Lecture 11 Child development

Question 1

Define physical development

Answer 1

The maturation of bodily structures

Question 2

Define motor development

Answer 2

The progression of various motor skills

Question 3

Define cognitive development

Answer 3

The growth of the child’s intellectual functioning

Question 4

Define social development

Answer 4

Changes in the way children deal with others

Question 5

What was Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

Answer 5

suggested that infants and children see and understand the world differently to adults, and that children construct their understanding of the world through their active involvement and interactions.
Proposed that there are 4 main stages of cognitive developement

Question 6

What are Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development?

Answer 6

1. The sensorimotor stage (0-2)
2. Preoperational stage (2-7)
3. concrete operations stage (7-11)
4. Formal operations stage (11+)

Question 7

What is stage one: the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 7

occurs from birth-2years. When born, children have no concept of past/future, or of ‘me/not me’. Infant uses their senses and motor abilities to understand the world. They ‘think’ with their senses. Has 6 SUBSTAGES

Question 8

What are the 6 substages of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 8

1. Reflexive schemas
2. Primary circular reactions
3. Secondary circular reactions
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions
5. Tertiary circular reactions
6. Mental representations

Question 9

What is substage 1 of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 9

Reflexive schemas. 0-1 month. develop reflexive behaviours such as sucking, grasping, moving eyes…
By 4 weeks old these actions become voluntary

Question 10

What is substage 2 of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 10

Primary circular reactions. 1-4 months. development of simple motor skills in response to environmental demands. Behaviours are now motivated by basic needs. actions centred on the self (sucking thumb brings comfort)

Question 11

What is substage 3 of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 11

Secondary circular reactions. 4-8 months. Infants repeat actions that affect the environment. They can imitate actions that they have practised many times (e.g. pull on hair for attention)

Question 12

What is substage 4 of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 12

Coordination of secondary circular reactions. 8-12 months. Infants develop hand-eye coordination. Behaviours are intentional and goal driven to solve problems. Infants still struggle with object permanence

Question 13

What is substage 5 of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 13

Tertiary circular reactions. 12-18 months. Infants can repeat actions (mimicry). The experiment with trial and error. They now develop advanced object permanence. Start to gain self-awareness (shown by ROUGE TEST)

Question 14

What is substage 6 of the sensory-motor stage?

Answer 14

Mental representations. 18-24 months. Can now solve problems through symbolic means (not trial and error). Beginnings of insight and creativity, building objects and function of objects. Start to have imaginative play at the end of this stage (2 years)

Question 15

What is stage 2 of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 15

Preoperational stage. 2-7 years. Child uses mental representations of objects, uses symbolic thought and language (imaginary..). Do not yet understand logic (casual relationships). Egocentrism: an inability so see the viewpoint of others and take their perspective (disappears at 3.5-4 years) as tested by three mountain task. Animism: belief that inanimate objects have human feelings and intentions. Theory of mind (understanding others thinking). at 4-7 years they develop primitive reasoning, understand that they know stuff but dont know why they know. Have NO conservation. Centration is a problem (focus on only 1 dimension). Learn Transitive inference (applying rules and reasoning: feather breaking glass)

Question 16

What is theory of mind and how is it tested?

Answer 16

ToM is an understanding that others may be thinking different things to you, and insight into what they may be thinking through perspective taking. Tested using the Sally-Anne Test (a false belief test of theory of mind)

Question 17

What is Stage 3 of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 17

Concrete operations. 7-11 years. Now use logic to solve problems. Can do the theory of mind false-beliefs test (sally-annie), egocentrism and animism decline/disappear. Develop the ability of conservation. Learn about reversibility (things can change back). Starting to understand hypotheticals (not well)

Question 18

What is stage 4 of Piaget’s theory

Answer 18

Formal operations. 11-15+ years. Now think rationally and logically. Develop hypothetic-deductive reasoning and metacognition (start to think about why they had a thought). Adolescents develop hypotheses of alternative outcomes when faced with a problem. this stage is propositional. Evaluate the logic of statements (transitive inference now easy)

Question 19

What is attachment?

Answer 19

-First bond between parent/caregiver and child. Is is an emotional tie to a specific person(s). It begins to develop at birth and continues through 1st year of life. It is a strong, long lasting “person specific” connection.

Question 20

What is imprinting and who researched it?

Answer 20

Imprinting is an attachment in animals that occurs soon after birth (in a sensitive period) with the first animated object they see. If animate object is followed for 10+ minutes, an attachment is formed. Lorenz studied imprinting in ducks and geese.

Question 21

What did Harlow’s research find?

Answer 21

• examined love and attachment in monkeys, and showed that love of the mother goes beyond physiological needs. (monkeys with wire and cloth mother). Also showed that monkeys raised without a mother or other monkeys resulted in them being socially maladjusted for the rest of their lives.

Question 22

Why is infant attachment important, and who studied it?

Answer 22

Studied by John Bowlby, proposed that infants are born with inbuilt tendencies to seek contact with an adult, but is different to bonding which is more biologically-based (connection formed soon after birth). He proposed that there was a negative and positive cause for this, fear of the unfamiliar, and enjoyment of contact. It is important for exploratory behaviour, physical, cognitive and social-emotional development, ability to overcome early life challenges, relationships later in life, helps us survive. It is unclear is attachments are permanent.

Question 23

What are the 4 attachment phases?

Answer 23

0-2/3 months: Undiscriminating social responsiveness
3-7 months: Discriminating social responsiveness
7m-3years: activity proximity seeking/true attachment
3+ years: goal-corrected partnership

Question 24

What are signs of attachment?

Answer 24

• Contact-maintaining behaviours (smile, hold on to person)

- Proximity-seeking behaviours (crawl towards person)

Question 25

What happens when an infant is separated from their attached parent/caregiver?

Answer 25

• Infants with true attachment often wary and distressed
• During first few months before true attachment (0-6/8 months) infant may accept substitute adult
• around 6-8 months infant knows caregiver and fusses when gone
• Distress can be seen in some older children

Question 26

What was mary Ainsworth studying?

Answer 26

Studying how to measure attachment. Created the ‘strange situation procedure’ which assesses attachment in children around 1 year of age through a series of 8 stages. It examines the behaviour of a child once separated and reunited with caregiver.

Question 27

What are the 4 types of attachment and their linked parenting style?

Answer 27

• Secure attachment (sensetive and responsive CG)
• Insecure anxious-avoidant attachment (too little or too much stimulation from CG)
• Insecure anxious-ambivalent attachment (inconsistant stimulation from CG)
• Insecure disorganised attachment (CG stimulus usually unpredictable caused by illness e.g. mental illness)

Question 28

What can make an attachment change?

Answer 28

Change to social settings can change the attachment status to CG, such as divorce, abuse, remarriage…

Question 29

What is adult attachment?

Answer 29

Two dimensions of adult attachment styles
-Anxiety (concern about partners availability and responsiveness)
-Avoidance (discomfort with being intimate and dependent on partner)
Four resulting attachment styles:
1. Secure
2. Preoccupied
3. Dismissing
4. Fearful