2023

Course Code: EDU 112B

Course Title: Child Developmental Psychology

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Intimacy versus Isolation
Another developmental stage involves Intimacy versus Isolation
(youth stage). The adolescent’s role confusion is shaped at this stage.
He/she develops the ability to work toward a specific career
accompanied with intimate relationship with friends. This is a stage of
young adulthood where a man and a woman establish an intimate
relationship which leads to mutual trust and healthy development. The
failure of adolescents to establish interpersonal relationships can lead
to isolation.

Generativity versus Stagnation

The adulthood stage according to Erikson is associated with
Generativity versus Stagnation of psychosocial crisis and healthy
personality. The adults build up new family and work. They also
contribute beyond their immediate families and to society through
hard work as well as through the upbringing of their children and
relatives, the adult’s failure to attain their developmental tasks and
goals may lead them to stagnation or fixation.

Ego Integrity versus Despair

At the old age, adults experience psychosocial crisis in terms of
integrity versus despair as a result of retirement. The individuals at
stage have retired this and accept life as it is and face his last days
and death with dignity. Some of them acquire satisfaction in looking
back upon their live. If the psychosocial crisis of the older individuals is
not solved, dissatisfaction occurs when they are approaching the end

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of their lives which leads to despair. Despair according to Erickson
(1963) implies the feeling that the time is now short, too short for the
attempt to start another life and to try out alternative roads to
integrity.

Each crisis or stage is phrased as a struggle between two opposite or

conflicting personality characteristics. The trait of trust vies for
dominance over mistrust in the infant’s personality. This occurs
between birth to 18 months. The trust versus mistrust personality
developmental stage of Erickson correspond to Freudian, oral stage
and Piaget’s sensorimotor stage (birth to two years). The predominant
social setting is the family where the breast-feeding baby develops
trust if it has hygienic and feeding care with human affection, love
and warmth. The deprivation of love and affection, and warmth in
infant threatens the baby to turn into mistrust or suspicious person.

CONCLUSION
Erick Erickson, Danish psychologist of neo-Freudian psychoanalytic
tradition identifies eight major psychosocial stages. Each psychosocial
crisis or stage is phrased as a struggle between two opposite or
conflicting personality characteristics throughout a person’s life span.

INTRODUCTION
In units, 1, 2, and 3 of Module 2, we have learnt four major theories of
human development, the Freudian psychosexual stages of human
development; the psychosocial stages of development by Erik

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Erickson; and learning theories. The Sigmund Freud, Erik Erickson and
Jean Piaget among others see development as separated into
stages. They are known as major stage theorists of human
development. The stage concept implies that development occurs in
step like fashion with clear – cut changes in behaviour which
consistently involves one stage to the next.
In this unit, you will learn a giant of 20th century psychology known as
Jean Piaget who focused on the occurrence of changes in the child’s
mode of thought which gave rise to Piaget’s cognitive stages of
development. Jean Piaget believes that cognitive development
involves the interaction of heredity and environmental experiences.
This unit will briefly discuss Jean Piaget’s cognitive stages of human
development.

Basic Concepts in Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development.

Piaget assumes that intelligence is made up of two divisions namely
functional invariants and structure. The functional invariants are of two
types known as organization and adaptation. He further grouped
adaptation into two processes namely accommodation and
assimilation. The next word Piaget used is schemas (singular
schemata). Piaget believes that intelligence works through the terms
mentioned. Basically organisation and adaptation are inborn
intellectual functions of cognitive structures. Organisation is “the
process by which a child combines existing schema into new and
more complex intellectual structures” or bodies of knowledge
(Shaffer, 1985). A schema is a logically organized pattern of thought

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or action that one constructs to interpret some aspect of one’s
experiences.
Piaget believes that a child is born with a number of reflection
schemata. Piaget (1977) described three kinds of intellectual or
cognitive structures as behavioural schemata, symbolic schemata
and operational schemata. The behaviour schemata are organized
patterns of behaviour that are used to represent and respond to
objects and experiences (Shaffer, 1985, Zanden, 1978, and Gardner,
1978). The symbolic schemata imply that the child is capable of
representing actions mentally to satisfy his/her objectives. The internal
mental symbols (images or verbal codes) are used to help child to
represent aspects of experience.
The operational schemata imply that a child performs on his or her
objects of thought through a cognitive operation that include mental
activities such as actions implied in mathematical symbols.
The goal of organisation is to advance the adaptive function.
Adaptation is the aspect of intelligence which organizes the
interaction between the individual and environment. It is a process of
adjusting to the demands of the environment. Adaptation also occurs
when the process of assimilation and accommodation are balanced.
According to Piaget, adaptation occurs through two complementary
activities of assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the psychological process by which the child
understands the new information or interprets new experiences in
relation to the existing scheme which is integrated into cognitive
structures – assimilation. Piaget believes that as we assimilate new

