Child & Adolescent Development Ch. 5-8

What takes place in Erikson's first two psychosocial stages and what can caretakers do to assist children as they go through these stages?

1. Trust vs. Mistrust-- A caregiver can assist the child by having sensitive, responsive, caregiving. Respond to needs- when infant cries it is communicating a need. When you respond it teaches them that someone cares, that they are accepted, and that needs will be met. . 2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt-- A caregiver can provide structure and limits along with opportunities to make (reasonable) choices, and giving them encouragement for their efforts.

Understand the characteristics of early speech.

1st speech sounds consist of cooing & babbling. Requirements to become a communicator = joint attention; give and take (even with noises); preverbal gestures (pointing). First words= echolalia (repeating what they've heard); protowords (pattern of sounds refers to something specific); holophrase (1 word that conveys an entire idea); fast-mapping (children have some understanding of what a word means by general exposure).

Information processing capacity of adults

5-7 items

How is the Strange Situation technique used and what are the criticisms of its use?

A structured laboratory procedure that is used to observe attachment behavior in human infants which consists of 8 episodes that are strictly scripted. Criticisms are that it cannot be applied cross culturally because when applied many end up being categorized as insecure in other cultures. Another concern is that emotional development is not all present at the time of birth but researchers disagree about the sequence of these emotions appearing.

What aspects of cognition are emphasized regarding theory of mind?

APPEARANCE- reality distinction (being able to distinguish beliefs about appearance & reality); DUAL REPRESENTATION

What were the views of the early theorists regarding attachment?

According to John Bowlby's Ethological theory attachment emerges from a system of traits and behaviors that have evolved over time to increase the infants chance of survival. Attachment figure provided a secure base of emotional comfort for the infant. -Behavioral theory at the time believed food was a powerful reinforcement for behaviors related to attachment -Psychoanalytic theory oral gratification was believed to be what est. the initial bond between infant and mother -Harry Harlow's Rhesus Monkey- proved attachment was not based on feeding but the comfort that brings emotional security

What is the impact of day care on attachment?

Adds to the risk of insecure attachment only when combined with mothering that was less sensitive and responsive. Daycare itself does not necessarily jeopardize attachment.

What takes place in regard to eating habits in early childhood?

Appetite becomes unpredictable from meal to meal but overall decline in appetite. Tend to like familiar foods and don't like trying new foods.

Overregularization

Applying rules without appropriate exceptions (when they make new mistakes they're getting better in their language skills)

Understand the benefits and limitations of compensatory preschool education.

BENEFITS: higher IQ; academic success; less likely to go to Special Ed services; more graduate from high school/ college/ vocational training; lower rates of drug use, delinquency, teen pregnancy, welfare

Understand the child and family characteristics associated with child maltreatment.

Child maltreatment is most frequent with infants under the age of one, rates tend to decline as children get older. Children that have been abused are often compulsively compliant especially between the ages of 1-3 when most kids are testing their limits. Mothers are more likely to commit physical abuse or neglect than fathers. Higher in families that live in poverty, substance abuse problems, and if abused as a child

Understand how habituation and dishabituation are used in research with infants.

Habituation-Dishabituation Technique- used to test infant perception. Infants are shown a stimulus repeatedly until the habituate (respond less) to it. Then a new stimulus is presented. Infants will look longer at new stimuli than at old & familiar stimuli.

What changes occur in grammar and social rules of discourse?

IMITATION (correcting grammer); learn rules & then OVERREGULARIZATION; and learning EXCEPTIONS to the rules.

What is known about individual differences in motor skills?

Kids develop skills differently based on their activities aka basketball different motor skills than soccer.

Understand the cognitive advances and limitations of the preoperational stage.

Kids gain MENTAL REPRESENTATION (can think about things not physically present); SYMBOLIC THINKING (able to use symbols & advance language; DEFFERED IMITATION (child mimicks something they've seen you do); PRETEND PLAY; REPRESENTATIONAL DRAWINGS. LIMITATIONS= don't think logically, but intuitively; conservation failure; egocentric; transductive thinking (correlation of events thought to be causal)

Understand the theories of language development.

Learning Theory- sees lang as a skilled behavior that kids learn through operant conditioning, imitation, and modeling. Environmental view- lang is a behavior people learn like any other skill. Specific lang training governs lang development & biological predispositions do not play an important role. Nativist view- lang is innate human capability that develops when lang input triggers lang aquisition device in the brain.

What are the criticisms of Piaget's theory?

Limitations may not last as long as Piaget thought; the wording of the questions may lead to deception

What are the different types of child maltreatment?

Neglect, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and sexual abuse

Understand the findings of violation of expectation research, along with the criticisms of this method.

RESEARCH PROCESS: Habituate to an event; show a related (but different) possible & impossible event; to which event does dishabituation occur? (renewed attention); dishabituation tends to occur to the impossible events. 4 TYPES: understanding of #s; object permanence; support phenomenon causality; physicality of objects. CRITICISMS: Infants stare longer at impossible events, alt. explanation is they stare longer bc they've never seen it before.

