Lifespan development 2 - social & emotional development (chapter 13)

Question 1

What are babies born with regarding emotions?

Answer 1

Although infants cannot describe their feelings, research illustrates that their facial expressions, vocalisations and other behaviours provide a window into their emotional life.
We can perceive a number of emotions in young infants. For example, crying, watching their face after its been fed for contentment, when we see a baby focusing their gaze and staring at objects this gives a palpable sense that they are interested in the focus of their attention. As infants get older and turn into children, these more basic emotions branch out and divide into more fine-grained distinctions. About 6 months after birth, infants begin to show joy and surprise, and distress branches out into the separate emotions of disgust, anger, fear and sadness

Question 2

When does a sense of self emerge?

Answer 2

A sense of self emerges but develops gradually over the first years of life, beginning with infants’ ability to perceive their own bodies and limbs. One important milestone in understanding the self occurs around 18 months of age, when infants start to respond appropriately to seeing themselves in a mirror. This growing self-awareness sets the stage for envy, embarrassment and empathy to emerge. After age 2, toddlers lean about performance standards and rules that they are supposed to follow, they begin to display pride and shame. Around the same age, they also display guilt - as evidenced by avoiding eye contact, shrugging shoulders and making facial expressions

Question 3

What is emotional regulation?

Answer 3

The processes by which we evaluate and modify our emotional reactions

Question 4

How does emotional regulation become more diverse with age?

Answer 4

Young infants may suck their thumb or pacifier, turn their head away from something unpleasant or cling to a parent or caregiver to soothe themselves. To reduce distress, toddlers may seek out a caretaker, cling to a doll or teddy bear, fling unpleasant objects away, and learn to smile, pout or throw a tantrum to get what they want. Once they acquire language, children can reduce distress by talking to themselves and other people.
As children age, their emotional expressiveness and ability to regulate their emotions become part of their overall emotional competence, which in turn influences their social behaviour and how well their peers and other people like them. Children who frequently display sadness or who cannot control their anger are less likely to be popular, and emotional competence remains important for well-being as children develop

Question 5

Can newborns recognise emotions in others?

Answer 5

Research by Field, Woodson, Greenberg and Cohen (1982) has shown that newborn babies will imitate the emotional expressions they see in others, indicating that they are at least able to distinguish between these facial expressions. It is difficult to know if they feel these emotions themselves, though.
Social referencing is a behaviour in which infants or children use the emotions of another person (often the caregiver) to guide their actions. Sorce et al. (1985) undertook an experiment on social referencing using the ‘visual cliff’. In this study the infants were placed in front of the cliff, and a parents was positioned on the other side of the cliff and adopted either a happy encouraging expression or a fearful expression. If the mother adopted a happy face, the infants were fairly likely to cross over. Almost none of the infants whose mother adopted a fearful face attempted to. Their actions were guided by their parents emotions
Increased social interactions with a wider group of people influences children’s emotional development, as parents, teachers and peers serve as models and reinforce children for some types of emotional responses. But as we now explore, heredity makes a very important contribution to children’s basic emotional-behavioural style

Question 6

What is social referencing?

Answer 6

A behaviour in which infants or children use the emotions of another person (often the caregiver) to guide their actions.

Question 7

What is temperament?

Answer 7

A biologically based general style of reacting emotionally and behaviourally to the environment.
Some infants are calm and happy; others are irritable and fussy. Some are outgoing and active; others are shy and inactive. Within any age group, people differ in temperament

Question 8

In a study by Thomas and Chess (1977), what was done and found?

Answer 8

They asked parents to describe their babies’ behaviour. They found that most infants could be classified into 3 groups:
- ‘Easy infants’ ate and slept on schedule, were playful and accepted new situations with little fuss
- ‘Difficult infants’ were irritable, fussy eater and sleepers, and reacted negatively to new situations
- ‘Slow-to-warm-up infants’ were the ;east active, had mildly negative responses to new situations but slowly adapted over time.
Subsequently, the difficult infants were most likely to develop emotional and behaviour problems during childhood.
This study was admired but also criticised for relying on parents’ reports of their infants’ behaviour. Other researchers directly observed infants and identified temperamental styles that differed from those described above. Moreover, researchers often found that temperament is only weakly to moderately stable during infancy. Some infants maintain a consistent temperament during their first 2 years of life, whereas others change.

Question 9

To what general temperament style does shyness form part of?

Answer 9

Behavioural inhibition. Inhibited infants are quiet and timid; they cry and withdraw when exposed to unfamiliar people, places, objects and sounds. Uninhibited infants are more sociable, verbal and spontaneous.
Research by Kagan et al. (1988) found that about 20-25% of infants displayed this inhibited, which remained moderately stable during infancy. They also studied these infants until age age 7.5 years. For the vast majority - those who were only mildly to moderately inhibited or uninhibited between the ages of 1 and 2 years - their temperament did not predict how shy or outgoing they would be as children. But for infants who were highly uninhibited or inhibited, the findings were different. Highly uninhibited infants tended to become sociable and talkative 7-year-olds, whereas highly imhibited infants developed into quiet, cautious and shy 7-year-olds

Question 10

How does childhood personality continue into adulthood?

Answer 10

E.g. in America and Swedne, shy, behaviourally inhibited 8-12-year-old boys are more likely than other non-shy peers to delay marriage and fatherhood when they grow up, possibly reflecting their reluctance to enter new social relationships. Shy American girls are more likely as adults to leave work after marriage and become housewives, whereas shy Swedish girls are less likely to complete university than non-shy girls.

Question 11

What is personality in adulthood argued to be?

Answer 11

A continuation of temperament in early childhood. Newman et al (1997) found that compared to 3-year-olds with a ‘well-adjusted temperament’, those who were ‘uncontrolled’ (i.e. irritable, impulsive & inattentive) reported more antisocial behaviour in adulthood and greater conflict in family and romantic relationships, and they were more likely to have been fired from a job. In contrast, children with an ‘inhibited temperament’ (i.e. socially shy and fearful) reported less overall companionship in adulthood

Question 12

What individual differences are there in personality in the first year of life? (summary)

Answer 12

Most young children are well adjusted and display only mild to moderately strong temperamental traits. Differences in temperament among these children only weakly predict how they will function as adults. But for the remaining children, their strong temperamental traits can provide better insight into adulthood functioning, Still, predicting how any individual child will turn out as an adult is difficult. Many factors influence development and even during childhood, strong temperaments often mellow.

Question 13

What are psychosocial stages?

Answer 13

Psychoanalytic psychologist Erik Erikson (196) believed that personality develops through confronting a series of 8 major psychosocial stages, each of which involves a different ‘crisis’ (i.e. conflict) over how we view ourselves in relation to other people and the world. Each crisis is present throughout life but takes on special importance during a particular age period.

