chapter 11 Flashcards
Developmental psych
developmental psych examines how ppl change- phsyically, cogntively, socially and emotionally - from infancy through old age
psychologists study every part of human life space, seeking to understand both the continous and dynamic nature of human mind and sometiems how to alter its course in ways that benefit indivduals and society
despite differences in focrus, dveelopmental psychologists ask two central and unifying questiions abt nature of psycholgical change across life span
q1: what development happens in stages and what happnes continously?
the first question is what aspects of development proceed in tsages and what happen continsouly
stage usually describes distinct phases of life with sharp diffeences between them
does the physical, cognitive, social and emotional life of humans proceed in stages, in a manner resmbling stairs on. a staricase
it is appealing to think it does
thinking abt develoment happening in stages imposes tidy regularity on overwhelming amount of change across the life span
furthermore, stages descrive not just how ppl change but aslo how ppl across diff ages are similar to one another
thinking in terms of stages has practical implications
ex. if group of chidlren are in same stage of intellectual development, they might beenift form similar edcutaion experiences and be put together in a clsssroom setting
some develppmental changes do appear to be qualitative
consider transition that infants make from cralwing to walking - takes a while for infants to develop the strength and coordination to walk, but once tehy take those first steps, crawling quickly falls out of fashion
moreover bc walking frees the hands for carying objects, new walkers show tendency to seek out objects and carry them to ppl
nonetheless when we look closely at any given stage of development, we also see qunatitative changes or gradual chnages in amount or degree of functioning like a gradually slopnghill
ex. consider stead imprvement in some memory skills
qualitative and qunatitve perspectives on development capture diff but imprtant aspects of the truth
goal of developmebtal psych is to uncover which aspects of development occur in stages and which ones occur continsuoly
q2: What are the effects of natrue and nurture on dveelopment?
The second quetsion is how devlopment is shpaed by nature and by nurture
what are the roles of biolgical infleucnes and exeprience in shaping development
at one extreem we could say that everything needed to build mind is programmed by genees: ppl develop simiarly or diff dpeeidng on how many genes they have in commmon
in opp extreme we could say that human minds are shaped by experiences - some experiences like living in world with gravity and patterns of day and night are shared across all humans leading to undeniable similarities in how humans develop
other experiences vary from one another leading to idnidual differences in how we chnage across time
it is temping to pit infeluces of nature and nurture againt and ask which is imprtant
development reuqires bith and natrue and nurture need eachother
humans do have some inborn tendencies to grow and change
like maturation refers to genetically determined biolopgcial processes taht enable orderly growth
but a human cant grow accoridng to genetic prgram without building blocks from the envrinment
a childs experiences like oopurtinty to learn, clearly shape development
but learning would be imppsible without ste of gentically determined neaural processes that respond to experience and change
throughout human development we see interplay between geentically infleuced processes and experience
Early Capabilities in the Newborn
human newborns are not entirely feeble
they come equipped with small number of responses that help them survive, connect with other ppl and learn
newborns are equipped with several reflexes - automatic patterns of motor responses that are triggered by specific types of snesory stimulation
one collection of reflexes help the newborn obtain food - tocuh their cheek and they turn in the direction of the hand and opening their mouth as if ROOTING for a nipple
if the newborn finds nipple it encloses its moth and then you observe second reflex, sucking, which requires tonguing, swallowing and breathing orchestrated in coordinated dance
other reflexes were usueful in evolutoinary past but not much noew - newborns have reflex of grasping - comes from ape ancestores who needed to cling to mother from birth to be carrried - huamn newborns dont need this but grapsing reflex gives their caregivers a warm and fuzzy feeling of emotional connection reflexes also provide a window into newborns mental abilities
ex. sucking reflex offers insight into what info the infant learned while still in womb
one study of newborns born to heterosexual parents found that the newborns sucked more on the paciiefer when exposed to voice of their mother compared to other ppl or father
this suggests that befor ethey are born, infants are able to leanr sound of the moms voice and learned what distinguishes their voice form otehrs
in additiona to reflexes, newborns are bron with some limited control over their eye, head and facial moevments and how they direct these movement tells us a lot abt what they are born ready to do and learn
ex. newborns have thing for other ppl which is highly adaptive given how crucial otehr humans are to newborns survival
newborsn prefer to look at objects 8-12inch away which is typical distance between feeding ifnants eyes and caregivers face
newborns will turn their heads in direction of huamn voices and gaze longer at drawings of face like images
newborns also direect their eyes and heads in ways that suggest they like noevlty
