Lecture 8: Developmental Psychology

What is the trajectory?

In members of the same species, traits tend to emerge or change (i.e. develop) in a characteristic way over time (i.e. a trajectory)

What are the stages?

• three main stages

• Childhood (~1 – 10 years): Between infancy and puberty

• Adolescence (~11 – 17 years): Onset of puberty, prior to adulthood

• Adulthood (18 years and beyond): Several substages

  • Early adulthood (18 – 40), Middle (40 – 65) and Late (65+)

• To compare different groups, we have two main study designs

Design 1 – Cross-sectional

• what is it

• What is an issue with this design?

• Observe individuals of different ages at the same time (i.e. 2026)

• Concerns of cohort effects (is it age or cohort)

  • 80yo person born in 1946 might have issues w/email

  • 80yo person born in 1986 (same age, different generation) would have not

  • Issues with era (different people)

    • not an age thing for not understanding computer and making emails

Design 2 – Longitudinal

• what is it

• Two issues

  • What are they called?

• Observe the same people at different ages

• Time-intensive with risk of attrition, often impractical

  • People are being lost during the experiment

• Practice effects possible (tests @ T2 differ from T1)

  • e.g. similar tests = easier, not because the cognitive improvement

• Be cautious of conclusions

In developmental psychology…

• what relationships are we observing

• Type of study

  • What can we not infer?

• What is a risk of these studies

• We are often observing relationships between behavior (variable 1), age (variable 2) and the environment (variable 3)

• Most studies are correlational (as we cannot randomly assign age or environment)

  • This means we often cannot conclusively infer cause

  • e.g. bad childhood = bad parenting (correlational)

• Studies should be interpreted with care

  • High risk of the post-hoc fallacy

Early developmental events

• is it common events for all children?

• Events are not always planned and may be random/accidental (e.g. illness, stress, injury)

• you get some traits before you were born

Prenatal events

• what does maternal cortisol cause in the woman

• What does maternal immune activation increase what risks

• What does Valproic acid exposure associated with

• Maternal cortisol levels are associated with altered cognition, emotion and structure of the brain

• Maternal immune activation (i.e. w/illness) is associated with higher risk for schizophrenia and autism

• Valproic acid exposure is associated with autism

  • This is used for migrations (but bad if you are pregnant)

• Teratogens (alcohol and fetal alcohol syndrome)

Postnatal events

• type of events (list some)

• what is being focused in these events

• What two factors affect traits

• Many types: Maternal care, environmental enrichment (play, social interaction, schooling, marital stability) and nutrition all matter

• Majority of developmental psychology focuses on postnatal events

• Both biological and environmental factors will determine the development of traits

Self-concept

• what is it

• What is people aware of at…

  • Age 2

  • Age 4

  • Age 6

• Collective knowledge an individual has of their characteristics, (e.g. personality traits, physical features, abilities, values, goals and role)

• By 2, awareness of sex and gender begins

• By 4, awareness of physical features (height, weight, looks)

• By 6, identification with attributes (“I am a nice person”) (start of social comparison)

Development of Memory

• when do we start having memories

• Before this age, what is those not memories called

• Rare to have memories before 3 – 5 years of age (childhood amnesia), evidence of interaction w/culture

• Not experimental, no causal conclusions

Childhood Amnesia – Theories

• two main theories

• Development of language

  • Language may reinforce memory encoding

  • Language proficiency at ~3 years (later in some disorders)

  • Cultural differences in verbal interactions with children may explain cultural differences in memory (environmental effect)

• Development of the brain

  • Prefrontal cortex (~25 years)

  • Hippocampus (might generate new cells; cell turnover may be too high for memory storage when young)

  • hippocampus more stable

Theories of Child Development

• three main theories

• Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

  • Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

• Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Kohlberg’s Theory of Morality Development

Piaget’s Stages of Development

• four stages

Discrete stages; unidirectional progress is made through independent exploration; domain-general

• focus on cognition

Stages

• Sensorimotor stage

• Proportional stage

• Concrete operational stage

• Formal operational stage

SM stage

• the sensorimotor stage

• age

• what are they focused on

• What can they think about

• What cannot they think about

• From birth until 2 years

• Concentration on the “here and now”

