Introductory Psychology

Growth of the Mind Growth of the Mind and Person and Person

Index

Questions

• At which age do children begin to hear sound?• At which age can we teach children to swim?• After which age do children become less likely

to develop a close bond with the adoptive parents?

• At which do children begin to understand 1+1=2 or 2-1=1?

Index

… Could you tell me how to grow, or is it unconveyed, like melody or witchcraft?

--- Emily Dickinson (1862)

Index

Part I. Developmental Psychology

Index

Developmental Psychology

• A scientific study of the development of behavior and mind from conception to death– Prenatal development

– Infancy (0 - 2 years)

– Childhood (2 - 12 years)

– Adolescence (12 - 20 years)

– Adulthood (20 -65 years)

– Aged & aging (65 year +)

IndexMajor Areas of Developmental Psychology• Physical development

– bodily structures– motor development

• Cognitive development– Sensation, perception, memory, thinking (reasoning),

language

• Chapter 11• Social development

– Emotion, social knowledge, morality, personality

• Chapter 12

IndexMethodology of Developmental Psychology

• Observation– Naturalistic observation– Controlled observation

(experiments)

Index

Example of Naturalistic Observation• Craig & Pepler (1992)

– Bullying & victimization in the playground

• Bullying occurred every 7.5 min.

• Average length: 38 sec.

• Adults intervened in 3% of the time

• 36% involved objects, 24% racially motivated

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

% o

f th

e ch

ildr

en

male female

bullies victims bully-victims

Index

Example of Experimental Study• Bandura (1965)

– Observational learning

• Whether children would imitate aggressive behaviors

– Conditions• no consequence

• model rewarded

• model punished 0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3n

um

ber o

f acts

im

ita

ted

no consequence model rewardedmodel punished

Index

Patterns of Development

Ascending pattern

0102030405060708090

Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4

Index

Patterns of Development

Descending pattern

0102030405060708090

100

Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4

Index

Pattern of Development

U-shaped pattern

0102030405060708090

100

Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4

IndexDevelopmental functions: Reversed U-shaped pattern

Reversed U-shaped pattern

0102030405060708090

100

Age 1 Age 2 Age 3 Age 4

IndexDevelopmental functions: Stage-like pattern

Stepwise pattern

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Age1 Age2 Age3 Age4 Age5 Age6

IndexImplications of Developmental Psychology

• Theoretical– Adult mind &

behavior– Human evolution– Philosophy– Curiosity

• Practical – Clinical– Educational– Parenting– Legal

Index

Part 2. Physical Development

Index

Genetic Inheritance

Index

Genetic Inheritance

Index

Dominant & Recessive Genes

Index

Conception

Index

Prenatal Development• Conception

• Zygote stage (<2 weeks)

• Embryo stage (2 - 8 weeks)

• Fetal stage (2 - 9 months)

5 weeks 7 weeks 12 weeks 14 weeks

Index

Onset of Key Body Parts• Central nervous system: 2 weeks

• Heart: 4 weeks

• Eye, arm, & leg: 4 weeks

• Teeth, ear: 6 weeks

• External genitalia: 8 weeks

Index

Teratogens

• Cocaine and Heroin – Miscarriage,

premature birth, birth defects

• Alcohol– Fetal alcohol

syndrome, motor development problems

Index

Teratogens

• Smoking – Reduces oxygen flow,

increases CO2, increases odds of premature birth, low birth weight, and miscarriage

• Medicine– Thalidomide

Index

Maternal Age & Down’s Syndrome

010

2030

4050

6070

8090

100

<24 25 - 29 30 - 34 35 - 39 40 - 44 >45

% cases

Index

Body Growth

• Physical growth– Weight– Height– Growth

spurt

Index

Brain growth• Brain weight

– 25% of an adult’s at birth, 60-70% at 1 year, 90% at 5 years, 100% at 6 years

• Neurons– 50% die during prenatal period

• Connections– 50% more connections than an adult’s

Index

Motor Development: Reflexes

• Rooting (birth to around 1 year)

• Sucking (present at birth)

• Swallowing (present at birth)

• Crying (present at birth)

• Breathing (starts at full-term birth)

