Infancy &

Babyhood
by: Rowela Javier, MSPsy
What is infancy?
Infancy
• Infancy or the period of
a newborn, is,
according to standard
dictionaries, the
beginning of existence
as an individual rather
than as a parasite in
the mother’s body.
 Characteristics of Infancy
1. Infancy is the Shortest of all
Developmental Periods
▪ Begins with birth and ends approximately two
weeks old.
▪ The time when the fetus must adjust to life
outside the uterine walls of the mother where
it has lived for approximately nine months
 Characteristics of Infancy
1. Infancy is the Shortest of all
Developmental Periods
Medical Criteria - adjustment is completed with
the fall of the umbilical cord from the navel
Physiological criteria - it is completed when the
infant has regained the weight lost after birth
Psychological Criteria - it is completed when the
infant begins to show signs of developmental
progress in behavior.
 Subdivisions of Infancy
• Period of the Partunate – from birth to
fifteen to thirty minutes after birth
o This period begins when the fetal body has
emerged from the mother’s body and lasts
until the umbilical cord has been cut and tied.
Until this is done the infant continuous to be a
parasite and makes no adjustments to the
postnatal environment – the environment
outside the mother’s body.
 Subdivisions of Infancy
• Period of the Neonate – from the cutting
and tying of the umbilical cord to
approximately the end of the second week
of postnatal life.
o the infant is now a separate, independent
individual and no longer a parasite. During
this period, the infant must make adjustments
to the new environment outside the mother’s
body.
 Characteristics of Infancy
2. Infancy is a Time of Radical Adjustments
▪ It requires adjustments on the individuals part.
▪ May be easy for some infants to make these
adjustments but so difficult for others that they
will fail to do so.
 Characteristics of Infancy
3. Infancy is a Plateau in Development
▪ Rapid growth and development which took
place during the prenatal period suddenly
come to a stop with birth.
▪ By the end of the infancy period, the infant’s
state of development is usually back where it
was at the time of birth.
▪ The halt in growth and development,
characteristic of this plateau, is due to the
necessity for making radical adjustments to
the postnatal environment.
 Characteristics of Infancy
4. Infancy is a Preview of Later Development
▪ It is not possible to predict with even
reasonable accuracy what the individual’s
future development will be on the basis of the
development apparent at birth
▪ A newborn’s development provides a clue as to
what to expect later on.
 Characteristics of Infancy
5. Infancy is a Hazardous Period
▪ Physically it is hazardous because of the
difficulties of making the necessary radical
adjustments to the totally new and different
environment
▪ Psychologically it is hazardous because it is
the time when attitudes of significant people
toward the infant are crystallized.
 Adjustments of Infancy
• Temperature changes
• Breathing
• Sucking and swallowing
• Elimination
 Kinds of Birth
• Natural or Spontaneous Birth
– In a natural birth, the position of the fetus and
its size in relation to the mother’s reproductive
organs allow it to emerge in the normal, head
first position.
 Kinds of Birth
• Breech Birth
– The buttocks appear
first, followed by the
legs and finally the
head
 Kinds of Birth
• Transverse Birth
– The fetus is positioned
crosswise in the
mother’s uterus.
Instruments must be
used for delivery
unless the position
can be changed
before the birth
process begins.
 Kinds of Birth
• Instrument Birth
– When the fetus is too large to emerge
spontaneously or when the its position makes
normal birth impossible, instruments must be
used to aid in delivery.
 Kinds of Birth
• Caesarian Section
– If the X-rays taken during the latter part of
pregnancy indicate that complications may
result if the infant emerges through the birth
canal, the baby is brought into the world
through a slit made surgically in the mother’s
abdominal wall.
 Physical Development
a. Size – at birth the average infant weights 7
½ pounds and measures 19 ½ inches in
length. Weight in relation to height is less at
birth, on average, in the more active fetuses
than those who have been less active during
the latter part of the fetal period.
 Physical Development

