BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

TOPICS
The Beginning of life
-Pregnancy
-Child Birth
Infancy
The Toddler years
The preschool years

THE BEGINNING OF LIFE

1- Pregnancy through preschool

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
a. Pregnancy:
- Know the common mood changes and other
psychological factors associated with pregnancy
- Know the marital problems that may arise
during pregnancy, and how to prevent them.
b. Childbirth:
-Know the rate of birth, infant mortality and
cesarean birth in the U.S. as well as other
associated characteristics.
-Know the characteristics of a premature birth
and postpartum reactions as well as other
associated characteristics. Infant mortality rates.

PREGNANCY
A major event in many peoples lives.
Womans view
Mans view
A. Emotions
Mood changes are common and are
usually due to:

Biological factors

Psychological factors

 Pseudocyesis (false pregnancy)

May occur in women with a strong wish to
be pregnant or a strong fear of pregnancy
Bonding before childbirth: It begins by the
second trimester of pregnancy

B. The marital relationship

Sexual intercourse is safe until the last 4
weeks prior to the expected date of
delivery.
Reduction in sexual activity may affect the
relationship
Extramarital affairs are likely to occur
during the last 3 months of pregnancy

CHILDBIRTH

About 4 million children are born each

year in the USA.
Birth rate has been reducing since the
90s

Infant mortality
IMR in the United States is high
compared to that of socialist countries and
other developed countries.
It is related to low socioeconomic status,
which is also related to ethnicity.

Cesarean birth
Cesarean births account for about 21% of all
births
The rate of cesarean births increased between
the 1960s and 1990s partly due to the increase
in law suits against physicians when infants died
or were injured during vaginal childbirth.
The rate has been declining in recent years also
because of complaints that women undergo
unnecessary surgical procedures

Premature Infants
The average newborn weighs about 3400g
(7.5 Lb)
Premature infants are defined as those
with a gestation less than 34 weeks or a
birth weight under 2500g.

Predisposing factors:

Low income
Malnutrition
Young maternal age
Maternal illness
Maternal substance abuse

Occurrence
It occurs in 6% of births to White women and
13% of births to African-American women
Child Risk
Premature infants are at risk for:
Learning disabilities such as dyslexia
Emotional and behavioral problems
Mental Retardation
Child abuse

 With each 100g increment of weight

beginning at about 1000g, infants have a
progressively better chance of survival
A 36-week-old fetus has less chance of
survival than a 3000g fetus born close to
term.

Post-mature Infants
Post-mature infants are defined as those
infants born 2 weeks or more beyond the
expected date of birth.
Post-mature babies typically have:
Long nails
Scanty lanugo hair
More scalp hair than usual
Increased alertness

Postpartum reactions
Baby blues or postpartum blues: last up to
1 week after childbirth
Causes: psychological factors
Physiological factors
Major depression and brief psychotic
disorder with postpartum onset
(postpartum psychosis)

Baby blues
Psychological factors include:
Fear of added responsibilities
Emotional stress of child birth
Physiological factors include:
Hormonal changes
Fatigue

INFANCY
BIRTH TO 15 MONTHS

Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, students should;
Know the characteristics of the bonding process of
parents to the infant
Know the characteristics of the process of attachment of
the infant to the parents
Know the characteristics of the infant
Know the motor, social, verbal, and cognitive
development of the infant

INFANCY: BIRTH TO 15 MONTHS

BONDING
Bonding is the term used to describe the intense
emotional and psychological relationship that a
mother develops for her baby

Bonding of the parent to the infant is enhanced

by physical contact between mother and child

Bonding may be adversely affected if:

Child is of low birth weight or ill, leading to
separation from the mother after delivery
There are problems in the mother-father
relationship.

Women who take classes

preparing them for childbirth:

have shorter labors

fewer medical complications
less need for medication
have closer initial interactions with their
infants.

Attachment of the infant to the

parent
ATTACHMENT
Attachment is the relationship the baby
develops with its caregivers
The principal psychological task of infancy
is the formation of an intimate attachment
to the primary caregiver

 Infants in the first months after birth show

a rapidly increasing responsiveness to the
ext. environment and an ability to form a
special relationship with significant primary
caregivers ( attachment)
Separation from the primary caregiver
between 6 12 months of age leads to
initial loud protests from the infant.

 With continued absence of the mother;

Baby is at risk for anaclitic depression, where
the baby becomes withdrawn and
unresponsive

Baby may also suffer from anaclitic

depression if mother is physically and
emotionally distant and is insensitive to
babys needs.
Depressed infants may have problems
with physical growth and may have poor
health

DEVELOPMENTAL
MILESTONES
PHYSICAL/MOTOR
COGNITIVE
INTELLECTUAL/VERBAL
SOCIAL

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
INFANT
Reflexes and survival systems at birth
Reflexes are present at birth:

Rooting reflex
Startle reflex (Moro reflex)
Palmar grasp reflex
Babinskis reflex
Tracking reflex

Survival systems at birth include:

Breathing
Sucking
Swallowing
Circulatory and Temperature homeostasis
They are relatively functional at birth, but
sensory organs are incompletely
developed.

 Further differentiation of
neurophysiological functions depends
on an active process of stimulatory
reinforcement from the external
environment, such as touching and
stroking the infant.
The new born infant is awake for only a
short period of each day. REM (Rapid eye
movement) and NREM sleep are present
at birth.