infants like to look at and listen to familiar stimuli
but like adults they get bored hwne info is repetitive
when presented with ifno that remains unchanged, infants lose interest and look at it less
habituation, the most basic form of learning, involves a decreased response to repeated stimulation
if something new is presented and if the ifnat can tell teh difference between new stiulus and old, then dishabituation, an increased response occurs
having an insticnt to seek out new info keeps humans learning more
like the sucking reflex, the preocesses of habituation and dishabtitaion can be used to probe what newborsn perceive and remmeber
techniqeu that does this is novelty preference procedure
in this technique, ifnants are shown specific stimulus until their looking tiem decreases enough to suggest habituation
then researchers present same stimulus or new
nerborns tend to show little interest in old stimulus but they dishaityate to new one meaning they show renewed intrest in looking
results suggest that newborns perceive and store simple visual pattersn and respond to changes in immediate envrinment
Emerging motor skills
newborns have very limited abilities: they can barely lift their heads and cnnot coordinate their arms well enough to manipulate objects
yet during their first year, infants learn to sit, crawl, stand and even walk
these changes ind evelopming childs abaility to coordinate bodily movements are examples of motor development
infants motor skills dveelop accoridng to two general rules:
- motor skills tend to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet - infants control their heads and necks before their hands and hands before they baalnce on their feet
- motor skills emerge from center of body outward - infants need strength and control in the torsos core msucles to coordinate reaching moevemnts which they must master before they learn finer motor actions of hands and fingers like grapsing a tootherbush etc
with occasional exceptions, infants develop motor skills in fairly consistent sequence
babies can roll before they sit unsupported and they crawl ebfore walking
not all babies ra eteh same and there are indivdual differences in the timing of motor dveelopment
genetics play a major role in this timing - idnientcial twins parallel motor dveelopmemt
motor dveelopment is far more complex that what can be cpatured in a single image
babies bodies are continusly growing and changing so they are continusly learning new way sto use tehir bodies to solve practcial probs like reaching for an object or moving from one place to another
infants dveelp diff solutions to tehse problems and leads to motorl skills to differ from one infant to another
ex. infnats dvelop wide range of crawling stsyles
the existence of this diff styles suggest that ifnants develop their own strategies to solve the problem of getting from point A to point B
experience plays an imprtant role in the trajectory of motor development and infants everyday can vary widely dpeending on the childrearing practices of their caregiver and cultures
some experiences seem to speed up motor development
ex. some caribbean cultures, caregivers daily routines include massaging and exercisng ifnants often by stretcing their limbs or propping them into sitting and walking positions
infants in these cultures begin sitting and walking earlier than ifnants from other cultures and becasue crawling is discouraged in tehse cultures, many ifnants skip crawling together
cultrual traditions affect a child motor devlopment
other experiences seem to slow motor devlopment
in westenr culture parents place children on back for sleeping which reduces infant death but this is associated with delayed devlopment of roling and sitting and crawling and even walking idnependtly
parents can minimzie these affects - tummy time in day will reduce motor delays
motor developemt depends partly on having sufficent opportunties to practice
How thinking chnages: piagets theory
cognitive devlopment refers to changes in all of the mental activties associated with thinking, knowing, remebering and communicating
the study of cognitive develoment from infancy through adoslecence was piionered by piaget
piaget worked at place adminetrsing children intelligence test - he noticed that kids made mistakes whcih were siimllr across kids of the same age - he suspected that these rrors provide windows into how children think and reaosn and how their thinking and reasoning change across time
based on his many observations of children, piaget developed infleucntial tehory of how cognition dveelops
piaget argued that cognitive dvelopment is active and mostly self driven
piaget saw children as little sicnetsist who actevly work toward a more complex and compleet understanding of the world
he argued that understanding comes in form of schemas, units of knoweldge that reps our experiences and are used to guide how we interpret new info
schmeas capture lots of types of knowledge we form abt world, including abt senstions, actions, objects, events, roles and even teh self
piaget believed that newborns start life with just a few schemas that are related to their built in reflexes like sucking or grapsing
in piagets veiw, early motor abilities provide the first mental categories through which ifants organize their wolrd
infants udnertsna dwolrd consisting of suckables, grapsables etc,
piaget argued taht children test and expand schemas through play
whne childrpen play, or pretend or explore they actevly seek new data to guide them in revising and refining their schemas
according to piaget a person who is confronted with new experience - has two processes for aliging that new experience with their understanding of the world
