Chapter 10: Infancy and Childhood

Case Study: Bullying: A Schoolyard Epidemic

Section 1: Developmental Psychology
Section 2: Physical Development
Section 3: Social Development
Section 4: Cognitive Development
Lab: Applying What You’ve Learned
Case Study: Bullying: A Schoolyard Epidemic
Bullying has devastating effects. It makes students think of school as a
violent environment. Bullying impairs adjustment to middle school and
high school.
Facts About Bullying

• An estimated 70 to 75 percent • One study found that bullying

of students are bullied at some was more often associated with
point. delinquent behavior, ADHD, and
• Many bullies have common depression.
characteristics, including lower • Bigger, more physically
than average achievement and developed children often bully
home environments troubled by younger, smaller kids.
violence.
What do you think?
• How does bullying affect students and the school
atmosphere?
• Does bullying occur in your school? What can school
officials, parents, and students do to limit or stop it?
 Section 1 at a Glance

Developmental Psychology
• Developmental psychology is the study of how people
grow and change throughout their lives.
• Developmental psychologists are concerned with many
issues. One issue is the extent to which heredity (nature)
and environment (nurture) affect development. Another is
whether people develop in distinct stages or whether
development is more gradual and steady.
Developmental Psychology
Main Idea
The field of developmental psychology examines physical, social, and
cognitive development. Heredity and environment control different
aspects of development to varying degrees.

Reading Focus
• Why and how do psychologists study development?
• How do both heredity and environment contribute to the development
process?
• How would you describe development as a process of stages versus
continuity?
What can you learn
about developmental
psychology at the
beach?
The Study of Development
• Developmental psychology is the field in which psychologists study
how people grow and change throughout the life span, from
conception until death.
• Psychologists use two methods to study people across the life span.
– The longitudinal method, in which researchers select a group of
participants and then observe the same group for a period of time, often
years or decades
– The cross-sectional method, in which researchers select a sample that
includes people of different ages and then compare the participants in
the different age groups
Reading Check

Draw Conclusions
What are two reasons that psychologists are
interested in studying infancy and
childhood?

Answer: Early childhood experiences affect people as adolescents

and adults, and by studying early stages of development, psychologists
can learn about developmental problems.
Heredity and Environment
• Developmental psychologists are concerned with two general issues:
– Ways in which heredity and environmental influences contribute to
human development
– Whether development occurs gradually or in stages
• Psychologists have long debated the extent to which human behavior
is determined by heredity (nature) or environment (nurture).
• Maturation is the automatic and sequential process of development
that results from genetic signals.
• A critical period is a stage or point in development during which a
person is best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern.
• Arnold Gesell proposed that maturation played the most important
role in development. John Watson’s view, however, favored the
tabula rasa view of development.
Reading Check

Summarize
Name and describe three major issues that
are part of the heredity versus environment
debate.
Answer: maturation, automatic and sequential process of
development results from genetic signals; notion of critical periods in
development when person is best suited to learn particular skill or
behavior; influence of environment, nutrition, family background,
culture, learning experiences
Stages Versus Continuity
• Developmental psychologists debate whether human development
occurs primarily in stages or as a continuous process.
• Maturational theorists generally believe that most development
occurs in stages.
• Jean Piaget is one of the most famous stage theorists.
• Other psychologists, including J. H. Flavell, argue that cognitive
development is a gradual and continuous process.
Reading Check

Recall
Which mode of development (stages or
continuity) is more aligned with heredity,
and which is more aligned with
environment?

Answer: heredity—stages, maturation caused by genetic signals;

environment—continuous, each advance is based on observation and
experience
 Section 2 at a Glance
Physical Development
• Children grow physically from the time they are conceived
through infancy and childhood.
• Reflexes, motor development, and perceptual
development are all important aspects of physical
development.
Physical Development
Main Idea
In the womb and in infancy and childhood, humans go through a series
of physical developments that are generally sequential.

Reading Focus
• How is physical growth important from conception through
childhood?
• What are reflexes, and how are they beneficial?
• What is motor development?
• What do infants learn through the process of perceptual
development?
How did seat belts highlight
differences in physical
development?
Physical Growth
• Changes in reflexes, gains in height and weight, motor development,
and perceptual development are examples of physical development.
• The most dramatic gains in height and weight occur before an
infant’s birth.
• During infancy—the period from birth to the age of two years—
dramatic gains continue in height and weight.
• During childhood—the period from two years old to adolescence—
children gain on average two to three inches and four to six pounds
each year until they reach the start of adolescence.
Reading Check

Recall
Give three examples of developments that
occur during the fetal stage.

