Development Over the Lifespan (Chapter 14)
Lecture Outline:
Parenting and temperament
Adolescence and other transitions
The “Self”
Self concept What am “I” Physical, active,
social, psychological components are related to progression across ages
Self-esteem Evaluative component How valued am I? People internalize the
evaluative judgements made by others
Parental Styles
Authoritarian: Firm, punitive, unsympathetic, and negative• Children can learn to be sneaky and externally
controlled with low self-esteem
Permissive: Freedom, no rules or discipline• Children can learn to be impulsive, get in trouble
Authoritative: Firm but understanding• Children help make the rules, high self-esteem
Temperament Disposition, intensity, and duration of emotional
experience• Easy: Playful, adaptable, regular in sleep and eating
cycles• Difficult: Fusy, irregular, unadaptable to new situations• Slow-to-warm up: Avoid/ shy with novelty
Temperamental assessment:• Behavioral observations• Physiological reactivity
Goodness-of-fit: person X environment interaction
Irritable Baby
Parenting: Stable Unstable
Baby: More Fussy Less Fussy
Parent: Poor coping Good coping
Toddler: Negative Happy
Fussy Calm
Physiology of adolescence1987, Dr. Marcia E. Herman-Giddens and colleagues described the results
of physical examinations of 17,077 American girls.
Caucasian girls were showing bodily signs of sexual maturity an average of one year earlier than previous studies had indicated, and Black-American girls two years earlier. On the average, breast development was notable before age 10 in white girls and before age 9 in black girls, and the growth of pubic hair generally occurred about a year later. But even at age 7, 27 percent of black girls and nearly 7 percent of white girls had begun to grow breasts, pubic hair or both.
Boys go through puberty earlier, but menarche makes this easier to study in girls.
Why? Nutrition? Body fat content? Family stress? What is the impact on self concept? Do early maturers get in more trouble?
Growing Autonomy of Teenagers
Conflicts with parents• Negotiation and enforcement of rules• Manipulating parents, Individuation
Mood swings and depression• Shy, withdrawn, unattractive, rejection by peers
Risk-taking behavior• Drugs, alcohol, sexuality, gangs, weapons, law
Ethnic identity (Own) and acculturation (Dominant Culture)
• Can be high a low in each, problems when you are low in both
Erik Erikson and Personality Development Trust vs. mistrust: Birth to 1 year Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (1-3) Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6) Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12) Identity vs. Role confusion (adolescence) Intimacy vs. Isolation (early adulthood) Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adult) Integrity vs. Despair (old age)
Life transitions and social clock
Anticipated transitions: Everyone does these at the same time• Examples: go to school, drive a car, vote, serious relationship,
children, retirement Unanticipated transitions: You do something early
• Children (teen parenthood), retirement (forced early but outs), get a job (financial need)
Non-event transitions: Something expected does not happen• Children (late birth-timing), Work (career advancement is
slow), Solitude (not in serious relationship or marriage when you thought you would be)
Cattell’s (1971) Two Subfactors of Intelligence Fluid intelligence Understanding
abstract and new information
Deductive reasoning and analogies
Creative relationships
Crystallized Intelligence
Accumulation of knowledge
Vocabulary and general information
Knowing lots of “stuff”
Cognition in later years
Decrease in fluid and increase in crystallized intelligence, e.g., “Lost in Boston”
Overall changes in information processing, but no net deficits
Wisdom: Insight into human development and life• Greater awareness of what you do • not know
Neural plasticity after strokes Degeneration in Alzheimer’s