1. Developing Through the Life Span Chapter 4 Part 1

2. Bell Ringer
If you could reach into a hat and pull out a new life, would you? Why or why not?
Remember – you have no say in this new life – you don’t select your parents, home, siblings, location, etc… you just become a different year old and it is as if you never existed
Write for 3-4 minutes – you may write on a ¼ to ½ sheet of paper – turning in

3. Developing Through the Life Span
Prenatal Development and the Newborn
Conception
Prenatal Development
The Competent Newborn
Infancy and Childhood
Physical Development
Cognitive Development

4. Developing Through the Life Span
Adolescence
Physical Development
Cognitive Development
Social Development
Emerging Adulthood
Adulthood

5. Developing Through the Life Span
Adulthood (continued)
Cognitive Development
Social Development
Reflections on Two Major Developmental Issues
Continuity and Stages
Stability and Change

6. Developmental Psychology
Issue
Details
Nature/Nurture
How do genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience (the nurture we receive) influence our behavior?
Continuity/Stages
Is developmental a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages?
Stability/Change
Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age.
OBJECTIVE 1| State the three areas of change that developmental psychologists study, and identify the three major issues in developmental psychology.

7. Think about the following questions and come up with an answer
Bell Ringer
Think about the following questions and come up with an answer
If you could stay the same age that you have already been, and remain in good health, what age would that be?
If you could stay the same age that you haven’t experienced, and remain in good health, what age would that be?

8. Bell Ringer – Take 10 Minutes to complete the following
What are three describing words you would use for the following ages?
0-9
10-19
20-29
30-39

9. Prenatal Development and the Newborn
How, over time, did we come to be who we are? From zygote to birth, development progresses in an orderly, though fragile, sequence.

10. Conception
A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form one fertilized cell.
OBJECTIVE 2| Describe the union of sperm and egg at conception.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company

11. Prenatal Development
A zygote is a fertilized cell with 100 cells that become increasingly diverse. At about 14 days the zygote turns into an embryo
(a and b).
OBJECTIVE 3| Define zygote, embryo and fetus, and explain how teratogens can affect development.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Biophoto Associates/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

12. Prenatal Development
At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus (c and d). Teratogens are chemicals or viruses that can enter the placenta and harm the developing fetus.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company

13. Conception to Zygote to Embryo to Fetus to Birth
Path of a baby
Conception to Zygote to Embryo to Fetus to Birth

14. Infancy and Childhood
Infancy and childhood span from birth to the teenage years. During these years, the individual grows physically, cognitively, and socially.
Stage
Span
Infancy
Newborn to toddler
Childhood
Toddler to teenager

15. The Competent Newborn
Infants are born with reflexes that aid in survival, including rooting reflex which helps them locate food.
OBJECTIVE 4| Describe some of the abilities of the newborn, and explain how researchers use habituation to assess infant sensory and cognitive abilities.

16. The Competent Newborn
Offspring cries are important signals for parents to provide nourishment. In animals and humans such cries are quickly attended to and relieved.
Carl and Ann Purcell/ Corbis
Lightscapes, Inc. Corbis

17. Cognitive Development in the Newborn
Investigators study infants becoming habituated to objects over a period of time. Infants pay more attention to new objects than habituated ones, which shows they are learning.

18. Physical Development
Infants’ psychological development depends on their biological development. To understand the emergence of motor skills and memory, we must understand the developing brain.

19. Brain Development of Embryo/Fetus
1. Nerve growth begins when a sheet of cells on the back of the embryo folds in the middle to form the future spinal cord. At one end, the tube enlarges to form the brain’s major sections. 2. First responses are reflexes, some of which occur even before the sense of touch is developed. The fetus will flex its head away from stimulation around the mouth as early as 7 1/2 weeks. By month’s end the ear begins to take shape.

20. 3. Touch receptors around the mouth are developed by the twelfth week and elsewhere by the fifteenth. Touching the palms makes the fingers close, touching the soles of the feet makes the toes curl down, touching the eyelids makes the eye muscles clench. Nerve cells have multiplied, synapses are being formed.

21. 4. At 15 weeks the fetus can grasp, frown, squint, and grimace
4. At 15 weeks the fetus can grasp, frown, squint, and grimace. It may suck its thumb and swallow. These movements correspond to the development of synapses in the brain. 5. At 20 weeks nerve-cell production slows as the existing cells grow larger and make more complex connections. The senses of taste and smell are now formed. The nerve cells serving each of the senses are developing into specialized areas of the brain.

22. 6. The fetus can feel movement and may respond to sound as early as 24 weeks. 7. At 25 weeks some babies born prematurely can survive. Nerve supply to the ear is complete. Brain scans show response to touch at 26 weeks and to light at 27 weeks. A light shone on the mother’s abdomen will make the fetus turn its head, indicating some functioning of the optic nerve.

