Transcript Newly hatched ducklings approach maternal call. Any role

Mid-term Grades
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A (79-90 pts; 88%-100%):
B (68- 78 pts; 76%-87%):
C (50-67 pts; 56%-67%):
D (35-49 pts; 39%-55%):
F (0 - 34 pts; 0%- 38%):
15%
8%
21%
44%
13%
1. Discuss the transactional model as it relates to human development
 Bidirectionality of structure and function
 Developmental systems model; epigenesis:
 Genetic activity (DNA <-> RNA <-> proteins) <-> structural
maturation <-> function, activity
 Zeskind & Ramey experiment; Gottlieb’s duck experiment; Caspi’s
MAOA experiment
2. Discuss the basic principles of an evolutionary approach to human
development
 natural selection (define)
 Evolution works at all stages of development, but not necessarily
equally (grandmother hypothesis)
 Evolutionary psychology has an emphasis on adaptationist thinking,
which stresses the function of a behavior or trait (pregnancy sickness).
 Evolutionary developmental psychology (defined)
 Deferred and ontogenetic adaptations (examples)
3. What are the basic assumptions and principles of Piaget’s theory?
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Stage theorists (qualitative differences; invariant order)
Structures (schemes) (structuralism)
Intrinsic activity (constructivism)
Organization
Adaptation
Assimilation
Accommodation
 Equilibration
Percentage Passing False Beliefs Task by Age
% Passing__
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2 yrs
3 yrs
4 yrs
Age of Child
5 yrs
6 yrs
What is Language?
 Arbitrariness
 Productivity
 Language is creative, or generative
 Semanticity
 Can represent objects, actions, events, & ideas symbolically
 Displacement
 Past, future, different location
 Duality
 Phonology
 Syntax
 semantics
Describing Children’s Language Development
 Receptive language > productive language
 Early language is telegraphic
 Phonological development
 Babbling
 Morphological development
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Morpheme
Free morphemes vs. bound morphemes
Mean length of utterance (MLU)
Overregularization
Wug test
Syntactic Development
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Negatives
Questions
Passives
Relating events in sentences
Semantic Development
 Word spurt productive vocabulary
 Productive vocabulary: 22-37 mos.
 Receptive vocabulary: 12-17 mos.
 Constraints on word learning
 Whole-object assmption
 Taxonomic assumption
 Mutual exclusivity assumption
 Overextentions
 Underextensions
Nativist Perspective on Language Development
 Noam Chomsky
 Surface vs.deep structure
 Generative grammar
 Language acquisition device (LAD)
 Universal Grammar
Eric Lenneberg
 Language is
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Species specific
Species uniform
Difficult to retard
Develops in a regular sequence
Has specific anatomical structures
Associated with genetically-related disabilities
Universal Grammar
 All languages have:
 Extensive vocabularies divided into different parts-ofspeech categories
 Words organized into phrases following similar rule
structure (X-bar system)
 All permit movement of grammatical categories
 All use suffixes and prefixes
Is there a critical period for learning language?
 Social deprivation (feral children)
 Second-language learning
 Johnson & Newport: proficiency in English as function
of age of arrival in U.S.
 First-language learning of deaf people
 Newport: Proficiency in ASL as function of age of
exposure
 Recovery of function after brain damage
Social-Interactionist Perspectives of Language
Development
 Social-pragmatic view: “Children’s initial skills of
linguistic communication are a natural outgrowth of their
emerging understanding of other persons as intentional
agents” (Carpenter et al., 1998)
Child-Directed Speech
 AKA: infant-directed speech (IDS); motherese; parentese
 Language acquisition support system (LASS, Bruner)
 Prosodic features of IDS
 Higher acoustic frequency
 Wider range of frequencies
 Greater incidence of rising countours
 Short, grammatical sentences
Child-Directed Speech
 Used across cultures (in varying degrees)
 Infants more attentive to adults using IDS as opposed to adult-directed
(A-D)speech (Cooper & Aslin, 1990; 1994)
 Mothers of deaf children use exaggerated signs to their infants ad
infants are more attentive to I-D signs than A-D signs (Masataka,
1998)
 Infants can discriminate sounds better in I-D than A-D speech (Trehub
et al., 1993)
 I-D speech used to regulate infant’s behavior and emotions (Fernald,
1992)
Approaches to the Study of Intelligence
 Intelligence is “the mental activities necessary for
adaptation to, as well as shaping and selecting of, any
environmental context. . . (I)ntelligence is not just reactive
to the environment but also active in forming it. It offers
people an opportunity to respond flexibly to challenging
situations” (Sternberg, 1997)
The Psychometric Approach to the Study of
Intelligence
 Psychometric theories of intelligence have as their basis a belief that
intelligence can be described in terms of mental factors and that tests
can be constructed that reveal individual differences in the factors that
underlie mental performance.
