Chapter 8: Human Development

Human Development

Human Development- the study of the lifelong process of change and the environmental and genetic factors that influence it.

• Physical

• Sexual

• Cognitive

• Emotional

• Moral

• Social

Early Development Ideas

• John Locke- children are born a blank slate “tabula rasa,” lead to behaviorism ideas (what is reinforced)

• Jean Jacques Rousseau- children are born good and then society and environment interfere with natural goodness

• Immanuel Kant- inborn characteristics and external world-drive development

• G. Stanley Hall (Recapitulation Theory)- embryo development follows the path of evolutionary development of species (rejected theory, but used to support evolution)

Prenatal Development

• Prenatal- the time between conception and birth

• Zygote- conception until implantation

• Embryo- once implants in uterus. By week 4 “neural groove” develops, by week 7 brain stem forms

• Fetus- roughly 8 weeks gestation until birth. Beginning at week 8, fetus nervous system forms roughly 250,000 new neurons every minute. While in the womb can feel pain, responds to mother’s moods, have REM sleep and may dream, form memories and preferences.

Newborn Development

Reflexes From Birth:

• Swallowing Reflex- swallow liquid without choking

• Rooting Reflex- turns head when something touches cheek

• Grasping Reflex- close fist around something put in hand

• Stepping Reflex- make stepping motion if held upright and feet lightly touch a surface

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development:

4 Stages:

• **Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 18 moths)-**discover causality and Object Permanence

• Pre-Operations Stage (18 moths to 6 years)- Use symbols and language skills

• Concrete Operational Stage (6 to 12 years)- Develop Conservation, matter doesn’t change because of form

• Formal Operational Stage (12-18 years)- Abstract thinking, use logic, hypothetical situations, and draw conclusions

Freudian Psycho-Sexual Development:

• Oral Stage (Birth to 1 year old)- gratification is mouth-oriented

• Anal Stage (1-2 years old)- gratification centers on feces and parental expectations

• Phallic Stage (2-6 years old)- gratification centers on sexuality and genitals

• Latency Stage (6-12 years old)- sexual urges are dormant

• Genital Stage (12-death)- spend the rest of our lives repressing or redirecting sexual energy

Psycho-Social Development

(Erik Erikson)

• Like Piaget because he believed development went through stages

• Like Freud because he believed that every stage has a crises that must be successfully navigated

8 Stages:

1. Trust v. Mistrust (Birth to 18 months)- do we form trusting relationships or develop a sense of mis-trust?

2. Autonomy v. Shame and Doubt (18 months to 3 years)- do we develop a sense of positive independence or shame and self-doubt?

3. Initiative v. Guilt (3 to 6 years)- do we have a sense of confidence/control or guilt/timidity?

4. Industry v. Inferiority (6-12 years)- do we develop a sense of industry, competence, and mastery, or inadequacy and inferiority?

5. Identity v. Role Confusion (12-18 years)- in the midst of rapid change, do we develop unique/appropriate aspirations and beliefs or self-doubt/confusion/rebellion?

6. Intimacy v. Isolation (18 to 40 years)- will we form lasting intimate relationships or turn to loneliness

7. Generativity v. Stagnation (40 to 65 years)- will we continue to contribute and have purpose of become self-centered and stagnate

8. Ego Integrity v. Despair (65-death)- will we look back on life with a sense of completeness or with bitterness and defeat?

Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg- interested in how we think about right and wrong

• Pre-Conventional Stage- moral reasoning based on avoiding punishment and advancing own interests

• Conventional Level- moral reasoning is based on conforming to the expectation of others and respect for authority

• Post-Conventional Level- moral reasoning is based on internalized humanistic principles of justice, reciprocity, and human dignity

Attachment Theories

Attachment- the lasting psychological connection between two people

• Secure Attachment

• Ambivalent Attachment

• Avoidant Attachment

Parenting Styles

Three main parenting styles and their influence on child development

• Authoritarian Parents- produce anxious withdrawn children

• Permissive Parents- produce children with poor social skills, poor emotional control and little persistence in tasks

• Authoritative Parents- produce children who are friendly, cooperative, and self-reliant

Aging

As we age, we experience physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes

• Social and Emotional changes as we age, increased risk of isolation and depression can lead to increased heart disease

Cognitive Changes:

• Dementia, Parkinson’s Strokes, Alzheimer’s

Flexible and Crystallized Intelligence:

• Flexible- basic mental abilities, abstract thinking, encoding short-term memories (new learning)

• Crystallized- knowledge accumulated over a lifetime (existing memories)

Dying

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross- was famous for studying death and dying

• Denial and Isolation- characterized by shock, numbness, and refusal to accept the news

• Anger Stage- feelings of injustice and “why me?”