b. Infantile Features – muscles of the

newborn infant are soft, small and
uncontrolled
- the bones are soft and flexible
because they are composed of cartilage
or gristle
- flesh is firm and elastic
- soft downy hair is found on the head
and back
 Physical Development
c. Physical Proportions
• Head is approximately one-fourth of the body length
• The cranial region, the area over the eyes, is
proportionally much larger than the rest of the head
• The chin is proportionally too small
• The eyes are almost mature in size,
• The nose is very small and almost flat on the face
• The tiny mouth may look like a slit the lips are narrow
• Neck is so short
• Trunk, shoulders are narrow
• abdomen is large and bulging
 Physical Development
d. Physiological Functions - with birth cry,
the lungs are inflated and respiration begins.
The respiration rate at first ranges from 40-
45 breathing movements per minute. By the
end of the first week in life, it normally drops
to approximately 35 per minute and is more
stable than it was at first.
 Physical Development
d. Physiological Functions
– Neonatal heartbeat is more rapid than that of
the adult because the infant’s heart is small
compared with the arteries
– Reflex sucking movements occur when the
infant is hungry or when the lips are touched.
– Elimination of waste products begins a few
hours after birth.
 Categories of Infant Activity
• Mass Activity – occurs throughout the entire body
when any is stimulated, through the activity is most
pronounced in the stimulated area
• Specific Activities - involve certain limited areas of
the body. They include reflexes, which are definite
responses to specific sensory stimuli and which remain
unchanged with repetition of the same stimulus, and
generalized responses, which use larger groups of
muscles than are involved reflexes and which may be
aroused by either external or internal stimuli.
 Hazards of Infancy
A. Physical Hazards
1. Unfavorable Prenatal Environment
2. Difficult and complicated birth
3. Multiple birth
4. Postmaturity
5. Prematurity
6. Infant Mortality
Long term effects of Prematurity
a. Physical development and health
b. Developmental Lag
c. Sensory Behavior
d. Motor Control
e. Speech Development
f. Intelligence
g. Socialization
h. Emotional Behavior
i. Deviant Behavior
 Hazards of Infancy
B. Psychological Hazards
a. Traditional beliefs about birth
b. Helplessness
c. Individuality of the Infant
d. Plateau in Development
e. Lack of Stimulation
f. New-parent Blues
g. Unfavorable attitudes on the part of
Significant people
h. Names
 Names that are Potential
Psychological Hazards
• Names that are common that the individual feels a lack
of personal identity
• Names that are so unusual that the individual feels
conspicuous
• Names that are used for both sexes and thus are sex-
inappropriate
• Names that are associated with comic-strip characters or
unpopular characters in television series
• Names that identify the individual with a racial, religious,
or ethnic group against which there is prejudice
• Names that are difficult to pronounce or spell
• Names that lend themselves to embarrassing nicknames
• Old-fashioned names
 Normal Filipino
• Ideal birth weight is 3000g

• Ideal birth length is 50cm (20 in)

