Development

Chapter One: Theory and Research in the Developmental Sciences

Key Terms
Development: refers to the systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between conception and death. Systematic changes
refers to the orderly, patterned, changes not mood swings or transitory changed in appearance
Developmental Continuities: ways in which we remain stable over time and continue to reflect on our past. Developmental
Psychology: a branch of psychology that is devoted to identifying and explaining the continues and changes that individuals display over time.
Conception: when the male sperm penetrates the female egg, creating a new organism. Baby
Biographies: First set of observations about child development from a variety of people with academic backgrounds, including Charles
Darwin and his son.
What causes development
Two important processes underlie development.
1) Maturation: refers to the developmental changes in the body and behaviour that result from the aging process rather than from
learning , injury, illness, or some other life experience. Maturation is partly responsible for psychological changes such as
increased ability to concentrate, solve problems, and understand the thoughts and feelings of others. Most species go through the
same developmental milestones, making them similar.
2) Learning: is the process through which our experiences produce relatively permanent changes in our feelings, thoughts, and
behaviours. Many of our abilities and habits are not part of the maturation process, instead learned through observations,
interactions, and experiences.
**MOST DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES ARE THE PRODUCT OF BOTH MATURATION AND LEARNING PROCESSES**
Goals of Developmentalists
To describe, explain, and optimize development.
1. Describe: through careful observation of the behaviour of people of dierent ages, developmentalist seek to describe how
developing humans resemble and dier from one another. In order to accurately describe development, developmentalists must
focus on: A) Normative development: developmental changes that characterizes most or all of the members of a species, these are
typical patterns of development. B) Ideographic Development: individual variances in the rate, extent or direction of development.
2. Explain: explain the changes they observe, like why people develop the way they do, and why some others develop dierently.
3. Optimize Development: by appling their observations and explanation, developmentailists, attempt to help people develop in a
positive direction, such as promoting positive attachments between parent and child, helping children with learning disabilities,
increasing social skills.
The Continual and Cumulative Process of Development
Development is a continuous process, and one which builds upon itself.
Holistic Process: the process of development was once divided into 3 categories, physical growth, cognitive development, and psychosocial
development. However, it is now understood that development is interconnected, and development in one area or domain has implications for
other areas. A holistic perspective of development refers to the unified view of the developmental process that emphasizes the important
interrelationships among the physical, mental, social and emotional aspects of human behaviour.
Plasticity: refers to the capacity for change; a development state that has the potential to be shaped by experiences
Historical and Cultural Context: Development is dierent for all cultures, social classes, races, and ethnic groups since they all have
unique patterns of beliefs, values, customs, and skills which determine how children will be socialized. Historical events, such as
war, famine, and technological breakthroughs (internet) also impact how each generation develops.
The Development of Childhood
Premodern Times
●Children previously had few rights ●Were not valued ●Could be killed, sold, left to die, beaten,
abused
Medieval Era
●Not coddled or indulged but treated a little better than the previous era. ●Law made not
distinctions between child and adult ●Childhood was generally recognized as a distinct life phase,
seen as having needs above and beyond those of adults.
Modern Day
●During the 17th and 18th century, attitudes towards children began to change. ●Religious leaders
stressed that children were innocent and helpless and should be shielded from adult behaviour
●Education of children began (for moral and religious purposes), but reading and writing skills were
created as a working labour class emerged.
●Children were still deemed possession but abuse was discouraged and treating them with warmth and
aection was encouraged ●The 20th century saw the recognition of adolescence as a distinct life phase,
most likely caused by the industrial revolution.
●The shift from agriculture to industry saw decline in child labour, and created a need for an
educated workforce. ●Laws were passed resticting child labour and makign educationcompulsory
Early Perspectives on Childhood
The emergence of philosophers during the 17th and 18th century likely played a role in the shift on the perspective of childhood
~Thomas Hobbes and the Doctrine of Original Sin promoted the idea that children are inherently selfish, egocentric beings whom must
betaught socially acceptable ways to behave
~Jean Jaques Rousseau and the Doctrine of Innate Purity held that infants are born with an intuitive sense of wrong and right and society
corrupts it.
~John Locke and the idea of Tabula Rosa held that children are born “blank slates”, neither good nor bad, and how they turn out depends on
their experiences. (Locke favoured a disciplined upbringing to form good habits).
Development of Children’s Rights in Canada
As the concept of childhood developed, so did the issues regarding children’s rights. Like, who was responsible for children, parents or
society? And, how should children be protected? Canadian policy reflected these changes in 3 ways: 1. Children moved from being viewed as
family property to dependents in need of protection. 2. children being seen as semi-independent individuals with rights. 3. children are seen as
individuals with their own rights who should be given the same economic security as other members of society.
Research Strategies: Basic Methods and Designs
Scientific Method: the use of objective and replicable methods to gather data for the purpose of testing a theory or hypothesis. It dictates that ,
above all, investigators must be objective and must allow their data to decide the merits of their thinking.
Reliability: the extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results both over time and across observers.
Validity: the extent to which a measuring instrument accurately reflects what the researchers intend to measure.
Time Sampling: a procedure in which the investigator records the frequencies with which individuals display particular behaviours during the
brief time intervals that each is observed Structured
Observation: an observation method in which the investigator cues the behaviour of interest and observes participants’ responses in a lab. Ex.
Cocaine baby Structured Interview: a
technique in which all participants are asked the same question in precisely the same order so that the responses of dierent participants can be
compared. Diary Study: a questionnaire
method in which participants write answers to specific questions in a diary/notebook, with at a specific time or when prompted by an electronic
pager. Case Study: a research method in which the
investigator gathers extensive information about the life of an individual and then tests developmental hypotheses by analyzing the events of
the person’s life history. Ethnography: a research method in which the researcher seeks to understand the unique values, traditions, adn social
processes of a culture or subculture, by living with its members and making extensive observations and notes.
Psychophysiological Methods: methods that measure the relationship between physiological processes and aspects of children’s physical,
cognitive, social and emotional behaviour/development. This method is particularly useful in interpreting the mental and emotional
experiences of infants and toddlers who can’t report events.
Detecting Relationships: Correlational, Experimental, and Cross-Cultural Designs Once researchers decide on what they want to study, they
must male a research plan or design that a;;pws them to identify relationships among events and behaviours and to specify the causes of these
relationships.
General research designs that might be used:
1. Correlation Design: a type of research design that indicates the strength of the association between two variables. Ex children
who watch violent tv are more aggressive. Yet, this method cannot indicate if one thing causes another, just that a relationship
between the two variables exists.
2. Experimental Design: a research design in which the investigator introduces some change in the participants' environment and
then measures the eect of that change on the participants behaviour. It looks at the cause and eect relationship between two
variables. Independent variable, dependent variable, confounding variable (some factor other than the independent variable, if
not controlled, can explain dierences or impact the dependent variable).
3. Field Experiment: an experiment that takes place in a naturalistic setting such as home, school or playground. Ex. Institution
that showed violent movies at night.
4. The Natural or Quasi Experiment: a study in which the investigator measures the impact of some natural occurring event that is
assumed to aect a person's life. Ex. Social deprived, institutionalized children and their intellectual development. In a natural or
quasi experiment, the event becomes the independent variable and the behaviour of measure is the dependent variable.
Research Strategies in Developmental Psychology
Cross-Sectional Design: a research method in which subjects from dierent age groups are studied at
the same point in time. ●Participants come from dierent cohorts, which is a group of people of the
same age who are exposed to similar cultural environments and historical events as they are growing
up. ●Comparing people in cohorts allows researchers to identify age-related changes in the area of
development they are studying ●This design allows researchers to collect from many people over a
short period of time. ●Cohort eects: age related dierences between cohorts that are attributed to
cultural/historical dierences in cohorts in growing-up experiences rather than true developmental
change. ●Used most often by developmentalists because it is quick and easy and likely to yield valid
results ●Tells us nothing about the development of individuals because each person is only observed
at one point in time.
Longitudinal Design: a research design in which one group, the same group of participants/subjects is
studied repeatedly over a period of months or years. ●The period of time can be brief, like 6 months, a
year, or over a
Lifespan. Provides researchers with stability (continuity) of various attributes for each person in the
sample ●Researchers can identify normative development trends and processes by looking for
commonalities, as well as individual dierences ●Costly and time consuming ●Practice eects: the
changes in participants' natural responses as a result of repeated testing. This can threaten the
validity of the study. Participants become test-wise. ●Selective attrition: children move or become
bored with the study, or parents dont allow kids to continue. ●Non Representative Sample: a subgroup
that diers in important ways from the larger group that they belong to. ●Cross-generations Problem:
the fact that long-term changes in the environment may limit the conclusions of a longitudinal study
to that generation of children who were growing up while the study was in progress. Ex. introduction
of technology, internet, war.
Sequential Design: a research design in which participants from dierent ages groups are studied repeatedly over a period of months or years.
The sequential design combines features from both cross-sectional and longitude designs. ●This design allows for both cross sections and
longitudinal comparisons ●Quicker than longitudinal studies because you have two age cohorts. ●This design allows researchers to determine
if cohort eects are altering or influencing results.
Microgenetic Studies: a research design in which participants are studied intensively over a short
period of time as developmental changes occur; attempts to specify how or why those changes occur
are made. ●Deeper understanding of why developmental changes and processes occur ●Children are
exposed repeatedly to experiences that are thought to produce developmental change and their
behaviour is monitored as it is changing. ●Present the opportunity for researchers to witness and
record the actual processes of change as it occurs during development. ●Dicult, time consuming,
costly to track large numbers of participants in such a detailed manner
High rate of observation may impact developmental outcomes kind of like practice for participants, ●Intensive experiences of the study
participants may not reflect natural development and may create behaviour changes that last for their lifetime.
Cross-Cultural Studies: a research study where participants from dierent cultures and subcultural background are observed, tested, and
compared in one or more aspects of development. Cross cultural
studies are: ●They help to tell if developmental experiences and processes are universal or vary across cultures or social context. ●Cross
cultural comparisons guard against the over generalization of research findings ●Tell is more about dierences than similarities
Ethical Research
Research ethics is the standards of conduct that investigators are ethically bound to honor to protect
their research participants from physical or psychological harm. ●Deceiving participants
●Observing participants without consent●Negative feedback or verbal disapproval ●Exposing
participants to things that will guarantee they cheat or break rules.
3 Principles of Ethical Research
1. Autonomy: ensuring that right for individual self-determination in the research process. Ex. Voluntary not forced, and the freedom to
withdraw at any time. 2. Non-
Maleficence: the research will not cause or inflict harm, and protected from harm, 3.
Beneficence: researchers conduct research in a way that removes existing harm and/or provides benefits to others
Key Concepts in Ethical Research Practices
Informed Consent: the right of research participants to receive an explanation in language they can understand about all aspects of the research
that may aect their willingness to participate. Protection from
Harm: the right of research participants to be protected from physical or psychological harm. Benefits-to-risks Ratio: a comparison of the
possible benefits of a stuy for advancing knowledge and optimizing life conditions versus the costs to participants in terms of inconvenience
and possible harm. Research must be favourable and no other less risky procedure may be available.
Minimal Risk: the risks of the research may be no greaters than the risks a participant may encounter in their daily life
Chapter 2: Theories of Human Development
Key Terms
Scientific Theory: a set of concepts or propositions that describe, organize and explain an existing set of observations. Some theories are broad
in scope, such as seeking to explain development of global domains like personality or cognition, while others are limited to specific issues like
internet search behaviours. Regardless, all theories help us to organize our thinking about aspects of experience that interest us. Scientific
theories are critical to developmental science because they provide a way in which any number or observation can be interpreted.
Unconscious Motives: Freud’s terms for feelings, experiences, and conflicts that influence a person's thinking and behaviour but are outside of
a person’s awareness. Drive: an inborn
biological force that motivates a particular response or class of responses. Id:
psychoanalytic term for the innate component of the personality that is compelled by the drives. It’s sole function is to satisfy biological
drives. Babies would be considered all id. Ego:
psychoanalytic term for the rational component of personality that reflects a child’s emerging abilities to perceive, learn, remember and reason.
It’s function is to find realistic means of satisfying instincts such as asking for food from a parent.
Superego: psychoanalytic term for the component of the personality that consists of a person’s internal moral standards. Develops between the
ages of 3 and 6.
Fixation: arrested development at a particular psychosexual stage that can prevent movement to higher stages.
Behaviorism: a school of thinking in psychology that holds that conclusions about human development should be based on controlled
observations of overt behaviour rather than on speculation about unconscious motives or other unobservable phenomenon. Behaviourism
underpins early theories of learning Habits: well-learned
association between stimuli and responses that represent the stable aspects of one's personality.
Reinforcer: any desirable consequence of an act that increases the probability that the act will reoccur. Punisher: any
consequence of an act that suppresses that act and/or decreases the probability that the act will occur again.
Operant Learning: a form of learning in which voluntary acts (operants) become either more or less probable, depending on the consequences
they produce.
Observational Learning: learning that results from watching the behaviour of others.
Scheme: an organized pattern of through or action that a child constructs to make sense of some aspect of their experience.
Cognitive structures is a synonym for schemes.
Cognitive Development: age-related changes that occur in mental activities such as attending, learning, thinking and
remembering.
What makes a good theory
Good theories continue to generate knowledge, and have practical implications that benefit humanity. Parsimony: a criterion for evaluating the
scientific merit of theories; a parsimonious theory is one that uses relatively few explanatory principles to explain a broad set of observations
(easy to understand, not complicated).
Falsifiability: another criterion for evaluating the merit of a theory; good theories are generally falsifiable, meaning it is capable of making
explicit predictions about future events so that the theory can be supported or disconfired.
Heuristic: meaning they aren't limited to what is already known, but build on existing knowledge by continuing to generate testable hypotheses
that will lead to a richer understanding. (stimulates new research and discoveries).
The Seven Theories (GRAND THEORIES)
Psychoanalytic Theories
a) Freud’s Psychosexual Theory which states maturation of the sex instrinct underlies stages of personality deveopment and that the manner in
which parents manage their children;s instinctual impulses determines the traits the child will display. ●Freud’s theory also proposed there
were 3 components of personality: the id (the inborn component of the personality that is compelled by the drives. Ex babies cry when they are
hungry or wet to have their needs met), the ego (the rational component of the personality), and the superego (the moral compass).
●Freud created 5 stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency and Genital (pp.39). Frued believed that the conflicts that
occurred at each of these stages predicted adult personality. ●Freud's theory had no empirical support, was outlandish, and has few supporters
today. ●Biggest contribution was unconscious motivation, and was the first to focus attention on the influence of early experiences on later
development.
b) Erik Erikson Theory of Psychosocial Development was a revision of Freud's theory which emphasized socio-cultural rather than sexual
determinants of development and is made up of a series of 8 psychosocial conflicts that people most successfully resolve to display healthy
psychological development. ●The 8 stages contain major crises or conflicts that occur during the course of our lives. ●Pioneered what came to
be known as life-span development
Learning Theories
a) Watson’s Behaviourism: this theory proposed that habits are the building blocks of human development. Watson believed that
children were born blank slates, and how they turn outn depends entirely on the rearing environment. According to Watson,
children do not progress through a series of distinct developmental stages, instead development is a continuous process of
behaviour change shaped by a person's environment.
b) Skinner: Skinner's theory of operant learning proposed that habits develop through operant learning conditions, which
reinforce good behavior, punish the negative behavior or vice versa.
c) Bandura: Bandura’s theory of cognitive social learning states that observational learning is a central development process.
Observational learning is simply learning that results from observing the behaviour of other people, called models. Observational
learning allows children to quickly acquire thousands of new responses in a variety of settings. Children learn both desirable and
undesirable behaviors through observation. Bandura agreed with Skinner that operant conditions is an important type of learning,
but for animals. Bandura’s theory emerged from his people that people are cognitive beings and actively process information.
Pros/Cons of Learning Theory:
●Has provided a lot of information about developing children and adolescents ●Learning theories are precise and testable ●Has contributed
substantially to our knowledge of development. ●Some think this theory is grossly oversimplified accounts of human development.
●Oversimplified the importance of individual dierences and downplayed the contributions of biological influences. ●Children should be
observed in their natural environment to truly understand the influence of the environment on behaviour

Cognitive Development Theories

a) Piaget: proposed that in order for organisms to adapt to their environment they must continue to build cognitive structures or schemes.
Piaget defined schemes as an organized pattern of thought or action that a child constructs to make sense of some aspect of their experience.
Piaget believed that we continually rely on complementary processes to adapt to our environments. Through assimilation, children interpret
new experiences through existing schemes. When these schemes are inadequate in completing or fulfilling tasks children then go through the
process of accommodation, revising their skills. Additionally, children may create new schemes to adapt to disequilibrium within their
environment. Biological maturation play an important role in Piget’s theory, as the brain and cognitive abilities mature so does the ability to
make more complex schemes.
Piaget 4 stages: Sensorimotor, preoperational, concreteoperations, formal operations (chart on pg 49).
Information-Processing Theories
This developmental perspective views the human mind as a continuously developing symbol-manipulating system, similar to a computer, into
which information flows, is operated on , and is converted into output, such as answers, inferences, or solutions to problems.
Theorists view cognitive develop,emnet as age-related changes that occur in the minds hardware (brain, nervous system) and
software (attention, memory). Theorists also acknowledge that biological maturation is an important contributor to cognitive
growth, allowing children and adolescents to process information faster. This perspective sees cognitive development as a
continuous process that is not stagelike.
Sociocultural Theories
a) Vygotsky: his sociocultural theory focused on how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next. Vygotsky believed
that children were not independent learners, but their cognitive development was a socially mediated process that occurs through
collaborative dialogue with other members of one's culture, in particular, more knowledgeable members.
Zones of proximal development: the dierence between what a child can do independently, and what they can do with assistance.
Vygotsky rejected that all children progress through the same stages of cognitive growth
Ethological Theories
The scientific study of the evolutionary basis of behaviour and the contributions of evolved responses to the human species’ survival and
development. These theories assume that members of all animal species are born with a number of pre-programmed behaviours that are
products of evolution, and are adaptive in that they contribute to their survival, thus steering all species on the same developmental path.
- John Bowlby. Charles Darwin- Believe that children still need to learn and that early experiences are important
- 2 critical periods for the development of many attributes.
- Critical period: a limited time span during which developing organisms are biologically prepared to display adaptive patterns
of behaviour, provided they receive that appropriate amount of input. -
Sensitive period: a period of time that is optimal for the development of particular capacities or behaviours and in which the individual is
particularly sensitive to environmental influences that would foster these attributes. Ex. first three years of life are when attachments need to be
made in order to later on be able to build positive relationships.
- BASED ON EVOLUTION SO INDIVIDUAL SURVIVAL IS ENSURED
Evolutionary Theory
The study of the bio evolutionary basis of behaviour and development with a focus on survival of the genes.
Ecological Systems Theories
A theory developed by American psychologist, Urie Brofenbrenner, that emphasizes that the developing person is embedded in a series of
environmental systems that interact with one another and with the person, influencing development.
●Microsystem: the innermost layer of and refers to the activities and interactions that occur in the person's immediate surroundings. For young
children, this system may consist of family. This system grows as children grow, and daycare, peers, and community are introduced.
●Mesosystem: the second layer of the environment and refers to the connection and interrelationship among microsystems. Ex. home, school,
peer groups. ●Exosystem: the third
layer of environment that children and adolescents do not directly interact with but influence their development. Ex. parents' worklife. If a
parent isn’t happy at work, it can influence the child at home.
●Macrosystem: the outermost layer of the environment, referring to culture and subculture. It is broad and dictates how children should be
treated, taught, and goals they should strive for. These values vary across cultures.
●Chronosystem: changes in the individual or environment that occur over time and influence that direction development takes. Ex. divorce,
introduction of technology. Family
systems Theory: this theory sees families as a complex social system, where relationships, interaction, and patterns influence each member of
the family. These theories can be seen as the conceptual basis for developmental psychology, and address central themes that are foundational
to developmental psychology.
These themes are:
1. Nature vs. Nurture: the debate whether or not development is primarily a result of nature (biological factors) or nurture (environmental
factors) 2.
Active/Passive: the debate among developmental theories about whether children are active contributors to their development, or passive
recipients of environmental influences Continuity
vs. discontinuity: a debate among theorists whether developmental changes are continuous and quantitative or qualitative and discontinuous.
(See pg 61). 4. The holistic nature of
development: the awareness that development is a holistic process even when being studied as a segmented, separate process. Dierent aspects
of development, such as cognitive, physical, personality, and social development are interrelated and influence each other as children mature.
One area of development cannot be fully understood without knowledge of others.
●Mechanistic Model: view children as passive entities whose developmental paths are primarily determined by environmental influences.
●Organismic Model: view of children as active entities whose developmental paths are primarily determined by forces from within
themselves.
●Contextual Model: View of children as active entities whose developmental paths represent a continuous dynamic interplay between internal
forces and external influences. ●Developmental Systems
VIew: the view that the developmental process results from continuing interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors.

