Psychology Chapter: Piaget and Attachment Theory

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor (birth-2 years): Infants utilize innate skills (looking, grasping, sucking)
• Preoperational (2-7 years): Children use symbols to represent things; engage in pretend play.
• Concrete Operational (7-11 years): Children grasp logical thinking in concrete, tangible ways; understand reversibility, conservation, decentration, classification, and seriation (arranging objects).
• Formal Operational (11+ years): Adolescents develop the ability to formulate hypotheses and test them systematically; think abstractly.

Attachment Theory

• Secure Attachment: Infants display mild distress upon the mother's departure and are easily comforted upon reunion; use the mother as a secure base for exploration. Linked to happier, more sociable, and cooperative children.
• Insecure Attachment (types):
  • Avoidant: Least distressed by mother's departure.
  • Ambivalent/Resistant: Severe distress upon separation, alternating clinging and pushing away.
  • Disorganized/Disoriented: Dazed, confused, may move toward mother but look away.
• Attachment Differences:
  • Secure: Consistent, responsive, emotionally available caregivers; child trusts caregiver and seeks comfort upon return; explores confidently. Positive self-image and healthy relationships.
  • Insecure: Inconsistent, neglectful, or abusive caregivers; child may be clingy or avoidant; displays exaggerated distress or suppressed emotions; struggles with intimacy and communication in relationships; negative self-image.
• Attachment Importance: Emotional bond crucial for infant survival; innate infant behaviors elicit caregiving; contact is important for development. Separation anxiety is seen if contact isn't maintained.
• Theories of Attachment: Cognitive (object permanence needed), Behavioral (caregivers are conditioned reinforcers), Psychoanalytic (caregiver satisfaction of needs).
• Harlow's Findings: Contact comfort is key to attachment.

Child Neglect and Abuse

• Types: Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, educational neglect.
• Examples: Wandering child, truant children, siblings experiencing family violence, children in unsanitary homes, children denied special education help, child allowed to use drugs/alcohol.
• Effects: Abused children often have high personal problems and psychological disorders; less secure attachments; limited peer interactions; increased aggression and non-compliance.

Social Deprivation and Autism

• Social Deprivation: Limited social interaction and stimulation during crucial developmental periods leads to delays in intellectual, social, and emotional development.
• Autism: Becomes evident by age 3 (sometimes earlier); characterized by delays.

Information Processing Theory

• Stages: Sensory memory (fraction of a second), Working memory (up to 30 seconds), Long-term memory (vast storehouse).
• Working Memory: Auditory stimuli retained longer than visual. Adults hold 7 +/- 2 chunks, children adjust based on age.

Parenting Styles

• Authoritative: High control and warmth; children are competent, self-reliant, independent, and have high self-esteem.
• Authoritarian: High control, low warmth; children are less competent and have poor social skills.
• Permissive: Low control, high warmth; children are socially competent but may exhibit more deviant behaviors.
• Rejecting/Neglecting: Low control and low warmth; children are least competent and responsible, prone to problems.

Middle Childhood (Freud & Erikson)

• Freud: Latency stage; focus on social and intellectual pursuits.
• Erikson: Industry vs. Inferiority stage; develop competence and mastery.

Erikson's Psychosocial Stages (Summary)

• Comprehensive model of personality development in eight stages. Each stage features a unique conflict that must be resolved for healthy development.

Psychoanalytic Theory (Freud)

• Core concepts: Unconscious mind (id, ego, superego); psychosexual stages; defense mechanisms; psychoanalysis as therapy.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

• Progress through six stages in three levels of morality (preconventional, conventional, postconventional).
• Stages differ in the complexity of moral reasoning and the factors impacting ethical choices.

Piaget's Schemas

• Schemas are mental frameworks for organizing and interpreting information.
• Assimilation is fitting new information into existing schemas.
• Accommodation is adjusting existing schemas based on new information.

ADHD

• Neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
• Treatments include stimulants (e.g., Ritalin) and other approaches.

Conduct Disorder

• Persistent rule-breaking or violating others' rights. Characteristics include low frustration tolerance, blaming others, and academic underachievement.
• Possible origins: Genetic predisposition, antisocial family members, parental insensitivity, family stress.
• Treatments often involve parent training and cognitive behavioral techniques.

Dyslexia

• Affects 5-17.5% of children, much more common in boys.
• Remediation and accommodations are critical at various stages. Origins likely include sensory, neurological, and genetic factors.

Ainsworth's Attachment

• Attachment is a deep, enduring emotional bond between a child and caregiver. Mary Ainsworth's extensive research revealed various attachment styles.

Skinner's Behavioralism

• Reinforcement and behaviorism are concepts developed by B.F. Skinner related to behavioral modifications and learned responses.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

• Different types of intelligence based on different brain regions (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, existential).

Shuddering Attacks (Summary)

• Usually begin between 6 months and 3 years, lasting only a few seconds.
• Frequency varies, can resolve independently by school age.

Object Permanence

• Understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight.
• Develops gradually between 4-7 to 8-12 months, depending on studies.