9.1 What Is Lifespan Development?

• Development is a lifelong process that can be studied scientifically across three developmental domains—physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development.

  • Physical development: involves growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness.

  • Cognitive development: involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.

  • Psychosocial development: involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.

• Normative approach: asks, “What is normal development?”

  • Developmental milestones: specific normative events (crawling, walking, etc)

  • Not all normative events are experienced by all individuals across all cultures.

  • Biological milestones tend to be universal, but social milestones aren’t necessarily universal

Issues In Developmental Psychology

• Continuous development: views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills.

• Discontinuous: development takes place in unique stages: It occurs at specific times or ages. With this type of development, the change is more sudden.

• Stage theories hold that the sequence of development is universal.

  • However, child care practices vary by culture, and different practices have been found to accelerate or inhibit achievement of developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, and walking.

• There’s been a longstanding debate of whether we are who we are because of nature (biology and genetics), or nurture (environment and culture)?

9.2 Lifespan Theories

Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Sigmund Freud believed that childhood experiences shape our personalities and behavior as adults. He viewed development as discontinuous and believed that one must pass through a series of stages during childhood called the stages of psychosexual development.

• According to Freud, children’s pleasure-seeking urges are focused on a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone, at each of the five stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

Psychosocial Theory of Development

• Erik Erikson, a stage theorist, took Freud’s theory and modified it to psychosocial theory

• Psychosocial development theory: emphasizes the social nature of our development rather than its sexual nature.

• Erikson proposed that personality development takes place all through the lifespan and how we interact with others is what affects our sense of self, or what he called the ego identity.

• According to psychosocial theory, we experience eight stages of development over our lifespan, from infancy through late adulthood.

  • At each stage there is a conflict, or task, that we need to resolve. Successful completion of each developmental task results in a sense of competence and a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks leads to feelings of inadequacy.

  • Infancy (birth to 12 months): resolve the task trust versus mistrust.

  • Toddlers (ages 1–3 years): to resolve the issue of autonomy versus shame and doubt, by working to establish independence.

  • Preschool stage (ages 3–6 years): resolve the task of initiative versus guilt.

  • Elementary school stage (ages 6–12): resolve the task of industry versus inferiority.

  • Adolescence (ages 12–18): resolve the task of identity versus role confusion.

  • Early adulthood (i.e., 20s through early 40s): resolve intimacy versus isolation.

  • Middle adulthood (40s to mid-60s): resolve generativity versus stagnation.

  • Late adulthood (mid-60s to the end of life): resolve integrity versus despair.

Cognitive Theory of Development

• Jean Piaget is a stage theorist who studied childhood development and focused on children’s cognitive growth.

• His theory of cognitive development holds that our cognitive abilities develop through specific stages, which exemplifies the discontinuity approach to development. As we progress to a new stage, there is a distinct shift in how we think and reason.

• Piaget said that children develop schemata to help them understand the world.

• When children learn new information, they adjust their schemata through two processes: assimilation and accommodation.

  • Assimilation: when they take in information that is comparable to what they already know.

  • Accommodation: when they change their schemata based on new information. This process continues as children interact with their environment.

• Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development that unfolds in four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

  • Sensorimotor: lasts from birth to about 2 years old; children learn about the world through their senses and motor behavior.

    • Object permanence: the understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists.

    • Stranger anxiety: a fear of unfamiliar people.

  • Preoperational: approximately 2 to 7 years old; children can use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage engage in pretend play.

    • Children begin to use language in the preoperational stage, but they cannot understand adult logic or mentally manipulate information.

    • Children’s logic is based on their own personal knowledge of the world so far, rather than on conventional knowledge.

    • Children can’t perform mental operations because they haven’t developed an understanding of conservation

      • Conservation: the idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it’s still equal in size as long as nothing has been removed or added.

    • Egocentrism: the child is not able to take the perspective of others. A child at this stage thinks that everyone sees, thinks, and feels just as they do.

  • Concrete operational: occurs from about 7 to 11 years old; children can think logically about real events; they have a firm grasp on the use of numbers and start to employ memory strategies.

    • Children master the concept of conservation

    • Reversibility: objects can be changed and then returned back to their original form or condition.

  • Formal operational: age 11 to adulthood; children can deal with abstract ideas and hypothetical situations.

    • Children in this stage can use abstract thinking to problem solve, look at alternative solutions, and test these solutions.

Beyond Formal Operational Thought

• Many developmental psychologists disagree with Piaget and suggest a fifth stage of cognitive development, known as the postformal stage.

• Postformal thinking: decisions are made based on situations and circumstances, and logic is integrated with emotion as adults develop principles that depend on contexts.

• Once we reach adulthood our problem solving abilities change: we tend to think more deeply about many areas of our lives, such as relationships, work, and politics

• Postformal thinkers are able to draw on past experiences to help them solve new problems.

Theory of Moral Development

• Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg believed that moral development follows a series of stages.

