Chapter
5:
Life Span
Development
Development
Defining Terms

Developmental Psychology
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
Branch of psychology that specifically examines
the physiological, cognitive, and emotional
changes in an organism from conception to death.
Developmental Psychologists utilize a number of
different methods of inquiry to gather this
information.
Developmental Research Methods

Cross-Sectional Study
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Longitudinal Study
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Study people of different ages at the same point in time
Advantages?
Disadvantages?
Study the same group of people over time
Advantages?
Disadvantages?
Biographical or Retrospective Study
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Participant’s past is reconstructed through interviews and
other research about their life
Advantages?
Disadvantages?
Prenatal Development: Terms
Prenatal period
 Zygote
 Embryo
 Fetus
 Placenta
 Teratogens

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Definition
Examples
Fetal alcohol syndrome?
Prenatal Development

Critical periods?
The Newborn Baby
aka NEONATE
I WANT BACK
IN!
The Competent Newborn: Reflexes
Rooting
 Sucking
 Swallowing
 Grasping

Stepping
 Babinski
 Moro
 Crawling

The Competent Newborn: Temperament
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Temperament refers to characteristic patterns of
emotional reactions and emotional self-regulation
Thomas and Chess identified three basic types of
babies (1977) + Kagan (1988) added a fourth
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Easy
Difficult
Slow-to-warm-up
Shy Child
Temperament may predict later disposition
The Competent Newborn:
Sensory Learning
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In addition to reflexes present at birth, neonates also
have the ability to learn
Habituation - basic type of learning involving
decreased response to a stimulus judged to be of no
importance/novelty
Visual learning – focus on FACES
Olfactory learning – fully functioning; smell of mother
Auditory learning – response to mothers voice
Taste – Fully functioning; preference for sweets!
The Competent Newborn:
Visual Perception
Dude.
I’m not
going
that way!
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Clear for 8-10 inches
Good vision by 6 months
Depth perception
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The Visual Cliff
Visual cliff research
Mother beckons infant to cross
cliff – infant hesitates
Most infants 6 to 14 months of
age were reluctant to crawl
over the cliff
Nature AND Nurture…?
Perception of Scale
Perception of Scale
Infancy and Childhood
Stop
touching
me.
Ooh. How did
you get your
hair so silky
soft?
Physical Development:
Body and Brain

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Children grow about 10 inches and gain about
15 pounds in first year
Growth occurs in spurts, as much as 1 inch
overnight!
Growth slows during second year
Neural “pruning and paving”
Motor and Memory
Development

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Developmental norms
 “Milestones”
 Occurs in a proximodistal and cephalocaudal manner
 “Back to Sleep” movement to reduce SIDS may delay crawling
Maturation
 Automatic biological unfolding of development in an organism as
a function of passage of time
 Relatively uninfluenced by experience
Memory not solidified until after 3rd birthday
 “Infantile amnesia”
 Development of hippocampus?
Cognitive Development


Cognition – all mental activities associated
with thinking, knowing, remembering and
communicating
Jean Piaget
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Studied intellectual development in children
Stage-based theory of cognitive development
Intellectual growth as a process of adaptation
(adjustment) to the world. This happens through
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Formation of schemas
Assimilation
Accommodation
Adjusting schemas (equilibration) when new
information doesn’t fit existing ones (disequilibrium)
Piaget’s Stages of Development

Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 years)
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Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
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Egocentrism; intuitive over logical reasoning
Development of a theory of mind
The Mountain problem
Concrete Operations (7-11 years)
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Take in world through senses
Object permanence and the A not B error
Logical reasoning about concrete events
Principles of conservation
Formal Operations (12 through adulthood)
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Hypothetical problems solving
Understand abstract ideas
Piaget’s Stages - Summary
Criticisms of Piaget's Theory
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Lev Vygotsky believed
development was a function
of social interaction
Many developmental theorists
such as Vygotsky questioned
the assumption that there are
distinct stages in cognitive
development
Criticism of notion that infants do
not understand world
Piaget may have underestimated
influence of social interaction in
cognitive development
Social Development: Attachment

Stranger Anxiety
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Attachment through Contact
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Humans form a bond with those who care for
them in infancy
Based upon interaction with caregiver
Harry Harlow’s work: on attachment
Attachment through Familiarity

Top: Harlow’s experiment;
Bottom: Lorenz and
imprinting
Appears around 8 months – coincides with
mobility
Protective mechanism

Imprinting (Lorenz)
Occurs in many species of animals in a critical
period
Social Development: Attachment

