Developmental Psychology

Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
Physical Development o Cerebellum (maintains balance and motor
o Cephalocaudal Principle – growth starts from coordination) grows the fastest during the first
the top part of the body (i.e., brain to foot) year of life
o Proximodistal Principle – growth proceed from o Lateralization – specialization of the
the center of the body outward (e.g., Palm hemispheres
(grasping) to fingers)
o Children grow faster during the first 3 years
o Teething usually begins around 3-4 months
o Growth slows in the second year of life
o Growth isn’t often smooth and continuous but
rather is episodic, occurring in spurts
Benefits of Breastfeeding
o Babies are less likely to contract infectious
illnesses
o Lower risks of SIDS and of Post-neonatal death
o Lesser risks of inflammatory bowel disease
o Better visual acuity, neurological development,
and long-term cardiovascular health
o Less likely to develop obesity, asthma, eczema, o Left Hemisphere – concerned with language and
diabetes, lymphoma, etc. logical thinking
o Less likely to show language and motor delays o Right Hemisphere – concerned with visual and
o Score higher on cognitive tests spatial functions
o Fewer cavities and are less likely to need braces o Corpus Callosum – tough band of tissue that
o Mothers can quickly recover with childbirth joins the two hemisphere which allows them to
o They are more likely to return to the pre- share info and coordinate commands
pregnancy weight
o Reduced risk of anemia and lowered risk of
repeat pregnancy while breastfeeding
o Report feeling more confident and less anxious
o Less likely to develop osteoporosis or ovarian
and premenopausal breast cancer
o Reduction in type 2 diabetes
o The only acceptable alternative to breast milk is
Iron-Fortified Formula based on either cow’s
milk or soy protein
o Babies should consume nothing but milk during
the first 6 months of life
Brain and Reflex Behavior o Occipital – smallest; concerned with visual
o By age of 6, the brain is almost adult size but processing
some parts are still continuously developing o Parietal – involved with integrating sensory info
o Brain Growth Spurts – brain’s growth occurs in from the body; movement and manipulation of
fits and starts objects
o By birth, spinal cord and brain stem has nearly o Temporal – interpret smells and sounds and
run its course (responsible for breathing, heart involved in memory
rate, temp, and sleep-wake cycle) o Frontal Lobe – involved in high-order processes
such as reasoning and problem solving
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Cerebral Cortex – outer surface of the cerebrum; o Locomotor Reflex – resemble voluntary
grows rapidly in the first few months and are movements that do not appear until months after
mature by age 6 months the reflexes have disappeared
o Brain Growth Spurt begins at about the third o Early Reflexes Disappear during the first 6-12
trimester of gestation and continues until at months
least the 4th year of life Early Human Reflexes
o Neurons – send and receive info in the brain Moro Extend
o Glia or Glial Cells – nourish and protect the legs, arms,
neurons and
o Axon – sends signals to other neurons fingers,
o Dendrites – receive incoming messages arches
back,
o Synapses – tiny gaps which are bridged with the
draws back
help of chemicals
head
o Integration – neurons that control various
Darwinian Make
groups of muscle coordinate their activities (Grasping strong first
o Differentiation – each neuron takes on a specific, )
specialized structure and function
o Cell Death – pruning of cells which is a way to
calibrate the developing brain to the local
environment and help it work more efficiently, Tonic Fencer
beings during the prenatal period and continues Neck Position
after birth
o Myelination – enables signals to travel faster
and more smoothly by coating the neural
pathways with myelin Babkin Mouth
opens,
o Children who grew up in deprived environment
eyes close,
may have depressed brain activity
neck
o Neuroconstructivist View – biological process
flexes,
and environmental conditions influences head tilts
development, the brain is plastic, and the child’s forward
cognitive development is closed linked to Babinski Toes fan
development of the brain out; foot
▪ Emphasized the importance of considering twist in
interactions between experience and gene
expression in the brain’s development
o Reflex Behavior – automatic, innate response to
stimulation which are controlled by the lower Rooting Head turns,
mouth
brain centers that govern involuntary processes
opens,
o Primitive reflexes – includes sucking, rooting,
sucking
and the Moro reflex are related to instinctive begins
needs for survival and protection or may support Walking Steplike
the early connection to the caregiver motions
o Postural Reflexes – reactions to changes in
position or balance
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
Swimmin Swimming ▪ May provide infants with added self-
g movement stimulation
s ▪ Promote brain development in infancy
▪ When adults wake up from REM Sleep, they
report dreaming
o There is a positive link between infant sleep and
o Brain is Plastic, they are living, changeable
cognitive functioning
organs which responds to environmental
Motor Development
influences (Plasticity)
