Transcript Developmental Psychology Study of how people are continually developing throughout their life span

Developmental Psychology
Study of how people are continually
developing throughout their life
span
Types of Development
• Physical – Bodies and brains
• Cognitive – Mental activities related
to learning, memory, and
communcation
• Social – Think about and relate with
others
Different Approaches to Studying
Development
• Those who focus on the importance of
experience/learning tend to see development
as a slow, continuous process.
• Those who focus on biology/genes tend to
see development as a sequence of genetically
predetermined stages that occur in the same
sequence (although the timing may differ)
Prenatal Development and the
Newborn
Life is sexually transmitted
Prenatal Development
 Zygote
 the fertilized egg
 enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division
 develops into an embryo
 Embryo
 the developing human organism from 2 weeks
through 2nd month
 Fetus
 the developing human organism from 9 weeks after
conception to birth
Which of the following babies is the
oldest?
A. Jordan, who is a blastocyst.
B. Megan, who has reached the age of viability.
C. Frank, who is more sensitive to teratogens
at this stage than at any other stage.
D. Pat, who is a zygote.
Prenatal Development and the
Newborn
40 Days
45 Days
2 Months 4 Months
Prenatal Risks
 Teratogens
 agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that
can reach the embryo or fetus during
prenatal development and cause harm
Common Teratogens
• Alcohol:
No amount of alcohol is safe. Can cause
mental retardation, learning disorders and
retarded growth and fetal alcohol syndrome.
Common Teratogens
• Smoking:
• decreased birth weight
• increased risk of miscarriage and still birth
• interference with cognitive development in
early childhood
Common Teratogens
• Infectious agents:
Some viruses, such
as rubella, herpes or HIV and some bacteria
or parasites, such as toxoplasmosis
• Cocaine:
Can cause premature birth,
brain lesions, impaired sensory functioning,
increased irritability, heart deformities
Effects of Cocaine Use in Pregnancy
Common Teratogens
• Prescription and over-the counter drugs:
Excessive use of aspirin
Use of ibuprofen later in pregnancy
Caffeine can slow growth, contribute to
premature birth and increased
irritability
What Can a Newborn Do?
 Rooting Reflex
 tendency to open mouth, and search for nipple
when touched on the cheek
 Habituation
 decreasing responsiveness with repeated
stimulation (getting used to a stimulus and
showing less response to it)
Habituation
Preference for
Novel Stimuli
Even Newborns Have Preferences
 Preferences
 human voices and
faces
 face-like images-->
 smell and sound of
mother
preferred
Physical Development in Infancy &
Childhood
• Maturation of Neurons
 biological growth
processes that enable
orderly changes in
behavior
 relatively
uninfluenced by
experience
At birth
3 months
15 months
Cortical Neurons
Physical Development in Infancy &
Childhood
• Motor Development
– Sequence of events is almost universal
– Genes play a major role in motor development
Physical Development in Infancy &
Childhood
• Infant Memory
– Infantile Amnesia: Generally no recall of events
before the 3rd birthday
– Infants and young children still make memories,
however
Cognitive Development in
Infancy & Childhood
• Cognition: the mental activities associated
with thinking, knowing, remembering, and
communicating
• Jean Piaget (1896- 1980)
• 4 Stages of Cognitive
Development
What Did Piaget Believe?
• A child’s mind develops in a series of stages
• Primary force behind our cognitive
development is the constant struggle to make
sense of our experiences
• Schemas: “mental molds” into which we fit
our experiences
What Did Piaget Believe?
