developing through the life span chapter 3 1chapter three siegerman notes

Developing Through the Life Span

Chapter 3

1Chapter three Siegerman notes

Developmental Psychology

• Is the study of how we change- physically, cognitively, and socially throughout our live.

• Developmental psychologists have shed light on three major issues.– Nature versus Nurture– Continuity and stages– Stability and change


Conception

• One egg versus 200 million sperm• One sperm penetrates the egg and then a

protect covering will not allow any more sperm to penetrate.


The blueprint

• Each of the trillion of cells you have carries a message in your chromosomes.

• These threadlike structures contain DNA. Genes are pieces of DNA, they can be active or inactive.

• Events in your environment can “turn them on” or “turn them off”.


• We all share a genetic profile- our human genome- that makes us humans rather than chimpanzees.

• The slight person to person variations found at particular gene sites in the DNA give us clues to our uniqueness.

• Most human traits are influenced by many genes.


Genome

Genome is the set of complete instructions for making an organism,

containing all the genes in that organism. Thus, the human genome makes us

human, and the genome for drosophila makes it a common house fly.


Genes: Our Codes for Life

Chromosomes containing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are situated in

the nucleus of a cell.


Genes: Our Codes for Life

Segments within DNA consist of genes that make proteins to determine our

development.


What is important?

• Heredity and environment are both important.

• Both can cause changes to all animals.

Chapter three Siegerman notes 10

Prenatal Development

A zygote is a fertilized egg with 100 cells that become increasingly diverse. At

about 14 days the zygote turns into an embryo (a and b). L

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Prenatal Development

At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus (c and d). Teratogens are chemicals or viruses

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Twins

• Identical twins develop from a single egg that splits in two. They are nature’s own clones. They share the same genes.

• Fraternal Twins develop from two separate eggs. They do not share the same genes.


The developing child

• In addition to transferring nutrients to the fetus, the placenta screens out many harmful substances. Some can slip by. Among them are teratogens.

• Viruses, drugs• If a mother to be is a drinker of alcohol she

can produce a child who had FAS- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.


The Competent Newborn

Infants are born with reflexes that

aid in survival, including rooting reflex which helps them locate food.


Well equipped

• Babies are well suited to survive.• They have reflexes• They see • They hear• They smell• They are all different


The Competent Newborn

Offspring cries are important signals for parents to provide nourishment. In animals and humans such cries are quickly attended to and relieved.

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Twin and Adoption• Nature versus Nurture• Identical versus Fraternal Twins• Separated Twins• Biological versus Adoptive Relatives


Twin and Adoption Studies

Studying the effects of heredity and environment on two sets of twins,

identical and fraternal, has come in handy.


Separated Twins

A number of studies compared identical twins reared separately from birth, or close thereafter, and found numerous

similarities.Separated Twins

Personality, Intelligence

Abilities, Attitudes

Interests, Fears

Brain Waves, Heart Rate


Separated Twins

Critics of separated twin studies note that such similarities can be found

between strangers. Researchers point out that differences between fraternal twins

are greater than identical twins.

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Biological Versus Adoptive Relatives

Adoption studies, as opposed to twin studies, suggest that adoptees (who may

be biologically unrelated) tend to be different from their adoptive parents and

siblings.


Maturation

The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence— standing before

walking, babbling before talking—this is called maturation.

Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it.


Early Childhood

• During early childhood – while connections are still developing, young children can most easily master such skills as the grammar and accent of another language.

• There does seem to be a critical period for some skills .

• Brain development does not end with childhood.


Motor Development

• We develop in a sequential order.• Heredity plays a major role in motor skills• Our developing cerebellum helps create

our eagerness to walk at about age one• Our earlier experiences have a limited

effect


Motor Development

First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk. Experience has little effect on this

sequence.

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Maturation and Infant Memory

The earliest age of conscious memory is around 3½ years (Bauer, 2002). A 5-year-old has a sense of self and an increased long-term memory, thus organization of

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Cognitive Development

Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our

biological development amidst experiences with the environment. Our cognitive development is shaped by the

errors we make.

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Schemas

Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.


Assimilation and Accommodation

The process of assimilation involves incorporating new

experiences into our current

understanding (schema). The

process of adjusting a schema and

modifying it is called accommodation. Jean Piaget with a subject

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Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking


Sensorimotor Stage: Criticisms

2. Children can also count. Wynn (1992, 2000) showed that children stared longer at the wrong number of objects than the right ones.


Preoperational Stage

Piaget suggested that from 2 years old to about 6-7 years old, children are in the

preoperational stage—too young to perform mental operations.

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Preoperational Stage: Criticism

DeLoache (1987) showed that children as young as 3 years of age are able to use

metal operations. When shown a model of a dog’s hiding place behind the couch, a 2½-year-old could not locate the stuffed dog in an actual room, but the 3-year-old

did.


Egocentrism

Piaget concluded that preschool children are egocentric. They cannot perceive things from another’s point of view.

When asked to show her picture to mommy, 2-year-old Gabriella holds the picture facing her own eyes, believing that her mother can see it through her

eyes.


