Developmental psychology continued
- 2. Mary Ainsworth – Strange Situation Experiment Mother brings baby into an unfamiliar room containing lots of toys After a while a stranger comes in and tries to play with the child. The mother leaves the baby with the stranger. She then returns and plays with her child and the stranger leaves Finally, the mother leaves the baby alone for 3 minutes and then returns What did researchers discover from these experiments?
- 3. Ainsworth divided children into two categories based on their reactions 1). Securely attached – They cry or protest if the mother leaves the room; they welcome her back and then play happily again
- 4. 2). Insecurely attached – This can take 2 forms, child can be 1). Avoidant – not caring if the mother leaves the room, making little effort to seek contact with her on return, treating the stranger the same as mother OR 2). Anxious/Ambivalent – resisting contact with the mother at reunion but protesting loudly if she leaves. They may cry to be picked up then demand to be put down or may behave angry with the mother and resist comfort insecure attachment is association with later emotional and behavioral problems in children such as aggressiveness, poor social relationships and acting out.
- 5. 1). Abandonment and deprivation in the first two years of life. Ex). Romanian babies raised in orphanages for their first 2 years are less likely than babies adopted earlier to become securely attached to their eventual adoptive parents, although most do fine in the end. 2). Parenting that is abusive, neglectful, or erratic because the parent is irresponsible or depressed. 3). The child’s own genetically influenced temperament 4). Changing, stressful circumstances in the child’s family Ex). Infants and young children may temporarily shift from secure to insecure attachment, making them clingy and fearful of being left alone, if their families are undergoing a period of stress (such as divorce, parent’s illness, etc)
- 6. Children don’t think the same way adults do Ex). Age 2 – calling all large animals “horsie” and all small animals “bug” Swiss biologist – Jean Piaget – his keen observations of children and his brilliant ideas caused a revolution in thinking about how thinking develops in children. His great insight was that children’s errors are as interesting and their correct responses – children will say cute or wildly illogical things to adults but the strategies children use to think and solve problems are not random or meaningless
- 7. There are 4 stages of cognitive development: 1). The sensorimotor (birth – age 2) 2). The preoperational stage (age 2-7) 3). The concrete operations stage (age 7-12) 4). The formal operations stage (age 12- adulthood)
- 8. Infant learns: looking, touching, hearing, putting things in the mouth, grasping “ Thinking consists of coordinating sensory information with bodily movements The child will soon learn certain actions give specific results such as banging on the table with a spoon will produce dinner (or mom taking the spoon away) MAJOR accomplishment of stage: Object Permanence The understanding that something continues to exist even if you cannot see it or touch it. Babies at this stage have the motto out of sight out of mind, by 6 months however, infants realize that there is still a toy behind the cloth, it is just hidden. Object permanence represents the start of child’s capacity to use mental imagery and symbols – the child can build associations such as mother or father being a figure of warmth and love and not just an empty word.
- 9. Use of symbols and language accelerates Age 2 – child can pretend for example that a large box is a house, table or train. Children do NOT understand reverse operations at this point Ex). My sister may be Nadia, but I may not also be Nadia’s sister. Preoperational child cannot do so because their thinking is egocentric – they see the world only from their own perspective and cannot imagine things differently This stage also doesn’t allow them to understand the concept of conservation – the idea that physical properties do not change when their forms or appearances change
- 10. By this stage, children have developed significantly Child has learned: taking other people’s perspective and making fewer logical errors However, these abilities are tied to concrete information, so actual experiences that have real meaning to them SO children at this stage still cannot think hypothetically in a broader sense, for example, talking about future education or world peace Children DO however learn: principles of conservation, reversibility, cause and effect and mental operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division)
- 11. Abstract reasoning is finally achieved! What is learned: ideas can be compared and classified just as objects, ability to reason about situations that have not been personally experienced is gained
- 12. Very young children obey rules because they fear being punished Around age 10 focus is more on conforming and being loyal to others In adulthood, few individuals go on to develop a moral standard based on universal human rights (ex. Martin Luther King) Moral reasoning ability increases during the school years. But so does lying, cheating and cruelty.
- 13. Most children learn to suppress their wishes to beat an annoying sibling, to scream if they don’t get their way or to steal when they want something. The child’s emerging ability to understand wrong from right and behave appropriately depends on the emergence of conscience and moral emotions (shame, guilt, empathy)
- 14. Age 5 children know difference between doing right thing and obeying orders Therefore, many psychologists conclude that the capacity for understanding right from wrong is inborn, just like language moral sense Power Assertion – a method of child rearing in which the parent uses punishment and authority to correct the child’s misbehavior
- 15. When power assertion as a parenting method entails bullying, yelling, and put-downs, it results in increased aggression in children reduced empathy poorer moral reasoning When parents are verbally abusive, insulting and ridiculing the child, the results are devastating But the general environment and relationship affects how you will understand power assertion as a child.
- 16. The context in which the discipline occurs makes an enormous difference – think is the parent-child relationship overall loving and trusting or one full of hostility and fighting? A much more powerful strategy than spanking and other power assertion methods is – induction Induction – when the parent appeals to the child’s own abilities, empathy, helpful nature, ex). Explaining why an inappropriate action causes harm instead of screaming
- 17. The parent also appeals to the child’s own helpful inclinations Ex). “I know you are a good person that likes to be good to others, so think about why your actions are wrong and not representative of who you are.” This method is proven to be far more helpful to a child’s growth and has been proven to help increase empathy these children will feel guiltier hurting others
- 18. Gender Identity – a child’s sense of being male or female, of belonging to one sex or the other. Gender Typing – the process of socializing children into their gender roles and, thus, reflects society’s ideas about which abilities, interests, traits and behaviors are appropriately masculine or feminine A person can have a strong gender identity AND not be gender typed. How?
- 19. A man may be confident in his maleness and not feel threatened doing what may be considered “unmasculine” things such as ballet or sewing. A woman may be confident in her femaleness and not feel that her “femininity” is threatened by being a professional boxer
- 20. Gender – masculine and feminine attributes that are created by us and our society Ex). Wrestling is a masculine sport Sex – whether you are male or female, which is defined through your reproductive organs
- 21. Psychologists study children’s gender segregation and toy and play preferences by studying the children's abilities Before babies can speak, they recognize there are two genders By age 9 months, most babies can separate male from female faces By Age 2-3, toddlers can label themselves as boys or girls By age 4 or 5, most children develop a stable gender identity, a sense of themselves as being male or female regardless of what they wear or how they behave.
- 22. Once children can label themselves and others consistently as being a boy or a girl, they change their behavior to conform to the category they belong to. They prefer same-sex playmates (boys playing with other boys and girls with other girls) and same-sex toys (girls with dolls boys with fire trucks) without being explicitly taught to do so. They become more gender typed in games, aggressiveness and verbal skills than before. Most notably, girls stop behaving aggressively.
- 23. In one moment, a girl will realize “Girls don’t do this. I’m a girl, I’d better not either.” By age 5, children figure out all of their knowledge of gender without mistakes into a gender schema. Gender Schema – a mental network of beliefs and expectations about what it means to be male or female and about what each sex is supposed to wear, do, feel and think.
- 24. Most rigid in between 5-7 years of age At this age, a girl may tell you girls cannot be doctors even if her own mother is. Most puzzling part of gender development – all over the world, boys’ gender schema are more rigid that than of a girls’. Think of what is acceptable/unacceptable for women versus men. Boys express stronger preferences for masculine toys and activities than girls do for feminine ones Boys are harsher on themselves and other boys who fail to behave in a gender-typed way (ie. Being a wuss)
- 25. Most societies value masculine occupations and traits more than feminine ones Males have higher status generally When boys behave like or play with girls, they lose status, and when girls behave like boys, they gain status.
- 26. Many people retain inflexible gender schemas feeling uncomfortable or angry with men or women who break out of traditional roles However with increasing experience and knowledge, older children often become more flexible in their gender schemas, especially if they have friends of the other sex and if their families and culture encourage flexibility How flexible are your own gender schemas?
- 27. Socialization begins from birth through how parents portray newborn girls as feminine and delicate and boys as stronger and more athletic. Parents choice of clothing – a signal to adults on how to treat the child. Adults respond to boys and girls differently even when the children are behaving in exactly the same way.
- 28. Study of 12-16 month old boys and girls: Boys and girls were equally assertive (measured by the frequency of their efforts to get an adult’s attention) and verbal )as measured by their attempts to communicate with others). Result: Teachers responded far more often to assertive boys than to shy ones and to verbal girls than to non-verbal ones. Subtly, teachers were reinforcing gender-typed behavior.
- 29. Same children – 1 year later: Gender difference was now apparent Boys behaved more assertively Girls talked more to teachers -Social learning theorists believe that teacher’s reinforcements created this gender difference. -ex) Parents believe that boys are naturally better at math or sports and that girls are naturally better at communicating Positive side: Children can grow up in an extremely gender-typed family and as adults find them in careers or relationships they may have never imagined!