Basic Processes of
Development


Maturation

Biological process of systematic physical
growth

Experience plays a role in specific contexts

McGraw’s study of toilet training twins
Children change dramatically from birth to
adulthood
Developmental Psychology
Importance of maturational readiness in
McGraw’s study of toilet training twin
boys
Hugh
Hilton
Success in percent
100
80
60
40
20
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Age in days
Developmental Psychology
Early Experiences and Critical
Periods


Imprinting (Lorenz)

Inborn tendency or instinct

Sensitive period – critical period
Early social deprivation

Harlow’s monkeys, social isolation, and
continuing detrimental effects

Controversy over effects on children

Some abnormal effects may be irreversible
Developmental Psychology
Variations in Development

Normal for children to be variable in their
development

Discontinuities in development are the rule

Parents make important decisions about raising
children that impacts on development

Raising deaf child

Impact of technology and medicine
Jean Piaget and Cognitive
Development:
Schemas
An infant’s mind works hard to make sense of our
experiences in the world.
 An early tool to organize those experiences is a
schema, a mental container we build to hold our
experiences.
 Schemas can take the form of images, models,
and/or
concepts.
This
child has
formed a schema called “COW” which he uses
to think about animals of a certain shape and size.

“Cow!”
“Cow!”
5
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development

A child’s capacity to understand certain
concepts is based on the child’s
developmental stage
Piaget’s Four Stages

Believed that all children develop according to
four stages based on how they see the world.

He thought the age may vary some, but that we all
go through the stages in the same order.
1. Sensori-motor (birth –2 years)
2. Preoperational (~2-7)
3. Concrete operational (~7-11)
4. Formal operations (~12-15)
Sensorimotor Stage


Birth to about 2 years, rapid change is
seen throughout
The child will:





Explore the world through senses & motor
activity
Early on, baby can’t tell difference between
themselves & the environment
If they can’t see something then it doesn’t exist
Begin to understand cause & effect
Can later follow something with their eyes
Preoperational Stage

About 2 to about 7






Better speech communication
Can imagine the future & reflect on the past
Develop basic numerical abilities
Still pretty egocentric, but learning to be able to
delay gratification
Can’t understand conservation of matter
Has difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality
(ex: cartoon characters are real people).
…more preoperational



Conservation of matter – understanding
that something doesn’t change even
though it looks different, shape is not
related to quantity
Ex: Are ten coins set in a long line more
than ten coins in a pile?
Ex: Is there less water if it is poured into a
bigger container?
Egocentrism:
“I am the World.”
What mistake is the boy
making?
Do you
have a
brother?
Does Jim
have a
brother?
How does this relate to
our definition of
egocentrism?
Yes.
Jim.
No.
11
Maturing beyond Egocentrism:
Developing a “Theory of Mind”
Theory of
mind refers to
the ability to
understand
that others
have their own
thoughts and
perspective.
With a theory of
mind, you can
picture that Sally
will have the wrong
idea about where
the ball is.
12
Examples of Operations that
Preoperational Children Cannot
Do…Yet
Conservation refers to the ability to understand
that a quantity is conserved (does not change)
even when it is arranged in a different shape.
Which row
has more
mice?
13
Piaget’s
PreOperational
Stage
Inability to understand
conservation of matter.
Concrete Operational Stage

From about 7 to about 11


Abstract reasoning ability & ability to
generalize from the concrete increases
Understands conservation of matter
Formal Operations

From about 12 to about 15




Be able to think about hypothetical situations
Form & test hypotheses
Organize information
Reason scientifically
Formal Operational Stage (Age 11 +)
Concrete operations
include analogies such
as “My brain is like a
computer.”
Formal operations
includes allegorical
thinking such as
“People who live in
glass houses
shouldn’t throw
stones”
(understanding that
this is a comment on
hypocrisy).
Includes arithmetic
transformations:
if 4 + 8 = 12, 12 – 4 = ?
Includes algebra:
if x = 3y and x – 2y = 4,
what is x?
17
Developmental Psychology
Piaget’s cognitive development
theory summary
Birth to 2 Sensorimotor
yrs
2 - 7 yrs
7 - 11 yrs
Uses senses and motor skills, items
known by use; Object permanence
Pre-operational Symbolic thinking, language used;
Concrete
operational
11 yrs on Formal
operational
egocentric thinking, imagination/
experience grow, child de-centers
Logic applied, objective/rational
interpretations; conservation,
numbers, ideas, classifications
Thinks abstractly, hypothetical
ideas; ethics, politics, social/moral
issues explored
… Piaget’s Development

Development happens from one stage to
another through interaction with the
environment.

