Prologue to Chapter 9

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Prologue to Chapter 9

• Developmental psychology
• Questions addressed include
• How do we change over time?
• Are children different from adults in how they
  think?
• How do children become thinking, reasoning
  adults?
• Do we change or stay the same as we age?

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Basic Processes of Development
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Basic Processes of Development

• Nature or nurture?
• which is more important concerning our
  development
• current thinking is that both are important and
  that both influence our actions, thoughts, and
  feelings as we develop over time

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Basic Processes of Development

• Maturation
• in the study of development, maturation is the
  most important factor to consider
• maturation is a progressive unfolding by
  schedule
• you will begin to walk at a certain age range,
  begin to talk at another age range, etc.

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Early experience and critical periods
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Early Experience/Critical Periods

• Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz) a form of early
  learning that occurs in some animals during a
  critical period in their development
• Early social deprivation
• has long lasting detrimental effects on animal
  (Harry Harlows research)
• psychologists disagree on some of the effects of
  early social dep. in humans

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Early Experience/Critical Periods

• The Battered-Child Syndrome
• identified in the early 1960s
• child abuse can pass from one generation to the
  next
• approximately 15 of child abusers do not change
  their ways even with social service and court
  intervention
• approximately 2,000 children killed annually as a
  result of child abuse

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Variations in Development

• Different children develop at different rates
• The same child will vary in rate of their own
  development at different times in their life
• Understanding the variance and range of
  developmental rates is important to developmental
  psychologists

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Stage theories of development

• Do we develop in stages or not? Are we like oak
  trees or butterflies in our development?
• is our development continuuous or discontinuuous?
• There are a number of various stage theorists
  in study of developmental psychology

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Stage Theories
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Piagets stage theory of cognitive development

• Piagets interest was in identifying particular
  eras (stages) of cognitive style (development)
  in humans
• He distinguished 4 stages they are
• sensiomotor stage 0-2 years
• preoperational stage 3-6 years
• concrete operations stage 7-11 years
• formal operations stage 12 years

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Stage theories of moral development

• There are 2 theorists concerned with
  identification of stages of moral development in
  humans
• Kohlbergs theory of moral development
• Gilligans theory of moral development
• Theories of moral development concern how does
  one learn to do the right thing in society

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Kohlbergs theory

• Kohlbergs theory of moral development includes 3
  general phases (stages) of morality that persons
  can develop. They are
• the premoral level of morality
• the conventional level of morality
• the principled level of morality
• Why do you do the right thing?

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Gilligans theory

• Gilligans theory of moral development includes 3
  general phases (stages) which humans can develop.
  They are
• morality as individual sacrifice
• morality as self-sacrifice
• morality as equality
• Gilligans theory is often considered to be a
  feminist view of moral development.

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Personality Development
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Erik Eriksons Theory

• Eriksons stage theory of personality development
• there are eight (8) stages of development
• each stage has a crisis to be resolved that has
  a profound effect on how a persons personality
  will develop in the long term
• these stages start at birth and go to old age

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Erik Eriksons Theory

• The 8 stages are
• basic trust vs mistrust 0-1 years
• autonomy vs shame/doubt 1-3 years
• initiative vs guilt 3-5 years
• industry vs inferiority 5-11 years
• identity vs role confusion 11-18 years
• intimacy vs isolation 18-40 years
• generativity vs stagnation 40-65 years
• integrity vs despair 65 years

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• Development in Infancy and Childhood

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Development in infancy and childhood

• The neonatal period the newborns first two (2)
  weeks
• Physical development
• the neonate is weak and dependent
• the neonate has a repetoire of adaptive reflexive
  behaviors, e.g., rooting reflex, TNR, sucking
  reflex, palmer grasp, etc.
• there are about 20 different reflexive behaviors
  that the neonate has to assist the child in its
  entry into the world these often disappear by
  the time the child is 6 months old

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The Neonate

• Cognitive development
• neonates can imitate facial expressions fairly
  soon
• neonates have some memory for visual forms
• they prefer to look at contrasts
• they prefer order to disorder
• they prefer to look at patterns
• they prefer to look at human faces

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The Neonate

• Emotional and social development of the neonate
• five (5) emotional states can be distinguished in
  the neonate. These states are
• surprise
• happiness
• discomfort
• distress
• interest

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Infancy 2 weeks to 2 years

• Physical development in infants is more rapid in
  the first year of life than at any other time in
  a persons life
• Cognitive development
• according to Piaget, the child is in the
  sensiomotor period of cognitive development
• the child moves from pure reflexive actions to
  coordination of sensations and motor movements

