Life Span Development

1. Chapter 5: Development Life Span Development

2. Defining Terms • Developmental Psychology • Branch of psychology that specifically examines the physiological, cognitive, social, and emotional changes in an organism from conception to death. • Developmental Psychologists utilize a number of different methods of inquiry to gather this information.

3. Cross-Sectional Study Study people of different ages at the same point in time Advantages Inexpensive Can be completed quickly Low attrition Disadvantages Different age groups are not necessarily much alike Differences may be due to cohort differences rather than age

4. Longitudinal Study Study the same group of people over time Advantages Detailed information about subjects Developmental changes can be studied in detail Eliminates cohort differences Disadvantages Expensive and time consuming Potential for high attrition Differences over time may be due to assessment tools and not age

5. Biographical or Retrospective Study Participant’s past is reconstructed through interviews and other research about their life Advantages Great detail about life of individual In-depth study of one person Disadvantages Recall of individual may not be accurate Can be expensive and time consuming

6. Prenatal Development Prenatal - period of time from conception to birth Zygote – a fertilized egg with full set of genes Fewer than half survive first two weeks Divide into 100 cells by first week, then begin to differentiate Embryo From about two weeks after conception to three months after conception (most of first trimester) Organs begin to form; heartbeat Fetus (Latin: “offspring” or “young one”) Three months after conception to birth (second and third trimesters) Organs continue to form (6 months- stomach gives preemie a chance to survive); response to sounds Placenta Connects fetus to mother Brings oxygen and nutrients and takes away wastes

7. Prenatal Development • Teratogens • Any agent that causes a structural abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy • Cocaine, alcohol, tetracycline, x-rays, lithium, diazepam (Valium), HIV • Fetal alcohol syndrome (1 in 800) • Occurs in children of women who consume large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy • Symptoms include facial deformities, heart defects, stunted growth, and cognitive impairments • Teens whose mothers drank are at heavy risk for alcohol dependence

9. Prenatal Developmenthttp://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072495855/student_view0/chapter3/animation__fetal_development_and_risk.html Critical period Specific time during which an organism has to experience stimuli in order to progress through developmental stages properly. If period passes without proper stimulation/development, development is hindered permanently

10. The Newborn Babyaka NEONATE I WANT BACK IN!

11. The Competent Newborn: Reflexes • Rooting • Baby turns its head toward something that brushes its cheek and gropes around with mouth • Sucking • Newborn’s tendency to suck on objects placed in the mouth • Swallowing • Enables newborn babies to swallow liquids without choking • Grasping • Close fist around anything placed in their hand • Stepping • Stepping motions made by an infant when held upright • Babinski • Stroke bottom of foot – toes fan and curl • Moro • Drop baby unexpectedly (?!) or make loud noise and it will throw arms out, arch back and then grasp for something • Crawling • Place neonate on stomach and press down on soles of feet – arms and legs move rhythmically

12. The Competent Newborn: Temperament Temperament refers to characteristic patterns of emotional reactions and emotional self-regulation Thomas and Chess identified three basic types of babies (1977) + Kagan (1988) added a fourth Easy Good-natured, easy to care for, adaptable Difficult Moody and intense, react to new situations and people negatively and strongly Slow-to-warm-up Inactive and slow to respond to new things, and when they do react, it is mild Shy Child Timid and inhibited, fearful of anything new or strange Temperament may predict later disposition

13. The Competent Newborn: Sensory Learning • In addition to reflexes present at birth, neonates also have the ability to learn • Habituation - basic type of learning involving decreased response to a stimulus judged to be of no importance/novelty • Habituation Example • Visual learning – focus on FACES • Olfactory learning – fully functioning; smell of mother • Auditory learning – response to mothers voice • Taste – Fully functioning; preference for sweets!

14. Novelty-Preference Procedure Knowing that babies prefer faces, which image below would they prefer?

15. The Competent Newborn:Visual Perception Clear for 8-10 inches Good vision by 6 months Depth perception Visual cliff research Despite his mother’s beckoning, an infant hesitates to cross the “visual cliff”—an apparently steep drop that is actually covered by transparent glass. Most infants 6 to 14 months of age were reluctant to crawl over the cliff, suggesting they had the ability to perceive depth. The ability to perceive depth is partly innate and partly a product of early visual experience. Dude. I’m not going that way! The Visual Cliff

16. Perception of Scale

17. Perception of Scale

18. Infancy and Childhood Stop touching me. Ooh. How did you get your hair so silky soft?

19. Physical Development: Body and Brain Children grow about 10 inches and gain about 15 pounds in first year Growth occurs in spurts, as much as 1 inch overnight! Growth slows during second year Neural “pruning and paving”

20. Motor and Memory Development Developmental norms Ages by which an average child achieves various developmental milestones Occurs in a proximodistal and cephalocaudal manner “Back to Sleep” movement to reduce SIDS may delay crawling Maturation Automatic biological unfolding of development in an organism as a function of passage of time Relatively uninfluenced by experience Memory not solidified until after 3rd birthday Known as “infantile amnesia” Development of hippocampus?

