Autism, Attachment and Parenting Styles

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) involves a lack of communication and social interaction. Those with ASD lack theory of mind, struggling to understand others' perspectives.

Infancy and Childhood (Social)

• Attachment, specifically the parent-infant bond, serves as a survival mechanism, keeping infants close to their caregivers.
• The Harlows' monkey experiments highlighted the intense need for a comfort object (blanket), contradicting the idea that attachment is solely based on nourishment. Familiarity Is another key aspect of attachment.
• Humans do not imprint like ducks; however, mere exposure to people and things fosters fondness.
• Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation experiment examines attachment differences.

Types of Insecure Attachment

• Anxious attachment
• Avoidant attachment

Types of Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian parenting results in children with less social skills and self-esteem and brains that overreact when mistakes happen.
• Permissive parenting leads to children who are more aggressive and immature.

Preoperational Stage

• Occurs at 2-6/7 years old
• Children begin to use language but do not comprehend mental operations.
• They do not understand the concept of conservation that mass, volume, and numbers stay the same even when changed into a different container.
• Pretend play involves acting out stories with toys.
• Egocentrism is difficulty taking another viewpoint.
• Theory of Mind is linked to Lev Vygotsky and involves understanding another's perspective.

Concrete Operational Stage

• Occurs at 7-11 years old
• Enables children to think logically about events.

Formal Operational Stage

• Occurs at 12 years old
• Individuals can think logically about abstract concepts using imagination regarding jobs/future.
• Formal operational thinking involves systematic reasoning.

Lev Vygotsky

• Social interaction and environment are crucial
• A child's zone of proximal development defines what they can do with help, like using scissors to cut.

Developmental Psychology

• Piaget focused on cognitive development, viewing children as developing in stages.
• Piaget believed intellectual progression reflects a constant struggle to make sense of experiences.
• Assimilation is adding/changing; accommodating mean taking in new information and adjusting previous ways of thinking; schema is a file cabinet of everything that lasts and get adjustment over time.
• Piaget proposed 4 stages of cognitive development including: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational.

Sensorimotor Stage

• Birth to 2 years old
• Involves using senses (hearing, seeing, touching).
• Senses and motor skills are linked.
• Young infants lack object permanence - the awareness that objects continue to exist even when not perceived this is demonstrated through hiding a blanket on top of a toy causes babies get freaked out because they think it is gone.
• Examples of milestones include peek-a-boo and hiding under something.

Developmental Issues & Prenatal Development

• Stage theorists of development emphasize genetics, predisposed stages, and steps.

Germinal Stage

• The first 10 days to 2 weeks of development, the fertilized egg (zygote) undergoes rapid cell division, forming the biological structure (brain, heart, limbs, etc.).

Zygote to Embryo

• Over the next 6 weeks, the embryo's organs begin to form and function and heart beat starts.
• Many outer cells become the placenta, the housing place where the baby touches Mom and baby in the womb.

Embryo to Fetus

• At 9 weeks, the embryo looks more like a human with formed facial features, hands, and feet.

Teratogens

• Teratogens are things that can harm babies in wombs.
• Examples include alcohol, tobacco, drug use, viruses, and medications taken by the mother. Some you can avoid, some you can't.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

• Preconventional Morality (before age 9) focuses on self-interest; obeying rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards.
• Conventional Morality (early adolescence) focuses on upholding laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order.
• Postconventional Morality (adolescence and beyond) is when actions reflect belief in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles.

Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Infancy (to 1 year): Trust vs. Mistrust, where needs being met lead to basic trust.
• Toddlerhood (1 to 3 years): Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, where toddlers learn to exercise their will or doubt their abilities.
• Preschool (3 to 6 years): Initiative vs. Guilt, where preschoolers learn to initiate tasks or feel guilty about their independence.
• Elementary School (6 years to puberty): Competence vs. Inferiority, where children learn the pleasure of applying themselves or feel inferior.
• Adolescence (teen years into 20s): Identity vs. Role Confusion, where teenagers refine a sense of self or become confused.
• Young Adulthood (20s to early 40s): Intimacy vs. Isolation, where young adults form close relationships or feel socially isolated.
• Middle Adulthood (40s to 60s): Generativity vs. Stagnation, where middle-aged people contribute to the world or feel a lack of purpose.
• Late Adulthood (late 60s and up): Integrity vs. Despair, where older adults reflect on their lives with satisfaction or failure.