Psychology and Human Development

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Chapter 8 Overview

• Theories of development• Prenatal development• Infancy• Early and middle childhood• Adolescence• Early and middle adulthood• Later adulthood• Death and dying

Kannan krishnamuirthy

Theories of Development• Developmental psychology

• The study of how humans grow, develop, and change throughout the life span

What did Piaget find regarding stages of cognitive development?

• Piaget proposed that cognitive ability develops in four stages, each involving a qualitatively different way of reasoning and understanding the world

• Four stages of development• Sensori-motor stage• Preoperational stage• Concrete operational stage• Formal operational stage

What did Piaget find regarding stages of cognitive development?

• During the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), infants gain an understanding of the world through their senses and motor activities• Infants act on objects and events that are directly

perceived

• Major achievement of this stage is object permanence• The realization that objects continue to exist when

they can no longer be perceived

What did Piaget find regarding stages of cognitive development?

• During the preoperational stage (age 2-7), children acquire symbolic function• Understanding that one thing can stand for another

• During this stage, children exhibit egocentrism• Belief that everyone sees what they see, thinks what

they think, etc.

What did Piaget find regarding stages of cognitive development?

• In the concrete operational stage (7 to 11 or 12 years), children acquire the concept of conservation• Understanding that a given quantity of matter stays the

same despite rearrangement or change in its appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away

• Conservation develops because children begin to understand reversibility• Realizing that any change in the shape, position, or order of

matter can be reversed mentally

Piaget’s conservation of volume task

What did Piaget find regarding stages of cognitive development?

• In the formal operational stage (age 11 or 12 years and beyond) preadolescents and adolescents acquire the capacity for hypothetico-deductive thinking• The ability to apply logical thought to abstract and

hypothetical situations in the past, present, and future

What are some alternative approaches to Piaget’s theory?

• Information processing theorists argue that stage-like advances in cognition are due to improvements in processes such as working memory

• Vygotsky’s sociocultural approach emphasizes that cognitive development occurs within a sociocultural context in which parents and teachers provide age-appropriate guidance

What did Kohlberg claim about the development of moral reasoning?

• Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral development

• He presented moral dilemmas to research participants and analyzed the moral reasoning that they described

• He classified moral reasoning into three levels, with each level having two stages• People progress through the levels and stages in a

fixed order• Each level has a prerequisite stage of cognitive

development

What did Kohlberg claim about the development of moral reasoning?

• Preconventional level• Lowest level of moral development• “Right” is whatever gains a reward or avoids

punishment• Conventional level

• Right and wrong are based on the internalized standards of others

• “Right” is whatever is approved by others or is consistent with the laws of society

• Postconventional level• Highest level of moral reasoning• “Right” is whatever furthers basic human rights

Colby & Kohlberg’s longitudinal study of moral development

• Studied moral reasoning at different ages

• Conventional thinking (stages 3 and 4) is not predominant until after age 12

• Postconventional thinking (stage 5) first appears in adulthood, but is still rare in 30’s

How does Erickson’s theory describe the process of psychosocial development?• Erik Erikson proposed eight psychosocial stages that encompass the entire lifespan

• Each stage is defined by a conflict that must be resolved for healthy personality development to occur

How does Erickson’s theory describe the process of psychosocial development?• Basic trust vs. basic mistrust

• Birth to 1 year

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt• 1 to 3 years

• Initiative vs. guilt• 3 to 6 years

• Industry vs. inferiority• 6 years to puberty

How does Erickson’s theory describe the process of psychosocial development?• Identity vs. role confusion

• Adolescence

• Intimacy vs. isolation• Young adulthood

• Generativity vs. stagnation• Middle adulthood

• Ego integrity vs. despair• Late adulthood

Prenatal Development• The development from conception to birth

What happens during each of the three stages of prenatal development?

• Period of the zygote• Zygote attaches to the uterine lining• Ends 1 to 2 weeks after conception

• Period of the embryo• Major systems, organs, and structures of the body

develop• Ends when bone cells appear, 3 to 8 weeks after

conception• Period of the fetus

• Rapid growth and development of body structures, organs, and systems

• 9 weeks after conception until birth

Infancy• A neonate, a newborn infant up to one month old, comes

equipped with an impressive range of reflexes, built-in responses to certain stimuli that they need to ensure survival in their new world

How do infants’ perceptual and motor abilities change over the first 18 months of life?

