Daniel S. Messinger

Professor of Psychology, Pediatrics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Music Engineering


Curriculum vitae



Department of Psychology

University of Miami



PSY638 (2007)


Autumn 2007


Psychology of Infant Development (PSY638-01)
Syllabus - Autumn 2007

Flipse Building (5665 Ponce de Leon, attached to Parking Garage) Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00-12:15  FHF 210You are responsible for having an up-to-date copy of this syllabus (only available on-line)

Daniel Messinger, Ph.D. ([email protected])
Office Hours (Flipse 341) 12:15 - 1 P  and by appointment.

Both research articles and integrative summary statements (articles and book chapters) will comprise the course readings. Many of these will be available on-line in the links below in this syllabus. Others will be contained in two resources available at the bookstore: The laminated QuickStudy (Infancy) and Lamb, M. E., Bornstein, M. H., & Teti, D. M. (2002). Development in infancy: An introduction (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (referred to as Lamb et al or 'Development').

Preparing readings for class discussion. Review the reading as a starting point for leading a class discussion. Summarize the central point and the main points (main points!) of the article; then tell us what the most interesting issues for discussion emerge from the article. Limit your presentations to 5 minutes. End with a couple of questions about the meaning of this article and its message in terms of other readings, larger issues, your own work, etc. Please write-up these notes that summarize the reading and suggest discussion points (not more than 5 sentences/bullet points). These should be emailed to the class the evening before class and brought to class with copies for all.  The goal is to encourage class participation and discussion. I will also provide overview and basic background material to inform our discussion. Some of this material will be in the form of PowerPoint slides that I will review in class and post on-line (I will also include links to some interesting supplementary web-sites). Illustrative videos and in-class activities will help us get a real-flavor for some of the topics (i.e. coding security of attachment). In addition, there will be some memorization - and associated testing - on some basic developmental features of infancy (e.g., developmental sequences).

Grades will be based on class participation, and on the verbal (~10 minute w ~5 minutes of questions) and written presentation of a final course project.  The final project should concern typical or atypical infant development. You should find a project that interests you and will help you professionally. Alternatives for a final project: 1) A NIH R03 research proposal (~11 pages, typically single-spaced); 2) a publication quality literature reviews in summary-article/chapter format (i.e., organized by theme, not by reading); 3) a publication quality research project such as a draft of a thesis. During the last class session students will be asked to make a verbal presentation of their projects. Collaborative proposals and presentations are allowed. They must include a significant component of individual work for each collaborator and must result in proportionately more substantial final project (e.g., a  NIH RO1 grant, ~ 24 pages).  A one paragraph summary and 5 minute verbal summary of your thinking about your intended final project is due 9/6 during class. Then a one page abstract of your findings or proposal is due 10/11. Then, Tuesday, 11/8, a first draft of final paper.

Topics: Why infancy? Genetic and environmental influences on development & temperament. Neurodevelopment & Risk, Resilience, & Intervention. Sensory development . Cognitive development. Social cognitive development, joint attention, and autism. Language development. Emotion & emotion regulation. Social Interaction - Face-to-face/Still-face. Precursors to attachment. What attachment predicts.

Session Reading & Assignments Due | Critical Questions

1. Thursday, 8/23

2. Tuesday 8/28

3. Thursday, 8/30

Reading:  Gottlieb, G. (2003). On making behavioral genetics truly developmental. Human Development, 46(6), 337-355.

Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., & Rutter, M. (2006). Measured Gene-Environment Interactions in Psychopathology: Concepts, Research Strategies, and Implications for research, intervention, and public understanding of genetics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(1), 5-27.

Eliot, Chap. 1.
Lamb et al., pp. 31-37 & 94-104.

Environmental and genetic interaction? nWhat are the advantages (name some forms of genetic transmission) and disadvantages of thinking of genes as blueprints?How do environmental and genetic influences interact during prenatal development (provide examples)?What is the difference between transactional and a behavioral genetics approach to gene * environment interactions?

Http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3bio380/ an embryology course.

See also
http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genome/project/info.html Prenatal development videos

Extra: Rutter, M. (2002). Nature, nurture, and development: From evangelism through science towards policy and practice. Child Development, 73, 1-21.

