Developing Through the Life
Span
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Developmental Issues,
Prenatal Development, and
the Newborn
Module 10
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Two Major Developmental Issues
Continuity and Stages
Stability and Change
Conception
Prenatal Development
The Competent Newborn
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Developmental Issues, Prenatal
Development, and the Newborn
Development begins with the meeting of
sperm and egg and continues throughout our
lives.
Developmental psychology studies our
lifelong physical, mental, and social
development .
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Two Major Developmental Issues
Developmental psychology considers three pervasive issues:
Issue
Nature/Nurture
Continuity/Stages
Stability/Change
Details
How do genetic inheritance
(our nature) and experience
(the nurture we receive)
influence our behavior?
Is development a gradual,
continuous process or a
sequence of separate stages?
Do our early personality
traits persist through life, or
do we become different
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persons as we age.
Continuity and Stages
Researchers who view development as a slow,
continuous process are generally those who
emphasize experience and learning.
Those with a biological perspective view
maturation and development as a series of
genetically predisposed steps or stages.
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Three Stage Theories
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Stability and Change
Lifelong development requires both stability and
change.
Researchers agree that:
-The first two years of life provide a poor basis for
predicting a person’s eventual traits.
-As people grow older, personality gradually stabilizes.
-In some ways, we all change with age.
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Prenatal Development and the
Newborn
How, over time, did we come to be who we are?
From zygote to birth, development progresses
in an orderly, though fragile, sequence.
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Conception
A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer
coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form
one fertilized cell.
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
Lennart Nilsson/ Albert Bonniers Publishing Company
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Prenatal Development
A zygote is a fertilized egg with 100 cells that become
increasingly diverse. At about 10 days the zygote turns into an
embryo (a).
Over the next 6 weeks organs begin to form and the heart begins
to beat. At 9 weeks, the embryo becomes a fetus (b and c)
Fig 10.3
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Prenatal Development
At each prenatal stage genetic and environmental factors
affect development.
Although the placenta screens out potential threats, some
teratogens, chemicals or viruses that can harm the
developing fetus, can slip by.
For example, fetal alcohol syndrom (FAS), can be caused
by a mother’s drinking during pregnancy. FAS is marked
by a small, misproportioned head and lifelong brain
abnormalities.
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The Competent Newborn
Infants are born with reflexes that aid in survival,
including the rooting reflex which helps them locate
food.
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The Competent Newborn
In addition to this, we are born preferring sights and
sounds that facilitate social responsiveness.
Infants turn their heads in the direction of human
voices and gaze longer at face-like images.
Newborns gazed nearly twice as long at the figure on
the right. (Johnson & Morton, 1991)
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