• Can only process physical objects that are present, cannot represent objects which are not present (i.e. cannot form mental representations)

  • Children originally thought to lack object permanence, but more recent evidence suggests confound of motor demands

    • They don’t know where to perceive where it might be

  • Peak a boo

PO Stage

• Proportional stage

• age

• What can they do now

• What do they fail to understand

• What do they appreciate in others

• 2 to 6 years

• Can create mental representations, but lack the ability to do mental operations/transformations on them

  • e.g. an imagine a ball not present, but cannot imagine that ball doing anything special

• Children at this stage fail to understand the principles of conservation

• Children begin to appreciate the mental states of others (Theory of mind)

PO stage – Conservation Failure

• during SM stage

• During PO stage

• Children in the PO stage often incorrectly assume that water in C > water in A or water in B

• Children in subsequent stages often correctly understand that water in C = water in A = water in B

• They see the movement of water between the containers

Theory of Mind (ToM)

• what is it

• what does it play a role in our lives?

• When does it start (which stage)

• Testing ToM in children with what test?

• The ability to take on other people’s perspectives

• Plays a role in our social interactions and moral judgments

• Evident in the PO stage but continues to develop throughout life

• One way of testing for a ToM in children is the Sally-Anne Test

ToM and the Sally-Anne Test

• What is false belief

• Who (what type of people; what disorder) will have issues understanding this if they already passed the PO stage?

• What are some concerns about this test

• Solving this problem involves understanding Sally’s perspective (she holds a false belief)

• Children with disabilities – such as autism – may perform poorly

  • Poor social interactions

• However, there are concerns that language processing contributes to test performance

ToM in Adults

• Most laboratory measures* peak in young adulthood, with some declining in late adulthood (linked to problems in cognitive function)

• ability to detect lies

  • Better as you get older or with more experience

  • Could suffer at more later ages as well

CO Stage

• Concrete operational stage

• Age of this stage

• what can they do?

• What can they not do?

  • E.g. in maths

• 6 to 12 years

• Can create mental representations of physical objects and perform transformations/operations on them

  • e.g. Imagine a ball rolling off a table

• Cannot work with abstract things (e.g. algebra is hard)

• However, mastery of conservation problems is evident

FO stage

• Formal operational stage

• age

• what can they do (similar to Co stage)

• What can they do now (that CO stage couldn’t do)

• 12 years of age and beyond (you’re in this stage now)

• Can create mental representations of physical objects and abstract concepts and perform transformations/operations on these things

• Can work with hypotheticals

Critiques of Piaget’s Theory

• Development does not occur in discrete stages

  • Continuous and bidirectional, reversion possible (e.g. stress)

• Development is not domain-general

  • Abilities emerge at different times

  • One at a time, instead of five at a time

• Did not address culture or socioeconomic status

  • Studies focused on European children of high SES

• Methodological limitations of question method

  • Limited questions so we may be missing out

• Children are smarter than originally expected

  • e.g. knowing its there but cannot figure out where

Contrast: Vygotsky

• Greater emphasis on environment, culture and language (rather than just independent exploration)

• Zone of proximal development

  • Performance impossible, but possible with support

  • Support gradually reduced over time, skill becomes independent

  • Support but then support declines

Erikson’s Theory of Development

• number of stages

• What does each stage show (what are the differences)

• What happens if each stage is complete (what is this called)

• Age, stage, outcome

• Focus is not cognition but instead identity and social relationships

• Eight stages at different ages extending from infancy into late adulthood (birth to 65+ years)

• Each stage is characterized by different challenges and relationships

• The completion of each stage would result in specific life changes (resolution)

Social Comparison

• What age does this begin

• Is this good or bad?

• How does social comparison increase?

