Developmental
Psychology
Developmental Psychology
• Complete the Physical Growth
and Development “Quiz” 
Developmental Psychology
• Concerned with changes in
physical & psychological
functioning from conception
across a life span
• Task/Goal of Devel. Psychologiststo 1) document
2) explain development
Documenting Development
• Normative
investigationsresearch designed to
describe
characteristics of a
specific age or
developmental stage
Documenting Development
- Investigations determine
developmental landmarks or “norms”
- Ex. Age when talking, walking begins
- Standards allow psychologists to make
distinctions between chronological
and developmental age (age when
most children show a particular level
of development)
Documenting Development
• Researchers use 2 different research
methods:
1. Longitudinal- same participants
observed repeatedly, over many years
2. Cross-sectional- groups of
participants of different ages are
observed & compared at the same
time
Explaining Development
• Nature vs. Nurture controversy
• Nature- Rousseau; what child brings
into the world (heredity) shapes
their development
• Nurture- Locke; born with a blank
slate (tabula rasa), credits human
development to experience
Explaining Development
• “Victor” aka “Wild Child”
• Raised by animals
• Itard tried to civilize/educate him
• Progress was made for 5 years
• Case shows vital role of early social
contact in regards to communication
and mental growth
Explaining Development
• Research supports:
- Heredity provides
potential; experience
determines way in
which potential will be
fulfilled
Physical Development
Physical Development
• Bodily changes, maturation, & growth
that occurs in an organism
1. Prenatal/Childhood Development:
- zygote- sperm fertilizes the egg
- 46 chromosomes ( ½ mother, ½ father
- 3rd wk- 1st sign of heartbeat
- 8th wk- called a “fetus”
th
- 16 wk- mother can feel mov’t
Physical Development
- brain development- new neurons grow
quickly
- branching process of axons/dendrites
happens after birth
- first months of pregnancy
environmental factors can affect devel.
of organs/structures
- Ex. Disease, drinking, drugs, smoking
Physical Development
- Hearing: prewired for survivalcan hear before birth 
recognize mother’s voice, but not
father’s
Physical Development
- Vision:
- less developed than adultsminutes after birth eyes turn in
direction of sound  better within
6 mos.
Physical Development
- prefer to look at
large objects w/
contours and whole
faces rather than parts
- no depth
perception until 4 mos.
Physical Development
- Eleanor Gibson researched
children’s response to depth
perception and heights
- she created a visual cliff
- child would cross over shallow end
but reluctant to cross deep end
- fear of deep end depends on
crawling experience
Physical Development
- Wariness of height
is not prewired, but
develops as children
experience their
world
Physical Development
- Maturation- process of growth typical
of all members of a species raised in
their usual habitat
- different for individuals
- environmental inputs
- ex Native American’s carry babies
on their backs  learn to walk later
than other children
Physical Development
2. Adolescent Development
- Growth spurt: girls- age 10
boys- age 12
- Hands and feet grow first, then
arms and legs
- Reach puberty 2-3 years after
growth spurt
Physical Development
- Sexual maturity: girls- age 11-15
boys- age 12-14
- Psychological changes:
- concern for body image
- 38% girls, 27% boys report
feeling “ugly”  can lead to
anorexia/ bulimia
Physical Development
- Over time adolescents become
more accepting of appearance
Physical Development
3. Adulthood Development
- Research shows a belief in
“use it or lose it” 
Adults may suffer less
aging effects if they
continue to exercise their
bodies and minds
Physical Development
- Vision: decreases due to
lenses becoming yellowed
and less flexible; unable to
see colors as clearly
(violets, blues, greens);
difficulty seeing at night
Physical Development
- Hearing: hearing loss is common of
those 60 yrs +, greater for men than
women, have more difficulty hearing
high frequency tones
Physical Development
- Reproductive/Sexual Functioning:
Age 40- men experience lower
viable sperm count
Age 50- women experience
menopause (stopping of ovulation)
Cognitive Development
Cognitive Development
• Jean Piaget developed theories about
how children think, reason, and solve
problems
- Believed there are 2
processes working
together to achieve
cognitive growth:
assimilation and accommodation
Cognitive Development
• Stages:
1. Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2yrs)
- sequences are improved,
combined, coordinated,
and integrated
- develops object performance child learns when object is
absent, it still exists
Cognitive Development
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 yrs)
- marked by egocentrism (unable
to take the perspective of another
person) and centration (unable to
take more than one perceptual
factor into account at the same
time)
Cognitive Development
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 yrs)
- capable of mental observations
 logical thinking
- replace physical
action with mental action
- unable to determine relationships
unless direct, physical observation
Cognitive Development
- mastery of conservation and
reversibility
4. Formal Operations Stage (11+yrs)
- understand abstract thinking
- understand there is more than one
reality
- ponder deep questions of truth,
justice, and existence
Cognitive Development
• Renée Baillargeon has challenged
Piaget’s work:
- stating children as young as 3 mos.
understand object performance
- should be less emphasis on
egocentrism  children have an
idea of what they know compared
to what others know
Cognitive Development
• Lev Vygotsky argues that children
develop through internalization 
absorb knowledge from their social
context
- explains that children’s cognition
develops to perform culturally
valued tasks (like apprenticeships)
Cognitive Development
• Unlike Piaget…who
focused on maturation
process within the child,
not how the environment
impacts the child
Acquiring Language
Acquiring Language
• Most researchers believe the ability
to learn language is biologically
based & we have an innate language
capacity
• Start with
Perceiving Speech…
Acquiring Language
1. Perceiving Speech:
- infants begin to learn phonemes
(45 phonemes in English)
- researchers found that you have
innate ability to hear sound
contrast in any language up to 8
mos.
Acquiring Language
- lose the ability to perceive contrast
in the languages you are NOT
acquiring
Acquiring Language
- Child directed speech (exaggerated
& high pitched) helps keep infant
interested in language & can create
an emotional bond
- Children at 4 ½ mos. Are beginning
to know their own name
Acquiring Language
2. Learning Word Meanings
- 18 mos. vocabulary takes off
Acquiring Language
3. Acquiring Grammar
- Children must learn grammar
structure
- Noam Chomsky: believes that children
are born with mental structures that
facilitate comprehension &
production of language
Acquiring Language
- Ex. – children who are deaf, but not
taught ASL, seem to have grammar
structure
- Dan Slobin believes that children have
language-making-capacity  innate
guidelines/operating principles that
children use in acquiring language
Acquiring Language
- Often children when learning
language use overregularization 
grammatical error in which language
rules are used too widely
- Ex. “ed” added to all words“breaked”; “s” added to all words“foots”
Social
Development
Social Development
• The ways in which individuals’
social interactions and expectations
change across the life span
Social Development
• Major psychologist, Erik Erikson
and his psychological stages
- need to resolve conflicts to
move into next stage
- review chart…
Social Development
1. Social Development in Childhood:
- socialization- lifelong process
whereby an individual’s behavioral
patterns, values, standards, skills,
attitudes, and motives are shaped
to conform to those regarded as
desirable in a particular society
Social Development
- Family is most important in shaping
how people relate to each other
- Begins with attachment (emotional
relationship between a child &
caregiver), basically for survival (at
first)
Social Development
- Separation anxiety- distress when
taken away from a person they are
attached to; peaks 14-18 mos.
- Babies form attachments to
individuals who consistently &
appropriately respond to their
signals (smiling, crying)
Social Development
- Mary Ainsworth:
Strange-Situation Test:
1. Securely Attached- distress when
parent leaves, seek contact upon
parent’s return
2. Insecurely Attached-Avoidant- child
is aloof, avoids parent upon their return
Social Development
3. Insecurely AttachedAmbivalent/Resistant- child is
upset and anxious when parent
leaves, shows anger and resistance
to parent upon their return, but
desire comfort
Social Development
4. Disorganized-disorientedchild is confused about whether
they should avoid or approach
the parent upon return
Social Development
- Parenting Style- manner in which
parents raise children
*authoritative style is the best:
(demand children to conform to
appropriate rules of behavior, but
keep channels of communication
open)
Social Development
Demandingness
Responsiveness
Responsive Unresponsive
Demanding
Authoritative Authoritarian
Undemanding Indulgent
Neglectful
Social Development
- Harry Harlow: discovered aspect of
contact comfort- comfort derived
from infants physical contact with
caregiver (why babies become
“attached”)
- consequences for humans if
deprived of contact/comfort
(physical and psychological issues)
Social Development
2. Social Development in Adolescence:
- G. Stanley Hall: “storm & stress”- to
be in turmoil is normal (older theory)
- Reality = most adolescence are not
experiencing major turmoil; but, if
they do, it would be during this
period; increase in parent/child
conflict
Social Development
- Working on Identity:
A. 1st time peers
compete with family to
influence attitude &
behavior (why friends
are very important!), but
this increases anxiety of
being rejected
Social Development
B. Parents and children must deal
with transition in relationship;
parents give up authority & allow
child autonomy; important to have
social support in environment;
having future goals is important to
working on identity
Social Development
3. Social Development in Adulthood:
A. Tasks- intimacy (sexual,
emotional & moral commitment to
another person) & generativity
(concern for the next generation)
*Erikson
Social Development
- birth of a child can pose
a threat to a couple
- studies show couples
happier later in life;
women seem to be more
affected by an unhappy
marriage (b/c they are
trying to fix it)
Social Development
- selective social
interaction theoryas people age, they
become more
selective in choosing
social partners who
satisfy their
emotional needs
Social Development
- Generativity: a commitment beyond
yourself to family, work, society, or
future generations
- crucial step in 30s & 40s; if not
apparent  midlife crisis ?
- sometimes see ageismdiscrimination/prejudice against older
people
Moral
Development
Moral Developments
• Moral Dilemmas!
Moral Development
• A system of beliefs, values, and the
underlying judgments about the
rightness and wrongness of human
acts
Moral Development
• Lawrence Kohlberg- studied
moral reasoning (not behavior!)
and came up with theories of
moral development; shaped by
Piaget – ties moral devel. to cog.
devel.
Moral Development
- Lowest level of moral reasoning is
based on self-interest
- Higher levels of moral reasoning
based on social good, regardless
of personal gain
- 4 Principles of Kohlberg’s Model:
Moral Development
1. Individual can only be in one stage
at a given time
2. Everyone goes through stages in
this order
3. Each stage is more complex than
preceding stage
4. Same stages occur in every culture
Moral Development
• Almost everyone reaches stage 3 by
age 13
• Many people don’t pass stage 5
• Later stages are subjective- don’t
seem to be more complex and are
not apparent in every culture
Moral Development
- Critics take issue with Kohlberg’s
claims of universality:
- Carol Gilligan: his work only
focused on boys, overlooking
potential differences between
habitual moral judgments of men
& women
Moral Development
- Gilligan feels women’s moral devel.
is based on “caring for others” &
progresses to self-realization; basis
for men is “standard of justice”
- Gilligan’s theory broadened
Kohlberg’s
Moral Development
- However,
research suggests
she is incorrect to
identify unique
styles of moral
reasoning for men
& women
Moral Development
CONCLUSION:
1. Adult reasoning about moral
dilemmas is a mix between
considerations of caring and
justice
2. Culture can play a role in
determining what is moral or not
Gender
Development
Gender Development
• Gender Group Discussion…
Gender Development
• Sex differences- biologically based
characteristics that distinguish males and
females
– anatomy, hormones, & reproductive
functions
– hormones might affect some behavior
more in boys who are more physically
active and aggressive than girls
Gender Development
• Gender- psychological, learned, sexrelated behaviors & attitudes (ideas
about masculinity & femininity)
• Gender Identity- an individual’s
sense of maleness or femaleness (an
awareness & acceptance) 10-14
mos.
Gender Development
• Gender Rolespatterns of behavior
regarded as
appropriate for males
& females in society;
provide definitions for
masculinity &
femininity
Gender Development
- Acquisition of Gender Roles:
- often begins at birth
- parents describe & dress them
differently
- encourage them to play with
“sex-appropriate” toys
Gender Development
• Eleanor Maccoby: Young children are
segregationists themselves
• Gender Differences- disparities
between the sexes in typical behavior
or average ability
Gender Development
• Why are there gender differences?
1. evolution
2. exposure to hormones
prenatally
3. structural differences in the brain
(males- more lateralization)
Gender Development
4. environment: expectations about
what is “appropriate” behavior for
males and females
- How do we learn these behaviors?
operant conditioning, observational
learning, self-socialization,
socialization in society (family, school,
media)
Gender Development
• Research has pointed out that
many well-adjusted people are
more androgynous in their
gender roles