Chapter 3 - Hereditary Influences on Development

Key Terms:
Gene: hereditary instructions for development that are transmitted from generation to generation. Chromosome: a
threadlike structure of DNA that is made up of genes; in humans there are 46 chromosomes (23 pairs) in the nucleus of each body cell.
Mitosis: the process in which a cell duplicates its chromosomes and then divides into two genetically identical daughter cells. Meiosis: the
process in which a germ cell divides, producing gametes (sperm or ova) that each contain half of the parent cell's original complement of
chromosomes; in humans the products of meiosis contain 23 chromosomes. Chromatid: an original or
duplicate of a chromosome. Gonads: sexal organs that
produce germ cells, testes in males, ovaries in females. Homologues: an equivalent
chromosome that is inherited from a mother and a father, humans have 22 homologues and one x-y pair.
Crossing- Over: a process in which genetic material is exchanged between maternal and paternal homologues during meiosis Independent
Assortment: the principle stating that each maternal and paternal pair of chromosomes independently segregates from all other chromosome
pairs during meiosis. Gametes: germs cells, sperm in
males and ova in females
Autosomes: 22 of the 23 pairs of chromosomes that are identical in males and females. X-
Chromosome: the longer of the two sex chromosomes, most females have 2 x-chromosomes, whereas most males have 1 Y-Chromosome: the
shorter of the 2 sex chromosomes, most males have one, while most females have none. Genome: the complete set of
our genes. Allele: alternative
forms of a gene at a particular site on a chromosome. Ex. vision. Homozygous: having
inherited 2 alleles for an attribute that are identical in their eects. Heterozygous: having inherited 2
alleles for an attribute that have dierent eects: Dominant Allele: the gene that is expressed
phenotypically and masks the eect of a less powerful gene. Recessive Allele: a less powerful gene that is
not expressed phenotypically when paired with a dominant gene. Carrier: a heterozygous individual who displays
no sign of recessive allele in their own phenotype but can pass the gene to their offspring.
Monozygotic Twins: identical twins that have developed from a single zygote and have identical genes. They show similar developmental
progress.
Dizygotic Twins: fraternal twins caused by the mother releasing 2 eggs at the same time and each egg is fertilized by a dierent sperm. They
have no more genes in common than any other siblings. Polygenic
Trait: a characteristic that is influenced by the action of many genes rather than a single pair. Mutation: a
change in the chemical structure or arrangement of one or more genes that has the eect of producing a new phenotype.
Heritability coecient: is a numerical measure from 0.00 to + 1.00 of the amount of variation in an attribute that is attributable to hereditary
factors
Genetic Inheritance: There are 3 main patterns of genetic inheritance involving single genes:
1. Simple dominant-recessive inheritance: a pattern of dominance in which one allele (alternative forms of the gene at a particular site on a
chromosome) dominates another so that only the dominant phenotype (observable traits) is expressed. Ex. vision, normal vision is the
dominant allele, nearsightedness is the recessive allele. So a person who gets one dominant allele and one recessive allele would have normal
vision, but if they got 2 recessive allele, they would have impaired vision because there is no dominant allele
2. Codominance: a condition in which two heterozygous (having inherited 2 alleles for an attribute that have dierent eects) but equally
powerful alleles produce a phenotype in which both genes are fully and equally expressed. Ex. Blood types A and B are equally, neither
dominant to if a child inherits one A and one B, their blood type is AB. 3. Sex-
linked inheritence: an attribute determined by a recessive gene that appears on the x chromosome, and is more likely to apper in males. Ex
colour blindness. Colour blindness is inherited from the mother, on the x chromosome, but there is no corresponding gene on the y
chromosome to counteract the colour blindness. Polygenic Inheritance: Most human
characteristics are influenced by many pairs of alleles rather than a single pair, these are called polygenic traits. Examples include height,
weight, skin colour, temperament and susceptibility to cancer.
Epigenetics: Epigenetics influences whether genes related to a particular trait are expressed or not expressed, or partially expressed without
actually changing the sequence of DNA. The process of methylations, the addition of a single carbon and three hydrogen molecules to a
regulatory region of DNA, which turns gene(s) o. Methylation is a response to environmental factors. Psychological or physical changes
Congenital Defect: defects that are present at birth, although not necessarily apparent and may stem from genetic and parental influences or
from complications at birth. Ex. Huntington’s disease.
Chromosomal Abnormalities: an uneven distribution of germ cells when they divide during meiosis. One the split cells may have more or less
chromosomes. Most chromosomal abnormalities are lethal. Ex. Down syndrome is caused by an extra 21st chromosome.
Genetic Abnormalities: recessive traits that are very rare or not seen in family members can result in genetic abnormalities. Mutations, a
change in the chemical structure or arrangement of one or more genes that have the eect of producing a new phenotype. Many mutations are
spontaneous, harmful, or fatal. Mutations can be caused by environmental factors, like exposure to chemicals, drugs or alcohol consumption.
Mutations can also be evolutionary, like sickle cell disease which made people more resistant to malaria in regions where malaria was present.
Predicting and Detecting Hereditary Disorders
Genetic Counselling: a service that tells prospective parents about genetic diseases and helps them determine the likelihood of transmitting
disorders to their children. It includes both genetic and chromosomal abnormalities. Complete family history is obtained or blood tests.
Amniocentesis: extracting amniotic fluid from a pregnant woman so that fetal body cells within the fluid can be tested for chromosomal
abnormalities and other genetic defects. Chorionic
Villus Testing: fetal cells are taken from the placenta through the vagina and tested for abnormalities. It can be done earlier than amniocentesis
and results are ready within 24 hours. Non- Invasive Prenatal
Testing: an analysis of cell-free DNA from a blood sample which reveals the genetic profile of an unborn child. Less invasive, more accurate
Ultrasound: a very safe procedure of scanning the womb to detect gross physical abnormalities, using sounds waves that produce a visual
outline of the fetus.
Treating Hereditary Disorders
The potentially devastating eects of many hereditary abnormalities can be minimized or controlled by new medical and surgical
techniques, performed on fetuses in the uterus. - Delivering drugs or hormones to the fetus - Performing bone marrow transplants
- Surgically repairing genetically transmitted defects in the heart, neural tube, urinary tract and respiratory system
Hereditary Influences on Behaviour: Behavioural genetics studies how genes and environment contribute to individual variations in
development.
-Methods of Studying Hereditary Influences on Behaviour include:
-Heritability: the amount of variability in a trait that is attributable to hereditary factors. It calculates the probability of how common a
characteristic is among a population. -Family
Studies: collecting data from multiple people in a family who may or may not be genetically related, to see how similar they are on one or
more attributes -Twin Design:
studying twins that dier in kinship ( the extent to which two individuals have genes in common) and are compared to determine the heritability
of an attribute.
Environmental Influences on Behaviour
Nonshared Environmental Influences (NSEs): an environmental influence that people living together do not share and that should make these
individuals dierent from one another. They are experiences that are unique to an individual Ex. how someone is treated by friends, dierences in
preferences.
Shared Environmental Influences (SEs): an environmental influence that is shared by people living together and makes these individuals
similar to one another. Ex. Childhood experiences, like poverty, hunger
Theories of Heredity and Environment Interaction in Development
Canalization Principle: genetic restriction of a phenotype to a small number of developing outcomes, a highly canalized attribute is
one for which genes channel development along predictable pathways so that the environment has little eect on the phenotype
that emerges.
Range-of-Reaction Principle: the idea that genotype sets limits on the range of possible phenotypes that a person might display in response to
dierent environments. Passive
genotype/environment interactions: the notion that the rearing environment that biological parents provide are influenced by the parents own
genes and hence are correlated with the child’s own genotype. Ex. athletic parents raise children to be athletic.
Evocative genotype/environmental interactions: the notion that our hertible attributes aect others behaviour towards us and this influences the
social environment in which development takes place. Ex. Smiley babies get more attention.
Active genotype/environment interactions: the notion that our genotypes aect types of environments that we prefer and seek out. Ex.
extroverted children seek our high social environments.
Chapter 4 - Prenatal Development
Key Terms
Blastocyst: the name given to the ball of cells formed when the fertilized egg first begins to divide.
Embryo: name given to the prenatal organism from the third through the eighth week after conception.
Implantation: the burrowing of the blastocyst into the lining of the uterus.
Amnion: a watertight membrane that surrounds the developing embryo, regulating temperature and cushioning it from injury. Chorion: a
membrane, as above, that becomes attached to the uterine tissues to gather nourishment for the embryo. Placenta: an organ,
formed from the lining of the uterus and the chorion, that provides respiration and nourishment to the unborn chuld and the elimination of
metabolic wastes. Umbilical Cord: a soft tube
containing blood vessels that connects the embryo to the placenta. Neural Tube: a primitive
spinal cord that develops from the ectoderm and becomes the central nervous system. Fetus: the name given to the prenatal
organism from the ninth week of pregnancy until birth. Vernix: white, cheesy substance that
covers the fetus to protect that skin from chang. Lanugo: fin hair that covers the fetus that
help’s the vernix to stick. Age of Viability: a point between the
22nd and 28th week of pregnancy when it is possible for a fetus to survive outside the uterus. Teratogens: external agents, such as viruses,
drug, chemical and radiation that can harm a developing embryo or fetus Periods of Prenatal Development
Period of the Zygote: occurring from conception until implantation. During this phase the zygote moves down the fallopian tube toward the
uterus and then divides into two cells (mitosis), continuing to divide until the blastocyst forms within 4 days of conception. The innermost
layer of the blastocysts, or embryonic disk, becomes the embryo and the outer layers form tissues that protect and nourish it. Next,
implantation occurs, 7 to 10 days after ovulation, when the blastocyst attaches to the uterine wall and taps into the mother’s blood supply. Once
implanted, the blastocysts outer layer forms into four major support structures that continue to protect and nourish the embryo. These structures
are the amnion, a sac filled with amniotic fluid that protects the embryo from blows, regulates temperature, and produces blood cells. The
chorion surrounds the amnion and becomes the lining of the placenta that provides respiration and nourishment for the unborn child, and
prevents the two bloodstreams from mixing, and lastly the allantois which becomes umbilical cord that connects the embryo to the placenta.
Period of the embryo: lasting from implantation until the eighth week of pregnancy, the embryonic disk divides into three cell layers, which
eventually form the major body structures. The ectoderm becomes the nervous system, skin, hair and neural tube that becomes the brain and
spinal cord. The mesoderm develops into muscles, bones, and circulatory system, and the endoderm becomes the digestive system, lungs, and
other vital organs. By the end week four the heart beats, and the arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose and mouth begin to form, and by the end of the
second month, all basic structures that a baby will be born with have formed. This period is critical since the majority of organs and body parts
are developing between weeks 3 to 8, developing organs are sensitive to environmental influences such as drug use, disease and chemicals,
known as teratogens. Exposure to teratogens during this period could result in birth defects, growth delays or even death.
Period of the fetus: occurs during the last seven months of pregnancy. All major organ systems continue to grow and begin to function, bone
and cartilage increases as the skeleton hardens, the fetus begins to move, sense, behave and develop unique characteristics such as facial
expressions. Between 4 and 6 months, the fetus can suck and swallow, preparing for life outside of the womb. The “finishing phase” (months
7 to 9), sees organ systems mature quickly, an increased fetal length and weight, and the fetus shows better organization, gross motor activity,
and more predictable heart rate activity.
Environmental Influences on Prenatal Development
Although most infants follow a normal pattern of prenatal development, some may be aected by environmental influences which can alter their
development. Some of these Influences include: Teratogens: external agents such as viruses, drugs, chemicals and radiation that can harm a
developing embryo or fetus, such as severe delays in growth, brain damage, intellectual disabilities or physical deformities. Most harmful
during the second phase of development when major systems are forming.
Maternal Diseases: disease agents that are capable of crossing the placental barrier and damaging the embryo or fetus, since the developing
fetus does not have enough antibodies to fight disease. Ex. Rubella Other
Infectious Diseases: Toxoplasmosis: a parasite found in raw meat and cat feces that can cause birth defects if transmistted to an embyro in the
first trimester and miscarriage in later pregnancy.
STD/STI: the most common and most harmful of diseases transmitted to developing fetuses/embryos. Syphilis, genital herpes,
AIDS can cause serious birth defects or death. ***Other teratogens include drug illegal and prescription, alcohol consumption
(FASD), cigarette smoking
Environmental Hazards on Prenatal Development
Radiation: Hiroshima babies were still born, died shortly after birth, or were born intellectually disablied. No one knows the amount of
radiation it takes to cause these eects. Chemicals and
Pollutants: these include dies, food additives, artificial sweeteners, pesticides and cosmetic products. The risks associated with many of these
produces is unknown
Maternal Characteristics Eects on Prenatal Development
In addition to environmental influences and hazards, a mothers nutrition, well-being and age can aect the outcome of a pregnancy, causing
negative short and long term eects on fetal and infant development. ●Diet: a mothers diet needs to be balanced and should include high-protein
and high-calorie in order to gain enough weight to support the growing organism. Malnutrition can result in birth defects such as slower brain
development and cognitive defects. Folate helps to prevent nervous system defects, folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects like spina bifida
and anencephaly. ●Emotional Well-Being: stress can cause changes to the developing fetus, and babies of high-stress mothers are often more
irritable, highly active and have diculties sleeping, feeding and with bowel movements. Emotional stress can also stunt fetal growth, and
prolonged stress can cause growth retardation and low birth weight. ●Age: women should be between 20 and 35 to bear children the most
safely. There is a correlation between the age of a mother and fetal death. Young age, lower than 16 can also have birth complications like
premature births and low birth weight. Women over the age of 35 are more likely to conceive children with chromosomal abnormalities.risk
stillbirths and complications

Chapter 5 - Birth and the Newborn's Readiness for Life

Key Terms
Perinatal Environment: the environment surrounding birth; it includes influences such as medications given to the mother during delivery,
delivery practices, and the social environment shortly after the baby is born. The perinatal environment is important because it can aect a
baby’s well being and the course of their future development. Emotional Bonding: a term
used to describe the strong aectionate ties that parents may feel towards their infant; some theorists believe that the strongest bonding occurs
shortly after birth. Engrossment: parental analogue of maternal
emotional bonding; a term used to describe a father’s fascination with their newborns, including the desire to tough, hold, caress, and talk to
their baby. Anoxia: a lack of sucient oxygen to the brain which can cause
neurological damage of death. Postpartum Depression: strong feelings of sadness, resentment, and
despair that may appear shortly after childbirth and last for months. Many severely depressed women don’t want to interact with their baby,
and can be ambivalent or hostile towards their baby.
Breech Birth: a delivery in which the fetus emerges feet or buttocks first rather than head first.
RH Factor: a blood protein that when present in the fetus but not in the mother, can cause the mother to produce antibodies that attack the red
blood cells of the fetus who have the protein in their blood. Respiratory
Distress Syndrome: a serious condition, also called hyaline membrane disease, in which a preterm infant breathes irregularly and is at risk of
dying. Reflex: an unlearned
and automatic response to a stimulus of class of stimuli
Survival Reflexes: Inborn responses such as breathing, sucking, andswallowing that enable the newborn to adapt and survive in their
newenvironment.
Primitive Reflexes: reflexes controlled by subcortical areas of the brain that gradually disappear over the first year of life. REM Sleep: state of
active or irregular sleep in which the eyes move rapidly beneath the eyelids and brain wave activity is similar to the pattern displayed when
awake.
Stages of Labour (birth process)
stage One: ●Beings with contractions spaced in 10-15 minute intervals, and end with the cervix has fully dilated . ●Lasts an average of 8 to 14
hours for first born, and 3 to 8 hours for other children ●As labour proceeds the uterus contracts more frequently and intensely
Stage Two (delivery): ●Begins as the fetuses head passes through the cevix into the vagins and engs
when the baby emerges from the mothers’ body ●Can last from 30 minutes to an hour and half.
Stage Three (afterbirth): ●Takes about 5 to 10 minutes as the uterus once again contracts and expels
the placenta from the mother’s body.
Apgar Test
Used to asses the baby’s condition after birth, a doctor, nurse or midwife checks the infant's physical condition by looking at: ●Heart rate
●Respiratory eort ●Muscle tone ●Colour ●Reflex irritability Each characteristic is rated from 0 to 2 and recorded on a chart, and totalled. A
score can range from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating better physical condition. The test is usually repeated after 5 minutes to measure
improvements in the baby's condition. 7= good 4 or lower=distress and require medical attention. This test is used to detect severe physical or
neurological irregularities, but may miss less obvious complications. (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration)
Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale Used to measure a baby’s behavioural repertoire and neurological well-being. Given a few days after
birth, it assesses the strength of 20 inborn reflexes and changes in the infant's state and reactions to comforting and other social stimuli. The
test can identify early signs of brain damage and other neurological problems.
Natural and Prepared Childbirth
Philosophies that are based on the idea that childbirth is a normal and natural part of life and one that should not be feared. The
natural childbirth movement arose from the work of Grantly Dick- Read in England and prepared childbirth originated in Russia
but was popularized in France. Both theories involved a delivery in which physical and psychological preparations for the birth are
stressed and medical assistance is minimized.
Birthing Environments
Women today have choices regarding where they would like to give birth. Options include: ●Hospitals
●Birthing centres - a hospital birth room or other independent facilities that provide a homelike
atmosphere for childbirth but still have medical technology available. ●Home births with midwife
●Water births
Parental Experience Surrounding Birth
The Mother’s Experience
●The first 6 to 12 hours after birth are the sensitive erosion for emotional bonding ●Studies show that early extended contact increases
emotional bonding, adn mothers are more involved with their children later in life. ●Skin to skin contacts and breastfeeding after birth can help
mother and child bond ●Within the first 10 days following birth, mothers can find
themselves elated and then moody, as well as tearful or irritable. This is called the
BABY BLUES which aects 15 to 85 percent of women ●Postpartum Depression: strong
feelings of sadness, resentment, and despair that may appear shortly after childbirth and
last for months.Many severely depressed women don’t want to interact with their baby,
and can be ambivalent or hostile towards their baby.
Father’s Experience
●A significant life event that involves a mixture of positive and negative emotions.
●New feathers admit to having fears around labour ●Fathers describe childbirth as
stressful, agonizing, but stressful feelings usually giveaway to relief, pride and joy.
Birth Complications
Anoxia~ A lack of sucient oxygen to the brain which can cause neurological
damage of death. In many cases oxygen is disrupted because the umbilical cord
is tangled or squeezed during birth, which can easily happen when children are
breech. Anoxia can occur after birth if mucus is ingested. Delayed oxygen and
breathing can result in brain damage, cognitive defects, disabilities, and has
been associated with increased heart disease in adulthood. The RH factor can
potentially cause anoxia also
Low Birth Weight ~Low birth weight can be cause be numerous factors: ●Premature
birth- infants born more than three weeks before their due date. ●Small-for-date/Small-
for-gestational-age - infants who are born close to or on their due date but their weight is
far below normal. These babies are at greater risk of serious complications, may struggle
to survive, more likely to remain smaller in stature, and more likely to die within the first
year or life or show signs of brain damage. These babies are often malformed,
malnourished, or genetically abnormal Causes of low birth weight can be the result of
mother’s ho smoke, do drugs, and are malnourished. Usually the result of low income,
ethnic groups, or those with disabilities.
Consequences of low birth weight: ●May not survive ●Cognitive and developmental
delay ●Respiratory Distress Syndrome ●Emotional problems ●Early onset puberty
●Smaller as adults
Chapter 6
An overview of maturation and growth Internal bodily changes related to
external growth in babies (e.g. change in weight and height) •Changes in height and weight Growth is very
sporadic in infancy • During middle childhood (ages 6-11), children don't grow as much •
During puberty (2-3 yr. period) they grow a ton and then growth becomes more gradual until becoming physically mature in mid
to late teens • Changes in body proportions Cephalocaudal development: a sequence of physical growth
proceeding from the head (cephalic region) to the tail (caudal region)
•A newborn's head is already 70percent of its eventual adult size (which is why they appear to be "all head")
• As we get older, more of growth is in our lower bodies/legs, Children not only grow upward, but also outward
•Proximodistal development: a sequence of physical growt proceeding from the centre of the body (proximal region) to the
extremities (distal regions) Prenatal development~ begins in chest and internal organs, then arms and legs, and
lastly hands and feet
•Skeletal development~ Children have fewer and less interconnected bones as
compared to adolescents in the ankles, feet, wrists, hands
•Skeletal age: a measure of physical maturation based on a child's level of
skeletal development
•Girls mature faster than boys as evidenced by faster skeletal development
•Muscular development Proceeds in cephalocaudal and proximodistal directions
• Occurs gradually during childhood and then accelerates during early
adolescence
• Variations in physical development Brain and head grow faster and are quicker
to fully mature as compared to reproductive organs which grow very slowly
throughout childhood and rapidly develop in adolescence
• Kids who reach puberty earlier are more advanced physically and cognitively
compared to those with late growth spurts
Development of the brain
Brain growth spurt: period btwn.the seventh prenatal month and 2 yrs. Of age
when more than half of the child's eventual brain weight is added
•Neural development and plasticity
Neuron: nerve cell that receives and transmits neural impulses
•Synapse: the connective space (juncture) btwn. one neuron and another
•Majority of neurons a person will ever have are already formed by second
trimester of pregnancy
• A second type of nerve cells called glia are more numerous and continue to
form throughout life • Glia: nerve cells that
nourish neurons and encase them in insulating sheaths of myelin
• Infants have more neurons than adults, but half of them die out quickly since
they aren't properly stimulated •
Synaptogenesis: formation of synaptic connections among neurons, occurs
rapidly during brain growth spurt • (neural)
Plasticity: capacity for change; a developmental state that has the potential to be
shaped by experience ("use it or lose it" principle)
~Synaptic pruning: surviving
Just like muscular development and myelinization, motor development proceeds in a cephalocaudal (head-downward) +
proximodistal (centre- outward) direction
•However, infants are able to coordinate hip movement earlier than shoulder movement, contradicting the cephalocaudal rule of
thumb
• Sequencing/timing of early motor development can be explained using 3 theories: maturational viewpoint, experiential
(practice) hypothesis, dynamical systems theory
•Side note: motor development take place over first 2 years of life
•Maturational viewpoint
•Motor development is a genetically programmed sequence of events where nerves and muscles mature in a downward and
outward direction
-Maturation underlies motor development, practice of new skills is lessimportant
-Experiential (practice) hypothesis
•Maturation is necessary but not sufficient for development of motor skills; infants who are physically capable of sitting/
crawling/ walking won't be able to engage in these activities unless they're able to practice them
-Research: deprived babies who spend too much time in cribs don't meet
developmental milestones on time, babies in enriched environments develop more quickly
- Babies who are often placed in an upright position develop muscle in neck, trunk, and legs more quickly, in turn promoting early
development of motor skills such as standing and walking
Dynamical systems theory
-Motor development is an active process - infants must reorganize existing motor capabilities into new, more complex movements
-E.g. infants use sight to approach interesting stimuli, then they reach with one hand to steer the body in the right direction and
finally they kick with the opposite leg to propel themselves forward (note: these are all pre- existing skills, but are purposely
combined by infants). Infants are motivated to acquire and perfect new motor skills that will help them get to objects that catch
their eyes/accomplish goals
Fine motor development
Development of voluntary reaching Occurs in 3-month-old babies and older
•Babies purposefully extend their arms in an attempt to grasp objects. The accuracy of their arm movements improves over time
Some infants flap arms at first to reach objects and must learn to dampen their enthusiasm, whereas others don't reach far enough
and soon learn to supply more power to grasp objects. Not all infants learn to reach in the same way - this isn't a skill that simply
"unfolds" on its own w/o conscious effort from the baby
•Proprioceptive information: sensory info from the muscles, tendons, and joints that help one to locate the position of one's
body/body parts in space - e.g. a baby's muscles detect sounds that an object makes and will then know which direction to go in to
reach the object
Development of manipulatory skills At about age 4-5 months, infants begin to grasp interesting objects with both hands
•Ulnar grasp: an early manipulatory skill in which an infant grasps objects by pressing the fingers against the palm
• During latter half of first year of life, infants begin tailoring all their exploratory activities to the properties of objects they are
investigating
• Pincer grasp: thumb is used in opposition to the fingers, increasing an infant's dexterity (skill) with lifting and fondling objects n
• Development of manipulatory skills is consistent with the dynamical
systems theory - infants gain control over simple movements and then integrate these skills into increasingly complex,
coordinated systems
• Psychological implications of early motor development
Mobile infants may be less hesitant to meet people and seek challenges if they know they can retreat to their caregivers for comfort
should they feel insecure
• Motor development --> perceptual development (e.g. crawlers are better able to search for and find hidden objects)
Motor development -->optic flow: perceived movement of objects in the visual field + perceived movements of the foreground and
background in which the objects are imbedded. Such perceptions are influences by the relative movements of the observer or the
objects being observed
• As infants learn to crawl and walk, they're better able to use optic flow to distinguish between their own movements and those of
objects/people in their surroundings. They also use optic flow to avoid collisions and improve their posture
• Other implications of optic flow: child able to orient herself in space, crawl/walk more quickly
•Crawling/walking --> understanding of distance relationships, adaptive fear of heights, better able to use landmarks to find their
way
• Beyond infancy: motor development in childhood and adolescence As toddlers get older, they no longer trip over stationary
objects when trying to get somewhere in a hurry
• School-age children can run faster and jump higher w/ each passing year
• Older children and teens are able to throw farther than younger kids b/c they're able to coordinate shoulder, arm, and leg
movements when throwing whereas young children throw only with the arm
• Hand-eye coordination and control of small muscles improve rapidly, quicker reaction times
• Boys and girls are nearly equal in physical abilities until puberty, when boys continue to improve whereas girls' skills remain
stable or decline. This is partly due to biology (teen boys have more muscle and less fat than girls) but also due to gender-roles
(girls often encouraged to become more interested in traditionally feminine = less athletic activities.
• Nonetheless, the gender gap in physical ability has become less and less noticeable in recent years
Puberty: the physical transition from child to adult, point at which a person reaches sexual maturity and is physically capable of
fathering/conceiving a child
• The adolescent growth spurt Adolescent growth spurt marks a growth rate faster than any since infancy
• Boys typically hit their growth spurts 2-3 years after girls (age 13 vs. 10.5) Physical maturation: appearance of breasts and
widening of hips for girls, broadening of shoulders for boys
Sexual development in girls Sexual maturation begins at age 9-11 (*note: this refers to the period proceeding puberty) Breast
enlargement, Vagina becomes larger • Walls of uterus develop powerful set of muscles to accommodate a fetus during pregnancy
•Mons pubis, labia, clitoris increase in size and become more sensitive to touch •Menarche = first occurrence of menstruation
typically occurs at age 12.5 n•Young girls can become fertile at menarche, however they may menstruate w/o ovulating for 12-18
months after menarche
•Sexual development in boys Sexual maturation begins at age 11-12•Growth of testes, scrotum, penis, facial hair •Spermarche: first
ejaculation of sperm (male sex cells) •Larynx grows and vocal cords lengthen, causing lowering of voice •Individual differences in
physical and sexual maturation Time when maturation occurs varies a lot depending on the kid
•Secular trends -are we maturing earlier? A trend towards earlier maturation and greater body size now than in the past due to
better nutrition and advances in medical care •This trend is especially observed in modern/industrialized nations
•Psychological impacts of puberty -general reactions to physical changes Girls' body images become increasingly negative from
early to late adolescence b/c they feel the need to match the "feminine ideal" of slimness
-In general, as a teenage girl's weight increases her self-esteem decreases
-Boys' body images post-puberty are more positive than those of girls. They may become centred on being/looking physically fit
Boys are less aware of the physical changes occurring to their bodies as compared to girls
Adolescent body image and unhealthy weight control strategies
Positive self-image --> high self-esteem, good friendships
Negative self-image --> depression, eating disorders, obsessive exercise, steroid use
•Teen girls more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies as compared to teen boys
•Girls wish to become thin, boys wish to increase muscle mass
•Overweight boys don't necessarily care about losing weight like girls… they more just care about losing fat
•Using extreme methods of weight control can lead to bad nutrition and stunted growth
•Anorexia nervosa: a life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self- starvation and a compulsive fear of getting fat
•Ppl. With anorexia appear emaciated •Bulimia: a life-threatening eating disorder characterized by recurrent eating binges
following by such purging activities as heavy use of laxatives or vomiting •Ppl. w/ bulimia are often overweight
•Possible causes of eating disorders: chaotic home environment/family life, loss, divorce, high levels of conflict/low levels of
emotional expressiveness among family members, feeling/perception of being unloved by a parent, tendency to internalize stress
and intense emotions
•Treatment for eating disorders: ideally outpatient w/ high familial involvement, parent education and family support groups,
family/school prioritizing health/fitness over appearance
Social impacts of pubertal changes
Rites of passage: rituals that signify the passage from one period of life to another (e.g. ceremony in many non-industrialized
societies when child reaches puberty)
• Teens in western countries may become more independent and less close to parents
•Impact of timing of maturation on boys
Early bloomers tend to be more confident, liked by teachers, have an easier time getting involved in sports and student council,
etc. Late bloomers may feel socially inferior, anxious, attention-seeking. Early bloomers treated more like adults. Parents are more
lenient with early bloomers which gives them self-confidence. Some advantages of early maturation may carry over into
adulthood.
Impact of timing of maturation on girls. Early maturation can cause girls to be less outgoing and less popular, report more anxiety
and depression. Some of challenges of early maturity can be long-lasting (e.g. early-maturing girls more likely to drop out of
school). Causes and correlates of physical development -biological mechanisms
Effects of individual genotypesGenes regulate the production of hormones, and hormones have major effects on
growth/development (e.g. height, when one reaches puberty, etc.)
Hormonal influences -the endocrinology of growth
Thyroxine - a hormone produced by thyroid gland; essential for normal growth of brain and body
Pituitary - a "master gland" located at base of brain that triggers release of hormones from all other endocrine glands and
produces growth hormone
Growth hormone (GH) - the pituitary hormone that stimulates the rapid growth and development of body cells; primarily
responsible for adolescent growth spurt
Estrogen - female sex hormone, produced by the ovaries, that's responsible for female sexual maturation
•Testosterone - male sex hormone, produced by testes, that's responsible for male sexual maturation
Environmental influences
Nutrition Catch-up growth: children who've experienced temporary undernutritionand then resume their normal diet then grow
very rapidly for a period of time to "catch up to" the growth trajectory that they're genetically programmed to follow Iron-
deficiency anemia: lack of energy caused by too little iron in the diet; makes children inattentive and may slow physical and
intellectual development
Malnutrition much more common among children in developing nations / those w/ low SES
Overnutrition more common in Western societies
Obese: individuals who are at least 20% above the ideal weight for their height, age, and sex
Body size is somewhat genetically determined Certain parenting styles can encourage obesity (e.g. children taught by parents to
view junk food as a reward)
Illnesses
Poor diet weakens immune system, making undernourished children moresusceptible to disease. Same disease also more likely to
have more severe effects on an undernourished child
Quality of care ~Nonorganic failure to thrive: infant growth disorder caused by lack of attention and affection that causes growth
to slow dramatically or stop. Babies feed poorly in response to not receiving proper emotional treatment even though they have
enough food available to them
Deprivation dwarfism: lack of affection depresses the endocrine system and inhibits production of growth hormone, leading to
slow growth and small stature in kids Appears later than nonorganic failure to thrive, usually btwn. 2-15 yrs. old
Both of these growth disorders can lead to long-term emotional problems and intellectual deficiencies if left untreated for years on
end
Developmental themes to physical development** The active child 1.Activity of the child influences his/her development
Synaptic pruning --> stimulating vs. impoverished environment has direct influence on a child's brain organization Chimp study
--> chimps raised in the dark for more than 7 months become blind due to atrophy of optic nerve neurons. Dynamical systems
theory --> infants use goals and objectives to actively reorganize existing motor capabilities into new and more complex action
systems
Environment impacts physical development
Diseases one contract and emotional climate of one's life have influence
Timing of puberty --> girls involved in strenuous activity like ballet dancing may get their period later as a result Physical
development involves quantitative and qualitative changes
Quantitative changes occur during middle childhood (6-11) --> steadygrowth
Qualitative changes concern body's physical proportions and occur from infancy through teen years
Cognitive advances in teen years occur only after physical changes to brain take place
Human development is a holistic process
Physical changes have impact on social, cognitive, and psychologicalaspects of development E.g. changes in neural circuitry of
prefrontal cortex during adolescence responsible for changes in types of thoughts, social/personality/identity development

Chapter 7
Early cognitive foundations : sensations, perception, and learning
-SENSATION is the process where neutrons detect information and send it to the brain
-PERCEPTION is understanding what you seethe interpretation of sensory input
Early controversies about sensory and perceptual development
Nature versus nurture
-EMPIRICIST philosophers believed that infants were TUBULA RASA’S (blank slate) meaning they must interpret sensations on
their own
-a NATIVIST philosopher stated that babies are born with basic perceptual abilities, their understanding will develop as they age
-Todays developmentalists state that maturational processes and experience con- tribute to the growth of perceptional awareness
Enrichment versus Differentiation
-ENRICHMENT THEORY states that sensory stimulation is confusing and frag-mented
•our knowledge helps us construct meaning from the stimulus we receive
-DIFFERENTIATION THEORY states that sensory stimulation provides all we need to interpret our experiences
•we detect the different information (DISTINCTIVE FEATURES) that allow us to see the difference between things
Research methods used to study the infants sensory and perceptual experiences
The preference method
-the PREFERENCE METHOD is a procedure where infants are shown 2 stimuli to see which one they react to
•used to discriminate visual patterns
The habituation method
-HABITITUATION is when a stimulus becomes so familiar that the responses nor- mally given stop occurring
•used to measure infant sensory and perceptual capabilities
-when they stop responding to stimuli it means they recognize them
-if a toddler DISHABITUATES this means that they pay attention to the stimulus and gravitate towards it
-is tricky to tell between habituation and preference
The high amplitude sucking method
-An infants sucking behaviour is used to determine their likes and dislikes
-The HIGH AMPLITUDE SUCKING METHOD , is used to determine likes (lots of suck-ing on the pacifier) to dislikes ( no
sucking)
The evoked potentials method
-uses brain waves following a stimulus to determine whats infants can sense or perceive
-this EVOKED POTENTIALS procedure tells us when brain activity is occurring fol-lowing the detection of a stimulus using
electrical activity
Brain imaging techniques
-uses the evoked potentials method
-uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) a neuroimaging technique that records the magnetic field generated by the brains electric
activity
-tells us where and when the brains activity is occurring
-is used to see if there is oxygen rich blood and deoxygenated blood flowing
Hearing
-uses the evoked potentials method -soft sounds for adults are loud for nonets (babies)
-auditory localization starts out as a reflex and eventually comes under the control of the mid and forebrain structures as they
mature
-researchers noticed a U shaped curve during the hearing study with infants, at first they would turn to the sound, then they would
stop responding, then they would respond to the sound again
Reactions to voices
-infants are attentive to high pitched female voices -fetuses in the third trimester experiences change in their heart rate when the
hear the voice of their mother -fetuses are learning sound patterns before birth -before birth, environmental sounds shape the
neural networks and foundation for
Language
Reactions to speech -babeis tend to speech that they heard in utero -by 3 months old they will turn their head to non-native
speech but also non speech (sound of water) -by 4 1/2 months old they turn their head when their name is called -by 5 months
they can detect their name in a loud background
Taste and smell
-infants like sweet liquids rather than bitter, sour, salty, or water solutions -different tastes cause different facial expressions
-sweet solutions cause them to smile and be happy and stop crying -sour solutions cause then to wrinkle their nose and purse their
lips -bitter solutions have the face of disgust, tongue prosecutions, even spitting -they don't like the smell of vinegar, ammonia, or
rotten eggs -4 days after birth they like milk -from 1 - 2 weeks they can smell their mother by the smell of her breasts or un-
derarms -by 1 week of age they prefer the smell of their mothers to nursing women
Touch, temperature and pain
-receptors in the skin are sensitive to touch, tempurature or pain -while sleeping, neonates get used to being touched in the same
spot, but respond if the touch is moved to a different spot (ear to chin) -touch and close contact promote developmental progress
-touch lowers stress levels, calms and promotes neural activity -touch is theraputic because it arouses inattentive infants and
calms agitated ones -they are sensitive to temperature change -pain experienced by new borns can be reduced if they are held by
their mothers for the calming skin -on -skin contact -a warm environment can reduce painful experiences (needles)
Vision
-vision is the least mature of a babies sensory capacities -change in brightness causes PUPILLARY REFLEX, indicates sensitivity
to light -babies can see movement only if the target moves slowly -they prefer to track faces, or shapes -newborns have poor
vision, they rely mostly on outer facial features (hair and ears) than inner facial features (nose, eyes) to recognize people
-newborns prefer the face of their mothers than other people •this is caused by a reflex in the subcortical areas of the brain, that
orients the baby to their caregiver -babies have a hard time discriminating blues, greens, yellows, from white until the age of 2 - 3
months •by 4 months they group colours, red, blue, green, yellow, the way adults do -neonates are born legally blind with VISUAL
ACUITY of 20/400 -infants see things as blurry because they have trouble ACCOMODATING - that is changing the shape of the
lens of the eye to focus the object -infants require sharper VISUAL CONTRASTS -by 12 months they see as well as adults -visual
functions in newborns are largely experience - independent -infants experience dependant mechanisms such as synaptic
reinforcement which contributes to the development of their vision -the use of both these mechanisms is crucial for the
development of the infants vi- sion
Visual Perception in Infancy
Perceptions of patterns and forms -At 2 days old babies can detect the stimulus of a face, and gravitate towards it Early pattern
perception (0 to 2 months) -it was revelled that infants don't necessarily like to look at a face •they prefer to look at targets with
high contrast, curvature and complexity -babies prefer to look at whatever they see well, the things that they see best are
moderately complex, high -contrast targets, particularly those that move -babies from 1 - 2 months old cant detect any forms
because their vision is so poor and the scanning of visual stimulus is poor
Later form perception ( 2 months to 1 year)
-from 2 and 12 months their vision matures -can make complex visual discriminations, and temporal movement sequencing -by 5
months they can form a 3d shape form seeiing many 2d shapes -can reorganize the object if its upside - down -they can
discriminate an object from the background -infants rely on kinetic motion cues to identify distinct forms -the ability to use object
movement to perceive form is not present at birth but has devleped by 2 months -from 3 -4 months infant can detect form in some
stationary scenes -by 8 months infants dont need cues from movement to detect partially covered objects -by 9 months infants are
shown moving point-light displays and pay more attention to the display in the shape of a human -by 12 months old they can
construct form from limited information ( a single light passes to form an explanation point they see the !) -by 12 months old they
like the look at different shapes -face recognition is not developed until the mid-teen years
Explaining form perception
-newborns use visual stimulation to make visual discriminations which keep visual neutrons firing which contributes to the
maturation of the visual centres in the brain -by 2-3 months infants can see detail, construct visual forms, including familiar and
non-familiar faces -if a child is born with cateracts their eyes do not mature to look at large objects with high contrast, thus
leading to deficits in their ability to tell the difference be- tween faces that differed in spacing (eye spacing) and orientation
( upright or in- verted faces) -the growth of form perception results from constant interaction, biological matura- tion and visual
experiences
Perception of 3 dimensional space
-EMPIRACISTS ARGUE THAT
-infants younger than 3 months do not have STEREOPSIS, which the visual images from the 2 eyes forming 1 non-overlaping
image that has depth -this makes it difficult for infants to see depth and find objects in space