• Head Circumference is 35cm

Babyhood
What is Babyhood?
• Babyhood is the
developmental period
from the first two years
of life when humans are
extremely dependent
on adults. During this
period, many
psychological activities-
language, sensorimotor
coordination and social
learning, for example
are just beginning
 Characteristics of Babyhood
A. Babyhood is the True Foundation of
Age - at this time, many behavior
patterns, many attitudes, and many
patterns of emotional expression are
being established.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
• Four reasons why Foundations laid during
the Babyhood years are Important:
1. patterns established early in life
persist regardless of whether they are good
or bad, harmful or beneficial.
2. If an undesirable pattern of behavior
or unfavorable beliefs and attitudes started
to develop, the sooner they can be corrected
the easier it will be for the child.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
• Four reasons why Foundations laid during
the Babyhood years are Important:
3. Early foundations quickly develop into
habits through repetition, they will have a lifelong
influence on a child’s personal and social
adjustments.
4. Learning and experience play dominant
roles in development, they can be directed and
controlled so that the development will be along
lines that will make good personal and social
adjustments possible.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
B. Babyhood is an Age of Rapid Growth
and Change – babies grow rapidly, both
physically and psychologically. With this
rapid growth comes a change not only in
appearance but also in capacities.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
C. Babyhood is an Age of Decreasing
Dependency – the decrease in dependency
results from the rapid development of body
control which enables baby to sit, stand, and
walk and to manipulate objects.
Independence also increases as babies
become able to communicate their needs to
others
 Characteristics of Babyhood
D. Babyhood is the Beginning of
Socialization – the egocentrism
characteristic of the very young baby,
quickly gives way to a desire to become a
part of the social group. One of the ways in
which babies show their interest in
becoming a part of the social group is by
attachment behavior.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
E. Babyhood is an Appealing Stage –
adults find all babies appealing because of
their big heads, protruding abdomens, small
thin limbs, and tiny hands and feet. When
they are dressed in baby clothes and
wrapped in baby blankets, they become
more appealing. Babies are appealing
because of their helplessness and
dependency.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
F. Babyhood is the Beginning of
Creativity – they are learning, however, in
these early months of life to develop
interests and attitudes that will lay the
foundations for later creativity or for
conformity to patterns set by others.
 Characteristics of Babyhood
G. Babyhood is a Hazardous Age –
physical and psychological hazards. Among
the physical hazards, illnesses and
accidents are the most serious because they
often lead to permanent disabilities or to
death. Since behavior patterns, interests,
and attitudes are established during
babyhood, serious psychological hazards
can result if poor foundations are laid at this
time.
 Physical Development
• Weight – at the age of four
months, the baby’s weight
has normally doubled. At
one year, babies weight,
on the average, three times
as much as they did at
birth, or approximately 21
pounds.
• Height – at four months,
the baby measures
between 23 to 24 inches,
at one year, between 28 to
30 inches and at two years,
between 32 to 34 inches
Physical Development
• Physical proportions – head growth slows down
in babyhood, while trunk and limb growth
increases.
Physical Development
• Bones – the number of
bones increases during
babyhood. Ossification
begins in the early part of
the first year, but is not
completed until puberty.
The fontanel, or soft spot
on the skull, has closed in
approximately 50 percent
of all babies by the age of
eighteen months, and in
almost all babies by the
age of two.
Physical Development
• Muscles and Fats. Muscle fibers are present at
birth but in very undeveloped forms. They grow
slowly during babyhood and are weak. By
contrast, fat tissue develops rapidly during
babyhood, due partly to the high fat content of
milk, the main ingredient in a baby’s diet.
Physical Development
• Body Built. During the second year of life, as body
proportions change, babies begin to show tendencies
toward characteristic body builds. The three most
common forms : ectomorphic, which tends to be long
and slender, endomorphic, which tends to be round and
fat, and mesomorphic which tends to be heavy hard and
rectangular.
Physical Development
• Teeth. The average baby
has four to six of the
twenty temporary teeth by
the age of one and
sixteen by the age of two.
The first teeth to cut
through are those in the
front, the last to appear
are the molars. The last
four of the temporary
teeth usually erupt during
the first year of early
childhood.
Physical Development
• Nervous system. At birth, brain weight is one-
eighth of the baby’s total weight. Gain brain
weight is greatest during the first two years of
life, thus accounting for the baby’s top-heavy
appearance. The cerebellum which plays an
important role in body balance and postural
control, triples in weight during the first year of
postnatal life. This is true also for the cerebrum.
Immature cells, present at birth, continue to
develop after birth but relatively few new cells
are formed.
Physical Development
• Sense Organ Development. By the age of three
months, the eye muscles are well-enough
coordinated to enable babies to see things clearly
and distinctly and the cones are well-enough
developed to enable them to see colors. Hearing
