1.

CONCEPTION, INTRAUTERINE DEVELOPMENT, BIRTH, NEWBORN PERIOD

Keywords: Development from conception to birth Conception and genetics. Pregnancy and
prenatal development. Milestones of the fetal stage. Prenatal behaviour, perception, and learning.
Problems in prenatal development. Teratogens. Drugs, tobacco, alcohol. Genetic and
chromosomal disorders. Birth and the neonate. Assessing the neonate. Reflexes and behavioral
states. Sensory skills: vision, hearing and other senses.

Conception and Genetics

 Each month, a woman produces one egg cell, which travels from the ovary to the uterus.
If not fertilized, it disintegrates during menstruation.

 During intercourse, sperm can penetrate the egg cell in the fallopian tube.

 Chromosomes in sperm and egg cells combine to form 23 pairs in the zygote, each
carrying genes that determine traits.

 Genes from both parents create a unique genetic blueprint (genotype), influencing the
individual's characteristics (phenotype).

 Dominant genes strongly influence traits, while recessive genes only show up if inherited
from both parents.

 Two dominant or two recessive genes - homozygous.

 One dominant and one recessive gene - heterozygous.

Genetic Disorders:

 Recessive disorders, like PKU (Phenylketonuria) and sickle-cell disease, appear in

infancy or childhood.

 PKU causes problems digesting phenylalanine, leading to brain toxins and intellectual
disability.

 Sickle-cell disease affects oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

 Tay-Sachs disease causes severe disability and blindness in infants.

 Dominant disorders like Huntington's disease affect brain function and are diagnosed
later in life.

 Sex-linked disorders, like color blindness, hemophilia (blood lacks the ability to clot,
leading to prolonged bleeding), and Fragile-X syndrome (intellectual disability, which
worsens over time), are more common in men and can cause various disabilities.
Pregnancy and Prenatal Development

First Trimester:

 Lasts about 12 weeks.

 Pregnancy starts when the zygote implants in the uterus.

 Changes in the woman's body, like stopping periods and breast enlargement, happen due
to chemical signals from the embryo.

 The cervix thickens to protect the embryo.

 Symptoms like frequent urination, fatigue, breast tenderness, and morning sickness may
occur.

 Early prenatal care is crucial to prevent birth defects and identify maternal conditions.

 Avoiding drugs and alcohol reduces the risk of birth defects.

Second Trimester:

 Lasts from week 12 to week 24.

 Morning sickness often decreases, leading to increased appetite.

 Weight gain and uterus expansion accommodate the growing fetus.

 Women may start showing the pregnancy and feel the baby's movements. 16th and 18th
weeks

 Regular clinic visits monitor mother and baby health, including ultrasound tests.

 Gestational diabetes is checked with monthly urine tests.

 Risk of miscarriage decreases, but prenatal care remains important.

 Sex of baby by the 12th week

Third Trimester:

 Starts around 25 weeks.

 Weight gain and abdominal enlargement continue.

  Breasts may produce colostrum in preparation for nursing.

 Emotional connection to the fetus strengthens.

 Fetal behavior, like hiccupping or thumbsucking, becomes more noticeable.

 Prenatal visits may increase to weekly after week 32.

 Blood pressure monitoring is crucial to detect conditions like preeclampsia.

 Regular monitoring ensures the health of both mother and baby.

Three stages of prenatal development are defined by specific developmental milestones. The
entire process follows two developmental patterns

Cephalocaudal pattern (цефалокоудал) growth that proceeds from the head downward

Proximodistal pattern growth that proceeds from the middle of the body outward

The germinal stage is the first 2 weeks of pregnancy, from conception to implantation.
During this time, cells divide rapidly and specialize into those that will form the fetus's body and
those that will support its development.

4th day, the zygote, which is the fertilized egg, contains many cells.

5th day, these cells form fluid-filled ball called a blastocyst. Inside the blastocyst, cells start
grouping together to form the embryo.

Between day 6 and 7, the blastocyst attaches to the uterine wall in a process called
implantation. Some cells from the blastocyst's outer wall combine with cells of the uterine
lining to create the placenta. The placenta is an organ that allows nutrients, oxygen, and other
substances to pass between the mother and the baby's blood without mixing.

The placenta also secretes hormones that stop the mother's menstrual periods, make her pelvic
bones more flexible, and induce breast changes.

By the 12th day, the cells that will become the embryo's body are formed.

The embryonic stage starts around 2 weeks after conception and lasts until the end of week 8 of
pregnancy. During this time, the embryo undergoes rapid development and organ formation.
Around 3 weeks after conception, forming the foundation of all the body's organs. For instance,
the neural tube, which will develop into the brain and spinal cord, forms from nervous system
cells. The heart, kidneys, and early digestive system also begin to take shape.

By week 4, the brain starts to form, along with the beginnings of the eyes and the beating heart.
The backbone and ribs become visible, and the face starts to develop.

At week 5, the embryo rapidly developing arms, legs, and fingers. Eyes, lungs, and other organs
begin to develop.

By week 6, the embryo's brain starts to produce electrical activity, and it begins to move in
response to stimuli.

During week 7, the embryo's movements become more spontaneous, and it develops a visible
skeleton, fully formed limbs, sealed eyelids, and formed ears.

By week 8, the liver and spleen start functioning, allowing the embryo to produce and filter its
own blood cells. Its heart pumps blood efficiently, and its movements increase. The digestive
and urinary systems are also functioning. At the end of week 8, organ development, known as
organogenesis, is complete.

Fetal stage/ The fetus grows from 1 inch long and 1/4 ounce, to a length of about 20 inches and
a weight of 7–9 pounds. By week 12, most fetuses can be identified as male or female. Changes
in the brain and lungs make viability possible by week 24; optimum development requires an
additional 14 to 16 weeks in the womb. Most neurons form by week 28, and connections among
them begin to develop shortly thereafter. In the last 8 weeks, the fetus can hear and smell, is
sensitive to touch, and responds to light. Learning is also possible.

Prenatal behavior, learning

The investigators concluded that the babies had indeed heard the stories being read to them by
their mothers and that their learning in the womb influenced the sounds they found rewarding
after birth. Later research has also shown that in the weeks before birth, fetuses prefer the sounds
of their native language, indicating that they had learned its particular sounds and could
discriminate them from those of a nonnative language

Stable individual differences in behavior can also be observed in fetuses. For instance, very
active fetuses often become highly active infants, while less active fetuses may be more likely to
have intellectual disabilities later in life.
● Teratogens, Environmental agents that can cause deviations from normal development and
can lead to abnormalities or death.

Factors influencing the prenatal risks:

1. Timing of the exposure: Structures in the body are vulnerable to the most severe damage
when they are forming. If a substance is introduced during a particular structure's critical period

(time of development), the damage to that structure may be greater. For example, the ears and
arms reach their critical periods at about 6 weeks after conception. If a mother exposes the
embryo to certain substances during this period, the arms and ears may be malformed

2. The amount of exposure: some substances are harmful if exposed to a certain

level.

3. The number of teratogens: if the fetus exposed to multiple teratogens is worse

than being exposed to only one.

4. Genetics: of the fetus (twins), or the genetics of the mother to be predisposed to

teratogenic effects.

5. Male/female: Males are more likely to experience damage due to teratogens,

because of the Y chromosome.

6. Alcohol: neurocognitive + behavioral difficulties. FASD(Fetal Alcohol

Spectrum).Cognitively, these children have poor judgment, poor impulse control,

higher rates of ADHD, learning issues, and lower IQ scores

7. Tobacco: When a pregnant woman smokes the fetus is exposed to dangerous

chemicals including nicotine, carbon monoxide and tar, which lessen the amount

of oxygen available to the fetus. Tobacco use during pregnancy has been

associated with low birth weight, ecotopic pregnancy (fertilized egg implants itself

outside of the uterus), placenta previa (placenta lies low in the uterus and covers

all or part of the cervix), placenta abruption (placenta separates prematurely from

the uterine wall), preterm delivery, stillbirth, fetal growth restriction, sudden infant

death syndrome (SIDS), birth defects, learning disabilities, and early puberty in
girls (Center for Disease Control, 2015d). A woman being exposed to

secondhand smoke during pregnancy has also been linked to low birth weight

infants. In addition, exposure to thirdhand smoke, or toxins from tobacco smoke

that linger on clothing, furniture, and in locations where smoking has occurred,

results in a negative impact on infants’ lung development.

8. Prescription/Over-the-counter Drugs: Some prescription drugs can cause birth

defects, problems in overall health, and development of the fetus.

Over-the-counter drugs are also a concern during the prenatal period because

they may cause certain health problems. For example, the pain reliever ibuprofen

can cause serious blood flow problems to the fetus during the last three months

9. Illicit Drugs: Common illicit drugs include cocaine, ecstasy and other club drugs,

heroin, marijuana, and prescription drugs that are abused.several problems

seem clear. The use of cocaine is connected with low birth weight, stillbirths and

spontaneous abortion. Heavy marijuana use is associated with problems in brain

development.If a baby’s mother used an addictive drug during pregnancy that

baby can get addicted to the drug before birth and go through drug withdrawal

after birth, also known as Neonatal abstinence syndrome. Other complications of

illicit drug use include premature birth, smaller than normal head size, birth

defects, heart defects, and infections. Additionally, babies born to mothers who

use drugs may have problems later in life, including learning and behavior

difficulties, slower than normal growth, and die from sudden infant death

syndrome. Children of substance abusing parents are also considered at high

risk for a range of biological, developmental, academic, and behavioral problems,

including developing substance abuse problems of their own.

