The Developing Person Chapter 4.

The Developing Person Chapter 4

Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology- a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span They look at how people are continually developing from infancy to old age Most of the research centers on 3 issues: Nature/Nurture Continuity/Stages Stability/Change*

Prenatal Development and the newborn
Nothing is more natural than a species reproducing itself It starts when a woman’s ovary releases a mature egg- the egg is about the size of a period at the end of a sentence A woman is born with every egg she will ever have, although only 1 in 5000 will ever mature and be released A man begins producing sperm at puberty The egg is 85,000 times as large as one sperm cell *

As soon as one sperm begins to penetrate the egg, the egg’s surface blocks out the others Before a half a day passes the egg and sperm fuse together forming one *

Fewer than half of all fertilized eggs, called zygotes, survive beyond the first 2 weeks Zygote- fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo Within the first week, the one cell we started out as has multiplied into around 100 cells Here the cells start to differentiate- to specialize in structure and function About 10 days after conception, the increasingly diverse cells attach to the mother’s uterine wall *

The zygote’s outer part attaches to the uterine wall forming the placenta Nourishment passes through the placenta to the baby The inner cells then become an embryo The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month Over the next 6 weeks, organs begin to form and function The heart begins to beat and the liver begins to make red blood cells *

By 9 weeks after conception, the embryo looks unmistakably human The embryo now becomes a fetus The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth By the end of the 6th month, organs such as the stomach are sufficiently formed and functional to allow a prematurely born fetus a chance of survival *

By the 6th month the fetus is also responsive to sound The fetus can hear a muffled voice of their mother Immediately after birth, infants prefer their mother’s voice over any other woman’s or their father’s *

At each prenatal stage, genetic and environmental factors affect our development The placenta transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus, while screening out potentially harmful substances Some substance slip by- these substances are called teratogens Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm *

If the mother is a heroin addict, the child will be born one If the mother has AIDS, the child may be born with it as well If the mother smokes, especially heavily, the child may be born underweight There is no known safe amount of alcohol for a pregnant woman Just one drinking binge can kill millions of fetal brain cells *

Alcohol depresses central nervous system activity in both the mother and child If the mother drinks heavily the child will be at risk for birth defects and mental retardation 1 in 750 infants have noticeable effects of fetal alcohol syndrome FAS- physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking- in severe cases the symptoms can include facial misproportions *

FAS is the leading cause of mental retardation 4 in 10 alcoholic mothers who drink while pregnant have a child with FAS *

Newborns do come equipped with some reflexes ideally suited for survival We withdraw our limbs to escape pain If a cloth over our face interfered with our breathing, we turned our head from side to side and swiped at it Rooting reflex- a baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to open the mouth and search for the nipple *

Reflexes Moro Reflex- When you fail to support or hold the neck and head, the arms of your baby will thrust outward and then seem to embrace them selves as their fingers curl. This reflex disappears at about 2 months of age. Babinski Reflex- This reflex occurs when you stroke the sole of your baby's foot, his toes will spread open, and the foot will turn slightly inward. By the end of the first year this reflex is usually gone. Grasping reflex- If you place your finger or other slim object in a baby’s palm, his fingers will grasp the object tightly. Be careful, though, because a baby cannot control this reflex. *

If a baby is hungry they may cry Crying is a behavior parents are predisposed to find highly unpleasant and very rewarding to relieve One of the biggest questions that scientists have tried to find out babies is: What can they see, hear, smell, or think? They have found that babies prefer sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness *

Newborns turn their heads in the direction of human voices They gaze longer at a drawing of a facelike image than at a bulls eye pattern They prefer to look at objects 8 to 12 inches away Within days of being born, our neural networks were stamped with the smell of our mother’s body *

Infancy and Childhood While in your mother’s womb, your body was forming nerve cells at a rate of nearly one-quarter million per minute We overproduce neurons with the number peaking at 28 weeks We are born with about 23 billion You had the most brain cells you will ever have the day you were born *

Infancy and Childhood From ages 3-6 the brain’s neural network is sprouting most rapidly in the frontal lobes We grow in accord with a genetic blueprint We grow in a sequence of genetically designed biological growth processes Maturation- biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience *

Infancy and Childhood Examples of maturation are: standing before walking, using nouns before adjectives Severe deprivation will slow down development, and ample experiences with parents who talk and read to the child will help sculpt neural connections The genetic growth tendencies are inborn Maturation sets the basic course of development, experience adjusts it *