- first, using assimilation, the child can use an existings chema to inetrpret new experience - ex. child might call chihuaha adog knowing that dog refrs to 4 leg aniamsl that barks
- second and suualiy at same time, the child uses accomdation which involves revising their schemas to incorporate info form the new experiences. the child sees new example of dog, now they broaden dog schema to icnldue animals that are smaller and have shorter hair than dogs they have seen before - with some guidance form others they might also form new schema for chihuaha to correpodn to this new animal tehy see
piaget argued that as chidlren construct and reconstruct their knoeldge, their thinking goes through bursts of change followed by stability
he decribed tehse bursts as marking transitions between 4 distinct and universal cognitive stages through which children advance in sequence
- sensorimotor stage (birth to 2): children develop knoweldge trhough their senses and actions but cannot think using symbols, namely language. during this stage, children learn that obejcts still exist even when hidden
- preoperational stage (2-7): chidlren master use of symbols but struggle to see situations from multiple perspectives or to imagine how situations can change. during this stage, children classfiy objects but only accoridng to single feature like colour or shape
- concetet operational stage (7-12): children become capable of using multipel eprspectives and their imagination to solve complex probs but they are able to apply this thinking only to cocnerte objects or events
- formal operational stage (12+): adoslents become able to reason abt abstract probs and hypotehtical propsitions
piagets stages underestiamte chidlrens abilities and oversmiplifed teh rpocess of cognitive dvelpment which unfolds mroe continosuly and less stage like that he proposed
his legacy remains
his question still inspires research: how do children come to understnad phsycial world? how do they learn to think in symbols? how do they learn to understand sitautions from other ppls perspetives?
Piaget also developed useful methods for studying cognitive development. He formed his insights by carefully observing children’s behavior in specific tasks that he designed. His observations on those tasks have been reproduced in many parts the world, and they have inspired researchers to develop new, more sensitive ways of observing and measuring children’s behavior.
piagets view of children as self dirven learners remains accpeted and infleucnes teh way children are edcuated
piagets theory inspired educators to create more opprtunities for children to discover their own knowledge through hands on explratuon
as piaget said “you cannot teach concepts evrballyl; you must use method founded on activty”
piagets emphasis on active leanring also affected the informal leanring opportunties that parenst offer children - like in toys
early social and emotional understanding
to become fully functionng humans, its not enough for infants to dvelop understaidng of the phsyical world
they must also learn to move in, interact withm and reason abt the social world
during infancy, humans undergo rapid changes that lay the foundation ofr sccesful social interaction
although newbrons have no clue what it means to be. afriend etc they do have the capcity to seek out ppl, learn abt them and form social connections
from births, finants seek out human faces and as they look at and respond to the faces they see, tehy gradually learn how to read the behaviours of other ppl
bwteeen 4-7 months of age, ifnants can tell the difference between absical mood expression on the face and vocal exprssions, especially for familiar caregivers
infants ability to understand emotional expressions comes in handy when the crawl
newfound mobility can land infants in dangerous situations: steep starices, swimming pools, or broken glass so no wonder parents say no a lot during this time
infants can also wander into situations that are simply new and tsrange
bc infants dont know how to respond to such situations they rely on others for gudiance
infants engage in social refrencing- relying on facial expression of adult or caregiver as source of ifno for how to react
infants also quickly learn which behaviours predict others
ex. by 6 months or so, crying ifnants start to calm down as soon as they hear sound of cargeivers footsteps - if the adult approaches but doesnt pickup the child, infant will protest loudly
by abt 11-12 months, some infants engage in fake cyring as way to summon caregiver
over the first year, ifnants also develop some ability to infer the inetntiaons that udnerlie the behaviurs they observe, an step in making sense of why ppl do what they do
in one study they examined this developing ability, 6 month old ifnants saw adult reaching for ball that was beside the bear. infants watach this again till they havituated. key question was: what do the ifnnats focus on when observing this event? what is more interesting: the path of motion (reach right) or goal of the reach? reseacrhers switched psoutions of toys. results showed that 6 month cared mroe abt goal than path. they looked longer, idnicating interst, when the adukt reached for diff toy. their understanding of events was conected to understanidng of ppl
Reasoning abt the phsyical world
Although children in preoperational period (2-7) use symbolic schemas to reason abt the world, piaget argued that they struggle to manage multiple schemas at the same time and t see how schmeas relate to one another
for example, they may have diffculty thinking of a colourful plant as both a rose and flower at the same time
