1. The Beginnings of Life
Nature and Nurture; Physical, Social, and
Cognitive Development
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

2. The Beginnings of Life
Capacio, Krista Kae T. & Larrazabal, Ma. Amale Y.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

3. Nature and Nurture
Human beings enter Knowledge is acquired
the world with an through experiences and
inborn store of interactions with the
knowledge and world.
understanding of
reality. 17th
Century
Could be accessed
through careful
reasoning and
introspection.
JOHN LOCKE
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

4. For short,
HEREDITY ENVIRONMENT
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

5. The mind of a newborn infant
is a tabula rasa (blank state).
Knowledge is provided
entirely by experience; there
JOHN LOCKE is no built-in knowledge.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

6. 19th
Century
CHARLES DARWIN

7. 19th
Century
CHARLES DARWIN
Theory of Evolution

8. 19th
Century
CHARLES DARWIN
Theory of Evolution
HEREDITY

9. BEHAVIORISM
20th
Century
B.F. Skinner
Human nature is
John B. Watson
completely malleable.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

10. “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specified world to bring them up in, and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to be any type of specialist I might select—doctor,
lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and yes, even beggar-
man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his
ancestors.” (1930)
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

11. Today, most psychologists agree not only that
both nature and nurture play important roles but
also that they interact continuously to guide
development.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

12. PHYSICAL
Development
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

13. Newborn
100 Billion Neurons 3 years
but with few connections
3x larger brain
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

14. Brain Development
2-6
years • Left brain hemisphere develops more fully which
may explain why children acquire language
quickly.
Middle
childhood
• Handedness—the preference for using one hand

15. Brain Development
influenced by
Genetic
factors
Stimulation or
deprivation a
fetal behavior child receives
from the
environment in
early years.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

16. Genes program us.
maturation
A process that expresses genetically
determined characteristics.
A determined sequence of growth or
change that is relatively independent
of external events.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

17. Fetal behavior Organ development
kicking, turning, etc. If the mother contracts
Follows an orderly sequence rubella, damage
depending on stage growth. depends on which organ
system was developing
during the time of
3 months of pregnancy infection
Motor Development
After birth
Illustrates the interaction
between genetically
programmed maturation and
environmental influences.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

18. William James
A newborn sees the world a
buzzing,
blooming
confusion.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

19. Newborn
Capacities
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

20. Vision
limited focus
nearsighted
Hearing
Able to
distinguish
different Introduction to Psychology 14
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s th ed.

21. Taste and Smell
• Babies prefer sweet-tasting liquids over others.
• Babies prefer breast milk over others.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

22. Learning and Memory
• 3-month-old babies already have good memories.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

23. Motor Skills
Gross motor skills
Involve the use of large bodily movements.
Fine motor skills
Involve the use of small bodily movements.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

24. Cognitive Development
in Childhood
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

25. Psychological thinking
about children’s
cognitive development
is dominated by
two perspectives.
Environmen-
tal-learning
perspective
Biological
Maturation
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

26. Schemas
Theories about how
the physical and social
worlds operates
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

27. Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
stage
Stage of
Concrete
Operations Stage of
Formal
Preoperational Operations
stage
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

28. Sensorimotor Stage
• First 2 years
• Relationship between actions and
consequences
• Concept of themselves as separate form
the external world
object permanence
Awareness that an object continues to exist when it is not
present.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

29. Preoperational Stage
• 1 ½ - 2 years
• Use symbols
• Does not comprehend rules and
regulations or operations
• Dominated by visual impressions
egocentrism
Belief that everyone sees things the way you do.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

30. Operational Stages
• Ages between 7 & 12
• Conservation concept
• Logical manipulation
• Form mental representations of a series of
actions
Concrete Operational Stage
Although children are using abstract terms, they are doing so
in relation to concrete objects—objects to which they have
direct sensory access.
Formal Operational Stage
The person is able to reason in purely symbolic terms.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

31. Alternatives to Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s theory may be invalid because such factors
may have affected child’s response.
Information-Processing Approaches
Information-processing skills—specific skills at gathering and
analyzing information from the environment.
Knowledge-Acquisition Approaches
Knowledge—understanding of how facts in a particular domain
are organized.
Sociocultural Approaches
Culture can influence children’s development in several ways.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

32. Theory of Mind
• Much of our behavior toward other people is based
on our understanding of what they are thinking.
metacognition Thinking about thinking.
which is generally
HOW DOES A CHILD’S THEORY OF MIND
DEVELOP?
3 steps
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

33. 1 At 2, children have an understanding of simple desires,
emotions, and perceptual experiences but do not
understand that people mentally represent both
objects and their own desires and beliefs.
2 At 3, children begin to talk about beliefs and thoughts
as well as desires, and seem to understand that beliefs
can be false and true. Yet, they continue to explain
their own actions and others by appealing to desires
rather than beliefs.
3 At 4, children begin to understand that people’s
thoughts and beliefs affect their behaviors and that
people can have beliefs that simply do not reflect
reality.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

34. Overall level of cognitive development determines ones
MORAL JUDGEMENT
Children’s understanding of moral rules and social
conventions
He proposed that children’s understanding of rules develops in a
series of 4 stages:
1 Children have no collective purpose.
2 Children act more by the consequence rather than
by the intentions behind an action.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

35. 3 Children give weigh to subjective consideration.
4 Youngsters show interest in generating rules to deal
even with situations they never encountered.
Ideological mode of moral reasoning.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

36. Personality and Social
Development
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

37. TEMPERAMENT
Mood-related personality characteristics.
Research emphasizes that continuity or
discontinuity of temperament is a function of
the interaction between the child’s genotype
(inherited characteristic) and the environment.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

38. EARLY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Parent-child bond:
Child smiles Parent encouraged
8 Stranger Anxiety
months
14 -18 Separation Anxiety
months
This is because of
• Memory
capacity
3 Secure • Autonomy
years
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

39. ATTACHMENT
An infant’s tendency to seek closeness to
particular people and to feel more secure in their
presence.
A caregiver’s sensitive responsiveness to baby’s needs
produces secure attachment.
A caregiver’s response is not the major cause of attachment
behaviors.
Attachment patterns may reflect this interaction between
baby’s temperament and parent’s responsiveness.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

40. The mother’s behavior appears to be the most important
factor in establishing secure attachment.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

41. LATER DEVELOPMENT
Securely attached babies mostly turned out to be
enthusiastic, positive, and non-problematic. They
are better equipped to cope with new experience.
Insecurely attached babies grew frustrated, angry,
and negative; they easily give up given difficulties.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

42. EFFECTS OF DAY CARE
Children are not significantly affected by
nonmaternal care.
Good quality day care can reduce the effects of
growing up in a highly stressed home life.
Low quality day care however, may lead to
negative effects on a child.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

43. GENDER IDENTITY
A firm sense of oneself as either male or female
SEX TYPING
Acquisition of behavioral characteristics that a
culture considers apporpirate to ones sex.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

44. But are gender identity and sex typing simply the
product of cultural prescriptions and expectations,
or a are they partly a product of “natural”
development???
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

45. Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud
3 “Beginning of the Phallic Stage of
years Psychosexual Development”
• Children are aware of their reproductive organ.
• They develop sexual feelings to the opposite sex.
• Oedipal Effect—they feel jealous of their same
sex parent
• Later on diminishes as child wants to become
that of the same sex parent—sex typing.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

46. Social Learning Theory
Sex typing is because of the way a sex is treated in
a culture.
Contradictions
• Children themselves may construct and
enforce their own exaggerated version
of society’s gender rules.
• Development patterns to the child’s
view of gender rules.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

47. Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Proposes that gender identity plays a critical role in
sex typing.
2 • Children are able to identify their own sex
years
in a photo.
• Able to identify sex of a stereotypically
dressed man or woman in a photo but
cannot predict another child’s toy
preference.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

48. 3 • Children are able to separate photos of
years boys and girls but do not know if they
will either become a mother of a father.
Gender Constancy
The understanding that a person’s sex remains the
same despite changes in age and appearance.
Contradiction
Children have strong and clear preference for
activities deemed appropriate for their sex long
before they attain gender constancy.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

49. Gender-Schema Theory
A set of beliefs about gender.
• Children become sex-typed because sex is a major
focus around which their culture chooses to
organize its view of reality.
• It implies that if the culture becomes less sex typed,
children will be less sex typed in their behavior and
self-concept.
Source: Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.

50. SOURCES
Main source:
Atkinson & Hilgard’s
Introduction to Psychology 14th ed.
Source of photos:
Google ™