Continuing and Distance Education Introductory Psychology 1023 Lecture 2: Human Development Reading: Chapter 10

Six months gestation: Nervous system and crucial internal organs

Last three months: Body weight, surface features (hair, skin)

Basic Developmental Questions w Maturation vs. learning; hair color is canalized (high nature); writing is not (high learning) Example: Nature-Nurture debate over intelligence Example: Cultural variation in child-rearing practice w Continuity vs. discontinuity; Stages occur in sequence, rapid transition, behavior organized locomotion, butterflys, sexual maturity, swim badges at what age do these transitions happen? Example: Does cognitive development occur in a stages?

Jean Piaget’s Theory w Coherent problem-solving underlies children’s thought and progresses through a series of stages w Schemas, are mental frameworks that allow children to adapt to their environment w Assimilation: New information fits existing schemas: bang spoons and sticks on pots; w Accommodation: New information does not fit -- schema must change: squeeze “Teddy” but not the dog

Stages of development w Sensorimotor: birth to age 2; reflexive actions are used to provide sensations egocentrism, object permanence, and representational thought by 2 w Pre-operational: age 2 to 7; representational thought and verbal communication intentional experimentation with objects and language through play Conservation: physical properties of objects can remain the same even when form or appearance changes

Concrete operational stage w Age 7 until 12; children can manipulate internal representations w Conservation of liquid quantity experiment: children now pass w Conservation of volume: Flubber or silly- putty w Concept of identity: A girl in boy’s clothes is still a girl

Formal-operational stage w 11 or 12 years of age onward; children can manipulate abstract concepts w Second-order relations: They can understand relationships between relations, e.g., division and multiplication are opposite w Algebra, geometry, ven-diagrams

Moral Development w Kohlberg’s model: Should you steal medicine for a sick friend? Preconventional morality age 7-10: Punishment and obedience; TROUBLE Conventional morality age 10-16: Social rules internalized, conscience; SHOULD’NT Post-conventional morality 16+: Internal moral principles outweigh social rules; SHOULD w Problems: Care and compassion are important too, inconsistent responding, reasoning is unrelated to behavior

Maasi in africa: Attachment theory is cross-cultural

Young infants need caregivers for contact, security, and distress resolution w Separation anxiety: distress when left alone w Distress when strangers or other threats are around w Social referencing w Categories of infant caregiver relationships can be described from how children depend on and act within relationships

Patterns in Infancy: Ainsworth’s Strange Situation w Three patterns which differ on proximity- seeking and distress resolution w Avoidant (A): No distress or proximity- seeking, no distinction between mother and stranger w Secure (B): Distress resolved, proximity- seeking w Resistant (C): Distress not resolved, ambivalent proximity-seeking