Question 14

What are Erikson’s psychosocial stages?

Answer 14

• Infancy (first year): Basic trust vs basic mistrust
• Toddlerhood (1-2): Autonomy vs shame and doubt
• Early childhood (3-5): Initiative vs guilt
• Middle childhood (6-12): Industry vs inferiority
• Adolescence (12-19): Identity vs role confusion
• Early adulthood (20-30): Intimacy vs isolation
• Middle adulthood (40-64): Generativity vs stagnation
• Late adulthood (65+): Integrity vs despair

Question 15

What 4 of the psychosocial stages occur in infancy and childhood?

Answer 15

1) Basic trust vs basic mistrust: depending on how well our needs are met and how mcuh love and attention we receive during the first year of life, we develop a basic trust or basic mistrust of the world
2) Autonomy vs shame and doubt: during the next 2 years, children become ready to exercise their individuality. If parents unduly restrict children or make harsh demands during toilet training, children develop shame and doubt about their abilities and later lack the courage to be independent
3) Initiative vs guilt: from age 3 to 5, children display great curiosity about the world. If they are allowed freedom to explore and receive answers to their questions, they develop a sense of initiative. If they are held back or punished, they develop guilt about their desires and suppress their curiosity
4) Industry vs inferiority:from age 6 until puberty, the child’s life expands into school and peer activities. Children who experience pride and encouragement in mastering tasks develop industry - a striving to achieve. Repeated failure and lack of praise for trying leads to a sense of inferiority

Question 16

What can be concluded about Erikson’s model?

Answer 16

Although critics argue that Erikson’s model lacks detail and question its stage approach, the model captures several major issues that developing children confront. As Erikson proposed and as some research supports, successfully resolving each crisis helps prepare us to meet the next. Because each stage of life creates new opportunities, possibilities for change are ever present. Yet, like the early chapters of a novel, themes that emerge in childhood help set the stage for the unfolding story of our lives

Question 17

What social skills do newborns bring into the world with them?

Answer 17

Some of the most obvious communicative skills already discussed are smiling and crying. these let the observer know what emotional state the infant is in. Smiling occurs in the womb. After birth, newborns smile spontaneously, without reference to any specific environmental stimulus. However, by as early as 3 weeks of age infants begin smiling in specific situations (e.g. on eye contact). Crying is a vocal communication of distress, and often happens a few moments after arriving into the outside world. Crying is an effective communicative signal and, being very difficult for adults to ignore, frequently elicits response in the caregiver

Question 18

What does the preference of looking at faces over other environmental stimuli by newborns suggest?

Answer 18

This preferential orienting behaviour directs infants’ attention towards people and, consequently, social situations. Research by Farroni et al. (2002) has demonstrated that newborn infants also prefer to look at faces making direct eye contact with them, as opposed to faces with averted gaze. So newborn infants are not just predisposed to look at people, but also to situations in which another person is communicating with (looking at) them. Csibra and Gergely (2006) have thus argued that these kinds of preferences represent an innate predisposition to learn about the world from others. An ethologist, has also argued that as adults we are programmed to encourage this learning with universal behaviours such as the ‘eyebrow flash’

Question 19

How do young infants also demonstrate the origins of conversation in their behaviour?

Answer 19

Young infants’ vocalisations and motor behaviours are often described as showing ‘periodicity’or ‘burst-pause’ patterns. This means that they will vocalise or move a number of times in quick succession, stop for a period and then produce another burst of activity. A particularly early example of this can be seen in the context of breast-feeding. Rather than sucking continually throughout a feeding session, the infant will typically suck a number of times in quick succession, and then pause. This kind of periodicity in behaviour gives other people the chance to communicate back to the infant during the pauses, thus producing prelinguistic social interactions like these are initiated and controlled by the infant, or whether the parent or caregiver plays a more important role in scaffolding early conversations and interactions

Question 20

How can early social interaction be seen in newborns?

Answer 20

Imitation behaviour. Meltzoff et al have presented evidence, alongside the imitation of adult faces by newborns, that newborns will imitate a range of non-emotional facial gestures. Researchers are divided about why infants should do this. Some suggest that it helps newborns understand others’ perspectives, while some argue that imitation helps us to learn new skills from others. More recently, a number of concerns have been raised about demonstrations of early imitation. Some have found it difficult to repeat all of Meltzoff and Moore’s (1997) original findings, and others argue that findings on early imitation indicate that this ability is learned rather than innate

Question 21

What social abilities do newborn babies have? (summarise)

Answer 21

While there is some controversy at present over the extent to which newborn infants arrive in the world with innate social behaviours, it is clear that even if this is not the case infants quickly learn a wide repertoire of social behaviours. It it likely that the earliest of these interactions will be with their parents or caregivers, at least partly because these people are in closest proximity. However, as they age, infants begin to demonstrate strong preferences for interacting with particular individuals. These social bonds which are formed between infant and adult are referred to as attachment relationships

Question 22

What is imprinting?

Answer 22

A sudden, biologically primed form of attachment (happens in some bird species e.g. ducks)

Question 23

What is attachment?

Answer 23

The strong emotional bond that develops between children and their primary caregivers

Question 24

What did John Bowlby propose about attachment?

Answer 24

he was influenced by ethological observations of imprinting to propose that a similar biologically programmed process occurs in humans. He argued that infants seek proximity with a caregiver, and that this is develops into an attachment relationship. Attachment refers to the strong emotional bond that develops between children and their primary caregivers. There are some differences with imprinting in geese, however, as human infants do not automatically imprint on a caregiver, and there is not an immediate post-birth critical period during which contact is required for infant-caregiver bonding. Instead, the first few years of life seem to be a sensitive period when we can most easily form a secure bond with caregivers that enhances our adjustment later in life. Although it may be more difficult to form strong first attachments to caregivers later in childhood or later in adulthood, it is still possible

Question 25

What was assumed that infant-caregiver bonding was a result of and who tested this?

Answer 25

From the mother's role in satisfying the infant's need for nourishment. Harry Harlow (1958) tested this notion by separating infant rhesus monkeys from their biological mothers shortly after birth. Each infant was raised in a cage with 2 artificial 'surrogate mothers'. One was a bare-wire cylinder with a feeding bottle attached to its 'chest'. The other was a wire cylinder covered with soft terry cloth without a feeding bottle. Faced with this choice, the infant monkeys became attached to the cloth mother. When exposed to frightening situations, the infants ran to the cloth figure and clung tightly to it. They even maintained contact with the cloth mother while feeding from the wire mother's bottle. Thus Harlow showed that contact comfort - body contact with a comforting object - is more important in fostering attachment than the provision of nourishment.

