Development
Development_AUH 2
Questions to ask
Do babies (fetuses/foeti) grow and develop
before birth? What happens then?
What can cause birth defects?
How do we develop intellectually?
Is attachment (a feeling of closeness)
necessary in human life?
Development_AUH 3
Developmental Psychology
The branch of psychology that studies the
patterns of growth and change that occur
throughout life.
Development_AUH 4
The Fetus and the
Newborn
Development_AUH 5
Prenatal and Postnatal
Development
Development before birth is called prenatal
development.
Development after birth is called postnatal
development.
Development_AUH 6
Three Stages of Prenatal
Development
1. Germinal stage (conception to
implantation of the fertilized egg in the wall
of the uterus)
2. Embryonic stage (implantation to the end
of eight week)
3. Fetal stage (ninth week until birth)
Development_AUH 7
Germinal stage
Zygote: The new one-celled entity formed by
the union of an egg and sperm.
Immediately begins to develop.
Development_AUH 8
Embryonic Stage
Embryo: A developed zygote that has a heart,
a brain, an intestinal tract, and other organs.
all these organs are at a primitive stage of
development.
Development_AUH 9
Fetal stage
Nervous system becomes mature enough to
produce a few spontaneous movements.
4 months 6 months 8 months
Development_AUH 10
Fetal stage
The spontaneous movements are essential
for the development of spinal cord.
Later, the sense organs appear, the head and
eyes begin to turn toward sounds, and the
brain alternates between waking and
sleeping.
Development_AUH 12
Age of viability
The point at which a fetus can survive if
born prematurely.
At about prenatal age 22 weeks.
Development_AUH 13
Age of viability
Born before week 30: less than a 50-50
chance of survival.
If they do survive they may later experience
significant developmental delays.
Born at 22
weeks
Development_AUH 14
The embryo has a heart.
□ True
□ False
The embryo’s nervous system is mature
enough to produce a few spontaneous
movements.
□ True
□ False
PRENATAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
INFLUENCES
Teratogens: Environmental agents such
as a drug, chemical, virus, or other factors
that produce a birth defect.
Development_AUH 17
Mother’s nutrition
Seriously undernourished mothers:
– Give birth to underweight babies
– Babies become more susceptible to
disease
– Adverse impact on the baby’s mental
development
Development_AUH 18
Mother’s illness
Rubella (German measles)
Syphilis Permanent,
lifelong effects on
Diabetes
the fetus
High blood pressure
Rubella
Development_AUH 19
Mother’s emotional state
Anxious and tense
mothers (during Irritable infants
the last months of who sleep and
their pregnancies) eat poorly
Development_AUH 20
Mother’s use of drugs (e.g.
cocaine)
High risk of giving birth to addicted babies.
Newborns suffer painful withdrawal
symptoms.
Permanent physical and mental impairment.
newborn cries
for heroin
instead of milk
Development_AUH 21
Alcohol
Infants are likely born with fetal alcohol
syndrome (FAS), a condition resulting in below-
average intelligence, growth delays, and facial
deformities.
Development_AUH 22
Nicotine use (smoking while
pregnant)
Miscarriage
Infant death
Premature birth
Lifetime negative consequences
Development_AUH 23
Which of the following can adversely affect
a fetus?
□ Mother’s emotional state
□ Mother’s illness
□ Mother’s nutrition
□ All are applicable
Teratogens are genetic factors that cause
birth defects.
□ True
□ False
Infancy (Birth – 2
years)
Development_AUH 26
Infants’ Vision
Infants have the ability to recognize faces
which continues developing for years with
experience.
After the age of 5 months, infants start to
crawl which gives them a sense of depth and
distance.
Development_AUH 27
Infants’ Hearing
At first, infants appear to distinguish among
all sounds that occur in any language.
Within a few months, they get better at
distinguishing among sounds important in
their language, and worse at distinguishing
sound differences meaningless in their
language.
Development_AUH 28
Infants’ Learning and Memory
It is likely that infants learn the sound of the
mother’s voice before birth.
Memories can form during prenatal stage
which can last for several weeks.
Infants can learn a response and remember it.
Development_AUH 29
Fetuses can not remember information.
□ True
□ False
Jean Piaget’s View
of Cognitive
Development
Development_AUH 31
Piaget’s four major
stages of intellectual
development
• Stage 1: Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years)
• Stage 2: Preoperational (2–7 years)
• Stage 3: Concrete operational (7–12 years)
• Stage 4: Formal operational (12 years – adulthood)
Development_AUH 37
Stage 1: Sensorimotor (birth to
2 years)
Major characteristics:
Development of object permanence
Development of motor skills
Little or no capacity for symbolic
representation
Little use of language
Development_AUH 38
Object permanence
It is the idea that objects continue to exist
even when we do not see or hear them.
