Development

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Chapter 12

• Development

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Gameplan

• Motor and Perceptual Development in Infancy
• Cognitive Development in Childhood
• Social Development in Childhood
• Adulthood and Aging

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Motor Development in Infancy
The term infant is used to refer to a child
from birth to two years of age. A child is
actually born with some motor reflexs
already hard-wired Turn head if cheek is
touched (rooting) Will suck if lips are
touched (sucking) Will swallow if liquid
enters mouth (swallow) Other motor behaviours
have to be learned, and many of these behaviours
cannot be learned until the body has matured.
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Maturation and Practice
Maturation is a term used to refer to any gradual
change in thought, behaviour, or physical growth
that is due to the aging process, and not to
experience. Certain motor behaviours (e.g.,
walking) simply cannot be learned until the body
has matured to a point where it is ready to
support the behaviour. However, maturation is
not the whole story either. In order for motor
functions to develop properly and at the right
times, the child must be able to acquire practice
in order to refine the behaviour to useful
points.
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Sensory and Perceptual Development
It seems as though all the senses work very soon
after birth if not immediately after
birth. However, it is not clear that they work
anything nearly as well as the do after some
maturation has occurred senses likely become
sharper. Although sensation may be there at
birth, perception clearly takes time to
develop. For example, as shown in Figure 12.3,
although a child can see a face at 1 month old,
it appears to see it very differently at 2 months
old.
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The Importance of Critical Periods
In order to properly develop certain perceptual
abilities, the child must be exposed to the
right kinds of sensory stimulation at the right
point of development. For example, in order to
develop correct binocular depth perception, the
eyes must receive the correct sensory
input between 1 and 3 years old if the eyes do
not pass the right input during the brain during
that time, the ability to use the cues may never
be learned. Such critical periods are common for
both perceptual and cognitive development - e.g.,
language.
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Cognitive Development
One of the first things that most babies learn
(and must learn) is that their behaviours can
affect their environment. This is often learned
most directly via crying behaviour. In fact, it
sometimes seems as though the baby is better
at training the parent to behave than
vice-versa. However, learning this may have
important implications for how the baby
approaches future interactions with its world
Mobile experiments
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Piaget
The most famous child Psychologist was Jean
Piaget (1896- 1980). He viewed cognitive
development as a maturation process perhaps
similar to learning to walk. He focused on
errors when problem solving, and noticed
that children at different ages seem to make
different kinds of errors (owing to their
not-yet-developed cognitive processes). He
believed that as children mature they developed
cognitive structures, rules or representations
that allow them to understand and interact with
the world. These structures would take the form
of schemata and concepts.
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Schemata Concepts
Weve talked about the notion of schemata before,
remember the restaurant script? In the case of a
child, the schemata may be more basic, but the
idea is the same one schemata the child learns
is the notion of grasping something (and then
likely putting it in its mouth). They also
develop concepts about objects in their
environment, what they look like, what they do,
what other objects they may or may not be related
to, if they can be manipulated, etc.
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Assimilation Accomodation
Piaget saw two processes as critical for allowing
a child to adapt to its environment assimilation
and accomodation. Assimilation refers to the
modification of new information to make it fit
into an existing schema seeing a block of wood
as a car, and playing with it in this manner
or, all men are Daddy. Accomodation refers to
the creation or modification of schema to make
them fit with new experiences for
example creating a cognitive category for men
other than Daddy.
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Piagets Four Periods of Development
Sensory-Motor Period During the first two years
of life cognition is closely tied to external
stimulation. Infants will not track an object
until about 3 months, apparently they have little
concept for objects at all. At approx 5 months
they can anticipate where an object will be in
the future. At approx. 6 months they develop
object permanence, the notion that an object
does not disappear when it is out of sight.
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Piagets Four Periods of Development
Sensory Motor Period (Continued) Even at 6
months though, infants assume that an object
should be in the last place they saw it they
dont seem to realize that things can move when
they are out of sight. Late in this period they
begin to imitate behaviours, often acting out
schema in play. They also begin to be able to
use words to represent concepts, and obvious
ability for dealing with symbols that
represent concepts, in place of the concepts
themselves.
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Piagets Four Periods of Development
The Preoperational Period Goes from age 2 to
about 7, and involves the development of symbolic
and logical thinking. Characterized by the rapid
development of language ability and the ability
to represent things symbolically (e.g.,
counting) Children also learn the concept of
conservation during the period the notion that
an object keeps the same volume despite changes
in shape e.g., water in various
containers. Also characterized by ego-centric
behaviour.
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Piagets Four Periods of Development
The Period of Concrete Operations Spans ages 7
to 11 and is characterized by children gaining
further understanding of conservation and
mastering other concepts such as
categorization. Logical thinking develops
further as does the childs ability to empathize
with others. They can often perform logical
inferences with objects they can see, but have
trouble doing it in more abstract contexts.
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Piagets Four Periods of Development
The Period of Formal Operations Children become
capable of abstract reasoning, and can
make logical inferences even in abstract
contexts. They also begin to understand that
their behaviour can have different consequences
in different contexts. Some people never reach
this period reaching it is partially dependent
on receiving the right kind of education.
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Social Development
Normally, the first people a child interact with
are its parents. This interaction sets the
stage for the infants future. Parent or not,
it is critical for the infants social
development that the it form an attachment with a
primary caregiver, who also forms an attachment
with the infant. The textbook defines an
attachment as the social and emotional bond
between infant and caregiver that spans
both space and time. It involves both the warm
feelings that the parent and the child have for
each other and the comfort and support they
provide each other, which becomes
especially important during times of fear and
stress.
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Attachments and Anxiety
Two forms of anxiety are directly related to the
quality of the attachment between an infant and
primary caregiver. Stranger Anxiety refers to
the fact that most infants between 6 and 12
months act wary, and sometimes fearful, in the
presence of strangers. Separation Anxiety
refers to the fearful response that infants of
6 to 15 months typically exhibit when the
primary caregiver attempts to leave it. In
both cases, the responses typically including
crying, arousal and clinging to the primary
caregiver.
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Characterizing Attachments
Based on these anxieties a researcher named
Ainsworth developed a test of attachment called
the strange situation test. The general form of
the test is that the infant is put through 8
episodes, all meant to elicit differing levels of
distress. These include an experimenter entering
the room one or both leaving a stranger
entering either with or without the parent in the
room, etc. Based on the infants reaction in
these situations, the type of attachment between
the infant and caregiver has been categorized as
one of three types.
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The 3 types of Attachments
Secure attachment is when infants prefer their
caregiver over a stranger cry when the
caregiver leaves, but stop when they
return. Resistant attachment infants stay close
to their caregiver before they leave, but may
show both approach and avoidance types or
behaviour when they return. Avoidant attachment
infants do not cry when they are left alone When
their caregiver returns, they avoid or ignore
them. These infants also tend not to cuddle when
they are picked up. This occurs in about 20 of
American infants.
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Important Note!!

