Chapter 1 Domains of Development Three broad domains Physical changes in body size proportions appearance functioning of body systems perceptual and motor capacities and physical health Cognitive changes in intellectual abilities like attention memory academic and everyday knowledge problem solving imagination creativity and language Emotional and social changes in emotional communication self understanding knowledge about other people interpersonal skills friendships intimate relationships and moral reasoning and behavior Not really distinct rather they combine in an integrated holistic complete fashion to yield produce the living growing child Periods of development infancy early childhood middle and late childhood adolescence Continuous or Discontinuous Development Continuous a process of gradually augmenting the same type of skills that were there to begin with Discontinuous a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times From this perspective babies are not able to organize objects or remember and interpret experiences as we do They will move through a series of developmental steps Stages qualitative changes in thinking feeling and behaving that characterize specific periods of development Like a staircase change is more sudden Some theories see development as continuous while other theories see development as discontinuous stage theories Continuous development happens gradually adding more and more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with Discontinuous development is a process in which new ways of thinking emerges at specific times see Piaget s theory Nature and Nurture Nature inborn biological givens hereditary information genes Nurture complex forces of physical and social world that influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth Always a combination of both that influence development Theories of Child Development Psychoanalytic focuses on social emotional development Erikson in his psychological theory he emphasized that in addition to mediating between id largest portion of the mind source of basic biological needs and desires impulses and superego conscience demands the ego conscious rational part of personality acquires attitudes and skills that make the individual an active contributing member learned from Freud took a more positive view stage theorist what happens in childhood is important to who you become as an adult but you can go back and fix things that hurt you as a child Child rearing is responsive to the competencies valued and needed by the child s society Stages 1 Oral birth 1 year Sucking activities toward breast or bottle If needs not met properly child may develop habits such as thumb sucking fingernail biting and pencil chewing in childhood and overeating and smoking in later life 2 Anal 1 3years Holding and releasing urine and feces Toilet training major issue conflicts can occur about anal control may appear in the form of extreme orderliness and cleanliness or messiness and disorder 3 Phallic 3 6 years Sexual desire for the other sex parent To avoid punishment they give up this desire and adopt the same sex parent s characteristics and values 4 Latency 6 11 years Sexual instincts die down the child acquires new social values from adults 5 Genital adolescence Sexual impulses of the phallic stage reappear If successful leads to marriage mature sexuality and the birth and rearing of children Table 1 2 page 16 Behaviorism No longer in the mainstream of child development used as outline Directly observable events stimuli and responses James Watson Traditional behaviorism classical conditioning 11 month was fear of a neutral stimulus a soft white rat by presenting it several times with a sharp loud sound which naturally scared the baby At first reached out to touch the furry rat began to cry and turn his head away at the sight of it The fear was so intense that they concluded the environment is the supreme force in development and adults can mold children s behavior by carefully controlling stimulus He viewed development as continuous Operant conditioning theory frequency of behavior can be increased by following it with a wide variety of reinforces such as food praise a friendly smile or a new toy It can also be decreased by punishment Behaviorism eliminates undesirable behaviors and increases desirable responses Used to relieve aggression language delays and extreme fears Deals with everyday difficulties poor time management nail biting smoking public speaking etc Cognitive focused on the brain learning and thinking Piaget stage theorist said children think differently from adults and are active in constructing knowledge cognitive development theory Stages eventually revise these incorrect ideas in their ongoing efforts to achieve balance between internal structures and info they encounter in their everyday worlds 1 Sensorimotor use of sense and movements to explore the world Ex finding hidden toys and putting objects in and taking them out of containers 2 Preoperational preschoolers symbolic thinking and illogical Ex make believe takes place 3 Concrete operational cognition is transformed into more organized reasoning of the school aged child Ex organize objects into hierarchies of classes and subclasses 4 Formal operational thought becomes abstract systematic reasoning system of the adolescent and adult Information Processing not a stage theorist mind is like a computer we manipulate information monitor it and strategize about it info flows and that regards cognitive development as a continuous process Ex child building a bridge her unsuccessful attempts that she repeated triggered experimentally the idea of using the blocks as counterweights Her mistaken procedures helped her understand Track children s mastery of one or a few tasks Also with social problems Sensitive Period applies better to human development than the strict notion of a critical period It s a time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge and in which the individual is especially responsive to environmental influences Human infant caregiver relationship Keeping the parent near behaviors of babbling grasping and crying help ensure that the baby will be fed protected and provided with the stimulation and affection Critical Period limited time span during which the child is biologically prepared to acquire certain adaptive behaviors but needs the support of an appropriately
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