Psychology Chapter Three

Name as many potentially harmful influences on fetal development as you can.

German measles early in pregnancy; exposure to radiation or toxic substances such as lead or mercury; sexually transmitted diseases; the mother's use of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs

Summary of the early development of language

First few months: Babies cry and coo; they respond to emotions and rhythms in voices. 4-6 months: Babies begin to recognize key vowel and consonant sounds of their native language. 6 months-1 year: Infants' familiarity with the sound structure of their native language increases; they can distinguish words from the flow of speech. End of first year: Infants start to name things based on familiar concepts and use symbolic gestures to communicate. 18-24 months: Children begin to speak in two- and three-word phrases (telegraphic speech) and understand verbs from the context in which they occur 2-6 years: Children rapidly acquire new words, inferring their meaning from the grammatical and social contexts in which they hear them.

The central distinction between human language and other communication systems is that language (a) allows for the generation of an infinite number of new utterances, (b) is spoken, (c) is learned only after explicit training, (d) expresses meaning directly through surface structures.

a

Which method of disciplining a child who is hitting his younger brother is most likely to teach empathy? (a) induction, (b) indulgence, (c) power assertion, (d) spanking

a

what harmful influence is SIDS associated with?

Sudden infant death syndrome; cigarette smoking during pregnancy

Jean Piaget

Swiss psychologist who in the 1920s; proposed that children's cognitive abilities unfold nat- urally, like the blooming of a flower, almost independent of what else is happening in their lives. Piaget's keen observations of children caused a revolution in thinking about how thinking develops. Piaget's great insight was that children's errors are as interesting as their correct responses. Children will say things that seem cute or wildly illogical to adults, but the strategies that children use to think and solve problems, said Piaget, are not random or meaningless. They reflect a predictable interaction between the child's maturational stage and the child's experience in the world. Although many of Piaget's specific conclusions have been rejected or modified over the years, his ideas inspired thousands of studies by investigators all over the world.

List four findings from contemporary research on children's cognitive development that have expanded or modified Piaget's theory.

The changes from one stage to another occur in continuous, overlapping waves rather than distinct stages. Children are less egocentric than Piaget thought. Infants and young children reveal cognitive abilities much earlier than Piaget believed possible. And cognitive development is affected by cultural practices and experiences

theory of mind

a system of beliefs about how their own and other people's minds work and how people are affected by their beliefs and emotions. They start using verbs like think and know, and by age 4 they understand that what another person thinks might not match their own beliefs They ask, why is Johnny so mean? to others

infants are already responsive to the pitch, intensity, and sound of language, and they also react to the emotions and rhythms in voices T/F

True

infants are biologically disposed to become attached to their caregivers. T/F

True

Many abilities, tendencies, and characteristics are universal in human beings and are present at birth or develop very early, given certain experiences. T/F

True.

children learn the probability that any given word or syllable will follow another, something infants as young as 8 months are able to do T/F

True; this is a finding by those in disagreement with Chomsky's ideas

Noam Chomsky

argued that language was far too com- plex to be learned bit by bit, as one might learn a list of world capitals; The task facing children is far more complicated than merely figuring out which sounds form words. They must also take the surface structure of a sentence and apply grammatical rules (syntax) to infer an underlying deep structure; Although "Mary kissed John" and "John was kissed by Mary" have different surface structures, any 5-year-old knows that the two sentences have essentially the same deep structure, in which Mary is the actor and John gets the kiss.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Stages

as children develop, their minds constantly adapt to new situations and experiences. Sometimes they assimilate new information into their existing mental categories; thus a German shepherd and a terrier both fit the category dogs. At other times, however, children must change their mental categories to accommodate their new experiences; a cat does not belong to the category dogs and a new category is required, one for cats. Both processes are constantly interacting as children go through four stages of cognitive development

What factors promote insecure attachment?

(1) Abandonment and deprivation in the first year or two of life. (2) Parenting that is abusive, neglectful, or erratic because the parent is chronically irresponsible or clinically depressed. (3) The child's own genetically influenced temperament. (4) Stressful circumstances in the child's family.

evidence gathered over the years to support the Chomskyan position

(1) Children in different cultures go through similar stages of linguistic development (2) Children combine words in ways that adults never would (3) Adults do not consistently correct their children's syntax, yet children learn to speak or sign correctly anyway. (4) Children who are not exposed to adult language may invent a language of their own (5) Infants as young as 7 months can derive simple linguistic rules from a string of sounds

some scientists go so far as to say that Piaget's ideas have been overturned. why?

