Infancy and Childhood

parenting styles

1. Authoritarian parents are coercive. They impose rules and expect obedience: "Don't interrupt." "Keep your room clean." "Don't stay out late or you'll be grounded." "Why? Because I said so." ; TOO HARD 2. Permissive parents are unrestraining. They make few demands and use little punishment. They may be indifferent, unresponsive, or unwilling to set limits. ; TOO SOFT 3. Authoritative parents are confrontive. They are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules, but, especially with older children, they encourage open discussion and allow exceptions. ; JUST RIGHT Why? Parents using the authoritative style tend to have children with high self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence.

egocentric

in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. (p. 132)

preoperational stage - about 2 to 6/7 years old

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. (p. 131) Developmental Phenomena - pretend play; egocentrism

sensorimotor stage - birth to nearly 2 years old

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. (p. 130) Developmental Phenomena - stranger anxiety; object permanence

concrete operational stage - about 7 to 11 years old

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. (p. 133) Developmental Phenomena - conservation; mathematical transformations

formal operational stage - about 12 through adulthood

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. (p. 133) Developmental Phenomena - abstract logic; potential for mature moral reasoning

assimilate

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. (p. 130)

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. (p. 130)

stranger anxiety

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. (p. 139)

conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. (p. 132)

imprinting

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life. (p. 139)

accommodate

(1) in developmental psychology, adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. (2) in sensation and perception, the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. (pp. 130, 211)

How do parent-infant attachment bonds form?

At about 8 months, soon after object permanence develops, children separated from their caregivers display stranger anxiety. Infants form attachments not simply because parents gratify biological needs but, more important, because they are comfortable, familiar, and responsive. Many birds and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.

How have psychologists studied attachment differences, and what have they learned?

Attachment has been studied in strange situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely attached. Infants' differing attachment styles reflect both their individual temperament and the responsiveness of their parents and child-care providers. Adult relationships seem to reflect the attachment styles of early childhood, lending support to Erik Erikson's idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experiences with responsive caregivers.

What distinguishes imprinting from attachment?

Attachment is the normal process by which we form emotional ties with important others. Imprinting occurs only in certain animals that have a critical period very early in their development during which they must form their attachments, and they do so in an inflexible manner.

How does childhood neglect or abuse affect children's attachments?

Children are very resilient, but those who are moved repeatedly, severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments by age 2 may be at risk for attachment problems.

From the perspectives of Piaget, Vygotsky, and today's researchers, how does a child's mind develop?

In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two years, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex ways of thinking. In the pre-operational stage (about age 2 to about 6 or 7), they develop a theory of mind, but they are egocentric and unable to perform simple logical operations. At about age 7, they enter the concrete operational stage and are able to comprehend the principle of conservation. By about age 12, children enter the formal operational stage and can reason systematically. Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but it also shows that young children are more capable, and their development more continuous, than he believed. Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of learning.

scaffold

In the field of education, the term scaffolding refers to a process in which teachers model or demonstrate how to solve a problem, and then step back, offering support as needed. Psychologist and instructional designer Jerome Bruner first used the term 'scaffolding' in this context back in the 1960s.

Use Piaget's first three stages of cognitive development to explain why young children are not just miniature adults in the way they think.

Infants in Piaget's sensorimotor stage tend to be focused only on their own perceptions of the world and may, for example, be unaware that objects continue to exist when unseen. A child in the preoperational stage is still egocentric and incapable of appreciating simple logic, such as the reversibility of operations. A preteen in the concrete operational stage is beginning to think logically about concrete events but not about abstract concepts.

What are three parenting styles, and how do children's traits relate to them?

Parenting styles—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—reflect varying degrees of control. Children with high self-esteem tend to have authoritative parents and to be self-reliant and socially competent, but the direction of cause and effect in this relationship is not clear. Child-raising practices reflect both individual and cultural values.

Maturation

The biological growth process that explains why most children begin walking by about 12 - 15 months.

During infancy and childhood, how do the brain and motor skills develop?

The brain's nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. As a child's brain develops, neural connections grow more numerous and complex. Experiences then trigger a pruning process, in which unused connections weaken and heavily used ones strengthen. This process continues until puberty. Early childhood is an important period for shaping the brain, but our brain modifies itself in response to our learning throughout life. In childhood, complex motor skills—sitting, standing, walking—develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of that sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture. We have no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 3½. This infantile amnesia occurs in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.

Critical Period

an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development. (p. 128)

schemas

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. (p. 130)

autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

a disorder marked by social deficiencies and repetitive behaviors. By age 8, 1 in 68 U.S. children now gets diagnosed with ASD, though the reported rates vary by place. The increase in ASD diagnoses has been offset by a decrease in the number of children with a "cognitive disability" or "learning disability," suggesting a relabeling of children's disorders.

temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity. (p. 140)

basic trust

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers. (p. 142)

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. (pp. 130, 316)

attachment

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. (p. 138)

theory of mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. (p. 133)

As a child, Joseph was physically abused by his father, who often came home from work drunk and angry. Joseph attended college and is now an emergency medical technician. He is also a father himself. Joseph is _____.

risilient

Every time 2-year-old Neva goes near the stove, her mother stops her and says, "No, hot!" Neva's mother is providing her with a _____ to help her internalize.

scaffold