Chapter 8

Words to consider

As the complexity of life’s demands grows, so does our capacity for handling them. The whole sweep of human development can be thought of as a series of challenges that prompt us to develop new capacities and improve previously acquires ones

Just when we think we have everything handled, the world hands us a new set of challenges, and we rise to the occasion.

Overview

Theories of Development

  • Developmental Psychology

    • The study of how humans grow, develop, and change throughout the life span

    • covers physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains

    • Development is seen as continuous or as taking place in stages

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Jean Piaget: “The essence of cognitive development is the refinement of schemes”.

  • Worked to understand children’s reasoning process

  • Schemes

    • plans of action to be used in similar circumstances, concepts, understandings, etc

Piaget: We are constantly refining our schemes

  • Assimilation

    • process for incorporating new objects, events, experiences, and information into existing schemes

  • Accommodation

    • modifying existing schemes and creating new ones to incorporate new experiences and information and develop novel ways to engage

    • completely new experiences and information and develop novel ways to engage

  • Leads to cognitive development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: Four Stages of Cognitive Development

  • Sensorimotor Stage (1)

    • birth to 2 years

    • infants gain understanding of the world through senses and motor activities

    • Infants act on objects and events that are directly perceived

    • Development ofc object permanence

      • the realization that objects continue to exist when they can no longer be perceived

Preoperational Stage (2)

  • ages 2-7

  • Children acquire symbolic function, imagination

    • understanding that one thing can stand for another

  • Children exhibit egocentrism

    • belief that everyone sees what they see, thinks what they think, feels what they feel

    • perhaps the development of self-awareness

keep in mind the tremendous growth in cognitive activities

Concrete Operațional Stage (3)

  • ages 7-11/12 years

  • Children acquire the concept of conservation

    • quantity of matter stays the same despite rearrangement or change in appearance

  • begin to understand reversibility

    • any change in shape, position, or order of matter can be reversed mentally

Formal operational Stage

  • 11/12 and beyond

  • Children acquire the capacity for hypothetic-deductive thinking/reasoning

    • ability to apply logical thought to abstract and hypothetical situations

    • Their thinking is becoming more complex and sophisticated

    • Studies support the validity of Piagent’s cognitive development stages

Alternative to Piaget’s Theory: Neo-Piagetian Approach

  • Some theorists believe that age-related differences in performance are a function of changes in the use of working memory and processing speed

    • younger children process information more slowly

      • information less lily to make it to long-term storage

      • cannot compare original and transformation

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Approach

Argued that Piaget’s theory placed too much emphasis on forces within the child

  • Key concepts

    • Private speech: talking to oneself

Believed that much of cognitive development comes from the child’s internalization of information that is acquired socially though language.

  • scaffolding/ zone of proximal development

    • instruction where an adult adjusts the amount of guidance to match a child’s present level of ability

    • Challenging to improve ability

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Moral Development

  • Presented moral dilemmas to participants

    • analyzed the moral reasoning in their choices

  • Classified moral reasoning

    • three levels, two stages at each level

    • progress through the levels and stages in a fixed order

    • Each level has a prerequisite stage of cognitive development

Kolhberg’s Theory

  • Evidence suggests that the stages occur in all cultures

  • Stage 5 is present in all middle-class cultures studied but absent in tribal cultures

  • Assimilation of our sense of morality is lifelong and can be situational

  • Our sense of morality is probably less rigid than what Kolhberg posited

Criticism to Kolhberg’s Theory

  • Psychologist Carol Gilligan believed the theory was sex-biased. Argued that “his theory was based on the responses of upper class White men and boys” and that no women were used in Kohlberg’s studies

    • “Girls exhibit distinct patterns of moral development based on relationships and on feelings of care and responsibility for others”.

    • not every criminal feels bad for what they did

      Kohlberg believed that girls could only reach a certain level

      we’re always tweaking our sense of morality

Kohlberg believed that the majority of women remain at S3, whereas most men reach S4 partly due to emotional/care differences

Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

German-American developmental psychologist (1902-1994)

  • Raised by his Jewish mother and step-father

  • Deeply affected by absent biological father

  • Identify crises

Psychosocial Stages

  • encompass the entire life span

  • Each stage is defined by a conflict that must be resolved for healthy personality development to occur

Erik Erikson

*Note: mandatory term paper topic!

  • Most research has focused on trust in infants, identity formation in adolescents, and generatively in middle-aged adults

  • Predictions received mixed support in research

Erikson and Identity Formation (IF)

  • Research shows IF beginning in adolescence but continues well into early adults years

  • Implications on educational and career concerns

  • Piaget’s formal operational stage (reasoning) strongly related to IF.

  • Cognitive ability not yet fully developed until early adulthood

Adolescence: Self Esteem

  • A person’s overall, individual sense of self, including worth, value, image, importance, confidence, purpose, security, reliance, etc…

  • Self esteem is constantly being shaped through interaction with environmental/societal forced and the internalization of these factors

Free to choose whichever stage for the term paper

high incidence of depression in older people who don’t find they have meaning

Human Physical Development

Prenatal Development: Negative Influences on Prenatal Development

  • teratogens

    • harmful agents in the prenatal environment

    • negative impact on prenatal development

    • can cause birth defects

Stages of Parental Development

  • Critical Period(s)

    • prenatal period when certain body structures develop

    • Susceptible to harm, damage

  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: FAS

    • Mother drinks during pregnancy

    • Baby is born with mental retardation, small head, facial, organ, and behavioral abnormalities

The Birthing Process

  • Labor: 3-Stage Process

    • Stage 1: Uterus contracts; cervix flattens and increases in diameter to 10 centimeters

    • Stage 2: Fetus makes its way through the vaginal canal and into the world

    • Stage 3: Uterus expels the placenta

  • Neonate

    • Newborn infant up to 1 month old

Development in Infancy: Perceptual and Motor Development

  • Robert Fantz (1961)

    • Infants prefer to fixate on some objects over others

    • Newborn infants can discriminate between objects

    • prefer faces to black and white abstract patterns

    • Newborn visual acuity is about 20/600

      • vision improves rapidly

    • Reflexes: sucking, swallowing, blinking

Development in Infancy: Temperament

  • Temperament

    • behavioral style; characteristic way of responding to the environemnt

    • influenced by heredity; somewhat predictive of personality later in life

    • Interaction of temperament (nature) and the environment (nurture) molds our personality

  • Types of Temperament

    • easy

      • pleasant mood, adaptable, approach new situations positivley

    • difficult

      • intense emotional reactions, react negatively to new situations

    • slow to warm up

      • tend to withdraw, are slow to adapt, somewhat negative in mood

Development and Infancy: Attachment

  • Attachment

    • strong affectionate bond a child forms with the mother or primary caregiver

  • Harry Harlow

    • Contact comfort (physical comfort with surrogate mother figure) rather than nourishment forms the basis of attachment in rhesus monkeys.

  • At 6-8 months of age, human infants exhibit:

    • Separation anxiety

      • fear and distress shown when parent leaves

    • Stranger anxiety

      • fear of strangers

Mary Ainsworth (1973, 1979) studies the quality of mother-child attachment, identified four patterns of attachment.