10. Pollutants: Lead, pesticides, Bisphenol A, Radiation, Mercury

11. Toxoplasmosis: The tiny parasite, toxoplasma gondii, causes an infection

called toxoplasmosis. A healthy immune system can keep the parasite at bay

producing no symptoms, so most people do not know they are infected. As a

routine prenatal screening frequently does not test for the presence of this

parasite, pregnant women may want to talk to their health-care provider about

being tested. Toxoplasmosis can cause premature birth, stillbirth, and can result

in birth defects to the eyes and brain. While most babies born with this infection

show no symptoms, ten percent may experience eye infections, enlarged liver

and spleen, jaundice, and pneumonia.To avoid being infected, women should

avoid eating undercooked or raw meat and unwashed fruits and vegetables,

touching cooking utensils that touched raw meat or unwashed fruits and

vegetables, and touching cat feces, soil or sand. If women think they may have

been infected during pregnancy, they should have their baby tested.

12. STD:Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can cause premature birth,

premature rupture of Figure 2.12 Source 53 the amniotic sac, an ectopic

pregnancy, birth defects, miscarriage, and stillbirths.

13. HIV: One of the main ways children under age 13 become infected with HIV is

via mother-to-child transmission of the virus prenatally, during labor, or by

breastfeeding.The risk of transmission is less than 2 percent; in contrast, it is 25

percent if the mother does not take antiretroviral drugs (CDC, 2016b). However,

the long-term risks of prenatal exposure to the medication are not known. It is

recommended that women with HIV deliver the child by c-section, and that after

birth they avoid breastfeeding.

14.German measles (Rubella): Rubella, also called German measles, is an

infection that causes mild flu-like symptoms and a rash on the skin. However,
only about half of children infected have these symptoms, while others have no

symptoms.If the mother contracts the disease during the first three months of

pregnancy, damage can occur in the eyes, ears, heart or brain of the unborn

child. Deafness is almost certain if the mother has German measles before the

11th week of prenatal development and can also cause brain damage.

15.Maternal factors:

Mothers over 35: Most women over 35 who become pregnant are in good health

and have healthy pregnancies. However, according to the March of Dimes

(2016d), women over age 35 are more likely to have an increased risk of: •

Fertility problems • High blood pressure • Diabetes • Miscarriages • Placenta

Previa • Cesarean section • Premature birth • Stillbirth • A baby with a genetic

disorder or other birth defects.

16.Teenage Pregnancy: A teenage mother is at a greater risk for having pregnancy

complications including anemia, and high blood pressure. These risks are even

greater for those under age 15. Infants born to teenage mothers have a higher

risk for being premature and having low birthweight or other serious health

problems. Premature and low birthweight babies may have organs that are not

fully developed which can result in breathing problems, bleeding in the brain,

vision loss, and serious intestinal problems

17.Gestational Diabetes: . If untreated, gestational diabetes can cause premature

birth, stillbirth, the baby having breathing problems at birth, jaundice, or low blood

sugar. Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes can also be considerably

heavier (more than 9 pounds) making the labor and birth process more difficult.

For expectant mothers, untreated gestational diabetes can cause preeclampsia

(high blood pressure and signs that the liver and kidneys may not be working
properly) discussed later in the chapter. Risk factors for gestational diabetes

include age (being over age 25), being overweight or gaining too much Figure

2.13 Source 55 weight during pregnancy, family history of diabetes, having had

gestational diabetes with a prior pregnancy, and race and ethnicity.

18.Hypertension:High blood pressure during pregnancy can cause premature birth

and low birth weight (under five and a half pounds), placental abruption, and

mothers can develop preeclampsia.

19.Rh Disease: Some people are Rh negative, meaning this protein is absent.

Mothers who are Rh negative are at risk of having a baby with a form of anemia

called Rh disease.In the newborn, Rh disease can lead to jaundice, anemia,

heart failure, brain damage and death.

20.Weight gain during pregnancy

21.Stress: High levels of stress in pregnancy have also been correlated with

problems in the baby’s brain development and immune system functioning, as

well as childhood problems such as trouble paying attention and being afraid

22.Depression:Consequences of depression include the baby being born

premature, having a low birthweight, being more irritable, less active, less

attentive, and having fewer facial expressions.

23.Paternal Impact:

According to Nippoldt (2015) offspring of men over 40 face an increased risk of

miscarriages, autism, birth defects, achondroplasia (bone growth disorder) and

schizophrenia.These may include petrochemicals, lead, and pesticides that can

cause abnormal sperm and lead to miscarriages or diseases. Men are also more

likely to be a source of secondhand smoke for their developing offspring.

In the first month after birth, babies are called neonates. Their health is checked using the Apgar
scale, which scores them on five criteria. A score of 7 or higher means they're fine, 4 to 6 means
they need help breathing, and 3 or lower signals a critical condition. To monitor their
development over the first two weeks, doctors use the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral
Assessment Scale.

2. INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD Keywords: The brain and the nervous system. Reflexes
and behavioral states. Growth, motor skills and the developing body system. Sensory skills:
vision, hearing and other senses. Studying perceptual development in infancy. Cross-modal
perception. Cognitive changes, Piaget’s sensorimotor stage. Alternative approaches to Piaget’s
view. Language development in infancy. Early social relations, attachment. Maternal deprivation
and its effects (Harlow, Spitz, Bowlby, Ainsworth.)

● Physical development

- Rapid growth to about 30–34 inches (76–86 centimeters) and 22–27 pounds (10–12 kilograms)
by the end of second year.

- Ossification of bones; beginning of ongoing changes in proportions; increase in muscle

strength.

- Development of cerebral cortex areas, including prefrontal cortex and language-related areas.

- Myelination of neurons, including neurons of language-related areas and neurons linking areas
of the brain. (most rapid during first 2 years)

- Nerves serving muscle cells in the neck and shoulders are myelinized earlier than those serving
the abdomen. As a result, babies can control their head movements before they can roll over.

- The parts of the brain that are involved in vision reach maturity by the age 2/

- Most brain structures present by 2 years of age, with neurons in the cerebral cortex similar to
those of adults in length and branching.

- Myelinization of the reticular formation ( s the part of the brain responsible for keeping your
attention on what you’re doing and for helping you sort out important and unimportant
information) begins in infancy but continues in spurts across childhood and adolescence.

– Increasing coordination of and control over gross and fine motor behaviors.
- Gross motor developments include crawling (around 8–9 months) and walking (around 1
year).

- Fine motor developments include perfecting reaching and grasping, and by 2 years, performing
movements needed to feed and dress self, etc.

Reflexes:

 Humans are born with adaptive reflexes that help survival, like sucking objects or
withdrawing from pain.

 Some reflexes disappear in infancy, while others protect against harmful stimuli
throughout life.

 Weak or absent reflexes in newborns suggest brain function issues and need further
assessment.

 Primitive reflexes, controlled by basic brain parts, are less understood. Examples include
the Moro reflex (startling response) and Babinski reflex (foot response).

 Primitive reflexes typically disappear by 6-8 months. Persistent reflexes after this age
may indicate neurological problems.

Behavioral States:

 Neonates go through five states of sleep and wakefulness in a repeating cycle: deep sleep,
lighter sleep, alert wakefulness, fussing, and back to deep sleep.
 Their sleep patterns change over the first few months -> infants sleeping up to 80% of the
time.
 By 8 weeks, babies start to develop day/night sleep rhythms
 Infants have different cries for pain, anger, and hunger, with colic affecting 15-20% of
infants, characterized by intense crying bouts for at least 3 hours a day.
 Neonates are awake and alert for only 2-3 hours each day, with neurological development
enabling longer periods of wakefulness over the first 6 months.

Growth, Motor Skills, and Developing Body Systems

Growth and Motor Skills:

  Babies experience rapid growth in the first year/ By age 2, toddlers are about half their
adult height.

 Motor skills development includes gross motor skills like crawling and fine motor skills
like stacking blocks.

 Girls may have a slight advantage in fine motor skills development due to earlier bone
development, but boys tend to develop gross motor skills faster. \

Explaining Motor Skill Development:

 Despite gender differences, all children follow a similar sequence of motor skill
development, even those with disabilities.

 Motor development is controlled by an inborn biological timetable, interacting with other

factors like muscle strength and weight ratio.

 Dynamic systems theory suggests that motor development is influenced by genetic

factors and environmental variables like nutrition and experience.

 Research shows that environmental factors, including opportunities to practice motor

skills, influence motor development.

 Cross-cultural studies support the idea that cultural practices promoting motor
development contribute to differences in motor milestone achievement.

Developing Body Systems:

 During infancy, bones undergo changes in size, number, and composition, leading to
improvements in coordinated movement.
 For example, wrist bones progressively separate, contributing to gains in fine motor skills
over the first 2 years.
 Ossification, the process of bone hardening, begins in prenatal development and
continues through puberty, crucial for motor development.
 Muscle fibers are present at birth but initially small; they grow larger and stronger over
the first year, enabling skills like walking, running, and climbing.
 Changes in muscle composition lead to increases in strength, allowing 1-year-olds to
engage in various physical activities.
  Lungs grow rapidly and become more efficient, along with improvements in heart muscle
strength, giving toddlers greater stamina for sustained motor activity by the end of
infancy.

