Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology
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Developmental Psychology

• Complete the Physical Growth and Development
  Quiz ?

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Developmental Psychology

• Concerned with changes in physical
  psychological functioning from conception across
  a life span
• Task/Goal of Devel. Psychologists-
• to 1) document
• 2) explain development

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Documenting Development

• Normative investigations- research designed to
  describe characteristics of a specific age or
  developmental stage

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Documenting Development

• Investigations determine developmental landmarks
  or norms
• Ex. Age when talking, walking begins
• Standards allow psychologists to make
  distinctions between chronological and
  developmental age (age when most children show a
  particular level of development)

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Documenting Development

• Researchers use 2 different research methods
• Longitudinal- same participants observed
  repeatedly, over many years
• Cross-sectional- groups of participants of
  different ages are observed compared at the
  same time

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Explaining Development

• Nature vs. Nurture controversy
• Nature- Rousseau what child brings into the
  world (heredity) shapes their development
• Nurture- Locke born with a blank slate (tabula
  rasa), credits human development to experience

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Explaining Development

• Victor aka Wild Child
• Raised by animals
• Itard tried to civilize/educate him
• Progress was made for 5 years
• Case shows vital role of early social contact in
  regards to communication and mental growth

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Explaining Development

• Research supports
• - Heredity provides potential experience
  determines way in which potential will be
  fulfilled

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Physical Development
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Physical Development

• Bodily changes, maturation, growth that occurs
  in an organism
• 1. Prenatal/Childhood Development
• zygote- sperm fertilizes the egg
• 46 chromosomes ( ½ mother, ½ father
• 3rd wk- 1st sign of heartbeat
• 8th wk- called a fetus
• 16th wk- mother can feel movt

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Physical Development

• brain development- new neurons grow quickly
• branching process of axons/dendrites happens
  after birth
• first months of pregnancy environmental factors
  can affect devel. of organs/structures
• Ex. Disease, drinking, drugs, smoking

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Physical Development

• Hearing prewired for survival- can hear before
  birth ? recognize mothers voice, but not
  fathers

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Physical Development

• Vision
• - less developed than adults- minutes after
  birth eyes turn in direction of sound ? better
  within 6 mos.

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Physical Development

• - prefer to look at large objects w/ contours
  and whole faces rather than parts
• - no depth perception until 4 mos.

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Physical Development

• - Eleanor Gibson researched childrens response
  to depth perception and heights
• - she created a visual cliff
• - child would cross over shallow end but
  reluctant to cross deep end
• - fear of deep end depends on crawling
  experience

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Physical Development

• - Wariness of height is not prewired, but
  develops as children experience their world

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Physical Development

• Maturation- process of growth typical of all
  members of a species raised in their usual
  habitat
• - different for individuals
• - environmental inputs
• - ex Native Americans carry babies on their
  backs ? learn to walk later than other children

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Physical Development

• 2. Adolescent Development
• Growth spurt girls- age 10
• boys- age 12
• Hands and feet grow first, then arms and legs
• Reach puberty 2-3 years after growth spurt

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Physical Development

• Sexual maturity girls- age 11-15
• boys- age 12-14
• Psychological changes
• - concern for body image
• - 38 girls, 27 boys report feeling ugly ?
  can lead to anorexia/ bulimia

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Physical Development

• - Over time adolescents become more accepting of
  appearance

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Physical Development

• 3. Adulthood Development
• Research shows a belief in use it or lose it ?
  Adults may suffer less aging effects if they
  continue to exercise their bodies and minds

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Physical Development

• - Vision decreases due to lenses becoming
  yellowed and less flexible unable to see colors
  as clearly (violets, blues, greens) difficulty
  seeing at night

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Physical Development

• Hearing hearing loss is common of those 60 yrs
  , greater for men than women, have more
  difficulty hearing high frequency tones

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Physical Development

• Reproductive/Sexual Functioning Age 40- men
  experience lower viable sperm count
• Age 50- women experience
• menopause (stopping of ovulation)

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Cognitive Development
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Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget developed theories about how children
  think, reason, and solve problems
• Believed there are 2
• processes working
• together to achieve
• cognitive growth
• assimilation and accommodation

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Cognitive Development

• Stages
• Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2yrs)
• - sequences are improved, combined,
  coordinated,
• and integrated
• - develops object performance - child learns
  when object is absent, it still exists

