Developmental Psychology The study of how humans grow

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Developmental Psychology

• The study of how humans grow, develop, and change
  throughout the lifespan

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Research Methods

• Longitudinal Studies
• Follow the same group across time to determine
  age related changes in thought and behavior
• Cross-sectional Studies
• Assess groups of differing ages, usually at the
  same time

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Research Methods
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Research Methods
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4 Assumptions

• Growth occurs at every period of life, from
  conception through old age
• Individual lives show continuity and change
• We need to understand the whole person
• Every persons behavior must be analyzed in the
  context of relevant setting and personal
  relationships

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Three major issues in Developmental Psychology

• How much is our development influenced by our
  genetic inheritance and how much by our
  experience?
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Maturation-orderly sequence of biological growth
  processes commonalities
• John Locke - Tabula Rosa blank slate which
  experience shapes

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• Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
  my own specified world to bring them up in and
  Ill guarantee to take any one at random and
  train him to become any type of specialist I
  might select--doctor, lawyer, artist,
  merchant-chief and yes, even, beggar man and
  thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
  tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his
  ancestors. (Watson, 1925)

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Three major issues in Developmental Psychology

• Is development a gradual, continuous process, or
  does it proceed through a sequence of separate
  stages?
• Continuity vs. Stages
• as giant redwood differs from a seedling
  Gradual, continuous (nurture)
• as a butterfly differs from a caterpillar
  distinct stages (nature)

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Three major issues in Developmental Psychology

• Do our individual traits persist or do we become
  different persons as we age?
• Stability vs. Change
• to what degree do we grow to be merely older
  versions of our early selves and to what degree
  do we become new persons?
• Continuity basic temperament
• Change Physically, cognitively, socially

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Decades of Life

• 0-9
• 10-19
• 20-29
• 30-39

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Decades of Life

• 40-49
• 50-59
• 60-69
• 70-79
• 80-89

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Early Development Pre-QuizT/F

• The father determines the sex of the baby
• If a mother is a heroin addict, her baby is born
  a heroin addict
• Newborns turn their heads in the direction of
  human voices but not in response to artificial
  sounds
• The childs mind is a miniature model of the
  adults

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• Infants initially develop close attachments to
  their mothers merely because they provide
  nourishment
• Most abusive parents were themselves battered or
  neglected as children
• Children first recognize themselves in a mirror
  at about 3 years of age
• Children who develop the most positive self-image
  tend to have been raised by permissive parents

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• The father determines the sex of the baby - True
  MotherXX, fatherXY
• If a mother is a heroin addict, her baby is born
  a heroin addict - True teratogens
• Newborns turn their heads in the direction of
  human voices but not in response to artificial
  sounds - True babys sensory equipment is
  wired to facilitate social responsiveness

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Newborn Reflexes

• Rooting
• Sucking
• Swallowing
• Moro (startle)
• Babinski
• Grasp
• Stepping

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• The childs mind is a miniature model of the
  adults - False Piaget-children actively
  construct their understandings of the world in
  ways that are qualitatively different than adults
• Infants initially develop close attachments to
  their mothers merely because they provide
  nourishment - False Harry Harlow
• Most abusive parents were themselves battered or
  neglected as children - True a rate 6 times
  higher than the national rate of child abuse

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• Children first recognize themselves in a mirror
  at about 3 years of age - False 18 months
• Children who develop the most positive self-image
  tend to have been raised by permissive parents -
  False Authoritative parents-exert control by
  establishing rules and consistently enforcing
  them

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Authoritative Parenting

• Effects
• Higher intellectual performance
• Independence
• Internalized moral standards

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Permissive Parenting

• Effects
• Poor academic performance
• Drinking problems
• Promiscuous sex

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Authoritarian Parenting

• Effects
• Low intellectual performance
• Lack social skills
• Particularly harmful for boys

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Active Video Watching The Developing Child