Sensory Skills

Vision:

 Newborns spend a lot of time looking at things while awake, but their visual acuity is
initially poor, around 20/200 to 20/400.

 Visual acuity improves rapidly during the first year due to synaptic growth, pruning, and
myelination in neurons serving the eyes and brain's vision processing centers.

 Most children reach the level of 20/20 vision by about 6 months of age.

 Infants have the necessary cells in their eyes to perceive colors, including red, green, and
possibly blue, by 1 month of age.

 Their ability to sense color is almost identical to that of adults.

 Tracking, the process of following a moving object with the eyes, develops rapidly in
infants. Initially inefficient, tracking becomes skillful around 6 to 10 weeks of age.

Hearing:

 Newborns have better auditory acuity than visual acuity, nearly as good as adults within
the range of pitch and loudness of the human voice.

 They can determine the general direction of a sound but have limited ability to pinpoint
its location accurately at birth.

 Auditory skills, including localization of sounds, improve with age, with newborns
requiring louder sounds for high-pitched tones compared to older children and adults.

Smelling and Tasting:

 Newborns can differentiate between sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami flavors.

 Research shows that babies respond differently to different tastes, with some expressing
pleasure when tested for umami sensitivity.

 Babies' preferences for sweet and umami-flavored foods may explain their attraction to
breast milk, which is naturally rich in sugars and glutamates.
Senses of Touch and Motion:

 The senses of touch and motion are well-developed in infants, essential for feeding and
survival.

 Touch stimuli, such as those triggering the rooting and sucking reflexes, are particularly
important for feeding.

 Babies are sensitive to touches on the mouth, face, hands, soles of the feet, and abdomen,
with less sensitivity in other parts of the body.

Methods for Assessing Infant Perception:

1. Preference Technique: Researchers show infants two pictures or objects and track how
long they look at each. Consistent differences in looking times suggest that infants
perceive a distinction between the presented stimuli.

2. Habituation and Dishabituation: Infants are repeatedly exposed to a stimulus until they
habituate, meaning they lose interest. Then, a slightly different stimulus is presented, and
researchers observe whether the infant shows renewed interest (dishabituation),
indicating perception of the difference.

3. Operant Conditioning: Infants are trained to perform a specific action in response to a

stimulus, with reinforcement provided for correct responses. Variations in the stimulus
are then introduced to evaluate whether the infant still responds consistently.

Depth Perception:

 Binocular cues involve differences in the visual images received by each eye and
develop around 4 months of age.

 Monocular cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, are used around 5 to 7
months.

 Kinetic cues, derived from motion parallax and object motion, are utilized first, possibly
as early as 3 months.

Infants' Patterns of Looking:

 In the first two months, infants focus on finding meaningful patterns and are drawn to
objects with sharp light-dark contrasts and motion.
  By 2-3 months, infants shift their attention from where an object is to what it is, scanning
rapidly across entire figures and spending more time looking for patterns.

 Research indicates that infants prefer certain patterns, such as attractive faces, and show
attentional preferences for familiar patterns versus novel ones.

 Infants initially focus on the edges of faces but gradually shift attention to internal
features, particularly the eyes, around 2 to 3 months of age.

Listening

Infants' Perception of Speech and Sound:

 Infants demonstrate remarkable discriminations among individual speech sounds from a

very young age. For instance, they can differentiate between sounds like "pa" and "ba" as
early as 1 month old.

 By about 6 months of age, infants can discriminate between two-syllable "words" and
respond to syllables hidden within longer strings of syllables.

 Research suggests that infants are better at discriminating certain speech sounds than
adults, being able to perceive sound contrasts present in all languages, including those not
heard in their native language, until around 6 months of age.

 Newborns can distinguish between individual voices, showing a preference for their
mother's voice over other female voices.

Intermodal Perception:

 Intermodal perception refers to the ability to form a single perception of a stimulus based
on information from two or more senses.

 Infants as young as 1 month old demonstrate intermodal perception, which becomes more
common by 6 months of age.

 Prenatal maturational processes likely play a role in the development of intermodal

perception.

 Intermodal perception is important in infant learning, as demonstrated by research

showing that infants habituated to combined auditory-visual stimuli are better able to
recognize new stimuli compared to those habituated to either auditory or visual stimuli
alone.
  Older infants, around 4 to 5 months old, show sophisticated intermodal perception, such
as connecting sound rhythms with movement. For example, they can match the rhythm of
sound to the movement of objects seen in a video.

The study of perceptual development is a battleground between nature and nurture. Nativists
argue that most perceptual abilities are innate, while empiricists claim they are learned.

Newborns exhibit impressive perceptual skills from birth: good auditory acuity, basic visual
acuity, excellent tactile and taste perception, some color vision, and the ability to recognize their
mother. However, research with other species suggests that experience is necessary for
perceptual system development.

Perceptual skills result from an interaction between innate abilities and experience. Babies can
make basic visual discriminations early on, but specific skills and recognition depend on their
experiences. For instance, a newborn's ability to recognize their mother's face shows a
combination of innate capacity and learned experience. Both nature and nurture play a role in
perceptual development.

Cognitive Changes

Piaget’s View of the First 2 Years

Sensorimotor stage - Piaget’s first stage of development, in which infants use information from
their senses and motor actions to learn about the world.

 Schema:

 A mental framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information.

 Schemas are built from past experiences and knowledge.

 They guide perception, interpretation, and understanding of new information.

 Assimilation:

 The process of incorporating new information or experiences into existing

schemas.

 When encountering new information that fits into existing mental frameworks,
assimilation occurs.
  For example, a child who knows what a dog is may assimilate a new dog breed
into their existing schema of dogs.

 Accommodation:

 The process of modifying existing schemas or creating new ones to incorporate

new information that does not fit into existing schemas.

 When encountering information that cannot be assimilated, accommodation is

necessary.

 For instance, if a child's existing schema for birds only includes animals that can
fly, encountering a penguin may require accommodation to create a new schema
for flightless birds.

 Substage 1 (0-1 month), babies respond to immediate stimuli without planning.

 Substage 2 (1-4 months) involves basic coordination of looking, listening, reaching, and
sucking, often through repetitive actions like sucking their thumb.
 Substage 3 (4-8 months) sees babies repeat actions to get a reaction from the outside
world, like cooing to make mom smile.
 By substage 4 (8-12 months), babies start to understand cause and effect, showing means-
end behavior by moving objects to achieve a goal.
 In substage 5 (12-18 months), babies explore more purposefully, trying variations of
actions. However, they don't yet use mental symbols for objects.
 Substage 6 (18-24 months) marks the ability to use mental symbols, allowing babies to
solve problems without trial and error. Means-end behavior becomes more sophisticated,
as toddlers can overcome obstacles to reach their goals.

Object permanence develops gradually during Piaget's sensorimotor stage.

 At around 2 months (substage 2), babies show a rudimentary expectation of object

permanence but don't search for hidden objects.
 By 6-8 months (substage 3), they start looking for dropped or partially hidden objects.
 Between 8 and 12 months (substage 4), babies understand that objects remain even when
fully hidden, but they may make the A-not-B error, looking where an object was last seen
rather than where it was moved.
 In substage 5, their searching strategies become somewhat more logical.
 By substage 6, around the end of the second year of life, infants fully grasp the behavior
of objects and their spatial connections.
Imitation

 Infants can imitate actions they can see themselves make from the first few months of
life, such as hand gestures.
 However, they cannot imitate other people's facial gestures until substage 4 (8-12
months), which involves intermodal perception combining visual and kinesthetic cues.
 According to Piaget, imitation of actions not in the child's repertoire occurs around 1 year
of age.
 Deferred imitation, where a child imitates an action at a later time, is possible only in
substage 6, requiring internal representation.

Alternative Approaches

Spelke's Object Concept Theory:

 Spelke suggests that infants have built-in assumptions guiding interactions with objects,
like the connected-surface principle.
 Her studies indicate that infants as young as 2-3 months display awareness of object
movements.
 Using the violation-of-expectations method, Spelke showed infants' understanding of
object relations, challenging Piaget's theory.
 Violation-of-expectations method a research strategy in which researchers move an
object in one way after having taught an infant to expect it to move in another

Baillargeon's View:

 Baillargeon argues that infants develop basic hypotheses about object behavior, rapidly
modifying them based on experience.
 Infants as young as 2-3 months possess basic hypotheses about object behavior, refining
them by about 5 months.

Critiques and Alternative Views:

 Cohen and others argue that infants may respond to stimuli based on novelty rather than
understanding stable object arrangements.
 Research suggests that infants face difficulty using their understanding of objects
practically, such as in searching for hidden objects, with significant improvements
observed by age 3.
Language development

First Sounds and Gestures:

 At 1-2 months, infants begin making laughing and cooing vowel sounds, often signaling
pleasure.
 Consonant sounds emerge around 6-7 months, often combined with vowel sounds in
babbling patterns.
 Babbling, comprising about half of non-crying sounds from 6 to 12 months, serves as a
precursor to spoken language.

