Styles of Parenting

Infancy & Childhood Chapter 10

Section 1: The Study of Development

Prenatal Care • • • •

Must get enough to eat Take folic acid Best to be under age 40 No smoking, alcohol, or drugs

• STDs can be detrimental

Prenatal Development • Zygote

• Embryo

• Fetus

Infants • APGAR Test (1-10 Score range)

Developmental Psychology • Study of growth and change of people throughout the life span • Longitudinal Studies vs. Cross-Sectional Studies

Nature vs. Nurture • Nature – – Maturation – – Critical period – time when human / animal is best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern

Nature vs. Nurture • Nurture – environment – Tabula Rosa – John Locke believed the mind of the infant is a blank slate

Stages vs. Continuity • Does development occur in stages or as one continuous process? • Both, depending on the situation – Sit / crawl / stand / walk in stages – Growth in weight and height from ages 2-11 is continuous

Section 2: Physical Development

Height and Weight • Most dramatic gains in height and weight occur before infant is born

• Slows down throughout rest of childhood

Motor Development • Purposeful movement that usually occurs in stages

Reflexes • Involuntary reaction or response (inborn) – Examples: breathing, blinking, swallowing, sucking, etc. – Rooting Reflex – Moro Reflex – Babinski Reflex

Perceptual Development • Vision – At first, prefer pictures with complex patterns – Eventually prefer pictures of human faces

• Depth Perception – the visual cliff experiment

Perceptual Development (cont’d) • Hearing – Respond more to high-pitched sounds & mother’s voice

• Smell and Taste – Respond immediately to strong odors

Section 3: Social Development

Development of Attachment • Attachment – emotional ties that form between people • Stranger Anxiety – • Separation Anxiety –

Contact Comfort • Used to believe we became attached to those that fed us • Harlow’s monkey experiments proved we have a basic need to touch and be touched by something soft (skin or fur) – Stronger than need for food

Imprinting • Attachment can be instinctual • Some animals attach during a critical period just after birth • First moving object is imprinted on young animal

Secure vs. Insecure Attachment • When parents are affectionate and reliable, infants become securely attached

• Unresponsive and unreliable parents cause insecure attachment

Styles of Parenting •Strict

Demanding Possessive Controlling Dictatorial Antagonistic

• Cold Neglecting Indifferent Careless Negligent Detached

Supportive Protective Affectionate Flexible

Caring Lenient Democratic

Inconsistent Overindulgent

•Permissive

• Warm

Styles of Parenting Warm Parents • Lots of affection • Enjoy kid’s company –show it • Better off with warm parents • Better adjusted • Develop a conscious

Cold Parents • More interested in escaping punishment than doing the right thing

Styles of Parenting (continued) Authoritative • Warmth and positive strictness • Expect a lot, but explain why and offer help

Authoritarian • Obedience for the sake of obedience • Strict without questions • Cold and rejecting

Styles of Parenting (continued) Uninvolved • Tend to leave their children on their own • Make few demands, show little warmth or encouragement

Permissive Parents • Easygoing • Less rules and let kids do what they want • Warm and supportive, but poor communicators

Childcare • More than half of mothers work outside home • Effects of day-care – Quality important: learning resources, individualized attention, many caregivers important

• Effects on parent-child attachment • Can be positive and negative

Child Abuse and Neglect • Abuse –

• Seriously underreported

• Neglect – failure to give kid adequate food, shelter, emotional support, clothing, etc.

• Effects:

– Usually causes more problems

Why does abuse happen? 1. 2. 3. 4.

Stress History of abuse Substance abuse Lack of attachment

Abuse runs in families • Kids imitate behavior • See it as normal • Pattern usually doesn’t continue

Self-Esteem • Value or worth that people attach to themselves • Unconditional positive regard – Accept kids for who they are, kids know they’re not terrible people if they do something wrong

• Conditional positive regard – Parents show love only when behaving in accepted ways – Kids will seek approval from others as adults

Other factors that effect Self-Esteem • Feeling competent about a skill / task • Gender • Age

Section 4: Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor Stage • Preoperational Stage • Concrete Operational Stage • Formal Operational Stage

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development • Pre-conventional Level (stages 1 & 2)– base judgments on consequences of behavior • Conventional Level (stages 3-4)–

• Post-conventional Level (stages 5-6) – Reasoning based on a person’s own moral standards of goodness