1. What do Developmental Psychologists Do? Study physiological (physical, biological) changes over the lifespan. Study cognitive (thinking, learning, memory) changes over the lifespan. Study socialization: how we learn what society expects of us.

2. Development Used to be a field looking at humans from conception through adolescence. People used to do the same things in the same sequence (go to school, get married…). Now… we see the entire life cycle as a process of development. This is known as the… You and your friends are done with adolescence. Are you done changing? Lifespan Development Perspective

3. Prenatal Effects on Development Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), such as gonorrhea, syphilis, and others mental retardation; blindness; physical disorders genital herpes can be transmitted through vaginal birth HIV/AIDS, especially if untreated

4. Prenatal Effects on Development Smoking (during pregnancy) low birth weight Miscarriage SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Asthma Hyperactivity learning disabilities

5. Prenatal Effects on Development Alcohol (during pregnancy) leading cause of non- genetic retardation lesser cognitive problems due to death of neurons fetal alcohol syndrome – smaller brains, facial deformities, uncoordinated, mental retardation

6. Babies need human contact Some evidence that babies recognize human faces as early as 9 minutes old – that’s very early!!! Violet, at 30 minutes

7. When do babies recognize faces? Clear evidence that babies have a preference for human faces by 2-3 months old

8. What happens if babies don’t get human contact?

9. Harry Harlow’s Wire Monkeys http://users.rcn.com/napier.interport/cwm/experim.html Separated infant monkeys a few hours after birth Infant monkeys liked soft cloth caregivers better, even when they didn’t offer food But the absence of a living caregiver had devastating effects on sexual, caregiving and other social development Is this experiment ethically OK with you?

10. Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Observes babies in a lab full of toys, when a stranger comes in, Mom leaves and comes back again Securely Attached: Cries when Mom leaves, happy when she returns. Insecurely Attached: Don’t care much if Mom leaves and ignore her when she returns or mostly ignore her but still cry when she leaves

11. What causes insecure attachment behavior? Abandoned or deprived from birth to 2 years old Abusive or neglectful parenting (by irresponsible or very depressed parents) Genetic temperament Temporarily, this behavior might be caused by stressful family circumstances

12. When/how do we learn to talk? Parents’ “baby talk” (vs cat and dog talk) exaggerates vowels So by 4-6 months… –Lose ability to make/recognize sounds from other languages

13. When/how do we learn to talk? More at 4-6 months… –Lose ability to make/recognize sounds from other languages –Recognize emotionally important, frequent words: Mommy, Daddy

14. When/how do we learn to talk? 6 months – 1 year –Can tell the difference between nonsense and real words and sentences What does this suggest about babies’ ability to understand compared to what they can say?

15. When/how do we learn to talk? About 1 year: Naming things About 18 months: 2-3 word ‘sentences’ (a full year since they’ve known about sentence structure)

16. Do babies have a “Language Acquisition Device?” Proposed by Noam Chomsky. Evidence: Similar stages around the world: active nouns first Invented word combinations Toddlers learn (best!) without being corrected If there’s no language around, we make one up Or are babies natural “statisticians” – keeping track of familiar patterns?

17. Jean Piaget A “stage theorist” We now know stages aren’t so rigid, but…

18. Piaget’s stages Sensorimotor stage (0-2) – Learning by touching Object permanence Object permanence – peek-a-boo; separation anxiety Preoperational stage (2-7) – Language, make-believe: symbols Concrete operations (7-12) - cause/effect; order; categorization Formal operations (adolescence)- abstract, hypothetical

19. What Piaget Missed Stage changes aren’t sudden – It depends who’s asking, where, how…changes come gradually with some back and forth Kids understand people well by 3 or 4 – Slow down for younger children, can think about thinking and knowing Babies know a lot! – will study images of ‘impossible’ events longer than possible ones Cognitive processing speed helps changes (adolescence)- abstract, hypothetical Education and culture shape knowledge – Children in hunting cultures develop spatial skills sooner than children in farming cultures

20. Where Does Good Behavior Come From? “Power Assertion” (Authoritarian) don’t work very well. “because I said so” punishment (and therefore anxiety, fear, anger and very little learning) Spanking usually doesn’t work well for this reason. Especially because parents often use it when they don’t know what else to do!

21. Where Does Good Behavior Come From? Recognize: positive intentions. “I know you care about your sister.” Induction: Authoritative Explain: “Sam might get hurt if you keep swinging that stick.”

22. Authoritative parenting and induction Is NOT…Is… permissiveclear, consistent Motivated by anger Motivated by desire to teach “because I said so” Listening and explaining Unreasonable expectations Appropriate, high standards

23. Good Outcomes of Induction: A Longitudinal Study (of children aged 2-4 years and their Moms) Greater Self-regulation Fewer aggression problems (incidents of getting into trouble) Greater “conscience” (self-report, self- ratings, observed behavior for combined score)

24. Coming on Friday Gender development Adolescence Adulthood and aging