Human Development
Nature vs. Nurture

Watson clearly stated that development
took place from a purely nurture stance

Gesell stated that development was a
biological process and believed that
development took place through a series
of genetically determined changes that
take place over the course of one’s life
Developmental Studies

In order to study development of human
beings, we use several different designs:
 1.
Longitudinal
 2. Cross-sectional
 3. Sequential
Reflexes of children

Rooting reflex –
 You
can often stroke
the baby’s cheek and
see this reflex
Eyeblink Reflex

Reflexive blinking that
protects baby from
bright lights and
foreign objects.
Sucking Reflex

Babies instinctively
begin to suck at
objects placed in the
mouth.
Moro Reflex

When the baby hears a loud noise or their head
falls back, they may instinctively extend arms
out, arch its back and bring arms toward each
other as though they are trying to grab
someone.
Palmar and Plantar Grasp Reflex

Palmar-Curling of the
fingers around an object
that touches the palms.

Plantar-Stroke bottom of
foot, curl toes
Tonic Neck Reflex

The tonic neck reflex, or fencer response,
is present at birth

This reflex usually disappears by 4-9
months.
Babinski Reflex


Babinski's reflex
occurs when the great
toe flexes toward the
top of the foot and the
other toes fan out
after the sole of the
foot has been firmly
stroked
abnormal after the
age of 2.
Sensory Development

Discerning faces - 1 month old
babies appear to be able to
distinguish mother’s face from
stranger’s as long as they hear
the mother’s voice as well

At 3 months, baby appears to
distinguish mother from stranger
with face alone
Sight

Babies are born legally blind with a vision
of 20/600 – you need to be no more than 8
inches from their face

By 6 months they are at 20/100 – you
need to be at least a few feet away

By 9 months they are at 20/60 – they can
see you across the room

For the first couple of months, babies will
be able to distinguish patterns, but tend to
respond to blacks and reds

By 5 or 6 months, babies begin to discern
colors

A word about pastels
Hearing

By 1 month, babies can distinguish
between the smallest variations in sound

By 6 months, they have developed the
ability to understand and make all of the
sounds necessary for their language
structure
Touch

Newborns have a well-developed sense of
touch and will, over time, come to use this
sense a lot

Babies will begin to explore their world
using tactile sensations, which is why
many of the toys for infants have different
textures
Smell

1-day-old infants can distinguish between
some smells

1 ½-month-old infants can distinguish
between the smell of their mother and that
of a stranger (which is why people tell you
to leave the baby with something that has
your smell on it)
Taste

Newborns appear to prefer the taste of
sweet and salty and dislike bitter-tasting
things

It has been observed that during
pregnancy infants will lick the placenta
wall which may help to develop a sense of
taste
Depth Perception

Visual cliff experiment
-
Visual Cliff Experiment

3-month-old babies would have their
heartbeat decrease when approaching the
“ledge”

6-month-old babies would have their
heartbeat increase when approaching the
“ledge” – would not crawl across, although
some did when mother prompted them to
Temperament

Thomas and Chess did a longitudinal
study on American babies and found:
 40%
of the babies were easy
 15% of the babies were slow-to-warm-up
 10% of the babies were difficult
 35% of the babies were a mixture of the three

Follow-up studies later showed:
 Easy
babies more likely to be popular, social,
independent and successful
 Difficult
babies were more likely to be
involved in the law and we less popular and
less well-liked
Lorenz and attachment

Imprinting Formation
of a strong bond of attachment to
the first moving thing seen right after birth
 Lorenz
made himself the first thing seen by
goslings and sure enough they followed him
 The
goslings follow Lorenz everywhere
The Harlow’s and attachment

Baby monkeys were separated from their
mothers right after birth
 Some
were put in a room with a wire cylinder
surrogate mother
 Some were put in a room with a soft, terrycloth covered cylinder
When scared, the infants preferred to go to the
soft “mother”-demonstrated that attachment is
about who provides contact comfort
Video
clip
John Bowlby
1st to study human infants
 Found those separated from mothers upon
birth initially cried loudly and threw
tantrums
 Later, crying gave way to despair
 Finally, infants showed emotional
detachment

Mary Ainsworth

Put children in “Strange Situation” – found three
types of attachment
type – use mothers as a secure based, look
around occasionally, limited exploration in mother’s
absence. Cried when mother left and were happy
upon return. (65-70%)
 Secure
type – paid little attention to mother
when she was in room, separated easily from mother.
Showed little distress when she left and ignored her
upon return. (20%)
 Insecure-avoidant
Insecure-ambivalent type – clung to mother and were
reluctant to explore environment. High level of distress
when mom left and still showed distress upon her return.
(10 percent)
Later studies by others revealed a 4th patterndisorganized/disoriented attachment in which the infant
appears confused and were unable to approach the
mother directly for supported even when distressed
Effects of Daycare and Attachment
Some believe that daycare interferes with
attachment
 Research has shown no effects on infant –
mother attachment
 Some research suggest that children in
daycare may be more aggressive – though
this may be due to mediocre daycare
 High-quality daycare seems to have no
negative effects

Erikson’s Eight Stages of Man
Erikson Quote

"...children cannot be fooled by empty praise
and condescending encouragement. They may
have to accept artificial bolstering of their selfesteem in lieu of something better, but what I
call their accruing ego identity gains real
strength only from wholehearted and consistent
recognition of real accomplishment, that is,
achievement that has meaning in their culture"
Erikson’s eight stages of man

Erikson is the first psychologist to go
beyond adolescence and recognize that
life still changes beyond this time

This is perhaps because he was practicing
at a time when adolescence was a factor

The eight stages are:
Trust vs. Mistrust
Birth to 1 year
 To develop trust – infant’s needs must be
met
 Must be played with, cuddled
 When care is inconsistent or rejecting,
mistrust develops – child becomes
suspicious and fearful

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Ages 2-3
 Child developing new motor and mental
abilities
 Parents should encourage autonomy
 If parents are impatient and does things
for child, or if they are critical, the child will
begin to doubt themselves and feel shame
 Caution: don’t give too much autonomy

Initiative vs. Guilt
Ages 4-5
 Child becomes master of his body
 Begins tasks like riding a bike, running,
cutting
 Children who are given the freedom and
opportunity to engage in tasks have sense
of initiative reinforced
 Parents should not try to hinder fantasy or
play


If parents make the child feel bad or feel
like a nuisance with their questions, the
child will develop a sense of guilt
Industry vs. Inferiority






Ages 6-11
Elementary school years
Love for opposite sex parent is repressed
Children really begin to learn and play by rules
Concern for how things work, how things are
made, and what things actually do
Children who are encouraged to make things, do
things or build things will develop a sense of
industry
Parents who see their child as mischievous
or as messy will help the child develop a
sense of inferiority
School plays a critical role during this
period-friends and teachers play an
integral role in development
It is in this stage that lifelong academic
failure can begin
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Ages 12-18 (some argue up to 23 today)
 Seeks to find a romantic partner due to
reawakened Oedipal complex
 Begin hypothetical thinking, thinking about
what others think of them
 Adolescent works to integrate everything
they know about themselves to create an
identity


When an adolescent cannot attain a sense
of personal identity, they show role
confusion, a sense of not knowing who
they are or where they belong to.

Role confusion often seen with delinquent
adolescents or promiscuous young girls

For some, having a negative self identity is
better than having no identity at all
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Ages – late adolescence to young to early
middle age
 People will reach out to find an intimate
relationship
 Able to care about another without losing
oneself in the process
 Parent’s have indirectly contributed to the
individual’s success or failure at the earlier
stages.

Generativity vs. Self-Absorption
(Stagnation)
Ages – middle age
 Concerned with others beyond immediate
family, with future generations, nature of
society
 Those who don’t meet this need tend to
fall into focus only on their personal needs
and comforts


May see the person beginning to question
how prosperous they were or how well
they have done for themselves.

Men may go through a mid-life crisis;
women may go through empty nest
syndrome
Integrity vs. Despair
Ages – elderly
 Time for reflection on life
 Hope to look back on life with satisfaction
 Some look at life as a series of missed
opportunities and now realizes it is too late
 These people may look back and have
despair over what might have been

Freud Psychosexual
Development

Stage 1 – Oral Stage
(Birth-18 months) – erotic
focus is the mouth.
 Pleasure
seeking activities
include sucking, chewing,
biting.
 If needs are gratified too
much or too little they
continue to seek
gratification as an adult

Stage 2 – Anal Stage – (1
½ years to 3) – erotic
focus is on the anus –
expelling or retaining
feces.
 If
child gets locked into this
stage, they continue to
engage in behaviors
associated with retention
or elimination. They may
become anal retentive or
anal expulsive.

Stage 3 – Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years) –
erotic focus is on the genital area.
 Oedipal/Electra
complex
 Problems resolving the complex may lead to
feelings of inferiority toward their own sex and
having to prove something to the opposite sex.
Penis Envy
Castration Anxiety

Stage 4 – Latency Stage – (6 to puberty) –
no erotic focus, represses sexuality
 Child
represses sexual urges and thoughts
and engages in nonsexual activities such as
developing social and intellectual skills

Stage 5 – Genital Stage (Puberty through
adulthood) – Erotic focus is on genitals
once again, but more about becoming
sexually intimate with others
 If
other stages have been met successfully,
adolescent will now be able to form loving,
successful relationships
Piaget-Cognitive Development

Stage 1 – Sensorimotor
Stage (Birth-2)
 Infant tries to
coordinate senses
with motor skills
 Develops symbolic
thought (mental
images)
 Object permanence –
around 9 months,
mastered 18 months

Stage 2 – Preoperational
Stage (2-7 yrs)
not achieved conservation –
the awareness that as something
changes in physical qualities, the
quantity does not change
 Has
 Centration-they
only have the
ability to focus on one aspect of
a problem at a time
 Irreversibility-they
are unable to
envision reversing an action that
has already been done
 Egocentrism-they
are
unable to take
another’s point of view
 Animisim-when
child
assigns human
qualities to inanimate
objects
child’s
belief that natural
objects are manmade
 Artificialism-the
 Literalism-takes
the
spoken word seriously

Stage 3 – Concrete Operational Stage (711 years)
 Child
attains conservation, ability to reverse,
they are able to decentrate, experience less
egocentrism, less artificialism, less animism,
less literalism

Stage 4 – Formal
Operational Stage
(11 years and up)
 Child
now achieves
abstract,
hypothetical
thought

Child achieves conservation of:
– Age 6 to 7
 Mass – Age 7 to 8
 Length – Age 7 to 8
 Area – Age 8-9
 Number
What would you do if….?

You are in your last semester of college.
You are close to failing your English class.
You will pass the class if you do very well
on your English final exam.

You are looking through your English
teacher’s desk for a stapler when you
come across the final exam. Do you take
it?
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Reasoning

Level 1 – Preconventional Stage – child’s
moral reasoning is based on external
authority
1 – Punishment orientation – based on
being or not being punished (ages 1 to 5)
 Stage 2 – Naïve Reward Orientation – based
on receiving or not receiving a reward (age 5
to 10)
 Stage

Level 2 – Conventional Level – child sees
rules as necessary for maintaining order.
3 – Good boy/good girl-seeks approval
and avoids disapproval from others (8 to 12
years old)
 Stage
4 – Authority Orientation – morals
based on society’s rules which should be
obeyed. Rules are very rigid (around 10 to 14
years old)
 Stage

Level 3 – Postconventional Level –
working within one’s own personal code of
ethics
5 – Social Contract Orientation –
Morals based on society’s rules, however
rules are now questioned and seen as fallible
(early adolescence)
 Stage
6 – Individual Principles and
Conscience Orientation – Morals based on
justice, where the person does what they
believe is right (adolescence)
 Stage
Parenting styles

Adolescents respond to
different parenting styles
 1. Authoritarian
parents – attempt to
shape and control
behavior based on a
set standard of
conduct, usually based
on an absolute
standard. Tend to use
harsh discipline.

2. Authoritative – attempt to direct their
children’s activities in a rational and
intelligent way. They are supportive,
loving, and committed, encourage verbal
give-and-take, and discuss rules and
policies with their children. Value being
expressive and independent but are still
demanding. These children tend to be
competent. Girls tend to be achievementoriented and boys tend to be friendly and
cooperative.

3. Permissive parents – less controlling
and behave with a non-punishing and
accepting attitude toward children’s
impulses, desires and actions.

Parenting styles tend to influence the
adolescent’s development of independence
 Authoritarian-less
behavior problems, but more
conforming and lower self-esteem
 Authoritative-teens more friendly, cooperative, better
adjusted to college
 Permissive-less socially assertive and less
achievement oriented
 The
better the communication between parents and
children, the less risk-taking behavior children engage
in
Social Development
Up to 1 ½ years – child engages in solitary
play
 1 ½ to 2 years – child engages in parallel
play in which they play side by side, doing
the same thing as playmate, yet there may
be no interaction
 15 to 24 months – begin to imitate peers,
go back and forth, imitate parents

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
 2 years – begin to have
preferences in playmates,
however, up to 3 years,
gender of friends does not
seem to matter.


3 to 3 ½ years – cooperative play
– children begin to play with
each other and interact

3 years – social pretend play –
imitate adult roles with peers
(doctor/patient)
Gender



Gender roles – how
have they changed?
Gender identity-how
does one gain a
sense of their
gender?
Social learning
theory-we become
what we see?
Attachment

Bonding is defined at the tie an infant may
form with a parent in the hours after birth

Attachment is a longer process, one that is
more enduring
How does attachment occur?
Babies will cry, which elicits care from
parent
 Social smiling – 4 to 6 weeks – which
elicits joy and pleasure from parent
 At 6 months, babies will display pleasure
when parent returns after a short absence
 At 9 months child begins to display
separation anxiety (this appears to be a
signal that attachment has formed)


Some studies suggest that children who
attend daycare may do better on tests of
language skills and math skills than
children who stay at home

Attachment during infancy appears to
carry over into later relationships
Gender and
attachment

Typically, attachment
may be stronger with
mother than father

This may be changing
today as more men
are staying home to
be primary caregiver

End part 1

The second part of this PowerPoint is for
the material being covered after the
second test
Kubler-Ross

Stages of Death and Dying
 Denial
 Anger
 Bargaining
 Depression
 Acceptance
Adolescence

G. Stanley Hall calls it sturm and drang

Physical development – primary sex and
secondary sex characteristics develop

Adolescents tend to develop the imaginary
audience and the personal fable
Piaget and egocentrism

Imaginary audience is when one believes
that others are very concerned about what
is happening with them

Personal fable is an exaggerated sense of
one’s uniqueness in life – so unique that
no one could possibly understand their
feelings
Gilligan and Kohlberg

Carol Gilligan felt that Kohlberg was
biased towards women in his theory of
moral development
 Stated
that women adopt a more care
orientation-more on caring and compassion
 Men
develop a more justice orientation-more
on fairness and rights
Erikson and adolescence

Stated that children in adolescence strive
to be free of parental and authoritative
control

Leads to withdrawal from parents and
other family members
Marcia and adolescence

Stated that adolescents end up in 1 of 4
places – identity statuses
 Foreclosure-when
the child is forced to live
out the dreams of the parents. May lead to
bitterness and resentment
 Diffusion-when child has not achieved an
identity and feels confused about who they
are and where they want to go in life. Often
take dead-end jobs
– when child wants to put off their
future for a while so they can explore other
options. May take meaningless jobs for a
while or travel, but they do plan to move on to
college or a more meaningful job
 Moratorium
– go to college or get a
meaningful job – know the direction they want
to go
 Achievement
Gilligan and adolescence

