Psychology
Childhood Development
Childhood development refers to the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes that occur in children from birth through adolescence. It encompasses the study of how children grow, learn, and develop unique personalities and behaviors. Understanding childhood development is crucial for identifying and addressing potential challenges and promoting healthy development in children.
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10 Key excerpts on "Childhood Development"
eBook - ePubForensic Psychiatry
Fundamentals and Clinical Practice
- Basant Puri, Ian H. Treasaden, Basant Puri, Ian H. Treasaden, Ian Treasaden(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
8Developmental psychology
NATHALIA L. GJERSOE AND CATRIONA HAVARD Introduction Cognitive development Personality Social development Sexual development The child as witness Conclusion ReferencesINTRODUCTION
Developmental psychology is a discipline that encapsulates the full spectrum of psychological processes throughout the life span. Theories developed as part of this research have important implications not just for our understanding of children’s behavior and growth but also for how we conceptualize the human mind as a whole. Often there are processes so inextricably interwoven and sophisticated in adults that understanding them requires examination from their inception in the developing brain. This chapter focuses on the age range between infancy and late childhood and summarizes theories of children’s cognitive, personality, social, and sexual development, concluding with an outline of current opinion regarding children’s capacities as eyewitnesses.COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Even newborns come into the world with a toolkit of basic sensory capacities and biases to attend to specific types of information. This stream of information forms the basis for mental representations—patterns of neuronal activity that refer to aspects of the external world. Developmental cognitive psychology examines mechanisms of change in mental representations throughout the life span. Examining cognitive development in infants and young children requires its own set of methodologies distinct from those used to examine adults. Children have limited communication and -comprehension abilities, disorganized or slow motor responses, and are easily distracted. Traditionally, research into cognitive development utilized naturalistic observation of children’s behavior at different ages and manipulated situations to determine if children’s responses changed in a reliable manner from age to age. This work has revealed a host of cognitive capabilities that all typically developing children seem to attain within a very similar time period—referred to as cognitive milestones
eBook - ePub- Thomas Keenan, Subhadra Evans, Kevin Crowley(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
child development. Understanding children is important in its own right and also has the potential to significantly inform us about the nature of human development. By studying the earlier forms of behaviour and the changes which behaviour undergoes, we can gain a better understanding of the ‘end product’, that is, adult behaviour. While this text focuses specifically on children’s development, the wider principles of life-span developmental psychology (which we discuss shortly) apply as equally to this area as they do to the study of development across the life span.What is ‘Development’?
When we speak of development, what in fact are we referring to? One frequently used definition refers to this as patterns of change over time which begin at conception and continue throughout the life span. Development occurs in different domains, such as the biological (changes in our physical being), social (changes in our social relationships), emotional (changes in our emotional understanding and experiences), and cognitive (changes in our thought processes). Some developmental psychologists prefer to restrict the notion of development only to changes which lead to qualitative reorganizations in the structure of a behaviour, skill or ability (Crain, 2000). For example, Heinz Werner (1957) argued that development refers only to changes which increase the organization of functioning within a domain. Werner believed that development consisted of two processes: integration and differentiation. Integration refers to the idea that development consists of the integration of more basic, previously acquired behaviours into new, higher-level structures. For example, according to Piaget (1952), a baby who learns to successfully reach for objects has also learned to coordinate a variety of skills, such as maintaining an upright posture, moving their arm, visually coordinating the position of their hand and the object, and grasping the object under an integrated structure called a scheme
eBook - PDF- Karen R. Huffman, Alastair Younger, Claire Vanston(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
9 Lifespan Development I: Physical and Cognitive Development I f you have ever spent time at a daycare centre, you were probably struck by the sight of many exuber- ant children laughing, shrieking, and jostling for atten- tion from those entrusted with their care. Yet amid this barely controlled chaos, babies learn to crawl, toddlers learn not to bite one another, and preschoolers learn their ABCs. Day by day, every child grows a little stron- ger, a little more independent. Over a lifetime, every person undergoes many physical changes. These changes are most striking in early childhood because they happen so rapidly and are so visible. But everyone is in a state of constant change and development throughout his or her entire life. The typical person will be many different people in his or her lifetime—infant, child, teenager, adult, and senior. Would you like to know more about yourself at each of these ages? In the next two chapters, we will explore research in developmental psychology. We will begin this chapter by studying how developmen- tal psychologists conduct their research. Then we will look at changes in our physical and cognitive develop- ment from conception to death. In Chapter 10, we will examine important aspects of our social, moral, and personality development across the lifespan. To empha- size that development is an ongoing, lifelong process, throughout the next two chapters we will trace physical, cognitive, social, moral, and personality development— one at a time—from conception to death. This topical approach will allow us to see how development affects an individual over the entire lifespan.
eBook - PDF- Elizabeth Brestan Knight, Ember L. Lee(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
Early Childhood Development 117 Chapter 5 Early Childhood Development Deciding which concepts to cover for the early childhood develop-ment period can be challenging because there are quite a few aspects of this topic that could be informative and interesting to students. In order to make our content-related decisions, we tend to think about the needs of the undergraduate students who take our course (e.g., Why are they taking our course? What is it that they need to know about early childhood?) Because this course is intended to meet the developmental psychology requirement for our students, we focus on aspects related to abnormal child psychology, child health, and the academic aspects of early child development. We adopt this strategy because many of our students will need to understand early child cognitive and social development for their careers in psycho-logy, the healthcare field, or education. Similar to the infant period, there are several high quality videos and resources to use during your coverage of the early Childhood Development stage. Students seem to relate well to children in the two to six-year-old age range, probably because they either remem-ber going through this developmental stage themselves, because they have younger siblings in this stage, or they have experience working with young children through babysitting or other types of employ-ment. Children in the early childhood age range can be very enter-taining to watch and students seem to enjoy watching videos or conducting live observations of them. 118 Early Childhood Development Early Childhood Physical and Cognitive Development During our lecture on early childhood physical and cognitive devel-opment, we generally cover Piaget’s preoperational stage and Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. In addition to provid-ing a brief biography of both theorists, we also discuss the trajectory of their careers and the legacy of their theories.
- Charles Zastrow, Karen Kirst-Ashman, Sarah Hessenauer, , Charles Zastrow, Karen Kirst-Ashman, Sarah Hessenauer(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Psychological Development in Infancy and Childhood 157 LO 6 Apply Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural cognitive devel-opment emphasizes how children develop differently depending on the social and cultural circumstances and expectations evident in their environment. Chil-dren learn as they interact with and observe others, framing their development with the use of language. North American culture emphasizes the develop-ment of independence, whereas many other cultures encourage mutual dependence. Important concepts include the zone of proximal development, scaf-folding, and private speech. Positive aspects of the theory include the appreciation of diversity and the potential for individuals to promote their own cog-nitive development. Criticisms include its neglect of aspects of learning other than verbal and its inatten-tiveness to the biological side of development. LO 7 Explain emotional development (including the development of temperament and attachment). People begin displaying their emotions and tem-perament in infancy. Early behaviors include crying, smiling, and laughing. A major variable related to overall adjustment may be the “goodness” or “poor-ness” of fit between the individual and the impinging environment. Cultural values affect the development of temperament. Infants tend to pass through various stages as they form social and emotional attachments with adults. Secure attachment is the most common pat-tern of attachment. Other patterns include anxious-avoidant attachment, anxious-resistant attachment, and disorganized attachment. Being in quality day care does not interfere with the attachment process between child and parents. Cross-cultural differences in attachment exist. LO 8 Examine self-concept , self-esteem , and empowerment. One’s self-concept is the personal impression of one’s own unique attributes and traits, both positive and negative. Self-esteem is a person’s judgment of his or her own value.
eBook - ePub- Ronald Comer, Nancy Ogden, Michael Boyes, Elizabeth Gould(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Because of his death at the young age of 37 and the chilly political climate between the former Soviet Union and the West, Vygotsky’s ideas have only become more widely studied in North America in recent years. However, developmental psychologists have found numerous ways to apply Vygotsky’s ideas (Trawick-Smith & Dziurgot, 2011). He has become one of today’s most influential developmental theorists (Eun, 2010). Indeed, the ideas of scaffolding and zones of proximal development are now an important part of educational systems throughout North America (Roth & Jornet, 2017; Moll, 2013). When helping children learn to read, for example, many teachers begin by reading books to them, and then gradually turn over responsibility for various reading skills. The children may first follow along with the pictures as the teacher reads the words, then point to letters. Eventually, they learn to read single words, then sentences, and finally entire books on their own, as the teacher provides less and less scaffolding.Social and Emotional Development in Infancy and Childhood
While we tend to think of young infants as completely helpless, they actually bring a number of behavioural tendencies to their early interactions with their parents.As we noted in Chapter 1 , many psychological researchers are interested in trying to determine how much of the way we think and act is influenced by our genetic inheritance, a field of study called behavioural genetics. Developmental psychologists are often in a position to examine the influence of genetics. One of the key areas of focus of both behavioural genetics and developmental psychology, for example, is temperament , defined as a biologically-based tendency to respond to certain situations in similar ways throughout a person’s lifetime (Trofimova & Robbins, 2016; Chess, 2013) (see photo). Although temperament and personality are related, they are not the same thing. Many personality characteristics are learned or acquired, whereas temperamental traits are considered genetic (Zentner & Shiner, 2015; Buss & Plomin, 2014). In a longitudinal study that began in the 1950s, the New York Longitudinal Study
eBook - ePubIntroduction to Psychological Science
Integrating Behavioral, Neuroscience and Evolutionary Perspectives
- William J. Ray(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Piaget’s ideas played an important role in developmental psychology. His work influenced psychological research as well as educational perspectives. In particular, educators today seek to consider what students of a certain age are able to understand and how they will receive the information that is being taught. There are also more interactive types of problems aimed at students’ stage of development. Of course, since Piaget began his observations in the 1930s, a number of research studies have better defined infant and Childhood Development. We now know that different abilities and ways of thinking, feeling, and doing develop at different rates. We also know that given the correct situation, children may show abilities earlier than suggested by Piaget. There have also been scientific explorations beyond cognitive development to examine social and emotional development. This has led us to think more about the roles of culture, parents, and friends in a person’s development.Vygotsky and the Sociocultural PerspectiveIt was the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky who offered a sociocultural perspective to cognitive development. Vygotsky was born in the same year as Piaget, 1896. Both saw the child’s interactions with his or her environment as critical to development. However, whereas Piaget emphasized the interaction with the physical environment, Vygotsky stressed the social and cultural environment. It is the child’s interactions with others that largely shape the child’s development. From our culture we learn a language. From our culture we are also given stories and histories that influence how we view ourselves and others.Learning facilities differ around the world. Some cultures offer a more technological approach with computers and other devices. Other cultures emphasize a more literary and oral tradition with the learning of critical books. These are referred to as tools of intellectual adaptation
eBook - PDF- Jennifer Tanner, Daniel Bellack, Colleen MacQuarrie(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
The vast majority functional language The idea that language acquisition is a “need-based” process in which children construct meaning out of a need to understand what others are saying and to be understood. 1. Describe the different types of young children’s play. 2. List several of the best practices of early- childhood education. 3. Identify the effects of childhood overweight and obesity. 4. Describe ways to prevent unintentional injuries of young children. 5. Explain how lead poisoning affects children’s cognitive and physical development. All the Systems Working Together LEARNING OBJECTIVES lthough the physical and cognitive systems we just studied appear to have their own, independent developmental sequences, these systems are in fact interdependent. In addition, development of the physical and cognitive systems co-occur with socio-emotional changes. We can observe this interconnectivity by exploring children’s play, early-childhood education, and three common health and safety concerns of early childhood: obesity, unintentional injury, and lead poisoning. A 170 CHAPTER 5 Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Two to Six Years interact with the world. For this reason, the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children has provided leader- ship in implementing the UN resolution. In its research paper, “Children’s Right to Rest, Play, Recreation, Cul- ture and the Arts”, the barriers to free play experienced by many young Canadians are described (Figure 5.15). Play Every child has the right to play. The United Nations has even declared that this is so (Hodgkin & Newell, 2007; United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 2007). Obviously, UN resolutions cannot guarantee that every child has opportunities to explore, create, and Barriers to free play • Figure 5.15 b. Statistics show that children spend an alarming number of hours watching screens of one type or another.
