Unit 9: Developmental Psychology

Section 1: Prenatal Development

Section 2: Childhood

Section 3: Adolescence

Section 4: Adulthood

Section 5: Gender Differences

Section 1: Prenatal Development
Ref: 432-437

· Development begins with conception.

· The prenatal period lasts from conception to birth.

The Course of Prenatal Development

· The germinal stage is the first two weeks after conception. The zygote (single cell) begins to grow and attaches to the uterine wall.

· The embryonic stage is from two weeks to two months. The embryo develops physical structures (heart, CNS, eyes, toes, etc.). Most major birth defects are due to problems at this stage.

· The fetal stage lasts from two months to birth. The fetus moves and physical structures mature. A fetus is viable between 22 to 26 weeks.
Ref: Photos p. 433, Diagrams p. 434, 435

Environmental Factors

· Maternal Nutrition: even moderate nutrition can affect children.

· Maternal Drug Use: most drug use is harmful to development

· Hard drugs lead to addiction, respiratory problems, and heart problems.

· Alcohol can cause fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other cognitive problems.

· Tobacco can slow cognitive development and may cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Ref: Diagram p. 437

Section 2: Childhood
Ref: p.437-456

Motor Development

· Motor development was traditionally viewed as a matter of maturation (i.e., simply growing older) but recent theory holds that children are active in developing their motor skills.

· Developmental norms indicate the mean age at which individuals display certain behaviors or abilities.
Ref: Diagrams pp.438, 439

Temperament

· Temperament refers to mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity.

· Longitudinal studies have indicated that a child's temperament at 3 months is a predictor of his temperament at 10 years. This indicates that a person's temperament is established by 3 months of age.

· A longitudinal study follows a group of people over a long period of time. It is different from a cross-sectional study which compares groups of people at different ages.

· For example, a longitudinal study may follow 50 six year olds until age ten, whereas a cross-sectional study might compare 50 six year olds, 50 eight year olds, and 50 ten year olds.

· Temperament in children is often described in such terms as easy, difficult, inhibited, or uninhibited.
Ref: Diagram p. 441

Attachment

· Attachment refers to the close emotional bond of affection that develops between infants and their care-givers.

· An infant's first attachment is usually to the mother at about six months.

· Separation anxiety is the emotional distress that occurs when an infant is separated from people with whom an attachment has developed.

· Infants develop

· secure attachments (i.e., baby is comforted by mother's presence and becomes upset when she leaves),

· anxious-ambivalent attachments (i.e., the baby is anxious when the mother is present and becomes upset when she leaves), or

· avoidant attachment (i.e., baby doesn't seek contact with mother).

· Infants with secure attachments correlate with development into children who have good social skills and self-esteem, and are persistent, curious, and self-reliant.
Ref: Diagrams pp.442, 444

Personality

· Most theories of personality development emphasize stages, each stage building on the last. Stages are related to age and exhibit certain behaviors or capacities.

· Erik Erikson divided development into eight stages, each of which involves a psychosocial crisis.

1. Trust vs. Mistrust: If a baby's needs are taken care of, the child will develop an optimistic, trusting attitude.

2. Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt: A child (2-3 yrs) develops a sense of self-sufficiency.

3. Initiative vs. Guilt: A child (3-6) develops a sense of initiative and learns to respect the rights and privileges of others.

4. Industry vs. Inferiority: A child (6-12) learns to value achievement. This stage is less nurturing than the previous because the child has a larger involvement in the community.
Ref: Diagrams p. 446

Cognitive Development

· Cognitive development refers to the changes in patterns of thinking, including memory, reason, and problem solving.

· Jean Piaget divided cognitive development into four stages.

1. Sensorimotor Period: A baby learns to coordinate sensory input with motor systems.

· The child begins to develop symbolic thought and develops object permanence (i.e., the child realizes that objects still exist when they aren't present).

2. Preoperational Period: A child (2-7) improves mental processes.

· Conservation, the understanding that physical qualities can remain the same despite changes in appearance, hasn't developed.

· Irreversibility, the understanding of how to undo something, hasn't developed.

· The child demonstrates centration, and focuses on only one aspect of a problem.

· The child demonstrates egocentrism, an inability to share another person's view. This includes animism, the understanding that all objects are "alive."

