Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology

• A branch of psychology that studies physical,
  cognitive and social changes throughout the
  lifespan.

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Prenatal Development

• Conception begins with the drop of an egg and the
  release of about 200 million sperm.
• The sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to
  penetrate the eggs surface.

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• Once the sperm penetrates the egg- we have a
  fertilized egg called..

The Zygote
The first stage of prenatal development. Lasts
about two weeks and consists of rapid cell
division.
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The Zygote Stage

• Less than half of all zygotes survive first two
  weeks.
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will
  attach itself to the uterine wall.
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta
  (which filters nutrients).

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After two weeks, the zygote develops into a
Embryo
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The Embryo Stage

• Lasts about 6 weeks.
• Heart begins to beat and the organs begin to
  develop.
• The baby is more vulnerable to damage at this
  stage than any others. Dont drink or do drugs!

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By nine weeks we have something that looks
unmistakably human
A Fetus
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The Fetus Stage

• By about the 6th month, the stomach and other
  organs have formed enough to survive outside of
  mother.
• At this time the baby can hear (and recognize)
  sounds and respond to light.

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Teratogensharmful agents to the prenatal
environment
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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children
  caused by a pregnant womens heavy drinking.
• Severe cases symptoms include facial
  disproportions.

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So what will a healthy newborn do?

• Reflexes
• Rooting Reflex- a babies tendency, when touched
  on the cheek, to open mouth and search for a
  nipple.
• Plantar Reflex curl toes when ball of foot
  pressed
• Babinski Reflex- toes flare when bottom of foot
  pressed
• Moro Reflex- arms are thrust out when frightened
• Swimming reflex- when in water will hold breath

Gaze longer at human face like images.
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Maturation

• Maturation is the physical development of a
  person.
• First you roll over, then crawl, then walk, then
  run.
• Some babies skip crawling but that can be bad for
  cognitive development.
• Development of habituation- ability of a baby to
  become accustomed to stimuli

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The Brain and Infancy

• Although the brain does not develop many new
  cells, the existing cells begin to work more
  efficiently- forming more complex neural networks.

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Intro to Cognitive Development

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vdEnkY2iaKis
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vjqqanfbK1H0

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Cognitive Development

• This field is Dominated by a man named Jean
  Piaget.
• He was developing IQ tests and noticed that many
  children got the same answers wrong.
• Thought to himself, maybe these kids are not
  stupid, but instead think differently than
  adults.

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Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

• Piaget did not conduct formal experiments, but
  rather loosely structured interviews in which he
  posed problems for children to solve, observed
  their actions carefully, and questioned them
  about their solutions
• Was particularly interested in childrens error,
  which would provide insights into childrens
  thought processes
• Assumed that a child is an active seeker of
  knowledge and gains an understanding of the world
  by operating on it

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Schemas

• Organized units of knowledge about objects,
  events, and actions
• Cognitive adaptation involves two processes
• Assimilation is the interpretation of new
  experiences in terms of present schemes
• Accommodation is the modification of present
  schemes to fit with new experiences

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Schemas

• For example, a child may call all four-legged
  creatures doggie
• The child learns he needs to accommodate (i.e.,
  change) his schemas, as only one type of
  four-legged creature is dog
• It is through accommodation that the number and
  complexity of a childs schemes increase and
  learning occurs

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Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
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Sensorimotor Stage 0-2

• Infant learns about the world through their
  sensory and motor interactions (including
  reflexes)
• Lack object permanence, the knowledge than an
  object exists independent of perceptual contact
• Symbolic representation of
• objects and events starts to
• develop during the latter part of the
• sensorimotor stage (e.g., use of
• telegraphic speech)

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Object permanence

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vPuP53BbIY0A

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Preoperational Stage

• The childs thinking becomes more symbolic and
  language-based, but remains egocentric and lacks
  the mental operations that allow logical thinking
• Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish ones
  own perceptions, thoughts, and feelings from
  those of others
• Cannot perceive the world from another persons
  perspective

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Egocentrism

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vOinqFgsIbh0

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Animism

• Giving animal qualities to inanimate objects An
  example of egocentric

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Theory of Mind

• Termed by Premack and Woodruff
• Ability to see others perspectives
• Develops during preoperational
• What makes someone angry? How can he/she get a
  toy
• Lack of Theory of Mind associated with autistic
  children- Cannot read emotions

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Theory of Mind Video

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vPu1cQezTtlY
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vYGSj2zY2OEM

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Preoperational Stage

• Conservation is the knowledge that the
  quantitative properties of an object (such as
  mass, volume, and number) remain the same despite
  changes in appearance
• Some grasp of conservation marks the end of the
  preoperational stage and the beginning of the
  concrete-operational stage