eBook - PDF- Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould, Adrian Furnham(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Still other critics have charged that Piaget ’s theory fails to account fully for social factors, the influences that other people may have on a child ’s cognitive development (Carpendale & Lewis, 2010; Freund & Lamb, 2010). Piaget ’s theory, instead, focuses on how children guide their own development through experimentation and reflection. Later in his life, Piaget himself also wondered whether his theory said enough about the role of social experiences in development (Inhelder & Piaget, 1979; Piaget, 1972). As we will see, a contemporary of Piaget ’s had more to say about social influences on cognitive development. FIGURE 3.4 Theory of mind. Participants with a theory of mind recognize that the child in the story will look for the leftover chocolate in the blue cupboard, because the child is not aware of the mother’s switch of locations. theory of mind a recognition that other people base their behaviours on their own perspectives, not on information that is unavailable to them. CHAPTER 3 BIOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 64 Adolescence LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6 Summarize the major physical, cognitive and emotional changes that take place during adolescence. With the possible exception of the first couple of years of life, the amount of change that occurs during adolescence rivals that of any other developmental passage. Most crucially, puberty begins. In the cognitive sphere, adolescents dis- play features of both children and adults, and they begin to learn how to function independently. In this section, we will describe some key biological, cognitive and social transitions that characterize this dramatic period. Physical Development Pubert y refers to the physical devel- opment of primary and secondary sex characteristics (Herdt, 2010). Primary sex characteristics are the body struc- tures that have to do specifically with the reproductive system, including growth of the testes and the ovaries.
eBook - PDF- Lisa J. Cohen(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Visible Ink Press(Publisher)
They understand that objects can belong to different categories and that categories can be hierarchically arranged. For example, a child can collect baseball cards of left-handed pitchers or of third basemen in the American League. They can also rearrange these categories, to collect left-handed pitchers in the American League. Their understanding of number, of sequencing, and of spatial relationships also grows. Language also continues to develop and by the end of this stage children have an average vocabulary of 40,000 words. Because of this ongoing cognitive development, children are ready to learn skills needed for adult life. In industrialized societies, this involves academic skills. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are three academic skills that school-age children have to master in industrialized and economically developed countries. How do children develop emotionally during the school-age years? Cognitive and emotional development move forward together. With their increased cognitive capacities, children have a growing understanding of emotions in both themselves and others. School-age children understand that people are motivated by their internal states rather than by situations alone. Children this age also master the concept of mixed feelings, that people can have more than one emotion at a time. Children advance in their ability to regulate their own emotions, to tolerate frustration, to delay gratification, and to distract themselves from distress. Their capacity for empathy is heightened. They understand that people suffer not only from momentary frustrations, but also from longstanding life circumstances. Thus, they can appreciate the concept of charity, which is beyond the grasp of a preschool child. Their self-conscious emotions also advance, heightening their social capacities, but also opening up new areas of psychological vulnerability.
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