Significance of Babbling:

 Babbling gradually adopts intonational patterns of the language infants hear, serving as a
precursor to language acquisition.
 Infants typically babble various sounds initially, but by 9-10 months, their repertoire
narrows down to sounds present in their environment.

Development of Gestural Language:

 Around 9-10 months, infants begin using gestures or combinations of gestures and
sounds to communicate desires or requests.
 Gestural communication, such as reaching for a toy while making sounds, is observed
irrespective of exposure to spoken or sign language.
 Infants also engage in gestural games like "pat-a-cake" and "wave bye-bye" around this
age.

Word Recognition:

 Recent research indicates that infants begin storing individual words in their memories as
early as 6 months of age.
 By 9-10 months, most infants can understand the meanings of 20-30 words, a skill known
as receptive language.
 Over the next few months, the number of words understood increases dramatically.
  In a study, 10-month-olds were reported to understand an average of about 30 words,
while 13-month-olds understood nearly 100 words.

Holophrases:

 Very young children often combine a single word with a gesture to convey meaning
before using two words together in speech.
 For instance, a child may point to his father's shoe and say "Daddy," indicating "Daddy's
shoe."
 These word-and-gesture combinations are called holophrases and are common between
12 and 18 months of age.

Naming Explosion:

 Between 16 and 24 months, most children experience a rapid increase in word

acquisition, known as the naming explosion.
 Children seem to understand that things have names and begin adding new words quickly
during this period.
 According to studies based on mothers' reports, the average 16-month-old has a
vocabulary of about 50 words, while a 24-month-old's vocabulary expands to around 320
words.
 Vocabulary spurts typically begin when the child has acquired approximately 50 words,
rather than being a gradual process.\

● Attachment

Attachment is the close bond with a caregiver from which the infant derives a sense of security.
The formation of attachments in infancy has been the subject of considerable research as
attachments have been viewed as foundations for future relationships. Additionally, attachments
form the basis for confidence and curiosity as toddlers, and as important influences on self
concept.

 Secure Attachment: Infants with a secure attachment style feel confident that their
caregiver will be available and responsive when needed. They may become distressed
when separated but are easily soothed upon reunion. They use the caregiver as a secure
base for exploration.
  Ambivalent Attachment (Resistant): Infants with an ambivalent attachment style may
become extremely distressed when separated from their caregiver but display
ambivalence upon reunion. They may seek proximity to the caregiver while also
displaying anger or resistance.

 Avoidant Attachment: Infants with an avoidant attachment style may avoid or ignore
the caregiver upon reunion and may not seek comfort or contact. They may appear
unfazed by separations and may explore the environment independently.

 Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment: This attachment style is characterized by

inconsistent or contradictory behaviors, such as freezing, dazed expressions, or
contradictory movements. It often occurs in infants who have experienced trauma or
inconsistent caregiving.

● The role of early mother-child relationship, effects of maternal deprivation

Freud believed the infant will become attached to a person or object that provides this pleasure.
Consequently, infants were believed to become attached to their mother because she was the one
who satisfied their oral needs and provided pleasure. Freud further believed that the infants will
become attached to their mothers “if the mother is relaxed and generous in her feeding practices,
thereby allowing the child a lot of oral pleasure,” An infant must form this bond with a primary
caregiver in order to have normal social and emotional development.

In addition, Bowlby proposed that this attachment bond is very powerful and continues
throughout life (A secure base is a parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as the
child explores the surroundings)

Problems establishing trust: Erikson (1982) believed that mistrust could contaminate all aspects
of one’s life and deprive the individual of love and fellowship with others. Consider the
implications for establishing trust if a caregiver is unavailable or is upset and ill-prepared to care
for a child. Or if a child is born prematurely, is unwanted, or has physical problems that make
him or her less desirable to a parent. Under these circumstances, we cannot assume that the
parent is going to provide the child with a feeling of trust. The test is called The Strange
Situation Technique because it is conducted in a context that is unfamiliar to the child and
therefore likely to heighten the child’s need for his or her parent (Ainsworth, 1979).

Severe deprivation of parental attachment can lead to serious problems. According to studies of
children who have not been given warm, nurturing care, they may show developmental delays,
failure to thrive, and attachment disorders (Bowlby, 1982). Non-organic failure to thrive is the
diagnosis for an infant who does not grow, develop, or gain weight on schedule and there is no
known medical explanation for this failure. Children who experience social neglect or
deprivation, repeatedly change primary caregivers that limit opportunities to form stable
attachments or are reared in unusual settings (such as institutions) that limit opportunities to form
stable attachments can certainly have difficulty forming attachments(reactive attachment
disorder)

3. PRESCHOOL AGE (EARLY CHILDHOOD)

Keywords: physical and motor development. Cognitive development, Piaget’s preoperational

stage. Egocentrism, centration and conservation. Theory of mind. Moral development in early
childhood. Children’s theories about the physical and social world. Phantasy, playing and
drawing in early childhood. Personality and self-concept. Gender development. Peer
relationships (aggression, prosocial behaviour and friendships). Family relationships and
parenting styles.

● Physical development

- Compared to infancy, growth rates of the body and brain slow considerably while ability to use
and control the body increases.

- Brain grows to 90% of its full weight.

- Myelination and neuronal branching increase in the frontal cortex and other areas important to
advanced cognitive functions including planning and regulating behavior.

- At the same time, the ability of children to use and control their bodies grows by leaps and
bounds. As you will see, these changes affect children’s health and nutritional needs—needs that
are not always met, for various cultural, social, and economic reasons.

- ossification

● Motor development

- Gross motor developments include running, kicking, climbing, throwing, skipping.

- Fine motor developments include unbuttoning, using eating utensils, pouring liquid into a glass,
coloring within the lines with crayons.
- Motor drive (Motor Drive is how your brain and body work together to make movements
happen. It involves your brain sending signals to your muscles through your spinal cord and
nerves, telling them when and how to move. This process allows you to do things like walk, grab
objects, and talk. If something goes wrong with motor drive, it can affect your ability to move
smoothly and control your body effectively.)

Preoperational stage of cognitive development

According to Piaget, the stage of thinking is between infancy and middle childhood in which
children are unable to decenter their thinking or to think through the consequences of an action.
Young children can represent reality to themselves through the use of symbols, including mental
images, words, and gestures. Objects and events no longer have to be present to be thought
about, but children often fail to distinguish their point of view from that of others; become easily
captured by surface appearances

 Egocentrism: Young children often have difficulty understanding that other people may
see things differently than they do. For example, they might point out something from
their perspective without realizing others can't see it.

 Centration: Children at this age tend to focus on one aspect of an object or situation and
ignore other important factors. For instance, they may think all moving objects are
animals because they only consider motion, not other characteristics.

 Animism: Children might attribute human-like qualities to inanimate objects, such as

believing a leaf blowing in the wind is chasing them.

 Conservation: Children struggle with the concept that an object's appearance can change
without its quantity changing. They typically don't grasp this until around age 5 and often
base their understanding on how something looks rather than its actual properties.

Theory of Mind Development:

 What is Theory of Mind?: It's the understanding of other people's thoughts, beliefs,
desires, and behavior.

 Early Understanding: Begins around 18 months; children grasp that people have goals
and intentions.
  Ages 3-5: Children understand some links between people's thoughts/feelings and
behavior but struggle with understanding others' perspectives. They often fail tasks
involving false beliefs.

 Ages 4-5: Develop a basic understanding that others have different thoughts but may not
fully grasp reciprocity of thoughts ("You know that I know").

 Ages 5-7: Begin to understand reciprocal nature of thought, vital for forming genuine
friendships.

 Influence of Cognitive Development: Theory of mind development correlates with

cognitive development, including tasks from Piaget's stages.

 Role of Pretend Play: Pretend play, especially shared with other children, supports
theory-of-mind development.

 Language Skills: Language ability is crucial; children need a certain level of language
proficiency to succeed in understanding false beliefs.

 Impact of Disabilities: Children with language-related disabilities may develop theory of

mind more slowly.

● Social environment

- Stage of initiative versus guilt, with autonomy asserted but in ways that begin to conform to
social roles and moral standards.

- Development of concepts of “boy” and “girl,” and efforts to match one's own behavior to
concepts.

- Emergence of ethnic identity.

- Moral judgments often emphasize external consequences rather than motives or intentions. -
Increased ability to regulate thought, action, and emotion.

- Increasing ability to feel empathy and sympathy toward others.

● Self and social relations

- Socialization: The process by which children acquire the standards, values, and knowledge of
their society.
- Personality formation: The process through which children develop their own unique patterns
of feeling, thinking, and behaving in a wide variety of circumstances.

- Identity development ( initiative vs guilt)

- Identification : A psychological process in which children try to look, act, feel, and be like
significant people in their social environment.

● Gender

- Play becomes gender-segregated (The term for the preference of girls to play with other girls,
and of boys to play with other boys)

- They have distinctly different toy preferences, and boys are more active and rough-and-tumble,
whereas girls tend to be more verbal and nurturing. Even their selection of playmates becomes
gender-typed. In a study of 95 children ages 1 to 3 years, researchers found distinct gender-typed
patterns in affiliative behaviors—that is, behaviors involving seeking and establishing friendly
contact with peers

- Development of gender stereotypes is mediated by social and cultural practices that emphasize
gender differences.

- Paths to Sex-Role Identity: Psychodynamic, social learning, cognitive development, gender

schema and cultural view.

● Playing, drawing and storytelling

Play occupies a conspicuous role not only in young children’s physical development but also in
their cognitive and social development. According to Vygotsky and those who have followed in
his footsteps, the development of self-regulation is a crucial function of play

- sociodramatic play: Make-believe play in which two or more participants enact a variety of
related social roles.

- Pretending is a favorite activity at this time. A toy has qualities beyond the way it was
designed to function and can now be used to stand for a character or object unlike anything
originally intended. A teddy bear, for example, can be a baby or the queen of a faraway land.
Piaget believed that children’s pretend play helped children solidify new schemata they were
developing cognitively. This play, then, reflected changes in their conceptions or thoughts.
However, children also learn as they pretend and experiment. Their play does not simply
represent what they have learned
Children’s art highlights many developmental changes. Kellogg (1969) noted that children’s
drawings underwent several transformations. Starting with about 20 different types of scribbles
at age 2, children move on to experimenting with the placement of scribbles on the page. By age
3 they are using the basic structure of scribbles to create shapes and are beginning to combine
these shapes to create more complex images. By 4 or 5 children are creating images that are
more recognizable representations of the world. These changes are a function of improvement in
motor skills, perceptual development, and cognitive understanding of the world

Attachment Development:

 12 Months: Baby forms clear attachment to caregiver.

 Ages 2-3: Attachment remains strong but visible behaviors decrease. Child can wander
from caregiver without distress.

 Impact on Behavior: Secure attachment linked to fewer behavior problems; insecurely

attached children show more anger/aggression.

 Around Age 4: Attachment evolves into goal-corrected partnership, understanding

relationship continues even when apart.

 Influence on Relationships: Secure attachment linked to positive relationships with

teachers and peers.

Parenting Styles:

 Definition: Strategies parents use to manage behavior.

 Baumrind's Four Aspects: Warmth, clarity/consistency of rules, expectations (maturity

demands), communication.

 Impact of Warmth: Nurturing parents linked to higher self-esteem, empathy, IQ,

compliance, and better social and academic outcomes.

 Control and Expectations: Clear, consistent rules and high expectations associated with
less defiance and aggression, and higher self-esteem.

 Communication: Open, regular communication linked to more positive outcomes;

listening to child as important as talking.
 Types of Parenting Styles:

 Authoritarian: High control, low warmth and communication; linked to poorer

academic performance and self-concept.

 Permissive: High warmth, low control; associated with slightly worse school
performance and higher aggression.

 Authoritative: High control, high warmth and communication; linked to higher self-
esteem, independence, compliance, and academic achievement.

 Uninvolved: Low control, low warmth and communication; associated with negative
outcomes like impulsivity, antisocial behavior, and lower academic achievement.

Types of Aggression in Early Childhood:

 Definition: Aggression is behavior intended to harm others or objects.

 Age-Related Changes:

 2-3 Years: Physical aggression common, like hitting or throwing things.

 Preschool Years: Shift towards verbal aggression, such as taunting or name-

calling, as verbal skills improve.

 Reinforcement and Modeling: Aggression reinforced when it achieves desired

outcomes; children learn aggressive behavior by observing others, especially
parents.

 Decline in Aggression: As children develop better communication skills and

understanding of others' thoughts and feelings, aggression tends to decrease.

Persistent Aggression:

 Traits: Some children exhibit persistent aggression, influenced by genetic factors, family
environment (e.g., abuse, lack of affection), and social-cognitive development.

 Social-Cognitive Development: Aggressive children may lag behind peers in

understanding others' intentions, leading to misinterpretations and retaliatory behavior.

Development of Prosocial Behavior:

 Definition: Prosocial behavior is intentional and voluntary actions aimed at helping

others, also known as altruism.
 Onset: Altruistic behaviors typically emerge around ages 2-3, coinciding with increased
interest in peer interactions.

 Early Prosocial Behaviors:

 Offering help to a hurt peer.

 Sharing toys.
 Comforting others when sad or hurt.

 Changes with Age:

 Increases: Some forms of prosocial behavior, like taking turns and donating to those in
need, tend to increase with age.
 Mixed Patterns: Not all prosocial behaviors follow the same trajectory; for example,
comforting others may decrease with age.

4. SCHOOL READINESS AND SCHOOL AGE (MIDDLE CHILDHOOD)

Physical development

 Growth: Children grow 2-3 inches and gain about 6 pounds each year.

 Large-Muscle Coordination: Improves for activities like bike riding; strength and speed
increase.

 Hand-Eye Coordination: Enhances, aiding in activities like shooting basketballs or

playing instruments.

 Fine-Motor Coordination: Advances significantly, allowing better writing, drawing, and

instrument playing; wrist maturation is faster in girls.

 Gender Differences:

 Girls: Ahead in growth rate, reaching 94% of adult height by age 12 (boys 84%);
more body fat, less muscle tissue; better coordination.

 Boys: Slightly stronger and faster due to muscle and skeletal differences.

 Overall, gender differences in strength, speed, and coordination are minimal at this age.

Brain

 Growth Spurts:
  Ages 6-8: Growth in sensory and motor areas; linked to improvements in fine-
motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

 Ages 10-12: Growth in frontal lobes; linked to improvements in logic and

planning.

 Myelination:

 Continues in the frontal lobes and reticular formation, enhancing attention

control.

 Increased myelination leads to better selective attention, crucial for school

performance.

 Selective Attention:

 Ability to focus on important elements of a situation, ignoring irrelevant details.

 Develops significantly during middle childhood, improving school performance.

 Information-Processing Speed:

 Nearly complete myelination of neurons in association areas (link sensory, motor,

and intellectual functions).

 Faster information processing and memory improvements; older children can

identify objects faster.

 Spatial Perception:

 Lateralizes in the right hemisphere around age 8.

 Includes relative right-left orientation; older children understand perspectives

better.

 Improved spatial perception aids in math and problem-solving.

 Visual experience plays a role; slower development in blind children.

 Sex Differences:

 Boys score higher on spatial tasks due to play preferences (e.g., building with
blocks).

 Boys develop more acute spatial perception and cognition earlier than girls.

Cognitive changes
  Emergence of mental operations allows sorting, classification, experimentation with
variables. - Increased memory and attention abilities.
 Acquisition of memory strategies.
 Increased memory ability due to greater efficiency in encoding, storing, and retrieving
information.
 Increased knowledge of cognition and memory

Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage

Concrete operations is the term Piaget applied to the new stage of development in which children
begin to engage in mental operations. As suggested by the term “concrete,” these mental
operations typically involve concrete objects and events that children experience directly. As
they enter middle childhood, children become capable of mental operations, internalized actions
that fit into a logical system. Operational thinking allows children mentally to combine, separate,
order, and transform objects and actions. Such operations are considered concrete because they
are carried out in the presence of the objects and events being thought about.

 Conservation Tasks:

 By age 6, children start showing signs of the concrete operational stage,

understanding that objects retain their properties despite changes in appearance.

 Example: A lump of clay has the same mass no matter its shape.

 Concrete Operations:

 Mental processes that enable logical thinking about real-world objects and events.

 Key process: Decentration - thinking that considers multiple variables.

 Example: A child understands that a clay sausage is wider but shorter, so it still
has the same amount of clay.

 Reversibility:

 Ability to mentally reverse transformations.

 Critical for concrete operational thinking.

 Example: Knowing that a clay sausage can be reshaped into a ball and that water
can be poured back into a shorter glass.

 Inductive Logic:
  Ability to go from specific experiences to general principles.

 Example: Observing that adding a toy to a set increases the total number and
generalizing that "adding always makes more."

 Limitations in Deductive Logic:

 Difficulty with logic based on hypothetical premises, requiring starting from a

general principle to predict outcomes.

 Example: Struggling to answer "What would you do if you were president?" due
to lack of experience and difficulty imagining abstract possibilities.

 Concrete Thinking:

 Children excel in dealing with tangible objects they can see, manipulate, or
imagine.

 They struggle with abstract ideas and hypothetical scenarios, often generating
responses based on their concrete experiences.

● Problem solving

The child can use logic to solve problems tied to their own direct experience, but has trouble
solving hypothetical problems or considering more abstract problems. The child uses inductive
reasoning, which is a logical process in which multiple premises believed to be true are
combined to obtain a specific conclusion.

● Thinking

 Improvements in memory arising from increased processing speed and capacity of

working memory increases in knowledge; and greater use of more effective strategies for
remembering, such as rehearsal, organizational strategies, and elaboration.
 Improvements in metamemory, or knowledge about memory, including about memory
limitations and strategies.
 Increases in children’s ability to regulate their attention, which enables them to stay
focused and ignore distractions.
 Developmentalists have suggested that the mechanisms for cognitive change suggested in
Piaget’s stage theory and those suggested by information-processing theorists may in fact
work together.
 Logical thinking
  Critical thinking, or a detailed examination of beliefs, courses of action, and evidence,
involves teaching children how to think. The purpose of critical thinking is to evaluate
information in ways that help us make informed decisions. Critical thinking involves
better understanding a problem through gathering, evaluating, and selecting information,
and also by considering many possible solutions
 Convergent thinking, thinking that is directed toward finding the correct answer to a
given problem
 Divergent thinking, the ability to generate many different ideas or solutions to a single
problem

Vygotsky’s View on Cognitive Changes: The Social Context of Cognitive

Development

 Social Interaction and Cognitive Development:

 Vygotsky emphasized the fundamental role of social interaction in cognitive

development.
 He believed that cognitive abilities are socially guided and constructed through
interaction with more knowledgeable others (e.g., parents, teachers, peers).

 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):

 ZPD is the difference between what a child can do independently and what they can
achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner.
 Learning occurs in this zone as children engage in tasks that challenge them but are still
within their reach with appropriate support.

 Scaffolding:

 Scaffolding is the process by which a more knowledgeable other provides temporary

support to a child to accomplish a task.
 As the child becomes more competent, the support is gradually withdrawn, allowing the
child to become more independent.

 Language and Thought:

 Vygotsky highlighted the importance of language as a critical tool for cognitive

development.
 He proposed that thought and language initially develop independently in young
children, but later merge to form inner speech, which guides thinking and problem-
solving.

 Cultural Tools:
 Cognitive development is also influenced by the cultural tools available in a child’s
environment, such as language, symbols, and technology.
 These tools shape the way children think, learn, and understand the world around them.

 Role of Play:

 Vygotsky considered play as an essential aspect of cognitive development, where

children explore ideas and practice social roles.
 Through play, children learn to follow rules, negotiate, and engage in abstract thinking.
Social adaptation

 Stage of industry versus inferiority; success in coping with increased expectations for
maturity results in positive self-esteem.
 Emergence of playing games with rules.
 Moral behavior is regulated less by fear of authority, more by social relationships.
 Emergence of clearly defined peer social structures.
 Gender-typed behaviors increase.
 Increasing proficiency at making and keeping friends, and dealing with interpersonal
conflicts.
 Emergence of social comparison through which self is defined in relation to peers

Children with special needs, learning disabilities.

ADHD

 Leads to academic and behavioral problems in school

 ADHD affects activity levels, sustained attention, and impulse control.

 Hyperactivity does not correlate with attention task performance.

 Children with ADHD often produce messy and error-filled schoolwork, leading to poor
grades and classroom disruptions.

Dyslexia:

 Definition: Difficulty in mastering reading skills despite normal intelligence and no

physical or sensory disabilities.
 Characteristics: Struggles with reading accuracy and fluency, often due to issues with
sound-letter correspondence.

Dysgraphia:
  Definition: Difficulty with writing, affecting handwriting, spelling, and organizing
thoughts on paper.
 Characteristics: Poor handwriting, inconsistent spacing, and difficulty with fine motor
skills required for writing.

Dyscalculia:

 Definition: Difficulty in understanding and performing mathematical tasks.

 Characteristics: Problems with number sense, memorizing math facts, and performing
calculations.

Social and Personality Development in Middle Childhood

Self-Concept and Self-Esteem:

 Children’s self-descriptions become more complex and realistic.

 Peer feedback and school experiences influence self-esteem.

Peer Relationships:

 Friendships become more stable and reciprocal.

 Peer acceptance impacts self-esteem and social skills.

Family Influence:

 Parents remain influential; children seek independence.

 Sibling relationships teach conflict resolution and empathy.

Moral Development:

 Most children are in the conventional level of moral reasoning.

 Empathy and altruism increase with age.

Emotional Regulation:

 Children develop coping strategies and emotional understanding.

 School experiences affect emotional well-being.

Bullying and Social Issues:

 Bullying and social exclusion can have lasting effects.

 Gender roles become more pronounced.

5. ADOLESCENCE

Keywords: biological, physical and cognitive chnages in adolescence. Piaget’s formal

operational stage. Advances in information processing. Moral development in adolescence.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Self-understanding, self-esteem and self-concept.
Gender roles and identity. Social relationships, peer groups. Culture, ethnicity and religion in
identity formation. Adolescent mental health. Drugs, alcohol, depression and suicide.

Biological changes

G. Stanley Hall and Sigmund Freud both contributed influential theories regarding adolescence.

Hall emphasized the unique qualities of adolescence, describing it as a time of heightened

emotionality and oppositions, often termed "storm and stress." He attributed this to biological
processes of puberty, believing adolescence to be a period of creativity and flexibility, surpassing
the constraints of childhood.

Freud, similarly, highlighted the psychological struggle during adolescence, particularly in

balancing the id, ego, and superego. He linked the emotional turbulence of adolescence to the
resurgence of primitive instincts and the upsurge in sexual excitation accompanying puberty.

Modern theories acknowledge the physiological changes of puberty, such as the growth spurt, as
significant markers of adolescence. This rapid change in height and weight signals the onset of
puberty and reflects the complex interplay between biological, psychological, and social factors
during this developmental stage.

Physical changes

 Rapid increase in height and weight, changing the requirements for food and sleep.
 For boys, increase in muscle tissue, decrease in body fat.
 For girls, increase in both muscle tissue and body fat.
 Influx of hormones stimulates growth and functioning of reproductive organs.
 Significant changes in brain regions associated with impulse control, decision making,
and ability to multitask
  First spurt occurs between ages 13 and 15, involving thickening of the cerebral cortex.
 Second spurt around age 17 focuses on development of the prefrontal cortex, improving
abstract thinking and executive function.
 The growth proceeds from the extremities toward the torso. This is referred to as
distalproximal development

Milestones of Puberty

Cognitive changes

 Emergence of new forms of mental operations associated with scientific reasoning

abilities.
 Increased ability to think hypothetically.
 Increase in working memory enables higher-level problem-solving strategies.
 Increased decision-making skills.
 Increased ability to use reasoning in making moral judgments.
 Cognitive Control: As noted in earlier chapters, executive functions, such as attention,
increases in working memory, and cognitive flexibility have been steadily improving
since early childhood. Studies have found that executive function is very competent in
adolescence. However, self-regulation, or the ability to control impulses, may still fail
 Inductive reasoning emerges in childhood and occurs when specific observations, or
specific comments from those in authority, may be used to draw general conclusions.
 deductive reasoning emerges in adolescence and refers to reasoning that starts with some
overarching principle and based on this proposes specific conclusions
 Cognitive psychologists often refer to intuitive and analytic thought as the Dual-Process
Model; the notion that humans have two distinct networks for processing information
 Intuitive thought is automatic, unconscious, and fast (Kahneman, 2011), and it is more
experiential and emotional. In contrast, analytic thought is deliberate, conscious, and
rational.

Piaget’s formal operational stage.

 Abstract Thinking: During the formal operational stage, adolescents can understand
abstract concepts like beauty, love, freedom, and morality, without needing physical
reference.
 Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning: Adolescents engage in hypothetical-deductive
reasoning, where they develop hypotheses based on logical possibilities and test them
systematically.

 Transitivity: Adolescents grasp the concept of transitivity, understanding that if A<B

and B<C, then A<C.

 Adolescent Egocentrism: Adolescents demonstrate egocentrism, attributing unlimited

power to their own thoughts. This includes:

 Imaginary Audience: Adolescents believe others are as concerned about their

appearance as they are.

 Personal Fable: Adolescents believe they are unique, special, and invulnerable to
harm.

 Consequences of Formal Operational Thought:

 Peer Relations: Peer groups provide opportunities for identity exploration and
friendships that balance intimacy and autonomy needs.

 Peer Influence: Peers influence motivation and engagement in school. Deviant

peer contagion occurs when peers reinforce problem behavior, increasing its
likelihood.

 Crowds: Crowds emerge as a level of peer relationships characterized by shared

reputations or images rather than frequent interactions.

 Peer Pressure and Conformity: Adolescents experience peer pressure and may conform
to the behaviors and attitudes of their peers.

 Self-Concept: Adolescents develop their self-concept, but gender role intensification

may lead to conflicts between personal interests and societal expectations. For example,
some girls may downplay their achievements in traditionally male-dominated subjects to
fit societal norms.
 Self-Understanding. Adolescents develop more intricate self-concepts due to abstract
thinking. They define themselves by enduring traits, beliefs, and moral standards. Teens
see themselves differently in various roles like student, friend, and family member. Self-
concepts shape behavior, impacting academic choices, exercise habits, and family
interactions.
  Self-esteem. Self-esteem generally rises during adolescence. There's often a sharp drop in
self-esteem at the onset of adolescence. Some teens have consistent high or increasing
self-esteem, while others experience low or declining self-esteem. Girls tend to have
lower or declining self-esteem more often than boys. High self-esteem correlates with
positive outcomes like resisting peer pressure and achieving better academically, while
low self-esteem may lead to depression or risky behaviors.
 Identity Formation: Adolescents navigate the stage of identity vs. role confusion,
experiencing a psychological moratorium where they explore various identities before
committing to one.
 Marcia's Four Identity Statuses: Adolescents move through different identity statuses
such as diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement, exploring aspects like
religious, political, vocational, gender, sexual, and ethnic identities.
 Contradictions in Self-Perception: Adolescents often perceive themselves in
contradictory ways, seeing themselves as outgoing yet withdrawn, happy yet moody, and
both intelligent and clueless.
 The "I" and "Me": Adolescents develop a sense of self through distinguishing between
the "I" (spontaneous, impulsive aspect) and the "Me" (socially influenced aspect).

Gender roles

Understanding Gender Roles

 Social Conventions: Adolescents realize gender roles are social constructs, leading to
more flexible attitudes.

 Parental Influence: Parents play a significant role in shaping teens' views on gender and
sex roles.

 Integration of Concepts: Beliefs about gender roles and sexuality become integrated
into teens' conceptual frameworks.

Gender Role Typology

 Shift in Perspective: Early views saw masculinity and femininity as opposites, but later
theories suggest they are separate dimensions.

 Four Basic Types: Masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated.

  Association with Self-Esteem: Androgynous or masculine identities are linked to higher
self-esteem, while feminine identity may lead to rumination and depression.

 Cultural Influence: Gender role adoption and its impact on self-esteem vary across
cultures, highlighting the importance of cultural context in understanding gender roles.

Ethnic identity

Minority Teens

 Dual Identity: Minority teens navigate developing both individual and ethnic identities.

 Family Support: Teaching cultural differences and language aids in ethnic identity
development.

Jean Phinney's Stages of Ethnic Identity

1. Unexamined Ethnic Identity: Initial stage often includes negative stereotypes.

2. Ethnic Identity Search: Triggered by relevant experiences, comparison with other

groups.

3. Ethnic Identity Achievement: Resolution of conflicts between dominant and ethnic

cultures, often leading to a bicultural orientation.

Biracial Adolescents

 Unique Pathway: Experience challenges proving authenticity, influenced by family,

neighborhood, and other salient identities.

Immigrant Teens

 Cultural Conflict: Caught between parental and new cultural norms, balancing
individualistic pressures with familial obligations.

 Bicultural Identity: Many immigrant teens develop a bicultural identity, integrating both
parental and new cultural values.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Reasoning

Preconventional Reasoning (Level I)

  Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience Orientation: Decisions based on avoiding
punishment.

 Stage 2: Individualism, Instrumental Purpose, and Exchange: Decisions based on

self-interest and reward avoidance.

Conventional Reasoning (Level II)

 Stage 3: Mutual Interpersonal Expectations, Relationships, and Interpersonal

Conformity: Decisions based on pleasing others and maintaining relationships.

 Stage 4: Social System and Conscience: Decisions based on duty, respect for authority,
and adherence to rules.

Postconventional Reasoning (Level III)

 Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation: Decisions based on societal fairness and

willingness to challenge unjust laws.

 Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation: Decisions based on balancing

conflicting moral principles to promote the common good.

Development and Universality

 Kohlberg's stages are hierarchically organized and grow from preceding ones.

 Individuals generally progress through the stages in a specific order, influenced by the
social environment.

 Research supports the universality of the sequence, with variations in the highest stage
observed across cultures.

Kohlberg's theory emphasizes the internal process of moral reasoning rather than specific moral
choices, shaping individuals' ethical development across various stages.

Adolescents' Relationships with Parents

 Autonomy vs. Relatedness: Teens aim to establish autonomy from parents while
maintaining a sense of connection.

 Increased Conflicts: Conflict frequency rises, often around everyday issues like chores,
personal rights, and privileges.
  Emotional Attachment: Despite conflicts, emotional attachment to parents remains
strong and correlates with teen well-being.

 Cross-Cultural Consistency: Attachment's importance is consistent across cultures,

influencing conflict resolution and academic success.

 Positive Outcomes: Securely attached teens experience better academic performance,

peer relations, and lower likelihood of antisocial behavior and drug use.

 Psychological Safe Base: Teens rely on parents for a psychological safe base even as
they strive for autonomy.

Characteristics of Adolescent Friendships

 Shift in Significance: Peer relationships become more significant in adolescence, often

facilitated by electronic communication platforms.

 Communication: Teens spend significant time communicating with peers via cell
phones, instant messaging, and social networking websites.

 Popularity and Peer Acceptance: Belief in popularity and peer acceptance peaks in
early adolescence, but quality of peer relationships becomes more important with age.

 Intimacy and Loyalty: As teens approach adulthood, friendships become more intimate,
emphasizing loyalty and faithfulness.

 Variability in Interpersonal Skills: Teens vary in their ability to display intimacy,

loyalty, and faithfulness, influenced by temperament, personality, and family
experiences.

 Friendship Stability: Adolescent friendships are more stable than those of younger
children, with about 40% lasting long-term by tenth grade.

 Social Status and Activities: Teens often choose friends who share their social status
and engage in similar activities, such as video gaming.

 Gender Differences: Girls' friendships may be influenced by romantic status, while boys'
friendships may be affected by differences in athletic achievements.

 End of Friendships: Changes in identity status, romantic relationships, and social

victimization can lead to the end of friendships during adolescence.
Changes in Peer Groups during Adolescence

 Values and Associations: Adolescents tend to associate with peers who share their
values, attitudes, behaviors, and identity status, influencing each other positively or
negatively.

 Group Dynamics: Peer-group structures change over adolescence. Initially, teens form
cliques, which are same-sex groups characterized by strong cohesion and intimate
sharing.

 Cliques and Aggression: Cliques often feature within-group aggression, especially by

dominant members against lower-status members, aimed at maintaining status
hierarchies.

 Transition to Crowds: Cliques gradually combine into larger mixed-gender sets called
crowds, which are reputation-based groups with stereotypical labels such as "jocks" or
"nerds."

 Identity Formation: Labels and group affiliations help adolescents create and reinforce
their identity, as well as identify potential friends or foes.

 Increasing Differentiation: The social system of crowds becomes more differentiated

over the years of secondary education, with more distinct groups emerging.

 Shift to Mutual Friendships: Mutual friendships and dating pairs become more central
to social interactions in later adolescence than cliques or crowds.

Substance Use Patterns Among Adolescents in the United States

 Illicit Drug Use: Recent cohorts of teenagers show less illicit drug use compared to past
cohorts, attributed to declining approval of drug use and better understanding of its
consequences. However, drug use remains a significant problem due to associated risks.

 Alcohol: Alcohol is the most commonly used substance among teenagers, with over a
quarter of twelfth-graders reporting being drunk in the past month. Prescription and over-
the-counter drugs are also used, often for non-medical purposes.

 Motivations for Use: Sensation-seeking tendencies and peer influence play significant
roles in alcohol and drug use among teenagers. Adolescents high in sensation seeking are
 more likely to use substances, and they tend to associate with similar peers who reinforce
such behaviors.

 Parenting Style and Perception: Authoritative parenting can mitigate the risk of
substance use among high sensation-seeking teenagers. Realistic parental perceptions of
the prevalence of teenage drinking can also influence their children's behavior.

 Tobacco: While smoking rates have decreased since the mid-1970s, a significant
proportion of U.S. high school seniors are regular smokers or have tried smoking. Peer
influence is a major factor in teen smoking initiation, especially during the ages of 15 to
17. Parents can help prevent smoking by monitoring their teenagers' friends and
discouraging association with smokers.

Risk Factors for Depression and Suicide Among Adolescents

Depression:

 Prevalence: Around 5% of adolescents are enduring depression at any given time, with
higher rates among females.

 Causes: Genetic factors, parenting behaviors, family stressors, and individual personality
traits contribute to adolescent depression. Stressful life events, such as parental divorce or
loss, increase the likelihood of depression.

 Impact: Depression can hinder academic achievement by interfering with memory and
cognitive function. Therapeutic interventions, including antidepressant medications, can
be effective in improving the emotional state and academic performance of teenagers
with depression.

Suicide:

 Prevalence: Approximately 16% of high school students in the United States have
seriously considered suicide, with 8% reporting suicide attempts. Completed suicides are
more common among boys, while suicide attempts are more common among girls.

 Risk Factors: Triggers for suicide include stressful events, altered mental states (e.g.,
hopelessness, reduced inhibitions), and access to means (e.g., firearms, medications).
Disruptions in significant social relationships, feelings of hopelessness, and access to
lethal methods contribute to the decision to end one's life.
6. SOCIALIZATION Keywords: Key issues in the study of human development. The domains
and periods of development. The lifespan perspective. Research methods and designs in
developmental science. Theories of social and personality development from infancy to early
adulthood. Cultural differences in socialization. Family roles, family models in different cultures

The Lifespan Perspective

This perspective emphasizes that significant changes occur throughout every stage of
development and must be understood within the cultural and contextual framework.

Key Elements of the Lifespan Perspective:

1. Plasticity: Individuals of all ages have the capacity for positive change in response to
environmental demands.

2. Interdisciplinary Research: Comprehensive understanding of lifespan development

requires insights from various disciplines such as anthropology, economics, and
psychology.

3. Multicontextual Nature of Development: Human development unfolds within multiple

interconnected contexts, including family, neighborhood, and culture.

Contributions of Paul Baltes:

 Baltes was instrumental in developing a comprehensive theory of lifespan human

development.

 He emphasized the positive aspects of aging, highlighting strategies that help individuals
maximize gains and compensate for losses.

Domains and Periods of Development

Domains of Development:

1. Physical Domain: Involves changes in the body's size, shape, and characteristics, as well
as sensory and perceptual development.

2. Cognitive Domain: Encompasses changes in thinking, memory, problem-solving, and

other intellectual skills.
 3. Social Domain: Includes changes in an individual's relationships with others, social
skills, personality, and self-concept.

These domains are interrelated, and changes in one domain often influence development in other
domains.

Periods of Development:

1. Prenatal Period: Begins at conception and ends at birth.

2. Infancy: Starts at birth and continues until children begin using language to
communicate.

3. Early Childhood: Begins after infancy and extends until children enter formal
schooling.

4. Middle Childhood: Begins with formal schooling and ends with the onset of puberty.

5. Adolescence: Spans the period from puberty to the transition to legal adulthood, typically
around ages 18 to 21.

6. Early Adulthood: Extends from the late teens to around age 40, marked by increasing
independence and responsibility.

7. Middle Adulthood: Generally occurs around age 40 and continues until about age 60,
marked by stability and career advancement.

8. Late Adulthood: Begins around age 60 and extends to the end of life, characterized by
retirement and adjustment to aging.

Key issues in the study of human development

1. Nature vs. Nurture:

 This debate asks whether genetics (nature) or environment (nurture) has a bigger
impact on development.

 Now, we understand it's both genes and surroundings working together, not one
or the other.

Inborn Biases:

 Babies are born with built-in tendencies that affect how they respond to the world.
  Some are universal, like how all babies learn language in a similar order.

 Others vary, like differences in temperament from one baby to another.

Interpreting Experiences:

 Our reactions to things depend on how we interpret them, not just what happened.

 For instance, a comment can be taken as a compliment or criticism based on our

own thoughts about it.

The continuity-discontinuity debate in human development revolves around whether changes as

we age are mainly a matter of quantity (continuity) or quality (discontinuity).

1. Continuity Perspective:

 Focuses on gradual changes over time, where development is seen as a smooth

progression.

 Examples include height increasing gradually with age or the gradual decrease in
the number of friends over time.

2. Discontinuity Perspective:

 Emphasizes abrupt shifts or qualitative changes in development.

 For instance, puberty marks a significant qualitative change as it introduces the

capacity for reproduction.

 Another example is the shift in characteristics of friendships, like the emergence

of mutual trust in adolescent and adult friendships.

3. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Change:

 Quantitative change involves alterations in amount or degree, like growing taller.

 Qualitative change refers to changes in kind or type, such as the onset of puberty
or menopause, which bring about new capacities or characteristics.

Research methods and designs in developmental science.

The goals of scientists who study human development can be summarized as follows:
 1. Describe: Scientists aim to accurately state what happens during human development.
This involves observing and documenting developmental changes, such as stating that
older adults tend to make more memory errors compared to younger and middle-aged
adults.

2. Explain: Researchers seek to understand why particular events occur during

development. They rely on theories, which are sets of statements proposing general
principles of development. For example, one might explain age-related memory decline
as either due to changes in the brain or reduced memory practice with age.

3. Predict: Useful theories allow researchers to generate predictions or hypotheses that can
be tested. For instance, a hypothesis might state that if changes in the brain cause declines
in memory function, then elderly adults with the most brain changes should also exhibit
the greatest number of memory errors.

4. Influence: Finally, developmental scientists aim to use their findings to influence

developmental outcomes. For example, if a stroke affects an older adult's brain,
knowledge about the relationship between brain function and memory can help assess the
extent of damage and design interventions, such as memory training programs, to aid in
recovery.

Descriptive methods

1. Naturalistic Observation: Researchers observe people in their natural environments to

understand psychological processes in everyday contexts. However, observer bias and
time-consuming nature are limitations.

2. Case Studies: In-depth examinations of single individuals provide valuable insights but
lack generalizability to broader populations.

3. Laboratory Observation: Researchers exert control over the environment to study

behaviors under controlled conditions, offering advantages over naturalistic observation.

4. Surveys: Interviews and questionnaires collect data about attitudes, interests, values, and
behaviors, allowing for quick information gathering. However, the accuracy of survey
results depends on sample representativeness and participants' truthful responses.

5. Correlations: Relationships between two variables are quantified, ranging from -1.00 to
+1.00, where positive correlations indicate that high scores on one variable are associated
 with high scores on the other, and vice versa for negative correlations. Correlations help
identify associations between variables but do not indicate causality.

The Experimental Method

 Experiment Basics:

 Participants randomly assigned to groups

 Ensures equal variations in characteristics

 Experimental group receives treatment (independent variable)

 Control group receives no treatment or neutral treatment

 Outcome measured is the dependent variable

 Challenges in Developmental Research:

 Ethical Constraints:

 Cannot subject participants to unpleasant experiences

 e.g., abuse, prenatal alcohol consumption

 Inability to Manipulate Variables:

 Cannot assign participants randomly to age groups

 Age is a key variable of interest

 Quasi-Experiments:

 Compare naturally occurring groups differing in a dimension of interest

 e.g., children in daycare vs. those kept at home

cross-sectional design a research design in which groups of people of different ages are
compared

longitudinal design a research design in which people in a single group are studied at different
times in their lives

sequential design a research design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal examinations
of development
cohort effects findings that result from historical factors to which one age group in a cross-
sectional study has been exposed

Psychoanalytic theories

Freud theory Focus on internal drives and emotions influencing behavior. Behavior governed
by conscious and unconscious processes

 Freud's Theory of Personality:

 Id:

 Unconscious level

 Contains libido (basic sexual and aggressive impulses)

 Ego:

 Conscious, thinking part of personality

 Develops in early childhood

 Balances needs of id and superego

 Superego:

 Acts as a moral judge

 Contains societal rules

 Develops in early childhood

 Psychosexual Stages:

 Fixed sequence of stages determined by maturation

 Libido focused on different body parts in each stage

 Oral stage (mouth), anal stage (anus), phallic stage (genitals), genital stage

 Optimum development requires environment to satisfy needs of each stage

 Fixation results from unresolved problems in early stages

 Oedipus and Electra Complex:

 Occurs during phallic stage (ages 3 to 6)

  Oedipus complex: conflict between affection for mother and fear of father (boys)

 Electra complex: conflict between bond with father and anxiety over mother's
love (girls)

 Resolved by identification with same-sex parent

Erikson's Psychosocial Stages:

 Childhood stages:

 Trust vs. mistrust (birth to 1 year)

 Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1 to 3 years)

 Initiative vs. guilt (3 to 6 years)

 Industry vs. inferiority (6 to 12 years)

 Transition to adulthood:

 Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence)

 Adulthood stages:

 Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood)

 Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood)

 Ego integrity vs. despair (late adulthood)

Behav/ theories

Operant Conditioning: B. F. Skinner

Learning principles based on consequences of behavior

 Reinforcement:

 Positive reinforcement: increases behavior by adding something pleasant

 Example: Winning money on a scratch ticket increases likelihood of

buying more tickets

 Negative reinforcement: increases behavior by removing something unpleasant

  Example: Taking cough syrup to stop coughing reinforces taking cough
syrup

 Punishment:

 Stops behavior

 Involves removing nice things or adding unpleasant consequences

 Defined by its effect of stopping behavior

 Extinction:

 Gradual elimination of behavior through repeated nonreinforcement

 Behavior that is ignored and not reinforced is extinguished

Cognitive theories

Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory

Cultural Context of Socialization

1. Availability of Specific Activities

 Different cultures offer distinct activities for children to learn from

 Example: A 4-year-old in the Kalahari Desert may not learn to use a TV

remote, while a child in Seattle may not learn to find waterbearing roots

2. Frequency of Basic Activities

 Basic activities like dancing are present in all societies but vary in
emphasis

 Example: Balinese children excel in traditional dancing due to cultural

importance, while Norwegian children may excel in skiing and skating

3. Relation of Activities to Each Other

 Cultural activities are interconnected, leading to the development of

various related skills

 Example: Pottery-making culture involves skills like clay extraction,

firing, glazing, painting, and selling products

4. Regulation of Child's Role

 Children start as novices in activities with little responsibility, but their

roles evolve with time

 As responsibilities change, children develop specialized abilities

accordingly
 Family Roles and Models in Different Cultures

1. Extended Family Model

 Common in many Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures

 Involves multiple generations living together under one roof

 Roles are often clearly defined based on age and gender

2. Nuclear Family Model

 Prevalent in Western cultures, including North America and Europe

 Comprises parents and their children living in the same household

 Roles may be more egalitarian, with both parents sharing responsibilities

3. Matrilineal Family Model

 Found in some indigenous cultures and societies

 Emphasizes descent and inheritance through the mother's line

 Women often hold more prominent roles in decision-making

4. Patrilineal Family Model

 Common in many traditional societies and cultures

 Emphasizes descent and inheritance through the father's line

 Men typically hold primary authority and decision-making power

5. Matriarchal Family Model

 Rare but exists in some societies

 Women hold primary authority and leadership roles within the family

 Men may still have specific responsibilities, but ultimate decision-making

lies with women

6. Patriarchal Family Model

 Historically prevalent in many societies worldwide

 Men hold primary authority and leadership roles within the family
  Women often have subordinate roles and limited decision-making power

7. Blended Family Model

 Increasingly common in modern societies due to divorce and remarriage

 Involves combining children from previous relationships into a new

family unit

 Roles and dynamics can vary widely depending on individual

circumstances

8. Same-Sex Parent Family Model

 Found in societies where same-sex couples are recognized and accepted

 Roles within these families are typically negotiated based on individual

preferences and circumstances

 Children may have multiple parental figures with diverse roles and
responsibilities