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Conservation

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vgnArvcWaH6I

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Concrete Operational Stage

• Children (age 6-12) gain a fuller understanding
  of conservation and other mental operations that
  allow them to think logically, but only about
  concrete events
• Conservation for liquids, numbers, and matter
  acquired early, but conservation of length
  acquired later in the stage

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Concrete Operational

• Children became capable from thinking in words
  and using words to solve problems
• Lev Vygotsky internalize their cultures language
  and rely on inner speech
• Talking to oneself helps children control
  behavior and emotions

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Formal Operational Stage

• The child (12-adult) gains the capacity for
  hypothetical-deductive thought
• Can engage in hypothetical thought and in
  systematic deduction and testing of hypotheses

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Formal Operational Stage

• In one scientific thinking task, the child is
  shown several flasks of what appear to be the
  same clear liquid and is told one combination of
  two of these liquids would produce a clear liquid
• The task is to determine which combination would
  produce the blue liquid
• The concrete operational child just starts mixing
  different clear liquids together haphazardly
• The formal operational child develops a
  systematic plan for deducing what the correct
  combination must be by determining all of the
  possible combinations and then systematically
  testing each one

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Evaluation of Piagets Theory

• Recent research has shown that rudiments of many
  of Piagets key concepts (e.g., object
  permanence) may begin to appear at earlier stages
  than Piaget proposed
• For example, research that involved tracking
  infants eye movements has found that infants as
  young as 3 months continue to stare at the place
  where the object disappeared from sight,
  indicating some degree of object permanence

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Evaluation of Piagets Theory

1. Not all people reach formal operational thought
2. The theory may be biased in favor of Western
   culture
3. There is no real theory of what occurs after the
   onset of adolescence
4. Despite refinements, recent research has indeed
   shown that cognitive development seems to proceed
   in the general sequence of stages that Piaget
   proposed

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Extras

• Children learn through scaffolding. Through
  experience children can learn higher levels of
  thinking
• Dev. The Zone of Proximal Development- zone
  between what they could learn with and without
  help

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Infancy and Childhood

• Social Development

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Stranger Anxiety
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Stranger Anxiety

• Develops around 8 months
• At this age the child has a schema for familiar
  faces, when they cannot assimilate the new face
  into their existing schema, they become distressed

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Attachment

• An emotional tie with another person shown in
  young children by their seeking closeness to the
  caregiver and showing distress in separation.

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Body Contact

• It was first assumed that infants became attached
  to those who satisfied their need for nourishment.

Then this guy came along..
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Harry Harlow and his
Discovered that monkeys preferred the soft body
contact comfort of a cloth mother, over the
nourishment of a hard/wirily mother.
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Harlow Video

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vOrNBEhzjg8IlistP
  L2920A92123EAF834index36

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Familiarity

• Attachments based on familiarity are formed
  during our critical periods.

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• In general, a critical period is a limited time
  in which an event can occur, usually to result in
  some kind of transformation. A "critical period"
  in developmental psychology is a time in the
  early stages of an organism's life during which
  it displays a heightened sensitivity to certain
  environmental stimuli, and develops in particular
  ways due to experiences at this time. If the
  organism does not receive the appropriate
  stimulus during this "critical period", it may be
  difficult, ultimately less successful, or even
  impossible, to develop some functions later in
  life the optimal period shortly after birth when
  an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or
  experiences produce proper development

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Konrad Lorenz

• Konrad Lorenz studied how goslings (baby geese)
  will imprint themselves to a human if they get
  human exposure during a critical period Certain
  events have a strong impact on development

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Imprinting on a human

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?v7OynlzqtxmY

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Same with dogs
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Responsive Parenting

• Do parents play a part in your attachment?

• Mary Ainsworth Stranger Paradigm

• Van den Booms Research

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Deprivation of Attachment

• Often withdrawn, frightened and in extreme cases
  speechless.

• Harlows monkeys would either cower in fright or
  act extremely aggressive. Many could not mate
  and if they could, the mothers were unresponsive
  parents.

• Is there a connection between crime and lack of
  childhood attachment?

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Child Attachment Styles

• based on Ainsworths (1971) The Strange
  Situation studies

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• Mary Ainsworth studied children's attachment
  styles. She would place a mother and young child
  in a room. The independent variable was a
  strange situation like a stranger or have the
  mother leave the room. The dependent variable
  was how the child would react.

