Transcript Human Development

AP Psychology
 Philosophers
 John Locke - “tabula rasa”
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau – nature should guide growth
 Early Psychologists
 Arnold Gesell – maturation – abilities unfold with age –
growth occurs on its own on a predetermined timeline,
without the aid of the environment
 John B. Watson – environment was key to development
 Jean Piaget – nature & nurture are inseparable
• Germinal stage – zygote (new cell created by
fertilization) duplicates into many cells – lasts 2
weeks
• Embryonic stage – embryo is formed – basic body
plan is formed
• Fetal stage – begins after 2 months
• By end of 7th month, organ systems are functional
• Role of the placenta – baby’s “lifeline”
• Examples of teratogens – any agent that may harm
the development of the fetus
• Drugs such as cocaine
• Alcohol and fetal alcohol syndrome
• Smoking
 Involuntary, unlearned motor behaviors
 Examples of observed reflexes:
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Grasping
Rooting
Sucking
Babinski
Swallowing
Stepping
Moro
 Most disappear after first 3-4 months.
• Neural networks grow increasingly complex and
more efficient.
• Early maturation of the cerebellum – allows for
infants to display associative abilities
• Neurological development of the temporal lobe –
babies 6-12 mos can remember and imitate an
action or recognize a picture
• Neurological development in the frontal cortex –
occurs later in childhood – higher cognitive
functions (reasoning)
• Cognitive development proceeds through series of
distinct periods or stages
• Entering each stage requires a qualitative change from
previous stage.
• Schemas are the building blocks of intellectual
development (generalizations formed as people
experience the world).
• Constructed as child adapts to the environment.
• Schema development guided by
two complimentary processes:
• Assimilation – info about a new object
fits into existing schemas
• Accommodation – info about the new
object forces a change or modification
of existing schema – the modification of
existing schema into a new one
Birth-2 years
Explores world through senses
Sees an object and reaches for it
Object permanence – by one year of age, a child
realizes that objects still exist although the object is
no longer seen
• Separation anxiety – cries when parent is no longer
present
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 2-7 years
 Egocentrism – inability to see the world through
another’s perspective – how things look to them is
how they look to everyone else
 Conservation – understand that despite an
apparent change in size/shape/length, the
substance remains constant – this occurs at the
end of the preoperational stage
 Animism – the belief that inanimate objects share
human characteristics, such as feelings
 Artificialism – the belief that events of nature are
man-made
 Transductive logic – assumes that characteristics of
a specific idea can be applied to a similar idea
(birds fly, airplanes fly, then birds must be airplanes)
 Starts to represent the world through language
(symbols)
• 7-adolescence
• Seriation – the process of putting objects into a
series (smallest to largest) or putting objects that
share similar characteristics into the same category
• Reversibilitiy – understanding that concepts can be
reversed and remain the same (think math)
• Inductive logic – draws conclusions from a number
of specific facts
• Understands conservation
• Adolescence (12 and up)
• Abstract thinking – Can manipulate objects and contrast
ideas without actually seeing them
• Can form hypotheses
• Deductive logic – Can derive specific facts from a
generalization
• Metacognition – Can trace their own thought process
• Personal Fable – an individual’s belief that he or she is
invincible and will not be harmed in any instance –
believes that ideas and opinions are unique
• Imaginary Audience – the belief that everyone is looking
at you – you are on a stage for everyone to watch
• Was correct in pointing out that there are
shifts with age in children’s thinking & not just
passive recipients of input from the
environment.
• Stage changes are less consistent and
global than Piaget suggested.
• Knowledge and mental strategies develop
at different ages in different areas.
• Cognitive development as rising and falling
“waves.”
• A continuous alternative to Piaget’s stage theory
• Our abilities to memorize, interpret, and perceive
gradually develop as we age rather than
developing at distinct stages.
• Focus on gradual increases in children’s mental capabilities.
• Information-processing skills improve with age
• Memory improves with age
• Attention span increases as children learn to filter out irrelevant
information
ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
• Lev Vygotsky focused on the social world of people –
human mind is a product of cultural history
• Child’s mind grows through interaction with other
minds – social routines (family dinners, etc)
• Children learn from scripts – mental representations of
sequences in which activities occur (ie: mail)
• Zone of Proximal Development – the number of tasks a
child can complete with/without the aid of someone
older
• Cognitive abilities also influenced by language
• Poor nutrition, low SES, and neglect can hinder a child’s
development
• Vygotsky v. Piaget
The story of Genie:
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=VjZolHCrC
8E
• Individual style of expressing needs and emotions.
• biologically and genetically based
• Temperament Patterns
• Easy babies
• Difficult babies
• Slow-to-warm-up babies
• Influenced by both nature and nurture
• Attachment – a strong bond between the primary
caregiver(s) and the baby
• Bowlby: Developing a strong attachment is
important – observed effects of orphaned children
as a result of WWII
• Harry Harlow – sought to prove that attachment
was more about just food and was about the
physical comfort the caretaker provided as well.
