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Chapter 9: Self and Personality Chapter Review
Book Title: Life Span Human Development
Chapter Review
Chapter Summary
9.1 Conceptualising the self and personality
Personality is an organised combination of attributes, motives, values
and behaviours unique to the individual. Aspects of personality include
dispositional traits, more changeable characteristic adaptations and
unique narrative identities. Self-concept is an individual’s perceptions of
their attributes; self-esteem an overall evaluation of self-worth; and
identity is a coherent self-definition.
Psychoanalytic theorists maintain that we all experience stage-like
personality changes at similar ages. Trait theorists believe that a small
number of core aspects of personality are enduring, and social cognitive
theorists maintain that people can change in any number of directions at
any time if their social environments change.
Gender identity and gender role differences arise from an interaction of
biological influences, socialisation and environmental factors.
Sexuality is an individual’s capacities for sexual feelings, thoughts and
behaviours; an aspect of this is one’s sexual orientation, which is usually
expressed on a continuum of heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, mostly
homosexual, homosexual or bisexual. Differences in sexual orientation
arise from an interplay of biological and environmental factors.
9.2 The infant
Early in their first year, infants gain a sense of existential self, or the
sense that they are separate from but can act on the world around
them; by 18–24 months, they display self-recognition and form a
categorical sense of self based on social categories such as age and
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gender. The development of self-awareness and self-representation
proceeds as a result of cognitive development, social interaction and
cultural expectations.
Infants are sexual beings with genitals and nervous systems that allow
for sexual responses; infants explore their bodies and experience
arousal but are not aware this behaviour is sexual.
Infants differ in temperament: in easy, difficult and slow-to-warm up
temperaments (Thomas and Chess); behavioural inhibition (Kagan);
and surgency/extroversion, negative affectivity and effortful control
(Rothbart). Temperament is influenced by genes and the environment,
and infant temperament is only moderately related to later personality.
9.3 The child
Whereas the self-concepts of preschool children are focused on
physical characteristics and activities, older children describe their inner
psychological traits and social ties and evaluate their competencies
through social comparison.
Self-esteem is influenced by genetic and environmental factors and is
associated with wellbeing, health and achievement. Self-esteem levels
show a declining trend throughout childhood, but levels remain relatively
high. Children are most likely to develop high self-esteem when they are
competent, fare well in social comparisons and have warm, democratic
parents.
Links between early temperament and the Big Five personality traits are
evident, and some personality traits stabilise in childhood; but other
traits do not stabilise until adolescence and adulthood.
By the time they enter school, children have long been aware of their
basic gender identities, have acquired many gender role stereotypes
and have come to prefer gender-appropriate activities and same-gender
playmates. Different theoretical perspectives attempt to explain how this
occurs: the social learning perspective focuses on differential
reinforcement and observational learning; and cognitive perspectives
emphasise the development of cognitive understandings of gender and
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active self-socialisation. Each theory has some support, but none is
completely correct.
Children’s understandings of sex and reproduction proceed through a
sequence consistent with Piaget’s cognitive-developmental stages.
School age children engage in sexual play and sexual self-exploration
and appear to experience their first sexual attractions around age 10
and is associated with pre-pubertal hormonal changes.
9.4 The adolescent
During adolescence, self-concepts become more psychological,
abstract, differentiated and integrated, and show increased selfawareness. Self-esteem dips for some individuals but mainly increases.
Self-esteem levels of adolescents as a group continue the declining
trend that started in childhood, but mostly remain at a healthy level.
In resolving Erikson’s conflict of identity versus role confusion, many
teens progress through four identity statuses, from diffusion or
foreclosure to moratorium to identity achievement status; this occurs at
different rates in different domains (e.g. vocational, sexual, politicalideological, ethnic-racial). Analysing life stories, or narrative identities, is
another approach to studying identity. Cognitive development,
personality, quality of relationship with parents, opportunities for
exploration and cultural context influence identity development.
According to the gender intensification hypothesis, pubertal changes
and social pressures lead teens to be less tolerant of gender role
deviations and to display more gender stereotypical traits and
behaviours. The evidence is mixed about whether gender intensification
occurs during adolescence.
In adolescence, forming a positive sexual identity is an important task,
one that can be difficult for those with gay, lesbian or bisexual
orientations. During the past century, rates of sexual activity in teens
have increased, especially in girls; we have also seen increased
endorsement of the view that sex with affection (but without commitment
necessarily) is acceptable, a weakening of the double standard and
increased confusion about sexual norms.
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9.5 The adult
Older adults maintain self-esteem until late old age by converging their
ideal and real selves, adjusting goals and standards of self-evaluation,
comparing themselves with other ageing adults and not internalising
ageist stereotypes.
Individuals’ rankings on the trait dimensions of personality become more
stable with age; group rankings tend to show a curvilinear pattern of
traits gradually increasing from young adulthood, peaking in middle age,
and then decreasing toward old age. Stability of personality may be
caused by genes, the lasting effects of early experiences, stable
environments and gene-environment correlations; personality change
may result from biological or environmental changes or person–
environment fit.
According to Erikson’s psychosocial theory of personality growth, the
resolution of the childhood conflicts centring on trust, autonomy,
initiative, industry and identity paves the way for achieving intimacy in
early adulthood, generativity in middle age and integrity through life
review in old age.
Gender roles become more distinct when adults marry and have
children, particularly during the child rearing years. Once children are
grown, however, older adults often display greater flexibility in their
behaviour, incorporating both masculine-stereotypic and femininestereotypic traits and roles.
Many older adults continue having sexual intercourse, and many of
those who cease having it or have it less frequently continue to be
sexually motivated. Elderly people can continue to enjoy an active sex
life if they retain their physical and mental health, do not allow negative
attitudes surrounding sexuality in later life to stand in their way, have a
willing and able partner and continue to use their capacity for sex.
Establishing a career takes time and involves settling on careers that fit
our personalities and life roles. Older workers are generally as effective
as younger workers, possibly because they use selective optimisation
with compensation to cope with ageing. Most retiring workers adjust to
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the loss of the work role and experience a positive retirement with
generally little change in health or psychological wellbeing.
Chapter 9: Self and Personality Chapter Review
Book Title: Life Span Human Development
Chapter 10: Social Cognition and Moral Development Chapter Review
Book Title: Life Span Human Development
Chapter Review
Chapter Summary
10.1 Social cognition
Social cognition (thinking about self and others) is involved in all social
behaviour, including moral behaviour. Starting in infancy with milestones
such as joint attention, understanding of intentions and pretend play,
children develop a theory of mind – a desire psychology at age 2 and a
belief–desire psychology by age 4 – as evidenced by passing false belief
tasks. Developing a theory of mind requires a normal brain (including
mirror neuron systems) and appropriate social and communication
experience.
With age, children also become more adept at perspective taking. Social
cognitive skills often improve during adulthood and hold up well but may
decline late in life if a person is socially isolated.
10.2 Perspectives on moral development
Morality has emotional, cognitive and behavioural components.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory emphasised moral emotions and
the superego’s role in moral behaviour; Martin Hoffman has emphasised
empathy as a motivator of moral behaviour.
Cognitive developmental theorist Jean Piaget distinguished premoral,
heteronomous and autonomous stages of moral thinking; building on this,
Lawrence Kohlberg proposed three levels of moral reasoning –
preconventional, conventional and postconventional – each with two
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stages.
Social cognitive theorist Albert Bandura focused on how moral behaviour is
influenced by learning, situational forces, self-regulatory processes and
moral disengagement.
Evolutionary theorists consider emotion, cognition and behaviour and
maintain that humans have evolved to be moral beings because morality
and prosocial behaviour have proven adaptive for the human species.
10.3 The infant
Although infants are amoral in some respects, they begin learning about
right and wrong through their early disciplinary encounters, internalise rules
and display empathy and prosocial behaviour early in life.
Infant moral growth is facilitated by a secure attachment and what Grazyna
Kochanska calls a mutually responsive orientation between parent and
child.
10.4 The child
Kohlberg and Piaget underestimated the moral sophistication of young
children (e.g. their ability to consider intentions, to distinguish between
moral and social-conventional rules and to question adult authority); still,
most children display preconventional moral reasoning.
Reinforcement, modelling, the disciplinary approach of induction and
proactive parenting can foster moral growth, and a child’s temperament
interacts with the approach to moral training parents adopt to influence
outcomes.
10.5 The adolescent
During adolescence, a shift from preconventional to conventional moral
reasoning is evident, and many adolescents incorporate moral values into
their sense of identity.
Antisocial behaviour can be understood in terms of Kenneth Dodge’s social
information processing model, Gerald Patterson’s coercive family
environments and the negative peer influences they set in motion, and,
more generally, a biopsychosocial model involving the interaction of genetic
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predisposition with psychological and social–environmental influences.
Attempts to reduce antisocial behaviour, including bullying, have taken a
variety of directions; but the most promising approaches today take a
comprehensive approach in which individual thinking, emotion and
behaviour is addressed along with family, peer, school and community
factors.
10.6 The adult
A minority of adults progress from the conventional to the postconventional
level of moral reasoning; elderly adults typically reason as complexly as
younger adults.
Kohlberg’s early stages of moral reasoning form an invariant sequence, but
he underestimated children, overlooked cultural differences, and slighted
moral emotion and the many other influences on moral behaviour.
Researchers like Haidt and Greene have proposed dual-process models of
morality that include both deliberative reasoning and emotion-based
intuitions.
Religiousness and especially spirituality become stronger in later life and
are associated with positive outcomes socially and for physical and mental
health and wellbeing.
Chapter 10: Social Cognition and Moral Development Chapter Review
Book Title: Life Span Human Development
Chapter 11: Emotions, Attachment and Social Relationships Chapter Review
Chapter Review
Chapter Summary
11.1 Emotional development
Biologically-based primary emotions such as anger and fear appear in the
first year of life; secondary or self-conscious emotions appear in the
second year after self-awareness is achieved. Attachment figures socialise
emotions and help infants regulate their emotions until they can develop
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better emotion regulation strategies of their own.
Children gain emotional competence (emotional expression, understanding
and regulation) with age; they come to understand that it is possible to
have mixed emotions and they learn to follow display rules for emotion.
Adolescents have more negative moods than children or adults, sometimes
because they seek them.
Carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory and the positivity effect
suggest that older adults achieve high emotional wellbeing by emphasising
emotional fulfilment rather than other life goals, and positive rather than
negative information as time runs short.
11.2 Perspectives on relationships
Our social system of family, friends and acquaintances, or social convoy,
changes in size and composition throughout the life span. Individual
development is often linked with the development of those in our family
system, such as caregivers and siblings, and the particular stages of the
family life cycle. Inadequately described by the traditional family life cycle
concept are, for example, single adults (some of whom cohabit with
partners), childless married couples, dual-career families and gay and
lesbian families.
Sibling relationships are characterised by ambivalence (both affection and
rivalry), and siblings play important roles as providers of emotional support,
caregiving, teaching and social experience. Peer relationships and
friendships have also been identified as important social relationships.
The developmental significance of early caregiver–child relationships is
emphasised in the Bowlby–Ainsworth attachment theory, which argues that
attachments are built into the human species, develop through an
interaction of nature and nurture during a sensitive period and affect later
development by shaping internal working models of self and other.
11.3 The infant
Parents typically become attached to infants before or shortly after birth,
and parent and child quickly establish synchronised routines. Infants
progress through phases of undiscriminating social responsiveness,
discriminating social responsiveness, active proximity seeking and goal4/4
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corrected partnership. The formation of a first attachment around 6 or 7
months is accompanied by separation anxiety and stranger anxiety, as well
as by exploration from the secure base and retreat to the safe haven the
caregiver provides.
Research using Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation classifies the quality of
caregiver–infant attachment as secure, resistant, avoidant or disorganised–
disoriented. Harry Harlow demonstrated that contact comfort is more
important than feeding in attachment development; secure attachments are
also associated with sensitive, responsive caregiving, but infant
characteristics such as temperament also contribute.
Repeated long-term separations and social deprivation can make it difficult
for an infant to form normal attachments, though recovery is possible.
Attending day care normally does not disrupt caregiver–child attachments,
although quality of care matters. Secure attachments contribute to later
cognitive, emotional and social competence, but attachment quality often
changes over time, and insecurely attached infants are not doomed to a
lifetime of poor relationships.
Infants are interested in peers and become increasingly able to coordinate
their own activity with that of their small companions; by 18 months, they
participate in reciprocal exchanges and form friendships.
11.4 The child
Children and caregivers form goal-corrected partnerships in which both
accommodate each other’s needs; children also become more sensitive
and independent and caregivers continue to socialise their children.
Parenting styles can be described in terms of the dimensions of
acceptance–responsiveness and demandingness–control; children are
generally more competent when their parents adopt an authoritative style
that is high on both of these dimensions. Research on the parent effects,
child effects, interactional, and transactional models of family influence tells
us that children’s problem behaviours are not always solely caused by
ineffective parenting.
When a second child enters the family system, firstborns may find the
experience stressful; but caregivers can help smooth the transition and
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minimise adjustment problems.
Children spend increasing amounts of time with peers, especially samesex ones. Physical attractiveness, cognitive ability, social competence and
emotion regulation skills contribute to popular – rather than rejected,
neglected or controversial – sociometric status. Children who are rejected
by their peers or who have no friends are especially at risk for future
problems.
11.5 The adolescent
Caregiver–child relationships typically remain close in adolescence but
involve increased conflict around puberty. Caregiver–child relationships are
renegotiated to become more equal as adolescents strive for autonomy;
the goal of autonomy and healthy adjustment is best supported by
authoritative parenting and the maintenance of positive and supportive
relationships with caregivers as adolescent children leave home.
During adolescence, same-sex and cross-sex friendships increasingly
involve emotional intimacy and self-disclosure, and a transition is made
from same-sex cliques, to mixed-sex cliques and larger crowds, and finally
to dating relationships, which at first meet self-esteem and status needs
and later become more truly affectionate. Although susceptibility to
negative peer pressure peaks around age 14 or 15, peers are more often a
positive than a negative force in development, unless poor relationships
with caregivers lead to association with an antisocial crowd. Sexual
minority teens may face obstacles to finding romantic partners amongst
predominantly heterosexual peers.
11.6 The adult
Adult social systems shrink with age, possibly because of increased
socioemotional selectivity around friendships. Although adults are highly
involved with their spouses or romantic partners, they continue to value
friendships, especially long-lasting and equitable ones. Having at least one
confidant has beneficial effects on life satisfaction, as well as on physical
health and cognitive functioning.
Marital satisfaction declines somewhat as newlyweds adjust to each other
and become parents, whereas the empty nest transition and a
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companionate style of grandparenthood are generally positive experiences.
In adulthood, siblings have less contact but continue to feel both
emotionally close and may experience sibling rivalries. Young adults often
establish more mutual relationships with their parents, and most middleaged adults continue to experience mutually supportive relationships with
their elderly parents until some experience middle generation squeeze,
caregiver burden, and possibly a short period of role reversal.
Adults have secure, preoccupied, dismissing or fearful internal working
models that appear to be rooted in their early attachment experiences and
that affect their romantic relationships, approaches to work, caregiving
skills and adjustment in old age.
11.7 Family violence and child abuse
Parent characteristics such as being abused, child characteristics such as
a difficult temperament and contextual factors such as lack of social
support and disadvantaged communities all contribute to child abuse and
must be considered in formulating prevention and treatment programs.
Chapter 11: Emotions, Attachment and Social Relationships Chapter Review
Chapter 12: Developmental Psychopathology Chapter Review
Book Title: Life Span Human Development
Printed By: Meredith Kellahan (kellahan@me.com)
© 2017 Cengage Learning Australia, Cengage Learning
Chapter Review
Chapter Summary
12.1 What makes development abnormal?
To identify psychological disorders, clinicians consider broad criteria such
as statistical deviance, maladaptiveness and personal distress; they may
also apply DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing specific disorders.
Developmental psychopathology is concerned with the origins and course
of maladaptive behaviour; abnormal behaviour is studied in tandem with
normal development and while there are universal aspects of
psychopathology, what is considered abnormal must take account of
cultural, social and developmental norms.
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Developmental psychopathologists are concerned with the interplay of risk
and protective factors over the life course and how these give rise to
disordered or healthy psychological development. A diathesis–stress
model and differential susceptibility are models that have proved useful in
understanding how nature and nurture factors can give rise to
psychological disorders or protect an individual from developing a disorder.
12.2 The infant
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which usually begins in infancy, is
characterised by social and communication impairments and by restricted
and repetitive interests and behaviour. It is genetically and environmentally
influenced; involves abnormalities in brain growth and connectivity, mirror
neuron functioning and executive functions; and responds to early and
intensive behavioural training.
Infants who have been maltreated, separated from their attachment figures
or raised by a depressed caregiver may display symptoms of depression.
12.3 The child
Many childhood disorders can be categorised as externalising problems
(undercontrolled, acting out) or internalising problems (over-controlled,
bottling up); they are often a product of diathesis–stress or gene–
environment interactions and they often persist later in life, though mild
problems tend to be more passing.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) involves inattention and/or
hyperactivity/impulsivity, often continues into adulthood and can be treated
most effectively through a combination of stimulant drugs and behavioural
treatment. It is highly heritable with many genes involved, but
environmental influences are also important in determining whether a
genetic potential for ADHD is expressed and how the individual adapts to
the condition.
Major depressive disorder and suicidal behaviour can occur during early
childhood; depression manifests itself somewhat differently in childhood
compared to adulthood, tends to recur and can be treated.
12.4 The adolescent
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Adolescents are more vulnerable than children but no more vulnerable
than adults to psychological disorders; 20 per cent at any given time
experience the ‘storm and stress’ of a psychological disorder.
Anorexia nervosa arises when a genetically predisposed individual, who
lives in a society that strongly encourages thinness, experiences stressful
events.
Substance use disorders can grow out of normal and widespread
adolescent experimentation with substances; according to the cascade
model, the developmental pathway toward illicit drug use begins in
childhood; and we must also take into account the interplay of genetic,
peer socialisation and peer selection factors to fully understand substance
use and dependence.
Risk of depression rises during adolescence, especially among females.
Adolescents are more likely to attempt, but less likely to commit, suicide
than adults, although this can vary across countries, cultures and
subcultures.
12.5 The adult
Young adults experience more life strains and more psychological
disorders, including depression, than older adults.
Older adults have low rates of diagnosable depression but 15–25 per cent
show some symptoms of depression; diagnosing depression among older
adults can be tricky as their symptoms may be incorrectly attributed to
ageing, chronic disease or dementia.
Dementia, now called neurocognitive disorder, is a progressive
deterioration in neural functioning associated with significant cognitive
decline that increases with age. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common
cause of dementia, and vascular dementia, another irreversible dementia,
must be carefully distinguished from correctible conditions such as
reversible dementia, delirium and depression.
Chapter 12: Developmental Psychopathology Chapter Review
© 2017 Cengage Learning Australia, Cengage Learning
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Chapter 13: The Final Challenge: Death and Dying Chapter Review
Book Title: Life Span Human Development
Chapter Review
Chapter Summary
13.1 Matters of life and death
In defining death as a biological process, the Harvard definition of total
brain death has been influential. Many controversies surround issues of
active and passive euthanasia and assisted suicide, complicated by
findings of higher brain functioning in some people who are supposedly in
unresponsive wakefulness states; meanwhile, the social meanings of death
vary widely.
Life expectancies have increased steadily over the last century to be
around 80 years in modern and affluent societies; although life
expectancies are lower for individuals living in less developed countries
and who experience poverty and socioeconomic disadvantage. Death rates
decline after infancy but rise in adulthood as accidents give way to chronic
diseases as the primary causes of death.
Theories of ageing and death include those that emphasise the genetic
control of ageing – the programmed theories – and those that emphasise
accumulation of random damage – the random error theories; research
indicates that ageing, death and longevity are influenced by both genetic
endowment and lifestyle factors that cause damage to cells.
13.2 The experience of death
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross stimulated much concern for dying patients by
describing five stages of dying; yet her work did not acknowledge that
dying people experience ever-changing emotions and their reactions also
depend on the course of their disease and on their personality; dying
people, too, also set goals for living rather than just coping with dying.
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Bereavement precipitates grief and mourning, which are expressed,
according to the Parkes/Bowlby attachment model, in overlapping phases
of numbness, yearning, disorganisation and despair, and reorganisation.
The dual-process model describes oscillation between loss-oriented coping
and restoration-oriented coping, both of which involve a mix of positive and
negative thoughts and emotions; the bereaved also require respite from
coping so as to re-energise.
13.3 The infant
Infants may not comprehend death except as a form of ‘all gone’, but, as
attachment theorist, John Bowlby, noticed, they clearly grieve – protesting,
despairing and then detaching after separations from attachment figures.
13.4 The child
Children are curious about death and usually understand by age 5–7 that
death is a final cessation of life functions that is irreversible and universal,
and later more fully understanding the causality of death. Children’s
understanding of death is influenced by cognitive maturity, the sociocultural
context and personal experience with death.
Terminally ill children often become very aware of their plight and benefit
from a strong sense that their parents are there to care for them and the
support of siblings and other significant individuals. Bereaved children
often experience bodily symptoms, academic difficulties and behavioural
problems; but in the longer term most are resilient and adapt well,
especially those who have effective coping skills and solid social support.
13.5 The adolescent
Adolescents understand death more abstractly than children do and
typically develop a supernatural view of death that includes an afterlife, but
they do not abandon their understanding of death’s biological finality.
Adolescents cope with dying and bereavement in ways that reflect the
typical developmental themes of adolescence, and some develop
psychological disorders after a significant loss.
13.6 The adult
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Although research suggests that around half of widows and widowers show
resilience and the rest show different trajectories of grief reactions, on
average widows and widowers experience physical, emotional and
cognitive symptoms for a year or more and are at increased risk of dying.
The death of a child is often even more difficult for an adult to bear,
whereas the death of a parent is often easier because it is more expected.
13.7 Coping with death
The grief work perspective has been challenged. What is normal depends
on the cultural context; also many people display resilience, never doing
‘grief work’ or suffering because they did not; and many people benefit from
continuing rather than severing their attachment bonds.
Complicated grief is especially likely among individuals who have insecure
attachment styles, who have neurotic personalities and limited coping
skills, who had close and dependent relationships with individuals who died
violently and senselessly, and who lack social support or face additional
stressors.
When grief is significant but not crushing, bereaved individuals often report
growth.
Successful efforts to help people cope with death have included hospices
and other forms of palliative care for dying patients and their families, and
individual therapy, family therapy and mutual support groups for the
bereaved.
Themes of this book include many themes that are part of the life span
perspective on development formulated by Paul Baltes and introduced in
Chapter 1.
Chapter 13: The Final Challenge: Death and Dying Chapter Review
© 2018 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may by reproduced or used in any form or by any
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