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experiences, we will also accommodate such experiences.
Accommodation as cognitive structure and complement of
assimilation is the process of modifying existing schemas (old
schemas) or structures in order to account for new experiences (or
new schemas). Every assimilation of schemata involves an
accommodation to that schema (mental model) or experience.
Everyday children are repeatedly assimilating new schemata and
accommodating their cognitive structure to those experiences.
The total process of assimilation and accommodation for maintaining
intellectual balance at all age levels in Piagetian theory of cognitive
development is called equilibration. According to Piaget, cognitive
development is marked by altering states of equilibrium and
disequilibrium.

Piagetian Stages of Cognitive or Intellectual Development

Piaget asserts that intelligence unfolds in four distinct stages or periods
between early childhood and adolescence namely:
a. The sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)
b. The preoperational stage (2 to 7 years),
c. The stage of concrete operations (7 to 11 years) and
d. The stage of formal operations (11 years to 21 years)

Sensorimotor Stage
The sensorimotor stage maintained that children are relying on
behavioural schemata as a means of exploring and understanding
the environment. Sensorimotor child is characterized by sense of

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perception and vocalization. At the preoperational stage, the child is
thinking at a symbolic level but the logical thoughts are not yet,
developed. Piaget divided this stage or period into the pre-
conceptual stage or pre-logical stage which lies between two to four
years and the intuitive reasoning stage or the perceptional operation
stage from four to seven years. In our review of this level of pre-
operation thought, we need to understand what Piaget meant by
operations. Operations, in Piaget’s system, are ways of manipulating
objects in relation to each other. These manipulations of objects may
be according to size or colour etc. The manipulations of objects can
be concrete operations (Physical manipulation) or formal operations
(mental manipulation). The Pre-conceptual child (2 to about 4) is
characterized by egocentric use of language and heavy
dependence on perception in problem solving (Thomas 1992). Here
the child’s talk is social communication i.e asking parents to reach a
toy he cannot get or telling mother he wants to go to the toilet etc.
The child also increases the use of symbols with causal relationships
and develops conservative concepts. Piaget at this stage identified
logical mathematical experience as another interactive experience
with the physical world.

Pre-Operational Stage
The intuitive period or stage of pre-operational (from age 4 to age 7)
is marked by more social or communicative speech and greater
dependence or intuitive thinking rather than just on perception. This
stage marks the movement toward greater decent ration. The child is

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able to see more than one factor at a time that influences an event
(Piaget, 1969). The mental activities which are necessary for schooling
begin to develop various kinds of conservation as quantity, length,
number etc. and by appearance; density and seriate objects in order
and size starting with the smallest to the largest etc.

Concrete Operational Stage

The next stage of Piagetian cognitive development is the concrete
operational stage (about 7 years to 12 years). The concrete
operations stage emphasized the children capability of performing
operations that are directly related to objects. Children can now
conserve, classify, seriate, decentre, accommodate and participate
in the most of the things required of them at school. Piaget noted that
one of most significant characteristics of cognitive activity at the
concrete operations stage (Grinder 1978) children’s achievement in
number, mass, weight and so on. Children at this stage increase in
knowledge and skills and decrease in egocentrism or self-
centredness.

Formal Operational Stage

Finally the next stage of Piaget’s cognitive development is the formal
operations stage (about age 11 to age 15 plus). This stage according
to Jean Piaget is the cognitive development in adolescents and
relationship with other developmental and cultural phenomena.
The term formal is used by Piaget because adolescence at this level
of thinking possesses the ability to consider the possible, and therefore,

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is able to reason about the form of an argument apart from its
contents (Manaster, 1977).
The formal operational child will manipulate relations between
relations to work with proportion, correlations and probability. Here
the child becomes capable of logical thinking with abstractions. He
/she acquires higher order operations which imply applying abstract
concepts and hypothetical events to his / her problems. Basically the
adolescents can accept assumptions, hypothesis and laws for
problem solving.
Manaster emphasized that the adolescent at this stage makes use of
the hypothetico – deductive method of reasoning indicating “formal
thought begins with a theoretical synthesis. This implies that certain
relations are necessary and thus proceeds in the opposite direction.

