FINAL Chapters 1-5

• Erikson's lifespan theory:

  • broadened Freud's psychosexual stages to describe general modes of interaction between the developing individual and the social and physical world
• Basic trust vs mistrust:

  • primary mode of interacting with the world is incorporation
  • parent is dependable = develops trust
  • parent is inconsistent = develops mistrust
  • not complete absence of mistrust
• Autonomy vs shame and doubt (toddlerhood):

  • primary modes of interaction are retention and elimination
  • shame and doubt come from an awareness of social expectations
  • Ego strength: exercise free choice as well as self-restraint
• Initiative vs guilt (early childhood):

  • primary mode of interaction is intrusion
  • crises result from realization that plans are doomed for failure
  • Ego strength: purpose, the courage to pursue goals
• Industry vs inferiority (middle childhood):

  • learning culturally valued skills
  • danger of feeling inadequate and inferior
  • Ego strength: competence
• Identity vs role confusion (adolescence):

  • identity crisis
  • Ego strength: fidelity, ability to sustain loyalties
• Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood):

  • intimacy is built on establishing a sense of identity
  • characterized by genuine mutuality
  • Ego strength: love
• Generativity vs self-absorption and stagnation (adulthood):

  • the creation of children, production of things and ideas through work
  • Ego strength: care
• Ego integrity vs despair (old age)

  • inner struggle, life review
  • Ego strength: wisdom, effort to find meaning in the face of death
• Criticisms of Erikson's theory:

  • no special emphasis on activity of child
  • too closely tied to Freudian libidinal zones
  • overemphasized independence in childhood
  • gender bias
• Sensorimotor stage (Piaget):

  • here and now; presymbolic
  • practical intelligence
  • differentiation and coordination of action schemes
  • practical concepts
• Object permanence is the key accomplishment of the sensorimotor stage
• Preoperational thought (Piaget):

  • children learn to use symbolic representations and develop some ability to think and reason (pretend play)
  • centration: the tendency to consider only one piece of information when multiple pieces of information need to be processed
• Preoperational thought specific characteristics:

  1. Egocentrism
  2. Animalistic thinking
  3. Lack of conservation
  4. Failure to understand that a superordinate class always contains more objects than a subordinate class (class inclusion)
• Conservation: the idea that the amount of something remains the same despite changes in its form, shape, or appearance
• Justifications for conservation judgments:

  1. identity (nothing has really changed)
  2. inversion (if you poured it back it would be the same)
  3. compensation (not as high, but more wide)
• Concrete operations (Piaget):

  • operations are internalized mental actions that fit into a logical system
  • such mental system allows children to combine, order, and transform objects in their minds
  • concrete operations relate directly to tangible objects and thoughts about objects
• Indicators of concrete operational thought:

  • success in conservation tasks
  • class inclusion
  • seriation
  • transitive inference
• Class inclusion:

  • understanding that in comparing the superordinate class includes its subclasses
  • operations that are required are:
  • addition
  • subtraction
• Formal operations (Piaget):

  • subordination of the real to the possible
  • systematic combinatorial thinking
  • second-order operations (thinking about thinking)
  • hypothetical-deductive reasoning
• Problems with correlational research:

  • which causes which
  • third variable problem
  • correlation does not equal causation
• Cross-sectional studies: groups of different persons of age are tested at one point in time

  • Advantages: short
  • Disadvantages: limited information about developmental processes
• Cohort effect: difference between age groups is due to peculiarity in one of the groups being studied rather than to a general developmental difference
• Longitudinal design: same person or group of persons is followed over a period of time

  • Advantages: examines process of development
  • Disadvantages: long and expensive
• Cohort sequential design: combines longitudinal and cross-sectional design

  • Advantage: allows us to detect cohort effects
  • Disadvantage: practice effect
• Microgenetic design: type of longitudinal design with shorter time intervals between assessments. Mostly used with young children
• Measurement burst design: repeated measurements within short time period combined with longer intervals between bursts
• John Bowlby's theory of attachment:
• John Bowlby's theory of attachment:

  • attachment system is a behavioural adaptation
  • proximity to caregiver bestows evolutionary advantage
• Internal working model of attachment: expectations of the availability of attachment figures, their likelihood of providing support during times of stress, and the self's worthiness of support
• Secure base: familiar caregiver is used as a point from whom to venture out to explore the environment and to whom to return to seek emotional support
• Strange situation: infant is exposed to a sequence of events that include episodes in which the infant is separated from the caregiver and reunited with the caregiver
• Secure attachment (65%):

  • reacts positively to stranger
  • securely attached children become visibly upset when their mothers leave
  • actively seeks contact from mother upon return
• Avoidant attachment (20%):

  • more or less indifferent to where the mother is sitting
  • no affective sharing (secure base behaviour)
  • shows little distress when mother leaves
  • actively avoid contact with mother upon reunion
• Resistant attachment (10%):

  • have problems from the start
  • become upset when their mother leaves
  • not comforted by mother's return
  • do not readily resume playing after their mother's return
• Disorganized/disoriented attachment (5-10%):

  • behave in contradictory, unpredictable ways that seem to convey extreme fear or utter confusion
  • appear dazed or disoriented; may show stereotypes of slow movements or stilling
• Influences on attachment security:

  • quality of caregiving
  • family circumstances
  • parents' internal working models
  • child care
• Secure parents:

  • show more harmonious interactions with mother, more cooperative and willing to comply on request
• Anxious-avoidant parents:

  • cry lots and are not readily soothed by contact with the caregiver
  • rejected by their mother, mother appears to be angry
  • mothers have less facial expression
• Resistant parents:

  • experience inconsistent mothering
  • develop an internal model of attachment of the mother as being unpredictable