Chapter 9

Studying how humans change and grow from conception through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and death

physical cognitive psychosocial

involves growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness

learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity

involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.

Asks "what is normal development?" and studies milestones in the three developmental stages

Age-related averages used as general guidelines to compare children with same-age peers to determine the approximate ages they should reach specific normative events culture

views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills, gradual

believe that development takes place in unique stages: It occurs at specific times or ages, sudden

object permanence

The timing of basic motor functions may vary across cultures. However, the functions themselves are present in all societies

believed that personality develops during early childhood & childhood experiences shape our personalities and behavior as adults.

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.

took Freud's theory and modified it as psychosocial theory

emphasizes the social nature of our development rather than its sexual nature · personality development takes place all through the lifespan · how we interact with others affects our sense of self · at each stage there is a conflict you must solve, if you don't you are a failure and feel inadequate

1. Trust is the basis of our development during infancy (birth to 12 months) à baby seeing the world as safe and predictable or anxious, fearful, and mistrusting.

2.As toddlers (ages 1-3 years) begin to explore their world, they learn that they can control their actions and act on the environment to get results based on their preferences

3. Once children reach the preschool stage (ages 3-6 years), they are capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play; initiative vs guilt · achieving goals while interacting with others à self-confidence and purpose or feelings of guilt/initiative misfiring.

4. During the elementary school stage (ages 6-12), children face the task of industry versus inferiority. Children begin to compare themselves to their peers to see how they measure up.

5. People in early adulthood (i.e., 20s through early 40s) are concerned with intimacy versus isolation. After we have developed a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with others.

6. When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which extends to the mid-60s. The social task of middle adulthood is generativity versus stagnation

during late 40s involves finding your life's work and contributing to the development of others, through activities such as volunteering, mentoring, and raising children.

7. From the mid-60s to the end of life, we are in the period of development known as late adulthood. Erikson's task at this stage is called integrity versus despair. He said that people in late adulthood reflect on their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure.

He believed that thinking is a central aspect of development and that children are naturally inquisitive. Our cognitive abilities develop through specific stages, which exemplifies the discontinuity approach to development

Are concepts (mental models) that are used to help us categorize and interpret information. When children learn new information, they adjust their schemata through two processes: assimilation and accommodation.

is when they take in information that is comparable to what they already know

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

cognitive development that unfolds in four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

Lasts from birth to about 2 years old. During this stage, children learn about the world through their senses and motor behavior.

object permanence, which is the understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists... also begin to exhibit stranger anxiety, which is a fear of unfamiliar people; can't predict what her experience with that stranger will be like, which results in a fear response.

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

begin to use language in the preoperational stage; but they cannot understand adult logic or mentally manipulate information

cannot perform mental operations because they have not developed an understanding of conservation, which is the idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it is still equal in size as long as nothing has been removed or added.

egocentrism, which means that the child is not able to take the perspective of others.

7 to 11 years old. Children can think logically about real (concrete) events; they have a firm grasp on the use of numbers and start to employ memory strategies. They can perform mathematical operations and understand transformations, such as addition is the opposite of subtraction, and multiplication is the opposite of division

Reversibility means that objects can be changed and then returned back to their original form or condition. during the concrete operational stage

Age 11 to adulthood o children in the formal operational stage can also deal with abstract ideas and hypothetical situations. o Children in this stage can use abstract thinking to problem solve, look at alternative solutions, and test these solutions. o In adolescence, a renewed egocentrism occurs

According to Piaget, the highest level of cognitive development is formal operational thought, which develops between 11 and 20 years old. However, many developmental psychologists disagree with Piaget, suggesting a fifth stage of cognitive development, known as the postformal stage

decisions are made based on situations and circumstances, and logic is integrated with emotion as adults develop principles that depend on contexts; are able to draw on past experiences to help them solve new problems.

believed that moral development, like cognitive development, follows a series of stages.

Moral dilemmas to people of all ages, and then he analyzed their answers to find evidence of their particular stage of moral development; Heinz Dilemma

them in different stages of moral reasoning

felt that more males than females move past stage four in their moral development. · women seem to be deficient in their moral reasoning abilities.

A research assistant of Kohlberg, who consequently developed her own ideas of moral development. · criticized her former mentor's theory because it was based only on upper class White men and boys. · Argued that women are not deficient in their moral reasoning—she proposed that males and females reason differently · Girls and women focus more on staying connected and the importance of interpersonal relationships

Beginning as a one-cell structure to your birth, your development occurred in an orderly and delicate sequence.

Germinal (weeks 1-2) -conception -zygote embryonic (weeks 3-8) fetal (9-40)

During germinal stage: occurs when sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote

During germinal stage: begins as a one-cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge

when the mass of cells attaches to the lining of the uterus then upon implantation the multi-cellular organism is called an embryo

once the embryo develops blood vessels grow, forming the placenta which is a structure connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen from the mother to the developing embryo via the umbilical cord

9-40wks recognizable form of a human being as the "tail" begins to disappear.

sex organs differentiate

fingers n toes

hearing develops

all organ systems have developed

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

provides nourishment and oxygen to the fetus

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

are a collection of birth defects associated with heavy consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. --> a small head size and abnormal facial features. Cognitively, these children may have poor judgment, poor impulse control, higher rates of ADHD, learning issues, and lower IQ scores.

a reduction in blood oxygen levels premature birth, low-birth-weight infants, stillbirth, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

newborn reflexes: inborn automatic responses to particular forms of stimulation. Reflexes help the newborn survive until it is capable of more complex behaviors -rooting -grasping -moro

is the newborn's response to anything that touches her cheek: When you stroke a baby's cheek, she naturally turns her head in that direction and begins to suck

when she feels like she is falling the baby will spread her arms and pull them back in then cry

once girls reach 8-9 years; their growth rate outpaces that of boys due to a pubertal growth spurt which continues until around 12, coinciding with the menstrual cycle

