Development

1. Development

2. Developmental Psych – what is it? • Branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span • Much research centers on three issues: • Nature vs. nurture – how do genetic inheritance and experience influence development? • Continuity and stages – is development gradual and continuous or does it proceed through a series of stages? • Stability and change – do our early personality traits persist through life or do we become different people as we age?

3. Prenatal Development and the Newborn • Prenatal development • zygote – fertilized egg; conception to two weeks • embryo – developing human organism from 2 weeks after conception through 2nd month • fetus – developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth • teratogens – harmful substances (chemicals, viruses) that can cause harm to the embryo or fetus during prenatal development • fetal alcohol syndrome – physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by heavy drinking during pregnancy

4. Newborn • Researchers study what babies are capable of through habituation – a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation • Infant pays attention to a new stimulus but loses interest the more often it is presented

5. Infancy and Childhood:Physical development • Brain development • Have most of the brain cells you’ll ever have at birth but neural networks grow with age • Association areas (linked with thinking, memory and language) are last to develop • Motor development • Sequence is universal (roll over, sit, crawl, walk) but there are individual differences in timing • Genes play a major role in motor development

6. Infantile amnesia - our earliest memories seldom predate our 3rd birthday • Hippocampus is not yet developed • Toddlers don’t have the language to index memory

7. Infancy and Childhood:Cognitive Development Jean Piaget Believed the mind was not a miniature model of an adult but developed in a series of stages Maturing brain builds schemas - concept or framework that organizes and interprets information Assimilation - interpreting new experiences in terms of our existing schemas Thinking all four-legged animals are cows Accommodation - adjusting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information Adjusting schema for four-legged animal to include a moose

9. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development • Sensorimotor stage - birth to nearly age 2 • Babies take in the world through their senses and actions • Young infants lack object permanence - awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived • Develops by 8 months but gradually

10. Preoperational stage - age 2 to 7 Child learns to use language but doesn’t yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic Develop conservation - principle that properties (mass, volume and number) remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects Display egocentrism - difficulty in taking another’s view Lose this when they develop theory of mind - the ability to take another’s perspective

11. The impossible outcome

12. Theory of mind

13. Concrete operational - 6 or 7 to 11 Children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events Can understand conservation and mathematical transformations Formal operational - age 12 on Children begin to think logically about abstract concepts Piaget’s legacy Identified specific milestones and sparked interest in cognitive development Today’s researchers see development as more continuous See formal logic as a smaller part of cognition

14. Infancy and childhood:Social Development • Around 8 months infants develop stranger anxiety - fear of strangers • Peaks around 13 months • Develop attachment with caregivers who provide them with love and comfort • Harlow monkey study (1950s) • Critical period - optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development • Children prefer familiarity

15. Attachment Differences: Temperament and Parenting Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation Secure attachment 60% Play in mother’s presence Are distressed when she leaves Seek contact with her when she comes back Insecure attachment Less likely to explore and may cling to mom Either cry or are indifferent when she leaves and returns Is attachment the result of parenting or temperament - characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

16. Many researchers believe early attachments form foundation for our adult relationships Most abusers were abused as children but most abused children do not become abusive adults Self-concept - our understanding and evaluation of who we are Developed by age 12 Parenting styles Authoritarian - impose rules and expect obedience Permissive - submit to children’s wishes; make few demands and use little punishment Authoritative - demanding and responsive Results in highest self-esteem, self-reliance and social competence

17. Nature of Gender X chromosome - sex chromosome found in both men and women; females have 2, men have 1 Y chromosome - sex chromosome found only in men Triggers production of the testes and testosterone

18. Nurture of Gender Role - set of expectations about a social position defining how those in that position ought to behave Gender role - set of expected behaviors for males or for females Gender identity - our sense of being male or female Gender typing - acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role Social learning theory - theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished

19. Adolescence: Physical development • Transition period from childhood to adulthood • Primary sex characteristics - body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genetalia) that make sexual reproduction possible • Secondary sex characteristics - nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips and male voice quality and body hair • Menarche - first menstrual period

20. Adolescence: Cognitive development Lawrence Kohlberg’s Levels of Morality: Preconventional morality Before age 9 Focused primarily on self-interests Obey rules to either avoid punishment or gain rewards Conventional morality Early adolescence Focuses on caring for others Uphold laws and social rules, simply because they are laws and social rules Postconventional morality Actions are judged “right” because they flow from people’s rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionist account of morality Moral feelings precede moral reasoning

21. Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

22. Adulthood: Physical development Menopause - time of natural cessation of menstruation Usually within a few years of 50 Men experience no equivalent but do experience a gradual decline in sperm count Distance perception and adaptation, vision muscle strength, reaction time, stamina, sense of smell and hearing decrease with age Become more susceptible to life-threatening ailments (cancer, pneumonia) but less susceptible to short-term ailments Alzheimers - loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce acetylcholine

23. Adulthood: Cognitive development • Cross-sectional study - study in which people of different ages are compared with one another • Longitudinal study - research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period • Crystallized intelligence - our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills • Tends to increase with age • Fluid intelligence - our ability to reason speedily and abstractly • Tends to decrease during late adulthood

24. Adulthood: Social development Social clock - culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood and retirement