C hapter Nine Life Span Development I Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction to Developmental Psychology Study of age-related changes in behavior and mental processes from conception to death HW:READ pp 323-327 Complete PART A & B © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theoretical Issues: Ongoing Debates Nature versus Nurture Nature—development governed by maturation (automatic, genetically predetermined signals) and critical periods (time of sensitivity to specific types of learning) Nurture—development governed by learning through observation and personal experience © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theoretical Issues: Ongoing Debates Continuity versus Stages Continuity—development is continuous, compiling at a relatively uniform pace Stages—development occurs at different rates, alternating periods of little and rapid change © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theoretical Issues: Ongoing Debates Stability versus Change Stability—childhood personality measurements closely predict adult personality Change—life changes can affect a person’s development from childhood to adulthood © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theoretical Issues: Ongoing Debates Interactionist Perspective and the Biopsychosocial Model Most psychologists recognize the importance of both sides of these debates and integrate all approaches to best understand development. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Prenatal Physical Development Conception ovum unites with sperm cell Zygote new cell that is created by the union of ovum and sperm Proximodistal near to far; internal developing before external Cephalocaudal head to tail © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Prenatal Development: Three Stages Germinal Period (Zygote) From conception, typically in the fallopian tube, to implantation, typically in the uterus Embryonic Period (Embryo) After implantation though the eighth week Fetal Period (Fetus) From eight weeks to birth Increased growth and “fine detailing” © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Major Prenatal Hazards The first three prenatal months are a critical period in development. Teratogens, such as alcohol and nicotine, are environmental agents that can cross the placental barrier and cause damage during prenatal development. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a combination of birth defects from maternal alcohol abuse. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. WILEY VIDEO Fetal Alcohol Hope

WILEY VIDEO ADHD Brain Delay WILEY VIDEO Brain Building

Early Childhood Physical Development Motor Development Initially reflexes (involuntary movements to stimulation), then voluntary control © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. WILEY VIDEO Child’s Play WILEY VIDEO Learning to Walk

Early Childhood Physical Development Sensory and Perceptual Development Many senses are highly developed at birth, though sense of vision is poor Visual acuity nears 20/20 at two years Hearing begins a few months prior to birth (How do we know this?) © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. WILEY VIDEO Learning from Babies WILEY VIDEO Hearing Screenings

Physical Development During Adolescence Adolescence Period between childhood and adolescence Puberty—biological changes during adolescence Growth spurt Menarche—onset of menstruation in females Spermarche—first ejaculation in males © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fetal Life: The Dangers Dangers Teratogens (“monster makers”) are substances such as viruses and chemicals that can damage the developing embryo or fetus. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) refers to cognitive, behavioral, and body/brain structure abnormalities caused by exposure to alcohol in the fetal stage.

Fetal life: Responding to Sounds  Fetuses in the womb can respond to sounds.  Fetuses can learn to recognize and adapt to sounds that they previously heard only in the womb.  Fetuses can habituate to annoying sounds, becoming less agitated with repeated exposure.

After the fetal period, the child is born!

Inborn Skills Newborns have reflexes to ensure that they will be fed.  The rooting reflex--when something touches a newborn’s cheek, the infant turns toward that side with an open mouth.  The sucking reflex can be triggered by a fingertip.  Crying when hungry is the newborn talent of using just the right sounds to motivate parents to end the noise and feed the baby. Reflexes are responses that are inborn and do not have to be learned. The Competent Newborn

More Inborn Abilities  Newborns (one hour old!) will look twice as long at the image on the left.  What can we conclude from this behavior?