5. Concrete Operational Period: A child (7-11) can master problem solving involving concrete ideas.

· A child gradually develops reversibility, decentration, and a gradual decline in egocentrism and a gradual understanding of conservation.

2. Formal Operational Period: A person (over 11) can master problem solving with abstract ideas.

· Further changes in cognitive ability are not new stages, but changes in the degree of this stage.

· Adolescents begin to enjoy abstract problem solving and become systematic in their efforts.

· Metacognition: by about 2 years, children begin to distinguish between mental states (e.g., emotions and desires) and behavior.

· By 3 years, children can speak about other people's thoughts and desires.

· By 4 years, children begin to make connections between mental states and behavior.

· Attention: Children gradually improve their attention spans and ability to sort out irrelevant information.

· Memory: Even though adults have infantile amnesia (an inability to remember being a baby), infants do have memory. By age 5, because of language development, a child's memory improves because of rehearsal. By age 9, children use organization to improve memory, and by age 11, children use elaboration.

· Innate Cognitive Abilities:

· Young babies demonstrate habituation, i.e., they get used to new stimuli.

· At 3-4 months, infants recognize the qualities of objects.

· At 9-10 months, infants begin to categorize objects.

· Research indicates that by 5 months, infants begin to understand simple addition.
Ref: Diagrams pp. 448, 449, 450, 452

Moral Reasoning

· Laurence Kohlberg divided moral reasoning into six stages. His theory is based on reasoning, not behavior.

1. Preconventional Level: Young children understand right and wrong in terms of external authority. Right acts lead to rewards; wrong acts lead to punishment.

· Stage One: Wrong is what is punished.

· Stage Two: Right is what is rewarded.

3. Conventional Level: Children internalize rules about right and wrong. These are inflexible.

· Stage Three: Right and wrong are determined by other's reactions.

· Stage Four: Right is determined by doing one's duty.

3. Postconventional Level: Adolescents may develop personal moral codes; authority can be wrong.

· Stage Five: Right and wrong are determined by personal morals.

· Stage Six: Right and wrong are determined by universal moral principles.

· .People often arrive at different stages at different ages.

· Most people don't develop postconventional morality. Very few develop to stage six.

· Kohlberg's theory has been criticized on the basis that it relies on a liberal, Western idea of morality that emphasizes personal rights and freedoms.
Ref: Diagram p.445

Section 3: Adolescence
Ref: 455-461

Puberty

· Puberty is the stage during which sexual functions reach maturity and marks the beginning of adolescence.

· There are individual differences in the age at which changes occur. Puberty usually occurs between ages 10 and 15 for girls and 11-16 for boys.

· Early maturation in girls and late maturation in boys is associated with social and psychological problems.

· Early maturation in both girls and boys is associated with a variety of problems, including alcohol/drug use, poor academic performance, early sexual experience, and, in girls, pregnancy and eating disorders.
Ref: Diagrams pp.457, 458

Adolescence and Stress

· Although adolescence is not an exceptionally stressful period of time, stress is more likely because of the adaptation necessary during adolescence.

· Risk behavior (alcohol/drug use, careless sexual practices, dangerous driving) peaks during late adolescence.

· There is an increase in parent-child conflicts during adolescence.
Ref: Diagram p.460

Search for Identity

· Erikson belived that the key conflict during adolescence is identity vs. confusion.

· Though the search for identity is lifelong, it is more intense during adolescence.

· James Marcia identified four identity statuses.

· Foreclosure: commitment to values/roles according to parental authority.

· Moratorium: delaying commitment to experiment with alternative ideologies.

· Identity Diffusion: refusal to commit to any set of values or ideology.

· Identity Achievement: arrival at a sense of self after exploring possibilities.

· Many psychologists believe that identity formation is crucial to psychological health.
Ref: Diagram p. 461

Section 4: Adulthood
Ref: pp. 462-467, 472-473

Personality Development

· There is debate about how much personality changes during adulthood.

· Some people go through a midlife crisis, or a period of stress and doubt in which they review their lives.

· Erikson saw three conflicts in adulthood.

6 Intimacy vs. Isolation: should be resolved in empathy/openness and the capacity to share intimacy with others.

7 Generativity vs. Self-Absorption: should be resolved in concern for others, not self-indulgence.

8 Integrity vs Despair: during late life, the conflict is between finding meaning in the life lived, not being bitter and dwelling on death.