Changes from stage to stage may occur
abruptly and kids will differ in how long they
are in each stage.

Cognitive development can only happen after
genetically controlled biological growth
occurs.
Piaget & Education

Piaget did not think it was possible to hurry
along or skip stages through education

Regardless, many American schools will try
to teach to the stages in an attempt to
accelerate development
Problems with Piaget’s Theory

Children often grasp ideas earlier than
what Piaget found

Cognitive development across domains is
inconsistent (e.g. better at reading than
math)

Studies have shown that development can
to some degree be accelerated
Lev Vygotsky: Alternative to Jean
Piaget



Lev Vygotsky (18961934) studied kids too,
but focused on how they
learn in the context of
social communication.
Principle: children learn
thinking skills by
internalizing language
from others and
developing inner speech:
“Put the big blocks on the
bottom, not the top…”
Vygotsky saw
development as building
on a scaffold of
mentoring, language, and
cognitive support from
parents and others.
22
Social Development:
Attachment
Attachment refers to an emotional tie to another
person.
In children, attachment can appear as a desire for
physical closeness to a caregiver.
Origins of Attachment
Experiments with monkeys
suggest that attachment is
based on physical affection
and comfortable body
contact, and not based on
being rewarded with food.
23
Attachment Variation:
Styles of Dealing with Separation
The degree and style of
parent-child attachment
has been tested by Mary
Ainsworth in the “strange
situations” test. In this
test, a child is observed
as:
1.a mother and infant child
are alone in an unfamiliar
(“strange”) room; the child
explores the room as the
mother just sits.
2.a stranger enters the
room, talks to the mother,
and approaches the child;
the mother leaves the
room.
3.After a few moments, the
Reactions to Separation and
Reunion
Secure attachment: most
children (60 percent) feel
distress when mother leaves,
and seek contact with her when
she returns
Insecure attachment (anxious
style): clinging to mother, less
likely to explore environment,
and may get loudly upset with
mother’s departure and remain
upset when she returns
Insecure attachment (avoidant
style): seeming indifferent to
mother’s departure and return
24
Deprivation of Attachment


If children live without
safe, nurturing,
affectionate caretaking,
they may still be resilient,
that is bounce back,
attach, and succeed.
However, if the child
experiences severe,
prolonged deprivation or
abuse, he or she may:




have difficulty forming
attachments.
have increased anxiety
and depression.
have lowered intelligence.
show increased
25
Childhood:
Hypothetical Parenting Styles
Style
Response to Child’s Behavior
Authoritarian
Parents impose rules “because I said so”
“Too Hard”
and expect obedience.
Permissive
Parents submit to kids’ desires, not enforcing
“Too Soft”
limits or standards for child behavior.
Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards
Authoritative
but also explain, discuss, listen, and express
“Just Right”
respect for child’s ideas and wishes.
26
Outcomes with Parenting Styles

Authoritative
parenting, more than
the other two styles,
seems to be
associated with:





high self-reliance.
high social
competence.
high self-esteem.
low aggression.
But are these a result
of parenting style, or
are parents
responding to a child’s
temperament? Or are
both a function of
27
Baumrind: Three Parenting Styles
Style
Authoritarian Permissive Authoritative
Warmth
low
high
high
Discipline
strict
rare
moderate
Expected Maturity
high
low
moderate
Communication:
parent-child
high
low
high
Communication:
child-parent
low
high
high
Theories of Moral
Development Kohlberg
Slavin, 2003
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Reasoning




He identified three levels that are made up of
six stages; The levels are
Preconventional
Conventional
Postconventional
Slavin, 2003
Preconventional Level


Stage 1: Punishment and obedience
orientation. Physical consequences of action
determine its goodness or badness.
Stage 2: Instrumental relativist orientation.
What is right is what satisfies your own needs
and occasionally the needs of others, e.g.,
the expectations of the family group or nation
can be seen as valuable in own right.
Slavin, 2003
Conventional Level


