Fundamental Issues in

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• Fundamental Issues in
• Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology

• What shapes the way we change over time?
• Focus on psychological changes across the entire
  life span
• Every area of psychology can be looked at from
  this perspective
• biological development
• social development
• cognitive/perceptual development
• personality development

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Fundamental Issues Nature vs. Nurture

• What is role of heredity vs. environment in
  determining psychological makeup?
• Is IQ inherited or determined by early
  environment?
• Is there a criminal gene?
• Is sexual orientation a choice or genetically
  determined?
• These are some of our greatest societal debates.

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Fundamental Issues Is Development Continuous?

• Development means change change can be abrupt or
  gradual
• Two views of human development
• stage theories there are distinct phases to
  intellectual and personality development
• continuity development is continuous

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Fundamental Issues in Developmental Psychology

• Critical period Are there periods when an
  individual is particularly sensitive to certain
  environmental experiences?
• Are the first hours after birth critical for
  parent-child bonding?
• Is first year critical for developing trust?
• Easier to learn a language before age 10?

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Overview of Genetics

• Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes
• Chromosomes are long twisted strands of DNA
• DNA is the chemical basis of heredity and
  carries instructions
• Genes are the basic unit of heredity single
  unit of DNA on the chromosome

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Sex Linked Traits

• Traits linked to the X or Y (sex) chromosomes
• Usually recessive and carried on the X chromosome
• Appear more frequently in one sex than another
• Color blindness, baldness, hemophilia, Fragile X

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Physical and Psychological Development Related

• Physical development begins at conception
• Physical maturity sets limits on psychological
  ability
• visual system not fully functional at birth
• language system not functional until much later
• Prenatal environment can have lifetime influence
  on health and intellectual ability

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Prenatal Development

• Conceptionwhen a sperm penetrates the ovum
• Zygotea fertilized egg
• Germinal periodfirst two weeks after conception
• Embryonic periodweeks three through eight after
  conception
• Fetal periodtwo months after conception until
  birth

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Prenatal Development

• Prenatal defined as before birth
• Prenatal stage begins at conception and ends with
  the birth of the child.

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Zygote

• A fertilized egg
• The first two weeks are a period of rapid cell
  division.
• Attaches to the mothers uterine wall
• At the end of 14 days becomes an embryo

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Prenatal Development
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Embryo

• Developing human organism from about 2 weeks
  after fertilization until the end of the eighth
  week
• Most of the major organs are formed during this
  time.
• At the end of the eighth week the fetal period
  begins.

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Fetus

• Developing human organism from nine weeks after
  conception to birth

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Placenta

• A cushion of cells in the mother by which the
  fetus receives oxygen and nutrition
• Acts as a filter to screen out substances that
  could harm the fetus. Is it 100 effective?

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Prenatal Influences on Development

• Nutrition
• Anxiety
• Mothers general health
• Maternal age (Why does it matter?)
• Teratogensany agent that causes a birth defect
  (e.g., drugs, radiation, viruses)

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

• Physical and cognitive abnormalities that appear
  in children whose mothers consumed large amounts
  of alcohol while pregnant

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Infant Abilities

• Infants are born with immature visual system
• can detect movement and large objects
• Other senses function well on day 1
• will orient to sounds
• turn away from unpleasant odors
• prefer sweet to sour tastes
• Born with a number of reflex behaviors

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Infant Reflexes

• Rootingturning the head and opening the mouth in
  the direction of a touch on the cheek
• Suckingsucking rhythmically in response to oral
  stimulation
• Babinskifanning and curling toes when foot is
  stroked

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Rooting Reflex

• Babys tendency, when touched on the cheek, to
  open the mouth and search for the nipple
• Is an automatic, unlearned response

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Infant Reflexes

• Morothrowing the arms out, arching the back and
  bringing the arms together as if to hold onto
  something (in response to loud noise or sudden
  change in position of the head)
• Graspingcurling the fingers around an object

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Motor Development

• Includes all physical skills and muscular
  coordination

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• An outward refelection of the infants developing
  brain is the attainment of more sophisticated
  motor skills.
• Examples rolling over (2-5 months), sitting up
  (5-8 months), standing alone well (10-14 months),
  walking well (10-14 months).

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Motor Development
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Social and Personality Development

• Forming close social and emotional relationships
  with caregivers is essential to the infants
  physical and psychological well-being.

