Chapter 10: Infancy and Childhood Case Study: Bullying: A Schoolyard Epidemic

1. Chapter 10: Infancy and Childhood Case Study:Bullying: A Schoolyard Epidemic Section 1:Developmental Psychology Section 2:Physical Development Section 3:Social Development Section 4:Cognitive Development Lab:Applying What You’ve Learned

2. Facts About Bullying • An estimated 70 to 75 percent of students are bullied at some point. • Many bullies have common characteristics, including lower than average achievement and home environments troubled by violence. • One study found that bullying was more often associated with delinquent behavior, ADHD, and depression. • Bigger, more physically developed children often bully younger, smaller kids. Case Study: Bullying: A Schoolyard Epidemic Bullying has devastating effects. It makes students think of school as a violent environment. Bullying impairs adjustment to middle school and high school.

3. What do you think? • How does bullying affect students and the school atmosphere? • Does bullying occur in your school? What can school officials, parents, and students do to limit or stop it?

6. Section 1 at a Glance • Developmental Psychology • Developmental psychology is the study of how people grow and change throughout their lives. • Developmental psychologists are concerned with many issues. One issue is the extent to which heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) affect development. Another is whether people develop in distinct stages or whether development is more gradual and steady.

7. Developmental Psychology Main Idea The field of developmental psychology examines physical, social, and cognitive development. Heredity and environment control different aspects of development to varying degrees. • Reading Focus • Why and how do psychologists study development? • How do both heredity and environment contribute to the development process? • How would you describe development as a process of stages versus continuity?

8. What can you learn about developmental psychology at the beach?

9. The Study of Development • Developmental psychology is the field in which psychologists study how people grow and change throughout the life span, from conception until death. • Psychologists use two methods to study people across the life span. • The longitudinal method, in which researchers select a group of participants and then observe the same group for a period of time, often years or decades • The cross-sectional method, in which researchers select a sample that includes people of different ages and then compare the participants in the different age groups

10. Reading Check Draw Conclusions What are two reasons that psychologists are interested in studying infancy and childhood? Answer: Early childhood experiences affect people as adolescents and adults, and by studying early stages of development, psychologists can learn about developmental problems.

11. Heredity and Environment • Developmental psychologists are concerned with two general issues: • Ways in which heredity and environmental influences contribute to human development • Whether development occurs gradually or in stages • Psychologists have long debated the extent to which human behavior is determined by heredity (nature) or environment (nurture). • Maturation is the automatic and sequential process of development that results from genetic signals. • A critical period is a stage or point in development during which a person is best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern. • Arnold Gesell proposed that maturation played the most important role in development. John Watson’s view, however, favored the tabula rasa view of development.

13. Reading Check Summarize Name and describe three major issues that are part of the heredity versus environment debate. Answer: maturation, automatic and sequential process of development results from genetic signals; notion of critical periods in development when person is best suited to learn particular skill or behavior; influence of environment, nutrition, family background, culture, learning experiences

14. Stages Versus Continuity • Developmental psychologists debate whether human development occurs primarily in stages or as a continuous process. • Maturational theorists generally believe that most development occurs in stages. • Jean Piaget is one of the most famous stage theorists. • Other psychologists, including J. H. Flavell, argue that cognitive development is a gradual and continuous process.

17. Reading Check Recall Which mode of development (stages or continuity) is more aligned with heredity, and which is more aligned with environment? Answer: heredity—stages, maturation caused by genetic signals; environment—continuous, each advance is based on observation and experience

18. Section 2 at a Glance • Physical Development • Children grow physically from the time they are conceived through infancy and childhood. • Reflexes, motor development, and perceptual development are all important aspects of physical development.

19. Physical Development Main Idea In the womb and in infancy and childhood, humans go through a series of physical developments that are generally sequential. • Reading Focus • How is physical growth important from conception through childhood? • What are reflexes, and how are they beneficial? • What is motor development? • What do infants learn through the process of perceptual development?

20. How did seat belts highlight differences in physical development?

21. Physical Growth • Changes in reflexes, gains in height and weight, motor development, and perceptual development are examples of physical development. • The most dramatic gains in height and weight occur before an infant’s birth. • During infancy—the period from birth to the age of two years—dramatic gains continue in height and weight. • During childhood—the period from two years old to adolescence—children gain on average two to three inches and four to six pounds each year until they reach the start of adolescence.

23. Reading Check Recall Give three examples of developments that occur during the fetal stage. Answer: During the fourth month, the fetus nearly doubles in length, can open and close its mouth, and swallow. In the next two months, the fetus’s skin finishes developing, hair and nails become visible, and it can open and close its eyes.

24. Reflexes • A reflex is an involuntary reaction or response, such as swallowing. • Reflexes are inborn, not learned, and they occur automatically. • Reflexes include: • Grasping • Rooting • Sucking • Swallowing • The Moro reflex • The Babinski reflex • As children develop, many reflexes, such as rooting and sucking, disappear. Some reflexes remain and others come under voluntary control.

25. Click on the image to play the Interactive.

26. Reading Check Describe How do newborns respond to their environment? Give two examples. Answer: by rooting and sucking and by withdrawing from painful stimuli

27. Motor Development • The development of purposeful movement is called motor development. • Gross motor development refers to babies’ progress in coordinating major muscle groups. • Fine motor development refers to coordination of the hands, face, and other small muscles. • The point at which various types of motor development occur is different from infant to infant and even from culture to culture.

