1.

Introducing developmental psychology

2. Nature and nurture contribute to development:
UNIT 7: physical aspect
Human development 3. Cognitive development
4. Social development
5. Moral development

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1. Introducing developmental psychology 2. Nature and nurture contribute to development

Brain development in young child:

The branch of psychology that explores physical, emotional,
Early brain growth has two important aspects
cognitive, and social aspects of development.
• specific areas within the brain mature and become functional
• How genes interact with early experiences to make each of us different
• regions of the brain learn to communicate with one another
• How behavior changes over the life span
• Psychology of children and adolescents, geropsychology ...

The brain, mind, and social-emotional behavior develop together.

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2. Nature and nurture contribute to development 2. Nature and nurture contribute to development
Brain development : Brain development in young child:
Specific areas within the brain • regions of the brain learn to communicate
mature and become functional with one another through synaptic
• begin in prenatal period
connections to adapt to environment
exposure to teratogen may lead to
abnormal brain development
• affected by nutrition ‘use it or lose it’
• need stimulation à child Brain of neglected child is significantly smaller

interacts with objects and people than average, and its cortical, limbic, and
midbrain structuresare abnormally developed.
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Source: M ichael S. Gazzaniga. (2018). Psychological science (6th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

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2. Nature and nurture contribute to development 2. Nature and nurture contribute to development
Motor development : Motor development :
Newborns have various motor reflexes that aid survival Infants across cultures often achieve developmental milestones at different paces

Ability to walk:
Baganda infants in Uganda:
9-11 months
European American infants:
12-14 months

grasping reflex rooting reflex sucking reflex

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Source: M ichael S. Gazzaniga. (2018). Psychological science (6th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. Source: M ichael S. Gazzaniga. (2018). Psychological science (6th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

2. Nature and nurture contribute to development 2. Nature and nurture contribute to development
Motor development :
Dynamic systems theory
The development of walking was genetically
or environmentally determined ? Development in any domain (physiological, cognitive, emotional,
or social) occur through both
socialization experiences
• the person’s active exploration of an environment
and parental goals
• the constant feedback that environment provides

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3. Cognitive development 3. Cognitive development - Theories

Jean Piaget theory: Stages of Cognitive Development
Theories of Cognitive Development:
• Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years): use its senses and developing motor
• Jean Piaget (1936): skills to explore and act upon the world, mental representation near the
end of this stage
focused on children’s understanding of their physical environment
• Preoperational (2 to 7 years): uses language to symbolize objects and
• Lev Vygotsky (1920s): actions in words - concepts, but egocentric (has difficulty taking the
viewpoint of others)
focused on how children come to understand their social world
• Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years): able to perform simple logical
operations tied to concrete problems
• Formal Operations (11 years to adulthood): able to perform hypothetical
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and abstract reasoning
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 3. Cognitive development - Theories 3. Cognitive development - Theories
Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years): Mental representation
ability to think about things that are absent from immediate surroundings.

Object permanence Object permanence

Piaget - Infants older than about 8 months understand that things continue to exist With new scientific methods that do not require infants to physically search for hidden
when they are out of sight. objects, researchers have found object permanence abilities in infants as early as 3.5
13 months of age (Baillargeon, 1987). 14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwgo2O5Vk_g

Preoperational (2 to 7 years): • Egocentrism - age 3

“Do you have a brother?” “Does Jim have a brother?”
• Egocentrism “Yes.” “No.”
2-7 year old children mistakenly believe that others share their “What’s his name?”
points of view. “Jim.”
• Piaget’s test of conservation - age 5
unable to imagine an action and mentally reverse it -Irreversibility
Centration - focus on only one aspect of a situation (the height of the column)

The child can see the tree, but when asked what the adult sees, she
will say “A tree.” Unable to understand conservation of volumne
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Preoperational (2 to 7 years):
Preoperational (2 to 7 years):
• Mehler &Bever (1967) :
• Piaget:
younger than 3 years - understand more/less than,
4-5 years - understand quantity (more or
able to understand conservation based on
less than) in terms of length, not quantity
number.

They showed the children two rows of four M&M’s each and
asked if the rows were the same. When the children said yes,
the researchers then transformed the rows - add two candies
to the second row, but compress it.
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S o u rce: M ichael S. Gazzan iga. (2018 ). Psy cholog ical science (6th ed .). W.W . Norton & Compan y. S o u rce: M ichael S. Gazzan iga. (2018 ). Psy cholog ical science (6th ed .). W.W . Norton & Compan y.

