1. Conception
A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form one fertilized cell.
OBJECTIVE 2| Describe the union of sperm and egg at conception.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company

2. Prenatal Development
A zygote is a fertilized cell with 100 cells that become increasingly diverse. At about 14 days the zygote turns into an embryo (a and b).
OBJECTIVE 3| Define zygote, embryo and fetus, and explain how teratogens can affect development.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Biophoto Associates/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

3. Prenatal Development
At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus (c and d). Teratogens are chemicals or viruses that can enter the placenta and harm the developing fetus.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company

4. The Competent Newborn
Infants are born with reflexes that aid in survival, including rooting reflex which helps them locate food.
OBJECTIVE 4| Describe some of the abilities of the newborn, and explain how researchers use habituation to assess infant sensory and cognitive abilities.

5. Infancy and Childhood Stage Span Infancy Newborn to toddler Childhood
Infancy and childhood span from birth to the teenage years. During these years, the individual grows physically, cognitively, and socially.
Stage
Span
Infancy
Newborn to toddler
Childhood
Toddler to teenager

6. Developing Brain
The developing brain overproduces neurons. Peaking around 28 billion at 7 months, these neurons are pruned to 23 billion at birth. The greatest neuronal spurt is in the frontal lobe enabling the individual to think rationally.
OBJECTIVE 5| Describe some developmental changes in the child’s brain, and explain why maturation accounts for many of our similarities.

7. Maturation
The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence— standing before walking, babbling before talking—this is called maturation.
Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it.

8. Motor Development
First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk. Experience has little effect on this sequence.
OBJECTIVE 6| Outline four events in the motor development sequence from birth to toddlerhood, and evaluate the effects of maturation and experience on that sequence.
Renee Altier for Worth Publishers
Phototake Inc./ Alamy Images
Profimedia.CZ s.r.o./ Alamy
Jim Craigmyle/ Corbis

9. Cognitive Development
Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our biological development amidst experiences with the environment. Our cognitive development is shaped by the errors we make.
OBJECTIVE 8| State Piaget’s understanding of how the mind develops, and discuss the importance of assimilation and accommodation in this process.
Both photos: Courtesy of Judy DeLoache

10. Schemas
Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

11. Assimilation and Accommodation
The process of assimilation involves incorporating new experiences into our current understanding (schema). The process of adjusting a schema and modifying it is called accommodation.
Bill Anderson/ Photo Researchers, Inc.
Jean Piaget with a subject

12. Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
OBJECTIVE 9| Outline Piaget’s four main stages of cognitive development, and comment on how children’s thinking changes during these four stages.

13. Sensorimotor Stage
In the sensorimotor stage, babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Children younger than 6 months of age do not grasp object permanence, i.e., objects that are out of sight are also out of mind.
Doug Goodman

14. Preoperational Stage
Piaget suggested that from 2 years old to about 6-7 years old, children are in the preoperational stage—too young to perform mental operations.
Ontario Science Center

15. Jean Piaget’s Stages
2) Preoperational-
Egocentrism (Why does the sun shine? To keep me warm)
Animism (Why do stars shine? Because they are happy and cheerful)
Artificialism (Why is the sky blue? Because somebody painted it)
Moral judgment is one-dimensional (right is right, wrong is wrong, Mommy said so)
Objective responsibility-people sentenced on the basis of the amount of damage they have done, not their motive or intentions

16. Egocentrism
Piaget concluded that preschool children are egocentric. They cannot perceive things from another’s point of view.
When asked to show her picture to mommy, 2-year-old Gabriella holds the picture facing her own eyes, believing that her mother can see it through her eyes.

17. Theory of Mind
Preschoolers, although still egocentric, develop the ability to understand another’s mental state when they begin forming a theory of mind.
The problem on the right probes such ability in children.

