Human Development
Chapter 9
AP Psychology
Alice F. Short
Hilliard Davidson High School
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• At what age do you stop becoming more
mature? Why?
• The text states that the “body, mind and
emotion are interdependent.” Imagine the
loss of function in one of these areas. What
would it be like if one of these was at a
diminished capacity?
Chapter Outline
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Exploring Human Development
Child Development
Adolescence
Emerging Adulthood, Adult Development, and
Aging
• Human Development and Health and
Wellness
Development
• development - the pattern of continuity and
change that occurs throughout the lifespan
– physical processes
– cognitive processes
– socioemotional processes
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prenatally (before birth)
during childhood
adolescence
adulthood
Development
• biological
processes
• cognitive
processes
• socioemotional
processes
Development: Biological Processes
• biological processes (maturation)
– genes
– hormonal changes of puberty and menopause
– changes in brain, height and weight
– motor skills
Development: Cognitive Processes
• cognitive processes
– thought
– intelligence
– language
Development: Socioemotional Processes
• socioemotional processes
– relationships
– emotions
– personality
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Imagine the loss of body, mind and/or
emotion. What would life be like if one of
these was at a diminished capacity?
Research Methods
in Development Psychology
• Age-Related Differences
– cross-sectional studies – a number of people of different
ages are assessed at one point in time, and differences are
noted
• cohort effects – differences between individuals that stem not
necessarily from their ages but from the historical and social time
period in which they were born and developed
– DISCUSSION: What cohort effects exist within your generation?
• faster
– longitudinal studies – assesses the same participants
multiple times over a lengthy period
• takes a LONG time
• see change within a population over time
• Very happy people? Old or young? What do you think?
(p. 279)
Nature vs. Nurture
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nature – biological inheritance (genotype)
nurture – environmental experiences
phenotype – combination of nature and nurture
the developer – individuals take active roles in
own development
• Which leads to / influences optimal life
experiences more?
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Critical Controversy: Genes or Superparents? (p. 281)
– Judith Harris (1998) The Nurture Assumption – parents make no
difference
– Sandra Scarr – “superparenting” is unnecessary
– Diana Baumrind – “good enough” is not good enough
– W. Andrew Collins (2000) – even w/ genetic influence taken into
account, parenting practices made a difference in children’s lives.
– If you have decide to have children in the future, how might the
information in this Critical Controversy affect your approach to
parenting?
– Why might today’s parents be more likely than parents in the past
to try to be superparents?
– How influential are your peers in your life? Is the influence
positive or negative?
– What should you do of your child falls in with the “wrong
crowd”?
Another SHORT Time to Ponder
• Consider phenylketonuria (PKU). Imagine if
you’re diet would literally permanently
influence your intelligence. Would you be able
to follow it? How severe of a consequence
would it have to be for you to dramatically
shift your diet?
Developer’s Role in Development
• develop beyond genetic inheritance and environment 
seeking optimal experiences
– build and shape our own lives
– life themes – life activities, social relationships and life goals
• Food for Thought
– How do you influence YOUR own development?
– How do you you seek optimal experience—or how do you
not?
– Who do you know that seeks optimal life experiences?
(personally—not a celebrity)
– How do we as a society hold others the “developer’s role” to
an incredibly high standard within society and governance?
How do we not?
Resilient Children
• early experience versus later experience
– nurturing during first year
– no one doomed by childhood
• resilience – a person’s ability to recover from
or adapt to difficult times
– resilient children become capable adults
– moderate difficulties may promote development
– associated with advantages (intelligence,
supportive relationship with parent/adult, etc.)
• DISCUSSION: What difficulties have promoted
development in your life?
