Chapter 12 - Development over the Lifespan Flashcards
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology examines changes in biological, physical, psychological, and behavioural processes over age
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Four issues guide developmental research
*Nature and nurture *Critical and sensitive periods **Critical period ? an age range during which certain experiences must occur for normal development **Sensitive period ? an optimal age range for certain experiences, but no critical range *Continuity versus discontinuity *Stability versus change
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Five developmental functions
*No change ? an ability from birth remains constant over life span *Continuous ? an ability that develops gradually and then remains constant *Discontinuity ? an ability that progresses in stages *Inverted U-shaped function ? an ability that peaks at a certain age, then decreases *U-shaped function ? an ability that disappears temporarily
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Different designs used to research
*Cross-sectional design ? research design that compares people of different age groups at same point in time **Drawback in that different age groups (cohorts) grew up in different periods *Longitudinal design ? repeatedly tests same cohort as it grows older
Prenatal Development: Consists of three stages
*Germinal stage ? first two weeks, zygote (fertilized egg) is formed *Embryonic stage ? second to eighth week, zygote becomes embryo (placenta and umbilical cord form, organs form) *Fetal stage ? after nine weeks, embryo becomes fetus (bodily systems develop, eyes open at 24 weeks, attains age of viability at 28 weeks)
Prenatal Development: Genetic and Sex Determination
Y chromosome contains TDF (testis-determining factor) gene which initiates development of testes at around 6-8 weeks
Prenatal Development: Environmental Influences
*Various environmental influences can affect development **Teratogens ? environmental agents that cause abnormal development *Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) ? is a group of sever abnormalities that result from prenatal exposure to alcohol.
Infancy and Childhood: The Amazing Newborn - Newborn sensation and perception
*Vision is limited by poor acuity, lack of coordinated eye movements, and tunnel vision *Newborns orient to significant stimuli *Prefer patterned and more complex images
Infancy and Childhood: The Amazing Newborn - Newborn learning
*After repeated exposure to certain sound, infants begin to stop turning to see source of sound, but would turn towards new sound *Rapidly acquire classically conditioned responses
Infancy and Childhood: Sensory-Perceptual Development
*Visual field expands to almost adult size by six months, acuity continues to develop afterwards *Sound localization disappears in second month of life, returns after four or five months
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Maturation
genetically programmed biological process that governs growth
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Physical and motor development follows principles
*Cephalocaudal principle ? reflects tendency for development to proceed in head-to-foot direction *Proximodistal principle ? states that development begins along innermost parts of body and continues outward
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - The Young Brain
Brain matures from inner parts (that govern basic survival functions) to cortex
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Motor Development
*Reflexes ? automatic, inborn behaviours elicited by specific stimuli *Motor control develops in a stage-like fashion **N.B., individual differences
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Environmental and Cultural Influences
*Physical and motor development are also influenced by experience and environment **Regularly massaged infants gain weight more rapidly and show fast neurological development **Visual deprivation can damage visual abilities
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model
*Piaget believed that development results from maturation and experience, and that thinking changes qualitatively with age **Brain builds schemas (organized patterns of thought) **Two processes involved in acquiring new schemas ***Assimilation ? process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas (child who sees a horse for first time may call it a ?big dog?) ***Accommodation ? process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to change (child will realize the ?big dog? isn?t a dog)
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2)
*children understand their world primarily through sensory experience and physical interaction **Around eighteen months, achieve object permanence (ability to understand that an object continues to exist even out of sight) **Pseudoimitation (child can imitate actions just produced) present
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Preoperational stage (2-7)
*children represent the world symbolically through words and mental images, but do not understand basic mental operations **Cannot understand concept of conservation (principle that basic properties of objects, such as mass and volume, stay the same despite change in outward appearance) **Exhibit egocentrism (difficulty in viewing world from someone else?s perspective ? children believe that others perceive world as they do) **Animism: attributing lifelike qualities to objects **Egocentricism: difficulty in viewing the world from other?s perspective.
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Concrete operational stage (7-12)
children can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involved concrete objects and situations
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Formal operational stage (12+)
*children are able to think logically and systematically about concrete and abstract problems **Formal thinking increases through adolescence
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Assessment of Piaget?s Theory - Piaget?s Universality Principle
*Universal tests show that the general cognitive abilities associated with the four stages appear to occur in the same order across cultures (Piaget is only a partial dumbass) **Culture has been found to influence cognitive development **Cognitive development within each stage seems to proceed inconsistently
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Assessment of Piaget?s Theory - Early understanding of the physical world
Children acquire skills at earlier ages than Piaget suggested
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Vygotsky: The Social Context of Cognitive Development
Zone of proximal development ? the difference between what a child can do independently and what the child can do with assistance from adults (social interaction affects development) Ex: effect of having older siblings present
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Brunner?s Theory
*Provided data which indicated children are more flexible and adaptable that Piaget?s theory allows for *More recent work by Bruner & colleagues has shown that neonatal are not simply passive receivers of stimuli. *They can control stimulus presentation by altering suckling responses *Suckling will increase to allow examination of more novel stimuli or less novel stimuli, (I.e., whichever the infant prefers)
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Brunner?s Theory - Key differences between Piaget and Brunner
*Brunner does not believe stages are invariant *Brunner argues for the inclusion of cultural and anthropological evidence relevant to children?s development
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development: Information Processing Approaches
*Children?s information processing improves in several ways **Better information-search strategies **Better information-processing speed **Better memory capabilities **Development of metacognition ***Awareness of own cognitive processes ***Or ?Thinking about Thinking?