- Social smile is one of the first markers of

the infants responsiveness to another
individual
- Stranger anxiety (is normal) begins at
about 7 months of age
- Infants exposed to many caregivers are
less likely to show stranger anxiety than
those exposed to few caregivers

Margaret Mahler

Stages of separation-individuation
Normal autism (birth 2 months)
Symbiosis (2-5 months)
Differentiation (5-10) months
Practicing (10 18) months
Rapproachment (18 24) months
Object constancy (2-5 years)

The toddler
years
15 months to 2 years

Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, students should;
Know the changes that occur to the attachment of the
toddler to the parents
Know the motor, social, verbal, and cognitive
development of the toddler
Know the theories of development

The toddler years: 15 months

to 2 years
1. Attachment
Separation from the mother or
primary caregiver is the major theme of
the second year of life. This process is
completed at about age 3.

Motor, social, verbal and

cognitive characteristics
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT:
During the 2nd year of life, there is an
accelerated motor and intelligence
development.
The ability to walk gives toddlers some
control over their own actions which helps
them to determine when to approach and
when to withdraw.

SPEECH:
They learn to say NO before they learn
to say YES
Negativism is a sign of the development of
independence. But if it persists, the
oppositional behavior becomes a problem.
Most child experts recommend a hearing
test if child is not making a two-word
sentences like NO WANT, WANT IT by
age 2.

Emotional and social

development
Social referencing The child looks to
parents and others for emotional cues
about how to respond to different events.
They show exploratory excitement and
pleasure in discovery and in developing
new behaviors (e.g. new games), including
teasing and surprising or fooling the parent
(e.g. hiding).

 Toddlers also have the capacity to

demonstrate love (e.g. running up and
hugging, smiling, and kissing the parent at
the same time), or protest (e.g. turning
away, crying, banging, biting, hitting,
yelling, and kicking).

 Other spontaneous behaviors include

crying, smiling, and penile erection in
males.
One-day-old infants can detect the smell
of the mothers milk, and a Three-day-old
infants distinguish the voice of their
mother.

THE THEORIES OF
DEVELOPMENT

Chess And Thomas

There are endogenous differences in the
temperaments of infants, which remain
quite stable for the first 25 years of life.
E.g. response to stimuli, mood,
distractibility, responsiveness to people,
etc.

Erik Erickson
Described development in terms of critical
periods for the achievement of social
goals. E.g. basic trust versus mistrust

Sigmund Freud
Described development in terms of the
parts of the body from which the most
pleasure is derived at each stage of
development. E.g. oral stage, anal stage

Jean Piaget
Described development in terms of
learning capabilities of the child at each
age

Margaret Mahler
Described early development as a
sequential process of separation of the
child from the mother or primary caregiver.

The preschool
child
2 to 6 years

Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, students should;
Know the motor, social, verbal, and cognitive
development of the toddle
Know the cognitive changes that occur at age six

The preschool child: 2 to 6

years
The preschool period is characterized by
marked physical and emotional growth.
Generally, between 2 and 3 yrs. of age,
children reach half their adult height.
By the time this stage ends (at age 5 or 6),
children are ready to enter school.

 They have mastered the task of primary

socialization- to control their bowels and
urine, to dress and to feed themselves,
and to control their tears and temper
outburst, at least most of the time.

Attachment:
By age 3 years The child should be able to
spend a few hours away from the mother in the
care of others (e.g. in day care)
Characteristics:
- Vocabulary increases rapidly
- Sibling rivalry may occur may lead to
regression
- Can distinguish fantasy from reality.

AT AGE SIX (End of preschool

yrs.)
Conscience and sense of morality begin to
develop (They develop a moral sense of
right or wrong).
At start of the preschool years, they can
express complex emotions such as love,
unhappiness, jealousy, and envy, both
nonverbally and verbally. Their emotions
are still easily influenced by somatic
events like hunger, tiredness, wound, etc.

 By the end of the preschool yrs, children

have many relatively stable emotions.
Capacities for empathy and love are
developed but fragile and easily lost if
competitive or jealous strivings intervene.
Children between the ages of 3 and 6 are
aware of their bodies, their genitalia, and
of their sex differences. This is manifested
in plays such as DOCTOR-NURSE or
FATHER-MOTHER.

 They also show preoccupation with illness

or injury, so much so that the period has
been called the Band-Aid phase Every
injury must be examined and taken care of
by a parent.

Jean Piaget stages of cognitive

development
SENSORIMOTOR UPTO 2 YEARS
PREOPERATIONAL 2 TO 7 YEARS
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL 7 TO 11
YEARS
FORMAL OPERATIONAL 11 TO 13
YEARS

SIGMUND FREUD

ORAL STAGE
ANAL STAGE
PHALLIC STAGE
LATENT STAGE
GENITAL STAGE

ERIK ERIKSON
Infant (Birth to 18 months)
Trust vs Mistrust
Needs maximum comfort with minimal uncertainty
to trust himself/herself, others, and the environment

Toddler (2-3 years)

Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt
Works to master physical environment while maintaining
self-esteem

Preschooler (3-5 years)

Initiative vs Guilt
Begins to initiate, not imitate, activities; develops
conscience and sexual identity
School-Age Child (6-11 years)
Industry vs Inferiority
Tries to develop a sense of self-worth by refining skills

ERIK ERIKSON
Adolescent (12-18 years)
Identity vs Role Confusion
Tries integrating many roles (child, sibling, student, athlete,
worker) into a self-image under role model and peer pressure
Young Adult (19-40 years)
Intimacy vs Isolation
Learns to make personal commitment to another as
spouse, parent or partner
Middle-Age Adult (40-60 years)
Generativity vs Stagnation
Seeks satisfaction through productivity in career, family, and
civic interests
Older Adult (>60 years)
Integrity vs Despair
Reviews life accomplishments, deals with loss and preparation
for death