  • Two things

    • One about yourself

    • one about the world

• Starting at ~6 years, children compare themselves to others

• Comparisons continue through life, but decline w/age

• Not necessarily bad; depends upon frequency + type

• Upward social comparison (to people perceived as greater) is linked w/social media use (e.g. Instagram, facebook) and low self-esteem

Morality and the Heinz Dilemma

• explain it

Kohlberg’s Stages of Morality

• three stages

• Preconventional: Staying out of trouble (punishment; not justice or anything)

• Conventional: social embarrassment

• Postconventional: can identify the moral judgement (but won’t actual do it)

• rational might change

Critique of Kohlberg’s Theory

• what does it not address

• What is a confound

• Poor correlation with what

• Does not address cultural or sex differences

  • Young boys tend to value principles of justice and rights, whereas young girls tend to value caring and helping

  • Best models the morality seen in individualistic cultures

• Confound of verbal intelligence

  • Wording matters

• Poor correlation with moral behavior

  • Just because someone understands morality does not mean they are moral; construct validity concern

Predicting life outcomes

• Famous “Mischel Marshmallow test” assesses the ability to delay gratification (one now vs. two later)

• Test performance is linked to test scores, social success and stress reactivity

• Also related to family background, cognitive ability and home environment

• Replications find weaker effects

Attachment Theory

• Emotional + physical attachment to the primary caregiver is critical

• Psychologists have studied attachment theory using several clever approaches, including The Strange Situation (devised by Ainsworth)

• Three main types of attachment suggested*:

  • Secure

  • Insecure – avoidant

  • Insecure – resistant (aka insecure – anxious/ambivalent)

  • A fourth type (disorganized) has also been proposed by others.

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Situation

• playing

• Stranger comes in but the mother is still there

• with stranger alone - distress occurs and upset when the mother leaves

• The mother comes back - reunion behaviour

The Strange Situation

Attachment Theory

• what type of attachment is the best

• Secure attachment correlated with better outcomes

• Style can vary (e.g. with parent job changes, culture)

• Children can have different attachments w/parents (in 40% of heterosexual couples, father-child + mother-child are different)

• Association with outcomes in adulthood (e.g. relationships)

  • Happy when they come back

  • Doesn’t care

  • reject thems

Physical comfort is important

• explain using Harlow’s monkey experiment

• Harlow’s Monkeys were deprived of their mothers and given one of two surrogates: wire or cloth

• Monkeys strongly preferred the cloth mother (even w/o food)

Parenting Styles + Culture

• Which is the best

• What is the worst

• What can affect the type of parenting

  • Place = more common type of parenting

• Authoritative is slightly favored (higher achievement + esteem, fewer behavioral problems)

• Uninvolved is universally recognized as the worst

• Culture matters

  • Certain styles may be more common and/or effective

  • Some cultures have complex parenting styles that do not fit into it at all

Other things about parenting

• mother vs father parenting style

• Types of study poorly studied

• divorce effects on the child

• Same sex parenthood effects

• Fathers differ from mothers

  • Less attentive/affectionate, more time in physical play with kids (“playmates”)

• Single parenthood poorly studied

• Most children survive divorce without major damage

• No negative effects of same-sex parenthood

• Other approaches (inductive discipline, power assertive, love withdrawal)

  • Love withdrawal: you did something bad, im going to to ignore you

  • Power assertive: you did something, im going to do better than you

  • Inductive discipline: explain why we punish

Environmental enrichment

• Environments which exceed normal quality (e.g. more intellectual stimulation, better food, less stress);

  • Flynn effect (see L06) relevant

    • More stuff in the environment

  • Controversy over extent of benefits, diminishing returns

• As experimental studies in humans are challenging and therefore rare, animal work is often a focus (generalization issue)

  • Studies are about animals but not about humans (so different environments)

Bad environments have severe effects

• example of harlow’s monkey experiment

  • What can greatly affected by the child

• Six months of bad parenting

  • Two affects

    • Early effects

    • later effects

• Harlow’s monkeys (deprived of their mothers), for example, showed cognitive impairments

• Children in low quality orphanages without reliable caretakers showed developmental delays*

  • Children adopted after 6 months may show autism-like traits (e.g. language impairment) - only observed - not experiment

  • Other effects may persist into adulthood (lower brain volume, impaired cognition, high risk for mental health disorders

The ‘Feral’ Child: Genie

• what happened

• What was affected in her life

  • Could it be fixed?

