1. Psychological Development
Chapter 9
Psychological Development

2. Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology: The study of how organisms change over time as the result of biological and environmental influences 2

3. How Do Psychologists Explain Development?
Development is a process of growth and change brought about by an interaction of heredity and the environment

4. Chapter 9: Development Biological, Cognitive, Social Throughout the lifespan
Newborns have innate abilities for finding nourishment, interacting with others, and avoiding harmful situations; the developing abilities of infants and children rely on learning.
Babies, babies, babies!!!

5. Prenatal Development
Prenatal period : The developmental period before birth
Zygote: up to 14 days
Embryo: 14 days to end of 2nd month
Fetus: 3 months to birth
Placenta: An organ that develops between the embryo/fetus and the mother
Teratogens: Toxic substances that can damage the developing organism 10

6. Neonatal Period (from birth to one month)
Sensory abilities
Motor abilities
Grasping reflex
Rooting reflex
Sucking reflex
Stepping reflex
Startle reflex
Swimming reflex
Postural reflex 13

7. Infancy (one month to about 18 months)
Maturation: The unfolding of genetically programmed processes of growth and development over time 14

8. Maturation Timetable
1 month: responds to sound, vocalizes occasionally
2 months: smiles socially, recognizes care-giver, rolls from side to back, holds head up
3 months: vocalizes to sounds/smiles, searches for sound source, sits with support
4 months: gaze follows interesting objects, sits with less support

9. Maturation Timetable
5 months: discriminates b/w strangers & familiar persons, distinctive vocalizations
6 months: lifts objects, smiles at own image, reaches for objects
7 months: sits on own, crawls
8-9 months: verbalizes around 4 syllables, pulls to standing position
10-11 months: plays hand games, stands alone
1 year: walks alone

10. Social and Emotional Development
Theory of Mind: An awareness that other people’s behavior may be influenced by beliefs, desires, and emotions that differ from one’s own
Temperament: An individual’s characteristic manner of behavior or reaction (strong biological origin)
What’s your temperament? 39

11. Learning in Infancy (1-18 months)
Conditioning – classical and operant
Imprinting – form an immediate attachment
in animals, not really children 14

12. Attachment Styles
Humans apparently have an inborn need for attachment – deep, enduring socio-emotional relationship with another
Strange Situation (Ainsworth, 1978)
Secure attachment
Insecure attachment
Anxious-ambivalent attachment
Avoidant attachment
Harlow’s Contact Comfort Studies

13. Social and Emotional Development
Most approaches to child rearing fall into one of the following styles (Baumrind):
Authoritarian parents
Permissive parents (permissive-indulgent)
Uninvolved parents (permissive indifferent)
Authoritative parents 39

14. What Are the Developmental Tasks of Infancy and Childhood?
Infants and children face especially important developmental tasks in the areas of cognition and social relationships – tasks that lay a foundation for further growth in adolescence and adulthood

15. Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget
Cognitive development: The process by which thinking changes over time
Schemas: Mental structures or programs that guide a developing child’s thoughts 31

16. Cognitive Development
These underlie all cognitive growth…
Assimilation: Mental process that modifies new information to fit it into existing schemas
Accommodation: Mental process that restructures existing schemas so that new information is better understood 32

17. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational 33

18. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Birth to about age 2
Relies on innate motor responses to stimuli
Schemas – see & touch
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Sensorimotor intelligence
Mastery of these marks end of stage:
Mental representations
Object permanence(clip)
Formal Operational 33

19. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
About age 2 to age 6/7
Marked by well-developed mental representation and the use of language
Preoperational
Seen in this stage:
Centration (clip)
Egocentrism
Animistic thinking
Artificialism
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational 33

20. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
About age
Child is incapable of abstract thought
Simple logic only
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Conservation (clip)
Mental operations
Formal Operational 33

21. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
From about age 12 on
Abstract thought appears
Formal Operational 33

22. What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
Adolescence offers new developmental challenges growing out of physical changes, cognitive changes, and socio-emotional changes

23. Gender… Roles – how one should feel, act, & think
Identity – sense of being male or female
Schema – mental set of what society deems appropriate behavior for each sex
Role stereotypes – broad categories that reflect our beliefs about males/females
Androgyny – presence of desirable mas/
fem characteristics in one person

24. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Age/Period
Principal Challenge
0 to 1 1/2 years
Trust vs. mistrust
1 1/2 to 3 years
Autonomy vs. self doubt
3 to 6 years
Initiative vs. guilt
6 years to puberty
Confidence (Industry) vs. inferiority
Adolescence
Identity vs. role confusion
Early adulthood
Intimacy vs. isolation
Middle adulthood
Generativity vs. stagnation
Late adulthood
Ego-integrity vs. despair 33

25. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
I. Preconventional morality
Stage 1: Pleasure/pain orientation
Stage 2: Cost/benefit orientation; reciprocity
II. Conventional morality
Stage 3: “Good child” orientation
Stage 4: Law-and-order orientation
III. Postconventional (principled) morality
Stage 5: Social contract orientation
Stage 6: Ethical principle orientation 36

26. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Not tightly linked to one’s age
Moves from morality based on reward/ punishment to one based on abstract ethical principles.
Gender and morality
Carol Gilligan: Kohlberg’s stages are biased; based on males; female morality embedded in social relationships 38

27. What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Nature and nurture continue to produce changes throughout life, but in adulthood these changes include both growth and decline

28. The Developmental Challenges of Adulthood
Early Adulthood (Erikson)
Intimacy versus isolation
Middle Adulthood (Erikson)
Generativity versus stagnation
Generativity: making a commitment beyond oneself to family, work, society, or future generations 42

29. The Last Developmental Issues You Will Face
Impact on physical, cognitive, social and emotional abilities:
Vision, hearing, thinking/learning/problem solving, memory, sexual functioning, selective social interaction, emotions
5 Stages of Death/Dying/Grieving (Kubler-Ross): Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance
Late Adulthood (Erikson)
Ego-integrity vs. Despair
Ego-integrity: ability to look back on life without regrets and to enjoy a sense of wholeness 42