Psychology for Dummies (56 page)
Read Psychology for Dummies Online
Authors: Adam Cash
Tags: #Psychology, #General, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Spirituality
The sensorimotor stage of cognitive development is followed by the preoperational and operational stages. Thinking continues to become more sophisticated, using the gains from earlier stages and applying these to more difficult problems.
The
preoperational stage
(ages 2 to 7) marks the development of symbolic thought. A child now possesses the ability to allow one object, a symbol, to represent another object. A hallmark of this is pretend play. How can a stick be used as a sword, or a bathroom towel be a superhero’s cape? Symbolic representation!
The most striking features of preoperational children’s thought processes are the abilities that they don’t possess. They have a hard time classifying objects into two or more categories. For instance, if you ask them if there are more total balls or more red balls in a collection of four red balls and three green balls, they usually answer “red balls.” They’ve locked onto one prominent feature of the collection of balls and cannot think abstractly to solve the problem. How much does 50 pounds of feathers weigh? A preoperational child may give some figure less than fifty pounds as his or her answer.
A classic development that sharply marks the difference between a preoperational child and a concrete operational child is called
conservation
(the ability to understand that something remains the same even though its appearance or surface properties may change).Get a tall glass of water and an empty short glass. With the child present, pour the water from the tall glass into the smaller short glass. Now, ask the child which glass had more water in it. The child will always say the tall one — that’s because it’s bigger. However, after the child has gotten older and progressed to the concrete operational stage, he or she can solve this problem.
The
concrete operational stage
marks the development of a child’s ability to mentally represent a complex series of actions and perform relational logic. At this stage, children use a skill called
seriation,
which allows a child to arrange objects in a series of changing dimensions, like bigger to smaller, smaller to bigger, taller to shorter, and so on. Believe it or not, most children can’t do this until they’re about 7 years old. However, a concrete operational child still gets hung up on more abstract problems, or problems that are hypothetical. If a problem has no basis in reality, the concrete operational child has a very hard time answering the question. They balk at “what if” questions because these questions require them to abstract concrete knowledge to situations that have never happened. Luckily, they get there in the formal operations stage, which comes in adolescence.
The primary social-development issues for school-aged children are peer relationships and social functioning outside the home. By the time children enter school, their relationships with their parents are pretty well solidified. These relationships continue to develop, but relationships outside of the home are the primary focus between the ages of 5 and 12.
During these years, our expectations of a child’s social ability grow dramatically. We no longer tolerate tantrums and less sophisticated social problem-solving techniques, such as hitting other children. We expect children to follow rules and instructions, especially in the classroom. Their affiliations with other children increase, and they start to develop a small, core group of friends.
If a child has social difficulties, these problems show up when they enter school. Problems involving getting along with the other children, joining in games, and cooperating with the routines expected of them when they’re away from their parents can sometimes lead to peer rejection, emotional difficulties, or school failure.
Perhaps one of the most significant events in a child’s life is his or her experience with puberty. Puberty is marked by an increase in the sexual hormones of progesterone, testosterone, and androgens. Development of secondary sexual characteristics, such as pubic hair, maturation of the genitalia, and breast development for girls, accompanies puberty. Interest in sex is markedly increased as boys begin to take interest in girls, and vice versa. Adolescents no longer think that members of the opposite sex have the cooties.
Along with these wonderful physical changes come some pretty profound changes in thinking. By the time we’re about 11 or 12 years old, we can solve the “what if” problems we’re faced with because we’ve reached the cognitive-developmental peak of formal operations. This period is called
formal operations
because the concrete thought processes of childhood are combined into more advanced concepts such as abstractions. Children and teenagers can now reason based on hypothetical questions. They don’t need concrete examples or demonstrations like they did during the earlier stages of cognitive development. They’ve become little scientists, able to conduct mental mini-experiments instead of having to tackle problems using trial and error.