Implications for Human Development – Contribution and Criticism of

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
The Piagetian theory of cognitive development has a lot implication
for teacher–interns and professional teachers” in the field. The teacher
should apply the step like arrangement of the theory to provide
effective teaching and learning.
You may include the following answers accordingly:
In Piaget’s cognitive development theory, organisation is the process
by which a child combines existing schema into new and more
complex cognitive structures or bodies of knowledge. Organisation
within the child’s innate tendency ensures that all schemas are

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properly interrelated and adjusted to each other to form an
integrated self.
In Piaget’s theory, adaptation as aspect of cognitive structures is the
interaction between the individual and the demands of his/her
environment. It also occurs when the process of assimilation and
accommodation are balance. According to Piaget, adaptation
occurs through two complementary activities of assimilation and
accommodation respectively.
Assimilation is the psychological process by which the child
understands the new information or interprets new experiences in
relation to the existing held schema (mental model) of the world.
Piaget believes that as we assimilate new experiences (new
information), we will also accommodate these experiences.
In Piagetian cognitive development theory, accommodation as
cognitive structure and complement of assimilation in the process of
modifying existing schemas (old schemas) or structures in order to
match new schemas or new experiences to the world of reality. Every
child is repeatedly assimilating new schema and accommodating his
cognitive structures to these experiences.
Schemata are a central concept in Piagetian theory. The schemata
are the cognitive structure that a child evolves for dealing with
specific kinds of situation in his /her environment. It is logically
organized thought or action that a child constructs to interpret some
aspects of his/her experiences. Piaget believes that a child is born with
a number of reflective schemata. She identified three kinds of

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intellectual or cognitive structures as behavioural schemata; Symbolic
schemata and operational schemata.

CONCLUSION
Piaget believes that intellectual growth proceeds through step like
stages which determines maturational readiness.

PHASES/STAGE OF HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (THE LIFE

SPAN)

INTRODUCTION
Growth and development are the result of interaction of the
influences of genetical and environmental factors, maturation and
learning. These aspects of human development cannot be
understood without the knowledge of biological processes. In general
there are five stages of human growth and development. These
stages are prenatal, neonatal, childhood, and adulthood
adolescence, in this unit therefore we shall discuss the prenatal
development stage of life span.

Biological Determinants of Human Development

The foundation of life starts from conception with the union of a male
sex cell. (Spermatozoon) and ovum, the female sex cell to from zygote
(the fertilized ovum) this process is called fertilisation. The sex
determination occurs at the time of conception; sex depends on the

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type of a male (gamete) sex gamete cell (spermatozoon) that unites
with a female gamete sex cell (ovum). The spermatozoa and ova are
alike and carry equal numbers. They contain chromosomes.
Chromosomes are the hereditary materials of life or genetic materials.
The chromosomes carry genes, which determine heredity or
inheritance. The chromosome also determines the sex of the child xx.
The mature ovum contains 22 matched chromosomes and one
unmatched which may be an x or a y chromosome the x and y
chromosomes are sex determining chromosomes.
For example, we have the following offspring from two parents
(Bok and Musa).
1 Human beings normally passes 46 chromosomes, 22 pair are similar
in size and shape in men and women. The 23rd pair, is the sex
chromosome in males.
2 Women have two chromosomes (xx) and men have an x and y
chromosome (xy). Provided that if the spermatozoon with x
chromosome unites with ovum (egg)
iv) Genes are the units, that determine male gamete inherited
characteristics (colour, size, height etc.) located in the chromosomes;
female ovum (fertilized egg)
v) Sex determination is based on what produces new individual after
fertilization. If the male spermatozoon with an x chromosomes fertilizes
the ovum with an x chromosome the result is a female child (xx).
Further, if the sperm with y chromosome fertilizes x, the result is a male
child.