21. Cognitive Development • Cognition – all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating • Jean Piaget • Cognitive developmental psychologist who studied intellectual development in children • Stage-based theory of cognitive development • Intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through • Formation of schemas – mental frameworks • Assimilation – using an existing schema to understand a new situation • Accommodation – modifying schemas to incorporate new information • Adjusting schemas (equilibration) when new information doesn’t fit existing ones (disequilibrium)

22. Piaget’s Stages of Development Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 years) Take in world through senses Object permanence and the A not B error Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) Egocentrism; intuitive over logical reasoning Development of a theory of mind, ideas about their own and others’ cognitions and their resulting behaviors The Mountain problem, Mountain Problem Video Concrete Operations (7-11 years) Logical reasoning about concrete events Principles of conservation ; Conservation Video Formal Operations (12 through adulthood) Hypothetical problems solving Understand abstract ideas

23. Piaget’s Stages - Summary

24. Criticisms of Piaget's Theory Many developmental theorists such as Vygotsky questioned the assumption that there are distinct stages in cognitive development Criticism of notion that infants do not understand world Piaget may have underestimated influence of social interaction in cognitive development Lev Vygotsky believed development was a function of social interaction

25. Social Development: Attachment Stranger Anxiety Appears around 8 months – coincides with mobility Protective mechanism Attachment through Contact Humans form a bond with those who care for them in infancy Based upon interaction with caregiver Harry Harlow’s work: role of physical contact in attachment Attachment through Familiarity Imprinting (Lorenz): 1:07. tendency to follow the first moving thing seen as the basis of attachment Occurs in many species of animals in a critical period Top: Harlow’s experiment; Bottom: Lorenz and imprinting

26. Social Development: Attachment Attachment Differences Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Secure attachment: Explores freely while the mother is present, will engage with strangers, will be visibly upset when the mother departs, and happy to see the mother return. Anxious-ambivalent insecure attachment: Anxious of exploration and of strangers, even when mother is present. When mother departs, the child is extremely distressed. The child will be ambivalent when she returns, seeking to remain close to the mother but resentful, and also resistant when the mother initiates attention. Anxious-avoidant insecure attachment: Avoids or ignores mother - showing little emotion when the mother departs or returns. Will not explore much regardless of who is there. Strangers not treated much differently from mother. Not much emotional range displayed. Erikson’s “Basic Trust” Deprivation of Attachment Impact of denying infant monkeys physical comfort from their mother Cases of “Genie” and “Victor” Daycare?

27. Self Concept and Parenting Styles • Self Concept: understanding of who we are • If infants can achieve attachment, children must achieve a positive self concept • Develops gradually in first year “Mirror Test” • By 18 months, children know THEY are the image in the mirror, and that it is not another person • Children with a positive self concept are more confident, assertive, optimistic, and sociable, but how is this achieved? • Diana Baumrind’s 4 Parenting Styles may help explain… • Authoritarian – demanding not responsive • Permissive – not demanding but responsive • Neglectful – not demanding, not responsive • Authoritative – demanding and responsive • Impact of parenting styles on children? • Authoritative appears to be best, but… • Correlational NOT causational research! Mirror Test

28. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles: Comparison

29. Relationships With Other Children Solitary play Children first play by themselves Parallel play As they get older, children play side-by-side with other children, but not interacting Cooperative play By about 3 or 3½, children begin playing with others Peer group A network of same-aged friends and acquaintances who give one another emotional and social support When children start school, peers begin to have greater influence Parallel Play vs. Cooperative Play

30. Sex-Role Development Gender identity Knowledge of being a boy or girl Occurs by age 3 Gender constancy Child realizes that gender cannot change Occurs by age 4 or 5 Gender-role awareness Knowing appropriate behavior for each gender Gender stereotypes Beliefs about presumed characteristics of each gender Sex-typed behavior Socially defined ways to behave different for boys and girls May be at least partly biological in origin

31. Adolescence

32. The Nature of Adolescence • A “Carefree Time” vs. G. Stanley Hall’s “Storm and Stress” • The American experience? • Trends today? • Cultural differences?