develops rapidly during this time. Smell and taste,
which are well developed at birth, continue to
improve during babyhood. Babies are highly
responsive to all skin stimuli because of the thin
texture of their skin and because all sense organs
relating to touch, pressure, pain, and temperature
are present in well-developed forms.
Developmental Tasks of Infants
Physiological Functions
• Sleep Patterns
– Newborn sleeps 16 to 17
hours a day
– Recent research review
concluded that infants 0
to 2 years of age slept an
average of 12.8 hours out
of the 24, within a range
of 9.7 to 15.9 hours
(Galland & others, 2012).
Physiological Functions
• Eating Patterns. From birth until
four of five months of age, all
eating is in the infantile form of
sucking and swallowing. Food, as
a result, must be in liquid form.
Chewing generally appears in the
developmental pattern a month
later than biting. But, like biting, it
is in an infantile form and requires
much practice before it becomes
serviceable.
Physiological Functions
• Patterns of Elimination. Bowel control begins,
on the average, at six months, and bladder
control begins between the ages of fifteen and
sixteen months. Bladder control, on the other
hand, is in rudimentary state at the close of
babyhood. Dryness during the daytime can be
expected for a major part of the time except
when deviations from the scheduled routine of
the day, illness, fatigue, or emotional tension
interfere. Dryness at night cannot be achieved in
the average child until several years later.
Muscle Control:
• A. Eye Control. Optic nystagmus, or the response of
the eyes to a succession of moving objects, begins about
twelve hours after birth; ocular pursuit movements,
between the third and fourth weeks; horizontal eye
movements, between the second and third months;
vertical eye movements, between the third and fourth
months; and circular eye movements, several months
later.
 Vision
• Two weeks old – 20/800
• One month old – red and grey
• Two to four months – depth &
convergence ( 3D/4D)
• Five months old – 20/70
• Six months old – 20/20
Muscle Control:
B. Smiling. Reflex smiling, or smiling in response
to a tactual stimulus, appears during the first week
of life; social smiling, or smiling in response to the
smile of another person, begins between the third
and fourth months.
Muscle Control:
• C. Head Holding. In a prone
position, babies can hold their
heads erect at one month; when
lying on their backs, at five
months; and when held in a sitting
position, between four and six
months.
• D. Rolling. Babies can roll from
side to side at two months and
from back to side at four months;
at six months, they can roll over
completely.
Muscle Control:
• E. Sitting. The baby can pull to a sitting
position at four months, sit with support at
five months, sit without support
momentarily at seven months, and sit up
without support for ten or more minutes at
nine months.
•
Muscle Control:
• F. Hands. The working of the thumb in
opposition to the fingers – appears in
grasping between three and four months
and in picking up objects between eight
and ten months. The baby can reach for
objects by six or seven months and can
pick up a small object without random
movements by one year. During the early
months of life, a baby is ambidextrous,
with no preference for either hand.
Muscle Control:
• G. Leg Region. Shifting of the body by kicking
occurs by the end of the second week. Hitching,
or moving in a sitting position, appears by six
months. Crawling and creeping appear between
eight and ten months, and at eleven months
babies walk on “all fours”. Babies can pull
themselves to a standing position at about ten
months, stand with support at eleven months,
stand without support at one year, walk with
support at eleven months or one year, and walk
without support at fourteen months.
Speech Development
• A. Comprehension. The first task in
learning to communicate with others is
learning to comprehend what they say. At
every age children comprehend the
meaning of what others say to them more
readily then they can put their own
thoughts and feelings into words.
Speech Development
• B. Learning to Speak. The second task in
learning to communicate with others is learning
to speak. Because learning to speak is a long
and difficult task and because babies are not
mature enough for such difficult and complicated
learning during the first year of life, nature
provides substitute forms of communication to
be used until they are ready to speak. Many
babies during the first and into the second years
of their lives, try to make known their needs and
wants by these means.
Speech Development
• C. Pre-speech forms of communication.
Four pre-speech forms normally appear in the
developmental pattern of learning to talk:
crying, babbling, gesturing, and the use of
emotional expressions. Crying is the most
frequently used form. Pain for example, is
expressed by shrill, loud cries, interrupted by
groaning and whimpering. Hunger cries are
loud and interrupted by sucking movements.
Cognitive Development
• In the early 1960s attention was focused
on the work of the Swiss psychologists
Jean Piaget, who since the 1920s has
been writing about children’s cognitive
development. Piaget called himself a
genetic epistemologist-one who studies
the origins of human knowledge-and his
theories led to more advanced work in
child psychology.
Jean Piaget
• Born: 9 August 1896,
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
• Died: 16 September
1980, Geneva,
Switzerland
• Education: University of
Neuchâtel (1918),
University of Zurich
• Children: Jacqueline,
Laurent, Lucienne
Key concepts of Piaget’s Theory
• Schema (pl. Schemata)
-help individuals understand the world they inhibit
-cognitive structures that represent a certain aspect
of the world, and can be seen as categories which
have certain pre-conceived ideas in them.