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Infancy 2 weeks to 2 years

• Cognitive development
• at the end of the sensiomotor stage (about age
  2), the child develops, according to Piaget, full
  object permanence which signals their move into
  the next stage of cognitive development
• at the beginning of infancy there is little if
  any object permanence but within 2 years full
  object permanence exists

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Infancy 2 weeks to 2 years

• Emotional and social development in infancy
• infant develops a social smile at about 2
  months of age
• develops separation anxiety at about 6-9 months
  of age
• develops stranger anxiety at about 6-10 months
  of age
• these anxieties peak around 14 months and
  gradually decline by about age 2

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Early Childhood 2 to 7 years
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Cognitive development

• Cognitive development 2-7 years
• According to Piaget, the child is now in the
  preoperational period of cognitive development
• preoperational thinking is evident, e.g.,
  egocentricism, animism, and transductive
  reasoning are apparent

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Emotional and social development

• Emotional and social development 2-7 years
• child progresses from solitary play to parallel
  play and finally to cooperative play
• child incorporates others into his/her pretending
  and games become more rule-governed

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Middle Childhood 7-11 years
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Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development 7-11 years
• the child enters into the concrete operations
  period of thinking (according to Piagets stages)
• the child develops reversibility and conservation

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Emotional and social development

• Emotional and social development 7-11 years
• peers become increasingly more important during
  this time
• school becomes increasingly important
• childs early dependence on parents begins to
  lessen parents may have some difficulty
  accepting this change

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Adulthood Young adulthood
through older adulthood
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Cognitive development

• Cognitive abilities improve, change, or decline
  during adulthood
• Crystallized intelligence improves over time
  while fluid intelligence slowly wanes
• Wisdom improves wisdom is the appropriate use of
  knowledge

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Emotional and social development

• Early adulthood Intimacy vs Isolation the
  challenge is to enter into committed, loving
  relationships that partially replace the bonds
  with parents
• Middle adulthood Generativity vs stagnation the
  challenge is to find meaning in our work and
  family lives and to continue to be productive

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Emotional and social development

• Climacteric period beginning about age 45 when a
  loss of the capacity to sexually reproduce in
  women and a decline in the reproductivity
  capacity in men occurs
• Later adulthood Integrity vs despair the
  challenge is to see a life with meaning and
  continued satisfaction

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Causes of aging

• Aging is partly a biological process but is a
  psychological process as well
• Staying engaged in lifes activities and refusing
  to accept myths about aging are two keys to happy
  aging
• Aging as a biological process may be genetically
  solved toward the end of your lifetime

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Evaluation of stage theories of adulthood

• Psychologists disagree as to whether the changes
  in adulthood can be thought of as a series or
  stages or just a continuation of a single process
• This is a continuity vs discontinuity debate
  that often occurs in developmental psychology
• What do you think?

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Death and dying The final stage
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Death and dying

• According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the stages in
  the acceptance of impending death are
• denial
• anger
• bargaining
• depression
• acceptance

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Death and dying

• One step beyond?
• what happens at the point of death?
• what happens after death?
• the near death experience and the commonalities
  in these reports
• rushing down a tunnel which, at the end, has an
  intensely brilliant light
• reports of seeing dead loved ones and experiences
  with angelic beings and/or God

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Application of psychology Parenting

• Parent and infant attachment
• the securely-attached infant will
• enjoy physical contact with parents and others
• be comfortable in exploring different
  environments
• be likely to be more intelligent than
  not-securely attached infants
• be more psychologically healthy as a child
• be more responsive to its environment

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Application of psychology Parenting

• The insecurely-attached infant will
• cling excessively to the parent
• become extremely upset when the parent leaves the
  child or a stranger appears in the childs
  environment
• be less likely to freely explore its environment
  and, hence, be somewhat less intelligent than its
  securely-attached counterpart

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Application of psychology Parenting

• Parenting and discipline styles
• authoritarian parenting
• permissive parenting
• authoritative parenting
• Bi-directional effects in childrearing
• parents behavior affects childrens behavior
• childrens behavior affects parents behavior

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Application of psychology Parenting

• The myth of the perfect parent
• there are no perfect parents
• the most difficult job you will ever have and the
  job for which you are least prepared
• children are resilient
• honest, heart-felt committment expressed in
  loving behavior is a good start to being a good
  parent

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Application of psychology Parenting

• Day care, divorce, and parenting
• Emotional attachments, bonding, trust, and
  resiliency
• Dont divorce if at all possible
• Watch your day care providers
• adequate staff-to-child ratio?
• adequate supervision?
• can you drop in unannounced at any time for an
  inspection?

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Questions?

• Any questions over chapter 9?