o Denver Developmental Screening Test – used to
Early Sensory Capacity
chart progress between ages 1 month and 6
o Touch is the first sense to develop, the most
years and to identify children who are not
mature sensory system for the first several
developing normally
months
▪ Measures Gross Motor Skills (using large
o Newborns can and do feel pain
muscles), Fine Motor Skills (using small
o Sense of smell and taste begin to develop in the
muscles), Language Development,
womb
Personality, and Social Development
o Newborns strongly dislike bitter flavors
First Month
o Auditory Discrimination develops rapidly after
Infants can turn their Head from side to side
birth
Grasping Reflex
o At 4 moths, infant’s brain responds Second-Third Month
preferentially to speech Babies can life their heads
o Vision is the least developed sense at birth Can grasp moderate sized things until they will be
o Binocular Vision (the use of both eyes to focus) able to grasp one thing using right hand and
does not develop until 4-5 months transfer it to their left hand
o Infants like attractive faces Babies can now hold their head still to find out
Sleep whether the object is moving
o Sleep restores, replenishes, and rebuilds our They can already match the voice to faces
brains and bodies Distinguish female and male
o Evolutionary Perspective: all animals sleep and Discriminate between faces of their own ethnic
this sleep is necessary for survival (to protect group and those of other groups
themselves at night) Size constancy
o Restorative Perspective: sleep replenishes and Infants develop the ability to perceive that
rebuilds the brain and the body such as clearing occluded objects are whole
out neural tissues Fourth Month
o Plasticity Perspective: sleep is critical for brain Babies can keep their heads erect while being held
or supported in a sitting position
plasticity, i.e., increases synaptic connections
Can now roll-over, accidentally
between neurons which is linked to improved
Begin to reach objects
consolidation of memories
Sixth Month
o Newborns sleep approx. 18 hrs/day
Babies cannot sit without support
o Non-REM Sleep – no eye movement and sleep is Can start creeping or crawling
more quiet Could successfully reach for objects in the dark
o Rapid Eye Movement (REM Sleep) – the eyes faster than they could in the light
flutter beneath the closed lids They can now localize or detect sounds from their
▪ Usually appears 1 hr after non-rem (adults) origins
▪ Half of infant’s sleep is REM Seventh Month
Pincer Grasps could already manifest
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
Can start standing ▪ Size Constancy – recognition that an object
Can now sit independently remains the same even though the retinal
Eighth Month image of the object changes as you move
Babies can assume sitting position without help toward or away from the object
Infants can now learn to pull themselves up and ▪ Shape Constancy – an object remains the
hold on to a chair same shape even though its orientation
Tenth Month changes
They can now stand alone Ecological Theory of Perception
Eleventh Month o Locomotor movement depends on infants’
Babies can let go and stand alone well increasing sensitivity to the interaction between
Thirteenth Month their changing physical characteristics and new
Toddlers can now pull a toy attached to a string and
and varied characteristics of their environment
use their hands and legs to climb stairs
o Babies learn to continually gauge their abilities
Eighteenth to Twenty-Fourth Month
and adjust their movements to meet the
Toddlers can now walk quickly, run, and balance on
their feet in a squatting position demands of their current environment
o Crawling – helps babies learn to judge distances o Baby is somewhat a small scientist testing out
and perceive depth new ideas in each situation
o Social Referencing – babies learn to look at o Gibson’s Ecological View: we directly perceive
caregivers for clues as to whether a situation is info that exists in the world around us
secure or frightening o Affordances – opportunities for interaction
o Sensory Perception – enable infants to learn offered by objects that fit within our capabilities
about themselves and their environment so they to perform activities
can make better judgements about how to o Newborns cannot see small things that are far
navigate in it away
o Visual Guidance – the use of eyes to guide the Thelen’s Dynamic Systems Theory
movements of the hands o Behavior emerges in the movement from the
o Clumsy corrective movements are more likely to self-organization of multiple components
be illustrating immature cerebellar o Opportunities and constraints presented by the
development infant’s physical characteristics, motivation,
o Depth Perception – the ability to perceive objects energy level, motor strength, and position in the
and surfaces in three dimensions environment at a particular moment in time
o Kinetic Cues – produced by movement of the affect whether and how an infant achieves a goal
object or the observer or both o A solution emerges as the baby explores various
o Haptic Perception – ability to acquire combinations of movements and assembles
information by handling objects rather than just those that most efficiently contribute to that end
looking at them o Infants modulate their movement patterns to fit
