Lecture 24

Development 1

1. Developmental Psychology
1. Definition
2. Major Issues
2. Jean Piaget
1. Biography
2. Observation
3. Stage Theory of Development
4. Assessing Piaget
3. Current Views of Cognitive Development
1. Tabula Rasa vs. Nativism
2. Eye Gaze
3. The Infant Physicist

Overview

At birth, infants already possess virtually all of the neuroanatomy that distinguishes humans from other animals, yet they are unable to exhibit most of the behaviors these biological structures control (e.g., language, subjective memory, consciousness, and personal identity). Developmental psychologists study how these behaviors arise and change throughout a person's lifetime.

A Swiss scientist, Jean Piaget, was one of the first theorists to carefully consider the development of psychological phenomena. Drawing on observations he made while working with Binet, Piaget argued that cognitive development proceeds in a series of discrete stages. With each advancing stage, the way children think changes and their understanding of the world alters.

Few theorists have influenced their field more than Piaget, but modern researchers believe he was wrong in many important respects. They view cognitive development as more of a continuous, gradual process, and believe that infants are much more cognitively advanced than Piaget assumed.

Specifics

• Distinguish stage theories of development from continuous ones.
• Describe Piaget's theory, including a familiarity with each of the following terms: Schemas, accommodation and assimilation.
• Describe each of the 4 stages in Piaget's theory, including particular skills that Piaget argued children lack or can demonstrate.
• Describe research using eye gaze among infants (particularly visual habituation), and be familiar with a few findings that depict infants as "budding physicists."