Developmental Psychology

N.P.Sharma
 Developmental Psychology

• Developmental child psychology is the field of

study that examines patterns of growth,
change, and stability in behaviour that occur
throughout the children’s lifespan.
• Every period of life contains the potential for
both growth and decline in abilities, and that
individuals maintain the capacity for
substantial growth and change throughout
their lives (Feldman, 2000).
 Child Psychology
• Child Psychology is that branch of psychology,
which deals the psychological phenomenon
of the child.
 Child Psychology and Child
Development
• Child psychology focuses more on content or product
(capabilities) of development while child development
focuses more on processes: How do they learn these
capabilities.
• Child psychology has a major objective to study the
different aspects of childhood behaviour but child
development covers other aspects also, like physical
development etc. in details.
• Child psychology gives more emphasis to age specific
skills of child whereas child development gives more
emphasis to role played by environment.
• Child development is the boarder field than child
psychology.
 Scope of Child Psychology
• Educationists study childhood behavior to find out
appropriate methods of teaching.
• Teachers have to deal not only the educational
achievement but also overall (physical, emotional, social,
cognitive and moral) development. School psychology is
separate applied arena of child psychology that focuses on
disciplining, classroom management, learning disabilities
and even childhood disorders.
• It imparts useful behavior management techniques in the
area of child development.
• Modify and correct delinquent behavior that has been
applied in justice system.
• Parents can get useful information about good parenting by
the study of child psychology.
• Diagnose and treat childhood disorders.
 Growth and Development
• Development can be defined as a ‘progressive series of
orderly coherent changes’. The various types of
developmental changes follow certain principles. Some
of these principles are as follows:
• Growth and development follow an orderly sequence.
• Each child normally passes through a number of stages,
each with its own essential characteristics.
• There are individual differences in rate and pattern of
development.
• Though the human being develops as a unified whole,
yet each part of the body develops at a different rate.
• Development is essentially the result of the interaction
between maturation and learning.
Factors Affecting Growth and Development
– Heredity: Heredity means what we get from our ancestors.
This determines how tall or heavy we can be. In this way
heredity determines our body-built and intellectual
capacity, as well as many other physical, mental and
psycho-social behavior traits.
– Prenatal environment: The environment of the pregnancy
is an important factor in its later growth. If the mother is
getting poor nutrition or is emotionally upset or smokes,
drinks, or takes some medicine or suffers from certain
diseases; the growth of the child can be adversely affected.
– Nutrition: Proper nutrition is essential for the healthy
development of a child.
– Mental Level: Higher intelligence is associated with faster
development while lower intelligence is associated with
retardation in various aspects of development.
Factors Affecting Growth and Development
– Emotional climate of home: If there is a lot of discord/fight
at home or the child is not given enough love and
attention or there is physical/mental abuse of child, then
the child’s development is adversely affected.
– Health of the child: If the child frequently falls sick, or
suffers from some disorder, or is disabled or has disturbed
endocrine functioning, his development is likely to suffer.
– Level of stimulation: The amount of stimulation an
environment provides, the opportunities for exploration of
environment, opportunities of interaction with other
people, these all influence the rate of development.
– Socio-economic status: It determines the kind of nutrition,
stimulation, facilities and opportunities the child and
therefore affect the rate of his development.
– Sex: All children follow the same sequence of
development. However, certain skills develop faster in girls
and vice-versa.
 Stages of the life span (Hurlock, 1981)
• Prenatal period: conception to birth
• Infancy: Birth to end of the second week
• Babyhood: End of second week to end of the second
year
• Early childhood: Two to six year
• Late childhood: Six to ten or twelve year
• Preadolescence: Ten or twelve to thirteen to fourteen
years
• Adolescence: Thirteen or fourteen to eighteen years
• Pre-adulthood: 19-30
• Middle age: 30-50
• Late Adulthood: 50-60
• Old age: Over 60
 Prenatal Stage and Hazards
• Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes.
• In each pair, one chromosome comes from the mother
and the other from the father.
• The twenty-third pair consists of the sex
chromosomes-primary factor in determining the
gender of a child.
• The sex chromosomes are known as the X and Y
chromosomes. Females have two X chromosomes and
males have one X and one Y chromosome.
• A sperm, the reproductive cell produced by the male,
can carry either one X or one Y chromosome.
• An egg, the reproductive cell produced by the female,
can carry only the X chromosomes.
• Thus, the father determines the gender of the child
(Baron et al., 1998).
 Physical Development
• Germinal period (first two weeks): This period is
characterized by rapid cell division. By approximately one
week after conception, the zygote is composed of 100 to 150
cells.
• Embryonic period (two to eight weeks): The embryo's
endoderm, the inner layer or cells, primarily produces internal
body parts such as the respiratory and digestive systems.
• Fetal period (two months to until birth): Three months after
conception the fetus is 10 centimeters long and weighs
approximately 60 grams. By the end of the sixth month the
eyes and eyelids have completely formed. Twenty-four week
is the age of viability, which means that a fetus can survive if
born prematurely also. At the end of 38 weeks the fetus
develops almost fully. Doctors used to say that the weight of
the new burn baby should be greater than two and half Kg.
 Mother's Role
• Abstinence from alcohol, drugs, and tobacco even before
pregnancy.
• Moderation throughout pregnancy: Since the prenatal effects of
psychoactive drugs are dose related, interactive and cumulative,
each reduced dose and drug free day, represents a reduction in the
damage.
• Social support: Maternal stress, psychological problems, loneliness,
and poor housing correlate with prenatal
complications. Befriending, encouraging, and assisting pregnant
helps fetal development. It is most essential to drug users pregnant.
• Postnatal care: Another way to protect children from suffering the
consequences of their mother's prenatal drug use or mental illness
is to ensure sensitive nurturance after birth through parenting
education, preventive medicine, home visits, early daycare and if
necessary, foster care (Berger, 2000).
 Hazards in Prenatal Stage