 Factors are related mental skills that (presumably) affect thinking in a
wide range of situations.
Factor analysis
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Vocabulary
Reading comprehension
Story completion
Verbal analogies
 Verbal factor
 3-D rotation
 Maze learning
 Form-board performance
 Spatial factor
How many factors of intelligence are there?
 Spearman’s g – general intelligence
 Guilford’s structure-of-the-intellect model – 180
 Raymond Cattell’s theory which recognizes g and two second-level
factors:
 fluid intelligence: biologically determined and is reflected in tests of
memory span and most tests of spatial thinking
 crystallized intelligence: best reflected in tests of verbal
comprehension or social relations, skills that depend more highly on
cultural context and experience
IQ Tests
 Stanford-Binet
 Wechsler scales
Wechsler scales
 WPPSI (Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of
Intelligence)
 WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children)
 WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale)
Verbal IQ
 Information
 Similarities
 Arithmetic
 Vocabulary
 Comprehension
 Digit Span (optional)
Performance IQ
 Picture Completion
 Coding
 Picture Arrangement
 Block Design
 Object Assembly
 Symbol Search
 Mazes (optional)
Example from the Raven Progressive Matricies Test
The Adult
 Strong relationships between
 IQ and occupational prestige
 IQ and job performance
 IQ and good health/longevity
 IQ decline by age 80 (longitudinal
studies
 C-S studies show cohort effects
 Fluid IQ peaks at about age 24
 Crystallized (verbal)unchanged until 80’s
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
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Contextual subtheory
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Adaptation
Selection
Shaping
Cultural relativism
Experiental subtheory
 The ability to deal with novelty and the degree to which processing is automtized.
 The job of the child in development is to “render the novel familiar” (Rheingold)
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Componential subtheory
 Metacomponents
 Performance components
 Knowledge-acquisition components
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Criteria for Intelligence
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Potential isolation by brain damage
The existence of savants and prodigies
An identifiable core operation or set of operations
A distinctive developmental history, along with a definable set of
expert end-state performances
 An evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility
 Support from experimental psychological tasks and from psychometric
findings
 Susceptibility to encoding in a system
Infancy: The Emerging Self
 First 6 months: Discover physical self
 Joint attention – 9 months
 Difference in perceptions can be shared
 Self-recognition – 18 months
 Categorical self (age, sex) - 18 – 24 months
 Based on cognitive development
 Requires social experience
 The looking-glass self: a “reflection”
Emotional Development
 Primary Emotions
 Emerge during first year of life
 distress, disgust, interest, surprise, contentment,
joy, anger, sadness, fear
 Secondary (self-conscious) emotions
 Emerge during second year of life and depend
on self-awareness and symbolic representation
 shame, embarrassment, coyness, shyness,
empathy, guilt, jealousy, envy, pride, contempt
Milestones in emotional development: expression,
recognition, understanding and self-regulation
Emotional expression
 1st year: Primary Emotions
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- at birth: distress, interest, disgust
- about 1-3 months: joy
- about 3-6 months: anger, sadness, surprise
- about 6-8 months: fear
 2nd year: Secondary (Self-conscious) Emotions
 - about 18-24 months: empathy, envy (jealousy),
 - about 30-36 months: pride, guilt, shame, hubris
Emoti ontype
Adapti ve Goa
ls/Fu n cti on s Acti on te n de n cy
Disgust
Avoiding contamination or
illness
Fear
Avoid danger; learn about
Flight; active withdrawal
events/at tributes that are
dangerous; maintain
integrity of the self
(physical and psychological
integrity
Anger
At tain difficult goals; learn
t o overcome obstacles;
communicate
power/dominance
Conserve energy; learn
which goals are realizable;
encourage nurturance by
others
Sadness
Active rejection
Active forward movement,
especially t o eliminate
obstacles
Disengagement; passive
withdrawal
Emoti ontype
Adaptive Goals/Fu n ction s Acti on te n de n cy
Sham e
Behave appropriately;
Active or passive
learn/maintain social
withdrawal; avoiding
standards; maintain othersÕ others, hiding of self
respect and affection;
preserve self-esteem
Guilt
Behave prosocially;
learn/maintain social
standards; communicate
submission t o others
Outward movement:
inclination t o make
reparation, to inform others,