4. Tuesday, 9/4

Reading:
Landry, S. H., Smith, K. E., Miller-Loncar, C. L., & Swank, P. R. (1997) . Predicting cognitive-language and social growth curves from early maternal behaviors in children at varying degrees of biological risk. Developmental Psychology, 33(6), 1040-1053.  AG 
Hamlin-Smith, et al.
Extra Activity: Bring baby picture

Prematurity
Define prematurity.
What factors predict the survival of premature infants
What factors affect disability in the survivors? What types of disability and other outcomes are likely in survivors?
How are mortality and morbidity rates of premature infants changing?
If a baby is born 8 weeks premature, how long after birth would you conduct a 52 week assessment, after correcting for prematurity?
How do socioeconomic status (maternal education) and prematurity to influence developmental outcome?
What is the impact of variables such as maternal sensitivity on outcome – on which infants do they have the greatest impact?
What interventions might improve the outcomes of premature infants? (physical contact)
How do you think public health policy should be structured to prevent negative developmental outcomes?
Birth videos
Exposure?
Extra Reading:

5. Thursday, 9/6

Reading: Lamb et al. (Physical development: 94-131) (Nervous system development: 131-166) NM.
Due: A one paragraph summary and 5 minute verbal summary of your thinking about your intended final project. 
What is the basic patterns of synaptic and brain development in infancy?
How they are influenced by experience?
What can go wrong in this pattern?
What is neoteny?
What is the basic patterns of physical growth in infancy?
What are the differences between individual and group growth curves?List some major milestones and range of age of acquisition
What are some differences in the ordering of these milestones
What is the sway model?
How does mastering one milestone influence postural control in another?

6. Tuesday, 9/11 

Extra: Development, chapter 3, (pp. 57-93)
Extra: Joh, A. S.* & Adolph, K. E. (2006). Learning from falling. Child Development, 77, 89-102.
Sex differences.
Weinberg, M. K., Tronick, E. Z., Cohn, J. F., & Olson, K. L. (1999). Gender differences in emotional expressivity and self-regulation during early infancy. Developmental Psychology, 35(1), 175-188.

Neonate: What capabilities do newborns have? Discuss neonatal imitation, sensory abilities, reflexes, and smiling (is it a reflex?). Discuss the Brazelton exam and what it reveals about the individuality of neonates (give examples from film). How do infant and mother influence each during feeding? How is this and how is it not interaction? How do your observations of feeding relate to this topic?  What are advantages of breast-feeding? What issues are relevant to promoting breast-feeding?
What's infant development and how is it studied? Define development, and compare cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of development. Give examples to back up your point. Indicate how these types of research methods might address your preliminary final topic question. 
Extra: Sex differences. What infant sex differences are described by Weinberg et al. find? How can biological factors and differential social expectations influence sex differences?

7. Thursday, 9/13

Part 1 (all chapters) LI

Daniel not present. 

8. Tuesday, 9/18

Extra:
NICHD_Early_Child_Care_Research_Network. (2006). Child-Care Effect Sizes for the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. American Psychologist, 61(2), 99-116.
Tronick, E. Z., Morelli, G. A., & Ivey, P. K. (1992). The Efe forager infant and toddler's pattern of social relationships: Multiple and simultaneous. Developmental Psychology, 28(4), 568-577.
Extra: Messinger & Freedman
Bornstein, M. H. and L. R. Cote (2003). "Cultural and parenting cognitions in acculturating cultures: 2. Patterns of prediction and structural coherence." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 34(3): 350-373.

Cote, L. and M. H. Bornstein (2003). "Cultural and parenting cognitions in acculturating cultures: 1. Cultural comparisons and developmental continuity and stability." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 34(3): 323-349.

Cultural Psychology.  What is cultural psychology (give examples)?
Is the psychology we’ve been studying cultural psychology?
How are toddlers’ desires for objects handled differently in Salt Lake City and San Pedro? Do toddlers or siblings end up with object in each community and what do mothers believe about this?
What are differences between American and Japanese toddlers in toddler task and do they reflect differences in autonomy and interdependence – have reference to videotapes examples
What types of attributions characterize traditional Japanese child-rearing? What is the developmental discontinuity in Japanese development?

Childcare Link. How is the quantity and quality of child care associated with peer competence? Specifically, how does experience in child-care settings impact observed skill in peer play? And, what impact does quality of child care have on socioemotional and peer outcomes?

9. Thursday, 9/20

Ozonoff, S. (2001). Early social development in young children with autism: Theoretical and clinical implications. In G. Bremner & A. Fogel (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of infant development (pp. 565-588). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Autism and the broad autism phenotype
What are the diagnostic criteria for autism and what are key characteristics of children with autism?
Define the concept of the broad phenotype and how it relates to the siblings of children on the autism spectrum (“ASD sibs”).
Describe recent findings on early attention, emotional communication, and joint attention in “ASD sibs”
What are  communicative and other “red flag” deficits in the infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder?
Describe some current theories of autism
Grinker talk: 12:00 502

10. Tuesday, 9/25

and Messinger & LesterOptional: Singer et al article and accompanying editorial by Zuckerman et al. (Zuckerman is an editorial about Singer et al.)

