DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Human Life Span – Birth to Piaget

APGAR Test

Quick Physical test given to newborns at birth]

Test is given at 1 & 5 minutes after birth A = Activity or muscle tone. Muscle

movements are measured. P= Pulse. Should be over 100 beats per minute G= Grimace or reflex irritability. Babies sneeze

or cough during suctioning of the mucus. A= Appearance. Normal skin color. Blue-gray or

pale skin is not a good sign. R= Respiration. Babies should be crying and

breathing regularly.

Newborn Reflexes

Babinski Reflex – when the bottom of the foot is stroked the toes flare out and curl back

Moro Reflex – Arms are thrust out and the back is arched in response to sudden noise or movement

Swimming Reflex – If submerged in water for a short period of time, babies hold their breath and pump their arms and legs.

Stepping Reflex – When held over a flat surface infants move feet up & down as if they are walking

SIDS –Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

New research suggest that infants with a low serotonin level are at risk

Serotonin plays a role in breathing, sleeping and waking.

Exhaled carbon dioxide confined around a babies nose and mouth should cause a release of serotonin causing the baby to wake and move their head but if the level is low they don’t wake and inhale the carbon dioxide causing a risk of death.

This is way having infants sleep on their back has reduced number of SIDS-related deaths.

Habituation

Once a stimulus becomes familiar and expected, our sensitivity to it decreases. We do not respond as strongly to it as we did in the beginning.

Example – When first watching a scary movies we react strongly to the frightening scene but however more we watch scary movies the less we respond to the frightening scenes. We have become habituated.

Maturation

The timely and orderly sequence of developmental changes that takes place as a person gets older

Schema

Concept or mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

List 10 things you associate with a picnic. Your schema of a picnic

Bambi – when he was sniffing the flowers a skunk pokes his head up in the flowers. Since Bambi just learned the word flower he calls the skunk Flower.

Assimilate

Fitting new information into current schemas

Accommodate

The process of accommodation involves altering one’s existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.

Piaget’s Theory

Sensorimotor Stage – Birth to 2 yrs

Differentiates self from objects  Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise 

Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense

Piaget’s Theory

Preoperational Stage - 2 to 7 yrs

Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words 

Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others

  Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g.

groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color 

Piaget’s Theory Preoperational Stage - 2 to 7 yrs Conservation- The principle that quantity

remains the same despite changes to shape.

Children misunderstand conservation in several ways:

Volume - Believe that different sized containers hold different amounts of liquid

Length – When an object’s shape changes its mass. Start with a ball of clay and then make it into a snake the child will believe that some clay is missing

Area – Rearranging parts of an object changes if fundamentally.

Piaget’s Theory Preoperational Stage - 2 to 7 yrs

Egocentrism - Children have trouble perceiving things from another’s point of view.

Children display egocentrism in several ways. Collective Monologues – Children will appear to be

talking to each other in a dialogue, but they are really talking about two completely different subjects

Animism – Children believe that nature is alive and controllable by them or their parents. Ex – trees or the sun have feelings

Artificialism – Children believe natural phenomena are created people. Ex – People created the mountains by piling up dirt.

Piaget’s Theory

Concrete Operational – 7 to 11 yrs

Can think logically about objects and events 

Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) 

Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size. 

Piaget’s Theory

Formal Operational – 11 yrs and up

Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically.

  Becomes concerned with the

hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems