PYC2602 – CHILD DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: STUDYING A CHILD’S WORLD

The Study of Development: Then and Now
Child development focuses on the scientific study of processes of change and stability in human children.

Developmental scientists study two kinds of change: Quantitative and Qualitative.

Quantitative: Change in number or amount: Height, weight, size of vocab, or frequency of

communication. Largely Continuous.

Qualitative: Change in kind, structure or organisation. Discontinuous: It is marked by emergence of new

phenomena that cannot be anticipated easily on the basis of earlier functioning. Eg. Change from a
nonverbal child to one who understands words and can use them to communicate.

Most people show an underlying stability in aspects of personality and behaviour i.e. most shy children
generally display shyness to a moderate degree throughout their life.

Charles Darwin was the first theorist to emphasize the developmental nature of infant behaviour.

The Study of Child Development: Basic Concepts

Domains of Development *Study table 1-1 pg 11*

Physical Development: Growth of body and brain, the development of sensory capacities and motor
skills and health. All influence other aspects of development. Eg. Child with frequent ear infections may
develop language more slowly than a child without this physical problem.

Cognitive Development: Change and stability in mental abilities, such as learning, memory, language,
thinking, moral reasoning, and creativity. Closely related to physical, social and emotional growth.
Ability to speak depends on the development of mouth and brain. A child who has difficulties in
expressing herself in words may bring negative reactions in others, affecting her popularity and sense of
self worth.

Psychosocial Development: Change and stability in personality, emotions, and social relationships. Can
affect cognitive and physical functioning. Anxiety about taking a test can worsen performance. Social
support can help children cope with stress on physical and mental health. Physical and cognitive
capacities affect psychosocial dev by contributing to self-esteem and social acceptance.

Development is a unified process.

Influences on Development
Heredity, Environment, and Maturation

Heredity: Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from biological parents.

Environment: The world outside of the self beginning in the womb and the leaning that comes from
experience – incl. socialisation, a child’s induction into the value system of the culture.

Research points to a blend of inheritance and environment in the development of specific traits. Thus,
even though intelligence is strongly affected by heredity, environmental factors such as parental
stimulation, education, and peer influence also affect it.

Many typical changes of infancy and early childhood, such as the emergence of the abilities to walk and
talk, are tied to maturation of the body and brain – unfolding of universal, natural sequence of physical
changes and behaviour patterns, including readiness to master new abilities such as walking and talking.
These maturational processes, act in concert with the influences of heredity and environment. Even in
maturational processes that all children undergo, rates and timing of development vary.

Contexts of Development

Family

Nuclear Family: is a two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of one or two
parents and their biological children, adopted children, and/or stepchildren.

Extended Family: a multi-generational kinship network of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and more
distant relatives. This is the traditional family form.

Many people live in extended family households, where they have daily contact with kin. Adults share
breadwinning and child raising responsibilities, and children are often responsible for younger siblings.
Often these households are headed by women. Extended families are less typical in developing countries
due to industrialisation and migration to urban centres.

Socioeconomic Status and Neighborhood

Socioeconomic status (SES) includes income, education, and occupation.

SES is related to developmental processes (such as mothers verbal interactions with their children) and to
developmental outcomes (such as health and cognitive performance). SES affects these outcomes
indirectly, through factors such as the kinds of homes and neighbourhoods children live in and the quality
of nutrition, medical care, supervision, schooling and other opportunities available to them.
Poverty is harmful to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial well-being of children and families.
Threats to well-being multiply if several risk factors – conditions that increase the likelihood of a
negative developmental outcome – coexist.

Culture and Race/Ethnicity

Culture refers to a society’s or group’s total way of life, including customs, traditions, laws, knowledge,
beliefs, values, language, and physical products, from tools to artworks – all of the behaviour and
attitudes that are leaned, shared and transmitted among members of a social group. Culture is constantly
changing, often through contact with other cultures.

An Ethnic group consists of people united by a distinctive culture, ancestry, religion, language, and/or
national origin, all of which contribute to a sense of shared identity and shared attitudes, beliefs and
values.

Ethnic and cultural patterns affect child development by their influence on the composition of a
household, its economic and social resources, the way its members act toward one another, the foods they
eat, the games children play, the way they learn, how well they do in school, the occupations adults
engage in and the way family members think and perceive the world.

The term Race, an identifiable biological category, is now agreed to be a social construct. There is no
clear scientific consensus on its definition and it is impossible to measure reliably. Race as a social
category makes a difference in how individuals are treated, where they live, their employment
opportunities, the quality of their health care, and whether they can fully participate in their society.

Categories of culture, ethnicity and race are fluid, continuously shaped and redefined by social and
political forces.

The Historical Context

Historical context: The time period in which people live and grow.

The historical context is an important part of the study of development. How certain experiences, tied to
time and place, affect the course of children’s lives.

Normative and Non-normative Influences

Normative influences are those that impinge on many or most individuals.

Normative age graded influences are highly similar for people in a particular age group. They include
biological events (eg puberty) and social events (eg entry into formal education). The timing of
biological events is fixed (you don’t hit puberty at age 3). The timing of social events is more flexible
and varies in different times and places, within maturational limits.
Normative history-graded influences are significant events (such as the Great Depression or 9/11) that
shape the behaviour and attitudes of a historical generation: a group of people who experience the event
at a formative time in their lives.

*Cohort: a group of people born at about the same time*

A historical generation is not the same as an age cohort. A historical generation may contain more than
one age cohort, but not all cohorts are part of historical generations unless they experience major, shaping
historical events at a formative point in their lives.

Non-normative influences are unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives and may
cause stress because they are unexpected.

They are either typical events that happen at an atypical time of life ( eg marriage during teens, loss of a
parent when young) or atypical events (eg having a birth defect or being in a plane crash). They can also
be happy events (eg winning the lotto).

Young people may help create non-normative events - drinking and driving or applying for a scholarship
– and thus participate actively in their own development.

Timing of Influences: Critical or Sensitive Periods

Imprinting: Instinctive form of learning in which, during a critical period in early development, a young
animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees, usually the mother. Konrad Lorenz believed
imprinting is automatic and irreversible.

Lorenz says imprinting is a result of a predisposition toward learning: the readiness of an organism’s
nervous system to acquire certain information during a critical period during life.

A critical period is a specific time when a given event, or its absence, has a specific impact on
development. If a necessary event does not occur during a critical period of maturation, normal
development will not occur, and the resulting abnormal patterns may be irreversible. However the length
of a critical period is not absolutely fixed.

Critical periods also occur in human development. Eg during gestation woman are too avoid X-rays,
certain drugs etc otherwise the fetus may show specific ill effects. Critical periods also occur early in
childhood. Eg if a muscle problem interfering with the ability to focus both eyes on the same object is not
corrected early in life, the brain mechanisms necessary for binocular depth perception probably will not
develop.
The concept of critical periods is controversial. Many aspects of development, even in the physical
domain have been found to show plasticity: modifiability of performance, so it may be more useful to
think about sensitive periods: when a childs development is especially responsive to certain kinds of
experiences, but later experience continues to influence development.

CHAPTER 2: A CHILDS WORLD: HOW WE DISCOVER IT

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES *Study Table2-
2 pg30*

Eric Erikson: Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson (1902-1994), a German born psychoanalyst emphasised the influence of society on the
developing personality. Erikson was a pioneer in the life-span perspective, Erikson contended that ego
development is lifelong.Eriksons theory of psychosocial development covers 8 stages across the life span.
Each stage involves what Erikson originally called a crisis (now referred to as conflicting or competing
tendencies) in personality – a major psychosocial theme that is particularly important at that time but will
remain an issue to some degree throughout life. These issues which emerge according to a maturational
timetable, must be satisfactorily resolved for healthy ego development.

Each stage requires the balancing of a positive trait and a corresponding negative one. Although the
positive quality should predominate, some degree of the negative is needed as well. The successful
outcome of each stage is the development of a particular virtue or strength.

Eriksons theory is important because of its emphasis on social and cultural influences and on
development beyond adolescence. He is probably most widely known for his concept of the identity
crisis.

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory

Piaget viewed development organismically, as the product of children’s efforts to understand and act on
their world. Piaget set out to standardise the test Alfred Binet had developed to assess the intelligence of
French schoolchildren. Piaget’s clinical method combined observation with flexible questioning. To find
out how children think, Piaget followed up their answers with more questions, and he designed tasks to
test his tentative conclusions.

Piaget suggested that cognitive development begins with an inborn ability to adapt to the environment.
Piaget described cognitive development as occurring in four qualitatively different stages, which
represent universal patterns of development. At each stage a child’s mind develops a new way of
operating. From infancy through asolescence, mental operations evolve from learning based on simple
sensory and motor activity to logical abstract thought. This cognitive growth occurs through three
interrelated processes: Organisation; Adaption; and Equilibrium.

Organisation: the tendency to create increasingly complex cognitive structures: systems of knowledge or
ways of thinking that incorporate more and more accurate images of reality. These structures called
Schemes: are organised patterns of behaviour that a person uses to think about and act in a situation. As
children acquire more information; their schemes become more and more complex.

Adaption: is how children handle new information in light of what they already know. Adaption
involves two steps:

(1) assimilation: taking in new information and incorporating it into existing cognitive structures and;

(2) accommodation: modifying one’s cognitive structures to include the new information.

Equilibration: a constant striving for a stable balance, or equilibrium – dictates the shifts from
assimilation to accommodation. When children cannot handle new experiences within their existing
cognitive structures, they experience an uncomfortable state of disequilibrium. By organising new mental
patterns that integrate the new experience, they restore equilibrium.

Example: A breast-or-bottle fed baby begins to suck on the spout of a sippy cup is showing assimilation
– using an old scheme to deal with a new situation. When the infant discovers that sipping from a cup
requires different tongue and mouth movements, she accommodates by modifying the old scheme. She
has adapted her original sucking scheme to deal with a new experience: the cup.

Thus, assimilation and accommodations work together to produce equilibrium. Throughout life, the quest
for equilibrium is the driving force behind cognitive growth.

Some contemporary psychologists believe Piaget underestimated the abilities of infants and young
children and question his distinct stages, pointing instead to evidence that cognitive development is more
gradual and continuous. They also challenge Piagets idea that thinking develops in a single, universal
progression leading to formal thought. Instead, children’s cognitive processes seem closely tied to
specific content (what they are thinking about) as well as to the context of a problem and the kinds of
information and thought a culture considers important.

Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory stresses children’s active engagement with their environment; he saw
cognitive growth as a collaborative process. Children learn through social interaction. They acquire
cognitive skills as part of their induction into a way of life. Shared activities help children internalise
their society’s modes of thinking and behaving and make those folkways their own. Vygotsky placed
special emphasis on language - not merely as an expression of knowledge and thought but as an essential
means to learning and thinking about the world.

According to Vygotsky, adults or more advanced peers help direct and organise a child’s learning before
the child can master and internalize it. This guidance is most effective in helping children cross the Zone
of Proximal Development (ZPD): the gap between what they are already able to do and what they are
not quite ready to do by themselves. Children in the ZPD for a particular task can almost but not quite do
the task on their own. With the right kind of guidance however they can do it. Responsibility for
directing and monitoring learning gradually shifts to the child

Scaffolding: is the temporary support that parents, teachers and others give a child doing a task until the
child can do it alone.

The Information-Processing Approach

The Information Processing Approach attempts to explain cognitive development by analysing the mental
processes involved in perceiving and handling information. This is not a single theory but a framework
that underlies a wide range of theories and research.

Information processing researchers infer what goes on between a stimulus and a response.

Information processing theorists see people as actively thinking about their world. They generally do not
propose stages of development; instead they view development as continuous. They note age-related
increases in the speed, complexity, and efficiency of mental processing and in the amount and variety of
material that can be stored in memory.

The information processing approach has practical applications. It enables researchers to estimate an
infant’s later intelligence from the efficiency of his her sensory perception and processing. It enables
parents and teachers to help children learn by making them more aware of their mental processes and of
strategies to enhance them. Psychologists often use information processing models to test, diagnose and
treat learning problems.

RESEARCH METHODS
Developmental Research Designs

The two most common strategies used to study child development are:

Cross-sectional studies: which show similarities and differences among age groups; and
Longitudinal studies: reveal how children change or stay the same as they grow older.

Because each of these designs have drawbacks, researchers also devised Sequential designs.

Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Sequential Studies *Study Table2-5

pg50*

Cross-Sectional study: children of different ages are assessed at one time. Eg. Asking a group of 3-,
4-,6-, and 7-year-olds the same question.

Longitudinal study: researchers study the same child or children more than once, sometimes years apart.
Designed to assess changes in a sample over time.

Sequential study: - a sequence of cross-sectional and/or longitudinal studies – is a complex strategy

designed to overcome the drawbacks of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies.

Researchers may assess a cross-sectional sample on two or more occasions in sequence to find out how
members of each age cohort have changed. This procedure permits researchers to separate age-related
changes from cohort effects.

Another sequential design consists of a sequence of longitudinal studies, running concurrently by starting
one after another. This design enables researchers to compare individual differences in the course of
developmental change.

A combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal sequences can provide a more complete picture of
development.

Microgenetic Studies

Microgenetic Study: study design that enables researchers to directly observe change by repeated testing
over a short time.

Over a short time span, participants are repeatedly exposed to a stimulus for change or opportunity for
learning, enabling researchers to see and analyse the processes by which change occurs.
 CHAPTER 3 – FORMING A NEW LIFE
NATURE AND NURTURE: INFLUENCES OF HEREDITY AND
ENVIRONMENT
Studying the Relative Influences of Heredity and Environment

Measuring Heritability

Heritability is a statistical estimate of how great a contribution heredity makes toward variations in a
specific trait at a certain time within a given population. Heritability merely indicates the statistical extent
to which genes contribute to a trait.

Heritability is expressed as a percentage ranging from 0.0 to 1.0; the higher the number, the greater the
heritability of a trait, with 1.0 meaning that genes are 100% responsible for variances in the trait within
the population.

Researchers rely on 3 types of correlational research: Family, Adoption and Twin studies.

These studies are based on the assumption that immediate family members are more genetically similar
that more distant relatives, adopted children are genetically more like their biological families than their
adoptive families, and monozygotic twins are more genetically similar than dizygotic twin.

Family studies: researchers measure the degree to which biological relatives share certain traits and
whether the closeness of familial relationship is associated with the degree of similarity. If the correlation
is strong, the researchers infer a genetic influence. However, family studies cannot rule out
environmental influences so this is why researchers do adoption studies, which can separate the effects of
heredity from those of a shared environment.

Adoption studies: look at similarities between adopted children and their adoptive families and also
between adopted children and their biological families to determine which traits are inherited and which
are from an environmental influence.

Twin studies: compare pairs of monozygotic twins and same sex dizygotic twins. Monozygotic twins
are twice as genetically similar, on average, as dizygotic twins, who are no more genetically similar than
any other same sex siblings. When monozygotic twins are more concordant (have a statistically greater
tendency to show the same trait) than dizygotic, we see the likely effect of heredity. Concordance rates
which may range from 0.0 to 1.0, estimate the probability that a pair of twins in a sample will be
concordant for a trait. When monozygotic twins show higher concordance for a trait than do dizygotic
twins, the likelihood of a genetic factor can be studied further through adoption studies.

How Heredity and Environment Work Together

Reaction Range and Canalization

Reaction Range: is the conventional term for a range of potential expressions of a heredity trait. Body
size for example depends largely on biological processes which are genetically regulated. Even so a
range of sizes is possible, depending on environmental opportunities and constraints and a person’s own
behaviour.

Heredity can influence whether a reaction range is wide or narrow. Eg. A child born with mild retardation
is more able to respond to a favourable environment that a child born with more severe limitations.

Canalization: is how heredity restricts the range of development for some traits. Some human
characteristics, such as eye colour, are so strongly programmed by genes that they are said to be highly
canalized; there is little opportunity for variance in their expression.

Certain behaviours also develop along genetically dug channels; it takes an extreme change in
environment to alter their course. Behaviour that depends largely on maturation seem to appear when a
child is ready. Normal babies follow a typical sequence of motor development: crawling, walking,
running, in that order, at certain approximate ages. Still, this development is not completely canalized;
experience can affect its pace and timing.

Cognition and personality are more subject to variations in experience. Recently scientists have begun to
recognise that a usual or typical experience, too, can dig channels for development.

Genotype-Environment Interaction

Genotype-environment interaction usually refers to the effects of similar environmental conditions on

genetically different individuals. Eg. Many children are exposed to pollen and dust, but only those that
are genetically predisposed will have an allergic reaction. Interactions can work the other way as well:
genetically similar children often develop differently depending on their home environments.

Genotype-Environment Correlation

Genotype-environment correlation: is when the environment often reflects or reinforces genetic

differences. It works in 3 ways:

Passive Correlations: parents, who provide the genes that predispose a child toward a trait, also tend to
provide and environment that encourages the development of that trait. Eg musical parents usually
produce musical kids; they pass on the gene and the house/their activities/experiences are always
musically orientated. This type of correlation is called passive because the child does not control it.
Passive correlations are most applicable to young children, whose parents, the source of their genes; also
have a great deal of control over their early experiences.
Reactive, or Evocative correlations: children with differing genetic makeups evoke different responses
from adults. If a child shows interest and ability in music, parents who are not musically inclined; may
react by making a special effort to provide that child with musical experiences. This response in turn
strengthens the child’s genetic inclination toward music.

Active correlations: as children get older and have more freedom to choose their own activities and
environments, they actively select experiences consistent with their genetic tendencies. A child with a
talent for music will probably seek out musical friends, take music classes and go to concerts. A shy
child is likely to spend more time in solitary pursuits than and outgoing child. This tendency to seek out
environments compatible with ones genotype is called niche-picking; it helps explain why identical twins
reared apart tend to be quite similar.

What Makes Siblings So Different? The Non-shared Environment

One reason may be genetic differences which lead children to need different kinds of stimulation or to
respond differently to a similar home environment. In addition studies in behavioural genetics suggest
many of the experiences that strongly affect development differ for different children in a family.

These non-shared environmental effects result from the unique environment in which each child in a
family grows up. Children in a family have a shared environment but also one that is not shared by their
siblings. Parents and siblings may treat each child differently. Certain events and experiences outside the
home affect one child and not the other. Heredity accounts for most of the similarities among siblings
and the non shared environments accounts for most of the differences. There seems to be a balance
between the shared environment and the non-shared environment.

Genotype-environment correlations may play and important part in the non-shared environment.
Childrens genetic differences may lead parents and siblings to react to them differently and treat them
differently, and genes may influence how children perceive and respond to that treatment and what its
outcome will be. Children also mold their environments by the choices they make – what they do and
with whom – and their genetic makeup influences these choices.

Epigenesis: Environmental Influence on Gene Expression

Epigenesis (meaning “on the gene”): refers to chemical molecules attached to a gene, which alter the
way a cell reads the genes DNA. The epigenetic framework can be visualised as a code written in pencil
in the margins around the DNA. Because every cell in the body inherits the same DNA sequence, the
functions of these epigenetic markers is to differentiate types of body cells. They do so by switching
genes on or off during embryonic formation. Sometimes errors arise in the process, which may lead to
birth defects or disease. Epigenetic changes can occur throughout life in response to environmental
changes such as nutrition and stress.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS INFLUENCED BY HEREDITY AND

ENVIRONMENT
Physical and Physiological Traits

Not only do monozygotic twins look alike, but they are also more concordant than dizygotic twins in their
risk for medical disorders such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, peptic
ulcers and epilepsy. Life span too seems to be influenced by genes. Obesity in twin, adoption and other
research studies suggest that 40-70% of the risk is genetic.

Intelligence

Heredity exerts a strong influence of general intelligence (as measured by intelligence tests) and, to a
lesser extent, on specific abilities such as memory, verbal ability, and spatial ability.

Evidence of the role of heredity in intelligence come from adoption and twin studies. Adopted children’s
IQ’s are consistently closer to the IQ’s of their biological parents and monozygotic twins are more like in
intelligence than dizygotic twins.

It is likely that the genes that affect one cognitive ability; also affect other cognitive abilities.
Furthermore, the genetic influence, which is primarily responsible for stability in cognitive performance,
increases with age. The shared family environment seems to have a strong influence on young children
but a diminishing influence on adolescents and adults. The non-shared environment, in contrast, is
influential throughout life and is primarily responsible for changes in cognitive performance.

Personality

Scientists have identified genes directly linked with specific personality traits, such as neuroticism, which
may contribute to depression and anxiety. Heritability of personality traits appears to be between 40 and
50%, and there is little evidence of shared environmental influence.

Temperament: a person’s characteristic style of approaching and reacting to situations; appears to be

largely inborn and is often consistent over the years, though it may respond to special experiences or
parental handling.

Psychopathology

There is evidence for a strong hereditary influence on such mental disorders as schizophrenia, autism, and
depression. All tend to run in families and to show greater concordance between monozygotic twins than
dizygotic twins. However heredity alone does not produce such disorders; and inherited tendency can be
triggered by environmental factors.

Schizophrenia is now widely considered a neurological disorder characterised by loss of contact with
reality and by such symptoms as hallucinations and delusions. It has multifactorial causes. The risk of
schizophrenia is ten times greater among siblings and offspring of schizophrenics than among the general
population. Twin and adoption studies suggest that this increased risk comes from shared genes, not
shared environments. Estimates of heterability are as high as 80-85%

Because not all monozygotic twins are concordant for the illness, its cause cannot be purely genetic.

CHAPTER 4 – PREGNANCY AND PRENATAL

DEVELOPMENT
PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
Maternal Factors

Everything that affects a womans well being, from her diet to her moods, may alter her unborn childs
environment and influence its growth. Not all environmental hazards are equally risky for all foetuses.
Some factors that are teraogenic(birth-defect producing) in some cases have little or no affect in other.
The timing of the exposure the, the dose, duration, and interaction with other teratogenic factors may
make a difference.

Nutrition and Maternal Weight

The fetus has direct access to the maternal blood supply through the placenta so an expectant mother does
not have control over the amount of nutrients that she “loses” to her fetus. It is important then for an
expectant mother to take in enough nutrients to adequately feed herself and her fetus.

Being either overweight or underweight can be risky: among women having their first babies, those who
were overweight before pregnancy had the most risk of stillbirth or of losing their babies during the first
week of life. On the other hand, underweight women are more likely to have dangerously small babies.
Obese women risk habing children with neural-tube defects, as well as heart defects and other birth
defects. Obesity also increases the risk of other complications of pregnancy, including miscarriage,
difficulty inducing labour, and a greater likelihood of caesarean delivery.

What an expectant mother eats is important: Fish appears to be brain food for a fetus. Recently scientists
have learned of the critical importance of folic acid in a pregnant woman’s diet.
Malnutrition

Prenatal malnutrition may have long-range effects. Severe prenatal nutrition deficiencies in the first and
second trimesters affect the developing brain, increasing the risk of antisocial personality disorders at age
18. Children whose mothers had low vitamin D levels late in pregnancy had low bone mineral content at
age 9, potentially increasing their risk of osteoporosis in later life. Fetal under-nutrition is also linked
with schizophrenia.

Malnourished women who take dietry supplements while pregnant tend to have bigger, healthier, more
active, and more visually alert infants. Women with low zinc levels who take daily zinc supplements are
less likely to have babies with low birth weight and small head circumference.

Physical Activity and Strenuous Work

Moderate exercise does not seem to endanger the fetuses of healthy women. Regular exercise prevents
constipation and improves respiration, circulation, muscle tone, and skin elasticity, all of which constitute
to a more comfortable pregnancy and an easier, safer delivery.

Employment during pregnancy generally entails no special hazards. However strenuous working
conditions, occupational fatigue, and long working hours may be associated with a greater risk of
premature birth.

Drug Intake

Vulnerability is greatest in the first few months of gestation, when development is most rapid. Some
problems resulting from prenatal exposure to drugs can be treated if the presence of a drug can be
detected early.

Medical Drugs: The effects of taking a drug during pregnancy do not always become apparent
immediately. The AAP Committee on Drugs (1994) recommends that no medication be prescribed for a
pregnant or breast-feeding woman unless it is essential for her health or her child’s. Pregnant women
should not take over-the-counter drugs without consulting a doctor.

Alcohol: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): a combination of retarded growth, facial and bodily
malformation, and disorders of the central nervous system. Prenatal alcohol exposure is the most
common cause of mental retardation and the leading preventable cause of birth defects in the USA and is
a risk factor for development of drinking problems and alcohol disorders in young adulthood.

Even small amount of social drinking may harm the fetus, and the more the mother drinks, the greater the
effect. Moderate or heavy drinking during pregnancy seems to disturb an infant’s neurological and
behavioural functioning and this may affect early social interaction with the mother which is vital to
emotional development. Heavy drinkers who continue to drink after becoming pregnant are likely to
have babies with reduces skull and brain growth as compared with babies of non drinking woman or
expectant mothers who stop drinking. Because there is no known safe level of drinking during
pregnancy, it is best to avoid alcohol form the time a woman begins thinking about becoming pregnant
until she stops breast-feeding.

FAS-related problems can include, in infancy, reduced responsiveness to stimuli, slow reaction time, and
reduced visual acuity (sharpness of vision); and throughout childhood, short attention span, distractibility,
restlessness, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, memory deficits and mood disorders; as well as
aggressiveness and problem behaviour.

Some FAS problems recede after birth, but others, such as retardation, behavioural and learning
problems, and hyperactivity, tend to persist.

Nicotine: Women who smoke during pregnancy are more than one and half times as likely as non
smokers to bear low birth weight babies. Even light smoking(less than 5 a day) is associated with a
greater risk of low birth weight. Maternal smoking is the single most important factor in low birth weight
in developed countries. Tobacco during pregnancy also brings increased risk of miscarriage, growth
retardation, stillbirth, small head circumference, sudden infant death, colic in early infancy, hyperkinetic
disorder (excessive movement) and long term respiratory, neurological, cognitive and behavioural
problems.

The effects of prenatal exposure to second-hand smoke on cognitive development tend to be worse when
the child also experiences socioeconomic hardships, such as substandard housing, malnutrition, and
inadequate clothing during the first 2years of life. Women who smoke during pregnancy also tend to
smoke after giving birth, and each type of exposure seems to habe independent effects.

Smoking during pregnancy seems to have some of the same effects on children whe they reach school age
as drinking during pregnancy: poor attention span, hyperactivity, anxiety, learning and behaviour
problems, perceptual-motor and linguistic problems, poor IQ scores, low grade placement, and
neurological problems.

Caffeine for the most part caffeine does not cause trouble for the fetus. Caffeine is not a teratogen for
human babies. However, 8 or more cups of coffee a day may dramatically increase the risk of fetal death
and four or more cups a day, of sudden death in infancy.

Marijuana, Cocaine, and Methamphetamine: some evidence from marijuana studies suggests that
heavy marijuana use can lead to birth defects, low birth weight, withdrawal like symptoms (excessive
crying and tremors) at birth, and increase risk of attention disorders and learning problems later in life.
The drug may affect functioning of the brain’s frontal lobe.
Cocaine use during pregnancy has been associated with spontaneous abortion, delayed growth, premature
labor, low birth weight, small head size, birth defects, and impaired neurological development. In some
studies, cocaine exposed new born’s showed acute withdrawal symptoms and sleep disturbances. High
prenatal cocaine exposure was associated with childhood behaviour problems.

Methamphetamine exposed infants were more likely to have low birth weight and to be small for their
gestational age. Prenatal methamphetamine exposure is associated with fetal growth restriction.

HIV/AIDS

If an expectant mother has the virus in her blood, perinatal transmission may occur: the virus may cross
over to the fetus’s bloodstream through the placenta during pregnancy, labor, or delivery or, after birth
through breastmilk. The risk of transmission can be reduced by choosing caesarean delivery, especially
when a woman has not received antiretroviral therapy, and by promotion of alternatives to breastfeeding.

Other Maternal Illnesses

Prospective parents should try to prevent any infection – colds, flu, urinary tract and vaginal infections, as
well as sexually transmitted diseases. If the mother does contract an infection, it should be treated
promptly. Pregnant women should also be screened for thyroid deficiency, which can affect their
children’s cognitive performance.

Rubella (German measles) if contracted before her 11th week of pregnancy; is almost certain to cause
deafness and heart defects in her baby.

Offspring of mothers with diabetes are 2-5 times more likely to develop birth defects, especially of the
heart and spinal cord (neural tube defects). Research on mice suggest why: high blood glucose levels
deprive an embryo of oxygen, with resultant cell damage, during the first 8weeks of pregnancy when its
organs are forming. Women with diabetes need to make sure their blood glucose levels are under control
before becoming pregnant. Use of multivitamin supplements during the first 3months before conception
and the first 3months of pregnancy can help reduce the risk of diabetes associated birth defects.

An infection called toxoplasmosis, caused by a parasite harboured in the bodies of cattle, sheep and pigs
and in the intestinal tracts of cats, typically produces either no symptoms or symptoms like those of the
common cold. Inpregnant woman, however, especially in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, it can cause fetal
brain damage, severely impaired eyesight or blindness, seizures, or miscarriage, stillbirth, or death of the
baby. Although 9 out of 10 of these babies may appear normal at birth more than half of them have later
problems including eye infections, hearing loss and learning disabilities. Treatment with 2 anti-parasitic
drugs during the first year of life can reduce brain and eye damage. To avoid infection, expectant mother
should not eat raw meat or very rare meat should wash hands and all work surfaces after touching raw
meat, should peel or thoroughly wash raw fruit and vegetables, and should not dig in a garden where cat
faeces are buried. Women who have cats should get them checked for the disease, should not feed them
raw meat and should have some else change the litter box often.

Maternal Stress

Some stress during pregnancy is normal and does not necessarily increase risks of birth complications.
Moderate stress may even spur organization of the developing brain. Unusual stress during pregnancy
may negatively affect the offspring. In one study women whose parteners or children died or were
hospitalized for heart attackes or cancer were at elevated risk of giving birth to children with
malformations, such as cleft lip, cleft palate, and heart malformations.

Maternal Age

The chance of miscarriage of stillbirth rises with maternal age. The risk for miscarriage reaches 90% for
women age 45 and older. Women over 30-35 are more likely to suffer complications due to diabetes,
high blood pressure, or severe bleeding. There is also more likelihood of premature delivery, retarded
fetal growth, birth defects, and chromosomal abnormalities such as Down Syndrome. Women over 40
are at an increased risk of needing operative deliveries. Women over 50 are 2-3 times more likely than
younger women to have babies who are very small, born prematurely, or still born.

Adolescents also tend to have premature or underweight babies – perhaps because a young girls still-
growing body consumes vital nutrients the fetus needs. These newborns are at heightened risk of death in
the first month, disabilities, or health problems.

Outside Environmental Hazards

Air pollution, chemicals, radiation, extremes of heat and humidity, and other hazards of modern life can
affect prenatal development.

Air that contains high levels of fine combustion-related particles: premature or undersized infants or have
chromosomal abnormalities.

High concentrations of disinfection by-products: low birth weight and slowed fetal growth.

Chemical used in manufacturing: twice the rate of miscarriage

Lead, mercury, dioxin, nicotine and ethanol: explain sharp rise in asthma, allergies, and autoimmune
disorders such as lupus.

Drinking chemically contaminated water and use of pesticides: childhood cancers, incl. Leukemia
In utero exposure to radiation 8 through 15weeks after fertilization has been linked to mental retardation,
small head size, chromosomal malformations, Down Syndrome, seizures, and poor performance on IQ
tests and in school.

Paternal Factors

A man’s exposure to lead, marijuana or tobacco smoke, large amounts of alcohol or radiation, DES,
pesticides, or high ozone levels may result in abnormal or poor quality sperm.

Men who smoke have an increase likelihood of transmitting genetic abnormalities. A pregnant woman’s
exposure to the father’s second hand smoke has been linked with low birth weight, infant respiratory
infections, sudden infant death, and cancer in childhood and adulthood.

Older fathers may be a significant source of birth defects due to damaged sperm. Advancing paternal age
is associated with increases in the risk of several rare conditions including dwarfism. Advanced age
could also be a factor in a disproportionate number of cases of schizophrenia and of autism and related
disorders.

CHAPTER 5 – BIRTH AND THE NEWBORN BABY

THE NEWBORN BABY
States of Arousal and Activity Levels *Study table 5-4 pg
126*

Babies have an internal clock that regulates their daily cycles of eating, sleeping, and elimination and
perhaps even their moods. These periodic cycles of wakefulness, sleep and activity, which govern an
infant’s state of arousal, or degree of alertness seems to be inborn and highly individual. Changes in state
are coordinated by multiple areas of the brain and are accompanied by changes in the functioning of
virtually all body systems.

Most babies spend about 75% of their time – up to 18 hours a day – asleep, but awaken every 3-4 hours,
day and night for feeding. Newborns sleep alternates between quiet (regular) and active (irregular) sleep.
Active sleep appears rhythmically in cycles of about 1 hour and accounts for up to 50% of newborn’s
sleep time. The amount of active sleep declines to less than 30% of daily sleep time by age 3 and
continues to decrease steadily throughout life.
Beginning in the first month, night-time sleep period gradually lengthen and total sleep time diminishes
as babies grow more wakeful in the daytime. Some infant’s begin to sleep through the night as early as
age 3months. By 6months, an infant typically sleeps for 6hours straight at night, but brief waking is
normal even during late infancy and toddlerhood. A 2year old typically sleeps about 13hours a day,
including a single nap usually in the afternoon.

Although crying is usually more distressing than serious, it is particularly important to soothe low birth
weight babies as quiet babies maintain their weight better. Steady stimulation is the time-proven way to
soothe crying babies: by rocking or walking them, wrapping them snugly, or letting them hear rhythmic
sounds.

NEWBORNS AND PARENTS

Childbirth and Bonding

Researchers following the ethological approach consider behaviour in human beings to be biologically
determined and emphasizes critical or sensitive periods for development of certain behaviours.

A critical period for bonding does not exist in humans. Parents can form a bond with the child even if
they are not present at the birth (adoptive parents and/or fathers).

From an evolutionary perspective, parental bonding may be a mechanism to ensure that parents invest the
tremendous energy and resources needed to enable a helpless infant to survive and reproduce.
Evolutionary developmental psychologists point out that child rearing involves a balancing act between
needs of the parents and those of the offspring. Bonding helps ensure that the benefits to the parents are
worth the cost.

What Do Newborns Need from Their Mothers?

Feeding is not the most important thing babies get from their mothers. Mothering includes the comfort of
close bodily contact and the satisfaction of an innate need to cling. Human infants also have needs that
must be satisfied if they are to grow up normally. It is the task of parents to try meet those needs.

The Father’s Role

The fathering role is a social construction, having different meanings in different cultures. In some
societies, fathers are more involved in their young children’s lives – economically, emotionally, and in
time spent – than other cultures.

A father’s frequent and positive involvement with his child, from infancy on, is directly related to the
child’s well-being and physical, cognitive, and social development.

Infant Care: A Cross-Culture View

Infant care practices and patterns of interaction with infants vary greatly around the world, depending on
environmental conditions and the culture’s view of infants nature ad needs.

We need to remember that patterns of parent-infant interaction we take for granted may be culture-based.

CHAPTER 7
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT DURING THE FIRST THREE
YEARS
STUDYING COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: SIX APPROACHES
1.     Behaviourist Approach
     Studies the basic mechanics of learning, which fall in the domain of cognitive development
     Behaviourists are concerned with how behaviour changes in response to experience
 
2.     Psychometric Approach
     Seeks to measure quantitative differences in cognitive abilities by using tests that indicate or
predict these abilities
 
3.     Piagetian Approach
     Looks at changes, stages, in the quality of cognitive functioning.
     Concerned with how the mind structures its activities and adapts to the environment
 
4.     Information-Processing Approach
     Focus on processes involved in perception, learning, memory, problem solving
     Seeks to discover what children do with their information from the time they encounter it, until
they use it.
 
5.     Cognitive neuroscience Approach
     Examines the hardware of the central nervous system
     Seeks to identify what brain structures are involved in specific aspects of cognition
 

6.     Social Contextual Approach

     Examines the influence of environmental aspects of the learning process, particularly the role of
parents / caregivers
 
 BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH: BASIC MECHANICS OF LEARNING

Infant memory
→     Infantile amnesia – no memory of events prior to 2 years old
Developmental scientists have proposed various explanations for this common phenomenon:
→     Piaget – brain not sufficiently developing to store memories
→     Freud – early memories are stored, but repressed, as they are emotionally troubling
      Recent research – infant’s memory process does not differ fundamentally from older
children / adults except retention time is shorter.
These studies have found that babies will repeat a learned action if periodically reminded of
the situation (operant conditioning)
     Young infant’s memory of behaviour is linked specifically to the original cue
     2 – 6 mths old repeated the learned behaviour only when seeing the original stimulus
     9 – 12 mths old try out behaviour on similar stimulus if no more than 2wks had gone by since
training
A familiar context can improve recollection when a memory has weakened
→     From evolutionary developmental perspective: abilities develop as they can fulfil useful
functions in adapting to the environment
     Infancy is a time of great change and retention of specific experiences in unlikely to be useful
for long – this could be why adults don’t’ remember events that happened in infancy.

     Classic conditioning
Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response
with another stimulus that does elicit the response (Pavlov)
Learner is passive and reacting to stimulus
 
     Operant conditioning
The learner operates, or acts, on the environment
Learning is based on reinforcement or punishment
Response produced a particular effect

PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH: DEVELOPMENTAL AND ITELLIGENCE TESTING

Assessing the Impact of the Home Environment

→     Intelligent behaviour: behaviour that is goal oriented and adaptive to circumstances and
conditions of life.
→     Intelligence enables people to acquire, remember and use knowledge to understand concepts
and relationships and to solve problems.
     Goal of psychometric testing is to measure quantitatively the factors that are thought to make
up intelligent behaviour (comprehension and reasoning) and use results of measurement to predict
future performance (school achievement)
→     IQ – Intelligent quotient tests – psychometric tests that seek to measure intelligence by
comparing a test takers performance with standardized norms.
 
