Childhood Development

Dr. Paul Wehr

 Agenda
Announcements:
Final Exam: Tuesday December 10th, 7:30pm – 9:30pm.
Development:
What kinds of changes are developmental psychologists interested in
studying?
What changes take place across different points of the lifecycle?
What factors can influence the changes that take place during
development?
 Introduction to Development

Development: age related changes that occur as

individual progresses from conception to death.
Predictable sequence.
Life-history Theory
Prenatal & Childhood Development:
Brain development.
Cognitive Development.
Moral Development.
Attachment.
Development continues through adolescence and
adulthood.
 Life-history Theory

Life History

Somatic Effort Reproductive

Effort

Mating Effort Parenting

Effort

Men invest more Women invest

more
 Prenatal Development

Prenatal Period: conception to birth.

Germinal stage (first 2 weeks):
Zygote: one-celled organism resulting from conception.
Migration along fallopian tube; implantation in uterine wall.
Placenta forms.
20% of pregnancies fail.
Embryonic stage (2 weeks – 2 months):
Organs begin to develop.
Risk of Miscarriage and birth defects is high.
Fetal stage (2 months – birth):
Bones and muscles; movement.
Organs begin to function; sex organs develop.
Rapid expansion of brain tissue.
Age of viability: 22 – 26 weeks.
 Prenatal Environment
Maternal Nutrition:
Maternal malnutrition increases risk of birth complications,
neurological defects, schizophrenia.
Low birth weight increases risk for heart disease & diabetes.
Maternal Drug Use:
Effects vary dramatically.
esp: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Birth: micro-cephaly, heart defects.
Childhood: hyperactivity, retarded mental & motor development.
Adults: depression, suicide, criminal behavior.
Tobacco: reduces flow of oxygen/nutrients to fetus – miscarriage,
stillbirth, prematurity, SIDS.
Maternal Illness:
Genital herpes & HIV are frequently fatal for newborn.
 Pregnancy Sickness
Pregnancy Sickness (nausea, vomiting, food aversions) might
be an adaptive reaction to toxins present in food.
Teratogens are carcinogenic (cancer causing) & mutagenic (stop
mutation, cell division) .
Sickness severity related to toxicity: coffee, spoiled meat, meat, eggs,
vegetables.
Most severe during first trimester; disappears after 14 weeks.
More severe in cultures with high meat consumption.
Less sickness associated with spontaneous abortion.
 Infant Brain Development

Plasticity: brain’s ability to change structure & function:

Changes in structure:
Number of dendrites and connections increases dramatically following
birth.
2 years: 15,000 synapses/neuron; twice as many as adults.
Changes in function:
Newborns: high activity in thalamus.
Highly dependent on reflexes.
2 – 3 months: increased activity in cortex.
8 – 9 months: increased activity in frontal cortex.
 Child Brain Development

Synaptic Pruning: unused synapses are eliminated:

Connections peak between ______ years.
_____________: creation of new neurons.
Humans produce new cells in olfactory bulb and ____________.
New cells migrate to other regions of the brain and form connections
with existing cells.
Associated with learning?

Synaptic overproduction
and pruning during
childhood.
 Teen Brain Development

White Matter:
Myelinated neurons facilitate communication between regions.
Growth increases between childhood and puberty, then slows:
Grey Matter:
Information processing.
Second round of synaptic overproduction & pruning decreases volume.
Prefrontal cortex:
Changes most pronounced and continue until ________.
High-level cognitive functioning (planning, organization).
Strengthen connection to limbic system: Impulsive and subject to peer
pressure.
 Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980): Swiss developmental psychologist

working with Theodore Simon.
Interested in childhood thought processes leading to incorrect answers
on IQ Test.
Four-stage model of cognitive development.
Assimilation: interpreting new experiences in terms of existing
mental structures.
Accomodation: changing existing mental structures to explain
new experiences.
 Sensorimotor Period

Birth to age two; dominated by innate reflexes.

Coordination between sensory input and motor actions.
Symbolic thought begins to develop (e.g., mental image of favorite
toy).
Object permanence: recognition that objects continue to exist in
the absence of sensory stimulation.
Four months: no permanence.
Four to 8 months: partial permanence.
18 months: permanence mastered.

Lukas at 3 months
 Preoperational Period

Ages 2 to 7; development of symbolic thought continues.

Conservative: awareness that physical quantities remain
constant in spite of changes in shape or appearance.
Characteristics of preoperational thought:
Centration: focus on one feature of a problem.
Irreversibility: inability to envision reversing an action.
Egocentrism: inability to share another’s viewpoint.
Animism: belief that all things are living.
 Concrete Operational Period

Ages 7 to 11: operations performed on tangible objects.

Reversability.
Decentration.
Decline in egocentrism.
Conservation of liquid, mass, number, area, and length.
Hierarchical classification: problems that require two levels of
classification (e.g., 7 carnations, 3 daisies).
Can’t think abstractly.
 Formal Operational Period

Beginning at 11 years; applies operations to abstract concepts

(justice, love, free-will).
Further development reflect changes in degree.
More systematic in problem-solving, less trial and error.

