Life Span Development

Chapter 5:

Development

Defining Terms

Developmental Psychology Branch of psychology that specifically examines

the physiological, cognitive, and emotional changes in an organism from conception to death.

Developmental Psychologists utilize a number of different methods of inquiry to gather this information.

Cross-Sectional Study

Study people of different ages at the same point in time

Advantages Inexpensive Can be completed quickly Low attrition

Disadvantages Different age groups are not necessarily much alike Differences may be due to cohort differences rather than

age

Longitudinal Study

Study the same group of people over time Advantages

Detailed information about subjects Developmental changes can be studied in detail Eliminates cohort differences

Disadvantages Expensive and time consuming Potential for high attrition Differences over time may be due to assessment tools and

not age

Biographical or Retrospective Study

Participant’s past is reconstructed through interviews and other research about their life

Advantages Great detail about life of individual In-depth study of one person

Disadvantages Recall of individual may not be accurate Can be expensive and time consuming

Prenatal Development Prenatal - period of time from conception to birth Zygote – a fertilized egg with full set of genes Embryo

From about two weeks after conception to three months after conception (most of first trimester)

Organs begin to form; heartbeat Fetus

Three months after conception to birth (second and third trimesters)

Organs continue to form; response to sounds Placenta

Connects fetus to mother Brings oxygen and nutrients and takes away wastes

Prenatal Development Teratogens

Any agent that causes a structural abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy

Cocaine, alcohol, tetracycline, x-rays, lithium, diazepam (Valium)

Fetal alcohol syndrome Occurs in children of women

who consume large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy

Symptoms include facial deformities, heart defects, stunted growth, and cognitive impairments

Prenatal Development Critical period

Specific time during which an organism has to experience stimuli in order to progress through developmental stages properly. Biological “readiness”

If period passes without proper stimulation/development, development is hindered permanently

The Newborn Babyaka NEONATE

I WANT BACK IN!

The Competent Newborn: Reflexes

Rooting Baby turns its head toward

something that brushes its cheek and gropes around with mouth

Sucking Newborn’s tendency to suck

on objects placed in the mouth Swallowing

Enables newborn babies to swallow liquids without choking

Grasping Close fist around anything

placed in their hand

Stepping Stepping motions made by an

infant when held upright Babinski

Stroke bottom of foot – toes fan and curl

Moro Drop baby unexpectedly (?!) or

make loud noise and it will throw arms out, arch back and then grasp for something

Crawling Place neonate on stomach and

press down on soles of feet – arms and legs move rhythmically

The Competent Newborn: Temperament

Temperament refers to characteristic patterns of emotional reactions and emotional self-regulation

Thomas and Chess identified three basic types of babies (1977) + Kagan (1988) added a fourth Easy

Good-natured, easy to care for, adaptable Difficult

Moody and intense, react to new situations and people negatively and strongly

Slow-to-warm-up Inactive and slow to respond to new things, and when they do

react, it is mild Shy Child

Timid and inhibited, fearful of anything new or strange Temperament may predict later disposition

The Competent Newborn: Sensory Learning

In addition to reflexes present at birth, neonates also have the ability to learn

Habituation - basic type of learning involving decreased response to a stimulus judged to be of no importance/novelty

Visual learning – focus on FACES Olfactory learning – fully functioning; smell of mother Auditory learning – response to mothers voice Taste – Fully functioning; preference for sweets!

The Competent Newborn:Visual Perception

Clear for 8-10 inches Good vision by 6 months Depth perception: Is a fear of heights

innate or learned? Visual cliff research Despite parental beckoning, a crawling

infant hesitates to cross the “visual cliff.” Most infants 6 to 14 months of age were

reluctant to crawl over the cliff, though earlier on they show no fear.

The ability to perceive depth is partly innate and partly a product of early visual and kinesthetic experience.

The Visual Cliff

Dude. I’m not going

that way!

Infancy and ChildhoodOoh. How did you get your hair so silky

soft?

Stop touching

me.

Physical Development: Body and Brain

Children grow about 10 inches and gain about 15 pounds in first year

Growth occurs in spurts, as much as 1 inch overnight!

Growth slows during second year Neural “pruning and paving”

Motor and Memory Development

Developmental norms Ages by which an average child achieves various developmental

milestones Occurs in a proximodistal and cephalocaudal manner “Back to Sleep” movement to reduce SIDS may delay crawling

Maturation Automatic biological unfolding of development in an organism as

a function of passage of time Relatively uninfluenced by experience

Memory not solidified until after 3rd birthday Known as “infantile amnesia” Development of hippocampus?