Attachment Differences
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Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
 Secure attachment
 Anxious-ambivalent insecure attachment
 Anxious-avoidant insecure attachment:
Erikson’s “Basic Trust”
Deprivation of Attachment
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Impact of denying infant monkeys physical comfort from
their mother
Cases of “Genie” and “Victor”
Daycare – does it matter?
Self Concept and Parenting Styles
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Mirror Test
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Self Concept: understanding of who we are
 “Mirror Test”
 By 18 months, children know THEY are the image in
the mirror, and that it is not another person
 Children with a positive self concept are more
confident, assertive, optimistic, and sociable, but how
is this achieved?
Diana Baumrind’s 4 Parenting Styles may help
explain…
 Authoritarian
 Permissive
 Neglectful
 Authoritative
Impact of parenting styles on children?
 Authoritative appears to be best, but…
 Correlational NOT causational research!
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles:
Comparison
Relationships With Other Children
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Solitary play
Parallel play
Cooperative play
Peer group
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Parallel Play vs.
Cooperative Play
A network of same-aged friends
and acquaintances
give one another emotional and
social support
When children start school, peers
begin to have greater influence
Sex-Role Development
 Gender
identity
 Gender constancy
 Gender-role
awareness
 Gender stereotypes
 Sex-typed behavior
Adolescence
The Nature of Adolescence
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A “Carefree Time” vs. G. Stanley Hall’s
“Storm and Stress”
The American experience?
Trends today?
Cultural differences?
Physical Changes
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Growth spurt
 Begins about age 10½ in girls
and about 12½ in boys
Sexual development
 Primary (reproductive) vs.
Secondary (non-reproductive)
sexual characteristics
 Puberty
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Menarche
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Onset of sexual maturation
First menstrual period for girls
Neurological changes – frontal
lobe maturation
Physical Changes: Sexual Activity
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Early and late developers:
Implications?
Adolescent sexual activity
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Approximately ¾ of males and
½ of females between 15 and
19 have had intercourse
Average age for first
intercourse is 16 for boys and
17 for girls
Teenage pregnancy
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Rate of teen pregnancy has
fallen in the last 50 years
Highest in U.S. of all
industrialized nations
Cognitive Changes

David Elkind’s
Theories
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Imaginary audience:
delusion that everyone
else is always focused
on them
Personal fable:
delusion that they are
unique and very
important
Invulnerability
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Nothing can harm
them
Reckless behavior
Moral Development:
Kohlberg vs. Gilligan
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Kohlberg’s Theory
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Preconventional (preadolescence)
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Conventional (adolescence)
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“Good” behavior is mostly to avoid punishment or seek
reward
Behavior is about pleasing others and, in later adolescence,
becoming a good citizen
Postconventional (adulthood...maybe)
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Emphasis is on abstract principles such as justice, equality,
and liberty
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development
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The “Heinz Dilemma”
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A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was
one drug that the doctors thought might save her. The drug was
expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the
drug cost him to produce. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get
together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the
druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or
let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug
and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and
broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.
Should Heinz have broken into the store to steal the drug for his
wife? Why or why not?
The response is not as important as the
reasoning WHY in determining which stage of
moral reasoning a person is in
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory
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Research shows that many people never
progress past the conventional level
Theory maintains that our rationale remains
consistent – does it?
Theory does not take cultural differences into
account
Theory is considered by some to be sexist in
that girls often scored lower on tests of
morality
Personality and Social
Development
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Major task in adolescence is identity formation
Forming an identity (James Marcia, 1980)
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Achievement
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Foreclosure
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Explore various identities, but unable to commit
Diffusion
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Settle for identity others wish for them
Moratorium
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Successfully find identity
Unable to “find themselves” – refusal to deal with the task;
escapist techniques
Erikson’s 8 Psychosocial Stages
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Identity vs. Role Confusion (teens to early 20s)
Intimacy vs. Isolation (early 20s to early 40s)
Personality and Social
Development
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Relationships with peers
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Adolescents often form
cliques, or groups with similar
interests and strong mutual
attachment
Relationships with parents
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Adolescents test and question
every rule and guideline from
parents
Can be a difficult time for
parents AND children
Some Issues of Adolescence
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Declines in self-esteem
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Depression and suicide
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Related to appearance
Satisfaction in appearance is related to higher self-esteem
Rate of suicide among adolescents has increased 600%
since 1950, but has leveled off since ’90s
Suicide often related to depression, drug abuse, disruptive
behaviors, or child abuse
Youth Violence
Emerging Adulthood – trends in lengthening this
period
Adulthood
Love, Partnerships, and
Parenting
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Forming partnerships
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First major event of
adulthood is forming and
maintaining close
relationships
Erikson’s Intimacy vs.
Isolation
Parenthood
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Having children alters
dynamics of relationships
Marital satisfaction often
declines after birth of child
Marital Satisfaction
Other Issues…
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The World of Work
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Cognitive Changes
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Fluid intelligence declines with old age
Crystallized intelligence does NOT
decline, and even can increase as
learning continues throughout life
Personality Changes
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Many parents report feeling a
sense of relief when their
children move out!
Balancing career and family
obligations is a challenge
Many adults define who they are by
what they do
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Less self-centered, better coping skills
Some men and women have a midlife
crisis (or midlife transition)
Empty Nest Myth
Late Adulthood
Physical Changes

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In late adulthood, physical deterioration is inevitable
As early as the twenties, strength, reaction times,
sensory abilities and cardiac capacity decline, though
in late adulthood we may finally notice
Menopause and the end of fertility
Social Development
I can’t wait
to swill my
whiskey
from this
vessel!
I’m too
cool for
ceramic
s
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Independent and satisfying
lifestyles – Erikson’s
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Retirement
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Most people will stop working and
face challenges with that sudden
change
Redefining of self
Marital satisfaction
Sexual behavior
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Research shows that many older
couples continue to be sexually
active
It is not until age 75 that half of
men and most women report a
complete loss of interest in sex
Cognitive Changes
Checkmate,
Sucka!
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Research has demonstrated
that those who continue to
“exercise” their mental abilities
can delay mental decline
Even PHYSICAL exercise
seems to have a positive
impact on cognitive
maintenance
However, Alzheimer’s disease
afflicts approximately 10% of
people over 65 and perhaps
as many as 50% of those over
90
Facing the End of Life

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s
stages of grief/death
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Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
Giraffe: Stages of Dying
Erikson’s Integrity vs.
Despair