Week 1

9/24/2019 Week 1 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-1-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680388 1/3

Week One Instructor Guidance

Greetings!  Welcome to Week One of Child and Adolescent

Development   

Over the five weeks of this course, we will look at the developmental process starting at birth through adolescence. Our focus will be on the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial developmental domains. Humans have a much longer path from birth to adulthood compared to other species. A lot happens in the first 18 years of life in all three of the developmental domains! You will use the development of a Community Child Development Center for children and adolescents as the catalyst for synthesizing what you are learning as we progress through the course. That project will culminate in Week Five, so I would encourage you to click on the assignment tab for Week Five to start to familiarize yourself with the specific requirements of the final assignment. So let’s get started!

Why do we study human development?

What’s the difference between doing an experiment or observational study and finding out what a group of children is likely to do, and hearing what to expect a group of children to do from your grandmother? While grandma’s advice can certainly be helpful (i.e. “enjoy this time, it goes quickly”), it can also be dangerous (i.e. “we gave our children rum to soothe sore teeth”).

Grandma might be able to tell you how her own children responded to certain situations, but the goal of research (and theory) is to help explain generalizations of behaviors. In other words, thousands and thousands of cases have been studied, and most of the time, XYZ happened.

But…. my child didn’t respond XYZ so that theory is WRONG!! Not so fast, there. If you go back and read that last paragraph very carefully, you’ll notice that research and theory can tell us a lot about general behaviors in certain populations. And “general” is the operative tem here. In logic, we talk about the differences between generalization and certainly. Some things are universally true, but most things are generally true. Human behavior falls mostly into the latter category. However, it is important to note that each human being is unique, and therefore, we can never predict with 100% certainty how a child will behave!

These theories and the research that we’ll read about in class are absolutely important for forming the foundations of our understanding of human behavior. However, you may find that there is a case or two in your own life that didn’t follow the theory. That’s perfectly ok! It doesn’t make the research or theory any less valid, it simply highlights the fact that nothing explains everything 100%, and as humans, we are going to have to be okay with that!

9/24/2019 Week 1 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-1-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680388 2/3

Attachment

Why do we become attached to (or love) other people? Well, first, I think that it is important to understand what attachment is. Attachment is an emotional bond between two people. The first attachment we make in life is to our primary caregiver (Santrock, 2011).

But, what determines how we will attach to that person, or even who we will attach to? Freud initially thought that feeding was the basis of attachment. So, whoever was feeding us is the person we attached to. Likely, this would be the mother (Santrock, 2011). This was also thought to be the case when looked at through the lens of behaviorism. Because we are “rewarded” for bonding with the person who feeds us (with food), we will attach to that person. This builds a positive association with that person, and therefore a secure attachment.

However, Harlow and Zimmerman did a study in the 1950s in which they tested this hypothesis, and the results were actually quite stunning. They took baby Rhesus monkeys away from their mothers and kept them in cages with just one wire “mother” who fed them (with a bottle strapped to the wires) and a cloth “mother,” who did not feed, but instead simply felt more like a mother would. What they found is that the baby monkeys only went to the wire mother for food when they absolutely needed to because they were so hungry. Often, they spent as much as 23 hours a day on the cloth mother and just one hour or so with the feeding mother (Santrock, 2011). People often feel very bad for these monkeys and are upset at the fact that a study like this could be completed, but nonetheless, we did learn a valuable lesson from their results!

Additionally, Lorenz studied attachment in other animals (like geese) and found that in those types of animals, attachment was simply based on who they came in contact with first. This was called imprinting. Essentially, the goslings would imprint on whichever animal (including Lorenz himself!) they saw first, and would rely on that animal for food, warmth, love, and survival (Santrock, 2011).

9/24/2019 Week 1 - Instructor Guidance: PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1939B)

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/53006/pages/week-1-instructor-guidance?module_item_id=2680388 3/3

Now, after these had been established, a man name John Bowlby thought to combine these two theories into what is now our most influential theory on attachment. Essentially, he suggested that even humans have an innate adaptive need to imprint on a caregiver in order to survive. We need our mothers for milk, comfort, and to change those stinky diapers! However, he also suggested that our psychological attachment (based on the need for warmth and love) is what determines our attachment style and is the basis for all future relationships (Santrock, 2011)! If you had an insecure attachment with your caregiver in those first years, you are likely to carry that on in your current relationships (Santrock, 2011).

Readings – I recommend you complete the readings as early as possible! You will need that information for all the week’s activities.

Mossler, R. (2nd ed.). (2014). Child and Adolescent Development. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Child Development Chapter 13: Attachment, Parenting, and Families

Discussions— We have only one discussions this week - Post Your Introduction. I am hopeful we will have lots of great conversations in this discussion about the three primary domains of development that we will be studying as well as how knowledge of child and adolescent development can help you in your careers.

APA Format and Proper Citation Quiz—Writing papers is part of the college experience, and it is important that you learn how to use and cite sources properly. There are some fun and engaging tools in the Ashford Writing Center that can help you to learn this. Then there will be a short quiz to solidify your learning.

Written Assignment—Submit your two to three-page (excluding title and reference pages) paper on “Early Attachment and Development.” Remember to review the assignment tab for details. Hint: I am far more interested in two pages of quality than I am in four pages of fluff.

References

Santrock, J. W. (2012). A topical approach to life-span development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.