Prenatal Development
• Germinal Period (weeks 1-2)
– conception – occurs when a single sperm cell from the male
merges with the female’s ovum (egg) to produce a zygote
– fertilization
– zygote – a single cell with 23 chromosomes from the mother
and 23 from the father
• Embryonic Period (weeks 3-8)
– beginnings of organs appear
– 3rd week: neural tube (eventually spinal cord)
– end: heart begins to beat, face starts to firm, intestinal tract
appears
• Fetal Period (months 2-9)
– 2 months: kidney bean
– 6 months: 1.5 pounds
Prenatal Development
• Teratogens… agents that cause birth defects
– diseases (ruebella, German measles, etc.)
– nicotine
– alcohol  fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
• small head, defects to limbs and heart, below-average
intelligence
– STIs  increased risk of stillbirth, infections, blindness
(gonorrhea), preterm birth
• Effects of teratogens depend on…
– timing of exposure
– genetic characteristics
– postnatal environment
Preterm Birth
• preterm infant – one who is born prior to 37
weeks after conception
– greater risk for developmental difficulties
– preterm infants born into poverty are more likely
to have problems than are those who live in better
socioeconomic conditions
– massage can improve outcomes
Physical Development
• humans = most helpless newborns (not finished)
• reflexes - genetically wired behaviors that are
crucial for survival
– DISCUSSION: Spartans and babies: Are you a fan?
– persist throughout life
• coughing, blinking, yawning
– disappear with neurological development
• grasping
Physical Development
(Fig. 9.2, p. 285)
• rooting, gripping, toe curling, moro or startle, galant
Physical Development
• perceptual and motor skills
– sticky gloves
– holding objects: texture, size hardness
– moving around room: different perspectives
• preferential looking
– give “choice” and measure preferences (7 days old)
– 3 months – prefer real faces to scrambled faces,
prefer mother’s face
– familiarity breeds liking (also for words, music, etc.)
Brain Development
(Fig. 9.4, p. 286)
• myelination (the process of encasing axons with
fat cells) continues after birth
• dramatic increase in synaptic connections
– birth: 100 billion neurons have few connections
– synapses
– used and unused neural pathways
• brain imaging techniques illuminate
developmental changes in the brain
• 3-6 years of age: most rapid growth in frontal
lobe areas
– new experiences promote brain development
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Given what we have already learned about
exposure to language, combining what we are
learning about frontal lobe development,
what are some impact of socioeconomic
status on long-term development?
Cognitive Development
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) – Swiss
developmental psychologist
– Children actively construct their cognitive world
using…
• schemas – concepts or frameworks that
organize information
• assimilation – incorporate new info into existing
schemas
• accommodation – adjust schemas to new information
Piaget’s Theory
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sensorimotor stage
preoperational stage
concrete operational stage
formal operational stage
• Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2 years)
Piaget’s
Theory:
Cognitive
Development
– coordinate sensations with movements
– object permanence
• Preoperational Stage (2 - 7 years)
– symbolic thinking
– intuitive reasoning
– egocentrism
• Concrete Operational Stage (7 – 11 yrs)
– operational thinking (e.g., conservation) – Fig. 9.8, p. 289
– classification skills
– logical thinking in concrete contexts
• Formal Operational Stage (11-15 yrs)
– lasts through adulthood
– abstract and idealistic thought
– hypothetical-deductive reasoning
Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
• some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than Piaget thought
– underestimated infants, overestimated adolescents and adults
• Piaget overestimated formal operations
• culture and education also influence development
• Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychology (1962): Cognitive
Development
– is an interpersonal process.
– happens in a cultural context. (OWN world over THE world)
– is facilitated by the process of scaffolding.
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Why might it be easy for Piaget to
underestimate infants?
• Why might it be easy for Piaget to
overestimate adolescents and adults?
• Do you think that you are in Piaget’s formal
operational stage? Have you mastered formal
operational thought?