o Posture – dynamic process that is linked with a new task by exploring and selecting possible
sensory information in the skin, joints, and configurations
muscles which tell us where we are in space o Infant actively put together skill to achieve a goal
o Swaddling shows slight delays in motor within the constraints set by the infant’s body
development and environment
o Perceptual Constancy – sensory stimulation is Cognitive Development
changing but perception of the physical world Behaviorist Approach
remains constant o Classical Conditioning – a person learns to make
▪ Allows infants to perceive that their world as a reflex, or involuntary, response to a stimulus
stable that originally did not bring about the response
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Extinction – if the conditioned learning is not o Circular Reactions – an infant learns to
reinforced by repeated association reproduce events originally discovered by
o Operant Conditioning – focuses on the chance
consequences of behaviors and how they affect o Schemes – actions or mental representations
the likelihood of the behavior occurring again that can be performed on objects
o Babies were able to use contextual cues (e.g., o Assimilation – occurs when children use their
odor) to retrieve memories existing schemes to deal with new information
o Infant memory is context-dependent and o Accommodation – occurs when children adjust
appears to be strongly linked to the original cues their schemes to take new information and
encoded during learning experiences into account
Psychometric Approach o Organization – grouping of isolated behaviors
o Intelligent Behavior – presumed to be goal- and thoughts into higher-order system
oriented, meaning it exists for the purposes of o Disequilibrium – cognitive conflict
attaining a goal o Children constantly assimilate and
o IQ Tests – consists of questions or tasks that are accommodate as they seek equilibrium
supposed to show how much of the measured o Equilibration – children shift from one stage of
abilities a person has by comparing that thought to the next
person’s performance with norms Substages
o Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler 1. Use of Reflexes (Birth to 1 Month)
Development – developmental test designed to Exercise their inborn reflexes and gain some
assess children from 1 month to 3 ½ years control over them
▪ Cognitive, Language, Motor, Social- Practice their reflexes and control them (e.g.,
Emotional, and Adaptive Behavior sucking whenever they want to)
▪ Accompanied by Behavior Rating Scale taken 2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months)
from the caregiver Repeat pleasurable behaviors that first occur by
chance
o Home Observation for Measurement of the
Begin to coordinate sensory information and grasp
Environment (HOME) – trained observers
objects
interview the primary caregiver and rate on a
They turn towards the sounds
yes-or-no checklist the intellectual stimulation
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)
and support observed in a child’s home
Repeat actions that brings interesting results
▪ Number of books and toys, parents Learns about causality
involvement with the child, parental 4. Coordination of Secondary Schemes (8-12
emotional and verbal responsiveness, months)
acceptance of the child’s behavior, Coordinate previously learned schemes and use
organization of the environment, and previously learned behaviors to attain their goals
opportunities for daily and varied stimulation Can anticipate events
o Early Intervention – systematic process of 5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)
planning and providing therapeutic and Purposefully vary their actions to see results
educational services for families that need help Actively explore the world
in meeting infants’, toddlers’, and pre-school Trial and error in solving problems
children’s developmental needs 6. Mental Combinations
Jean Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Can think about events and anticipate
o The first stage of Jean Piaget’s cognitive consequences without always resorting action
development is Sensorimotor Stage Can use symbols such as gestures and words, and
o Approx. from birth to 2 years old can pretend
Transition to Pre-operational stage
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
Learns about numbers o Visual Recognition Memory – ability that
o Representational Ability – the ability to mentally depends on the capacity to form and refer to
represent objects and actions in memory, mental representations
largely through symbols such as words, o Babies like to look at new things
numbers, and mental picture o Senses are unconnected at birth and are only
o Infants develop the abilities to think and gradually integrated through experience
remember o Cross-Modal Transfer – the ability to use
o Visible Imitation that uses body parts that babies information gained from one sense to guide
can see develops first followed by Invisible another – as when a person negotiates a dark
Imitation (involves with parts of the body that room by feeling for the location of familiar
babies cannot see) objects
o Piaget believed that children under 18 months Cognitive Neuroscience Approach
could not engage in Deferred Imitation o Examines the hardware of the CNS to identify
