Maturation

Maturation: physical growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, regardless of environment
-although the timing of our growth may be different, the sequence is almost always the same

Cognition: all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing and remembering

Cognitive development: researched by Jean Piagnet

Schemas: ways we interpret the world around us (concepts)

Assimilation: incorporating new experiences into existing schemas
-assimilation in high school: when you first meet somebody, you will assimilate them into a schema that you already have

Accommodation: changing an existing schema to adapt to new information

Conservation: refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and is part of logical thinking

Information processing model: says children do not learn in stages but rather in a gradual continuous growth pattern
-studies show that our attention span grows gradually over time

Stranger anxiety: at about a year, infants develop it
-infants do not mind strange people (maybe because everyone is strange to them)
-fear of strangers that infants commonly display
-beginning by about 8 months of age

Separation of anxiety
-distress the infant shows when the object of attachment leaves
-peaks between 14 and 18 months

Attachment: the most important social construct an infant must develop is

• attachment (a bond with caregiver)
• Konrad Lorenz discovered that some animals form attachment through imprinting

Harry Harlow and his monkeys

-showed that monkeys needed touch or body contact to form attachment

For many animals there is a critical period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development

-those who are deprived of touch have trouble forming attachment when they are older

Mary Ainsworth's displays of attachment 

• Secure attachment (ideal): children show some distress when parent leaves, seek contact at the reunion, explore when parent gone, play and greet when parent present
• Insecure attachments lack one or more of these traits 

Behaviorists: what should the parent do in this scenario (assuming it's real)

Parenting styles:

1. Authoritarian parents: have strict standards for their children behavior
2. Permissive parents: allows freedom, there is lax parenting, don't enforce rules consistently
3. Authoritative parents: set reasonable standards of expectation and they encourage independence