  • Pre-conventional morality: before age 9; behavior driven by avoiding punishment, self-interest, and rewards

  • Conventional morality: early adolescence; behavior driven by social approval, obeying authority, and conforming to social order

  • Post-conventional morality: behavior driven by balance of social order, individual rights, and internal moral principles

9.3 Stages of Development

Prenatal Development

• There are three stages of prenatal development: germinal, embryonic, and fetal.

  • Germinal Stage (Weeks 1-2)

    • Conception: when sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote.

    • Zygote begins as a one-cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge.

    • Mitosis: when the zygote divides and multiplies, going from a one-cell structure to two cells, then four cells, then eight cells, and so on.

    • As the cells divide, they become more specialized, forming different organs and body parts.

    • Once the mass of cells has yet to attach itself to the lining of the mother’s uterus, the next stage begins.

  • Embryonic Stage (Weeks 3-8)

    • The zygote travels down the fallopian tubes and implants itself in the lining of the uterus, and is now known as an embryo.

    • Placenta: a structure connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen from the mother to the developing embryo via the umbilical cord.

    • Basic structures of the embryo start to develop into areas that will become the head, chest, and abdomen.

    • The heart begins to beat and organs form and begin to function.

    • The neural tube forms along the back of the embryo, developing into the spinal cord and brain.

  • Fetal Stage (Weeks 9-40)

    • Fetus: When the organism is about nine weeks old

    • The fetus begins to take on the recognizable form of a human being

    • The sex organs begin to differentiate.

    • Fingers and toes are fully developed, and fingerprints are visible.

    • Hearing has developed, so the fetus can respond to sounds.

    • The internal organs, such as the lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines, have formed enough that a fetus born prematurely at this point has a chance to survive outside of the mother’s womb.

    • The brain continues to grow and develop

    • The fetus will eventually have very little room to move around and birth becomes imminent.

  • Prenatal care: medical care during pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and the fetus; can reduce the risk of complications to the mother and fetus during pregnancy.

  • Teratogen: any environmental agent—biological, chemical, or physical—that causes damage to the developing embryo or fetus.

    • There are different types of teratogens.

Infancy Through Childhood

• Newborn reflexes: inborn automatic responses to particular forms of stimulation.

• Reflexes help the newborn survive until it is capable of more complex behaviors—these reflexes are crucial to survival.

  • They’re present in babies whose brains are developing normally and usually disappear around 4–5 months old.

• Newborn infants’ sensory abilities are significant, but their senses are not yet fully developed.

Physical Development

• In infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, the body’s physical development is rapid

• During infancy and childhood, growth does not occur at a steady rate

• Blooming: the nervous system grows and develops rapidly during infancy and toddlerhood.

• The blooming period of neural growth is then followed by a period of pruning, where neural connections are reduced.

• Motor development occurs in an orderly sequence as infants move from reflexive reactions to more advanced motor functioning.

• Motor skills: our ability to move our bodies and manipulate objects.

• Fine motor skills: the muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes, and enable coordination of small actions.

• Gross motor skills: large muscle groups that control our arms and legs and involve larger movements

Cognitive Development

• There are cognitive milestones we expect children to reach.

  • Infants: shake their head “no” and respond to verbal requests to do things

  • Toddlers: mastered object permanence

  • Preschool-age: they can count, name colors, and tell you their name and age, and make some decisions on their own; they understand basic time concepts and sequencing can predict what will happen next in a story; they develop theory-of-mind

    • Theory-of-mind: to understand that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are different from their own.

  • Middle and late childhood: thought processes become more logical and organized when dealing with concrete information; children at this age understand concepts such as the past, present, and future, giving them the ability to plan and work toward goals; they can process complex ideas.

Attachment

• Attachment: a long-standing connection or bond with others.

• Researcher Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments on monkeys and concluded that there was more to the mother-child bond than nourishment.

  • Feelings of comfort and security are the critical components to maternal-infant bonding, which leads to healthy psychosocial development.

• Researcher John Bowlby developed the concept of attachment theory.

  • Attachment theory: the affectional bond or tie that an infant forms with the mother; an infant must form this bond with a primary caregiver in order to have normal social and emotional development.

  • Secure base: a parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as he explores his surroundings.

  • Bowlby said that two things are needed for a healthy attachment:

    • The caregiver must be responsive to the child’s physical, social, and emotional needs

    • The caregiver and child must engage in mutually enjoyable interactions.

• Researcher Mary Ainsworth wanted to know if children differ in the ways they bond, and if so, why. To find the answers, she used the Strange Situation procedure to study attachment between mothers and their infants

  • Ainsworth identified three types of parent-child attachments: secure, avoidant, and resistant. A fourth style, known as disorganized attachment, was later described

    • `Secure attachment: when the toddler prefers his parent over a stranger; the attachment figure is used as a secure base to explore the environment and is sought out in times of stress.

    • Avoidant attachment: the child is unresponsive to the parent, doesn’t use the parent as a secure base, and doesn’t care if the parent leaves.