23. 8. The eyes open in the womb and the fetus may see its hand and environment. Some researchers put the start of awareness at the 32nd week, at which time neural circuits are as advanced as a newborn’s. Brain scans show periods of deep sleep. 9. The fetus begins to develop daily activity cycles. At 35 weeks hearing is mature. At birth the baby can see shapes and colors within 13 inches of its face, can distinguish loudness, pitch, and tone, and may show a preference for sweets and for the scent of its mother’s skin.

24. Developing Brain
The developing brain overproduces neurons. Peaking around 28 billion at 7 months, these neurons are pruned to 23 billion at birth. The greatest neuronal spurt is in the frontal lobe enabling the individual to think rationally.
OBJECTIVE 5| Describe some developmental changes in the child’s brain, and explain why maturation accounts for many of our similarities.

25. WHAT IS THE BEST AGE? Bell ringer
Think about the following questions. Discuss with your neighbor your answer and the reasons you believe it.
WHAT IS THE BEST AGE?

26. Maturation
The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence— standing before walking, babbling before talking—this is called maturation.
Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it.

27. Motor Development
First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk. Experience has little effect on this sequence.
OBJECTIVE 6| Outline four events in the motor development sequence from birth to toddlerhood, and evaluate the effects of maturation and experience on that sequence.
Renee Altier for Worth Publishers
Phototake Inc./ Alamy Images
Profimedia.CZ s.r.o./ Alamy
Jim Craigmyle/ Corbis

28. Maturation and Infant Memory
The earliest age of conscious memory is around 3½ years (Bauer, 2002). A 5-year-old has a sense of self and an increased long-term memory, thus organization of memory is different from 3-4 years.
OBJECTIVE 7| Explain why we have few memories of experiences during our first three years of life.
Courtesy of Carolyn Rovee-Collier
Amy Pedersen

29. Cognitive Development
Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our biological development amidst experiences with the environment. Our cognitive development is shaped by the errors we make.
OBJECTIVE 8| State Piaget’s understanding of how the mind develops, and discuss the importance of assimilation and accommodation in this process.
Both photos: Courtesy of Judy DeLoache

30. Schemas
Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

31. Assimilation and Accommodation
The process of assimilation involves incorporating new experiences into our current understanding (schema). The process of adjusting a schema and modifying it is called accommodation.
Bill Anderson/ Photo Researchers, Inc.
Jean Piaget with a subject

32. Jean Piaget French speaking, Swiss developmental psychologist
Placed a great importance on the education of children
Investigated the hidden sides of children’s minds
Asked them questions and depending on their answer, determined the next question
Created Stages of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget

33. Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
OBJECTIVE 9| Outline Piaget’s four main stages of cognitive development, and comment on how children’s thinking changes during these four stages.

34. Sensorimotor Stage
In the sensorimotor stage, babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Children younger than 6 months of age do not grasp object permanence, i.e., objects that are out of sight are also out of mind.
Doug Goodman

35. Stranger anxiety is the fear of strangers that develops at around 8 months. This is the age at which infants form schemas for familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face.
OBJECTIVE 11| Define stranger anxiety.
© Christina Kennedy/ PhotoEdit

36. Sensorimotor Stage: Criticisms
Piaget believed children in the sensorimotor stage could not think —they do not have any abstract concepts or ideas.
However, recent research shows that children in the sensorimotor stage can think and count.
Children understand the basic laws of physics. They are amazed at how a ball can stop in midair or disappear.

37. Sensorimotor Stage: Criticisms
2. Children can also count. Wynn (1992, 2000) showed that children stared longer at the wrong number of objects than the right ones.

38. Sensorimotor Stage Review
What age does it occur?
How does a child gather information during this stage?
What are the two major issues that occur during this stage?
What evidence do researchers use to support the sensorimotor stage?
There is one major issue where modern psychologist disagree with Piaget’s thinking – what is it and why?

39. Preoperational Stage
Piaget suggested that from 2 years old to about 6-7 years old, children are in the preoperational stage—too young to perform mental operations.
Ontario Science Center

40. Theory of Conservation
The principal that the amount remains the same even though the shape changes

41. Preoperational Stage: Criticism
DeLoache (1987) showed that children as young as 3 years of age are able to use metal operations. When shown a model of a dog’s hiding place behind the couch, a 2½-year-old could not locate the stuffed dog in an actual room, but the 3-year-old did.
14:30

42. Egocentrism
Piaget concluded that preschool children are egocentric. They cannot perceive things from another’s point of view.
When asked to show her picture to mommy, 2-year-old Gabriella holds the picture facing her own eyes, believing that her mother can see it through her eyes.

43. Theory of Mind
Preschoolers, although still egocentric, develop the ability to understand another’s mental state when they begin forming a theory of mind.
The problem on the right probes such ability in children.