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Temperament

• Infants are born with distinct and consistent
  behavioral styles.
• Studied by Alexander Thomas and Stell Chess in
  the 1950s.
• They looked at activity level, mood, regularity,
  and attention span.
• Very much has a genetic and biological make up
  that can be altered greatly by the environment.

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• Easyadaptable, positive mood, regular habits
• Slow to warm uplow activity, somewhat slow to
  adapt, generally withdraw from new situations
• Difficultintense emotions, irritable, cry
  frequently
• Averageunable to classify (1/3 of all children)

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Infant Attachment

• Intense emotional bond between infant and
  caregiver.
• Attachment Theory an infants ability to thrive
  physically and psychologically depends on the
  quality of attachment.

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Securely or Insecurely Attached

• Securely attached Parents are consistently
  warm, responsive, and sensitive.
• Insecurely attached develops when parents are
  neglectful, inconsistent, or insensitive to the
  moods or behaviors of the infant. Displayed by
  ambivalent or detached relationship.

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Mary D. Salter Ainsworths Strange Situation

• Infants between 1 and 2 years old
• Mother-child dyads were observed in a playroom
  under four conditions
• initial mother-child interaction
• mother leaves infant alone in playroom
• friendly stranger enters playroom
• mother returns and greets child

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Effects of Attachment

• Secure attachment predicts social competence.
• Deprivation of attachment is linked to negative
  outcome.
• A responsive environment helps most infants
  recover from attachment disruption.

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Harry Harlow

• Did research with infant monkeys on how body
  contact relates to attachment
• The monkeys had to chose between a cloth mother
  or a wire mother that provided food.

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Harry Harlow

• The monkeys spent most of their time by the cloth
  mother.

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Harlows Study
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• Learning, Reasoning, and Language Development
  over the Life Span

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Language Development

• Linguist, Noam Chomsky said that every child is
  born with a universal grammar.
• Infants are innately equipped to not only
  understand language but to extract grammatical
  rules from what they hear.
• Parents innately encourage language by the way
  they speak, motherese or infant-directed speech.

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• Ann Fernalds studies have shown that infants
  prefer infant-directed speech.
• Cooingvowel sounds produced 24 months
• Babblingconsonant/vowel sounds between 4 to 6
  months
• Even deaf infants coo and babble

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• Babies have a comprehension vocabulary that is
  much larger than their production vocabulary.
• First words are often syllables that come from
  the babbling.
• Around age 2 they produce two word sentences.
• By age 3 vocab has increased to over 3,000 words.

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Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget (18961980) Swiss psychologist who
  became leading theorist in 1930s
• Piaget believed that children are active
  thinkers, constantly trying to construct more
  advanced understandings of the world
• These understandings are in the form of
  structures he called schemas

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Jean Piaget

• Pioneer in the study of developmental psychology
  who introduced a stage theory of cognitive
  development that led to a better understanding of
  childrens thought processes
• Proposed a theory consisting of four stages of
  cognitive development,
• each representing a shift
• in the way the child
• thinks.

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• As a child matures, he/she does not simply
  acquire new information rather a new
  understanding is developed.
• As a child assimilates new information and
  experiences, he eventually changes his way of
  thinking to accommodate new knowledge.
• Piaget believed that the stages were biologically
  programmed to unfold at certain ages.

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Development of Schemas

• Schemas are frameworks that develop to help
  organize knowledge (mental representations of the
  world)
• Assimilationprocess of taking new information or
  a new experience and fitting it into an already
  existing schema
• Accommodationprocess by which existing schemas
  are changed or new schemas are created in order
  to fit new information

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Assimilation/Accommodation
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Assimilation/Accommodation
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Assimilation/Accommodation
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Piagets Approach

• Primary method was to ask children to solve
  problems and to question them about the reasoning
  behind their solutions
• Discovered that children think in radically
  different ways than adults
• Proposed that development occurs as a series of
  stages differing in how the world is understood

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Sensorimotor Stage (birth 2)

• Information is gained through the senses and
  motor actions.
• Expanded practical knowledge through reaching,
  grasping, pushing, pulling, pouring.
• In this stage child perceives and manipulates but
  does not reason
• Symbols become internalized through language
  development
• Object permanence is acquired

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Object Permanence

• The understanding that objects exist even if they
  cant be seen.
• Before 6 months infants act as if objects removed
  from sight cease to exist
• Can be surprised by disappearance/reappearance of
  a face (peek-a-boo)
• Video 15

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Preoperational Stage

• Piagets second stage of cognitive development,
  operations refers to logical mental activities.
• From about age 2 to age 6 or 7
• Children can engage in symbolic thought, they can
  use words, images, and symbols to represent the
  world.

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Preoperational Stage (27 years)

• Emergence of symbolic thought
• Imagination and fantasy while playing
• Irreversibility child cannot mentally reverse a
  sequence of events.
• Centration focuses on one aspect of a
  situation.
• Can not understand conservation, that two equal
  physical quantities remain equal if the
  appearance of one is changed, as long as nothing
  is added or subtracted.

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Types of Conservation Tasks
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• Centration the child focused on one aspect,
  i.e. the height of the water.
• Irreversibility child cannot reverse the
  sequence of events
• Video 18

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Egocentrism

• In Piagets theory, the inability of the
  preoperational child to take another persons
  point of view
• Includes a childs inability to understand that
  symbols can represent other objects.

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Concrete Operational Stage (712 years)

• Understanding of mental operations leading to
  increasingly logical thought limited to concrete
  reality tangible objects and events.
• Can reverse mental operations.
• They understand conservation.
• Classification and categorization
• Less egocentric
• Inability to reason abstractly or hypothetically

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Conservation

• Number

In conservation of number tests, two equivalent
rows of coins are placed side by side and the
child says that there is the same number in each
row. Then one row is spread apart and the child
is again asked if there is the same number in
each.
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Conservation

• Length

In conservation of length tests, two same-length
sticks are placed side by side and the child says
that they are the same length. Then one is moved
and the child is again asked if they are the
same length.
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Conservation

• Substance

In conservation of substance tests, two identical
amounts of clay are rolled into similar-appearing
balls and the child says that they both have the
same amount of clay. Then one ball is rolled out
and the child is again asked if they have the
same amount.
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Formal Operational Stage

• Piagets fourth and last stage of cognitive
  development
• About age 12 on up
• Children begin to think logically about abstract
  concepts and form strategies about things they
  may not have experienced
• Can solve hypothetical problems (What if.
  problems)

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Formal Operational Stage (age 12 adulthood)

• Formal operational thought emerges gradually.
• Formal operational thinking is often limited to
  areas of expertise or interest.
• Adolescent egocentrism illustrated by the
  phenomenon of personal fable and imaginary
  audience.

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Assessing Piagets Theory
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Piagets Theory Challenged

• New studies indicate infants do more than sense
  and react
• One study had 1-month-old babies suck one of two
  pacifiers without ever seeing them
• When shown both pacifiers, infants stared more at
  the one they had felt in their mouth
• This requires a sort of reasoning

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Critique of Piagets Theory

• Underestimates childrens abilities
• He confused motor skill limitations with
  cognitive limitations.
• Overestimates age differences in thinking
• Vagueness about the process of change
• Underestimates the role of the social environment
• Lack of evidence for qualitatively different
  stages

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Renee Baillargeon

• Tested object permanence to challenge Piaget
• Her research is based on the premise that
  infants, like adults, will look longer at
  surprising events that appear to contradict
  their understanding of the world.
• Carrot study if a 3 ½ month old displayed
  object permanence, they would remember the size
  of the carrot. This is exactly what they found.
  Piaget believed that cognitive understanding were
  not possible until 9 months

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Information-Processing Model of Cognitive
Development

• Rather than distinct stages this model focuses on
  development of fundamental mental processes such
  as attention, memory, and problem solving.
• Cognitive development is viewed as a process of
  continuous change over the lifespan.
• Some say Piaget also underestimated the impact of
  social and cultural environment on cognitive
  development.

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Vygotskys Sociocultural Perspective

• Emphasized the childs interaction with the
  social world (other people) as a cause of
  development.
• Interaction support and guidance children
  receive from parents, other adults, and older
  children.
• Such guidance can stretch the childs cognitive
  abilities.
• Cross-cultural studies have shown that cognitive
  development is strongly influenced by the skills
  that are valued and encouraged in a particular
  environment.
• Vygotsky believed language to be the foundation
  for social interaction and thought, Piaget
  believed language was a byproduct of thought.