Question 26

Based on work by Harlow, what did Bowlby (1969) propose concerning maternal deprivation?

Answer 26

Proposed that attachment in infancy emerges not in response to a need for nourishment, but rather as a biologically programmed need for a secure base from which to explore and learn about the environment, and yet return t for protection should something frightening occur. Bowlby proposed that attachment develops in 5 phases: 1) Indiscriminate attachment behaviour: newborns cry, vocalise and smile towards everyone, and these behaviours evoke care-giving from adults 2) Discriminating attachment behaviour: around 3 months of age, infants direct their attachment behaviours more towards familiar caregivers than towards strangers 3) Specific attachment behaviour: by 7 or 8 months of age, infants develop a meaningful attachment to specific caregivers. The caregiver becomes a secure base from which the infant can explore his or her environment 4) Goal-corrected attachment behaviour: by 3 years of age the child can now take account for the caregiver's needs when expressing attachment. E.g. they begin to be able to wait alone until the return off the caregiver to allow the mother to achieve something independently. In this sense the attachment relationship becomes more of a 'partnership'. 5) Lessening of attachment: at school age, children become happy to spend significant amounts of time further away from the caregiver. At this point Bowlby suggested that the relationship becomes more based upon abstract conceptions of attachment, including trust and affection

Question 27

What are Bowlby's 5 phases of development?

Answer 27

1) Indiscriminate attachment behaviour 2) Discriminating attachment behaviour 3) Specific attachment behaviour 4) Goal-corrected attachment behaviour 5) Lessening of attachment

Question 28

According to Bowlby, what 2 types of anxiety occur as an infant's attachment becomes more focused?

Answer 28

Stranger anxiety, distress over contact with unfamiliar people, often emerges around age 6 or 7 months and ends by age 18 months. When approached by, touched by or handed over to a stranger, the infant becomes afraid, cries and reaches for the caregiver. Separation anxiety, distress over being separated from a primary caregiver, typically begins a little later, peaks around age 12 to 16 months and disappears between 2 and 3 years of age. Here the infant becomes anxious and cries when the caregiver is out of sight.

Question 29

How might separation and stranger anxiety be adaptive?

Answer 29

These responses, which coincide with infants' increasing cognitive and physical abilities, may be adaptive reactions shaped through evolution. At an age when infants master crawling and then learn to walk, fear of strangers and of separation may help prevent them from wandering beyond the sight of caretakers, especially in unfamiliar situations. Around age 3 to 4 years, as children's cognitive and verbal skills grow, they develop a better understanding of their attachment relationships. According to Bowlby, a stage of goal-corrected partnership emerges, in which children and caregivers can describe their feelings to each other and maintain their relationship whether they are together or apart

Question 30

Who developed the strange situation and what did it do?

Answer 30

To measure the attachment relationship, Mary Ainsworth and colleagues (1978) developed the strange situation, a standardised procedure for examining infant attachment. Ainsworth focused on the forms of anxiety which Bowlby described in attachment: stranger and separation anxiety. The strange situation was thus specifically a method for examining infants' reactions to strangers and to separation from their attachment figure. In the strange situation, a series of events occur while an infant is being covertly observed. The infant's reactions to the various events are used to classify them into one of several different attachment types

Question 31

What 3 types of attachment did Ainsworth describe?

Answer 31

- 'Securely attached' show the best use of the mother as a secure base for learning - they explore the playroom and react positively to the stranger. They are distressed when the mother leaves and happily greet her when she returns. In contrast, there are 3 types of 'insecurely attached' infants whose relationships with their parent allow for less optimal exploration of the environment: - 'Anxious resistant': infants are fearful when the mother is present, demand her attention and are distressed when she leaves. They are not soothed when she returns and may angrily resist her attempts at contact. - 'Anxious avoidant': infants show few signs of attachment, seldom cry when the mother leaves and do not seek contact when she returns - 'Disorganised attachment': (provided through later research) Infants seem disoriented and uncertain of what to do in the strange situation, especially when the caregiver figure returns. Attachment types are also apparent later in childhood.

Question 32

What is thought to be the cause of these differences in attachment?

Answer 32

Across most cultures studied, about one-half to three-quarters of infants are securely attached. Mothers who are more sensitive to their babies' needs at home tend to have infants who are more securely attached in the strange situation. When we talk about attachment, we are not just considering the child's behaviour in the relationship, but rather a bidirectional attachment relationship as a whole, including the mother's attachment to the child. Nonetheless behavioural genetics studies indicate only a modest genetic heretability of attachment type, suggesting that environmental influences are the more important in the formation of attachment relationships

Question 33

How is attachment altered by environmental influences?

Answer 33

One thing we can say quite confidently not is that the precursors of attachment styles are present in early infancy. A number of studies have shown that certain behaviours observed in infants as young as 3 months of age predicting attachment type at 1 year of age. The behaviours observed at 3 months of age were infants' responses to what is known as the still face paradigm. In the still face paradigm, the infants is presented with another 'strange' situation in which a parent becomes unresponsive and maintains a neutral facial expression. Studies have shown that the more an infant cries to elicit responses from the parents and shows positive emotions during the still face episode, the more likely they will have a secure attachment at 12 months

Question 34

What is the still face paradigm?

Answer 34

An infants is presented with a situation in which their parent looks at them without moving their face

Question 35

What are the environmental influences which give rise to attachment types?

Answer 35

While parental sensitivity (i.e.the parent's responsiveness) as put forward as a candidate by Ainsworth et al. (1978), and has been found to be related to both attachment style and infants' still face responses, researchers have more recently suggested that parents' ability to consider the children's internal emotional state is as important as their responsiveness to the infants' behaviour

Question 36

What are the consequences of attachment?

Answer 36

Whether raised by their biological or adoptive parents, securely attached infants seem to be better adjusted socially during childhood. Establishing a secure attachment early in life also may help foster a capacity for compassion and altruism that carries forward into adulthood. This lends credence to Erikson's view that entering a stable, trusting relationship with a caregiver is an important component of early social development.

Question 37

If infants and young children are deprived of a stable attachment with a caregiver, how do they fare in the long run?

Answer 37

Bowlby's (1944) study of the 44 thieves was influential in making the argument that such early deprivation is harmful to social development. Harlow studied attachment deprivation under controlled conditions with monkeys. After rearing 'isolate' monkeys either alone or with artificial surrogate mothers, Harlow returned them to the monkey colony at 6 months of age. Exposed to other monkeys, the isolated were indifferent, terrified or aggressive. When they became adults, some female isolates were artificially inseminated and gave birth, and they were highly abusive towards their firstborns. Harlow concluded that being raised without a secure attachment to a real, interactive caregiver produced long-term social impairment

Question 38

How can the stage at which attachment is deprived be influential?