44. Most children in early Preoperational Stage (age 3-4) say Sally will look in the blue cupboard – why?
They saw the ball go into the blue cupboard – therefore, Sally saw it too.
Theory of mind develops as children age:
3-4 year olds can hold false beliefs
5-8 year olds learn that spontaneous self-produced thoughts can also produce feelings

45. Preoperational Stage review
When does it occur?
What is Theory of Conservation? Give an example
Professor DeLoache conducted an experiment that showed how just a small amount of time in terms of age means a lot in cognitive development. What was her experiment?
The following scenario describes what concept: When a 3 year old stands in front of the TV as if no one else is there.
How does Theory of Mind develop throughout the Preoperational Stage

46. Concrete Operational Stage
In concrete operational stage, given concrete materials, 6- to 7-year-olds grasp conservation problems and mentally pour liquids back and forth into glasses of different shapes conserving their quantities.
Children in this stage are also able to transform mathematical functions. So, if = 12, then a transformation, 12 – 4 = 8, is also easily doable.

47. Concrete Operational Stage review
What are the ages of this stage?
What is the major difference between Concrete Operational stage and Preoperational stage?
What might a child in Concrete Operational Stage say to Mr. Jones when he asked the pizza chef to cut the pizza into 4 slices instead of 8 because he wasn’t that hungry?

48. Formal Operational Stage
Around age 12, our reasoning ability expands from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. We can now use symbols and imagined realities to systematically reason. Piaget called this formal operational thinking.

49. Formal Operational Stage
Rudiments of such thinking begin earlier (age 7) than what Piaget suggested, since 7-year-olds can solve the problem below (Suppes, 1982).
If John is in school, Mary is in school. John is in school. What can you say about Mary?

50. Formal Operational Stage Review
What age does Formal Operational Stage begin?
What is the major change in a child’s thinking during this stage?

51. Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s stage theory has been influential globally, validating a number of ideas regarding growth and development in many cultures and societies. However, today’s researchers believe the following:
Development is a continuous process.
Children express their mental abilities and operations at an earlier age.
Formal logic is a smaller part of cognition.
OBJECTIVE 10| Discuss psychologists’ current views on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

52. Attachment – What does it mean to have attachment
Attachment – What does it mean to have attachment? Is there a different meaning for an infant then there is for an older child?
Harry Harlow - American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development – ATTACHMENT
He conducted most of his research at the University of Wisconsin - Madison

53. Why do we form attachment?
Many early psychologist believed attachment, which is the powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers (usually parents), was because of nourishment.
Harlow’s experiments proved otherwise

54. Origins of Attachment
Harlow (1971) showed that infants bond with surrogate mothers because of bodily contact and not because of nourishment.
OBJECTIVE 12| Discuss the effects of nourishment, body contact, and familiarity on infant social attachment.
Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

55. Origins of Attachment
Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor that causes attachment. In some animals (goslings), imprinting is the cause of attachment.
Alastair Miller

56. Attachment Differences
Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their mother leave, they show distress.
The other 30% show insecure attachment. These children cling to their mothers or caregivers and are less likely to explore the environment.
OBJECTIVE 13| Contrast secure and insecure attachment, and discuss the roles of parents and infants in the development of attachment and an infant’s feelings of basic trust.

57. Secure Attachment
Relaxed and attentive caregiving becomes the backbone of secure attachment.
Berry Hewlett

58. Insecure Attachment
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth mother is removed.
Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

59. Attachment Differences: Why?
Why do these attachment differences exist?
Factor
Explanation
Mother
Both rat pups and human infants develop secure attachments if the mother is relaxed and attentive.
Father
In many cultures where fathers share the responsibility of raising children, similar secure attachments develop.

60. Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months of age, regardless of whether the children are home or sent to day care.

61. Deprivation of Attachment
What happens when circumstances prevent a child from forming attachments?
In such circumstances children become:
OBJECTIVE 14| Assess the impact of parental neglect, family disruption, and day care on attachment patterns and development.
Withdrawn
Frightened
Unable to develop speech

62. Prolonged Deprivation
If parental or caregiving support is deprived for an extended period of time, children are at risk for physical, psychological, and social problems, including alterations in brain serotonin levels.

63. Day Care and Attachment
Quality day care that consists of responsive adults interacting with children does not harm children’s thinking and language skills.
However, some studies suggest that extensive time in day care can increase aggressiveness and defiance in children.

64. Self-Concept
Self-concept, a sense of one’s identity and personal worth, emerges gradually around 6 months. Around months, children can recognize themselves in the mirror. By 8-10 years, their self-image is stable.
OBJECTIVE 15| Assess the impact of parental neglect, family disruption, and day care on attachment patterns and development.
Laura Dwight