Aspects of starting to grow up  Physical Development/maturation, inc. brain  Cognitive Development: Piaget, Vygotsky  Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational Stages  Egocentrism, Theory of Mind, Autism  Vygotsky: Mind in Social Context  Social Development  Attachment: Origins, Styles, Deprivation  Day Care; Self-Concept; Parenting Styles

Infancy: newborns growing almost into toddlers Infancy and Childhood For each of these stages, we will study:  brain development.  motor development.  cognitive development.  social and emotional development. Childhood: toddlers growing almost into teenagers

 In psychology, “maturation” refers to changes that occur primarily because of the passage of time.  In developmental psychology, maturation refers to biologically-driven growth and development enabling orderly (predictably sequential) changes in behavior.  Experience (nurture) can adjust the timing, but maturation (nature) sets the sequence. Maturation: not the meaning you might think For example, infant bodies, in sequence, will lift heads, then sit up, then crawl, and then walk. Maturation in infancy and early childhood affects the brain and motor skills. Maturation, the biological unfolding, will be seen in:  brain development.  motor development.

Brain Development: Building and Connecting Neurons  In the womb, the number of neurons grows by about 750,000 new cells per minute in the middle trimester.  Beginning at birth, the connections among neurons proliferate. As we learn, we form more branches and more neural networks.  In infancy, the growth in neural connections takes place initially in the less complex parts of the brain (the brainstem and limbic system), as well as the motor and sensory strips.  This enables body functions and basic survival skills.  In early childhood, neural connections proliferate in the association areas.  This enables advancements in controlling attention and behavior (frontal lobes) and also in thinking, memory, and language.

Impact of Experience/Nurture on Brain Development The Process Continues into Adulthood Repeated practice at a finger-tapping task begins to activate a [slightly] larger group of motor neurons.

Experience and Brain Development Rats living in an “enriched” environment (more social interaction and physical play) experienced a greater growth in brain size and complexity than those rats living in an “impoverished” environment.

Motor Development  Maturation takes place in the body and cerebellum enabling the sequence below.  Physical training generally cannot change the timing.

Baby Memory  In infancy, the brain forms memories so differently from the episodic memory of adulthood that most people cannot really recall memories from the first three years of life.  A birthday party when turning three might be a person’s first memory. Infantile Amnesia Learning Skills  Infants can learn skills (procedural memories).  This three month old can learn, and recall a month later, that specific foot movements move specific mobiles.

Cognitive Development Cognition refers to the mental activities that help us function, including:  problem-solving.  figuring out how the world works.  developing models and concepts.  storing and retrieving knowledge.  understanding and using language.  using self-talk and inner thoughts.

Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget (1896-1980)  We don’t start out being able to think like adults.  Jean Piaget studied the errors in cognition made by children in order to understand in what ways they think differently than adults. The error below is an inability to understand scale (relative size).

Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development: Schemas  An infant’s mind works hard to make sense of our experiences in the world.  An early tool to organize those experiences is a schema, a mental container we build to hold our experiences.  Schemas can take the form of images, models, and/or concepts. This child has formed a schema called “COW” which he uses to think about animals of a certain shape and size. “Cow!”

Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development: Assimilation and Accommodation How can this girl use her “dog” schema when encountering a cat?  She can assimilate the experience into her schema by referring to the cat as a “dog” or  she can accommodate her animal schema by separating the cat, and even different types of dogs, into separate schemas.

The Course of Development: Stages Jean Piaget believed that cognitive development: 1.is a combination of nature and nurture. Children grow by maturation as well as by learning through interacting/playing with the environment. 2.is not one continuous progression of change. Children make leaps in cognitive abilities from one stage of development to the next. IssueJean Piaget’s Vote Nature vs. NurtureBoth Continuity vs. StagesStages

Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Homework Due FRIDAY: Read pp. 338-351 and Questions p. 345 – Part B only Due MONDAY: p. 351 – Critical Thinking Exercise Parts A & B

Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to Age 2) In this stage, children explore by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Cool cognitive trick learned at 6 to 8 months, coming up next: object permanence.

Hmm, a bear, should I put it in my mouth? Object Permanence Through games like “peekaboo,” kids learn object permanence--the idea that objects exist even when they can’t be seen. There’s a game I’ve learned to play all by myself: peekaboo!

Can Children Think Abstractly? Jean Piaget felt that kids in the sensorimotor stage did not think abstractly. Yet there is some evidence that kids in this stage can notice violations in physics (such as gravity). Does that mean babies are doing physics?

52 Is This Math? If so, kids in the “sensorimotor” stage do math. Babies stare longer and with surprise when numbers don’t make sense. Is this math? Was Jean Piaget wrong?

