Chapter 4:
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Source: Papalia & Martorell (15th ed.), Santrock (17th ed.), Boyd & Bee (7th ed.)
The Birth Process
• Labor
o Apt term for the process of giving birth.
• Parturition
o Act or process of giving birth.
o Typically begins about 2 weeks before delivery.
• Braxton-Hicks Contractions
o False contractions during the final months of
pregnancy or even as early as the 2nd trimester.
o Muscles of the uterus tighten for up to 2 minutes.
In comparison with the relatively mild and irregular Braxton-Hicks
contractions, real labor contractions are more frequent, rhythmic, and
painful, and they increase in frequency and intensity.
Stages of Childbirth
• First Stage
o Dilation of the cervix.
o Typically lasting 12 to 14 hours for a woman having
her first child.
o Regular and increasingly frequent uterine
contractions—15 to 20 minutes apart at first—cause
the cervix to shorten and dilate, or widen, in
preparation for delivery.
o This stage lasts until the cervix is fully open (10
centimeters, or about 4 inches) so the baby can
descend into the birth canal.
• Second Stage
o Descent and emergence of the baby.
o Typically lasts up to an hour or two.
o Begins when the baby’s head begins to move through
the cervix into the vaginal canal, and it ends when the
baby emerges completely from the mother’s body.
o At the end of this stage, the baby is born but is still
attached to the placenta in the mother’s body by the
umbilical cord, which must be cut and clamped.
• Third Stage
o Expulsion of the placenta.
o Lasts between 10 minutes and 1 hour.
o The placenta and the remainder of the umbilical cord
are expelled from the mother.
Electronic Fetal Monitoring
- Mechanical monitoring of fetal heartbeat during labor and
delivery.
- Most commonly done with the use of sensors attached to the
woman’s midsection and held in place with an electric belt.
- Has a high false positive rate.
Vaginal vs. Cesarean Delivery
• Vaginal Delivery
o Usual method of childbirth.
• Cesarean Delivery
o Delivery of a baby by surgical removal from the
uterus.
o May be performed when labor progresses too slowly,
when the fetus is in the breech (feet or buttocks first)
or transverse (lying crosswise in the uterus) position,
or when the mother is bleeding vaginally.
o Can lead to bleeding, uterine rupture, and heightened
risks of problems in future pregnancies.
Medicated vs. Nonmedicated Delivery
• Natural Childbirth
o Method of childbirth that seeks to prevent pain by
eliminating the mother’s fear through education about
the physiology of reproduction and training in
breathing and relaxation during delivery.
o Lamaze Method
▪ The woman is trained to pant or breathe
rapidly in sync with her contractions and to
concentrate on other sensations to ease
the perception of pain.
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Birth and Physical Development During the First 3 Years
• Prepared Childbirth
o Method of childbirth that uses instruction, breathing
exercises, and social support to induce controlled
physical responses to uterine contractions and
reduce fear and pain.
• Doula
o An experienced mentor who furnishes emotional
support and information for a woman during labor.
Neonatal Period
- First 4 weeks of life.
- Time of transition from the uterus, where a fetus is supported
entirely by the mother, to an independent existence.
Neonate
- Newborn baby, up to 4 weeks old.
The Newborn Baby
• Size and Appearance
o Boys tend to be slightly longer and heavier than girls.
o Firstborn child is likely to weigh less at birth than
laterborns.
o They have a large head (one-fourth the body length)
and a receding chin (which makes it easier to nurse).
o Fontanels
▪ Area where the bones of the skull do not
meet.
▪ Covered by a tough membrane that allows
for flexibility in shape.
• Body Systems
o Anoxia
▪ Lack of oxygen, which may cause brain
damage.
o Hypoxia
▪ Reduced oxygen supply.
o Neonatal Jaundice
▪ Condition, in many newborn babies,
caused by immaturity of liver and
evidenced by yellowish appearance; can
cause brain damage if not treated promptly.
• Medical and Behavioral Assessment
o Neonatal Screening for Medical Conditions
o APGAR Scale
▪ Done one minute after delivery and then
again 5 minutes after birth.
▪ A 5-minute score of 7 to 10 indicates that
the baby is in good to excellent condition.
▪ A score below 5 to 7 means the baby needs
help to establish breathing.
▪ A score below 4 means the baby needs
immediate lifesaving treatment.
▪ Scores of 0 to 3 at 10, 15, and 20 minutes
after birth are increasingly associated with
cerebral or other neurological problems.
o Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale
(BNBAS)
▪ Neurological and behavioral test to
measure neonate’s responses to the
environment.
▪ Suitable for infants up to 2 months old.
▪ Takes about 30 minutes to administer.
 ▪ It assesses:
• Motor organization
• Reflexes
• Changes in state
• Attention and interactive
capacities
• Indications of centra nervous
system instability
States of Arousal
- An infant’s physiological and behavioral status at a given
moment in the periodic daily cycle of wakefulness, sleep, and
activity.
Complications of Childbirth
• Low Birth Weight (LBW)
o Neonates who weigh less than 5½ pounds (2500
grams) at birth.
o Preterm (Pre-Mature) Infants
▪ Babies born before the 37th week of
gestation.
o Small-For-Date (Small-For-Gestational-Age) Infants
▪ Babies born at or around their due dates
but are smaller than would be expected.
▪ Infants whose birth weight is less than that
of 90 percent of babies of the same
gestational age, as a result of slow fetal
growth.
o Kangaroo Care (KC)
▪ An intervention method of skin-to-skin
contact in which a newborn is laid face
down between the mother’s breasts for an
hour or so at a time after birth.
• Postmaturity
o A fetus not yet born as of 2 weeks after the due date
or 42 weeks after the mother’s last menstrual period.
o Babies tend to be long and thin because they have
kept growing in the womb but have had an insufficient
blood supply toward the end of gestation.
• Stillbirth
o Death of a fetus at or after the 20th week of gestation.
Infant Mortality
• Infant Mortality Rate
o Proportion of babies born alive who die within the 1st
year.
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (Crib Death)
o Sudden and unexplained death of an apparently
healthy infant.
Postpartum Period
- Period after childbirth when the mother adjusts, both
physically and psychologically, to the process of childbirth.
- Lasts for about six weeks or until her body has completed its