Answer 38

Studies of adopted children, who are thought to experience attachment deprivation to a greater extent than children growing up with their biological parents, are one source of information about this. In one relatively recent study van den Dries et al. (2009) found in a meta-analytic review that groups of adopted and non-adopted children were as securely attached as each other, so long as they had been adopted before 12 months of age. The sensitive period for attachment seems to be from one year onwards

Question 39

What problems are there in drawing conclusions about the effects of parental deprivations from studies mentioned so far (e.g. Harlow)?

Answer 39

As well as being deprived of parental care, all the children and monkeys mentioned were being deprived of a number of other important stimuli. Harlow and Suomi's monkeys were placed in situations of general social and sensory deprivation. Although many of the Romanian orphans grew up in the proximity of other children, their malnutrition may have prevented them from benefiting from this social input. However, Bowlby's ideas, and research like that of Tizard and Hodges (1978) have had an important beneficial effect on the standard of institutional care, such that the vast majority of adopted children are nowadays normally adjusted and differ little from children raised by their biological parents

Question 40

Summary: describe types of attachment, how they are measured and how attachment deprivation affects development ---

Answer 40

In sum, infancy appears to be a sensitive, though not critical, period during which an initial attachment to caregivers forms most easily and facilitates subsequent development. Prolonged attachment deprivation created developmental risks, but when deprived children are placed into a nurturing environment at a young age , many if not most children become attached to their caretakers and grow into well-adjusted adults. Bowlby's ethological theory of attachment has been particularly influential in our understanding of how the attachment process arises, arguing that attachment relationships are mutual in nature in that both caregiver and child become attached to one another. Perhaps the most controversial of his claims concern the idea that attachment behaviours are pre-programmed into the infant. It seems reasonable to consider the possibility that at least some of the ways in which we try to form attachments could be learned from our social environments

Question 41

How do different child-rearing practices affect children's development?

Answer 41

After studying how parents interacted with their pre-school children, Baumrind (1967) identified 2 key dimensions of parental behaviour. The first is warmth vs hostility. Warm parents communicate love and care for the child. Hostile parents express rejection and behave as if they do not care about the child. The second dimension is restrictiveness vs permissiveness. Parents differ in the extend to which they make and enforce rules. Combining these dimensions yields four parenting styles that are associated with different patterns of child development: authoritative parents, authoritarian parents, indulgent parents, neglectful parents.

Question 42

What are authoritative parents?

Answer 42

Are controlling but warm. they establish clear rules consistently enforce them, and reward children's compliance with warmth and affection. They communicate high expectations, caring and support. This style is thought to be associated with the most positive childhood outcomes. Children with authoritative parents tend to have higher self-esteem, are higher achievers in school and have fewer conduct problems.

Question 43

What are authoritarian parents?

Answer 43

Also exert control but do so within a cold, unresponsive or rejecting relationship. Their children are thought to have lower self esteem, be less popular with peers and perform more poorly in school than children with authoritative parents

Question 44

What are indulgent parents?

Answer 44

Have warm, caring relationships with their children but do not provide the guidance and discipline that help children learn responsibility and concern for others. Their children are thought to be more immature and self-centred

Question 45

What are neglectful parents?

Answer 45

Provide neither warmth nor rules nor guidance. Their children are most likely to be insecurely attached, to have low achievement motivation and disturbed peer relationships, and to be impulsive and aggressive. Neglectful parenting is thought to be associated with the most negative developmental outcomes

Question 46

What does the bidirectional nature of parent-child influences mean?

Answer 46

Illustrates the interaction of biology and environment in shaping behaviour. For example, children whose biologically based temperament is irritable tend to elicit harsher and less warm parenting behaviours, which in turn can further promote the child's difficult behaviour. Also, realise that parents do not mould their child's personality and behaviour like lumps of clay. Parenting makes a difference, but the way children turn out also depends on their heredity, peer and community influences, other experiences, and interactions among these factors

Question 47

How does antisocial behaviour provide another example of how the family environment and heredity interact?

Answer 47

Children of a highly antisocial parent (i.e. a parent with high aggression, irritability and a history of illegal activities) are at increased genetic risk for displaying antisocial behaviour (e.g. lying, fighting, having a hot temper). This genetic risk is present, of course, even if the highly antisocial parent (usually the father) is completely absent from the home and the child is raised by the other parent. However, as Jaffee et al. (2003) found, when high-antisocial fathers live at home and are involved in care-taking, this further increases children's antisocial behaviour and risk of developing a conduct disorder. In contrast, when low-antisocial fathers live at home and participate in care-taking, this tends to decrease children's antisocial behaviour. They concluded that children of high-antisocial fathers who are involved in care-taking receive what they call a 'double-whammy' of genetic and environmental contributions to their own antisocial behaviour

Question 48

In what other ways can parenting influence a child's development?

Answer 48

Such as helping children develop a gender identity, a sense of 'femaleness' or 'maleness' that becomes a central aspect of one's personal identity. Most children develop a basic gender identity between the ages of 2 and 3 and can label themselves and others as being either a boy or girl, but their understanding of gender is still fragile. they may believe that a boy wearing a dress is a girl and that a girl can grow up to become a man. Gender constancy, which is the understanding that being male or female is a permanent part of a person, develops around age 6 to 7

Question 49

What happens as gender identity develops?

Answer 49

Children also acquire gender role stereotypes, which are beliefs about the characteristics and behaviours that are appropriate for boys and girls to possess. Every group, including family and cultural groups, has norms for expected and accepted gender behaviour. Parents, siblings, friends, the mass media and other socialising agents convey these norms to us as we grow up. Ultimately, as we internalise these norms, they become part of our identity

Question 50

What is gender typing? (definition)

Answer 50

Treating others differently based on whether they are female or male.

Question 51

How are girls and boys viewed and treated differently from infancy onward?

Answer 51

Fathers use more physical and verbal prohibition with their 12-month-old sons than with their daughters, and they steer their sons away from activities that are considered stereotypically feminine. Even when their sons and daughters display equal interest and aptitude in science, fathers and mothers are more likely to believe that sons have the greater interest and will find science easier.

Question 52

How are gender role stereotypes transmitted?

Answer 52

Through observational learning and operant conditioning. Children observe and often attempt to emulate parents, other adults, peers, and television and movie characters. In ways obvious and subtle, others approve of us and reinforce our behaviour when we meet their expectations and disapprove of us when we do not. In turn, this influences the way children think about gender. Some children as young as 2 - 3 years of age display gender role stereotypes in their ability to identify objects (such as hammers and brooms) and behaviours as 'belonging with' one gender or the other. By age 7 or 8, stereotypes thinking is firmly in place; children believe that boys and girls possess different personality traits and should hold different occupations as adults

Question 53

What happens to children's views on gender as they enter secondary school?

Answer 53

They often display more flexible thinking about gender. Some come to believe that traditionally masculine and feminine traits can be blended within a single person - what is called an androgynous gender identity - as when a person is both assertive and compassionate. During secondary school, some adolescents maintain this view, but overall, gender stereotypes seem to become a little more rigid at this age, so that by early adulthood most people continue to adhere to relatively traditional beliefs

Question 54

How do peers influence children's social development?

Answer 54

If you are a child, your 'peers' are children who you know who are of about the same age as yourself, and would often be in the same class as you at school or live in the same neighbourhood. The influence of peers may begin from an early age. Lewis et al. (1975) show that 12 to 18-month-old infants, while they maintain closer proximity to their caregiver, will spend the most time looking at a peer.

Question 55

What theory did developmental researcher Judith Harris argue?

Answer 55

That the peer group may have as important, if not more important, a role as parents (or home environment) in shaping our social development. This view has become known as the 'group socialisation' theory of development. Evidence in favour of Harris' theory comes from behavioural genetics research, including twin and adoption studies. These studies demonstrate that the shared environment of siblings (i.e. the home environment provided by their parents) may have a less substantial effect on development than the 'non-shared environment'. Plomin and Daniels demonstrated that children who are born or adopted into the same family show very little similarity in their personalities, and thus environmental influences are concluded to come from environment outside the family. Harris thus suggests that peers may be much more important in shaping our personality. Harris' theory is still under scrutiny, however, as non-shared environment can result not just from influences outside the home environment, but also from differences in the way children's genetic inheritance (e.g. their temperament) interacts with their home environment. As has already been discussed, a happy child is likely to be treated differently by their parents than an irritable child. This is one way in which non-shared environmental differences can arise in the home

Question 56

How does the media influence development of social identity?

Answer 56

Important influences come from books, television, radio, the internet and online social media. All of these media often emphasise culturally held stereotypes. On television, for instance, males are more likely than females to be portrayed as aggressive, professional, powerful and decisive. Females more often than males are portrayed as warmer, more emotional and social, and happier. These gender role stereotypes have an influence on children, as children who watch more television are more likely to conform to cultural norms about gender role stereotyping. In a particularly striking study, Kimball found that when television was introduced for the first time in a small town in Canada, children's attitudes towards gender roles became much more conservative

Question 57

What did Lawrence Kohlberg (1963, 1984) do?

Answer 57

Drawing on Piaget's cognitive stage model, he developed an influential theory of moral development across the lifespan. He presented children, adolescents and adults with hypothetical moral dilemmas. He was interested not in whether people agreed or disagreed but rather the reasons for their judgement. He analysed responses to various moral dilemmas and identified 3 main levels of moral reasoning with 2 sub-stages within each level

Question 58

What are Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning?

Answer 58

Level 1: Pre-conventional morality -- Actual or anticipated punishments or rewards, rather than internalised values - Stage 1: Punishment-obedience orientation -- Obeying rules and avoiding punishment - Stage 2: Instrumental-hedonistic orientation -- Self-interest and gaining rewards Level 2: Conventional morality -- Conformity to the expectations of social groups; person adopts other people's values - Stage 3: Good-child orientation -- Gaining approval and maintaining good relationships with others - Stage 4: Law-and-order orientation -- Doing one's duty, showing respect for authority and maintaining social order Level 3: Post-conventional morality -- Moral principles that have been internalised as part of one's belief and value system - Stage 5: Social-contact orientation -- General principles agreed on by society that foster community welfare and individual rights; recognition that society can decide to modify laws that lose their social utility - Stage 6: Universal ethical principles -- Abstract ethical principles based on justice and equality; following one's conscience

Question 59

What is pre-conventional moral reasoning?

Answer 59

Is based on anticipated punishments or rewards. Consider reasons given for stealing the drug. In stage 1, children focus on punishment: 'Heinz should steal the drug because if he lets his wife die he'll get into trouble'. In stage 2, morality is judged by anticipated rewards and doing what is in the person's own interest: 'Heinz should steal the drug because that way he'll still have his wife with him'.

Question 60

What is conventional moral reasoning?

Answer 60

Is based on conformity to social expectations, laws, and duties. In stage 3, conformity stems from the desire to gain people's approval: 'People will think Heinz is bad if he doesn't steal the drug to save his wife'. In stage 4, children believe that laws and duties must be obeyed simply because rules are meant to be followed. Thus, 'Heinz should steal the drug because it's his duty to take care of his wife'.

Question 61

What is post-conventional moral reasoning?

Answer 61

Is based on well-thought-out, general moral principles. Stage 5 involves recognising the importance of societal laws but also taking individual rights into account: 'Stealing breaks the law, but what Heinz did was reasonable because he saved a life'. In stage 6, morality is based on abstract, ethical principles of justice that are viewed as universal: 'Saving life comes before financial gain, even if the person is a stranger'.

Question 62

What did Kohlberg believe that moral reasoning depends upon?

Answer 62

The development of cognitive ability. Thus, like Piaget, he believed that powers of logic underlay children's competence in a wide variety of domains - including their moral behaviours. Piaget and Kohlberg suggested that cognitive (and moral) development was driven by opportunities to confront moral issues, particularly when such issues can be discussed with someone who is at a higher stage of development

Question 63

What do studies of moral reasoning indicate overall in Europe, Asia and Africa to North, Central and South America?

Answer 63

- From childhood through adolescence, moral reasoning changes from pre-conventional to conventional levels - In adolescence and even in adulthood, post-conventional reasoning is relatively uncommon - A person's moral judgements do not always reflect the same level or stage within levels

Question 64

Why do critics argue that Kohlberg's theory has a Western bias?

Answer 64

Fairness and justice are Kohlberg's post-conventional ideals, but in many cultures the highest moral values focus on principles that do not fit easily into Kohlberg's model, such as respect for all animal life, collective harmony and respect for the elderly

Question 65

Why do critics argue that Kohlber's theory reflects a male bias?

Answer 65

Gilligan (1982) claims that highly moral women place greater value than do men on caring and responsibility for others' welfare. Overall, however, evidence for a gender bias is mixed. Women use justice reasoning when the situation calls for it, and men use reasoning based on caring and relationships when appropriate. Nevertheless, Gilligan's analysis reinforces the key point that the the identification oh 'high-level' moral reasoning can be based on values other than justice

Question 66

Why does moral reasoning not necessarily translate into moral behaviour?