Yes. Jim. Egocentrism: “I am the World.” Do you have a brother? What mistake is this boy making? How does this relate to egocentrism? Does Jim have a brother? No.

What can kids do in the preoperational stage? 1.Represent their schema with words and images. 2.Perform pretend play. 3.Picture other points of view, replacing egocentrism with theory of mind. 4.Use intuition, but not logic and abstraction yet.

Maturing beyond Egocentrism: Developing a “Theory of Mind” Theory of mind refers to the ability to understand that others have their own thoughts and perspective. With a theory of mind, you can picture that Sally will have the wrong idea about where the ball is.

Examples of Operations that Preoperational Children Cannot Do…Yet Conservation refers to the ability to understand that a quantity is conserved (does not change) even when it is arranged in a different shape. Which row has more mice?

Piaget’s Theory Schema Basic unit of intellect; cognitive structure of ideas that are affected by experience Assimilation Applying existing schemas to new information; new information is incorporated (assimilated) into existing schemas Accommodation Adjusting existing schemas or developing new ones to fit with new information Piaget’s Four Stages Stages cannot be skipped © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. ANIMATION Piaget and Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory Major Criticisms Underestimated abilities (see the infant imitation to the right) Underestimated genetic and social/cultural influences © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Origins of Attachment: Familiarity  Most creatures tend to attach to caregivers who have become familiar.  Birds have a critical period, hours after hatching, during which they might imprint: become rigidly attached to the first moving object they see.

Social-Emotional Development Attachment Strong emotional bond with special others that endures over time Infants raised in abusive or impersonal environments have social-emotional deficits, as well as physical and mental deficits Imprinting Innate form of learning within a critical period that involves attachment to the first large moving object seen © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. WILEY VIDEO Maternal Separation

Attachment As a baby, how did you respond to the presence or absence of your mother or a stranger? This is what was researched using the Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth). Based on this line of study, there are four categories of children. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Four Attachment Styles Secure Caregivers are sensitive and responsive Most likely to be sociable, competent, cooperative, persistent, enthusiastic Avoidant Caregivers are aloof and distant Anxious/Ambivalent Caregivers are inconsistent © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Attachment Harlow monkey studies examined contact comfort, the pleasurable tactile sensations provided by something soft and cuddly that can promote attachment. Cloth mother surrogates promoted greater emotional security and curiosity than a wire mother surrogate with food. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Attachment Variation: Styles of Dealing with Separation “Strange situations” test: 1.a mother and infant child are alone in an unfamiliar (“strange”) room; the child explores the room. 2.the mother leaves the room. 3.After a few moments, the mother returns. Reactions to Separation and Reunion  Secure attachment: mild distress when mother leaves, seeking contact with her when she returns  Insecure attachment (anxious style): not exploring, clinging to mother, loudly upset when mother leaves, remaining upset when she returns  Insecure attachment (avoidant style): seeming indifferent to mother’s departure and return

What causes these different attachment styles: nature or nurture? Is the child’s behavior actually caused by previous parenting behavior? Is the “strange situations” behavior mainly a function of the child’s inborn temperament?  Temperament refers to a person’s characteristic style and intensity of emotional reactivity.  Some infants have an “easy” temperament happy, relaxed, and calm, with predictable rhythms of hunger and sleep.  Some infants seem to be “difficult”; they are irritable, with unpredictable needs and behavior, and intense reactions.  Mary Ainsworth believed that sensitive, responsive, calm parenting is correlated with the secure attachment style.  Training in sensitive responding for parents of temperamentally-difficult children led to doubled rates of secure attachment.

Fathers Count Too  Many studies of the impact of parenting have focused on mothers.  Correlational studies show a strong relationship between paternal (father) involvement in parenting and the child’s academic success, health, and overall well-being.

Influences on Separation Anxiety Effects of Environment on Attachment Separation anxiety peaks and fades whether kids are at home or in day care.