Answer: During the fourth month, the fetus nearly doubles in

length, can open and close its mouth, and swallow. In the next two
months, the fetus’s skin finishes developing, hair and nails become
visible, and it can open and close its eyes.
Reflexes
• A reflex is an involuntary reaction or response, such as swallowing.
• Reflexes are inborn, not learned, and they occur automatically.
• Reflexes include:
– Grasping
– Rooting
– Sucking
– Swallowing
– The Moro reflex
– The Babinski reflex
• As children develop, many reflexes, such as rooting and sucking,
disappear. Some reflexes remain and others come under voluntary
control.
Click on the
image to play
the Interactive.
Reading Check

Describe
How do newborns respond to their
environment? Give two examples.

Answer: by rooting and sucking and by withdrawing from

painful stimuli
Motor Development
• The development of purposeful movement is called motor
development.
• Gross motor development refers to babies’ progress in coordinating
major muscle groups.
• Fine motor development refers to coordination of the hands, face,
and other small muscles.
• The point at which various types of motor development occur is
different from infant to infant and even from culture to culture.
Reading Check

Identify
What are the two types of motor
development?

Answer: gross motor development and fine motor

development
Perceptual Development
• Infants tend to prefer new and interesting stimuli.
• Infants’ perceptual preferences are influenced by their age.
• Infants’ depth perception seems to be influenced by experience.
Reading Check

Recall
What elements make up perceptual
development?

Answer: Physical development and environmental stimuli

combine to advance infants’ perceptual development as the
infants take in the messages delivered by their senses.
Psychology in Today’s World
Raising a Better Child
In the past, ideas about how to raise children generally came from one’s own
family, religion, and other institutions within the community. Beginning around
the 1900s, however, the theories of psychologists increasingly began to inform
American parenting strategies. Why did parents look beyond traditional sources
to learn how to raise their children?

• Social upheavals of the last • Another idea deals with the

hundred years give clues to the importance of play.
answer. • Some parenting books and theories
• One popular parenting idea is the have more merit than others.
“Mozart effect,” which says that Parents need to do their homework
playing Mozart’s music helps boost when looking for help with their
children’s intelligence. Results have kids.
been shown to be limited, however.
Thinking Critically
• What does the large number of child-rearing books
suggest about the challenges that parents face?
• How do you think the ways that you played as a child
have affected you?
 Section 3 at a Glance

Social Development
• Through the process of social development, infants and
children learn to relate to other people.
• Attachment bonds infants and children to those close to
them, and the quality of this attachment affects how they
develop.
• Parenting styles cover a wide range, but some styles are
more likely to produce well-adjusted children who place a
high value on themselves. The value one places on one’s
self is called self-esteem.
Social Development
Main Idea
Social development in infants and children has much to do with
parents’ behaviors, histories, personalities, and abilities. Other
caregivers are involved in raising many American children.

Reading Focus
• Why is attachment vital to human relationships?
• How do styles of parenting differ?
• What are some issues associated with child abuse and neglect?
• How does outside child care affect children's development?
• What is the importance of self-esteem to developing children?
What can baby cranes tell us
about social development?
Attachment
Attachment is an important factor affecting social development. It is defined as
the emotional ties that form between people.

Development of Attachment Contact Comfort

• Up until four months of age, infants • Based on studies with monkeys,

prefer being held or even just being researchers have concluded that
with someone. attachment grows more from
• By about four months, infants contact comfort than from feeding.
develop strong attachments to their • Bonds of attachment between
main caregivers, usually their mothers and infants appear to
mothers. provide a secure base from which
• By about eight months, some infants can explore their
infants develop stranger anxiety environments.
and separation anxiety.
Imprinting
• For many animals, attachment is an instinct.
• In a process called imprinting, some animals become attached to
the first moving object they see.
• Children do not imprint. It takes several months before children
become attached to their main caregivers.

Secure Versus Insecure Attachment

• When mothers or other primary caregivers are affectionate and
reliable, infants usually become securely attached.
• When caregivers are unresponsive or unreliable, infants are usually
insecurely attached.
• Secure infants may mature into secure children.
Autism
• Autism is a developmental disorder that prevents children from
forming proper attachments with others.
• People with autism have a very wide variety of symptoms from very
severe to very subtle. Mild autism can go undiagnosed for years.
• Parents and doctors often recognize symptoms of autism during
infancy and early childhood.
Reading Check

Define
What is contact comfort and how does it
relate to the idea of attachment?