Answer 66

The ways in which children make moral judgements are often unrelated to their actual behaviour and this is especially the case for young children. Skinner proposed that we learn which behaviours are 'good' and 'bad' through their association with reinforcement and punishment. Other researchers propose that for children to conform to their culture's moral standards, they must understand that there are moral rules, be able to control their impulses to engage in forbidden behaviour, and experience some negative emotion when they violate these rules

Question 67

What to children come to recognise by the age of 2 in moral and prosocial behaviour?

Answer 67

They come to understand that there are rules for behaviour, and their emotional expressions suggest that they experience guilt when they break a known rule. Children's ability to stop themselves from engaging in forbidden behaviour develops slowly, but even toddlers can do so at times. The internal regulatory mechanism, also referred to as a conscience, tends to restrain individuals from acting in destructive or antisocial ways when they are not being monitored by parents or other adults

Question 68

How did Freud believe that children developed a conscience?

Answer 68

By identifying with their parents. few developmental psychologists adhere to this theory of how identification occurs, but they acknowledge that internalising the societal values transmitted by parents or other caretakers provides the basis of a moral conscience. Children are most likely to internalise parents' values when they have a positive relationship with them, when parents establish clear rules and provide explanations that facilitate children's awareness of parental values, and when discipline is firm but not harsh

Question 69

How does temperament influence moral and prosocial behaviour?

Answer 69

Fearful, inhibited children tend to internalise parental values more easily at an earlier age than less fearful children, particularly when their parents provide gentle discipline. For relatively fearless, uninhibited children, however, whether discipline is gentle or harsh is less important. A secure attachment with warm parents, rather than fear of punishment , appears to motivate fearless children to internalise their parents' standards. Thus, the development of moral behaviour is linked not only to children's moral thinking but also to their emotional development, attachment and temperament

Question 70

Summarise Kohlberg's model of moral thinking and factors that influence the development of moral behaviour ---

Answer 70

In the context of these developmental changes in moral behaviour, a number of researchers are now arguing that moral development is underpinned in early life by an early predisposition to prosocial behaviour. Warneken and Tomasello found that both human infants ad young chimpanzees with intervene in various situations to help adults (e.g. passing an out of reach object). Because these behaviours were not praised or rewarded in other ways, and could not be learned from imitation. They argue that there is a natural (innate) bias to prosocial behaviour in humans and chimpanzees. It is possible that these biases are crucial for setting children on the right path to moral development in early life

Question 71

What is adolescence?

Answer 71

The period of development and gradual transition between childhood and adulthood

Question 72

What is puberty?

Answer 72

The period of rapid maturation in which the person becomes capable of sexual reproduction

Question 73

How does adolescence differ from puberty?

Answer 73

These developmental periods overlap, but puberty is a biologically defined period, whereas adolescence is a broader social construction. Puberty is an important aspect of adolescence, but adolescence is also ushered in and out by changes in thinking, interests, social circumstances, and parental and societal expectations

Question 74

What did Erikson believe regarding the adolescents' search for identity?

Answer 74

He proposed that there is a pivotal crisis of adolescent personality development: identity versus role confusion. He believed that an adolescent's 'identity crisis' can be resolved positively, leading to a stable sense of identity, or it can end negatively, leading to confusion about one's identity and values

Question 75

How did Marcia classify the 'identity status' of each person?

Answer 75

1) Identity diffusion: these teens and adults has not yet gone through an identity crisis. They seemed unconcerned or even cynical about identity issues and were not committed to a coherent set of values 2) Foreclosure: these individuals has not yet gone through an identity crisis either, but for a different reason - they committed to an identity and set of values before experiencing a crisis. For example, some automatically adopted a peer-group or parental values without giving these values much thought 3) Moratorium: these people wanted to establish a clear identity, were currently experiencing a crisis, but had not yet resolved it 4) Identity achievement: these individuals had gone through an identity crisis, successfully resolved it and emerged with a coherent set of values

Question 76

In what stage did Marcia find most young adolescents to be in?

Answer 76

Identity diffusion or foreclosure; they have not experienced an identity crisis. But during teen years, people typically begin to think more deeply about who they are, or they reconsider values they had adopted previously. This often leads to an identity crisis, and more than half successfully resolve it by early adulthood

Question 77

What components does our sense of identity consist of?

Answer 77

1) Our gender, ethnicity, and other attributes by which we define ourselves as members of social groups (daughter, student, athlete) 2) How we view our personal characteristics (shy, friendly) 3) Our goals and values Typically we achieve a stable identity regarding some components before others, and changing situations may trigger new crises and cause us to re-evaluate prior goals and values

Question 78

How does culture play a key role in identity formation?

Answer 78

Our cultural upbringing influences the very way we view concepts such as 'self' and 'identity'. Having grown up in an individualistic culture, my sense of identity assumes that I am an autonomous individual with clear boundaries separating me from other people. But in collectivistic cultures, the concept of 'self' is traditionally based more strongly on the connectedness between people. thus the question 'who am I?' is more likely to be answered in ways that reflect a person's relationships with family members, friends and others. Still, keep in mind that we are talking about relative differences. Across cultures, people's sense of identity incorporates elements that involve autonomy from - and independence with - other people

Question 79

What is suggested about teenagers' relationships with their parents?

Answer 79

A number of studies have suggested that the stereotypes 'storm and stress' of these relationships may be exaggerated. Researchers report a national survey in the USA, in which about 80% of US teens reported thinking highly of, and enjoying spending time with, the parents with whom they lived at home. About two-thirds of the teens reported an overall positive relationship with their parents. in a longitudinal study, it was found that conflict over chores, appearance and politeness actually decrease as children enter adolescence. However, they did also note an increase in conflict over money. Research in China and the Netherlands suggests that teenager-parent conflict is not as severe as is often assumed. And despite the differences between the family-centred collectivistic cultures of China and the more individualistic style of European and US families, the kinds of conflicts which adolescents have with their parents have a lot in common

Question 80

What has been reported about parent-adolescent relationships by the USA's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse?

Answer 80

That most adolescents state that if they face a serious problem, they can confide in one or both parents. Yet many adolescents also feel that for various reasons, including the right to preserve their independence, it is acceptable to lie to their parents at times.

Question 81

What are parent-teenager conflicts correlated with?

