Intro to Psychology (PSYC101): Module 11: Infancy and Childhood

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6-7 years old) during which a child learns to use language, but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Authoritarian: parents are coercive, they impose rules and expect obedience.
Permissive: parents are unrestraining, make few demands, set few limits and use little punishment.
Negligent: Parents are uninvolved, neither demanding or responsive.
Authoritative: parents are demanding and responsive, they set rules but also encourage open discussion and allow exceptions.

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Identified significant cognitive development milestones. He focused on the sequence or specific milestones, and less on the child’s age.

Emphasized how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the social environment.

Designed an experiment to assess what accounts for children's attachment differences. Found that sensitive, responsive mothers, had infants who exhibited secure attachment. Insensitive unresponsive mothers had infants that were often insecurely attached.