Perception of Scale

Perception of Scale

Cognitive Development Cognition – all mental activities associated

with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating

Jean Piaget Cognitive developmental psychologist who

studied intellectual development in children Stage-based theory of cognitive development Intellectual growth as a process of adaptation

(adjustment) to the world. This happens through Formation of schemas – mental frameworks Assimilation – using an existing schema to

understand a new situation Accommodation – modifying schemas to incorporate

new information Adjusting schemas (equilibration

) when new information doesn’t fit existing ones (disequilibrium)

Piaget’s Stages of Development

Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 years) Take in world through senses Object permanence and the A not B error

Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) Egocentrism; intuitive over logical reasoning Development of a theory of mind, ideas about their own

and others’ cognitions and their resulting behaviors The Mountain problem; mountain problem video

Concrete Operations (7-11 years) Logical reasoning about concrete events Principles of conservation

Formal Operations (12 through adulthood) Hypothetical problems solving and deductive reasoning Understand abstract ideas

Piaget’s Stages - Summary

Criticisms of Piaget's Theory

Many developmental theorists such as Vygotsky questioned the assumption that there are distinct stages in cognitive development

Criticism of notion that infants do not understand world

Piaget may have underestimated influence of social interaction in cognitive development

Lev Vygotsky believed development was a function

of social interaction

Social Development: Attachment Stranger Anxiety

Appears around 8 months – coincides with mobility – why?

Protective mechanism Attachment through Contact

Humans form a bond with those who care for them in infancy

Based upon interaction with caregiver Harry Harlow’s work: role of physical contact in

attachment Attachment through Familiarity

Imprinting (Lorenz): tendency to follow the first moving thing seen as the basis of attachment

Occurs in many species of animals in a critical period

Top: Harlow’s experiment; Bottom: Lorenz and

imprinting

Social Development: Attachment Attachment Differences

Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Secure attachment: Explores freely while the mother is present, will

engage with strangers, will be visibly upset when the mother departs, and happy to see the mother return.

Anxious-ambivalent insecure attachment: Anxious of exploration and of strangers, even when mother is present. When mother departs, the child is extremely distressed. The child will be ambivalent when she returns, seeking to remain close to the mother but resentful, and also resistant when the mother initiates attention.

Anxious-avoidant insecure attachment: Avoids or ignores mother - showing little emotion when the mother departs or returns. Will not explore much regardless of who is there. Strangers not treated much differently from mother. Not much emotional range displayed.

Aligns with Erikson’s first stage of “Basic Trust” Deprivation of Attachment

Impact of denying infant monkeys physical comfort from their mother (Harlow revisited…)

Cases of “Genie” and “Victor” Daycare?

Self Concept and Parenting Styles Self Concept: understanding of who we are

If infants can achieve attachment, children must achieve a positive self concept

Develops gradually in first year (“Mirror Test”) By 18 months, children know THEY are the image in

the mirror, and that it is not another person Children with a positive self concept are more

confident, assertive, optimistic, and sociable, but how is this achieved?

Diana Baumrind’s 4 Parenting Styles may help explain… Authoritarian – demanding not responsive Permissive – not demanding but responsive Neglectful – not demanding, not responsive Authoritative – demanding and responsive

Impact of parenting styles on children? Authoritative appears to be best, but… Correlational NOT causational research!

Erikson: Trust v. Mistrust

Mirror Test

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles: At-a-Glance Comparison

Relationships With Other Children Solitary play

Children first play by themselves Parallel play

As they get older, children play side-by-side with other children, but not interacting

Cooperative play By about 3 or 3½, children begin playing

with others Peer group

A network of same-aged friends and acquaintances who give one another emotional and social support

When children start school, peers begin to have greater influenceParallel Play vs.

Cooperative Play

Sex-Role Development Gender identity

Knowledge of being a boy or girl Occurs by age 3

Gender constancy Child realizes that gender cannot change Occurs by age 4 or 5

Gender-role awareness Knowing appropriate behavior for each

gender Gender stereotypes

Beliefs about presumed characteristics of each gender

MissRepresentation film Sex-typed behavior

Socially defined ways to behave different for boys and girls

May be at least partly biological in origin

Adolescence

The Nature of Adolescence A “Carefree Time” vs. G. Stanley Hall’s

“Storm and Stress” The American experience? Trends today? Cultural differences?

