The Developing Person Cognitive (thinking) development Social development Moral Development...

The Developing Person

Cognitive (thinking) development

Social developmentMoral Development

Psychosocial DevelopmentAging

Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget Sensorimotor (0-2 years)

Object Permanence Preoperational (2-7 years)

Conservation of Matter Egocentric

Concrete operations (7-12 years) Concrete objects

Formal operations (12 to adult) Abstract thought

Social Development

• How do we develop social bonds? Body contact Familiarity Self Concept

Body contact

• Harlow monkey studies• Wire mother & terrycloth mother

Preferred non-nourishing cloth mother

Familiarity

• Critical period• Imprinting

Birds forming attachment during the critical period

Parental attachment

• Toddlers with secure attachments to parents: More sociable More enthusiastic and persistent in

tackling challenging tasks.

Self concept

• Parenting Authoritarian

Impose rules & expect obedience Permissive

Go along with child’s desires Authoritative

Discusses and negotiates rules Produce more self-confident children

Moral Development

• Kohlberg - Moral development• Preconventional

Obey to gain rewards or avoid punishment

• Conventional Respect for laws and rules simply

because they are there• Postconventional

Abstract reasoning-rights and ethics

Morality and social influence

• Social influence effects whether or not we will act on our morality.

• Eg. The best predictor of a H.S. student using drugs, is the number of the student’s friends that use drugs.

Erickson’s eight stages of Psychosocial Development• Infancy = Trust vs mistrust• Toddler = Autonomy vs Shame & doubt• Preschooler = Initiative vs guilt• Elementary school =

Competence vs inferiority• Adolescence = Identity vs. role confusion• Young adult = Intimacy vs. isolation• Middle adult = Generativity vs. stagnation• Late adulthood = Integrity vs. despair

Integrity achieved in late adulthood One’s life has been meaningful

Adulthood and aging

• Alzheimer’s disease Deterioration of the brain

Effects memory and thinking Difficulty in naming familiar objects or

people Linked to genetic abnormalities Linked to activity (Use it or lose it)

• Crystallized intelligence Accumulated knowledge Increases with age

• Fluid intelligence Ability to reason and solve problems Decreases with age

Aging and memory

• The “social clock” The feeling that events in life regularly

occur at specific ages. Graduation, marriage, children, retirement,

etc. Varies greatly from culture to culture No biological basis for timing of events

Aging and Society