18. Concrete Operational Stage
In concrete operational stage, given concrete materials, 6- to 7-year-olds grasp conservation problems and mentally pour liquids back and forth into glasses of different shapes conserving their quantities.
Children in this stage are also able to transform mathematical functions. So, if = 12, then a transformation, 12 – 4 = 8, is also easily doable.

19. Formal Operational Stage
Around age 12, our reasoning ability expands from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. We can now use symbols and imagined realities to systematically reason. Piaget called this formal operational thinking.

20. Social Development
Stranger anxiety is the fear of strangers that develops at around 8 months. This is the age at which infants form schemas for familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face.
OBJECTIVE 11| Define stranger anxiety.
© Christina Kennedy/ PhotoEdit

21. Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months of age, regardless of whether the children are home or sent to day care.

22. Social Development
Attachment-The enduring affectional tie that binds one person to another
Secure vs. Insecure

23. Attachment Differences
Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their mother leave, they show distress.
The other 30% show insecure attachment. These children cling to their mothers or caregivers and are less likely to explore the environment.
OBJECTIVE 13| Contrast secure and insecure attachment, and discuss the roles of parents and infants in the development of attachment and an infant’s feelings of basic trust.

24. Stages of Attachment
Initial-preattachment which lasts from birth to about 3 months and is characterized by indiscriminate attachment.

25. Stages of Attachment
2) Attachment-in-the-making
Occurs at about 3 or 4 months and is characterized by preference for familiar figures.

26. Stages of Attachment
3) Clear-cut-attachment
occurs at about 6 or 7 months and is characterized by intensified dependence on the primary caregiver (PCG)-usually the mother.

27. Theories of Attachment
John Bowlby
Harry Harlow
Mary Ainsworth

28. John Bowlby
attachment is innate and a biological basis for survival
infants are predisposed to seek attention from PCG-most often their mothers
Disturbance/disruption of initial attachment bond between child and PCG renders person insecure as an adult

29. Proximity Maintenance - The desire to be near the people we are attached to.
Safe Haven - Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety in the face of a fear or threat.
Secure Base - The attachment figure acts as a base of security from which the child can explore the surrounding environment.
Separation Distress - Anxiety that occurs in the absence of the attachment figure

30. Harry Harlow Raised monkeys with cloth-covered or wire mothers
Wire monkeys provided milk to infants but cloth mothers did not
Infants spent more time clinging to the cloth mothers compared to wire mothers
Contact Comfort- primary drive to seek physical comfort through contact with another.

33. Insecure Attachment
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth mother is removed.
Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

34. Prolonged Deprivation
If parental or caregiving support is deprived for an extended period of time, children are at risk for physical, psychological, and social problems, including alterations in brain serotonin levels.

35. Day Care and Attachment
Quality day care that consists of responsive adults interacting with children does not harm children’s thinking and language skills.
However, some studies suggest that extensive time in day care can increase aggressiveness and defiance in children.

36. Deprivation of Attachment
What happens when circumstances prevent a child from forming attachments?
In such circumstances children become:
Withdrawn
Frightened
Unable to develop speech
OBJECTIVE 14| Assess the impact of parental neglect, family disruption, and day care on attachment patterns and development.

37. Mary Ainsworth Developed Attachment Taxonomy
Identified attachment “types” based on child responses to the “strange situation”

38. Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
Child is brought into unfamiliar room with toys; allowed to play with PCG present
Stranger enters room; talks to PCG, then approaches the child
PCG leaves child in room with stranger-brief separation
PCG returns; stranger leaves
Evaluates the “reunion” between child and PCG

39. Mary Ainsworth Insecure-avoidant-Type A (20%)
Classification system of attachment:
Insecure-avoidant-Type A (20%)
Securely attached- Type B (70%)
Insecure-resistant-Type C (10%)
Anxious, disorganized, disoriented-Type D (added later)

