Comprehensive Study Notes on Developmental Psychology and Psychosocial Stages
Overview of Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology is defined as the study of how humans change over the course of their entire lifespan, spanning from the moment of conception to the time of death.
The field is organized into three primary domains: - Physical: This domain encompasses the growth of the body and physiological changes in the brain, the development of sensory and motor skills, and changes in the levels of hormones. - Cognitive: This domain focuses on the evolution of mental processes and the changing abilities of an individual to think, reason, and communicate over time. - Socio-emotional: This domain involves changes in how individuals understand themselves, how they interact with others, and how they experience and regulate their emotions.
Key principles of development include: - Neuroplasticity: Brain plasticity is at its peak when individuals are young and becomes increasingly inflexible as the aging process occurs. - Mental Models: A person's fundamental assumptions about how the world works are built on mental models that are primarily formed during youth. - Caregiver Influence: Parents and caregivers represent the most significant figures in a person's life during their formative years. - Age-Specific Challenges: Humans encounter different developmental challenges at various stages of aging.
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
Erikson’s theory focuses primarily on the socio-emotional domain of development.
It consists of eight distinct life stages, each defined by a psychosocial crisis that arises from the conflict between biological and sociocultural forces.
While all crises are present throughout a person's life, each specific crisis takes on unique significance during a designated life stage.
The Eight Stages: - Stage 1: Infancy (Age or years) - Psychosocial Crisis: Trust vs. Mistrust. - Central Question: "Can I trust the world?" - Goal: To develop a sense of trust toward others. - Resolution: Children learn the world is safe and that people are loving and reliable. - Responsibility: The caregiver is held responsible for the success or failure of this stage. - Stage 2: Toddlerhood (Age or years) - Psychosocial Crisis: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. - Central Question: "Can I be me?" - Goal: To develop personal control over physical skills. - Success Characteristics: Autonomy; children are encouraged to explore the environment, gaining feelings of independence and positive self-esteem. - Failure Characteristics: Shame and doubt, often resulting from trying things for the first time without support. - Stage 3: Preschool (Age or years) - Psychosocial Crisis: Initiative vs. Guilt. - Central Question: "Is it okay for me to move, do, and act?" - Goal: To control the environment. - Success Characteristics: Purpose and initiative; children develop a sense of purpose by taking on responsibilities. - Failure Characteristics: Guilt; the capacity to feel guilt for misdeeds develops, often under the pressure of the expectations of others. - Stage 4: School-Aged / Childhood (Age or years) - Psychosocial Crisis: Industry vs. Inferiority. - Central Question: "Can I make it in the world of people and things?" - Goal: To cope with new social and academic demands. - Success Characteristics: Competence and industry (the virtue of confidence); children learn to feel competent by assessing how others view them and working successfully with others. - Failure Characteristics: Inferiority; peer pressure plays the most significant role here. - Stage 5: Adolescence (Age or years) - Psychosocial Crisis: Identity vs. Role Confusion. - Central Question: "Who am I? Who can I be?" - Goal: Establishing a sense of self. - Success Characteristics: Identity; adolescents develop a sense of identity by exploring various social roles. - Failure Characteristics: Role confusion (identity crisis) and a weak sense of self; individuals often look for a place to fit in or look up to role models (celebrity or fictional). - Stage 6: Young Adulthood (Age or ) - Psychosocial Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation. - Central Question: "Can I love?" - Goal: Form intimate, loving relationships. - Success Characteristics: Intimacy; young adults gain the ability to commit to long-term relationships. - Failure Characteristics: Isolation. - Stage 7: Middle Adulthood (Age or ) - Psychosocial Crisis: Generativity vs. Stagnation. - Central Question: "Can I make my life count?" - Goal: Create or nurture things that will outlast oneself. - Success Characteristics: Generativity and accomplishment; adults gain the sense they are leaving a positive legacy and caring for future generations. - Failure Characteristics: Stagnation (mid-life crisis); often accompanied by the feeling: "If I don’t start doing things now, I’ll never be able to do them again." - Stage 8: Maturity / Old Age (Age or and beyond) - Psychosocial Crisis: Integrity vs. Despair. - Central Question: "Is it good to have been me?" - Goal: Look back on life and feel a sense of fulfillment. - Success Characteristics: Integrity and wisdom; older adults feel satisfaction that they have lived a good life. - Failure Characteristics: Despair, regret, and bitterness.
Criticisms of Erikson’s Theory
Descriptive, Not Causational: The theory does not address the specific causes that move an individual from one stage to the next.
Western Cultural Bias: The conflicts are modeled around a culture focused on individualism; it neglects cultures centered on collectivism.
Lack of Empirical Testing: There is not a significant amount of empirical research testing the validity of the stages.