Keep in mind that just because kids and adolescents can ask and answer these questions doesn’t mean they actually do. When I was a teenager, I repeatedly failed to ask myself, “What if I get caught lying to my parents?” I should have used my formal operational thinking a little more.
Exactly when puberty begins is a questionable matter. It can come at different times for different children. But researchers have noticed that the age of onset for puberty has been gradually decreasing. On average, kids are entering puberty at a younger and younger age. This development has been dubbed the
secular trend,
and researchers believe that it’s due to better childhood nutrition. According to Dacey and Travers, the average age of onset for puberty in Western countries is showing a decline of three months per decade.
The timing of puberty can have serious repercussions, depending on when it comes. Boys who develop later than others sometimes suffer from peer ridicule and social setbacks related to popularity and dating. Girls who develop too early sometimes find themselves in situations that they’re mentally not prepared for because their bodies make them look older than they really are.
What about sex? A great deal of variation in sexual norms exists across societies, but whether or not a society puts strict limits on adolescent sexual behavior, sexual desire is a primary issue for members of this age group. Most of the time, teenagers learn about sex from their friends and from the media. The old birds and the bees talk doesn’t come up as often as people may think.
One striking difference between childhood and adolescence is the diminished importance of parents in a teenager’s life. Prior to adolescence, parents and the home occupy center stage in a child’s life. During the teen years, adolescents begin to express their independence and autonomy by making friendships their top priority.
Social functions that involve parents take a back seat to teen-exclusive functions, such as dances, parties (without chaperones), and outings. Hanging out, talking on the phone, and staying the night at friends’ houses are commonplace.
Peers are a major source of self-esteem, and fitting in is often more important than parental acceptance. Teenagers experiment with identity and social roles. Relationship skills and patterns laid down in childhood grow in sophistication. Romantic relationships become extremely important. Being the star of the household gives way to desires for being popular or well-liked.
In this part . . .
M
odern psychopathology basically began in the early twentieth century with the theories of Eugene Bleuler and Sigmund Freud. Part VI covers contemporary approaches to abnormal psychology, including neuropsychological and cognitive explanations for psychological problems. I discuss some of the major and most infamous psychological disorders, including anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. I also discuss forensic psychology, or criminal psychology. Topics related to this subject include the areas of criminal responsibility and criminal profiling, major theories of criminal behavior, and theories on treatment and correction.
In This Chapter
Defining abnormality
Finding reality
Feeling depressed
Living in fear
T he following vignette is based on a fictional person. Mr. Smith is not real, and any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental.
Mr. Smith is a 30-year-old married man with two children who lives in a quiet suburban neighborhood. He works as a shipping manager for a local trucking company. Mr. Smith has been in relatively good health and is considered by most people to be a pretty average guy. About three months ago, Mr. Smith approached his wife with the idea of getting a home security system. She agreed, and they installed an alarm system. Mr. Smith then told her that he wanted to install cameras around the perimeter of their home. She reluctantly agreed. At times, Mrs. Smith began to wake up in the middle of the night to find Mr. Smith peaking out of their bedroom curtains with binoculars. He became very agitated when she questioned him about his behavior.
Mr. Smith’s actions continued for several weeks, and he still would not tell his wife what was going on. Then one day she found a gun as she was cleaning out their closet. She’d never known him to own a gun, so she confronted him about it out of concern for the children’s safety. When she approached him, he told her that he bought the gun to protect them from the neighbor next door. Mr. Smith said that he had been watching the neighbor for a few months, and he was convinced that the neighbor was involved in a real-estate scheme to get their home. The plot involved the neighbor hiring some criminals to break into their home and rob them, in order to scare them into moving and selling their home at a really low price. Then the neighbor would buy the house for next to nothing, tear it down, and expand his own home onto the property.
Is there anything wrong or strange about Mr. Smith’s behavior? Should his wife be worried? Is he just being protective? The answers to these questions are part of the field of
abnormal psychology
— the psychological study of abnormal behavior and mental processes. But what is “abnormal behavior?”