• Bargaining Phase- try to find a way around it, or making promises to be able to avoid death

• Depression- feelings of grief, depression, and hopelessness

• Acceptance- a quiet expectation

Chapter 9: Consciousness

Definitions of Consciousness:

• The awareness one has of oneself and the environment

• The capacity to be explicitly aware of oneself and to make explicit free-will decisions

• The ability to establish meaningful relationships

• The subjective experiencing of a stimulus or mental state

• The ability to attribute goals

• The locus for human decision-making

• The essence of Mankind’s God-likeness

Consciousness

• Naturalist- consciousness is simply a product of brain activities reserved for the most highly evolved creatures

• Christian- consciousness is part of our God-likeness and the way we interact with God and others

States of Consciousness

Many states of consciousness, each with their own distinctive brainwave patterns

• Sleep/Dreams

• Daydreams

• Hypnosis

• Meditation

• Drugs/Chemicals

• Heat, fatigue, exhaustion, dehydration, malnutrition

Sleep- 5 Stages

• Stage 1- Falling asleep, heart and breathing rates drop, may have odd mental images

• Stage 2- short bursts (sleep spindles) of electrical voltage responding to sound

• Stage 3 and 4- breathing deepens, muscles relax, groggy and confused if awakened

• Stage 5- REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep

Why We Sleep?

• Repair/Restoration Theory

• Information Consolidation Theory

• Adaptive Theories- had some type of evolutionary advantage

How Much Sleep?

• Newborns: 18hrs

• Teenagers: 9hrs

• Adults: 7-8hrs

  **-**As little as 4-5, as much as 10, pregnant women need more sleep

Sleep Disorders

• Sleep Debt- the difference between amount of time spent sleeping and amount of sleep needed

• Sleep Deprivation- chronic and severe lack of sleep, impaired thinking, lose motor coordination, hallucinations

• Insomnia, hypersomnia

• Somnambulism (sleepwalking), somniloquy (sleep talking)

• Narcolepsy

• Sleep Apnea (stop breathing)

• Sleep Paralysis

• REM Behavior Disorder (acting out violent/intense dreams)

Dreams

• Dream is a form of thought

• Can occur at any stage, but most vivid and memorable in REM

• Dream 4-6 times a night

• Dream total of 6 years of our life

Why do we Dream?

• Evolutional Theory- rehearse survival strategies

• Activation Synthesis Theory- create dreams to explain the random impulses during sleep

• Reorganize Neural Connections

• Interpretation of surrounding stimuli

• Information Processing

• Resolve emotional conflict

What do dreams mean?

• No one knows??

• Psychoanalytic Theory- way to express our latent sexual desires

• Symbolic representations of memories

• Unconscious Problem Solving

• Cosmic messages from ¨spiritual forces´´

• How does God use dreams?

Hypnosis

• Altered Trance-like state

• Franz Alton Mesmer credited with the discovery of hypnosis (Mesmerism)

• James Braid- hypnotic induction using eye fatigue to induce hypnotic trance

Meditation

• The practice of calming the mind and focusing attention

• Christian meditation is focusing attention on the Word of God

• Meditation is associated with long-term health benefits and stress reduction

Psychoactive Drugs-Definitions

• Alter consciousness, behavior, cognition, and emotions

• Tolerance- need to increase quantity of substance to get same effect

• Dependence/Addiction- experiences unpleasant symptoms when not using the drug

• Withdrawal- symptoms felt when the drug is no longer in the system

• Psychological Dependence- mental or emotional discomfort when not using the drug

• Physiological Dependence- physical symptoms when not using the drug

4 Catagories:

Depressants:

• Sedatives or tranquilizers (they slow or depress neural activity)

• Alcohol

• Pain Killers

Stimulants:

• Mimic adrenaline and increase neural activity

• Caffeine

• Amphetamines and Methamphetamine

• Cocaine

• Nicotine

Opiates:

• Mimic endorphins and act like pain killers and stress reducers

• Heroine

• Opium

• Oxycodone (codeine and hydrocodone)