• Assimilation
-the process of incorporating new information into
pre-existing schema
Key concepts of Piaget’s Theory
• Accommodation
when coming across a new object for the first time, a
child will attempt to apply an old schema to the object

• Adaptation
adapting new schemata to make accurate model of
the world we live in

• Equilibrium
there must be a balance between applying prior
knowledge (assimilation) and changing schemata to
account for new information (accommodation)
Four stages of Cognitive
Development:
• Sensori-motor (Birth – 2 years)
• Pre-operational (2 to 7 years)
• Concrete operational (7 to 11 years)
• Formal operational (11 years and up)
THE SENSORI-MOTOR PERIOD
• Extends from birth to about two years. The cognitive
development of infants and toddlers comes mainly
through their use of their bodies and their senses as
they explore the environment hence the label,
sensori-motor. Infants “know” in the sense of
recognizing or anticipating familiar, recurring objects
and happenings, and they think in the sense of
behaving towards these objects and events with
mouth, hand, eye and other sensory-motor
instruments in predictable, organized and often
adaptive ways.
 Several characteristics of
Sensorimotor Period
• Egocentrism – The child’s universe is
initially egocentric, entirely on self. Very
young children lack social orientation: they
speak at rather than to each other, and
two children in conversation will discuss
utterly unrelated topics. Through cognitive
development in the sensorimotor period,
they begin to learn that others exist, that
there is a world beyond themselves.
• Object permanence. An infant initially
does not have a sense of object
permanence. This means that an object or
person removed from an infant’s field of
vision ceases to exist for the infant.
• Concept of space and time. Gradually,
children begin to crawl and walk, they realized
that there is distance between the objects that
they are using to steady themselves. Think of
how many times you have seen infants pull
themselves up to the chair, drop to the floor,
crawl some distance, and then pull themselves
up to the table. By moving from one object to
another, they learn about space and the time it
takes to move from one object to another.
• Causality. As children use their growing
sensorimotor intelligence, they begin to
find order in the universe. They begin to
distinguish their own actions as causes,
and they begin to discover events that
have their causes elsewhere, either in
other objects or in various relationships
between objects.
 Socio-Emotional Development
• Patterns of Development of Social
Behavior.
• Two to three months. Babies can
distinguish people from inanimate objects
and they discover that people supply their
needs. They are content to be with people
but discontented when left alone. At this
age, babies show no preference for any
one person.
• Four to Five months. Babies want to be
picked up by anyone who approaches
them. They react differently to scolding
and to smiling faces and to friendly and to
angry voices.
• Six to Seven months. Babies differentiate
between “friends” and “strangers” by
smiling at the former and showing fear in
the presence of the latter. This is the
beginning of the “shy age”. It is also the
beginning of the “attachment age” – the
time when babies become strongly
attached to their mothers or mother-
substitutes and show a waning of
indiscriminate friendliness.
• Eight to Nine months. The baby attempts
to imitate the speech, gestures, and
simple acts of others.

• Twelve months. The baby reacts to the

warning “no-no”.
• Sixteen to Eighteen months. Negativism,
in the form of stubborn resistance to
requests or demands from adults, is
manifested in physical withdrawal or angry
outbursts.
• Twenty-two to Twenty-four months. The
baby cooperates in a number of routine
activities, such as being dressed, fed, and
bathed.
 Social Responses to other babies:
• Four to five months. The babies tries to
attract the attention of another baby or
child by bouncing up and down, kicking,
laughing or blowing bubbles.