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3. Cognitive development - Theories 3. Cognitive development - Theories
• Concrete Operations (7 to 11 years): able to perform simple logical
operations tied to concrete problems Evaluation of Jean Piaget theory:
Q: What if people did not have thumbs? A: They cannot write • First developed a comprehensive theory of cognitive
development and identified significant cognitive milestones -
’Children are not miniature adults’
• Formal Operations (11 years to adulthood): able to perform
hypothetical and abstract reasoning • View learning as an active rather than passive process
Q: What if people did not have thumbs?
A: … I think if we were to lose something as simple but critical as our
thumb, the whole world would change, maybe a bunch of little things but
all1 0those tittle things would add up to something major … 19 10 20

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgEAnO26p5w&t=36s

3. Cognitive development - Theories 3. Cognitive development - Theories

Modern interpretations of Piaget’s theory as continuous
Evaluation of Jean Piaget theory: development
• Rigid stages - stagelike development (sudden shift in thinking • Children shift gradually in their thinking over a wider range of ages
followed by periods of stability in understanding of the world) • They can demonstrate thinking skills of more than one stage at a time.

• Underestimate children abilities

• Observations of children’s cognitive abilities were limited to a
small sample of children
• Lack of attention to cultural factors

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3. Cognitive development - Theories Zone of proximal development (ZPD) - zone of potential development
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory:
• Cognitive development is acquired through a gradual process of social instructions from adults
interactions between children and parents, teachers, and other members education, teaching
of the culture
scaffolding ...
• Adult is the teacher and the child is the student who learns the skills,
values, and behaviors valued by the given culture.
Ex: using chopsticks or spoons and forks
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD) - zone of potential development
- the phase when children are open to learning a new skill but aren’t yet
successful at it à need instruction and scaffolding
• Different children can acquire skills and master tasks at different rates
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 3. Cognitive development - Theories 4. Social development
What will happen to our cognitive function when we get old?

• Fluid intelligence - ability to think quickly, abstractly and flexibly in • Imitation is the baby’s
solving problems - tends to peak in early adulthood, during 20s first social interaction
• Ability to recall information, especially the names of people,
objects, and places, begins to decrease after age 30 • Infants prefer looking at
• Crystallized intelligence (wisdom and knowledge, vocabulary skill) faces and Mommy’s face
tends to peak around middle age and remains. Older is wiser!

A newborn, less than 1 hour old, have the ability to imitate adults’ sticking
10 25 out their1 0tongues and other facial expressions(Meltzoff& Moore, 1977). 26

4. Social development 4. Social development

Establishing human bonds - fundamental infants’ need
• 1 month: first social smile Attachement - enduring emotional bond that infants
• Up to 7 month: increasingly and older children form with their caregivers.
interactive with others Attachment is based on contact comfort - the positive
• 8 months - 12-15 months: emotions afforded by touch.
Stranger anxiety - ability to
evaluate people as unfamiliar
and possibly threatening Harlow's monkeys and their mothers - 1950s
h ttp s://x.co m/P sych _R evi ew/statu s/9 3 8 8 32 83 589 66 27 20 1 Why are children so cute? • Infant monkeys clung to the cloth mother for
comfort and approached the wire mother only one ‘mother’ made of cloth but
when they were hungry. not give milk, the other made of
27 10 wire but give milk 28

4. Social development 4. Social development

Attachement styles Attachement styles
The Strange Situation - Mary Ainsworth Secure attachment (60-65%)
(1969) • happy to play alone
• observe how infants react to separations • mom as secure base to explore
and reunions with caregivers the environment
• infants around 8–12 months display • may be upset when mom
separation anxiety leaves but is easily comforted
when she returns

https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTs ewNrHUHU

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4. Social development 4. Social development
Insecure attachement styles (35-40%) • Children use of the caregiver as a source of security in times of distress.
• Insecure-avoidant attachment: à Children with secure attachement have sensitive, responsive caregiver
play independently with little attention to mom, indifferent to the entry of the • Early attachments are believed to form the foundation for adult
stranger, no distress at mom’s departure. relationships and our comfort with affection and intimacy.
• Insecure-resistant (ambivalent) attachment:
à People who report secure relationships with their parents tend to enjoy
cling to mom, distress when the stranger enters, reacts to mom’s departure secure friendships
with panic, shows some ambivalence or resistance toward mother
• Erik Erikson - Securely attached children approach life with a sense of
• Disorganized attachment: basic trust - a sense that the world is predictable and reliable
react to the toys, the stranger, and mom’s departure and return with an
inconsistent and confused set of responses.
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4. Social development Erikson’s eight stages of Human Development

1. Infancy: Trust versus mistrust 2. Toddlerhood
Developing general security,
Parenting style optimism, and trust in others
4. Middle
Baumrind (1991) - children with 3. Early childhood
childhood
authoritative parents exhibit the best
social and emotional adjustment and Cold W arm

the lowest levels of behavior punitive sensitive 5. Adolescence: Identity vs role confusion
Achievement of a stable and satisfying sense of role and
problems in middlle-class white direction
American families. 6. Young
adulthood
Parenting styles and childhood Identity crisis
outcomes à correlation but not Who am I ?
causation. 7. Adulthood
33 8. Aging

Two important stages in brain development

4. Social development
Erickson fifth stage of psychosocial development in adolescence
Identity crisis - a stressful period of serious soul-searching and self-
examination of issues relating to ego identity

Ego identity - the attainment of a psychological sense of knowing

oneself and one’s direction in life

Do we all have Identity crisis ? Just once in adolescence ?

