Human Development Across the Life Span

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Chapter 11 Human Development Across the Life Span
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Progress Before Birth Prenatal Development

• 3 phases
• germinal stage first 2 weeks
• conception, implantation, formation of placenta
• embryonic stage 2 weeks 2 months
• formation of vital organs and systems
• fetal stage 2 months birth
• bodily growth continues, movement capability
  begins, brain cells multiply
• age of viability

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Figure 11.1 Overview of fetal development. This
chart outlines some of the high-lights of
development during the fetal stage.
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Environmental Factors and Prenatal Development

• Maternal nutrition
• Malnutrition linked to infant apathy,
  irritability, and reduced immune responses
• Maternal drug use
• Tobacco, alcohol, prescription, and recreational
  drugs
• Fetal alcohol syndrome
• Maternal illness
• Rubella, syphilis, mumps, genital herpes, AIDS,
  severe influenza
• Prenatal health care
• Prevention through guidance

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Figure 11.2 Periods of vulnerability in prenatal
development. Generally, structures are most
susceptible to damage when they are undergoing
rapid development. The red regions of the bars
indicate the most sensitive periods for various
organs and structures, while the purple regions
indicate periods of continued, but lessened,
vulnerability. As a whole, sensitivity is
greatest in the embryonic stage, but some
structures remain vulnerable throughout prenatal
development.
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Figure 11.3 Cross-cultural comparisons of infant
mortality. Infant mortality is the death rate per
1000 births during the first year of life.
Although the United States takes pride in its
modern, sophisticated medical system, it ranks
only 24th in the prevention of infant mortality.
One of the main factors underlying this poor
showing appears to be low-income mothers limited
access to medical care during pregnancy.
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The Childhood Years Motor Development

• Basic Principles
• Cephalocaudal trend head to foot
• Proximodistal trend center-outward
• Maturation gradual unfolding of genetic
  blueprint
• Developmental norms median age
• Cultural variations

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Figure 11.6 Landmarks in motor development. The
left edge, interior mark, and right edge of each
bar indicate the age at which 25, 50, and 90
of infants have mastered each motor skill shown.
Developmental norms typically report only the
median age of mastery (the interior mark), which
can be misleading in light of the variability in
age of mastery apparent in this chart.
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Easy and Difficult Babies Differences in
Temperament

• Longitudinal vs. cross-sectional designs
• Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1970)
• 3 basic temperamental styles
• easy 40
• slow-to-warm-up 15
• difficult 10
• mixed 35
• stable over time
• Kagan Snidman (1991)
• Inhibited vs. uninhibited temperament
• Inhibited 15 20
• Uninhibited 25 30
• Stable over time, genetically based

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Figure 11.7 Longitudinal versus cross-sectional
research. In a longitudinal study of development
between ages 6 and 10, the same children would be
observed at 6, again at 8, and again at 10. In a
cross-sectional study of the same age span, a
group of 6-year-olds, a group of 8-year-olds, and
a group of 10-year-olds would be compared
simultaneously. Note that data collection could
be completed immediately in the cross-sectional
study, whereas the longitudinal study would
require 4 years to complete.
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Early Emotional Development Attachment

• Separation anxiety
• Ainsworth (1979)
• The strange situation and patterns of attachment
• Secure
• Anxious-ambivalent
• Avoidant
• Developing secure attachment
• Bonding at birth
• Daycare
• Cultural factors
• Evolutionary perspectives on attachment

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Figure 11.8 Overview of the attachment
process. The unfolding of attachment depends on
the interaction between a mother (or other
caregiver) and an infant. Research by Mary
Ainsworth and others suggests that attachment
relations fall into three categoriessecure,
avoidant, and anxious-ambivalentwhich depend on
how sensitive and responsive caregivers are to
their childrens needs. The feedback loops shown
in the diagram reflect the fact that babies are
not passive bystanders in the attachment drama
their reactions to caregivers can affect the
caregivers behavior. (Adapted from Shaver
Hazan, 1994)
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Figure 11.9 Day care in the United States. This
graph shows the distribution of child-care
arrangements in 1995 for children under age 5 who
were not enrolled in school. The percentages add
up to more than 100 because some children
experienced more than one type of care. As you
can see, about two-thirds of children receive
some type of day care. (Data from Scarr, 1998)
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Stage Theories of Development Personality

• Stage theories, three components
• Progress through stages in order
• Progress through stages related to age
• Major discontinuities in development
• Erik Erikson (1963)
• Eight stages spanning the life span
• Psychosocial crises determining balance between
  opposing polarities in personality

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Figure 11.10 Stage theories of development. Some
theories view development as a relatively
continuous process, albeit not as smooth and
perfectly linear as depicted on the left. In
contrast, stage theories assume that development
is marked by major discontinuities (as shown on
the right) that bring fundamental, qualitative
changes in capabilities or characteristic
behavior.
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Figure 11.1 Eriksons stage theory. Eriksons
theory of personality development posits that
people evolve through eight stages over the life
span. Each stage is marked by a psychosocial
crisis that involves confronting a fundamental
question, such as Who am I and where am I
going? The stages are described in terms of
alternative traits that are potential outcomes
from the crises. Development is enhanced when a
crisis is resolved in favor of the healthier
alternative (which is listed first for each
stage).
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Stage Theories Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget (1920s-1980s)
• 4 stages and major milestones
• Sensorimotor
• Object permanence
• Preoperational
• Centration, Egocentrism
• Concrete Operational
• Decentration, Reversibility, Conservation
• Formal Operational
• Abstraction