Attachment Types: Secure

  • Secure Attachment

    • about 65 percent of infants

    • use mother as a secure base for exploring

    • distressed by separation from caregivers, greet caregivers when they return

    • display better social skills as preschool children

Attachment Types: Avoidant

  • Avoidant Attachment

    • about 20 percent of infants

    • not responsive to mother or troubled when she leaves

    • may actively avoid contact with mother after separation

Resistant Attachment

  • Resistant Attachment

    • 10-15 percent of infants

    • seek close contact with mother

    • tend not to branch out and explore

    • after separation, may display anger toward mother; not easily comforted

Disorganized Attachment

  • Disorganized/disoriented Attachment

    • 5-10 percent of infants

    • protest separation

    • exhibit contradictory and disoriented behavior when reunited

Mary Ainsworth (1973, 1979) studied the quality of mother-child attachment, identified four patterns of attachment

Language Development

  • Children must acquire language in the first 2 years of life; otherwise their ability to learn it is impaired

  • Current data however, suggest grammar-learning ability remains strong until age 17-18, at which point it drops

Phases of language development

  • babbling

    • Infants babble all the basic speech sounds that occur in all the languages of the world (phonemes)

    • between 4 and 6 months of age

  • One-Word Stage

    • age 1 year

    • Words represent objects that move or that infants act on

    • Overextension: basically generalization i.e. all food is “papa” or “chicken”

    • Underextension: stricter specification than usual

  • Telegraphic speech

    • Ages 2-3

    • Short sentences containing only essential content words

    • reflects the development of syntax

    • overregularization

      • misapplying a grammatical rule

  • Learning theories

    • Language is acquired through imitation and reinforcement

      • imitation and reinforcemnt

  • Nativist Position

    • languagely innate

    • language acquisition device: brain structures involved in acquired language

      • enables children to acquire language and rules of grammar easily and naturally

    • can sponge language naturally

Early and Middle Childhood Socialization: Parenting Styles

*Note: mandatory term paper topic

Diane Baumrind re: the continuum of parental control (1971, 1980, 1991)

  • Authoritarian Parents

    • arbitrary rules, expect unquestioning obedience, punish misbehavior, ultra strict and inflexible

    • Value obedience to authority

  • Authoritative Parents

    • set high but realistic standards, enforce limits

    • encourage open communication and independence

    • Provide structure but are flexible

  • Permissive Parents

    • few rules or demands

    • Children make their own decisions and control their own behavior

    • Includes indulgent and neglectful

Note: parenting styles are subject to change in time due to parental experience, confidence and familiarity and parental involvement with the child

Paarenting Styles and Child Outcomes

  • Authoritative Parents

    • Children raise in a authoritative environment tend to be happier and have higher self-esteem

    • more self-reliant, socially competent, responsible

  • Authoritarian Parents

    • Children raised in an authoritarian environment tend to be withdrawn, anxious, and unhappy

  • Permissive Parents

    • Children tend to display immature, impulsive, and dependent behaviors

    • least see-reliant and self-controlled of three subtypes

    • poor sense of responsibility

Early and Middle Childhood: Gender Role Development

  • Biological Theory

    • prenatal ad sex hormones influence development

  • Social Learning Theory

    • environment is more important than biological forces

    • modeling and reinforcement for gender behavior; gender behaviors are learned through the process of observational learning

    • Social media’s influence on gender role development

  • Cognitive Developmental Theory: Kholberg

    • Development occurs in stages

    • gender identity

      • recognizes they are male or female

    • gender stability

      • understands their gender is fixed

    • gender constancy

      • cosmetic changes does not alter ones sex

  • Gender Schema Thepry

    • desire to maintain self-esteem motivates child towards culturally defined gender roles

Adolescence: Puberty and Sexual Behavior

Puberty

  • period of rapid physical growth and change

  • culminates in sexual maturity

Early maturation in boys may provide benefits such as

  • advantages in sports

  • more success academically

  • greater aggression and hostility

However in girls is not at advantagous

  • more self-consciousnes

  • earlier sexual experiences

  • unwanted pregnancies

  • earlier exposure to alcohol and drug use

  • FORM OF REBELLION

    • THINK THEY’RE GROWN

    • form of control

    • autonomy

Adolescence Sexual Behavior

  • Sexual activity increases dramatically through the teen years

  • Factors associated with later onset of sexual activity:

    • Living with both biological parents plus a harmonious home environment

    • Higher academic achievement

    • Involvement in sports

    • Frequent community involvement

    • Let’s not forget the importance of developing a healthy sense of self-esteem!!

