What is development?

Development refers to systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between
conception and death.

Development is based on two important processes: Maturation and learning

Normative developments are typical developments characterizing all members of a species;

Developmental Psychology is a branch of psychology devoted to identifying and explaining the

continuities and changes that individuals display over time.

Issues in Developmental Psychology

1) Nature vs nurture
2) Continuity vs dis continuity
3) Normative vs ideographic

Nature refers to an individual's innate qualities (nativism)

Nurture refers to personal experiences (i.e. empiricism or behaviorism).

The continuity view says that change in development is gradual.

The normative development studies the universal commonalities of child development (often
viewed as resulting from biological universals).

The ideographic development studies individual differences in development: sources of

individual differences might be related to nature, nurture or the different transactions between
the two.

Cognitive-developmental approach /1

• Child development occurs through a series of mental processes such as problem

solving, memory and language.
• These processes have to be learned.
• These processes become more complex with increasing age and experience.

John piaget

Piaget states that development is the reorganisation of knowledge into more

complex schemes.

Schemes are the cognitive structures that are used to understand the world

Two functions guide cognitive development:

1. Organization à New knowledge must be merged with old knowledge

2. Adaptation à The survival of an organism depends on its ability to fit with the environment.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive-developmental change,

• Sensorimotor period: Birth through age 2 à Infant schemes are simple reflexes and
knowledge reflects interactions with people and objects;
• Preoperational period: Age 2 to 6 à Child begins to use symbols (words, numbers) to
represent the world cognitively;
• Concrete operations: Age 6 to 11 à Child performs mental operations and logical
problem solving;
• Formal operations: Age 12 through adulthood à Child can use formal problem solving
and higher level abstract thinking.

Sociocultural approach

Vygotsky’s theory reflects the Marxist environment, which emphasized socialism and
collectivism. Vygotsky believed that:

• Individual cognitive development is a product of cultural influences

• Thinking and problem solving are tools of intellectual adaptation
• Through guided interactions with more experienced members of society, children
learn problem-solving (dialectical process) which leads to internalization

ecological approach

development occurs within the broader social and cultural environment.

Bronfenbrenner proposed five systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem,

macrosystem, chronosystem.

Environmental/learning approach

Burrhus Frederic Skinner focused on two distinct forms of learning

Respondent: Environmental stimuli elicit reflexive responses.

Operant: The impact of voluntary behaviours on the environment à Operant

behaviours are controlled by their effects (operant conditioning video).

Habituation: the decline of a reflex response after repeated elicitation.

Classical conditioning: a form of learning in which a neutral stimulus is paired

with a reflexive stimulus; after several pairings, the neutral stimulus now elicits a
response.

Operant learning: a form of learning in which behaviour changes as a result of

reinforces or punishers.
Social Learning

Albert Bandura added the concept of observational learning to environmental/learning

theory(doll experience)

Important concepts in Bandura’s theory are those of:

1. Observational Learning à Children learn by observing models and, as a

result, experience vicarious punishment or vicarious reinforcement.
2. Children imitate their models.
3. Human development involves an interaction between a person’s
characteristics and behaviour with the environment.

Evolutionary and biological approach

1. Psychologists should study observable and measurable behaviour only;

2. All behaviours are learned;
3. We are not born with any set of behaviours;
4. The mental process cannot be observed or measured and therefore cannot be
studied scientifically;
5. The adult personality can change but only as a result of exposure to different
experiences.

Data collection in developmental psychology can rely on:

• Self-reports (questionnaires and interviews)

• Clinical method (a more flexible interview method)
• Observational methodologies (naturalistic and structured observations)
• Case studies
• Ethnography
• Psychophysiological or neuroimaging methods.

The experimental design

identifies cause-and-effect relationships. The experimenter manipulates one (or more)

independent variables, exercises experimental control over all other confounding
variables (often by random assignment of participants to treatments) and finally
observes the effect(s) of the manipulation(s) on the dependent variable.

Longitudinal research design

a method of collecting data that administers a test or series of tests to the same
participant or group of participants on a number of occasions.
Retrospective or biographical research design

Participants’ past is reconstructed through interviews and other research about their life to
understand how past experiences have shaped current behavior and psychological
functioning. Examples are Sigmund Freud’s case studies, in which he tried to identify the
roots of his patients’ symptoms.

Quantitative methods use a systematic approach for collecting data that have - or are
assigned - a numerical value. A typical quantitative method would use a survey or
questionnaire to collect numerically coded data.

Qualitative methods describe and define concepts without the use of numbers, and are
usually conducted with smaller participant numbers.

A unified theory of development /1

The models we use to understand how individuals change over time have increased in
complexity from linear to interactive to transactive to multilevel dynamic systems.
Contemporary developmental science requires at least four models for understanding
human growth

The four proposed models are as follows:

1. The personal change model is necessary for understanding the progression of

competencies from infancy on.
2. The contextual model (link at next slide on environment) is necessary to delineate
the multiple sources of experience that augment or constrain individual
development.
3. The regulation model adds a dynamic system perspective on the relationship
between person and context. During early development, human regulation moves
from primarily biological to the psychological and social (e.g., from the regulation of
temperature to the regulation of arousal, attention, and so on..)
4. The representational model is related to the individual’s here and now experiences
in the world in a given timeless existence in thought. These representations are the
cognitive structures where experience is encoded at abstracted levels that provide
an interpretative structure for new experiences.

Transactional Model of Development?

The transactional model was initially proposed by Arnold Sameroff in 1975.The

transactional model of development assumes that children, caregivers, and their
environment determine the developmental and behavioral outcome. The
transactional model of development holds that the child and the caregiving
environment tend to alter each other mutually over time. Child development
results from continuous dynamic interactions between the child and the
experience provided by his/her social settings. The core of the transactional
model is the analytic emphasis placed on the bidirectional, interdependent effects
of the child and the environment. Development is influenced in multiple ways by
the diverse qualities that individuals bring to their environments and the diverse
environments that individuals experience.

Transactional Processes

Child development is the product of the relations, transactions and interactions

between the child, the environment and the biological system (Sameroff, 1985).

the child’s behaviour at any point in time is the product of the transactions
between the phenotype, that is the person, the environtype, that is, the source
of external experience (e.g., family and cultural socialization patterns), and the
genotype, that is the source of biological organization.

Following this model, children, even infants, play an active role in influencing the
parenting they receive, and thereby their own development.

Lesson 2

developmental scholars agree that culture can be conceptualised as the set of

material and symbolic tools that accumulate over time, are transmitted across
generations through social processes, and provide resources for the developing
individual.

According to anthropologist Edward Hall (1976), culture can be represented as an

iceberg as it has both an explicit and an implicit dimension.

The explicit dimension includes observable, explicitly learned, and conscious

aspects, such as behaviors and (partly) beliefs that represent objective knowledge
and are more easily changed (e.g., traditions, customs, language, expressive arts,
food).

The implicit dimension involves some beliefs and the values and thought patterns
underlying behavior; these are often not available to consciousness, represent
subjective knowledge, and are more resistant to change (e.g., communication
styles, gender roles, personal space).

Cross-Cultural Psychology

It aims to identify the universal aspects of human behaviour and psychological

functioning under different cultural conditions using a systematic, comparative
approach.
Cultural Psychology

Cultural psychology is an interdisciplinary field based on psychology,

anthropology, and linguistics. It aims to address the interrelations among culture
and the human mind, The key question is: How do cultural practices shape
psychological processes, and vice-versa?

Individualism and Collectivism

Social psychologist Geert Hofstede proposed that cultural value systems can be
classified along six dimensions. Among these, the individualism-collectivism
dimension has received much attention in cross-cultural studies

Individualism gives priority to personal rather than to group goals. It emphasises

values that serve the self, such as feeling good, seeking personal distinction and
recognition for achievement, and asserting independence.

Collectivism emphasises values that serve the group by subordinating personal goals to
preserve group integrity, promote interdependence of members, and foster harmonious
relationships.

Why is a Cultural-Contextual Perspective on Development

Important?

Because

1. it allows to ascertain the universal and specific aspects of human behavior,

2. test the universality of Western psychological theories (e.g., Piaget’s stage-like
theory),
3. redefine what we consider to be “normative" and “nonnormative"
development,
4. discover new or different patterns of behavior (i.e., exploratory function),
5. reduce ethnocentrism

According to the American Psychological Association (APA, 1990),

1. it is imperative for psychologists to recognise cultural diversity,

2. understand the role of culture and ethnicity in the socio-psychological and
economic development of ethnic and culturally diverse populations,
3. and to understand that socioeconomic and political factors significantly
impact the psychosocial, political and economic development of ethnic and
culturally diverse groups.
 4. psychologists should help clients understand/maintain/resolve their own
sociocultural identification, and understand the interaction of culture, gender,
and sexual orientation on behavior and needs.

Beatrice and John Whiting (1975) conducted the famous

“Children of six cultures” study

1. children between the ages of 3 and 11 years

2. in six different countries (Kenya, the Philippines, Japan, India, Mexico
and the USA)
3. Observed during their daily interactions with other people.
4. most prosocial children were from the most traditional society Kenya
5. least prosocial children came from the most modern society (USA)
6. this study shows how different aspects of socioeconomic
organization of a culture (e.g., modernization) can promote or inhibit
children’s opportunities to acquire specific social behaviors.

The Psychocultural Model

The Whitings proposed a theoretical model to explain the associations

between culture and child development using a linear.
Their psychocultural model views human behaviour as the result of a chain
of social and cultural circumstances surrounding the child.
1. starting from the environment (e.g., climate, terrain) and historical
events.
2. These lead to the maintenance systems (e.g., means of production,
social structure)
3. which are linked to the child’s learning environment (e.g., routine
settings, caretakers, and tasks).
4. In turn, these influences shape children’s behavior and development

The Developmental Niche

Charles Super and Sara Harkness (1986) proposed that children grow up in
a developmental niche composed of three interacting systems surrounding the
child:

1. The settings in which the child participates

2. Caretaker psychology
3. The customs of childcare shared by the community
Parental ethnotheories are an important component of caretaker psychology and
refer to the set of beliefs and socialization goals related to child development and
upbringing in a particular cultural context.

The Ecocultural Model

Thomas Weisner (1984) proposed that children’s participation in activities

situated in a local ecology represents a key factor for child development. Such
activities include practices that make up daily routines.

Daily routines are constructed by the family and encompass five components:

1. People involved,
2. Task to be accomplished,
3. Values reflected in the routine,
4. Feelings and motivations,
5. Aims and purpose.

Based on these dimensions, Weisner et al. (1997) developed the Ecocultural

Family Interview (EFI), a semi-structured interview which allows to code
individuals’ narratives along specific dimensions using a Likert-type scale.

The theory predicts that family production and child participation in sustainable
routines with meaningful activities increase child well-being.

The Sociocultural Approach

Barbara Rogoff (2003). Influenced by the Whitings, Bronfenbrenner, and

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, she proposes that children and the sociocultural
context are mutually involved, since culture structures the individual as much as
the individual’s actions redefine culture. learning occurs without instructional
design in guided participation. which consists of collaboration, observation, and
shared understanding between children and caregivers in relevant activities
through intuitive communication.

Obstacles in Multicultural Assessment

1. Most psychological tests have been developed in Western contexts,

rendering their use in multicultural or non-Western populations
problematic
2. bias deriving from methodological issues (e.g., sample characteristics,
administration procedures , item content/translation) can lead to
unreliable results.
 3. unfamiliarity with individuals’ cultural background increases the risk of
over- or under referral, misdiagnosis, and inefficient service delivery.

Best Practices in Multicultural Assessment

1. Use a culturally-informed, multidisciplinary approach by combining

insights from psychology, linguistics, and ethnography
2. Develop test adaptations (e.g., construct-, language-, culture-, theory-
driven) to ensure comparability of item content between original and
adapted versions of a test;
3. Use statistical methods to establish measurement invariance across
cultural groups to ensure comparability of scores;
4. Combine the use of different assessment methods to obtain a more
comprehensive picture of an individual’s condition/performance;
5. If available, use normed scores for the same ethnic group when
interpreting individuals’ test scores;
6. Develop and cultivate cultural competence through continuous training,
exchange with other professionals, self-assessment, and hands-on
experience.

Behavior Observation

In naturalistic observation, individuals or groups are observed in the environment

in which it typically occurs (e.g., children on a playground).

In structured observation, the researcher introduces some specific task or social

situation/manipulation to elicit one or more specific behaviors (e.g., laboratory
studies).

possible problems

1. include the influence of observer’s characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, gender),

2. people behaving based on social norms (i.e., social desirability bias),
3. and disagreements in coding of behaviors due to cultural biases.

To address these issues,

1. explicit one’s own role and goals,

2. develop a coding manual to ensure interrater reliability,
3. provide extensive training to observers,
4. and consult an insider/cultural mediator.
Interviews

Interviews can be

1. unstructured (e.g., free associations),

2. semi-structured (e.g., Adult Attachment Interview ),
3. or structured (e.g., close-ended questions)

possible problems

1. the interviewees’ level of language proficiency,

2. cultural differences in conversational rules,
3. and role asymmetry between interviewer and interviewee which may
induce social desirability bias. where the interviewee may respond in a way
they think is socially acceptable rather than providing genuine answers.

it is recommended to

1. check the cultural relevance and appropriateness of questions,

2. use simple, informal, and culturally sensitive language,
3. collaborate with an insider/cultural mediator,
4. and gain some preliminary knowledge of participants’ cultural
background.

the DSM 5 Cultural Formulation Interview

The Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is a systematic, semi-structured

interview included in the DSM 5

The CFI has 3 components:

1. A core interview of 16 open-ended questions, It is divided into 4 subtopics

(i.e., cultural definition of the problem; cultural perceptions of cause,
context, and support; cultural factors affecting self-coping and past help-
seeking; and cultural factors affecting current help-seeking).
2. A second, informant version of the CFI which elicits the perspectives of
persons closest to the patient (e.g., relatives, friends) on the same
interview domains.
3. A third component consisting of 12 supplementary modules that expand
on the domains of the core and informant CFIs and can yield a more
comprehensive cultural assessment.
 What is Parenting?

Parenting or childrearing is defined as a biological and social process that

involves raising and socialising a child from birth to adulthood (Tobach &
Schneirla, 1968). parents’ primary goal is to transmit their children the
competencies needed to survive in a specific environment.

parents have the following major responsibilities:

1. maintain children's health and safety,

2. promote children’s emotional well-being,
3. install social skills,
4. and prepare children intellectually.

A Taxonomy of Parenting

The developmentalist Marc Bornstein (1995) proposed a taxonomy of

parenting which can be considered universal and includes six categories:

1. Nurturant caregiving
2. Physical caregiving
3. Social caregiving
4. Didactic caregiving consists of the strategies parents use to stimulate children
to engage and understand the environment (e.g., teaching, describing, and
demonstrating; providing opportunities to observe, to imitate, and to learn).
5. Material caregiving refers to how parents provision, organize, and arrange the
child's physical world (e.g., number and variety of inanimate objects available
to the child, level of stimulation).
6. Language caregiving relates to the amount, type, and quality of speech
directed to the child.

anthropologist Robert LeVine (1988), proposed that parents share three

universal goals that are hierarchically ordered and that have an adaptive function:

1. ensuring physical health and survival;

2. developing behavioral capacities for economic self-maintenance;
3. instilling behavioral capacities for maximizing cultural values such as morality,
prestige, and achievement.
Çiğdem Kağıtçıbaşı (2007) proposed that in sociocultural contexts of low
affluence.

This is the family model of ‘interdependence’, more prevalent in collectivistic

cultures with closely knit human relations. Childrearing is obedience-oriented and
autonomy discouraged to ensure long-term family loyalty.

This is the family model of ‘independence’ that can be typically found in

individualistic societies. Childrearing is oriented towards encouraging self-reliance
and autonomy.

Two prototypical developmental pathways can be described

Heidi Keller (2016)

1. One pathway is adaptive for the way of life among highly formally
educated Western middle-class families, The preparation for a life in a
competitive world is primed through individual psychological autonomy
with an early emphasis on subjective wishes, intentions and preferences,
leading to an independent/autonomous self.
2. The other pathway is adaptive for the life in a hierarchically organized
extended family or clan, The preparation for life in small scale, face-to-face
villages is primed through hierarchical relatedness, where obedience and
respect form the basis for responsible action in the service of the
community. This action autonomy is also based on individual decisions and
responsibilities (e.g., how to care for younger siblings), and results in the
formation of an interdependent/relational self.

Brain Development from Conception to Adulthood

the first 8 years can build a foundation for future learning, health, and life
success. begins about 2 weeks after conception and continues into young
adulthood 20 years later.
Brain activity can be tracked from the outside with the electroencephalograms
(EEG).
At birth, the newborn’s brain is about 25 percent of its adult weight.
By the second birthday, the brain is about 75 percent of its adult weight.
However, brain areas do not mature uniformly.
 Paul MacLean developed the famous triune brain theory.

1. The reptilian brain is the first to form and is responsible for basic survival.
2. The limbic areas including hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus are
responsible for our emotional and social life as well as for emotional
memory. These areas are developing next.
3. The upper brain (i.e., the cortical regions) develops largely after birth and
in the preschool/school years. This is the cerebral cortex, which covers the
forebrain like a wrinkled cap. It has two halves (or hemispheres) and four
main areas, called lobes, in each hemisphere.

Although the lobes usually work together, each has a somewhat

different primary function:

1. Frontal lobes are involved in voluntary movement, thinking,

personality, and intentionality or purpose
2. Occipital lobes function in vision
3. Temporal lobes have an active role in hearing, language processing,
and memory
4. Parietal lobes play important roles in registering spatial location,
attention, and motor control
 The architecture of the brain depends on the mutual
influences of several factors:
1. Genetics: They provide the structure for the brain’s architecture and
supply the means for interconnecting nerve cells within and across
circuits.
2. Environment: This begins prenatally, with brains needing an abundant
supply of nutrients. An adverse prenatal environment can alter the
genetic plans.
3. Experience: Experience refers to the interaction of the child with his or
her environment. Healthy and stimulating experience results in a brain
architecture that is able to operate at its full genetic potential.

Toxic stress leads to a weak brain architecture.

The first 1000 days, from pregnancy to 2 years, are a time period that can have a
profound impact on a child’s growth and development.

Nim Tottenham research, the caregiver is a key factor in promoting healthy

development; on the opposite side, toxic stress can have a seriously
negative impact on the child.

Brain development proceeds in overlapping phases:

1. making the brain cells (neurogenesis);

2. getting the cells to where they need to be (migration);
3. growing axons and dendrites, (neuronal differentiation and path finding);
4. developing synapses (synaptogenesis);
5. refining those synapses (maturation and pruning);
6. forming the supportive tissue that surrounds the nerve cells and makes for
efficient communication among them (myelination).

early experiences play an important role in brain development. Neural

connections are formed early in an infant’s life .

Developmental cognitive neuroscientists study how the brain and the

nervous system develop, and their relation to psychological abilities.

We know that brain development follows an orderly sequence during infancy and
childhood: the parts of the brain that are farthest from the spinal cord develop last. In
fact, the cerebral hemispheres develop much slower in humans than in other primates.
As these areas mature, a range of cognitive functions begin to unfold.
The Dynamic Systems View

First, developmentalist Arnold Gesell (1934) observed how infants and

children develop rolling, sitting, standing, and other motor skills in a fixed
order and within specific time frames.

More recently, Esther Thelen (2004) proposed a dynamic systems theory.

Following this theory, motor behaviors are assembled for perception and
action. According to this theory, motor skills are the result of many
converging factors, such as the development of the nervous system, the
body’s physical properties and its movement possibilities, the goal the child is
motivated to reach, and environmental support for the skill. the infant actively
puts together a skill to achieve a goal within the constraints set by the infant’s
body and environment.

Reflexes

Reflexes are built-in reactions to stimuli that govern the newborn’s

movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn’s control.

Rooting reflex → A newborn’s built-in reaction that occurs when the infant’s
cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched. In response, the infant
turns his/her head toward the side that was touched, in an apparent effort to
find something to suck.

Sucking reflex → The sucking reflex enables the infant to get nourishment
before s/he has associated a nipple with food, and also serves as a self-
soothing or self-regulating mechanism.

Moro reflex → A neonatal startle response that occurs in reaction to a

sudden, intense noise or movement. When startled, the newborn arches its
back, throws its head back, and flings out its arms and legs. Then the newborn
rapidly closes its arms and legs to the center of the body.

Grasping reflex → A neonatal reflex that occurs when something touches the
infant’s palms. The infant responds by grasping
tightly.
Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale (1987)

This scale contains a battery of tests used to measure an infant’s sensory and
perceptual capabilities, range of states and ability to regulate these states, as well
as whether the brain and central nervous system are properly regulating
involuntary responses.

Gross Motor Skills 1 year

Gross motor skills involve large-muscle activities.Key skills developed during infancy
include control of posture and walking.

Fine Motor Skills 2 year

Fine motor skills involve coordination and control of the wrists, fingers, and hands in
carrying out a specific task with precision.

Perception
is the use of the senses to acquire information or knowledge about the
external world. In other words, perception is the interpretation of what is
sensed.

The constructivist view emphasizes the construction of perception through

learning.

The ecological view proposes that we directly perceive information which in the
world around us.

One limitation of both views is that they do not take into account biological
maturation. Some abilities are not present at birth due to physical maturation
of perceptual systems, such as vision. Thus, a complete account of perceptual
development must consider physical maturation, the role of experience, and a
developing sensitivity to information.

Study the Development of Perception

1. By presenting a stimulus (such as a sight or a sound) a number of times and

observing the the intant’s behavioral response:

• Habituation: Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of

the stimulus . (Getting bored)
• Dishabituation: Recovery of a habituated response after a change in
stimulation.baby is sensitive to something new.new spice .
 2. the visual preference method. A method used to determine whether
infants can distinguish one stimulus from another by measuring the length of
time they attend to different stimuli.

Robert Fantz (1963) was a pioneer in this effort. He made an important discovery
that advanced the ability of researchers to investigate infants’ visual perception:

1. Infants look at different things for different amounts of time.

2. Infants only 2 days old look longer at patterned stimuli, such as faces and
concentric circles, than at red, white, or yellow discs.
3. Infants 2 to 3 weeks old prefer to look at patterns - a face, a piece of printed
matter, or a bull’s-eye - longer than at red, yellow, or white discs.

3.Another option is high-amplitude sucking

the nipple is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck causes a noise to be

generated, and the infant learns quickly that sucking brings about this noise. At first,
babies suck frequently, so the noise occurs often. Then, gradually , they lose interest
in hearing repetitions of the same noise and begin to suck less frequently .

4. The orienting response

is used to determine if an infant can see or hear. It involves presenting the infant with
a stimulus and observing if s/he is turning the head toward a sight or sound.

Haptic perception

is the active use of touch to encode and recognize objects and surface properties which
relies on inputs from both skin receptors and proprioception.

Olfaction and Taste

Newborns can differentiate odors. Researchers have shown how the expression on their
face changes in response to different smells. For example, they seem to like the way vanilla
and strawberry smell, but they do not like the smell of rotten eggs and fish.

Sensitivity to taste might be present even before birth.

Hearing

An infant’s hearing can be tested shortly after birth, and these tests show that the newborn
is able to detect a wide range of sounds. In addition, hearing is functional before birth (early
evidence is around 23-24 weeks of gestation). At the beginning, s/he is not able to hear soft
noises or pitch sounds. These abilities fully develop by 2 years of age.
Vision

Visual acuity: at birth the nerves, muscles, and lens of the eye are still
developing, and newborns cannot see small things that are far away . The
newborn’s vision is estimated to be 20/240 on the well-known . By 6 months of age,
on average, vision is 20/40.

Pattern perception: Infants look at different things for different lengths of time.
They show preferences for certain types of patterns.

For example, a bull’s eye will be attended to more than horizontal or vertical stripes.
In addition, infants show a processing advantage for vertically symmetrical patterns
compared to horizontally or obliquely symmetrical patterns and are able to process
patterns both at the local and at the global levels. Furthermore, young infants’
attention is directed to edges and contours.

Color vision: By 8 weeks, infants can discriminate some color; by 4 months of age,
they have color preferences (e.g., preference for saturated colors, such as royal
blue over pale blue).

Perceptual constancy: Sensory stimulation undergoes changes, but perception of

the physical world remains constant as it allows the infant to perceive its world as
stable. Two types of perceptual constancy are size constancy and shape
constancy:

• Size Constancy: The recognition that an object remains the same, even
though the retinal image of the object changes.
• Shape Constancy: The recognition that an object remains the same shape,
even though its orientation to us changes.

Perception of Occluded Objects: In the first two months of postnatal

development, infants do not perceive occluded objects as complete, but only
perceive what is visible. Starting from about 2 months of age, infants develop
the ability to perceive that occluded objects are whole.

One of the earliest studies in infant perception showed that they prefer face-
like displays over other patterned stimuli, and often infants will show a
preference for a face with the features arranged correctly over a scrambled
face. There is strong evidence that infants are born predisposed to attend to
faces.
When looking at a human face, a newborn will pay more attention to the hairline or the
edge of the face.

By 2 months of age, infants begin to attend to the internal features of the face – such as the
nose and mouth.

By 3 months of age, infants focus almost entirely on the internal part of the face, particularly
on the eyes and lips. At this age, infants can tell the difference between mother’s face and a
stranger’s face.

Depth Perception

Understanding of depth perception in infancy began with the first study

conducted in the late 1950s by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk.
The study of the development of depth perception in infancy has heavily relied on spatially
appropriate behaviours. From these studies, we know that:

1. Infants as young as 4 weeks react defensively to approaching surfaces,

suggesting early sensitivity to distance information provided by optical
expansion.
2. By 3 months of age, infants use convergence for perceiving depth
3. By 5 months of age, appearance (accretion) and disappearance (deletion) of
texture provides infants with the ordering of surfaces in depth.

Multisensory Perception

involves integrating information from two or more sensory modalities, such as

vision and hearing. Babies are born into the world with some innate abilities to
perceive relations among sensory modalities, but their intermodal abilities
improve considerably through experience .

Issues in Cognitive Development

1. Nature versus nurture. This fundamental question concerns what influences

development, nature (inherited factors) or nurture (environment)?
2. Experience versus maturation. The question is: how much of cognitive development
is dependent on biological maturation, which is genetically programmed, and how
much is dependent on experience?
3. Competence and performance. There is a difference between what children are
actually able to do and understand, and how they use their knowledge and ability.

The main theories in cognitive development include those

developed by Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner.
Piaget believed on the existence of three kinds of knowledge:

1. physical knowledge,
2. logical-mathematical knowledge,
3. and social knowledge.
• He was the main representative of constructivism

Piaget and Learning

the child’s action on, and exploration of, the world leads to :

1. the assimilation of new information into older structures,

2. and the accommodation or revision of older structures in light of new information.

•Piaget thought that learning takes place when the child is in a state of disequilibrium
that drives or motivates to learn and understand things

Piaget and the New Developmental Perspectives

• Piaget’s view underestimates the cognitive and perceptual capacities of

infants and young children.

current perspectives on Piaget’s theory:

1. that the sequence of the stages is supported, but not the ages .
2. underestimated the role of social interaction.
3. recent studies have proven that some revisitation of Piaget’s theory is
necessary.

Renée Baillargeon (2008)

• infants have a pre-adapted, innate bias called the ‘principle of persistence’

(objects do not change their properties unless some external factor intervenes)

core knowledge approach

1. made Elizabeth Spelke

2. This approach argues that Piaget greatly underestimated the cognitive
abilities of infants.
3. infants are born with domain-specific knowledge systems for space,
numbers, sense, object permanence, and language.
Vygotsky

1. Vygotsky’s theory is called the sociocultural theory.

2. sees the child as acquiring his/her culture’s values, beliefs, and problem-
solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more
knowledgeable members of society.
3. Rather than on the individual child, he focused on the child as a product of
social interaction, especially with adults (parents, teachers).

Key Aspects of Vygotsky’s Theory

1. Children construct their knowledge that is not transferred passively, but is

personally constructed.
2. Learning is mediated. Cognitive development is not a direct result of
activity, but it is indirect; other people must interact with the learner, use
mediation tools to facilitate the learning process, and then cognitive
development may occur.
3. Language plays a central role in mental development.
4. Learning appears twice: First at the social level, and later at the individual
level;
5. Development cannot be separated from its social context. The context
needed for learning is where learners can interact with each other and use
new tools. This means that the learning environment must be authentic,
that is, it must contain the type of people who would use these types of
tools such as concepts, language, and symbols in a natural way.

The Zone of Proximal Development

the range of tasks too complex to be mastered alone, but that can be
accomplished with the guidance of a a more skillful partner

Scaffolding
 Scaffolding is the role of teachers and others in supporting the learner’s
development and providing support structures to get to the next stage or level.

Learning in and from the Context

Barbara Rogoff (1990) views transactions between adults and children as

reflecting “apprenticeship in thinking” → novice improves his/her skills and
understanding through participation in culturally organized activities with
more skilled partners.

Rogoff extends the idea of ZPD to guided participation, that is, adult-child
interactions in which children’s cognitions and modes of thinking are shaped as
they participate or observe adults engaged in culturally relevant activities.

Bruner’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Unlike Piaget, however, Bruner argued that social factors, particularly language, are
important for cognitive growth. These underpin the concept of ‘scaffolding’ that had
been proposed by Vygotsky.

Bruner suggested that different ways of thinking are important at different ages.
Specifically, he proposed:

1. The enactive mode (used in the first 18 months)

2. The iconic mode (develops from 18 months)
 3. The symbolic mode (from 6-7 years onwards)

Enactive mode. During this period, the infant stores information in the form of’
muscle memories’, i.e., remembering the feel of actions. Thinking is based
entirely on physical actions. This mode continues later on in many physical
activities, such as learning to ride a bike.

Iconic mode. Information is stored as sensory images: usually visual ones, like
pictures in the mind. This mode begins to develop from 18 months. Some children
develop an extreme form, known as eidetic imagery (photographic memory), but
they usually lose it as they grow older.

Symbolic mode. The ability to store things in the form of symbols. Words are
powerful symbols, and we can store a lot of information as verbal memory.

The Information-Processing Approach

the human mind as a system that processes information and attempts to understand
how the limitations of the system impact the way cognitive functions work.

Two examples of information processing models

1. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) ,

2. and the modal model of working memory proposed by Baddeley and
Hitch(1974) .

While early information processing accounts of cognitive development focused

on changes in processing limitations, more recently researchers have focused on
the development of executive control of cognitive functions that children use to
process information.

• The first learning mechanism which helps the infant orient towards new
information and away from old information is habituation.

• Sensitization is an increase in the strength of response to a repeated stimulus.

The Importance of Attention

1. focusing of mental resources on select information.

2. Attention in the first year of life is dominated by an orienting/investigative
process.
3. New stimuli typically elicit an orienting response that is followed by sustained
attention.
 4. An important mechanism is joint attention, which involves individuals focusing on
the same object or event.
5. Taking control of attention, for example by shifting it away from salient but
irrelevant information, keeps developing until the age of 11-12 years.
6. Greater control over attention allows children to combine it with planning,
that is, the deliberate organisation of a sequence of actions oriented towards
achieving a goal.

Concept Formation and Categorization

categories: They group objects, events, and characteristics based on common

properties. Concepts are ideas about what categories represent. Concepts and
categories help us to simplify and summarize information.

1. perceptual categorization: categorizations are based on similar perceptual

features of objects.
2. It is not until about 7 to 9 months of age that infants form conceptual
categories, rather than just making perceptual discriminations between
different categories.

The Development of Executive Functions

include working memory, inhibition, planning, means-end coordination, task

switching, and attentional control. EF take time to develop due to their link with
specific neural correlates. Development of EF is associated with the structural
development of specific areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex.

Intelligence: Measuring Cognitive Performance

The psychometric approach defines intelligence as a trait that allows some

people to think and solve problems more effectively than others.

intelligence tests

1. the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

2. the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV)
3. Both scales compare children’s performance against test norms for age-
mates.
4. Both scales assign children intelligence quotients (IQs), which are normally
distributed around the average score of 100.
5. New approaches to intelligence testing (Kaufman Assessment Battery for
Children) use dynamic assessment, which is compatible with Vygotsky’s
theory and Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence.
 All human languages have some common characteristics that
include infinite generativity and organizational rules.

The organization involves five systems of rules:

1. phonology,
2. morphology,
3. syntax,
4. semantics,
5. and pragmatics.

Language System of Rules

Phonology: Every language is made up of basic sounds. Phonology is the sound

system of the language, including the sounds that are used and how they may be
combined. A phoneme is the basic unit of sound in a language; it is the smallest unit
of sound that affects meaning.

Morphology: refers to the units of meaning involved in word formation. A

morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning; it is a word or a part of a word that cannot
be broken into smaller meaningful parts.

Syntax: involves the way words are combined to form acceptable phrases and
sentences.

Semantics: refers to the meaning of words and sentences. Every word has a set of
semantic features, which are required attributes related to meaning.

Pragmatics: a set of language rules to appropriately use language in different

contexts. When you take turns speaking in a discussion or use a question to convey a
command, you are demonstrating knowledge of pragmatics.

Early Communication in Humans

It could therefore be argued that complex pre-verbal communication is occurring.

These studies show how infants’ crying can have a very real physiological effect on
mothers, and supports the view that crying may have a survival function by ensuring
that an infant remains in close proximity to her mother.

The Development of Language: How it All Begins

the development of language is complex and involves many aspects.The first step, is
the ability to recognize sounds. they must find the boundaries between words, an
achievement occurring by 8 months of age.
Babies’ sounds go through this sequence during the first year:

Crying. it has been demonstrated that there are different types of cries that signal different
things.

Cooing. Babies first coo at about 2 to 4 months. These are gurgling sounds that are made in
the back of the throat and usually express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver.

Babbling. In the middle of the first year, babies babble—that is, they produce strings of
consonant-vowel combinations, such as “ba, ba, ba, ba.”

complex babbling,modulated babbling. At this time, infants begin to play and explore
the patterns of intonation, stress, pitch, and tone which characterize more adult speech.
This is the final stage before proper articulation and the use of referential words, which
occurs between 10 and 15 months.

Semantic Development

Once her vocabulary has reached between 50 and 100 words, however, the process of
vocabulary growth accelerates rapidly. This is commonly referred to as the
“vocabulary spurt”. The vocabulary spurt often occurs at around 18 months of age

Overextension, tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word’s
meaning

Underextension, tendency to apply a word too narrowly; it occurs when children fail to use
a word to name a relevant event or object. For example, a child might use the word "boy" to
describe a 5-year-old neighbor, but not apply the word to a male infant or to a 9-year-old
male.

Syntactic Development

By the time children are 18 to 24 months of age, they usually utter two-word utterances
(this is called ‘telegraphic speech’).After the end of the second year, children begin to put
three and four words in combination.Eventually, they become able to
produce fully formed, grammatically correct sentences.

Development of Pragmatics

part of language concerned with its appropriate use in social situations, our ability to
extract and to convey meaning which goes beyond just syntax and semantics.

the child needs to:

1. Know how language can be used and adjusted to fit different circumstances.
2. Learn that messages need the right quantity of information,
3. Learn that messages should be relevant.
 4. Learn to take turns during conversations (and wait for their turns).

Two areas located in the frontal lobe and in the temporal lobe of
the brain’s left hemisphere are crucial for language processing.

1. Broca’s area is responsible for language production (i.e., the articulation of sounds),
2. Wernicke’s area is involved in language comprehension.

Studies shown that apes can learn to comprehend dozens of spoken words and phrases,
but they cannot produce (spoken) language.

Adults help children acquire language through a series of behaviors that help the
child increase his/her knowledge in all the language subsystems. These behaviors
include child-directed speech, recasting, expanding, and labeling.

Theories of Language Development

Nowadays, scholars tend to acknowledge

the importance of both inborn predispositions and the social environment in shaping
language development.

Early theories nclude the learning approach, the nativist view, and cognitive theory.

More recent theories comprise interactionist approaches and Bayesian theories.

Learning approach

Skinner, 1975): children learn language based on reinforcement principles, which

involve the association of words with meanings.

By giving attention, praise, and approval to the infant’s approximations to adult

speech sounds, caregivers shape their offsprings’ verbal behaviour which
increasingly resembles adult speech.

Bandura (1989) proposed imitation or observational learning as a crucial

mechanism through which children pick up words, utterances and sentences
directly from their environment. Through reinforcement and generalisation,
children learn when to use particular words and expressions.

learning theory is limited as it does not account for children’s ability to actively
discover and apply new language rules (i.e., creativity).
Nativist Approaches

Noam Chomsky (1968) proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: the idea of
innate, biological grammatical categories, such as noun and verb, that facilitate
the entire language development in children and overall language processing in
adults.

Chomsky argues that children are born with the ability to detect basic features and
rules of language. In other words, they are biologically prepared to learn language
with a pre-wired language acquisition device (LAD).

More generally, nativists argue that all languages share certain basic characteristics because
language ability is an inherited characteristic specific to our species.

Sociocultural Approaches

One of the major criticisms of Chomsky’s theory is related to the assumption that
biological principles alone can account for all aspects of language development, with
little or no importance attributed to the social context of language.

According to Bruner (1982), the earliest social structures for language development
involve formats, i.e., recurrent socially patterned activities in which adult and child
do things together.

He also proposed the concept of Language Acquisition Support System (LASS), that
is, the patterned behaviors and formatted events within which children acquire
language. The LASS is considered as the environmental complement to Chomsky’s
innate LAD.

Bayesian Theories

Overall, some of the previous theories are compatible and complement each other,
and some of them provide more accurate accounts for selected aspects of language
development than others. Many scholars currently use a combination of these
theories to provide a more complete picture of the complex processes involved in
the acquisition of language.

that two keys give children entrance to the world of language:

1. typically developing human biological structures and processes,

2. and active participation in a language-using community.
What Are Emotions

LeDoux (2017) defined emotions as a cognitive process that relies on “higher-order

states” embedded in cortical (conscious) brain circuits; emotions are not innately
programmed into subcortical (nonconscious) brain circuits.

Emotions are therefore usually defined as a physiological, behavioral, and cognitive

response to a stimulus (emotional stimuli).

In sum, biological evolution has endowed human beings to be emotional, but

culture and relationships with others provide diversity in emotional experiences.

primary emotions: happiness, fear, anger, sadness, disgust and surprise,

secondary emotions: shame, guilt, pride, embarrassment.

Emotions have an adaptive role. They motivate, they

drive to action (toward or away), and they modify
sensory thresholds.

In addition, emotions have an effect on learning as

they strengthen memory and modulate behavior.
Moreover, the arousal related to emotions affects
learning performance.

Emotional Development Theories

1. genetic-maturational,
2. the learning,
3. the functionalist perspective.

genetic-maturational perspective views emotions as a product of biology.

Individual differences play an important role in explaining how children react with
different intensity to emotional stimuli.

learning perspective believes that children learn to express, recognize and

regulate their emotions through learning. Different emotions and the way in
which children express them have different ages of onset, different frequency,
and different intensity in different children

functionalist view states that emotions are the result of individuals’ attempts to
adapt to specific contextual demands (Saarni & others, 2006). A child’s emotional
responses cannot be separated from the situations in which they are evoked, and
many times emotions are elicited in interpersonal contexts.

implications of the functionalist view :

1. that emotions are relational rather than internal, intrapsychic phenomena.

2. emotions are linked with an individual’s goals in a variety of ways, and the
specific nature of the goal can affect the experience of a given emotion.

Carolyn Saarni defines emotional competence as the demonstration of self-

efficacy in emotion-eliciting social transactions.

Development of Emotional Expressions

At birth, Babies have at least three types of cries: a basic cry, an angry cry, and a
pain cry, which differ fro in the patterns of duration and length of cry-pause
sequences.

reflexivesmile is a smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli and
appears during the first month after birth, usually during sleep.

Social smile, occurs as early as 4 to 6 weeks of age in response to a caregiver’s

voice . From 2 to 6 months after birth, infant’s social smiling increases
considerably, both in self-initiated smiles and smiles in response to others’ smiles.

Between 3 and 4 months, anger is also expressed by infants often through a loud
cry.

disgust. According to Izard (1977), in the first year of life, this emotion is always
directed toward the taste of food or particular smells.

Fear appears at around 6 months, but it peaks at about 18 months.

Stranger Anxiety

is a form of fear and wariness infant shows in front of strangers. even if it first
appears at about 6 months of age as wary reactions, by 9 months it is more
intense and continues to escalate through the infant’s first birthday.

The Development of Socially Directed Emotional Expressions

we may see empathy between 12-14 months, embarrassment only between

18-24 months, and guilt as well as pride around 30-36 months.
 Around 3 years of age, children learn to hide their emotions and avoid from
expressing what they are feeling .Thus, it seems that at this age they start
lying.

However, at 5 years they are not able yet to convince others that their lies are
true. This ability is really formed only once children also acquire the ability to
regulate their emotional response.

Learning to recognize others’ emotions is a difficult task that starts to develop

between 2 and 6 months during face-to-face interactions. Infants are able to
discriminate some emotions starting from the first months.

At the end of the first year, infants understand the negative valence of emotions,
and emotional expressions displayed by others influence their behavior. For
example, they avoid people expressing negative emotions such as fear, anger or
disgust.

Children with Down syndrome have been shown to overestimate positive

emotions, at the point of confusing negative emotions such as sadness with
positive ones.
Role of the Environment in Emotion Recognition

The experiences that the child has during the first years of life affect his/her ability
to recognize emotions .

Development of Emotion Understanding

between 1 and 4 months, mother-child interactions and maternal facial

expressions of emotion generate expectancy in the child’s behavior.

At around 12 months of age, infants use maternal emotional expressions to

understand what they should or should not do (as a social reference).

At around 2 years, they start to understand the feelings experienced by others

and the events that may have generated them.

Development of Emotion Understanding in Late Childhood

Developmental changes in emotion understanding at this age include an

increased understanding that more than one emotion can be experienced in a
particular situation. Furthermore, children have a heightened tendency to be
aware of the events leading to emotional reactions. They are also getting very
good at suppressing or concealingnegative emotional reactions.
One form of emotional suppression - at least in terms of emotional expression - is
involved in lying.

that the development of emotion regulation does not simply reflect the control of
emotion, but instead is characterized by dynamic processes that serve to monitor
and evaluate temporal and intensive features of emotional experience.

What is Emotion Regulation?

Emotion regulation is set of processes that function at biological, behavioral, and

social levels. Specifically, these processes capture dynamic behaviors and complex
biological responses that are both automatic and effortful as well
as conscious and unconscious.

Development of Emotion Regulation

there is a gradual transition from primary reliance on co-regulatory processes

between infants and their caregivers, to increasing levels of independent self-
regulation (Sameroff, 2010). In other words, caregivers assist in the regulation.

first year of life, the infant gradually develops an ability to inhibit, or minimize, the
intensity and duration of emotional reactions.

the second year of life, when infants become aroused, they sometimes redirect
their attention or distract themselves in order to reduce their arousal.

In early childhood, interactions with others become increasingly relevant.

Emotion regulation at this age plays a key role in children’s ability to manage the
demands and conflicts they face in interacting with others.

Parents can be described as taking an emotion-coaching or an emotion-

dismissing approach . The distinction between these approaches is most evident
in the way the parent deals with the child’s negative emotions (anger, frustration,
sadness, and so on).

Emotion Regulation in Middle and Late Childhood

However, in families that have not been supportive and are characterized by turmoil
or trauma, children may be so overwhelmed by stress that they do not use such
strategies. Disasters can especially harm children’s development and produce
adjustment problems.
Emotional Expression and Culture

Children’s emotional expression and experience vary across cultures in line with
their cultural values and emotion socialization practices. Japanese children were observed
to express anger less frequently than American children

cultural differences in emotion knowledge may depend on the particular emotions

and situations. For example, Chen (2009) found that Chinese children understood
shame and pride earlier than did American children .

following aspects differ across cultures:

• Knowledge about suppression, neutralization, and faking of emotional

expressions.
• Knowledge about when the expression of various emotions is acceptable, the
beliefs regarding the use of emotions,
• Knowledge of how to regulate emotions and of which modes of emotion
regulation are most useful in which context .

• At what age can children recognize all basic emotions

• 4 years

• The development of emotional expression starts with:

• reflexes

• The development of emotion regulation should be compleated.

• douring young adulthood