Brain

At birth, most brain cells are present. After

birth, the neural networks multiply resulting in
increased physical and mental abilities.
 Maturation

The development of the brain unfolds based on

genetic instructions, causing various bodily and
mental functions to occur in sequence—
standing before walking, babbling before
talking—this 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.
Renee Altier for Worth Publishers

Phototake Inc./ Alamy Images

Profimedia.CZ s.r.o./ Alamy

Jim Craigmyle/ Corbis
Maturation and Infant Memory

The earliest age of conscious memory is around

3½ years (Bauer, 2002). A 5-year-old has a sense
of self and an increased long-term memory, thus
organization of memory is different from 3-4
years.

Courtesy of Carolyn Rovee-Collier

Amy Pedersen
 Cognitive Development
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.

Both photos: Courtesy of Judy DeLoache

 Schemas
Schemas are mental molds into which we pour
our experiences.
 Assimilation and Accommodation

The process of
assimilation involves
incorporating new
experiences into our
current understanding

Bill Anderson/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

(schema). The process of
adjusting a schema and
modifying it is called
accommodation.

Jean Piaget with a subject

Piaget’s Theory and Current
Thinking
 S e n s o rim o to r S ta g e
In the sensorimotor stage, babies take in the
world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing,
and grasping. Children younger than 6 months
of age do not grasp object permanence, i.e.,
objects that are out of sight are also out of mind.

Doug Goodman
 Sensorimotor Stage: Criticisms

Piaget believed children in the sensorimotor

stage could not think —they do not have any
abstract concepts or ideas.

However, recent research shows that children in

the sensorimotor stage can think and count.

1. Children understand the basic laws of

physics. They are amazed at how a ball can
stop in midair or disappear.
 Sensorimotor Stage: Criticisms

2. Children can also count. Wynn (1992, 2000)

showed that children stared longer at the wrong
number of objects than the right ones.
 Preoperational Stage
Piaget suggested that from 2 years old to about
6-7 years old, children are in the preoperational
stage—too young to perform mental operations.

Ontario Science Center

 Preoperational Stage: Criticism
DeLoache (1987) showed that children as young
as 3 years of age are able to use metal
operations. When shown a model of a dog’s
hiding place behind the couch, a 2½-year-old
could not locate the stuffed dog in an actual
room, but the 3-year-old did.
 Egocentrism
Piaget concluded that preschool children are
egocentric. They cannot perceive things from
another’s point of view.

When asked to show her picture to mommy, 2-

year-old Gabriella holds the picture facing her
own eyes, believing that her mother can see it
through her eyes.
 Theory of Mind

Preschoolers, although
still egocentric,
develop the ability to
understand another’s
mental state when they
begin forming a theory
of mind.
The problem on the
right probes such
ability in children.
 Concrete Operational Stage

In concrete operational stage, given concrete

materials, 6- to 7-year-olds grasp conservation
problems and mentally pour liquids back and
forth into glasses of different shapes conserving
their quantities.

Children in this stage are also able to transform

mathematical functions. So, if 4 + 8 = 12, then a
transformation, 12 – 4 = 8, is also easily doable.
 Formal Operational Stage
Around age 12, our reasoning ability expands
from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. We
can now use symbols and imagined realities to
systematically reason. Piaget called this formal
operational thinking.
 Formal Operational Stage
Rudiments of such thinking begin earlier (age 7)
than what Piaget suggested, since 7-year-olds
can solve the problem below (Suppes, 1982).

If John is in school, Mary is in school. John is in

school. What can you say about Mary?
 Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory

Piaget’s stage theory has been influential

globally, validating a number of ideas regarding
growth and development in many cultures and
societies. However, today’s researchers believe
the following:

1. Development is a continuous process.

2. Children express their mental abilities and
operations at an earlier age.
3. Formal logic is a smaller part of cognition.
 Social Development
Stranger anxiety is the fear of strangers that
develops at around 8 months. This is the age at
which infants form schemas for familiar faces
and cannot assimilate a new face.

© Christina Kennedy/ PhotoEdit

 Origins of Attachment
Harlow (1971) showed
that infants bond with
surrogate mothers

Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

because of bodily
contact and not
because of
nourishment.
 Origins of Attachment
Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor
that causes attachment. In some animals
(goslings), imprinting is the cause of
attachment.

Alastair Miller
 Attachment Differences
Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children
express secure attachment, i.e., they explore
their environment happily in the presence of
their mothers. When their mother leave, they
show distress.

The other 30% show insecure attachment. These

children cling to their mothers or caregivers and
are less likely to explore the environment.
 Secure Attachment
Relaxed and attentive caregiving becomes the
backbone of secure attachment.

Berry Hewlett
 Insecure Attachment
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys
experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth
mother is removed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlfOecrr

Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

6kI
Attachment Differences: Why?
Why do these attachment differences exist?

Factor Explanation

Both rat pups and human infants

Mother develop secure attachments if the
mother is relaxed and attentive.

In many cultures where fathers share the

Father responsibility of raising children, similar
secure attachments develop.
 Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months of age,
regardless of whether the children are home or
sent to day care.
 MARY AINSWORTH
• STRANGE SITUATION EXPERIMENTS.
• Studied attachment differences by
observing mother-infant pairs at their
homes in their first 6 mths.
• Later she observed them in a strange
situation without their mothers (1 year old)
• Video Clip
 Deprivation of Attachment
What happens when circumstances prevent a
child from forming attachments?

In such circumstances children become:

1. Withdrawn
2. Frightened
3. Unable to develop speech
 Prolonged Deprivation

If parental or caregiving support is deprived for

an extended period of time, children are at risk
for physical, psychological, and social problems,
including alterations in brain serotonin levels.
 Child-Rearing Practices

Practice Description
Parents impose rules and expect
Authoritarian
obedience.
Parents submit to children’s
Permissive
demands.
Parents are demanding but
Authoritative
responsive to their children.

Uninvolved/Ne
Parent is emotionally detached,
glectful withdrawn, and inattentive
 Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parenting correlates with social
competence — other factors like common genes
may lead to an easy-going temperament and
may invoke an authoritative parenting style.
 WORD OF CAUTION
• The association between certain parenting
styles and certain childhood outcomes is
» CORRELATIONAL
» IT IS NOT A CAUSATION!!
TWO other possible explanations for this
parenting-competence link:
1. Children’s traits may influence parenting
more than vice versa.
2. Some underlying third factor may be at
work-Perhaps, for example, competent
parents and competent children share
genes for social competence.