Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental

Theory

Sensorimotor Stage- spans the first two

years of life

 Infants and toddlers “think” with

their eyes, ears, hands (sensory
systems)

 Piaget’s concepts of “schemes”-

organized ways of making sense
of experience- change with age

 Schemes are “action-based” at

first and then become mental
(thinking)

 Circular Reactions- repeating

chance events caused by their
own motor activity
Reflexive Schemes (birth to 1 month)-
• building blocks of
sensorimotor intelligence

Primary Circular Reactions (1 to 4

months)-

• motor skills and change their

behavior in response to
environmental demands
• Oriented toward the infant’s own
body and motivated by basic needs

Secondary Circular Reactions (4 to 8

months)
• “making interesting sights last”
• repeats actions that affect the
environment
• imitate actions practiced many times
Coordination of Secondary Circular
Reaction (8 to 12 months)
• Intentional, goal-directed behavior
• physical causality (causal action

one object exerts on another through

contact

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12 to 18

months)

• variation- exploring the environment

and bringing about new outcomes
• object permanence

Mental Representation (18 months to 2

years)

• Mental representations- internal

images of absent objects and past
events
• Solve problems through symbolic
means rather than trial and error
• Engage in make-believe play
• Attention- gradually become
more efficient at managing their
attention, taking in more
information with age

• transition to toddlerhood-
attraction to novelty declines and
sustained attention improves

• Memory- habituation provides a

window into infant memory,

• Categorization- ability to store

information in an orderly fashion

• During the 2nd year, children

categorize items during play
Early intervention for at-risk toddlers
• poverty-stricken children are
likely to show gradual declines in
intelligence test scores and to
achieve poorly when they reach
school age

• Interventions for infants and

toddlers are either center- or
home-based

• Without some form of early

intervention, many children born
into economically disadvantaged
families will not reach their
potential

• The more intense the

intervention, the greater the
intellectual gains of participating
children
 Language Development
• First words build on the
sensorimotor foundations Piaget
described and on categories that
children form during the first two
years

• At all ages, language

comprehension develops ahead
of production

• Vocabularies build slow from age

12 to 18 months

• between 18 and 24 months- may

add 10 to 20 new words a week

• girls are usually ahead of boys in

speech
 Personality Development

Psychoanalytic theory-

Infancy-
Freud’s oral stage (infants obtain pleasure
through the mouth

Erikson’s Basic trust vs. Mistrust- conflict

during infancy- resolved positively if
caregiving is sympathetic and loving

• Toddlers-

Freud’s anal stage (toddlers obtain

pleasure through control of bowel and
bladder)

Erikson’s autonomy vs. shame and

doubt- resolved positively if parents provide
suitable guidance and appropriate choices
 Emotional Development

• Happiness- binds parent and baby,

• Social smile- first appears between 6
and 10 weeks
• Laughter- appears around 3-4
months in response to active stimuli

• Anger expressed when babies cry in

response to unpleasant experiences
• Fear rises at 6-12 months old
• Stranger anxiety- depends on infants
temperament and past experiences
• Increase in anger after 6 months-
has survival value as babies move
on their own, strong social signal to
motivate caregivers

• Between 7 and 10 months- perceive

facial expressions, match emotional
tone of voice to person speaking
• Self-conscious emotions begin at
end of second year - assist child in
 acquiring socially valued behaviors
and goals
Temperament

• Refers to individual differences in

quality and intensity of emotional
reaction- somewhat predictive of
psychological adjustment

• Parenting practices can modify a

child’s emotional style

• Goodness of fit model- explains

how effective match between child-
rearing practices and child’s
temperament can lead to favorable
adjustment

• Difficult children are less likely than

easy children to receive sensitive
care

• Poor self-regulation of emotion

results in tantrums
 Attachment

• Strong affectional tie that humans

feel toward special people in their
lives

• Infant attachment behaviors

• Ethological Theory of Attachment

o Most widely accepted view

o Infant’s emotional tie to the

mother is an evolved
response that promotes
survival

o Human infant has a set of

built-in behaviors that keep the
parent nearby- protection from
danger
Four phases:

Preattachment (birth to 6 weeks)- built-in

signals such as smiling and crying help
bring newborn in close contact with the
mother

“Attachment-in-the-making” phase (6 weeks

to 6-8 months)- infant begin to respond
differently to a familiar caregiver than to a
stranger

“Clear-cut” attachment (6-8 months to 18

months- 2 years)- separation anxiety, use
caregivers as a “secure base”

Formation of a reciprocal relationship (18

months-2 years and so on)- separation
anxiety decreases, instead toddlers try to
persuade caregivers not to leave
Piaget’s Cognitive-
Developmental Theory

o Pre-Operational Stage-
 Marked by rapid growth in
representational or
symbolic activity

 Sensorimotor activity
provides the foundation for
language, imitation and
make-believe play

 Egocentricism- inability to
distinguish the symbolic
viewpoints of others from
one’s own

 Inability to understand
conservation
 • Attention- preschoolers spend
only short time involved in tasks,
have difficulty focusing on details,
and easily distracted

• Preschoolers fail to search

thoroughly (pictures)

• Memory- recognition is good,

recall is much poorer
Language Development
• By age 6, child has acquired
around 10,000 words
• Between ages 2-3 english-
speaking children will use
sentences with subject-verb-
object word order
• Begin to have face-to-face
interactions, take turns, respond
appropriately to peers remarks
and can maintain a topic over
time
Personality Development

• Psychoanalytic theory-

o Freud’s phallic stage- sexual

impulses transfer to the genital
region of the body

o Erikson’s initiative vs. guilt-

resolved positively through play
experiences that foster a healthy
sense of initiative and through
development of a conscience
that is not overly strict
Emotional Development

• Gains in language and self-concept

support emotional development

• Preschoolers can predict and

interpret other’s feelings

• Improved self-regulation of emotion-

can control expression of emotions

Moral Development

• By age 2, children often act with

alarm to behaviors that are
aggressive and might hurt someone

• Children learn through positive

reinforcement, punishment,
modeling what appropriate
behaviors are