This document provides an overview of key concepts in developmental psychology, including nature vs nurture, Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development, attachment theory, and parenting styles. Some of the main points covered are: - Development is influenced by both genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) factors. - Piaget identified 4 stages of cognitive development from infancy to adulthood. - Attachment theory describes different types of infant attachment to caregivers. - Baumrind identified 4 parenting styles - permissive, authoritarian, neglectful/rejecting, and authoritative - that influence child development.

1. Developmental Psychology

2.  When considering an issue related to a living
organism, did it become the way it is due to
genetics, life experiences, or both.
 Nature is defined as the genetic factors
or influences
 Nurture is defined as the
environmental factors & learning.
 We consider the things that may have contributed
to a person’s biological, emotional, cognitive,
personal, and social development.

3.  Is personality development due to
genetics or environmental factors?
 Answer: BOTH!
 Are social skills due to genetics or
learning?
 Answer: BOTH!
 Are physical/psychological illnesses
due to genetics or environmental
factors?
 Answer: BOTH!

4.  Jean Piaget is cited as one of the first
and most prolific researchers to
investigate cognitive development.
 Cognitive strategies are age-related
 The way that children think about things
changes with age regardless of the
specific nature of what they were
thinking about.
 Criticized for under-estimating abilities

5.  Jean Piaget’s Theories of Cognition
 Schemas or Schemes: actions or
mental representations that organize
knowledge (a mental picture)
 Limited when dealing with new concepts and
experiences, but improves with exposure and
experience.

6. How do we interpret the world around
us?
 Assimilation: interpreting new
information using existing ways of
thinking.
 Accommodation: the process of
changing existing ways of thinking to
adjust to and better understand new
experiences.

7.  Birds
 The neighbor’s great dane
 The “Tow Truck Story”
 My sister’s first intestinal virus

8.  Stages of cognitive development
 1.) Sensorimotor (birth -24 months)
 2.) Preoperational (2-7 years)
 3.) Concrete Operational (7-12 years)
 4.) Formal Operational (12+ years)

9.  1.) Sensorimotor Stage: period of time
from birth to two years of age, in
which a child understands the world
around them by using and
coordinating their senses and their
ever increasing ability to move
around and expose themselves to new
experiences.

10.  2.) Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
 Approximately age 2 – 7
 Use of symbols to represent experience (use of words,
images and drawings)
 Stable concepts begin to form
 Presence of Egocentrism
 Presence of Magical Thinking / Beliefs
 Beginning stages of reasoning

11.  2.) Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
 Mental representation
 Intuition/hypothesis  decision making
 Characteristics of preoperational thought =
inflexible
 Appearance & reality
 Easily fooled by appearance
 Symbolic representation vs Reality
 Make-believe play = pretend play
1. More sophisticated form = sociodramatic play
** Evidence of children’s understanding of representational
function

12.  Object Permanence: the understanding
that objects or events continue to exist
even if they can no longer be seen,
touched or heard.
 Occurs during sensorimotor stage
 Develops between 4 & 12 months
 Peek-a-boo
 Hiding objects to distract
 Distress when left alone (mommy leaves)

13.  Egocentrism / Egocentric Thinking:
the tendency for children to view the
world:
 as being centered around themselves
 ONLY from their point-of-view and
having difficulties appreciating someone
else’s point-of-view
 If they don’t experience it, neither does
anyone else.

14. Egocentrism
 Can’t understand that others have
different feelings, perceptions, attitudes,
likes and dislikes
 Believe that if they experience
something, that all others do as well
 Child nodding on phone with grandma
 Child likes frogs and mother doesn’t
 Child takes another child’s toy

15.  Centration:
 The focusing of attention on one
characteristic to the exclusion of all
others
 The young child’s tendency to think in
the world in terms of one variable at a
time
 Choosing what to wear for the day

16.  3.) Concrete Operational Stage:
Children between the ages of 7 and 12
start to reason logically about specific
or concrete events or examples.
 Not yet able to imagine the steps necessary to complete
an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for
thinking at this stage.
 Concrete operations allow a child the ability to
consider several characteristics rather than focus on a
single property of an object.

17.  Formal Operations Stage: The
adolescent reasons in more abstract,
idealistic, and logical ways.
 12 years and older
 Begin to entertain thoughts about their
‘possible’ future
 More systematic in solving problems
 Develop hypotheses about why
something happens

18.  Humans have the capacity to develop a
varying ability to display and control
their emotions.
 Humans also have the capacity to
develop varying abilities that allow
them to initiate social interactions with
others around them.

19. 3 Categories of Temperament
(Thomas & Chess Research)
 Easy Child: a child who is generally in
a positive mood, who quickly
establishes regular routines in
infancy, and who adapts easily to new
experiences.
 Regular eating and sleeping routines; happy
 40% of children studied

20.  Difficult Child: A child who tends to
react negatively and cries frequently,
who engages in irregular daily
routines, and who is slow to accept
new experiences.
 Less regular with bodily functions and are slow to
develop regular eating and sleeping patterns; react
vigorously and negatively to change; difficulty
adapting; cry more than others (higher pitched); easily
irritated
 10% of children studied

21.  Slow-to-warm-up Child: A child who
has a low activity level, is somewhat
negative, and displays a low intensity
of mood.
 Not as negative as difficult children; show mild or
passive resistance; few intense reactions; once adapted-
fairly positive
 15% of children studied
 NOTE: 35% did not fit into any of the 3 categories.

22.  Goodness of fit: Refers to the match
between a child’s temperament and
the environmental demands with
which the child must cope.
 Expectations by parents, grandparents, etc
 Expectations in childcare/daycare, etc
 Lack of fit can result in adjustment problems

23.  Changes in the way we think,
feel and relate to the world
and the people in it.
 Many different
issues and theories
exist within the realm of the
psychosocial perspective.

24.  Attachment: The intense emotional
tie or bond between two
individuals, such as a parent and a
child.
 Parents, older siblings, grandparents,
other consistent caregivers

25.  Early theorists believed that feeding was
the key to babies associating their mothers
with a sense of well being and
consequently wanting to be close to her.
 Wire Mother (food) vs. Cloth Mother (no food)

26.  Harry Harlow’s study with Rhesus
monkeys eliminated this belief.
 Contact comfort found to be more
important than the gratification of being
fed.

27.  “The Strange Situation”: An
observational measure of infant
attachment that requires the infant to
move through a series of introduction,
separations, and reunions with the
caregiver and an adult stranger in a
prescribed order.
 Used to classify infants into 4 categories of attachment
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU

28.  Securely Attached Babies: babies that
use the caregiver as a secure base from
which to explore their environment.
 Not overly upset by separations
 Happy with reunions
 Comfortable exploring
 Not overly upset by strangers (also uses social
referencing)

29.  Insecure-Avoidant Babies: Babies
show insecurity by avoiding their
caregiver.
 Interacts little while caregiver is in the room
 Not distressed by separations
 Usually does not reestablish contact when reunited
 Avoid contact with stranger
 If contact is established, they may lean or pull away,
look away and even ignore (more passive resistance)

30.  Insecure-Resistant Babies: Babies that
often cling to the caregiver, then resist
him or her by fighting against the
closeness, perhaps by kicking or
pushing away (active resistance).
 Cling anxiously to caregiver
 Frightened by stranger
 Will not explore room and toys
 Cries loudly / terribly upset when separated
 Resists attempts to comfort when reunited /
inconsolable

31.  Insecure-Disorganized/Disoriented: an
infant that lacks a cohesive strategy in
coping with the strange situation
 The greatest insecurity (least prevalent)
 Show a variety of confused and conflicted
behaviors (may cling to mother while leaning
away)
 Approach / withdraw behaviors
 Emotions vary greatly over time (calm, then cry)

32.  Diana Baumrind’s Research
 4 Aspects of Family Functioning
 Warmth or Nurturance
 Control: Clarity & consistency of rules
 Level of expectations, called “Maturity Demands”
 Communication between the parent and the child

33.  Permissive Style: highly involved
with their children, but place few
demands or controls on them.
 High in nurturance, but low in control,
communication, and maturity demands.
 Let their children do what they want hoping to create
creative, confident children
 Rarely learn respect for others and have difficulty
controlling their behavior, difficult, noncompliant,
difficulties in peer relations.

34.  Authoritarian Style: a restrictive,
punitive style in which parents exhort
the child to obey their rules.
 “You do what I say, when I say…no discussion!”
 Low in nurturance and communication, but high in
maturity demands and control
 Enforce rules rigidly, but do not explain them
 Children grow to be fearful, anxious, and have weak
communication skills, low self-esteem, do less well in
school, aggressive

35.  Rejecting-Neglectful Style: parent is
very uninvolved with the child’s life
 Lowe in control, maturity demands, communication
and nurturance
 Children tend to be socially incompetent, poor self-
control, low self-esteem, immature, may be alienated
from family.
 Don’t handle independence well
 Less achievement oriented in school, more impulsive,
and are often antisocial.

36.  Authoritative Style: encourage
children to be independent, but still
place limits and control on their
actions.
 High in nurturance, communication, maturity demands
and control
 Inductive Discipline: explaining to a child why a
punished behavior is wrong
 Most consistently positive results: higher self-esteem,
more independent, self-confident, better grades,
altruistic behaviors

37.  Only theory of psychosocial development
that covers the entire lifespan
 Eight stages, each involves specific
personal or social tasks that must be
accomplished if development is to proceed
in a healthy fashion.
 Overcome a specific crisis or conflict
between “internal needs” and the
environment that they are currently in.

38.  1.) Trust vs. Mistrust
 Birth – 18 months
 Infants learn to trust when they are cared for in a
consistent, predictable, timely, and nurturing manner.
(needs are met by caregivers)
 Infants learn mistrust if their needs are not met in a
consistent, reliable, timely and nurturing manner.

39.  2.) Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt: Child
begins to assert their independence and
express individuality (learning to do
things for themselves)
 Toddle years: 18 months – 3 years
 Will; new physical skills lead to demand for more
choices, most often seen as saying, “no” to caregivers;
child learns self-care skills such as toileting
 Parents view interactions with child as a series of
troublesome encounters; stubborn insistence by child

40.  3.) Initiative vs. Guilt: Child learns to
initiate tasks and to follow through with
plans.
 Motivation, curiosity, autonomy
 Conflict occurs when they make a decision to do
something on their own (pick up an item in a
store, choose their outfit for the day, talk to a
stranger). Do they feel comfortable making the
decision or are they worried about (or punished
for) offending or letting down their parents.
 Overprotective parents?

41.  4.) Industry vs. Inferiority: children
direct their energy toward mastering
knowledge and intellectual skills
(and social skills), or end up feeling
incompetent or inferior compared to
others.

42.  5.) Identity vs. Role Confusion: an
adolescent explores who they are,
what they stand for, and where they
are going in life.
 Positive outcome = solid identity
development
 Negative outcome = unsure of who they
are

43.  6.) Intimacy vs. Isolation: an
individual must find a life partner or
supportive friends in order to avoid
social isolation.
 Intimacy: the capacity to engage in a
supportive, affectionate relationship
without losing one’s sense of self; the
ability to be totally honest with an other,
and be one’s self without fear of
judgment from the other.

44.  7.) Generativity vs. Stagnation:
 Generativity: Finding meaning in
mentoring, helping or contributing to the
development of younger individuals
(own children, grandchildren, other
young family members, friends’ or
others’ children, working with younger
people).

45.  Stagnation: sometimes called “self-
absorption”, develops when
individuals sense that they have done
little or nothing for the next
generation.

46.  Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair: involves
reflecting on the past and either
piecing together a positive review or
concluding that one’s life has not been
well spent.

47.  DANIEL LEVINSON
 Who is he?
 Daniel Levinson graduated from Yale as a
psychologist. He later developed a
comprehensive theory of adult
development. This theory is important because
it is one of the only ones which suggests that
development and growth happens well into the
adult years.

48.  The life structure: an underlying pattern of
an individual's life at any given point in
time.
 A person's life structure is shaped mainly by their
social and physical environment, and it primarily
involves family and work.
 Other variables such as religion, race, and status
are often important as well.
 There are 6 stages of adulthood in Levinson's
theory titled "Seasons of a Man's Life":

49. In his theory there are two key concepts:
1) the Stable Period - This is the time when a
person makes crucial choices in life.
2) the Transitional Period - This is the end of a
person's stage and the beginning of a new one.
Life during these transitions can be either
rocky or smooth, but the quality and
significance of one’s life commitments often
change between the beginning and end of a
period.

50. 1) Early adult transition (17-22) - leave adolescence,
make preliminary choices for adult life
2) Entering the adult world (22-28) - make initial
choices in love, occupation, friendship, values,
lifestyle
3) Age 30 transition (28-33) - changes occur in life
structure, either a moderate change or, more often, a
severe and stressful crisis

51. 4) Settling down (33-40) - establish a niche in society,
progress on a timetable, in both family and career
accomplishments
 People are expected to think and behave like a
parent, so they are facing more demanding roles
and expectations .

52. 5) Mid-life transition (40-45) - life structure comes
into question, usually a time of crisis in the
meaning, direction, and value of each person's life.
 Neglected parts of the self (talents, desires,
aspirations) seek expression.
 Men are seen more as parents than as “brothers” to
other men who are somewhat younger than them and
this message comes as an irritation at first.
 Also at this time, men becoming increasingly aware of
death and they are reminded of how short life really
is. They become involved in trying to leave a legacy
and this usually forms the core of the second half of his
life.

53. 6) Entering middle adulthood (45-50) - choices must
be made, a new life structure formed. People must
commit to new tasks.
 Some sources also stated that there was a late
adulthood stage during which time a man
spent time reflecting on past achievements and
regrets, and making peace with one's self and
others (including God).