III' Infancy and Toddlers

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III. Infancy and Toddlers

• Psychological Processes
• Reciprocal Determinism
• Cultural-Historical Theory
• Social Issues and Conflicts
• Early Language Development
• Noam Chomsky

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Creator Albert Bandura
• Reciprocal Determinism
• The world and a persons behavior cause each
  other.
• Both Environment and behavior cause each other.
• Personality is viewed as an interaction among
  three elements
• Environment
• Behavior
• Persons Psychological Process

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Psychological processes consist of our ability
  to
• Entertain images in our minds.
• Images prohibit Bandura from being a strict
  behaviorist
• Language comprehension. 
• Imagery and Language allow Bandura to theorize
  much more than B. F. Skinner about two key
  concepts
• Observational Learning (Modeling)
• Self-Regulation

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Bobo Doll Studies
• Film-
• Adult beating up a bobo doll.
• Inflatable, egg-shaped balloon creature with a
  weight in the bottom that makes it bob back up
  when you knock it down.
• The adult
• Punched the clown, shouting sockeroo!,
• Kicked it.
• Sat on it.
• Hit it with a little hammer.
• Shouted various aggressive phrases. 
• Presented to groups of kindergartners.
• Afterwards they were allowed to play. 
• Inside the playroom
• Bobo doll.
• Hammers.

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Observed Behavior 
• Kids beat the bobo doll. 
• They punched it and shouted
• sockeroo
• Kicked it.
• Sat on it.
• Hit it with the hammers.
• They imitated the young lady in the film.
• __________________________________________
• Social Learning Theory
• Children changed their behavior without first
  being rewarded for approximations to that
  behavior!

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Modeling Process
• Attention 
• Have to be paying attention. 
• Anything that disrupts attention will decrease
  learning.
• Pay more attention to models that are
• Attractive
• Prestigious
• Colorful
• Dramatic
• Appears competent
• Retention
• Must be able to retain what you have paid
  attention to. 
• Imagery and language 
• We store what we have seen the model doing in the
  form of mental images or verbal descriptions. 
• Once stored-You can later bring up the image or
  description, so that you can reproduce it with
  your own behavior.

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Reproduction
• Must translate the images or descriptions into
  actual behavior. 
• Have to have the ability to reproduce the
  behavior. 
• Example
• I can watch Olympic ice skaters all day long,
  yet not be able to reproduce
• their jumps, because I cant ice skate at
  all! 
• If I could skate, my performance would in fact
  improve if I watch skaters who are better than I
  am.
• Our abilities improve even when we just imagine
  ourselves performing! 
• Motivation
• Must be motivated to produce the behavior.
• Potential motives
• Past Reinforcement (Traditional behaviorism)
• Promised Reinforcements (Incentives)
• Vicarious Reinforcement (Seeing and recalling the
  model being reinforced)

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Social Issues and ConflictsLead Poisoning

• 14 million children are at risk
• Locations of lead deposits-
• Older homes
• Gasoline
• Ceramics
• Lead-soldered pipes
• Dust and water
• Areas near large cities
• Areas near automobile traffic
• Older Playgrounds
• Low SES children are at the highest risk.
• Most hazardous health threat to children under
  the age of 6.
• Even very small amounts can permanently harm
  children.
• Exposure to lead can lead to
• Low Levels-
• Lower intelligence
• Problems in verbal and auditory processing
• Hyperactivity and distractibility

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Social Issues and ConflictsToilet Training

• Remember-
• Training should begin only when the child is
  ready.
• Even though they are toilet trained during the
  day does not mean they are ready to hold it in
  during the night.
• Children often still have accidents at night.
• Signs your child might be ready to toilet train
• Staying dry for at least two hours at a time
  during the day.
• Waking up from naps dry.
• Predictable bowel movements.
• Telling you they are about to go.
• Facial expressions depicting their intent to go
  or that they are presently going.
• Major discomfort with soiled diapers.
• Desire to wear underwear.

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Social Issues and ConflictsHandedness

• Preference for handedness begins early
• Handedness is inborn-
• Nothing you can do to make them prefer one hand
  over the other.
• Preschoolers-
• 90 right handed
• 10 left handed
• More boys are left handed than girls.

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Social Issues and ConflictsEmotion

• Emotions
• Feelings occurring when in a state or interaction
  with something that is important to the person
  stronger if well-being is involved
• Emotions vary in intensity from subtle to
  dramatic
• Darwin human facial expressions are innate
• Emotions linked to early development of
• Limbic system
• Brain stem
• Neurobiological systems can exert more control
  over limbic system as childs self-control
  develops

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Social Issues and ConflictsEmotion

• Caregivers influence infants neurological
  development and regulation of emotions
• Emotions are first form of communication
• Infants react to others facial expressions, tone
  of voice, emotions
• First form of attachment is emotion-linked
• Two broad types of emotions develop
• Primary appear in first 6 months of life
• Self-conscious appear from about age 1.5 years
  to about 2.5 years

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The First Appearance of Different Emotions
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Social Issues and ConflictsEmotion

• Most important ways of communicating in the
  youngest infants are crying and smiling
• Stranger anxiety involving fear
• First appears about 6 months of age
• Intensifies about 9 months of age, escalating
  past the 1st birthday
• Intensity of anxiety depends on
• Proximity of mother
• Where stranger meeting occurs
• Strangers behavior

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Social Issues and ConflictsGender Identity

• Defined
• Perception of oneself as male or female.
• Concept of gender begins in preschool.
• Gender Schema
• Cognitive framework that organizes information
  relevant to the gender to aide them in this
  process.
• Boys act this way and girls act that way.

