1. Development

2. Developmental Psych – what is it?
Branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
Much research centers on three issues:
Nature vs. nurture – how do genetic inheritance and experience influence development?
Continuity and stages – is development gradual and continuous or does it proceed through a series of stages?
Stability and change – do our early personality traits persist through life or do we become different people as we age?

3. Prenatal Development and the Newborn
zygote – fertilized egg; conception to two weeks
embryo – developing human organism from 2 weeks after conception through 2nd month
fetus – developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
teratogens – harmful substances (chemicals, viruses) that can cause harm to the embryo or fetus during prenatal development
fetal alcohol syndrome – physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by heavy drinking during pregnancy

4. Newborn
Researchers study what babies are capable of through habituation – a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation
Infant pays attention to a new stimulus but loses interest the more often it is presented

5. Infancy and Childhood: Physical development
Brain development
Have most of the brain cells you’ll ever have at birth but neural networks grow with age
Association areas (linked with thinking, memory and language) are last to develop
Motor development
Sequence is universal (roll over, sit, crawl, walk) but there are individual differences in timing
Genes play a major role in motor development

6. Infantile amnesia - our earliest memories seldom predate our 3rd birthday
Hippocampus is not yet developed
Toddlers don’t have the language to index memory

7. Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget
Believed the mind was not a miniature model of an adult but developed in a series of stages
Maturing brain builds schemas - concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation - interpreting new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Thinking all four-legged animals are cows
Accommodation - adjusting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
Adjusting schema for four-legged animal to include a moose

9. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor stage - birth to nearly age 2
Babies take in the world through their senses and actions
Young infants lack object permanence - awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Develops by 8 months but gradually

10. Preoperational stage - age 2 to 7
Child learns to use language but doesn’t yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
Develop conservation - principle that properties (mass, volume and number) remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects
Display egocentrism - difficulty in taking another’s view
Lose this when they develop theory of mind - the ability to take another’s perspective

11. The impossible outcome

12. Theory of mind

13. Piaget’s legacy Concrete operational - 6 or 7 to 11
Children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Can understand conservation and mathematical transformations
Formal operational - age 12 on
Children begin to think logically about abstract concepts
Piaget’s legacy
Identified specific milestones and sparked interest in cognitive development
Today’s researchers see development as more continuous
See formal logic as a smaller part of cognition

14. Infancy and childhood: Social Development
Around 8 months infants develop stranger anxiety - fear of strangers
Peaks around 13 months
Develop attachment with caregivers who provide them with love and comfort
Harlow monkey study (1950s)
Critical period - optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development
Children prefer familiarity

15. Attachment Differences: Temperament and Parenting
Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation
Secure attachment
60%
Play in mother’s presence
Are distressed when she leaves
Seek contact with her when she comes back
Insecure attachment
Less likely to explore and may cling to mom
Either cry or are indifferent when she leaves and returns
Is attachment the result of parenting or temperament - characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

16. Self-concept - our understanding and evaluation of who we are
Many researchers believe early attachments form foundation for our adult relationships
Most abusers were abused as children but most abused children do not become abusive adults
Self-concept - our understanding and evaluation of who we are
Developed by age 12
Parenting styles
Authoritarian - impose rules and expect obedience
Permissive - submit to children’s wishes; make few demands and use little punishment
Authoritative - demanding and responsive
Results in highest self-esteem, self-reliance and social competence

17. Nature of Gender
X chromosome - sex chromosome found in both men and women; females have 2, men have 1
Y chromosome - sex chromosome found only in men
Triggers production of the testes and testosterone

18. Nurture of Gender
Role - set of expectations about a social position defining how those in that position ought to behave
Gender role - set of expected behaviors for males or for females
Gender identity - our sense of being male or female
Gender typing - acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role
Social learning theory - theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished

19. Adolescence: Physical development
Transition period from childhood to adulthood
Primary sex characteristics - body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genetalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
Secondary sex characteristics - nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips and male voice quality and body hair
Menarche - first menstrual period

20. Adolescence: Cognitive development
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Levels of Morality:
Preconventional morality
Before age 9
Focused primarily on self-interests
Obey rules to either avoid punishment or gain rewards
Conventional morality
Early adolescence
Focuses on caring for others
Uphold laws and social rules, simply because they are laws and social rules
Postconventional morality
Actions are judged “right” because they flow from people’s rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles
Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionist account of morality
Moral feelings precede moral reasoning

21. Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

22. Adulthood: Physical development
Menopause - time of natural cessation of menstruation
Usually within a few years of 50
Men experience no equivalent but do experience a gradual decline in sperm count
Distance perception and adaptation, vision muscle strength, reaction time, stamina, sense of smell and hearing decrease with age
Become more susceptible to life-threatening ailments (cancer, pneumonia) but less susceptible to short-term ailments
Alzheimers - loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce acetylcholine

23. Adulthood: Cognitive development
Cross-sectional study - 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
Crystallized intelligence - our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills
Tends to increase with age
Fluid intelligence - our ability to reason speedily and abstractly
Tends to decrease during late adulthood

24. Adulthood: Social development
Social clock - culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood and retirement