• Accommodation: Adjusting our schemas to
incorporate new experiences
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
1. Sensorimotor Stage
• Birth to about age 2
• Take in the world through their senses
• Milestones:
– Object permanence
– Stranger anxiety
Current thinking…
• Piaget may have underestimated the ability of
infants and very young children
Child spent
more time
looking at
impossible
figure
2. Preoperational Stage
•
•
•
•
2 years to 6-7 years old
Objects are associated with words or images
Uses intuitive (rather than logical) reasoning
Milestones:
– Pretend play
– Egocentrism
– Begin forming a “theory of mind”
Preoperational Stage
• Lacks concept of “conservation”
3. Concrete Operational Stage
• 6-7 to 12 years old
• Thinks logically about concrete events
• Milestones:
– Conservation
– Mathematical skills
– Grasping analogies
4. Formal Operational Stage
• Age 12 through adulthood
• Milestones:
– Abstract reasoning
– Moral reasoning
Lev Vygotsky (1895-1934)
• Russian psychologist
• A child’s mind grows through interaction with
social environment
• Zone of Proximal
Development
Social Development
• Attachment: The formation of an emotional
tie with another person
• Falsely thought that source of “nourishment”
defined attachment
• Harlow Experiment
– Body contact
– Familiarity
Attachment Can Be “Rigid”
• But NOT in mammals
• Konrad Lorenz
– Studied rigid attachment process called
“imprinting”
Social Development
 Monkeys raised
by artificial
mothers were
terror-stricken
when placed in
strange
situations
without their
surrogate
mothers.
Social Development
Percentage
of infants
100
who cried
when their
mothers left
80
 Groups of
infants left by
their mothers in
a unfamiliar
room
Day care
60
40
Home
20
0
3.5 5.5 7.5 9.5 11.5 13.5 20
Age in months
29
Social Development
 Basic Trust (Erik Erikson)
 a sense that the world is predictable and
trustworthy
 said to be formed during infancy by
appropriate experiences with responsive
caregivers
 Self-Concept
 a sense of one’s identity and personal worth
Social Development: Child-Rearing
Practices
 Authoritarian
 parents impose rules and expect obedience
 “Don’t interrupt.” “Why? Because I said so.”
 Permissive
 submit to children’s desires, make few demands,
use little punishment
 Authoritative
 both demanding and responsive
 set rules, but explain reasons and encourage open
discussion
Social Development:
Child-Rearing Practices
Adolescence
 Adolescence
 the transition period from childhood to
adulthood
 extending from puberty to independence
 Puberty
 the period of sexual maturation
 when a person becomes capable of
reproduction
Adolescence
 Primary Sex Characteristics
 body structures that make sexual reproduction possible
 ovaries--female
 testes--male
 external genitalia
 Secondary Sex Characteristics
 nonreproductive sexual characteristics
 female--breast and hips
 male--voice quality and body hair
 Menarche
 first menstrual period
Adolescence
1890, Women
10
7.2 Year Interval
20
Age
1995, Women
12.5 Year Interval
10
20
Age
 In the 1890’s the
average interval
between a
woman’s
menarche and
marriage was
about 7 years;
now it is over 12
years
Adolescence
Height in
centimeters
190
170
150
130
110
90
70
50
0
2
Boys
4
6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Age in years
Girls
 Throughout
childhood, boys
and girls are similar
in height. At
puberty, girls surge
ahead briefly, but
then boys overtake
them at about age
14.
Body Changes at Puberty
Kohlberg’s Moral Ladder
Postconventional
level
Morality of abstract
principles: to affirm
agreed-upon rights and
personal ethical principles
Conventional
level
Morality of law and
social rules: to gain
approval or avoid
disapproval
Preconventional
level
Morality of self-interest:
to avoid punishment
or gain concrete rewards
 As moral
development
progresses, the
focus of concern
moves from the
self to the wider
social world.
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
Development
Approximate
age
Stage
Description of Task
Infancy
(1st year)
Trust vs. mistrust
If needs are dependably met, infants
develop a sense of basic trust.
Toddler
(2nd year)
Autonomy vs. shame Toddlers learn to exercise will and
and doubt
do things for themselves, or they
doubt their abilities.
Preschooler
(3-5 years)
Initiative vs. guilt
Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks
and carry out plans, or they feel
guilty about efforts to be independent.
Elementary
(6 yearspuberty)
Competence vs.
inferiority
Children learn the pleasure of applying
themselves to tasks, or they feel
inferior.
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
Development
Approximate
age
Stage
Description of Task
Adolescence
(teens into
20’s)
Identity vs. role
confusion
Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by
testing roles and then integrating them to
form a single identity, or they become
confused about who they are.
Young Adult
(20’s to early
40’s)
Intimacy vs.
isolation
Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate
love, or they feel socially isolated.