Index

Motor Development: Reflexes

• Grasping reflex: disappears around 3-4 months

• Tonic neck reflex: 28 weeks gestation age & disappears around 3-4 months

Index

Motor Development: Reflexes

• Stepping reflex: 6 weeks optimal & disappears around 3 months

• Swimming reflex (birth onset): disappears around 4-6 months if not used

Index

Motor Milestones

Index

Motor Milestones

Index

Principles of Motor Development

• Proximal-distal direction– the tendency of body

movement development in a trunk to extremities direction (near to far)

• Cephalocaudal direction– tendency of body

movement development in a head to foot direction (head to tail)

Index

Part 3. Cognitive Development

Index

Sensation

• Hearing– 28 weeks gestation

age (100-110 db: Dr. Kisilevsky)

– localizes sound at birth, disappears at 2 months, reappears at 4 months (Dr. Muir)

• Taste• Smell

Index

Sensation

• Vision– visual acuity

• 20/300 at birth, 20/150 at 1 month, 20/70 at 4 months, 20/35 at 8 months, 20/20 at school ages

Index

Sensation

• Vision– Imprinting (Lorenz)– Critical period

• period during which the organism is most sensitive to certain external stimuli

– Visual input is critical as early as the infant is born

Index

Long-term consequence of early visual deprivation (Le Grand et al., 2001)

• Congenital cataracts– configural

processing deficit

Index

Sensation

• Vision– color vision

• yellow, red, green at birth

• blue, gray at 1 month

• categorical perception at 4 months

– peripheral vision

Index

Infant Research Methods• Habituation method

– Habituating stimulus until infant loses interest– Dishabituating stimulus to see whether infant

regains interest

Index

Infant Research Methods• Preferential looking

method

– Presenting a pair of stimuli to see whether infant looks longer at one of them

Index

Perception

Index

Perception

• Depth perception– crawling study– heart rate study

Index

Perception

• Depth perception

Index

Perception

• Size constancy

• Shape constancy Habituating Stimulus

Habituating Stimulus

Index

Perception• Inter-sensory integration

– Meltzoff & Borton (1979)• 1-month-olds

• sucking on one of the pacifiers and then seeing the pair

• 72% looked longer at the previously sucked pacifier

Index

Perception

• Sensory-motor integration– Imitation (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977)

Index

Memory

• Short-term memory– Capacity

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8digit span

Index

Memory

• Short-term memory– Processing

speed

Index

Memory

• Long-term memory– Reinforced kicking

paradigm• mobile with or

without string

• 2-, 3-, 6-month-olds

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

0 7 14 21days (retention interval)

kicking

ratio

2 month 3 month6 month

Index

Memory• Memory Strategies

– rehearsal

• Metamemory

– memory monitoring

Index

Thinking & Reasoning• Piaget’s theory

– Schema: the mode in which thinking is carried out

• behavioral schema• symbolic schema• operational schema

– Assimilation

• children change new experience to fit the existing schema

– Accommodation

• children change the existing schema to fit new experience

IndexPiaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Index

Object Permanence

• Object permanence– the notion that an object continues to exist

even out of sight (out of sight is not out of mind)

Index

Egocentrism

• Three mountain task– Piaget’s results

– 4-6-year-olds choose their own view

– 6-9-year-olds randomly choose other views

– 9-10-year-olds choose a correct view

Index

Conservation

• Liquid conservation task– pre-operational

child fails the task

– concrete operation child succeeds in the task

Index

Formal operational thinking• Balance Beam Task

– Concrete operational children fail the task

– Formal operational children succeed in the task because they are able to consider more than two factors simultaneously and use hypothesis testing

Index

Counter evidence

• Object permanence– impossible event

studies

Index

Count evidence

• Object permanence– Infant

addition and subtraction

Index

Count evidence• Egocentrism

– theory of mind studies

• Displacement Task

0

20

40

60

80

100

3 years 4 years 5 years

% of children who were correct

Index

Count Evidence• Egocentrism

– Representational Change Task (theory of mind task)

• Gopnik & Astington (1988)

00.20.40.60.8

11.21.41.61.8

2

3 years 4 years 5 years

False belief

Representationalchange

Index

Counter evidence

• Balance beam task– Siegler:

• Rule 1: weight only• Rule 2: weight &

distance when weights are the same on both sides

• Rule 3: weight versus distance

• Rule 4: weight X distance

Index

Counter evidence• Balance beam task

– Rules 1-2: <9 years, Rules 2-3: 9-17 years, Rule 4: >17 years