Adolescence: Social Development

  • Parenting style affects adolescent behavior

    • authoritative most effective; permissive least effective

  • Positive peer group relationships provide adolescents with:

    • Assistance in identity formation

    • Standards of comparison

    • Vehicle for developing social skills

Social Development: Emerging Adulthood

  • Must addresss developmental tasks in 5 domains

    • academic, friendship, conduct, work, romantic (similar to Erikson theory)

    • Emerging adults struggle more with work and romantic tasks

Early and Middle Adulthood: Physical and Cognitive Changes

  • After age 30, decline in physical/ sensory/ processing capabilities

  • Menopause

    • cessation of mentruation

    • signifies end of reproductive capacity in women

    • usually occurs between 45 and 55

  • Gradual decline in testosterone in men

    • beginning at age 20, continuing until about 60

Early and Middle Adulthood: Changes in Intelligence

  • Two Types of Intelligence

    • crystallized intelligence

      • verbal ability and accumulated knowledge

      • increases over life span

    • Fluid intelligence

      • abstract reasoning and mental flexibility\

      • peaks in the early 2-s and declines slowly as people age

Early and Middle Adulthood: Social Development

  • Living arrangements

    • ½ of all US households are headed by a married couple; the other half have different arrangements

  • Marriage and Divorce

    • 80% of Americans will marry at least once

    • Marriage is associated with many-physical and psychological benefits (of course if your’e involved in healthy relationship!)

Early and Middle Adulthood: Career Concerns

  • John Holland: people whose personality matches their job are also more likely to be satisfied with their work

  • Six personality types and traits

    • Realistic-aggressive, physical type occupations

    • Investigative-thinking, planning, organizing

    • Artistic-asocial, highly individual activities

    • Social-extraverted, sociable: nursing, education

    • Enterprising-verbal, leader, persuasive: business

    • Conventional- requires structure, not very flexible-military, government

Later Adulthood: Physical and Cognitive Changes

  • General Slowing

    • reductions in the speed of neural transmission/ processing

    • leads to slowing pf physical and mental functions

  • Farsightedness, impaired night vision, hearing loss in higher frequencies

  • Shrinking cortex due to breakdown of myelin in white matter of brain.

Later Adulthood: Physical and Cognitive Changes

  • 80% of Americans older than 65 have one or more chronic conditions.

    • hypertension, arthritis, diabetes

  • Good Cognitive Functioning Predictors:

    • educational attainment; complexity in work environment; mentally stimulating intimate relationship(s); higher socio-economic status

Later Adulthood: Social Adjustment

  • 60% of 65- to 69-year-olds and 80% of those over 70 have retired from paid employment (Fifers, 2008)

    • Most do not experience stress adjusting to retirement

    • Instructor’s note: it’s never too early to plan for retirement with emphasis on sound financial decision. making

  • Living Arrangements

    • White Americans place high value on independence

      • Five percent of elderly women and nine percent of older men live with relatives

    • Latin-American and Asian cultures

      • High percentage elderly live with relatives

      • Much more emphasis on family/ collectivist concerns

Later Adulthood: Successful Aging

  • Three Components

    • Good Physical health

    • Retention of cognitive abilities

    • Engagement in social and productive activities

  • Essential to remain physically and mentally active

  • Achieve ego integrity (Erikson)

Death and Dying: Elizabeth

  • Identifies 5 stages in coming to terms with death

    • Denial

    • Anger

    • Bargaining

    • Depression

    • Acceptance

  • Instructors note: similar stages in other forms of loss

  • Critics doubt the universality of stages

  • reactions to impending death vary widely between individuals and across cultures

  • Passive euthanasia: with drawing life support, treatment keeping patient alive

  • Active euthanasia: administration of fatal drug dose by physician or self