• State the primary interest of developmental
  psychologists
• Longitudinal, cross-sectional, sequential
• Describe Cognitive Development across lifespan
• Identify Piagets Stages of C.D.
• Contemporary perspectives on early cognitive
  development
• Habituation studies with infants
• How environment effects skills and behaviors

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Development

• Physical development
• motor development in infancy
• puberty
• Emotional development
• temperament
• attachment
• Language development
• Moral development
• Cognitive development
• Psychosocial psychosexual development

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Cognitive Development

• Language
• Thinking
• Moral Reasoning

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Language

• Telegraphic Speech A childs first word
  combinations, which omit (as a telegram did)
  unnecessary words.
• Language Acquisition Device According to many
  psychologists, an innate mental module that
  allows young children to develop language if they
  are exposed to an adequate sampling of
  conversation.

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Cognitive Development - Piaget

• Children are active participants in their own
  cognitive development
• begins w/ few basic schemas cognitive structure
  or concept used to identify and interpret
  information

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Piagets Theory

• Assimilation
• Fitting new objects, events, etc. into an
  existing schema
• Accommodation
• Modifying a schema to fit new events, objects,
  etc.

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Piagets Stages

• Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
• Preoperations (2-7 years)
• Concrete Operations (7-12 years)
• Formal Operations (12 and up)

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Piagets Stages

• Sensorimotor
• Understand the world through senses and motor
  actions
• Develop object permanence

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Piagets Stages

• Preoperatiional
• Understand intuitive relations
• Thinking is egocentric, dominated by perception
• Animism

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Piagets Stages

• Concrete Operations
• Can do logical operations
• Understand reversibility
• Can do conservation classification tasks

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Piagets Stages

• Formal Operations
• Can do abstract hypothetical reasoning
• Can reason contrary to experience

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Piagets Stages

• Criticized for
• not paying much attention to individual
  differences
• underestimating some of the abilities of babies
• Children are more advanced cognitively and adults
  less competent cognitively that Piaget believed

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Try it!

• 1. A four-year-old insists small people must live
  in the TV because they are right there behind the
  glass. Identify the stage and the phenomenon
  being displayed by the child.

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Answer

• 1. The child is in the preoperational stage and
  is showing egocentric thought.

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• 2. A child adept at roller skating goes ice
  skating for the first time. She keeps trying to
  stand and move just as on roller skates but falls
  again and again. According to Piaget, what is
  necessary for mastery of this new skill?

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Answer

• 2. Assimilation is not helping this child. She
  needs to accommodate.

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• 3. An eight-year-old boy threatened to tell his
  parents when given only one of the three candy
  bars he and ten-year-old brother were told to
  share. The older child then broke his brothers
  bar in half and gave him two pieces. This
  satisfied both children because they each had two
  pieces. Identify the cognitive stages of these
  children and the disadvantage that allows the
  younger child to be cheated.

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Answer

• 3. The younger child is in the preoperational
  stage and lacks the ability to conserve. The
  older child is in concrete operations.

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• 4. Previously, whenever Johnny banged with a
  spoon, his mother would put it in a drawer and
  Johnny would quickly move on to something else.
  Now that he is eight months old, this isnt
  working. The child continues to demand the spoon
  even though he cant see it. Identify the
  cognitive stage of this child and the change that
  has taken place.

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Answer

• 4. Johnny is in the sensorimotor stage and has
  recently developed object permanence.