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Language and Cognition
Language plays an indirect role in cognitive development. Thus Language can serve as an additional pathway for learning but is not a required pathway.
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Language and Cognition - Luria (1957)
*Some researchers believe language is necessary for complex learning, thinking, concept formation, reasoning, and problem solving. *Luria (1957) - argues children internalize speech the same way as they internalize imitations of actions or events **Once language is internalized the child can organize its experiences and use it to guide and control behavior
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Language and Cognition - Firth (1971)
*Other researchers (e.g., Piaget, Paivio) maintain that language development is dependent upon cognitive operations that preceded speech in time. *Firth (1971) - in studies of congenitally deaf children, collected data which showed that on tasks involving cognition, memory, and perception that they performed at the same level as hearing children in almost every case.
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Theory of mind
*a person?s beliefs about the mind and the ability to understand other people?s mental states *Children < 3 or 4 yrs **Poor theory of mind **Difficulty inferring what others are thinking *Lying and deception reflect a theory of mind
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Early Emotions and Emotion Regulation
Emotion Regulation ? The processes by which we evaluate and modify our emotional reactions
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Temperament
Temperament ? a biologically based general style of reacting emotionally and behaviorally to the environment.
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Erikson?s Psychosocial Theory
Erik Erikson believed that personality develops through confronting a series of eight major psychosocial stages (each of which involves a different conflict over how we view ourselves in relation to others)
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Erikson?s Psychosocial Theory - Four crises that occur in infancy and childhood
*Basic trust versus basic mistrust *Autonomy versus shame and doubt *Initiative versus guilt *Industry versus inferiority
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Attachment
*the strong emotional bond that develops between children and caregivers *Imprinting ? sudden, biologically primed form of attachment
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development ? Attachment - Freud?s Cupboard Theory
*attachment to caregiver is side-effect of ability to provide basic satisfaction (food)
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development ? Attachment - The Attachment process - Harry Harlow
Harry Harlow found that contact comfort is more important that the provision of nourishment
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development ? Attachment - The Attachment process - John Bowlby
*John Bowlby proposed that attachment develops in three phases: **Indiscriminate ? newborn behaviours evoke caregiving from adults **Discriminate ? infants direct attachment to ore familiar caregivers **Specific ? infants develop meaningful attachment to specific people
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Attachment - The Attachment process - Stranger anxiety
Stranger anxiety ? distress over contact with unfamiliar people
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Attachment - The Attachment process - Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety ? distress over being separated from a primary caregiver
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development ? Attachment - Types of attachment
*Strange Situation Test ? test for examining infant attachment **Anxious resistant infants are fearful with mother present, demand attention, and are distressed when she leaves **Anxious avoidant infants show few signs of attachment and seldom cry without mother **Most infants found to be securely attached (enjoy presence of mother)
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Attachment Deprivation
*Different types of attachment deprivation can affect infants in several ways **Isolated children and monkeys did not develop properly **Infancy is a sensitive period in which initial attachment to caregivers forms most easily and facilitates development
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - The Daycare Controversy
*Daycare affects children?s development in various ways **Does not disrupt attachment to parents **Infants in daycare are slightly less engaged and sociable towards mothers **Infants from low income families with high quality daycare are better socially adjusted
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Styles of Parenting - Authoritative
*controlling, but warm, and establish and enforce clear rules within a caring, supportive atmosphere **Children: higher self-esteem, higher achievers, fewer conduct problems, more considerate
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Styles of Parenting - Authoritarian
*exert control over children, but do so with a cold, unresponsive, or rejecting relationship **Children: lower self-esteem, less popular, perform poorly in school
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Styles of Parenting - Indulgent
*warm and caring, but do not provide guidance and discipline **Children: immature and self-centred
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development ? Styles of Parenting - Neglectful
*provide neither warmth, nor rules, nor guidance **Children: insecurely attached, low achievement motivation, disturbed relationships, impulsive, and aggressive
Infancy and Childhood: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Gender Identity and Socialization