and t o punish oneself
Pride
Behave appropriately;
learn/maintain social
standards; maintaining the
respect of oneself and
others
Outward/upward
movement; inclination to
show/inform others about
oneÕs accomplishments
Emotional recognition
 - about 3 months: sensitivity to abrupt emotional caregiver
changes
 - about 6 months: (implicit) recognition of all basic
emotions
 - about 12 months: social referencing (modeling own
emotional reactions on the basis of the recognition of other
people’s emotional reactions)
Emotional understanding
 -about 3-5 years old: Understanding important public aspects of
emotions
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- (explicit) recognition and naming of emotional expressions
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- how external causes affect others’ emotions
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- the impact of reminders on emotions
 -about 7 years old: Understanding the mentalistic nature of emotions
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- the role of desire and belief in emotions
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- the discrepancy between expressed and felt emotions
 -about 9-11 years old: Understanding complexity of individual
emotional behavior
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- the mixed nature of emotions
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- the relation between morality and emotions
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- the role of cognition in emotional regulation
Emotional self-regulation
 - about 1st year: ability to regulate some disturbing input
 - about 3rd year: ability to hide real emotions
 - about 5-11 years: increasing ability to self-regulate emotional states
Temperament
 Seen in infancy
 Genetically based
 Tendencies to respond in predictable ways
 Building blocks of personality
 Goodness of fit (Thomas & Chess)
 Parenting techniques
 Learning to interpret cues
 Sensitive responding
Gender Differences
 Verbal: Females slightly higher
 Spatial: Males higher
 Math: Males highest and lowest
 Aggression and riskiness: males
 Compliant, tactful, cooperative: females
 Nurturant, empathic, anxious: females
 Play style
 Interest in infants
 Vulnerability: males
Hunting-gatherering hypothesis and the origin of sex
differences in spatial cognition: Silverman & Eals
 Hunting (male) fostered eye-hand coordination, better
navigation skills, mental rotation.
 Gathering (female) fostered enhanced object-location
memory
Males > Females: space relations & mental rotation
Females > males: object & location memory
Infancy
 Differential treatment
 Differential expectations
 By 18 mo: categorical self
 By 21/2 yr: gender identity
 18-24 mo: gender toy preference
Childhood
 3 yrs: gender stereotypes acquired
 Gender rigidity until age 6
 Gender constancy: by ages 4-6
 Gender typed behavior by age 2 1/2
 Greater by age 6
 Stronger rules for boys
Adolescence
 Gender intensification
 Pubertal hormonal changes
 Preparation for reproductive activities
 Gender and peer conformity
 Later adolescence more flexible
thinking
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Grading Sheet for Assignment 4: Changes in Grandparenting
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Scores in all 3 areas are totaled to give a final score from 1-10
I. Content
3 people interviewed (one over 60 and one under 30)
nature of relationship with grandparents described for each person
author’s interpretation of how changes in geographic mobility, daycare, and
divorce have contributed to the quality of grandparent/grandchild relationships
1 2 3 4 5 6
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Name:____________
II. Organization
clear, specific introduction that explains the purpose of the paper
thoughtful conclusion that goes beyond repetition of main points
effective topic sentences
fully developed, unified paragraphs
1 2
Grammar and Mechanics
consistent/appropriate use of present and past tenses
avoidance of sentence fragments and run-on sentences
proper subject-verb agreement
correct punctuation
correct spelling
appropriate integration of quotations
1
2
Social-role Hypothesis (Eagly)
 Roles create stereotypes
 Context and culture important
 Changes occurring today
 Psychological differences
 Few and small
 Important
 Differential roles continue
Biosocial Theory
 Money and Ehrhardt
 Biological development
 Presence of Y chromosome
 Testosterone masculinizes brain and nervous
system
 Social influences and labeling at birth
 Gender behavior through social
interaction
Origins of Sexual Orientation
 No evidence for Freudian interpretations
(e.g., strong mother, weak father)
 Prenatal hormones influence adult sexual
orientation
 Homosexual parents as likely to have
heterosexual children as heterosexual
parents.
