DevelopmentHow do you become YOU?

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology: the study of continuity and change across a human’s life span

Prenatality, Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood

Question: Who do you think is happier, an infant, an adolescent, or an adult?

Prenatal DevelopmentZygote: single cell that contains chromosomes from both a sperm and an egg

Germinal Stage: two-week period that begins at conceptionThe zygote divides exponentially

Embryonic Stage: a period that lasts from the second week until about the eighth week

Embryo has a beating heart, arms and legs, is one inch long

Testosterone masculinizes embryo, lack of T feminizes

Fetal Stage: a period that lasts from the ninth week until birth

Myelination: the formation of a fatty sheaths around the axons of a brain cell

Zygote

Germinal Stage

Embryonic Stage

Fetal Stage

Prenatal Environment

The womb is an ENVIRONMENT, isn’t neutral

Teratogens: agents that damage the process of development in the womb

Lead in water, paint dust in air, mercury in fish, tobacco, alcohol

Effect depends on the developmental stage at which they are encountered

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: a developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Infancy

Motor development: emergence of the ability to execute physical actions

Reflexes: infants are born with some peculiar onesRooting reflex: searching for object that touches cheek

Sucking reflex: infants will suck an any object placed in their mouths

Grasping reflex: a baby will grasp on object placed in feet or hands

Moro reflex: when startled, babies retract limbs

Babinski reflex: babies spread toes when feet are stroked

Some Reflexes

Infancy (2)

Limited range of visionDetail a newborn can see at 20 ft is equivalent to the same level an adult sees at 600 ft

Can follow stimuli with their eyes

Can distinguish stimuli they have seen before from those they have not

Habituation

Newborns mimic facial expressions in their first HOUR of life

Jean Piaget & Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget: Swiss biologist, father of developmental psychology

Cognitive Development: the emergence of the ability to understand the world

Piaget’s Stages: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, formal operational stage

Children ALWAYS pass through them in order

Not all reach the final stages

Children graduate from stage to stage

Sensorimotor Stage

SchemasRules that are developed over time, allow children to understand their words

AssimilationIncorporating information into a schemata in order to understand it

AccommodationAdjusting a schemata given new, contradictory information

Object Permanence

Preoperational & Concrete Operational Stage

Preoperational: begins at about 2 years, ends at about 6 years

Centration: tendency to focus on just one property of an object to the exclusion of all others

Egocentrism: failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers

Concrete Operational: children can manipulate objects, understand physical principles

Conservation: the notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object’s appearance

Reversibility: operation made on objects can be reversed

Formal Operational Stage

11 years – adulthood

False Belief Tests: understanding why others have false beliefs

Theory of Mind: idea that human behavior is guided by mental representations

Autistic children, and to some extent deaf children, lag far behind peers in developing ToM

Language skills are an excellent predictor of how well children how well they perform on false belief tests

Culture and Development

Vygotsky’s Theory of Development: cognitive development is largely the result of child’s interaction with members of his/her own culture rather than interactions with objects

Cultural Tools: language and counting systems exert a strong influence on cog. development

Are ways for children to HAVE thoughts, not modes of expression

Zone of Proximal Development: children are capable of developing a range of skills

Whether children develop towards the high range of his/her zone depends upon environment

Social Development

Harry Harlow’s monkey experimentsMoscow Orphanages

Imprinting: attachment, or an emotional bond, is especially strong with the first organism seen

Attachment StylesMary Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation”: behavioral test used to determine a child’s attachment style

Secure attachment

Avoidant attachment

Ambivalent attachment

Disorganized attachment

Attachment style prominence varies by cultureAttachment styles can CHANGE!

Model of attachment: set of expectations about how the primary caregiver will respond when the child feels insecure

Temperament: characteristic patterns of emotional reactivity

Parenting StylesAuthoritarian

Punish undesired behaviors, rarely reinforce desired behaviors

Do not discuss reason behind rules

Obedience encouraged

PermissiveNo clear guidelines for behavior

Punishment/reinforcement are unpredictable

AuthoritativeClear guidelines set, standards are consistent

Rules are reasonable and explained to children

Moral Development

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory (of moral development)Preconventional (most children)

Stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by its consequences for the actor

Conventional (most adolescents)Stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by the extent to which it conforms to social rules

Postconventional (some adults)Stage of moral development at which the morality of an action is determined by a set of general principles that reflect core value

Heinz DilemmaA woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. 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 laboratory to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

AdolescenceCritical period for learning a second language ends

Second neuronal “pruning period”

Onset of sexual maturityAges of physical and mental development vary across cultures

Sexual Orientation2% to 10% of adults self-identify as homosexual yet only .5% of young teenagers are willing to do the same

Children raised by homosexual parents and heterosexual parents are equally likely to become homosexual

Genetics may play a role

Fetal environment may play a role

Adulthood

Body starts to deteriorate around 26-30 years of age

Prefrontal Cortex breaks down more quickly than other parts of the brain

Cognitive tasks that require effort, initiative, or strategy

Brain compensates by putting other parts to work

Get Happy!

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory: age and orientation towards future effects memory as much as biology does

Younger adults are generally oriented toward the acquisition of information that will be useful later

Older adults are oriented towards information that makes them feel emotional satisfaction in the present

Why?

Get Happier!

Older adults are less likely to be influenced by emotional stimuli than younger adults

But O.A.s show more activation of amygdala when exposed to pleasant images

Older adults tend to feel more complex emotions than younger

Older adults become more selective of friends, relationships

Married? With Children??

Married people report being happier than unmarried people; they also live longer

But correlation or causation? Happiness marriage or marriage happiness?

Children may DECREASE happinessParents typically report lower marital satisfaction than non-parents

Negative impact of parenthood stronger for women than men

Women report being less happy taking care of children than when eating, exercising, shopping, napping, or watching TV

Yet mothers whose children are adults report positive emotions towards motherhood!

Freud’s Stages & Psychodynamic Theory

Oral Phase

Anal Phase

Phallic Phase

Genital Phase