Unit 6: Developmental Psychology Unit 6 Overview: Developmental Psychology ● Developmental Psychology ○ Development: complex process that occurs throughout the human lifespan from conception to death “Psychologists to know” ● Harry Harlow ● Konrad Lorenz ● Mary Ainsworth ● Diana Baumrind ● Sigmund Freud ● Albert Bandura ● Jean Piaget ● Lev Vygotsky ● G Stanley Hall ● Erik Erikson ● Lawrence Kohlberg ● Carol Gilligan 126 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.1: The Lifespan and Physical Development in Childhood “Conception” ● When a sperm fertilizes an egg → the egg envelopes the sperm and the process of development begins ○ Female → born with eggs ○ Male → producing sperm at puberty throughout adult lives “Prenatal Development” ● Zygote: fertilized egg ○ ○ Fewer than half of all fertilized eggs make it past two weeks ■ Cells begin to divide and multiply rapidly ■ Differentiation ~10 days → zygote attach to the mother’s uterine wall ■ Outer cells → placenta ● ■ Inner cells → embryo ● ○ Developing human organism ~9 weeks → fetus ■ ○ Nourishment Until the time of birth Prenatal environment affects the growing child 127 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology “The Prenatal Environment” ● ● Fetuses can hear and become accustomed to mother’s voice ○ After birth → prefer the sound of their mother’s voice ○ Infants cry with an accent Teratogens → harmful substances that can negatively impact the development of the fetus ● ● ○ Viruses and drugs ○ The effects of alcohol Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) ○ Distinctive facial features ○ Social-cognitive development Infants are hyper-aware of their environments “Physical Development in Newborns” ● Infants pay attention to any novel stimulus → habituate to new stimuli ● Infants are set up to from social bonds and seek social interaction 128 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ ● ● More interested in human voices and faces than they are inanimate objects Reflexes ○ Rooting → turning their head toward a touch on their cheek ○ Sucking ○ Swallowing ○ Breathing ○ Babinski reflex → curling of the foot when the sole of the foot is stroked ○ Moro reflex → natural startle response Most of the reflexes disappear as the infants develops → indication of healthy neurological development ● Maturation: orderly physical and cognitive development of the child ○ Newborns → toddlers → childhood → teenager adolescence “Cognitive Development in Newborns” ● Brain development begins in the mother’s womb continues into adolescence ○ Born with most of their brain cells intact ○ Crucial development and learning rely on the formation of neural networks → the connections these brain cells make to one another ● Brain develops from the brainstem forwards ○ Reflexive and life sustaining brain functions develop in the womb → higher level processing (cerebrum and forebrain) takes more time ● Association areas → memory, cognition and thinking are the last to fully develop ○ The processing of pruning fine tunes the brain as neural networks that are frequently used are strengthened, while those that are unused tend to shut down ● Neural development fosters physical development ○ ● Infants develop muscle control as the nervous system matures, skills emerge Motor development → fairly universal regardless of cultural influence 129 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● Memories develop around age of 3 ○ Lack of memory → infantile amnesia ● Conscious memory (explicit memory ) → around age of 4 ● Babies are capable of learning (a process incumbent upon memory) 130 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.2: Social Development in Childhood ● Attachment begins before birth and strengthen after birth → infant’s survival “Body Contact & Harry Harlow” ● ● Benefits of skin to skin contact ○ Soothe the child ○ Enhance communication ○ Stabilize body temperature ○ Improve the function of their heart and lungs Harry Harlow “attachment theory” ○ Observation of young monkey’s distress when the blanket was removed → Contradicted the theory that attachment stems from the need for nourishment ■ ○ Blanket = contact comfort Unethical experiment → animal cruelty ■ Artificial mothers ■ If attachment bonds form from the infant’s need for nourishment, the young monkeys should prefer the wire mother with the attached bottle ■ Result: young monkeys preferred the comfort of terry cloth one over the wire one ● ■ Cloth mother ⇒ secure base Young Monkeys with no source of attachment or interaction → only food and drink ● Result: catatonic ○ Unable to bond properly with other monkeys ○ Female monkeys could not get pregnant ○ Artificial insemination 131 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ Neglected mothers could not properly love or bond with their babies ● Attachment bonds stem from much more than a need for nourishment ○ Security, safety, comfort and affection ⇒ fundamental roles in the attachment ○ Secure social bonds are crucial for healthy development “Konrad Lorenz and Familiarity” ● Imprinting: rigid process by which some animals form strong and nearly immediate attachments early in life ○ ● Critical period in which this attachment was formed Gosling ducks → naturally imprinted the female duck since the first thing most hatchlings see is their mother ○ Imprinted upon Konrad Lorenz ● Imprinting is difficult to reverse ● Children do not imprint, they display preference for familiarity ○ Mere exposure → affinity toward things that are familiar “Attachment Styles and Ainsworth” ● Developed the strange situation experiment (1970s) ○ Observed mothers and their infants at home for six months to observe their relationships. Later, when the babies reached one year of age, observed them in a strange situation (playroom within the laboratory) ○ Infants with sensitive and responsive mothers demonstrated secure attachment (~60%) ■ Mother’s presence → confidently and comfortably explore the new playroom ■ Mother’s absence → distressed ■ Mother’s return → seeking comfort 132 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ Insecure attachment ■ Cling to mothers, refusing to explore the new surroundings, when the mother left and returned, they would either cry loudly and remain upset or appear indifferent to her return ● Insecure styles of attachment → the result of unresponsive or insensitive mothers ○ ● Positively correlated with anxiety or difficulty forming trust in relationship later Nature vs. Nurture ○ Temperament (stable pattern of emotional reactivity) ○ Temperamental differences ■ Genetic link between temperament and biology ● Patterns of nervous system and neurotransmitter levels) 133 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ Personalities and attachment styles appear to rely on the interaction between both nature and nurture ● Erik Erikson focused on attachment and security through his psychosocial stages ○ 8 phases of psychosocial development last from birth until death ○ Early stage of development, children learn to develop basic trust and autonomy through secure and nurturing attachments “Parenting Styles and Baumrind” ● Diana Baumrind → 3 parenting styles ○ ○ Authoritarian parents ■ Extremely strict, demanding and expect blind obedience ■ Militaristic approach to discipline Authoritative parents ■ Rules, expectations, and expect obedience ■ More responsive, rules are clear and the reasoning for the rules are explained ■ ○ Communication is encouraged and parents are supportive of children Permissive parents ■ Submit to their children’s desires easily ■ Do not hod children to high expectations and very few demands on their children ■ ● Rarely punished The category of permissive parenting ○ Permissive parenting (indulgent parenting) → tend to give in to child's every whim ○ Neglectful parenting → tend to ignore their child’s behavior or treat it with indifference 134 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● ● Authoritative parents grow up to be the most well-adjusted ○ Highest level of self-esteem and self-reliance ○ Social competence and higher academic achievement Authoritarian parents ○ ● Lower academic performance and lower levels of self-esteem Permissive parents ○ Impulsive, egocentric and may have problems in later relationships “Sigmund Freud and Psychosexual Development” ● Infants are born with sexual and aggressive tendencies and move through a series of fixed stages as they develop ● In each stage, pleasure is focused in a particular erogenous zone and development depends on the infant’s ability to resolve conflict ● ○ Oral stage ○ Anal stage ○ Phallic stage (oedipus complex) ○ Latent stage ○ Genital stage Infants may become developmentally fixated (psychologically stuck) if they are unable to resolve the conflict or conflict resolution is traumatic ○ ● Fixations result in developmental issues related to personality Criticized for being overly subjective and disregarding social influence of peers and cognitive factors in development ● Childhood trauma can stunt development ○ Traumatic experiences can follow us into adulthood 135 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology “Social Learning and Albert Bandura” ● Bobo Doll experiment demonstrated how children learn behavior from modeling that of adults ● ● Children in 3 conditions ○ Children watched as the adult behaved aggressively toward the doll ○ Children were exposed to an adult who treated the doll more kindly ○ Children were exposed to no adult model (control) Afterwards, the children were subjected Mild aggression arousal and were separated in room with toys ○ Children who had watched the more violent adults were more likely to imitate aggressive behaviors 136 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● Children learn through observations and have a strong tendency to model the behavior they see in adults 137 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.3: Cognitive Development in Childhood ● Cognitive skills develop in fixed sequences ● Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky “Cognitive Development and Jean Piaget” ● Four stages of cognitive development and identified key developmental phenomena within each stage ○ Ideas of schemas or mental frameworks ■ ○ Assimilation of new experience into existing schemas ○ Accommodate or adapt schemes to account for new information ■ ● Children rely on schemas to make sense of new information Fine-tune their understanding Children mature from concrete thinking to abstract cognitive abilities ○ Operational thinking 138 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● The Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2 years of age) ○ Infants readily observe the world around them and take in new information via senses ○ Development of motor skills → explore the world furthermore ○ Object permanence: child’s ability to understand that an object exists, even if we are not consciously aware of it (6 to 8 months) ■ ○ Example: peek-a-boo As child mature, they are able to grasp the concept of object permanence ■ They understand that just because something is not within their sensory awareness does not mean it does not exist ○ Separation anxiety and stranger anxiety ■ The child forms close bonds with their primary caregiver and may experience separation anxiety when separated from caregiver ■ When left with stranger, the child may feel fearful and show signs of distress ● The Preoperational stage (until the age of 6 or 7) ○ Acquire language ○ Lacks higher-level thinking skills (such as symbolic thinking) ○ Concept of conservation ○ Egocentric → difficult to understand the views of others 139 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ Develop theory of mind: general understanding of their own and others’ mental states ○ Develop empathy and skills of persuasion ○ Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): disorder marked by social deficiencies, may not develop this theory of mind ■ More trouble understanding the emotions, desires,. Reasoning around them ■ ○ Result of more conscious attention to social cues or it may not come at all Favor pretend play ■ Allow children to further develop and solidify schemas ■ Experiment with new scenarios ● ● Understanding perception and cognitive development Concrete Operational Stage (age of 6 or 7 - 12 years of age) ○ Grasp conservation ○ Understand more complex problem solving so long as they are given concrete materials ○ Not able to mentally (or abstractly) compute information, certainly solve it when given a concrete example ■ ● Operational or abstract thought begins to develop Formal Operational Stage (~age 12) ○ Reasoning expands from concrete to more abstract ○ Development of operational thought ○ Children learn to infer and deduce based on ability to reason “Sociocultural Cognitive Development and Lev Vygotsky” ● Cognitive development as much more fluid 140 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● Cognitive development occurred gradually and is furthered by language and social interaction ○ Interactions with individuals who are more skilled and cognitively advanced → children learn the skills of more complex cognition ● Cognitive development was incumbent upon language acquisition and communication ● Parents and teachers provide opportunities to interact with and learn from those with more skilled abilities ○ ● More developed mentors = more knowledgeable others Zone of proximal development ○ Children will developmentally approach readiness to learn a new skill ○ Bridge between what the child cannot do and what they can do ○ Children show readiness and potential to learn a given task, ○ Require the interaction and coaching of others to master ○ Example: walking between 9 months and one year old 141 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● Through the use of scaffolding (supporting or coaching students as they word toward more complex tasks), children can develop higher level cognitive abilities 142 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.4: Adolescent Development ● Adolescence: transitory period from childhood to adulthood ○ ● Beginning with puberty into independent adulthood G Stanley Hall → first to identify the phase of adolescence ○ Turbulent period with stress and challenge “Physical Development in Adolescence” ● Begins with puberty ○ Sexual maturation of an individual ■ ○ Varies among individuals (around age 11 for females and 13 for boys) Sequences of events tends to be fixed “Cognitive Development in Adolescence” ● Prior to puberty, brain development is characterized by the rapid development of neural networks ○ Pruning begins to advance ■ Pruning fine tunes the brain as neural networks that are frequently used are strengthened, while those that are unused tend to shut down over time ○ The skills and mechanisms that teens do not frequently use will eventually be lost ○ Emotions in the limbic system are solidified ○ Development of frontal lobe lags behind ○ The growth of fatty tissue (myelin) speeds neurotransmission and advances the development of the more complex brain areas ○ Limbic system is associated with more primitive and basic emotions and motivation 143 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ Frontal lobe is involved in rational thinking, planning and the abstract thought required to fully understand potential consequences ● Teens seem to be explosive, moody or reckless in their choices ○ Frontal lobe does not fully develop until the around the age of 25 ○ Development of morality comes with higher reasoning abilities “Social Development in Adolescence” ● ● Adolescence comes the formation of identity ○ Individualistic cultures: greater focus on identity ○ Collectivist cultures more focus on functioning as part of family and community Interactions with parents and peers helps to shape and guide individuals as they transition from child to adult ● Transition from dependency to independence ● Teenage rebellion is a natural step in adolescent development ● Positive relationships with parents in teen years is crucial ● ○ Tend to form positive relationships with peers ○ Tend to do better in school and experience less behavioral issues Teenagers have a tendency towards conformity 144 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ○ Social isolation and exclusion can be fairly excruciating for those who experience it ■ Peer pressure to fit in with others ■ Selection effect: where teenagers seek out peers with similar attitudes and interests and the eventually form groups 145 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.5: Adulthood and Aging ● Not nearly fixed as those we see in childhood ● 3 general stages of adulthood ○ Early adulthood (20s and 30s) ○ Middle adulthood (30s to 670s) ○ Late adulthood (60s onward) “Emerging Adulthood” ● At around age 18 ● May not yet to be ready to fully face the responsibilities of adulthood ● Some may fell they still do not truly know their identity, while other may feel unprepared to take on full independence ● Issues will sort out around the mid-twenties age range ○ May continue to struggle well past that point “Physical and Cognitive Changes in Middle and Late Adulthood” ● Physical ability begins to wane in middle adulthood → decline gradually begins in our mid-twenties and continues as we progress ● Decline in Fertility ○ Middle adulthood is characterized by a decline in fertility ○ Men ○ ■ Decline in sperm count ■ Decline in testosterone level ■ May begin to experience sexual dysfunction Women ■ Enter menopause phase ● The natural end of woman’s menstrual cycle (around age of 50) 146 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ■ ● After 35, pregnancy and childbirth come with higher levels of risk Physical and Mental Decline ○ ○ Physical decline of the human body ■ Muscle tone and strength diminishes ■ Hearing and vision diminish ■ Health-related complication arise more frequently Decline in mental acuity ■ Long Term memory tend to remain well, short-term memory may decrease ○ Efforts to maintain cardiovascular and muscular strength and mental abilities can slow the decline “Social Changes in Adulthood” ● ● Awareness of social clock ○ Adults must cope with the knowledge that years are limited ○ Based on societal and cultural norms Mid-life crisis ○ Sense of alarm or gravity over not having accomplishments or simply at the knowledge that accomplishments have already happened ○ ● As age, interest and priorities naturally turn to other things Identify goals as affiliation and achievement, attachment and productivity, connectedness and competence ○ ● Erikson’s ideas of intimacy and productivity Throughout adulthood, we form various commitments ○ Love (both romantic and non-romantic) ○ Achievement (career-related accomplishment and fulfillment) 147 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● If adults cannot find fulfillment in their actions throughout life, they may feel a sense of despair “Death and Dying” ● Death is unavoidable ● Grief: powerful emotion and can take enormous physical tolls on an individual’s mind and body ● There are not sequential and orderly stages of the grief cycle ○ Very common reactions universally “Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development” ● Psychosocial stages of development → understanding social development as a whole ● Accounts for entire lifespan 148 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology STAGE ISSUE DESCRIPTION Infancy (birth to 1 yr.) Trust vs. If needs are met, infants will develop a sense of basic Mistrust trust. Toddlerhood (1 to 3 Autonomy vs. Toddlers will develop the confidence to explore and yrs.) shame and exercise their own will, or they will doubt their abilities. doubt Preschool (3 to 6 yrs.) Initiative vs. Children will learn to initiate tasks on their own or they will guilt feel guilty about their desire for independence Elementary School (6 Competence Children learn to enjoy applying themselves to a task or yrs. to puberty) vs. Inferiority they will feel inferior Adolescence (teens Identity vs. Teenagers test roles and work to find a sense of self and into 20s) Confusion identity or they become confused about who they are 149 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology Young Adulthood (20s Intimacy vs. Young adults develop the capacity to form lasting intimate to 40s) Isolation love or they will feel isolated Middle Adulthood (40s Generativity People begin to experience a sense of contribution to 60s) vs. through family and work, or they may feel a lack of Stagnation purpose Late Adulthood (late Integrity vs. Reflecting upon their life, one will feel either satisfaction 60s and up) Despair or despair 150 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.6: Moral Development ● According to Jean Piaget, a child’s ability for moral reasoning occurs with the ability to think symbolically “Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Thinking” ● Moral reasoning by posing moral dilemmas to children, adolescents, and adults ● Stages ● ○ Preconventional ○ Conventional ○ Postconventional Preconventional Morality (before age 9) ○ Not yet developed their own code of morality ○ Morality is shaped by rules the child has learned from caregivers and the consequences that will follow ○ ● Conventional morality ○ ● Largely self-interested Moral standards of valued adults ■ Individualized but are rarely questioned ■ Based on adherence of social norms and maintaining social order Postconventional Morality ○ Morality is based on the individuals personal set of principles and belief ■ ○ Based on complex understanding of human rights Highest stage of moral development and some people fail to reach it 151 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology STAGE FOCUS EXAMPLE Preconventional morality Morality is self-interested, child will “If you steal the drug, you’ll obey rules to gain concrete reward go to jail!” (before age 9) or avoid punishment Conventional morality 💊, Morality is upheld in order to gain “If you steal the drug social approval or maintain social then everyone will think you order. Being a "good boy/nice girl." are bad.” Postconventional morality Morality is based in self-defined “People deserve to live (adolescence and beyond) ethical principles and relies on an (early adolescence) 😊” idea of human rights and justice ● Fixed in their sequence ● Critics of Kohlberg → culturally limited to individualist cultures ○ Cross-cultural studies → people in individualistic societies, who value personal stands are more likely to show post-conventional morality than those in collectivistic societies “Morality, Gender, and Carol Gilligan” ● Theories of morality by incorporating gender differences into the equation ● Gilligan felt that Kohlberg’s theories centered too much around the process of male\ 152 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● Morality in men relies on justice-base system ○ ● Autonomously and consequences should be based on fairness and equality Morality in women relies on care-base system ○ Inter-connectedness over autonomy ○ Avoidance of violence rather than the distribution of justice or equality 153 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology 6.7: Gender and Sexual Orientation ● ● 46 chromosomes ○ 23 from mother ○ 23 from father 45 are identical in males and females ○ 23rd pair → assignment of sex “Gender Development Before Puberty” ● Prenatal development → sex is determined by the inheritance of father’s chromosome on the 23rd pair ● Male: XY chromosome pair ○ Y chromosome carries a gene that triggers the production of the primary male hormone (testosterone) ○ 7 weeks after conception → gene will trigger the development of the testes ● Female: XX chromosome pair ● Testosterone is present in females in lower amounts 154 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● 4-5 month of development, sex hormones will play a role in developing fundamental differences between the male and female brains “Gender Development During Puberty” ● Growth of primary sex characteristics (reproductive organs and external genitalia) ○ Typical infants are born with external genitalia and reproductive organs intact, these features grow and develop further during puberty ● Puberty ○ Development of secondary sex characteristics: linked to gender but are nonreproductive ○ ■ Girls: growth of breast tissue or the widening of hips ■ Male: growth of facial hair and deepening of the voice Female’s first menstrual cycle “menarche” ■ Able to bear a child ■ Women bear children later than they have historically ● ■ ○ Modern push for gender equality Females enter puberty earlier than they have in the past ● Diets, especially, high-fat foods and gender-mimicking hormones ● Result of external stressors related to disruption of the family unit Male ■ Puberty is characterized by the growth of testes, sprouting of facial and pubic hair, deepening of the voice ● ● First ejaculation and begin producing viable sperm While both genders are likely to experience growth spurt in pubescent years, these growth spurts are often more pronounced in males “Differences in Gender Development” 155 Unit 6: Developmental Psychology ● Abnormalities in the inheritance of sex chromosomes or hormonal exposure can produce atypical gender development ● Intersex → individuals born with either intermediate sexual organs and genitals or combinations of sex characteristics ● Gender development can be affected by other factors ○ Daivd Reimer → development of gender can be influenced by postpartum factors ■ Circumcision → removal of penis ■ Parents decided to sexaully eassign him as female “Brenda Reimer” ■ David never felt right as a female → decided to revert to his life as a male ■ Never able to find fulfillment in either gender and took his own life at 38 “Sexual Orientation” ● Enduring patterns of sexaul attraction ● Heterosexual → attracted to members of the opposite sex ○ Majority of people across cultures ● Homosexual → attracted to memers of same sex ● Modern psychologists believe sexual orientation is not a conscious choice, and therefore, cannot be consciously changed ● Biological basis for sexual orientation ○ ● Across non-human species, heterosexaulity appears to be the norm Simon LeVay → suggest there may be fundamental difference between the straight and gay brain ○ ● Twin studies → genetic link to sexaul orientation Fruit fly studies → alter the fly’s sexaulity by mutating a single gene 156
