Prenatal Development and the Newborn

Developmental Psychology

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

Life is sexually transmitted

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

Zygote The.. enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division develops into an embryo

Embryo The…

Fetus The…

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

40 days 45 days 2 months 4 months

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

Teratogens agents, such as…

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Infant Abilities

6

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

Infant Reflexes

• Rooting –

• Sucking –

• Babinski -

8

Infant Reflexes

• Moro –

• Grasping -

9

Methods for Studying Infants

Researchers observe habituation to assess what infants see and remember.

Habituation =

10

Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development

Maturation Biological…

relatively uninfluenced by experience At birth 3 months 15 months

Cortical Neurons

Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development

Babies only 3 months old can learn that…

Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development

Cognition All the mental activities associated

with…

SchemaA…

Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development

Assimilation Interpreting…

Accommodation adapting one’s…

Piaget’s approach

• Primary method was to ask children to solve problems and to question them about the reasoning behind their solutions

• Discovered that children think…

• Proposed that development occurs as…

Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2)

• Information is gained through…

• In this stage child perceives and manipulates but does not…

• Symbols become internalized…

• Object permanence is acquired

Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development

Object Permanence The…

Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

• Lack of…

• Emergence of symbolic thought through…

• Egocentrism• Lack the concept of conservation

Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development

Egocentrism (during pre-operational stage) the inability…

Theory of Mind (beginning in pre-operational stage)

Autism

Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development

Conservation (developed during concrete operational phase) the principle that

Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)

• Understanding of mental operations leading to…

• Classification and categorization• Less egocentric• Inability to reason abstractly or hypothetically• Can conserve• Can understand mathematical operations.

Formal Operational Stage (age 12 - adulthood)

• Abstract reasoning using imagined realities and symbols.

• Potential for mature moral reasoning.• Understanding of religion develops.• Can spot hypocrisy.

Typical Age Range

Description of Stage

Developmental Phenomena

Birth to nearly 2 years SensorimotorExperiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing)

•Object permanence•Stranger anxiety

About 2 to 6 years

About 7 to 11 years

About 12 through adulthood

PreoperationalRepresenting things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning

•Pretend play•Egocentrism•Language development

Concrete operationalThinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations

•Conservation •Mathematical transformations

Formal operationalAbstract reasoning

•Abstract logic•Potential for moral reasoning

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory Challenged• New studies indicate infants do

more than sense and react• Receptive language is much

larger than previously believed.• One study had 1 month old

babies suck one of two pacifiers without ever seeing them

• When shown both pacifiers, infants stared more at the one they had felt in their mouth

• This requires a sort of reasoning

Critique of Piaget’s Theory

Social Development

Stranger Anxiety fear of… beginning by about 8 months of age Have schemas for faces they know and can’t assimilate

new faces causing distress. Attachment

An… shown in young children by their seeking closeness to

the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Social Development

Critical Period

Imprinting

Social Development

Harlow’s Surrogate Mother Experiments

Social Development

Social Development

Basic Trust (Erik Erikson) a sense…

said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

Approximateage Stage Description of Task

Infancy Trust vs. mistrust If needs are dependably met, infants(1st year) develop a sense of basic trust.

Toddler Autonomy vs. shame Toddlers learn to exercise will and (2nd year) and doubt do things for themselves, or they

doubt their abilities.

Preschooler Initiative vs. guilt Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks(3-5 years) and carry out plans, or they feel

guilty about efforts to be independent.

Elementary Competence vs. Children learn the pleasure of applying(6 years- inferiority themselves to tasks, or they feel puberty) inferior.