NATIVISTS ARGUE THAT

-depth and distance are MONOCULAR, meaning they are detectable with 1 eye -artists use PICTORIAL ( or PERSPECTIVE )
CUES to create the illusion of a 3d or 2d image -if infants can detect the monocular depth cues ( linear perspective, texture gradi-
ents, sizing cues, interposition, and shading) then they can see 3d from birth
Size constancy
-VISUAL LOOMING is when a child blinks several times as an object is coming closer to its face ( 1 month old ) -3 - 5 months old
react differently to looming objects, they press their head back and move their arms out but they still blink lots, •similarly to 1
month olds -an increased rate of blinking reflects a collison about to happen, less blinking is in- terpreted as an acknowledgment
of something that is about to pass
-SIZE CONSISTENCY is recognizing that an object stays the same size from differ-ent distances
•it is present at birth, binular vision and movement cues contribute to its devel-opment
-size consistency develops throughout the first year, is not fully matures until 9 -10 year old
Use of pictorial cues
-between 5 - 7 months infants are sensitive to pictorial clues (interposition, relative size and other 2d pictorial cues) -babies
extract spacial information form KINETIC CUES between 1 - 3 months •between 3 - 5 months , binocular cues •between 6 - 7
month monocular cues
Development of death perception
-a VISUAL CLIFF is used to see if infants can perceive depth -at 2 months old infants can detect a different between deep and
shallow
Motor development and depth perception
- 6- 7 months fear drop offs because they are sensitive to kinetic, binocular and
monocular depth cues
-motor development changes the child meaning of depth -infant avoid drop off because they are aware of the possibilities of
getting hurt -self produced movement makes an infant sensitive to OPTICAL FLOW which is the sensation of other objects
moving when they move, the develops the neural path- way in the sensory and motor areas of the brain •improves motor skills and
spatial perception
Intermodel Perception
-INTERMODEL PERCEPTION is the ability to recognize by one sensory modality (touch or smell) an object that is familiar
through another (vision)
Are the senses integrated at birth? -vision and touch are integrated, infants expect to feel objects that they can see and reach,
when they cannot touch what they see they get upset -infants get upset when they can see their mom speaking but cannot hear her
-newborns must see and hear moms voice to be able to recognize her
Development of Intermodel perception
-oral to visual perception is the only cross model skill thats been observed in in-fants 1 month old -grasping and visual sensations
dont occur until 4-6 months -a cross between vision and hearing occurs at 4 months -auditory - visual matching of faces and
speech is present at birth -4 - 8 months old can tell the difference between sounds they know in different or-ders
Explaining intermodal perception
-amodal detection of a stimulus helps development and differentiation of different senses -when an infant interacts with an object
their perceptual system advances from an
AMODAL STATE
where many sensory inputs are being received, to an INTER-MODAL STATE where the infant can separate the sensory inputs,
sight from smell
-attending several stimuli at once promotes perceptual differentiation
-at birth sensory perception is amodal ( or undifferentiated ), as they experience
multimodal sensory stimuli, they develop intermodal perception
Infant perception in perspective -and a look ahead -advances in perception are due to an increased focus of attention and drawing
in-ferences from sensory inputs, this leads to COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Perceptual learning in childhood : Gibson’s differentiation theory
-PERCEPTUAL LEARNING occurs when we explore objects and detect their DISTINC-TIVE FEATURES
-a distinctive feature is something that differentiates 2 things
-Gibson is a DIFFERENTIATION theorist : she believes that children are learning new things from the environment everyday and
discovering new patterns, and distinc-tive features -children use their knowledge to ENRICH their sensory experiences and CON-
STRUCT new interpretations
Cultrural influences on perception
- as were exposed to a particular language we notice the distinctive features and don't notice the auditory distinctions that the
language deems irrelevant -all infants can tell the difference between r and l but japanese cant -infants at 4 months old prefer
musical beats in their culture
-there are 2 general principals of development that are important
•1. the growth of perceptual abilities, is not due to adding new skills but losing the unessesary ones
•2. our culture determines which sensory inputs are distinctive and how they should be interpreted
Basis learning process
-Learning is a change in behaviour that meets these requirements
•1. the individual now thinks, perceives, or reacts to the environment in a new way •2. this change is the result of a persons
experiences •3. the change is permanent
Habituation : early evidence of information processing and memory -HABITUATION is the process by which we stop attending or
responding to a stimuli that is repeated -it can occur before a baby is born -when a baby habituates to a stimulus, they can
dishabituate, meaning they at- tend to or react vigorously to a slightly different stimulus •this indicates that the baby sensory
receptors are not tired, and that they can discriminate the familiar from the unfamiliar
Developmental trends
-rapid habituation is related to the maturation of the sensory areas in the cerebral cortex
Individual differences
-infants who habituate fast during the first 6-8 months are quicker to understand and use language in the second year, they will do
better than slower-habituating classmates •they will score higher on standardized intelligence and language tests later in
childhood -habituation measures the speed that information is processed, attention, and memory which all underlie the complex
mental abilities and problem solving skills that would be measured on an IQ test
Classical conditioning
-CLASSICAL CONDITIONING is a neutral stimulus that at first has no effects on the child eventually elicits a response due to its
association with a second stimulus that always elicits the response
-classical conditioned responses remain for long periods of time if the conditioned stimulus that elicited it was paired with the
unconditioned stimulus to maintain their association
-if the conditioned response was presented alone without being paired with the un- conditioned stimulus then the conditioned
response eventually disappears ( this is EXTINCTION) a neutral stimulus (bell) leads to no response, an UNCONDITIONED
STIMULUS (food) leads to salivation
-a neutral stimulus (bell) paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) creates sali- vation
-the conditioned stimulus (bell) creates salivation (because the dog has already paired the bell with food)
Classical conditioning with emotions
-COUNTERCONDITIONING is when phobias are treated with classical conditioning
Operant (or instrumental) conditioning -with OPERANT CONDITIONING the learner gives off a response and then asso- ciates
this action with the consequences
-we repeat behaviours that have favourable outcomes and limit the ones that pro- duce unfavourable outcomes
Four possible consequences of operant responses
-in operant conditioning, a RIENFORCER is a consequence that strengthens a re- sponse, making it more likely to reoccur
-a positive reinforcer is a stimulus that makes the behaviour more likely to occur in the future
-NEGATIVE REINFORCERS strengthen behaviour due to avoiding something un- pleasant
-reinforcers and punishers are not defined by their pleasantness but by their ef-fects
-reinforces always strengthen responses , punishers inhibit or suppress them
-there are 2 forms of punishment that go with 2 forms of reinforcement
•1. POSITIVE PUNISHMENT occurs when an unpleasant consequence occurs fol-lowing the behaviour
•2. NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT occurs when something pleasant is removed fromthe situation following the behaviour
-both of these forms of punishment are meant to suppress behaviours and de-crease the likelihood that they will recur
-BEHAVIOURAL THEORISTS (Skinner) emphasizes the power of positive reinforce-ment
Corporal punishment as a tactic for controlling behaviour
-is counterproductive and may be harmful in the long run -punishment may engender anger, hostility , or resentment
-INFORMATION - PROCESSING THEORISTS state that punishment can make children anxious or emotionally aroused
•the most critical determinant of the child future is his interpretation of the un-easiness he's experiencing
-CONDITIONING THEORISTS viewed punative supressesion as nothing more than a conditioned avoidance response
-OPERANT THEORISTS believed that punishment barely suppresses an undesirable response without teaching anything new
Observational learning
-OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING results from observing the behaviours of other people
-this COGNITIVE form of learning occurs as the observer pays close attention and constructs SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS of
the memory
Newborn imitation
-VOLUNTARY IMITATIVE responses are when babies batch an adults facial expres-sion after a short delay but the adult is no
longer posing that expression •gets stronger with age
Advances in imitation and observational learning -DIFFERED IMITATION is the ability to reproduce that actions of a model at
somepoint in the future, develops rapidly in the second year •children can not only construct symbolic representations of their
experiences but can retreaive this memory from the past to construct new ones -children can learn new responses by watching
other peoples behaviours and re- taining mental representations of what they saw
Applying developmental themes to infant development, perception, and learning -perceptual developemtnn is the growth of
INTERPRETIVE skills, which are complex processes that depend on the maturation of the brain and the sensory receptors
-development also occurs through the learning processes they experience
-sensory and perceptual development require both nature and nurture to proceed
-the forms of learning the infant experiences in early life (habituation, classical/op-erant conditioning, and observational
learning ) all require experience (or nurture) to develop
-infant developing cognitive abilities, to retrain and retrieve from memory the things they've seen before, are examples of how
their biological development (or nature) set limits on their developing learning abilities
-development is a holistic enterprise and a child's maturing perceptual abilities in- fluence all aspects of development
-perception and learning are CRUCIAL COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS that are at the heart of human development

Chapter 8
Different theories of cog. Development
Piaget Neo-
piagetian
Vygotsky's sociocultural viewpoint Cognition: the mental processes by which humans acquire and use knowledge to solve
problems
Cognitive development: the changes that occur in mental activities such as attending, perceiving, learning, thinking, and
remembering
Piaget's theory of cog. Development
Genetic epistemology
Experimental study of the development of knowledge
Developed by piaget
What is intelligence? Intelligence: basic life function that enables an organism to adapt to its environment
Cognitive equilibrium: balanced relationship btwn. one's thought processes + environment achieved by seeking to understand
new things in the world around us
Interactionist model…
Children are constructivists - act on new objects + events to gain understanding of their features
How we gain knowledge: cog. Schemes and cog. Processes Scheme (cog. Structure): knowledge base through which children
interpret their world
Piaget's stages of cog. Development
Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) Infants coordinate their sensory inputs and motor capabilities in order to explore their
environments
Development of imitation Infants capable of imitating new responses displayed by a model Age at which this occurs is disputed,
but Piaget believes the capability begins around 8 months old and imitation becomes gradually more precise as child Ages
Development of object permanence Object permanence: realization (by 18-24 months old) that objects continue to exist when
they're no longer visible or detectable through the senses.
A not B error: tendency of 8 to 12 month olds to search for a hidden object where they previously found it even after they've seen it
moved to a new location
Neo-nativism Opposing view to Piaget's sensorimotor model of cog. Development
Theory: a lot of cognitive knowledge (e.g. object permanence) is innate and isn't gradually learned through experience as Piaget
believed
Theory theories Combines neo-nativism and constructivism (piaget), proposing that cog. Development progresses by children
generating, testing, and changing theories about physical/social world as they learn more about their surroundings
Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years old) Significant event: development of symbolic function/representational insight - knowledge
that an entity can rep. something other than itself Identifying factors: children think using symbols but can't yet use cog.
Operations

Thinking now done with the head, not the hands Examples of symbolism used: language (words rep. one's internal mental
processes), role playing games (e.g. kid pretending to be mommy or a superhero)

Dual representation (dual encoding): ability to rep. an object simultaneously as an object in itself and as a representation of
something else (e.g. this understanding is required to use a map to get from point A to B) Kids under age 3 lack dual
representation
Deficits in preconceptual reasoning~ Young children display animism - attribute life and lifelike qualities to inanimate objects
Also display egocentrism - view world from their own perspective, failing to recognize that others may have diff. POVs
Appearance/reality distinction: ability to keep true properties of an object in mind despite the deceptive appearance that it has
assumed. Kids under 6 ish unable to differentiate. This is similar to dual encoding
Centration (centred thinking): young kids' understanding of objects is still centred on the way things visually appear to be rather
than on logic
Conservation: recognition that the properties of an object/substance don't
change when its appearance is altered superficially (e.g. water experiment)
•
New evidence on egocentrism
Today, researchers believe that perspective-taking abilities aren't totally
absent at one developmental stage and suddenly present at another; they
develop slowly and become more refined from early in life into adulthood
•
Can preoperational children understand conservation?
Yes, according to more recent research evidence
•
Identity (conservation) training: teaching children to recognize that a
transformed object/substance remains unchanged regardless of its new
appearance
•
The Development of Theory of Mind (TOM)
Theory of mind: children's developing understanding re: how the human mind
works, including a knowledge that one's mental states aren't always
accessible to others
•
Belief-desire reasoning: a theory re: how adults think; we explain and predict
people's actions based on what we understand their desires and beliefs to be
•
Early understandings of mental states
By 6 months, infants understand that human behaviour is driven by
goals/intentions and that humans behave differently towards people than
they do toward inanimate objects
•
By 2-3 yrs. Of age, kids understand that others can't observe their thoughts
•
Btwn. ages 3-4, kids develop a belief-desire theory of mind - they recognize
that beliefs and desires are diff. mental states and that either or both can
influence one's conduct
•
Origins of a belief-desire theory
Very little kids may believe that others' actions are influenced solely by their

desires since this is how they think (egocentrism)

