Developmental Psychology

1
Developmental Psychology

• Unit 9

2
Essential Question

• How do people develop physically, cognitively,
  socially, and morally throughout the lifespan?

3
Infancy ChildhoodDay1
4
Do Now

• Babies think and act differently than we do.
  Describe a situation where you observed this
  infantile mindset. What was different than that
  of an adult mind?

5
Prenatal Development the Newborn

• Sperm and egg cells fuse into a zygote
• Over time, the zygote becomes an embryo, where
  organs begin to be formed. The X and Y
  Chromosomes determine the sex of the child X
  means female, Y results in male
• Then, the unborn child becomes a fetus, which it
  will remain until birth. They can begin to hear
  outside voices

6
Prenatal Development the Newborn

• The fetus can be exposed to teratogens, outside
  chemicals or viruses
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs if the fetus is
  exposed to alcohol

7
The Competent Newborn

• Newborns look for faces, as well turn their heads
  towards sounds
• They can recognize familiar voices, and respond
  to those they know well
• Habituation
• decreasing responsiveness with repeated
  stimulation

8
Physical Development

• The brain is mostly formed at birth. The frontal
  lobe develops the most after birth, however
• Maturation
• Biological growth processes that enable orderly
  changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by
  behavior
• Most infants learn to walk by 15 months
• Due to unfinished development in the hippocampus
  and frontal lobes, we experience infantile
  amnesia, which is why we cannot remember much
  before the age of 5

9
Cognitive Development

• Older we get, more schemas we build
• Assimilate interpreting new info with
  already-existing schemas
• Accomodate adapting old schemas to incorporate
  new info

10
Cognitive Development
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vTRF27F2bn-A
11
Cognitive Development

• Lev Vygotsky
• Believed language was important for social
  mentoring, building blocks for thinking
  (http//www.youtube.com/watch?vemQTGwAZpa8)

12
Review

• What is object permanence?
• What is conservation?
• At what age can a child think abstractly?
• How does one fit information into their schemas

13
Infancy ChildhoodDay2
14
Social Development

• Stranger Anxiety
• The fear of strangers that infants commonly
  display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
• Attachment
• An emotional tie with another person shown in
  young children by their seeking closeness to
  the caregiver and showing distress on separation.

15
Social Development

• Harry Harlows Experiment (1971)
• Infants bond with surrogate mothers because of
  bodily contact not because of nourishment.
• Critical Period
• An optimal period shortly after birth when an
  organism's exposure to certain stimuli or
  experiences produces proper development.
• E.g. Newborns exposure to breastfeeding

16
Social Development

• Attachment Differences
• Secure Attachment
• Caused by careful sensitivity and responsiveness
  when the infant is very young. They grow up with
  a sense of basic trust
• a sense that the world is predictable and
  trustworthy
• Insecure Attachment
• Caused by apathetic parenting. Tends to have a
  worse sense of trust, and avoid attachment.

17
Social Development

• Secure Attachment vs. Insecure Attachment
• 60 of infants display secure attachment when
  placed in unfamiliar environments.
• e.g. Infants happily explore environment in the
  presence of their mother. When mother leaves
  signs of distress are evident in infants.
• 30 of infants show insecure attachment when
  placed in same settings.
• e.g. Infants cling to their mothers or caregivers
  and are less likely to explore environment.

18
Social Development

• Attachment Deprivation
• When deprived from attachment, children tend to
  grow into more aggressive and abusive adults.
• Similarly, when taken from a loved one, children
  have difficult times eating, sleeping, or getting
  along with others.

19
Social Development

• Imprinting
• The process by which certain animals form
  attachments during a critical period very early
  in life.
• Konrad Lorenz
• -Discovered imprinting by observing newly
  hatched ducklings
• -Special type of learning.

20
Social Development

• Self-Concept
• All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves,
  in answer to the question, Who am I?
• Stages of Self-Concept
• Infancy attachment
• Younger children positive sense of self,
• End of childhood (around 12 yrs old) Awareness
  of Self Concept
• Children's views of themselves affect their
  action
• How can parents encourage a positive, realistic
  self-concept?
• G. Stanley Hall Stress and Storm of
  adolescence

21
Social Development

• Parenting Styles
• 1. Authoritarian
• Parents impose as expect obedience
• 2. Permissive
• Parents submit to their children's desires. They
  make few demands and use little punishment.
• 3. Authoritative
• Parents are both demanding and responsive. They
  use control through rules, but also explain the
  reason for the control. They encourage open
  discussion when making rules and allow
  exceptions.
• association between certain parenting styles and
  certain childhood outcomes is CORRELATION.
  Correlation is not causation

22
Review

• What is an example of imprinting?
• Define Self- Concept.
• Name and describe the 3 type of Parenting Styles.

23
AdolescenceDay3
24
Do-Now(Discussion)

• What do you associate with adolescence?
• What physical, cognitive, and social changes mark
  adolescence?

25
Adolescence

• Adolescence
• The transition period from childhood to
  adulthood, extending from puberty to
  independence.
• Puberty
• The period of sexual maturation, during which a
  person becomes capable of reproducing.

26
Physical Development

• Primary sex characteristics include reproductive
  organs and external genetalia.
• Girls ovaries, vagina, estrogen
• Boys testes, penis, testosterone
• Secondary sex characteristics are non
  reproductive traits.
• Girls breasts, wide hips
• Boys facial hair, deepened voice
• Menarche
• First menstrual period, often known as the
  menstrual cycle.