What happens if we fail to have a clear sense of Ego identity ?
Role diffusion - ambiguous values and direction in life
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5. Moral development 5. Moral development
Knowing right from wrong • Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Thinking

• Children’s Moral Development associated with fear moral dilemmas (ex: whether a person should steal medicine to save a
loved one’s life)
right - reward vs wrong - punishment
Child: “If you save your dying wife,
• Piaget - children’s moral judgments build on their
you’ll be a hero.”
cognitive development
Adolescence: “If you steal the drug
• Kohlberg (1981, 1984) - described the development of for her, everyone will think you’re a
moral reasoning - considering right and wrong, a moral criminal.”
ladder of 3 basic levels
Adult: “People have a right to live.”
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• In  Piaget’s  theory,  c hildren  in  the  sensorimotor  stage,  from  birth  to  about  2  y ears,   1.  Parenting  style  is  an  important  influence  on  c hildren’s  development.  Which  of  the  
following  terms  describes  a  parent  who  is   warm,  supportive,  and  c onsistent;  who  
explore  their  world  through  their  (o)________,  m otor  responses,  and  purposeful   understands  the  c hild’s  point   of  v iew;  and  who  c ommunicates  well?
manipulation  of  objects.  D uring  the  preoperational  stage,  from  about  2  to  7  y ears  
a.  permissive   b.  authoritarian  
of  age,  the  c hild’s  thinking  is   more  representational  but  is  limited  by  c entration,  
(p)  ________  ,  animistic  thinking,  and  irreversibility.  The  c oncrete  operational   c.  authoritative   d.  laissez-­‐faire
stage,  beginning  around  age  7  in  Western  c ultures,  is  c haracterized  by  
development  of  the  principle  of  c onservation  and  the  ability  to  draw  logical   2.  Among  attachement  styles,  the  ( e)  ________  type  of  infant  attaches  to  the  m other  and  
relationships   among  ( q)  ________  objects  or  events.  The  formal  operational   uses   her  as  a  secure  base  to  explore  the  environment.  The  insecure-­‐(f)  ________  type  freely  
explores  the  environment  but  tends  to  ignore  the  m other.  The  insecure-­‐(g)  ________  type  
stage,  the  m ost  advanced  stage  of  c ognitive  development  according  to  Piaget,  is   clings  excessively  to  the  m other  but  shows  ambivalence  or  resistance  toward  her.  
characterized  by  the  ability  to  engage  in  deductive  thinking,  generate  hypotheses,  
and  engage  in  (r)  ________  thought.
3.  I n  Erikson’s  stages,  the  primary  task  during  adolescence  is  
• Vygotsky  focused  on  how  c hildren  acquire  k nowledge  of  their  social  world.  H e  
believed  this  k nowledge  is   achieved  through  the  interaction  of  the  c hild  with  the   a. attaining  formal  operations.  
parent  within  a  zone  of  (s)  ________  development  that  takes  into  account  the   b. forging  an  identity.  
child’s   present  and  potentially  realizable  k nowledge  structures. c. developing  a  sense  of  intimacy  with  another  person.  
d. living  independent  of  parents.
(o)  senses;  ( p)  egocentricity;  ( q)  c oncrete;  ( r) abstract  ,  ( s)  proximal
1.  c,  2.  (e)  secure;  ( f)  avoidant;  ( g)  resistant  ,  3.  b

1.  At  the  pre-­‐conventional  level,  m oral  judgments  are  based  on  the  perceived  
consequences of  behavior.  Behaviors  that  avoid  (g)  ________  are  good;  those  that  
incur  punishment  from  an  external  authority  are  bad.  At  the  ( h)  ________  level,  
conformity  with  c onventional  rules  of  right  and  wrong  are  v alued  because  of  the  
need  to  do  what  others  expect  or  because  one  has  an  obligation  to  obey  the  law.  At  
the  ( i)  ________  level,  m oral  judgments  are  based  on  v alue  systems  the  individual  
develops  through  personal  reflection,  such  as  v aluing  the  importance  of  human  life  
and  the  c oncept  of  justice  above  that  of  the  law.  Post-­‐c onventional  thinking  does  
not  develop  until  adolescence,  if  ever.

2.  Beginning  in  their  20s,   people  start  to  experience  a  gradual  decline  in  lean  body  
mass  and  m uscle  tissue.  ( a)_______  intelligence—including  rapid  problem-­‐solving  
ability  and  m emory  for  lists  of  words,   names,  or  text—tends  to  decline  with  
increasing  age  during  m iddle  and  late  adulthood.  ( b)  _______  intelligence  remains  
relatively  intact  and  m ay  actually  improve  in  some  respects.

1.  (g) punishment  ;  ( h)  c onventional;  (i)  post-­‐conventional

2.  ( a)  F luid;  ( b)  Crystallized