Studied female self-esteem
 Prior
to adolescence, female and male self-esteem is
similar
 During adolescence, female self-esteem drops
 Girls tend to doubt themselves more
 May be torn between sexual maturity and being the
“nice girl”
 Pressure to engage in close cooperative relationships
which may reduce autonomy
 Girls
tend to fight the “feminine ideal” – those
who are too tall tend to slouch, those who are
too short tend to try to look taller. Often
become preoccupied with looks and weight.
 Girls
tend to report a higher incidence of
depression, dissatisfaction with their bodies,
eating disorders and lower self-esteem
 Males
tend to have stress at the onset of
adolescence and tend to level off by the time
they are in their teens
Adolescence and maturation

Early versus late maturation
 Early
maturing boys tend to be:
More sociable
 Be more confident
 Be more likely to be involved in sports
 Receive more social recognition from adults and
peers
 Have others overestimate their competence
 Trusted more by parents who question them less


Late maturing males tend to be:
 More
anxious
 More eager
 More attention-seeking
 Rated by teachers as less masculine and less
physically attractive
 feel socially inferior and feel inadequate
 Tend to score lower on achievement tests

Early maturing females tend to be at a
disadvantage in that they:
 Tend
to be less outgoing and less popular
 May be more anxious and depressed
 May be more likely to be drawn into
relationships that they are not emotionally
ready for

Late maturing females tend to be:
 Less
popular with boys
 Temporarily more well adjusted than early
maturing females
Brain development



Frontal lobe development
lags behind emotional
limbic system=
impulsiveness, emotional
storms, risky behaviors
When frontal lobe matures
so do emotions and
judgment.
Before prefrontal cortex
fully develops, amygdala
has major control
Social development
Move in crowds more
 More interaction with peers
 Search for intimacy intensifies
 Increased distance from family towards
independence

Independence
Maturation into adulthood from childhood
 Adolescents become able to accept
responsibility for actions and choices
 More time spent among peers than adult
influence (i.e. mandatory school, clubs,
sports, and after school activities) has
affect on independence
 Peer pressure (short vs. long term)

Elderly

Psychogeriatrics Study
of the
behavioral changes
and problems that face
the elderly
 Changes in physical,
social and emotional
development can lead
to psychological
problems
Elderly

Ironically, the last
part of the brain to
develop, the
prefrontal cortex
(during early 20s),
is the first part of
the brain to go
downhill (mid 20s)
Elderly

This affects fluid
intelligence more than it
does crystallized
intelligence
intelligence – how
quickly one processes
information in novel
situations
 Crystallized intelligencethe knowledge one hasability to use skills and
experience
 Fluid
Elderly

Delirium Characterized







by:
Agitation
Inattention
Disorientation
Memory problems
Confused
Restless
May lead to dementia
or death
Elderly

Psychosis When
logic or
perception of reality is
impaired
 Characterized by
hallucinations,
delusions, confusion
 Associated with
sensory loss and
social isolation
Elderly

Dementia Progressive
degenerative
cell loss
 Affects memory, thinking,
emotions and behavior
 50-60% of those with
dementia are diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s
Elderly


Alzheimer’s is the
third leading cause of
death in the elderly
(behind heart disease
and cancer)
No cure, but new
treatments may slow
down the progression
of the disease
Elderly

Current estimates are
that 26 million adults
are afflicted with
Alzheimer’s

By 2050, it is
estimates that almost
100 million adults will
have Alzheimer’s

Currently, the
cost of
Alzheimer’s is
$100 million
per year

At this rate, the
U.S. would be
devastated
financially if a
cure is not
found
Alzheimer’s
Taking baby aspirin may delay the onset of
the disease and potentially
slow the progression
Elderly

The most common
mental disorder in the
elderly is depression

The suicide rate in the
elderly is particularly
high due to illness, loss
of income, retirement,
loss of friends and loved
ones, etc.
Elderly


Suicide is a big
problem amongst the
elderly, yet it is often
ignored
From 1980-1992,
there were over
almost 75,000
suicides by the elderly
Elderly




It is believed that
between 6,000-10,000
elderly people commit
suicide per year
White males are at
most risk for suicide
Most use a firearm,
second is hanging and
third leading method is
overdose
Often looks like an
accidental death from
an overdose of meds