1. Infancy and Childhood
Chapter 3

2. Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology is the study of how physical, social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development occur
Nature vs. Nurture is a common issue for developmental psychology

3. Perceptual Development
Infants prefer looking at faces and patterns over any other stimulus
Infants also greatly benefit from being touched by their parents and several studies have shown newborns have some perceptual abilities

4. Newborn Capacities
Newborns have the ability to see, hear, smell, and respond to their environment at birth
Most newborns are capable of reflexes that are triggered by stimulus such as the grasping reflex and the rooting reflex

5. Physical Development
Maturation is internally programmed growth, and children mature at similar rates in most cases
Maturational readiness will occur when a child is physiologically ready for a new skill (ex: walking)

6. Language Development
Most children say their first word by one year old
By the time children are 2, they have a vocabulary of words
Children use telegraphic speech- they leave out words or use the wrong tense, but the meaning is usually clear

7. Cognitive Development
How knowing changes:
Schemas- mental representations of the world --->
Assimilation- the process of fitting new information into pre-existing schema --->
Accommodation- the process of changing schema to fit new information

8. Object Permanence
When an infant’s toy is hidden, he or she acts as if it has ceased to exist
By the second year of life, this changes and a child begins to realize things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen or touched- called object permanence

9. Representational Thought
Representational thought is the ability of a child to picture something in his or her mind
Comes after object permanence

10. Conservation
Between 5 and 7, a child will begin to understand conservation- that a given quantity does not change when its appearance is changed
This is because children are egocentric- unable to understand other perspectives

11. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

12. Emotional Development: Animals
Experiments with animals have shown that early in life, attachment occurs
Imprinting is an inherited tendency or response displayed by newborn animals when they encounter new stimuli

13. Emotional Development: Human Infants
Infants begin to form attachment around 6 months of age
Avoidant attachment: Infants ignore mother when she leaves or returns
Resistant attachment: Not upset with mother when she leaves, but ignore when she returns
Disorganized attachment: Behave inconsistently
Secure attachment: balance need to explore and need to be close

14. Parenting Styles
Authoritarian: Parents attempt to control behavior of children in accordance with a set code of conduct
Democratic (authoritative): Children participate in decisions affecting their lives
Permissive (laissez-faire): Children have final say, parents have non-punishing attitude

15. Child Abuse
Includes the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, or negligent treatment of children under 18 by an adult
Abuse happens for a variety of reasons, and has different effects on each victim

16. Social Development
For children to develop normally, they must learn socialization, or the process of learning behavior in the culture in which you live
This includes finding your role and a place in society, as well as learning to live with others

17. Freud’s Psychosexual Development
Identification- the process by which the child adopts the principles of the same-sex parent
Sublimation- The process of redirecting sexual impulses into learning tasks

18. Erikson’s Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson took a broader view of human development than Freud
He said the need for social approval is the driving force in development

19. Learning Theory of Development
Many psychologists disagree with Freud or Erikson, and believe children learn social rules because they are awarded for conforming, and social development is a matter of conditioning

20. The Cognitive-Developmental Approach
The opposite of Learning Theory, Cognitive- Developmental approach states the child is the instigator of learning socially
This is demonstrated by games and play and role taking