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Cognitive Development

• 2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 yrs)
• - marked by egocentrism (unable to take the
  perspective of another person) and centration
  (unable to take more than one perceptual factor
  into account at the same time)

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Cognitive Development

• 3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 yrs)
• - capable of mental observations ? logical
  thinking
• - replace physical
• action with mental action
• - unable to determine relationships unless
  direct, physical observation

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Cognitive Development

• - mastery of conservation and reversibility
• 4. Formal Operations Stage (11yrs)
• - understand abstract thinking
• - understand there is more than one reality
• - ponder deep questions of truth, justice, and
  existence

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Cognitive Development

• Renée Baillargeon has challenged Piagets work
• - stating children as young as 3 mos.
  understand object performance
• - should be less emphasis on egocentrism ?
  children have an idea of what they know compared
  to what others know

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Cognitive Development

• Lev Vygotsky argues that children develop through
  internalization ? absorb knowledge from their
  social context
• - explains that childrens cognition develops to
  perform culturally valued tasks (like
  apprenticeships)

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Cognitive Development

• Unlike Piagetwho focused on maturation process
  within the child, not how the environment impacts
  the child

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Acquiring Language
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Acquiring Language

• Most researchers believe the ability to learn
  language is biologically based we have an
  innate language capacity
• Start with
• Perceiving Speech

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Acquiring Language

• Perceiving Speech
• - infants begin to learn phonemes (45 phonemes
  in English)
• - researchers found that you have innate ability
  to hear sound contrast in any language up to 8
  mos.

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Acquiring Language

• - lose the ability to perceive contrast in the
  languages you are NOT acquiring

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Acquiring Language

• Child directed speech (exaggerated high
  pitched) helps keep infant interested in language
  can create an emotional bond
• Children at 4 ½ mos. Are beginning to know their
  own name

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Acquiring Language

• 2. Learning Word Meanings
• - 18 mos. vocabulary takes off

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Acquiring Language

• 3. Acquiring Grammar
• Children must learn grammar structure
• Noam Chomsky believes that children are born
  with mental structures that facilitate
  comprehension production of language

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Acquiring Language

• Ex. children who are deaf, but not taught ASL,
  seem to have grammar structure
• Dan Slobin believes that children have
  language-making-capacity ? innate
  guidelines/operating principles that children use
  in acquiring language

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Acquiring Language

• Often children when learning language use
  overregularization ? grammatical error in which
  language rules are used too widely
• Ex. ed added to all words- breaked s added
  to all words- foots

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Social Development
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Social Development

• The ways in which individuals social
  interactions and expectations change across the
  life span

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Social Development

• Major psychologist, Erik Erikson and his
  psychological stages
• - need to resolve conflicts to move into next
  stage
• - review chart

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Social Development

• 1. Social Development in Childhood
• - socialization- lifelong process whereby an
  individuals behavioral patterns, values,
  standards, skills, attitudes, and motives are
  shaped to conform to those regarded as desirable
  in a particular society

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Social Development

• Family is most important in shaping how people
  relate to each other
• Begins with attachment (emotional relationship
  between a child caregiver), basically for
  survival (at first)

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Social Development

• Separation anxiety- distress when taken away from
  a person they are attached to peaks 14-18 mos.
• Babies form attachments to individuals who
  consistently appropriately respond to their
  signals (smiling, crying)

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Social Development

• Mary Ainsworth
• Strange-Situation Test
• 1. Securely Attached- distress when parent
  leaves, seek contact upon parents return
• 2. Insecurely Attached-Avoidant- child is aloof,
  avoids parent upon their return

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Social Development

• 3. Insecurely Attached- Ambivalent/Resistant-
  child is upset and anxious when parent leaves,
  shows anger and resistance to parent upon their
  return, but desire comfort

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Social Development

• 4. Disorganized-disoriented-
• child is confused about whether they should
  avoid or approach the parent upon return

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Social Development

• Parenting Style- manner in which parents raise
  children
• authoritative style is the best (demand
  children to conform to appropriate rules of
  behavior, but keep channels of communication open)

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Social Development
Responsiveness
Responsive Unresponsive
Demanding Authoritative Authoritarian
Undemanding Indulgent Neglectful
Demandingness
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Social Development

• Harry Harlow discovered aspect of contact
  comfort- comfort derived from infants physical
  contact with caregiver (why babies become
  attached)
• - consequences for humans if deprived of
  contact/comfort (physical and psychological
  issues)