adjustment and returned to a near prepregnant state.
Postpartum Depression
- A condition experienced by women who have such strong
feelings of sadness, anxiety, or despair that they have trouble
coping with daily tasks during the postpartum period.
Early Physical Development
• Principles of Development
o Cephalocaudal Principle
▪ Growth occurs from the top-down.
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o Proximodistal Principle
▪ Inner to outer.
▪ Growth and motor development proceed
from the center of the body outward.
• Physical Growth
o Children grow faster during the first 3 years,
especially during the first few months.
o As a baby grows into a toddler, body shape and
proportions change too.
o A 3-year-old typically is slender compared with a
chubby, potbellied 1-year-old.
o Teething usually begins around 3 or 4 months, but the
first tooth may not actually arrive until sometime
between 5 and 9 months or even later.
• Nutrition
o Breastfed babies:
▪ Are less likely to contract infectious
illnesses such as diarrhea; respiratory
infections; otitis media (an infection of the
middle ear) and staphylococcal, bacterial,
and urinary tract infections.
▪ Have a lower risk of SIDS and of
postneonatal death.
▪ Are less likely to develop obesity, diabetes,
or childhood cancer.
▪ Perform better on IQ and cognitive tests.
▪ Have fewer cavities.
o Breastfeeding mothers:
▪ Enjoy quicker recovery from childbirth with
less risk of postpartum bleeding.
▪ Are more likely to return to their
prepregnancy weight and less likely to
develop long-term obesity.
▪ Have reduced risk of anemia and lowered
risk of repeat pregnancy while
breastfeeding.
▪ Are less likely to develop osteoporosis or
ovarian and premenopausal breast cancer.
• Building the Brain
o Central Nervous System
▪ Includes the brain and spinal cord as well
as a peripheral network of nerves
extending to every part of the body.
o Brain Anatomy and Development
▪ Beginning about 3 weeks after conception,
the brain gradually develops from a long,
hollow tube into a spherical mass of cells.
▪ By birth, the growth spurt of the spinal cord
and brain stem has nearly run its course.
▪ The cerebellum grows fastest during the
1st year of life.
Brain Stem
- The part of the brain responsible for such basic bodily
functions as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and the
sleep-wake cycle.
Cerebellum
- The part of the brain that maintains balance and motor
coordination.
▪ Cerebrum is divided into right and left
halves, or hemispheres, each with
specialized functions.
Cerebrum
- Largest part of the brain.
Lateralization
- Specialization of the hemispheres.
Left Hemisphere
- Mainly concerned with language and logical thinking.
Right Hemisphere
- Mainly concerned with visual and spatial functions.
Corpus Callosum
- Tough band of tissue joining the left and right hemispheres.
Four Lobes of Cerebral Hemisphere
• Occipital Lobe (smallest)
o Primarily concerned with visual processing.
 • Parietal Lobe • Early Sensory Capacities
o Involved with integrating sensory information from o Touch and Pain
the body. ▪ Embryos will respond to touch as early as
• Temporal Lobe 8 to 9 weeks of pregnancy, but these
o Helps us interpret smells and sounds and is responses do not involve any conscious
involved in memory. awareness.
• Frontal Lobe (newest) ▪ In the second trimester, fetuses begin to
o Involved with a variety of higher-order processes, respond to touch.
such as goal setting, inhibition, reasoning, ▪ In the third trimester, response to touch
planning, and problem solving. becomes more robust, and fetuses also
reach out to touch the uterine wall, yawn,
▪ The regions of the cerebral cortex grow cross their arms, or touch themselves.
rapidly in the first few months after birth and ▪ By 32 weeks of gestation, all body parts are
are mature by age 6 months, but the areas sensitive to touch, and this sensitivity
of the frontal cortex grow very little during increases during the first 5 days of life.
this period and remain immature for several o Smell and Taste
years. ▪ Begin to develop in the womb from the
flavors of food the mother consumed which
Cerebral Cortex are found in amniotic fluid and also
transmitted via breast milk.
- The outer surface of the cerebrum.
▪ Taste preferences developed in infancy
- Govern vision, hearing, and other sensory information.
may last into early childhood.
Frontal Cortex
▪ Newborns much prefer sweet tastes to
- Responsible for abstract thought, mental associations, sour, bitter, or salty tastes.
remembering, and deliberate motor responses. o Hearing
▪ Fetuses respond to sound in the womb.
o Brain Cells ▪ Infants as young as 2 days old are able to
▪ Brain is composed of neurons and glial recognize a word they heard up to a day
cells. earlier.
▪ At 1 month, babies can distinguish sounds
Neurons (nerve cells) as close as ba and pa.
- Send and receive information. ▪ By 11 to 17 weeks, infants are able to both
Glia or Glial Cells recognize and remember entire sentences
- Nourish and protect the neurons. after a brief delay.
- Support system for neurons. ▪ By 4 months, infants’ brains are showing
Integration lateralization for language, as occurs in
- Process by which neurons coordinate the activities of muscle adults.
groups. o Sight
Differentiation ▪ Least developed sense at birth.
- Process by which cells acquire specialized structures and ▪ The ability to follow a moving target also
functions. develops rapidly in the first months, as
does color perception.
Cell Death
▪ Visual acuity at birth is approximately
- In brain development, normal elimination of excess brain
20/400 but improves rapidly, reaching the
cells to achieve more efficient functioning.
20/20 level by about 8 months.
- Begins during the prenatal period and continues after birth.
▪ Binocular vision—the use of both eyes to
focus, enabling perception of depth and
o Myelination
distance—usually does not develop until 4
▪ Process of coating neural pathways with a
or 5 months.
fatty substance called myelin, which
enables faster communication between
Milestones of Motor Development
cells.
• Systems of Action
o Early Reflexes
o Increasingly complex combinations of motor skills,
▪ Reflex Behaviors
which permit a wider or more precise range of
• Automatic, involuntary, innate
movement and more control of the environment.
responses to stimulation.
• Denver Developmental Screening Test
o Screening test given to children 1 month to 6 years
old to determine whether they are developing
normally.
o Tests gross motor skills, fine motor skills, language
development, and personality and social
development.

Gross Motor Skills

- Physical skills that involve the large muscles.
- Rolling over and catching a ball.
Fine Motor Skills
- Physical skills that involve the small muscles and eye–hand
coordination.
- Grasping a rattle and copying a circle.

Neuroconstructivist View • Head Control

- A belief that biological processes and environmental
conditions influence the brain’s development; the brain has
plasticity and is context dependent; and development of the
brain and cognitive development are closely linked.
o At birth, most infants can turn their heads from side to
side while lying on their backs.
o Within the first 2 to 3 months, they lift their heads
higher and higher—sometimes to the point where
they lose their balance and roll over on their backs

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 o By 4 months, almost all infants can keep their heads
erect while being held or supported in a sitting
position.
• Hand Control
o Babies are born with a grasping reflex.
o At about 3 months, most infants will bat at objects and
can grasp an object of moderate size.
o By about 4 months, babies keep their hands open the
majority of the time and will deliberately hold and
shake a rattle.
o At about 6 months, infants begin to grasp objects with
one hand and transfer them to the other.
o Between 7 and 11 months, their hands become
coordinated enough to pick up a tiny object using the
pincer grasp, and they may begin throwing objects.
o By 15 months, the average baby can build a tower of
three to four cubes.
o At slightly over 2 years, infants can put large beads
on a string, unscrew a jar, and turn the pages of a
book—although they aren’t very good at these things
yet.
o A few months after the 3rd birthday, the average
toddler can copy a circle and cut with scissors fairly
well.
• Locomotion
o After 3 months, the average infant begins to roll over
deliberately—first from front to back and then from
back to front.
o The average baby can sit without support by 6 months
and can assume a sitting position without help by
about 8 months.
o Social Referencing
▪ Infants learn to look to caregivers for clues
as to whether a situation is secure or
frightening.

Motor Development and Perception

• Depth Perception
o Ability to perceive objects and surfaces three-
dimensionally.
• Haptic Perception
o Ability to acquire information about properties of
objects, such as size, weight, and texture, by handling
them.

Theories of Motor Development

• Ecological Theory of Perception (Eleanor and James Gibson)
o Locomotor development depends on infants’
increasing sensitivity to the interaction between their
changing physical characteristics and new and varied
characteristics of their environment.
o Not a stage approach and does not imply that
locomotion develops in functionally related, universal
stages.
• Dynamic Systems Theory (Esther Thelen)
o Motor development is a dynamic process of active
coordination of multiple systems within the infant in
relation to the environment.

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