Developmental Psychology

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Chapter 4

• Developmental Psychology

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• People of different ages have diverse thoughts,
  needs, and wants that are important to them at
  that time.
• For example, none of you are worried about
  paying the mortgage and your parents are not
  worried about what to wear to impress that cute
  boy/girl

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• Some psychologists devote their lives to studying
  the changes people go through throughout their
  lifetime
• This branch of psychology is called
• Developmental Psychology
• The study of how our behavior and thoughts change
  over time
• Think of it this way
• the study of humans WOMB to TOMB

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Before we get into developmental psychology we
need to discuss one thing

• Chicken or the Egg??
• We will try to answer one of the major themes in
  psychology called the Nature vs. Nurture argument
• Basically asking which is more powerful in
  determining behavior and traits??
• Nature
• the idea that your behaviors, thoughts and
  traits come from our genetics (we are born with
  them) (Biology is Destiny)
• Nurture
• the idea that our behaviors come from our
  environment (we learn from our surroundings)

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• So which one is it??

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The Nature Argument(is sometimes compelling)
This guy will never be
This guy!!!
Why does Brad Pitt look the way he does?
Probably genes (and I dont mean his Levi's)
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Genes Our Biological Blueprint
More on these guys later
Another way psychologists try to answer Nature
vs. Nurture is through a field called
Evolutionary Psychology
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Evolutionary Psychology Explaining Universal
Behaviors

• According to EP the motivator of all behavior
  is the passing of one's genes to the next
  generation for survival
• (natural selection and survival of fittest)

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How and why do men and women differ sexually?

• There are of course real biological differences

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Of course, there are other differences too.
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What do men and women want?(According to
Evolutionary Psychology)

• Men want
• Healthy
• Young
• Waist 1/3 narrower than hips.

• Women want
• Wealth
• Security
• Power

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Behavior Genetics
The study of the power and limitations of genes
on who we are.
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The Genetic Revolution
If it were possible, would you want to take a
genetic test telling you which diseases you are
likely to suffer from later in life?
If you or your spouse were pregnant, would you
want the unborn child tested for genetic defects?
Do you think it should be legal for employers to
use genetic tests in deciding whom to hire?
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Temperament

• The aspects of a persons personality that we are
  born with
• whether someone is shy, aggressive, easily scared
• They remain relatively stable over time.
• Tends to lend evidence that nature is very
  powerful

What is your temperament??
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Heritability

• The degree to which genetic factors (heredity)
  can explain the differences of a given trait
  among a population
• For example
• A heritability estimate of 50 for intelligence
  would mean what?
• That genetics explains 50 of the differences
  among people in IQ scores
• The remaining 50 of the differences would be
  explained by non-genetic factors, such as
  environment influences

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Now On to Nurture
Environmental Influences on Behavior
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Specific Types of Environmental Influences
Parents Prenatal Experience
Peer Influence Culture Gender
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How Much Credit (or Blame ) Do Parents Deserve?

• Are children clay to be molded by their parents?
• It depends
• probably not when it comes to to
  personality
• Take a look at your siblings are you alike??
• Parents effect your belief systems and
  values much more than your personality.

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Peer Influence

• Perhaps the biggest environmental influence, at
  least by your age may be.peers
• Selection effect
• we seek out people with similar interests
• that may explain why we seem to conform to our
  peers.

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What can happen when there is no one around to
influence children??

• Feral Children
• Children who have been deprived of social contact
  or upbringing
• Literally means wild or untamed
• Suggests the important role nurture can play in
  normal human development

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Cultural Influences on Children

• Lev Vygotsky
• Said that ones thinking is influenced by ones
  culture
• This interaction produces a culturally specific
  way of thinking
• Zone of Proximal Development
• Vygotsky thought that if a child had an older
  influence, they would develop faster

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Nature v. Nurture
What do you think so far?
Does Nature and Nurture interact and grow off of
each other?
First, how do psychologists study this question?
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How do Psychologists Study Development??

• Cross sectional
• uses people of different ages to compare how
  certain characteristics may change over the
  course of life
• Can be hard when the groups have grown up in
  different times (math tests computers vs.
  calculators)
• Longitudinal
• examines one group of participants over a long
  period of time
• Costly, takes a long time, and typically lose
  participants over time
• Biographical or retrospective studies
• Looks at one person at a time through individuals
  memory
• Good for detail, but memory may not be accurate
  and the information may not be generalizable

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• Lets say I wanted to see at what age people are
  the best at playing Halo
• I could go about doing this in two ways.
• If I wanted to do a cross-sectional study I
  could take ten 5 year olds, ten 10 year olds,
  ten 15 year olds, and ten 20 year olds, have
  them all play Halo and see which group lasted
  the longest.
• This would be a fast and easy way to do the
  study and MOST studies are done just like this

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• But, if I wanted to do a longitudinal study I
  would take ten 5 year olds, have them play halo,
  wait five years and test them again, wait five
  more years and test them again, then test them
  again at twenty and I would have my study.
• This type of research is much more rare simply
  because it takes so long!!!!
• So you can see that both types of research have
  advantages and disadvantages.

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But lets get down to Business

• I am going to break developmental psychology down
  into Five sections or types of development
• Physical
• the ways our body changes from womb to tomb
• Social
• the ways our social needs change from womb to
  tomb
• Cognitive
• the ways our thinking and learning changes from
  womb to tomb
• Moral
• the ways we think about right and wrong changes
  from womb to tomb
• Gender
• the ways we think about what our gender means
  from womb to tomb