Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

zone of proximal development 
(ZPD)
According to Vygotsky, the 
level at which a child can almost, but 
not fully, comprehend or perform a 
task on his or her own.
FIGURE 11
Memory span increases 
with age for both numbers and letters. 
(Source: Adapted from Dempster, 1981.)
10
0
Mean number of symbols recalled
2
3
Age (years)
7
4
8
5
9
6
10 11
Adults
12
1
4
7
2
5
8
3
6
9
Letters
Numbers
FIGURE 12
Although the performances 
of the two children working at a task 
without aid are similar, the second child 
benefi ts more from aid and thus has a 
larger zone of proximal development 
(ZPD).
P
erf
ormance
Unaided
Child A
Aided
ZPD
P
erf
ormance
Unaided
Child B
Aided
ZPD
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410 Chapter 
12 
Development
R E C A P / E V A L U A T E / R E T H I N K
R E C A P 
What are the major competencies of newborns?
• Newborns, or neonates, have refl exes—unlearned, 
involuntary responses that occur automatically in the 
presence of certain stimuli. (p. 393)
• Sensory abilities also develop rapidly; infants can distin-
guish color, depth, sound, tastes, and smells relatively 
soon after birth. (p. 394)
• After birth, physical development is rapid; children 
typically triple their birthweight in a year. (p. 397)
What are the milestones of physical and social development 
during childhood?
• Attachment—the positive emotional bond between a 
child and a particular individual—marks social develop-
ment in infancy. Measured in the laboratory by means of 
the Ainsworth stranger situation, attachment relates to 
later social and emotional adjustment. (p. 398)
• As children become older, the nature of their social inter-
actions with peers changes. Initially play occurs rela-
tively independently, but it becomes increasingly 
cooperative. (p. 400)
• The different child-rearing styles include authoritarian, 
permissive, authoritative, and uninvolved. (p. 401)
• According to Erikson, eight stages of psychosocial devel-
opment involve people’s changing interactions and 
understanding of themselves and others. During child-
hood, the four stages are trust-versus-mistrust (birth to 
1½ years), autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt (1½ to 
3 years), initiative-versus-guilt (3 to 6 years), and industry-
versus-inferiority (6 to 12 years). (p. 403)
How does cognitive development proceed during childhood?
• Piaget’s theory suggests that cognitive development 
proceeds through four stages in which qualitative 
changes occur in thinking: the sensorimotor stage (birth 
to 2 years), the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years), the 
concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years), and the formal 
operational stage (12 years to adulthood). (p. 404)
• Information-processing approaches suggest that quanti-
tative changes occur in children’s ability to organize and 
manipulate information about the world, such as signifi -
cant increases in speed of processing, attention span, and 
memory. In addition, children advance in metacognition, 
the awareness and understanding of one’s own cognitive 
processes. (p. 408)
• Vygotsky argued that children’s cognitive development 
occurs as a consequence of social interactions in which 
children and others work together to solve problems. 
(p. 409)