CHAPTER 1
ERIK ERIKSON:
- Psychoanalyst who parted with Freud in several ways
- Believed that our basic life goals center on becoming an independent self, relating to
others
- Believed that development occurs throughout life through psychosocial stages
- These psychosocial tasks build on each other. One cannot master the issue of a later
challenge without accomplishing the basic developmental milestone of the previous
challenge
- Developed a roadmap into making sense of children’s emotional growth
- First stage = Infancy (birth to 1 year) – basic trust versus mistrust
- Toddlerhood (1 -2 years) – autonomy versus shame and doubt
- Early childhood (3-6 years) – initiative versus guilt
- Middle childhood (7-12 years) – industry versus inferiority
- Adolescence and emerging adulthood (teens into twenties) – identity versus role
confusion
- Emerging adulthood (twenties) – intimacy versus isolation
JEAN PIAGET:
- How does a child understand the world? What do they think like?
- Fascinated with not how much children know, but in their incorrect responses.
- Birth through to adolescence, children go through four qualitatively different stages
of cognitive/intellectual growth
- Learning happens via a dual process of assimilation and accommodation
- Assimilation: fitting environmental input into current mental capacities
- Accommodation: enlarging our mental capacities to fit input from the outside world
- Sensorimotor (0-2) – baby’s manipulate objects to pin down the basics of physical
reality. This stage ends in the development of language
- Preoperations stage (2-7) – children’s perceptions are captured by their immediate
appearances. What they see is what is real. Children also believe that every
inanimate object holds consciousness and if the appearance of a quantity of liquid
changes, the amount changes too.
- Concrete operations (8-12) – children have a realistic understanding of the world.
Their thinking is on the same wavelength as adults. Whilst they are able to reason
conceptually about concrete objects, they cannot think abstractly in a scientific way.
- Formal operations stage (12+) – reasoning has reached its pinnacle; hypothetical,
scientific, flexible, fully adult. The full cognitive human potential has been reached.
CHAPTER 2
THREATS FROM OUTSIDE AND WITHIN
TERATOGENS:
- Any substance that crosses the placenta and causes harm to the fetus
, - Can be an infectious disease, a medication, a recreational drug, an environmental
hazard such as radiation or pollution and hormones produced by a pregnant woman
who is under severe stress
- Teratogens exert their damage during the sensitive period – the timeframe when a
particular organ or system is coming online
- Sensitive period = the timeframe when a body structure is most vulnerable to
damage, typically when that organ or process is rapidly developing or coming online
TERATOGENIC PRINCIPLES:
1. Teratogens are most likely to cause major structural damage during the embryonic
stage;
- Before implantation, teratogens have an all-or-nothing impact. They either inhibit
implantation and cause death, or they leave the not-yet attached blastocyst
unscathed
- It is during organ formation when the major body structures are most likely to be
affected
2. Teratogens can affect the developing brain throughout pregnancy
- Because the brain is developing during the second and third trimester, the potential
for neurological damage extends to all nine months
- Typically during the second and third trimesters, exposure to teratogens increase the
risk of developmental disorders
- Developmental disorders: learning impairments or behavioural problems during
infancy and childhood
3. Teratogens have a threshold level above which damage occurs
- Women who drink more than four cups of coffee a day might have slightly higher
risk for miscarriage, but an occasional diet coke is fine
4. Teratogens exert their damage unpredictably depending on the fetal and maternal
vulnerabilities
- Mothers-to-be metabolise toxins differently and babies differ genetically in
susceptibility
- Damaging effect of a particular teratogen can vary
- We do not know where the teratogenic threshold lies in any particular case.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES:
- RUBELLA
- CYTOMEGALOVIRUS
- AIDS
- HERPES
- TOXOPLASMOSIS
- ZIKE VIRUS
MEDICATIONS:
- ANTIBIOTICS (STREPTOMYCIN + TETRACYLCINE)
- THALIDOMIDE
, - ANTI-SEIZURE DRUGS
- ANTI-PSYCHOTIC DRUGS
- ANTIDEPRESSANTS
RECREATIONAL DRUGS:
- COCAINE
- METHAMPHETAMINE
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS:
- RADIATION
- LEAD
- MERCURY + PCB’s
VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES
SMOKING:
- Smoking during pregnancy will increase chances of giving birth to a smaller-than-
normal, less healthy baby
- Nicotine constricts the mothers blood vessels, thus restricting blood flow to the fetus
and preventing ample nutrients from reaching the child
- Infants born to pregnant smokers have trouble with regulating behaviour
- More prone to developing anti-social behaviours
- Heavy smoking is poisonous for development
DRINKING:
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Cluster of birth defects related to the mothers alcohol consumption during
pregnancy
- Giving birth to a smaller- than-normal baby
- Brain and facial abnormalities
- Developmental disorders
- Could also lead to serious intellectual disabilities and seizures
THREATS FROM WITHIN
CHROMOSOMAL AND GENETIC DISORDERS
- There are two main causes when a birth defect is genetic:
1. The child might have an unusual number of chromosomes
2. The child may have a faulty gene (set of genes)
ERIK ERIKSON:
- Psychoanalyst who parted with Freud in several ways
- Believed that our basic life goals center on becoming an independent self, relating to
others
- Believed that development occurs throughout life through psychosocial stages
- These psychosocial tasks build on each other. One cannot master the issue of a later
challenge without accomplishing the basic developmental milestone of the previous
challenge
- Developed a roadmap into making sense of children’s emotional growth
- First stage = Infancy (birth to 1 year) – basic trust versus mistrust
- Toddlerhood (1 -2 years) – autonomy versus shame and doubt
- Early childhood (3-6 years) – initiative versus guilt
- Middle childhood (7-12 years) – industry versus inferiority
- Adolescence and emerging adulthood (teens into twenties) – identity versus role
confusion
- Emerging adulthood (twenties) – intimacy versus isolation
JEAN PIAGET:
- How does a child understand the world? What do they think like?
- Fascinated with not how much children know, but in their incorrect responses.
- Birth through to adolescence, children go through four qualitatively different stages
of cognitive/intellectual growth
- Learning happens via a dual process of assimilation and accommodation
- Assimilation: fitting environmental input into current mental capacities
- Accommodation: enlarging our mental capacities to fit input from the outside world
- Sensorimotor (0-2) – baby’s manipulate objects to pin down the basics of physical
reality. This stage ends in the development of language
- Preoperations stage (2-7) – children’s perceptions are captured by their immediate
appearances. What they see is what is real. Children also believe that every
inanimate object holds consciousness and if the appearance of a quantity of liquid
changes, the amount changes too.
- Concrete operations (8-12) – children have a realistic understanding of the world.
Their thinking is on the same wavelength as adults. Whilst they are able to reason
conceptually about concrete objects, they cannot think abstractly in a scientific way.
- Formal operations stage (12+) – reasoning has reached its pinnacle; hypothetical,
scientific, flexible, fully adult. The full cognitive human potential has been reached.
CHAPTER 2
THREATS FROM OUTSIDE AND WITHIN
TERATOGENS:
- Any substance that crosses the placenta and causes harm to the fetus
, - Can be an infectious disease, a medication, a recreational drug, an environmental
hazard such as radiation or pollution and hormones produced by a pregnant woman
who is under severe stress
- Teratogens exert their damage during the sensitive period – the timeframe when a
particular organ or system is coming online
- Sensitive period = the timeframe when a body structure is most vulnerable to
damage, typically when that organ or process is rapidly developing or coming online
TERATOGENIC PRINCIPLES:
1. Teratogens are most likely to cause major structural damage during the embryonic
stage;
- Before implantation, teratogens have an all-or-nothing impact. They either inhibit
implantation and cause death, or they leave the not-yet attached blastocyst
unscathed
- It is during organ formation when the major body structures are most likely to be
affected
2. Teratogens can affect the developing brain throughout pregnancy
- Because the brain is developing during the second and third trimester, the potential
for neurological damage extends to all nine months
- Typically during the second and third trimesters, exposure to teratogens increase the
risk of developmental disorders
- Developmental disorders: learning impairments or behavioural problems during
infancy and childhood
3. Teratogens have a threshold level above which damage occurs
- Women who drink more than four cups of coffee a day might have slightly higher
risk for miscarriage, but an occasional diet coke is fine
4. Teratogens exert their damage unpredictably depending on the fetal and maternal
vulnerabilities
- Mothers-to-be metabolise toxins differently and babies differ genetically in
susceptibility
- Damaging effect of a particular teratogen can vary
- We do not know where the teratogenic threshold lies in any particular case.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES:
- RUBELLA
- CYTOMEGALOVIRUS
- AIDS
- HERPES
- TOXOPLASMOSIS
- ZIKE VIRUS
MEDICATIONS:
- ANTIBIOTICS (STREPTOMYCIN + TETRACYLCINE)
- THALIDOMIDE
, - ANTI-SEIZURE DRUGS
- ANTI-PSYCHOTIC DRUGS
- ANTIDEPRESSANTS
RECREATIONAL DRUGS:
- COCAINE
- METHAMPHETAMINE
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS:
- RADIATION
- LEAD
- MERCURY + PCB’s
VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES
SMOKING:
- Smoking during pregnancy will increase chances of giving birth to a smaller-than-
normal, less healthy baby
- Nicotine constricts the mothers blood vessels, thus restricting blood flow to the fetus
and preventing ample nutrients from reaching the child
- Infants born to pregnant smokers have trouble with regulating behaviour
- More prone to developing anti-social behaviours
- Heavy smoking is poisonous for development
DRINKING:
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Cluster of birth defects related to the mothers alcohol consumption during
pregnancy
- Giving birth to a smaller- than-normal baby
- Brain and facial abnormalities
- Developmental disorders
- Could also lead to serious intellectual disabilities and seizures
THREATS FROM WITHIN
CHROMOSOMAL AND GENETIC DISORDERS
- There are two main causes when a birth defect is genetic:
1. The child might have an unusual number of chromosomes
2. The child may have a faulty gene (set of genes)
