What is coming up after the break?

We are just finishing up our unit on Infancy and after the break you will have one more assignment based on social and emotional development in Infancy, we will do a review of the topics that were covered in Infancy to check for understanding and we will have presentations/projects from the Psych Challenge I - Diagnose a Fictional Character on Friday, May 6. Topics to keep in mind that we covered in Infancy:

• Physical & Cognitive Development in Infancy: Gross and Fine Motor Skills, Sensory and Perceptual Development, Theories of Cognitive Development and Language Development


• Social & Emotional Development in Infancy: Birth Order, Attachment, Temperament, Personality, Play, Early Socialization and Culture,

We will move into a new unit on Early Childhood Development that will look at the Physical, Cognitive, Social and Emotional development in this age range.

Have a great break :)

Psych Challenge I - Diagnose a Fictional Character!

Need help diagnosing your character? Diagnostic Criteria DSM IV & Guidlines for diagnosing your character

Groups: Mitch & Eric - Allan (The Other Guys), Kaylee & Courtney - Sheldon (Big Bang Theory), Jinelle & Rhiannon - Stewie (Family Guy), Amy & Caitlyn - Joker (Batman), Sara & Mandee - Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men), Crystal & Brooke - Miss Hannigan (Little Orphan Annie), Amber & Kallie - Phoebe (Friends), Kotey - ?, Cole - ?, Haley - RJ Berger (Hard Times), Harlon - ?, Nicholas - ?, Jordan - ?

If you have yet to choose your character, let me know by the end of class tomorrow

Work Periods 1 & 2

"Never neglect an opportunity for improvement." ~ Sir William Jones

Today and tomorrow you are booked to work in the Business Lab. Use your time wisely and appropriately so you can relax and not have to do Psychology homework over the break. To do:

• Finish outstanding work for Mrs. Burback. She will accept work as long as it is in before the break. You may email her your assignments or hand them in to me and I can pass them on to her.


• Finish outstanding work for me. Check the blog listing to see what you are missing.


• If you did not hand in your Topical Research Questions (Was due: Monday, April 18) get that done.


• Work on your Journal Entries Package (Choose five to respond to) (Due: Tomorrow)


• Work on researching and typing your Journal Entries for the Baby Book Project (Ongoing)


• Work on Psych Challenge I - Diagnose a Fictional Character (Due: Friday, May 6)

Good Luck!

Missing Assignments:

Outstanding Assignments: (Please submit these before the break for credit)
Everything: Jordan, Aden, Harlon
Childrearing in...: Courtney, Haley, Cole, Nicholas, Kallie, Kotey, Mitch, Sara
Visual Cliff: Nicholas, Kallie
Categorizing Infancy: Kallie, Kotey, Nicholas
Piaget Meets Santa: Courtney, Haley, Brooke
Cognitive Vocabulary: Amber, Haley, Nicholas
Living with Brothers & Sisters: Mitch

Was due on Monday, April 18:
Topical Research Questions: Everyone except: Amber, Eric, Amy, Rhiannon, Kaylee, Mandee, Caitlyn, Jinelle, Haley, Cole

Due - Thursday, April 21:
Journal Entries Package:Everyone except: Rhiannon, Kaylee, Caitlyn, Amy, Mandee, Jinelle, Amber, Haley, Eric

Due - Friday, May 6:
Psych Challenge I - Diagnose a Fictional Character

Ongoing:
Journal Entries for the Baby Book Project

***LATE WORK WILL RECEIVE A 5% DEDUCTION PER DAY IT IS LATE UP TO A MAXIMUM OF 50%***
Remember: If you need/would like extra time to work on an assignment, ask me before the due date and if you have been working I will probably accept a reasonable extension as long as you show responsibility.

Early Socialization: Culture

Consider how might each of the levels of Bronfenbrenner's theory of the systems of support influence social and emotional development in infants?

In some families one parent chooses to stay at home to be the primary caregiver of the children. In this case infants learn to interact within the microsystem. Two parent career families and single parent career familes may rely on extended family/day care/other people in the exosystem and macrosystems.

Culture: is defined as a recognized set of behavioural patterns, beliefs and values that exist within a distinct group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Cultures vary in many ways:

Style of attachment (Westernized/Other)

The accepted and expected behaviour according to norms or rules established by the group

the acceptable amount of personal space

type of relating between people in a social setting the degree and style of expressiveness, both verbal and non verbal

pace of life

definition of family

childrearing practices

Identity: refers to the distinct personality or set of behavioural or personal traits associated with a particular individual recognized as a member of a group.

Individualistic Cultures: are those that emphasize independence of thought and action.

Collectivist Cultures: are those that emphasize the quality and condition of the people as a whole. Secure attachments and a positive sense of self are part of the most important social achievement in infancy. Self concept and cultural identity are also related to healthy social and emotional development in infancy. Cultures vary in their definition of self and what it means to be a contributing member.

Individualistic Cultures: Some cultures, such as those in Western Europe and North America tend to promote individualism. Infants are taught to be independent, distinct and self reliant.

Collectivist Cultures: Collectivist cultures such as First Nations, Southern European, Latin American, and those in parts of Africa and Asia rely on the family and the immediate neighbourhood community. Infants are taught to be cooperative, contributing members of the group and supporters of tradition

Info from Saskatchewan Learning: Technology Supported Learning Course

Keep in mind...

Stay ahead of deadlines! Be sure to hand in as much work as possible before the break.

• Journal Entries - (5 Entires) Pregnancy, Birth & Labour and Delivery, Newborn, 4-6 weeks, 10 - 14 Weeks (Ongoing)


• Topical Research Questions (Link on blog to the right or you were given one in class) (Due today!)


• Journal Entries Package - Choose 5 to answer out of 10. Answer more if you would like! (Due: Thursday, April 21)


• Psych Challenge I - Diagnose a Fictional Character (Due date: TBA)


• Any other outstanding work that you have in Psych.

To be fair to students who work hard to get work on time there will be a 5% deduction per day for late work. Remember, if you need extra time or an extension, come to me in advance with a good reason and ask for the time you need. If I see that you have been working in class I will usually accept your request as long as it is reasonable.

Play and Social Emotional Development in Infancy

Play and Social Emotional Development in Infancy:

• Play is essential to the young child's health.


• Play increases affiliation with peers


• releases tension


• advances cognitive development


• increases exploration


• provides a safe haven in which to engage in potentially dangerous behaviour.

For Freud and Erikson, play is an essential useful form of human adjustment, helping the child master anxieties and conflicts. Because tensions are relieved in play, the child can cope with life's problems.

Piaget believes that play advances children's cognitive development. Play permits children to practise their competencies and acquired skills in a relaxed, pleasurable way.

Vygotsky also believes that play is an excellent setting for cognitive development, especially the symbolic and make-believe aspects of play, as when a child substitutes a stick for a horse and rides the stick as if it were a horse.

Daniel Berlyne (1960) described play as being exciting and pleasurable in itself because it satisfies the exploratory drive in each of us. This drive involves curiosity and a desire for information about something new or unusual. Play encourages this exploratory behaviour by offering children the possibilities of novelty, complexity, uncertainty, surprise, and incongruity (Santrock, 1999, p. 240).

Mildred Parten (1932) developed the following classification of children's play:

• Unoccupied play occurs when the child is not engaging in play as it is commonly understood. The child may stand in one spot, look around the room, or perform random movements that do not seem to have a goal.


• Solitary play occurs when the child plays alone and independently of others. Two- and three-year-olds engage more frequently in solitary play than older preschoolers do.


• Onlooker play occurs when the child watches other children play. The child's active interest in other children's play distinguishes onlooker play from unoccupied play.


• Parallel play occurs when the child plays separately from others, but with toys like those the others are using or in a manner that mimics their play.


• Associative play occurs when play involves social interaction with little or no organization. In this type of play children seem to be more interested in each other than in the tasks they are performing.


• Cooperative play involves social interaction in a group with a sense of group identity and organized activity. Little cooperative play is seen in the preschool years (Santrock, 1999, p. 241).

Whereas Parten's categories emphasize the role of play in the child's social world, the contemporary perspective on play emphasizes both the cognitive and social aspects of play.

• Sensorimotor play is behaviour engaged in by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their existing sensorimotor schemas. Infants initially engage in exploratory and playful visual and motor transactions in the second quarter of the first year of life. By nine months of age, infants begin to choose novel objects for exploration and play, especially objects that are responsive such as toys that make noise or bounce. By 12 months of age, infants enjoy making things work and exploring cause and effect. At this point in development, children like toys that perform when they act on them.


• Pretense/Symbolic play Between nine and 30 months of age, children increase their use of objects in symbolic play. They learn to transform objects, substituting them for other objects and acting toward them as if they were these other objects. Dramatic play or "make-believe" often appears at about 18 months of age and reaches a peak at about four or five years of age, then gradually declines. In the second year, infants begin to understand the social meaning of objects. For example, two-year-olds may distinguish between exploratory play that is interesting but not humorous, and “playful” play which has incongruous and humorous dimensions.


• Social play is play that involves social interactions with peers. Parten's categories are oriented towards social play.


• Constructive play combines sensorimotor/practice repetitive play with symbolic representation of ideas. Constructive play occurs when children engage in self-regulated creation or construction of a product or a problem solution (Santrock, 1999, p. 241).

Information from: Saskatchewan Evergreen Curriculum