Piaget argued that infants in the first few
months of life lack this concept.
Development_AUH 39
Development_AUH 40
Stage 2: Preoperational
(2–7 years)
Major Characteristics
Development of language
Symbolic thinking (i.e. can represent objects
mentally by words and other symbols)
Egocentric thinking
Difficulty distinguishing appearance from
reality
Lack of the concept of conservation
Development_AUH 41
Egocentric thinking
A child sees the world as centered around
himself or herself and cannot easily take
another person’s perspective.
Development_AUH 42
Distinguishing Appearance
from Reality
White ball
Child: “the
Blue filter ball is blue”
Development_AUH 43
During preoperational stage, children
apparently do not distinguish clearly between
appearance and reality.
Development_AUH 44
Developing the Concept of
Conservation
Preoperational children say
that the second row has
more coins.
Preoperational children say
that the taller, thinner
container has more water.
Development_AUH 45
Preoperational children fail to understand
that objects conserve such properties as
number, length, volume, area, and mass
after changes in the shape or arrangement
of the objects.
Development_AUH 46
Stage 3: Concrete operational
(7–12 years)
Major Characteristics
Development of conservation
Mastery of concept of reversibility
Has trouble reasoning about abstract
concepts and hypothetical situations
Development_AUH 47
The principle of reversibility
Children learn that some changes can be
undone by reversing an earlier action.
A ball of Long sausage A ball of
clay shape clay
Development_AUH 48
Stage 4: Formal operational
(12 years - adulthood)
Major Characteristics
Development of logical and abstract
thinking (e.g. a > b; b > c; then a > c)
Develops strategies
Plans actions in advance
Development_AUH 49
Development_AUH 50
Logical and abstract thinking
characterize the _____ stage.
□ sensorimotor
□ preoperational
□ formal operational
□ concrete operational
A 5-year old child cannot easily take
another person’s perspective. This is
called
□ child thinking
□ egocentric thinking
□ formal operational thinking
□ concrete operational thinking
Social and Emotional
Development
Development_AUH 53
Attachment
A feeling of closeness toward another
person.
Development_AUH 54
Ainsworth (1993) and others have
identified 4 basic types of attachment
relationships
1. Secure Attachment
2. Insecure/Resistant or ambivalent
3. Insecure/Avoidant
4. Insecure/Disorganized
Infants with and without
strong attachments:
Infants who Infants without
develop good strong attachments
attachments have have trouble
a sense of security developing close
and safety. relations later as
well.
Development_AUH 56
Secure attachment
Secure attachment is a relationship of trust
and confidence.
During infancy this relationship provides a
secure base for exploration of the
environment.
This group seems to say “I missed you
terribly, but now that you’re back, I’m okay.”
Development_AUH 57
Insecure resistant/ambivalent
Attachment
Infants or young children are clingy and
stay close to their caregivers rather than
exploring their environment.
The baby is upset when the mother leaves
and remains upset or even angry when
she returns, and is difficult to console.
Development_AUH 58
Avoidant attachment
Infants or young children seem somewhat
indifferent toward their caregivers and may
even avoid their caregivers.
If they do get upset when left alone, they
are as easily comforted by a stranger as
by a parent.
As if to say, “you left me again, I always
have to take care of myself!”
Development_AUH 59
Disorganized attachment
Infants or young children have no
consistent way to coping with the stress of
a situation.
The baby seems confused when the
mother leaves and when she returns.
This leads to problems with emotional
regulation, social function and severe
emotional problems.
Development_AUH 60
Name that Attachment
Relationship!
A baby in this group might say “I
missed you terribly, but now that
you’re back, I’m okay.”
Secure
A baby in this group might say “You
left me again. I always have to take
care of myself.”
Insecure/Avoidant Secure
Insecure/Avoidant
Insecure/Resistant
Disorganized/Disoriented
Name that Attachment
Relationship!
A baby in this group might say “Why
do you do this? I get so angry when
you’re like this.”
Resistant
A baby in this group might say
“What’s going on here? I want you to
be here, but you left and now you’re
back. I don’t know whether to laugh
or cry.”
Disorganized
Secure
Insecure/Avoidant
Insecure/Resistant
Disorganized/Disoriented
