Chapter 5: Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology• The study of physical, cognitive, and social

change throughout the life span• Life span - conception through old age till

death• Stages of life• Prenatal,

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Infancy, Childhood,

Adulthood.Adolescence,

• Three major issues: Nature/nurture

– How much do genetic inheritance and experience influence development?

Continuity/stages

– Is development a continuous process or does it proceed through separate stages?

Stability/change

– To what extent do our personality traits persist through life?

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Social Development• Attachment - an emotional

tie with another person

• Harlow’s research with monkeys

• What is the source of attachment in monkeys?

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• Body contact/contact comfort.

• Other Harlow monkey studies

• What effect did inadequate mothering have on social development?

• Could surrogate raised females become adequate mothers?

• Critical period -

• An optimal period shortly after birth when exposure to certain experiences produces proper development

• Harlow’s monster mothers.5

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Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory• Emphasizes social factors in development, rather

than sexual factors

• Life span theory - 8 stages

• Stages - genetically/biologically/maturationally determined

• Each stage - crisis/turning point

• How crisis is resolved - social environment.

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Erikson’s 8 Stages:1) Trust vs. Mistrust (1st year of life)

• “a pervasive attitude toward oneself and the world”.

• Adequate love and attention - the world is a good place. People are loving. I am lovable

• Optimism develops

• Optimism carries over to other stages

• Negative resolution - pessimism, mistrust.

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2) Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (2nd year)

• Express will in acceptable ways

• Terrible twos

• Feel confident/independent & learn self-control

• Must learn to express will and control impulses

• Problem for parents?

• Negative resolution - shame and doubt.

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3) Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years)

• Extension of second stage

• Successful resolution leads to ambition and purpose

• Child - extremely curious

• Child can take the initiative

• If initiative thwarted, guilt may develop

• Problem for parents?

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4) Industry vs. Inferiority (Elementary School)

• Must learn that success comes through work

• School age child faces learning tasks; reading, writing, arithmetic, and learning to relate to peers

• If failure is accentuated, inferiority develops

• Problems for parents and teachers?

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5) Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence)

• Must begin defining self-making commitments

• Must make commitments in three areas: 1. Career direction

2. Mature adult-like relationships

3. Philosophy of life

• If direction cannot be found, confusion results.

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6) Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood)

• Note: intimacy follows identity

• Must learn how to be close in a healthy way in both romantic encounters and friendships

• Are you mature enough to be open with others about who you are without being threatened by differences which may exist?

• Failure to develop mature intimacy leads to isolation - superficial relationships.

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7) Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood)

• Generous with time and attention in relation to nurturing others

• Time to give back

• Negative resolution: stagnated, self-centered

• Are so absorbed with self, they cannot reach out to others in a healthy way.

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8) Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood)

• Looking back on life with satisfaction leads to sense of good feeling (integrity)

• Life has been good, perhaps hard, but good. “I made the best of it.”

• Looking back, with many regrets leads to despair.

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive -

• Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering

• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

• Piaget - how an individual’s thinking ability changed throughout development.

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• Schema -

• A concept (mental framework) that helps us organize and interpret experience

• Example: dog schema or concept

• Assimilation -

• Interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas

• Example.

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• Accommodation -

• Modifying one’s current schemas to include new information . . .

and/or creating new schemas

• Examples

• Cognitive development involves constant interaction between assimilation and accommodation.

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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage - birth to 2 years

• Experiences world through senses and responds (motor responses)

• Examples: seeing, touching, responding

• Object permanence develops – 8 months

• Stranger anxiety noted.

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• Infants may know more than Piaget thought

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• One-month-old infants sucked on one of two pacifiers without seeing it. When they were later shown both pacifiers, they looked mostly at the one they had felt in their mouth.

• Five-month-old infants were shown one or two objects, which were then hidden behind a screen. Then an object was either removed or added through a trap door. When screen was then lifted, infants stared longer when shown a wrong number of objects.

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• Preoperational Stage - about 2 - 7 years

• Represents objects with words and mental images. Much language development

• Mental operations are mistake prone

• Lacks complex reasoning - preoperational

• Exhibits egocentrism - unable to take another’s point of view

• Does not understand conservation

• Amount remains the same even though form changes (ex. volume, mass). Example

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• Conservation -

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Conservation of Liquid

Conservation of Number

• Concrete Operational Stage - 7 - 11 years

• Mental operations performed concerning things which are concrete or easily visualized (shows more logical reasoning)

• Better understanding of number and math

• Difficulty thinking abstractly. Example

• Demonstrates understanding of conservation.

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• Formal Operational Stage - 12+

• Abstract reasoning begins

• Can perform mental operations even if problems involve things which are not present or easily visualized

• The person can test and form hypotheses

• Potential for mature, moral reasoning.

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