Chapter 13: Developmental Psychology

LIFE-SPAN APPROACH

• The life-span approach to developmental psychology takes the view that development is not a process with a clear ending.
• It is important to differentiate between life-span psychologists and child psychologists.
• Although both study development, the child psychologist has decided to focus on a particular earlier portion of the typical life span.
• Erik Erikson was the first to successfully champion the view that development occurs across an entire lifetime.

Research Methods

• Research methods in developmental psychology vary according to the questions being asked by the researcher.
• Some developmental psychologists are interested in studying normative development, which is the typical sequence of developmental changes for a group of people.
• Normative development is often studied using the cross-sectional method.
  • The cross-sectional method seeks to compare groups of people of various ages on similar tasks.
• To research the developmental process, many developmental psychologists use the longitudinal method.
  • The longitudinal method involves following a small group of people over a long portion of their lives, assessing change at set intervals.

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES

• Developmental psychology, like most aspects of psychology, must deal with the so-called nature-nurture debate.
• Maturationists emphasize the role of genetically programmed growth and development on the body, particularly on the nervous system.
• Maturation can best be defined as biological readiness.
• The opposing position is the learning perspective, and adherents to this position are sometimes referred to as environmentalists.
• There are other issues to be considered when studying development.
  • One is whether development is continuous or discontinuous—gradual or stage-oriented.
• A critical period refers to a time during which a skill or ability must develop; if the ability does not develop during that time, it probably will never develop or may not develop as well.
• Culture also impacts development in important ways.
  • A collectivist culture is one in which the needs of society are placed before the needs of the individual.
  • Individualist cultures promote personal needs above the needs of society.

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

• Developmental theories can be divided into two broad classes: those that conceptualize development as a single, continuous, unitary process and those that view it as occurring in discrete stages.
• Stages are patterns of behavior that occur in a fixed sequence.
  • Each stage has a unique set of cognitive structures, or sets of mental abilities, that build on the cognitive structures established in the previous stage.
• Psychologists typically agree that the edges of stages are blurred and may overlap for various domains within a stage.

Physical Development

• Physical development starts at conception.

  • The zygote, or fertilized egg, goes through three distinct phases of gestation prior to birth.
  • The first stage is the germinal stage, in which the zygote undergoes cell division, expanding to 64 cells and implanting itself in the uterine wall.
  • This stage lasts about two weeks.
  • The embryonic stage consists of organ formation and lasts until the beginning of the third month.
  • In the fetal stage, sexual differentiation occurs and movement begins to develop.
  • Growth is rapid in this stage.
  • Various harmful environmental agents, known as teratogens, may affect fetal development.
  • Some fetuses exposed to alcohol develop fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), resulting in physical abnormalities and cognitive deficiencies.

• Rudimentary movements serve as the first voluntary movements performed by a child.

• The fundamental movement stage occurs from age 2 to age 7; during this time, the child is learning to manipulate his or her body through actions such as running, jumping, throwing, and catching.

• During the transitional substage, a combination of movements occurs; for example, grasping, jumping, and throwing are combined to take a shot in basketball.

  • The application substage is defined more by conscious decisions to apply these skills to specific types of activity.

• It is important to note that although perceptual and motor development depend on the development of the nervous system, the development of the nervous system depends on environmental interaction on the part of the child.

• Cognitive Development - Cognitive development refers to the development of learning, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and related skills.

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Piaget

• Jean Piaget proposed an influential theory of the cognitive development of children.
  • Piaget’s developmental theory is based on the concept of equilibration.
  • Equilibration is a child’s attempt to reach a balance between what the child encounters in the environment and what cognitive structures the child brings to the situatrationion.
• According to Piaget, children go through a series of developmental stages.