• Fridays class has been uncancelled as I have
  decided not to go to that conference.
• Thus, there WILL BE a class on Friday! Be there
• or be square.

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Behaviours that Foster Strong Attachments
Sucking seems to be an instinctive behaviour that
serves to inhibit distress as well as being
linked to feeding. Cuddling seems very important
for fostering strong bonds between caregiver and
infant Harlows monkeys. Looking at one
another is also incredibly important for
establishing a bond. Caregivers and infants
spend a great deal of time looking at one
another. Smiling is even more critical. If a
caregiver looks at an infant but does not smile,
the infant will typically turn away (and
the caregiver will feel terrible).
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Behaviours that Foster Strong Attachments
Finally, as we discussed a bit in last class,
crying is a critical behaviour for establishing a
strong bond. More specifically, the response of
the caregiver to crying is what really
matters. Parents that respond quickly and
affectionately when their child cries are more
likely to end up developing secure attachments. I
f a parent is more distant, they are more likely
to end up having a resistant or avoidant
attachment.
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Other Issues in Text
There are several other issues discussed in the
text with respect to social development that I
will not discuss in any detail in class they
include Interactions with Peers
Approaches to Childrearing Growing up in
Single Parent or Divorced Families
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Aging
To end this chapter, we will now consider the
other side of the coin, aging. Physically,
humans reach their peak at about 30, then
its downhill from there (though see the section
in the text suggesting that there may be
hope). What about Cognitively? Do cognitive
functions change or become worse with age? They
do seem to eventually, but exactly when
cognitive declines happen is subject to several
factors.
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Dementia and Aging
Approximately 5 of the population over 65 years
old suffer from Alzheimers disease. These
people gradually lose virtually all cognitive
abilities. Early on, minor memory problems
Then bouts of confusion and problems doing
fairly simple tasks like balancing a
chequebook The loss of memory starts with
recent memories, then works it way further
back. Often patients in the later stages of
Alzheimers become lost when they walk
bracelet program Eventually these people
become bedridden, then die.
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Depression and Aging
Another major source of dementia in aging seems
due to depression. Old people often no longer
work, their friends and spouses may die, they
have less contact with family, less
responsibilities (e.g., taking care of a house or
something) and may generally lose their sense of
self-worth. Not surprisingly, these conditions
can cause depression, and depression generally
reduces cognitive functioning. Thus, some old
people may seem to have lost it simply because
they dont care to use it.
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Normal Aging
What if you do not have Alzheimers, and you are
not depressed, do you still lose cognitive
abilities as you age? Schaie (1990) performed a
study suggesting that performance on 5 tests of
intellectual abilities showed an increase
until the 30s, then a stable level until the mid
50s or early 60s, followed by a gradual
decline. The textbook also mentions a number of
other ways in which older people seem to perform
less well than younger people. Thus, they are
losing their cognitive abilities, right?
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The Need for Care when Examining Age
Recently, a study by Hasher (1998) has shown that
researchers need to be cautious when comparing
the performance of older and younger
subjects. There may be other factors that change
with age as an example she highlighted
different Circadian Rhythms which have the effect
that young people peak intellectually in
the afternoon whereas the old peak earlier in the
day. Typically, subjects are tested late in the
day because the experimenters are
young. However, when both groups are tested
during their peak times, many of the aging
declines disappear.
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Issues Relating to Social Development
The textbook also mentions a number of other
issues related to social development in adulthood
which I will now very quickly touch on.
Mid-life crises Marriage and Family Work
Death OK, enough development, on to Emotion and
Motivation!