• Robert Fantz found that infants prefer to fixate on some objects over others

• Newborn infants can discriminate between objects

• Newborns’ visual acuity is about 20/600, but improves rapidly during infancy

How do infants’ perceptual and motor abilities change over the first 18 months of life?

• Most infants develop motor skills in the sequence shown in the figure

• Ages listed are averages• normal infants may reach any

milestone months earlier or later than average

• Motor development is largely determined by maturation

Temperament

• A person’s behavioral style or characteristic way of responding to the environment

How does temperament shape infants’ behavior?

• Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1970) identified three general types of temperament• Easy

• Have pleasant moods, approach new people and situations positively

• Difficult• Have generally unpleasant moods, react negatively to new

people and situations

• Slow-to-warm-up• Tend to withdraw, are slow to adapt, somewhat negative in

mood• Infant temperament is strongly influenced by heredity and is

somewhat predictive of personality later in life

How do the four attachment patterns identified in infants differ?• Attachment is the strong affectionate bond a child forms with the mother or primary caregiver

• Harry Harlow found that contact comfort forms the basis of attachment in rhesus monkeys

• Human infants exhibit separation anxiety and stranger anxiety once attachment has formed, at about 6 to 8 months of age

How do the four attachment patterns identified in infants differ?

• Secure attachment• About 65% of infants• Use mother as a secure base for exploring• Distressed by separation from caregivers, greet

caregivers when they return• More cooperative and content than other infants• Display better social skills as preschool children

• Avoidant attachment• About 20% of infants• Not responsive to mother, not troubled when she

leaves• May actively avoid contact with mother after

separation

How do the four attachment patterns identified in infants differ?

• Resistant attachment• 10 to 15% of infants• Seek close contact with mother, and tend not to

branch out and explore• After separation, may display anger toward

mother; not easily comforted

• Disorganized/disoriented attachment• 5 to 10% of infants• Protest separation, but exhibit contradictory and

disoriented behavior when reunited

Early and Middle Childhood• Mastery of language, both spoken and written, is just one

of several important developmental processes that happen in early and middle childhood.

What are the milestones of language development, and how do various theorists explain them?

• Babbling• Vocalization of basic speech sounds, which begins

between 4 and 6 months

• One-word stage• First words spoken at about 1 year• First words usually represent objects that move or

that infants can act on

• Two-word stage• Usually begins about 18-20 months

What are the milestones of language development, and how do various theorists explain them?

• Telegraphic speech• Between 2 and 3 years, children start using short

sentences that contain only essential content words

• Children follow grammatical rules in their speech, as indicated by overregularization• Misapplying a grammatical rule, such as adding

“ed” to form a past tense• Children say “goed”, comed”, “doed”, etc.

What are the milestones of language development, and how do various theorists explain them?

• Learning theories• Language is acquired in the same way as other

behaviors– through imitation and reinforcement• Noam Chomsky’s nativist position

• Language ability is largely innate• The brain contains a language acquisition

device• Most researchers endorse an interactionist approach• Acknowledging that infants have innate capacity

for acquiring language, but also recognizing environmental influences on language learning

What outcomes are often associated with the three parenting styles identified by Baumrind?

• Authoritarian parents• Make arbitrary rules, expect unquestioning

obedience, punish transgressions

• Authoritative parents• Set high but realistic standards, reason with the

child, enforce limits, and encourage open communication and independence

• Permissive parents• Make few rules or demands, allow children to

make their own decisions and control their own behavior

What outcomes are often associated with the three parenting styles identified by Baumrind?• Children with authoritative parents

• tend to be happier and have higher self-esteem, and be more self-reliant, socially competent, and responsible than their peers

• Children with authoritarian parents • tend to be withdrawn, anxious, and unhappy

• Children with permissive parents • tend to be the most immature, impulsive, and

dependent, and the least self-reliant and self-controlled

How do social learning, cognitive developmental, and gender-schema theorists explain gender role development?• Social learning theory

• Gender role development results from modeling and reinforcement

• Cognitive developmental theory• Development occurs in stages marked by

increasingly sophisticated reasoning about the permanence of gender

• Gender-schema theory• Children acquire schemas for maleness and

femaleness from their culture and use them to process information about gender

Adolescence• The developmental stage that begins at puberty and

encompasses the period from the end of childhood to the beginning of adulthood

How does puberty influence adolescents’ self-concepts and behavior?

