Exam I

• True or false? During the Middle Ages in Europe, children were often treated as miniature adults. (p.6)

  It is true that children were treated as miniature adults throughout most of the Middle Ages. (For example, for much of the Middle Ages, artists depicted children as small adults.) However, this meant only that more was expected of them, not that they were given more privileges.
• True or false? Children come into the world as ”blank tablets”—without inborn differences in intelligence and abilities. (p.6)

  False. Though John Locke believed that children come into the world as “blank tablets,” research evidence shows that inborn factors — one’s heredity — play a role in the development of intelligence and personality traits.
• True or false? Nail biting and smoking cigarettes are signs of conflict experienced during early childhood. (p.9)

  False. Sigmund Freud hypothesized that nail biting and smoking cigarettes are signs of conflict experienced during childhood during the oral stage of development. However, there is actually no research evidence to back this up.
• True or false? Children should not be punished. (p.16)

  Part of the answer relies on the nature of the situation. In general, most psychologists suggest it is preferable to reward children for desirable behavior rather than to punish them for unwanted behavior. Sometimes by ignoring misbehavior, we avoid reinforcing children for it.
• True or false? Research with monkeys had helped psychologists understand the formation of attachments in humans (p.38)

  True. Ethical considerations prevent investigators from carrying out experimental research on this issue with humans.
• To learn how people develop over a lifetime, researchers have tracked down some individuals for more than 50 years. (p.39)

  True. This is an example of longitudinal research.
• Child - A person undergoing the period of development from infancy through puberty.
• Infancy - the period of very early childhood, characterized by lack of complex speech; the first 2 years after birth.
• Development - the processes by which organisms unfold features and traits, grow and become more complex and specialized in structure and function.
• Growth - the processes by which organisms increase in size, weight, strength, and other traits as they develop.
• Development occurs across many dimensions:

  1. Biological
  2. Cognitive
  3. Social
  4. Emotional
  5. Behavioral
• Defining “Child” through Periods of Development:

  1. Conception and Prenatal
  2. Infancy
  3. Early Childhood - 2 to 5 years old
  4. Middle Childhood - 6 to 12 years old
  5. Adolescence
• Growth vs Development:

  • Growth is a change in size or quantity.
  • Development ALSO refers to size, but also quality.
• Qualitative Changes

  • Changes in type or kind
  • Development
• Quantitative Changes

  • Changes in amount
  • Growth
• What is Child Development?

  A field of study that tries to understand the processes that govern the appearance and growth of children’s:

  • Biological structures
  • Psychological traits
  • Behavior
  • Understanding
  • Ways of adapting to demands of life
• Why do Researchers Study Child Development?

  To gain insight into:

  1. Human nature
  2. Origins of adult behavior
  3. Origins of sex differences and gender roles
  4. Effects of culture on development
  5. Origins, prevention, and treatment of developmental problems
  6. Optimize conditions of development
• In the Ancient Times and Middle Ages,

  • Children were viewed as innately evil.
  • Children were nurtured until they were 7, which was considered the “age of reason.” After that, they were expected to work alongside adults in the home and field, acting as miniature adults.
• John Locke - children came into the world as tabula rasa, or “blank slates.” He focused on the role of environment and experience in a child’s behavior.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau reversed Locke’s stance—he argued that children are inherently good.
• Industrial Revolution

  • Childhood recognized as a special time period of life
  • Children still labored in factories from dawn to dusk
• In the 20th century, laws were passed to protect children from strenuous labor, required they attend school until a certain age, and prevent them from getting married or being sexually exploited.
• 20th Century

  • Laws to protect child rights in labor, education, neglect
  • Juvenile courts
• Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

  • Theory of evolution
  • Use of baby biography
• Charles Darwin used his baby biography to describe his infant son’s behaviors in great detail.
• G. Stanley Hall (1844 - 1924)

  • Founded child development as an academic discipline
  • Questionnaire methodology with children
• Alfred Binet (1857 - 1911)

  • Developed the first standardized intelligence test near the turn of the 20th century.
• A child is a person experiencing the period of development from infancy to puberty.
• Development is the orderly appearance, over time, of structures, traits, and behaviors.
• The word growth is generally used to refer to changes in size or quantity, whereas the term development also refers to changes in quality.
• Behaviorism - John B. Watson’s view that a science or theory of development must study observable behavior only and investigate relationships between stimuli and responses.
• John B. Watson

  • Behaviorism — learning
  • Nurture
• Arnold Gesell

  • Biological maturation
  • Nature
• Theories of development help us:

  • Describe
  • Explain
  • Predict
  • Influence events being studied
• Theory - a formulation of relationships underlying observed events. A theory involves assumptions and logically derived explanations and predictions.
• The Psychoanalytic Perspective

  • View children (and adults) involved in conflict
  • Internal basic drives conflict with external limits
  • Internalize ‘external’ demands and rules
  • Conflict then occurs between these opposing forces
• The Psychoanalytic Perspective consists of:

  1. Freud’s theory of psychosexual development
  2. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

  Both are stage theories.
• Stage theory - a theory of development characterized by hypothesizing the existence of distinct periods of life. Stages follow one another in an orderly sequence.
• Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development:

  1. Oral
  2. Anal
  3. Phallic
  4. Latency
  5. Genital
• Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development (Birth to 1 Year)

  Oral Stage - Gratification derives from oral activities such as sucking. Fixation leads to development of oral traits such as dependence, depression, and gullibility.