Developmental psychology - studying the changes in behavior and abilities that occur in children

Neonate - newborn - all senses are working, but they are limited

Reflexes – allow the newborn to react to the world before she is aware of anything

- grasping, rooting, sucking, Moro (startle) – help us respond before our brains are ready to – before sensory system is ready to

Visual perceptions at birth are in place but not advanced

babies prefer looking at a human face than other shapes

later, babies prefer looking at unusual stimuli

We grow and mature more in the first year than any other year of life

Cephalocaudal - head grows first

Proximodistal - trunk grows first

Ceph and Prox also applies to gaining control over motor movements

Emotions - negative and positive - overhead

Films in class

    Campos & Emde - Depth perception, fear of heights,
                social referencing

    Michael Lewis - Self-Awareness

    Yarrow, Waxler  -empathy

    Cross-sectional vs Longitudinal Research

    Brain growth at 3 months - major milestone in
    development of neurons
 

Readiness

Heredity and environment

23 chromosomes in each gamete – DNA – most characteristics are polygenetic – dominant and recessive genes (alleles) – we share 99% of our genetic structure with non-human primates, and about 95% is shared with all other animals

XY or XX sex chromosomes

TDF on the Y chromosome starts the process of physical development as a male

Dominant - recessive genes

Nature – Nurture – (genes vs environmental influences)

Temperament – inborn personality – irritability, sensitivity, shyness, typical mood – easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up 40-10-15 %

A dynamic relationship is created between child and caretaker – influence each other

Prenatal development

Congenital problems – teratogens – FAS – alcohol – Nicotine (blocks oxygen supply to fetus by restricting blood flow)

Teratogens

Fetal alcohol syndrome - severe physical and mental defects

Childbirth

Conventional delivery - 95% of births use a painkiller - epidural - (spinal block)

Prepared childbirth – Lamaze - breathing method

Maternity blues (mild) / Postpartum depression (severe)– Placenta was producing hormones – mother’s body has to reset itself

Maternal and paternal involvement

    proactive maternal involvemment - warm, educational interactions

Goodness of fit - adapting to the infant's temperament

Fathers tend to act as playmates – risk-taking

Social development

development of social skills

Self-awareness – rouge test  - 18 –24 mos

Social referencing – especially in ambiguous situations

Critical periods – sensitive periods

Imprinting - animal ethology

Attachment -  human "imprinting"

Separation anxiety – stranger anxiety – secure, avoidant, ambivalent

Harry Harlow’s rhesus monkeys – contact comfort – John Bowlby – attachment styles - went beyond Freudian idea that satisfaction of oral needs (feeding) was the most important aspect of infant development

securely attached, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent

Quality matters more than whether or not children attend

Second half of chapter starts here.

Language development

learning to communicate verbally - symbolic interaction

Cooing (6-8 wks), babbling (6 mos), first words (1 year), telegraphic speech (18 mos – 24 mos)

Comprehension always precedes production

Biological predisposition – Noam Chomsky – opposed learning theoriests, notably Skinner – Language Acquisition Device – to absorb the structure of language

Cognitive development

Jean Piaget – Assimilation, accommodation

Sensorimotor 0-2 – object permanence

Preoperational 2-7 – symbolic thought, but not logical – egocentrism

Concrete operations – 7-11 – conservation – little scientist – reversibility

Formal operations – 12+   abstract thought, hypothetical possibilities

Renee Baillargeon – surprising babies – as early as 3 mos, some object permanence

Moral development  -Lawrence Kohlberg (patterned his stages after Piaget's stages of cognitive development)

Kohlberg's ideas – vs – Carol Gilligan's ideas

p. 113 stages

Deprivation

Early stimulation (contact comfort - Harry Harlow's monkeys)

Genetics and reproduction

    artificial insemination, in vitro fertilizatio, sex selection, human genome project, genetic counseling,

    Prenatal diagnosis - amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling,