Developmental psychology

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- Preface
- Theoretical problems of development psychology
  - 1.1 The subject, objectives and methods of psychology
  - 1.2 Conception of age and psychological development stages
- The problem of the periodization of mental development in developmental psychology
  - 2 The problem of the periodization of mental development in developmental psychology
  - 2.1 Biogenetic concepts in foreign developmental psychology
  - 2.2 The theory of Jean Piaget’s mental development
  - 2.3.Epigenetic principle of development by E.Erikson
  - 2.4 Cultural-historical concept of mental development by Vygotsky
- Psychological aspects of ontogenetic development period
  - 3.1.Newborn crisis
  - 3.2 Infancy (2-12 months)
  - 3.3 Toddlerhood (1-3 year)
  - 3.4 Preschool age (3- 6-7 year)
  - 3.5 Early school age (7—10,11 years)
  - 3.6 Adolescence (10-11 — 15-16 years)
  - 3.7 Youth (17-18 – 26 years)
  - 3.8 Aduldhood
  - 3.9 Late aduldhood
- Practice
  - 1.1 The subject, objectives and methods of psychology
  - 2 The problem of the periodization of mental development in developmental psychology
  - 2.4 Cultural-historical concept of mental development by Vygotsky
  - 3.4 Preschool age (3- 6-7 year)
  - 3.6 Adolescence (10-11 — 15-16 years)

- Алғы сөз
- Даму психологиясының теориялық мәселелері
  - 1.1 Психологияның пәні, міндеттері мен әдістері
  - 1.2 Жастың психологиялық тұжырымдамасы және психикалық дамудың кезеңділігі туралы мәселе
- Даму психологиядағы психикалық дамудың кезеңділігі туралы мәселе
  - 2 Даму психологиядағы психикалық дамудың кезеңділігі туралы мәселе
  - 2.1 Шетелдік және отандық психологиядағы қозғаушы күштердің, ақыл-ой дамуының көздері мен жағдайлары туралы пікірлер
  - 2.2 Ж.Пиаженің психикалық даму теориясы
  - 2.3.3Э. Эриксонның жеке тұлғаны дамытудың эпигенетикалық теориясы
  - 2.4 Л.С. Выготскийдің психикалық дамуының мәдени-тарихи тұжырымдамасы
- Онтогенетикалық даму кезеңдерінің психологиялық сипаттамалары
  - 3.1.Сәби дағдарысы
  - 3.2 Нәресте (2-12 ай)
  - 3.3 Ерте жастағы (1-3 жас)
  - 3.4 Мектепке дейінгі жас (3- 6-7 жас)
  - 3.5 Кіші мектептік жас (7-10,11 жас)
  - 3.6 Жасөспірім жас (10,11-15,16 жас)
  - 3.7 Жастық жас (17,18 – 26 жас)
  - 3.8 Кемел жас
  - 3.9 Кәрілік
- Практика
  - 1.1 Психологияның пәні, міндеттері мен әдістері
  - 2 Даму психологиядағы психикалық дамудың кезеңділігі туралы мәселе
  - 2.4 Л.С. Выготскийдің психикалық дамуының мәдени-тарихи тұжырымдамасы
  - 3.4 Мектепке дейінгі жас (3- 6-7 жас)
  - 3.6 Жасөспірім жас (10,11-15,16 жас)

3.1Newborn crisis

In the past, newborns were often characterized as fragile and helpless little organisms who were simply not prepared for life outside the womb. This view may once have been highly adaptive, helping to ease parents’ grief in earlier eras when medical procedures were rather primitive and a fair percentage of newborns died. Even today, in cultures where many newborns die because of poor health and medical care, parents often do not name their newborns until they are 3 months old and have passed the critical age for newborn death (Brazelton, 1979).

The surprising fact is that newborns are much better prepared for life than many doctors, parents, and developmentalists had initially assumed. All of a newborn’s senses are in good working order and she sees and hears well enough to detect what is happening around her and respond adaptively to many of these sensations. Very young infants are also quite capable of learning and can even remember some of the particularly vivid experiences they have had. Two other indications that neonates are quite well adapted for life are their repertoire of inborn reflexes and their predictable patterns, or cycles, of daily activity. One of the neonate’s greatest strengths is a full set of useful reflexes. A reflex is an involuntary and automatic response to a stimulus, as when the eye automatically blinks in response to a puff of air. Some of these graceful and complex patterns of behavior are called survival reflexes because they have clear adaptive value (Berne, 2003). Examples include the breathing reflex, the eye-blink reflex (which protects the eyes against bright lights or foreign particles), and the sucking and swallowing reflexes, by which the infant takes in food. Also implicated in feeding is the rooting reflex—an infant who is touched on the cheek will turn in that direction and search for something to suck. Not only do survival reflexes offer some protection against aversive stimulation and enable an infant to satisfy very basic needs, but they (and some of the primitive reflexes we discuss next) may also have a very positive impact on caregivers. Mothers, for example, may feel quite gratified and competent as caregivers when their hungry babies immediately stop fussing and suck easily at the nipple. And few parents can resist the feeling that their baby enjoys being close when he or she grasps their fingers tightly as his palm is touched. So if these survival reflexes help to endear infants to older companions, who can protect them and attend to their needs, then they have tremendous “survival” value indeed (Bowlby, 1969, 1988).

Other primitive reflexes may still have some adaptive value, at least in some cultures (Bowlby, 1969; Fentress & McLeod, 1986). The swimming reflex, for example, may help keep afl oat an infant who is accidentally immersed in a pond or a river. The grasping reflex may help infants who are carried in slings or on their mothers’ hips to hang on. Finally, other responses such as the stepping reflex may be forerunners of useful voluntary behaviors such as crawling and walking that develop later in infancy (Thelen, 1984).

Primitive reflexes normally disappear during the first few months of life because they are controlled by the lower “subcortical” areas of the brain and are lost once the higher centers of the cerebral cortex mature and begin to guide voluntary behaviors. But even if many primitive reflexes are not very useful to infants, they are important diagnostic indicators to developmentalists (Stirniman & Stirniman, 1940). If these reflexes are not present at birth—or if they last too long in infancy—we have reason to suspect that something is wrong with a baby’s nervous system. In sum, a full complement of infant reflexes tells us that newborns are quite prepared to respond adaptively to a variety of life’s challenges. And the timely appearance and disappearance of certain reflexes is one important sign that a baby’s nervous system is developing normally.

Newborns also display organized patterns of daily activity that are predictable and foster healthy developmental outcomes. In a typical day (or night), a neonate moves in and out of six infant states, or levels of arousal. During the first month, a baby may move rapidly from one state to another, as mothers observe when their wide-awake babies suddenly nod off to sleep in the middle of a feeding. Neonates spend about 70 percent of their time (16 to 18 hours a day) sleeping and only 2 to 3 hours in the alert, inactive (but attentive) state, when they are most receptive to external stimulation (Berg & Berg, 1987; Thoman, 1990). Sleep cycles are typically brief, lasting from 45 minutes to 2 hours. These frequent naps are separated by periods of drowsiness, alert or in alert activity, and crying, any of which occur (as red-eyed, sleep-deprived parents well know) at all hours of the day and night.

The fact that neonates pass through a predictable pattern of states during a typical day indicates that their internal regulatory mechanisms are well organized. Research on infant states also makes it clear that newborns show a great deal of individuality (Thoman & Whitney, 1989). For example, one newborn in one study was alert for only about 15 minutes a day, on average, whereas another was alert for more than 8 hours daily (Brown, 1964).

Similarly, one infant cried about 17 percent of the time while awake, but another spent 39 percent of its awake time crying. These differences have some obvious implications for parents, who may find it far more pleasant to be with a bright-eyed baby who rarely cries than with one who is often fussy and inattentive.

A baby’s earliest cries are unlearned and involuntary responses to discomfort—distress signals by which the infant makes caregivers aware of his needs. Most of a newborn’s early cries are provoked by such physical discomforts as hunger, pain, or a wet diaper, although chills, loud noises, and even sudden changes in illumination (as when the light over a crib goes off ) are often enough to make a baby cry.

An infant’s cry is a complex vocal signal that may vary from a soft whimper to piercing shrieks and wails. Experience clearly plays a role in helping adults to determine why an infant may be crying, for parents are better than nonparents at this kind of problem solving, and mothers (who have more contact with infants) are better than are fathers (Holden, 1988). Philip Zeskind and his associates (1985) discovered that adults fi nd the intense cries of hungry babies just as arousing and urgent as equally intense “pain” cries. So crying probably conveys only one very general message—“Hey, I’m distressed”—and the effectiveness of this signal at eliciting attention depends more on the amount of distress it implies than on the kind of distress that the baby is experiencing (Green, Gustafson, & McGhie, 1998; Zeskind et al., 1992).