(1) Cognitive abilities develop in continuous, overlapping waves rather than discrete steps or stages. (Learning occurs gradually, with retreats to former ways of thinking as well as advances to new ones. Children's reasoning ability also depends on the circumstances—who is asking them questions, the specific words used, and what they are reasoning about—and not just on the stage they are in. In short, cognitive development is continuous; new abilities do not simply pop up when a child turns a specific age) (2) Preschoolers are not as egocentric as Piaget thought (Most 3- and 4-year-olds can take another person's perspective; when 4-year-olds play with 2-year-olds, they modify and simplify their speech so the younger children will understand) (3) Children, even infants, reveal cognitive abilities much earlier the Piaget believed possible (infants look longer at novel or surprising stimuli than at familiar ones; babies may be born with mental modules or core knowledge systems for numbers, spatial relations, the properties of objects, and other features of the physical world (4) Cognitive development is influenced by a child's culture (Children who work with clay, wood, and other materials, such as this young potter in India, tend to understand the concept of conservation sooner than children who have not had this kind of experience)

The harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier

(1) German measles, (2) x-rays or other radiation and toxic substances, (3) sexually transmitted diseases, (4) cigarette smoking, (5) regular consumption of alcohol, (6) drugs other than alcohol

Ainsworth's three categories

(1) security attached: cry or protest if the parent leaves the room; they welcome her back and then play happily again; they are clearly more attached to the mother than to the stranger (2) insecurely attached: can take two forms ((3) avoidant or anxious and ambivalent)

Parenting that is abusive, neglectful, or erratic because the parent is chronically irresponsible or clinically depressed, and how it promotes insecure attachment

A South African research team observed 147 mothers with their 2-month-old infants and followed up when the babies were 18 months old. Many of the mothers who had suffered from postpartum depression became either too intrusive with their infants or too remote and insensitive. In turn, their babies were more likely to be insecurely attached at 18 months

maturation

A baby's development, before and after birth

parentese

Adult use of baby talk; has been documented all over the world; adult members of the Shuar, a nonliterate hunter-gatherer culture in South America, can accurately distinguish American mothers' infant-directed speech from their adult-directed speech just by tone; Parentese helps babies learn the melody and rhythm of their native language

fetal stage

After eight weeks, the fetal stage begins. The organism, now called a fetus, further develops the organs and systems that existed in rudimentary form in the embryonic stage.

In Chomsky's view, why are children able to acquire language as quickly and easily as they do?

An innate mental module permits young children to develop language if they are exposed to an adequate sampling of conversation

in born perceptual abilities

Babies are also equipped with a set of inborn perceptual abilities. They can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste (bananas and sugar water are in, rotten eggs are out). A newborn's visual focus range is only about 8 inches, the average distance between the baby and the face of the person holding the baby, but visual ability develops rapidly. Newborns can distinguish contrasts, shadows, and edges. And they can discriminate their mother or other primary caregiver on the basis of smell, sight, or sound almost immediately.

The child's own genetically influenced temperament and how it promotes insecure attachment

Babies who are fearful and prone to crying from birth are more likely to show insecure behavior in the Strange Situation, suggesting that their later insecure attachment may reflect a temperamental predisposition

seperation anxiety

Between 6 and 8 months of age, babies become wary or fearful of strangers. They wail if they are put in an unfamiliar setting or are left with an unfamiliar person. And they show separation anxiety if the primary caregiver temporarily leaves them. This reaction usually continues until the middle of the second year, but many children show signs of distress until they are about 3 years old

John Bowlby

British psychiatrist observed the devastating effects on babies raised in orphanages without touches or cuddles, and on other children raised in conditions of severe deprivation or neglect. The babies were physically healthy but emotionally despairing, remote, and listless. By becoming at- tached to their caregivers, Bowlby said, children gain a secure base from which they can explore the environment and a haven of safety to return to when they are afraid. Ideally, infants will find a bal- ance between feeling securely attached to the caregiver and feeling free to explore and learn in new environments.

