Developmental Psychology: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Change Throughout Life

1. DevelopmentalPsychology Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 4 Taken from…James A. McCubbin, PhD Clemson University Worth Publishers

2. The Developing Person • Developmental Psychology • Branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span • Research centers on 3 major issues • Nature / Nurture • Continuity / Stages • Stability / Change

3. Conception • Conception • Ovary releases a mature egg (ovum) • Sperm are released (approx. 200 million) • Digestive enzymes – help sperm to eat away at the egg’s protective coating • As one sperm enters, the egg’s surface blocks remaining sperm; fertilization usually takes place in the fallopian tube • Egg nucleus and sperm nucleus fuse (roughly ½ a day)

4. Taken from Essentials Psychology II Conception • Conception • Every female egg contains an X chromosome • Every male sperm contains either an X or a Y chromosome. • At conception if the sperm contains a Y chromosome, the offspring will be XY or male; if the sperm contains an X chromosome, then the offspring will be XX or female

5. Taken from Essentials Psychology II Conception • Genotype • An individual’s genetic makeup • Phenotype • How a given genotype is expressed (ie. what the person looks like or how the person behaves) • Occurs as a result of an interaction between genotype and environmentDominant genes are expressed in an individual’s phenotype whenever they are present in the genotype. Recessive genes are expressed in an individual’s phenotype only when they are paired with a similar recessive gene.

6. Conception

7. Parts added from Essentials Psychology II Stages of Prenatal Development • Zygote (Essentials refers to it as Ovum or Germinal stage) • the fertilized egg; cell division takes place (as it is travelling down the fallopian tube to the uterus where it will attach to the uterine wall) • Placenta – provides nourishment and allows wastes to pass out • Umbilical cord – carries nourishment from and waste to the placenta • Embryo • the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month; organs begin to form and function • Amniotic sac – fluid-filled sac; surrounds the embryo to serve as protection and provide a constant temperature • Major birth defects are often due to problems that occur during this stage • Fetus • the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth • Muscles and bones form; vital organs continue to grow and function; brain develops rapidly

8. Chart from Essentials Psychology II Stages of Prenatal Development

9. Prenatal Development • The embryo grows and develops rapidly. After 40 days, the spine is visible and the arms and legs are beginning to grow. • 5 days later, the inch-long embryo’s proportions have begun to change. The rest of the body is now bigger than the head, and the arms and legs have grown noticeably.

10. Prenatal Development • By the end of the second month, when the fetal period begins, facial features, hands, and feet have formed. • As the fetus enters the fourth month, its 3 ounces could fit in the palm of your hand.

11. Prenatal Development • At each prenatal stage, genetic and environmental factors affect our development • Teratogens • Agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenataldevelopment and cause harm • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) • Physical and cognitive • abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking

12. Parts taken from Essentials Psychology II The Competent Newborn • Reflexes (involuntary responses to stimuli) • Moro – extension of arms when infant feels a loss of support • Palmar – hand grasp • Rooting - A baby’s tendency, when touched on the check, to open the mouth and search for the nipple These reflexes disappear over the course of the first year of life. • Social Responsiveness • Turn our heads in the direction of human voices • Gaze longer at face-like images • Prefer to look at objects 8-12 inches away Through Habituation

13. Infancy and Childhood • Infancy = newborn to toddlerNewborn infant referred to as “neonate” • Childhood = toddler to teenager • Maturation • Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience • Maturation sets the basic course of development; experience adjusts it • Infant memory • our earliest memories are seldom before the age of 3

14. Infancy and Childhood Drawings of human cerebral cortex sections

15. Some info added from Essentials Psychology II Infancy and Childhood Roll, crawl, walk, run—the sequence of these motor development milestones is the same around the world, though babies reach them at varying ages. • Motor Development Proximodistal Principle Describes the center-outward direction of motor development Children gain control of their torso before their extremities (sit before stand) Cephalocaudal Principle Describes the head-to-foot direction of motor development Children tend to gain control over the upper portions of their bodies before the lower part (reach and grasp before walking)

16. Cognitive Development • Jean Piaget • Schema (concept) • A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information • Assimilation • Interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schema’s • Accommodation • Adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

17. Assimilation & Accommodation Assimilation and Accommodation are the two complementary processes of ADAPTATION described by Piaget, through which awareness of the outside world is internalized.   http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm

18. Assimilation & Accommodation In Assimilation… If you are familiar with databases, you can think of it this way: your mind has its database already built, with its fields and categories already defined. If it comes across new information which fits into those fields, it can assimilate it without any trouble. In Accommodation… In the database analogy, it is like what happens when you try to put in information which does not fit the pre-existent fields and categories. You have to develop new ones to accommodate the new information. http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm

19. Assimilation & Accommodation http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm

20. Assimilation & Accommodation

21. Accommodation & Assimilation 1sttest thatneeds filing Every test that follows John Must label with NAMEand the FILE

22. Cognitive Development

23. Cognitive Development • Cognition • All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating • Sensorimotor Stage(0 to 2 years) • The stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities • Intelligence is nonsymbolic (the child cannot mentally represent objects or events) • Object permanence • The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

24. Cognitive Development • Preoperational Stage(2 to 6 years) • The stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic • Children have several limitations during this stage… • Centration • Tendency to focus on one detail in a situation to the neglect of other important features • Conservation • The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects • Egocentrism • The inability of the preoperational child to take another’s point of view • Theory of Mind • People’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict

25. Cognitive Development • Conservation (or lack there of)

26. Cognitive Development • Autism • A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communications, social interaction, and understanding of others’ states of mind

27. Some info added from Essentials Psychology II Cognitive Development • Concrete Operational Stage(7 to 11 years) • The stage during which children gain the mental operations thatenable them to think logically about concrete concepts • Mathematical operations develop during this stage • Children are limited because thinking can only be applied to concrete objects/events… difficulty dealing with hypothetical problems Conservation now understood at this stage.

28. Some info added from Essentials Psychology II Cognitive Development • Formal Operational Stage(12 years to adulthood) • The stage during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts • Can handle hypothetical problems • Scientific reasoning is possible… isolate a problem, review it systematically, and figure out all possible solutions • Capable of understanding and appreciating the symbolic abstractions of algebra and literary criticism, as well as the use of metaphors

29. From Essentials Psychology II Cognitive Development • Criticisms of Piaget • His underestimation of children’s cognitive abilities • Studies have shown that children are capable of performing many tasks at earlier ages than Piaget predicted • Piaget also paid little attention to individual differences… some aspects of his theory (ie. formal operations) may be culturally specific

30. From Essentials Psychology II Social Development • Temperament • A child’s characteristic mood and activity level • Easy Infants (40%) • Adaptable to new situations; predictability in their rhythmicity or schedule; positive in their mood • Difficult Infants (10%) • Intense in their reactions; not very adaptable to new situations; slightly negative mood; irregular bodily rhythms • Slow-to-warm-up Infants (15%) • Initially withdraw when approached, but later may “warm up”; slow to adapt to new situations • Average Infants (35%) • Did not fit into any of the above categories New York Longitudinal Study (1956) – Stella Chess, Alexander Thomas, Herbert Birch

31. Social Development • Stranger anxiety • the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age • Attachment • emotional tie with another person • shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

32. Social Development • Origins of attachment • Body Contact • Familiarity • Responsive Parenting

33. Social Development • Body Contact • Harry Harlow’s monkey experiment (next slide) • Human infants become attached to parents who are soft and warm and who rock, feed, and pat

34. Social Development http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsA5Sec6dAI&feature=player_detailpage

35. Social Development • Familiarity • Critical period • An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development • For humans, bonding & attachment behavior(years v. hours w/ animals) • Can be in the womb, as well (ie. if legs don’t form then, they never will) • Imprinting • The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

36. Social Development • Responsive Parenting • Secure attachment • Insecure attachment Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror - stricken when placed in strange situations without their surrogate mothers. (Today's climate of greater respect for animal welfare prevents such primate studies.)

37. From Essentials Psychology II Mary Ainsworth - Attachment Studies • Secure Attachments • Children use parent as secure basefrom which they explore their environment. They become upset if parent leaves the room but are glad to see the parent when the parent returns. • Insecure Attachments • Anxious-Ambivalent • Tent not to use parent as a secure base (and may often cling or refuse to leave parent). They become very upset when parent leaves and may often appear angry or become upset when parent returns. • Avoidant • These children seek little contact with parent and are not concerned when parent leaves. Usually avoid interaction when parent returns. • Ainsworth and her colleagues found they could distinguish 3 categories of attachments based on the quality of the infant-caregiver interactions http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QTsewNrHUHU