• What did it tell us about development

• Severely isolated and physically abused

• At the time she was discovered (age 13), she could not use language

  • very rare

• Even with training, Genie never fully acquired a first language (could acquire vocabulary, but had difficulty learning grammar/syntax)

  • Important time for learning

• Tragedy informed views of developmental windows

Developmental periods

• critical period

• sensitive period

• Period known to be as what in development

• How can be study this

  • Two things that can be studied and with what

• Critical period: Experience required for proper development

• Sensitive period: Experience has a stronger effect on development

  • Development still possible, but may be more difficult

• Thought to be periods of high neuroplasticity

• We can identify potential developmental periods with deprivation and enrichment studies in animals

  • Periods in humans suggested by correlational data*

Comparison

• Critical periods for the visual system suggested by deprivation studies

  • If you do not get the necessary input early, you never get the right development

• Sensitive periods are more common and exist for many psychological functions, including language

  • Easy to acquire if younger, still possible to acquire if older (see L06)

Adolescent Development

• what is developed during young age

  • What do they do or think at this age

• What do they do to improve this

  • What does this create in their self?

• Emergence of egocentricity

  • Reference to me state, everyone is watching me

• Teenagers are often self-conscious and under the impression that everyone is watching them

  • Fear of embarrassment is common

• During adolescence, teenagers seek out role models and peers on which to model their behavior

  • Your typical adolescent will try out many identities

  • This is all part of developing a positive sense of self

Adolescence and the Brain

• Adolescence is regarded as a sensitive period for brain development

  • The prefrontal cortex matures substantially, with synaptic pruning (removal of synapses) continuing throughout the period

• The PFC is important for planning, organization and inhibition of behavior – skills an adolescent is still developing

• Maturation of the brain may continue until age 25

Change in risk evaluation

• in what age is more risk-taking common

  • Is there is reason for this (do they have brain damage?)

  • Main reasons for risk-taking in these individuals

• Adolescents engage in some risk-taking behaviors more frequently than adults

• Risk-taking occurs despite awareness of risk (not an information gap)

  • Sometimes good

  • not because of an information gap (we still won’t stop if you tell us)

• Many possible explanations:

  • Incomplete frontal lobe development

  • Altered pleasure responses - feels good

  • Emotional development - more happy

  • Age-specific environmental settings

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)

• Where is the damage

• What are the effects

• What are they noticable

• Disorders wherein there is abnormal development of the nervous system, leading to abnormal cognition and behavior

  • It’s who they are (part of them)

• NDDs often emerge early in life (e.g. autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities and language disabilities)*

  • High heritability, strong role of genetic factors

• NDDs are considered distinct from acquired disorders, which usually emerge in adulthood and are the result of brain changes (e.g. injuries) in adulthood

  • Traumatic Brain Injury, Alzheimer’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and more

Different from depression and anxiety (can be developed, or induced)

Intelligence w/aging (L06)

• expected

Change in memories with aging

• what do they have trouble with

• What do they not have trouble with

• How do they view things

• Free recall (i.e. w/no help) declines noticeably, but cued recall (i.e. w/hints) and recognition (e.g. like multiple choice) remains good

• Views also change: we look back on our own past positively (“Back in my day”) and imagine more positive futures (positivity bias)

Personality w/aging (L07)

• recalls which traits decreases, which traits increases

• With aging (16 to 60 years) there are increases in A + C, decreases in E + O

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Older adults have fewer relationships, based on different motives

• change in the number and motive for relationship

Well-being and aging

• Older adults who stay active tend to be as happy as when young

  • Larger/stronger social networks (friends/family) are key

• Job satisfaction follows a U-shaped curve, peaking early when you get the job and later when you leave it

  • Happy, womp, happy about the job

• The mid-life crisis and empty nest syndrome are likely exaggeration

  • If you lack a career or hobbies and interact extensively with your children, their absence will be more significant to you