Answer 81

Other signs of distress. E.g. among American, Chinese and Taiwanese teens, those who report more conflict with parents also display higher levels of school misconduct, more antisocial behaviour, lower self-esteem, more drug use and less life satisfaction. Recalling the principle that correlation does not equal causation, we must consider that although parent-teenager conflict may be a cause of teenagers' psychological problems, it is also likely to be caused by such problems

Question 82

How do peer relationships change in adolescence?

Answer 82

They increase in importance, and some studies find that teenagers spend more time with peers than doing almost anything else. But this pattern may be stronger in Europe and North USA than in Asia, where people of all ages, teenagers included, generally place a relatively strong emphasis on family relationships. Adolescent friendships are typically more intimate than those at previous ages and involve a greater sharing of problems. Peers can strongly influence a teenager's values and behaviours, thereby facilitating the process of separating from parents and establishing one's own identity. For some adolescents, however, experiences with peers increase the risk of misconduct, such as skipping school, damaging property or using drugs. Fortunately peer pressure against misconduct typically has an even stronger effect, and closeness to parents is an added buffer that helps many teenagers resist peer pressure to do misdeeds. Despite increased peers influence during adolescence, parental influence remains high on political, religious, moral and career issues. In many ways, the so-called generation gap is narrower than is often assumed.

Question 83

What has been found regarding emotional changes in adolescence?

Answer 83

Researchers gave 10-14 year olds a questionnaire to rate how happy or unhappy, cheerful or irritable, and friendly or angry they felt at that moment. They also measured students' self-esteem, depression and the number of major stressful events experienced during the previous 6 months. This procedure was repeated with the same students our years later, when the students were 14 to 18 years old. Overall, girls' and boys' daily emotional experiences were more positive than negative. Still, teenagers' daily emotionality became less positive as they moved into and through early adolescence, with changes levelling off and emotions becoming more stable during late adolescence. As they ages, 34% of the teenagers showed a major downward change and 16% showed a major upward change. The remaining half of the students showed a smaller amount of change in emotions, although once again, downward changes were twice as common as upward changes . The study also revealed that students who reported less-positive emotions tended to have lower self-esteem and more frequent major stressful events during the preceding 6 months

Question 84

Outline the transition to adulthood ---

Answer 84

In traditional cultures, marriage typically is the key transitional event into adulthood. Through socialisation, males develop skills that will enable them to protect and provide for a family of their own, and females learn skills needed eventually to care for children and run a household. Marriage signifies that, in the eyes of the culture, each partner has acquired these skills and is deemed capable of raising a family.

Question 85

Why might it be that we do not become less happy as we get older?

Answer 85

It can seem of that young adults, who are likely at the peak of their physical fitness, are less happy than later points in their life. One likely explanation of lower levels of happiness in early adulthood is that the many transitions that we go through at this stage in life can cause stress and unhappiness. Early adulthood is the time when many people attempt to form lasting relationships, establish a career, and enter into the considerable task of bringing up young children. This idea of early adulthood as being a qualitatively different part of life, prompts us to think about adulthood as being comprised of distinct stages.

Question 86

How can adult social development be seen as a progression through age-related stages?