Infancy and Childhood The lack of neural connections helps explain why our earliest memories seldom predate our third birthday The developing brain enables physical coordination The sequence of motor development is mostly universal Motor movements usually reflect a maturing nervous system and not imitation Blind children can crawl and walk *

Infancy and Childhood Biological maturation creates our readiness to learn walking at about age 1 Experience before that time has a limited effect This is also true for bowel movement and bladder control Before necessary muscular and neural maturation, no pleading, harassment, or punishment will produce these skills *

Cognitive development
Piaget was one of the first psychologists to study what children are thinking He became interested while administering intelligence tests to children in Paris He was interested in their wrong answers more than their right answers He realized that the errors made at a given age were similar for many children *

Piaget believed that a child’s mind is not a miniature model of an adults Piaget believed that a child’s mind develops through a series of stages He believed that an 8 year comprehended things that a 3 year simply could not understand Piaget believed that a child’s learning comes from their struggle to make sense of their experiences *

Schema- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information Mental molds into which we pour our experience Assimilate- interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas Having a simple schema for dog, a toddler may call all four-legged animals doggies Accommodate- adapting one’s current understandings to incorporate new information The child learns that the original doggie schema is too broad and accommodates by refining the category *

As children interact with the world, they construct and modify their schemas Cognition- all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating Piaget describe cognitive development in four stages He believed that children experience spurts of change followed by great stability as they move from one developmental plateau to the next *

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor stage From birth to age 2 Babies take in the world through their sensory and motor interactions with objects What is out of sight is out of mind Before the age of 6 months, infants lack object permanence the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived By 8 months, infants begin showing memory for things no longer seen *

Preoperational stage Preschool(age 2 or so) to 6 or 7 Too young to perform mental operations For a 5 year old, the milk that seems too much in a tall, narrow glass may become an acceptable amount if poured into a short, wide glass The child is incapable of performing the operation of mentally pouring the milk back and forth among the glasses Conservation- the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects Egocentric- the inability of the preoperational child to take another’s point of view Examples on pg. 146 *

Preoperational continued Although still egocentric, preschoolers begin forming a theory of mind People’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict Their ability to infer intentions develops They wonder what made their friend angry or what might make a parent buy a toy Autism- a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others’ state of mind Marked by an impaired theory of mind *

Concrete operational stage From 6 or 7 to 11 years old The stage in which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events They begin to grasp conservation Children fully gain the mental ability to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation *

Formal operational stage from 12 on The stage of cognitive development during which people being to think logically about abstract concepts Can solve hypothetical propositions and deducing consequence If this, then that *

Issues with Piaget’s stages of development: Some believe that Piaget underestimated young children’s competence Today’s researchers see development as more continuous Do agree with his sequence Today’s researchers see formal logic as a smaller part of cognition than Piaget did Piaget’s work made people interested in studying how and why people think the way they do *

Social Development Babies are social creatures
Infants develop an intense bond with their caregivers Soon after object permanence emerges and children become mobile, they develop a fear of strangers Stranger anxiety- the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age *

Social Development At about 8 months, infants have schemas for familiar faces If the baby cannot assimilate the new face into these remembered schemas, they became distressed At 12 months old, infants will usually cling to a parent when they are frightened or expect separation and they will shower the parent with smiles and hugs when they return Attachment- an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation *

Social Development Infants become attached to those who are comfortable, familiar, and responsive to their needs For many years, psychologists believed that infants became attached to those that provided nourishment Harry Harlow conducted a study that accidentally proved that this way of thinking may be wrong *

Social Development Harry Harlow’s monkey studies
Bred monkeys for his learning studies He would separate the monkeys from their mothers shortly after birth and put them in individual cages The only thing the monkeys had was a cheese cloth with them in their cage The monkeys became very attached to the cloth The monkeys would become distress when Harlow had to take the blankets out to wash them *

Social Development Harlow continued
The attachment to the blanket contradicted the idea that attachment was associated with nourishment Harlow would try and conduct an experiment to test this new idea He created two artificial mothers, one was a wire cylinder with a wooden head and the other a cylinder wrapped with terry cloth He would attach a bottle to one of the mothers to see if the monkeys preferred that mother The monkeys preferred the cloth wrapped mother over the wire mother with the bottle The monkeys would cling to the cloth mother when they became anxious They would not venture very far from the cloth monkey *