What five findings support the existence of an innate universal grammar?

Children everywhere go through similar stages of linguistic development; children combine words in ways that adults would not; adults do not consistently correct their children's syntax; groups of children not exposed to adult language may make up their own; and even infants only a few months old appear to distinguish different sentence structures

universal grammar

Chomsky; their brains are sensitive to the core features common to all languages, such as nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, and negatives. These common features occur even in languages as seemingly different as Mohawk and English, or Okinawan and Bulgarian; Because no one actually teaches us grammar when we are toddlers, said Chomsky, the human brain must contain an innate mental module that allows young children to develop language if they are exposed to an adequate sampling of conversation;

Is there something special about the human brain that allows a baby to discover how language works?

Darwin thought so: Language, he wrote, is an instinctive ability unique to human beings. Kama unaweza kusoma maneno haya, wewe ni mtu wa maana sana, in Swahili, means "If you can read these words, you are a remarkable person."

time spent in daycare has an effect on the security of a child's attachment. T/F

False In a longitudinal study of more than 1,000 children, researchers compared infants who were in child care 30 hours or more a week, from age 3 months to age 15 months, with children who spent fewer than 10 hours a week in child care. The two groups did not differ on any measure of attachment The daycare group also did better than children at home on measures of so- cial, language, and cognitive development, al- though some children in daycare were more aggressive and disobedient as well.

babies who are given infant "brain stimulation" videos to look at are faster at acquiring words than babies who do not watch videos T/F

False; are actually slower In a survey of 1,000 par- ents and their babies, researchers found that for every hour a day that 8- to 16-month-old babies watch one of these videos, they acquire six to eight fewer words than other children Babies and children whose parents read to them, or even watch videos with them and talk about what they are all seeing, have larger vocabularies.

induction

In contrast to power assertion, a parent can use this; appealing to the child's own abilities, empathy, helpful nature, affection for others, and sense of responsibility ("You made Doug cry; it's not nice to bite"; "You must never poke anyone's eyes because that could hurt them seriously"). Or the parent might ap- peal to the child's own helpful inclinations ("I know you're a person who likes to be nice to others") rather than citing external reasons to be good ("You'd better be nice or you won't get dessert").

Stressful circumstances in the child's family and how they promote insecure attachment

Infants and young children may temporarily shift from secure to insecure attachment, becoming clingy and fearful of being left alone, if their families are undergoing a period of stress, as during parental divorce or a parent's chronic illness

Abandonment and deprivation in the first year or two of life and how it promotes insecure attachment

Institutionalized babies are more likely than adopted children to have later problems with attachment, whereas babies adopted before age 1 or 2 eventually become as securely attached as their nonadopted peers

power assertion

One of the most common methods that parents use to enforce moral standards and good behavior is this, which includes threats, physical punishment, depriving the child of privileges, and generally taking advantage of being bigger, stronger, and more powerful; "Do it because I say so!" "Stop that right now!". The child may obey, but only when the parent is present, while feeling resentful and waiting for the chance to misbehave again. when power assertion consists of sheer parental bullying, cruel insults ("You are so stupid, I wish you'd never been born"), and frequent physical punishment, it is associated with greater aggressiveness in children and reduced empathy

What is a major limitation of cognitive theories of moral reasoning in understanding how children develop a conscience?

Moral behavior is not necessarily related to the ability to reason morally

Mayan Indians, rural Italians, African villagers, Indian Rajput villagers, and urban Japanese

Mothers in these cultures believe it is important to sleep with the baby so that both will forge a close bond; in contrast, many urban North American and German parents believe it is important to foster the child's independence as soon as possible

motor reflexes in newborns

Newborns begin life with several of these automatic behaviors that are necessary for survival. Many of these reflexes eventually disappear, but others—such as the knee-jerk, eye- blink, and sneeze reflexes—remain.

embryonic stage

Once implantation is completed, about two weeks after fertilization, the embryonic stage begins, lasting until the eighth week after conception, at which point the embryo is only 1 1⁄2 inches long. During the fourth to eighth week, the hormone testosterone is secreted by the rudimentary testes in embryos that are genetically male; without this hormone, the embryo will develop to be anatomically female.