Intervention: Describe the results of the Linda Ray intervention. Describe the IHDP project and its major results at 3 years, 5 years, and 8 years. What is the animal model for early intervention? Describe the major results of the Abecedarian project. How do these results relate to those of the Abcedarian project? Argue for whether you think early intervention works, how long it works, and for whom it works? Should society devote resources to early intervention? Later intervention?
Exposure: How are children prenatally exposed to cocaine similar to and different from comparable child who were not exposed? Give examples of the degree (large or small) and consistency (are the effects usually seen or only sometimes seen) of cocaine exposure effects in different specific areas of functioning - e.g., mental development, motor development, & socio-emotional development. How does the impact of prenatal cocaine exposure compare to the impact of prenatal exposure to other drugs such as alcohol?

11. Thursday 9/27

Kagan. Preservation of two infant temperaments into adolescence
Fox, N. A., & Henderson, H. A. (1999). Does infancy matter? Predicting social behavior from infant temperament. Infant Behavior & Development, 22(4), 445-455. [Behavioral styles that appear early in life as a direct result of neurobiological factors, play a significant role in the development and expression of social behavior] Development 351-370.

What is temperament and what are the biological bases of emotion?
What is temperament?
Describe your temperament using Thomas/Chess, Fox/Henderson or Caspi types
What is goodness-of-fit (give examples)?
What are pros and cons of laboratory behavioral and parent report measures of temperament?
What are three types of infants distinguished by Fox/Henderson and how do they develop?
Reference the DVD illustrating these infants from class.
Do you favor a person-centered or variable-centered approach to temperament and why?
What does 3 year old behavioral type predict in Caspi‘s studies?
What does it mean that the child is father to the man?
CBQ, Labtab, Kagan & Henderson videos

12. Tuesday, 10/2

Reading: 
Lamb: Chap. 10

Mark Jaime talk Rm 502. Class ends at 12 pm.
What evidence suggests suggests facial expressions of emotion are universal and what are the limitations of that evidence?
What are key tenets of discrete emotion theory?
What is the evidence for and against those tenets?
What evidence suggests infant emotion is discrete what evidence suggests it is not?
Do you think infants can have emotions without being reflectively aware of what they are feeling? What about the infants in the training tape?
What evidence suggests that emotions are not discrete and may be more dynamic and functional? Infant emotion intervention
Extra Reading:
Eliot 290-303 (neural basis of emotion) 316-321 (temperament).
Development 328-344.

13. Thursday, 10/4

Intensification: What evidence suggests that some smiles are more positive than others? What evidence suggests that the same facial actions are associated with more intense of stronger positive and negative emotions? What implications does this have for discrete emotion theory and how we understand the link between facial expression and emotion?

11. Tuesday, 10/9

Reading:  cf. New Tronick book and
Schore, Ch. 6, Visual experiences and socioemotional development.  
The issue of maternal psychopathology.
Face-to-face interaction and still-face: What does it mean that interaction is bidirectional? How, specifically, do baby and parent influence each other? 
How does infant behavior in face-to-face interaction change during the first six months of life? 
Does the still-face procedure show evidence that infants are intentional (what does the developmental evidence show? evidence from modified still-faces)? 
What does still-face behavior predict? Do infants have expectations of social interactions? When and how can we know?
What does early interaction predict? How does conscience develop? What factors predict internalization of parental and cultural roles?
How do maternal depression and related risk factors impact early interaction?
Video A. Video B.
Extra:
Kaye, K., & Fogel, A. (1980). The temporal structure of face-to-face communication between mothers and infants. Developmental Psychology, 16(5), 454-464.
Weinberg, K. M., & Tronick, E. Z. (1996). Infant affective reactions to the resumption of maternal interaction after the Still-Face. Child Development, 67(3), 905-914.
Timing early expressive behaviors: How do infants coordinate expressive actions in time and how does this change with age? What is an event-based approach? Which pairs of infant expressive behaviors are coordinated in time (facial expressions and vocalizations, facial expressions and gazes at a parent’s face, and/or vocalizations and gazes) and what does this suggest for the role of facial expressions? Indicate two patterns in which infant gazes and smiles are coordinated with mother smiles? How do all these patterns  change with age? What does this suggest about infant-mother interaction? 
Play in the toddler. Belsky & Most. Fogel scales. Empathy. (Could supplant 10/11).

14. Thursday, 10/11

A one page abstract of your findings or proposal is due - please make copies for all and be prepared to make a 5 minute presentation that will help you move your project along.
Extra:
Erikson, E. (1950). Eight Ages of Man, Childhood and Society (pp. 247-254): Norton.