Evaluating Piaget’s theory:

Sequence of stages is constant, timetable variable.
Doesn’t account for Individual differences.
Evidence of mixes elements of different stages.
 Cognitive Development

Habituation-dishabituation paradigm:
Habituation: infant looses interest in stimulus presented repeatedly
(heart-rate; respiration; looking time).
Dishabituation: new stimulus elicits interest from infant.
What type of events Surprise infants?
Four month olds understand:
Add and subtract small numbers.
Objects are distinct entities.
Objects move in continuous paths.
Solid objects cannot pass through each other.
Objects cannot pass through openings smaller in size.
Objects on slopes roll down.
 Theory of Mind

The nature of “mind”.

Ability to recognize other minds are distinct from own.
Ability to know other minds have different content.
Ability to anticipate the contents of other minds.
Ability to know that thoughts and desires motivate behaviour.
Ability to recognize that not all thoughts reflect reality (False beliefs).
False belief test (Candy box full of crayons):
Theory of mind develops at about four years of age.
 Moral Reasoning

Morality: ability to discern right from wrong and to behave

accordingly.
Moral Judgements: how good or bad is an action?

Cercei pours her Father a cup of tea. She Tyrion pours his Father a cup of tea. He
adds one serving from a container adds one serving from a container
labeled “Sugar”. The substance is labeled “Poison”. The substance is
actually poison (not sugar) and her actually sugar (not poison) and his
Father dies. Father enjoys the tea very much.

So what determines whether an action is good or bad? And

what cognitive ability does moral reasoning require?
 Moral Reasoning
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927 - 1987): American psychologist who worked
with Piaget.

Impending Doom
A pregnant woman is leading a group of people out of a
cave on a coast is stuck in the mouth of that cave. In a short
time high tide will be upon them, and unless she is unstuck,
they will all be drowned except the pregnant woman,
whose head is out of the cave. Another member of the
group is carrying a stick of dynamite. There seems no way
to get the pregnant woman loose without using the
dynamite, which will inevitably kill her and her unborn
child; but if they do not use the dynamite, then everyone
else will drown. What should they do?
 Attachment
Attachment: emotional bond the infant has with its
caregiver(s).
Separation Anxiety: emotional distress observed in infants
when separated from primary caregiver.
Appears 6-8 months; peaks 14-18 at months.
Fear of strangers.
John Bowlby (1907 – 1990): English psychoanalyst.
Attachment enhanced survival.
Harlow’s Rhesus Monkey experiments.
Maternal deprivation has serious irreversible consequences?
(unsubstantiated)
Non-secure attachment associated with development of various
strangers.
 Attachment Styles
Mary Ainsworth (1913 – 1999): The Strange Situation.
Secure attachment.
Explore comfortably; protests when mother leaves; calms quickly when she returns.
Anxious/ambivalent attachment.
Explores but anxious; protests when mother leaves; difficult to console when she
returns. 1. Parent and infant are introduced to the experimental room.
Parent and infant are alone. Parent does not participate while infant

Avoidant attachment.
2.

explores.
3. Stranger enters, converses with parent, then approaches infant.

Explores comfortably; no protest when mother leaves; acts aloof when she returns.
Parent leaves inconspicuously.
4. First separation episode: Stranger's behaviour directed towards
infant.

Maternal sensitivity and marital satisfaction more likely to

5. First reunion episode: Parent greets and comforts infant, then
leaves again.
6. Second separation episode: Infant is alone.

lead to secure attachment.

7. Continuation of second separation episode: Stranger enters.
8. Second reunion episode: Parent enters, greets infant, and picks up
infant; stranger leaves inconspicuously.
Two aspects of the child's behaviour are observed:

Temperamentally difficult infants more likely to exhibit non- 9.

10.
The amount of exploration (e.g. playing with new toys).
The child's reactions to the departure and return of its caregiver.

secure attachment.
 Adult Attachment Styles

Kim Bartholomew (SFU): applied attachment to adult

relationships; attachment style determined by two dimensions.

Orientation to others
+ –
Secure Dismissing
+ High self-confidence. Self-reliant.
Intimate relationships. Avoids intimacy.
Orientatio
n to self
Preoccupied Fearful
– Dependent on others. Low self-confidence.
Idealizes relationships. Fear of rejection.
 Motor Development

Muscular coordination for physical activity.

Maturation: gradual unfolding of genetic blueprint:
Early development (e.g., grasping).
Requires environmental input (exploration).
Specialized skills develop later and require training (e.g.,
triple-axel).
 Developmental Benchmarks

Cephalocaudal Trend: progresses from head to foot.

Proximodistal Trend: progress from torso to limbs.
Great variation in development of benchmarks.
 Search for Identity

James Marcia (SFU): identity status determined by 2

dimensions:
Presence/absence of a sense of communication to life goals/values.
Sense of crisis (active questioning and exploration of identity).
Move between identity statuses.
Identity moratorium & achievement increase with age.
Identity changes across adulthood.
“Identity crisis” can occur in midlife.
 Transitions During Adulthood

Marriage.
Median age increasing since 70s.
Median age decreased from 20s to 70s.
Parenthood.
Rewarding experience.
More stress!
Empty nest.
Less stress!
Marital & life satisfaction increase.