Psychology III

Developmental Psychology

Examines our physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development across the lifespan

Issues with developmental psychology

1. Nature vs nurture

2. continuity and stages

3. stability and change

Continuity

Slow and steady

Stages

variable intervals

Stability and change

• Temperament stays the same

• attitudes change

• change with age

How do developmental psychologists conduct research?

1. cross-sectional research

2. longitudinal research

Prenatal development stages

1. conception

2. zyogte

3. embryonic stage structures (3-9 weeks)

4. fetal stage (9 weeks to birth) (3oz-3months-3inches)

Prenatal development at 4-6 months

• brain development

• can be taken out of womb without dying

Prenatal development at 6-9 months

• lungs expand and contract

• cardiac system matures

• fetus gains 4.5 lbs

• communication between mother and child at 28th week

Prenatal influences

• Sounds

• teratogens (both parents influence from their habits)

Birth

• at around 38 weeks after conception

  • release of oxytocin

• Labor of the hurricane phase

• delivery

• afterbirth with placenta removal

Birth reflexes and preferences

• Reflexes of rooting, sucking, and crying

• preferences of human voices, faces, and the smell of mom

Infancy development

• max number of neurons

  • growing and gives more plasticity

• frontal lobe development until adolescence

• follow same sequence of motor development

Cognitive development

• thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

• infantile amnesia of forgetting the 3 years

Piaget’s cognitive development

1. 0-2 = sensorimotor

2. 2-7 = preoperational

3. 7-11 = concrete operational

4. >=12 = formal operational

Sensorimotor

0-2 and lack seeing objects until 8 months of age

Preoperational

• 2-7

• like pretend play

• begin awareness of mind and self at 3-4

• lack concept of conservation (ability to stay the same)

Concrete operational

7-11

• Understand conversation and math

Formal operational

>=12 and beyond

• Capable of abstract thinking

Attachment

• emotional tie with another person

• secure attachment

• insecure attachment

Parenting styles

• authoritarian (rules and obedience)

• permissive (passive)

• uninvolved (absent)

• authoritative (demanding and responsive)

Adolescence development

• begins at puberity

• frontal lobes develop until 25

• some neurons are pruned and merged

• form own identity

Kohlberg’s level of moral thinking

• preconventional morality (before 9)

• conventional morality (early adolescence)

• postconventional morality (adolescence and after)

preconventional morality (before 9)

self-interest; obey rules for reward

conventional morality (early adolescence)

uphold laws and rules to gain approval

postconventional morality (adolescence and after)

actions reflect belief in rights and ethics

Psychosocial development in teens

• pull away from parents in favor of peers

• positive parent-teen relations and positive peer relations often correlated (selection effect)

Adulthood physical development

• physical health declines

• less fertility

• neurological changes

• role of expectations

Memory decline

• selective memory loss

• skill memory last to decline

Crystallized vs. fluid intelligence

Fluid is "street smarts" (fast processing), while crystallized is "book smarts" (stored knowledge)

Psychosocial development in adulthood

• love is important for happiness and health

• older adults are generally happier

Death

• happens to everyone

• grief varies

• leave with sense of unity and meaning

Psychoanalysis theories

Came from sigmund freud

Psychodynamic theories

1. ID

2. Superego

3. Ego

Psychosexual stages

1. oral (0-18 months)

2. anal (18-36 months)

3. phallic (3-6 years)

4. Latency (6-puberty)

5. genital (puberty onwards)

Defense mechanisms

1. Repression

2. Regression

3. Reaction formation

4. projection

5. Rationalization

6. Displacement

7. Denial

Carl Jung

• Collective unconscious

• Archetypes

Alfred Adler

Inferiority complex

Karen Horney

• Childhood anxiety triggers desire for love and security

• Coping styles

Projective tests

1. Rorschach Inkblots

2. Thematic apperception task

Maslow hierarchy of needs

1. self-actualization

2. esteem

3. love

4. safety

5. physiological

Carl Rogers

1. Growth promoting climate

   1. genuineness

   2. acceptance

   3. empathy

Gordon Allport

Thought Freud spent too much time on unconscious

Trait

a characteristic behavior or a disposition to feel and act. Many traits=personalities

Big 5 factors of traits

1. conscientiousness

2. agreeableness

3. neuroticism

4. openness

5. extraversion

conscientiousness

Organized, careful, disciplined, disorganized, careless, impulsive

Agreeableness

ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative, soft-hearted, trusting, and helpful

Neuroticism

calm, secure, self-satisfied, anxious, insecure, self-pitying

Openness

practical, routine, conforming, imaginative, variety, independent

Extraversion

retiring, sober, reserved, sociable, fun-loving, affectionate

Social-cognitive theories

person-situation controversy questions trait theories, social-cognitive theories incorporate both traits and social context

Reciprocal determinism

behavior, internal cognition, and environment interact to influence personality

• we chose environments

• personality shapes how we interpret events

• create situations on how we react

Is personality the best way to predict behavior

No, look at past behavior in similar situations

Self bias

1. spotlight effect

2. self-serving bias

3. narcissism

Culture in personality

Individual vs collectivism