Stage 3: “Good boy – good girl” orientation –
good behavior is what pleases or helps
others and is approved by them
Stage 4: Law and order orientation – right is
doing one’s duty, showing respect for
authority, and maintaining social order for its
own sake
Slavin, 2003
Postconventional Level


Stage 5: Social contract orientation – what is
right is a function of individual rights and
agreed upon standards.
Stage 6: Universal ethical principle
orientation – what is right is determined
decision of conscience according to selfchosen ethical principles (these principles are
abstract and ethical not specific moral
prescriptions)
Slavin, 2003
Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development summary
Level I:
Preconventional
moral reasoning
Stage 1 “might
Punishment/obedience
makes right” orientation: self-interest
Stage 2 “look out for
number one”
Stage 3 “good girl,
Level II:
Conventional
nice boy”
moral reasoning
Stage 4 “law and
order”
Stage 5 “social
Level III:
contract”
Postconventional
moral reasoning Stage 6 “universal
ethical
principles”
Instrumental/relativist
orientation: quid pro quo
Proper behavior for the
social approval
Proper behavior of the
dutiful citizen, obey laws
Mutual benefit to all,
obey society’s rules
Defend right/wrong, not
just majority, all life is
sacred (reflective)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czp9S4u26M – Check out Heinz
Dilemma and see what stage of moral development you are on
Criticisms

Kohlberg’s population for his research was
primarily male.
Some research on girls’ moral reasoning
finds patterns that are somewhat different
from those proposed by Kohlberg.
Whereas boys’ moral reasoning revolves
primarily around issues of justice, girls are
more concerned about issues of caring
and responsibility for others. (Slavin,
2003, pp. 58-59)
Slavin, 2003
Criticisms (continued)

Young children often reason about moral
situations in more sophisticated ways than
the stage theories of Piaget and Kohlberg
would suggest. Children as young as 3 or 4
years old use intentions to judge the behavior
of others (Slavin, 2003).
Slavin, 2003
Criticisms (continued)


Moral reasoning does not directly translate
into behavior. Behavior may be affected by
many other factors other than reasoning, e.g.,
“Go along to get along”
Slavin, 2003
Example:
looting after a natural disaster
Which level of moral reasoning is involved?
Looting
is a problem; if everyone did it, there would be
escalating chaos and greater damage to the economy.
Looting is generally wrong, yet morally right when your
family’s survival seems to depend on it.
Looting is wrong because you might get punished, but if
no one is punished, that’s a sign that it’s okay.
38
Moral Intuition


Jonathan Haidt believed
moral decisions are often
driven by moral intuition,
that is, quick, gut-feeling
decisions.
This intuition is not just
based in moral reasoning
but also in emotions such
as:
 disgust. We may turn
away from choosing an
action because it feels
awful.
 elevated feelings. We
may get a rewarding
delight from some moral
behavior such as donating
to charity.
An Example of Moral
Intuition:
Given a hypothetical
choice to save five people
from an oncoming trolley
by killing one person,
many people’s choice is
determined not just by
reasoning, but by disgust.
Many people would flip a
switch to make this
choice, but not as many
would push a person on
the tracks to save five
others.
39
Erik Erikson: The LifeSpan Approach
Psychosocial Stages of
Personality Development



8 successive stages over the lifespan
Addresses bio, social, situational, personal
influences
Crisis: must adaptively or maladaptively cope
with task in each developmental stage



Respond adaptively: acquire strengths needed for
next developmental stage
Respond maladaptively: less likely to be able to adapt
to later problems
Basic strengths: Motivating characteristics and
beliefs that derive from successful resolution of
crisis in each stage
Stage 1: Basic Trust vs.
Mistrust





Birth to age 1
Totally dependent on others
Caregiver meets needs: child develops trust
Caregiver does not meet needs: child
develops mistrust
Basic strength: Hope


Belief our desires will be satisfied
Feeling of confidence
Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame
and Doubt




Ages 1-3
Child able to exercise some degree of choice
Child’s independence is thwarted: child
develops feelings of self-doubt, shame in
dealing with others
Basic Strength: Will

Determination to exercise freedom of choice in
face of society’s demands
Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt




Ages 3-5
Child expresses desire to take initiative in
activities
Parents punish child for initiative: child
develops feelings of guilt that will affect selfdirected activity throughout life
Basic strength: Purpose

Courage to envision and pursue goals
Stage 4: Industriousness vs.
Inferiority




Ages 6-11
Child develops cognitive abilities to enable in
task completion (school work, play)
Parents/teachers do not support child’s
efforts: child develops feelings of inferiority
and inadequacy
Basci strength: Competence

Exertion of skill and intelligence in pursuing and
completing tasks

Stages 1-4


Largely determined by others (parents, teachers)
Stages 5-8


Individual has more control over environment
Individual responsibility for crisis resolution in
each stage
Stage 5: Identity vs. Role
Confusion





Ages 12-18
Form ego identity: self-image
Strong sense of identity: face adulthood with
certainty and confidence
Identity crisis: confusion of ego identity
Basic strength: Fidelity


Emerges from cohesive ego identity
Sincerity, genuineness, sense of duty in
relationships with others
Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation




Ages 18-35 (approximately)
Undertake productive work and establish
intimate relationships
Inability to establish intimacy leads to social
isolation
Basic strength: Love


Mutual devotion in a shared identity
Fusing of oneself with another person
Stage 7: Generativity vs.
Stagnation




Ages 35-55 (approximately)
Generativity: Active involvement in
teaching/guiding the next generation
Stagnation involves not seeking outlets for
generativity
Basic strength: Care


Broad concern for others
Need to teach others
Stage 8: Ego Integrity vs.
Despair





Ages 55+
Evaluation of entire life
Integrity: Look back with satisfaction
Despair: Review with anger, frustration
Basic strength: Wisdom

Detached concern with the whole of life
Assessment in Erikson’s
Theory

Psychohistorical Analysis


Application of lifespan theory to lives of historical
figures
Psychological Tests:

Instruments based on crises in stages
Research in Erikson’s Theory

Trust


Early strong bonds with mother later were more
curious, sociable and popular
Identity



Strong identity associated with greater cognitive
and emotional functioning in college students
Crisis may begin later than age 12
Continuing process over the lifespan
Research in Erikson’s Theory

Generativity



Evokes need to feel closer to others
Correlated with extraversion, openness to new
experiences
Likely to be involved in community, social
relationships
Research in Erikson’s Theory

Maturity


High ego integrity: spent much time reviewing
their lives
Ethnic Identity

Ethnic minorities: ethnic identity significant factor
in determining sense of self
Contributions of Erikson



Personality develops throughout the lifetime
Identity crisis in adolescence
Impact of social, cultural, personal and
situational forces in forming personality
Criticisms of Erikson


Ambiguous terms and concepts
Lack of precision



Some terms are not easily measured empirically
Experiences in stage may only apply to
males
Identity crisis may only apply to those affluent
enough to explore identities
Developmental Psychology
Adolescent Development

Physical development


Puberty becomes production of sex hormones
Primary sex characteristics appear


Females – menarche: menstruation, ovulation
Secondary sex characteristics appear


Females – breasts, pubic hair, wider hips
Males – testes and penis growth, facial and pubic
hair, broadened shoulders
Developmental Psychology
Adolescence

Cognitive development

Formal operations stage entered



Ability to use abstract concepts
Shift to stage varies among individuals; some never
reach this stage, others reach it in early adulthood
Piaget’s classic experiment with weights
Developmental Psychology
Adolescence

Adolescent egocentrism





Imaginary audience – everyone is watching
Personal fable – belief that s/he is unique
Hypocrisy – okay for one to do it but not
another
Pseudostupidity – use of oversimplified logic
Social development

Time of drifting or breaking away from family
Developmental Psychology
Adolescence

Emotional development



G. Stanley Hall – time of storm and stress
Most adolescents are happy, well-adjusted
Areas of problems



Parent-child conflicts
Mood changes - self-conscious, awkward, lonely,
ignored
Risky behavior - aggression, unprotected sex,
suicide, use of substances or alcohol
Social Development:
Erik Erikson (1902-1994)



Erik Erikson’s model of lifelong
psychosocial development sees
adolescence as a struggle to form
an identity, a sense of self, out of
the social roles adolescents are
asked to play.
Adolescents may try out different
“selves” with peers, with parents,
and with teachers. For Erikson, the
challenge in adolescence was to test
and integrate the roles in order to
prevent role confusion (which of
those selves, or what combination,
is really me?).
Some teens solve this problem
simply by adopting one role, defined
by parents or peers.
61
Erik Erikson: Stages of Psychosocial Development
62
Other Eriksonian stages on the
minds of adolescents
While currently in
the identity vs. role
confusion stage,
adolescents have
ideally just finished
working through the
tension of
competence vs.
inferiority.
They are ready
after adolescence to
take on the
challenge of
intimacy vs.
isolation.
63
Adolescence, the sequel…
Emerging Adulthood
In some countries, added years
of education and later marriage
has delayed full adult
independence beyond traditional
adolescence. This seems to have
created a new phase which can
be called emerging adulthood,
ages 18-25.
64
Adulthood
Is the rest of the
developmental story
just one long plateau
of work and possibly
raising kids?
 Physical Development
 physical decline
 lifespan and death
 sensory changes
 Cognitive
Development
 memory
 Social Development
 commitments
65
Adult Physical Development

In our mid-20’s, we
reach a peak in the
natural physical
abilities which come
with biological
maturation:





muscular strength
cardiac output
reaction time
sensory sensitivity
To what extent can
training overcome the
decline that follows?
66
Physical Changes:
Middle Adulthood
Between ages 40 and 60,
physical vitality (such as
endurance and strength)
may still be more of a
function of lifestyle than
of biological decline.
Some
changes are
still driven by
genetic
maturation,
especially the
end of our
reproductive
years.
The end the
reproductive years
There is a gradual
decline in sexual
activity in adulthood,
although sexuality
can continue
throughout life.
Around age 50,
women enter
menopause (the end
of being able to get
pregnant).
According to
evolutionary
psychologists, why
might it make sense
for women’s fertility
to end?
67
The Aging Body



Potential lifespan for the
human body is estimated
to be about 122 years.
Life expectancy refers to
the average expected life
span.
The worldwide average has
increased from 49 in 1950 to
69 in 2010. In 2012:
South Africa—49
Cameroon—55
Pakistan—66
Thailand--74
United States--75
Ireland--80
Australia—82
More Aged Women
The rise in life expectancy,
combined with declining birth
rates, means a higher
percentage of the world’s
population is old.
More elderly people are
women because more men die
than women at every age. By
age 100, women outnumber
men by a ratio of 5 to 1.
68
Why don’t we live forever?
Possible biological answers…



Nurture/Environment
An accumulation of stress, damage, and
disease wears us down until one of these
factors kills us.
Genes
Some people have genes that protect against
some kinds of damage.
Even with great genes and environment,
telomeres (the tips at the end of
chromosomes) wear down with every
generation of cell duplication and we stop
healing well.
69
Physical Changes with
Age
The following abilities
decline as we age:
visual acuity, both
sharpness and
brightness
hearing, especially
sensing higher pitch
reaction time and
general motor abilities
neural processing
speed, especially for
complex and novel tasks
70
Health/Immunity Changes with Age
The
bad
news
The immune system
declines with age, and
can have difficulty
fighting off major
illnesses.
The
good
news
The immune system has a
lifetime’s accumulation of
antibodies, and does well
fighting off minor
illnesses.
71
Exercise Can Slow the Aging
Process
Exercise can:
build
muscles and
bones.
stimulate neurogenesis
(in the hippocampus)
and new neural
connections.
maintain telomeres.
improve cognition.
reduce the risk of
dementia.
72
Changes in the Brain with Age




Myelin-enhanced
neural processing
speed peaks in the
teen years, and
declines thereafter.
Regions of the brain
related to memory
begin to shrink with
age, making it harder
to form new memories.
The frontal lobes
atrophy, leading
eventually to
decreased inhibition
and self-control.
By age 80, a healthy
brain is 5 percent
73
Coping with Death
and
Dying
Individual responses to death
may vary.
Grief is more intense when
death occurs unexpectedly
(especially if also too early on
the social clock).
There is NO standard pattern
or length of the grieving
process.
It seems to help to have the
support of friends or groups,
and to face the reality of
death and grief while
affirming the value of life.
74
The Final Issue in Development:
Stability and Change
Are we essentially the same person over long
periods?
In general, temperament seems stable.
Traits can vary, especially attitudes, coping
strategies, work habits, and styles of
socializing.
Personality seems to stabilize with age.
Stability helps us form identity, while the
potential for change gives us control over our
lives.
75