Understanding Psychology
6th Edition
Charles G. Morris and Albert A. Maisto
PowerPoint Presentation by
H. Lynn Bradman
Metropolitan Community College
©Prentice Hall 2003
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Chapter 9
Life-Span Development
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Enduring Issues and Methods
in Developmental Psychology
• What are some of the limitations of the
methods used to study development?
• Cross-sectional studies involve studying
different age groups of people
• Longitudinal studies test the same group of
individuals at different times in their lives.
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Research Methodologies
• Cross-sectional:
– Examining groups of subjects who are of different
ages.
• Longitudinal:
– Examining the same group of subjects two or
more times as they age.
• Biographical:
– Studying developmental changes by
reconstructing subjects’ past through interviews
and investigating the effects of past events on
current behaviors.
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Cross-Sectional Studies
• Advantages
– Inexpensive
– Relatively quick to complete
– No high attrition rate
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Cross-Sectional Studies
• Disadvantages
– Different age groups may be dissimilar
– Age and maturity may not be equivalent
– Confounds cohort and age differences
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Longitudinal Studies
• Advantages
– Detailed information about subjects
– Provides great detail of developmental changes
– Follows same cohort groups
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Longitudinal Studies
• Disadvantages
– Expensive and time consuming
– Potential for high attrition rates
– May confound age differences & differences in
assessment tools
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Biographical Studies
• Advantages:
– Rich detail about one individual’s life
– Allows for in-depth study of one individual
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Biographical Studies
• Disadvantages
– Individual’s recall is often untrustworthy
– Can be very time consuming and expensive
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Prenatal Development
• The period of development from conception
to birth.
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Prenatal Development
• Prenatal development:
– Development from conception to birth.
• Embryo:
– 2 weeks after conception to 3 months.
• Fetus:
– 3 months after conception to birth.
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Importance of the Placenta
• During prenatal development teratogens can
pass through the placenta and cause
irreparable harm to the embryo or fetus.
• This harm is greatest if the drug or other
substance is introduced just at the time when
some major developmental process is taking
place.
• If the same substance is introduced outside
this critical period, little or even no harm may
result.
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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
• Alcohol is a drug most commonly abused by
pregnant women.
• Heavy alcohol consumption by the mother
during pregnancy is characterized by facial
deformities, heart defects, stunted growth,
and cognitive impairments.
• Smaller amounts of alcohol may also cause
impairments.
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The Newborn
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Reflexes
• Rooting reflex:
– A baby turns its head toward something touching
its cheek and gropes around with its mouth.
• Sucking reflex:
– Sucking on any object placed in a baby’s mouth.
• Swallowing reflex:
– Enables the baby to swallow liquids without
choking.
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Reflexes
• Grasping reflex:
– Closing their fists on anything placed in their
hands.
• Stepping reflex:
– The light stepping motions made by babies if they
are held upright with their feet just touching a
surface.
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Temperament
• The physical and emotional characteristics of
the newborn child and young infant.
• Babies are born with individual differences in
personality called temperament differences.
• Often a baby's temperament remains quite
stable over time due to a combination of
genetic and environmental influences.
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Temperament
• Stability in temperament is not inevitable;
changes in temperament can also take place.
• Your own temperament may be both similar
to and different from the temperament you
displayed as a newborn.
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Three Types of
Temperaments
• Easy:
– Good-natured and adaptable, easy to care for and
please
• Difficult:
– Moody and intense, reacting to new people and
new situations negatively and strongly
• Slow-to-warm-up:
– Relatively inactive and slow to respond to new
things, and when they do react, their reactions are
mild
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Perceptual Abilities
• All of a baby's senses are functioning at birth:
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Sight
Hearing
Taste
Smell
Touch
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Vision
• A baby’s least developed sense is probably
vision, which takes 6 to 8 months to become
as good as the average college student's.
• Infants prefer: a novel picture or pattern with
clear contrasts and their own mother rather
than a stranger.
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Depth Perception
• Crawling babies will not cross over onto the
deep side during the visual cliff experiments.
• Babies too young to crawl:
– No anxiety, but do demonstrate depth perception
• 2-4 months old:
– Begin to perceive patterns, objects, and depth
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Other Senses
• Although it is hard to tell exactly what a
baby's sensory world is like, newborns seem
particularly adept at discriminating speech
sounds;
• This suggests that their hearing is quite good.