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Social Issues and ConflictsPlay Time! The
Social Aspects of Playing

• Functional Play
• Play that involves simple, repetitive activities
  typical of 3-year-olds.
• Constructive Play
• Play in which children manipulate objects to
  produce or build something.

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Social Issues and ConflictsPlay Time! The
Social Aspects of Playing

• Parallel Play
• Action in which children play with similar toys,
  in a similar manner, but do not interact with
  each other.
• Onlooker Play
• Action in which children simply watch others at
  play, but do not actually participate themselves.

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Social Issues and ConflictsPlay Time! The
Social Aspects of Playing

• Associative Play
• Two or more children actually interact with one
  another by sharing or borrowing toys or
  materials, although they do not do the same
  thing.
• Cooperative Play
• Play in which children genuinely interact with
  one another, taking turns, playing games, or
  devising contests.

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Social Issues and ConflictsParenting Styles

• Authoritarian Parents
• Parents who are controlling, punitive, rigid, and
  cold, and whose word is law.
• Value strict, unquestioning obedience from their
  children
• Do not tolerate expressions of disagreement.
• Permissive Parents
• Parents who provide lax and inconsistent feedback
  and require little of their children.
• Authoritative Parents
• Parents who are firm, setting clear and
  consistent limits, but who try to reason with
  their children, giving explanations for why they
  should behave in a particular way.
• Uninvolved Parents
• Parents who show almost no interest in their
  children and indifferent, rejecting behavior.

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Language development

• Wild or feral children are raised in isolation
  and unable to recapture normal language
  development despite intensive intervention later
• For example
• Victor, Wild Boy of Aveyron
• Genie 13-year-old found in 1970 in Los Angeles
• Both cases raise questions about biological and
  environmental determinants of language
• Language is a system of words, symbols, and
  gestures that create shared communication that
  transcends time (future, present, and past)

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Language development

• Language develops in infants throughout the world
  along a similar path and sequence.
• Infants ability to recognize native language,
  for English speakers this includes
  distinguishing r from t
• On average, a child
• Understands about 50 words at age 13 months
• Speaks first word at 1015 months of age
• Can speak about 50 words at 18 months of age

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Language development

• Average 2-year-old can speak about 200 words
• Vocabulary spurt begins at approximately 18
  months of age
• Two-word utterances occur at about 1824 months
• Overextension and underextension of words are
  common

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Early Language Development

• Defined
• The systematic, meaningful arrangement of
  symbols, which provides the basis for
  communication.
• Noam Chomsky
• Language-Acquisition Device (LAD)
• Explains language use and development.
• LAD is a neural system of the brain that permits
  understanding of language.
• Developed the concept of morphemes and phonemes.
  

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Early Language DevelopmentBasic Elements of
Language According to Noam Chomsky

• Phonology
• Basic sounds of language (phonemes) that can be
  combined to produce words and sentences.
• The English language uses 40 phonemes to create
  our language.
• Morphemes
• Smallest language unit that has meaning.
• Some are complete words while others are added to
  complete a word.
• Semantics
• Rules that govern the meaning of words and
  sentences.
• If a sentence is correctly written or spoken it
  is said to be semantically correct.
• Many scientists believe that the ability to form
  complex speech is a uniquely human characteristic
  and is what separates us from the other animals.
  
• It is because of our speech that we are able to
  ask such higher-order thinking questions like
• What is mortality, Is there a God, Is there a
  life after death, Are there other beings in the
  universe?

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Early Language DevelopmentBasic Elements of
Language According to Noam Chomsky

• Babbling
• Making speech-like but meaningless sounds.
• Through repetition and brain growth human
  language begins to form and become meaningful.
• Holophrases
• One-word utterances that stand for a whole
  phrase.
• Their meaning depends on the particular context
  in which they are used.
• Ball means I want to play with the ball
• Telegraphich Speech
• Speech in which words not critical to the message
  are left out.
• Play ball means I want to play with the
  ball

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Early Language DevelopmentBasic Elements of
Language According to Noam Chomsky

• Underextension
• Overly restrictive use of words, common among
  children just mastering spoken language.
• Ball means Just that one ball
• Not all the different types of balls and all the
  balls in the world.
• Overextension
• Overly broad use of words, over-generalizing
  their meaning.
• When a child thinks of a bird, she is thinking of
  all flying things from planes, to helicopters, to
  vultures, to kites.
• Styles of Language
• Referential Style Style of language used to
  label objects.
• Expressive style Style of language used to
  express feelings.

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Some Language Milestones in Infancy
Language Milestones
Age
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Early Language Development

• There is evidence that
• Language has a biological basis
• Everyone knows its rules and has ability to
  create infinite numbers of words and sentences
• Specific regions of the brain are predisposed to
  be used for language.
• Brocas Area
• Wernickes Area

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Brocas Area and Wernickes Area
Brocas Area
Wernickes Area
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Level of Maternal Speech and Infant Vocabulary
800
High
Mothers level of speech
600
400
Infants vocabulary size (words)
Medium
200
Low
0
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
12
Infants age (months)
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Early Language Development

• Learning Theory Approach
• Language acquisition follows the basic laws of
  reinforcement and conditioning.
• Modeling.
• Positive and negative reinforcement.
• Punishment and Rewards.
• Nativist Approach
• There is an innate part of our physiology that
  allows us to form speech.
• We will learn language with or without other
  people present.