Answer 86

``` According to Erikson's psychosocial stage theory, intimacy versus isolation is the major developmental challenge of early adulthood (ages 20 to 40). Intimacy is the ability to open oneself to another person and to form close relationships. This is the period of adulthood when many people form close adult friendships, fall in love and marry. Middle adulthood (ages 40 to 65) brings with it the issue of generativity versus stagnation. Through their careers, raising children or involvement in other activities, people achieve generativity by doing things for others and making the world a better place. Certainly, many young adults make such contributions, but genertivity typically becomes a more central issue later in adulthood. Late adulthood (age 65 and older) accentuates the final crisis, integrity versus despair. Older adults review their life and evaluate its meaning. If the major crises of earlier stages have been successfully resolved, the person experiences integrity: a sense of completeness and fulfilment. Older adults who have not achieved positive outcomes at earlier stages may experience despair, regretting that they had not lived their lives in a more fulfilling was. Findings that happiness increases with age suggest that most people manage to avoid this route in later life ```

Question 87

According to Erikson, what are the 3 major developmental challenges in adulthood (summary)?

Answer 87

Consistent with Erikson's model, many goals increase in importance as people age, and successfully resolving certain life tasks contributes to mastering others. But critics caution that we should avoid viewing early, middle and late adulthood as strict stages in which one life task takes over while others fade away. Although older adults are more concerned about generativity and integrity than are younger adults, they remain highly concerned about intimacy

Question 88

How does attachment change in adulthood (4 steps)?

Answer 88

Researchers have developed an Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to examine different kinds of conceptions of attachments in adults. Main, Caplan and Cassidy (1985) describe 4 styles of thinking about attachment in adults: 1) Autonomous: adults who are able to reflect objectively and openly on their previous attachment relationships, even if these were not always positive experiences 2) Dismissive: adults who dismiss the importance of attachment relationships 3) Enmeshed: adults who think a lot about their dependency on their parents and worry about pleasing them 4) Unresolved: adults who have experienced a traumatic attachment, or loss of an attachment figure, and are still resolving their thoughts on this

Question 89

What relationships are there between early and adult attachment styles?

Answer 89

Cowie and Blades summarise the data as indicating that there is continuity between: (a) secure attachment in infancy and autonomous attachment in adulthood, (b) anxious-avoidant attachment in infancy and dismissive attachment in adulthood, and (c) anxious-resistant attachment in infancy and enmeshed attachment in adulthood

Question 90

Why do patterns of attachment affect the nature of relationships in later life?

Answer 90

They argue that attachment types are likely to be a product of the environment: an insecure attachment is likely to result from the stressful environment in which infant and child find themselves, whereas a secure attachment is likely to result from a less stressful environment for both. Belsky et al. argue that the evolutioanry adaptive response in the context of a stressful environment is to orient towards maturing and mating at an earlier age and simply passing on one's genes to as many others as is possible (the 'quantity' approach). On the other hand, they argue that the most evolutionary adaptive response to an unstressful environment is to focus more on personal skills, and the acquisition of resources prior to childbirth so as to better serve child-rearing (the 'quality' approach). Thus, Belsky and colleagues explain the continuity of attachment styles between infancy and adulthood in terms of 2 different evolutionary strategies. Their approach has some support from evidence indicating that stressful parent-child relationships lead to faster physical development and earlier menarche in young women, but it suffers from the problems which all evolutionary accounts have. Their explanation is made after the fact and we have no way of testing it.

Question 91

How are successful marriages characterised?

Answer 91

By emotional closeness, positive communication and problem-solving, agreement on basic values and expectations, and a willingness to accept and support changes in the partner. On average, marital satisfaction declines over the first few years of the marriage. This does not mean, however, that most couples are unhappy. They are still satisfied, just less so than they were. In a sense, the honeymoon is over.

Question 92

How does the birth of a first baby dramatically alter the way couples spend their time together?

Answer 92

For many couples, martial satisfaction decreases in the year or 2 after their first child is born. Compared with husbands, wives are more likely to leave their outside jobs, spend more time parenting, and feel that their spouses are not helping enough. Disagreements over the division of labour and parenting are a major contributor to the drop in marital satisfaction

Question 93

What do cross-sectional studies suggest about marital satisfaction?

Answer 93

Over a broader age period, cross-sectional studies suggest a U-shaped relation between marital satisfaction and progression through major life events. The percentage of couples reporting that they are 'very satisfied' in their marriage typically is highest before or just as the first child is born, drops during child-rearing years and increases after all the children have left home. Contrary to the popular 'empty nest' stereotype, most middle-aged couples do not become significantly depressed or suffer a crisis when their children leave home. Couples maintain meaningful relationships with their children but have more time to spend with each other and to pursue leisure activities.

Question 94

What is found in married couples despite the stresses marriage entails?

Answer 94

Despite the stresses that accompany marriage and parenthood, studies around the globe find that married people experience greater subjective well-being than unmarried adults. They tend to be happier and live longer. Although raising children is demanding, parents often report that having children is one of the best things that has happened in their lives. Some couples in committed relationships cohabit - that is, live together, without being married. Some couples cohabit as a permanent alternative to marriage, but many do so as a 'trial marriage' to determine f they are compatible before marrying. In Sweden, premarital cohabitation appears to be the norm.

Question 95

What does a career do?

Answer 95

It helps us earn a living and defines part of our identity. Work provides an outlet for achievement, gives us structure and is a significant source of social interactions. Having satisfying relationships at work is especially important in collectivistic countries

Question 96

How does age influence career interests?

Answer 96

According to Super (1957), from childhood through to our mid-twenties, we first enter a growth stage of career interests in which we form initial impressions about the types of jobs we like or dislike, followed by a more earnest exploration stage in which we form tentative ideas about a preferred career and pursue the necessary education or training. From the mid-twenties to mid-forties, people often enter an establishment phase during which they begin to make their mark. Initially, they may experience some job instability. After college, for example, many people are likely to change careers at least once. Eventually, careers tend to become more stable, and people enter a maintenance stage that continues into late adulthood. Finally, during the decline stage, people's investment in work tends to decrease and they eventually retire.

Question 97

How are there gender differences with career paths?

Answer 97

It has been found that among college students who obtained an MBA (master of business administration) degree and then pursued managerial careers, women were more likely than men to experience career gaps by mid-career. Such gaps tended to retard professional advancement and salary level. Overall, compared with their fathers and mothers at the same age, today's young women hold higher career aspirations. Still, family responsibilities, which fall disproportionally on women even when their married partners have similar job status, are a major cause of gaps in women's employment, reductions to part-time work status or delayed entry into the workforce. After raising a family, many women enter the workforce for the first time, reinvigorate an earlier career or return to college to prepare for a new one. Career gaps also occur when adults must temporarily leave the workforce to care for their elderly parents. As in raising children, women disproportionally fill this elder-care role

Question 98

Is the midlife crisis a reality?

Answer 98

Levnson et al. (1978) studied 85 men and women longitudinally and found that many experienced a turbulent mid-life transition between the ages of 40 and 45. They began to focus on their mortality and realised that some of their life's dreams pertaining to career, family and relationships would not come true. Critics note that this sample was small and non-representative. in fact, there is considerable evidence that the notion of an inevitable, full-blown mid-life crisis is a myth. Certainly, one argument against the idea of mid-life crises is the findings discussed earlier that happiness and life satisfaction generally do not decrease through adulthood, and in fact may increase. Moreover, people in mid-life do not have the highest rates of divorce, suicide, depression, feelings of meaninglessness or emotional instability. In sum, middle-aged adults experience important conflicts, disappointments and worries - and some indeed experience major crises. The kinds of crises which we experience are often appropriate to life stage and are different for men and women. However, people of all ages experience crises. As Erikson emphasised, there are major goals to achieve, crises to resolve and rewards to experience in every phase of life

Question 99

What is retirement and how does it affect the individual?

Answer 99

Retirement is an important milestone. Some adults view it as a reminder that they are growing older, but many look forward to leisure and other opportunities they were unable to pursue during their careers. Most retired people do not become anxious, depressed or dissatisfied with life due to retirement itself, although those who have strong work values are most apt to miss their jobs. The decision to retire or keep working typically involves many factors, such as one's feelings about the job, leisure interests, physical health and family relationships. Family experience increased marital stress after a spouse retires, especially if the other spouse is still working. Over time, however, they typically adjust to their new circumstances and marital quality is enhanced

Question 100

How may mandatory retirement ages or lay-offs influence an individual?

Answer 100

These circumstances can have a significant impact on well-being. Whether in their 50s, 60s or 70s, adults who are working or retired because this is what they prefer report higher life satisfaction and better physical and mental health than adults who are involuntarily working or retired.Of course, declining physical and mental health also may be factors that lead people to retire in the first place. Thus, biological, psychological and environmental factors continue to exert their influence on development and jointly shape how people navigate their golden years.

Question 101

How is death and dying influential? 5 stages of death ---

Answer 101

Death can be viewed at several levels. It is an inevitable biological process, but one with important psychological and environmental components. Jubler-Ross found that terminally ill patients often experienced 5 stages as they coped with impending death: Denial typically came first,a s the person refused to accept that the illness was terminal. Next, anger. And then to bargaining, such as 'Lord please let me live long enough to see my grandchild'. Depression ushered in the fourth stage as patients begin to grieve. Finally, many experienced acceptance and a resigned sense of peacefulness.

Question 102

What is important to bear in mind about the stages of death?

Answer 102

They do not necessarily represent a 'normal' or 'correct' way to face death and that terminally ill patients' reactions may not typify those of people facing death under other circumstances. Even among terminally ill patients, some move back and forth between stages, do not experience all the stages, or look forward to death. Indeed, some scientists question whether people's psychological responses to their impending death are stage-like at all. Nevertheless, her work spurred great interest in understanding and helping people cope with death

Question 103

How do beliefs and customs concerning death vary cross culturally and among individuals?

Answer 103

To some, death means the complete end of one's existence. Others believe in reincarnation or an afterlife. Death also means different things to people of different ages. By late and even middle adulthood, people typically have lost more friends and loved ones and have thought more about their own eventual death than have younger people. Understandably, the elderly are more accepting of their own death than any other age group