1. Child Development

2. Review Developmental psychologists
study age-related changes that occur throughout the lifespan, from conception until death (mostly focusing on childhood)
Nature vs. Nurture debate motivates the study of development

3. Social Development
Temperament: refers to a child’s characteristic mood and activity level

4. Social Development Easy infants- adaptable to new situations
Positive mood
Predictable in their rhythm/schedule

5. Temperament Cont. Difficult Infants Intense in their reactions
Not very adaptable to new situations
Slightly negative mood
Irregular body rhythms

6. Attachment: Close emotional relationship between an infant and its caretakers
~Initially, infants attempt to attract
attention of no one in particular
~Eventually develop ability to discriminate familiar and unfamiliar people
                                                      

7. Attachment: Close emotional relationship between an infant and its caretakers
Secure Attachments: Children use parent as a secure base from which they explore their environment (know parent will be there)
Insecure Attachments: Tend not to use parent as secure base and may often cling to or refuse to leave parent.
                                                      

8. Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget
Schema: action, strategy- helps people understand and interact with the world
Children are born with simple schemas (basic reflexes like sucking)
Schemas change and adapt to new needs and demands

9. Piaget
Adaptation: process by which people adapt and change to function more effectively and meet challenges
Assimilation: process of incorporating new objects/situations in existing schemas
Accommodation: process of altering existing schemas or creating new ones to deal with new situations

10. Piaget’s Stages of Development
Children progress at the same age through 4 stages of cognitive development
Here they are…

11. Sensorimotor: birth-2yrs
Intelligence is nonverbal and non-symbolic
Lack “Object Permanence”
Peek-a-boo

12. Preoperational: 2-7 years
Develop language
Can use symbols
Egocentric
unable to consider other’s feelings or opinions
Trouble with conservation tasks
(judging size)
                                                                                      

13. Preoperational: 2-7 years
Conservation
                                                                                      

14. Concrete Operational: 7-11 yrs
Understand conservation
Mathematical developments
Difficulty with hypothetical

15. Formal Operations: 11-15 yrs
                               
Can handle the hypothetical, symbolic abstractions, metaphor
Use scientific reasoning and logic

16. What do you think?
Piaget thought cognitive development was complete by age 15…what do you think?
How would you change or update Piaget’s stages?
Do you think he overestimated or underestimated the cognitive abilities of kids/adolescents?