Early Development

1. Early Development Module 17: Pages 376 - 406

2. Nature or Nurture? • Nature – genetics • Nurture – environment • … or both?

3. Prenatal Influences • Germinal Stage • 2 week period following conception • Embryonic Stage • 2-8 weeks period following conception • Cell divides into bone, muscle, and organs • Fetal Stage • 2 months after conception, until birth • Develop vital organs, and distinctly human characteristics.

4. Teratogens • A fetus is highly susceptible to drugs and other harmful agents. • The placenta does protect the fetus; however, HIV and many drugs pass through the placenta. • Teratogen – any agent that can harm a developing fetus. • Trivia - Tera is a Greek word meaning “monster”

5. Drugs & Prenatal Development

6. Teratogens & Prenatal Development

7. Teratogens & Prenatal Development * Researchers say there is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

8. Newborns’ Abilities • Sensory Development • Motor Development • Emotional Development • Temperament and Emotions • Attachment • Cognitive Development • Piaget

9. Sensory Development • Face – in the first few days can show a preference for mother’s face over strangers. At 4 months can visually distinguish mother’s face. • Hearing – 1 month has very keen hearing to distinguish between small variations like ‘pah’ and ‘bah’. • Touch – well-developed sense • Smell/Taste– 1 day old can distinguish between citrus smell and floral. 6 weeks smell of mother from a stranger. Inborn preference for both sweet and salt. • Depth Perception – 6 months

10. Motor Development • The stage of motor skills that all infants pass through as they acquire muscular control necessary for making coordinated movements.

11. Motor Development • Proximodistal principle – parts closer to the center of the infant’s body develop before parts farther away. • Cephalocaudal principle – parts of the body closer to the head develop before parts closer to the feet. • Maturation - developmental changes genetically or biologically programmed rather than learned through experience.

12. Motor Development • Developmental norms – the average ages at which children perform various kinds of skills or exhibit abilities or behaviors. • Environmental stimulation can change the speed at which children engage in different skills, and these skills can be held back by lack of stimulation

13. Emotional Development • Temperament – refers to relatively stable and long-lasting individual differences in mood and emotional behavior. • Easy babies 40%Slow-to-warm-up babies 15%Difficult babies 10% No one category babies 35% • Temperament develops within first 2-3 months of life.

14. Emotional Development • Temperament Cont’d • Genetic Influence • Largely genetic • Differences observed in brain activity • Highly reactive/fearful, 10x more likely to develop depression/anxiety as adult. • Environmental Influence • 70% had moderate changes in temperament into adulthood – environmental factors

15. Attachment • Fundamental emotional bond between child and caregiver • Separation Anxiety • Distress whenever parents temporarily leave • Secure Attachment • Use their parent/caregiver as a safe home base, where they can wonder off and explore their environment • Insecure Attachment • Avoid or show ambivalence or resistance toward their parent/caregiver

16. Cognitive Development • Refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains an understanding of his or her world through the interaction and influence of genetic and learned factors. • Assimilation – the process by which a child uses old methods or experiences to deal with new situations. • Accommodation – the process by which a child changes old methods to deal with or adjust to new situations.

17. Paget’s Theory • Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor • Preoperational • Concrete • Formal

18. Piaget’s Theory Cont’d • Sensorimotor (birth – age 2) • Infants interact with and learn about their environments by relating their sensory experiences to their motor actions • Object permanence (9 months) • Preoperational (2 – 7 years) • Children learn to use symbols to solve simple problems and to think or talk about things that are not present. • Conservation • Egocentric thinking

19. Piaget’s Theory Cont’d • Concrete (7-11 years) • Children can perform a number of logical metal operations on concrete objects • Formal (12 – adulthood) • Adolescents and adults develop the ability to think about and solve abstract problems in a logical manner. • Imaginary Audience • Personal fable Video - Piaget's Theory in Action

20. Piaget – Criticism • Four stages are not rigid/orderly as he proposed. • Theory does not explain ‘why’ or ‘how’. • Some children failed Piaget’s tests because they did not understand the instructions. • It is of historical importance, but no longer is the major force in guiding research in cognitive development.

21. Social Development • How a person develops a sense of self or a self-identity, develops relationships with others, and develops the kinds of social skills important in personal interactions.

22. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages • Psychosexual stages • 5 different developmental periods of pleasure from different areas of the body, associated with sexual feelings: • Oral • Anal • Phallic • Latency • Gential

23. Oral Stage • Oral stage: Birth - 18 months (approx.) • Physical focus: mouth, lips, tongue Sucking is the primary source of pleasure. Everything goes in the mouth. Sucking  = food. • Psychological theme: dependency. A baby is very dependent and can do little for itself. If baby’s needs are properly fulfilled can move onto the next stage. If not fulfilled baby will be mistrustful, or over-fulfilled baby will find it hard to cope with a world that does not meet all demands. • Adult character: highly dependent/highly independent. If baby becomes fixated at this stage Freud felt that he or she would grow to be an oral character. Mostly these people are extremely dependent/passive who want everything done for them. Freud also suggests that another oral character is the person who is highly independent and that when under stress the orally fixated person may flip from one type to the other.

24. Anal Stage • Anal Stage: 18 months - 3.5 years (approx.) • Physical focus: anus (elimination). Baby is supposed to control bowels. Freud believed baby’s sexual pleasure centered around the anus. • Psychological theme: self-control/obedience. These things are not just related to toilet training but also learning to control urges and behaviors . What goes wrong here is either parents being too controlling or not controlling enough (Freud was a great believer in moderation). • Adult character: anally retentive (rigid, overly organized, subservient to authority) vs. anally expulsive (little self-control, disorganized, defiant, hostile).

25. Phallic Stage • Phallic Stage: 3.5 - 6 years (approx.) • Physical focus: penis. Freud believed that boys and girls both focused on penis. Boys: why hasn’t she got one? Girls: why haven’t I got one? Children become particularly interested in genitals at this stage. • Psychological theme: morality and sexuality identification and understanding meaning to be a girl/boy. Children, according to Freud have sexual feelings for the opposite sexed parent at this stage (and deal with Oedipus / Electra complexes - basically erotic attachment to parent of opposite sex, but since these feelings are not socially acceptable, it may become hostility) and feel some hostility to same-sex parent.  Boys experience castration anxiety and girls suffer penis envy.  During this time emotional conflicts are resolved by eventually identifying with the same sex parent • Adult character: promiscuous and amoral/ asexual and puritanic

26. Latency Stage • Latency Stage: 6 years to puberty (approx.) • The latency stage is the period of relative calm. The sexual and aggressive drives are less active and there is little in the way of psychosexual conflict.

27. Genital Stage • Physical focus: genitals (post puberty) • Psychological theme: maturity and creation and enhancement of life.  So this is not just about creating new life (reproduction) but also about intellectual and artistic creativity. The task is to learn how to add something constructive to life and society. • Adult character: The genital character is not fixed at an earlier stage. This is the person who has worked it all out. This person is psychologically well-adjusted and balanced. According to Freud to achieve this state you need to have a balance of both love and work.

28. Freud • Interaction between parent and child to satisfy psychosexual needs greatly influences social development. • If child’s desires are over or under satisfied he may become fixed at one of the first three stages. • Fixation hinders development

29. Evaluating Freud • Most agree the early stages are important • Over-emphasis on sexuality criticized for neglecting social and cognitive factors • Many children overcome early experiences, unlike Freud’s predictions • Weak as more descriptive than explanatory, and difficult to verify

30. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages • Psychosocial Stages • 8 developmental periods (now contains 10, extreme old age) • Individual’s primary goal is to satisfy desires associated with social needs. • Centered around issues of: trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, and ego integrity. • Trivia – Generativity: a term coined by Erikson, meaning concern for establishing and guiding the next generation

31. Trust vs. Mistrust Stage 1 • Age Range – birth to 1 year • Infant requires close contact (attachment) to learn his/her needs will be met. • If they are, the infant will learn basic trust. • If they aren’t, s/he will see the world as uncaring and become mistrustful.

32. Stage 2 Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt • Age Range: 1 to 3 years • The urge to explore leads to independent action. • If this is encouraged, the child will learn self-trust and autonomy. • Otherwise, the child learns to question her/himself and be ashamed of independent behavior.

33. Initiative vs. Guilt Stage 3 • Age Range: 3-5 years • As the child takes initiative and responsibility for personal action, s/he learns to meet challenges and initiate new things. • If initiative is discouraged, the child may feel uncomfortable or guilty and be unable to plan for her/himself or the future.

34. Industry vs. Inferiority Stage 4 • Age Range: 5 – 12 years • If a child can learn to direct energy at completing tasks and participating in social activities, s/he will feel industrious (productive, proud, worthwhile). • Difficulty at applying self to school or social commitments can lead to inferiority feelings and incompetence.

35. Stage 5 Identity vs. Role Confusion • Age Range: Adolescence • Behaviors become more purposeful, responsible and planned, which creates a feeling of confidence and positive identity. • If not, s/he will experience role confusion resulting in low self-esteem and social withdrawing.

36. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory • Social Cognitive Theory • Emphasizes the importance of learning through observation, and self-reward in the development of social skills, interactions, and behaviors. • Many of the behaviors are self-motivated (intrinsic). • Learning by modelling and imitating behaviors observed in social interactions/situations. • Children --> parents, teachers, and peers Video -- Bobo Doll

37. Resiliency • Vulnerability – psychological/environmental difficulties that make children more at risk for developing later personality, behavioral, or social problems. • Resiliency – various personality, family, or environmental factors that compensate for increased life stresses so that expected problems do not develop.

38. Terminology • Sex – biological categories that people are divided into, primarily based on physical anatomy of genitals (male, female, intersex). • Intersex – people who have a combination of male and female biological sex characteristics (1 in 200 children born with intersex characteristics). Reference: Halifax Sexual Health Centre

39. Terminology • Gender – a collection of traits, behaviors, and roles that are culturally associated with maleness or femaleness. • Gender is a social and cultural construct, meaning it is created and then supported by a society/culture through things like language, media, and policies. • Concepts of gender may differ across cultures and time. • Gender Roles – traditional/stereotypical behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits that parents, peers, and society expect us to have because of being male or female. Reference: Halifax Sexual Health Centre

40. Terminology • Gender Identity – a person’s internal self-awareness of being male, female, or a combination of male/female. • Gender identity may or may not be the same as their biological sex. • Gender Expression – the behaviors and characteristics that a person presents that demonstrate their gender identity. Reference: Halifax Sexual Health Centre

41. Terminology • Transgender – individuals whose gender identity and/or gender expression differ from conventional expectations of their biological sex. • An umbrella term to describe a diverse range of identities and experiences. • FTM, MTF, Two-Spirited, and more… Reference: Halifax Sexual Health Centre

42. Gender • By the age of 3, children learn to label themselves are boys or girls, and can classify others. • By the age of 2 to 3, American children have learned the preference of each traditional gender role for toys, clothes, games, and tools. • By age 4 to 5, children have developed a clear idea of which occupations are stereotypical for men/women. • By age 5, children have learned the thoughts, expectations, and behaviors that accompany their gender roles.

43. Social Role Theory • The influence of social and cognitive processes on how we interpret, organize, and use information. Applied to gender roles, it says that mothers, fathers, teachers, grandparents, friends, and peers expect, respond to, and reward different behaviors in boys than in girls. Under the influence of this differential treatment, boys learn a gender role that is different from girls’.

44. Discussion • What are the gender role stereotypes for males and females?

45. Let’s Think…

46. Cognitive Development • As children develop mental skills and interact with their environments, they learn one set of rules for male behaviors and another set of rules for female behaviors. • Children actively process information that results in their learning gender rules regarding behaviors are correct for girls and wrong for boys (or vice versa). • Gender schemas – sets of information and rules organized around how either a male or female should think and behave.

47. Gender Traits • Social role theory focuses on boys/girls learning different gender roles and behavior because of outside pressure. • Cognitive development theory focuses on boys/girls developing different gender roles and behavior because of intrinsic pressure. • These theories are not mutually exclusive!

48. Traditional Male Gender Schema • Rough and tumble play • Sports • Initiating conversations • Exploring

49. Traditional GenderSchema for Girls • Playing with dolls • Expressing emotions • Listening • Being dependent ** Both theories predict that the sexes will develop different gender roles.

50. Gender Trait Differences • Girls and boys develop different gender roles. • Social Role Theory – expectation of others rewards/discourages different gender roles/behaviors for boys and girls. • Social Role Theory focuses on boys/girls learning different gender roles/behaviors because of outside pressures from others.