Development
We are all developing every day.
EXERCISE:
What is the “ideal age?”
Write it Down
What is the “worst age?”
Write it Down.
Ask why they chose those ages as best/worst.
Discussion: Development is lifelong – each age we’re faced with different
issues & challenges.
1000 adults were asked this same question and said “mid 30’s” was their
ideal age.
Before we go too far into developmental psych…..
EXERCISE:
(Be sure to tell students they will be sharing these stories with others in the class – so if there is
something too personal they don’t wish to share, that is okay)
1. Identify 10 past events that have had an impact on your life
2. Give age at time of occurrence
3. Provide a brief description of what happened.
4. Then – “hypothesize” 10 future events that you believe will significantly
affect your development
5. Break into groups and discuss
6. Share with whole class – process answers and share how this is
relevant to discussion of “development”
Two major Developmental Issues
A. Continuity vs. Stages
B. Stability vs. Change
Continuity vs. Stages (Redwood Trees vs. Butterflies)
Continuity stresses – experience & learning
Stages stress – biological
Stability vs. Change – are personalities consistent or do they change over time?
Life requires stability & change
Stability allows us to depend on others – provides our identity
Change sustains hope for a brighter future, let’s us adapt and grow
Pre-natal Development
Teratogens – harmful agents – like viruses or drugs
How much alcohol is safe for pregnant women?
The Competent Newborn
Use of Habituation (simple form of learning) – as infants gain familiarity
with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and the look
away sooner.
EXERCISE – Decades of Life
Why are some decades harder or easier to describe? Do the first 3 seem
easiest? Why?
Do you tend to think that no important changes occur after early adulthood?
Why?
Did you think of specific people when thinking of certain decades? Who? Why?
Ask for volunteers to read some of their words for the different decades.
Why did we do this exercise?
Infancy & Childhood
EXERCISE - developmental landmarks
Physical Development
Memory
Motor Development – roll, crawl, walk, run
Cognitive Development
Piaget – mistakes kids made at certain ages were basically the same
Driving force behind intellectual progression – “struggle to make sense of
our experiences”
Schemas – a conceptual framework that organizes & interprets info – “mental
molds”
Assimilation – interpreting new experiences based on one’s existing schemas
Accommodate – adjust our schema based on new information
Cognition – all mental activities associated with thinking
Piaget believed in spurts of change followed by greater stability
Piaget’s stages
1) Sensorimotor stage – birth – 2 years. Lack object permanence –
awareness that things exist that they don’t see (until age 6-8 months).
Current researchers have demonstrated this phase is more continuous
than Piaget proposed – in other words… infants are smarter than
Piaget tought.
2) Peroperational Stage – 2 to 6-7 years. Learns language but doesn’t
understand logic
a. Conservation – principle that quantity remains the same despite
changes in shape
b. Egocentrism – children in this stage cannot perceive things from
another’s point of view (usually changes around 4 years old).
i. Ask a 4 year old to shut his/her eyes. Then ask if he/she
thinks you can see her. (they will usually say “no”)
c. Theory of mind develops
3) Concrete Operational Stage – 6-11 years. Children gain mental
operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
4) Formal Operational Stage – 12 years and up. People begin to think
logically about abstract concepts.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Stranger anxiety – 8 months old. Schemas of familiar faces.
Important principal to remember…. The brain, mind & social-emotional
behaviors are developing together.
Attachment – emotional tie
Imprinting – humans don’t imprint
Basic Trust – a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy.
Child rearing practices
EXERCISE – Traits of Greatest Importance to Parents
Break into small groups
Focus on different parenting styles
1) Authoritarian – impose rules / expect obedience
2) Permissive – submit to kid’s desires
3) Authoritative – demanding & responsive
ADOLESCENCE
What is it? When does it start? When does it end?
EXERCISE – Adolescent Development
Complete individually then discuss in groups.
Process with entire class.
Cognitive Development
Develop Reasoning Power
Develop Morality
Kohlberg – 3 basic levels of moral thinking
1) Preconventional – before age 9 – obey to avoid punishment or
to gain rewards
2) Conventional – adolescence – obey to care for others, uphold
laws because they are the laws/rules
3) Post conventional
a. Abstract reasoning
b. Affirms agreed upon rights or follows one’s own basic
ethical principles
4) Cosmic Orientation (one additional level)
a. Motivated to be true to the universal principle –
transcending social norms.
Social Development
EXERCISE - Erikson’s Stages
Issues at each stage