PSYCO 223 - Lifespan

Developmental Psychology

Chapter 4- The Preschool Years

Anahita Shokrkon
 Physical Development in the Preschool Years

• Interindividual variability and intraindividual variability

• External Changes
–Body shape
–Length of arms and legs
–Head-to-body ratio

•Internal Changes
–Muscle size and strength increases
–Bones become sturdier
–Senses develop and become more sensitive
•Nutrition

– Reduced appetite
–Less food; growth slows
–Variety of low-fat, nutritious foods
–High-iron, low-sodium, and low-fat foods
–Vitamins A and C
Health and Illness
•Illness
–Most children healthy
–Most common illness is colds
•Accidents
–Increased activity leads to
more accidents
–Boys and those with low socioeconomic status are more at risk
––Environmental toxins
▪Lead
 Lead Poisoning

Source: Reuters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu1NEWaOISo&ab_channel=PaulCochrane
The Growing Brain

•Lateralization
–Left hemisphere
–Right hemisphere
•The two hemispheres act in tandem
–Individual differences in lateralization
 Motor Development
•Both gross and fine skills are improving
–Increased myelination
–Increased practice
•Gender differences
–Boys stronger and more active
–Girls have better dexterity and
coordination
Significant Gross Motor Skills in Early Childhood
 Fine Motor Skills

•Fine motor skills are developing

–Example: cutting with scissors, tying
shoes, playing the piano
•Handedness
–Show clear preference
–Ninety percent are right-handed
–More boys than girls are left-handed
Piaget’s Approach to
Cognitive Development

•Preschool is time of stability and great change

•Preschoolers are in the preoperational stage (symbolic
thinking)
–Mental reasoning and use of concepts increases
–Use symbolic function
–Ego Centrism
Three Mountain task:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcqAWzW4DfQ&ab_channel=JULIANLLOYD
Piaget’s Stage of Preoperational Thinking

•Conservation: Learning That Appearances Are

Deceiving
–Preschoolers lack focus on relevant features
•Incomplete Understanding of Transformation
–Children cannot recall successive transformations
• Centration: What You See Is What You Think
–Preschoolers focus on appearance
An example of liquid conservation task:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F_iEOcPzU&ab_channel=Adam
Which Row Contains More Buttons?h to
Cognitive Development

When preschoolers are shown these two rows and asked which row has more buttons, they usually respond that the
lower row of buttons contains more, because it looks longer. They answer in this way even though they know quite well
that 10 is greater than 8. Do you think preschoolers can be taught to answer correctly?
Common Tests of Children’s Understanding of
the Principle of Conservation

Why is a sense of conservation important?

Memory

•Memory: Recalling the Past

– WM improvements
–Autobiographical memory not accurate until age 3
–Organized in scripts
–Subject to suggestion
–With age, scripts become elaborate
 Attention

-Divided attention
-Control and sustain attention
-Important for school readiness
 Vygotsky

Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that the focus of cognitive development should be on a child’s
social and cultural world, as opposed to the Piagetian approach concentrating on individual performance. Source: Sovfoto/Eastfoto
Vygotsky’s View of Cognitive Development: Taking
Culture Into Account

•Culture and societies influence cognitive

development
–Cognition proceeds with collaborative social interactions
–These social interactions are determined by cultural and
societal factors
Vygotsky’s View of Cognitive Development: Taking
Culture Into Account

•Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding:

Foundations of Cognitive Development
–Zone of proximal development
▪Child can perform task with assistance
▪Allows cognitive abilities to increase
–Scaffolding
–Cultural tools: Items like pencils, paper, and
computers
 The Growth of Language and Learning
•Increase in number of words used and sentence structure
–Between late 2s and mid-3s, sentence length increases
–Syntax doubles each month
–By age 6, vocabulary of 14,000 words achieved
▪Fast mapping
–By age 3, children:
▪Use plurals and possessives
▪Employ past tense
▪Ask and answer complex questions
–Preschoolers begin to acquire grammar, the system of rules that
determine how our thoughts can be expressed
Language Development in Preschool years

• Syntax
•Vocabulary
•Semantic
•Private Speech
•Writing skills
Social and Personality Development in the Preschool
Years
Forming a Sense of Self

•Psychosocial Development: Resolving the Conflicts

–Erik Erikson’s eight-stage theory
–Initiative-versus-guilt stage: Ages 3 to 6
▪Children face conflicts between desire to act independently of parents and
guilt if they don’t succeed
Begin to make own decisions
Gender Identity: Developing Femaleness and Maleness

•Gender: Sense of being male or female

–Manifested in play: Boys play with boys, girls with girls
–Develop expectations of gender-appropriate behaviors
▪Males more independent, forceful, and competitive
▪Females warmer, more nurturing, expressive, and submissive
▪Children hold stronger gender stereotypes than adults do
 Preschoolers’ Family Lives
•Parents are the most important element in
families
–Better relationships are encouraged by positive
family relationships
• Baumrind (1971) model of parenting style:
– Based on 2 dimensions of responsiveness and
demand
Child Abuse, and Neglect: The Hidden Side of Family Life

•Child abuse statistics

–At least five hundred children killed by caretakers each year
–140,000 others are physically injured each year
–Three million children are abused or neglected in United
States each year
•Childhood Sexual Abuse

–500,000 cases occur each year

–1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls will be abused before they turn 18
–Most often perpetrator is relative or acquaintance
–Perpetrator typically male heterosexual
–Dangers of online communications
 Types of Child Abuse

Neglect is the most frequent form of abuse. How can educators and healthcare providers help identify cases
of child abuse? Source: Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2018
Developing Morality: Following Society’s Rights
and Wrongs

•Moral development
•Piaget’s View of Moral Development
–Heteronomous morality
–Incipient cooperation stage
–Autonomous cooperation stage
Developing Morality: Following Society’s Rights
and Wrongs

•Social Learning Approaches to Morality

–Focus on the environment and prosocial behavior

–Prosocial behavior
▪Learned through reinforcement and modeling
▪Preschoolers learn by observing:
–Warm, responsive adults modeling behavior
–Competent or highly prestigious models
Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers: Sources
and Consequences

•Occurs in preschoolers
•Often related to attaining a desired goal

•The Roots of Aggression

–Freud: Motivated by sexual and aggressive instincts
–Lorenz: We share a fighting instinct
–Evolutionary/sociobiologists argue aggression leads to more opportunities to mate
Aggression and Violence in Preschoolers: Sources
and Consequences

•Social Learning Approaches to Aggression

–Emphasize how social and environmental conditions teach individuals
to be aggressive
–Bandura and the Bobo doll
•Cognitive Approaches: Aggression depends on the
interpretation of other people's behaviors