*Parents play role in helping children develop gender identity **Gender identity ? sense of ?maleness? or ?femaleness? **Gender constancy ? understanding that being of a gender is permanent (develops around age six to seven) **Socialization ? the process by which we acquire beliefs, values, and behaviours of a group ***Plays key role in shaping gender identity and sex-role stereotypes
Infancy and Childhood: Moral Development - Kohlberg?s Stage Model - Preconventional stage
* moral judgments are based on anticipated punishments or rewards **Stage 1: Punishment/obedience ***Obey rules to avoid punishment **Stage 2: Instrumental/ hedonistic ***Self-interest and gaining rewards
Infancy and Childhood: Moral Development - Kohlberg?s Stage Model - Conventional stage
*moral judgments are based on conformity to social expectations, laws, and duties **Stage 3: Good child ***Gain approval; maintain good relations **Stage 4: Law and order ***Do one?s duty; respect authority; maintain social order
Infancy and Childhood: Moral Development - Kohlberg?s Stage Model - Postconventional stage
*moral judgments are based on well throughout, general moral principles **Stage 5: Social contract ***Community welfare and individual rights; laws are modifiable **Stage 6: Universal ethical principles ***Abstract ethical principles
Infancy and Childhood: Moral Development - Culture, Gender, and Moral Reasoning - Western cultural bias
Many cultures value principles that don?t fit into Kohlberg?s structure easily
Infancy and Childhood: Moral Development - Culture, Gender, and Moral Reasoning - Gender bias (Gilligan, 1982)
*Emphasis on ?justice? emphasizes a male perspective *Women place more value on care and responsibility for others
Adolescence:
The period of development and gradual transition between childhood and adulthood.
Adolescence: Physical Development ? Puberty
*period of rapid maturation in which the person becomes capable of sexual reproduction *Early maturation tends to have more positive outcomes for boys than girls **Boys acquire strength and size **Girls more likely to develop eating disorders, smoke, drink, and have problems academically
Adolescence: Cognitive Development
*Capacity for abstract reasoning increases substantially during adolescence *Adolescent egocentrism ? highly self-focused thinking **Adolescents overestimate the uniqueness of their feelings and experiences **Always feel that they are ?on stage? and being watched and judged
Adolescence: Social-Emotional and Personality Development - Erik Erikson
*interviewed many adolescents to understand sense of identity **Many had identity diffusion (had not yet gone through identity crisis, and remain uncommitted to a coherent set of values) **Others found to be in foreclosure (adopted an identity without going through a crisis) **Moratorium ? adolescents experiencing a crisis, but have not yet resolved **Identity achievement ? adolescents who have gone though a crisis and successfully resolved it
Adolescence: Social-Emotional and Personality Development ? Relationships with parents and peers
*Most adolescents report getting along ?well? and ?fairly well? with parents **Adolescents often agree with parents? right to make rules, but not with some issues **Girls believed to be granted autonomy at a later age than boys
Adulthood: Physical Development
Physical functioning peaks in young adulthood, and declines at mid-life
Adulthood: Cognitive Development
*Several theorists propose a fifth stage of cognitive development **Post-formal thought ? people can reason logically about opposing points of view and accept contradictions and irreconcilable differences *Information processing and memory change into adulthood **Perceptual speed (reaction time) declines steadily **Memory for new factual information, spatial memory, and memory recall decline *Fluid intelligence declines earlier than crystallized intelligence *Regular exercise and perceptual-motor activities may preserve cognitive abilities *Wisdom scores found to rise from age 13 to 25, and then remain stable
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development - Social clock
a set of cultural norms concerning optimal age range for work, marriage, parenthood, and other major life experiences
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development - Erik Erikson
*proposed different stages and critical events **Intimacy versus isolation (20-40) **Generativity versus stagnation (40-60) ? how generous a person becomes **Integrity versus despair (60+) ? a sense of completeness and fulfillment
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development - People who live together prior to marriage are at higher risk of divorce
Not causal, most likely due to lack of religiousness, less commitment to marriage
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development - U-shaped relation found in marital satisfaction
Happiness greatest before children, drops during children, rises again after children leave home
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development - Various stages affect the establishment of a career
*Growth stage (childhood to mid-twenties) ? form initial impressions about types of jobs we like and dislike *Exploration stage (immediately after) ? form tentative ideas about a preferred career and pursue necessary training *Establishment stage (mid-twenties to mid-forties) ? begin to understand whether they made correct choice *Maintenance stage (end of establishment) ? become more satisfied with choice *Decline stage ? investment in work decreases, followed by retirement
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development ? Midlife Crisis
Little evidence that most people experience mid-life crisis
Adulthood: Social and Personality Development ? Death and Dying
*Elisabeth Kubler-Russ found five stages that terminally ill patients experience as they cope with death **Denial, anger, bargaining for life, depression, acceptance