they also cannot mentally manipulate their schemas which piaget reffered to as operations
operations involve imagining how things like ppl or objects might be diff than they are or imagining the conseqeunces of some event without needing to see it happen
imagining how puzzle peices fit together is an example of operations
with these operational abilities missing, young chidlren struggle to reason abt physical probs
a striking example comes form a simple task piaget developed to assess childrens understandoing of the princple of conservation: the idea that the phsyical properties of an object, such as mass, volume and number,m remain the same despite changes in the objects shape or form
in a typical task that measures the understanding of conservation a researcjer asks preoperational children to compare different g;lasses of liquid
accoridng to piaget, preoperational children do not understand the pricnple of conservation bc they fail to understand and relat ethe different dimensions of the situation
to see that the qunatity of liquid is conserved the children must first comprehend that there are two seperate but related aspects of the lqiuid: a. the height of the lqiyid and b. the width of the glass in which the liquid is held
they must then aprpeciate atht an increase in the columns height is accompanied by a dec in its width
thus the children msut be able to attend to both dimensions simulatenosuly and relat ethe dimenisons to each other
childrens lack of operations also impairs their understanding of conservation because they cannot mentally trasnform the liquid by imagining it being poured back and forth between the glasses
in recent deceades our undertsanidng of brain dveelopment has shed light on why conservation tasks are so troublesome for young children
piaget was likley correect that children in preoperational stage have diffucltty attending to multiple dimesnions at the same time
the reason is connected to matruation of frontal lobe which includes brain strcutures believed to be essential for coginitiv control: the ability to override automatic ways of thinking in favour of stragets that require more effrot
in the conservation task an automatic mental shortcut or heuristic is at play: use of liquid height to estimate volume
this heuristic is useful most time
assming that containser are same size and shape the hieght can tell u whihc jas mroe in it
in conservation task adults are able to cognintive ocntrol to override this herutoc and think abr other dimensiuons of teh problem
adukts dont always override this heurostic bc they oversevre drinks for themelves when given wider glasses to drink form
bc of their developon preforntal cortex, young children have more diffuclty overriding their impluses and automatic ways of thinking
this diffculty is drmatacalliy demonstrated in a task in which researcher gives preschooler set of illustrated cards that can be sorted in multiple ways like by their colour or by shape
prescholers have no trouble leanring simple rule or sorting
but intil 4 or 5 children who know one sorting struggle to switch to new rulke
they understand new rule
but can be felxible to perform it
once chidlren reach what piaget termed concerete operational period (7-12) they easily pass teh conservaton task
they grasp that changes in oneaspect of a situation can be offset by changes in anotehr aspect and are able to mentally transofrm obects and situations
accoridng to paget, chidlrens capacities are limited in an imprtant way: tehy can apply mental operations only to concerete tangible objects or events
its not until adolsecen that children move beyond conceret into the abstract and hypotehical
Mastering a Sense of Self and Other Minds
human scoial functioning depends in part on being aware of oneself
young infants behave in ways that suggest they dont have a sense of self seeprate from otehrs
researchers demonstrated this by palcing a dot on the nose of a child and presnetinh them with a mirror - western children younger than 18 months would treat the child in the mirror as anoteher child - by 18 months they are more likely to look in mirror and point at their nose recogizng they are in the mirriro
reserach disocevgerd that children from other cultural backgrounds appear to pass the dot test at a slower rate than children from orginal studies, suggesting that cultrual differences in caregviing practcies may shape the developin sense of self
for ex cultures vary in how much caregivers imitate children nd these differences in imitation predict faster development of self recogniztion inthe mirror
the ability to reorgnize oneself in the mirror coincdes with greater abilit.y tos hwo conern for others emotions such as willingness to console a peer
although young children show empathy for others emotions by age of 2 piagets developmental tehroy contended that uoung children are quite limited in their udnestasnidng of what others think
accoridng to him, chidleen in preoperational period experience egocentrism, diffuclting perecing situations from another pov
they find it challenging to think abt how other ppl might perceive objects or situations
ex. in hide and seek they dont realize you can see their legs sticking out
later research confirmed piagets insight, leading psychologisst to proopse that young children lack a theory of mind
theory of mind is the udnertsaindg that we and other ppl have minds, that these minds rep the world in diff ways and that these reps explain and predict how ppl behave
this undestading is called theory bc it is belived to have things in common with more formal theories that scietsist develop to explain many things including things they cannot directly see or experience such as gravity