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Prenatal Development
The prenatal period begins as conception and lasts as birth with
approximately “270 to 280 days” in length or nine calendar months
(Hurlock, 1978).
The whole process of prenatal development involves three main
stages viz.
i) The period of the zygote development (the germinal period)
ii) The period of the Embryo development (the embryonic period) and
iii) The period of the fetus (the fetal period)

Stages of Prenatal Development

The Zygotic Period (the Germinal Period)
This zygotic period extends from fertilization to the end of the second
week. The zygotic period is characterized by the growth of the zygote
with an initial linkage between the zygote and the support system of
the mother. This is the period of rapid growth as a result of increase in
cells. The zygote is unplanted in the uterine wall after fertilization.

Embryonic Period
The embryonic period lasts from the end of the second week to the
end of the eight weeks. The period is characterized by rapid growth
as the developing organism emerges as recognized human fetus. It
also established the placental relationship with the mother.
Furthermore, during this period, the main organs like the arms, legs and
the internal organs like the kidney, liver, lungs etc. the face, mouth,

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ears start to be defined better in the 8th and 9th weeks, a
recognizable human body ensued.
The period of the embryo is therefore a period of rapid development
of the nervous system. The embryo is attached to the wall of the uterus
by means of the placenta, which functions as a roof, which permits
the entry of food materials, oxygen and hormones and removal of
carbon dioxide and metabolic wastes. The cephalocandial and
proximodistal development occur at this period.

Foetal or Fetal Period

The fetal period is the final stage in prenatal life which beings with the
ninth weeks and ends with birth. This implies that the growing organism
is called the foetus. During this period the differentiation of these major
organs continues, and the organs themselves become capable of
assuming their specialized functions (Arey, 1974). At the eighth week,
the internal and external organs developed and the organism now
resembles a human being.

Factors Affecting Prenatal Development

Some identifiable factors affecting the child especially of the prenatal
development from fertilization to birth according to Akinboye et al
(1982) include;
- Malnutrition and age of mother; drug usage, maternal illness, effect
of Rh and other blood factors, maternal emotional state etc. The
maternal nutrition should be of high quality for the survival of the

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pregnant mother because the foetus depends directly on its mother
for food supply through the placenta and umbilical cord.
Equally the mother’s emotional state changes from one pregnancy to
another which depends in the age of the mother.
In addition, the Rhesus factor (Rh factor) is one of the causes of the
mental subnormility as a result of incompatibility of mother’s is blood
(rhesus negative) and her foetus is periodic. This incompatibility of
blood may lead to damage of its blood, or brain etc.

CONCLUSION
In this unit, you have learnt the biological determinants of human
development especially in terms of how life beings and sex
determination. You have also learnt the stages of prenatal
development. For example, as we have discussed zygotic embryonic
and fetal stages. You have therefore learnt the factors affecting
prenatal environmental factors such as malnutrition and age of
mother, drug usage and its effect, Rh factors, emotional state and so
on.
iv) Certain factors affect these stages or periods of prenatal
development like malnutrition and age of mother, drug usage, effect
of Rh factor, internal emotional state and so on.

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NEONATAL DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION
In Unit 1, we have discussed the prenatal development as one of the
stages of growth and development. But Unit 2 deals with the second
stage of child development known as the neonatal development
commonly called infancy. The newborn child is known as neonate
during the period of 0 to 2 years. In this stage emphasize will be on the
physical, physiological and motor development at infancy.

MAIN CONTENT
Neonate Development
Explanation of Neonate Development: Neonate development or
infancy is a period of postnatal. An infant is a child in the first period of
life from zero to two to three years. It is the shortest period of all
developmental stages or periods. The infant or the period of the
neonate occurs from the cutting of the umbilical cord to the end of
the second week of postnatal life. An infant is a child that must adjust
to the new environment outside the mother’s body. Growth is still very
rapid during this period.

Characteristics of Neonate Development

This stage is characterized by rapid growth and development. The
survival of the child depends on physiological, social, psychological,
digestive and physical adjustments that must be made at this stage
of development. Physiologically, the child’s survival depends on the

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adjustment of outside the womb body in terms of breathing in and
breathing out of oxygen. Psychologically the result of complaints
during birth is completed when the infant beings to show signs of
development progress in behavior (Hurlock,1972); the digestive
adjustment of the child boarders on proper feeding and elimination
of excretory waste products in order to determine the amount of sleep
and comfort of the child. This feeding, sleeping and crying are process
of adjustment of the child which determines developmental changes
in size, weight and structure of the infant.
This stage is also characterized by stoppage or half in growth and
developmental environment. This is a period of plateau in
development.