According to Piaget, what takes place during the sensorimotor stage?

Representational, symbolic thought gradually emerges as the stage progresses. Object permanence develops.

Understand Vygotsky's concepts of zone of proximal development and scaffolding.

SCAFFOLDING- temporary support supplied to child to help them master a task; it's important the parent knows when to pull back too

What are the patterns or categories of attachment?

SECURE attachment (comfy exploring, upset when mom leaves & thrilled to see mom when she comes back); 3 TYPES OF INSECURE: Avoidant, resistant, disorganized/ disoriented

Understand self-awareness and self-recognition and their relationship to the development of self-conscious/social emotions.

Self-awareness is the understanding that the self exists as something that is distinct and separate from the rest of the world. A sign that children know they are self aware is when they can recognize themselves in the mirror. When they are self aware then the child should be able to experience the social emotions (also need to have social interaction to experience social emotions)

From an information processing perspective, what aspects of cognitive development are the focus of research?

Success with age doesn't represent a qualitative change in thinking -------not completed--------

Understand the timetable for emotional development.

The tendency of infants and children to look to for emotional cues from parents and other caregivers to get information in uncertain situations.

What is social referencing and when is it most likely to be used?

The tendency of infants and children to look to for emotional cues from parents and other caregivers to get information in uncertain situations.

According to the longitudinal research conducted by Thomas and Chess, what are the types oftemperament and the influences on the development of temperament?

There are three types of temperament: easy, difficult, and slow to warm up. ---Easy temperament is when a child is primarily positive, smiles easily, has a flexible and positive approach to new situations, adapts to change, and quickly develops regular patterns of sleeping and eating. ---Difficult temperament is when a child is frequently negative and easily frustrated, withdraws from new situations, is slow to adapt to change, and shows irregular patterns of eating and sleeping. ---Slow-to-warm-up temperament is shown when a child has mildly negative responses to new stimuli and situations, but with repeated exposure gradually develops a quiet and positive interest. Compared to children with a difficult temperament these children have less intense emotional reactions and more regular eating and sleeping schedules. ---Higher levels of anxiety during early pregnancy are related to more negative temperaments in children. Genetics are influential in formation of temperament but environment is also important. Innate tendencies can be reinforced, frustrated, or channeled by parents, family, and the larger environment.

What are the criticisms of Piaget's theory

Underestimated infants cognitive skills bc of the tasks he used; motor skills just not able to use; current view- object permanence occurs a lot earlier

Understand the contrasting views regarding private speech.

VYGOTSKY'S VIEW: used for self-guidance & self-direction; results from social interactions with adults; sequence-spoken words, whispers, lip movements. PIAGET'S VIEW: egocentric- kids don't realize how they sound to other people. RESEARCH SUPPORTS- kids who use private speech earlier are brighter, kids are more likely to use it when tasks are difficult.

Understand the mutual regulation model and the impact of disruptions in this process.

When the caregiver and infant match emotional states- responding to each other's signals. Emotional self regulation and development of attachment. If this is disrupted (what was expected to happen doesn't) baby gets upset. Overtime baby becomes unregulated and disconnected from mom.

experience-dependent development

development of specific skills such as riding a skateboard in which new synapses form to code the experience.

Experience-expectant development

development of universal skills such as hand eye coordination in which excess synapses form and are pruned according to experience

Understand the difference between experience-expectant development and experience-dependent development.

experience-expectant is universal (such as hand eye coordination, attachment, and communication by language) while experience-dependent is not universal (like a culture specific behavior, or a specific motor skill like riding a bike)

What factors impact the emergence of self-conscious/social emotions?

self conscious emotions begin to emerge around 15 months. In order for this emotions to emerge the toddler must first have a sense of his own identity and a sense of what others expect of him.

What information is learned from the Harlow research with rhesus monkeys?

that contact comfort is a crucial factor in attachment formation

secure attachment

the healthy type of attachment between an infant and a caregiver. Infant seeks contact with, and is soothed by the caretaker. The caretaker is a safe base for exploring new environments

insecure-resistant attachment

unhealthy type of attachment indicated when infants seek the proximity of the care giver but do not seem to gain comfort from them.

insecure-disoriented/disorganized attachment

unhealthy type of attachment indicated when infants seem confused or dazed or show contradictory behaviors in the Strange Situation.

insecure-avoidant attachment

unhealthy type of attachment where infants do not use caregivers as a safe base for exploring unfamiliar environments , are not visibly distressed by separation, and do not prefer caregiver over unfamiliar adults. Infant ignores or avoids caretaker when reunited after separation.

Understand dual representation and know how it has been researched.

viewing a symbolic object as an object & symbol; mastered by age 3; researched by DeLoache in the little Snoopy Study & the shrinking machine