Prenatal Development and Teratogens
The periods of prenatal development are as follows: - Germinal Period ( weeks): Characterized by the rapid division of the zygote and its implantation on the uterine wall. - Embryonic Period ( weeks): Characterized by the formation of the central nervous system (specifically the spinal cord), major organs, and other bodily structures. Mistakes in development during this stage typically lead to birth defects. - Fetal Period ( weeks to birth): Brain and bodily structures are refined. The fetus grows in weight (developing fat under the skin) and begins to respond to sensory input. Mistakes in development during this stage typically lead to issues with cognitive, emotional, or social functioning.
Teratogens are substances that can cause harm to prenatal development. - The effects of teratogens depend on the amount of exposure, the frequency of exposure, and when the exposure occurs. - Common teratogens include drugs and alcohol. - Early development is an especially vulnerable stage; various factors can cause premature birth or withdrawal symptoms such as irritability and tremors. - Negative impacts can include the impairment of cognitive functioning and long-term mental health. - Delayed Effects: Some impacts are not apparent until the child is older, affecting language, reasoning, attention, social behavior, and emotion disorders. - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): This is the most severe disorder resulting from teratogen exposure. Symptoms include a small head, deformed limbs, heart defects, and abnormal brain development. It is recommended that both parents avoid alcohol before and during conception efforts. - Reproductive Contribution: Both mothers and fathers play a part in prenatal health based on their exposure to toxins and substances. - Zika Virus: This virus can be transmitted from a pregnant mother to her fetus.
Maturation and Physical Development
Cognitive Development and the Brain: - The brain changes in two ways as infants develop: myelinated axons form synapses with other neurons, and over time (with experience), synaptic connections are refined through pruning to preserve the most important connections. - Environmental Influence: Children raised in environments with high stimulation develop and learn best.
Inborn Reflexes: Babies are born "hardwired" with motor reflexes for survival: - Rooting: Moving the mouth toward an object placed on the face. - Sucking: Sucking on objects placed in the mouth. - Grasping: Holding or grasping objects in the hands.
Motor Skill Milestones:
SIDS Considerations: Efforts to reduce Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) involved placing infants on their backs to sleep. While effective at reducing deaths, this led to a slight delay in motor development milestones. Development also varies by cultural and parental practices.
Infant Sensory Development: - Taste: Infants prefer sweet tastes. - Hearing: Infants hear well; they will turn their heads toward a sudden noise and can recognize their mother’s voice. - Vision: Vision is initially poor (cannot distinguish color differences) and infants prefer human faces. Vision matches adult levels after approximately year. - Smell: Infants have a good sense of smell.
Early Attachment and Variations
Infants have a fundamental, universal need to form strong emotional connections with caregivers.
History of Attachment Theory: - 1950s Beliefs: Psychologists believed infants primarily needed care/mothering for the purpose of obtaining food. - Harlow Monkey Attachment Experiment: This study revealed the drive for comfort over food. - Newborn monkeys chose a soft "cloth mother" over a "wire mother" that provided milk. - Monkeys only approached the wire mother when hungry but clung to the cloth mother while eating and in between meals. - Social Consequences: Monkeys in the experiment grew up with terrible social skills (running away or attacking others). Females became "horrible mothers." - Mitigating Trauma: Much damage could be averted if monkeys were given regular exposure to peers of a similar age. - Behaviorist Perspective: At the time, behaviorists only studied observable behavior and avoided terms like "mind," "desire," or "need for love." Some experts warned parents not to "spoil" children with too much closeness. - Romanian Orphans: Evidence for a "sensitive period" in development. Children kept in orphanages during this period without attachment were physically and psychologically impaired when adopted later.
Separation anxiety occurs across all human cultures.
The Strange Situation Test (Mary Ainsworth) identified three attachment styles: - Secure Attachment: Child is distressed when the caregiver leaves and quickly comforted upon their return. They will play in unfamiliar environments if the caregiver is present. This leads to better socio-emotional functioning, peer relations, and self-control. - Insecure-Avoidant Attachment: Child is not distressed when the caregiver leaves and avoids them upon return. They explore but show little interest in the caregiver. - Insecure-Ambivalent Attachment: Child is inconsolably upset when the caregiver leaves and both seeks and rejects contact upon return. They are unwilling to explore and have mixed feelings toward the caregiver, indicating emotional neglect.
Parenting Styles and Outcomes
Relationships between parenting styles and attachment: - Secure attachment is associated with Authoritative and Permissive styles. - Insecure attachment is associated with Authoritarian and Neglectful styles.
Parenting Style Matrix: - Authoritative (High Responsive, High Demand): Clear expectations and rules supported by emotional/psychological support so children understand the need for rules; creates positive relationships. - Authoritarian (Low Responsive, High Demand): High expectations for obedience to strict rules with limited emotional support; focus is on punishment over discipline. - Permissive (High Responsive, Low Demand): Very involved and indulgent of child's desires but do not set clear rules or limits; little use of punishment; "kids will be kids" attitude. - Neglectful / Uninvolved (Low Responsive, Low Demand): Inattentive and provide little guidance, nurturing, attention, or clear rules; indifferent to the child's needs.