28. Reading Check Identify What are the two types of motor development? Answer: gross motor development and fine motor development

29. Perceptual Development • Infants tend to prefer new and interesting stimuli. • Infants’ perceptual preferences are influenced by their age. • Infants’ depth perception seems to be influenced by experience.

32. Reading Check Recall What elements make up perceptual development? Answer: Physical development and environmental stimuli combine to advance infants’ perceptual development as the infants take in the messages delivered by their senses.

33. Psychology in Today’s World Raising a Better Child In the past, ideas about how to raise children generally came from one’s own family, religion, and other institutions within the community. Beginning around the 1900s, however, the theories of psychologists increasingly began to inform American parenting strategies. Why did parents look beyond traditional sources to learn how to raise their children? • Social upheavals of the last hundred years give clues to the answer. • One popular parenting idea is the “Mozart effect,” which says that playing Mozart’s music helps boost children’s intelligence. Results have been shown to be limited, however. • Another idea deals with the importance of play. • Some parenting books and theories have more merit than others. Parents need to do their homework when looking for help with their kids.

35. Thinking Critically • What does the large number of child-rearing books suggest about the challenges that parents face? • How do you think the ways that you played as a child have affected you?

36. Section 3 at a Glance • Social Development • Through the process of social development, infants and children learn to relate to other people. • Attachment bonds infants and children to those close to them, and the quality of this attachment affects how they develop. • Parenting styles cover a wide range, but some styles are more likely to produce well-adjusted children who place a high value on themselves. The value one places on one’s self is called self-esteem.

37. Social Development Main Idea Social development in infants and children has much to do with parents’ behaviors, histories, personalities, and abilities. Other caregivers are involved in raising many American children. • Reading Focus • Why is attachment vital to human relationships? • How do styles of parenting differ? • What are some issues associated with child abuse and neglect? • How does outside child care affect children's development? • What is the importance of self-esteem to developing children?

38. What can baby cranes tell us about social development?

39. Development of Attachment Contact Comfort • Up until four months of age, infants prefer being held or even just being with someone. • By about four months, infants develop strong attachments to their main caregivers, usually their mothers. • By about eight months, some infants develop stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. • Based on studies with monkeys, researchers have concluded that attachment grows more from contact comfort than from feeding. • Bonds of attachment between mothers and infants appear to provide a secure base from which infants can explore their environments. Attachment Attachment is an important factor affecting social development. It is defined as the emotional ties that form between people.

40. Imprinting • For many animals, attachment is an instinct. • In a process called imprinting, some animals become attached to the first moving object they see. • Children do not imprint. It takes several months before children become attached to their main caregivers. • Secure Versus Insecure Attachment • When mothers or other primary caregivers are affectionate and reliable, infants usually become securely attached. • When caregivers are unresponsive or unreliable, infants are usually insecurely attached. • Secure infants may mature into secure children.

41. Autism • Autism is a developmental disorder that prevents children from forming proper attachments with others. • People with autism have a very wide variety of symptoms from very severe to very subtle. Mild autism can go undiagnosed for years. • Parents and doctors often recognize symptoms of autism during infancy and early childhood.

44. Reading Check Define What is contact comfort and how does it relate to the idea of attachment? Answer: Contact comfort is an instinctual need to touch and be touched by something soft. It was originally thought that infants became attached to those who fed them, but recent findings indicate that attachment grows more from such bodily contact.

45. Styles of Parenting • Warm or Cold? • Warm parents show a great deal of affection to their children. • Cold parents may not be as affectionate toward their children or appear to enjoy them as much. • Research suggests that children fare better when their parents are warm to them. • Children of warm parents are more likely to be well adjusted. • Strict or Permissive? • Some parents are strict with their children, imposing many rules and supervising their children closely. • Some parents are permissive with their children, imposing fewer rules and watching their children less closely. • Authoritative parents combine warmth with age appropriate rules and responsibilities. • Authoritarian parents believe in obedience for its own sake.

47. Reading Check Describe Can a parent be warm but strict or cold but permissive? Explain how parenting styles can be a mix of things. Answer: Yes. Parents can be strict but still love their children. Authoritative parents combine warmth with age-appropriate rules and responsibilities, whereas authoritarian parents are cold and rejecting, and value obedience for its own sake.

49. Child Abuse and Neglect • Most parents are kind and loving to their children. • Yet child abuse is relatively widespread and seriously underreported. • The following factors are associated with child abuse and neglect: • Stress, especially from unemployment or poverty • A history of physical or sexual abuse in at least one parent’s family • Acceptance of violence as a way of coping with stress • Lack of attachment to the child • Substance abuse • Rigid attitudes about child rearing • Studies show that children who are abused run a higher risk of developing psychological problems. • Child abuse tends to run in families.

50. Reading Check Describe Why is a parent with a history of child abuse in his or her own family more likely to become a child abuser? Answer: Children who have been abused are more likely to act in violent ways; they may imitate their parents’ behavior, or they may adopt their parents’ strict ideas about discipline.