NIOS Class 12 Psychology Chapter 13 Infancy and Childhood

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NIOS Class 12 Psychology Chapter 13 Infancy and Childhood

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Infancy and Childhood

Chapter: 13

PART – I

Module – 3: Human Development

INTEXT QUESTIONS 13.1

Fill in the blanks:

1. Changes in height, weight and body proportions are termed as __________________ .

Ans: Physical Development.

2. Large and small muscle movements are required for _______________ motor and motor skills respectively.

Ans: Gross and Fine.

3. Middle and late childhood is the time when physical development slows down but is rather _______________.

Ans: Consistent.

4. Increase in body weight during middle and late childhood is mainly due to increase in size of _____________ and _____________ system.

Ans: Skeletal, Muscular.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 13.2

1. Match the following:

Column A	Column B
(a) Organization.	(i) Adjusting existing schemes to fit new information and experiences.
(b) Assimilation.	(ii) Back and forth movements between states of equilibrium and disequilibrium.
(c)  Accommodation.	(iii) Incorporating new information into existing schemes.
(d) Equilibration.	(iv) Grouping and reorganizing information.

Ans: 

Column A	Column B
(a) Organization.	(iv) Grouping and reorganizing information.
(b) Assimilation.	(iii) Incorporating new information into existing schemes.
(c)  Accommodation.	(i) Adjusting existing schemes to fit new information and experiences.
(d) Equilibration.	(ii) Back and forth movements between states of equilibrium and disequilibrium.

2. State which of the following statements are ‘true’ or ‘false’:

1. Piaget believed that children actively construct knowledge about the world around them. 

Ans: True.

2. 4 months old infants can imitate actions that they cannot even produce. 

Ans: False.

3. Preoperational thought is egocentric. 

Ans: False.

4. Children in the concrete operational stage can perform concrete operations or mental actions on real, concrete objects. 

Ans: True.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 13.3

Fill in the blanks:

1. Infants show fear for persons they do not know. This is called  __________________ .

Ans: Stranger anxiety.

2. Infants cry and resist separation from mother. This is called _________________ .

Ans: Separation anxiety.

3. Socio-emotional development means managing the ______________ of oneself and others.

Ans: Emotions.

4. Children gradually develop evaluative emotions in response of people’s reactions to children’s behaviours. These emotions are called ________________ .

Ans: Self-conscious emotions.

TERMINAL EXERCISES

1. Discuss physical development from infancy through late childhood.

Ans: Physical development involves quantitative changes in height, weight, and body proportions, which are best understood through motor achievements.

Infancy (Birth to 2 years): This is a phase of rapid physical growth. Motor achievements are categorized into gross motor skills (requiring large muscle movements, such as neck control, sitting, crawling, and eventually walking on their own between 9 to 15 months) and fine motor skills (small muscle movements, like using fingers to precisely pick up objects).

Early Childhood (3-5 years): Growth continues but is less rapid compared to infancy. Children gain better coordination of their gross and fine motor actions, mastering activities like running, hopping, jumping, throwing balls, and drawing shapes.

Middle and Late Childhood (6-11 years): Physical growth slows down but becomes consistent. The gain in body weight is mainly due to the increase in the size of the skeletal and muscular systems, leading to refined athletic agility and physical coordination.

2. Define the processes that children use to construct knowledge.

Ans: According to Piaget, children actively construct their knowledge of the world through several important processes. Schemes are cognitive frameworks or mental structures that help children understand environmental information. Adaptation involves adjusting existing schemes to meet new environmental demands and includes assimilation, in which new information is incorporated into existing schemes, and accommodation, in which existing schemes are modified to fit new experiences. Organization refers to grouping and reorganizing thoughts, schemes, and behaviours into a more integrated cognitive system. Equilibration is the process through which children move from one stage of thinking to another by resolving cognitive conflicts and restoring a state of mental balance.

