03.Psychological development

8/7/2019 03.Psychological development

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Psychological development

Ottilia BorossMcDaniel College Budapest2008


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Capacities of the newborn

Cognitive development in childhood Piaget Kohlberg

Personality and social development attachment

gender development

Adolescency


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N ature nurture debate

maturation

- innately determined growthand change

- fixed schedule

- different rates

- some environmental influence(e.g. motor development)


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Environmental InfluenceEnvironmental InfluenceEx perience affectsbrain development

Impoverished

environment

Rat brain

cell

Rat brain

cell

Enriched

environment


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Capacities of the newborns

Vision short-sightedness poor visual acuity double-vision

Prefer big contrasts (edges) complex features

curved lines


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T asteand

smell

ExcellentRecognizes mothers milk

Sweet-preference


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H earingexcellent at birth

6 weeks-4 months shift

sensitive totones (Mozart)speech (foreignlanguages)


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Learningandmemory

fast andexcellent

evenremembertheir fetalexperiences


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Experimental methods with babies

Conditionedkicking

3-6months


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Eye-tracking


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S tages of developmentS tages of development

infancyinfancy childhoodchildhood adolescencyadolescency adulthoodadulthood

behaviors are organized at a given theme /behaviors are organized at a given theme /a coherent set of characteristicsa coherent set of characteristics

are qualitatively different from behaviorsare qualitatively different from behaviorsat later or earlier stagesat later or earlier stages

All children go through the same stages inAll children go through the same stages inthe same orderthe same order


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Sensitive period time-window for the brain the individual is particularly receptive to certain

types of stimuli or interactions begins and ends gradually period of maximal sensitivity

Windows of opportunity

If missedthe brain has progressed past the pointat which information can be simply absorbed

- attachment- mental modeling of the environment- music- sports


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Critical period: time-window for the brain

exclusive period for acquiring a specific ability the relevant stimuli must be there begins and ends abruptly

Like: binocular vision (1-3 years)

hearing language acquisition


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Children are active

builders of theirknowledge

Like little, inquiering,

naive scientists, childrenconstantly constructand test their owntheories of the world


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S chemas(theories)

to understand

features ofthe world


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A ssimilation : incorporating

newmaterialsfrom theenvironmentinto aschema


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A ccomodationchanging the

schema tobetter fit theenvironment

ex perience fails to conform to e x isting schema


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operation: logical thinking


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S ensorimotor stage: (birth to 2 years)adapting to &

exploring the environment

brain makeup sucking and visual orienting reflexes innate tendencies to adapt to environment learn through senses repetitions with variations


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Out of sight, out of mind

8-10 month - O bject permanence Understanding that objects exist independently of

our thoughts and actions


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Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)

Magical thinkingthere are witches, fairies ...

... andSanta Claus is comingtonight


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Animism: attributing life andthinking to inanimate objects (see

religions and mythology!)

T he sun is shining directly on to them ...

.. and there is a spirit in every tree ....


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Egocentrism : the inability to take anotherperson's perspective or point of view.


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Centration : T he tendency to focus or center ononly one aspect of a situation and ignore other

important aspects. Unable to see that objects alike inone property might differ in others

Pick the yellow triangles!


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Conservation : T wo equal physical quantitiesremain equal even if the appearance of one is

changed, as long as nothing is added or subtracted.

Centration (height O R width) and lack of conservation

Irreversibility: T he inability to mentally reverse a sequence ofevents.


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Make-believe play Pretend-play and

imitation cooking, mum-and-daddy

play

T hinking is literal and concrete(do not understand proverbs)


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T heory of mind

... understanding,that

others have feelings

and thoughts,different from ours they are intentional

agents ...

Autistic children do not have a theory of mind


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Concrete operational stageClass inclusion Classifying and generalizing on observable properties

(all dogs are animals but that not all animals are dogs).Serial ordering Arranging a set of objects according to an observable

property; establishing a one-to-one correspondencebetween two observable sets (the smaller the animalthe faster its heart beats)

Reversibility Mentally inverting a sequence of steps.Conservation Realizing that a quantity remains the same if nothing

is added or taken away, though it may appeardifferent.


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F ormal operational stageT heoretical Reasoning

T hinking scientifically, being capable of mentaloperations such as drawing conclusions, constructingtests to evaluate hypotheses.

Combinatorial Reasoning Considering all combinations of abstract items.Proportional Reasoning Stating and interpreting functional relationships in

mathematical form.Control of Variables Recognizing the necessity of an experimental design

that controls all variables but one. Probabilistic and Correlational Reasoning Interpreting observations that show unpredictablevariability and recognizing relationships amongvariables.


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Piagets theory of moral development(moral reasoning)

morality =developmentalprocessinterpersonalinteractions

parallel play - no rules


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"heteronomous" stage strict adherence to rules and duties

obedience to authority moral realism (objective responsibility,

when the letter of the law is above thepurpose of the law; the outcomes of actionsare above the intentions of the person)

immanent justice (punishmentsautomatically follow acts of wrong-doing).

autonomous stage consider rules critically

apply them in a selective way


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Lawrence

Kohlbergstheory of moral

developmentmoral reasoning

continuesthroughout thelifespan


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Levels of moral behaviour

Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)1. O bedience and punishment orientation2. Reward orientation

Level 2 (Conventional)3. Interpersonal accord and conformity ( T he good

boy/good girl orientation)4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation

( Law and order morality)

Level 3 (Post-Conventional)5. Social contract orientation

6. Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience)


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Personality and social de velopmentT emperament : mood-related

personalitycharacteristics

can predictemotional andbehavioralcharacteristicfeatures later inlife

Easy (40%)Difficult (10%)Slow to warm up

(15%)


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Emotional

developmentLove Between

Mothersand Babies:

are mothers

only a mere sourceof food ...?


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attachment

tendency to seekcloseness to

important others

Separation an

xiety 8. months


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tested the idea


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T ERRY-CLOTH MOTH ER

well proportioned andstreamlined monkeybody made of wood

covered with rubber,sheathed in cottontowelling (soft to

touch) light bulb behind made

her warm


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WIRE-MASH MOTH ER

made of wire mesh

lacked contact comfort

had breasts


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the young monkeys clung to the terry-clothmother whether it provided them

with food or not


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got protection an d comfort


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Strange Situation Parent and child are alone in a room Child explores the room without

parental participation

Stranger enters the room, talks tothe parent, and approaches the child

Parent quietly leaves the room Parent returns and comforts the child

M ary A insworth1913-1999


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Strange Situation

Securely attached

Insecurely attached,ambivalent

Insecurely attached,avoidant


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Parental attitude

Goodness of fit(matchingtemperament)

Sensitiveresponsiveness

(tayloring theanswers to thebabies needs)


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gender identity:a firm sense of being a memberof one of the sexes

Psychoanalytic theory Social learning theory Cognitive developmentaltheory Gender schema theory


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se x -typing

culturally determined stereotyped attitudestowards men and women


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Psychoanalytic theoryPSYCHO SEXUAL DEVELO PMENT O ral

AnalPhallic Boys ( O edipus complex/castrationcomplex identify with father,develop stronger sense of morality

Girls penis envy, weakeridentification with mother, lessdeveloped sense of identity)

Latency

IDENT I F ICAT I ON

HO MO SEXUALI T Y:WRON G IDENT I F ICAT I ON


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S ocial learning theoryRewards and pubishments of

gender-appropriate andinappropriate behavior byadults and peers(reinforcement)

It is like any other of behavior(so it is subject ofmodification)

O bservation and imitation ofmodels feminine and masculinebehavior


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Barbie for girls

L ego for boys


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Cognitive developmental theory

children learn gender (andgender stereotypes) throughtheir mental efforts toorganize their social world (notbecause they are rewarded orpunished).

Gender constancy: tounderstand that people cannotchange genders the way they

can change their clothes,names, or behavior (it is afunction of cognitivedevelopment)


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Gender-schema theoryT hree key gender lenses (hidden assumptions):

gender polarization (men and women are different and thesedifferences constitute a central organizing principle of sociallife)

androcentrism (males are superior to females; male experienceis the normative standard)

biological essentialism (the first two lens are due to biologicaldifferences between the sexes).

gender acquisition =self-fulfilling prophecy

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03.Psychological development