Chapter 10 Development and Personality Development Research Methods Fetal learning Many pregnant women report a fetal jerk or sudden kick after a door slams or a car backfires Researchers have inserted a hydrophone into the uterus of a pregnant women and saw that the tones of the mothers voice was audible Research has shown that heart rate slows when a mother is speaking showing the fetus not only recognizes the voice but is also calmed by it Believed the womb isn t completely dark DeCasper s research found that babies show preference Fetuses show learning o Babies prefer mother s voice and books that were read to them in the womb as opposed to new sounds and new books o Babies prefer to hear their mothers speaking in their native language rather than The fetus can listen learn and remember at some level and likes the comfort and in a foreign language reassurance of the familiar Infant Perception Cognition Joseph Campos and Robert Amdy showed fear of heights is not innate for babies who have just learned to crawl but once they have been crawling for a little a fear of heights is learned from a biological switch Emotions nonverbal language Emotions are nonverbal communication of baby to parent and parent to baby o Campos showed that the emotion of the parent lead the baby to make a decision about crossing the cliff Lifelong Development Cohort a population of individuals born during the same historical period o Example baby boomers 1946 1964 Confounding variables vs attrition Cross sectional includes people from at least two different cohorts and then compares them o Confounding factors since the people come from different historical periods they differ in historical differences they have experienced so it becomes difficult to decide if it is the difference in age or historical events exospore making the differences Longitudinal measure a cohort in one time period and then again years later in a different time period o Attrition easy to lose people from original measurement due to death little interest etc So the second measurement might not be representative of the entire sample Infant Determinism Usually the recent past matters more than early childhood in terms of effect The role early experience may play in shaping adult outcome is heavily dependent on subsequent experiences and condition many of which cannot be predicted or control subsequent events such as parental divorce depression unemployment etc Human beings are shaped more by present than by past circumstances What causes a behavior to begin is not what keeps it going Example trace your current fear of poodles You had a scary encounter with a poodle when you were little but that encounter was long ago and the poodle is long gone you still have the fear because you avoid them Your fear is due to avoidance not the encounter Piaget s Stage Theory Jean Piaget studied the cognitive development of children and proposed a theory of several stages they go through Stage 1 Sensori motor birth 2 years o Differentiate self from objects o Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally i e pulls a string to set mobile in action or shakes a rattle to make a noise o Infants Does not achieve object permanence doesn t realize that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense o Toddlers develop an idea of object permanence Stage 2 Pre operational 2 7 years o Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words o Thinking is still egocentric has difficulty taking viewpoint of others o Classifies objects by a single feature i e groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color Lacks ideas of conservation doesn t have a fully understanding of transformation o Juice experiment coin experiment graham crack experiment o Egocentrism Stage 3 Concrete operational 7 11 years o Can think logically about objects and events o Achieves conservation of number age 6 mass age 7 and weight age 9 o Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size o Concerned with the physical world o Can differentiate between fat and skinny glass in juice experiment and still realize that they have the same amount of juice Stage 4 Formal operational 11 years and up o Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses o Becomes concerned with the hypothetical the future and the ideological o Younger kids are not able to deductive reason 11 years and up are able to systematically problems deductive reason Kohlberg Theorized that children developed through 3 general levels of moral reasoning Pre conventional Level up to age 9 Self Focused Morality o Morality is defined as obeying and avoiding negative consequences Children in this stage see rules set typically by parents as defining moral law o That which satisfies the child s needs is seen as good and moral o Even babies tend to gravitate towards good people Upwards of 80 of infants choose the helpful puppet in Yale experiments Conventional Level age nine to adolescence Other Focused Morality o Children begin to understand what is expected of them by their parents teachers etc Morality is seen as achieving these expectations o Fulfilling obligations as well as following expectations are seen as moral law for children in this stage Post conventional Level adulthood Higher Focused Morality o As adults we begin to understand that people have different opinions about morality and that rules and laws vary from group to group and culture to culture Morality is seen as upholding the values of your group or culture o Understanding your own personal beliefs allows adults to judge themselves and others based upon higher levels of morality In this stage what is right and wrong is based upon the circumstances surrounding an action Basics of morality are the foundation with independent thought playing an important role Attachment Attachment theory John Bowlby security of attachment is made not born it is a result of lived experience rather than a byproduct of in born biological make up Sensitive mother or caregiving fosters security in infants and young children Infants establish secure attachments when caregivers mothers fathers or even child care workers recognize the infant s signals verbal and nonverbal accurately interpret them and respond in a timely fashion and an appropriate manner Sensitivity is linked to security and insensitivity is linked
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