40. Mary Ainsworth
Insecure Avoidant:Type A-infants explored with indifference to PCG; it was observed that the mothers sometimes ignored their infants
Securely Attached: Type B-(majority) most confident and assured by PCG; explored room but happy when PCG return; moderate avoidance of stranger but friendly when PCG present; mothers described as sensitive
Insecure Resistant: Type C-intense stress when PCG absent but rejected her when she returned; mothers seem ambivalent

41. Mary Ainsworth What these findings suggest:
The more the baby is treated as an individual from its point of view the more it responds with the most security (B)
PCGs who reject their baby’s requests and do not cuddle often produce insecure-avoidant babies (A)
PCGs who are inconsistent in their actions produce insecure-resistant and confused babies (C & D)

42. Imprinting
The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.
Ex: Lorenz’s goslings

45. Child Rearing Warmth-Coldness
1)Warm parents-affectionate towards their children (more socially and emotionally adjusted)
2)Cold parents-may not enjoy being around their children and show them little affection.

46. Child Rearing Restrictiveness-Permissiveness
1)Restrictive-tend to impose many rules and watch their children closely.
2)Permissive-impose few, if any, rules and supervise their children less closely.

47. Child-Rearing Practices
Description
Authoritarian
Parents impose rules and expect obedience.
Permissive
Parents submit to children’s demands.
Authoritative
Parents are demanding but responsive to their children.
OBJECTIVE 16| Describe three parenting styles, and offer three potential explanations for the link between authoritative parenting and social competence.

49. Self-Concept
Self-concept, a sense of one’s identity and personal worth, emerges gradually around 6 months. Around months, children can recognize themselves in the mirror. By 8-10 years, their self-image is stable.
OBJECTIVE 15| Assess the impact of parental neglect, family disruption, and day care on attachment patterns and development.
Laura Dwight

50. Adolescence
Many psychologists once believed that our traits were set during childhood. Today psychologists believe that development is a lifelong process. Adolescence is defined as a life between childhood and adulthood.
OBJECTIVE 17| Define adolescence.
AP Photo/ Jeff Chiu

51. Physical Development
Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13 years). Thus height in females increases before males.
OBJECTIVE 18| Identify the major physical changes during adolescence.

52. Primary Sexual Characteristics
During puberty primary sexual characteristics — the reproductive organs and external genitalia — develop rapidly.
Ellen Senisi/ The Image Works

53. Secondary Sexual Characteristics
Also secondary sexual characteristics—the nonreproductive traits such as breasts and hips in girls and facial hair and deepening of voice in boys develop. Pubic hair and armpit hair grow in both sexes.

54. Frontal Cortex
During adolescence, neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, which speeds up nerve conduction. The frontal cortex lags behind the limbic system’s development. Hormonal surges and the limbic system may explain occasional teen impulsiveness.

55. Cognitive Development
Adolescents’ ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness. In particular, they may think about the following:
Their own thinking.
What others are thinking.
What others are thinking about them.
How ideals can be reached. They criticize society, parents, and even themselves.

56. Developing Reasoning Power
According to Piaget, adolescents can handle abstract problems, i.e., they can perform formal operations. Adolescents can judge good from evil, truth and justice, and think about God in deeper terms.
OBJECTIVE 19| Describe the changes in reasoning abilities that Piaget called formal operations.
William Thomas Cain/ Getty Images
AP/Wide World Photos

57. Developing Morality
Kohlberg (1981, 1984) sought to describe the development of moral reasoning by posing moral dilemmas to children and adolescents, such as “Should a person steal medicine to save a loved one’s life?” He found stages of moral development.
OBJECTIVE 20| Discuss moral development from the perspectives of moral thinking, moral feeling, and moral action.
AP Photo/ Dave Martin

58. Moral Thinking
Preconventional Morality: Before age 9, children show morality to avoid punishment or gain reward.
Conventional Morality: By early adolescence, social rules and laws are upheld for their own sake.
Postconventional Morality: Affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows personally perceived ethical principles.

