Ch. 3 Objectives/Study Guide

PGS 101 ? Szeli Chapter 3: Human development OBJECTIVE 3.1 ? Define developmental psychology and explain the roles that heredity and environment play in a person?s development. Developmental psychology I he study of progressive changes in behavior and abilities from conception to death. Heredity (?nature?) is the transmission of physcial and psychological characteristics from parents to off spring through genes. It is a child?s natural potential. Sets intellectual potentials and other possibilities to develop through environment/nurture. Environment (?nurture?) is the sum of all external conditions affecting development. It brings out potential and builds it. Must have both nature and nurture or a child to full and properly develop. OBJECTIVE 3.3 ? Define the term temperament and describe the characteristics of easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up children. Temperament is the physical core of personality, including eotioal and perceptual sensitivity, energy lvels, typical mood, etc. It is measured by how a child responds to others and social circumstances. Easy (40%): Relaxed and agreeable, generally pleasant moods Adaptable Approach new situions and people positively Establish regular sleeping, eating, and elimination patterns early on Difficult (10%): Moody, intense, easily angered; intense in emotioal reactions Opposite of easy Slow-to-warm-up (15%): Restraind, unexpressive, shy, tend to withdraw Slow to adapt Somewhat negative in mood OBJECTIVE 3.4 ? Define the terms nurture (environment) and sensitive period and briefly discuss the impact that environment has on development. Environment (?nurture?) is the sum of all external conditions affecting development. Environmental forces guide human development for good or bad. Children?s experiences shape their personality and abilities. Sensitive periods are times when children are more susceptible to particular types of environmental influences. Some events during these times can permanently alter the course of development. A child?s and parents own behaviors also affect development along with nature and nurture. OBJECTIVE 3.9 ? Describe the course of emotional development, according to Bridges and Izard, and explain the importance of the social smile. According to Bridges, all basic emotions appear at age 2. Found that emotions appear in consistent order and the first basic split is between pleasant and unpleasant emotions. Izard believes that infants are able to express several basic emotions as early as 10 weeks old. Found that the most common infant expression is interest followed by joy, anger, and sadness. Distinct emotions appear within first 4 months of life. The social smile is smiling elicited by social stimuli, such as a parent?s face. Infants smile more frequently when another person is nearby, inviting them. They also smile to communicate that they are interested in an object they see. OBJECTIVE 3.10 ? Explain how self-awareness and emotional attachment are related to early social development, define separation anxiety and separation anxiety disorder, differentiate between the three types of attachment identified by Mary Ainsworth, and describe how these attachments can influence how people relate to others as adults. In order to develop socially, children must first be able to recognize themselves, or be aware of themselves as persons (able to look in a mirror and know he/she is staring at self). The core of social development is found in the emotional attachment ? close emotional bond infants form with their primary cargivers. Separation anxiety is distress displayed by infants when they are separated from their parents or principal caregivers. It is a direct sign that an emotional bond has formed and appears around 8-12 months of age. Separation anxiety disorder can be formed if separation anxiety is ignored. There is a genetic component as well as environmental ones. May occur after child faces stresses such as illness, moving to new neighborhood, or changing schools ? fearful that the person or people who are important and take care of him/her will not be there when the event occurs again. Secure: have a stble and positive emotional bond; upset by mother?s absence and seeks to be near her when she returns. Insecure-Avoidant: have anxious emotional bond; tend to turn away from mother when she returns, not distressed when she leaves, almost non-existent emotional bond. Insecure-Ambivalent: anxious emotional bond; mixed feelings, both seek to be near mother when she returns and angrily resist contact with her. Securely attached children become more resilient and social; more positive. Insecure attachments can lead to children being shy, or anti-social. OBJECTIVE 3.11 ? Explain how parents can promote secure attachments; describe the characteristics of fathers who have securely attached infants; discuss the effects of day care on the quality of attachment (including the criteria for evaluating child care); and explain the importance of attachment in meeting a child?s affectional needs. Parents can promote secure attachments by being accepting and sensitive to their baby?s signals and rhythms. A warm family atmosphere with sensitive mothering and fathering promotes secure attachment. Poor attachment may occur if actions are inappropriate, overstimulating, rejecting. Fathers of securely attachedinfants tend to be outgoing, agreeable, and happy in marriage. Children in high-quality day care tend to have better relationships with parents and fewer behavioral problems. Children may also develop better cognitive skills and language abilities. Low-quality day care gives off opposite effects and can create behavior problems which did not exist before. Criteria: Small number of children per caregiver Small overall group size (12-15) Trained caregivers Minimal staff turnover Stable, consistent care Avoid child-care centers with words ?zoo,? ?menagerie,? or ?stockade? in its name Parents should encourage creating a bond of trust and affection. The attachment is needed for children to develop a later capacity to experience warm and loving relationships. OBJECTIVE 3.12 ? Describe Baumrind?s three major styles of parenting, including characteristics of both parents and children in each style; compare maternal and paternal influences on a child; and describe ethnic differences in parenting. Authoritarian ? enforce rigid rules and demand strict obedience to authority; punish misbehavior. Children usually become obedient and self-controlled, but emotionally stiff, withdrawn, apprehensive, lack curiosity, and rebellious. Permissive ? little guidance is given, allow too much freedom, and give few responsibilities to children, child usually get his or her way, no rules; Children tend to become dependent immature, irresponsible, and aimless. Authoritative ? supply firm and consistent guidance, combined with love and affection, balance own rights with rights of children, control behavior in caring, responsive, non-authoritarian way; encourage responsible actions, to think, and make good decisions; children become resilient, competent, self-controlled, independent, and develop other good qualities. Mothers do most of the nrturing and caretakin, while fathers do more of the playing and pay more visual attention to children. Maternal influence can make children more or less close at and while paternal influence can make them more or less competent. Ethnic Parenting: African-American ? emphasize loyalty and interdependence among family members, security, developing a positive identity, and bouncing back from adversity. Parents stress obedience and respect for elders; fairly strict discipline. Seek to promote self-reliance and resourcefulness in difficult situations. Hispanic ? relatively strict standard of discipline. Affectionate and indulgent toward younger children. Children are expected to learn social skills and to be calm, obedient, courteous and respectful as they grow older. Parents tend tostress cooperatios more than competition. Asian-American ? tend to be group-oriented abd emphasize interdependence among individuals. Children are taught that their behavior can either bring pride or shame to the family. Parents tend to act as teachers who encourage hard work, moral behavior, and achievement. Lenient in first few years, but begin to expect obedience, respect, self-control, and self-discipline. Arab-American ? children expected to be polite. Punishment generally consists of spanking, teasing, or shaming in front of others. Fathers tend to bestrong authority figures who demand obedience. Value success, generosity, and hospitality. Children are raised to respect parents, members of extended family, and other adults. OBJECTIVE 3.15 ? With regard to Piaget?s theory of cognitive development: a. explain how a child?s intelligence and thinking differ from an adult?s (include the concept of transformation). b. explain the concepts of assimilation and accommodation. c. list (in order) and describe the specific characteristics of each stage. d. explain how parents can best guide their child?s intellectual development. e. evaluate the usefulness of Piaget?s theory in light of the current research on infant cognition. Thinking is less abstract, more concrete; use fewer generalization, categories, and principles. Also tend to base understanding on particular examples and tangible objects. Before age 6 or 7, children are unable to mentally change the shape or form of a substance (transformations). EX: child believes taller narrow glass holds more water than a small wide one even though he sees it poured. Thinks it was turned into a larger amount. Assimilation ? in Piaget?s theory, it is the application of existing mental patterns to new situations. EX: boy has plastic hammer toy and pounds on a block with it. He gets a toy wrench for his birthday. If he uses it for pounding it has been assimilated to an existing knowledge structure. Accommodation ? the modification of existing mental patterns to fit new demands. EX: child might think a dime is worth less than a nickel because it is smaller. As child begins to use and spend money, he must alter his ideas about what ?more? or ?less? mean. New ideas are created to accommodate new experiences. Sensorimotor ? understanding world ? leanr and coordinate movements through senses; object permanence emrges; developments indicate that conceptions are becoming stable. Preoperational ? developing symbolic function and language; thinking is still intuitive ? little use of reasoning and logic; child is egocentric ? unable to take viewpoint of others. Concrete Operational ? mastery of conservation ? concept that mass, weight, volume, remain unchanged when the shape of objects changes; begin to use concepts of time, space, and number; apply logic; able to reverse thoughts or mental operations (knows that 4 x 2 and 2 x 4 are he same thing). Formal Operations ? thinking based more on abstract principles ? democracy, honor, correlation; can think about thoughts and become less egocentric; able to consider hypothetical possibilities; can comprehend math, philosophy, physics, etc. Parents can best guide their child?s intellectual development by providing experiences that are only slightly novel, unusual, or challenging. Follow a one-step-ahead strategy ? teaching efforts are aimed just beyond a child?s current level of comprehension. Avoid forced teaching. OBJECTIVE 3.16 ? Briefly discuss Vygotsky?s sociocultural theory and define the terms zone of proximal development and scaffolding. OBJECTIVE 3.17?Discuss the concept of moral development by describing each of Kohlberg?s three levels of moral development, OBJECTIVE 3.18 ? Define the terms developmental milestones, developmental tasks, and psychosocial dilemmas, describe the eight psychosocial dilemmas (life stages) in Erikson?s theory and their possible outcomes;