Chapter 10: Human Development Across the Life Span

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Chapter 10 Human Development Across the Life Span
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Progress Before BirthPrenatal Development

• 3 phases
• germinal stage first 2 weeks
• conception, implantation on the uterine wall,
  formation of placenta
• embryonic stage 2 weeks 2 months
• formation of vital organs and systems
• fetal stage 2 months birth
• bodily growth continues, movement capability
  begins, brain cells multiply
• age of viability and premature birth -26-28
  weeks chances improve to a survival rate of about
  85.

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Overview of fetal development
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Environmental Factorsand Prenatal Development

• Maternal nutrition
• Malnutrition linked to increased risk of birth
  complications, neurological problems, and
  psychopathology
• Maternal drug use
• Tobacco, alcohol, prescription, and recreational
  drugs can lead to birth defects
• Fetal alcohol syndrome - a collection of
  congenital (inborn) problems associated with
  excessive alcohol use during pregnancy. Problems
  include microcephaly, heart defects,
  irritability, hyperactivity, and delayed mental
  and motor development

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Environmental Factorsand Prenatal Development

• Maternal illness
• Rubella, syphilis, mumps, genital herpes, AIDS,
  severe influenza
• Prenatal health care - associated with higher
  survival rates and reduced prematurity,
• Prevention through guidance

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The Childhood Years Motor Development

• Motor development refers to the progression of
  muscular coordination required for physical
  activities
• Basic Principles
• Cephalocaudal trend head to foot
• Proximodistal trend center-outward
• Maturation gradual unfolding of genetic
  blueprint and the infants ongoing exploration of
  the world.
• Developmental norms median age display various
  behaviors and abilities
• Cultural variations

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Early Emotional Development Attachment

• Attachment refers to the close, emotional bonds
  of affection that develop between infants and
  their caregivers
• Separation anxiety is emotional distress seen in
  many infants when they are separated from people
  with whom they have formed an attachment
• Ainsworth (1979) - found that most infants have a
  secure attachment, playing and exploring
  comfortably when mom is present, becoming visibly
  upset when she leaves, and calming quickly upon
  her return
• The strange situation and patterns of attachment
• Secure - becoming visibly upset when mom leaves,
  and calming quickly upon her return
• Anxious-ambivalent - show anxiety even when mom
  is near and protest excessively when she leaves,
  but are not particularly comforted when she
  returnsAinsworth
• Avoidant - babies sought little contact with
  their mothers and were not distressed when she
  left

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Attachment Across Cultures
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Becoming Unique Personality Development

• Stage theories, three components
• progress through stages in order
• progress through stages related to age
• major discontinuities in development
• Erik Erikson (1963)
• Eight stages spanning the lifespan -
• Psychosocial crises determining balance between
  opposing polarities in personality

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Figure 10.5 Stage theories of development
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Figure 10.6 Eriksons stage theory
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The Growth of ThoughtCognitive Development

• Jean Piaget (1920s-1980s)
• interaction with the environment and maturation
  gradually alter the way children think
• Assimilation - interpreting new experiences in
  terms of existing mental structures without
  changing them
• Accommodation - changing existing mental
  structures to explain new experiences
• 4 stages - Within each stage there are
  characteristic thinking and reasoning patterns
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational

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The Growth of ThoughtCognitive Development

• 4 stages and major milestones
• Sensorimotor 0-2 yrs
• Object permanence - recognition that objects
  continue to exist even when they are no longer
  visible.
• Preoperational 2-7 yrs
• Centration - the tendency to focus on just one
  feature of a problem
• Egocentrism - the limited ability to share
  anothers viewpoint. This results in animism,
  the belief that all things are living, just like
  oneself.
• Concrete Operational 7-11 yrs
• Decentration (focusing on more than one feature
  of a problem), Reversibility (mentally undoing an
  action) Conservation - recognizing that amount
  of a substance does not change just because
  appearance is changed
• Formal Operational 11- adult
• Abstraction - the ability to apply operations to
  abstract concepts such as justice, love, and free
  will.

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Figure 10.8 Piagets conservation task
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Figure 10.7 Piagets stage theory
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Evaluating Piagets Theory

• Criticisms
• Piaget underestimated childrens abilities
• Problems with stage theories (mixing of
  stagesabilities)
• Universality (timetable of stages varies across
  cultures)
• Vygotskeys sociocultural theory - children are
  less like scientists than apprentices who slowly
  acquire the abilities modeled for them by their
  teachersadults
• Are some cognitive abilities innate?

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The Development of Moral Reasoning

• Kohlberg (1976) - devised a stage theory of moral
  development based on subjects responses to
  presented moral dilemmas
• Reasoning as opposed to behavior
• Moral dilemmas
• Measured nature and progression of moral
  reasoning
• 3 levels, each with 2 sublevels
• Preconventional
• Conventional
• Postconventional

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Figure 10.10 Kohlbergs stage theory
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Adolescence Physiological Changes

• Pubescence - describes the two-year span
  preceding puberty during which the changes
  leading to physical and sexual maturity take
  place.
• Puberty - the stage during which sexual functions
  reach maturity, marking the beginning of
  adolescence
• Secondary sex characteristics
• Primary sex characteristics
• Menarche - the fist occurrence of menstruation
• Sperm production
• Maturation early vs. late
• early maturing girls and late maturing boys have
  greater risk for psychological problems and
  social difficulties.

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Figure 10.12 Physical development at puberty
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Adolescence Neural Changes

• Increasing myelinization increased connectivity
  among brain structures
• Changes in prefrontal cortex - the last area of
  the brain to mature fully. Some researchers have
  suggested that this is connected with the
  increase in risky behaviors during adolescence.

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The Search for Identity

• Erik Erikson (1968)
• Key challenge of adolescence - forming a sense of
  identity
• James Marcia (1988) - asserts that the presence
  or absence of crisis and commitment during the
  identity formation stage can combine in various
  ways to produce four different identity statuses
• Four identity statuses -
• Identity diffusion - a state of lack of direction
  and apathy, where a person does not confront the
  challenge and commit to an ideology
• Identity foreclosure - is a premature commitment
  to a role prescribed by ones parents.
• Identity moratorium - involves delaying
  commitment and engaging in experimentation with
  different roles.
• Identity achievement - involves arriving at a
  sense of self and direction after some
  consideration of alternative possibilities.

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The Expanse of Adulthood

• Personality development - Adults who move
  successfully through Eriksons stages develop
  intimacy, generativity, and integrity.
• Social development -Many landmarks in adult
  development involve transitions in family
  relationships marriage, parenthood, parent
  adolescent relations, the empty nest syndrome.
• Career development - Vocational development tends
  to proceed through stages of exploration of
  careers, establishment of a career, maintenance,
  and decline.
• Physical changes - Age related physical changes
  include changes in appearance, neuron loss,
  sensory loss, and hormonal changes.
• Cognitive changes - research indicates that
  general mental ability remains fairly stable,
  with small declines in IQ after age 60. Fluid
  intelligence is more likely to decline with age,
  while crystallized intelligence remains stable or
  increases.