 Assessing the Impact of the Home Environment on Intelligence

     Intelligence is not fixed at birth, but influenced by inheritance and experience

     Early brain stimulation is key to future cognitive development
     HOME = Home observation for measurement of the environment
→     Trained observers interview the primary care giver and rate on a yes/no checklist the
intellectual stimulation and support observed in a child’s home
     HOME assesses parental responsiveness
 HOME gives credit to the parent of an infant or toddler for caressing or kissing the child
during an examiners visit, to the parent of a preschooler for spontaneously praising the
child, and to the parent of an older child for answering the child’s questions.
     A longitudinal study found a positive correlation between responsiveness and IQ scores
→     HOME assess the number of books, playthings that encourage development of concepts
and parents I involvement in children’s play
     Be aware that some HOME items are less culturally relevant in non-western homes

Also we cannot be sure on the basis of HOME and correlational findings that parental responsiveness or
an enriched home life actually increases a child’s intelligence. These factors are just associated with high
intelligence and achievement. Intelligent, well-educated parents may be more likely to provide positive,
stimulating home environments and because they also pass on their genes to their children there may be a
genetic influence as well (passive genotype correlation)
 
Research identified 7 aspects of early home environment that enable cognitive and psychosocial
development and help prepare children for school:  
1.     Encouraging exploration of the environment
2.     Mentoring in basic cognitive and social skills
3.     Celebrating developmental advances
4.     Guidance in practicing and extending skills
5.     Protection from inappropriate disapproval, teasing and punishment
6.     Communicating richly and responsively
7.     Guiding and limiting behaviour
The consistent presence of all 7 aspects early in life is “causally linked to many areas of brain
functioning and cognitive development”
 
Fostering competence (Cognitive development) *Table 7-2 pg 184*
1.     In early months, provide sensory stimulation, but avoid over stimulation and distracting noises
2.     As babies grow older, create an environment that fosters learning (books, objects, places to
play)
3.     Respond to babies signals – establishes a sense of trust that the world is a friendly place and gives
baby a sense of control over their lives
4.     Give babies that power to affect changes – toys that can be shaken, moulded, moved; help
baby discover turning door knob opens a door, flick a switch = light, tap = water
5.     Give babies freedom to explore! Baby proof an environment and let them go!
6.     Talk to babies, they won’t pick up the language from radio / TV – they need adults
interaction
7.     In talking / playing – enter into whatever they are interested in at the moment instead of
redirecting their attention
8.     Arrange opportunities to learn basic skills – labelling, comparing, sorting size and colour
9.     Applaud new skills and help baby practice and expand them
10.     Read to baby in warm, caring atmosphere from an early age
11.     Use punishment sparingly
PIAGETIAN APPROACH: THE SENSORIMOTOR STAGE 
FIRST stage of Piagets stages of cognitive development = sensorimotor stage
 
SIX Sub Stages of the Sensorimotor Stage *Study Table 7-3 pg186*

SCHEMES – Piaget’s terms for organised patterns of thought and behaviour used in particular
situations
Stages flow from one to another as babies’ schemes become more elaborate
Stage 1 – 5: babies learn to coordinate input from senses and organise activities in relation to their
environment – by a process of organisation, adaption and equilibration
6 sub stage: progress form trial and error learning to the use of symbols and concepts to solve simple
th

problems
 
→     Early cognitive growth comes from CIRCULAR REACTIONS, in which infant learns to
reproduce pleasurable or interesting events originally discovered by chance.
     Activity produces enjoyable sensation, therefore action is repeated (in which cause and
effect keep reversing) and the original chance behaviour becomes a new scheme
 
1.     First sub-stage (birth – one month)
→     Neonates exercise some control over inborn reflexes i.e. sucking reflexively when lips touched,
such when not hungry
2.     Second sub-stage (one – four months)
     Baby learns to repeat pleasant bodily sensation first achieved by chance – primary circular
reaction
→     Baby turns towards sounds, showing ability to coordinate different sensory information (vision
and hearing)
3.     Third sub-stage (four – eight months)
     New interest in manipulating objects and learning about their properties - secondary circular
reactions:
→     Intentional actions repeated to get results beyond the infants own body. i.e. shake a rattle to hear
noise, coo to a friendly face to make it stay longer
4.     Fourth sub-stage (eight – twelve months)
→     Coordination of secondary schemes – baby has built on schemes they were born with.
→     Learned to generalise from past experiences to solve new problems – they can distinguish
means from ends
     Crawl to get what they want, grab it; push away a barrier to it
     They try out, modify and coordinate previous schemes to find one that works
     This sub-stage marks the development of complex goal-directed behaviour
5.     Fifth sub-stage (twelve - eighteen months)
→     Baby experiments with new behaviour
     Once they walk, they explore environment with more ease
→     Tertiary circular reactions = varying an action to get a similar result (rather than repeating
pleasing behaviour)
     a toddler may squeeze a rubber duck that squeaked when stepped on to see if it will squeak again
→     for the first time children show originality in problem solving
     By trial and error, they try out behaviours until they find the best way to attain a goal
6.     Sixth sub-stage – mental combinations (eighteen months – two years) is a transition into
preoperational stage of early childhood.
→     Toddler develops REPRESENTATIONAL ABILITY – the ability to mentally represent
objects and events in memory, largely through symbols such as worlds, numbers, mental pictures
     The ability to manipulate symbols frees children from immediate experience, they can pretend, and
they can think about actions before taking them – no more trial and error.

Do Imitative Abilities Develop Earlier than Piaget Thought?

 
Imitation – an important way of learning
 →     Invisible imitation - using parts of the body that cannot be seen (mouth) – develops at 9 months
– after
→     Visible imitation – using parts that can be seen – hands & feet
→    A series of studies by Meltzoff & Moore – found that babies younger than 72 hours have early
imitative behaviour. According to Meltzoff and Gopnik this early imitative behaviour reflects
and evolved “like me” mechanism: infant seeks to imitate faces that has the same properties as
his/her own (sticking out tongue)
     Meltzoff and Moore further suggest that infants have an inborn predisposition to imitate human
faces, a tendency that may serve evolutionary purpose of communication with caregiver
 
     Piaget – held that children under 18 months cannot engage in DEFERRED IMITATION =
reproduction of an observed behaviour after the passage of time by calling up a stored symbol of
it because they have not developed the mental ability to retain mental observations BUT
     Meltzoff & Moore – maintain that young babies retain mental representations of an event
Deferred imitation of novel or complex events can begin by 6 - 9 months, therefore deferred
imitation agrees with operant conditioning; infants remember after a delay.
 
Elicited Imitation (imitate action based on verbal instruction)
     Research method in which infants / toddlers are induced to imitate a specific series of actions
they have seen but not necessarily done before
     The initial demonstration may be accompanied by a simple verbal explanation. After a 1month
delay, 40%percent of 9month olds can reproduce a simple two step procedure
→     Elicited imitation more reliable during 2nd year of life
→     13 – 20 month old toddlers can repeat an unfamiliar multisided sequence (assemble a gong to
make it ring) – up to one year later. Prior practice helps to activate children’s memories,
especially if some items have been substituted for the original ones.
 
4 factors determine young children’s long term recall
1.     The number of times a sequence of events has been experienced
2.     Whether the child actively participated or merely observes
3.     Whether the child is given verbal reminders of the experience
4.     Whether the sequence of events occurs in a logical causal order
 
Development of Knowledge about Objects and Space

The OBJECT CONCEPT - the idea that objects have an independent existence, characteristics and
locations in space - is a later fundamental cognitive development to an orderly view of physical reality
Object concept is the basis for children’s awareness that they exist apart from objects, and other
people
 
When does object permanence develop?

Object Permanence – Piaget – understanding that an object/person will continue to exist even when out
of sight, develops in the sensorimotor stage
At first infants have no such concept but by the:
3rd sub-stage – 4 – 8 months – they will look for something dropped and if they can’t see it – will act as
if it no longer exists
4th sub-stage – 8 – 12 months – will look for object in place they first found it, after seeing it hidden,
even if they later saw it being moved to another place = A, not-B error
5th sub-stage – 12 – 18 months – will search in place object was last seen hidden, but will not search for
it in a place where they did not see it hidden
6th sub-stage – 18 – 24 months – object permanence achieved, toddler looks for an object even if they
did not see it hidden
 
Esther Thelen’s dynamic systems theory – is a new interpretation of the A, NOT B theory
The decision where to search for an object is about what babies do and why – not about what they know.
Infants reaching behaviour is influenced by vision, perception, attention, movement and memory
One factor is how much time has elapsed between the infants seeing the object hidden in a new place (B)
and the infants reaching for it. If the elapsed time is brief, the infant is more likely to reach for the object
in the new location. When the time interval is longer, however, the perceptual and motor memory of
having previously found the object in the old place (A) inclines the infant to search there again and that
inclination grows stronger the more times the object has been found in the same place.
 
Piaget believed ability of object permanence developed during sensorimotor period, over course of 6 sub-
stages and object concept is fully developed by 18 – 24 months
In contrast – recent research findings indicate that object concept develops at much earlier stage
 
 
 
INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH: PERCEPTIONS AND
REPRESENTATIONS
Habituation 

→     HABITUATION- a type of learning in which repeated or continuous exposure to a stimulus (a

shaft of light) reduces attention to the stimulus
     Familiarity breeds loss of interest (get used to seeing something, so no longer pay attention to it)
Researchers study habituation in newborns by repeatedly presenting a stimulus and then
monitoring such responses as heart rate, sucking, eye movements, and brain activity.
→     DISHABITUATION - a new stimulus (light / sound) captures attention and an increase in
responsiveness occurs
→     Efficiency of infants information processing assessed by measuring how quickly a baby
habituates to familiar stimuli, how fast their attention recovers when exposed to a new stimulus
and how much time they spend looking at new and old.
→     Efficiency of habituation correlates with later signs of cognitive development such as preference
for complexity, rapid exploration of the environment, sophisticated play, quick problem solving,
and the ability to match pictures. Speed of habituation and other info-processing abilities show
promise as predictors of intelligence
 
Visual and Auditory Processing Abilities

     Visual preference – the amount of time a baby spends looking at different kinds of sights: based
on visual the ability to make visual distinctions
     Novelty preference – new-born’s preference to look at new sights over familiar ones
     Visual recognition memory – is the ability to distinguish a familiar visual stimulus from an
unfamiliar one, when shown both at the same. Depends on comparing incoming information with
existing information (ability to form and refer to mental representation)
 
Contrary to Piaget’s view:
      Habituation and novelty preference studies suggest rudimentary representational ability exists at
birth and becomes more efficient.
 
→     Auditory discrimination studies – are based on attentional preference: New-borns can tell sounds
that they have already heard from new sounds.
Piaget: believed that senses are unconnected at birth and are only gradually integrated through experience
→     If so – the integration begins immediately
The fact that neonates will look at the source of sounds shows that they associate hearing and sight.

A more sophisticated ability is:

     Cross-modal transfer – the ability to use information gained from one sense to guide another –
negotiate a dark room by feeling
     Attention Develops = the amount of time spent gazing at a new sight increases (birth – 2 months)
     2 – 9 months – looking time decreases as infants learn to scan objects more efficiently and shift
attention
     1 – 2nd year – when sustaining attention becomes more voluntary and task orientated, looking
time plateaus or increases
     Joint attention –which may contribute to social interaction, language acquisition, and
understanding of others mental states - develops between 10 – 12 months when babies follow an
adults’ gaze
     Gaze – following – may be an important step towards understanding others intentions
 
SOCIAL-CONTEXTUAL APPROACH: LEARNING FROM
INTERACTION WITH CAREGIVERS 
→     Guided participation – mutual interaction with adults that help structure children’s activities
and bridge the gap between a child’s understanding and an adults’
Inspired by Vygotsky’s view of learning as a collaborative process
→     Participation of an adult in a child’s activity in a manner that helps structure the activity and to
bring the child’s understanding of it closer to that of the adults. Guided participation often occurs
in shared play and in ordinary, everyday activities in which children learn informally the skills,
knowledge, and values important in their culture.
     Cultural context influences the way caregivers contribute to cognitive development
→     Direct adult involvement in child’s play and learning is better adapted to middle class urban
community (more time, verbal skills and interest) then rural community in developing countries
where children observe and participate in adults work / activities
 
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Language = communication system based on words and grammar, and cognitive development

Classic Theories of Language Acquisition: Nature / Nurture Debate

Skinner: language learning based on experience

→     Classic learning theory: children learn language through operant conditioning
     At first, babies utter sounds at random – caregiver reinforces sounds – baby repeats sound
→     Social learning theory: baby imitates sounds they hear from adults and are reinforced for doing
so. 
     Word learning depends on selective reinforcement
 
Chomsky: observation, imitation, reinforcement contributes to language development but cannot fully
explain it.
→     Word combinations – are so many and so complex that they cannot all be acquired by specific
imitation and reinforcement
    Caregivers often reinforce incorrect grammar as long as it make sense – gampa go bye bye
     Learning theory does not account for children’s use of imaginative words –eg. sprained ankle=
“sprangle”
 
Chomsky’s view is called:
Nativism – theory that the human brain has an inborn capacity for language acquisition
     Emphasises the active role of the learner
     Chomsky suggested that an inborn Language Acquisition Device (LAD) programs children’s brains
to analyse language heard and figure out its rules
Support for the nativist position comes from new borns ability to differentiate similar sounds
suggesting that they are “born with perceptual mechanisms that are tuned to the properties of
speech”.
Nativists point out that almost:
-     All children master their native language in the same age related sequence without formal teaching
-     Furthermore, human brains – contain a structure that is larger on one side than the other –
suggesting that an inborn mechanism for sound and language processing may be localised in
the larger hemisphere - the left for most people.
Nativist approach does not 
-     explain how such a mechanism operates
-     tell why some children acquire language more rapidly / efficiently than others, why children
differ in linguistic skill and fluency, or why speech development appears to depend on having
someone to talk with, not merely hearing spoken language.
 Aspects of both learning theory and nativism have been used to explain how deaf babies learn sign
language.
→     Deaf children make up their own sign language - when they have no model to follow. Evidence
that imitation and reinforcement alone cannot explain linguistic expression
→     Learning theory does not explain correspondence between the ages at which linguistic advances
in both hearing and non-hearing babies typically occur
→     Deaf babies begin hand babbling between ages 7-10months – about the same ages as hearing
babies begin voice-babbling. Sentence forming begins at the same time for both hearing and deaf
babies.
→     This suggests that an inborn language capacity may underlie acquisition of spoken and signed
language and advances of both are tied to brain maturation

Influences on Language Development

Social Interaction: The Role of Parents and Care-givers

 
Pre-linguistic Period
→     @ babbling stage – parents help infants advance toward true speech by repeating sounds that
baby makes – which affects amount infant vocalization and the pace of language learning
→     Helps baby experience social aspect of speech – conversation is about taking turns: most babies
grasp this by 7 and a half months.
     Parent’s responsiveness to vocalisation and play is important for the development of language
 
Vocabulary Development
     Babies learn by listening to adults. When babies begin to talk, parents can boost vocab development
by repeating their first words and pronouncing them properly.
→     Mother with higher socio-economic status use richer vocabulary and longer utterances and their
2 year olds have larger vocabularies
     Sensitivity and responsiveness to a child’s level of development may count more than words used
by the mother
 Bilingual babies achieve similar milestones in each language on the same schedule as children
who hear only one language.
→     Bilingual children use elements of both languages – sometimes in the same utterance; this is
called code mixing – this does not cause them to confuse the two languages
→     Code Switching is changing one’s speech to match the situation – speaking French to a
predominately French-speaking father and English with a predominately English-speaking
mother.
 
Preparing for Literacy: The Benefits of Reading Aloud

Literacy – the ability to read and write

Frequency and the way parents read to children can influence how well children speak and how soon they
develop literacy. Adults tend to have 3 styles of reading to children:

1.     Describer Style – describes what is going on in pictures an inviting child to do so.

2.     Comprehender style – encourage child to look more deeply at meaning of story and make
inferences and prediction’s (what will the lion do now)
3.     Performance Oriented- reads the story straight through, introducing main themes beforehand
and asking questions afterwards
4.     Dialogic / shared reading – parents ask challenging question that need more than yes/no
answer.
Follow up child’s answers with more questions, repeat and expand on what the child says, correct
wrong answers and give alternate possibilities, help, encourage and praise the child. They
encourage the child to relate the story to the child’s experiences.

CHAPTER 8 –
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE FIRST
THREE YEARS

FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOSOCAIL DEVELOPMENT

Temperament

Temperament
A person characteristic biologically based way of approaching and reacting to people and situations
The “how” of behaviour
Temperament has an emotional dimension which is consistent and enduring
Temperament may also affect the way children regulate their mental, emotional, and behavioural
functioning
Individual differences in temperament form the core of the developing personality

Studying Temperamental Patterns (the New York Longitudinal Study – NYLS) *study table 8-2 pg
222*

The study followed 133 infants into adulthood:

40%: easy children: happy temperament, regular biological rhythms, a readiness to accept new
experiences
10%: difficult children: irritable, harder to please, irregular biological rhythms, intense emotional
responses
15%: Slow to warm up children: mild temperament, but slow to adapt to new people and situations
Many children including 35% of the NYLS sample do not fit neatly into any of these groups: They show
a variation of
temperaments.

How stable is temperament?

Inborn and hereditary and fairly stable

Not fully formed at birth, but develops as various emotions and self-regulatory capacities appear
Can change in response to parental treatment and life experiences

Temperament and adjustment: Goodness of fit

Goodness of fit: the match between a child’s temperament and the environmental demands and
constraints the child must deal with
i.e. An active child forced to sit still for a long period of time or a slow to warm up child constantly
pushed into new situations; tension may occur
Caregiver’s response to children may reflect the amount of control the caregiver thinks they have over a
child’s behaviour
Parent’s who think they have little control, play directively with their babies - urging, reminding,
restraining, questioning and correcting them. They were more likely to consider their infant difficult
When caregiver recognises child acts a certain way due to inborn temperament, they will feel less out of
control and can anticipate the child’s reactions and help the child adapt

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN INFANCY

Developing Trust
According to Erikson: Trust versus Mistrust – 1st stage in psychosocial development
Begins in infancy and continues until about 18 months
Baby develops sense of reliability of people / objects in their world
Must form a balance between trust – allows the formation of intimate relationships- and mistrust –
enables them to protect themselves
If trust predominates (as it should)– children develop the virtue of HOPE – the belief that they can fulfil
their needs and obtain their desires
If mistrust predominates – children view world as unfriendly / unpredictable – trouble forming
relationships
Sensitive, responsive, consistent care-giving is a critical element to developing trust
Erikson saw the feeding situation as the setting for establishing the right mix of trust and mistrust
Trust enables an infant to let the mother out of sight “because she has become an inner certainty as well
as an outer predictability”

Developing Attachments

Attachment – reciprocal, enduring emotional tie between two people (infant & caregiver) each of whom
contribute to the quality of the relationship
From an evolutionary point of view, attachments have adaptive values for babies, ensuring their
psychosocial as well as their physical needs will be met
ETHOLOGICAL THEORY: behaviour is biologically determined. Infants and parents are
biologically predisposed to becoming attached to each other and attachment promotes a baby’s survival

Studying Patterns of Attachment

STRANGE SITUATION:
Laboratory technique used to assess attachment patterns between infant and adult
8 episodes: mother leaves baby twice in unfamiliar room, the first time with a stranger
The 2nd time she leaves the baby alone and the stranger comes back before she does
Mother then encourages baby to explore, play again and gives comfort if baby seems to need it

Attachment behaviours in strange situations (SAAD)

ATTACHMENT CLASSIFICATION BABY’S BEHAVIOUR
Secure attachment Baby cry’s / protests when mother leaves.
Responds enthusiastically when mother returns
Plays and explores freely when mother nearby
Mother is a secure base
They are usually secure and relatively free of
anger
Avoidant attachment Infant rarely cries when mother leaves
Avoids her upon her return, does not greet her
Angry and doesn’t reach out in time of need
Dislikes being held, but dislikes being put down
even more
Ambivalent (Resistant) attachment Becomes anxious before mother leaves and very
upset when she goes out.
Hovers close to mother during much of the
strange situation
Does not greet her positively / enthusiastically
when mother returns – angry and upset
Seeks contact, while also resisting it
Does little exploration and are hard to comfort
Disorganised / disoriented attachment Least secure, baby lacks cohesive strategy to
deal with the stress of the strange situation
Shows contradictory, repetitive, or misdirected
behaviour (greet mother, then turn away /
approach her without looking at her)
They seem confused and afraid
Occurs in babies whose mothers are insensitive,
intrusive or abusive, or suffered unresolved loss.
 This pattern is a risk factor for later behavioural
problems, especially aggressiveness
Security attachment to father and mother is similar and develops at the same time

How attachment is established

On the basis of a baby’s interactions with the mother, baby builds a model of what can be expected from
her.
If mother continues to act in the same way – the model holds up
If behaviour is repeatedly changed, then baby might revise the model and security of attachment might
change.
Working model of attachment related to Erikson’s concept of basic trust
Secure attachment= trust; Insecure attachment = mistrust
Securely attached babies have learned to trust their caregivers and their own ability to get what they need.
Babies who cry a lot and whose mothers respond by soothing them tend to be securely attached.
Mothers of securely attached infants are sensitive and responsive; equally NB is mutual interaction,
stimulation, a positive attitude, warmth and acceptance, and emotional support.

The Role of Temperament (on attachment)

Varied findings
Both mothers sensitivity and baby’s temperament influence attachment patterns
Neurological / physiological conditions may underlie temperamental difference in attachment
Eg. Variability of heart rate associated with irritability; and heart rate seems to vary more in insecurely
attached infants
A baby’s temperament may have not only an impact on attachment but also an indirect impact through its
effects on the parents.
Irritability on the infants part may prevent the development of secure attachment but not if the mother has
the skills to cope with the baby’s temperament

Stranger Anxiety (wariness of unknown people) and Separation Anxiety (distress when family
caregiver leaves)

Typical but not universal behaviours

May say more about babies temperament or life circumstances – as opposed to the security of
attachment
Before 6 months – little / no reaction to strangers
8 – 9 months – more negative reaction to strangers
This change may reflect cognitive development: stranger anxiety involves memory of faces and
accompanying emotions and perhaps recollection of situations in which the child has been left with a
stranger
Separation anxiety may be due to the quality of care the child is left in
Stability of care – substitute care must be as close as possible to good mothering. High value placed on
continuity and consistency in care giving, so children can form early emotional bonds with their
caregivers. Children can form multiple bonds as long as the care-giving situation is stable.
Neither intense fear of strangers nor intense protest when mother leaves is considered to be a sign of
secure attachment
Attachment measured more by what happens when mother returns than by what happens when
she leaves
Long term effects of attachment

Security of attachment affects emotional, social and cognitive competence

The more secure attachment to adult the easier it is for the child to develop good relationships with others
Securely attached toddlers tend to have a large varied vocabulary than those that are insecurely attached.
They have positive interactions with peers and their friendly overtures are more likely to be accepted, and
they are more joyful
Insecurely attached toddler tend to show more fear, distress, and anger
3 – 5 year old securely attached children are likely to be more – curious, competent, empathetic, resilient,
self-confident, get along better with other children and form closer friendships. They interact more
positively with parents, preschool teachers, and peers and are better able to resolve conflicts.
Secure attachment seems to prepare children for the intimacy of friendship.
Effects of parenting on children’s behaviour is more important than early attachment

Intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns

AAI = Adult Attachment Interview :

Semi structured interview that asks adults to recall and interpret feelings and experiences related
to childhood attachments
A mother who was securely attached to her mother, or who understands why she was insecurely attached
– can recognise baby’s attachment behaviours and respond encouragingly and help baby form secure
attachment to her.
Mothers preoccupied with past attachment relationships show anger and intrusiveness in interactions with
their children
Depressed mothers who dismiss memories of past attachments are cold / unresponsive to their children
Parent’s attachment history influences their perceptions of their baby’s temperament which can
affect their relationship with their baby

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN TODDLERHOOD

The Emerging Sense of Self
The emerging sense of self = Self Concept = descriptive and evaluative mental picture of one’s
abilities and traits. It describes what we know and feel about ourselves and guides our actions.
Children incorporate into their self-image the picture that others reflect back to them.
From various isolated experiences, infants begin to form rudimentary concepts of self and other
4 – 10 months = infants learn to reach, grasp, make things happen – they experience a sense of
PERSONAL AGENCY: the realisation they can control external events
At about this time, infants develop SELF-COHERENCE – sense of being a physical whole with
boundaries separate from rest of world (playing peekaboo)
SELF-AWARENESS – conscious knowledge of the self as a distinct identifiable being – builds on this
drawing of perceptual discrimination between self and others. Tested by seeing if infant recognises itself
in a mirror (15 – 18 months) conceptual self-awareness(early perceptual discrimination)
Once children can recognise themselves they show a preference for looking at their own image than that
of another child the same age
20-24 months – first person pronouns (I, Me) another sign of self-awareness
19 – 30 months – descriptive terms (big, little etc) and evaluative ones (good, pretty, strong) to
themselves
The rapid development of language enables children to think and talk about the self and to incorporate
parents verbal description “you’re so clever!” into their emerging self-image.

Developing Autonomy

Erikson: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt 2nd stage of psychosocial development

18 months – 3 years
Autonomy versus shame and doubt – if successfully resolved, results in the virtue of WILL
Marked by shift from external control to self control
Toddler substitutes their own judgement for their caregivers
Toilet training is an important step toward autonomy
Language allows their wishes to be expressed, making them more powerful and independent
Unlimited freedom is not safe / healthy – therefore shame and doubt necessary
Toddlers need appropriate limits set by parents; shame and doubt help them recognise the need for those
limits
Terrible Twos is a normal manifestation of the drive for autonomy – toddlers test the notion that
they are individuals who have control over their world, and that they new and exciting powers
Drive show’s itself in the form of negativism – the tendency to shout “NO” just for the sake of resisting
authority
Starts at 2, peaks by 3 ½ - 4 and declines by 6
Caregivers who view expression of self- will by children as normal, healthy and striving for independence
– and not as stubbornness, help them to learn self-control, contribute to their sense of competence, and
avoid excessive conflict

Dealing with Terrible two’s – How to discourage negativism and encourage socially acceptable
behaviour
*Table 8-4 pg234*

Be flexible – learn child’s likes / dislikes / rhythms

Think of yourself as a safe harbour
Make your home child safe to allow exploration
Avoid physical punishment
Offer a choice to give child some control
Be consistent
Don’t interrupt an activity unless absolutely necessary
If you must interrupt – give warning
Suggest alternative activities when behaviour becomes objectionable
Suggest, don’t’ command
Link request with pleasurable activities
Remind child of what you expect
Wait a few moments before repeating a request
Use time-outs to end conflict
Expect less self-control in times of stress
Expect it to be harder for children to comply with “do’s” then with “don’ts”
Keep atmosphere as positive as possible

Moral Development: Socialization and Internalization

Socialisation:
Is the process by which children develop habits, skills, values and motives that make them responsible,
productive members of society. Compliance with parental expectations can be seen as the first step
toward compliance with societal standards
Socialization rests on:
Internalisation of these standards:
The process by which children accept societal standards of conduct as their own

Successfully socialised children don’t merely obey rules or commands to get rewards / avoid
punishments, but they have made society’s standards their own.

Developing self-regulation
Self-regulation: control of behaviour to conform to a caregivers demands or expectations, even
when the caregiver is not present / Control of a person’s behaviour to conform to understood
societal expectations
Self-regulation is the foundation of socialisation and links all domains of development – physical,
cognitive, social, emotional
Toddler sticking finger in plug – father says no – toddler stops and conforms future behaviour in the same
situation
By reading parents emotional response to their behaviour, children absorb information about what
conduct their parents approve of
Before they can control their behaviour, children need to regulate/control their ATTENTIONAL
PROCESSES and modulate negative emotions, enabling them to develop willpower and cope with
frustration
Growth of self-regulation parallels development of self-consciousness & evaluative emotions – empathy,
shame, guilt . It requires the ability to wait for gratification. It is correlated with measures of conscience
development, such as resisting temptation and making amends for wrong doing.
Full development of self-regulation takes at least 3 years in most children.

Origins of conscience: Committed Compliance

Conscience = internal standards of behaviour which usually controls one’s conduct and produce
emotional discomfort when violated
Before children can develop a conscience they need to have internalised moral standards. Conscience
depends on willingness to the right thing before a child believes it is right, not (as in self-regulatory) just
because someone else says so.

Inhibitory control – conscious holding back of impulses, a mechanism of self-regulation – may

contribute to development of conscience by first allowing the child to comply voluntarily with parental
do’s and don’ts.
Committed compliance – Kuchanska’s term for wholehearted obedience of parents orders without
reminders or lapses - increases with age (more girls)
Situational compliance – Kuchanska’s term for obedience of parents orders only in the presence of signs
of on-going parental control – decreases with age

Factors in the success of socialisation

Security of attachment Fosters committed compliance & conscience
Observational learning from parent’s behaviour development
Mutual responsiveness of parent and child
Socioeconomic and cultural factors
Researchers observed 200 mothers and children in lengthy naturalistic interactions –
Children with mutually responsive relationships show :
moral emotions (guilt and empathy);
Moral conduct in the face of strong temptation to break rules or violate standards of behaviour; and
Moral cognition as judged by their response to hypothetical age appropriate dilemmas.

Constructive conflict over child’s misbehaviour - conflict involving negotiation, reasoning, resolution -
can help children develop moral understanding by helping them to see another point of view.
Receptive cooperation – goes beyond committed compliance
Child’s eager willingness to cooperate harmoniously with a parent in both disciplinary and daily
interactions
Enables child to be an active partner in socialisation

HOW DIFFERENT ARE BABY BOYS AND GIRLS

Gender Differences in Infants and Toddlers

(Gender – what it means to be male / female)

Boys
Longer, heavier, slightly stronger
More physically vulnerable from conception on
Brains at birth 10% larger (continues to adulthood)
Equal to girls in sensitivity of touch, tend to teeth, sit-up, walk – at the same age
Behavioural – play more aggressively than girls

Girls
Less reactive to stress and more likely to survive infancy
Brains at birth 10% smaller than boys
Behavioural – girls (2-3 years) say words pertaining to their gender

Infants perceive differences between male and female before behaviour is gender differentiated and even
before they can talk
6 months – respond different to male and female voice
9 – 12 months – tell difference in male versus female faces
24 – 36 months – infants associate gender typical toys (dolls) with the face of the correct gender
Boys slower than girls with this knowledge

How Parents Shape Gender Differently

US parents promote GENDER TYPING = socialisation process by which children learn behaviour
that their culture considers appropriate for each sex
Fathers treat boys and girls more differently than mothers do. During the first year fathers talk more and
spend more time with boys, and mothers with girls. Girls at this age tend to be more talkative than boys.
Fathers of toddlers play more roughly with their sons and show more sensitivity to daughters.

CONTACT WITH OTHER CHILDREN

Siblings

Siblings – longest lasting relationship you will ever have

Arrival of a New Baby

Varied reactions from children – positive and negative
Adjustment to new baby depends on age, quality of relationship with mother and family atmosphere
Attachment to mother becomes temporarily less secure
The birth of a younger sibling may change the way a mother acts toward an older child, at least until new
baby settled.
Older brothers especially, may show temporary behaviour problems
On the positive side, arrival of new baby tends to enhance the older child’s language development,
perhaps because the child talks more than before with the father and other family members.

How Siblings Interact

Sibling relationships play a distinct role in socialisation
Sibling Conflict can become a vehicle for understanding social relationship
More securely attached siblings are to parents the better they get along
Young children usually become attached to their older siblings, although rivalry may be present, so is
affection.
Conflict increases after younger child reaches 18 months, due to increased interaction, cognitive and
social understanding grows
Constructive conflict helps children recognise each other’s needs, wishes and points of view.

Sociability with Non-Siblings

Toddlers learn by imitating one another, which leads to frequent verbal communication “look at me”
which helps coordinate joint activity
At one 1year more attention is paid to toys than to people, by 1 1/2 -3years attention back to people.
Cooperative activity develops during 2nd / 3rd years as social understanding grows
Conflict, which is inevitable, can help children learn how to negotiate and resolve disputes
Sociability influenced by temperament and experience
Babies who spend time together become sociable earlier
CHILDREN ON WORKING PARENTS
Effects of maternal employment

Negative effects on cognitive development at 15months – 3years was evident when mothers worked 30 or
more hours a week by the child’s 9th month. Maternal sensitivity, a high quality home environment, and
high-quality child care lessened, but did not eliminate these negative effects.

On the other hand, boys and girls in low-income families tend to benefit academically from the more
favourable environment a working mother’s income can provide.
The economic and social benefit s of maternal employment may outweigh any disadvantages resulting
from reduced time spent with the child.
Differences in time spent with infants were modestly related to maternal sensitivity but did not affect
social ort cognitive outcomes. Infants whose mothers spent more time with them did have more
stimulating home environments, but so did infants whose mothers spent more time at work. It seems
then, that mothers who are temperamentally prone to be sensitive and to provide stimulating, warm home
environments may find ways to do so whether or not they are employed.
CHAPTER 10 – COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD
PIAGETIAN APPROACH: THE PREOPERATIONAL CHILD
Piaget: the pre-operational stage (Age 2 – 7 years) – so called because children at this age are not ready
to engage in logical mental operations
Characterised by great expansion of symbolic thought, or representational ability
Growing understanding of causality, identities, categorisation and number

Advances of Preoperational Thought *Study table 10-1 and Table 10-2

pg270*

The Symbolic Function

The symbolic function: The ability to use symbols, mental representation, words, numbers, images to
which a person (child) has attached meaning
Sensory cue not necessary
Symbols help children remember and think about things without having them physically present
Symbolic representation is shown through deferred imitation(mental representation of an observed action)
, pretend play and language
Pretend play: play involving imaginary people / situations (fantasy play, dramatic play, imaginary play)
Language uses a system of symbols to communicate

Understanding of Objects in Space

Until age 3, children do not grasp relationship between pictures, maps, models and the larger / smaller
objects they represent
Older preschoolers can use simple maps, and they can transfer the spatial understanding gained from
working with models to maps and vice versa

Understanding of Causality

Piaget: Preoperational children cannot reason logically about cause and effect – they reason by
transduction = they mentally link two events whether or not there is a logically causal relationship
When tested on situations they can understand, young children do grasp cause and effect
In naturalistic observations of 2 ½ - 5 year olds everyday conversations with their parents, they show
flexible causal reasoning, appropriate to the subject
Pre-schoolers view all causal relationships as equally and absolutely predictable

Understanding of Identities and Categorisation

Identities
The concept that people and many things are basically the same, even if they change form, size or
appearance
Categorisation / classification
Requires a child to identify similarities and differences in order to order many aspects of their lives such
as classifying people as “good” and “bad” etc
Categorisation is a cognitive ability with psychosocial implications
Type of categorisation – ANIMISM - tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive (affected by
culture)

Number

ORDINALITY - concept of comparing quantities (more, less, bigger, smaller)

Seems to begin @ 12/18 months –but is limited
@ 3 ½ and older children apply the CARDINALITY PRINCIPLE in counting = children younger than
3.5 yrs recite number-names 1 – 6 but cannot give total amount of items (6)
Intuitively use fingers and objects to count
@ 4 – bigger vocabulary, solve numerical problems up to 9 objects
@ school entry – number skills include
Counting
Number knowledge (ordinality)
Number transformations (+ and -)
Estimation
Recognition of number patterns (2 + 2 = 4 / 3 + 1 = 4 )

Immature Aspects of Preoperational Thought

Piaget: main characteristic of preoperational thought = CENTRATION = tendency to focus on one aspect
of a situation and neglect others
DECENTER – ability to think about several aspects of a situation simultaneously; causes children to
come to illogical conclusions

EGOCENTRISM

A form of centration – inability to consider another person’s point of view

Egocentrism may help explain why young children sometimes have trouble separating reality from
what goes on in their head and why they may show confusion about what causes what.

CONSERVATION *Study Table 10-4 pg274*

Example of centration – two things / objects that are equal remain so if their appearance is altered, so long
as nothing is added or taken away. Preoperational children cannot consider height and width at the same
time – they centre on one aspect and therefore cannot think logically
IRREVERSIBILTY – failure to understand that an operation can go in two or more directions.
Preoperational children think as if they were watching a slide show with a series of static frames – they
focus on successive states and don’t recognise the transformation from one state to another

Do Young Children Have Theory of Mind?

Theory of Mind: Awareness and understanding of mental processes

Piaget: under 6 years children have no theory of mind – they cannot distinguish between thoughts /
dreams and real physical entities (abstract methodology)
Recent research: between 2 – 5 years (especially age4) children’s knowledge about mental processes
grows dramatically (found by using concrete examples)

Knowledge about Thinking and Mental Stages

AGE Knowledge
3 – 5 years Understand that thinking occurs in the mind;
that it can deal with either real or imaginary
things; that someone can be thinking of one
thing while doing something else; that a person
whose ears and eyes are covered can think about
objects; that someone who looks pensive is
probably thinking; and that thinking is different
from seeing, talking, touching, and knowing.
Pre-schoolers Believe that mental activity starts and stops
Little / no awareness that they think in words, or
think while listening, reading, talking
Believe they can dream about anything they
wish
Middle childhood Children realise the mind is continuously active
5 years More understanding that physical experiences,
emotions, knowledge, and thoughts can affect
the content of dreams
11 years Realise they cannot control their dreams

Social Cognition– recognition that others have mental states – accompanies decline of egocentrism and
development of empathy

False Beliefs and Deception

AGE Understanding
3 years Lacks understanding that people can hold false
beliefs, which flow from the realisation that
people hold mental representations of reality,
which can sometimes be wrong (crayons in a
candy box)
May stem from egocentric thinking – belief that
everyone else knows what they know and have
trouble understanding that their beliefs can be
false
4 years Understand that people who see / hear same
event may come away with different belief
6 year s Realise 2 people can have different
interpretations of the same event

Deception
Deliberate effort to plant false believe in someone’s mind
Suppression of impulse to be truthful
Piaget: children regard all falsehoods as lies
Recent research: 3 year olds have an understanding of the role of intent in deception

Distinguishing between Appearance and Reality

Piaget: 5/6 years old distinguish between what seems to be and what is – research confirms this.
3 year olds – confuse appearance with reality. However, putting the task in the context of deception helps
children realise that an object can be perceived as other than what it actually is.

Distinguishing between Fantasy and Reality

Between 18 months and 3 years – children learn to distinguish between real and imagined events
3 years old:
Knows the difference between a real dog and a dog in a dream and between something invisible (air) and
something imaginary
They can pretend and they know when someone is pretending
Knows the difference between trying to do something and pretending to do something
Magical thinking: is a way to explain events that don’t have obvious realistic explanations or simply to
indulge in pleasures of pretending (imaginary friends). They are aware of the magical nature of such
fantasy figures but are more willing to entertain the possibility that they may be real
Magical thinking tends to decline near end of preschool period.

Influences on Individual Difference in Theory of Mind Development

Some children develop theory of mind abilities earlier than others – reflects brain maturation and
improvements in cognition.
Social competence and language development contribute to an understanding of thoughts and emotions
Children whose teachers and peers rate them high on social are better able t recognise false beliefs, to
distinguish between and real and feigned emotion, and to take another person’s point of view. These
children also tend to have strong language skills.
The kind of talk a child hears at home may affects the child’s understanding of mental states
Families that encourage pretend play – stimulate the development of theory of mind skills
Bilingual children know an object can be represented linguistically in more than one way, this may help
them see that different people have different perspectives
Bilingual children also recognise the need to match language to their partner, therefore they are more
aware of others mental state
Bilingual children tend to have better attentional control and this may enable them to focus on what is
true and real rather then what seems to be so.

INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH: MEMORY

DEVELOPMENT
Implicit Memory:
Develops in early infancy
Remembering that occurs without effort or conscious awareness
Pertains to habits and skills (drive a car, throw a ball)

Young children don’t remember as well as old ones

They focus on the details of an event which are easily forgotten
Older children focus on the gist
Young children fail to notice important aspects of a situation such as when and where it occurred

Basic Processes and Capacities (filing system)

Information processing theorists – memory has three steps

ENCODING
Putting information into a folder, a label or code attached for ease of retrieval
Information is prepared for long term storage
STORAGE
Retention of information in memory for future use
RETRIEVAL
Process by which information is accessed or recalled from memory storage

Efficiency of this system varies from person to person

Brain has three storehouses

SENSORY MEMORY – initial brief temporary storage for incoming sensory information
Show’s little change from infancy on
Without processing, (encoding) sensory memory fades quickly
WORKING MEMORY - short term storage of information being actively processed: trying to
understand, remember, or think about
Partly located in the prefrontal cortex: the large portion of the frontal lobe directly behind the forehead
Efficiency limited by capacity
Capacity increases rapidly with age
Growth of working memory allows development of: EXECUTIVE FUNCTION – the conscious control
of thoughts, emotions and actions to accomplish goals or solve problems
Emerges around the end of 1st year, develops in spurts with age
Changes in executive function between ages 2-5yrs enable children to make up and use complex rules for
solving problems
CENTRAL EXECUTIVE (Baddeley’s model) controls processing operations in working memory
It orders information encoded for transfer to long term memory (storehouse of unlimited capacity that
holds information for long periods)
Central executive also retrieves information from LTM for further processing
It can temporarily expand the capacity of the working memory by moving information into two separate
subsidiary systems (verbal and visual / spatial) while the central executive is occupied with other tasks.

Recognition and Recall – Types of Retrieval

RECOGNITION – ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus

RECALL – Ability to reproduce knowledge from memory
Preschool children do better on recognition
The more familiar children are with an item, the better they can recall it
Recall depends on motivation and on the strategies a child uses to enhance it
Forming and Retaining Childhood Memories

Early childhood memories rarely deliberate – children remember events that made a strong impression

Early Memories: Three Types

GENERIC MEMORY
Age two – produces a script of familiar routines to guide behaviour
A general outline of a familiar repeated event without details of time or place
EPISODIC MEMORY
LTM of specific experiences or events linked to a time and place
Early episodic memories enable young children to build a mental picture of their world by organising
their experience around events.
Young children remember more clearly events that are new to them
Young children have limited memory capacity therefore episodic memories are temporary – unless they
recur several times in which case they are transferred to generic memory
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY
Specific and long-lasting memories that from a person’s life history
Only memories that have special personal meaning are stored
Emerges age 3 – 4, continuous by 4 ½
Late arrival possibly due to the fact that children cannot store memories about themselves until the
required development of a concept of self emerges, around which to organise those memories

Influences on Memory Retention

Why do some memories last longer than others?
Uniqueness of event
Child’s active participation (pre-schoolers remember what they did , better than what they saw)
Ability to talk about an event reinforces memories
Children who jointly handled and jointly discussed various activities have a better recall later on (1 -3
days)
The way an adult talks about shared experiences will influence memory retention
Adults with a REPETITIVE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE tend to repeat their own previous made
statements / questions, more focused on checking the child’s memory performance
ELABORATIVE STYLE – parent would move onto a different aspect of the event – focus more on
having a mutually rewarding conversation and affirming responses
Empty talk conveys no specific info
ELABORATIVE TALK enhances recall by
Providing labels for aspects or events by giving it in an orderly, comprehensible structure
May create boundaries around children’s mental representations of the event, preventing intrusion by
irrelevant or distorted information
Children remember better when a parent supports their autonomy and is not controlling, when they follow
the child’s lead, encouraging the child to continues or expand on what he or she is trying to say.

Constructing Shared Memories: The Role of Culture

Social interaction model – based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory – children construct

autobiographical memories through conversations with adults about shared events
By reminiscing together – adult provides linguistic scaffolding to help child focus and organise a memory
and compare that memory to what an adult remembers
Culture affects what children remember
US children more detailed, more opinions and emotions, are chief characters
Chinese children – accounts are shorter, succinct and more centred on routines and group activity

INTELLIGENCE: PSYCHOMETRIC AND VYGOTSKIAN APPROACHES

Influences on Measured Intelligence

IQ score= measure of how well a child can do at certain tasks, at a certain time, in comparison with
others of the same age.
Factors that affect how well a child does on an IQ test:
Temperament
Social and emotional maturity
Ease in the testing situation
Pre-literacy or literacy skills
Socioeconomic status – affects health, stress, parenting practice and home atmosphere
Ethnicity and culture
Match between child’s cognitive style and tasks proposed
Influence of home environment is questionable – parental IQ influences home environment which
impacts child

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Private Speech – Piaget vs. Vygotsky Box 10-2 pg285

Private speech is speaking aloud to yourself
2 – 3 yrs – crib talk, playing with sounds and worlds
4 – 5 yrs – used to express fantasies and emotions
Older children – think aloud or mutter

Piaget:
Private speech is a sign of cognitive immaturity
Young children are egocentric, they cannot recognise others viewpoints and therefore cannot
communicate meaningfully, therefore simply vocalise what’s on their mind
Young children cannot symbolise (distinguish between words and the actions the words stand for)
By end of pre-operational stage, cognitive maturation and social experience result in children becoming
less egocentric and more capable of symbolic thought – therefore discard private speech

Vygotsky
Private speech helps young children integrate language with thought (Piaget and Vygotsky)
Not egocentric but a special form of communication, conversation with the self
It serves important function between early social speech and inner speech – a transition towards the
internalisation of socially derived control of behaviour
Private speech stimulated by social experience
Tends to increase when child is trying to perform difficult tasks

Preparation for Literacy

Emergent Literacy: Pre-schoolers development of skills, knowledge and attitudes that underlie
reading and writing
Pre-reading:
Oral Language skills – vocabulary, syntax, narrative structure.
Understanding that language used to communicate
Specific skills that help in decoding the printed word
Phonological skills
Phonemic awareness – realisation that words are composed of distinct phonemes (sounds) and phoneme
grapheme correspondence – the ability to link sounds with corresponding letters

Heredity influences literacy development

Social interaction can promote emergent literacy
Reading to children is the most effective path to literacy
Moderate TV exposure can help prepare children for literacy and parent talking to children about what
they see on TV

CHAPTER 11: PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY

CHILDHOOD

THE DEVELOPING SELF – Who in the world am I?

The Self-Concept and Cognitive Development
Self-Concept: total picture of our abilities and traits
sense of self, a total descriptive and evaluative picture of one abilities and traits
A cognitive construction that determines how we feel about ourselves and guides our actions
Comes into focus in toddlerhood
Children incorporate into their self-image their growing understanding of how others see them
Changes in Self-Definition: The 5 – 7 Shift

Self- definition is a cluster of characteristics used to describe oneself

Changes in self-definition reflects self-concept development
@ 4 – description is concrete, observable behaviour, external characteristics, physical features,
preferences, possessions, and members of household, specific to skills. Unrealistically positive.
@ 7 – description is generalised traits – popular, smart, dumb, athletic, recognise that you can have
conflicting emotions, and be self-critical while holding a positive overall self-concept

A NEO-Piagetian analysis describes the 5 – 7 shift as occurring in three stages

@ age4 – first step: SINGLE REPRESENTATION
Children describe themselves in terms of individual unconnected characteristics
One dimensional, all or nothing
Cannot imagine having 2 emotions at the same time - cannot decentre
Cannot acknowledge the REAL SELF (person one actually is) is not the same as the IDEAL SELF (self
one would like to be)
Therefore describes himself as a paragon of virtue and ability

@ age5/6 – 2nd step: REPRESENTATIONAL MAPPING

Child begins to make logical connections between one aspect of himself and another
“I can run fast and climb high. I can throw a ball far and be on a team”
Still sees these characteristics in all or nothing terms

Middle childhood – REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS

Children integrate specific features of the self into a general multidimensional concept
Self-descriptions become more balanced and realistic: “I’m good at hockey but bad at maths”

Self-Esteem

Evaluative part of self-concept

The judgement a person makes about their overall self-worth. Self esteem is based on children’s growing
cognitive ability to describe and define themselves.

Developmental changes in self-esteem

@ 8 years – children first articulate a concept of self-worth

@ 4 years – show by their behaviour that they have positive and negative perceptions about themselves –
although not necessarily based on reality
Tend to accept judgement of adults
All or nothing concept of self-esteem “I am good” “I am bad”
@ middle childhood- self-esteem becomes more realistic, as personal evaluations on competence, based
on internalisation of parental and societal standards begin to shape and maintain self-worth

Contingent Self-Esteem - The “helpless” pattern

High self-esteem motivates child to achieve

If self-esteem is contingent on success, children may view failure / criticism as indication of their worth
and may feel helpless to do better
Unconditional self-esteem – child will keep trying
“Helpless” child – feel ashamed and give up – attribute poor performance or social rejection to their
personality deficiencies. They become demoralised when they fail.
Children with non-contingent self-esteem tend to attribute failure or disappointment to factors outside
themselves or to the need to try harder. They persevere.
High self-esteem – parents give specific focused feedback – “look – your tag is showing” as opposed to
“when are you going to learn to dress yourself”

Erikson: Initiative versus Guilt – (third stage of psychosocial development)

Conflict arises from a sense of purpose which spurs a child to plan and carry out activities, and the
growing consciousness / moral reservations that may prevent them from carrying out plans
When the desire to do is reconciled with the desire for approval, the virtue of PURPOSE results – the
courage to envision and pursue goals without being unduly inhibited by feeling so guilt / fear of
punishment
If the conflict is not resolved – the child may grow into an adult that who continually strives for success
or shows off, is inhibited and unspontaneous or self righteous and intolerant; or suffers from impotence or
psychosomatic illness.
With ample opportunities to do things on their own – but under guidance and consistent limits – children
can attain a healthy balance and avoid the tendency to overdo competition and achievement and the
tendency to be repressed and guilt ridden.

Trust versus mistrust HOPE

Autonomy versus shame and doubt WILL
Initiative versus guilt PURPOSE

GENDER

Gender Differences

Gender Role Development

Gender identity – awareness of one’s maleness / femaleness and all it implies
An important aspect of developing self-concept

Gender Differences – Psychological & behavioural differences between male and female

AGE Boys Girls

Babies Few measurable differences
3 More alike than different. 78%
are small to negligible

2 Greater propensity for

aggression
Puberty Superior motor performance
From infancy on Better attention span
Better inhibiting inappropriate
behaviour
More active
More intense pleasure in
physical activity
Intelligence test scores equal
Math skills equal
Excel in verbal analogies, Excel on verbal fluency,
mathematical word problems, mathematical computation and
and memory for spatial memory for object location
configurations emerge in
elementary school or later
Use more responsive language,
praise and agreement,
acknowledgement and
elaborating on what some said.

Gender differences are valid for

groups of girls and boys – not
for individuals

Perspectives on Gender Development – 3 Aspects of Gender Identity

Gender Roles: Behaviours, interests, attitudes, skills and personality traits that a culture
considers appropriate for each sex – differs for males and females
Gender Typing: Socialisation process taking place in early childhood whereby children learn
appropriate gender roles
Gender Stereotypes: Overgeneralisations about male and female behaviour “all males are aggressive”
Cognitive Approaches on Gender Development

Lawrence KOHLBERG’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Gender knowledge precedes gendered behaviour “I am a boy – so I do boy things”

Children actively search for clues about gender in their social world
They adopt behaviours they perceive as consistent with their gender, therefore gender concepts influence
behaviour
GENDER CONSTANCY / SEX-CATEGORY CONSTANCY
A child’s realisation that they will always be either male or female, once this is realised they will be
motivated to adopt behaviours appropriate to their sex

Gender constancy develops in three stages

GENDER IDENTITY
2/3 years – awareness of own gender and that of others

GENDER STABILITY
Comes with a girls realisation she will grow up to be a woman and a boy will grow up to be a man –
gender does not change
NB – they may base judgements about gender on superficial appearances (cloths/hair) and stereotyped
behaviour
GENDER CONSISTENCY
3 – 7 years or later
Realisation that a girl remains a girl even if her hair is short and she wears trousers and;
Boy remains boy even if his hair is long and he wears earings
Once children realise that their behaviour or dress will not affect their sex, they become less rigid in their
adherence to gender norms.

Recent cognitive developmental theorist suggest

Gender typing may be heightened by the more sophisticated understanding that gender constancy brings.
Each stage of gender constancy increases children’s receptivity to gender relevant information
The achievement of gender identity may motivate children to learn more about gender
Gender stability and gender consistency may motivate them to be sure they are acting “like a boy” or
“like a girl”

Gender-Schema Theory – Sandra BEM

Like cognitive development theory
Gender Schema theory views children as actively extracting knowledge about gender from
environment, before engaging in gender typed behaviour BUT places more influence on the role of
culture
Once children know what sex they are – they develop a concept of what it means to be boy or girl in their
culture

Gender-Schema = a mentally organised network of information about gender that influences behaviour
Develops with age in response to experiences
As knowledge about gender increases it influences what they do, what they pay attention to and what they
remember.
The role of Socialisation

Socialisation begins in infancy – before an understanding of gender begins to form

Children begin to regulate activities
Standards of behaviour become internalised
Child feels good when they live up to their internalised standards of behaviour and bad when they don’t
@ 3 / 4 years - Self-regulation of gender related behaviour

Family Influence
Experiences in the family seem to reinforce gender typical preferences and attitudes
Difficult to separate environment and genetic influences
Boys more strongly gender socialised concerning play preferences than girls (dolls vs. trucks)
Girls have more freedom with toys, clothes, games
Egalitarian household – father’s role in gender socialisation important: children whose fathers did
more housework and child care were less aware of gender stereotypes and engaged in less gender-typed
play
Siblings influence gender development – the 2nd born child is more like older sibling

Peer Influences
By age 3, pre-schoolers play in sex-segregated groups which reinforces gender typing
Peer groups show more disapproval of boys who act like girls, than of girls who act like boys

Cultural Influences
TV is a major channel for transmission of cultural attitudes towards gender
Books – source of gender stereotype – woman in domestic roles, not as pilots!

Biosocial Theory
Psychological aspects of gender arise from interaction between physical characteristics of sexes, their
developmental experiences and character of societies they live in.

PLAY: THE BUSINESS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

Play is important to development of body and brain & contributes to all domains of development
Stimulate the senses
Exercise muscles
Coordinate sight and movement
Gain mastery over body
Make decisions
Acquire new skills
Lay the foundation for math concepts
Learn skill of negotiation and conflict resolution
Infancy – physical play is aimless rhythmic movements
Pre-schoolers – run, jump, hop, throw (motor skills improve)
Middle childhood – “rough and tumble play”

Cognitive Levels of Play

4 levels of play – shows increasing cognitive complexity (Smilansky)
Infancy: FUNCTIONAL play / Loco-motor play
Repeated practice in large muscle movement – roll a ball
CONSTRUCTIVE play / Object play
Use of objects of materials to make something – house of blocks, crayon drawing (10-15% of time)
DRAMATIC play / pretend play / fantasy, imaginative play
Involves make believe objects, actions, roles
Rests on the symbolic function which emerges during last part of 2 nd year
Functional, constructive and dramatic all occur at roughly the same ages
Peaks during pre-school years – increasing in frequency and complexity and then declines as school age
children become more involved in:
FORMAL GAMES WITH RULES
Organised games with rules and procedures hopscotch / marbles

Dramatic play @ 2 years =

Imitative of familiar scripts
Involves a combination of cognition, emotion, language, sensorimotor behaviour
Children who watch a great deal of TV play with less imagination – accustomed to absorbing images and
plots rather than making their own
Quality of dramatic play associated with social and linguistic competence
May further develop the development of theory of mind skills.
The peak period of pretend play, early childhood, is also the peak period for acquisition of such skills as
recognizing false beliefs.

How Gender Influences Play

Boys engage in more physical play than girls

Both will play with objects, but boy’s more vigorously
Girls tend to use object for making things, boy’s for weapons
Sex segregation common in preschools (all cultures)
Adult reinforcement + Sex hormones + gender identification – influence gender differences in play
Influence of peer group more powerful
Boys – active, outdoor, physical, large mixed age group – more strongly gender stereotyped
Girls – quiet, harmonious, one playmate – structured activities and more dramatic play
In mixed sex groups – play tends to revolve around traditional masculine activities

PARENTING
Forms of Discipline

Discipline – methods of moulding children’s character and of teaching them to exercise self-control and
engage in acceptable behaviour

Reinforcement and Punishment

Children usually learn more from being reinforced for good behaviour
EXTERNAL reinforcement = Tangible – sweets, money, gold stars or Intangible – smile, hug, praise,
special privilege
Should be received consistently after showing desired behaviour
Eventually behaviour should provide its own INTERNAL reward – a sense of pleasure /
accomplishment
When the parent ignores when the child behaves well and scolds and spanks when bad – they are actually
reinforcing misbehaviour with attention
Still punishment such as isolation or denial of privileges, is necessary
Must be consistent, immediate and tied to the offence
Must be administered calmly and in private and aimed at eliciting compliance, not guilt
Most effective when accompanied with short explanation
Harsh punishment can be counterproductive
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT = The use of physical force with the intention of causing pain, but not
injury, so as to correct / control behaviour - this has NEGATIVE consequences
PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION – verbal attack by a parent – results in psychological harm to the
child

Power Assertion, Induction and Withdrawal of Love

POWER ASSERTION – least effective

Disciplinary strategy designed to discourage undesirable behaviour through physical or verbal
enforcement of parental control – demands, threats, withdrawal of privileges
INDUCTION TECHNIQUES – most effective
Designed to encourage desirable behaviour by reasoning with a child – setting limits, demonstrating
logical consequences of an action, explaining , discussing , negotiating
WITHDRAWAL OF LOVE
Ignoring, isolating or showing dislike

Parents use reasoning to get a child to show concern for others

Use power assertion to stop play that gets too rough
Effectiveness of parental discipline may hinge on how well child understands and accepts parents
message, both cognitively and emotionally
A child may be more motivated to accept the message if the parents are normally warm and responsive
and if they arouse the child’s empathy for someone the child has harmed.
How well children accept a disciplinary method also depends on whether the type of discipline used is
normative, that is, accepted in the family’s culture
Child interprets and responds to discipline in the context of an on-going relationship with a parent.

Parental Styles

Diana Baumrind and the Effectiveness of Authoritative Parenting

3 parenting styles and typical behaviour patterns of children raised according to each
AUTHORITARIAN
Value control and unquestioning obedience
Make children conform rigidly to a set standard of conduct
Punishment for violation of standards using power assertive techniques
Detached, less warm parents
Children = discontented, withdrawn, mistrusting
PERMISSIVE
Value self-expression and self-regulation
Make few demands and allow children to monitor their own activities
Consult children about policy decisions and rarely punish
Warm, non-controlling, undemanding
Preschool children – immature, least self-controlled and least exploratory
AUTHORITATIVE
Values child individuality but also stress social constraints
Confidence in their ability to guide children
Respect children’s independence decisions, interests, opinions and personalities
Loving and accepting and demand good behaviour – firm in maintaining standards
Impose limited, judicious punishment within context of warm loving relationship
Favour inductive techniques in discipline, explaining the reasoning behind their stands and encouraging
verbal negotiation / give and take
Children secure in knowing they are loved and what is expected of them
Pre-schoolers most self-reliant, self-controlled, self-assertive, exploratory and content
Children – perform well, fulfil commitments

Neglectful/ Uninvolved
Sometimes because of stress or depression, focus on own needs rather than those of children.
Neglectful parenting been linked with a variety of behavioural disorders in childhood and adolescence

SPECIAL BEHAVIOURAL CONCERNS

Pro-social Behaviour = voluntary activity intended to benefit another

ALTRUISM
Motivation to help another person with no expectation or reward
Often entail cost, self-sacrifice, risk
Is at the heart of pro-social behaviour
Pro-social personality / disposition emerges early and remains consistent throughout life
Genes and environment contribute to individual differences in pro-social behaviour
Best way for parents to foster pro-social behaviour is to:
Be nurturing caregivers and to be models of helpfulness and empathy towards others
Make sure that their children hear stories and see films and TV that convey the message that altruistic
behaviour, cooperation and helpfulness are desirable
Use inductive discipline
Study of twins – pro-social behaviour rated at 3,4,7
Parents showed affection and inductive discipline
Encourages natural tendency to pro-social behaviour
Motives for pro-social behaviour:
Pre-schoolers = egocentric motives, earn praise and avoid disapproval, weigh up costs and benefits

Aggression = instrument to reach a goal

Instrumental aggression – snatch away a ball to get the ball – not to hurt or to dominate
Surfaces mostly during social play; children who fight the most tend to be the most sociable and
competent
In fact, the ability to show some instrumental aggression may be a necessary step in psychosocial
development.
As children develop more self-control and become better able to express themselves verbally, they
typically shift from showing aggression with blows to showing it with words.