• Six to seven months. The baby smiles at

other babies and shows an interest in their
crying.
 Social Responses to other babies:
• Nine to Thirteen months. Babies attempt
to explore the clothes and hair of other
babies, imitate their behavior and
vocalizations, and cooperate in the use of
toys- although they tend to become upset
when other babies take one of their toys.
• Thirteen to Eighteen months. Fighting
over toys decreases, and the baby shows
more cooperation during play and a
willingness to share.
 Social Responses to other babies:
• Eighteen to Twenty-four months. The
baby shows more interest in playing with
other babies and uses play materials to
establish social relationships with them.
Play Development in Babyhood
• Common Play Patterns:
A. Sensorimotor Play – this is the earliest
form of play and consist of such things
as kicking, bouncing, wiggling, moving
fingers and toes, climbing, babbling,
and rolling.
B. Exploratory Play. – as hand and arm
coordination develop, babies begin to
explore their bodies by pulling their hair,
sucking their fingers and toes, pushing
their fingers in their navels, and
manipulating their sex organs. They
shake, throw, bang, suck and pull their
toys and explore by pulling, banging,
and tearing any object within their reach.
C. Imitative Play. – during the second year,
babies try to imitate the actions of
those around them, such as reading a
magazine, sweeping the floor, or
writing with pencil or crayon.
D. Make-believe Play. – during the second
year, most babies endow their toys with
the qualities they find they have in real
life. Stuffed animals are endowed with
qualities of real animals just as dolls
and trucks are treated by the baby as if
they were real people or real trucks.
E. Games. – before babies are a year old,
they play such traditional games as
peekaboo, pat-a-cake, pigs to market,
and hide-and-seek. These are usually
played with parents, grandparents, or
older siblings.
F. Amusements. – babies like to be sung
to, talked to, and read to. Most are
fascinated by radio and television and
enjoy looking at pictures.
 Hazards in Babyhood
1. Physical Hazards
a. Mortality - Greater mortality occurs
during the first three months of babyhood than
later – with approximately two-thirds of all deaths
during the first year of life occurring during the first
month. During the first year of babyhood, death is
usually caused by serious illness while, during the
second year, death is more often due to accidents.
Throughout babyhood, more boys die than girls.
Physical Hazards:

b. Crib death. Apparently normal, healthy

babies are sometimes victims of sudden and
unexpected death – referred to in medical
circles as “crib death”. Usually crib death
occurs after a long period of sleep.
Physical Hazards:

c. Illnesses. While it is true that many deaths

during the first few months of postnatal life are due
to such illnesses as gastrointestinal or respiratory
complications, the number of deaths due to
serious illness then declines rapidly because most
babies today are given inoculations and
vaccinations to immunize them against diseases
which, in the past, often proved to be fatal.
Physical Hazards:
d. Accidents. Although accidents are infrequent
during the first year of life, owing the fact that
babies are carefully protected in their cribs, play
pens, and carriages, they are far more frequent
during the second year, when babies can move
about more freely and are not as well protected.
Some babyhood accidents such as bruises,
scratches, are minor and have no permanent
effects. Others, such as blow in the head or cuts,
may be serious enough to leave permanent scars
or may even be fatal.
Physical Hazards:

e. Malnutrition. which may come from

inadequate food intake or from an
unbalanced diet, can play havoc not only
with physical growth but also with mental
development. It not only causes stunted
growth but also leads to physical defects
such as carious teeth, bowed legs, and a
tendency to suffer from more or less
constant illnesses.
Physical Hazards:

f. Foundations of obesity. Many parents

equate health in babyhood with plumpness
and do all they can to see that their babies
are chubby. There is evidence that fat
babies tend to have obesity problems as
they grow older while thin babies do not.
This is because the number and size of the
fat cells of the body are established early in
life.
Physical Hazards:

g. Physiological Habits. The foundations of

the important physiological habits – eating,
sleeping, and eliminating – are established
during babyhood, and thus a common
physical hazard of this period is the
establishment of unfavorable attitudes on
the babies’ part toward these habits.
Psychological Hazards
A. Hazards in Motor Development. When
motor development is delayed, babies will
be at a great disadvantage when they begin
to play with age-mates. The more they lag
behind the group in motor control, the slower
they are likely to be in acquiring the skills
other children possess.
Psychological Hazards
B. Speech Hazards. Delayed speech, like
delayed motor control , is serious in
babyhood because, at this age, the
foundations are being laid for development
of the tools of communication that will be
needed later as social horizons broaden.
Psychological Hazards
C. Emotional Hazards. There are four
common psychological hazards that
frequently arise in relation to emotional
development during the babyhood years:
1. Emotional deprivation. Babies who
are not given the opportunity to experience the
normal emotions of babyhood – especially
affection, curiosity, and joy – do not thrive
physically.
2. Stress – prolonged unpleasant emotional
state, such as fear or anger – can cause endocrine
changes which upset body homeostasis. This then
is reflected in eating and sleeping difficulties, in
nervous mannerisms such as thumb sucking and
in excessive crying. There are many causes of
stress – poor health, parental neglect, and poor
environmental conditions that interfere with proper
sleeping and eating – but constant and close
association with a nervous, tense mother is a
particular important factor.
• 3. Too much affection. Parents who are
over-solicitous or over-demonstrative encourage
their babies to focus their attention on
themselves and to become self-bound and
selfish. Babies thus expect others to show
affection for them but they do not reciprocate.
•
•
4. Dominant Emotions. Conditions in the
baby’s environment encourage the development of
certain emotions to the exclusion of others, and
these eventually become dominant unless
conditions change and the development of other
emotions is encouraged. Timidity may persists
long after babyhood if a shy or fearful child is
exposed to too many strangers or too many
frightening situations.
Psychological Hazards
D. Hazards in Understanding. Even
though understanding is a rudimentary stage
of development, it presents one serious
psychological hazard. In the development of
concepts, it is relatively easy to replace
wrong meanings associated with people,
objects, or situation with correct meanings.
Psychological Hazards
E. Hazards in Morality. No one expects
babies to be moral in the sense that their behavior
conforms to the moral standards of the social
group or that they will feel guilt and shame if they
fail to do so. However, a serious psychological
hazard to future moral development occurs when
babies discover that they get more attention when
they do things to annoy and antagonize others
than when they behave in a more socially
approved way. During babyhood, the patterns of
behavior that present the greatest problems for
caretakers are dawdling, defiance, and
disobedience – the three D’s of morality.
Psychological Hazards
F. Family relationship hazards. Because
the family constitutes the main social
environment, any unfavorable condition in
the family relationships or in the baby’s
relationships with different family members
lead to psychological hazards:
1. Separation from the mother – unless a
stable and satisfactory substitute is
provided, babies who are separated from
their mothers develop feelings of insecurity
which are expressed in personality
disturbances that may lay the foundation for
later maladjustments.
2. Failure to develop attachment behavior
– babies just like those separated from their
mothers may not experience the pleasures
that come from close, personal
relationships. This handicaps them in
establishing friendships as they grow older.
3. Deterioration in family relationships –
occurs during the second year of life when
babies notice that family members have
changed attitudes toward them and treat
them differently. As a result, they usually
feel unloved and rejected – feelings which
lead to resentment and insecurity.
4. Over-protectiveness – babies who are
overprotected and prevented from doing
what they are capable of doing become
over-dependent and afraid to do what other
babies of their ages do. This, in time, is
likely to lead to abnormal fear of school –
school phobia – and excessive shyness in
the presence of strangers.
5. Child-abuse – when parents are unhappy in
their parental roles or when a frictional relationship
exists, some babies become the targets of anger
and resentment. The babies are either neglected
or abused. The second year of life is a more
common time for child abuse than the first
because babies are more troublesome to their
parents and this triggers the outlet of anger,
resentment, and other unpleasant emotions
engendered in the relationship of the parents.
G. Names. Names become real
psychological hazards only if they cause the
children embarrassment, or sometimes
humiliation – if their friends think their names
are “funny” or regard them as sex-
inappropriate. Names that are potential
psychological hazards:
1. Names that are so common that the individual
feels a lack of personal identity.
2. Names that are so unusual that the individual;
feels conspicuous.
3. Names that are used for both sexes and thus
are sex-inappropriate.
4. Names that are associated with comic-strip
characters or unpopular characters in television
series.
• 5. Names that identify the individual with a
racial, religious, or ethnic group against which
there is prejudice.
• 6. Names that are difficult to pronounce or spell.
• 7. Names that leads to embarrassing
nicknames.
• 8. Old-fashioned names.
•
• References:
Feist,J.,Feist, G., & Roberts Toni-Ann, (2013). Theories of Personality 8th
Edition, McGraw- Hill Companies.

Santrock, J.W., (2013). Life Span Development. 14th Edition, McGraw- Hill
Companies.

Hurlock, E., (1982). Developmental Psychology: A life-Span Approach, 5th

Edition, McGraw- Hill Companies.

Ginsburg, H. & Opper, S. (1988). Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development.

New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs.