Developmental Psychology
Infancy
0-2 Years
Unit 3
Learning Objectives
• Growth and motor development.
• Cognitive development (learning and
memory)
• Piaget’s sensorimotor stage.
• Freud’s interpretation and parent - child
relationships.
• Erickson’s stage of Psycho Social
Development trust and autonomy.
GROWTH
• Focus on our physical changes over time.
DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive
•Internal mental processes
•Thinking and understanding
•Larger schemas
Linguistic
•Communication
•Speech patterns
•Sentence structure
Socio-Emotional and Behavioral Milestones
•Relationships
•Social norms and customs
•Feelings
•Following rules and regulating deviance
Physical Development
• Maturation – Biological
growth processes that
enable orderly changes in
behavior, relatively
uninfluenced by experience.
– Physical growth, regardless of
the environment.
– Although the timing of our
growth may be different, the
sequence is almost always the
same.
1-Physical Development: Healthy
Newborns
• Turn head towards
voices.
• See 8 to 12 inches
from their faces.
• Gaze longer at
human like objects
right from birth.
Physical Development:
Infant Motor Development
• Sequence the same- but once again, timing
varies.
• First learn to roll over, sit up unsupported,
crawl, walk etc…
• Maturation sets course of dev.
• Experience adjusts it
2. Cognitive Development
• Focus on how our thought process
develops
– Thinking
– Communicating
– Learning
Touch and Pain
• Newborns respond to touch -> reflex.
• It used to be believed that newborns
were impervious to pain, but it is now
known that it is not true.
Visual Acuity and Color
• The newborn’s acuity is limited.
• By the first birthday, the infant’s vision
approximates that of an adult.
• At birth, babies can distinguish green and
red.
Hearing
• In the last few months of pregnancy, a
fetus can hear sounds (the mother’s voice,
music, etc.)
• Infants can hear immediately after birth,
but a sound must be louder to be heard by
a newborn than an adult.
• Infants are responsive to speech
How Language Develops
• Newborns: Preference for human voice.
• 6-8 weeks - cooing.
• 6-9 months - babbling begins (goo-goo).
• 10-15 months - the infant utters his/her
first word
Physical Development: Motor Skills
Infants do not LEARN these skills, it is part of maturation…
Physical Development: Reflexes
• Inborn automatic responses.
• Rooting
• Sucking
• Grasping
• Moro (startle)
• Babinski (soles/toes)
2-Cognitive Development
• It was once thought
that kids were just
stupid versions of
adults.
• Then came along
Jean Piaget
– Kids learn differently
than adults
Cognitive Development
• Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
– Intelligence & the ability to understand
develops gradually as the child grows
– Young children think differently than
older children and adults
– 4 stages
Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage 1-
Sensorimotor
Stage
• Experience the world
through our senses & **shaking a
actions. rattle, banging on
• Object permanence* toys, banging on
tray or high chair
begins to develop
after 6 months.
*the awareness that
• Age 0-2 things continue to
exist even when we
can’t perceive them.
Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor
2. Preoperational
3. Concrete operational
4. Formal operational
3. Social Development
• Focus on interactions with others
– Relationships
– How we act around others
Oral Stage
• Seek pleasure
through out mouths.
• Babies put
everything in their
mouths (0-2).
• People fixated in
this stage tend to
overeat, smoke or
have a childhood
dependence on
things.
Erik Erikson
• A Neo-Freudian
• Worked with Anna Freud
• Thought our personality
was influenced by our
experiences with others.
• Stages of Psychosocial
Development.
• Each stage centers on a
social conflict.
Trust v. Mistrust
• Can a baby trust the
world to fulfill its
needs?
• The trust or mistrust
they develop can
carry on with the
child for the rest of
their lives.