33. Physical Changes Growth spurt Begins about age 10½ in girls and about 12½ in boys Sexual development Primary (reproductive) vs. Secondary (non-reproductive) sexual characteristics Puberty Onset of sexual maturation Menarche First menstrual period for girls Neurological changes – frontal lobe maturation

34. Physical Changes: Sexual Activity Early and late developers: Implications? Adolescent sexual activity Approximately ¾ of males and ½ of females between 15 and 19 have had intercourse Average age for first intercourse is 16 for boys and 17 for girls Teenage pregnancy Rate of teen pregnancy has fallen in the last 50 years Highest in U.S. of all industrialized nations

35. Cognitive Changes Frontal Lobe (cont.) Hypocrisy Idea of self vs. society Hyperaware of others’ perceptions (self concept shifts to includes others’ thoughts) David Elkind’s Theories Imaginary audience: delusion that everyone else is always focused on them Personal fable: delusion that they are unique and very important Invulnerability Nothing can harm them Reckless behavior

36. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development Preconventional (preadolescence) “Good” behavior is mostly to avoid punishment or seek reward Conventional (adolescence) Behavior is about pleasing others and, in later adolescence, becoming a good citizen Postconventional (adulthood...maybe) Emphasis is on abstract principles such as justice, equality, and liberty

37. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development The “Heinz Dilemma” A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have broken into the store to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not? The response is not as important as the reasoning WHY in determining which stage of moral reasoning a person is in

38. Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory Research shows that many people never progress past the conventional level Theory maintains that our rationale remains consistent – does it? Theory does not take cultural differences into account Theory is considered by some to be sexist in that girls often scored lower on tests of morality

39. Personality and Social Development Major task in adolescence is identity formation (progresses through college) Forming an identity (James Marcia, 1980) Achievement Successfully find identity Foreclosure Settle for identity others wish for them (images in society/parents plant) Moratorium Explore various identities, but unable to commit Diffusion Unable to “find themselves” – refusal to deal with the task; escapist techniques Different “selves” conflicting (i.e. having friends over) causes stress- unification occurs when you’ve become comfortable with one that fits all (or most) Erikson’s 8 Psychosocial Stages Identity vs. Role Confusion (teens to early 20s) Intimacy vs. Isolation (early 20s to early 40s)

40. Personality and Social Development Relationships with peers Adolescents often form cliques, or groups with similar interests and strong mutual attachment Relationships with parents Adolescents test and question every rule and guideline from parents (can sniff out hypocrisy) Can be a difficult time for parents AND children Relative influence?

41. Some Issues of Adolescence Declines in self-esteem Related to appearance Satisfaction in appearance is related to higher self-esteem Depression and suicide Rate of suicide among adolescents has increased 600% since 1950, but has leveled off since ’90s Suicide often related to depression, drug abuse, disruptive behaviors, or child abuse Youth Violence- tried as adults? (remember the frontal lobe) Emerging Adulthood – trends in lengthening this period

42. Adulthood

43. Love, Partnerships, and Parenting Forming partnerships First major event of adulthood is forming and maintaining close relationships Erikson’s Intimacy vs. Isolation Parenthood Having children alters dynamics of relationships Marital satisfaction often declines after birth of child

44. Marital Satisfaction

45. Other Issues… The World of Work Balancing career and family obligations is a challenge Many adults define who they are by what they do Cognitive Changes Fluid intelligence declines with old age Crystallized intelligence does NOT decline, and even can increase as learning continues throughout life Personality Changes Less self-centered, better coping skills Some men and women have a midlife crisis (or midlife transition) Empty Nest Myth Many parents report feeling a sense of relief when their children move out!

46. Late Adulthood

47. Physical Changes In late adulthood, physical deterioration is inevitable As early as the twenties, strength, reaction times, sensory abilities and cardiac capacity decline, though in late adulthood we may finally notice Menopause and the end of fertility

48. Social Development Independent and satisfying lifestyles – Erikson’s Generativity vs. Stagnation Retirement Most people will stop working and face challenges with that sudden change Redefining of self Marital satisfaction Sexual behavior Research shows that many older couples continue to be sexually active It is not until age 75 that half of men and most women report a complete loss of interest in sex I can’t wait to swill my whiskey from this vessel! I’m too cool for ceramics

49. Cognitive Changes Research has demonstrated that those who continue to “exercise” their mental abilities can delay mental decline Even PHYSICAL exercise seems to have a positive impact on cognitive maintenance However, Alzheimer’s disease afflicts approximately 10% of people over 65 and perhaps as many as 50% of those over 90 Checkmate, Sucka!

50. Facing the End of Life Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of grief/death Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance Giraffe: Stages of Dying Erikson’s Integrity vs. Despair