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Vygotskys Sociocultural Perspective

• Believed the cognitive development is strongly
  influenced by social and cultural factors.
• Zone of proximal developmentwhat a child can do
  by interacting with another person, but cant do
  alone. Interaction with others can stretch
  cognitive abilities to new levels.
• Cogntive development is strongly influenced by
  the skills that are valued and encouraged in a
  particular environment.
• Piagetfocused on childrens interaction with the
  physical world

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Adolescence

• Transitional stage between late childhood and the
  beginning of adulthood.
• Begins around age 12

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Social Dev in Adolescence

• Parent/adolescent relationships are quite
  positive
• Some friction in inevitable, as relationships
  with peers and friends becomes increasingly
  important.
• An adolescents social network begins to greatly
  influence their values, norms, and expectations.

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• Parents worry that peer influence will lead to
  undesirable behavior, but research has found that
  peer relationships tend to reinforce traits and
  goals that parents fostered during childhood.
• Adolescents tend to form relationships with peers
  who are similar in age, social class, race, and
  beliefs about drinking, dating, church
  attendance, and educational goals.

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Parental Patterns

• Daumrinds three main parenting styles
• Authoritarian parenting
• Permissive parenting
• Authoritative parenting

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Authoritarian Parenting

• Style of parenting marked by imposing rules and
  expecting obedience
• Low in warmth
• Discipline is strict and sometimes physical.
• Communication high from parent to child and low
  from child to parent
• Maturity expectations are high.

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Permissive Parenting

• Style of parenting marked by submitting to
  childrens desired, making few demands, and using
  little punishment
• High in warmth but rarely discipline
• Communication is low from parent to child but
  high from child to parent.
• Expectations of maturity are low.

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Authoritative Parenting

• Style of parenting marked by making demands on
  the child, being responsive, setting and
  enforcing rules, and discussing the reason behind
  the rules
• High in warmth with moderate discipline
• High in communication and negotiating
• Maturity expectations are moderate.

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Parenting Styles
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Identity Formation

• Identity values, beliefs, and ideals that guide
  behavior
• For the first time adolescents possess the
  cognitive skills necessary to deal with identity.
  
• Children will describe themselves in concrete
  social and behavioral terms.
• 8 y.o. I like to play with Lilly and draw
  pictures.
• 14 y.o. I have strong religious beliefs, love
  animals, and want to be a veterinarian.

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Aspects of personal identity that the adolescent
has no control over.

• Gender
• Race
• Ethnic background
• Socio-economic status

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Self-evaluation begins

• Social acceptance by peers
• Academic success
• Athletic abilities
• Work abilities
• Personal appearance
• Romantic appeal

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Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Each of the eight stages of life is associated
  with a particular psychosocial conflict that can
  be resolved in either a positive or negative
  direction.
• Relationships play an important role in the
  outcome of each conflict.
• According to Erikson the key conflict is identity
  versus identity diffusion.

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• According to Eriksons theory, the adolescents
  path to identity achievement begins with identity
  diffusion, little sense of commitment to any
  issue.
• Followed by a moratorium period in which the
  adolescent experiments with different roles,
  values, and beliefs before arriving at a stable
  integrated identity.
• Remember that identity continues to evolve over
  an entire lifespan.

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Stage 1 (Birth1) - InfancyTrust vs. Mistrust

• Infants must rely on others for care
• Consistent and dependable caregiving and meeting
  infant needs leads to a sense of trust
• Infants who are not well cared for will develop
  mistrust

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Stage 2 (13 years) Toddlerhood Autonomy vs.
Shame and Doubt

• Children are discovering their own independence
• Those given the opportunity to experience
  independence will gain a sense of autonomy,
  promoting positive self-esteem.
• Children that are overly restrained or punished
  harshly will develop shame and doubt in their
  abilities.

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Stage 3 (36 years) Early ChildhoodInitiative
vs. Guilt

• Sense of accomplishment will lead to initiative.
  Children learn to initiate activities and
  develops a sense of social responsibility
  involving the rights of others.
• Parental overcontrol stifles spontaneity, sense
  of purpose, and social learning promoting
  feelings of guilt and fear of punishment.

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Stage 4 (612 years) Middle and Late
ChildhoodIndustry vs. Inferiority

• Stage of life surrounding mastery of knowledge
  and intellectual skills school work, sports.
• Sense of competence and achievement leads to
  industry
• Feeling incompetent and unproductive leads to
  inferiority

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Stage 5 (Adolescence)Identity vs. Identity
Diffusion (Confusion)

• Developing a sense of who one is and where one is
  going in life
• Successful resolution leads to positive identity
• Unsuccessful resolution leads to identity
  confusion or a negative identity

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Stage 6 (Young adulthood)Intimacy vs. Isolation

• Time for sharing oneself with another person
• Capacity to hold commitments with others leads to
  intimacy
• Failure to establish commitments leads to
  feelings of isolation

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Stage 7 (Middle adulthood)Generativity vs.
Stagnation

• Caring for others in family, friends, and work
  leads to sense of contribution to later
  generations. Unselfish concern for the welfare of
  the next generation.
• Self-absorption and preoccupation with ones own
  needs lead to a sense of stagnation, boredom, and
  lack of meaningful accomplishments.