• A period of rapid physical growth and change that culminates in sexual maturity

• Puberty and self-concept• Early maturation in boys is associated with higher

self-esteem• But may also be associated with greater aggression and

hostility

• Early maturation in girls is associated with higher risk of eating disorders, earlier sexual experiences, more unwanted pregnancies, and earlier exposure to alcohol and drug use

How does puberty influence adolescents’ self-concepts and behavior?

• Incidence of sexual activity increases dramatically through teen years

• Factors associated with later onset of sexual activity include

• Living with both biological parents

• Higher academic achievement• Involvement in sports• Frequent attendance of religious

services

In what ways do parents and peers contribute to teens’ development?

• Most adolescents have good relationships with their parents

• Parenting style affects adolescent behavior• Permissive parenting is associated with higher

incidence of drug and alcohol use and lower motivation for academic success in adolescents

• Authoritative parenting is associated with more psychological distress and lower self-confidence in adolescents

• Peer groups provide adolescents with standards of comparison and a vehicle for developing social skills

What are the neurological and psychosocial characteristics of emerging adulthood?

• Neuroimaging studies indicate that parts of the brain involved in decision making and self control mature between the late teens and early twenties

• Jeffrey Arnett has proposed that this age-range is a unique developmental period, which he calls emerging adulthood• A period when individuals explore options and

develop new skills in work and romantic domains before committing to adult roles

Early and Middle Adulthood• Early adulthood

• Ages 20 to 45 or 45

• Middle adulthood• Ages 40 or 45 to 65

• Late adulthood• After age 65 or 70

How does the body change in the early and middle adult years?• Presbyopia

• Lens of the eye can longer accommodate adequately for near vision

• Occurs almost universally in mid to late 40s

• Menopause• Cessation of menstruation, signifying end of

reproductive capacity in women• Usually occurs between 45 and 55

• Gradual decline in testosterone in men• From age 20 until about 60

In what ways does intellectual capacity improve and decline in adulthood?• Young adults outperform older adults on tasks requiring speed or rote memory

• But older adults outperform younger ones on tests measuring general information, vocabulary, reasoning ability, and social judgment

What are two themes of social development in early and middle adulthood?

• Establishment of an intimate partnership• Majority of adults marry and have children• But they do so at later ages today than in past

generations

• Career development• Job satisfaction is strongly related to satisfaction

with other aspects of life, such as romantic relationships

Later Adulthood• The life expectancy in the United States has increased

from 49 to 76 years from the beginning to the end of the 20th century

• People older than age 65 constitute about 15% of the U.S. population

How does the body change in the later adult years?• General slowing, the reduction in the speed of neural transmission leading to a slowing of physical and mental functions

• Decline in sensory capacity• Development of chronic conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure

• But, physical exercise can improve strength and mobility in older adults

What happens to cognitive ability in later adulthood?• Crystallized intelligence tends to increase over the lifespan• Verbal ability and accumulated knowledge

• Fluid intelligence peaks in early 20s and declines slowly as people age• Reasoning and mental flexibility

What are some of the adjustment challenges in the social lives of older adults?• Retirement• Loss of a spouse• Altered living arrangements• Most older adults cope with these adjustments and maintain a sense of life satisfaction

What are the components of successful aging?• Maintaining one’s physical health, mental abilities, social competence, and overall satisfaction with life• An optimistic outlook• Eating a healthy diet• Staying active cognitively and socially

Death and Dying• A developmental task for every elderly person is to accept

the inevitability of death and to prepare for it

How do individuals with terminal illnesses respond to their circumstances?

• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified 5 stages people go through in coming to terms with death• Denial• Anger• Bargaining• Depression• Acceptance

• But, critics doubt the universality of these stages, and argue that reactions to impending death vary widely between individuals and across cultures