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Social Development

• 2. Social Development in Adolescence
• G. Stanley Hall storm stress- to be in
  turmoil is normal (older theory)
• Reality most adolescence are not experiencing
  major turmoil but, if they do, it would be
  during this period increase in parent/child
  conflict

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Social Development

• Working on Identity
• A. 1st time peers compete with family to
  influence attitude behavior (why friends are
  very important!), but this increases anxiety of
  being rejected

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Social Development

• B. Parents and children must deal with
  transition in relationship parents give up
  authority allow child autonomy important to
  have social support in environment having future
  goals is important to working on identity

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Social Development

• 3. Social Development in Adulthood
• A. Tasks- intimacy (sexual, emotional moral
  commitment to another person) generativity
  (concern for the next generation) Erikson

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Social Development

• - birth of a child can pose a threat to a couple
• - studies show couples happier later in life
  women seem to be more affected by an unhappy
  marriage (b/c they are trying to fix it)

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Social Development

• - selective social interaction theory- as people
  age, they become more selective in choosing
  social partners who satisfy their emotional needs

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Social Development

• Generativity a commitment beyond yourself to
  family, work, society, or future generations
• - crucial step in 30s 40s if not apparent ?
  midlife crisis ?
• - sometimes see ageism- discrimination/prejudice
  against older people

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Moral Development
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Moral Developments

• Moral Dilemmas!

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Moral Development

• A system of beliefs, values, and the underlying
  judgments about the rightness and wrongness of
  human acts

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Moral Development

• Lawrence Kohlberg- studied moral reasoning (not
  behavior!) and came up with theories of moral
  development shaped by Piaget ties moral devel.
  to cog. devel.

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Moral Development

• - Lowest level of moral reasoning is based on
  self-interest
• Higher levels of moral reasoning based on social
  good, regardless of personal gain
• 4 Principles of Kohlbergs Model

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Moral Development

1. Individual can only be in one stage at a given
   time
2. Everyone goes through stages in this order
3. Each stage is more complex than preceding stage
4. Same stages occur in every culture

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Moral Development

• Almost everyone reaches stage 3 by age 13
• Many people dont pass stage 5
• Later stages are subjective- dont seem to be
  more complex and are not apparent in every culture

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Moral Development

• Critics take issue with Kohlbergs claims of
  universality
• Carol Gilligan his work only focused on boys,
  overlooking potential differences between
  habitual moral judgments of men women

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Moral Development

• - Gilligan feels womens moral devel. is based
  on caring for others progresses to
  self-realization basis for men is standard of
  justice
• - Gilligans theory broadened Kohlbergs

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Moral Development

• - However, research suggests she is incorrect to
  identify unique styles of moral reasoning for men
  women

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Moral Development

• CONCLUSION
• Adult reasoning about moral dilemmas is a mix
  between considerations of caring and justice
• Culture can play a role in determining what is
  moral or not

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Gender Development
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Gender Development

• Gender Group Discussion

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Gender Development

• Sex differences- biologically based
  characteristics that distinguish males and
  females
• anatomy, hormones, reproductive functions
• hormones might affect some behavior more in boys
  who are more physically active and aggressive
  than girls

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Gender Development

• Gender- psychological, learned, sex-related
  behaviors attitudes (ideas about masculinity
  femininity)
• Gender Identity- an individuals sense of
  maleness or femaleness (an awareness
  acceptance) 10-14 mos.

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Gender Development

• Gender Roles- patterns of behavior regarded as
  appropriate for males females in society
  provide definitions for masculinity femininity

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Gender Development

• Acquisition of Gender Roles
• - often begins at birth
• - parents describe dress them differently
• - encourage them to play with sex-appropriate
  toys

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Gender Development

• Eleanor Maccoby Young children are
  segregationists themselves
• Gender Differences- disparities between the sexes
  in typical behavior or average ability

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Gender Development

• Why are there gender differences?
• 1. evolution
• 2. exposure to hormones prenatally
• 3. structural differences in the brain (males-
  more lateralization)

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Gender Development

• 4. environment expectations about what is
  appropriate behavior for males and females
• - How do we learn these behaviors?
• operant conditioning, observational learning,
  self-socialization, socialization in society
  (family, school, media)

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Gender Development

• Research has pointed out that many well-adjusted
  people are more androgynous in their gender roles