    • Resistant attachment: children tend to show clingy behavior, but then they reject the attachment figure’s attempts to interact with them.

    • Disorganized attachment: children tend to freeze, run around the room in an erratic manner, or try to run away when the caregiver returns

Self-Concept

• The primary psychosocial milestone of childhood is the development of a positive sense of self.

• Self-concept: an understanding of who they are.

• Infants don’t have a self-concept

• Children from 2–4 years old display a great increase in social behavior once they have established a self-concept.

• Once children reach 6 years old, they can identify themselves in terms of group memberships. School-age children compare themselves to their peers and discover that they are competent in some areas and less so in others. Children recognize their own personality traits as well as some other traits they would like to have.

• Development of a positive self-concept is important to healthy development.

• Formation of a positive self-concept begins in Erikson’s toddlerhood stage, when children establish autonomy and become confident in their abilities.

• Development of self-concept continues in elementary school, when children compare themselves to others.

• Self-concept is re-evaluated in Erikson’s adolescence stage, as teens form an identity. They internalize the messages they have received regarding their strengths and weaknesses, keeping some messages and rejecting others.

• Diana Baumrind developed and refined a theory describing four parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved.

  • Authoritative style: the parent gives reasonable demands and consistent limits, expresses warmth and affection, and listens to the child’s point of view.

  • Authoritarian style: the parent places high value on conformity and obedience; the parents are often strict, tightly monitor their children, and express little warmth.

  • Permissive style: the kids run the show and anything goes; permissive parents make few demands and rarely use punishment; they tend to be very nurturing and loving, and may play the role of friend rather than parent.

  • Uninvolved style: the parents are indifferent, uninvolved, and sometimes referred to as neglectful; they don’t respond to the child’s needs and make relatively few demands.

• Temperament: innate traits that influence how one thinks, behaves, and reacts with the environment.

• Children with easy temperaments demonstrate positive emotions, adapt well to change, and are capable of regulating their emotions.

• Children with difficult temperaments demonstrate negative emotions and have difficulty adapting to change and regulating their emotions.

Adolescence

• Adolescence: the period of development that begins at puberty and ends at emerging adulthood.

• Adolescence begins with puberty.

• Several physical changes occur during puberty, and primary and secondary sexual characteristics develop and mature.

  • Primary sexual characteristics: organs specifically needed for reproduction, like the uterus and ovaries in females and testes in males.

  • Secondary sexual characteristics: physical signs of sexual maturation that do not directly involve sex organs.

  • Menarche: the beginning of menstrual periods

  • Spermarche: the first ejaculation

  • During puberty, both sexes experience a rapid increase in height

  • `Both nature and nurture can influence height.

• Since rates of physical development vary widely among teenagers, puberty can be a source of pride or embarrassment.

• The adolescent brain also remains under development. Up until puberty, brain cells continue to bloom in the frontal region.

• During adolescence, teenagers move beyond concrete thinking and become capable of abstract thought (formal operational thought).

• Teen thinking is also characterized by the ability to consider multiple points of view, imagine hypothetical situations, debate ideas and opinions, and form new ideas.

• Cognitive empathy: the ability to take the perspective of others and feel concern for others.

• Cognitive empathy begins to increase in adolescence and is an important component of social problem solving and conflict avoidance.

• Erikson referred to the task of the adolescent as one of identity versus role confusion.

• As adolescents work to form their identities, they pull away from their parents, and the peer group becomes very important

• Emerging adulthood: spans from 18 years old to the mid-20s, characterized as an in-between time where identity exploration is focused on work and love.

Adulthood

• Adulthood begins around 20 years old and has three distinct stages: early, middle, and late.

  • Early adulthood (20 to early 40s): physical maturation is complete, although our height and weight may increase slightly.

  • Young adulthood: physical abilities are at their peak, including muscle strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac functioning.

  • Middle adulthood (40s to the 60s): physical decline is gradual.

  • Late adulthood (the 60s on): the last stage of physical change; reaction time slows further, and muscle strength diminishes; smell, taste, hearing, and vision decline significantly; the brain may no longer function at optimal levels

• Since we spend more years in adulthood than any other stage, cognitive changes are numerous.

• Our cognitive abilities remain steady throughout early and middle adulthood.

• Positive relationships with significant others in our adult years have been found to contribute to a state of well-being.

• Socioemotional selectivity theory: our social support and friendships dwindle in number, but remain as close, if not more close than in our earlier years.

9.4 Death and Dying

• Elizabeth Kübler-Ross proposed five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

• Most individuals experience these stages, but the stages may occur in different orders, depending on the individual, and not all people experience all of the stages.

• Living will or advance directive: a written legal document that details specific interventions a person wants.

• Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order: states that if a person stops breathing or their heart stops beating, medical personnel are NOT to take steps to revive or resuscitate the patient.

• Health care proxy: appoints a specific person to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to speak for yourself.

• People’s desire for living wills and DNRs are often influenced by their religion, culture, and upbringing.