Psychology Chapter 5

Jean Piaget's (1954) principles of cognitive development

-from birth throughout childhood outline stages at which certain cognitive capacities appear -Relying primarily on observations of his own three children, Piaget outlined four phases of cognitive development from birth through adolescence -sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.

Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess (1977, 1996) developed an influential model of temperament

- The easy child is predictable in daily functions, is happy most of the time, and is adaptable. About 40% of children fell into this category. -The difficult child is unpredictable in daily functions, is unhappy most of the time, and is slow to adapt to new situations. About 10% fell into this category. -The slow-to-warm-up child is mildly intense in his or her reactions to new situations and mildly irregular in the daily patterns of eating, sleeping, and eliminating. Although his or her first response to new situations might be negative, after repeated exposures, he or she develops an approaching style. About 15% of the children fell into this category. -About 35% of the children were not classified by these three dimensions.

Bowlby's attachment theory

-First, a responsive and accessible caregiver (usually the mother) creates a secure base for the child, who needs to know that the caregiver is accessible and dependable. -The second assumption of attachment theory is that infants internalize the bonding relationship, which provides a mental model on which they build future friendships and love relationships.

Securely attached

-The key issue is that they initiate contact with the parent on return and then can return to play. -Securely attached infants are confident in the accessibility and responsiveness of their caregiver, and this security and dependability provide the child with the foundation for play and exploration when the caregiver is absent. -About 65% of infants are securely attached.

Insecure Disorganized/Disoriented

-These infants show odd, conflicted behaviors in the strange situation. They might approach the mother on reunion, but they do so with their heads averted. Or they might freeze in place for 50 seconds in the mother's presence (Main & Solomon, 1990). Theory and research suggest that these infants are frightened (Main & Hesse, 1990). -Kids who have been maltreated are more likely to be insecure-disorganized, and home observations suggest they are afraid of their parents.

Insecure Resistant

-cannot be comforted by the mother on reunion and shows difficulty in returning to play. -Some babies actively resist contact with the parents at this stage, and others act more passive. The infant's resistance and distress during the reunion may reflect the infant's lack of confidence in being comforted. -On average, only about 10%-15% of infants are classified as insecure-resistant (van IJzendoorn & Sagi, 1999).

Psychologist John Bowlby (1969)

-described the process of emotional attachment between infants and their caregivers and the emotional distress that develops when they are separated. -He proposed that the major function of this affection-based bonding system is to protect infants from predation and other threats to survival. -In his observations of human infants and primates, Bowlby noted that they both went through a clear sequence of reactions—from protest, to despair, to detachment.

Insecure Avoidant

-often shows little to no distress in separation episodes, although physiological measures suggest that the infant is indeed under stress. -When the mother returns, the infant tends to ignore and avoid her, focusing instead on something else in the room. The infant's avoidance on reunion may reflect the expectation that a bid for more contact would be followed by the parent's rejection. -The avoidant classification is most common in Western cultures (15%-20% in the United States and Europe).

Zone of proximal development

-the distance between what a child can learn alone and what that child can learn assisted by someone else, usually an adult. -The idea of a zone of proximal development is that, when a child is near his or her potential (in the zone), a more experienced person can aid the child in learning more and learning faster than the child would alone. -Learning, therefore, is best understood as a social process.

Development of moral reasoning

Lawrence Kohlberg (1981), who studied the development of moral reasoning in children and adults by giving them a moral dilemma and recording the reasons they provided for their responses. -Kohlberg proposed a three-stage theory of moral reasoning. -In Kohlberg's view, moral reasoning moves from being focused on the self to being increasingly focused on others, with a basis in clear personal principles of morality and ethics Research supports Kohlberg's argument that children tend to reason preconventionally and adults conventionally

Attachment

Newborn humans cannot follow around the first large creature they see, so they do not imprint. They attach (Kirkpatrick, 2005). Newborns can not imprint In human development, attachment refers to the strong emotional connection that develops early in life to keep infants close to their caregivers. This relationship shapes the child's social and emotional development and forms the foundation for social relationships later in life.

Object permanence

Piaget also observed that, during the first 8 or 9 months, a child has no concept of object permanence -the ability to realize that objects still exist when they are not being sensed -"out of sight, out of mind" for young infants -When an object is hidden from them, they will not look for it, even if they see someone hide it. Renée Baillargeon and colleagues proved Piaget was right about object permanence but wrong about the age at which it first happens

Formal operational stage

Piaget's final stage of cognitive development (age 11 or 12 to adulthood) when formal logic is possible -During this stage, formal logic becomes possible. Here is an example: "If Maria is a woman, and all women are mortal, then Maria is mortal." In addition, adolescents develop scientific reasoning and hypothesis-testing skills.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development (ages 0-2), when infants learn about the world by using their senses and by moving their bodies Object permanence develops 4-9 months Young children sense more than they "think" Mastering object permanence is a hallmark of the sensorimotor stage.