(1) German measles

One of the harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier; also known as rubella; especially early in the pregnancy, can affect the fetus's eyes, ears, and heart. The most common consequence is deafness. Rubella is preventable if the mother has been vaccinated, which can be done up to three months before pregnancy.

(3) Sexually transmitted diseases

One of the harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier; can cause mental retardation, blindness, and other physical disorders. Genital herpes affects the fetus only if the mother has an outbreak at the time of delivery, which exposes the newborn to the virus as the baby passes through the birth canal. (This risk can be avoided by having a cesarean section.) HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can also be transmitted to the fetus, especially if the mother has developed AIDS and has not been treated.

(6) Drugs other than alcohol

One of the harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier; can be harmful to the fetus, whether they are illicit ones such as cocaine and heroin, or commonly used legal substances such as antibiotics, antihistamines, tranquilizers, acne medication, and diet pills. Cocaine can cause subtle impairments in children's cognitive and language abilities and larger ones in the ability to manage impulses and frustrations

(2) X-rays or other radiation and toxic substances

One of the harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier; can cause fetal deformities and cognitive ab- normalities that can last throughout life. Exposure to lead is associated with attention problems and lower IQ scores, as is exposure to mercury, found most com- monly in contaminated fish

(5) Regular consumption of alcohol

One of the harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier; can kill neurons throughout the fetus's developing brain and impair the child's later mental abilities, attention span, and academic achievement; Having more than two drinks a day significantly increases the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), which is associated with low birth weight, a smaller brain, facial deformities, lack of coordination, and mental retardation. Be- cause alcohol can affect many different aspects of fetal brain development, most specialists recommend that a pregnant woman abstain from drinking alcohol.

(4) Cigarette smoking

One of the harmful influences that can cross the placental barrier; increases the likelihood of miscarriage, premature birth, an abnormal fetal heartbeat, and an underweight baby. The negative effects may last long after birth, showing up in increased rates of infant sickness, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and, in later childhood, hyperactivity, learning difficulties, asthma, and even antisocial behavior

sensorimotor stage

Piaget 1; From birth to age 2; the infant learns through concrete actions: looking, touching, put- ting things in the mouth, sucking, grasping. "Thinking" consists of coordinating sensory infor- mation with bodily movements. Gradually, these movements become more purposeful as the child explores the environment and learns that specific movements will produce specific results. Pulling a cloth away will reveal a hidden toy; letting go of a fuzzy toy duck will cause it to drop out of reach; banging on the table with a spoon will produce din- ner (or Mom, taking away the spoon).; OBJECT PERMANENCE

preoperational stage

Piaget 2; From about ages 2 to 7, the child's use of sym- bols and language accelerates; children still lack the cognitive abilities necessary for understanding abstract principles and mental operations. An operation is a train of thought that can be run backward or forward. Multiplying 2 times 6 to get 12 is an operation; so is the reverse operation, dividing 12 by 6 to get 2. A preoperational child knows that Jessie is his sister, but he may not get the reverse operation, the idea that he is Jessie's brother. cannot grasp the concept of conservation

concrete operations stage

Piaget 3; From the ages of 7 to about 12, Piaget said, children increasingly become able to take other people's perspectives and they make fewer logical errors; children's mental abilities are tied to information that is concrete, that is, to ac- tual experiences that have happened or concepts that have a tangible meaning to them. Children at this stage make errors of reasoning when they are asked to think about abstract ideas such as "patriotism" or "future education." During these years, nonetheless, children's cognitive abilities expand rapidly. They come to understand the principles of conservation, reversibility, and cause and effect. They learn mental operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They are able to categorize things (e.g., oaks as trees) and to order things serially from smallest to largest, light- est to darkest, and shortest to tallest.

formal operations stage

Piaget 4; beginning at about age 12 or 13 and continuing into adulthood, people become capable of ABSTRACT reasoning; They are able to reason about situations they have not experienced firsthand, and they can think about future possibilities. They are able to search systematically for answers to problems. They are able to draw logical conclusions from premises common to their culture and experience

conservation

Piaget pre operational stage; notion that physical properties do not change when their form or appearance changes. Children at this age do not understand that an amount of liquid or a number of blocks remains the same even if you pour the liquid from one glass to another of a different size or if you stack the blocks; If you pour liquid from a short, fat glass into a tall, narrow glass, preoperational children will say there is more liquid in the second glass. They attend to the appearance of the liquid (its height in the glass) to judge its quantity, and so they are misled.