likewise ppl cannot directly see others thoughts but tehy can formualet theories abt how the thoughts oeprate and ifnelucne anotehrs behaviour
a typical task tests hcidlrens theory of mind with an interaction between two puppets or dolls one of which has false belif abt where an object is hideen
the doll thinks the object is in one place not rlzing that other doll move out of room
by 4 or 5 children demonstate understaidng of dolls false belif and can use it to accruetaly rpedict doll will look at where she left it
before this age, chidlren rpeidably give the wrong answer that the doll looks where the toy now is
give that the age which children solve tjs false beleif task is consistent across cultuees, researchers conlcude that chidlrend evlop tehory of mind at age 5
recent finidngs suggest that childrens abilities to udnerstand other minds develop ealier than piaget and other scholars proposed
long before children can pass the false ebelif task, they show appreaciation for others perceptions and feelings
ex. chidlren at 18 months can decude that if adult walks in room and is suprised and asks for toy, they think adult is refering to toy they hacnt seen before
at same age chidlren reason that ppl differ in what they liek and choose based on their preferences
ex. knowing what food a person likes even tho diff than them
there is also evidence that long before children pass false belif task they have an understanding of others belifs and how those belifs predict otehrs behaviour
in frist explroations, researchers presneted 2-4 y/o with classic false beelif task
in additinn to asking where they doll looks for object, they measured the chidlrens looking behaviour
adults report correct answer and they look at the correct answer
2 y/o tended to both say and look at wrong direction but around 3 they looked at correct location but verbally gave wrong asnwer
these findings showing implcit understaidng of false ebelif suggest that children sometimes know things they cannot conciosuly report
specifally children seem to have an undetsnding of mental states that predates and perhaps lays the foudnation for their explcit theory of mind
gender development in childhood
The sociakl world shpaes not only how children think abt and solve everyday probs but it shapes how children come to think abt themselves
children started to develop awarness of themsevles by age of 18 months in some cultures
chidlren develop acorss childhood their sense of self exapnds to include an understanding of imprtant social categories such as gender
even before child is bon parenst expect the chidl to develop in a certain way based on their biolgical sex
knowing ifnants sex immediatly evokes expectation abt the likley gender identity and charcterics of that child
gender identity describes the psycholgical identity of being male or female or non binary
although new babies dont have sense of self yet or sense of gender they expected to develop as cisgneder by ppl around and and to develop charcetrics that match the stereotypes
ex. an analysis of cards sent to parents of newborns will have setroetupcial stuff written based on gender
in studies known as baby x studies, partcipants interacted with baby and depenidng on gender they were told they gave sterotupcial toys for them to play with
these gender based expectations form part of childs gender socialization which describes the rpocess by which ppl inetrnalie the social expectations and attidues associated with theri eprceived gender
gender socializtion comes form amny soruces like medi and toys
parents also play role in gender socializtion
parents treat children simialrly in terms of love but there are differences - ex. ecpecting gorls to do fmeinne chores nad males to do masculine etc
childrent dont passively soak up these messages abt what is expected from males and females
they actievly build own udnertsniadng of gender
as chidlren work to figure out how to behave in diff stitations, they develop a gender schema or network of assymptions abt how ppl with diff genders are supposed to think feel and act
before age of three chidlren can categroize photographs of diff genders and around same time they develop sense of own gender idnetity - identify in binary ways
although mnost idenfit though biolgical sex, tarsn children idenfiy with diff gender
some as young as 2 can express idsafstfyction with their sex assignment
others dont reveal the dissatisfcation until later
in preschool years of 3-5 chidlren develop strong sense of stereotyoical expectations for males and females and tend to express their gender in steroetpcial ways
across diff ethincis some children play in teorypes ways and only with same gdner peers
young chidlrens steroetps for diff genders are rigid leading them to act like gender police in judgmenets of others
ex. they say a toy is for specific genders only
as chidlren appoach elementary school theri udnerstanding of gender is more flexible
chidlren learn that ppl dont always act in accoradacne with sterotoes nor should they
they develop sense of gender constancy that a perosn gender idenifty is constant regardless of how they act or dress
this new udnerstanding helps children loosen sterotpies
although grils who reject feminity tend to gain popularity with their peers, boys expeeince greater pressure to conform to amsculine steotoes and those who dont are morelikely to expereince social rejection
chidlren not only inetrlized gender expectation but relaize that masculinuty is more valued and rewarded in society than feminity
gender differences in values play role in why boys are more socially rejected than grils
some as young as 6 are less likely than girls to beelive its imprtant to be kind and belive its imrpant to be win and good at things
