Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology
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Developmental Psychology
Developmental Psychology

• Focuses on development across life span a field
  of psychology that focuses on development across
  the life span.
• Development
• More-or-less predictable changes in behavior
  associated with increasing age
• Nature or nurture?
• Nature behavior unfolds like a plant over time
• Nurture behavior is molded by experiences

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Developmental Psychology
Nature view
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Developmental Psychology
What do they see?
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Basic Processes of Development
Developmental Psychology

• Maturation
• Biological process of systematic physical growth
• Experience plays a role in specific contexts
• McGraws study of toilet training twins
• Children change dramatically from birth to
  adulthood

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Developmental Psychology
Importance of maturational readiness in McGraws
study of toilet training twin boys
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Early Experiences and Critical Periods
Developmental Psychology

• Imprinting (Lorenz)
• Inborn tendency or instinct
• Sensitive period critical period
• Early social deprivation
• Harlows monkeys, social isolation, and
  continuing detrimental effects
• Controversy over effects on children
• Some abnormal effects may be irreversible

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Variations in Development
Developmental Psychology

• Normal for children to be variable in their
  development
• Discontinuities in development are the rule
• Parents make important decisions about raising
  children that impacts on development
• Raising deaf child
• Impact of technology and medicine

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Stage Theories of Development
Developmental Psychology

• Stages series of abrupt changes from one period
  to another
• All children must pass through in same order
• Many advocate unfolds over time
• More qualitative than quantitative (such as child
  mastering physical properties of object)
• Decentered thought allows
  conservation problem solutions

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Piagets Developmental Theory
Developmental Psychology

• Identified 4 stages of cognitive development
• Sensorimotor stage infant experiences world in
  sensory information and motor activities
• Preoperational stage children sometimes think
  illogically by adult standards
• Concrete operational stage increased abilities
• Formal operational stage use of full adult logic

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Developmental Psychology
Piagets cognitive development theory
Birth to 2 yrs Sensorimotor Uses senses and motor skills, items known by use Object permanence
2 - 7 yrs Pre-operational Symbolic thinking, language used egocentric thinking, imagination/ experience grow, child de-centers
7 - 11 yrs Concrete operational Logic applied, objective/rational interpretations conservation, numbers, ideas, classifications
11 yrs on Formal operational Thinks abstractly, hypothetical ideas ethics, politics, social/moral issues explored
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Kohlbergs Theory
Developmental Psychology

• Moral development
• Three level, six stage theory
• Premoral level child has no sense of morality
  as adults understand it
• Childs moral view based on what others think
  until highest level of development creates
  independent thinking

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Kohlbergs Theory
Developmental Psychology

• Moral development
• Gilligan critical of Kohlbergs research results
  had her own theory
• Morality as Individual Survival
• Morality as Self-Sacrifice
• Morality as Equality

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Developmental Psychology
Kohlbergs theory of moral development
Level I Preconventional moral reasoning Stage 1 might makes right Punishment/obedience orientation self-interest
Level I Preconventional moral reasoning Stage 2 look out for number one Instrumental/relativist orientation quid pro quo
Level II Conventional moral reasoning Stage 3 good girl, nice boy Proper behavior for the social approval
Level II Conventional moral reasoning Stage 4 law and order Proper behavior of the dutiful citizen, obey laws
Level III Postconventional moral reasoning Stage 5 social contract Mutual benefit to all, obey societys rules
Level III Postconventional moral reasoning Stage 6 universal ethical principles Defend right/wrong, not just majority, all life is sacred (reflective)
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Development Across the Life Span
Developmental Psychology

• Eriksons Psychosocial Theory
• Focuses on the individuals developing
  relationships with others in social world
• Eight stages - development continues over life
  span
• Crisis at each stage of development

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Developmental Psychology
Eriksons psychosocial theory
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Development Across the Life Span
Developmental Psychology

• Average ages at which changes in development take
  place portray pattern of age-related changes
• Neonatal Period
• Infancy
• Early childhood
• Middle childhood
• Adolescence
• adulthood

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Development in Infancy and Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Neonatal period
• First two weeks of life
• Marks transition from womb to independence
• Reflexively grasps anything placed in hand
• Rooting reflex

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Development in Infancy and Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Infancy
• Age 2 weeks until 2 years
• Time of rapid physical, perceptual, cognitive,
  linguistic, social, and emotional growth
• During sensorimotor stage infants stare at
  interesting visual stimuli
• Preference for human faces

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Development in Infancy and Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Infancy
• Physical development
• Cognitive development
• Object permanence
• Telegraphic speech
• Rovee-Colliers studies of memory

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Developmental Psychology
Rovee-Colliers studies tested the memory of
young infants
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Development in Infancy and Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Infancy emotional and social development
• Visual cliff and depth perception
• Attachment
• Strong attachments formed between infants and
  caregivers
• Separation anxiety
• Fear of strangers

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Developmental Psychology
Gibson and Walks visual cliff tested infant
depth perception
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Early Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Growth less explosive and rapid than during
  infancy
• Lasts 2 to 7 years of age
• Cognitive development
• Children in preoperational stage show egocentric
  thought
• Animism
• Transductive reasoning

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Early Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Emotional and social development
• Most notable changes in peer relationships and
  types of play
• Solitary play
• Parallel play
• Cooperative play

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Developmental Psychology
Early Childhood
Cooperative play
Parallel play
Solitary play
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Middle Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Lasts from 7 to 11 years of age
• Characterized by slow physical growth
• Important cognitive changes occur
• Conservation and reversibility
• Child decenters allows conservation problems to
  be solved learns some matter changes shape but
  not volume

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Middle Childhood
Developmental Psychology

• Emotional and social development
• Child enters with close ties to parents
• Peer relationships become increasingly important
• Friendships more important, last longer
• Cliques or groups formed, mostly same sex
• Terms boyfriend and girlfriend have little
  meaning at this stage

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Adolescent Development
Developmental Psychology

• Adolescence
• Physical changes of puberty
• Adolescent growth spurt
• Heightened sexual and romantic interest
• Peers become more important than parents
• Cognitively capable of abstract reasoning
• Ponders abstract issues like justice or equality
• No clear cut end to adolescence in society

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Adolescent Development
Developmental Psychology

• Physical development
• Puberty becomes production of sex hormones
• Primary sex characteristics appear
• Females menarche menstruation, ovulation
• Secondary sex characteristics appear
• Females breasts, pubic hair, wider hips
• Males testes and penis growth, facial and pubic
  hair, broadened shoulders

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Adolescence
Developmental Psychology

• Cognitive development
• Formal operations stage entered
• Ability to use abstract concepts
• Shift to stage varies among individuals some
  never reach this stage, others reach it in early
  adulthood
• Piagets classic experiment with weights

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Developmental Psychology
Piagets Balance Test - task make the weight
times the distance equal on both sides of center
7-yr-old
4-yr-old
5 kg
A
B
5 kg
5 kg
10-yr-old
14-yr-old
C
D
5 kg
10 kg
2 kg
8 kg
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Adolescence
Developmental Psychology

• Adolescent egocentrism
• Imaginary audience everyone is watching
• Personal fable belief that s/he is unique
• Hypocrisy okay for one to do it but not another
• Pseudostupidity use of oversimplified logic
• Social development
• Time of drifting or breaking away from family

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Adolescence
Developmental Psychology

• Emotional development
• G. Stanley Hall time of storm and stress
• Most adolescents are happy, well-adjusted
• Areas of problems
• Parent-child conflicts
• Mood changes - self-conscious, awkward, lonely,
  ignored
• Risky behavior - aggression, unprotected sex,
  suicide, use of substances or alcohol

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Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Young adulthood through older adulthood
• Developmental changes continue throughout
  adulthood not a single phase of life
• Taking on adult responsibilities in work and
  social relationships
• Challenges love, work, play continue changing

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Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Physical development
• Growth and strength in early adulthood, then slow
  process of decline afterwards
• Speed and endurance
• Vision and ability to see in weak lighting
• Hearing and detection of tones
• Taste intact until later in life men tend to
  lose hearing and taste earlier than women
• Decline affected by health and lifestyles

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Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Cognitive development
• Continues throughout adulthood some abilities
  improve while others decline
• Fluid intelligence peaks in 20s, declines
  therafter
• Crystallized intelligence improves until 30s
  then declines slowly afterwards
• Overall, individual rates vary depending on
  lifestyle and health

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Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Emotional and social development
• Many aspects of personality are fairly stable
  over time, and changes are predictable
• On average, adults become
• less anxious and emotional, socially outgoing,
  and creative
• People become more dependable, agreeable, and
  accepting of lifes hardships
• Gender differences lessen over time

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Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Emotional and social development
• Much disagreement about when and how changes
  occur during aging differences between stages
  of infant/child development and adult development
• Not all adults go through every stage
• Order of stages can vary for individuals
• Timing of stages not controlled by biological
  maturation

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Stages of Adult Life
Developmental Psychology

• Early adulthood
• Erikson
• Intimacy versus isolation (17 to 45 years)
• Levinson - Early adulthood has three stages
• Entry into early adulthood (17-28)
• Age 30 transition (28-33)
• Culmination of early adulthood (to age 40)
• Challenges of career, marriage, and parenthood

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Middle Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Erikson
• Generativity versus stagnation (40-65 years)
• Taking stock of what one has, who s/he is
• Some are happy, some are disappointed
• Generativity reaching out, not self-centered

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Middle Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Levinson four brief stages
• Midlife transition (early 40s)
• Entry to middle adulthood stage (45 to 50)
• Age 50 transition
• Culmination of middle adulthood
• Climactic
• Female sexual ability to reproduce declines
• Not all adult development timed by social clock
  rather than biological clock

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Later Adulthood
Developmental Psychology

• Erikson (age 65 and onward)
• Integrity versus despair
• Looks back over life as a whole satisfying
  existence or merely staying alive
• Levinson devotes little to later years
• Life expectancy dramatically increased as have
  conceptions of old age
• many have healthy years after retirement
• Second careers and activism launched

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Evaluating Stage Theories
Developmental Psychology

• Gender differences more focus on men
• Cultural differences and historical change
• Few cultural comparison studies done
• Inconsistent evidence
• Questions about idea of stage theories
• Mid-course correction, not mid-life crises
• Predicted changes do not occur at ages indicated

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Causes of Aging
Developmental Psychology

• Biological human body deteriorates
• Psychological
• Happy or unhappy aging
• Social activity and slowed intellectual decline
  or disengagement and isolation
• Maintain healthy or unhealthy lifestyle
• Optimism linked to happier, healthier, longer life

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Death and Dying The Final Stage
Developmental Psychology

• Kübler-Ross five stages
• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

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Application of Psychology Parenting
Developmental Psychology

• Parents play a key role in childrens lives
• Parenting and infant attachment
• Parenting and discipline style
• Effect in childrearing Two-way street
• Common discipline mistakes
• Lax parenting, verbosity, overreactivity, and
  reinforcement of inappropriate behavior
• Sociocultural factors in parenting
• Myth of the perfect parent
• Day care, divorce, and parenting

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Baumrind Three Parenting Styles
Style Authoritarian Permissive Authoritative
Warmth low high high
Discipline strict rare moderate
Expected Maturity high low moderate
Communication parent-child high low high
Communication child-parent low high high
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The End
Developmental Psychology
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