1. Human Development Across the Life Span
Chapter 11

2. Progress Before Birth: Prenatal Development
3 phases
germinal stage = first 2 weeks
conception, implantation, formation of placenta
embryonic stage = 2 weeks – 2 months
formation of vital organs and systems
fetal stage = 2 months – birth
bodily growth continues, movement capability begins, brain cells multiply
age of viability

4. Environmental Factors and Prenatal Development
Maternal nutrition
Malnutrition linked to increased risk of birth complications, neurological problems, and psychopathology
Maternal drug use
Tobacco, alcohol, prescription, and recreational drugs
Fetal alcohol syndrome
Maternal illness
Rubella, syphilis, mumps, genital herpes, AIDS, severe influenza
Prenatal health care
Prevention through guidance
Infant mortality by countries – Slide 5
Preventive care for children

5. Cross-cultural comparisons of infant mortality

6. The Childhood Years: Motor Development
Basic Principles
Cephalocaudal trend – head to foot
Proximodistal trend – center-outward
Maturation – gradual unfolding of genetic blueprint
Developmental norms
median age – growth charts
95% level
Cultural variations

7. Figure 11.3 – Developmental Motor milestones

8. Easy and Difficult Babies: Differences in Temperament
Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1970)
3 basic temperamental styles
easy – 40%
slow-to-warm-up – 15%
difficult – 10%
mixed – 35%
stable over time
Kagan & Snidman (1991)
Inhibited vs. uninhibited temperament
inhibited – %
uninhibited – %
stable over time, genetically based

9. XX 11.4

10. Early Emotional Development: Attachment
Separation anxiety
Ainsworth (1979)
The strange situation and patterns of attachment
Secure
Anxious-ambivalent
Avoidant
Figure 11.5, process and Figure 11.6, cross-cultural comparison
Effects on mating strategy – slide 11
Developing secure attachment
Bonding at birth – contact comfort – Harlow – p. 449
Daycare
Cultural factors
Evolutionary perspectives on attachment

11. Cultural variations
in attachment patterns
Attachment
and mating strategy, from childhood to puberty

12. Stage Theories of Development: Personality
Stage theories, three components
progress through stages in order
progress through stages related to age
major discontinuities in development
Erik Erikson (1963)
Eight stages spanning the lifespan
Psychosocial crises determining balance between opposing polarities in personality

13. XX 11.7

14. XX 11.8

15. Stage Theories: Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget (1920s-1980s)
Assimilation/ Accommodation
4 stages and major milestones – Figure 11.9
Sensorimotor
Object permanence
Preoperational
Centration, Egocentrism
Concrete Operational
Decentration, Reversibility, Conservation – F 11.10, F 11.11
Formal Operational
Abstraction

18. XX 11.11

19. Other Cognitive Abilities
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Thought and Language (1934)
Importance of social interactions in cognitive development
Zone of proximal development (ZPD) – difference in accomplishing alone and with help from others
Inhibition – disinhibition – innate?
Memory abilities – active maintenance rehearsal years
Memory capacities - metacognition

20. The Development of Moral Reasoning
Kohlberg (1976)
Reasoning as opposed to behavior
Moral dilemmas
Measured nature and progression of moral reasoning
3 levels, each with 2 sublevels
Preconventional – punishment S1 – naïve reward S2
Conventional - good boy/good girl S3 – authority S4
Postconventional - social contract S5 – individual principles and conscience S6
Longitudinal studies –research issues (use of males), reasoning versus behavior
Greene’s et al. studies of moral judgments and brain functioning – fMRI studies using 60 moral dilemmas

21. Age and moral reasoning based on Kohlberg’s stages

22. Adolescence: Puberty and the Growth Spurt
Pubescence – growth spurts
10 – 12 females – 14 males
Puberty
Secondary sex characteristics
Primary sex characteristics
Menarche
Sperm production
Tanner stages
Maturation: early vs. late – Belsky’s study
Sex differences in effects of early maturation
Brain Development in adolescence
Risk taking Rates of suicide
Pubescence is the term used to describe the two-year span preceding puberty during which the changes leading to physical and sexual maturity take place.
During this period, children grow taller and heavier and develop secondary sex characteristics, physical features that distinguish one sex from the other but that are not essential for reproduction.
Puberty is the stage during which sexual functions reach maturity, marking the beginning of adolescence. It is during puberty that the primary sex characteristics, the structures necessary for reproduction, develop fully.
In females, the onset of puberty is signaled by menarche – the fist occurrence of menstruation. In males, it is signaled by sperm production.
Puberty is occurring at younger ages, compared to previous generations; explanations for this trend include improvements in nutrition and medical care. Some theorists (Belsky) also hypothesize that the quality of a person’s early family relationships may influence earlier onset of puberty.
The timing of puberty varies individually (10-15 for girls is typical, for boys). Studies of early maturers vs. late maturers indicate that there are sex differences in effects of early vs. late maturation, with early maturing girls and late maturing boys having greater risk for psychological problems and social difficulties.

23. Figure 11.17 – Prefrontal Cortex and adolescence development

24. Figure 11.18 Peer influence on risk taking

25. The Search for Identity
Problems – suicide rates and brain development
Erik Erikson (1968)
Key challenge - forming a sense of identity
James Marcia (1988)
4 identity statuses
Foreclosure
Moratorium
Identity Diffusion
Identity Achievement
Longitudinal study – changes in the four statuses – slide 28
According to Erikson, the key challenge of adolescence is to form a clear sense of identity.
James Marcia asserts that the presence or absence of crisis and commitment during the identity formation stage can combine in various ways to produce four different identity statuses.
Foreclosure is a premature commitment to a role prescribed by one’s parents.
A moratorium involves delaying commitment and engaging in experimentation with different roles.
Identity diffusion is a state of lack of direction and apathy, where a person does not confront the challenge and commit to an ideology.
Identity achievement involves arriving at a sense of self and direction after some consideration of alternative possibilities.
Age trends in identity statuses exist, depicted in figure

26. Figure 11.20 Marcia’s four identity statuses

27. Slide 28 – Age and Identity status based on Marcia (1980), data
from Meilman (1979)

28. Emerging Adulthood as a New Developmental Stage
Search for identity extends into adulthood
Ages 18 – 25 have become a distinct transitional stage of life
Characterized by:
subjective feeling of transition
age of possibilities
self-focused
period of identity formation

29. The Expanse of Adulthood
Personality development – midlife crisis? Social development – family life cycle, marriage, parenthood, empty nest
Career development – patterns, work and in the home
Physical changes – biological aging process
Cognitive changes – mental abilities, memory, response time

30. Figure 11.23 – Median age at first marriage in United States

31. Figure 11.24 – Housework trends since the 1960s

32. Figure 11.25 Age and the stability of primary mental abilities

33. Gender Differences and issues
Stereotypes
Cognitive
Social/personality
Biological origins – brain hemisphere differences Hormone influences – estrogens and androgens
Environment influences - socialization
Gender role – gender versus sex

34. Figure 11.27 – distribution of gender differences
Figure – The cerebral hemispheres and the corpus callosum