Lev Vygotsky• Lev was interested in how children think and learn.• He believed that a child at the age of seven are more and

more able to think in words and to use words to work out solutions to problems.

• They do this by no longer thinking aloud, they can internalize their culture’s language and rely on inner speech.

• For example, when a parent pulls a child’s hand away from a hot object they are giving the child a self-control tool.

• He believed that a child talking out loud or internally will help a child control their behavior and emotions and master new skills.

• He believed also that parents gave children a scaffold upon which children can step to higher levels.


Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory

Piaget’s stage theory has been influential globally, validating a number of ideas regarding growth and development in many cultures and societies. However,

today’s researchers believe the following:

1. Development is a continuous process.2. Children express their mental abilities

and operations at an earlier age.3. Formal logic is a smaller part of

cognition.37Chapter three Siegerman notes

Social Development

Stranger anxiety is the fear of strangers that develops at around 8 months. This is the age at which infants form schemas for

familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face.

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Origins of Attachment

Harlow (1971) showed that infants bond with surrogate mothers because of bodily contact and

not because of nourishment.

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Harry Harlow: Hypothesis

• Harlow observed that monkeys became very attached to their blankets

• Hypothesized that monkeys became attached to sources of nurturing, even if they did not provide food

Chapter three Siegerman notes

41

Harlow’s Methodology and Results

• Monkeys separated from their mothers in early infancy and raised in their own cages

• Two artificial mothers: one wire and wood, one cloth

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• Monkeys preferred the cloth “mother,” even when the wooden one provided food

Harlow’s Methodology and Results


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Harlow’s Legacy

• Bond of attachment between parent and child• A secure base from which to explore• The need for security remains with us

throughout our livesChapter three Siegerman notes

Origins of Attachment

Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor that causes attachment. In some

animals (goslings), imprinting is the cause of attachment.

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Attachment Differences

Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their

mother leave, they show distress.

The other 30% show insecure attachment. These children cling to their mothers or caregivers and are less likely

to explore the environment.45Chapter three Siegerman notes

Secure Attachment

Relaxed and attentive caregiving becomes the backbone of secure

attachment.

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Insecure Attachment

Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-

cloth mother is removed.

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Attachment Differences: Why?

Why do these attachment differences exist?

Factor Explanation

MotherBoth rat pups and human infants develop secure attachments if the mother is relaxed and attentive.

Father

In many cultures where fathers share the responsibility of raising

children, similar secure attachments develop.


Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months of age, regardless of whether the children

are home or sent to day care.


Deprivation of Attachment

What happens when circumstances prevent a child from forming

attachments?

In such circumstances children become:

1. Withdrawn2. Frightened3. Unable to develop

speech50Chapter three Siegerman notes

Prolonged Deprivation

If parental or caregiving support is deprived for an extended period of time,

children are at risk for physical, psychological, and social problems,

including alterations in brain serotonin levels.


Child-Rearing Practices

Practice Description

AuthoritarianParents impose rules and

expect obedience.

PermissiveParents submit to children’s

demands.

AuthoritativeParents are demanding but responsive to their children.


Culture and Child Rearing

• Culture is a set of behaviors, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

• Cultural values vary from place to place.• Culture can determine how children will be

raised. Dependent or independent.


How much credit or blame do parents deserve?

• Does bad or good parenting change a child?• Can parents damage a child by how they raise them?• It is a fact, parents do matter.• The power of the family environment also appears in

the remarkable academic and vocational successes of children

• BUT the question still is how much does parenting matter?


Peer Influence

Children, like adults, attempt to fit into a group by conforming. Peers are

influential in such areas as learning to cooperate with others, gaining

popularity, and developing interactions.

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A combination

• Howard Gardner concluded that parents and peers are complimentary.

• Parents have a role to play as do Friends or Peers.

• Each will have specific area that a developing person will need and use. Music=Friends, Discipline =Parents


Adolescence Physical Development


Social Development

Emerging Adulthood

Thinking About Continuity and Stages


Adolescence

Many psychologists once believed that our traits were set during childhood.

Today psychologists believe that

development is a lifelong process. Adolescence is defined as a life

between childhood and adulthood.

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Physical Development

Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty

occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13

years). Thus height in females increases

before males.


Puberty

• The first menstrual cycle is called MENARCHE.• The males first ejaculation is called

SPERMARCHE• We go through a sequence of changes in

puberty.• Developing early or late has not effect on how

you will look in the long run, it can effect your psychological outlook.


Primary Sexual Characteristics

During puberty primary sexual characteristics — the reproductive organs and external genitalia — develop rapidly.

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Secondary Sexual Characteristics

Also secondary sexual characteristics—the nonreproductive traits such as breasts and

hips in girls and facial hair and deepening of voice in boys develop. Pubic hair and armpit

hair grow in both sexes.


Brain Development

Until puberty, neurons increase their connections. However, at adolescence,

selective pruning of the neurons begins. Unused neuronal connections are lost to

make other pathways more efficient.


Frontal Cortex

During adolescence, neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, which speeds up nerve conduction. The frontal cortex lags behind

the limbic system’s development. Hormonal surges and the limbic system may explain

occasional teen impulsiveness.