False-belief task: child must infer that another person doesn't possess
knowledge that he/she does (i.e. must infer that other person holds a false
belief. See e.g. on p. 267)
•
How does a theory of mind originate? (multiple possibilities)
Due to development of causal reasoning skills
•
Infants may be biologically prepared and motivated to acquire info about
mental states
•
Young kids fail at false belief task b/c they lack executive function skills. More
specifically, they lack cog. Inhibition = ability to inhibit certain thoughts and
behaviours at specified times (see e.g. on p. 267/268)
•
Through social factors
•
Pretend play --> helps kids learn that beliefs are merely mental constructions
that can influence ongoing behaviour, even if they misrepresent reality
-
Interaction w/ siblings --> more opportunities for pretend play, more
interactions involving deception/trickery, illustrating that beliefs don't need
to reflect reality to influence behaviour
-
Interaction with adults who display knowledge of theory of mind
-
Summing up (the preoperational stage)
Many researchers believe that Piaget underestimated the abilities of
preschool children b/c:
•
His problems were too complex to allow them to demonstrate what they
actually knew
-
He required children to verbally justify their answers, and many preschoolers
aren't articulate enough to do so even though they do know the right answer
(and would be able to demonstrate this if asked diff. questions/if given
nonverbal tests)
-
The concrete-operational stage (7-11 years old)
In this stage of development, children acquire cognitive operations and think
more logically about real objects and experiences
•
Cognitive operation: an internal mental activity that enables children to
modify and reorganize images and symbols to reach a logical conclusion (e.g.
conservation, relational logic)
•
Relational logic

Concrete operators capable of mental seriation - mentally arranging items

along a quantifiable dimension (e.g. height, weight)
•
Concrete operators also understand transitivity - the relations among
elements in a series (e.g. if John is taller than Mark and Mark is taller than
Miguel then who's taller, John or Miguel?)
•
The sequencing of concrete operations
Horizontal decalage (discrepancy): a child's inability to solve certain problems
even though they can solve similar problems requiring the same mental
operations
•
Occurs b/c such problems actually differ in complexity (e.g. conservation of
volume tasks more difficult than conservation of mass b/c children must
consider operations involved in conservation of liquids and mass and then
determine if there are meaningful relationships btwn. the two)
•
The formal-operational stage (11-12 years old and beyond)
Individual begins to think more rationally and systematically about abstract
concepts and hypothetical events
•
Formal operations: mental actions performed on ideas and propositions
(rather than on concrete objects)
•
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: ability to think hypothetically (e.g. solving
algebra problems)
•
Inductive reasoning: type of thinking that scientists display, where hypotheses
are generated and then systematically tested in experiments
•
"Think inductively": go from specific observations to broad generalizations
•
Pros of formal operations: ability to form stable identity, better understand
others' thoughts/behaviours, better decision-making
•
Cons: more likely to question authority figures since kids can now imagine
hypothetical alternatives to present realities, imaginary audience
•
Imaginary audience: a result of adolescent egocentrism. Young teens believe
that everyone around them is as interested in their thoughts and behaviours
as they are themselves
•
An evaluation of Piaget's theory
Piaget's contributions
Piaget founded discipline of cognitive development
•
Tried to explain and not just describe the process of development

pj p p
Demonstrated that children actively construct their own knowledge…
•
Provided a reasonably accurate overview of how children of diff. ages think
•
Some of his research led to new insights
•
Piaget's ideas had practical implications for educators
•
Challenges to Piaget
Piaget failed to distinguish competence from performance
•
Cog. Development is only stage-like within particular intellectual domains
(e.g. reading, math, science), not across domains as Piaget believed
•
Piaget's theory only describes the process of cog. Development unfolding, but
doesn't explain what causes it (what maturational = brain changes are
necessary for a child to progress from one stage to another?)
•
Piaget devoted too little attention to social and cultural influences
•
Case's neo-piagetian theory
Researchers who agreed with and further developed Piaget's theory of cog.
Development
•
Robbie Case is a famous neo-piagetian
•
Refined Piaget's concepts of assimilation and accommodation: concepts of
consolidation and automization help explain assimilation, accommodation
occurs through exploration and problem solving
-
Argued that acquisition across tasks is only similar if problems have similar
difficulty level and can be solved in similar ways
-
Processing capacity (working memory) and biological factors are important
predictors of cog. Growth
-
Cog. Structures can be culture-specific
-
Personal experiences and culture influence cog. Development
-
Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective
Sociocultural theory: Vygotsky's perspective on cognitive development, in
which children acquire their cultures, values, beliefs, and problem-solving
strategies through collaborative dialogues w/ more knowledgeable members
of society
•
Role of culture in intellectual development
4 levels of development:
Ontogenetic development
○
development of the individual over his/her lifetime
-
Perspective of developmental psychologists
-
Microgenetic development
○
Changes that occur in seconds/minutes/days
-
Phylogenetic development
○
Development over evolutionary time, i.e. thousands/millions of years
-
Sociohistorical development
○
Development of a culture and how this influences values, norms, technology
-
Key aspect of Vygotsky's theory
-
*all of these perspectives can be used to understand child development
Tools of cultural adaptation
Infants are born w/ elementary mental functions that are transformed by
their cultures into more sophisticated higher mental functions
•
Each culture provides children w/ tools of intellectual adaptation that help
them think and problem-solve
•
E.g. Chinese numbering system follows a base-10 logic, which makes it easier
for toddlers to learn Chinese as compared to English
-
Social origins of early cog. Competencies
Zone of proximal development
Range of tasks that are too complex to be learned alone but can be
accomplished w/ guidance and encouragement from a more skilled partner
•
Scaffolding: parent demonstrates to child how to solve problem and then
allows child to work independently, only offering assistance if child fails
•
Scaffolding helps kids become more independent learners and reach their
max potential
-
Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that competence is not something that's
simply either achieved or not achieved; rather, competence is task-specific
and depends on how much practice/familiarity a child has w/ a task

Apprenticeship in thinking and guided participation

Guided participation: a child's way of thinking changes as they actively
participate in culturally relevant activities w/ adults
•
Guided participation is an informal "apprenticeship in thinking"
•
A lot of learning done at home as a toddler w/ parent is context-independent,
i.e. it has no immediate relevance to the present context, learning for
learning's sake. This type of learning prepares children for school, that also
features a lot of context-independent learning
•
E.g. learning names of diff. structures at playground (seesaw, slide, swing,
etc.)
•
"Playing" in the zone of proximal development
Preschoolers who engage in more cooperative play better understand other
people's feelings and beliefs later on (theory of mind)
•
Implications for education
According to Piaget, kids develop cognitively by exploring independently
•
According to Vygotsky, children develop more through structured activities
w/ a skilled teacher or peer
•
Research shows that children learn more when they have someone
experienced to help them / are working with others b/c:
•
Children more motivated when working w/ others
-
Children are forced to articulate their ideas verbally and bounce opinions off
one another
-
Problem-solving is more effective in a group
-
Role of language in cog. Development
Piaget's theory of language and thought
Egocentric speech: subset of a young child's utterances that are nonsocial, i.e.
not directed to others or expressed in a way that others would understand
•
Child experiences shift from egocentric to communicative speech toward end
of preoperational stage due to decline in egocentrism. i.e. cog.
Development --> language development
•
Vygotsky's theory
Private speech: nonsocial speech is a child's form of self-talk that helps them
plan strategies and regulate behaviour in pursuit of their goals
•
Language development --> cog. Development
•
Cog. Self-guidance system: use of private speech to guide problem-solving
behaviour
•
Social speech w/ parents --> private speech when kid begins solving problems
themselves
•
Contemp. research agrees w/ Vygotsky - brighter preschool children rely most
heavily on private speech, not cognitively immature kids like Piaget theorized
•
Vygotsky in perspective: summary and evaluation
Cog. Development varies by culture
•
Context-independent learning --> school success in Western culture
-
Spatial skills --> better hunting ability in native and African cultures
-
Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective doesn't provide as many specific
hypotheses to test as Piaget's theory did, making its refutation difficult
-
Vygotsky's theory is useful to understanding cog. Development, but it must
still be viewed as a single perspective among many valid others
Private speech: nonsocial speech is a child's form of self-talk that helps them
plan strategies and regulate behaviour in pursuit of their goals
•
Language development --> cog. Development
•
Cog. Self-guidance system: use of private speech to guide problem-solving
behaviour
•
Social speech w/ parents --> private speech when kid begins solving problems
themselves
•
Contemp. research agrees w/ Vygotsky - brighter preschool children rely most
heavily on private speech, not cognitively immature kids like Piaget theorized
•
Vygotsky in perspective: summary and evaluation
Cog. Development varies by culture
•
Context-independent learning --> school success in Western culture
-
Spatial skills --> better hunting ability in native and African cultures
-
Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective doesn't provide as many specific
hypotheses to test as Piaget's theory did, making its refutation difficult
-
Vygotsky's theory is useful to understanding cog. Development, but it must
still be viewed as a single perspective among many valid others
-
Applying developmental themes to Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories
The active child
•
Piaget: children are active, hands-on beings who shape their own
development
-
Interaction of nature and nurture in development
•
Piaget: cog. Development is similar among all humans, but children's
explorations of environment differ
-
Vygotsky: nurture > nature. Adults and culture influence children's thinking,
but so too does our common evolutionary past

Qualitative vs. quantitative changes

•
Piaget: each stage in development is qualitatively unique
-
Vygotsky: not concerned w/ describing the nature of developmental
changes; more concerned w/ explaining why they occur
-
Holistic nature of development
•
Piaget's theory has been applied to topics other than intelligence, including
gender and moral development
-
Vygotsky: cog. Change must be viewed within social/cultural context