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Other Senses
• Infants have likes and dislikes with regard to
smells.
• Infants like sweet flavors, a preference which
persists through childhood.
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Infancy and Childhood
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Physical Growth
• During the first dozen years of life a helpless
infant becomes a competent older child.
• This transformation encompasses many
important kinds of changes, including
physical, motor, cognitive, and social
developments.
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Physical Growth
• Growth of the body is most rapid during the
first year, with the average baby growing
approximately 10 inches and gaining about
15 pounds.
• It then slows down considerably until early
adolescence.
• When growth does occur, it happens
suddenly, almost overnight, rather than
through small, steady changes.
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Motor Development
• Babies tend to reach the major milestones in
early motor development at broadly similar
ages, give or take a few months.
• The average ages are called developmental
norms.
• Maturation, the biological process that lead to
developmental changes, also is shaped by
experiences with the environment.
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Developmental Trends
• Cephalocaudal:
– Development occurs in areas near the head
(cephalo) first and areas farther from the head
develop later (caudal means tail).
• Proximodistal:
– Development occurs near the center of the body
(proximal) first and near the extremities (distal)
later.
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Developmental Trends
• Gross to specific development:
– Children tend to gain control of gross (large
muscle) movement before they gain control of
specific (or fine motor control) movement.
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Cognitive Development
• According to the Swiss psychologist Jean
Piaget, children undergo qualitative changes
in thinking as they grow older.
• Piaget depicted these changes as a series of
stages.
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Cognitive Development
(Piaget)
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•
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Sensory-motor stage (birth-2)
Preoperational stage (2-7)
Concrete operational (7-11)
Formal operational (11-15)
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Sensory-Motor Stage
• Object permanence:
– The concept that things continue to exist even
when they are out of sight.
• Mental representations:
– Mental images or symbols (such as words) used to
think about or remember an object, a person, or
an event.
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Preoperational Stage
• A child becomes able to use mental
representations and language to describe,
remember, and reason about the world.
• Egocentric:
– Unable to see things from another person’s point
of view.
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Concrete-Operational Stage
• A child can attend to more than one thing at
a time and understand someone else’s point
of view, though thinking is limited to concrete
matters.
• A child can understand conservation.
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Principles of Conservation
• The concept that basic amounts remain
constant despite superficial changes in
appearances.
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Formal-Operational Stage
• Teenagers acquire the ability to think
abstractly and test ideas mentally using logic.
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Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
• Piaget underestimated the cognitive ability of
infants.
• Cognitive milestones are reached sooner than
Piaget believed.
• Piaget did not take the role of social
interaction into account.
• The stage theory does not address human
diversity.
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Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development
• Preconventional:
– Interpreting behavior in terms of its concrete
consequences.
• Conventional:
– Interpreting behavior in terms of social and
societal approval.
• Postconventional:
– Emphasis on abstract principles, for example
justice, liberty, and equality.
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Criticisms of Kohlberg’s
Theory
• Many people never progress beyond the
conventional level.
• The theory does not take into account
cultural differences in morals.
• Carol Gilligan has pointed out that there may
be a gender bias in the theory.
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Language Development
• Some psychologists believe that childhood is
a critical period for acquiring language.
• If so, this would explain why learning a
second language is also easier for children
than for adults.
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Language Development
• Cooing (around 2 months):
– Vowel-like utterances
• Babbling (3-4 months):
– Meaningless sounds that are the building blocks
for later language development.
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Language Development
• Intonation (4-6 months):
– The changing of pitch that adults use to
distinguish questions from statements.
• Holophrases (12-20 months):
– One word sentences.
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Theories of Language
Development
• B. F. Skinner:
– Language develops as a result of reinforcement by
the environment.
• Language is a learned behavior like any other
human behavior.
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Theories of Language
Development
• Noam Chomsky:
– Humans have an innate ability to acquire
language.
• We are born with a language acquisition
device, an innate, internal mechanism for
processing speech.
• This device allows children to understand the
basic rules of grammar.
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Social Development
• Developing a sense of independence is just
one of the tasks that children face in their
social development.
• During the toddler period, a growing
awareness of being a separate person makes
developing some autonomy from parents an
important issue.
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Imprinting
• A form of primitive bonding seen in some
species of animals.
• The newborn animal has a tendency to follow
the first moving thing it sees after it is born
or hatched.
• Human infants do not imprint on the first
moving objects they see, but they do form
attachment.
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Social Development
• Attachment:
– The emotional bond that develops in the first year
of life that makes human babies cling to their
caregivers for safety and comfort.
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Parent-Child Relationships
• Parents can encourage independence in their
children by allowing them to make choices
and do things on their own within a
framework of reasonable and consistently
enforced limits.
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Parent-Child Relationships
• Other major social issues during the
childhood years include:
– Forming a secure attachment toward and trust in
other people (infancy)
– Learning to take initiative in tackling new tasks
(the preschool years)
– Mastering some of the many skills that will be
needed in adulthood (middle and later childhood).
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Parent-Child Relationships
• Socialization:
– Socialization, the process by which children learn
their cultures' behaviors and attitudes is an
important task of childhood.
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Play As Social Development
• Solitary play:
– A child engaged in some activity alone; The
earliest form of play.
• Parallel play:
– Two children playing side by side at the same
activities, paying little or no attention to each
other; The earliest form of social interaction
between toddlers.
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Play As Social Development
• Cooperative play:
– Two or more children engaged in play that
requires interaction.
• Peer group:
– A network of same-aged friends and
acquaintances who give one another emotional
and social support.
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Sex Role Development
• Gender identity (age 3):
– The knowledge that one is male or female.
• Gender constancy (age 4 or 5):
– The realization that gender cannot be changed.
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Sex Role Development
• Gender-role awareness:
– Knowledge of what behavior is appropriate for
each gender.
• Gender stereotypes:
– General beliefs about characteristics that men and
women possess.
• Sex-typed behavior:
– Socially prescribed ways of behaving that differ for
boys and girls.
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What Do You Think?
• Does television viewing have a harmful effect
on children?
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Adolescence
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Physical Changes in
Adolescence
• Rapid growth and sexual maturation are just
part of the transformation that occurs during
this period.
• The child turns into an adult, not only
physically but also cognitively, socially, and
personally.
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Growth Spurt
• A rapid increase in height and weight that
occurs during adolescence.
• The growth spurt for girls typically occurs
around age 10.5.
• The growth spurt for boys typically occurs
around age 12.5.
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Sexual Development of
Females
• The first sign of puberty is the growth spurt.
• The breasts begin to develop and pubic hair
begins to appear.
• Menarche (the first menstrual period) occurs
a year after the development of the breasts
(between 12.5 and 13 years old).
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Sexual Development of Males
• The initial sign of puberty is the growth of the
testes (around 11.5 years old).
• During the growth spurt (around age 12.5)
enlargement of the penis occurs.
• Development of pubic hair.
• Development of facial hair.
• The first ejaculation (around age 13.5).
• The deepening of the voice is one of the last
changes.
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Early Versus Late
Development
• Early development for boys has positive
impact:
– They are better in sports and receive greater
respect from their peers.
• Early development has both positive and
negative effects for girls:
– Early developing girls may be admired by other
girls, but may be treated as a sex object by boys.
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Cognitive Changes
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Cognitive Distortions in
Adolescence
• Imaginary audience:
– The deluded belief of adolescents that they are
constantly being observed by others.
• Personal fable:
– The deluded belief of adolescents that they are
unique, very important, and invulnerable.
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Forming an Identity
• Identity formation:
– The development of a stable sense of self,
necessary to make the transition from dependence
on others to dependence on oneself.
• Identity crisis:
– A period of intense self-examination and decision
making; Part of the process of identity formation.
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Possible Outcomes of an
Identity Crisis
• Identity achievement:
– Successful resolution of identity crisis
• Identity foreclosure:
– Chosen an identity that pleases others
• Moratorium:
– Still exploring various roles, but have not chosen
one yet
• Identity diffusion:
– Avoid considering role options in any conscious
manner
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Some Problems of
Adolescence
• Declines in self-esteem may result from the
physical, social, or emotional changes
• In addition, teenagers have to cope with the
demands of their new sexuality, the potential
for early pregnancy, and the threat of
violence in their peer groups.
• Depression and suicide rates for teens are up
from past decades.
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Risk Factors of Teen Suicide
• Being female
• Thinking about suicide
• Having a mental disorder, for example
depression
• Having a poorly educated father who is
absent from the home
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Adulthood
• Reaching developmental milestones in
adulthood is much less predictable than in
earlier years.
• There are certain experiences and changes
that take place sooner or later in nearly
everyone's life and certain needs that nearly
every adult tries to fulfill.
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Lifestyle Options in Adulthood
• Marriage (more than 90% of Americans
eventually marry)
• Cohabitation
• Gay or lesbian relationship
• Remaining single
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Adjustments to Parenthood
• Parents may have little time or energy for
each other.
• Parents may experience conflict between their
careers and home responsibilities.
• Marital satisfaction tends to decline after the
arrival of the first child.
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Possible Effects of Divorce on
Children
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Poorer school performance
Self-esteem problems
Problems with gender-role development
Emotional adjustments
Difficulty maintaining relationships
Negative attitude toward marriage
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Work
• The vast majority of adults are moderately or
highly satisfied with their jobs and would
continue to work even if they didn't need to
for financial reasons.
• Balancing the demands of job and family is
often difficult, however, especially for women,
because they tend to have most of the
responsibility for housework and childcare.
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Work
• Yet despite this stress of a 'double shift,' a job
outside the home is a positive, self-esteemboosting factor in most women's lives.
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Cognitive Changes
• An adult's thinking is more flexible and
practical than an adolescent's.
• Whereas adolescents search for the one
"correct" solution to a problem, adults realize
that there may be several "right" solutions or
none at all.
• Adults also place less faith in authorities than
adolescents do.
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Personality Changes
• Certain broad patterns of personality change
occur in adulthood.
• As people grow older, they tend to become
less self-centered and more comfortable in
interpersonal relationships.
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Personality Changes
• They also develop better coping skills and
new ways of adapting.
• By middle age many adults feel an increasing
commitment to, and responsibility for, others.
• This suggests that many adults are
successfully meeting what Erik Erikson saw as
the major challenge of middle adulthood.
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Middle Adulthood
• Midlife crisis:
– A time when adults discover they no longer feel
fulfilled in their jobs or personal lives and attempt
to make a decisive shift
– Most people do not experience a midlife crisis.
• Midlife transition:
– A process whereby adults assess the past and
formulate new goals for the future.
• Menopause:
– The time in a woman’s life when menstruation
ceases.
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Late Adulthood
• Over the past century life expectancy in
America has increased mainly because of
improved health care and nutrition.
• There is, however, a sizable gender gap, with
women living an average of 7 years longer
than men.
• There is also a sizable racial gap, with white
Americans living an average of 5 years longer
than blacks.
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Factors that Affect Physical
Well-Being
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•
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Diet
Amount of exercise
Quality of health care
Smoking or drug use
Overexposure to the sun
Attitude and interest
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Adjustments to Retirement
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Psychological adjustments
Financial adjustments
Marital (or relationship) adjustments
Social adjustments
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Sexual and Social Behavior
• Although their sexual responses may be
slowed, most continue to enjoy sex in their
sixties and seventies.
• Still, gradual social changes occur in late
adulthood.
• Older adults start to interact with fewer
people and perform fewer social roles.
• They may also become less influenced by
social rules and expectations.
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The Aging Process
• The aging mind works a little more slowly,
and certain kinds of memories are more
difficult to store and retrieve, but these
changes are generally not extensive enough
to interfere with most everyday tasks.
• Healthy older adults who engage in
intellectually stimulating activities usually
maintain a high level of mental functioning.
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Alzheimer’s Disease
• A disorder characterized by progressive losses
in memory and cognition and changes in
personality that is believed to be caused by a
deterioration of the brain’s structure and
function.
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Risk Factors for Developing
Alzheimer’s Disease
• Family history of dementia
• Having Down syndrome or Parkinson’s
disease
• Being born to a woman over the age of 40
• Suffering a head trauma
• Being heterozygous for a certain gene located
on chromosome 19
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Facing Death
• Most elderly people fear death less than
younger people do.
• What they do fear are the pain, indignity,
depersonalization, and loneliness associated
with a terminal illness.
• They also worry about becoming a financial
burden to their families.
• The death of a spouse may be the most
severe challenge the elderly face.
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Kübler-Ross’s Stages of Dying
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Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
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