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Developing Through the Life Span
Psychology 40S C. McMurray
Source: PSYCHOLOGY
(9th Edition)David Myers
Worth Publishers, © 2010
Developmental Psychologists
1. Jean Piaget (Cognitive Development)
2. Erik Erikson (Social Development)
3. Lawrence Kohlberg (Moral Development)
4. Sigmund Freud (Psychosexual Development) Personality
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Prenatal Development and the Newborn
How, over time, did we come to be who we are? From zygote to birth,
development progresses in an orderly, though fragile, sequence.
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Conception
A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and
fuses to form one fertilized cell.
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Prenatal Development
A zygote is a fertilized egg By day 14, the zygote turns into an
embryo
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Prenatal Development
At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus
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Teratogens
Most prenatal influences on our development are genetic BUT environment can also influence development.
Teratogens: chemicals that are passed through the placenta to the fetus
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The Newborn
• Infants are born with reflexes that aid in survival.
• In the first few hours of life, a newborn’s temperament (emotional excitability) can be seen.
The Newborn and Reflexes• Rooting reflex
an infant’s response in turning toward the source of touching that occurs anywhere around his or her mouth
• Grasping reflexan infant’s clinging response to a touch on the palm of his or her hand
• Moro reflexwhen a baby is started, they will fling their
limbs out and then quickly retract them making themselves as small as possible
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MaturationThe 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 is our predetermined blueprintThe internally programmed growth of a child
Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it.
Cognitive Development
Cognition refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering.
• It is the ability to understand.
• It develops gradually as a child grows.
Jean Piaget 1896-1980
Who was he?Developmental psychologistwho studied cognitive development
What did he do?Studied hundreds of children.
Believed that a child’s mind develops through a series of 4 stages
Believed that we learn by making sense of our experiences
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Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
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Cognitive Development
Piaget believed that cognitive development is shaped by the errors we
make.
Scale errors – 18 to 30 month old children may fail to take the size of an object into account when trying to perform impossible actions with it.
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Schemas
Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.
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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.
Cognitive Development
Schema – is a specific plan for knowing the world
Assimilation – is the process of fitting objects and experiences into one’s schemas
Accomodation – is the adjustment of one’s schemas to include newly observed events and experiences
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Sensorimotor Stage Birth - Age 2
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.
No object permanence
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Object permanenceA child’s realization that an object exists even when he or she cannot see or touch it. (This usually occurs around 6 months of age.)
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.
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Preoperational StageAge 2 – Age 7
Piaget thought that children in the preoperational stage can’t think logically, they lack conservation and are too young to perform mental operations. They represent the world through the us of language but their language is egocentric.
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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.
Egocentric A young child’s inability to understand another
person’s perspective
“Do you have a brother?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name?”
“Jim”
“Does Jim have a brother?”
“No.”
Conservation The principle that a given quantity does not
change when its appearance is changed
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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 4 + 8 = 12, then a transformation, 12 – 4
= 8, is also easily doable.
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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.
Social EmotionalDevelopment
Socialization – the process of learning the rules of behaviour of the culture within which an individual is born and will live. The development of self-awareness, attachment to parents or caregivers, and relationships with other children and adults.
The real core of social development is found in the emotional attachment, or close emotional bond, that human babies form with their primary caregivers.
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Attachment
Emotional Attachment – an especially close emotional bond that infants form with their parents, caregiver, or others.
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Origins of Attachment
Harlow (1971) showed that infants bond with surrogate mothers because of bodily contact and
not because of nourishment.
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Harlow’s discovery surprised many
psychologists: The monkeys much preferred
contact with the comfortable cloth mother.
For many years, developmental
psychologists thought that infants became attached to those who satisfied their need for nourishment.
Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror-stricken when placed in strange situations
without their surrogate mothers.
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Origins of Attachment
Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor that causes attachment. In some
animals (goslings), imprinting is the cause of attachment.
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Insecure Attachment
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-
cloth mother is removed.
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Deprivation of Attachment
What happens when circumstances prevent a child from forming
attachments?
In such circumstances children become:
1. Withdrawn2. Frightened3. Unable to develop
speech
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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.
Watch: Feral Child Video
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Child-Rearing Practices
Practice Description
AuthoritarianParents impose rules and
expect obedience.
Permissive Parents submit to children’s demands.
Authoritative Parents are demanding but responsive to their children.
Social Development Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Family• Parents are the “bosses”• Very strict, no negotiation
Democratic/Authoritative Family• Children participate in decision making• Lots of discussion• Parents still have final say
Permissive/Laissez-faire Family• Children have the final say• Parents are less controlling
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Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parenting correlates with social competence — other factors like
common genes may lead to an easy-going temperament and may invoke an
authoritative parenting style.