• Withdrawal from Opiates can be so severe that we often use Methadone (a long-acting opiates) to avoid withdrawal symptoms

Hallucinogens:

• Produce hallucinations and mood changes

• LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide)

• Ecstasy

• Marijuana- from the cannabis plant, can result in changes in mood and behavior

• Amotivational Syndrome (apathy, poor judgement, concentration deficits) can result from Marijuana use

Chapter 10: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Thinking

• Cognition- the mental processes of thinking, feeling, perceiving, problem-solving, and remembering

• Cognitions are our thoughts

• Thoughts and Language are completely intertwined

• Concepts- categories by which we describe the physical world (birds, fishing, death, love)

• Simple Concept- a single feature in common (bird)

• Prototype- idea example of a concept (bird=robin vs. ostrich)

• Conjunctive Concept- 2 or more features in common (clouds and cotton balls are both white and fluffy)

• Disjunctive Concepts- “either-or” same word with different meaning (word “strike”)

• Schemas- the way we organize concepts, also called our worldview

• Cognitive Scripts- psychologist term for our usual way of organizing concepts, “throw a shoe”

Cognitive Style

• Refers to the way in which you process information

• Field Independent Thinkers- analytic and break things into smaller parts

• Field Dependent Thinkers- big picture, meaning and purpose

• **Deductive Reasoning-**use of logic and algorithms to solve problems

• Heuristics- simple “rules of thumb” as a mental shortcut

Decision Making/Problem Solving

One of the most complex of mental activities involving perception, memories, emotions, attitudes, and reasoning

Barriers:

• Perceptual Barriers- if perception is faulty, solution will be faulty

• Fixations- tendency to repeat wrong solutions

• Mental Set- approaching all problems the same

• Belief Bias- favor info that confirms assumptions

• Believe Perseverance- stick with decision, even when shown it’s wrong

• Availability Bias- make decisions based on what’s easiest

• Functional Fixedness- inability to see new uses for familiar objects

Language

• Defined as a set of symbols used to represent objects according to a set of rules

• Semantics- study of the meaning of language

• Phonemes- smallest distinguishable sounds

• Morphemes- smallest meaningful units of language

• Grammar and Syntax- rules that govern how words form phrases and sentences

Language Development:

• Babies go through the same stages of language development. Children not exposed to formal language will make one up

• Crying

• Babbling

• Holophrases (one word sentences)

• Complex Phrases

• Ambiguity- words or phrases that can have more than one meaning or be understood more than one way

Theories of Language Development:

• Learning Theory- Behaviorist model

• Nativist Theory- Noam Chomsky, children are born with a “universal grammar” of pre-programmed set of rules for language

• Interactionist Theory- learn through interplay between innate capacity and environmental influence

Intelligence

What is intelligence?

• A Measure of general mental ability

• Ability to gather knowledge

• Capacity for abstract reasoning and problem solving

• Understand and Deal with People, objects, and symbols

Theories of Intelligence

• Alfred Binet- Developed the fist IQ Test (Intelligence Quotient) as a way to measure intelligence

• Ratio of Mental age to chronological age times 100

• Actual age 6, but mental age 7 (7/6x100=117)

• David Weschler- felt that Binet’s test over emphasized verbal skills so created the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

Types of Intelligence

• Raymond Cattell- theorized 2 subtypes

• Fluid Intelligence- reasoning, memory, spatial ability, and mental speed

• Crystallized Intelligence- verbal skills, mathematical skills, ability to use information to solve problems

• Howard Gardner- proposed that instead of just one single intelligence, there are actually eight areas of intelligence

1. Logical- Mathematical Intelligence (scientists and mathematicians)

2. Visual- Spatial Intelligence (architects and sculptors)

3. Verbal- Linguistic Intelligence (writers, teachers, attorneys)

4. Musical Intelligence- developed sensitivity to tone, rhythm (musicians and composers)

5. Bodily- Kinesthetic Intelligence (gymnasts, athletes, craftspeople)

6. Interpersonal Intelligence- (counselors, politicians, pastors)

7. Intrapersonal Intelligence- self smart ability to respond to own moods, emotions, and attitudes

8. Naturalistic Intelligence- understanding of nature, plants and animals

*Possible 9th- Existential Intelligence- sensitivity to issues of death, philosophy, and religions