Socioemotional Development in
Childhood
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temperament
attachment in infancy
Erikson’s Eight Stages of Human Development
parenting and childhood
moral development and Kohlberg
Temperament
• an individual’s behavioral style or
characteristic way of responding
• three clusters of temperament
– easy
– difficult
– slow-to-warm-up
• another perspective (effortful control/selfregulation, inhibition, and negative affectivity)
Infant Attachment
• Harlow Study – infant rhesus monkeys
– is it nourishment or contact that matters?
– chose between two surrogate “mothers”
• cold wire mother versus warm cloth mother
• -infants preferred cloth mother across situations
– contact comfort is critical to attachment
– the close emotional bond between an infant and its
caregiver
– may provide important foundation for subsequent
development
Infant Attachment
• Mary Ainsworth – Strange Situation
– Caregivers leave infant alone with stranger, then
return…secure attachment or insecure attachment?
– Criticism: cultural variations
– infant attachment – the close emotional bond
between and infant and its caregiver
– secure attachment – the ways that infants use their
caregiver, usually their mother, as a secure base from
which to explore the environment
Socioemotional Development
• Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
– theory emphasizes lifelong development
– eight psychosocial stages of development
• first four stages: childhood
• fifth stage: adolescence
• 6th-8th stages: adulthood
– each stage represents a developmental task
• crisis that must be resolved
• personal competence or weakness
• First Four Stages: Childhood
Erik
– trust versus mistrust
– autonomy versus shame and doubt
Erikson:
– initiative versus guilt
Socioemotional
– industry versus inferiority
Development
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• During the fourth stage of Erikson, Industry
versus Inferiority, to you think that motor skill
development also avoid feelings of inferiority?
• How protective is an appropriate level? How
protective is too protective?
Evaluating Erikson
• primary focus on case-study research
• omitted important developmental tasks
A SHORT Activity
• Create a t-chart in your spiral for criticisms of
Piaget and Erikson. Work with a partner to
complete the t-chart.
• Authoritarian
Parenting
Styles
– parents are controlling and punitive
– correlated with lack of initiative, poor
communication skills, social incompetence***
• Authoritative
– parents encourage independence with limits
– correlated with social competence, social responsibility,
and self-reliance
• Neglectful
– parents are generally uninvolved
– correlated with less social incompetence and poor selfcontrol
• Permissive
– parents are involved, but place few limits
– correlated with poor social competence, lack of respect
for others, poor self-control
Friendships
Intersection, p. 297
• talking over life problems
• co-rumination
– worrying about a topic without finding a
resolution.
– girls co-ruminate more than boys
– increased feelings of depression and anxiety
• DISCUSSION: Do you co-ruminate? Can you
adjust your behavior to be more positive and
supportive?
Moral Development
• Kohlberg (1927-1987) – presented moral
dilemmas and analyzed responses
– Preconventional
• behavior guided by punishments and rewards
– Conventional
• standards learned from parents and society
– Postconventional
• contracts, rights and abstract principles
Moral Development: Kohlberg
• 3 Levels, 6 stages, 2 stages in each level
Evaluating Kohlberg’s Theory
• moral reasoning ≠ moral behavior
– what we say and do are not always consistent
• women generally score lower than men
– justice perspective (men)
– care perspective (women) – Carol Gilligan
A SHORT Activity
• Have you started to develop a personal moral
code? What defines your ‘sense of justice’?
• On a fresh page in your spiral, write an outline
of your own moral code. It should contain a
general thesis. It should contain both general
ideas and specific examples and explanations.
• HINT: You should take this activity very
seriously, or it might become a 5 paragraph
essay writing assignment. 
Current Research on
Moral Development
• Prosocial Behavior – behavior that is intended
to benefit other people
– correlated with supportive parenting
– correlated with self-control
• Conscience Formation
– forms by age 3 and carries over into adulthood
– parent-child interactions
• clear, elaborate, rich with emotional content
• shared positive emotion
Moral Development
• Parenting strategies associated with morality
in children…
– warm and supportive rather than harsh
– reasoning with child when disciplining
– help child learn to take others’ perspective
– involve child in decision making
– model moral behavior and thinking
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Is it worse to behave in immoral ways when
wilding superior moral reasoning?
• We typically think of older generations
teaching younger generations. How and when
do younger generations teach older
generations lessons in morality?
Understanding Adolescence
• transition from childhood to adulthood
• starts age 10-12
• ends age 18-21
Adolescent Physical Development
• beginning 10-12; ending 18-21
• Puberty
– rapid skeletal and sexual maturation
– puberty begins at beginning of adolescence
• Testosterone (androgen) — boys
– genital development, height, voice changes
• Estrodiol (estrogen) — girls
– breast, uterine, and skeletal development
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Why do you think there is a reverse for the
genders in outcomes of early development?
Adolescent Brain Development
• Early
– amygdala
• emotions
• Late
– prefrontal cortex
• reasoning and decision making
• risk taking
• emotions develop before reasoning… thus your fine
decision-making skills…  (lack skills to control pleasureseeking)
• ability to resist peer-pressure related to prefrontal cortex
thickening
Adolescent Cognitive Development
• Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage
– Adolescent Egocentrism
• the belief that others are as preoccupied with the
adolescent as he or she is
• sense of uniqueness
• sense of invincibility --> risky behaviors
• ODD CONTRAST: 12- to 18-year-olds
overestimate the likelihood that you will die
Adolescent
Socioemotional Development
• Erikson: Psychosocial Development
– identity versus identity confusion (fifth stage) –
adolescents face the challenges of finding out who
they are, what they are all about, and where they
are going in life
– identity confusion – the individual either
withdraws, becoming isolated from peers and
family, or loses him or herself in the crowd
Adolescent
Socioemotional Development
• James Marcia’s Four Identity Statuses
– built on Erikson
– two dimensions of identity: exploration and
commitment
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identity diffusion
identity foreclosure
identity moratorium
identity achievement
James Marcia’s Four Identity Statuses
Adolescent
Socioemotional Development
• Ethnic Identity
– attachment to ones minority group
– attachment to larger culture
– biculturalism – identifying in some ways with their
ethnic minority group and in other ways with the
majority culture (more positive outcomes)
– combines with identity relating to sexual orientation
and gender roles
• Influence of Parents and Peers
– parent as manager/counselor/monitor
– balance involvement and allowing to explore
– peer relations peak in importance
A SHORT Time to Ponder
• Do your peers have a primarily positive or
negative impact on your life? How so? In what
ways?
• Are your friends delinquents? Are you the
delinquent? (Sometimes this is the case… )
What is/would be the impact of this?
Adult Development and Aging
• Jeffrey Arnett’s Emerging Adulthood
– extended adolescence
– traditional-age college and after (18-25)
– “trying on” adult roles
– five key features
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identity exploration
instability
self-focus (few social obligations)
feeling “in between”
age of possibilities – optimistic, guide life in + direction
Physical Changes in Adulthood
• Early Adulthood (20s, 30s)
– most reach the peak of physical development
– ‘old-man-strength’
• Middle Adulthood (40s, 50s)
– most lose height, many gain weight
– menopause for women (late 40s or early 50s) – dramatic
decline in the productions of estrogen
• hot flashes – sudden, brief flushing of the skin and a feeling of
elevated body temperatures
• nausea, fatigue, rapid heartbeat
• Late Adulthood
– accumulated wear and tear
– less ability to repair and regenerate
Okinawa, Japan
• centenarians – individuals who live to 100 years
or beyond
– diet (grains, fish, vegetables)
– lifestyle (easygoing, low-stress)
– community (aged included in community)
– activity (many continue to work… retirement kills, yo)
– spirituality (sense of purpose)
Biological Theories of Aging
• Cellular-Clock Theory (Leonard Hayflick, 1977)
– maximum # of cell divisions possible – maximum of
about 100
– predicts human life span of about 120 years
– shortening telomeres
• Free-Radical Theory
– free-radicals – unstable oxygen molecules
– cause DNA and cell damage
• Hormonal Stress Theory
– stress hormones linger longer
– lowers resistance to stress
– increases likelihood of disease
The Aging Brain
• some new brain cells grow in hippocampus
and olfactory bulb
• surviving/healthy neurons take up slack for
their deceased/disabled neighbors
• reduced lateralization of brain function: both
hemispheres used more equally
– lateralization – the specialization of function in
one hemisphere of the brain or the other
– reduction in lateralization = compensatory role
The Brains of the Mankato Nuns
Fig. 9.13, p. 306
• stimulating mental activities increase dendritic
branching  slows the effects of age
• Early Adulthood
– idealism gives way to realistic pragmatism
– reflection on worldview
– intellectual skills peak – realistic, pragmatic
• Middle Adulthood
– crystallized intelligence (vocabulary) peaks
– fluid intelligence (inductive reasoning)
peaks
– numerical ability & perceptual speed
decline
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Cognitive
Development
Late Adulthood
– speed of processing generally declines
in
– memory retrieval skills decline
– wisdom (expert knowledge about the
practical aspects of life) increases in someAdulthood
individuals
– strategy training and physical activity can
improve cognitive function
Cognitive
Development
Socioemotional
Development
in Adulthood
• Erikson’s Theory
– Last Four Stages
• identity versus role confusion
(adolescence)
• intimacy versus isolation
• generativity versus stagnation
• integrity versus despair
Marriage
• Erikson’s Stage 6: intimacy v. isolation
• women and men are marrying later
• John Gottman’s principles for successful
marriages
– nurturing fondness and admiration
– turning toward each other as friends
– giving up some power
– solving conflicts together
Parenting
• Erikson’s Stage 7: generativity v. stagnation
• wellness through contribution to next
generation
• contribution through rearing children
• constructive engagement with children
correlated with marital satisfaction, life
satisfaction, career success
Winding Down
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Erikson’s Stage 8: integrity v. despair
wellness through reminiscence
seeking meaning through life review
confronting own pending death
importance of meaning: past and present!
more selective about social network
consider Bucket List
wasted life  fear death
Old, Cranky, and Happy 
• Laura Carstensen
– socioemotional selectivity theory – addresses the
narrowing of social contacts and the increase in
positive emotion that occur with age
• living in the PRESENT (less worried about the
future) – true for people who have limited
time
– engagement in present life can be a vital source of
meaning
Human Development:
Health and Wellness
• Development during adulthood marked by
– physical and psychological decline
– conscious awareness of aging
• Coping with life’s difficulties
– assimilation and accommodation (Piaget)
– difficulties provide opportunities for change—to
develop a rich and complex view of self and world
• Victor Frankl – Life Themes
– the uniqueness of each person and the finiteness of
life
Chapter Summary
• Explain how psychologists think about
development.
• Describe children’s development from prenatal
stages to adolescence.
• Identify the most important changes that occur in
adolescence.
• Discuss adult development and the positive
dimensions of aging.
• Discuss important factors in successful adult
psychological development.
Chapter Summary
• Development occurs across the lifespan and is
influenced by both
– nature – biological inheritance
– nurture – environmental experience
• Physical Development
– childhood
– adolescence
– adulthood
Chapter Summary
• Cognitive Development
– childhood
– adolescence
– adulthood
• Socioemotional Development
– childhood
– adolescence
– adulthood
Chapter Summary
• Piaget: Cognitive Development
– schemas, assimilation, and accommodation
– sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete
operational, and formal operational stages
• Kohlberg: Moral Development
– preconventional, conventional, and
postconventional morality
Chapter Summary
• Erikson: Psychosocial Development
– emphasizes lifelong development
– eight psychosocial stages (crises) of development
• Positive Psychology and Development
– most report being happy across the life span
• Coping, Life Themes, and Development