Answer: Contact comfort is an instinctual need to touch

and be touched by something soft. It was originally thought
that infants became attached to those who fed them, but
recent findings indicate that attachment grows more from
such bodily contact.
Styles of Parenting

Warm or Cold? Strict or Permissive?

• Warm parents show a great deal of • Some parents are strict with their
affection to their children. children, imposing many rules and
• Cold parents may not be as supervising their children closely.
affectionate toward their children or • Some parents are permissive with
appear to enjoy them as much. their children, imposing fewer rules
• Research suggests that children and watching their children less
fare better when their parents are closely.
warm to them. • Authoritative parents combine
• Children of warm parents are more warmth with age appropriate rules
likely to be well adjusted. and responsibilities.
• Authoritarian parents believe in
obedience for its own sake.
Reading Check

Describe
Can a parent be warm but strict or cold but
permissive? Explain how parenting styles
can be a mix of things.

Answer: Yes. Parents can be strict but still love their children.
Authoritative parents combine warmth with age-appropriate rules
and responsibilities, whereas authoritarian parents are cold and
rejecting, and value obedience for its own sake.
Child Abuse and Neglect
• Most parents are kind and loving to their children.
• Yet child abuse is relatively widespread and seriously underreported.
• The following factors are associated with child abuse and neglect:
– Stress, especially from unemployment or poverty
– A history of physical or sexual abuse in at least one parent’s family
– Acceptance of violence as a way of coping with stress
– Lack of attachment to the child
– Substance abuse
– Rigid attitudes about child rearing
• Studies show that children who are abused run a higher risk of
developing psychological problems.
• Child abuse tends to run in families.
Reading Check

Describe
Why is a parent with a history of child abuse
in his or her own family more likely to
become a child abuser?
Answer: Children who have been abused are more likely
to act in violent ways; they may imitate their parents’
behavior, or they may adopt their parents’ strict ideas about
discipline.
Child Care
• Most American parents work outside the home and more than half of
mothers of children younger than one year of age are working
mothers.
• Millions of preschoolers are cared for in day-care facilities.
• Studies of the effects of day care on parent-child attachments have
shown mixed results.
• Day care seems to have mixed effects on other aspects of children’s
social development.
• The quality of care seems to be more important than who provides it.
Reading Check

Recall
Explain why the effects of day care on
children are said to be mixed.

Answer: partly because of the differences in quality of

care provided in different day-care centers, and partly
because psychologists have interpreted the same
phenomena in different ways
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem, the value or worth that people attach to themselves, begins to
develop in early childhood.

Influences on Self-Esteem Gender and Self-Esteem

• Secure attachment plays a major • Girls tend to display greater

role in influencing self-esteem. competence in reading and general
• Another influence is how parents academic skills and boys tend to
react to their children. display competence in math and
• Children who receive physical skills.
unconditional positive regard • This may be because this is what
usually develop high self-esteem. girls and boys are supposed to be
• Children who receive conditional good at.
positive regard may have lower • It is not for a genetic reason.
self-esteem.
Age and Self-Esteem
• Although children gain in competence as they grow older, their self-
esteem tends to decline during the elementary school years.
• It seems to reach a low point at about age 12 or 13 and increases
again during adolescence.

The Self-Esteem Trap

• By the 1970s, greater self-esteem was thought of by many as a
potential cure-all for society’s problems. Showering children with
praise regardless of their performance was the common practice.
• Findings in 2000 showed that high self-esteem in children did not
lead to higher grades and that high self-esteem did not make violent
kids any less so or keep kids from becoming bullies.
• Focusing on building self-esteem at the expense of other qualities,
such as self-control or self-discipline, may be misguided.
Reading Check

Recall
When and how does a person’s sense of
self-esteem develop?

Answer: It begins to develop in early childhood. It is

influenced by the way parents react to their children and by
fostering a sense of competence.
Current Research in Psychology
Inside the Autistic Mind
People with autism have a difficult road in life. The list of possible problems
associated with autism is long and troubling. Recent research is looking deep
into the brains of people with autism to help explain and attempt to deal with the
condition.
• Researchers are observing brain • Studies of the mirror neuron
activity in mother-child pairs where systems of people with autism
the child has autism in order to show that they responded when
learn about differences in brain they performed an activity, but not
functions in people with autism when they observed it.
versus people without autism. • These two areas of research may
• Other research focuses on the help doctors diagnose autism
study of mirror neurons. earlier and help in the development
of treatments.
Thinking Critically
• Why do you think the mothers are involved in the first
study described?
• Why do you think mirror neuron problems lead to
empathy and language shortcomings?
 Section 4 at a Glance
Cognitive Development
• Cognitive development is the development of people’s
thought processes.
• The psychologist Jean Piaget divided cognitive
development into four stages: the sensorimotor stage, the
preoperational stage, the concrete-operational stage, and
the formal-operational stage.
• The psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development has three stages: the preconventional level,
the conventional level, and the postconventional level.
Each of these three levels is further divided into two
levels.
Cognitive Development
Main Idea
The study of cognitive development looks at how people’s thought
processes change and evolve over time. Jean Piaget and Lawrence
Kohlberg are two influential theorists in this area.

Reading Focus
• What are the stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?
• How did Kohlberg use a moral dilemma to illustrate his theory of
moral development?
Have you ever spent
some quality time with
a five-year-old?
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Assimilation and Accommodation
• Piaget believed that human beings use assimilation and
accommodation to organize new information.
• Assimilation is the process by which new information is placed into
categories that already exist.
• Accommodation is change brought about by new information.

The Sensorimotor Stage

• The first stage of cognitive development is the sensorimotor stage.
• This stage is characterized by learning to coordinate sensation and
perception with motor activity.
• It is also characterized by object permanence.
The Preoperational Stage
• The next stage is the preoperational stage.
• It is characterized by one-dimensional thinking and egocentrism.

The Concrete-Operational Stage

• In the concrete-operational stage, children begin to show signs of
adult thinking.
• They are logical only when they think about specific objects and
concrete experiences.
• They focus on two dimensions of a problem at the same time.
• They are less egocentric than children in earlier stages.
The Formal-Operational Stage
• The final stage in Piaget’s theory is the formal-operational stage.
• People in this stage think abstractly.
• They can deal with hypothetical situations.
• They can solve problems and use imagination.

Criticism of Piaget’s Theories

• Some psychologists have questioned the accuracy of Piaget’s views.
• Recent research indicates that preschoolers are less egocentric than
Piaget’s research suggested.
• His theories are still respected, however.
Reading Check

Recall
What are the stages of Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development?

Answer: Sensorimotor Stage, Preoperational Stage,

Concrete-Operational Stage, Formal-Operational Stage
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
The Preconventional The Conventional Level
Level • People at this level use
• Children through the age of nine conventional moral reasoning to
use preconventional moral make judgments in terms of
reasoning to base their judgments whether an act conforms to
of the consequences of behavior. conventional standards of behavior.

The Postconventional Bias in Kohlberg’s Theory

Level • Kohlberg’s stages and scoring
• Reasoning based on a person’s system may have been biased to
own moral standards of goodness favor males.
is called postconventional moral
reasoning.
Reading Check

Describe
How does moral reasoning change
throughout Kohlberg’s stages?

Answer: People evolve from self-preservation (avoiding

punishment) to operating under the dictates of their own
consciences.
Lab: Applying What You’ve Learned
Prenatal and Postnatal Development
How do fetuses and infants develop in the United States and in other
parts of the world?
1. Introduction 2. Form Groups and Research

• You will be assigned to one of two • Group A will organize itself into
groups. three teams. Each team will
• Group A will research prenatal research a different trimester of
physical development. prenatal development.
• Group B will research postnatal • Group B should organize itself into
physical development. four teams. Each team will research
• Each group will give an oral a six-month period of the first two
presentation of their findings. years of postnatal development.
Lab (cont'd.)
3. Research International Issues 4. Organize Your Findings and Give
Your Presentation

• Each Group A team will research a • Work as a team to organize your

health care issue or social problem information into an oral
that affects fetal development in presentation.
another country. • The presentation should be under
• Group B will research cultural five minutes.
differences in motor development. • Several members should act as
Each Group B team will find a speakers.
country where children develop
differently.
Lab (cont'd.)
5. Discussion

• What surprised you most about prenatal development?

• Which issue that affects unborn children in different countries concerned you
the most? Why?
• Which age period of motor development did you find most interesting? Why?
• Did any of the international differences in motor development come as a
surprise to you? Explain.