Middle Adult
(40’s to 60’s)
Generativity vs.
stagnation
The middle-aged discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family
and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose.
Late Adult
(late 60’s and
up)
Integrity vs.
despair
When reflecting on his or her life, the older
adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or
failure.
Adolescence: Social
Development
 Identity
 one’s sense of self
 the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense
of self by testing and integrating various
roles
 Intimacy
 the ability to form close, loving
relationships
 a primary developmental task in late
adolescence and early adulthood
Adolescence: Social
Development
 The changing parent-child relationship
Percent with
positive, warm
interaction
with parents
100%
80
60
40
20
0
2 to 4
5 to 8
9 to 11
Ages of child in years
Adulthood: Physical
Development
 Menopause
 the time of natural cessation of menstruation
 also refers to the biological changes a woman
experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
 Alzheimer’s Disease
 a progressive and irreversible brain disorder
 characterized by a gradual deterioration of memory,
reasoning, language, and finally, physical functioning
Adulthood: Physical
Development
 The Aging Senses
1.00
0.75
0.50
Proportion of normal
(20/20) vision when
identifying letters on
0.25
an eye chart
0
10
30
50
Age in years
70
90
Adulthood: Physical
Development
 The Aging Senses
90
Percent correct when
70
Identifying smells
50
10
30
50
Age in years
70
90
Adulthood: Physical
Development
 The Aging Senses
90
Percent correct when
identifying spoken
70
words
50
10
30
50
Age in years
70
90
Adulthood: Physical
Development
Fatal
accident 12
rate
10
8
6
4
2
0
16
 Slowing
reactions
Fatal accidents
per 100 million miles
contribute to
Fatal accidents
increased
per 10,000 drivers
accident risks
among those
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 and 75 and older.
over
Age
Adulthood: Physical
Development
 Incidence of Dementia by Age
Percentage
with dementia
Risk of dementia
increases in later
years
40%
30
20
10
0
60-64
70-74
65-69
80-84
75-79
Age Group
90-95
85-89
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
100
Percent
of names 90
recalled 80
 Recalling new
names
After three
introductions introduced once,
twice, or three
times is easier
for younger
adults than for
older ones
Older age groups have
poorer performance
70
60
50
40
After two
introductions
30
20
After one
10 introductions
0
18
40
50
60
Age group
70
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
 The ability to recall
new information
declined during early
Number of words
and middle adulthood,
recognized is
stable with age
but the ability to
recognize new
information did not.
Number
Of words
24
remembered
20
16
12
8
4
Number of words
recalled declines
with age
0
20
30
40
50
Age in years
60
70
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
Reasoning
ability
score
Cross-sectional method
suggests decline
60
55
50
45
Longitudinal method
suggests more stability
 a study in which
people of different
ages are compared
with one another
 Longitudinal Study
40
35
 Cross-Sectional
Study
25 32 39 46 53 60 67 74 81
Age in years
Cross-sectional method
Longitudinal method
 a study in which the
same people are
restudied and
retested over a long
period
Adulthood- Cognitive
Development
Intelligence
(IQ) score
105
 Verbal intelligence
scores hold steady
with age, while
nonverbal
intelligence scores
decline.
Verbal scores are
stable with age
100
95
90
85
Nonverbal scores
decline with age
80
75
20 25
Verbal scores
Nonverbal scores
35
45
Age group
55
65 70
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
 Crystallized Intelligence
 one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal
skills
 tends to increase with age
 Fluid Intelligence
 ones ability to reason speedily and abstractly
 tends to decrease during late adulthood
Adulthood: Social
Development
 Early-forties midlife crisis?
Emotional
instability
24%
No early 40s
emotional crisis
16
Females
8
Males
0
33
36
39
42
45
48
Age in Years
51
54
Adulthood: Social Changes
 Social Clock
 the culturally preferred timing of
social events
 marriage
 parenthood
 retirement
Adulthood: Social Changes
Percentage
“satisfied”
with life
as a whole
80
60
40
20
0
15
25
35
45
Age group
55
65+
 Multinational
surveys show
that age
differences in life
satisfaction are
trivial (Inglehart,
1990).
Adulthood: Social Changes