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Piaget’s Theory
Concrete Operational Stage (148)
Piaget’s Theory
Formal Operational Stage (148)
• 7 to 11 years old
• Understand the
concept of
conservation
• Can think in words
• Grasp math and logic
Piaget’s Theory
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Sensory motor
Pre-operational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
Social Development (150)
• Aristotle - “man is a social animal”
• Stranger Anxiety - emerges around 8 months of
age when we become mobile ----- why???
• Attachment - mutual bond infant-parent bond
• 12 years and older
• Move from concrete to
abstract thinking
• Can imagine and use
symbols
• Can hypothesize and
deduce consequences
• Think logically
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
(149)
• Continuity verses stage development
• Underestimating children’s development
• Piaget did get the sequence of the
milestones right
Origins of Attachment (150)
• Attachment requires:
– Comfort/body contact
– Familiarity
– responsiveness
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Body Contact (151)
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Nourishment alone is not enough
In a study of monkeys, Harry Harlow separated the infants from the mothers
for sanitation - the infants bonded to blankets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctGWQHa80ew&feature=related
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In experiments with wire/feeding mothers and cloth/non-feeding mothers,
Harlow found that the babies attached to the cloth mothers using them as safe
havens when distressed and a secure base from which to explore cloth mother
clip
Responsiveness (152)
Familiarity (151)
• Humans do not imprint, but do become attached to people/things that
become familiar to them
• Critical Period - optimal period when a child will learn best and most
easily - ex. Shortly after birth child will bond to parent given the
needed exposure to that parent
• Imprinting (Lorenz, 1937) - a gosling will imprint to the first moving
thing it sees after birth.
Responsiveness - Studies
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• Parent notices what the baby
needs and responds to that need
consistently, timely, lovingly
• Securely attached infants are
happy in mom’s presence, are
distressed when she leaves, can
be calmed by mom and
courageously explore new scare the
monkey (Scared Harlow Monkey)
• Insecure infants are the opposite
- are often clingy or indifferent
to the parent
Secure Attachment Studies
• Harry Harlow learned
that the insecurely
attached monkeys
were terrified in new
situations
Ainsworth (1979) strange situation
test - sensitive mothers had infants
who displayed secure attachment
(and vice versa)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_swXJLQI4
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Van den Boom (1990) experiment
varied parenting styles (nurture)
while controlling temperament
(nature). 68% of the difficult
babies became securely attached if
parents had sensitive response
training. Only 28% of the difficult
babies attached when the parent
didn’t get the training.
Fathers and Attachment (153)
• Expectant fathers’ sex
hormones change (Story
2000)
• Absent fathers put
children at increased risk
for psych and social
disorders after controlling
for income and education
differences (Myers 2000)
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Secure Attachment (154)
• Socially competent
• Confident
• Attack challenges with more persistence
and enthusiasm
• More responsive and outgoing to other
children
• Develop the ability to trust that effects them
lifelong (Erik Erikson’s 8 stage theory)
Insecure Attachment (154)
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Withdrawn
Frightened
Emotionally scarred
Harlow’s monkeys either cowered or lashed out to
other monkeys as adults, were incapable of
mating, were abusive as parents if artificially
mated
• But, (Helmreich 1992) also found that most
abused children do not grow to be
abusers/criminals - they are more resilient
Insecure Attachment (155)
• Ferris (1996) found that hamsters who were
repeatedly threatened/attacked when young grew
to be adults who were cowards with same-size
hamsters and bullies with smaller hamsters. Their
serotonin levels were lower.
• Early abuse and excessive exposure to stress
hormones also can permanently alter the
development of the limbic system
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