Stages:

• Sensorimotor Stage.
  • This stage usually occurs during the first two years of life and is typified by reflexive reactions and then circular reactions, which are repeated behaviors by which the infant manipulates the environment
  • Object permanence, which develops during this stage, is the knowledge that objects continue to exist when they are outside the field of view.
• Preoperational Stage.
  • The preoperational stage typically occurs from ages two to seven.
  • Children generally begin this stage with the development of language.
  • Language represents a shift to symbolic thinking, or the ability to use words to substitute for objects.
  • Other characteristics of the stage are egocentrism, seeing the world only from one’s own point of view, artificialism, believing that all things are human-made, and animism, believing that all things are living.
• Concrete Operational Stage.
  • Typically occurring from ages seven to eleven, this is the stage when children develop the ability to perform a mental operation and then reverse their thinking back to a starting point, a concept called reversibility.
  • Another important concept is conservation—the idea that the amount of a substance does not change just because it is arranged differently.
• Formal Operational Stage.
  • This stage begins at about age 12.
  • At this level, children are fully capable of understanding abstractions and symbolic relationships.
  • They are also capable of metacognition, or the ability to recognize one’s cognitive processes and adapt those processes if they aren’t successful.

Theory of Mind (TOM) and the False Belief Task

• A key cognitive ability that develops in childhood around the age of four is theory of mind.
• TOM allows children to understand that other people see the world differently than they do.
• It is the opposite of egocentrism.

Vygotsky

• Vygotsky believed that much of development occurs by internalization, the absorption of knowledge into the self from environmental and social contexts.
  • Vygotsky also proposed the concept of a zone of proximal development, which is the range between the developed level of ability that a child displays and the potential level of ability of which the child is actually capable.
• Actual development rarely lives up to its potential because ability depends on input from the environment, and environmental input is rarely truly optimal.
• Scaffolding is the support system that allows a person to move across the zone of proximal development incrementally, with environmental supports, such as teachers and parents.
• In the later years, many adults show a decrease in fluid intelligence—that is, the ability to think in terms of abstract concepts and symbolic relationships.
  • This decrease, however, is accompanied by increased crystallized intelligence, or specific knowledge of facts and information

Social Development

• Social development involves the ability to interact with others and with the social structures in which we live.
• Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory attempted to reflect social development's intricacies.
  • This theory described the developmental process as a sequence of stages distinguished by the resolution of specific developmental "tasks" and was the first to claim that development is a life-span activity.
• Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development include the following.

Trust versus Mistrust

• The first year of life is this stage.
• If they can believe their basic needs will be supplied, infants decide if the world is friendly or hostile.
• Positive stage resolutions foster trust and hope.

Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt

• Between one and three, the child must learn to manage their body and environment.
• This stage requires potty training, walking, and other self-control skills.

Initiative versus Guilt

• At three to six years old, children enter a wider social world.
• At this age, kids must take charge and assert themselves socially without overstepping.
• This stage creates purpose.

Industry versus Inferiority

• Six-to-12-year-olds are here.
• They now receive feedback in school.
  • Thus, people must feel proud of their work.
• They realize their abilities.
• This stage gives you confidence.

Identity versus Role Confusion

• This period comprises adolescent identity quest.
• Adolescents begin to establish their own ideals and wonder who they are.
• This stage ends with self-fidelity.

Intimacy versus Isolation

• In early adulthood, we seek loving, long-term relationships.
• This stage teaches mature, giving love.
• If this stage fails, feelings of isolation or lack of intimacy may occur.

Generativity versus Stagnation

• Middle adulthood is characterized by the fight to be useful at work and home and to pass on ideas and potentially children.
• Generativity involves these activities.
• We try to "mark" the world at this stage.
• Unresolved issues might lead to stagnation or solitude.