Attachment defined: What is the difference between being attached and being securely attached? What is the evidence (review Harlow) that attachment is a primary motivational system? How does it work and what is its evolutionary function? What is the difference between attachment behaviors, the attachment system, and the attachment bond?

15. Tuesday, 10/16

Reading
Follow links for how to code the Strange Situation. Overview of attachment classifications (on p. 11) and coding.
Ainsworth, M. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). An interpretation of individual differences. Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation (pp. 310-326). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Describing secure and insecure attachment: How is security of attachment assessed in the Strange Situation? Describe secure attachment and avoidant, anxious, and disorganized attachment?  Use descriptions of strange situations observed in class to inform your paper.
Attachment Q-sort.

16. Thursday, 10/18

Reading:
Predicting attachment security: What is the experimental and meta-analytic evidence that caregiver sensitivity factors predicts secure attachment? What role might infant temperament have in predicting security of attachment? 
What is the impact of maternal  sensitivity and responsivity more generally?
Extra: NICHD_Early_Child_Care_Research_Network. (2001a). Child care and children's peer interaction at 24 and 36 months: The NICHD study of early child care. Child Development, 72(5), 1478-1500.
Van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Kroonenberg, P. M. (1988). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: A meta-analysis of the strange situation. Child Development, 59(1), 147-156.

17. Tuesday, 10/23

Waters, E., Hamilton, C. E., & Weinfield, N. S. (2000a). The stability of attachment security from infancy to adolescence and early adulthood: General introduction. Child Development, 71(3), 678-683.
Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Albersheim, L. (2000b). Attachment security in infancy and early adulthood: A twenty-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 71(3), 684-689.
What does secure attachment predict? What evidence is there for the stability (or instability) of infant attachment security within infancy and on to adulthood? What does insecure and disorganized attachment predict in childhood? Describe and explain correspondences between parental and infant security of attachment. 

18.  Thursday, 10/25

Bahrick: Encyclopedia article. AG (absent).
Lamb, pp. 167-204.
Perception.

19. Tuesday, 10/30

Describe different “developmental job descriptions” of early infancy. Describe different mechanisms of learning and beyond
Indicate two infant predictors of adolescent’s intelligence. What is the fundamental issue in what infants know?
n

20. Thursday, 11/1

Reading: Lamb et al. 205-223
Extra: Ahmed, A., & Ruffman, T. (1998). Why do infants make A not B errors in a search task, yet show memory for the location of hidden objects in a nonsearch task? Developmental Psychology, 34(3), 441-453. 
Piaget and object constancy: How does Piaget understand infant cognitive development and what does he think about the development of object constancy and the A-not-B error? What do Baillargeon's experiments say about object constancy? What might account for differences increased attention to violations of expectations regarding invisible objects but their deficits in reaching for those objects?

21. Tuesday, 11/6

Daniel not present 

22. Thursday, 11/8

First draft of final paper
Reading: Venezia et al. (2007) (LI)
Extra:
  Gesture (give and take): What is the gestural advantage? What are social approach & instrumental functions of infant gestures? What is the evidence that these gestures have different functions? (Do they change with age differently? Do they involve different expressive behaviors?)

23. Tuesday, 11/13 

Messer. Processes of development in early communication.
Tomasello.
Rochat, P., Bremner, G., & Slater, A. (2004). Emerging co-awareness. In Theories of infant development. (pp. 258-283): Blackwell Publishing: Malden.
Andrew Lock. Preverbal communication. Chapter 14 of Bremner & Fogel. Striano.
  Gesture, Language, Autism, and Theory of Mind:  What are infant initiated joint attention (IJA) and receptive joint attention (RJA)? How are they measured and what do they predict? How might early deficits in IJA associated with autism lead to more long-term deficits? 

24. Thursday, 11/15

Development 279-327
Extra:
Language overview: What is the normative course of infant language development? How do infant cries develop (directed and undirected)? What are the stages of development of non-cry vocalizations? What are some early milestones of verbal development (verbal development involves words)?

25. Tuesday, 11/20

Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing. Chap. 7, and Appendix B.
Language (individual differences): How does the ability to distinguish between non-native speech sounds change in the first year? What does this mean about development? Can distinctions between non-native sounds be taught? How is socioeconomic status associated with differences in language experience? How is language experience associated with later child language competence and IQ?

27. Thursday, 11/22

NO CLASS THANKSGIVING

28.  Tuesday, 11/27

Prepare and email PowerPoint presentations of final projects. Example
Last day of class. Catch-up, overview, review of final projects, and presentations. 

29.  Thursday, 11/29

Final Project paper due
Oral presentations. More info on Oral Presentations
Evaluations
Final Project Paper Due
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