Attachment Styles… not just about bonding with parents  Erik Erikson’s concept of basic trust resembles the concept of attachment, but extends beyond the family into our feeling of whether the world is predictable and trustworthy.  Attachment style may be relevant to our ability to manage and enjoy adult relationships. Are basic trust and attachment styles determined in childhood?  Erik Erikson believed that basic trust is established by relationships with early caregivers.  Are trust and attachment styles:  set by genetics?  formed by early experiences with parents?  reshaped by new relationship experiences?

Deprivation of Attachment  If children live without safe, nurturing, affectionate caretaking, they may still be resilient, that is bounce back, attach, and succeed.  However, if the child experiences severe, prolonged deprivation or abuse, he or she may:  have difficulty forming attachments.  have increased anxiety and depression.  have lowered intelligence.  show increased aggression.

 We have seen already that time in day care does not significantly increase or decrease separation anxiety.  Warm interaction with multiple caretakers can result in multiple healthy attachments.  Time in day care correlates with advanced thinking skills… and also with increased aggression and defiance. Children in Day Care

Childhood: Parenting Styles StyleResponse to Child’s Behavior Authoritarian “Too Hard” Parents impose rules “because I said so” and expect obedience. Permissive “Too Soft” Parents submit to kids’ desires, not enforcing limits or standards for child behavior. Authoritative “Just Right” Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards but also explain, discuss, listen, and express respect for child’s ideas and wishes.

Outcomes of these Parenting Styles StyleLong term outcomes for the child Authoritarian “Too Hard” Rebellion, compulsivity, identity issues. Permissive “Too Soft” Legal trouble, substance abuse, disorganization, unemployment. Authoritative “Just Right” Internalized rules, self-discipline, follow through, life planning.

Outcomes with Parenting Styles  Authoritative parenting, more than the other two styles, seems to be associated with:  high self-reliance.  high social competence.  high self-esteem.  low aggression.  But are these a result of parenting style, or are parents responding to a child’s temperament? Or are both a function of culture ? Or genes?

Child-rearing: Cultural Differences  Individualist cultures: raising children to be self-reliant, independent and developing a personal identity.  In Western cultures, parents maintain control over parenting but might pay others to care for their children.  Collectivist cultures, e.g. Asia and Africa: raising children to be interdependent, developing a family self (what shames the child, shames the family).  Children in Africa and Asia are often raised in close physical contact with adults, but also raised later by siblings, integrated into webs of mutual support.

Nature, Nurture, and Differences  Childhood involves a genetically-driven process of maturation, AND a process of interacting with, and being formed by, the world of objects and media, parents and peers.  When racial or ethnic or gender groups of people differ from each other in traits or abilities, the differences within groups tends to be greater than the difference between groups. Why?  The environment and culture affects all of us, but due to our similar biological heritage, it affects us in much the same way.  Genetic variations within groups affect traits and behavior more than the variations between groups.

What is Your Romantic Attachment Style? © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 1.I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close. 2.I am somewhat uncomfortable being close. I find it difficult to trust partners completely or to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets close, and love partners often want me to be more intimate than is comfortable for me. 3.I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person, and this desire sometimes scares people away.

Romantic Attachment Styles Secure Easily connect with others Believe in lasting relationships Perceive others as trustworthy Have long-term relationships Make desirable partners Avoidant Find it hard to trust others and self-disclose Block intimacy by being distant Rarely find “true love” Anxious/Ambivalent Obsessed with their partners Smothering, possessive, emotionally demanding © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Parenting Styles Parenting styles affect the development of children Baumrind identified three parenting patterns: Permissive Authoritarian Authoritative They differ in control/demandingness and warmth/responsiveness © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Criticisms of Baumrind’s Research Child Temperament Correlation does not equal causation A child’s temperament may influence parenting style Child Expectations Children’s expectations of parental behavior can affect the parenting style Parental warmth Most important variable may be warmth versus rejection parents have toward the child © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Gender and Cultural Diversity: Understanding Development Culture may be the most important determinant of development Human development cannot be studied outside of the sociocultural context Each culture’s ethnotheories are important determinants of behavior Culture is largely invisible to its participants © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

C hapter Nine Life Span Development I Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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