Social Development Contact is one key to attachment and another is familiarity Attachments based on familiarity form during a sensitive critical period Critical period- an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experience produces proper development The first moving object a gosling, duckling, or chick sees during the hours shortly after hatching is normally its mother From then on, the hatchling follows her and her alone *

Social Development Imprinting- the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life Imprinting was studied by Konrad Lorenz Lorenz wondered what ducklings would do if he was the first thing they saw The ducklings followed him around everywhere His studies showed that birds will imprint to a variety of moving objects Once formed, these attachments are difficult to reverse Children do not imprint *

Social Development Human attachment consists of one person providing another with a safe haven when distressed and a secure base from which to explore As we mature, our safe haven shifts from parents to peers and partners Humans gain strength when someone else provides us with a safe haven *

Social Development Children do become attached to what they’ve known
They like to reread books, rewatch same movies, reenact family traditions, eat familiar foods, live in the same familiar neighborhood, and attend school with the same old friends Familiarity breeds content and makes us feel safe *

Social Development Secure attachment 60 percent of children form this
In their mother’s presence they play comfortably, happily exploring their new environment When she leaves they are distress, and when she returns they seek contact with her *

Social Development Insecure attachment
They are less likely to explore their surroundings They may even cling to their mother When she leaves they cry loudly and remain upset or seem indifferent to their mother’s going and returning *

Social Development Mary Ainsworth studied attachment differences
She discovered that sensitive, responsive mothers that noticed what their babies were doing and responded appropriately had infants who exhibited secure attachments *

Social Development Researchers have studied mother care more often than father care Infants who lack a caring mother are said to suffer maternal deprivation while those lacking the care of a father are said to experience father absence Fathering a child has meant impregnating while mothering a child has meant nurturing *

Social Development Evidence indicates that fathers are more than just sperm donors for their children Expectant fathers experience sex hormone changes similar to the pregnant mother preparing the father’s for fatherhood A father’s love has been comparable to a mother’s love in predicting a child’s health and well-being Paternal deprivation from non-marital child rearing or divorce puts children at increased risk for psychological and social problems *

Social Development Anxiety over separation from parents peaks at age 13 months and starts to decline What affect does attachment have on a child’s development later on in life? Erik Erikson said that securely attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust Basic trust- a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy Erikson believed basic trust came from positive parenting at a young age Infants with sensitive, caring parents will develop an attitude of trust rather than fear *

Social Development How does a lack of attachments during childhood affect someone in adulthood? The unloved often become the unloving Most abusive parents report having been neglected or battered as children This does not mean that most abused children become abusive parents 30 percent of those abused do abuse their children- 4 times higher than the national rate of child abuse

Social Development Is daycare bad for attachments?
Studies show that the answer for high quality day care programs is no In these daycare programs the child still experiences warm, supportive interactions with adults in a safe, healthy, and stimulating environment In one studied it has been seen that children who spent the most time in day care had slightly advanced thinking and language skills but an increased rate of aggressiveness and defiance

Social Development What all the studies have shown us is that children need a consistent, warm relationship with people whom they can learn to trust The number one social achievement of infancy is attachment Childhood’s major social achievement is a positive sense of self By the age of 12, most children have developed a self-concept Self- concept- a sense of one’s identity and personal worth

Social Development Charles Darwin believed that self-awareness began when we recognize ourselves in the mirror Studies show that we begin to recognize ourselves in the mirror at around 15 to 18 months of age When a red dot is put on our nose, we will wonder why its there and try to rub it off By school age, children start to describe themselves in terms of their gender, group memberships, and psychological traits They will also start to compare themselves to other children *

Social Development By age 8 to 10, a child’s self image is relatively stable Children who form a positive self concept are confident, independent, optimistic, assertive, and sociable Parents can help encourage children developing a positive self concept *

Social Development Parenting styles vary from parent to parent
The most researched aspect of parenting is how much parents look to control their children Three parenting style have been identified Authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative *

Social Development Authoritarian- parents impose rules and expect obedience “Don’t interrupt”, “Don’t stay out late or you’ll be grounded”, “Why? Because I said so.” Permissive(Laissez Faire)- parents submit to their children’s desires, make few demands, and use little punishment Authoritative- parents are both demanding and responsive They exert control not only by setting rules and enforcing them but also by explaining the reasons and encouraging open discussion and allowing exceptions when making rules(especially with older children) *

Social Development The parenting styles are often referred as too hard, too soft, and just right Studies show that children with the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence usually have warm, concerned, authoritative parents Children who feel they who feel they control enough control to attribute their behaviors to their choices internalize their behaviors Coerced children tend not to internalize their actions *

Social Development Authoritative parenting provides children with the greatest sense of control When children feel rules are negotiated than imposed, older children feel more self-control When parents enforce rules with consistency, children feel they control the outcome The association between certain parenting styles and certain childhood outcomes is correlational Maybe a child’s traits influence parenting styles more than the parenting styles influence the child’s behavior *

Adolescence Adolescence- the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence It usually roughly corresponds with the teenage years Puberty can occur at different ages for different people Puberty has started to occur earlier for people because of better nutrition, child obesity, and father absence *

Adolescence With earlier puberty, independence has also been delayed by prolonged schooling Adolescence has started to lengthen Tolstoy said that adolescence is “that blissful time when childhood is just coming to an end” Stanley Hall said that adolescence is a tension between biological maturity and social dependence that created a period of “storm and stress” *

Adolescence Most people in western cultures look back at their teenage years as years they would not want to relive 9 of 10 high school seniors agree with the statement, “On the whole, I’m satisfied with myself” *

Adolescence Adolescence begins with puberty
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing Puberty follows a surge of hormones, which may intensify moods and trigger a two year period of rapid physical growth Usually begins at age 11 for girls and at about 13 in boys *

Adolescence Primary sex characteristics- the body structures that make sexual reproduction possible Secondary sex characteristics- nonreproductive sexual characteristics Menarche- the first menstrual period for girls The sequence of physical development is more predictable than its timing *

Adolescence Early maturation for boys often leads to them being more popular, self-assured, and independent Can also cause the adolescent boy to be at higher risk for alcohol use and premature sexual activity For girls early maturation can be more stressful She may associate herself with older girls or face teasing from girls her own age *

Adolescence Frontal lobe development lags behind in adolescence
This may help explain teens’ impulsiveness, emotional storms, and risky behavior With frontal lobe maturation comes improved judgment, impulse control, and the ability to plan for the long term *

Cognitive Development
Adolescents’ developing ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness and moral judgment As young teenagers become capable of thinking about their thinking, and of thinking about other people’s thinking, they begin imagining what other people are thinking about them Adolescents may worry about this less if they realized how self-preoccupied their peers were Adolescents start to think about what is ideally possible and criticize their society, their parents, and even their own shortcomings

During early teen years, reasoning is often self focused Adolescents often think their private experiences are unique They assume their parents cant understand what it feels like to be dating or to hate school Adolescents ponder and debate human nature, good and evil, truth and justice

Adolescents may seek deeper many in things, especially religion Adolescents begin to detect inconsistencies in others’ reasoning and to spot hypocrisy This often leads to some serious debates between teens and parents

A crucial task of childhood and adolescence is discerning right from wrong and developing character To be a moral person is to think morally and act accordingly Lawrence Kohlberg sought to describe the development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas to children, adolescents, and adults, then analyzed their answers for evidence of stages of moral thinking

Moral dilemmas activity

Kohlberg believed we pass through 3 basic levels of moral reasoning Preconventional morality- before age 9, most children have a preconventional morality of self-interest They obey either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards

Conventional Morality- by early adolescence, morality usually evolves to a more conventional level that cares for others and upholds laws and social rules simply because they are the laws and rules Adolescents may approve actions that will gain social approval or that will help maintain social order Postconventional Morality- affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows what one personally perceives as basic ethical principles

Kohlberg believed only some people attain the highest level of reasoning He believed the sequence is unvarying Studies show that as our thinking matures, our behavior also becomes less selfish and more caring This shows that the lower levels may be universal The highest level is considered more controversial The higher levels do not apply as much to western cultures that promote individualism My apply more to communal societies like China and India

Moral judgments can be automatic We feel disgust when seeing people engaged in degrading or subhuman acts We feel good when seeing people display exceptional generosity, compassion, or courage Moral judgment is more than just thinking, it is also gut level feeling

Morality involves doing the right thing, and what we do also depends on social influences This can be seen in the actions of ordinary “moral” people during the holocaust Often times, the biggest predictor of someone’s actions, is how many of their peers are doing that particular action

Social Development Erik Erikson believed that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task The task is a crisis that needs a resolution He identified 8 different stages

Social Development

Social Development Adolescents in Western cultures usually try out different “selves” in different situations If two of the different situations overlap, the discomfort can be considerable This role confusion usually gets resolved by forming a self-definition that unifies the various selves into a consistent and comfortable sense of who one is Identity- one’s sense of self It is created by someone testing and integrating various roles *

Social Development Erikson believed that some adolescents develop their identity at an early age by simply taking on their parents’ values and expectations Others may adopt a negative identity that defines itself in opposition to parents and society Some never quite find themselves or to develop strong commitments *

Social Development In young adulthood, people strive to achieve intimacy Intimacy- the ability to form close, loving relationships You must first develop a clear understanding of yourself before you can form close relationships with others Studies have found boys to be more individualistic and girls to be more concerned with making connections *

Adulthood Our physical abilities crest by the mid-twenties
Women peak earlier than men and start to decline earlier because they matured earlier Unless we are athletes, must of us do not notice the start of the decline Physical decline gradually accelerates Physical changes of adult life may trigger psychological responses These responses may vary with how someone views getting older *

Adulthood In women, aging means a gradual decline in fertility
Menopause- the time of natural cessation of menstruation The biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines Usually occurs a few years of age 50 Menopause and its physical symptoms accompany a reduction in estrogen Menopause usually does not create psychological problems for women *

Adulthood Studies show that there is not much of a noticeable difference in the level of depression in women not going through menopause as those going through it A woman’s expectations and attitudes influence the emotional impact of menopause Men do not experience an equivalent to menopause- no cessation of fertility, no sharp drop in hormones *

Adulthood Men do experience a gradual drop in sperm count and a decline in their testosterone level There is something they have started to study and they call it manopause The elderly are becoming a larger and larger population segment in the US Life expectancy is going up and birth rate is going down *

Adulthood As we get older, our body’s disease fighting immune system weakens making us more susceptible to life threatening diseases Older people suffer less short term ailments though Some falsehoods of the elderly: During old age, many of our brain’s neurons die, if you live to be 90 you probably will be senile, recognition of things declines with age, life satisfaction peaks in the fifties *

Adulthood Some adults do suffer a substantial loss of brain cells
A series of small strokes, a brain tumor, or alcoholism can damage the brain leading to dementia Alzheimer’s disease can cause dementia too A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and physical functioning *

Adulthood 3 percent of the world’s population suffers from Alzheimer’s disease by age 75 The symptoms are not the same as normal aging First memory goes then reasoning After 5 to 20 years a person will become emotionally flat then disoriented They will eventually become mentally vacant which can seem like a living death Alzheimer’s is a deterioration of neurons that produce acetylcholine *

Adulthood There are several ways we can study the affects of aging on the cognitive ability of adults Cross-sectional study- a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another Longitudinal study- research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period *

Adulthood Whether intelligence increases or decreases with age depends on the type of intellectual performance we measure Crystallized intelligence- one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills Tends to increase with age Shown in vocabulary and analogies tests Fluid intelligence- ones ability to reason speedily and abstractly Tends to decrease during late adulthood Solving novel logic problems *

Adulthood Social Clock- the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement *

Additional Terms you may need to know
Dominate vs recessive genes Dominate- usually the ones that are oftentimes observed in an offspring and passed down to subsequent generations Represented by capital letters Recessive- will only show for a few generations and eventually disappear Represented by lower case letters Avoidant attachments- may resist being held by the parents and will explore the novel environment. They do not go to the parents for comfort when they return after an absence Anxious/ambivalent attachments(resistant)- they may show extreme stress when the parents leave but resist being comforted by them when they return Both are considered insecure attachments

Additional Terms you may need to know
Kubler-Ross stages of grief: Denial- “This can’t be happening to me.” Anger- this one is not considered to be universal. Some people are sad but not angry Bargaining- may be a common characteristic of those who discover they have a terminal disease. They bargain with promises to God in exchange for, hopefully, more time on earth Depression- when the symptoms of depression are due to the normal human reaction to loss, they should not be labeled as depression as a disorder. Acceptance- Acceptance involves a choice to take a realistic look at the good and bad of the relationship and address the emotions that are involved in these memories. Colostrum- the first milk produced during pregnancy full of antibodies and immunoglobulins, which not only help protect newborns as they come into our world of bacteria and viruses, but also has a laxative effect that helps them expel the tarry first stools called meconium

Things to remember for the test
Reflexes Rooting, grasping, moro, babinski Harry Harlow study Mary Ainsworth and attachment Secure and insecure(avoidant and ambivalent) Parenting styles Erik Erikson’s stages Piaget’s stages Kohlberg’s stages Stages of prenatal development

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