Concrete operational stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive devlopment (ages 6-11) during which the child can perform mental operations such as reversing on real objects or events but they still have trouble with abstract ideas and reasoning. -One of the yardsticks that measures whether a child has moved from preoperational to concrete operational thinking is the ability to conserve -EX) The child can reason that the amount of liquid she or he sees go from one glass into the other must remain the same but would have trouble solving a problem of this type: "If Susan is half as old as Robert, and Robert is twice as old as Samantha, then how old is Samantha compared to Susan?"

Preconventional level

The first level of Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning, focusing on avoiding punishment and maximizing reward -Children obey rules because their parents tell them to comply. -EX) "Heinz should not steal the drug because he will get in trouble and go to jail."

Conventional level

The second level of Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning, during which the person's values, caring, trust, and relationships as well as the social order and lawfulness -the person might respond with "Heinz should not steal the drug because stealing is wrong. Society cannot function if people steal all the time."

Preoperational stage

The second major stage of cognitive development (ages 2-5) which begins with the emergence of symbolic thinking/thought -Symbolic thinking involves using symbols, such as words or letters, to represent ideas or objects. -The cognitive limitations of the preoperational stage include animistic thinking, egocentrism, and lack of conservation.

Postconventional level

The third level of Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning, in which the person recognizes universal moral rules that may trump unjust or immoral local rules "Although it is legally wrong, Heinz should steal the drug to save his wife's life. But he also has to be willing to suffer the consequences and go to jail if need be." Therefore, disobeying the more local rule or law may be necessary. This is the principle of civil disobedience embraced by great moral leaders from Henry David Thoreau to Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr., to Rosa Parks, who exhibited well-developed moral codes for which they were willing to sacrifice their lives, if need be, to set right unjust and immoral laws and societies. In contrast, many non-Western cultures emphasize the importance of the group and community, so the highest level of moral reasoning would be likely to involve compassion and caring for others, altruism, and family honor, values that Kohlberg did not measure

Social referencing

This ability to make use of social and emotional information from another person, especially a caregiver

Mary Ainsworth and her associates (1978) developed a technique for testing Bowlby's assumptions about attachment of infant and caregiver.

This procedure, known as the strange situation, consists of a 20-minute laboratory session that creates a mildly stressful situation for the baby. The strange situation is designed to see how much the caregiver (usually the mother) is a safe haven when the infant is distressed and a "secure base" from which to explore.

The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky

argued that cognitive development does not happen in a vacuum but rather must be understood in its social context. Other people can and do affect what we learn. -Vygotsky coined the phrase zone of proximal development

When 4 to 7 month year old infants pay attention to something more than a few seconds, ...

brain activity narrows from many regions to more specific brain regions. -Suggests brain is becoming more organized and efficient during first 6 months of life -Increased brain organization leads to increased ability to pay attention and focus on one thing

Emotional competence

is the ability to control emotions and know when it is appropriate to express them One aspect of emotional competence is learning to regulate one's emotional behavior. By the age of 9, children realize the impact of their reactions on other people's feelings.

Lack of conservation

is the ability to recognize that, when some properties (such as shape) of an object change, other properties (such as volume) remain constant. -EX) Usually, the child will say that the tall, thin container has more water than the short, wide one.

Egocentrism

is the tendency to view the world only from one's own perspective. -EX) Piaget and Inhelder (1967) designed the three mountains task to measure young children's egocentrism (see Figure 5.14). For this demonstration, three mountains are placed on a small table. The child sits on one side of the table, and a doll is placed in a chair on the other side of the table. The experimenter asks the child to describe how the doll sees the three mountains. Typically, the three possible perspectives are drawn on a board and the child has to choose the correct perspective. -Egocentric, preoperational children will choose the perspective from which they see the mountains; they cannot visualize them from the doll's point of view.

Researchers who study infants have come to rely...

on visual preference as their primary means of studying infant thought and attention.

Theory of Mind

our knowledge and ideas of how other people's minds work. EX) Children under the age of 4 are cognitively incapable of understanding that people may believe things that are not true.

Animistic thinking

refers to the idea that inanimate objects are alive. -EX)For example, Piaget reported on a child in this stage who was asked whether the sun moved. The child answered, "Yes, when one walks, it follows." When the child was asked why it moves, he responded, "Because when one walks, it goes too." Finally, when the child was asked whether the sun was alive, he responded, "Of course, otherwise it wouldn't follow us; it couldn't shine"

Separation anxiety

the distress reaction shown by babies (typically at around 9 months of age) when they are separated from their primary caregiver.