Each neural pathway forms thousands of new connections during infancy and toddlerhood

Refer to our ability to move our bodies and manipulate objects -development of this occurs in an orderly sequence as infants move from reflexive reactions to more advanced functioning.

focus on the muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes, and enable coordination of small actions

focus on the muscles in our fingers, toes, and eyes, and enable coordination of small actions

thought that children's ability to understand objects—such as learning that a rattle makes a noise when shaken—was a cognitive skill that develops slowly as a child matures and interacts with the environment

Researchers have found that even very young children understand objects and how they work long before they have experience with those objects

Between 3 and 5 years old, children come to understand that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are different from their own. They are also able to recognize false beliefs

around 11 years

language and communication skills.

mother's voice and can discriminate between the language(s) spoken by their mothers and foreign languages, and they show preferences for faces that are moving in synchrony with audible language

"vocabulary spurt" and has been claimed to involve an expansion in vocabulary at a rate of 10-20 new words per week

criticized Skinner's theory and proposed that we are all born with an innate capacity to learn language. Chomsky called this mechanism a language acquisition device (LAD)

form relationships, interact with others, and understand and manage their feelings.

forming healthy attachments

is a long-standing connection or bond with others.

Concluded that there was more to the mother-child bond than nourishment with his monkey experiment: concluded: Feelings of comfort and security are the critical components to maternal-infant bonding, which leads to healthy psychosocial development

was developed on the basis that feelings of comfort and security are the critical components to maternal-infant bonding

affectional bond or tie that an infant forms with the mother a normal social and emotional development

a parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as he explores his surroundings -must be responsive to the child's physical, social and emotional needs and the caregiver -child must engage in mutually enjoyable interactions.

attachment between mothers and their infants; The mother and the infant are placed in a room together then she leaves a stranger comes in and then she comes back --> attachment types

most common & healthiest where toddler prefers his parent over a stranger; distressed when parents left the room; parents are sensitive and respond to their needs

the child is unresponsive to the parent, does not use the parent as a base and does not care if the parent leaves. Parent = stranger; caregiver who was insensitive and inattentive to their needs

behaved oddly in the stranger situation, tried to run away from the caregiver when they returned. Kids who have been abused; abuse disrupts a child's ability to regulate emotions.

culture and temperament

positive development of self-concept, usually occurs at 18mos, shown by the RED DOT experiment

cooperate with others share when asked and separate with little angst due to positive sense of self

can identify themselves in a group of membership; recognize their own personality traits

parents, shown by Baumrind's 4 parenting styles; vary based on culture

parent gives reasonable demands and consistent limits, expresses warmth and affection and listens to the child's point of view. o Parents set rules and explain why; make exceptions when they see fit; o Most encouraged in modern American society --> high self-esteem and social skills

high value on conformity and obedience; strict, tightly monitor their children express little warmth --> anxious, withdrawn and unhappy kids. -The Asian kids did better in school with these parents

the kids run the show and anything goes; few demands, few punishment; friend rather than parent. Kids lack self-discipline, low grades but have a higher self-esteem and better social skills. Low levels of depression

parents are indifferent, uninvolved and sometimes referred to as neglectful. Don't respond to the child's needs and make few demands; depressed junkies or always working

A child's temperament can influence parenting; refers to innate traits that influence how one thinks, behaves and reacts with the environment

Socially constructed concept; a time between childhood and adulthood; begins at puberty and ends at emerging adulthood

the sequence is predictable however the onset varies;

maturing of adrenal gland

maturing of sex glands

are organs specifically needed for reproduction, like the uterus and ovaries in females and testes in males.

are physical signs of sexual maturation that do not directly involve sex organs, such as development of breasts and hips in girls, and development of facial hair and a deepened voice in boys

beginning of menstrual periods usually around 12-13

the first ejaculation around 13-14

13-14 13-17

Nature and nurture

puberty; that's why teens engage in risk taking behaviors and emotional outburst because their frontal lobes (judgment impulse control and planning)

Increase in speed and efficiency rather than mental capacity Abstract thought develops Understanding of multiple points of view Debate new ideas question authority and societal norms

Operational thought

take on the perspective of others & feel concerned for others; social problem solving and conflict avoidance 13 for girls 15 for boys · Kids with supportive fathers can take on other's perspectives

Erikson; Identity vs role confusion "who am I?" happens during adolescence and is either chosen based on parents or influenced by friends.

Relatively newly defined period of lifespan development 18-mids20s exploration is focused on work and love Takes longer in western culture

Begins around 20s and has 3 distinct stages early middle and late. Each brings rewards and challenges

20-early40s; Physical abilities peak, muscle strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac functioning.

40s-40s physical decline is gradual, loss in skin elasticity and wrinkles are among the first signs of aging. Decline in fertility --> menopause weight gain and grey hairs

60s, last stage of physical change skin loses elasticity, reaction time further slows and muscle strength diminishes. Senses decline significantly brain loses function

early and middle adulthood

Crystalized intelligence; tends to hold steady as we age and may even improve (increasing scores 30s-50s) Fluid declines in adulthood

engage in more mental and physical activities

We need to have and continue to find meaning throughout or lives

Meaning is found throughout work and family life

struggle with generativity and intimacy

their relationships with fam

social connectedness and support

suggests that our social support and friendships dwindle in number but remain as a close, if not more close than our earlier years.

the aim is to help provide a death with dignity and pain management in a humane and comfortable environment · Beneficial for the patient bc they depend on the home and fam for terminal care not strangers in a hospital · Live longer fam's burden is reduced

*** can occur in different orders** · Denial · Anger · Bargaining · Depression · Acceptance