Christopher Gade
Office: 1030A
Office hours: MW 4:30-5:30
Email: gadecj@gmail.com
Class MW 1:30-4:30 Room 2240

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What do developmental psychologists study?
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Genetics
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Development and
Change
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Cognitive
Personality and
Emotion
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Physical

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Why do developmental psychologists study genetics?
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Attempt to determine heritability
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Heritability: an estimate of the variance within a population that is due to heredity.
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Note: This a chance for us to revisit the nature versus nurture issue.
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Attempt to identify specific genes and genotypes
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Chromosomes – 23 pairs of strands containing hereditary material that are located in our cells.
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Genes – sections of chromosomes that control several chemical reactions that direct development.

How else do developmental psychologists study heritability?
- Sibling studies
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Identical (monozygotic) and fraternal (dizygotic) twins
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Siblings (similar to fraternal twins)
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Adopted children
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Twins reared together compared to twins reared apart
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Minnesota Twin Registry (Thomas Bouchard)
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Sweeden Twin Research

Jim Lewis and
Divorced (Linda)
Remarried (Betty)
Middle Class
Romantic/affectionate
Son “James Alan”
Dog “Toy”
Woodshop
Stock car racing
Drinking Miller Lite
Chain Smoker
Chewed nails to the nub
Migraines
Jim Springer
Divorced (Linda)
Remarried (Betty)
Middle Class
Romantic/affectionate
Son “James Alan”
Dog “Toy”
Woodshop
Stock car racing
Drinking Miller Lite
Chain Smoker
Chewed nails to the nub
Migraines

Do these twin studies tell us everything we need to know about genetic influence?
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The influence of genetics on behavior in society
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The influence of experience on behavior in society
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The influence of genetics and experience on society’s reaction to the individual
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The influence of society’s reactions on behavior.
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The circular pattern that goes on, and on, and on…

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Fertilized Egg (sperm and the egg)
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1 cell (multiplies a lot)
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Zygote (0-9 days)
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1 week – over 100 cells
(approximately have been reproduced.
10 days – the zygote attaches itself to the wall of the mother’s uterus.

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Physical Development before Birth
(cont.)
Embryo (2 weeks)
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Little to no movement
Very little recognizable human shape
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6 weeks – first movement
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Fetus (8-9 weeks)
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Human form
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Specialized body parts
A TAIL!
Much more movement

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28 weeks – peak of neuron concentration
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Neurons are multiplying at a rate of ¼ million neurons per minute for a short period of time during development.
33 weeks – first conclusive recognition of mother’s voice
36 weeks – can turn head and eyes in response to sounds
6 months (3 rd trimester) – capable of surviving outside of the womb (probable, but not certain)

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Little to no control over most muscles
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Horrible visual abilities (experience and development)
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23 million neurons in the brain / nervous system
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Very few neural connections
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Few reflexes
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Rooting
Sucking
Grasping
Babinski
Stepping

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We learned about the relationship between genetics and developmental psychology.
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We learned about the terminology and physical development of children before birth.

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In the next two sections, we’ll discuss the cognitive and social development of individuals after they are born.
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Our main focus for the next section will be on Jean Piaget and his theories about the cognitive development of children.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
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While earning his education, Piaget worked under Carl Jung, and did work with Alfred Binet in his administration of intelligence tests.
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Became interested in the cognitive development of children.
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Began observing the development of his children.
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From these observations, Piaget was able to establish his own terminology and theories of how
“normal” children develop cognitively.

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Piaget’s Theories of Intelligence
Schemas – a concept, or framework, that organizes and interprets information.
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Equilibrium – a cognitive state of mind in children where there is harmony between information presented to a child and their present schemas.
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Disequilibrium – a cognitive state of mind in children where new information is not in harmony with their current schemas.
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Assimilation – interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schema.
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Accommodation – adapting one’s current schemas to incorporate new information.

Doggy
Doggy???

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
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Sensorimotor stage (birth to almost
2 years of age)
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Preoperational stage (just before 2 years to 7 years of age)
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Concrete operational stage (about 7 to 11 years of age)
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Formal operational stage (11 years on)

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Experience the world through the senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing, and grasping).
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Object permanence
11:50-14:00
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Sense of self
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Stranger anxiety

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Representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning.
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Distinguishing appearance from reality
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Egocentrism
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Symbolism
14:00-18:15
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Language development

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Understanding analogies and performing arithmetical operations.
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Conservation
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Mathematical transformations

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Abstract reasoning
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Moral reasoning begins to develop
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Note: there’s a large amount of skepticism as to whether or not this stage actually exists.

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If everyone in this class studies hard, everyone in this class will earn an A.
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Everyone in this class studied hard.
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John and his sister Sally both want to go home from school, but they only have one bike. This means that one of them will get to ride the bike home, while the other will have to walk.
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John rode his bike home.
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Tommy can run faster than Jenny. Jenny can run faster than Mark. Mark can run faster than Beth.
Who can run faster, Tommy or Beth?

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We learned about Jean Piaget and his theories of development.
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We learned about the different stages of development drawn out by Piaget.
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We had our first introduction to theories about cognitive development.

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Other theories of cognitive development.
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Theories of moral development.
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More terminology and ideas associated with development.

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Genetics
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Piaget’s theories of cognitive development

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Vygotsky’s theories of cognitive development
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Kohlberg’s theories of moral development
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Erikson’s theories of identity development

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Children go through different, set stages of development as they progress toward adulthood.
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These stages are distinct, age specific, and cannot be sped up through adult help.

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Researched the ideas of cognitive development that were described by
Jean Piaget.
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Agreed with the idea that a developmental process in cognitive skills does take place.
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Argued against the contention that this cognitive development is set, and cannot be accelerated.

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Contended that cognitive development occurs through gradual and continual growth.
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Believed that instead of being in different developmental stages, kids are in different
“zones of proximal development”.
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Proposed that through a method of instruction he termed as “scaffolding”, a child could learn cognitive concepts more quickly.

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)
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Worked under the tutelage of Jean
Piaget.
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Chose to examine development from a moral perspective.
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Argued that similar to cognitive development, children also go through stages of moral development throughout their lives.
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Contended that children progress through these stages in a set order, but that people did not necessarily advance through all of these stages in their life.

The Story Of Heinz
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In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid 2000 for the radium and charged $20,000 for a small dose of the drug.
The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 10,000 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 the husband have done that? Why, or why not?

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Cultural influence
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Different forms of moral development
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Pre-Conventional - self
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Conventional - others
Post-Conventional - combination
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Gender differences in moral orientation
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Carol Gilligan
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The difference between behavior and moral responses

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Born in Germany. Abandoned by his biological father, and adopted by his Jewish step-father.
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Was an outcast in both the Jewish community
(for his Nordic appearance), and at school (for being Jewish).
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As a result of this teasing, he became interested in the development of a sense of self identity that children go through.

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Worked under Sigmund Freud, and his daughter
Anna Freud.
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Examined how a child’s sense of self identity develops throughout the life-span.
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Agreed with many of Freud’s theories about development and childhood dilemmas, but he did have a few VERY important ideas that differed from
Freud’s.
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Believed that cultures influenced the different dilemmas and developmental phases that children experience.
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Concluded that despite these differences across cultures, children progress a series of 8 (instead of 6) phases of development.

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We concluded our examination of different theorists that study development in children.
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We learned about Vygotsky’s cognitive development theory
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We learned about Kohlberg’s moral development theory
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We learned about Erikson’s self identity developmental theory