Development Theory
Nature vs. nurture key debate
How to study: cross-sectional, longitudinal
Infant development
Teratogens – radiation (neurons migrate too far)
alcohol (stop short) – fetal alcohol syndrome
Reflexes – rooting, sucking, grasping, Moro (startle), Babinski (foot – spread toes)
turn toward mother’s voice
vision clearest at approx 12” when born
Motor development (maturation)
myelination of neurons key
Proximodistal development (center outward); cephalocaudal (brain down)
Attachment theory
Harlow – touch
Ainsworth – strange situation paradigm
secure attachment (66%) – explore when parent there, upset when parent leaves
avoidant attachment (21%) – resist parents, explore, don’t return
anxious/ambivalent (12%) – stress when left, not comforted on return
Parenting style
Authoritarian
Authoritative
Permissive
Stage theory
Freud (oral, anal, phallic – Oedipus/Electra complex, latency, genital)
Erikson (neo-Freudian) – psychosocial stages
trust vs. mistrust (babies)
autonomy vs. shame & doubt (toddlers)
initiative vs. guilt (3-5)
industry vs. inferiority (elem school – may develop inferiority complex)
identity vs. role confusion (adolescence)
intimacy vs. isolation (early adult)
generativity vs. stagnation (middle adult)
integrity vs. despair (older adult)
Piaget (cognitive devt – worked for Alfred Binet)
schemas – assimilation – accommodation
sensorimotor (0-2 years)
object permanence (8 mo.)
preoperational (2-7)
concrete operational (8-12)
conservation signals onset
volume, area, number
formal operations
abstract reasoning, testing hypotheses
Information-processing model – alternate view to Piaget
changes reflect different way of processing info
Moral development – Kohlberg
Preconventional
Conventional
Postconventional
universal ethical principles
Carol Gilligan’s criticism – women think relationally, situationally
Gender differences
Biopsychological theory
ex. women have larger corpus callosum
Psychodynamic theory (Freud)
Social-cognitive theory
Social influences
Gender-schema theory