Gender differences in aggression

BOYS GIRLS
More physically & verbally aggressive –
apparent by age 2
Engage in OVERT DIRECT aggression – Engage in RELATIONAL, SOCIAL aggression
aggression openly directed at its target – more subtle, damaging or interfering with
relationships, reputation or psychological well-
being (teasing, manipulating, rumours, name
calling) It can be either overt or covert(indirect)

Influences on aggression
Children who are more intense emotionally and low in self-control tend to express anger more
aggressively
Physical aggression genetically inherited
Social aggression environmentally influenced
Insecure attachment and lack of maternal warmth in infancy predict early aggression in childhood
Manipulative behaviours such as withdrawal of love and making a child feel guilty or ashamed may foster
social aggression.
Negative parent-child relationships may set the stage for prolonged, destructive sibling conflicts, in which
children imitate their parent’s hostile behaviour.
Aggression may be bred from a stressful, un-stimulating home environment, harsh discipline, lack of
maternal warmth and social support, exposure to aggression and violence and transient peer groups which
prevent stable friendships

Fearfulness
Young children’s fear stems from mostly intense fantasy life and tendency to confuse appearance with
reality
Older children fears more realistic and self-evaluative and stem from personal experience or hearing
about something
Triggered by appraisals of danger
Parents allay children’s fears by instilling a sense of trust and normal caution without being too protective
Reassure and encourage open expression of feelings
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION = Therapeutic technique
Child is exposed to gradually increasing amounts of feared object / situation

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHILDREN

Sibling / peer relationships strengthen social cognition or ‘mind reading ‘ – the ability to understand
others intentions , feelings
Relationships provide a measuring stick for self-efficacy = child’s sense of capability to master
challenges and achieve goals

Siblings – or Their Absence

Brothers and sisters
Sibling disputes – socialisation opportunities – children learn to stand up for principles and negotiate
disagreements
Older siblings – initiated more behaviour, younger imitate older
Same sex siblings – girls more so – are close and play more peacefully than boy/girl
Because older siblings dominate younger, the quality of the relationship is more affected by emotional
and social adjustments of the older
The quality of sibling relationships tends to carry over to relationships with other children.
Friendships can influence sibling relationship too
For a young child at risk of behavioural problems, a positive relationship with either a sibling or a friend
can buffer the effect of a negative relationship with the other

The Only Child

Freud: only child at risk for problems of sexual identity
Occupational, educational, verbal, intelligence – “onlies’ perform slightly better
More motivated to achieve, higher self-esteem

Playmates and Friends

Toddlers play alongside but @ age3 friendship starts – through which they learn to get along with others,
learn to solve problems, empathy, moral values and gender role norms, roles and behaviour

Choosing playmates and friends

Pre-schoolers – choose children of own age and sex
4 – 7 years = important feature of friendship is doing things together , liking and caring for each other and
helping
Younger children rate physical traits higher than older children and affection and support lower
Pre-schoolers prefer pro-social playmates
Reject disruptive, demanding, aggressive children and ignore withdrawn and tentative children
Well-liked pre-schoolers and those that are socially competent cope well with anger, respond directly,
avoid insults and threats

CHAPTER 12
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH IN MIDDLE
CHILDHOOD
(6-12YEARS)

“School goIng years”

Physical development much slower and gradual
Physical changes: Brain, respiratory system, circulatory system and motor skills
Play increases:
Gives pleasure
Satisfies need to explore
Desire to experience something new, novel
Enhances physical development, health, cognitive and creative skills and social functioning
Helps them deal with anxieties and master conflict

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND PHYSICAL PLAY

*Table 12-1 pg337*
Age Girls - Selected Behaviour Boys – Selected Behaviour
6 Superior in movement accuracy Superior in forceful less
 complex acts

7 One footed balancing without

looking

8 Have 12 pound pressure on grip

strength

9 Run at 16.5 feet per second

Throw a small ball 70 feet
10 Can judge and intercept
pathways of small balls thrown
from a distance

11 A standing broad jump of 4.5 A Standing broad jump of 5 feet

feet

Recess time Play - promotes growth in agility and social competence and fosters adjustment to
school

Games – informal and spontaneous

Boys more physically active
Girls favour games that include verbal expression or counting aloud
Rough and tumble play – 10% of children partake: Vigorous play – wrestling, hitting, chasing, laughing
and screaming
Hones skeletal and muscle development
Channels aggression and competition
Offers safe practice for hunting and fighting skills
Becomes a way to establish dominance within peer group

Organised sports
Girls tend to spend less time than boys on sports and more time on housework, studying, personal
care
Regular physical activity has immediate and long term health benefits:
It improves motor skills
Weight control
Lower blood pressure
Improved cardio-respiratory functioning
Enhanced self-esteem and well being

CHAPTER 13 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE

CHILDHOOD
Cognition:
Inner processes and products of the mind that lead to ‘knowing and understanding’
Includes all mental activities
School age children have certain cognitive limitations
They are more systematic and objective thinkers than younger children
Cannot think abstractly

PIAGETIAN APPROACH: THE CONCRETE OPERATIONAL CHILD

@ age 7 = stage of concrete operations: uses mental operations to solve concrete (actual) problems
Think logically and take multiple aspects of a situation into account
Real situations in the here and now

Cognitive Advances

Advances in Selected Cognitive Abilities during Middle Childhood *Table 13-1 pg 351*

Ability Example
Spatial Thinking Use map/model to search for hidden object
Give someone else directions to find object
Estimate distance – find their way to and from
school
Judge how long it will take to get from A to B
Cause and Effect Understands physical attributes of an object will
affect weight (number of objects matter – not
their colour)
DOESN’T know that position and placement of
objects will make a difference
Categorization Sort objects into their categories – shape, colour,
subclass (rose) has fewer members than the class
of which it’s a part (flower)
Seriation and Transitive Inference Arrange sticks from shortest to longest
Insert intermediate stick correctly in place
1st stick longer than 2nd & 2nd longer then 3rd –
can deduce that 1st is longer than 3rd
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Can solve inductive and deductive problems
Knows that certain inductive conclusions (based
on a particular premise) are less certain than
deductive ones based on a general premise
Conservation @ 7 knows that a ball of clay in different shapes
still hold the same amount of clay
@ 9 knows ball and sausage shape of clay weigh
the same
Early adolescence – know they displace the
same liquid if dropped into water
Number and Mathematics Count in their head
Add by counting from the smallest number
Do simple story problems
Space and Causality (1 + 2)

Categorisation (3)
Helps children think logically and includes:
SERIATION: arrange objects in a series according to a dimension (length – short to long / colour – light
to dark)
TRANSITIVE INFERENCE: Ability to infer a relationship between 2 objects, from the
relationship
between each of them and a 3rd object
CLASS INCLUSION: Ability to see relationship between whole and it’s part (rose is smaller
part of flowers)
Inductive Reasoning:
Children in concrete operations stage move from particular observation to a general conclusion
“My dog barks, so does yours

Deductive Reasoning
Develops in adolescence – general statement or premise to a specific statement

Conservation
Understands principle of identity – clay is the same clay despite a diff. shape – 7/8 years
PRINCIPLE OF REVERSIBILITY Change sausage clay back into ball of clay – 7/8 years
DECENTER can focus on length and width (preoperational can only focus on one
dimension)
CONSERVATION OF WEIGHT 9 – 10 years - solve the problem of whether the ball and sausage
weigh the same
CONSERVATION OF VOLUME 12 years – sausage or ball displace equal amounts of liquid

HORIZONTAL DECALAGE: Piaget’s term for child’s inability to transfer learning about one type of
conservation to other types – very concrete thinking

Number and Mathematics

@ 6 /7 can count in their heads and count on: to add 5 and 3, they start counting
at 5 and then go on to 6,7 and 8 to add the 3.
@9 include subtraction
@8/9 solve simple story problems
Ability to estimate progresses with age
Number line estimation: distance between numbers 1 – 100
Computational estimation: estimating the sum in addition
Numerosity estimation: number of pieces of candy in a jar
Measurement estimation: Estimate length of a line

Influences of Neurological Development and Schooling

The shift from rigid illogical thinking of younger children to the flexible logical thinking of older children
Depends on neurological development and experience in adapting to the environment
Children who achieved conservation of volume tasks had different brain wave patterns

Moral Reasoning
Younger than 7 years - Immature moral judgement centre on degree of offence (large ink stain)
More mature judgements consider intent
Piaget – moral reasoning develops in 3 stages
Age 2 – 7: Preoperational stage = Rigid obedience to authority
Young children are egocentric therefore they cannot imagine more than one way of looking at a moral
issue
Rules cannot be bent / changed
Behaviour is either right or wrong
Any offense deserved punishment, regardless of intent
Age 7 – 12: Concrete operations = increasing flexibility
More interactions and more viewpoints
Develop a sense of justice, fairness
Consider multiple aspects of a situation therefore can take intent into consideration
@ 12 – capable of formal reasoning = Equity
Belief that everyone should be treated alike and take specific circumstances into account

INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH: ATTENTION, MEMORY,

AND PLANNING
Executive Function: Conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve
Problems.

How Do Executive Skills Develop?

Infancy to adolescence – a gradual development of brain and development of executive function

PREFONTAL CORTEX: the region that enables planning, judgement, decision making
PROCESSING SPEED:
measured by reaction time – as pathways become myelinated, reaction time improves dramatically -
especially in girls
This increases the amount of information children can keep in working memory, enabling complex
thinking and goal-directed behaviour
Home environment contributes to development of executive skills
School age children make decision about everyday activities – develop planning skills
Parenting practice and culture affect pace at which children are allowed to do this

Selective Attention: ability to direct one’s attention deliberately and shut out distractions (due to
neurological maturation)
School age children can summon from memory the meaning of a word and suppress others whose
meaning does not fit the context
Growth in selective attention may hinge on the executive skill of INHIBITORY CONTROL =
voluntary suppression of unwanted responses

Working Memory Span

Improvements in processing speed and storage capacity, underlie development of working memory

Metamemory: Understanding Memory

Improved knowledge about the processes of memory
Between ages 5 – 7 frontal lobes develop significantly and reorganises
Children understand memory better: they know that people remember better if they study longer, that
people forget things with time and that relearning something is easier than learning it for the first time.
By third grade children know that some people remember better than others and that some things are
easier to remember than others.

Mnemonics: Strategies for Remembering (EROE) *Table 13-2 pg358*

EXTERNAL memory aids – mnemonic strategy
Prompts memory recall by using something outside the person (make a list or set a timer)
5/6 years old can do this but 8yr olds more likely to think of it
REHEARSAL: Conscious repetition
6 year olds can be taught this
7 year olds do it spontaneously
ORGANISATION: mentally placing information into categories to make it easier to recall
From age 10 onwards
Younger children can be taught
ELABORATION: Associating items to be remembered with a phrase / story / scene
Older children more likely to do this spontaneously and remember better if they make up own
story
Younger children remember better if someone else makes it up

Information Processing and Piagetian Tasks

Improvements in memory may contribute to mastery of conservation tasks

Robbie Case (neo-Piagetian theorist): as child’s application of a concept / scheme becomes more
automatic, it frees space in the working memory to deal with new information. This may help explain
horizontal decalage: Children may need to be able to use one type of conservation without conscious
thought before they can extend that scheme to other types of conservation.

PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH: ASSESSMENT OF INTELLIGENCE

Is There More Than One Intelligence?

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Conventional intelligence tests tap only 3 intelligences (linguistic, Logical / mathematical, Spatial)
Gardner’s theory = each person has 8 distinct forms of intelligence
*Table 13-3 pg362*
LINGUISTIC: Ability to use and understand words and nuances of meaning, writing, editing, translating
LOGICAL / MATHMATICAL:
Ability to manipulate numbers and solve logical problems, science, business, medicine
SPATIAL:
Ability to navigate an environment and judge relationships between objects in space, architecture,
carpentry, city planning.
MUSICAL:
Ability to perceive and create patterns of pity and rhythm, musical composition, conducting,
BODYILY KINESTHETIC:
Ability to move with precision, dancing, athletics, surgery
INTERPERSONAL:
 Ability to understand and communicate with others, teaching, acting, politics
INTRAPERSONAL:
Ability to understand the self, counselling, psychiatry
NATURALIST: Ability to distinguish species and their characteristics, hunting, fishing, farming,
cooking

High intelligence in one area does not necessarily accompany high intelligence in any others

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence – 3 types of intelligence

COMPONENTIAL ELEMENT = Analytical

How efficiently people process information (conventional IQ test): It tells people how to solve
problems, how to monitor solutions, and how to evaluate the results
EXPERIENTIAL ELEMENT = Insightful or creative
How people approach novel or familiar tasks – It allows people to think originally; come up
with new ways of
putting facts together

CONTEXTUAL ELEMENT – practical aspect of intelligence

How people deal with their environment. It is the ability to size up a situation and decide what to
do: adapt to it, change it, or get out of it.

Sternberg: everyone has all three kinds of abilities, to varying extents

TACIT KNOWLEDGE = Information not formally taught, or openly expressed, but necessary to get
ahead

Sternberg’s Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT)

Measures each aspect of intelligence – analytical, creative and practical – through MCQ and Essay
questions in three domains – verbal, quantitative and figural / spatial

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Vocabulary, Grammar, and Syntax

During school years, children use precise verbs – hitting, slapping, striking
They learn that the world run can have more than one meaning, and the context will confirm the meaning.
Simile and Metaphor = word/phrase which usually designates one thing, is compared / applied to another,
become increasingly common
Syntax = how words are organised into sentences and phrases – more advance with age

Pragmatics: Knowledge about Communication

Practical knowledge needed to use language for communication purposes – include conversational skills
There are gender differences:
boys use more controlling statements and make more negative interruptions
Girls – more tentative remarks, conciliatory way.
Communication is more collaborate when working with a partner of the same sex.

Literacy
Reading, writing – no longer rely on face to face communication
Allows children access to ideas and imaginations to others

Reading
DECODING: Process of phonetic analysis by which printed word is converted to spoken, before retrieval
from long term memory
Visually Based Retrieval – looks at the word and retrieves it from LTM
Phonetic / Code-Emphasis approach – teaching reading that emphasises decoding of unfamiliar words
Whole-language approach – emphasise on visual retrieval and use of contextual cues.
Children learn to read with better comprehension if they experience written langue as a way to
gain information and express ideas and feelings – not as a system of isolated sounds and syllables
(teacher directed tasks)

Instruction in both phonetic strategies to decode unfamiliar worlds and visual retrieval for familiar words
– forms better more versatile readers
As word identification becomes more automatic and capacity of working memory increases, children can
focus on meaning of what they read and can adjust their speed and attentiveness to the importance and
difficulty of the material
METACOGNITION: awareness of one’s own thinking processes helps children monitor their
understanding of what they read and enables them to develop strategies to clear up any problems – such
as reading slowing or rereading passages.
Having students recall, summarise, and ask questions about what they read can enhance comprehension.

Writing

Unlike conversation, which offers constant feedback, writing requires the child to judge independently
whether the communication goal has been met. The child must also keep in mind a variety of other
constraints: spelling, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization, as well as the basic physical task of
forming letters.

THE CHILD IN SCHOOL

Influences on school achievement: An Ecological Analysis

Self-efficacy beliefs:

High self-efficacy: believe in themselves and their ability – more likely to succeed
Self-regulated learner, set’s goals, tries hard and plans, seeks help when necessary
Low self-efficacy: does not believe in their own ability, become frustrated and depressed

Gender:
Girls:
Do better than boys in school; less likely to repeat grades, have fewer school problems and outperform
boys in national reading and writing assessments.
In their approach to school work – they aim for mastery of subject matter
Better classroom behaviour and more efficient strategies for learning BUT less confidence in their
abilities
Boys
Concerned with how smart they look in class
Have an advantage is spatial skills –but this is affected by SES – higher SES boys are more likely to
engage in spatially oriented activities – Lego.
Parenting Practices
Create an environment for learning and routine
Show interest in children’s lives – Children whose parents are involved in their schools do better in
school
Parents perceived self-efficacy – their belief in their ability to promote child’s academic growth - affects
their success in doing so
Parents who are economically secure and who have high aspirations for their children and a strong sense
of parental efficacy tend to have children with high academic goals and achievement
Parents motivate using:
Extrinsic (external means) – money, treats
Intrinsic (internal means) – praising ability and hard work = more effective

Parenting styles may affect motivation

Highest achieving children have authoritative parents – these children were curious and interested in
learning; liked challenging tasks and enjoyed solving problems.
Lower achieving children have authoritarian – closely supervised, given extrinsic rewards (incl.
Permissive who did not care how children did in school)

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Influencing factors = family atmosphere, neighbourhood, parenting practices
Poor family = negative home, stress, unstable BUT cognitive stimulation motivate academic learning
despite SES
SOCIAL CAPITAL = Family and community resources on which person / family can draw. It can
improve low SES people’s life conditions

Peer acceptance

Children who are liked and accepted by peers do better in school.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
THE DEVELOPING SELF

Self-concept development - 7/8 years old

Representational Systems – 3rd stage in development of self definition

Characterised by broad, inclusive self-concepts that integrate various aspects of the self. Characterized
by breadth, balance, and integration and assessment of various aspects of self
Can focus on multiple aspects of the self (smart and dumb)
Can compare the real self with ideal self
Judge how well he/she measures up to social standards
All of these changes contribute to the development of self-esteem, her assessment of her GLOBAL
SELF-WORTH

Self-Esteem - determined by children’s view of their capacity for productive work

Erikson Industry versus inferiority – 4th crisis of psychosocial development

Industry versus inferiority – children must learn productive skills required by their culture or face feelings
of inferiority
With successful resolution- virtue developed = COMPETENCE = a view of self as able to master skills
and complete tasks
Unsuccessful resolution will result in feelings of inadequacy – which will result in a return to the familiar
or if they become too industrious they may turn into workaholics
Parents strongly influence children’s beliefs about competence

Emotional Growth
@ 7 / 8 years children:
Aware of shame and pride
Have a clearer idea between guilt and shame – which affects opinion of self
Understand conflicting emotions (boys are yucky but I love my brother)
Middle childhood - aware of cultural rules for emotional expression
Knows what makes them angry / sad and how to adapt behaviour accordingly
Emotional self-regulation involves effortful (voluntary) control of emotions, attention & behaviour
Low in effortful control = visibly angry / frustrated
High in effortful control = able to stifle impulse to show negative emotion at inappropriate times – this
ability increases with age.

Pro-social behaviour
School age children generally become more empathic and pro-social.
Act appropriately in social situations and control negative emotions and cope with problems
constructively.
Parents who respond to children’s distress help them to foster empathy, pro-social behaviour, and social
skills.
When parents respond with disapproval or punishment, emotions such as anger and fear my become more
intense and may impair social adjustment, or the child may become more secretive and anxious about
these negative feelings. As children approach adolescence, parental intolerance of negative emotion may
heighten parent-child conflict.