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Ainsworth Video

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vQTsewNrHUHUsafety_
  modetruepersist_safety_mode1safeactive

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Ainsworths attachment styles

• Mary Ainsworth would have a stranger enter the
  room. Children with a secure attachment would go
  to the mother for comfort when a stranger entered
  the room. The child would cry when the mother
  left but was happy when the mother returned.
• Most common (66)
• Eric Erikson believed that secure attachment
  develops with Basic Trust ( a sense that the
  world is predictable and reliable)

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Ainsworths attachment styles

• Insecure-avoidant (20) not distressed at
  mother leaving or stranger arriving cool
  response when mother returns
• Probably caused by distant mothers

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Insecure attachment

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vDH1m_ZMO7GU

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Ainsworths attachment styles

• insecure- resistant (12) clingy to mother
  traumatized by every stage of the experiment
  distrustful of their mothers
• Caused by over-bearing, controlling mothers

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Temperament and Parenting

• As attachment part of parenting styles or
  temperament ( a person's characteristics
  emotional reactivity and intensity)
• Deprived children are terrified in strange
  situations
• Temperament is a part of out personalities
  easygoing, fidgety, irritable
• Temperament is inherited - lasting

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Lawrence Kohlberg and his stages of Morality

• Preconventional Morality
• Conventional Morality
• Postconventional Morality

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Preconventional Morality

• Morality of self- interest
• Their actions are either to avoid punishment or
  to gain rewards.

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Conventional Morality

• Morality is based upon obeying laws to
• Maintain social order
• To gain social approval

I wont speed down Hampton because my friends
and family will look down on me. Besides, the
world would be chaotic if everyone did it.
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Postconventional Morality

• Morality based on universal ethical principles.
• I wont speed down Hampton b/c a society w/o laws
  is not good. If I feel the law is unjust then
  Ill try to change it.

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Note to self use more in book
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Carol Gilligan

• Gilligan would go on to criticize Kohlberg's
  work. This was based on two things. First, he
  only studied privileged, white men and boys. She
  felt that this caused a biased opinion against
  women. Secondly, in his stage theory of moral
  development, the male view of individual rights
  and rules was considered a higher stage than
  women's point of view of development in terms of
  its caring effect on human relationships.

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60 Minutes Morality video

• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vFRvVFW85IcUlistP
  L2920A92123EAF834index111

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Erik Eriksons psychosocial stages of development
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Trust vs. Mistrust
Age Important Event Description
Birth - 18 months Feeding, Crying, Changing Infants form a loving, trusting relationship with parents they also learn to mistrust others. Carry throughout your life
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Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Age Important Event Description
18 months - 3 Years Control over ones body- toilet training Control temper tantrums Child's energies are directed toward physical skills walking, grasping, and toilet training. The child learns control along with a healthy dose of shame and doubt. Favorite. Word NO. Attempt to control oneself and others. Future learn to control emotions and body
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Initiative vs. Guilt
Age Important Event Description
3 - 6 Years Independence Learn trust and are in control develop a natural curiosity. Want to understand the world. WHY? If encouraged learn to be curious- scolded fell guilty
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Industry vs. Inferiority
Age Important Event Description
6 - 12 Years School Expect to perform as well as others. If so feel competent if we fall behind feel inferior. Feel anxious about ourselves in the future
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Identity vs. Role Confusion
Age Important Event Description
Adolescence Peers Teens must achieve self-identity while deciphering their roles in occupation, politics, and religion, gender. Try on different roles Can develop negative identity or identity crisis
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Intimacy vs. Isolation
Age Important Event Description
Young Adult Relationships The young adult must develop marriage-seeking relationships while combating feelings of isolation. Further career or get married?
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Generativity vs. Stagnation
Age Important Event Description
Middle Adult Parenting Men want to generate something (join a rock band). They risk stagnation (growing old) Look critically at our lives. Is our life going the way we want it to
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Integrity vs. Despair
Age Important Event Description
Late Adult Life Reflection Acceptance of one's lifetime accomplishments and sense of fulfillment. Want control of their lives. Look back with regret despair over lost opportunities
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How do we study developmental psychology?
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Longitudinal studies

• We can study a sample for a long, long time (like
  30 years).
• They are expensive and time consuming.
• They are good at observing change over time in
  individuals.
• Example, follow a group of 200 people for 30
  years and give them a survey every 7 years to
  measure their developmental changes.

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Cross-sectional studies

• Much cheaper and less time-consuming than
  longitudinal studies.
• They study different sections or cohorts or
  groups of people at the same time.
• Example survey a group of teenagers,
  20-year-olds, 40 year olds and 60-year olds and
  compare the results.