▪ Reproduction of an observed behavior after what brain structures are involved in specific
the passage of time areas of cognition
▪ Children lacked the ability to retain mental o Implicit Memory – refers to remembering that
representations occurs without effort or even conscious
o Infants under the age of about 8 months act as if awareness
an object no longer exists once it is out other line ▪ Habits and skills
of sight ▪ Develop early and is demonstrated by such
o Object Permanence – the realization that actions as an infant’s kicking
something continues to exist when out of sight o Explicit Memory – declarative memory;
o Until about 15 months, infants use their hands to conscious intentional recollection, usually of
explore pictures as if they were objects facts, names, events, or other things that can be
o By 19 months, children are able to point at a stated or declared
picture of an object while saying its name, o During the second half of the first year, the
demonstrating an understanding that a picture is prefrontal cortex and associated circuitry
a symbol of something else develop the capacity of working memory (short-
o Dual Representation Hypothesis – proposal that term storage of information the brain is actively
children under age of 3 have difficulty grasping processing)
spatial relationships because of the need to keep o Working memory may be responsible for the
more than one mental representation in mind at slow development of object permanence
the same time Social-Contextual Approach
Information-Processing Approach o Guided Participation – refers to mutual
o Habituation – a type of learning in which interactions with adults that help structure
repeated or continuous exposure to a stimulus, children’s activities and bridge the fap between a
reduces attention to that stimulus child’s understanding and an adult’s
▪ Familiarity breeds loss of interest Language
o Dishabituation – if a new sight or sound is o Language – communication system based on
presented, the baby’s attention is generally words and grammar
captured once again, and the baby will reorient o Infinite Generativity – the ability to produce and
toward the interesting stimulus and once again comprehend an endless no. of meaningful
sucking slows sentences using a finite set of words and rules
o Visual Preference – tendency to spend more o Pre-linguistic Speech – sounds that progress
time looking at one sight rather than another from crying to cooing and babbling
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Crying – newborn’s first means of o Child-Directed Speech – language spoken with a
communication higher-than-normal pitch, slower tempo, and
o Between 6-3 months, babies start cooing exaggerated intonation, with simple words and
o By 6-10 months, they start babbling sentences
o Phonology – sound system of a language o Recasting – rephrasing something the child has
o Morphology – system of meaningful units said that might lack appropriate morphology
involved in word formation o Expanding – adding information to a child’s
o Syntax – the system that involves the way words incomplete sentence
are combined to form acceptable phrases and o Labeling – name objects that children
sentences o Storybook reading especially benefits children
o Semantics – the system that involves the Psychosocial Development
meaning of words and sentences o Personality – the relatively consistent blend of
o Pragmatics – the system of using appropriate emotions, temperament, thought, and behavior
conversation and knowledge of how to that makes each person unique
effectively use language in context Emotions
o Infants start using gestures at about 7-15 o Subjective reactions to experience that are
months associated with physiological and behavioral
o As early as 5 months, infants recognize their changes
name o During the 1st month, babies cries when they are
o Receptive Vocabulary – words that the child unhappy and become quiet at the sound of
understand human voice or when they are picked up
o Spoken Vocabulary – words the child o Four Patterns of Crying of Infants:
expresses/uses 1. Basic Hunger Cry – rhythmic pattern that
o Overextension – tendency to apply a word to usually co sist of cry, followed by a briefer
objects that are inappropriate for the word’s silence
meaning by going beyond the set of referents an 2. Angry Cry – more excess air is forced through
adult would use (e.g. “Dada” not only for her Dad vocal cords
but also to other male strangers) 3. Pain Cry – sudden long, initial loud cry
o Underextension – tendency to apply the word too followed by breath holding
narrowly; occurs when children fail to use a 4. Frustration Cry
word to name a relevant event or object o A higher pitch an a more monotonic vocalization
o Children between 18 to 24 months, speak in two- is associated with autonomic system activity
word utterances during stressful procedures in infants
o Telegraphic Speech – the use of short and o Earliest smiles resulted from subcortical
precise words without grammatical markers nervous system activity
such as articles, etc. (“Momi give water”) o Involuntary smiles appear during periods of
o Regions involved in Language: Broca’s Area REM Sleep
(Speech Production) and Wernicke’s Area o Social Smiling – newborn infants gaze and smile
(Language comprehension, sounds) at their parents; smile that occurs in response to