THE CHILD IN THE FAMILY

Family Atmosphere: The family atmosphere has an important influence on child’s development

Parenting Issues: Co-regulation and Discipline

Middle childhood = transitional stage of coregulation – parent and child share power
Parent exercises general supervision and child experiences moment to moment self-regulation
This affects how parents handle discipline – use inductive techniques
“hitting bob hurts him and makes him feel bad”
Make child know they must bear consequences of their behaviour
The manner in which conflict is resolved is important
Constructive conflict helps children to see the need for rules and standards, what issues are worth arguing
about and what strategies can be effective.
Effects of Parents work
The more satisfied mother is with employment status, the more effective she’ll be as a parent
The impact of work will be dependent on several other factors – child’s age, sex, temperament, why
mother works, partners status, after care programs, the family’s SES
Self-care – children look after themselves after school

Poverty and Parenting

Children living with a single mother are six times more likely to be poorer than children living with
married couples
Poor children are more likely to have emotional and behavioural problems – cognitive potential / school
performance suffers
Impact of poverty on parents emotional state and parenting practice will impact child’s development
If mothers are emotionally stable and have high self-esteem – then children were academically and
socially competent which reinforced the positive parenting.

The effects of persistent poverty are complex

Transitory poverty during first 4 years of child’s life = less damaging to long term cognitive and social
development than later or chronic poverty
Most damaging = family characteristics that accompany poverty: un-stimulating home environment, lack
of maternal sensitivity, unstable adult relationships, violent or criminal behaviour

Family Structure
Children do better in families with 2 continuously married people
Happily married – children have higher standard of living, effective parenting, closer relationships with
parents, and fewer stressful events
Parent’s relationship Affects child’s adjustment more than parents
Quality of parenting marital status
Ability to create favourable family atmosphere

Father’s frequent and positive involvement with child is directly related to child’s well-being and
physical, cognitive and social development

When parents’ divorce

Adjusting to Divorce:
Divorce is stress to children
Parental conflict, separation, and departure of one parent
If pre-divorce parental conflict is chronic, overt and destructive, the child may be better off after divorce
Adjustment to divorce depends on child’s gender, age, maturity, temperament and psychosocial
adjustment before the divorce
Young children – more anxious, have less realistic perceptions of what caused it, are more likely to blame
themselves but they adapt quicker than older children
Older children – understand more
Boys find it harder to adjust and more susceptible to social and conduct problems

Custody, visitation and co-parenting

If custodial parent is warm, supportive, authoritative and monitors child’s activities and holds age-
appropriate expectations & non-resident parent maintains close contact and involvement – the child does
better
Quality of father/child relationship and level of parental conflict more important the frequency of contact
Cooperative parenting = active consultation between mother and non-resident father – more contact
between father and child
Joint custody = shared by both parents
Joint Legal custody = right and responsibility to make decisions regarding child’s welfare
Joint physical custody = child lives part time with each parent
Joint legal and joint physical – better adjusted, higher self-esteem children

Long term effects:

Children of divorced parents = lower levels of cognitive, social, emotional wellbeing
In adolescence – antisocial behaviour, difficulties with authority figures, dropping out of school
Adults from divorced families – lower SES, lower psychological well-being and greater chance of birth
outside marriage, their marriage is of poorer quality and more likely to end in divorce
Much depends on how young people resolve and interpret the experience of parental divorce

Living in One Parent Families

Children do well overall, but lag socially and educationally behind 2 parent children
Parent’s death results in higher risk of more problems (but still less problems than children of divorce, or
unwed mothers)
Children living with one parent are exposed to more stressful experiences
Poverty, poorer parenting, observing conflict and loosing contact with one parent can result in
emotionally insecurity
Mother’s education and ability level, quality of home environment – accounted for negative effects of
single parenting on academic performance and behaviour

Living in a Co-habiting Family

Similar to married, but parents tend to be more disadvantaged – they have less income and education,
report poorer relationships, and have more mental health problems.
More likely to break up

Living in a Step Family

Adjustment to new step-parent is stressful, loyalties to dead / absent parent may interfere with forming
ties with step parent
Boys – more trouble adjusting to divorce but benefit from a stepfather
Girls- feel stepdad is a threat to her independence and to her close relationship with her mother
Mothers who remarry give gentler discipline than single mothers and children maintain better relationship
with them
Children raised with stepparents – lower well-being

Living with Gay / Lesbian parents

No consistent difference between homosexual and heterosexual parents
Children no more likely to be homosexual or confused about their gender
They are teased, may hide information to avoid ridicule

Adoptive families
Adoption is usually closed, no contact between birth mother and child
OPEN ADOPTION: allows contact / share info
Few significant differences between adopted and biological children
Adopted children score higher on IQ – perform better in school than siblings / peers who remain in
institutions
Interracial adoption – no problems psychologically adjusting
Living with Grandparents
Age difference can be a barrier and because of their age they cannot keep up with a child
If they don’t get custody / or just foster – they have no legal status

Sibling Relationships
In some cultures – older girls care for the younger and teach them as part of the social system in some
cultures
Non-industrialised society – larger number of siblings allows work to be done and assist with caring for
old.
Industrialised – few siblings and further apart in age
Changes in sibling relationships most likely to occur when one sibling is between the ages of 7 – 9 years.
Siblings motivated to make up after quarrels if they see each other every day – and learn that expressing
anger does not end a relationship
Same sex siblings – more squabbles
Siblings influence gender development = 1st born is influenced by the parents, the 2nd born is more
like the older sibling
Siblings have a direct influence on each other and indirect influence through impact on each other’s
relationship with parents - parents experience with an older sibling influences their expectations and
treatment of a younger sibling.
Behaviour patterns a child establishes with parents tend to spill over into the child behaviour with
siblings.

THE CHILD IN THE PEER GROUP

Positive and Negative Effects of Peer Relations

Positive:
Develop skills for sociability and intimacy and gain sense of belonging
Motivated to achieve and attain sense of identity
Learn leadership and communication skills, roles and rules
Peer group opens new prespectives
Compare themselves and gauge abilities and gain clearer sense of self-efficacy
Offers emotional security (they are not alone in thinking something)
Negative:
Peer group may reinforce prejudice, to outsiders
Children show biases towards children like themselves, but these diminish with age / cognitive
development
Prejudice and discrimination does damage to children
Fosters antisocial behaviour, pressure to conform

Gender differences in Peer Group Relationships

Boys - pursue gender typed activities, play in large groups with well-defined leadership hierarchies and
engage in more competitive and rough and tumble play.
Girls – more conversations and pro-social interactions and engage in cross gender activities

Males and females differ in body size, strength and energy therefore natural segregation
Boys need more space and physical exercise by sex

Same sex peer groups help socialise children for future and help children learn gender appropriate
behaviour and incorporate gender roles into self-concept
Popularity = more important in middle childhood
Well-liked by peers = better adjusted
Socio-metric popularity = measured by asking children which peers they like the most and least
Perceived popularity = measured by asking children which children are best liked by their peers

Socio-metric studies have identified 5 peer group status levels

Popular (received many nominations)
Rejected (received negative nominations )
Neglected (few nominations of either kind)
Controversial (may positive and many negative nominations)
Average (do not receive an unusual number of nominations of either kind)

Socio-metrically popular children – good cognitive abilities, high achievers, good at solving social
problems, helpful and assertive without disruptive / aggressive behaviour, kind and trustworthy, loyal,
and self-disclosing and provide emotional support; superior social skills
Perceived popular children – dominant, arrogant, aggressive, tend to be physically attractive and athletic
Authoritative parents tend to have popular children possibly because parents reason with them and try
help them understand how another person might feel
Children of authoritarian parents who punish and threaten are likely to do the same to other children; they
are less popular

Friendship
Individuals form friendship
Learn to communicate and cooperate with friends – helps children feel good about themselves, and cope
with stressful situations
The inevitable quarrels help children resolve conflicts
Peer rejection and no friends = low self-esteem
Children cannot be / have true friends until they achieve cognitive maturity to consider other people’s
views and needs
School age children have 3 – 5 “best” friends
Girls care about having few close friends they can rely on
Boys have more friendships – less intimate and affectionate

Selman’s stages of friendship *Table 14-1 pg 401*

STAGE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE
Stage 0: Momentary playmate, Undifferentiated level of She lives on my street
3 – 7 years friendship. He has power rangers
Child is egocentric and think
only about what they want in a
friendship

Stage 1: One-way assistance Unilateral level – a good friend He’s my friend because he
4 – 9 years does what the child wants them always says yes when I want to
to do. borrow his toy
Stage 2: two-way fair weather Reciprocal level overlaps stage A friend will play with you
cooperation 1, involved give and take but when you don’t have anyone
6 – 12 years still serves many self-interests else to play with
rather than common interest
Stage 3: Intimate, mutually Mutual level friendship has life It takes a long time to make a
shared relationship of it’s own. On-going, close friend, when you do , you
9 – 15 years systematic, committed, doing feel bad if you find out your
things for each other, becomes friend is trying to make other
possessive and demand friends.
exclusivity
Stage 4: Autonomous Interdependent stage, respect Support and give and trust but
interdependence beginning @ friends needs for dependency also let go
12 years and autonomy

Aggression and Bullying

@ 6/7 years – less egocentric, more empathic therefore less aggressive
Instrumental aggression – aggression aimed t achieving an objects (pre-schoolers)
Hostile aggression – action taken intending to hurt = increases proportionately as child grows – more
verbal than physical

Gender Differences in Aggressiveness

Boys more physically aggressive
Girls more relational / socially aggressive
Sex segregated peer groups = context for gender difference develop

Types of Aggression and Social Information Processing

The way children process social information may cause them to act aggressively
INSTRUMENTAL / PROACTIVE AGGRESSORS:
Force and coercion effective way of getting what they want.
Act deliberately out of anger
They are aggressive because they expect to be rewarded; and when they are rewarded, their belief in the
effectiveness of aggression is reinforced
Tends to stop if not rewarded
HOSTILE / REACTIVE AGGRESSION:
Hostile attribution bias – see other children as trying to hurt them and strike out in retaliation of self-
defence (i.e. rejected children / exposed to harsh parenting)
More common between ages 6 – 12 years
Can be stopped by teaching children how to recognise then they are getting angry and how to control their
anger

Does Media Violence Stimulate Aggression?

Media images become primary role models and source of information about how real world works
Causal relationships between media violence and aggressive behaviour in childhood
Media provides thrills without showing human cost, therefore leads children to view aggression as
acceptable
Learn that violence is an effective way to solve disputes / conflicts
More TV time = less social time
Best predictor of aggressiveness at 19 was degree of violence in TV watched as children

Bullies and Victims

Bullying
Aggression deliberately and persistently directed against a particular target, victim who is typically weak,
vulnerable, and defenceless
Physical, verbal and psychological bullying
Starts in kindergarten
Peaks during transition to middle school - boys establish dominance in a peer group
Bullies and victims are both disliked and both victims
Bullies are at increased risk of delinquency, crime, or alcohol abuse

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental health refers to emotional health

Stress and Resilience

Stresses of Modern Life

David Elkind – today’s child is a “hurried child”

Pressure of modern life; children growing up too soon and childhood too stressful
Expected to succeed in school, compete in sports, and to meet parents emotional needs
Children are exposed to adult problems on TV and in life too soon; before they have mastered childhood
Anxiety in children has increased greatly
Fear of danger and death most consistent fear of children of all ages
This intense anxiety about safety may reflect the high rates of crimes and violence in the larger society –
including the presence of street gangs and violence in school.
Poor children – who see their environment as threatening – tend to be more fearful than children from
higher SES
Children who grow up surrounded by violence have trouble concentrating and sleeping
Some become aggressive and some come to take brutality for granted
Many do not allow themselves to become attached to other people for fear of more hurt and loss.
Children more susceptible than adults to psychological harm from a traumatic event (war, terrorism etc) –
reactions vary with age
Younger children – do not understand why the event occurred and tend to focus on consequences
Older children – more aware of, and worried about, underlying forces that caused the event
Two stages of response to a traumatic event
1st stage = fright, disbelief, denial, grief and relief if loved ones are unharmed
2nd stage – occurs several days / weeks later – developmental regression, anxiety, fear, withdrawal, sleep
disturbances, pessimism about the future, or play related to themes of the event. If symptoms last for
more than one month, then child should get counselling
Parents response will affect child’s ability to recover

Coping with Stress: The Resilient Child

Resilient children weather adverse circumstances, function well despite challenges / threats or bounces
back from traumatic events
These children simply hold onto basic systems and resources that promote positive development
Protective factors (influences that reduce impact of early stress)
Good family relationship
Cognitive functioning - tend to have high IQ’s – superior information processing skills (good problem
solvers)
Resilient children are likely to have good relationships and strong bonds with at least one
supportive parent or caregiver or other caring competent adult. Their superior info processing
skills may help them cope with adversity, protect themselves, regulate their behaviour, and learn
from experience. They may attract the interest of teachers, who can act as guides, confidants, or
mentors.
Other protective factors cited are:

Temperament / personality: adaptable, friendly, well liked, independent and sensitive to others. They are
competent and have high self-esteem. They are creative, resourceful, independent, and pleasant to be
with. When under stress they can regulate their emotions by shifting attention to something else.

Compensating experiences: A supportive school environment or successful experience in studies, sports,

or music or with other children or adults can help make up for a destructive home life.

Reduced risk: Children who have been exposed to only one of a number or risk factors for psychiatric
disorder (such as parental discord, low social status, a disturbed mother, a criminal father, and experience
in foster care or an institution) are often better able to overcome stress than children who have been
exposed to more than one risk factor.

Characteristics of resilient children and adolescents *Table 14-3 pg 410*

Individual: good intellectual functioning, appealing, sociable, easy-going, self-efficacy, self-confidence,
talents and faith
Family: close relationship to caring parent figure, authoritative parenting, warmth, structure,
socioeconomic advantages, supportive networks
Extrafamilial context: bonds to pro-social adults outside family, effective school

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH IN
ADOLESCENCE

PUBERTY: THE END OF CHILDHOOD

Adolescence = transitional period between childhood and adulthood

How Puberty Begins: Hormonal Changes

Puberty results from heightened production of sex related hormones with occurs in 2 stages
ADRENARCHE = Maturation of adrenal glands
GONADARCH = Maturation of testes or ovaries

ADRENARCHE @ 7/8 years

Increasing levels of androgens (DHEA) secreted
This hormone plays a role in growth of pubic, auxiliary, facial hair. Body odour develops, oilier skin
DHEA levels = 10 x greater than at age 1 – 4
Maturing of sex organs triggers 2nd burst of DHEA production which then rises to adult levels

GONADARCH
Girls ovaries step up output of estrogen which stimulate growth of female genitals, breast growth and
pubic/underarm hair
In boys – testes increase production of androgens – testosterone – which stimulates growth of male
genitals, muscle mass and body hair
Boys and girls have both types of hormones , but girls have more estrogen and boys more testosterone
(which in girls influences growth of clitoris, bones, pubic, auxiliary hair)
Level of body fat reached for necessary reproduction will dictate rush of hormonal activity
Girls with a higher percentage of body fat in early childhood and who experience unusual weight gain
between 5 – 9 tend to show earlier pubertal development
Leptin – hormone that has a role in over-weight, may trigger onset of puberty by signalling the brain that
sufficient fat has accumulated.
Heightened emotionality and moodiness of early adolescence can be attributed to these hormonal factors,
as well as negative emotions such as distress and hostility as well as symptoms of depression in girls, do
tend to rise as puberty progresses.
Other influences such as sex, age, temperament, and the timing of puberty may moderate or even override
hormonal influences.

The adolescent growth spurt: a rapid increase in height, weight, muscle and bone growth that precedes
sexual maturity
Girls – 9 ½ - 14 ½ (2 years earlier than boys)
Boys – 10 ½ - 16
Lasts approx. 2 years
Girls at 11/12/13 are taller, heavier and stronger than boys of the same age
Girls reach full height at 15 and boys at 17
Fat accumulates twice as rapidly in girls

Psychological Effects of Early and Late Maturation

Timing of maturation predicts adolescent mental health and health related behaviours in adulthood
Some studies show that most boys like to mature early.
Boys that mature early tend to be:
More poised
Relaxed
Goodnatured
Popular and less impulsive
More cognitively advanced
In contrast, other studies have found early maturing boys to be:
More anxious or aggressive
More worried about being liked
More cautious
More reliant on others
More bound by rules and routines
Some early maturers may have trouble living up to expectations that they will act as old as they look.

Late maturing boys have been found to:

Feel more inadequate, self-conscious, rejected and dominated
To be more dependant;
Aggressive;
Insecure or depressed.
To have more conflict with parents and more trouble in school
To have poorer social and coping skills

Girls are generally happier if their timing is about the same as that of their peers.
Early maturing girls tend to be:
Less sociable
Less expressive
Less poised
More introverted and shy
And more negative about menarche
Perhaps because they feel rushed into confronting the pressures of adolescence before they are ready, they
are more vulnerable to psychological distress.
More likely to associate with antisocial peers
May have poor body image and lower self-esteem
They are also at an increased risk of anxiety and depression, disruptive behaviour, eating disorders, early
smoking, drinking and substance abuse, precocious sexual activity, early pregnancy and attempted
suicide.
However this is less true of girls with no history of behaviour problems.

Among both girls and boys, early matures tend to be vulnerable to risky behaviour and the influence of
deviant peers.
Effects of early or late maturation are most likely to be negative when adolescents are much more or less
developed than their peers; when they do not see they changes as advantageous; when several stressful
events such as the advent of puberty and the transition to junior high occur at the same time.

Contextual factors such as ethnicity, school and neighbourhood can make a difference. Also early
maturing girls are more likely to show problem behaviour in mixed gender schools than in all girls
schools and in disadvantaged urban communities than in rural or middle-class communities.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN
ADOLESCENCE
ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE MATURATION

Piaget’s Stage of Formal Operations – highest level of cognitive development

Develop capacity for abstract thought - occurs @ 11 years

No longer limited to the here and now
Can integrate past learning’s with plans for the future
Can understand historical times and ET space
Use symbols for symbols ( xy = 3) and thus can learn algebra and calculus.
They can better appreciate metaphor and allegory and thus can find richer meanings in literature.
They can think in terms of what might be, not just what is
They can imagine possibilities and can form and test hypotheses

Hypothetical –Deductive Reasoning

Can develop a hypothesis and can design an experiment to test it
Shift to formal reasoning attributed to a combination of brain maturation and expanding environmental
opportunities
Schooling and culture play a role – formal reasoning is a leaned ability that is not equally necessary or
equally valued in all cultures
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning can be taught and learned

Evaluating Piaget’s Theory

Piaget paid little attention to individual differences, variations in a child’s performance on different kinds
of tasks or to social / cultural influences
He viewed his early model of development of children’s thinking, particularly formal operations, as
flawed because it failed to capture the essential role of the situation in influencing and constraining
children’s thinking
Neo-Piagetian research suggests adolescent thought processes are more flexible and varied
Type of thinking used closely tied to what they are thinking about and context of the problem and the
kinds of information and thought a culture considers important
Piaget’s theory does not consider cognitive advances such as
gains in information processing capacity,
accumulation of knowledge and
role of meta-cognition (the awareness and monitoring of one’s mental processes and strategies)
Enhanced executive function - to manage one’s mental processes – may be the chief advance of
adolescent thought, the result of changes occurring in the adolescent brain.

