Chapter 12: Life-Span Development

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Chapter 12 Life-Span Development

• Amanda Moreno

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Prenatal Phase

• Approximate age is conception through birth
• Highlights include rapid physical development of
  the nervous system and the body

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Stages of the Prenatal Period

• Zygote stage
• Zygote cell formed at conception
• Lasts about 2 weeks
• Zygote divides many times, begins to form
  internal organs

• Embryo stage
• Lasts about 6 weeks
• Marked by rapid development
• Heart begins to beat, brain functions
• Major body structures begin to form
• Sexual development begins

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Sexual Development

• XX chromosomesfemale
• XY chromosomesmale
• Gonads precursor to sex organs
• Androgens sex hormones produced by testes, spur
  development of male sex organs
• Figure 12.1, page 373

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Fetal Stage

• Third and final stage
• Lasts for about seven months
• Begins with the appearance of bone tissue
• Ends with birth

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Threats to Prenatal Development

• Teratogens Substances that can cause birth
  defects, such as drugs (prescription or illegal),
  alcohol, and cigarettes
• Mother malnourishment
• Number one cause of birth defects?

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Infancy and Childhood Phases

• Infancy
• Birth to 2 years
• Motor development
• Attachment to primary caregiver

• Childhood
• 1.5 years to 12
• Logical thinking
• Abstract reasoning
• Motor skill refinement
• Peer influences

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Motor Development

• Reflexes present at birth
• Rooting
• Sucking
• Swallowing

• Patterns of motor development
• See Figure 12.2, page 375
• Maturation A relatively stable change in
  thought, behavior or physical of growth due to
  the aging process

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Perceptual Development

• Perception of Patterns
• Salapateks (1975) study, results shown on page
  376, Figure 12.3
• By 3 mos., babies prefer seeing facial patterns
  (Rosser, 1994)

• Perception of Space
• Gibson and Walk (1960) and the visual cliff
• Stereopsis depth perception gained fron each
  eyes slightly different view

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Critical Periods

• Specific timeframes for experiences to occur in
  order to have normal development
• Applies to behavioral, perceptual and cognitive
  abilities
• Stresses importance of interaction between
  organism and environment

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Cognitive Development

• The importance of the environment
• Watson and Rameys (1972) study with mobiles and
  movement, Figure 12.4, page 377
• Retardation of infants raised in unstimulating
  environments

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Jean Piagets Work

• Cognitive Structures Rules or mental
  representations used to understand the world and
  solve problems
• Schemata representations or rules for a
  specific category of behavior encompasses
  execution and context of behavior

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Piagets Basic Concepts

• Assimilation New experiences are changed to fit
  old schemata
• Accomodation Old schemata are changed by new
  experiences results in new schemata or modified
  existing ones

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Piagets 4 Periods of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor
• Birth to 2 years
• Object Permanence
• Deferred imitation
• Symbolic thinking

• Preoperational
• 2 to 6 or 7 years
• Increased symbolic thought ability
• Egocentrism
• Not yet able to solve conservation problems

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Piagets Periods (contd)

• Concrete operational
• 6 or 7 years to 11 years
• Mastery of conservation
• Understand categorization
• No abstract thinking

• Formal operational
• 11 years and up
• Abstract thinking and hypothetical thought

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Criticisms of Piaget

• Some studies show that conservation can occur
  earlier than proposed when appropriate tasks used
• Children can be less egocentric than Piaget
  thought
• Did not always define terms operationally

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Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory

• Culture plays a significant role in cognitive
  development
• Studies support this hypothesis
• Language serves as basis for cognitive
  development in remembering, problem solving, etc.
• Importance of social interactions

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Cases M-Space Model

• Mental Space (M-Space much like short-term
  memory, functions to process info from the
  environment

• Variables involved in expansion of M-Space
• Brain maturation (physical capacity)
• Practice effects
• Acquisition of central conceptual structures

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Fischers Skill Model

• Cognitive development requires skill learning
• Optimal Level of Skill Performance brains
  maximal capacity for processing information
• New skills are acquired, practiced and
  perfected--lead to increases in reasoning and
  abstract thought

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TV and Cognitive Development

• Content
• Sesame Street vs. Jerry Springer
• Commercials aimed toward kids
• Medium
• Mesmerizing effects
• Replacing reading or activity
• Attention span
• Cognitive passiveness

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Social Development

• Attachment the lasting social and emotional bond
  between the infant and the caregiver
• Interactions between infant and parent are
  crucial to attachment
• Cultural variables have a strong influence in the
  attachment behaviors

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Attachment Behaviors

• Sucking
• Cuddling
• Harlows (1974) monkeys and surrogate mothers
• Looking
• Figure 12.8, p. 389
• Tronick et al, 1978

• Smiling
• An effective reinforcer for both baby and parent
• Crying
• Different patterns may serve different purposes
• Negative reinforcement effect

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The Nature of Attachment

• Stranger Anxiety Fearful responses exhibited in
  the presence of strangers

• Separation Anxiety Fearful responses made when
  the caregiver leaves the infant

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Ainsworths Strange Situation

• Test of attachment that exposes the infant to
  events or stimuli that can cause distress
• Secure Attachment Ideal pattern of attachment
• Resistant Attachment Tension present in
  mother-child relation
• Avoidant Attachment Infant ignores mother

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Interactions with Peers

• Harlows Monkeys--Early social contact is crucial
  to forming later relationships
• Isolation effects can be eliminated with
  therapist monkeys
• Fuhrman, Rahe and Hartup (1979) generalized these
  results to human children

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Parenting Approaches

• Authoritarian parents firm rules and punishment
  for breaking them
• Permissive parents few rules, not very many
  consequences
• Authoritative parents establish and enforce
  rules, but make allowances and explain
  consequences

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Single-Parent and Divorced Families

• Childs development--similar to children from
  traditional family if mother finishes school and
  has social support
• Younger children more negatively affected by
  divorce
• Decreased parent conflict and interaction w/both
  parents reduce adverse affects

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Development of Gender Roles

• Gender identity an individuals own sense of
  being male or female
• Gender roles cultural expectations about the
  behaviors of men and women
• Gender stereotypes beliefs about the
  differences between men and women, has a strong
  effect on ones acquisition of gender roles and
  identity

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Gender Differences

• Girls
• Develop earlier verbally
• Express and interpret emotion more effectively
• More compliant with adults and peers

• Boys
• Show stronger spatial abilities
• Show more aggression
• Are more likely to take risks
• More likely to have developmental problems

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Causes of Gender Role Differences

• Biological Causes
• Exposure to male sex hormones in the brain
• Differences in cognitive ability, reproduction
  issues may be results of evolution

• Cultural Causes
• Perceptions of boys and girls by adults and peers
• Socialization by parents

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Piagets Theory of Moral Development

• Moral Realism
• From 5 to 10 years
• Egocentrism
• Blind adherence to rules
• Can consider only the outcomes of an act, not the
  intent

• Morality of cooperation
• Begins at 10 years
• Rules are more flexible because they are social
  conventions
• Can consider the effects of acts on others as well

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Kolhbergs Theory

• Preconventional Level
• Morality of punishment and obedience
• Morality of naïve instrumental hedonism

• Conventional Level
• Morality of maintaining good relations
• Morality of maintaining social order

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Kohlberg (contd)

• Postconventional Level
• Morality of social contracts
• Morality of universal ethical principles
• Morality of cosmic orientation
• Very few people reach this level
• See Table 12.3, page 398

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Criticisms of These Theories

• Piagets idea of moral realism may extend to
  adults in certain situations
• Kohlberg and the wording of Heinzs dilemma
• Kohlbergs theory gender-biased?

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Adolescent Phase

• 13 years to about 20 years
• End of this phase is culturally influenced
• Thinking and reasoning become more adultlike
• Identity crisis
• Continued peer influences

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Physical Development in Adolescence

• Puberty The period of the maturation of the
  reproductive system, starts the transition into
  adulthood
• Gonads secrete sex hormones that cause the
  development of both primary and secondary sex
  characteristics

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Social Development

• Erik Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development
• People will encounter crises in social relations
• Resolving these conflicts results in development
• Psychosocial development never ends
• See Table 12.4, page 401

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Marcias 4 Identity Statuses
Crisis
YES
NO
Foreclosure
Identity Achieved
YES
Commitment
Moratorium
Identity Diffusion
NO
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Identity and Self-Perception

• Adolescents begin to expand their definitions of
  themselves using values or social characteristics
• Sexual behavior increases
• Friendships deepen
• Family conflicts
• Variable mood states

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The Phases of Adulthood and Old Age

• Adulthood
• 20 years to 65 years
• Love and marriage
• Career
• Stability, then decrease in physical ability

• Old Age
• 65 years until death
• Reminiscing
• Physical health deteriorates
• Preparation for death
• Death

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Cognitive Development

• Alzheimers Disease
• Occurs in 5 of the population
• Most prevalent form of dementia
• Progressive loss of memory and other mental
  functions
• Associated with lower levels of acetylcholine,
  degeneration of the hippocampus and cerebral
  cortex, esp. association cortex of frontal
  temporal lobes

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Cognitive Development (contd)

• Depression another cause of mental deterioration
• Crystallized and fluid intelligence
• Abstract reasoning capacity (fluid) declines with
  age
• Older people excel in crystallized intelligence
• Speed of responses go down

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Social Development

• Eriksons Stages in Adulthood
• Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Integrity vs. despair
• Levinsons Crises
• Early in adulthood
• Mid-Life

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Death

• Kubler-Ross 5 Phases of Coping with Death
• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

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The End