o Aphasia – loss or impairment in language external stimulus (2 months)
processing o Reflexive Smile – a smile that does not occur in
o Language Acquisition Device – biological response to external stimuli and appear during
endowment that enables the child to detect the first month after birth
certain features and rules of language o Anticipatory Smiling – infants smile at an object
o The support and involvement of caregivers and then gaze at an adult while continuing to smile
teachers greatly facilitate a child’s language
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Self-Conscious emotions arise only after o Strange Situation – by Mary Ainsworth; designed
children have developed self-awareness to assess attachment patterns between infant
o Altruistic Behavior – acting out of concern with and adult
no expectation of reward o Secure Attachment – flexible, resilient
o Mirror Neurons – underlie empathy and altruism o Avoidant Attachment – outwardly unaffected by
Temperament a caregiver leaving or returning
o An early-appearing, biologically based tendency o Ambivalent (Resistant) Attachment – generally
to respond to the environment in predictable anxious even before the caregiver leaves
ways o Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment – lack a
o Easy Children – generally happy, rhythmic in cohesive strategy to deal with the stress of the
biological functioning, and accepting of new strange situation; they show contradictory,
experiences repetitive, or misdirected behaviors; confused
o Difficult Children – more irritable and harder to and afraid
please o According to Bowlby, attachment styles resulted
o Slow-to-Warm-Up Children – mild but slow to from repeated interactions with a caregiver
adapt to new people and situations o Stranger Anxiety – wariness of a person she
o Strong links between infant temperament and does not know
childhood personality at age of 7 o Separation Anxiety – distress when a familiar
o Goodness of Fit – the match between a child’s caregiver leaves her
temperament and the environmental demands o Separation Protest – crying when caregiver
and constraints the child must deal with leaves
Developmental Issues in Infancy o Babies react negatively to strangers by 8 or 9
o According Erik Erikson, as babies, our first months
challenge involves forming basic sense of Trust o Mutual Regulation – the ability of both infant and
versus Mistrust caregiver to respond appropriately and
o Ideally, babies develop a balance between trust sensitively to each other’s mental and emotional
and mistrust states
o If trust predominates, as it should, children o Social Referencing – seeking emotional
develop Hope and the belief that they can fulfill information to guide behavior
their needs and obtain their desires Developmental Issues in Toddlerhood
Approximate Crisis Virtue o Maladaptive Tendency for Toddler:
Age Developed Impulsiveness – shameless willfulness that
Infancy (0-18 Trust vs. Hope leads to jump into things without proper
months) Mistrust consideration
Toddler (18 Autonomy vs. Will o Malignant Tendency for Toddler:
months – 36 Shame/Doubt Compulsiveness – perfectionism, rule follower
months) o Sphincter Muscle is developed
o Maladaptive Tendency for Infancy: Sensory o Self-Concept – our image of ourselves; it
Maladjustment – overly trusting and gullible, describes what we know and feel about
unrealistic, spoiled ourselves and guides our actions
o Malignant Tendency: Withdrawal – never trust o By at least 3 months, infants pay attention to
anyone, paranoid, neurotic, depressive their mirror image
o Significant Individual: Mother o Pretend Play – an early indication of the ability to
o Attachment – reciprocal, enduring emotional tie understand other’s mental states and their own
between an infant and a caregiver, each of whom o Usage of person pronouns (me, mine) usually at
contributes to the quality of the relationship 20-24 months
 Developmental Psychology
Infancy
Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
o Socialization – process by which children
develop habits, skills, values, and motives that
make them responsible and productive
members of the society
o Children obey societal or parental dictates
because they believe them to be right and true
o The eventual goal is the development of
conscience
o Situational Compliance – extra assistance
provided by their parents reminder and prompts
to complete the task
o Committed Compliance – they were committed
to following request and could do so without
their parents direct intervention
o Receptive Cooperation – eager willingness to
cooperate harmoniously with a parent, not only
in disciplinary actions, but in variety of daily
interactions
Maltreatment in Infancy and Toddlerhood end
A. Nonorganic Failure to thrive – slowed or
arrested physical growth with no known medical
cause, accompanied by poor developmental and
emotional functioning
B. Shaken Baby Syndrome – baby has a weak neck
muscles, and a large, heavy head, shaking
makes the brain bounce back and forth inside the
skull
Moral Development
o According to Kohlberg, children in Infancy stage
is at the first level of Moral Development which is
the Pre-Conventional Level
o Infants or children from 0-2 yrs old is in Pre-
conventional Level, specifically in Stage 1
whereas they desire to obey rules and avoid
being punished