Adolescents’ ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness. In

particular, they may think about the following:

1. Their own thinking.2. What others are thinking.3. What others are thinking about

them.4. How ideals can be reached. They

criticize society, parents, and even themselves.


Developing Reasoning Power

According to Piaget, adolescents can handle abstract problems, i.e., they can perform formal operations. Adolescents can judge

good from evil, truth and justice, and think about God in deeper terms.

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Morality

As our thinking matures, so does our behavior in that we become less selfish and more caring. People who engage in doing the right thing develop empathy for others and the self-discipline to resist their own

impulses.


Lawrence Kohlberg and Morality

• 3 basic levels of moral thinking

• Preconventional Morality• Conventional Morality

• Post conventional Morality


Preconventional Morality

• Before age 9 most children’s morality focuses on self-interest.• They obey rules to avoid

punishment or to gain rewards.


Conventional Morality

• By early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules simply because they are the laws and rules.

• At this stage, people may favor actions that gain social approval or help maintain the social order.


POST CONVENTIONAL MORALITY

• With the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought, people may reach a third level.

• Actions are judged “right” because they flow from people’s rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles.


Kohlberg Theory

• We start from the bottom and work our way up.

• Not all people can reach the top level.• His theory can be biased against societies that

are group centered.• Different societies may have different

definitions of what is morally right or wrong.


Social Development


Forming an Identity

In Western cultures, many adolescents try out different selves before settling into a

consistent and comfortable identity. Having such an identity leads to forming

close relationships.

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Parent and Peer Influence

Although teens become independent of their parents as

they grow older, they nevertheless relate

to their parents on a number of things,

including religiosity and career choices. Peer approval and relationships are

also very important. 76Chapter three Siegerman notes

Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood spans ages 18-25. During this time, young adults may live with their parents and attend college or

work. On average, emerging adults marry in their mid-twenties.

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Adulthood Physical Development


Social Development

Thinking About Stability and Change


Adulthood

Although adulthood begins sometime after

a person’s mid-twenties, defining

adulthood into stages is more difficult than defining the stages of

childhood or adolescence.

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Physical Development

The peak of physical performance occurs around 20 years of age, after which it declines imperceptibly for most of us.


Middle Adulthood

Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline

after the mid-twenties. Around age 50, women go through menopause, and men experience decreased levels of hormones

and fertility.

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Old Age: Sensory Abilities

After age 70, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell diminish, as do muscle strength, reaction time, and

stamina. After 80, neural processes slow down, especially for complex tasks.

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Old Age: Motor Abilities

At age 70, our motor abilities also decline. A 70-year-old is no match for a 20-year-old

individual. Fatal accidents also increase around this age.


Aging and Memory

As we age, we remember some

things well. These include recent past events and events that happened a decade or two

back. However, recalling names

becomes increasingly

difficult. 84Chapter three Siegerman notes

Aging and Memory

Recognition memory does not decline with age, and material that is meaningful is

recalled better than meaningless material.

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Aging and Intelligence

It is believed today that fluid intelligence (ability to reason speedily) declines with

age, but crystalline intelligence (accumulated knowledge and skills) does

not. We gain vocabulary and knowledge but lose recall memory and process more

slowly.


Aging and Intelligence

A number of cognitive abilities decline with age.

However, vocabulary and

general knowledge increase with age.


Social Development

Many differences between the young and old are not simply based on physical and

cognitive abilities, but may instead be based on life events associated with family,

relationships, and work.


Adulthood’s Ages and Stages

Psychologists doubt that adults pass through an orderly sequence

of age-bound stages. Mid-life crises at 40 are

less likely to occur than crises

triggered by major events (divorce, new marriage).

Neuroticism scores, 10,000 subjects(McCrae & Costa, 1996).


Adulthood’s Commitments

Love and work are defining themes in adult life. Evolutionary psychologists believe that

commitment has survival value. Parents that stay together are likely to leave a

viable future generation.

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Adulthood’s Commitments

Happiness stems from working in a job that fits your interests and provides you with a sense of competence and accomplishment.

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Well-Being Across the Life Span

Well-being and people’s feelings of satisfaction are stable across the life span.


Successful Aging


Death and Dying

The “normal” range of reactions or grief

stages after the death of a loved one varies widely. Grief

is more severe if death occurs

unexpectedly. People who view their lives

with a sense of integrity (in

Erikson’s terms) see life as meaningful and worthwhile.

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Reflections on Two Major Developmental Issues

Researchers who view development as a slow, continuous process are generally those who emphasize experience and

learning. Those with a biological perspective, on the other hand, view

maturation and development as a series of genetically predisposed steps or stages. These include psychologists like Piaget,

Kohlberg and Erikson.

Continuity and Stages


Developmental Issues

Lifelong development requires both stability and change. Personality gradually

stabilizes as people age. However, this does not mean that our traits do not

change over a lifetime. Some temperaments are more stable than

others.

Stability and Change


developing through the life span chapter 3 1chapter three siegerman notes

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