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Figure 11.12 Piagets stage theory. Piagets
theory of cognitive development identifies four
stages marked by fundamentally different modes of
thinking through which youngsters evolve. The
approximate age norms and some key
characteristics of thought at each stage are
summarized here.
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Figure 11.13 Piagets conservation task. After
watching the transformation shown, a
preoperational child will usually answer that the
taller beaker contains more water. In contrast,
the child in the concrete operations period tends
to respond correctly, recognizing that the amount
of water in beaker C remains the same as the
amount in beaker A.
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Figure 11.26 The nature of gender
differences. Gender differences are group
differences that indicate little about
individuals because of the great overlap between
the groups. For a given trait, one sex may score
higher on the average, but far more variation
occurs within each sex than between the sexes.
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Figure 11.27 The cerebral hemispheres and the
corpus callosum. In this drawing the cerebral
hemispheres have been pulled apart to reveal
the corpus callosum, the band of fibers that
connects the right and left halves of the brain.
Research has shown that the right and left
hemispheres are specialized to handle different
types of cognitive tasks (see Chapter 3), leading
some theorists to speculate that patterns of
hemispheric specialization might contribute to
gender differences in verbal and spatial
abilities.
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The Development of Moral Reasoning

• Kohlberg (1976)
• Reasoning as opposed to behavior
• Moral dilemmas
• Measured nature and progression of moral
  reasoning
• 3 levels, each with 2 sublevels
• Preconventional
• Conventional
• Postconventional

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Figure 11.16 Kohlbergs stage theory. Kohlbergs
model posits three levels of moral reasoning,
each of which can be divided into two stages.
This chart summarizes some of the key facets in
how individuals think about right and wrong at
each stage.
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Figure 11.17 Age and moral reasoning. The
percentages of different types of moral judgments
made by subjects at various ages are graphed here
(based on Kohlberg, 1963, 1969). As predicted,
preconventional reasoning declines as children
mature, conventional reasoning increases during
middle childhood, and postconventional reasoning
begins to emerge during adolescence. But at each
age, children display a mixture of various levels
of moral reasoning.
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Adolescence Puberty and the Growth Spurt

• Pubescence
• Puberty
• Secondary sex characteristics
• Primary sex characteristics
• Menarche
• Sperm production
• Maturation early vs. late
• Sex differences in effects of early maturation

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Figure 11.18 Physical development at
puberty. Hormonal changes during puberty lead not
only to a growth spurt but also to the
development of secondary sex characteristics. The
pituitary gland sends signals to the adrenal
glands and gonads (ovaries and testes), which
secrete hormones responsible for various physical
changes that differentiate males and females.
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Figure 11.19 Belskys analysis relating family
relations to sexual maturation. Based on his
evolutionary analysis of the possible
significance of infants attachment patterns,
Belsky hypothesized that stress in early family
relations (unresponsive, inconsistent parenting)
might accelerate sexual maturation, as outlined
here (Belsky, 1999b Belsky, Steinberg, Draper,
1991). Our Featured Study attempted to evaluate
this hypothesis as applied to girls in an
eight-year longitudinal study.
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The Search for Identity

• Erik Erikson (1968)
• Premier challenge of adolescence forming a
  sense of identity
• 4 identity statuses (Marcia, 1966, 1988)
• Foreclosure
• Moratorium
• Identity Diffusion
• Identity Achievement

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Figure 11.21 Marcias four identity
statuses. According to Marcia (1980), the
occurrence of an identity crisis and the
development of personal commitments can combine
into four possible identity statuses, as shown in
this diagram.
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Figure 11.20 Adolescent suicide. (a) In recent
decades, the suicide rate for adolescents and
young adults (1524 years old) has increased far
more than the suicide rate for the population as
a whole. (b) Nonetheless, suicide rates for this
youthful age group remain lower than suicide
rates for older age groups. (Source Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention)
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The Expanse of Adulthood

• Personality development
• Social development
• Career development
• Physical changes
• Cognitive changes

Launch Video
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Figure 11.23 Marital satisfaction across the
family life cycle. This graph depicts the
percentage of husbands and wives who said their
marriage was going well all the time at various
stages of the family life cycle. Rollins and
Feldman (1970) broke the family life cycle into
eight stages. The U -shaped relationship shown
here has been found in other studies as well,
although its relevance is limited to families
that have children in the traditional
childbearing years.
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Figure 11.28 Increasing father absence in the
United States. Since 1960 the percentage of U.S.
children who live in a home without their
biological father has risen steadily and probably
exceeds 40 today. (Data from Hernandez, 1993)
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