Development psychology

1. Developmental Psychology
Pre-School Child (2-5 years)
unit#04
Subia Naz
Lecturer
ION&M, DUHS

2. Objectives:
At the end of this unit the learners will be acquainted with:
1. Cognitive Development.
a. Piaget’s pre-operational thought stage.
b. Language development.
c. Play.
2. Personality Development:
a. Erikson’s Stage of Psycho Social Development. initiative vs. guilt stage.
b. Influence and peers in personality development.
3. Stage of psychosexual - development.

3. Piaget’s pre-operational thought stage
Preoperational period stage 02(2-7 years)
• Development of symbolic thought marked by irreversibility, centration
and egocentrism.
• The child in this stage is pre (before) operations. This means the child
cannot use logic or transform, combine or separate ideas.

4. The key features of the preoperational stage
include:
• Centration
• This is the tendency to focus on only one
aspect of a situation at one time. When a
child can focus on more than one aspect of a
situation at the same time they have the
ability to decenter.
• During this stage children have difficulties
thinking about more than one aspect of any
situation at the same time; and they have
trouble decentering in social situation just as
they do in non-social contexts.

5. Egocentrism
• Children's thoughts and communications are
typically egocentric (i.e. about themselves).
Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a
situation from another person's point of view.
• According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes
that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the
same as the child does.

6. Play
• At the beginning of this stage you often find children
engaging in parallel play. That is to say they often play
in the same room as other children but they play next
to others rather than with them.
• Each child is absorbed in its own private world and
speech is egocentric. That is to say the main function
of speech at this stage is to externalize the child’s
thinking rather than to communicate with others.
• As yet the child has not grasped the social function of
either language or rules.

7. Symbolic Representation
• This is the ability to make one thing - a word or an
object - stand for something other than itself. Language
is perhaps the most obvious form of symbolism that
young children display.
• However, Piaget (1951) argues that language does not
facilitate cognitive development, but merely reflects
what the child already knows and contributes little to
new knowledge. He believed cognitive development
promotes language development.

8. Pretend (or symbolic) Play
• Toddlers often pretend to be people they
are not (e.g. superheroes, policeman), and
may play these roles with props that
symbolize real life objects. Children may also
invent an imaginary playmate.
• As the pre-operational stage develops
egocentrism declines and children begin to
enjoy the participation of another child in
their games and “lets pretend “ play
becomes more important

9. Animism
• This is the belief that inanimate objects
(such as toys and teddy bears) have human
feelings and intentions. By animism Piaget
(1929) meant that for the pre-operational
child the world of nature is alive, conscious
and has a purpose.

10. Artificialism
• This is the belief that certain aspects of the environment are
manufactured by people (e.g. clouds in the sky).

11. Irreversibility
• This is the inability the reverse the direction of a sequence of events
to their starting point.

13. Initiative versus guilt
• Third stage of Erik Erikson’s theory
of psychosocial development.
• This stage occurs during the preschool years,
between the ages of three and five.
• During the initiative versus guilt stage,
children begin to assert their power and
control over the world through directing play
and other social interaction.

14. Cont….
• Major Question: “Am I good or bad?”
• Important Event(s): Exploration, Play
• Basic Virtue: Purpose

15. Cont….
• Children need to begin asserting control and power over the
environment by taking initiative by planning activities, accomplishing
tasks and facing challenges.
• During this stage, it is important for caregivers to encourage
exploration and to help children make appropriate choices.

16. Cont…
• This stage can sometimes be frustrating for parents and caregivers as
children begin to exercise more control over the things that impact
their lives.
• Such decisions can range from the friends they play with, the
activities they engage in, and the way that they approach different
tasks.

17. Cont….
• As you might guess, play and imagination takes on an important role
at this stage. Children have their sense of initiative reinforced by
being given the freedom and encouragement to play.
• When efforts to engage in physical and imaginative play are stifled by
caregivers, children begin to feel that their self-initiated efforts are a
source of embarrassment.

18. Cont…
• Children who are over-directed by adults may struggle to develop a
sense of initiative and confidence in their own abilities.
• Success in this stage leads to a sense of purpose, while failure results
in a sense of guilt.

19. Psychosexual Stages
• Anal Stage (18 months to three years).
• The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is on eliminating and
retaining feces.
• Through society’s pressure, mainly via parents, the child has to learn
to control anal stimulation. In terms of personality, after effects of an
anal fixation during this stage can result in an obsession with
cleanliness, perfection, and control (anal retentive).
• On the opposite end of the spectrum, they may become messy and
disorganized (anal expulsive).

21. Cont…
• Phallic Stage (ages three to six).
• The pleasure zone switches to the genitals. Freud believed that during
this stage boy develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother.
• Because of this, he becomes rivals with his father and sees him as
competition for the mother’s affection.
• During this time, boys also develop a fear that their father will punish
them for these feelings, such as by castrating them. This group of
feelings is known as Oedipus Complex

22. Cont…
• Later it was added that girls go through a similar
situation, developing unconscious sexual attraction
to their father.
• Although Freud Strongly disagreed with this, it has
been termed the Electra Complex by more recent
psychoanalysts.

23. References:
• Piaget, J. (1929). The child's concept of the world. Londres, Routldge &
Kegan Paul.
• “Sigmund Freud 1856–1939” entry (2000) Encyclopaedia of German
Literature Routledge:
• Crain, William (2011). Theories of Development: Concepts and
Applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc