Warm Up

What are the 3 stages of prenatal development? How long does each stage last?

What are the differences between the 3 basic parenting styles:

Laissez-faireDemocratic/AuthoritativeAuthoritarian

Jean Piaget

Piaget was working for Alfred Binet (the inventor of the IQ test, which we will talk about later) when he noticed that children tended to answer questions wrong on tests in similar ways. 

Piaget hypothesized that children have different schemas than adults. 

A schema is a conceptual framework used to solve problems. We use schemas to make judgments about the world.

When something does not fit into our judgments, we use assimilation- incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 1: Sensorimotor Stage: (birth to 2)- Babies explore the world strictly through their senses.  You learn and develop schemas by senses the world through sight, hearing, touch, smell and most importantly taste. 

During this stage babies do not have what Piaget called object permanence: the realization that objects continue to exist even when you cannot see them. 

Think about it, why do babies get such a kick out of the pick-a-boo game. When you hide you face, they actually think it is gone from existence.  When you show them the face again, they think you are amazing

Stage 2: Preoperational Stage (2-7)

Preoperational Stage: (2-7)- Here children start using symbols to represent real world objects.  The most important development in this stage is speech.

During this stage children are egocentric, which means they think the world was created solely for them- and when they sleep the world sleeps too.

Children do NOT yet understand the concepts of conservation in this stage (that is that objects remain the same even when their shapes change).  If I took two pizzas, one dived into 8 slices, one into 4.  A child in the preoperational stage would thing that the pizza with 8 slices is more.

Stage 3 & 4

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage: (8-12) Here they understand the laws of conservation.  In this stage the child begins to look at the world more logically and can piece together logic statements.

The child cannot yet think about abstract concepts such as God.

Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage: (12-adulthood) Piaget said that not all of us reach this stage.  This is where we can manipulate objects in our minds that we have never actually seen.  Also, in this stage we can learn to think about the way we think, called metacognition.

Information Processing Model

Some people think Piaget underestimated children by limiting the way that they think.  Maybe our cognitive skills do not develop in stages, but rather continuously throughout our lifetimes

The information-processing model. This model basically says that we increase our ability to learn gradually over time.  It has been shown that our attention span increases as we get older, and maybe children don't understand things like the laws of conservation not because they are unable to do so (as Piaget would have you think) but rather because they cannot pay attention long enough to learn it. 

Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Freud believed that we all have a libido, or instinctual sexual energy. 

Your libido changes throughout your lifetime, focusing on different parts of your body.  Essentially, your libido has 4 stages of metamorphosis. 

If some outside force deters our social development in one of the following stages, Freud said we could become fixated in that stage, meaning that we would become preoccupied with that earlier stage later on in our lives. 

Stage 1: The Oral Stage

Oral Stage: About 0-2 years old, an infant’s libido is focused around his/her mouth.  Babies see the world through their mouths.  If I give my 22 month old nephew anything, the first thing he does is put it in his mouth.

Freud believe that if you become fixated in the oral stage than you may overeat, smoke, or just have a childlike dependence on things.

Stage 2: The Anal Stage

Anal Stage: About 2-4 years old, the child becomes focused on controlling bowel movements.  The libido is focused on holding in and releasing excretion. 

This usually occurs during toilet training. The child meets the conflict between the parent's demands and the child's desires and physical capabilities in one of two ways: Either he puts up a fight or he simply refuses to go.

Stage 2: The Anal Stage

If the child refuses to go, he spites his parents while enjoying the pressure of the built-up feces on his intestine. If this tactic succeeds and the child is overindulged, he will develop into an anal retentive character.

This character is neat, precise, orderly, careful, stingy, withholding, obstinate, meticulous, and passive-aggressive. The resolution of the anal stage, proper toilet training, permanently affects the individual propensities to possession and attitudes towards authority.

Stage 3: The Phallic Stage

Phallic Stage: About 4-6 years old, the child first realizes his or her gender. The libido is focused on exploring your gender

During this stage Freud believed that boys can develop an Oedipus Complex, where he begins to have sexual feelings towards his mother

The girl can develop and Electra Complex, where they want to be with the father. In particular, they develop what Freud called penis envy, or the idea that every woman wants to have a penis

During these complexes the children often have hateful feelings toward the same sex parent and the stage ends with a "if I can't beat them, I'll join them” attitude toward that same sex parent. 

Stage 4: The Latent Stage

Latency Stage: About 7-11 year olds develop the need to just hang around peers of their own gender.  You might as well call this the "cootie stage". 

This is the stage when the libido is hidden in the unconscious (this will be a big topic later) and sexuality is repressed (hidden). 

Stage 5: The Genital Stage

Genital Stage: From about 12 until death. Here the libido, sexual energy, is focused on your genitals and sex is as you think about it now. Freud considers fixation in this stage normal.

Class Work: Study Tool

Create a study tool outlining each level of Piaget and Freud’s theories. You will need to know every level for the unit test!

Include name of stage, description, and picture.

Your tool should be something more than just these things listed straight down the page. It could be a chart, sticky notes, flash cards, foldable, etc. Be creative!

Please show me your tools when finished.

Checking for Understanding…

“Babies put everything in their mouths.” How would Freud & Piaget explain this statement?

Motor & Language Development p64-69 Yellow

Turn in when finished.

1. Draw a timeline of the first year of motor development like the one found on p64. Include all 9 steps.

2. How is a chimpanzee’s use of language different from a human’s?

3. What are the 3 steps in learning language (first full paragraph on p67)?

4. What is telegraphic speech? 5. Outline the chart on p68.

Warm Up – in Journals 10/25

Why do babies like to play peek-a-boo?

What Piaget stage are they in when they like to play it?

What are likely behaviors you will exhibit if you are fixated in Freud’s oral stage?

“Babies put everything in their mouths.” How would Freud & Piaget explain this statement?

Erik Erikson

Erikson came from a group of psychologists that took Freud's ideas and built upon them, called neo-Freudians (thus you can put Erikson in what school of psychology?- Psychoanalytic). 

Erikson thought Freud was focused too much on sex.  So Erikson came up with his own stages of psychosocial development. Erikson's stage theory has eight stages and within each stage there is a social conflict or battle between two forces in our development.

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

Trust versus mistrust: This stage is all about fulfilling needs.  The baby needs to trust the world around them to take care of their needs.

If they are hungry, they need to develop trust that they will be fed. If they are not fed, or their diapers are left dirty, they may develop a mistrust of the outside world. This sense of trust of mistrust can affect us throughout the rest of our lives.

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Same & Doubt

Autonomy versus same and doubt: Autonomy means being your own boss. Here a toddler tries to control their own bodies by toilet training and their environment, by always saying “no”. 

If we learn how to control ourselves in reasonable ways, we develop a healthy will.  We are then able to face the later challenges of life.

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt

Initiative versus guilt: Here the key word in a child's life changes from “No!” to “why?”. In this stage children want to understand the world, and they ask a lot of questions! 

If their initiative in questioning the world is encouraged, then they will feel comfortable expressing their curiosity throughout the rest of their lives. If it is not, then they will feel guilty about their questioning and avoid being inquisitive later.

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority

Industry versus inferiority: This is where most children begin formal education (what we call school). For the first time children are being formally evaluated. 

If they raise their hands in class and answer questions correctly, then they will feel industrious (competent). 

If they try to answer questions but stutter and get out the wrong answer, then they will feel inferior.

Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion

Identity versus role confusion: In adolescence, Erikson believed that a teenager’s main social need is to discover his or her social identity. 

While searching for your identity, you may try out different roles, like trying to fit into various social groups, experimenting with drugs or sex, or just changing your wardrobe. You should be trying to find a stable sense of self now, or Erikson believed you may have an identity crisis later.

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation

Intimacy versus isolation: Young adults (early 20s into early 30s) are trying to balance their career efforts (work, school or self-improvement) with the need to be in an intimate relationship with another person. 

Is this the career that I want to have for the rest of my life? How much time should I spend looking for a relationship?  What is I don't find anybody?  What if I am all alone for the rest of my life?

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation

Generativity versus stagnation: Erikson believed that by the time we reach our mid 30s to mid 50s we start to really examine our lives and see if it is going the way you planned it or did it take a drastic turn. 

This is where some people take drastic steps and change their lives. This may result in late divorces or extreme changes in clothes or cars - we call this experience a mid life crisis.

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

Integrity versus despair: Towards the end of our lives we look back and evaluate ourselves. 

Did we live a good life? Leave behind a legacy of friends or family? Or did we waste our time on Facebook? 

If we feel like there were many lost opportunities along the way we may fall into despair. 

Harry Harlow – Attachment

Read p76 in the yellow book under “Surrogate Mothers”

What did Harry Harlow study (what was his question)?

How did he study it (describe the experiment)?

What were the results?What does this tell us about attachment?