Chapter 9- Human Development
Issues in Developmental Psychology
Developmental Psychology
 The study of how humans grow, develop, and change throughout the lifespan
Nature and Nurture
 Heredity imposes some limits on what a person can become.
 Home, education, nutrition, etc. can evoke positive and negative influences.
 Resilience: the ability to bounce back
 Risk factors
 Difficult temperament, genetic disorders
 Protective factors
 High intelligence, good coordination, easy-going personality
Theories of Development
Stages or No Stages
 Quantitative changes — height
 Qualitative changes — advancements in logical thinking
 Approaches to Studying Development
 Longitudinal study
 Same group of participants is followed at different ages
 Cross-sectional study
 Groups of participants of different ages are compared on various characteristics
to determine age-related differences
 Cross-Sequential
 Combines both types into one study
Infancy
Perceptual and Motor Development
 Neonate: newborn up to 1 month old
 Reflexes: inborn, unlearned responses
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjnQhno3LA4
 Maturation: genetically determined biological pattern of individual development
 Cephalocaudal - head to toe
 Proximodistal - inside to outside
Results of Fantz Study(1961)
Preferential looking – research technique that gives infant a choice of what to look at
 Newborns have preferences for odors, tastes, sounds, and visual configurations
 Fantz (1961): an infant’s interest can be gauged by length of time fixated on it
 Human face preferred
 Demonstrated infants have clear preferences and power of discrimination
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Important Concepts:
 Changes in schemes underlie four stages of cognitive development
 Each stage reflects a qualitatively different way of reasoning and understanding the world
 Stages occur in fixed sequence
 Accomplishments of one stage provide the foundation for the next stage
 Children throughout the world seem to progress through the stages in the same order, but they
show individual differences in the rate they pass through them
 Each child’s rate is influenced by the level of maturation and experience
 Transition from one stage to another is gradual, not abrupt
 Children often show aspects of two stages while going through transitionsOrganization
 Mental process that uses specific experiences to make inferences that are generalized to
new experiences
 Schemes
 A cognitive structure or concept used to identify and interpret information
 Assimilation
 The process by which new objects, events, or experiences, or information is incorporated
into existing schemes
 A child who calls any male stranger “Daddy”
 Goal to incorporate new experineces
 Accommodation
 The process by which existing schemes are modified and new schemes are created
 Incorporates new objects, events, experiences, or information
 Goal is to change or make new schemes
 Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
 Infants gain an understanding of the world through their senses and their motor
activities
 Actions and body movements
 Infant’s behavior gradually moves from mostly reflexive to complex and
intelligent
 Infant learns to respond to and manipulate objects and use them in goal-directed
activity
 Object Permanence
 Realization that objects continue to exist, even when they can no longer be
perceived
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKZ9IPRKkkU
 Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
 Symbolic Function
 The understanding that one thing can stand for another
 An object, a word, a drawing
 The use of words to present object
 Orange - both a color and a fruit
 Pretend Play
 Imagining a block is a car
 Imagining a doll is a real baby
 Egocentricism
 Child’s belief that everyone sees what he/she sees, thinks as he/she thinks, and
feels as he/she feels
 Results in illogical thinking
 “A cookie is only good if it is unbroken.”
 Concrete Stage
(7-11 or 12 years)
 Reversibility
 Realization that any change in the shape, position, or order of matter can be
reversed mentally
 Conservation
 Concept that a given quantity of matter remains the same despite being
rearranged or changed in appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away
 Formal Operations (11 or 12 years and beyond)
 Preadolescents and adolescents can apply logical thought to abstract, verbal, and
hypothetical situations and to problems in the past, present, or future
 Hypothetic-Deductive Thinking
 Ability to base logical reasoning on a hypothetical premise
 Comprehend abstract subjects like philosophy and politics and become interested
in the world of ideas
 Begin to formulate their own theories and think of what might be
 Conceive of “perfect” solutions to the world’s and their own problems
 Formal Operations (continued)
 Naïve Idealism
 A type of thought in which adolescents construct ideal solutions for problems
 Teens with divorced parents may idealize the non-custodial parent
 Imaginary Audience
 Adolescents believe that they are or will be the focus of attention in social
situations and that others will be as critical or approving as they are of
themselves
 Teens spend many hours in front of the mirror trying to please this audience
 Personal Fable
 An exaggerated sense of personal uniqueness and indestructibility
 May be the basis for adolescent risk taking
 Many believe they are somehow indestructible and protected from
misfortunes that befall others
Piaget’s Contribution
 Piaget’s Methods
 Relied on observation and interview
 Newer techniques require nonverbal responses
 Infant’s knowledge of hidden knowledge of hidden objects may be more advanced
 Critique of Stages
 Few believe cognitive development occurs in stagelike fashion
 Cross-cultural research
 Studies have verified sequence of cognitive development but have revealed differences in
the rate of development
 Formal operational thought
 Formal operational thought is not universal
 Many people fail to show formal operational thinking
 Piaget’s greatest contribution was to found the field of cognitive development
Attachment
 Freud saw importance of oral stage
 babies developed bonds to mothers who satisfied their physical need to eat
 Harlow saw importance of contact comfort rather than food.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsA5Sec6dAI
 Erikson emphasized feelings developed in the stages of
 Trust vs. mistrust
 Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
Ethical Aproach
 Bowlby
 infants are biologically driven to maintain closeness to their mothers, in order to survive
 Ainsworth
 infants need parents to survive and that they also need to venture into the environment to
learn and develop
 Attachment theorists believe a secure attachment forecasts favorable adjustment later in life.