Parental Investment Theory (Robert Trivers,
1972)
 There is a conflict for both males and females in how much time,
effort, and resources to invest in mating versus parenting
 In most mammalian species:
 Females invest more than males (female investment is obligatory)
 Gamete size (egg larger than sperm)
 Internal fertilization and gestation
 Nursing
 Childcare
 Ancestral men and women faced different adaptive problems and
evolved different adaptive mechanisms (this is true for the sexes of
most animals)
Cognitive Theories
 Kohlberg: self socialization
 Stage-like changes
 Gender identity: ages 2-3
 Label themselves correctly
 Gender stability: ages 3-4
 Stable over time
 Gender consistency: ages 5-7
 Stable across situations
Adulthood
 Gender roles over the life-span
 At marriage: greater differentiation
 Birth of child: it increases more
 Parental imperative
 Middle age and older: Androgyny
 Shift - does not mean switch
Sexuality Over the Life Span
 Infant sexuality: CNS arousal
 Childhood
 Learn about reproduction
 Curiosity and exploration
 Sexual abuse: like PTSD
 Adolescence: sexual identity, orientation
 Double standard: decline?
Adult Sexuality
 Most are married
 Gradual declines
 Individual differences
 Married have more sex
 Male sexual peak: age 18
 Female sexual peak: age 38
Men have greater sex drive than women
(controversial)
 Men engage in more sexual daydreaming than women
 Men report experiencing more spontaneous sexual desire than women
 Gay men report having sex more frequently than lesbians
 Men report initiating sex more than women
 Men masturbate more than women
 Women report higher frequency of low libido than men
 Men more likely to pay money or present gifts for sex than women
Older Adults
 Stereotype: Asexuality
 Reality: decline
 Diseases and disabilities
 Social attitudes
 Lack of a partner
 Physiologically able in old age
Incest Avoidance
 Westermark (childhood familiarity results in incest avoidance) versus Freud
(Oedipal and Electra complexes)
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Wolf: “minor marriages” in Taiwan
Compared to “major marriages,” minor
produced 40% fewer children
had three times higher divorce rate
wives more likely to admit to extramarital affairs
 Shepher: Israeli kibbutzim
 Of 2869 couples from 211 kibbutzim, no marriages between members from
the same kibbutz.
Post-adoption incest and genetic sexual attraction
 highly intense, sexual attraction, often leading to incestuous relations,
experienced by close kin who have been separated at or soon after
birth and reunited as adults.
 Most data on this phenomenon are anecdotal
 Greenberg and Littlewood’s (1995) survey of post-adoption counselors
in London indicated that about 50% of clients who had been reunited
with kin as adults experienced, “strong, sexual feelings.”
Mechanisms for Westermark effect
 Olfaction
 Evidence of the functions of pheromones in animals and humans for
both kin recognition and sexual attraction
 Parents can distinguish between the odors of their biological children,
except in the case of identical twins
 Mothers cannot identify stepchildren by odor
 Preadolescent children can identify their full sibs but not half sibs or
stepsibs by odor
 Olfactory cues may mediate favoritism of blood relatives
Weisfeld et al. (2003), studying human families
 immediate family members exhibited particular patterns of aversions to
each other’s odors.
 Fathers showed aversions to their daughters’, but not to their sons’
odors.
 Mothers did not display any aversions
 Opposite-sexed, but not same-sexed sibling pairs, showed aversions to
each other’s odors.
 These patterns occurred whether or not the source of the odor was
recognized, and whether or not the individuals involved were
biologically related.
 Social cognition: ability to understand
psychological differences in others
 Adopt other’s perspectives
 Theory of Mind: False Belief Task
 Where will Sally look for marble when she
returns? (See next slide)
 Used to predict and explain human behavior
before 4 yrs of age
 “he wanted to. . .” “he intended to. .”