• Contact comfort
 Harlow’s Surrogate
Mother Experiments
 Monkeys preferred
contact with the
comfortable cloth
mother, even while
feeding from the
nourishing wire mother
 Infant monkeys isolated
at birth were impaired
socially, emotionally, &
physically
• Mary Ainsworth – studied attachment using
the “Strange Situation” – natural coming
and going of parents is simulated
• Most infants form a secure attachment – use
mother as a home base
• Insecure Attachment
• Avoidant – avoids or ignores mother
• Ambivalent – upset when mother leaves and
angry when she comes back
• Disorganized – inconsistent, disturbed
• Nature of attachment can have long-term
and far-reaching effects.
ATTACHMENT
• Konrad Lorenz
• How is attachment formed?
• Critical period – a time frame during which a stimulus must
be experienced in order for a certain stage of development
to be achieved
• Imprinting – the eliciting of behavior due to exposure of a
certain stimulus, which takes place during the critical period
• Lorenz’s experiment with geese
ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
• Saw personality development as following a series
of 8 psychosocial crises, each building on earlier
ones.
• How, and how well, one resolves each crisis adds to
emotional development
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpE18fKhAeY
• Memorize Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2HRFhMFMlg
First Year
Trust vs. Mistrust
Second Year
Autonomy vs.
Shame and Doubt
Third – Fifth Year
Initiative vs. Guilt
Sixth year – Puberty
Industry vs. Inferiority
Adolescence
Identify vs. Role Confusion
Early Adulthood
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Middle Age
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Old age
Ego Integrity vs. Despair
• Socialization shaped by cultural values.
• Distinct European-American parenting styles:
• Authoritarian – strict, punitive, unsympathetic
• Permissive – complete freedom, little discipline
• Authoritative – reason with their children, give greater
responsibility with age
• Related to young children’s social and emotional
development.
• Children of authoritarian parents tend to be unfriendly,
distrustful, and withdrawn – tend to give orders, threats –
more likely to express guilt or blame
• Children of permissive parents tend to be immature,
dependent, and unhappy
• Children of authoritative parents tend to be friendly,
cooperative, and responsible
• Based on correlational evidence – can’t show
causation
• How children perceive the discipline received may
be what is influential.
• Correlations between parenting style and children’s
behavior not terribly large.
• No universally “best” style of parenting.
• General patterns of work, appearance, and
behavior associated with being a man or woman.
• Influences on development of gender roles:
• Biological factors
• Social factors
• Cognitive factors
• Children are influenced by gender schemas –
generalizations they develop about boys and girls
• Preconventional Level: Stages 1 & 2
• Moral judgments tend to be selfish.
• Conventional Level: Stages 3 & 4
• Morality consists of following rules and conventions.
• Postconventional Level: Stages 5 & 6
• Moral judgments based on personal standards or universal
principles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7pQJ0ptjk0&feature=re
lated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czp9S4u26M
CRITICISMS OF KOHLBERG
• Carol Gilligan – Kohlberg developed the model
based on the responses of boys
• Boys and girls do not come to moral conclusions in
the same way
• Boys – have a more absolute view of what is moral
• Girls – pay more attention to situational factors –
want to know more about the situation and
relationships of people before making a decision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIzpBuWzkBU
• Early Adulthood: Ages 20-39
• Middle Adulthood: Ages 40-65
• Late Adulthood: Ages 65+
• Early Adulthood: Important cognitive abilities
improve.
• Thought becomes more complex and adaptive.
• Thinking becomes dialectical.
• Middle Adulthood: Physical changes slowly emerge.
• Loss of sensory sharpness is common.
• Late Adulthood: Declines in physical functioning.
• Intellectual abilities decline noticeably.
• Older people have the ability to think deeply and
wisely about life.
• associated with high levels of wisdom.
• Loss of intellectual abilities is slow.
• Memory problems largely confined to episodic, not
semantic memory.
• Early adulthood associated with Erikson’s intimacy
vs. isolation stage
• Nature of relationships influenced by nature of earlier
relationships with parents.
• Major changes associated with becoming parents.
• Around age 40, people go through a midlife
transition.
• A time of satisfaction and happiness often follows
midlife transition.
• More likely to strive for generativity goals.
• Erikson’s crisis of generativity
• Impact of becoming a grandparent.
• Even when 65-75, most think of self as middle-aged,
not old.
• On average, life satisfaction, well-being, and selfesteem remains the same.
• Occupational Changes
• Develop Coping Strategies
• Fewer, but more fulfilling social interactions.
• With old age, increased awareness that death is
approaching.
• May experience a terminal drop.
• Erikson’s Crisis of Integrity vs. Despair
• Impending death does not necessarily result in
despair or depression.