Ainsworth’s Attachment Classications
 As a result of the strange situation experiments, Ainsworth developed these classifications:
 Secure
 Insecure avoidant
 Insecure ambivalent (or resistant)
Disorganized (added later)
Four Main Attachment Ideas
1. Infants become attached to one or more caregivers across cultures
2. Secure attachment is typical and desirable
3. Maternal sensitivity is major cause of secure attachment
4. Attachment security predicts emotional and social competence throughout life
Evaluating Attachment Theory
 Kagan – Strange Situation behavior reflects variations in child rearing practices and
temperamental differences, not attachment
 Limited support for premises that:
 sensitive parenting promotes secure attachment
 attachment security relates to later social competence
The Lifespan Perspective
Developmental changes happen throughout the lifespan and that interdisciplinary research is required to
fully understand human development
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
 Individuals progress through eight psychosocial stages
 Each one is defined by a conflict involving the individual’s relationship with the social
environment
 Each must be satisfactorily for health development to occur
 The stages are named for a series of “alternative basic attitudes”
 Adult personality foundations are laid in the four childhood stages
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
 Trust vs. Mistrust (Birth-1 year)
 Depends on the degree and regularity of care, love, and affection they receive from the
mother or primary caregiver
 Basic trust is the cornerstone of a healthy personality
 Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-3 years)
 Children demonstrate independence by saying “No!”
 Physical and mental abilities develop
 Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6)

Initiate activities, plan tasks, develop motor skills
 Industry vs. Inferiority (6-11)
 Children begin to enjoy and take pride in accomplishments
 Sense of inferiority develops if child rebuffed by parents and teachers
 Identity vs. Role Confusion (11-22)
 Identity crisis should lead teens to an idea of how they fit into the adult world
 A healthy identity leads to next stage
 Intimacy vs. Isolation (22-40)
 Leads to finding a life partner or acceptance of single life
 Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-65)
 Desire to guide the next generation via parenting, teaching, or mentoring
 Ego Integrity vs. Despair (65+)
 Acceptance of one’s life in preparation for facing death
Kohlberg Levels of Moral Reasoning
 Preconventional
 Moral reasoning is based on the physical consequences of an act:
 Reasoning and actions governed by standards of others and not internalized
standards
 Stage 1
 “Right” is whatever avoids punishment
 Stage 2
 Right is whatever is rewarded, benefits the individual, or results in a favor being
returned
 Conventional
 Individual has internalized standards of others
 Right and wrong are based on the internalized standards of others
 Right is whatever helps or is approved of by others
 Right is whatever is consistent with the laws of society
 Stage 3
 Called the “good boy-nice girl” orientation
 Good behavior is that which:
 Pleases others
 Helps others
 Is approved of by others
 Stage 4
 Orientation towards authority
 Right is:
 Doing one’s duty
 Respecting authority
 Maintaining the social order
 Postconventional
 Individuals weigh moral alternatives
 Realize the law may conflict with basic human rights
 “Right” is whatever furthers basic human rights
 Requires ability to think at Piaget’s stage of formal operations
 Stage 5
 Believes the laws are formulated to protect both society and the individual
 Laws should be changed if they fail to do so
 Stage 6
 Ethical decisions based on universal principles
 Respect for human life, justice, equality, and dignity
 Believe following conscience may require violation of laws
Development of Moral Reasoning
 Discussion of moral dilemmas does not reliably improve behavior
 Direct teaching of moral values is necessary
 General cognitive development strongly influences how children respond to moral
teaching
 Young children’s ability to infer moral messages is strongly linked with reading
comprehension skills
 Parents who read moral stories to children (Little Red Hen) should provide explicit
information about the moral message and how it relates to the characters in the story
 Kohlberg’s stages of development occur in all cultures
 Gilligan asserts sexual bias
 Research did not include women, nor did it include mercy, compassion, love, or concern
for others
 Content of moral reasoning differs between sexes but does not differ in the complexity of
moral reasoning
 Others assert that moral reasoning is not the same as moral behavior
 People can be capable of making mature moral judgments yet fail to live morally
Parenting Styles (Baumrind,1967)
 Authoritarian-parents set high standards and expect unquestioned obedience; use power assertion.
 Permissive-parents demand little from children and do little to teach independence.
 Democratic-indulgent
 Rejecting-neglecting
 Authoritative-parents set high standards and are supportive, nurturant, and firm; use induction.
 Different types of parents tended to have different types of preschoolers:
 Those of authoritarian parents were obedient but unhappy.
 Power assertion
 Those of permissive parents tended to be unhappy and lack self-control and self-reliance.
 Those of authoritative were adjusted, well-behaved, and independent.
 Induction
What works best?
 Some cross-cultural studies have found benefits from authoritative parenting, and yet
 Asian parents successfully use authoritarian style.
 Many parents have characteristics from more than one style.
 Effective parenting practices include parenting that:
 Is culturally-consistent.
 Is warm and responsive.
 Sets consistent limits.
 Includes inductive parenting.