38. Social Development • Effects of Attachment • Secure attachment predicts social competence • Basic trust (Erikson) – a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy • Deprivation of attachment • Romanian orphanages during the 1980’s • Institutionalized more than 8 months – lasting emotional scars

39. Social Development • Effects of Attachment • Disruption of attachment • Monkey and human infants become upset and, before long, withdrawn and even despairing • Detachment is a process, not an event • Does daycare disrupt attachment? • Children are “biologically sturdy individuals… who can thrive in a wide variety of life situations.” • Ongoing study of 1100 children from 1 month to 4½ to 6: slightly advanced thinking and language skills, but also had increased rate of aggressive and defiance

40. Social Development • Self-concept • A sense of one’s identity and personal wealth

41. Social Development • A child’s self-concept gradually strengthens with self-recognition (mirror) • By school age, children start to describe themselves in terms of their gender, group memberships

42. Some info from Essentials Psychology II Social Development • Childrearing Practices (according to Diana Baumrind) • Authoritarian • Impose rules; expect obedience; use punishment to control behavior; less likely to be affectionate • Children tend to be unhappy, distrustful, ineffective in social interactions, and often become dependent adults • Permissive • Submit to their children’s desires, make few demands, and use little or inconsistent punishment • Children tend to be immature, lack self-control, and explore less • Authoritative • Both demanding and responsive; affectionate and loving; provide control when necessary and set limits; allow children to express their own point of view—engage in verbal give and take • Children tend to be self-reliant, competent, and socially responsible

43. From Essentials Psychology II Gender Development • Social Learning Theory • Proposes that children learn gender roles because they are rewarded for appropriate behavior and punished for inappropriate gender role behaviors. Children also watch and imitate the behaviors of others. • Cognitive Theory • Kohlberg argued that children learn about gender the dame way they acquire other cognitive concepts. (See following slide for steps.) • Psychoanalytic (or Freud’s) Theory • Proposes that children establish their gender-role identity as a result of identification with their same sex parent.

44. From Essentials Psychology II Gender Development • Cognitive Theory • First, preschool children acquire gender identity, identifying themselves as male or female • Next, they classify others, activities, objects, etc. as male or female • Once gender concepts are acquired, children engage in gender-typed behavior—preferring same-gender playmates, activities, etc. • Kohlberg proposed that preschool children lack gender constancy—they do not understand that a person’s gender stays the same despite changes in outward physical appearance

45. Adolescence and Adulthood • Adolescence • the transition period from childhood to adulthood • Puberty • the period of sexual maturation when one first becomes capable of reproduction

46. Adolescence and Adulthood • Primary Sex Characteristics • body structures that make sexual reproduction possible • Secondary Sex Characteristics • nonreproductive sexual characteristics • Menarche(meh-NAR-key) • first menstrual period • Spermarche • first ejaculation; usually a nocturnal emission

47. Boys Girls Adolescence and Adulthood (Approx. ages 11-14) Height in centimeters • Throughout childhood, boys and girls are similar in height. At puberty, girls surge ahead briefly, but then boys overtake them at about age 14. 190 170 150 130 110 90 70 50 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Age in years

48. Adolescence and Adulthood • G. Stanley Hall – “Storm and Stress” • Frontal lobe development • Pubertal hormonal surge and limbic system development • Occasional impulsiveness, risky behaviors, emotional storms—doors slamming, sexual misconduct, driving fast, etc. • The brain that you start adolescence with is not the brain you will end it with  • fMRI scans of university students • Immediate rewards – limbic system activated • Delayed reward – calculating frontal lobe more strongly activated • 2004 US Supreme Court Case • Death penalty & juveniles aged 16 & 17 (ruled against it stating that it was considered cruel & unusual… compared it to an earlier ruling against the death penalty for mental retarded individuals)

49. Some info added for Essentials Psychology II Moral Development • Developing Morality • Lawrence Kohlberg (1981) • Moral reasoning • His theory describes how individuals pass through a series of 3 levels of moral development, each of which can be broken into 2 sublevels, resulting in 6 stages • Criticisms of Kohlberg • The theory may be better at describing the development of male morality than of the female • Development may not be as orderly and uniform as his theory suggests (ie. it is not unusual to find individuals who are reasoning at several adjacent levels at the same time) • Theory describes moral reasoning, but does not predict moral behavior

50. Chart from Essentials Psychology II