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Moral Development Kohlbergs Theory

• Preconventional Level
• Stage 1 -- Punishment avoidance is "right"
• Stage 2 -- Whatever benefits the individual is
  "right"

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Kohlbergs Theory

• Conventional Level
• Stage 3 -- Behavior that pleases others is
  "right
• Stage 4 -- Authorities rules determines what's
  "right"

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Kohlbergs Theory

• Post-Conventional Level
• Stage 5 -- Protecting both society and individual
  is "right
• Stage 6 -- Universal principles determine "right"

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Moral Statements

• (Data from Kohlberg, 1963)

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Criticisms of Kohlbergs Theory

• Tends to overlook educational and cultural
  influences
• Some cultural differences not reflected in this
  theory
• Moral reasoning is often inconsistent across
  situations
• Connection between moral reasoning and moral
  behavior is often indirect

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Development

• Erik Erikson - Psychosocial Development
• studied with Freud
• series of basic psychological conflicts
  determines the course of development
• each stage leads to development of a unique self
  and helps define how a person develops as a
  member of society
• each stage has 2 outcomes - 1 positive and one
  negative

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Ericksons Stages

• Stage Age
• Trust vs. Mistrust 0-1
• Autonomy vs. Shame Doubt 1-3
• Initiative vs. Guilt 3-6
• Industry vs. Inferiority 6-Puberty
• Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescence
• Intimacy vs. Isolation YoungAdult
• Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle-Age
• Integrity vs. Despair Old Age

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Gender Development

• Sex--a biological distinction determined by
  anatomical and physiological attributes
• Gender--cultural and psychological attributes
  that children learn are appropriate for the sexes
• Gender identity--fundamental sense of maleness or
  femaleness regardless of what one wears or does

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Gender Development

• Biological factors--toy and play preferences may
  have a biological basis
• Cognitive factors
• Children develop gender schemas (mental network
  of beliefs and expectations about what it means
  to be male or female) as they mature these
  schemas influence their behavior
• At 9 months most babies can discriminate male
  and female faces

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• Once children can label themselves as boys or
  girls, they begin to prefer same-sex playmates
  and sex-typed toys
• Ages 2 to 4 important for development of gender
  schemas, which expand into many areas
• Boys express stronger preferences for masculine
  toys and activities than girls do for feminine
  ones differences appear to be related to gender
  differences in status

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Gender Development

• As abilities mature, children understand
  exceptions to gender schemas
• Gender schemas change throughout our lives, but
  continue to influence us

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Aging

• Fluid Intelligence The capacity for deductive
  reasoning and the ability to use new information
  to solve problems it is relatively independent
  of education and tends to decline in old age.
• Crystallized Intelligence Cognitive skills and
  specific knowledge of information acquired over a
  lifetime it depends heavily on education and
  tends to remain stable over the lifetime.

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Intellectual Changes Over the Lifespan

• Some intellectual abilities dwindle with age.
• Numerical and verbal abilities remain relatively
  steady over the years.

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Application Writing Activity

• Join with 1 to 4 of your classmates
• Refer back to your free association answers to
  the in-class decades of life activity
• Find a minimum of one application example for
  each stage Eriksons theory
• PRINT names on the paper and hand it in for
  assignment points

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Harlows Study

• Tested primary drives theory in Rhesus monkeys
• 2 surrogate mothers
• a wire surrogate that fed the infant
• a cloth surrogate that did not feed the infant

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Harlows Study
Wire Surrogate
Cloth Surrogate
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Harlows Study

• Results
• Despite the wire surrogate being a source of
  food, the infant monkeys attached to the cloth
  surrogate mother

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Attachment Styles

• Secure Attachment A parent-infant relationship
  in which the baby is secure when the parent is
  present, distressed by separation, and delighted
  by reunion
• Insecure Attachment A parent-infant relationship
  in which the baby clings to the parent, cries at
  separation, and reacts with anger or apathy to
  reunion.

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Levinsons Stages

• Stage Age
• Early Adult Transition 17-22
• Entering the Adult World 22-28
• Age 30 Transition 28-33
• Settling Down 33-40
• Midlife Transition 40-45
• Middle Adult Era 45-60
• Late Adult Transition 60-65

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Later Adulthood

• Some physical and sensory decline is common
• Exercise slows physical decline dramatically
• Continued sexual activity common among those over
  80

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