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Stage 8 (Late adulthood to Death)Integrity vs.
Despair

• Successful resolutions of all previous crises
  leads to integrity and the ability to see broad
  truths and advise those in earlier stages. Strong
  sense of self-acceptance.
• Despair arises from feelings of helplessness and
  the bitter sense that life has been incomplete.
  Regret.

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Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development

• Assessed moral reasoning by posing hypothetical
  moral dilemmas and examining the reasoning behind
  peoples answers
• Proposed six stages, each taking into account a
  broader portion of the social world

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Levels of Moral Reasoning

• Preconventionalmoral reasoning is based on
  external rewards and punishments
• Conventionallaws and rules are upheld simply
  because they are laws and rules
• Postconventionalreasoning based on personal
  moral standards

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PreconventialStage 1 Obedience and Punishment
Orientation

• The earliest stage of moral development is
  especially common in young children, but adults
  are also capable of expressing this type of
  reasoning.
• A focus on direct consequences
• Negative actions will result in punishments
• Positive actions will result in rewards

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Stage 2 Mutual Benefit Whats in it for me?

• At this stage of moral development, children
  account for individual points of view and judge
  actions based on how they serve individual needs.
• Reflects the understanding that different people
  have different self-interests, which sometimes
  come in conflict
• Getting what one wants often requires giving
  something up in return. You scratch my back,
  Ill scratch your back.

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ConventionalStage 3 Interpersonal Expectations

• Often referred to as the "good boy-good girl"
  orientation, this stage of moral development is
  focused on living up to social expectations and
  roles. There is an emphasis on conformity, being
  "nice," and consideration of how choices
  influence relationships. Golden rule
• An attempt to live up to the expectations of
  important others
• Positive actions will improve relations with
  significant others
• Negative actions will harm those relationships

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Stage 4 Law-and-Order Morality

• At this stage of moral development, people begin
  to consider society as a whole when making
  judgments. The focus is on maintaining law and
  order by following the rules, doing ones duty
  and respecting authority

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Post ConventionalStage 5 Legal Principles

• At this stage, people begin to account for the
  differing values, opinions and beliefs of other
  people
• A balance is struck between respect for laws and
  ethical principles that transcend specific laws.
• social contract Laws that fail to promote
  general welfare or that violate ethical
  principles can be changed, reinterpreted, or
  abandoned

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Stage 6 Universal Moral Principles

• Kolhbergs final level of moral reasoning is
  based upon universal ethical principles and
  abstract reasoning. At this stage, people follow
  these internalized principles of justice, even if
  they conflict with laws and rules.
• Self-chosen ethical principles
• Profound respect for sanctity of human life
• Kohlbery insisted the 6th stage existed, but he
  had a hard time finding examples.

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Criticisms of Kohlberg's Theory of Moral
Development

• Does moral reasoning necessarily lead to moral
  behavior? Kohlberg's theory is concerned with
  moral thinking, but there is a big difference
  between knowing what we ought to do versus our
  actual actions.

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• Is justice the only aspect of moral reasoning we
  should consider? Critics have pointed out that
  Kohlberg's theory of moral development
  overemphasizes the concept as justice when making
  moral choices. Factors such as compassion, caring
  and other interpersonal feelings may play an
  important part in moral reasoning.

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Adult Development

• Genetics and lifestyle combine to determine
  course of physical changes
• Social development involves marriage and
  transition to parenthood
• Paths of adult social development are varied and
  include diversity of lifestyles

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Late Adulthood

• Old age as a time of poor health, inactivity, and
  decline is a myth.
• Activity theory of aginglife satisfaction is
  highest when people maintain level of activity
  they had in earlier years.

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Death and Dying

• In general, anxiety about dying tends to decrease
  in late adulthood
• Kubler-Ross stages of dying
• Denial
• Anger
• Bargain
• Depression
• Acceptance
• Not universally demonstrated