• Radiation, chemicals, and other hazards in the environment can

endanger the fetus.
• Babies born to adolescents are often premature. The mortality rate
of babies born to adolescent mothers is double that of babies born
to mothers over twenties.
• Another common reason for slow fetal growth, and hence low birth
weight, is maternal malnutrition.
• Maternal diseases and infections can produce defects by crossing
the placental barrier.
• Fetal alcohol syndrome is a cluster of abnormalities that appear in
the offspring of mothers who drink alcohol heavily during
pregnancy. The abnormalities include facial deformities and
defective limbs, face and heart. Most of these children are below
average in intelligence.
• Compared with women of higher socioeconomic status, pregnant
women at the bottom of the economic ladder are more likely to be
ill, malnourished, and stressed.
 Infancy and Babyhood
• First 15 days is very difficult time for infant
and there is high risk of death. It is due to
drastic change of their environment.
• Within the womb they are getting food, air,
water all things through umbilical cord in
constant temperature of 370 c.
• While they come outside, temperature
adjustment and gaining ability to suck,
breathing and excretion are major
developmental tasks.
 Infancy and Babyhood (Hazards)
• Premature, complicated and multiple birth effects to
proper physical development.
• Brain damage due to high pressure in the head or
insufficient oxygen supply in brain at the time of the
born cause mental retardation.
• Childbirth without mental preparation of the parents
happens under care to child and anxiety and
hopelessness of mother transfers to new born child.
• Infant lack proper emotional development if they do
not get proper stimulation when mother is dump, deaf
or blind.
• Bad dealings and unfavorable attitude of significant
people influences baby.
 Cognitive Development during Babyhood
• Categorization: Babies younger than six months can categorize
objects on the basis of their shape, color, angularity, location,
density, relative size, and number (up to 3 objects).
• Object and perceptual constancy : by the age of three months
babies are able to distinguish the boundaries of separate three-
dimensional objects.
• Object permanence is the ability to understand that objects and
people exist independently.
• Memory: first six months, difficulty storing new memories; end
of the first year, the ability to remember and imitate
behaviors. By the end of the second year, toddlers can generalize
their memories, moving from the particular details to the general
concept with earlier events (Berger, 2000).
 According to Piaget
Sensory-motor intelligence develops within two years age
through six successive stages,
• Stage One (birth to 1 month), Reflexes – sucking,
grasping, staring, listening.
• Stage Two (1–4 months), Acquired adaptations –
assimilation and coordination of reflexes.
• Stage Three (4–8 months), Awareness of things –
responding to people and objects.
• Stage Four (8–12 months), New adaptation and
anticipation.
• Stage Five (12–18 months), Active experimentation.
• Stage Six (18–24 months), Mental combinations –
considering before acting.
 Helping to Develop Baby Socially and
Emotionally
• Develop a secure attachment with the baby.
• Be sure that both the mother and the father nurture the
baby.
• In absence of mother, manage experienced caregiver or
Select competent daycare.
• Understand and respect the baby's temperament.
• Adapt to developmental changes in the baby.
• Be physically and mentally healthy.
• Read a good book on child development.
 Emotions on Babyhood
• Emotion is the first language that parents and babies
communicate.
• Babies have three cry; the basic cry, the anger cry, and
the pain cry.
• Two types of smiling : the reflexive smile (does not
occur in response to external stimuli) and the social
smile which typically emerges around four to six weeks.
Approximate time of emergence of other emotions is:
• Anger, surprise, sadness – three to four months
• Fear – five to seven months
• Shame/shyness – six to eight months
• Contempt, guilt – two years (Santrock, 1999).
 Social Deprivation
• Deprivation is the failure to develop an
attachment to any individual.
• Short-term separation is most distressing
between the ages of seven to eight months
when the baby has just formed an
attachment.
• Period between 12 and 18 months also
associates maximum distress due to
perception of insecurity.
• Boys are generally more distressed and
vulnerable than girls.
 Effect of Social Deprivation
• Victims of extreme hardship show a clinical
picture of deficits, including motor
retardation, absent or undeveloped vocal and
symbolic language, grossly retarded motor
skills, poor emotional expression, lack of
attachment behavior, and social withdrawal.
• The early combination of profound language
deficit and apathy/withdrawal from social
contact .