Developing a Theory of
Mind
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Attentive parents
Joint attention
Pretend play
Imitation
Social experiences
Talking about mental states
Sensitivity to feelings of others
Attachment Theory
 Bowlby: A strong affectional tie that binds a person to an
intimate companion
 Measured by:
 proximity behaviors,
 distress upon separation,
 extent to which the attachment figure can calm infant
 Helps regulate distress by proximity seeking
 By about 6-7 months
 Ainsworth: special, irreplaceable people
 Desire to maintain proximity
 Derive a sense of security
Ethology
 Konrad Lorenz: Imprinting
 Critical period
 Irreversible
 Humans: Attachment
 Sensitive period
 Predisposed
Theories of Attachment
 Psychoanalytic Theory: “I love you because you feed
me”
 Learning Theory: “Rewards lead to love”
 Cognitive-Developmental Theory: “To love you I must
know you”
 Ethological (Evolutionary) Theory: “Perhaps I was
born to love”
Infant’s Attachment to Caregiver
 Social responsiveness
 At birth: undiscriminating
 2-6 mo: preferences develop
 Proximity seeking
 6 mo to 3 yr
 Attachment figures
 Mental representation abilities needed
Caregiver’s Attachment to Infant
 Early contact not crucial nor sufficient
 Neonatal reflexes endearing: e.g., smiling
 Cooing and babbling: early conversations
 Synchronized routines
 Peek-A-Boo
 Sensitive responding a must
 Over-stimulation/under-stimulation
Attachment-Related Fears
 Separation anxiety: 6-8 mo
 Peaks around 14-18 mo
 Gradually wanes
 Stranger anxiety: 8-10 mo
 Declines during 2nd yr
 Ainsworth: secure base for
exploration
Table 14.1, page 394
Quality of Attachment
 Caregiver provides “contact comfort”
 Ainsworth: Strange Situation Test
 Secure attachment: most
 Insecure attachment categories
 Inconsistent care > resistant
 Insensitive stimulation > avoidant
 Rejection, impatient, resentful
 Intrusive
 Abusive > disorganized/disoriented
Table 14.2, page 395
Later Outcomes
 Securely attached child
 Cognitively and socially competent
 Expect positive reactions
 Insecurely attached child
 Withdrawn, dependent, fearful
 Less competent
 Patterns last through adolescence
 Attachment to fathers, grandparents, etc.
 Can compensate for poor attachment
 Secure attachments may change
 Stressful events: divorce, illness
 Insecure attachments may change
 Lifestyle improvements
 Later relationships influenced by nature
of early attachment
Rate of attaining puberty for girls is influenced
by:
 Father absence (e.g., Subrey, 1990)
 Socioeconomic stress (e.g., Ellis et al., 1999)
 Maternal depression (e.g., Ellis & Graber, 2000)
 Quality of father-daughter relationships (e.g., Ellis et al.,
1999)
Distribution (%) of the types of attachment types (secure, insecure
avoidant and insecure ambivalent) in several countries
Country
Secure
Insecure Avoidant
Insecure
Ambivalent
USA
65
20
13
Germany
43
46
8
Sweden
76
22
4
Netherland
s
72
24
4
Japan
77
0
23
Israel
55
8
33
Interactions during childhood
 During childhood, peer social interaction focuses on play
 Sex segregation common
 Physical aggression during early childhood, relative to toddlerhood,
decreases while verbal aggression shows the opposite pattern (Coie &
Dodge, 1998).
 Relational aggression: manipulating social relations by shunning and
spreading rumors, among other strategies.
 Relational aggression increases with age as children’s cognitive
abilities improve, but is used more by girls than boys
 Peer-directed aggression is first observed at the end of the
first year of life and typically occurs in the context of
object disputes (Coie & Dodge, 1998).