Integrity versus Despair

• In old age, one struggles to accept both triumphs and disappointments.
  • Wisdom comes from this stage, but bitterness and despair might result from failure.
• Beginning in the 1930’s, Konrad Lorenz posited that much child attachment behavior is innate.
  • Lorenz was an ethologist: he studied animal behavior and he based his ideas about attachment on his observations of imprinting in animals.
• In the 1950s, Harry and Margaret Harlow demonstrated that rhesus monkey infants need comfort and security as much as food.
  • Harlow ascertained that these infants become more attached to soft “mothers” without food than to wire ones with food.
• Attachment is defined as the tendency to prefer specific familiar individuals to others.
  • John Bowlby is considered the father of attachment theory.
• In the 1970s, Mary Ainsworth studied human infant attachment.
• Using the strange situation, in which a parent or primary guardian leaves a child with a stranger and then returns, Ainsworth recognized four attachment patterns.
  • Secure—The child is generally happy in the presence of the primary caretaker, is distressed when he or she leaves, but can be consoled again quickly after he or she returns.
  • Avoidant—The child may be inhibited in the presence of the primary caretaker, and may pretend to not be distressed when he or she leaves. (Blood pressure and cortisol analyses show that the child is in fact quite stressed out.)
  • Ambivalent—The child may have a “stormy” relationship with the primary caretaker, is distressed when he or she leaves, and has difficulty being consoled after his or her return.
  • Disorganized—The child has an erratic relationship with the primary caretaker and with other adults.
  • This attachment style is more common in cases of severe neglect and/or abuse.
• Diana Baumrind has identified the following three types of parenting styles.
  • Authoritarian—Parents have high expectations for their child to comply with rules without debate or explanation.
  • Authoritative—Parents also expect compliance to rules but explain rules and encourage independence.
  • Permissive—Parents have few expectations and are warm and non-demanding.
• Another theory of social development concerns the stages of death and dying developed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
  • She identified the following ways people tend to come to terms with terminal illnesses—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
• Moral Development - The most influential theory of moral development was advanced by Lawrence Kohlberg, who expanded on an early theory proposed by Piaget.

Kohlberg’s Level I

• Level I encompasses ages seven to ten and is the level of preconventional morality.
  • Preconventional morality is a two-stage system of moral judgment.
  • In the first stage, it is based on avoiding punishment and receiving rewards.
  • In this stage, children often will mention a fear of being punished as a reason why rules should not be broken.

Kohlberg’s Level II

• Level II typically occurs from about ages 10 to 16 and sometimes beyond.
  • This is the stage of conventional morality.
  • Conventional morality is the internalizing of society’s rules and morals.

Kohlberg’s Level III

• Level III occurs from age 16 and onward.
  • This is the level of postconventional morality.
  • At this level, societal rules are still important, but an internal set of values has developed that may generate occasional conflict with societal values.

SEX ROLES, SEX DIFFERENCES

• Psychosexual development is the development of an awareness of one’s own sexuality, including the identification of the self with a particular gender.
• Children develop gender identity, the awareness that they are boys or girls, by age two or three.
  • The acquisition of sex-related roles, called gender typing, also occurs very early, from the ages of two to seven.
  • This age range is also when children come to understand that there is gender constancy—that is, that gender is a fixed, unchangeable characteristic.
• Androgyny may develop as children begin to blur the lines between stereotypical male and female roles in society.
• Sigmund Freud elaborated a theory of psychosexual development.
  • This is a stage theory in which attention was given to parts of the body that were especially significant for the developing person.
  • During the oral stage, from birth to about two, the primary source of pleasure for the infant comes from sucking, as well as using the voice to cry out for caretakers.
  • During the anal stage, from about two to three, toddlers learn that they are praised when they do well with toilet training, and are not praised (or even scolded) when they do not.
  • During the phallic stage, from about three to six, children realize that they are boys or girls, and begin to puzzle out what that means.
  • During the latency stage, from about six to twelve, there is no one particular part of the body that has the most importance for the developing mind.
  • Children in this stage are partly focused on gender identification, which is why many boys associate primarily with other boys, and many girls associate primarily with other girls, and the two groups regard each other with a mixture of interest and suspicion.
  • During the genital stage, from about twelve until death, the genital region becomes the primary source of sensual/sexual pleasure, unless traumas in prior stages have resulted in fixations.
• Another theory of how sex roles develop has been proposed by Albert Bandura.
  • Bandura felt that, like violent behavior, sexual roles could be acquired through social or vicarious learning.
• In the 1950’s, Alfred Kinsey did extensive, and very widely-read, work on the attitudes and behaviors of American adults pertaining to sexuality.
  • He did this by conducting numerous subjective interviews.
  • Among his important contributions was the Kinsey Scale, which posited that sexuality is not binary, either exclusively heterosexual or homosexual; rather, it exists along a continuum of attractions and practices.
  • Kinsey’s books played a role in liberalizing Americans’ attitudes toward sexuality in the next decades.

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Next Chapter: Chapter 14: Motivation and Emotion