Title: Developmental Psychology
1Developmental Psychology
2Developmental Psychology
- Looks at how our behavior, thoughts, bodies,
morals, etc., change over our entire lives - From womb to tomb
- Looks at commonalities as well as differences
33 overriding issues
- 1.) Nature vs. Nurture
- 2.) Stability vs. Change
- Do our early personality traits persist through
our life? Or do we become different people as we
age? - 3.) Continuity vs. Stages
- Is development gradual and continuous (like an
elevator)? - Or, Does it proceed through distinct stages (like
a ladder)? (stage theorists)
4Research Methods for Developmental Psych
- Study people of different cohorts (ages) at one
point in time - i.e. in one year, I compare 5 year olds to 10
year olds to 15 year olds - Pros quick, efficient
- Cons effects of historical or cultural events
on one cohort but not another (confounding
variable)
- Study one cohort over several years
- i.e. study a group of five year olds for ten
years until they are 15 - Pros precisely measures development over
- time
- Cons - take a long time,
- people drop out, and research
- takes forever
5(No Transcript)
6Prenatal Development and the Newborn Baby
7Prenatal Development
- Zygote- Fertilized egg to 2 weeks
- Fewer than half survive
8Prenatal Development
- Embryo- 2 weeks to 2 months
9Prenatal Development
10(No Transcript)
11(No Transcript)
12(No Transcript)
13(No Transcript)
14Teratogens
- Harmful chemicals or environmental agents
ingested or contracted by Mother that negatively
affect the fetus - Alcohol may lead to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
babies of mothers who drink heavily during
pregnancy may have small, malformed skulls, and
IQs below the cutoff for mental retardation - Drugs can cause premature birth and all kinds
of health problems - Nicotine
- Polluting chemicals
- Bacteria or viruses (HIV)
- Rule of thumb whatever environmental agents the
Mother is exposed to, the baby will be exposed to
and it can negatively impact development
15(No Transcript)
16Motor and Sensory Development
- Babies are not born blank slates. All babies
exhibit reflexes- specific, inborn, automatic
responses to certain stimuli. - Rooting root for nipple when face is touched
- Sucking suck on whatever goes in their mouth
- Grasping grasp objects placed in hand
- Moro when startled, babies flail their limbs
out and then retract into a ball as if in a
protective mode - Babinski when foot is stroked, toes spread
- (rooting and sucking are critical to eating from
day one)
17Newborn Senses healthy babies senses are born
intact with the exception of vision
- Babies can hear before birth- immediately
recognize their mothers voice hearing is their
dominant sense - Babies have same basic preferences for smell and
taste - Babies are born almost legally blind they can
only see about 8-12 in front of their face - Vision improves to normal by about 1 year of
age
18The Visual Cliff
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vp6cqNhHrMJA
19Motor Development
- We develop through the same sequence (Though some
may be ahead of others) - Motor control develops as neurons in the brain
connect
20Sequence of Motor Development
- Roll over at about 5 months
- Crawl at about 6-7 months
- Stand around 8-9 months
- Walk at about 15 months
- Run
- 1 year walkie/talkie stage
- Kids typically take first steps and say
- first words
21Language Emergence
- 1-2 months Cooing
- 4 months Babbling
- 8-16 months First Word
- 24 months 2 and 3 word
- telegraphic speech
- 2-3 years Multi-word sentences
- 4 years Adult-like almost grammatical speech
22(No Transcript)
23Cognitive Development
- How we think about and evaluate the world
- Thinking
- Knowing
- Remembering
- Communicating
24Cognitive Development
- Jean Piaget
- Greatest influence on childrens
- cognitive development
- In France in the 1920s
- Before Piaget, people thought children
- knew less (Not differently)
- Piaget illustrated that kids think and reason
- qualitatively differently from adults
- Most of what we know about how kids think
- and learn is attributed to Piaget
25Cognitive Development
- Schemas our rules/categories/expectations for
understanding the world - Assimilate when we incorporate new information
into schemas - It fits our expectations
- Accommodate if we have to adjust our schema to
fit new information it doesnt fit so we change
the schema - We are constantly filing away new experiences
with either assimilation or accommodation. Kids
are especially busy doing this as so many of
their experiences are new.