 Up to 50% of the interaction between toddlers is
conflictual, though not aggressive
Bullies and victims
 The form of aggression that comes to the fore during late childhood
and adolescence is bullying and victimization
 Bullies are more frequently boys than girls and represent about 10% of
the elementary school population in most industrialized counties
 boys use physical aggression in bullying same-sex peers and girls use
relational aggression with other girls
 Victims of bullies tend to be physically frail children with few friends
or affiliates
Aggression as a solution to adaptive problems
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Co-opt resources of others
Defend against an attack
Inflict costs on intrasexual rivals
Negotiate status and power hierarchies
Deter rivals from future aggression
Deter long-term mates from sexual infidelity
Potential benefits of aggression must be balanced
with costs
 Aggression tends to cause retaliatory aggression
 Aggression to maintain reputation and status
 “Honor” killings of sisters/daughters to maintain status in
community
 Willingness of victim to retaliate
 Reputation as both a bully or victim can be deleterious
Young-male syndrome
 Males, at all ages, engage in more physical aggression than females
and the aggression that adolescent and young-adult males engage in is
more likely to lead to serious injury and sometimes death
 Greater male aggression can be explained in terms of parental
investment theory
Intrasex competition
Impress females via competitive risk taking
 Risk taking and accidents are frequently the result of competitive or
“show-off” behavior, with the purpose being to compete with other
members of the same sex or to impress members of the opposite sex
Death rates dues to vehicular accidents per 100,000
resident population in the United States for males and
females, 1995-1997
50
Vehicular Accident Rate
40
30
Mal es
Females
20
10
0
5-14
15-24
25-34
Years in Age
35-44
45-64
Percentage of trauma admissions for violence at LA Medical
Center for 3 months in 1990, by age (adapted from Cairns et
al., 1991)
Percentage of Violent Admissions
80
60
40
20
0
0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
Age in Ye ars
20-24
25-29
30-34
Adolescent and young-adult males are more likely
to be both the victims and perpetrators of
homicide
Homicide victimization rate per 100,000 resident
population in the United States, 1995-1997: Males
150
Homicide Rate / 100,000
130
110
All Males
White Males
African American Males
90
70
50
30
10
-10
1-14
15-24
25-44
Age in Years
45-64
65 +
Homicide victimization rate per 100,000 resident
population in the United States, 1995-1997: Females
Homicide Rate / 100,000
100
All Females
White Females
African American Females
80
60
40
20
0
1-14
15-24
25-44
45-64
Years in Age
65 +
Dominance hierarchies
 Status with a group
 Influences access to resources, such as food and mates
 Establishing high status achieved by combination of
aggression and cooperative interaction
 Dominance hierarchies:
 Reduce antagonism within the group
 Distribute scare resources
 Focus division of labor
Establishing Dominance Hierarchies
 “leaders” recognized early,even in transient groups.
 In children, top and bottom of hierarchies established first, middle
areas later
 Even preverbal toddlers in groups form dominance hierarchies
 In childhood, hierarchies usually in same-sex groups
 Interaction in same-sex groups serves to foster development of social
skills
 Children with mostly opposite-sex friends are less-well adjusted than
children with mostly same-sex friends (Kovacs et al., 1996)
Both aggression and affiliative behaviors used to
establish and maintain dominance
 Evidence in:
 chimpanzees (de Waal)
 preschoolers (Hawley)
 school children and adolescence (Pellegrini)
 In preschoolers level of aggression positively associated
with popularity (Hawley; Vollenweider et al.)
 Robbers Cave study (Sherif et al.)
 Fifth-grade boys at summer camp
 Rattlers and Eagles
Outcomes of Parenting Styles
 Children of authoritative parents
 Adjusted, responsible, high achievement
 Children of authoritarian parents
 Moody, unhappy, aimless
 Children of permissive parents
 Low: self-control, independence, achievers
 Children of neglectful/uninvolved parents
 Behavior problems, antisocial
Stepparent Investment: Cinderella or Marsha
Brady?
 Stepparents should show little interest in the welfare of children who
are clearly not their biological offspring
 Why should stepfathers invest at all?
 Stepparenting as mating opportunity. The best strategy for a man when
looking for a new mate may be to act solicitously toward the potential
mate’s children
 It’s more difficult for stepparents to develop strong emotional bonds
with stepchildren than with biological children
 In one study of middle-class stepfamilies in the United States, only
53% of stepfathers and 25% of stepmothers claimed to have any
“parental feelings” whatsoever for their stepchildren (Duberman,
1975)
How much do stepparents invest?
 Anderson et al. (1999a,b): South Africa & U.S.: stepfathers spent
significantly more money on their natural children than on their
stepchildren
 Zvoch, 1999: Stepfamilies saved less money for their children’s
education, started savings accounts for children later, and expected to
spend less money for their child’s education in the future.
 Stepfathers spend significantly less time with their stepchildren than
with their natural children (3 hours less per week with their
stepchildren than with their natural children); play with them less
often. Pattern found cross culturally: U.s. South Africa, Caribbean
islands
 less money is spent on food when a child is reared by an adoptive,
foster, or stepmother than a biological mother (Case et al.)
“Wicked” stepparents?
 Daly & Wilson, in survey of Canadian households: Children were 40
times more likely to be abused if they lived with a stepparent versus
two natural parents.
 This difference remained even when possible influencing factors that
may be associated with stepfamilies, such as poverty, the mother’s age,
and family size, were statistically controlled. Given these and similar
findings
 “Stepparenthood per se remains the single most powerful risk factor
for child abuse that has yet been identified.”
 Child homicide: Studies in different countries report that for children
under 2-years of age, homicide 40 to 100 times more likely at hands of
stepparent (usually stepfather) than natural parent.
Homicide Rate per Million Children
The risk of being killed by a stepparent versus a natural
parent in relation to child’s age: Canada, 1974-1983 (from
Day & Wilson, 1988)
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
Natural Parents
Stepparents
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0-2
3-5
6-8
Age of Child
9-17
Divorce
 High-risk couples
 married 7 years
 Teen-age marriages, short courtship
 Pregnant before marriage
 Low SES
 Post-divorce crisis
 1-2 years
 At risk for depression
Children of Divorce
 Often angry, fearful, depressed, or guilty
 Custodial mother overwhelmed
 Behavior problems
 Peer relationships suffer/change
 Sometimes negative effects are lasting
 1-2 year adjustment
Theories of Aging and Death
 Programmed theories
 Maximum life span (species specific)
 Hayflick Limit
 Damage Theories
 Free radicals
 Interaction of the two – or more
The Child
 The mature concept of death
 Finality, irreversibility, universality,
biological causality
 Age 3-5: universality
 Dead live under altered circumstances
 Reversible - life sleep
 Age 5-7: finality, irreversibility
 Level of cognitive development,
experience
The Natural Emergence of ‘Afterlife’ Reasoning with
Jesse Bering & Carlos Hernández Blasi
 Preschoolers, 10/11-year olds; adults
 View puppet show of anthropomorphized mouse getting eaten
by alligator
Participants asked series of questions about the continuity
of biological, psychobiological, and psychological
functioning
Biological
 Will he ever need to eat food again?”*
 Does his brain still work?”*
 Will he ever grow up to be an old mouse?”
 Will he ever need to drink water again?”
Psychobiological
 Is he still thirsty?”*
 Is he still hungry?”*
 Is he still sleepy?”
 Does he still feel sick?”
Perceptual
 Can he still hear the birds singing?”*
 Can he still taste the yucky grass he ate?”*
 Can he still smell the flowers?”
 Can he see where he is?”
Desire
 Does he still wish he didn’t have a brother?”*
 Does he still want to go home?”*
 Does he still hope he gets better at math?”
Emotional
 Is still sad because he can’t find his way home?”*
 Is still angry at his brother?”*
 Still loves his mom?”
 Is still scared of the alligator?”
Epistemic
 Is still thinking about his brother?”*
 Still believes he’s smarter than his brother?”*
 Knows that he’s not alive?”
 Still believes his mom is the nicest grownup?”
Percentage of discontinuity responses by age and
question type
100
80
60
Kind
Late Elem
Adult
40
20
0
Bio
Psybio
Per cep
Emo
Des
Epi
Percentage of 5/6-year-olds participants providing
% Discontinuity Responses
discontinuity responses, by school- and question-type
1 00
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Bio
Psybio
Per
Emo
Des
Question Type
Religious
Secular
Epi
% Discontinuity Responses
Percentage of 8/9-year-olds participants providing
discontinuity responses, by school- and question-type
1 00
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Bio
Psybio
Per
Emo
Des
Question Type
Religious
Secular
Epi
% Discontinuity Responses
Percentage of 11/12-year-olds participants providing
discontinuity responses, by school- and question type
1 00
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Bio
Psybio
Per
Emo
Des
Question Type
Religious
Secular
Epi
Percentage of participants providing discontinuity responses,
by age and question type
100
% Discontinuity Responses
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
B io
Psybio
Per
Emo
Des
Epi
Question Type
5/6 y-olds
8/9 y-olds
11/12 y-olds
The Adult
 Death of family member difficult
 Death of spouse more expected with age
 More difficult when young (non-normative)
 Elevated levels of stress
 Risk increases for illness and death
 Signs of recovery after 2 years