telegraphic speech

The child's first combinations of words When people had to pay for every word in a telegram, they quickly learned to drop unnecessary articles (a, an, or the) and auxiliary verbs (is or are). Similarly, the two-word sentences of toddlers omit articles, word endings, auxiliary verbs, and other parts of speech, yet these sentences are remarkably accurate in conveying meaning. Children use two-word sentences to locate things ("there toy"), make demands ("more milk"), negate actions ("no want," "all gone milk"), describe events ("Bambi go," "hit ball"), describe objects ("pretty dress"), show possession ("Mama dress"), and ask questions ("where Daddy?").

What happens to children whose parents encourage them to use gestures?

They acquire larger vocabularies, have better comprehension, are better listeners, and are less frustrated in their efforts to communicate than children who are not encouraged to use gestures

Although, sadly, things can go wrong in prenatal development and in the first year after birth, the plasticity of the brain and human resilience can often overcome early deprivation or even harm. T/F

True

Mothers and children, it seems, raise each other; T/F

True

When do babies develop a repertoire of symbolic gestures?

at the end of the first year; They gesture to refer to objects (e.g., sniffing to indicate "flower"), to request something (smacking the lips for "food"), to describe objects (raising the arms for "big"), and to reply to questions (opening the palms or shrugging the shoulders for "I don't know"). They clap in response to pictures of things they like.

germinal stage

begins at fertilization, when the male sperm unites with the female ovum (egg); the fertil- ized single-celled egg is called a zygote. The zygote soon begins to divide, and in 10 to 14 days, it has become a cluster of cells that attaches itself to the wall of the uterus. The outer portion of this cluster will form part of the placenta and umbilical cord, and the inner portion becomes the embryo. The placenta, connected to the embryo by the umbilical cord, serves as the growing embryo's link for food from the mother. It allows nutrients to enter and wastes to exit, and it screens out some, but not all, harmful substances.

when does babbling begin?

between 6 months and a year

By 4 to 6 months of age, babies

can often recognize their own names and other words that are regularly spoken with emotion, such as "mommy" and "daddy." They also know many of the key consonant and vowel sounds of their native language and can distinguish such sounds from those of other languages Then, over time, exposure to the baby's native language reduces the child's ability to perceive speech sounds that do not exist in their own. Thus, Japanese infants can hear the difference between the English sounds la and ra, but older Japanese children cannot. Because this contrast does not exist in their language, they become insensitive to it.

placenta

connected to the embryo by the umbilical cord, and serves as the growing embryo's link for food from the mother. It allows nutrients to enter and wastes to exit, and it screens out some, but not all, harmful substances

Understanding that two rows of six pennies are equal in number, even if one row is flat and the other is stacked up, is an example of _________.

conservation

Melanie is playing happily on a jungle gym at her daycare center when she falls off and badly scrapes her knee. She runs to her caregiver for a consoling cuddle. Melanie seeks ______.

contact comfort

Mary Ainsworth

devised an experimental method called the Strange Situation. A mother brings her baby into an unfa- miliar room containing lots of toys. After a while, a stranger comes in and attempts to play with the child. The mother leaves the baby with the stranger. She then returns and plays with the child, and the stranger leaves. Finally, the mother leaves the baby alone for three minutes and returns. In each case, observers carefully note how the baby behaves with the mother, with the stranger, and when the baby is alone. Ainsworth divided children into three cate- gories on the basis of their reactions to the Strange Situation

con of Ainsworth's measure of attachment

did not take the baby's experience into account. Babies who become attached to many adults, because they live in large extended families or have spent a lot of time with adults in daycare, may seem to be avoidant in the Strange Situation because they don't panic when their mothers leave. But per- haps they have simply learned to be comfortable with strangers. Moreover, although there is a modest correlation between a mother's sensitivity to her child and the security of her child's attachment, this doesn't tell us which causes what, or whether something else causes both sensitivity and secure attachment. Programs designed to help new mothers become less anxious and more attuned to their ba- bies do help some moms become more sensitive, but these programs only modestly affect the child's degree of secure attachment

zygote

fertilized single-celled egg; germinal stage; begins to divide, and in 10 to 14 days, it has become a cluster of cells that attaches itself to the wall of the uterus. The outer portion of this cluster will form part of the placenta and umbilical cord, and the inner portion becomes the embryo