26Piagets Stages - Sensorimotor
- Birth to 2 years
- Experiencing the world through senses and actions
- Looking, touching, grasping, mouthing
- Developmental Phenomenon
- Stranger Anxiety
- Object Permanence
27Piagets Stages - Preoperational
- 2-6 years
- Kids represent things through words and images
but lack logical reasoning - Developmental Phenomenon
- Pretend play
- Egocentrism
- Explosive language development
28Piagets Stages Concrete Operational
- Concrete Operational
- About 7-11 years old
- Thinking logically about concrete events
- Grasping concrete analogies and performing
arithmetical operations - Developmental Phenomenon
- Conservation
- Math Transformations
- (235 5-32)
29CONSERVATION
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vgnArvcWaH6I
30- Smart
- My dad gave me one dollar bill
- 'Cause I'm his smartest son,
- And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
- 'Cause two is more than one!
- And then I took the quarters
- And traded them to Lou
- For three dimes -- I guess he don't know
- That three is more than two!
- Just then, along came old blind Bates
- And just 'cause he can't see
- He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
- And four is more than three!
- And I took the nickels to Hiram
- Coombs
- Down at the seed-feed store,
- And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
- And five is more than four!
- And then I went and showed my dad,
- And he got red in the cheeks
- And closed his eyes and shook his
- head--
- Too proud of me to speak!
- - Shel Silverstein
31Piagets Stages Formal Operational
- 12 through adulthood
- Abstract reasoning i.e. if Native American
diseases had killed Europeans, how might history
have been different? - Developmental Phenomena
- Abstract thinking
- Potential for mature moral reasoning
32Criticisms of Piaget
- 1.) Most value and agree with Piagets order
(sequence) but think he underestimated kids - Argue Kids go through stages faster and earlier
that Piaget thought - He likely underestimated them due to kids lack of
language they cognitively understand some
concepts they do not have the language to explain - 2.) Others criticize the very idea of stages
argue development is more gradual and continuous - BUT Piagets contributions are invaluable.
Because of him subsequent researchers looked at
kids qualitatively differently not just as
miniature adults
33(No Transcript)
34 35Social Development
- From birth, babies are very social creatures.
- Attachment an emotional tie with another person.
- One of the most critical aspects of early
environment - relationship between parent and child
- Infants develop an intense bond with their
caregiver - Stranger Anxiety by about 8 months greet
strangers by crying - The quality of attachment has major ramifications
for a kids development
36Harry Harlow studies on attachment
- Harlow raised baby monkeys with two artificial
wire monkey mothers - Mom 1 bottle- fed monkey babies could come
here for food - Mom 2 wrapped in soft cloth babies could come
here to snuggle the sensation of physical touch
37(No Transcript)
38Harlow cont.
- When frightened, the babies preferred the mother
in soft cloth - Showed importance of physical contact in forming
attachment (holding, rocking, patting, cuddling) -
- Attachment is more than just feeding a kid
its holding, cuddling, loving
39Harlow cont . . .
- When put in strange situations, monkeys raised
w/ wire mothers became more stressed frightened
than monkeys with real mothers they often
couldnt function as normal monkeys should - i.e. - Deprivation of
- attachment has serious,
- long-term
- consequences
40Harlows Monkeys
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOrNBEhzjg8I
41Konrad Lorenz
- Familiarity is also important to attachment
- Critical Periods- optimal period shortly after
birth when certain events must take place to
facilitate proper development miss the critical
period and you miss the window of opportunity
forever - Imprinting- animals imprint/copy the 1st things
we see in critical period Lorenzs geese - http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2UIU9XH-mUI
42Mary Ainsworth
- Researched attachment by placing infants in
strange situation (parents leave for a short
period of time and return) - Noticed three types of responses
- Secure Attachment 66
- Avoidant Attachment 21
- Anxious Ambivalent Attachment 12
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vQTsewNrHUHU
- https//www.youtube.com/watch?vDH1m_ZMO7GU
43Ainsworth - Results
- Securely attached infants had consistently
responsive mothers. Long term these kids were
more confident, optimistic, trusting, competent
and had good relationships. - Insecure attachments often correlated in low
self-esteem. - i.e. Attachment MATTERS
44Baumrinds - Parenting Styles
- Authoritarian - dictator
- Strict standards with punishments for violation.
- Value obedience, not questioning.
- No explanation or discussion of rules, no
exceptions - Because I said so
- Permissive try to be kids friend
- No clear guidelines
- If rules exist, they constantly change or are not
enforced consistently. - Few demands, little punishment
- Authoritative
- Set consistent standards that are reasonable and
explained - They tell the why
- Use praise more than punishment
- Value obedience but also value kids independence
45Parenting Styles - Results
- Authoritative Parents best results
- Kids are socially capable, high self esteem,
self-reliant often perform better academically - Permissive Parents
- Kids often have emotional control problems and
dependent cant follow rules of society - Authoritarian Parents
- Kids often distrust others and may be withdrawn
form peers. - May be controlling of themselves or others
- Often make bad choices when finally on their own
46(No Transcript)
47Adolescence
- Life between childhood and adulthood (teenage
years). - Adolescence has gotten longer over time . . .
Kids maturing earlier and leaving home later - Emerging Adulthood new phrase to describe
current trend of delaying adult endeavors
living on your own, supporting yourself, getting
married
48Puberty
- Beginning of adolescence
- Girls start earlier at 11
- Boys a little later at 13
- By late teens, they catch up
49Lawrence Kohlbergs Moral Development
- How does our ability to reason about ethical
situations change over our lives? - Heinz experiment
50Kohlberg Pre-conventional Morality
- Good girl Bad girl (boy)
- Before age 9
- Avoid punishment or gain reward (personal gain or
loss) - My decision about right or wrong are all about
how the consequences affect me - i.e. Heinz should not steal the drug because he
will go to jail so its wrong
51Kohlberg Conventional Morality
- Early adolescence 9 to..
- Make choices on how others view you.
- Follow standards of parents, peers, society (laws
and rules, authority, conformity) - Kohlberg says most adults never get past this
level Nazi Germany - i.e. Heinz shouldnt steal the drug because its
against the law
52Kohlberg Post-conventional Morality
- Adulthood not all reach this stage
- Higher moral reasoning or ethical principles
- Do what you believe is right despite possible
negative consequences and despite what others are
doing or what the law says - Dont blindly accept rules/laws
- Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.
53Criticisms of Kohlberg?
- A number of people were critical of Kohlbergs
work - Carol Gilligan, critical because Kohlbergs model
focused only on boys and men when he later
tested girls, he placed them on a lower moral
level - Gilligan said boys and girls are equally
ethically but approach morality differently -
boys have more absolute view of right and wrong
girls are more likely to look at situational
factors
54FREUDs Stage Theories
- Freud was the first to theorize that we pass
through different stages in childhood - 4 psychosexual stages each stage has a conflict
that needs to be resolved. Failure to resolve
the conflict results in fixation problems later
in life from earlier issues (stuck in development)
55ORAL STAGE
- 0-18 months
- Baby seeks pleasure with mouth sucking, biting,
drooling - Fixation overeating, smoking, chewing gum, etc.
56ANAL STAGE
- 18-36 months
- Developmental phenomenon toilet training
- Fixations overly controlling (type A) or out of
control/messy
57PHALLIC STAGE
- 3-6
- Realize gender
- Oedipus or Electra Complex
- Fixation gender confusion
58Latency 6-pubertyThe calm before the storm!
59GENITAL STAGE
- Puberty on
- Focus on sexual maturation
- Romantic/sexual relationships
60(No Transcript)
61Erik Erikson
- 1960s Neo-Freudian
- Each stage of life has its own psychosocial
crisis that needs resolution - Erikson was friends with Freuds daughter and
knew the family - Borrowed Freuds idea of a crisis at each stage
and fixation if crisis not resolved - Changes stages to Psychosocial says kids not
that sexual - Extends stages throughout adulthood
62(No Transcript)
63Gender and Development
- What does it mean to be male or female? -
culturally - What are developmental differences between the
genders? - Gender roles vary widely between cultures
- How would different psychological perspectives
view this?
64(No Transcript)
65Adulthood
- An increasing life expectancy
- a larger population of elderly
- Baby boomers born 1946-1964
- Women live longer
- Sight, smell hearing and reflexes all decline
after age 70 - Sometimes loss of independence drivers
license, living alone, etc.
66Estimated Worldwide life expectancieshttp//en.wi
kipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expecta
ncy
67Dementia and Alzheimers
- Dementia damage to the brain/ mental erosion
- Alzheimers
- 3 of the population by age 75
- First memory, then reasoning and language
deteriorate - Patient becomes emotionally flat, disoriented and
mentally vacant - Deterioration of neurons that produce the
neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) - Plaque buildup causes tangles of neurons in the
brain
6860 Minutes Over 90 Parts I and II
- http//www.cbsnews.com/news/living-to-90-and-beyon
d/
69Parkinsons Disease
- Parkinsons is a degenerative disorder of the
central nervous system. - It results in impairment in
- motor skills, speech and other functions.
- Tardive dyskinesia
70Death and Dying Elizabeth Kubler Ross
- Grief stages denial, anger, bargaining,
depression, acceptance - Grief is especially severe when death is early or
unexpected - Six times more women suffer the loss of a spouse
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vG_Z3lmidmrY