59. Moral Action
Moral action involves doing the right thing. People who engage in doing the right thing develop empathy for others and the self-discipline to resist their own impulses.

60. Social Development
OBJECTIVE 21| Identify Erickson’s eight stages of psychosocial development and their accompanying issues.

61. Forming an Identity
In Western cultures, many adolescents try out different selves before settling into a consistent and comfortable identity. Having such an identity leads to forming close relationships.
OBJECTIVE 22| Explain how search for identity affects us during adolescence, and discuss how forming an identity prepares us for intimacy.
Matthias Clamer/ Getty Images
Leland Bobble/ Getty Images

62. Parent and Peer Influence
Although teens become independent of their parents as they grow older, they nevertheless relate to their parents on a number of things, including religiosity and career choices. Peer approval and relationships are also very important.
OBJECTIVE 23| Contrast parental and peer influences during adolescence.

63. Adolescence
The amount of time spent with the family decreases dramatically as age increase
Adolescents, like younger children, interact with their mothers more so than their fathers (more supportive and better advice)

64. Ego vs. Role Ego Identity-
A firm sense of who one is and what one stands for
Role Diffusion-
Lack of clarity in one’s life roles-a function of failure to develop ego identity

65. Emerging Adulthood
Emerging adulthood spans ages During this time, young adults may live with their parents and attend college or work. On average, emerging adults marry in their mid-twenties.
OBJECTIVE 24| Discuss the characteristics of emerging adulthood.
Ariel Skelley/ Corbis

66. Young Adulthood *Intimacy vs. isolation (relationships)
*Trying 20’s (career)
*Gender differences(individualism)
*Age 30 transition-(ages 28-33) reassessing life goals
*Catch 30’s-(major reassessment of their accomplishments and goals.

67. Middle Adulthood Menopause-Cessation of menstruation
Midlife crisis-severe depression feel entrapment and loss of purpose
Menopause-Cessation of menstruation
The Empty-nest syndrome-sense of depression and loss of purpose felt by some parents when the youngest child leaves home

68. Adulthood
Although adulthood begins sometime after a person’s mid-twenties, defining adulthood into stages is more difficult than defining stages during childhood or adolescence.
Rick Doyle/ Corbis

69. Physical Development
The peak of physical performance occurs around 20 years of age, after which it declines imperceptibly for most of us.

70. Middle Adulthood
Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline after the mid-twenties. Around age 50, women go through menopause, and men experience decreased levels of hormones and fertility.
OBJECTIVE 25| Identify major physical changes that occur in middle adulthood.
Bettman/ Corbis
Willie Mays batting performance.

71. Old Age: Life Expectancy
Life expectancy at birth increased from 49% in 1950 to 67% in 2004 and to 80% in developed countries. Women outlive men and outnumber them at most ages.
OBJECTIVE 26| Compare life expectancy in the mid-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and discuss changes in sensory abilities and health (including frequency of dementia) in older adults.
Gorges Gobet/ AP Photo

72. Old Age: Sensory Abilities
After age 70, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell diminish, as do muscle strength, reaction time, and stamina. After 80, neural processes slow down, especially for complex tasks.
Michael Newman/ PhotoEdit

73. Old Age: Motor Abilities
At age 70, our motor abilities also decline. A 70-year-old is no match for a 20-year-old individual. Fatal accidents also increase around this age.

74. Old Age: Dementia
With increasing age, the risk of dementia also increases. Dementia is not a normal part of growing old.
Alan Oddie/ PhotoEdit

75. Adult Development Ego vs. Despair
Late Adulthood:
Ego vs. Despair
Challenge of maintaining one’s sense of identity despite physical deterioration.

76. Death and Dying Kubler-Ross 5 stages: 1)Denial-diagnosis is wrong
2)Anger-its unfair, why me?
3) Bargaining-with God to postpone death
4) Depression-loss and hopeless
5) Final acceptance-inner peace