Transitions in Family Life

· The family life cycle is a sequence of stages families tend to progress through.

· Adjustments to marriage can be a problem when men and women have different expectations.

· Satisfaction with married life tends to diminish with children, but improve once children leave.

· Parenthood requires adjustment. The higher the quality of the marriage, the higher the satisfaction with parenting.

· Parent-child conflicts peak during adolescence. Studies indicated that this may be a more stressful time for the parents than for the teenaged children.

· It was once believed that the "empty nest" when children moved out was a bad thing, but research tends to indicate that this does not have a negative impact.

· Career development in men tends to follow a standard path (i.e., exploration, establishment, maintenance, decline) whereas career development in women does not. This may be because of sexual discrimination (access to certain career paths and pay), because women are more likely to leave work to help their families, and because women tend to take time off for maternity leaves.
Ref: Diagrams pp. 464-466

Aging and Physical Characteristics

· Along with physiological changes in the body, the number of active neurons in the brain decreases.

· This is not the cause of dementia (an abnormal condition of multiple cognitive deficits, including memory). Dementia is caused by diseases such as Alzheimer's.

· Visual and auditory acuity decline with age.

· Hormonal changes, like menopause in women, take place.
Ref: Diagram p.467

Cognitive Changes

· Intelligence remains stable through adulthood, though some people experience a decline in certain processing abilities after age 60.

· Memory remains stable as well, though some people experience a decline in such aspects as working memory after age 60.

· With both memory and information processing, as well as problem solving, the key change seems to be with speed.

· Many people are able to remain productive through their 60s, 70s, and early 80s.
Ref: Diagram p. 473

Section 5: Gender Differences
Ref: pp.475-479

· Sex refers to biological differences between males and females.

· Gender refers to cultural distinctions of masculine and feminine.

· Gender roles are expectations of what is gender appropriate behavior.

· Socialization is the acquisition of norms and behaviors expected of people.

Gender Differences

· Cognitive Ability: These differences tend to be slight.

· Females tend to have slightly better verbal skills.

· Males tend to have slightly better mathematical skills.

· Males tend to have slightly better visual-spatial skills.

· Social Behavior: These differences are less than stereotypes suggest.

· Males tend to be more aggressive than females.

· Males tend to engage in more risky behavior than females.

· Males tend to have more permissive attitudes about sex than females.

· Males tend to have slightly higher self-esteem than females.

· Females tend to be more sensitive to non-verbal communication than males.

· Females tend be more sympathetic, nurturing, trusting, and anxious than males.

Nature and Gender Differences

· Evolution

· Gender differences in aggression, sexual activity, and cognitive ability is found in nearly all cultures.

· Differences in sexual activity and aggression can be explained by the parental investment theory. Because males have a smaller parental investment, they tend to be more sexually active. Because females have a higher parental investment, they tend to be more selective about partners. As a result, males are in competition with one another, leading to an increase in aggression.

· Differences in cognitive ability may be the result of divisions of labor in primitive human societies. For example, males tended to hunt. This may have resulted in slightly better visual-spatial skills in males.

· Hormones

· Hormones are important in prenatal development of gender.

· Levels of gender specific hormones may be linked to certain behaviors. For example, testosterone given to men to enhance sexual function also increases their visual-spatial ability.

· Brain: Research suggests that males tend to exhibit more cerebral specialization than females and that females tend to have larger corpus callosums than males.

Environment and Gender Differences

· Operant Conditioning: People (parents, teachers, peers) tend to reinforce gender appropriate behavior and punish gender inappropriate behavior. For example, a 6-year old girl who cries may receive sympathy from her father while a 6-year old boy who cries may be told "boys don't cry."

· Observational Learning: Children tend to imitate same-sex role models.

· Self-Socialization: Children tend to classify themselves as boys of girls, learn to value characteristics associated with their gender, and try to make their own behavior gender appropriate.

· Gender-Role Socialization

· Families: Parents tend to treat sons and daughters differently (e.g., assigned chores, "rough-housing," other activities).

· Schools: teachers and educational programs tend to reinforce gender roles.

· Media: TV, movies, and print media (novels, magazines) tend to reinforce gender stereotypes. For example, the male lead in a movie might be independent and assertive while the female lead is emotional and passive. The female lead is also much more likely to be young and attractive.