Two of Piaget’s stages occur during infancy and early childhood
Sensorimotor stage (moves around the world using senses)
Preoperational stage (uses language and think about the world linguistically)
During the preoperational stage (2-6 years), children move from EGOCENTRISM (from focusing on themselves) to SOCIOCENTRISM (thinking about other people)
Children develop a working theory of mind – the understanding that human behavior is guided by mental representations, and that these mental representations differ across individuals
= Classic central theory in psychology, guided by thoughts. Things that I like are something someone else might not like. The ability to hold two conflicting ideas in your mind is a skill that children need language to do, according to Piaget
Theory of mind tasks
How do we measure theory of mind: One way is FALSE BELIEF TASKS
= Having a child hold two ideas in their head at once, and children under 3 often fail
Called also the “change of location task” or the “sally-anne task”
= Sally puts her ball in the basket
= Sally leaves
= Anne moves the ball to her box
= Where will Sally look for her ball?
= Children will say in the box
Unexpected contents task” also called “the smarties task”
= Failed by most 3 year olds and most 4 year olds
= The adult hands a well-known container to the boy
= Something the boy knows what’s in the box (aka favorite candy)
= The boy says there is the known candy inside
= But then the adult lets the boy open the box
= Instead there’s pencils in the box
= The adult closes the box and asks him what their friend will think is in the box
= The boy claims she will know that there are pencils in the container
Social development
Piaget described the transition from egocentrism to sociocentrism, and infants are indeed more egocentric than older children
But the sociocentrism of humans is one of our most defining features, even from birth
Humans are ultra social creatures!
Like some other animal, human children form bonds with their caregivers
= This emotional bond is called attachment
Individual differences in attachment
All infants require an attachment figure for normal development
But there are major individual differences in how infants are attached to their caregivers
How do we measure such differences?
= When they’re separated from their main caregiver, what happens when they reunite, this is how psychologists measure levels of attachment
= The extent to which an infant uses their caregiver as a secure base
Mary Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation Procedure to operationalize and measure these variables (7 month old baby)
Strange situation procedure
On the basis of the Strange Situation, Ainsworth proposed that infants can be securely or insecurely attached to their caregivers
An infant’s attachment style predicts many outcomes in adulthood
= Academic achievement
= Emotional health
= Relationship quality
= Self-esteem
Identity in early childhood
What do children think about themselves:
= Very self-positive views about themselves
= Positive rosy views of the world
= Speaks in predominantly physical forms
= Has a positivity bias
= Very proud of themselves
Decline of positivity
Positivity bias declines quickly at school
Becoming more sociocentric
More information about their surroundings
Social comparisons
Cognitive skills increase
= Perspective-taking increases
Schools begin objective evaluations
Self-esteem consistency
However, compared to other people, an individual’s self-esteem is relatively consistent across the lifespan
= Much variability in self-esteem is due to hereditary
Identical twins’ self-esteem correlates to a greater degree than non-twin siblings
Physical appearance
Physical abilities
= Rank order stability
Children with lower self-esteem tend to have lower self-esteem as adults