Physical and Motor Development

In this unit, we have learnt that physiological changes that occur
between conception and prenatal life. The infant growth and
development follow two patterns basically cephalocandal and
proximodistal principle. After birth, there are manifestations of physical
and motor development.
Physical development refers to developmental changes in size,
height, weight and strength of various parts of the body. It is also
depends on the ability of the infant to control and coordinate the
movements of the head, trunk and leg muscles. Motor development
is closely related. The infant’s is physical growth takes place in
generally orderly fashion with predictable changes occurring at
different age levels. The motor development follows the

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cephalocandal law. The infant’s motor development depends upon
the overall physical growth.
Precisely, the levels of skeletal and muscular development enable the
infant to craw, walk, climb and grip objects. The infant also gain
mastery over his head followed by his trunk and leg muscles. The
infant’s development of manual skills proceeds through the
proximodistal law. Not all body system grow at the same rate, for
example, the skeletal and internal organ system show growth spurts,
one in entry infancy and the other at adolescence. Infancy and
adolescence are marked acceleration of growth called the infant
growth spurt or the adolescence growth spurt. Apart from physical
and motor development in infant experiences perceptual
development. The infant experiences a pattern sequence of changes
the focusing and organizing visual events.

CONCLUSION
In the unit, you have learnt the concept of neonatal development as
another critical period in child development. The period of infancy
emphasizes the physical and motor development.

THE CONCEPT AND NATURE OF CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

In units 1 and 2, we discussed the prenatal and neonatal (infancy)

development. You can now explain the developmental changes in

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prenatal and neonatal stages. You are about to study another
interesting stage of human development known as childhood
development. However some psychologists classified childhood into
early, middle and late childhood, others grouped childhood into early
and late childhood while some regarded baby-hood as part of
childhood. Basically this stage comes after infancy or neonatal
development.

The Concept and Nature of Childhood

Childhood starts after infancy at the age approximately two years
and extends to the age of five or six years. Childhood is divided into
three separated periods namely early, middle and late childhood.
Early childhood falls within the age bracket of 2 to 5 years. The middle
childhood extends from approximately 6 years to 8 years and late
childhood extends from approximately 9 years to 11 years plus. Some
psychologists talk about early childhood or baby hood and vice versa
while others omitted it completely. In this case childhood is divided
into early and late childhood. In this unit, therefore we shall follow the
three sub-stages of childhood. These sub-stages of childhood extend
from 2 to 11 years and this age cohort covers pre-primary education
to primary education according to Nigerian National Policy on
Education currently revised in 2004. Often, this happens when the
child beings junior secondary school (9 to 11 years) based on
socioeconomic status and educational attainment of some parents.
However, adequate attention should be paid to these categories of

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childhood. Since nursery and primary education are the bedrock of
the educational system.

Early Childhood
Early childhood is the first stage of childhood development. It extends
from 2 years to 5 years or approximately 6 years. Whereas the infancy
falls within the Piaget’s sensori motor period of intellectual
development where the infant learns and develops motor skill by
manipulating objects around him. The early childhood extends to
piagetian second stage of intellectual development from two to 7
years called pre-operational when the child begins to acquire
vocabulary and he can use the language within his environment
completely, play and skip about.
Physically, the early childhood is most rapid in growth as that
experienced in infancy. There are qualitative changes in size, height
and body proportions of changes in proportion are also an adult
apparent in cognitive development. The child is self-centered and
concerned with objects of play or trip. But he becomes interested in
other children.
At this stage, improvement is made in the aspect of perceptual
development. In this regard the child develops a variety of motor skills
because he enjoys the repetition of learning skills such as self- feeding,
playing, jumping and so on. The child develops perception of size,
shape, colour and time etc. In terms of language development, the
enabling environment and early childhood training help the
development of vocabulary.

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Psychologists conducted some studies and concluded that there is
positive correlation between intelligence and language
development. Mentally, the child develops rapidly, in terms of
acquisition of new experiences. The child is inquisitive and reflects this
through questioning about this environment. Since he is in primary
school at the age of 6 he is able to use symbols in language, play and
problem solving.
Socially, the child learns to cooperate with his friends and others. On
shared interests especially in playing, simple stories etc.
Emotionally, early childhood provides personal and social adjustment
of the child. The emotional expression in early childhood are intense.
At this stage, Hurlock identified certain social expectations for every
stage of development namely, childhood, adolescent-hood and
adult-hood called development tasks.

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