Margaret and Harry Harlow

first demonstrated the importance of contact comfort by raising infant rhesus monkeys with two kinds of artificial mothers; One, which they called the "wire mother," was a forbidding construction of wires and warming lights, with a milk bottle connected to it. The other, the "cloth mother," was constructed of wire but covered in foam rubber and cuddly terry cloth; At the time, many psychologists thought that babies become attached to their mothers simply because mothers provide food; But the Harlows' baby monkeys ran to the terry-cloth mother when they were fright- ened or startled, and snuggling up to it calmed them down. Human children also seek contact comfort when they are in an unfamiliar situation, are scared by a nightmare, or fall and hurt themselves.

3 stages of prenatal development

germinal, the embryonic, and the fetal

A baby left in the Strange Situation does not protest when his mother leaves the room, and he seems to ignore her when she returns. According to Ainsworth, what style of attachment does this behavior reflect?

insecure (avoidant)

Father age

have three times the risk of conceiving a child who develops schizophrenia as do fathers under age 25 teenage fathers have an increased risk that their babies will be born prematurely or have low birth weight; babies of men exposed to solvents and other chemicals in the workplace are more likely to be miscarried, be stillborn, or develop cancer later in life; and being an older father increases the probability that a child will be autistic or bipolar

developmental psychologists today place greater emphasis on

how children learn to regulate their own emotions and behavior Most children learn to inhibit their wishes to beat up their younger siblings, steal a classmate's toy, or scream at the top of their lungs if they don't get their way. The child's emerging ability to understand right from wrong, and to behave accordingly, depends on the emergence of conscience and moral emotions such as shame, guilt, and empathy

deep structure according to Noam Chomsky

how the sentence is to be understood.

what is the contrast to power assertion?

induction

Between 6 months and 1 year, infants

infants become increasingly familiar with the sound structure of their native language. They are able to distinguish words from the flow of speech. They will listen longer to words that violate their expectations of what words should sound like and even to sentences that violate their expectations of how sentences should be structured; They start to babble, making many ba-ba and goo-goo sounds, endlessly repeating sounds and syllables.

Lawrence Kohlberg

inspired by Piaget's work in the 1960s argued that children's ability to understand right from wrong evolved along with the rest of their cognitive abilities, progressing through three levels; very young children obey rules because they fear being punished if they disobey, and later because they think it is in their best interest to obey. At about age 10, their moral judgments shift to ones based on conformity and loyalty to others, and then to an understanding of the rule of law. In adulthood, a few individuals go on to develop a moral standard based on universal human rights: Martin Luther King, Jr. fought against laws supporting segrega- tion, Mohandas Gandhi advocated nonviolent solutions to injustice in India, and Susan B. Anthony fought for women's right to vote.

gender typing

is the process of socializing children into their gender roles, and thus reflects society's ideas about which abilities, interests, traits, and behaviors are appropri- ately masculine or feminine

Despite modifications, Piaget

left an enduring legacy: the insight that children are not pas- sive vessels into which education and experience are poured. Children actively interpret their worlds, using their developing abilities to assimilate new information and figure things out.

avoidant child

not caring if the mother leaves the room, making little effort to seek contact with her on her return, and treating the stranger about the same as the mother

language

not just any old communication system; a system that combines meaningless elements such as sounds or gestures to form structured utterances that convey meaning.

Understanding that a toy exists even after Mom puts it in her purse is an example of _________.

object permanence

overregularizations

reduce a parent's sentences ("Let's go to the store!") to their own two-word versions ("Go store!") and make many charming errors that an adult would not ("The alligator goed kerplunk," "Daddy taked me," "Hey, Horton heared a Who"); are not random; they show that the child has grasped a grammatical rule (add the t or d sound to make a verb past tense, as in walked and hugged) and is merely overgeneralizing it (taked, goed)

anxious or ambivalent child

resisting contact with the mother at reunion but protest- ing loudly if she leaves. Anxious-ambivalent babies may cry to be picked up and then demand to be put down, or they may behave as if they are angry with the mother and resist her efforts to comfort them

One of the most important social-emotional skills that children need to acquire

self-regulation

What early ability predicts the development of conscience later on?

self-regulation, the ability to control one's immediate impulses and wishes

object permanence

sensorimotor stage; the understanding that something continues to exist even when you can't see it or touch it. In the first few months, infants will look intently at a little toy, but if you hide it behind a piece of paper, they will not look behind the paper or make an effort to get the toy. By about 6 months of age, however, infants begin to grasp the idea that the toy exists whether or not they can see it. If a baby of this age drops a toy from her playpen, she will look for it; she also will look under a cloth for a toy that is partially hidden. By 1 year of age, most babies have developed an awareness of the permanence of objects; even if a toy is covered by a cloth, it must be under there. This is when they love to play peekaboo. Object permanence, said Piaget, represents the beginning of the child's capacity to use mental imagery and symbols. The child becomes able to hold a concept in mind, to learn that the word fly represents an annoying, buzzing creature and that Daddy represents a friendly, playful one.

"More cake!" and "Mommy come" are examples of _________ speech.

telegraphic

Piaget's mistaken belief in his pre operational stage

that preoperational children cannot take another person's point of view because their thinking is egocentric: They see the world only from their own frame of reference and cannot imagine that others see things differently.

self-regulation

the ability to suppress their initial wish to do something in favor of doing something else that is not as much fun. This ability predicts a child's ability to delay gratification now for a larger reward later, control negative emotions, pay attention to the task at hand, and do well in school, from kindergarten to college

By the age of 6

the average child has a vocabulary of between 8,000 and 14,000 words, meaning that children acquire several new words a day between the ages of 2 and 6; They absorb new words as they hear them, inferring their meaning from their knowledge of grammatical contexts and from the social contexts in which they hear the words used

By age 5, they know it is wrong to hurt someone even if a teacher tells them to. Because of this, many psychologists con- clude that:

the capacity for understanding right from wrong, like that for language, is inborn.

In Item 3, what else besides the child's style of attachment could account for the child's reaction?

the child's own temperament and familiarity with being temporarily left alone

contact comfort

the pleasure of being touched and held, is not only crucial for newborns (Attachment begins with phys- ical touching and cuddling between infant and parent); it continues to be important throughout life, releasing a flood of pleasure-producing and stress-reducing endorphins; In hospital settings, even the mildest touch by a nurse or physician on the patient's arm or forehead is reassuring psychologically and lowers blood pressure

Those who reject Chomsky's ideas believe that instead of figuring out grammatical rules when acquiring language, children learn ____________.

the probability that any given word or syllable will follow another one

surface structure of a sentence according to Noam Chomsky

the way the sentence is actually spoken or signed

A 5-year-old boy who tells his dad that "Sally said she saw a bunny but she was lying" has developed a _________.

theory of mind

A 7 months

they begin to remember words they have heard, but because they are also attending to the speaker's intonation, speaking rate, and volume, they can't always recognize the same word when different people speak it

By 10 months

they can suddenly do the things they couldn't at 7—a remarkable leap forward in only three months. And at about 1 year of age, though the timing varies considerably, children take another giant step: They start to name things. They already have some concepts in their minds for familiar people and objects, and their first words represent these concepts ("mama," "doggie," "truck").

Between the ages of 18 months and 2 years

toddlers begin to produce words in two- or three- word combinations ("Mama here," "go 'way bug," "my toy"); telegraphic speech

Jerome Kagan

wrote, "Without this fundamental human capacity, which nineteenth-century observers called a moral sense, the child could not be socialized; Evolutionary psychologists argue that this moral sense underlies the basic beliefs, judgments, and behavior that are considered moral almost everywhere, and that it originated in cooperative, altruistic strategies that permitted our forbears to resolve conflicts and get along

Thomas Lickona

wryly summarized, "We can reach high levels of moral reasoning, and still behave like scoundrels."