Physical Changes

Growth spurt Begins about age 10½ in girls and

about 12½ in boys Sexual development

Primary (reproductive) vs. Secondary (non-reproductive) sexual characteristics

Puberty Onset of sexual maturation

Menarche First menstrual period

Spermarche First ejaculation of sperm

Neurological changes – frontal lobe maturation

Physical Changes: Sexual Activity Early and late developers:

Implications? Adolescent sexual activity

Approximately ¾ of males and ½ of females between 15 and 19 have had intercourse

Average age for first intercourse is 16 for boys and 17 for girls

Teenage pregnancy Rate of teen pregnancy has

fallen in the last 50 years Highest in U.S. of all

industrialized nations

Cognitive Changes

David Elkind’s Theories Imaginary audience:

delusion that everyone else is always focused on them

Personal fable: delusion that they are unique and very important

Invulnerability Nothing can harm

them Reckless behavior

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Preconventional (preadolescence) “Good” behavior is mostly to avoid

punishment or seek reward Conventional (adolescence)

Behavior is about pleasing others and, in later adolescence, becoming a good citizen

Postconventional (adulthood...maybe) Emphasis is on abstract principles

such as justice, equality, and liberty

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

The “Heinz Dilemma” A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was

one drug that the doctors thought might save her. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should Heinz have broken into the store to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

The response is not as important as the reasoning WHY in determining which stage of moral reasoning a person is in

Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory

Research shows that many people never progress past the conventional level

Theory maintains that our rationale remains consistent – does it?

Theory does not take cultural differences into account

Theory is considered by some to be sexist in that girls often scored lower on tests of morality

Carol Gilligan’s moral development theory? Kohlberg researched only men and boys Gilligan believed gender differences unfairly stagnated women in conventional

reasoning due to emphasis on relationships over principles

Personality and Social Development

Major task in adolescence is identity formation Forming an identity (James Marcia, 1980)

Achievement Successfully find identity

Foreclosure Settle for identity others wish for them

Moratorium Explore various identities, but unable to commit

Diffusion Unable to “find themselves” – refusal to deal with the task;

escapist techniques Erikson’s 8 Psychosocial Stages

Identity vs. Role Confusion (teens to early 20s) Intimacy vs. Isolation (early 20s to early 40s)

Personality and Social Development

Relationships with peers Adolescents often form

cliques, or groups with similar interests and strong mutual attachment

Relationships with parents Adolescents test and question

every rule and guideline from parents

Can be a difficult time for parents AND children

Some Issues of Adolescence

Declines in self-esteem Related to appearance Satisfaction in appearance is related to higher self-esteem

Depression and suicide Rate of suicide among adolescents has increased 600%

since 1950, but has leveled off since ’90s Suicide often related to depression, drug abuse, disruptive

behaviors, or child abuse

Youth Violence Emerging Adulthood – trends in lengthening this

period

Adulthood

Love, Partnerships, and Parenting

Forming partnerships First major event of

adulthood is forming and maintaining close relationships

Erikson’s Intimacy vs. Isolation

Parenthood Having children alters

dynamics of relationships Marital satisfaction often

declines after birth of child

Marital Satisfaction

Other Issues… The World of Work

Balancing career and family obligations is a challenge

Many adults define who they are by what they do

Cognitive Changes Fluid intelligence declines with old age Crystallized intelligence does NOT

decline, and even can increase as learning continues throughout life

Personality Changes Less self-centered, better coping skills Some men and women have a midlife

crisis (or midlife transition) Empty Nest Myth

Many parents report feeling a sense of relief when their

children move out!

Late Adulthood

Physical Changes

In late adulthood, physical deterioration is inevitable As early as the twenties, strength, reaction times,

sensory abilities and cardiac capacity decline, though in late adulthood we may finally notice

Menopause and the end of fertility

Social Development Independent and satisfying

lifestyles – Erikson’s Generativity vs. Stagnation

Retirement Most people will stop working and

face challenges with that sudden change

Redefining of self Marital satisfaction

Sexual behavior Research shows that many older

couples continue to be sexually active

It is not until age 75 that half of men and most women report a complete loss of interest in sex

I’m too cool for

ceramics

I can’t wait to swill my

whiskey from this vessel!

Cognitive Changes

Research has demonstrated that those who continue to “exercise” their mental abilities can delay mental decline

Even PHYSICAL exercise seems to have a positive impact on cognitive maintenance

However, Alzheimer’s disease afflicts approximately 10% of people over 65 and perhaps as many as 50% of those over 90

Checkmate, Sucka!

I will OWN you!

Facing the End of Life

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of grief/death Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance Giraffe: Stages of Dying

Erikson’s Integrity vs. Despair