27
Physical Development

• As teens mature, development of frontal lobes
  continue.
• -Improved judgement
• -Impulse control
• -Ability to plan for long term
• Frontal lobe maturation lags the emotional limbic
  system.
• -Compulsiveness
• -Risky behaviors

28
Cognitive Development

• Finding sense of morality
• Haidt gut feeling, social institutionist
• Piaget morals build with cognitive development
• Kohlberg moral reasoning
• adolescents develop a capacity for formal
  operation and that this development is the
  foundation for moral judgment

29
Cognitive Development

• Kohlbergs moral reasoning development
• preconventional pre age 9, self interest, follow
  rules to gain/avoid something
• conventional early adolescence, caring for
  others, follow rules because theyre rules
• postconventional self-defined ethical set of
  right and wrong
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYxJ07klMhr0

30
Social Development

• Erik Erikson believed each stage of life has a
  psychosocial crisis
• Adolescence stage
• search for identity (sense of self) and social
  identity (answers Who am I? in terms of group
  memberships)
• search for intimacy
• separation from parents

31
Social Development

• Emerging Adulthood

32
Gender

• Gender
• The biologically and socially influenced
  characteristics by which people define male
  female.
• Role
• A set of expectations (norms) about a social
  position, defining how those in the position
  ought to behave.
• Gender Role
• A set of expected behaviors for males females.

33
Gender Society

• Gender Identity
• Our sense of being male or female.
• Gender Typing
• The acquisition of a traditional masculine or
  feminine role.
• e.g. Stay at Home Mom Coal Mining
  father
• .VS.
• Coal Mining Mom Stay at Home
  Dad

34
Gender Society

• Social Learning Theory
• - The theory that we learn social behavior by
  observing and imitating and by being rewarded
  or punished.
• - Children learn gender-linked behaviors by
  observation.
• E.g. Girls play with dolls
• Boys dont cry!

35
Review

• What is the social learning theory?
• Why do teens indulge in risky behaviors?
• Difference between primary and secondary sex
  characteristics?

36
AdulthoodDay 4
37
Do Now

• How has your perception of adults changed from
  young childhood to now?
• What makes someone an adult?

• How do you know someone is an adult? Is it their
  age? Their attitude? Looks?

38
Physical Development

• Middle Adulthood
• Aging gradual decline in fertility
• Females go through menopause around age 50
• natural end of menstruation
• takes an emotional toll on women
• Men
• sperm count decline
• testosterone level decrease
• ejaculation/erection frequency and speed decrease

39
Physical Development

• Later Life
• society is focusing on retirement homes, home
  nurses, and retirement funds because life
  expectancy is increasing
• Spirit and gender affects length of life
• Chronic anger and depression increase our risk of
  ill health and premature death
• Death-Deferral Phenomenon
• What is Death?
• Cells stop reproducing
• body is frail and vulnerable to infection

40
Physical Development

• immune system weakens
• brain neurons slow
• memory areas decline
• frontal lobes decline
• Sensory abilities diminish
• vision pupil shrinks, lens becomes less
  transparent

41
Physical Development

• Dementia Alzheimers
• A series of smalls strokes, a brain tumor, or
  alcohol dependence can damage the brain and cause
  mental erosion called dementia and Alzheimer's
  disease.
• Alzheimer's destroys the brightest of
  minds.http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9Wv9jrk-gXc
• (Loss of brain cells and neuronal deterioration
  that produce acetylcholine which is necessary for
  memory and thinking)
• First memory deteriorates
• reasoning deteriorates
• becomes emotionally flat
• disoriented ? disinhibited ? incontinent ?
  mentally vacant

42
Cognitive Development

• As age increases, recent past events events
  that happened a decade or two back are more
  likely to be remembered.
• Recalling names become increasingly difficult.
• Recognition memory does not decline with age.
• Meaningful material that is recalled better than
  meaningless material.

43
Cognitive Development

• Crystallized Intelligence
• Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills which
  tend to increase with age.
• e.g. The older we get, the wiser we become.
• Fluid Intelligence
• Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly.
  This type of intelligence tends to decrease
  during late adulthood.
• e.g. Problem Solving

44
Adulthood's Ages and Stages

• People entering their 40s go through a period
  called midlife transition
• The social clock varies from era to era and
  culture to culture
• Social clock
• the culturally preferred timing of social events
  such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
• Chance events have lasting significance because
  they often deflect us down one road rather than
  another

45
Adulthood's Commitments

• Love
• Evolutionary perspective relatively monogamous
  pairing makes sense parents who cooperated to
  nurture their child to maturity were more likely
  to have their genes passed along to posterity
  than were parents who didn't
• Couples who get married/civil union more often
  endure
• Love bears children -gt children absorb
  time/money/energy and satisfaction in marriage
  may decline-gt children eventually leave home
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vgoq740lF1vg
• Work
• Who are you? -gt What do you do?
• Happiness is about having work that fits your
  interests

46
Reflections on Two Major Developmental Issues

• Stability and Change
• First 2 years of life provide little basis for
  predicting a persons eventual traits
• As people grow older, personality gradually
  stabilizes
• stability change necessary for life

47
Review?

• What physical changes happen during adulthood?
• What happens to the brain in late adulthood?
• What is the role of work and love in adulthood?