Elkind: Immature Characteristics of Adolescent Thought

Rude to adults
Trouble making up their mind
World revolves around them
According to Elkind such behaviour stems from adolescents inexperienced ventures into formal
operational thought.
Characteristics of immature thinking
Idealism and criticalness: realise how far real world is from ideal world and blame adults / find fault
Argumentativeness – constantly looking for opportunities to try out reasoning abilities
Indecisiveness – keep many alternatives in mind, but may lack effective strategy for choosing among
them
Apparent hypocrisy – do not recognise difference between expressing an ideal (conserving energy) and
making sacrifice to live up to them (drive less)
Self-consciousness – can think about thinking, theirs and other peoples. But have a pre-occupation with
their own mental state and therefore think everyone is thinking about the same thing as them: themselves!
Imaginary audience = conceptualised observer who is as concerned as teenager with their
thoughts / behaviour
Specialness and invulnerability = personal fable = a belief by adolescents that they are special, their
experiences unique and not subject to rules that govern the rest of the world “I won’t get addicted” “no-
one is as in love as I am” = special form of egocentrism that underlies risky behaviour and continues to
adulthood

Changes in Information Processing in Adolescence

Changes in information processing in adolescence reflect maturation of the brains frontal lobes
Progress in cognitive processing varies greatly among individual adolescents

Structural Change includes:

Growth of information processing capacity
Increase in the amount of knowledge stored in the LTM
Capacity of working memory enlarged rapidly in middle childhood and continues to enlarge in
adolescence, therefore enables complex problems / decisions regarding multiple pieces of information
Information stored in the LTM is:
DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE “knowing that”, acquired factual information (2 +2 = 4)
PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE “knowing how to” – all the skills a person has acquired (drive a car,
multiply)
CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE “knowing why”, acquired interpretive understandings

Functional Change
Processes for obtaining, handling, retaining information are functional aspects of cognition – learning,
remembering, reasoning
Most NB functional changes:
Continued increase in processing speed
Further development of executive function which include such skills as:
Selective attention, decision making, inhibitory control of impulsive responses and management of
working memory

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Adolescent’s tendency toward altruism and empathy increases, they are better able to take another
person’s perspective, to solve social problems, deal with interpersonal relationships, and to see
themselves as social beings – all foster moral development.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning

Kohlberg’s Levels and Stages
*Table 16-1 pg452*
Levels of Moral reasoning Stage of Moral Reasoning Developmental Period
Level I : Stage I: Orientation towards Ages 4 – 10
Preconventional Morality punishment and obedience – Early to middle childhood
obey rules to avoid punishment
(People act under external – ignore motives of an act and
controls. They obey rules to focus on its physical form (size
avoid punishment or reap of the lie) or its consequences
rewards or act out of self (amount of physical damage)
interest.)
Stage II: Instrumental purpose
and exchange “you scratch my
back and I’ll scratch yours”
Conforms to rules out of self-
interest. Look at an act in terms
of the human needs it meets and
differentiate this value from the
acts physical form and
consequences
Level II Stage III: Maintaining mutual Age 10 – 13 or beyond
Conventional morality relations, approval of others Many people never move
The golden rule – children want beyond it
(People have internalised the to please others, develop idea of
standards of authority figures. what a good person it. They
Concerned about being good, evaluate an act according to the
pleasing others, and maintaining motive behind it or the person
social order.) performing it, and they take
circumstances into account.
Stage IV: Social concern and
conscience
Concerned with doing their
duty, show respect for higher
authority and maintaining social
order. They consider an act
always wrong, regardless of
motive or circumstances, if it
 violates a rule and harms others
Level III Stage V: Morality of contract, Early adolescence, young
Postconventional morality of individual rights and of adulthood or never
democratically accepted law
(People recognise conflicts People think in rational terms,
between moral standards and valuing will of majority and
make judgements on the basis ofwelfare of society – better in
principles of right, fairness and long run for society to obey law
justice.) but do realise that human need
and the law conflict at times
Stage VI: Morality of universal
ethical principles –
People do as they as individuals
think is right regardless of legal
restrictions or opinions of
others.
Act in accordance of
internalised standards, knowing
that they would condemn
themselves if they did not.

Kohlberg later added a Transitional level between II and III – when people no longer feel bound by
societies moral standards, but not yet reasoned out own principles of justice, instead moral decisions
based on personal feelings

The reasoning underlying a person’s response to a moral dilemma, not the answer itself, which indicates
stage of moral development
Before people can develop a fully principled (level III) morality they must realise the relativity of moral
standards. Very few people reach a level where they can choose among differing moral standards.
Kohlberg even went as far as to question the validity of his 6 th stage because so few people attain it. Later
he proposed a seventh, “cosmic” stage where people consider the effect of their actions not only on other
people but on the universe as a whole.

Evaluating Kohlberg’s Theory

Morality no longer viewed as attainment of control over self-gratifying impulses

Now moral judgements based on understanding of social world
Ages attached to different levels are variable, because people who have high level of cognitive
development do not always achieve comparable high moral development
Cognitive development necessary but not sufficient for high moral development - therefore other
processes at work
Not always a clear relationship between moral reasoning and moral behaviour
Specific situations, conceptions of virtue, concern for others contribute towards moral behaviour
Adolescents, who are more advance in moral reasoning, tend to be more moral in behaviour, better
adjusted and socially competent, whereas antisocial adolescents tend to use less mature moral reasoning.
Practical problem of using Kohlberg’s system is that it’s time consuming. Standard dilemmas need to be
presented to each person individually and then scored. The DIT = Defining Issues Test = students rate and
rank list of statements – given quickly and scored objectively; however the DIT may tend to everestimate
the degree of moral development
Influence of parents and peers
Piaget and Kohlberg – parents not important to children’ moral development
Recent research – emphasise parents contribute in cognitive and emotional development. Adolescents
with supportive, authoritative parents who stimulate them to question and expand on their moral
reasoning tend to reason at higher levels
Peers affect moral reasoning by talking about moral conflicts. Having more close friends, spending
quality time with them and being perceived as a leader are associated with higher moral reasoning

Cross cultural validity

Some aspects of Kohlberg’s model may not fit the cultural values of non-western societies

Factors contributing to moral development:

Emotional development and increasing life experiences
A certain level of cognitive development
Social and interpersonal interaction which promote perspective taking
A higher level of thinking – leads to decrease in egocentrism because of decentration

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

Erikson: Identity versus Identity confusion – the 5th stage of psychosocial development

Adolescents seek to develop a coherent sense of self, including the role he/she has to play in society.
IDENTITY: coherent conception of self made up of goals, values, beliefs to which a person is committed.

Identity forms as young people resolve three issues:

Choice of occupation
Adoption of values to live by
Development of satisfying sexual identity

Psychosocial moratorium
Time out period provided by adolescence – allow the search for commitments – period necessary to build
a stable, inner direct self.
Resolution of identity crisis results in the virtue of FIDELITY = sustained loyalty, faith, sense of
belonging. Fidelity can also mean identification with a set of values, an ideology, a religion, a political
movement, a creative pursuit or an ethnic group. Fidelity is an extension of trust and commitment.

Erikson saw the prime danger of this stage as identity confusion, which can greatly delay reaching
psychological adulthood. Some degree of confusion is normal. According to Erikson it accounts for the
seemingly chaotic nature of much adolescent behaviour and for teenager’s painful self-consciousness.
Defences against identity confusion = Cliquishness and intolerance of differences
Erikson
Male identity development = the norm
Man not capable of real intimacy until after he achieves a stable identity
Woman define themselves through marriage and motherhood – develop identity through intimacy
Marcia: Identity Status – Crisis and Commitment

James E Marcia distinguished four types of identity statuses, states of ego (self) development. These four
categories differ according to the presence or absence of crisis and commitment.
Identity status = state of ego development that depend on the presence / absence of crisis and
commitment.
Crisis = period of conscious decision making related to identity formation
Commitment = personal investment in an occupation or ideology

Four types of Identity status’s *Study Table 17-2 pg 471*

IDENTITY ACHIEVEMENT: Crisis leading to commitment

A resolved identity crisis, much thought ans some emotional struggle devoted to major issues in life:
made choices and express strong commitment to them
Family = parents encourage autonomy, differences explored
Personality = high level of ego development, moral reasoning, self-certainty, self-esteem, capable of
intimacy, performs under stress.
People in this category are found to be more mature and more socially competent

FORECLOSURE: commitment without crisis

committed to choices and decisions which are based on social / parental expectations
Family = authoritarian, avoid expressing differences
Personality = happy, self assured perhaps even smug and self-satisfied, becomes dogmatic when opinions
are questioned; obedient to authority, dependent relationship, low anxiety

MORATORIUM: Crisis with no commitment yet

in crisis, struggling with decisions investigates alternative values / careers
Family = ambivalent struggle with parental authority (close to parents but resist their authority)
Personality = lively, talkative, self-confident, most anxious and fearful. High levels of ego development,
moral reasoning and self-esteem. Will later achieve identity

IDENTITY DIFFUSION: No commitment, no crisis

no attempt to develop commitment
Family = Laissez-Faire attitude, rejecting and not available
Personality = unsure of himself and poor cooperative abilities, unhappy and often lonely
Low level of ego development, moral reasoning, cognitive complexity and self-certainty

SEXUALITY

Sexual risk taking – 2 major concerns about adolescent sexual activity

Contracting STD’s
Pregnancy

High risk young people =

Start sexual activity early
No contraceptives
Inadequate information / misinformation about sex
Living in disadvantage SES community
Substance abuse
Antisocial behaviour
Association with deviant peers
Parental monitoring can help reduce these risks!

Why do some adolescents become sexually active at an early age?

Early entrance into puberty
Poverty,
Poor school performance
Lack of academic and career goads
A history of sexual abuse / parental neglect
Cultural / family patters of early sexual experience
Absence of a father
Perception of peer group norms is a powerful influence
Noncoital forms of genital sexual activity – oral and anal sex – common and not considered sex

Warm close relationship with mother likely to delay sexual activity, so are those who perceive that their
mothers disapprove of such behaviour. Another reason given is premarital sex is against religion or
morals or that they don’t want to get/ make a girl pregnant.

Teenage Pregnancy and Childbearing

Teenage pregnancy often = poor outcomes
Mother’s impoverished, poor education, drug users, no prenatal care
Babies are premature, or dangerously small with high risk for complications
Affluent teen mothers also at risk, low birth weight babies often result as they are biologically
disadvantaged due to still growing mothers whose own body is competing for vital nutrients with
developing baby
Unwed mothers = financial problems; unmarried parents under the age of 18 are eligible for public
assistance only if they live with their parents and go to school.
Teenage mother are likely to drop out of school and have repeated pregnancies
They and their parents lack maturity and social support to be good parents – children follow same path:
likely to have developmental and academic problems, to be depressed, to engage in substance abuse and
early sexual activity and to become teenage parents themselves.
Former adolescent mothers (20years after giving birth) do progress; are not on welfare, get an education
and job – have small families.
Comprehensive adolescent pregnancy and home visitation programs seem to contribute to good
outcomes.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH FAMILY AND PEERS

AGE = powerful bonding agent

Adolescents spend more time with peers
Turn to peers for role models, companionship, intimacy
Parents = secure base, permit and encourage striving for independence and provide a safe haven in times
of emotional stress

Is Adolescent Rebellion a Myth?

Adolescent rebellion = emotional turmoil, conflict within family, reckless behaviour, rejection of adult
values
Only 1 in 5 teenagers fits this pattern
First formal theory – G. Stanley Hall – in an effort to adjust to changing bodies to the imminent demands
of adulthood – ushers in a period of ‘storm and stress’ that produces conflict between the generations
Freud: storm and stress is universal and inevitable, growing out of a resurgence of early sexual drives
towards the parents.
Margaret Mead – when a culture provides serene, gradual transition from childhood to adulthood, storm
and stress not typical.
Full-fledged rebellion now appears to be relatively uncommon even in Western societies –
Most young people feel close to and positive about their parents, share similar opinions on major issues
and value parent’s approval.
34 year long longitudinal study of boys – vast majority adapted well
Deeply troubled adolescents tended to come from disrupted families, and as adults, continued to have
unstable family lives and to reject cultural norms
Those raised in two parent homes with a positive family atmosphere tended to sail through adolescence
with no serious problems as adults, have solid marriages and lead well-adjusted lives
Family conflict, depression and risky behaviour are more common than during other parts of the lifespan
Negative emotionality and mood swings are most intense during early adolescence - and more stable in
later adolescence

Changing Time Use and Changing Relationships

Disengagement from the family is a response to developmental needs of adolescents

Early adolescence = alone in their room, they reflect on identity etc.
In Tribal societies- time spent working to survive and less time socialising
India – family centred culture – task of adolescence is to become integrated with the whole family
USA – lots of discretionary time spent with peers
Black teenagers maintain more intimate relationships with family and less intense peer relationship
(compared with white’s)

Adolescents and Parents

Mixed feelings for parents, want children to be independent and find it hard to let go
Parenting styles can influence conflict
Effective parental monitoring depends on how much children let parents know, which in turn depends on
atmosphere at home.
Teenagers lives affected by parents work / marital status / SES

Family Conflict and Individuation

Most arguments between adolescents and parents concern mundane personal matters – chores, school
work, dress, money, curfew dating, friends – rather than issues of health and safety or right and wrong.
The emotional intensity of these conflicts – out of all proportion with the subject matter – may reflect the
underlying processes of Individuation.
Individuation = adolescents struggle for autonomy and differentiation or personal identity
An important issue of individuation is carving out boundaries of control between self and others
Family conflict most frequent in early adolescence and most intense in mid-adolescence, lesser extent of
conflict in late adolescence
Frequency of strife in early adolescence due to strains of puberty, and need to assert autonomy
The reduced frequency in later adolescence signifies adjustment and balance of authority between parent
and child.
 Family conflict during adolescence

Most conflict about: Less conflict about:

Day –to-day matters (chores, schoolwork, dress Fundamental

values
Pocket money, dates and friends)

Pursuit of independence / autonomy

Family conflict in adolescent stages

Early Adolescences Middle adolescence Late adolescence

Conflict most frequent Conflict most intense conflict decreases
Due to tension caused by emotional tension caused by adjustment to changes
Puberty, need for autonomy increasing independence and power balance
Between parents &
Adolescence

Degree of conflict determined by

Personality of adolescent Parenting style (authoritative /

Culture authoritarian)
Family (structure, atmosphere and
SES)

Parenting Styles and Parental Authority

AUTHORITATIVE – insist on rules, norms, values, but willing to listen, explain, and negotiate
Exercise control over child’s conduct (behavioural control) but not over feelings, beliefs, sense of self
(psychological control)
Authoritative parents bolster adolescents self-image, and grant psychological autonomy – right to own
thoughts, feelings – results in adolescent being more self-confident and competent
Problems arise when parents overstep what adolescents perceive as appropriate bounds of parental
authority

Parental Monitoring and Adolescents Self-Disclosure

Authoritative parenting encourages disclosure: warm responsive family environment in which adolescents
were encouraged to speak openly and when parents provided clear expectations without being overly
controlling.
Growing autonomy of teenager and shrinking parental authority redefine the types of behaviour
adolescents are expected to disclose.
Both adolescents and parents saw the following as subject to disclosure:
Prudential behaviour – related to health and safety - smoking, drinking, drugs
Moral issues – lying
Conventional issues – bad manners and swearing
Multifaceted / borderline issues– seeing R rated movies
Personal issues – how time and money is spent – least subject to disclosure
Each type of behaviour parents were more inclined to expect disclosure than adolescents were to do it.
Girls – closer more personal relationship with mother

Family Structure and Family Atmosphere

Adolescents living with continuously married parents have less behaviour problems
Father’s involvement is important (in all family structure – non-resident and living at home)
Changes in marital distress / marital conflict – for the better or worse – predict corresponding changes in
adolescent’s adjustment
Adolescent boys and girls whose parents later divorced showed more academic, psychological and
behavioural problems BEFORE the break up
Adolescents living with continuously married parents tend to have significantly less behavioural problems
than those in any other family structure
Adolescents in cohabiting families – tend to have greater behaviour and emotional problems than those
living in married families
These effects are independent of economic resources, parental well-being, and effectiveness of parenting,
suggesting that parental cohabitation may be more troublesome for adolescents than for younger children
Multi-ethnic study of children of single mothers - no negative effects – what mattered most were the
mother’s education level and ability, family income and the quality of the home environment – suggests
that negative effects of single parent home can be offset by positive factors.

Peers and Friends

Peer group = source of affection, sympathy, understanding and moral guidance; a place for
experimentation; and a setting for achieving autonomy and independence from parents. It’s a place to
form intimate relationships that serve as rehearsals for adult intimacy.
Influence of peers peaks @ 12/13 years and declines during middle and late adolescence
13 /14 years – try drugs, sneak in without paying – to demonstrate to peers their independence from
parental rules
Risk taking is higher in peer groups than alone – more true for younger participants
Dyadic peer interaction – one to one – in childhood
Larger groupings form in middle childhood
Adolescence – CLIQUES – structured groups of friends who do things together become more important
CROWDS – large groups, based on reputation, image or identity – not personal interaction. Crowd
membership is a social construction, a set of labels by which younger people divide the social map based
on neighbourhood, ethnicity, SES etc.

Friendships
Amount of time spent with friends greatest in adolescence
Friends with similar academic attitudes may influence each other towards pro-social activity or risky
behaviour
Friends influence on binge drinking and sexual activity is fairly weak.
A stress on intimacy, loyalty and sharing marks a transition toward adult-like friendships
Adolescents rely more on friends than parents for intimacy and support
Girls friendships more intimate than boys and they share more confidences
Intimacy with same sex friends increases during early to mid-adolescence, then typically declines
Increased intimacy results from cognitive and emotional development and reflects early adolescents
concern with getting to know themselves
Confiding in a friend helps young people explore their feelings, define their identity, and validate their
self-worth
Adolescents with stable, close, supportive friendships have high opinion of themselves, do well in school,
are sociable and are unlikely to be hostile, anxious or depressed. They also tend to have strong bond with
parents
Bidirectional process – good relationships foster adjustment, which in turn, fosters good friendships

Cliques
Prominent in early adolescence
Consist of young people of the same age, gender and ethnicity
Membership is based on popularity, social status as well as personal affinity
Person can belong to more than one clique, with a shifting or stable membership
Membership in pre-adolescence – high status based – more so with girls
Highest status = leader who chooses members and forms a hierarchy
The higher status cliques are most desirable and most controlled.
The clique structure can seems harsh to outsiders, but it effectively serves the purpose of “redirecting
young people’s priorities from childhood to adolescent social norms. It sends a blunt message as to who
is in charge of the peer social system (peers rather than adults) and provides unequivocal information
about how to proceed within that system”. It also can create emotional distress among those who are less
than successful in negotiating the system.

Crowds
Crow labels – cognitive designations for a feature that members of the crowd have in common
Neighbourhood = west-siders
ethnic background – Italians
Peer status = snobs
Abilities, interests or lifestyle =brains, jocks druggies
Crowds
Help adolescents establish their identity
Reinforce allegiance to the behavioural norms of ethnic or socioeconomic groups
Make it easier to establish relationships with peers in the same crowd
Crowd affiliation tends to become looser as adolescence progresses (as with cliques )

Romantic Relationships
Central part of social world of adolescent
Contribute to development of intimacy and identity
More intense and more intimate across adolescence
Early adolescents think about how romantic relationships may affect status in peer group. They pay little
or no attention to attachment or support needs, such as help, caring, and nurturing, and their attention to
sexual needs is limited to how to engage in sexual activity and which activities to engage in.
Not until late adolescence or early adulthood do romantic relationships begin to meet full gamut of
emotional needs that such relationships can serve and then only in relatively long-term relationships.
Relationships with parents and peers may affect the quality of romantic relationships. The parent’s
marriage or romantic relationship may serve as a model for their adolescent child.
The peer group forms the context for most romantic relationships and may affect an adolescent’s choice
of a partner and the way the relationship develops.
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