3. Discuss the limitations of preoperational and concrete operational thought.

Ans: Although children develop logical structures over time, their cognitive processes are restricted in early developmental stages:

Limitations of Pre-operational Thought (2-7 years):

(i) Egocentrism: The child’s inability to distinguish between their own perspective and someone else’s (modeled by Piaget’s three-mountain problem).

(ii) Animism: The belief that non-living (inanimate) objects have living qualities, emotions, and intentions (e.g., saying “the angry sun is hiding”).

(iii) Centration: Focusing attention entirely on one characteristic of an object while completely ignoring other dimensions.

(iv) Lack of Conservation: Failing to understand that changing the physical appearance or shape of an object or substance does not alter its fundamental properties, mass, or volume.

Limitations of Concrete Operational Thought (7-11 years):

Tied to Concrete Examples: While children can apply logical operations, their thinking is restricted and strictly tied to specific, concrete, real-world objects or examples. They cannot perform abstract mental operations or systematically solve hypothetical/propositional problems.

4. Trace the development of emotions in children from birth to childhood.

Ans: (i) Infancy (First Months to 2 Years): Newborns use crying as the primary emotional mechanism to communicate basic needs, anger, or pain. Primary emotions like joy, sadness, anger, surprise, and fear emerge in the first months.

Stranger anxiety (fear of unfamiliar people) begins around 6 months and peaks by late infancy, alongside separation anxiety (crying when separated from the primary caregiver) which arises around 7-9 months.

(ii) Early Childhood (3-5 years): Children develop evaluative or self-conscious emotions like pride, shame, guilt, and embarrassment. These emerge as the child evaluates their actions against societal and parental goals or expectations.

(iii) Middle and Late Childhood (6-11 years): Emotions become deeply integrated with their internal characteristics. Children start defining themselves using subjective inner states (e.g., “I am popular, but sometimes nervous”) and use social comparison with peers to evaluate their emotional self.

5. Define object permanence, imitation, stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.

Ans: Object Permanence: The cognitive understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight, hearing, or touch. Infants gradually acquire this capability during the sensorimotor stage.

Imitation: The ability to copy and mirror the gestures, vocalizations, or actions of others. Piaget noted that even young infants begin utilizing imitation, which acts as a bridge for cognitive and social learning.

Stranger Anxiety: An infant’s distress and fear response when introduced to unfamiliar people. It typically begins around 6 months and peaks towards the end of their first year.

Separation Anxiety: An infant’s fear, crying, and strong resistance when they are separated or about to be separated from their mother or primary caregiver. This typically arises between 7 to 9 months of age.

6. Discuss in brief the role of parents in dealing with the issues and concerns of the following stages of childhood-

(a) Infancy.

Ans: Fostering Basic Trust: Parents must adjust their routines to respond promptly to the infant’s feeding, warming, and cleansing needs, helping them perceive the caretaker and environment as predictable, safe, and trustworthy.

Providing Stimulation: Parents should offer early stimulation from birth to age 6 (supporting sitting, walking, early communication) in all domains to encourage their child’s natural learning potentials without forcing goals early.

(b) Early childhood.

Ans: Patient Toilet-Training: Toilet training is a physical and socio-emotional task. If a child is scolded or shamed for accidents, they experience toilet-related stress (leading to shyness, withdrawal, or aggression). Parents must act responsively and patiently to build toileting confidence and physical self-alertness.

Supporting Autonomy: Parents must encourage self-directed tasks, preventing feelings of shame and self-doubt.

7. Define cognitive development. According to Piaget what processes do children use to construct their own cognitive worlds?

Ans: Cognitive Development: It refers to how children think and how their mental processes, reasoning, and thinking structures transform and advance from one stage of life to another.

Piaget’s Processes: Piaget believed children construct their cognitive worlds by using Schemes (basic units of thought), adapting to the environment via Adaptation (which includes Assimilation and Accommodation), coordinating concepts through Organization, and shifting stages by resolving internal conflicts using Equilibration. (Refer to Terminal Question 2 for detailed sub-definitions of these processes).