Developmental Psychology Overview

Developmental Psychology

• Definition: The study of how individuals change physically, cognitively, and socially throughout their lives.
• Research Methods:
  • Longitudinal Study: Tracks the same individuals over an extended period.
  • Cross-Sectional Study: Compares different age groups at a single point in time.
• Prenatal Development:
  • Germinal Stage (0-2 weeks): Zygote formation, initial cell division.
  • Embryonic Stage (3-8 weeks): Major organ and structure development begins.
  • Fetal Stage (9 weeks to birth): Continued growth and maturation of organs.
  • Conception: Fertilization of the egg by sperm in the fallopian tube.
  • Key Milestones:
    • 12 weeks: First trimester concludes; major organs formed.
    • 22 weeks: Viability; fetus can potentially survive outside the womb.
    • 38 weeks: Full-term pregnancy.
  • Teratogens: Harmful factors (drugs, alcohol) that can affect prenatal development.
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Caused by maternal alcohol consumption, leading to physical and cognitive problems.

Infancy

• Reflexes & Preferences: Infants are born with reflexes (e.g., rooting, sucking) and show preferences for stimuli like faces and voices.
• Brain Development: The prefrontal cortex, responsible for higher-level cognitive functions, develops later.
• Motor Development: Infants typically begin walking around 9-15 months.
• Temperament: Inherent emotional responses in infants, categorized as easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up, and mixed.
• Attachment: Developments in attachment lead to variations in reaction to separation; stranger and separation anxieties develop around 6-9 months.
• Attachment Studies:
  • Harlow's Monkeys: Monkeys showed a preference for comfort over nourishment when choosing a surrogate mother.
  • Ainsworth's Strange Situation: Evaluates attachment styles based on infant responses to separation and reunion with caregiver.
  • Attachment Styles:
    • Secure: Explores, becomes distressed upon separation, comforted upon reunion.
    • Avoidant: Avoids caregiver, shows little emotion during separation or reunion.
    • Ambivalent/Resistant: Clings to caregiver, distressed upon separation is not comforted upon reunion.
    • Disorganized: Inconsistent reactions, approaching caregiver while simultaneously avoiding them.

Parenting Styles

• Parenting Styles:
  • Authoritarian: High control, low warmth.
  • Authoritative: High control, high warmth (considered most effective).
  • Permissive: Low control, high warmth.
  • Neglectful: Low control, low warmth.
  • Uninvolved: Lack of emotional support or guidance.

Piaget's Cognitive Theory

• Stages of Cognitive Development:
  • Sensorimotor (0-2 years): Learning through sensory input and motor actions; development of object permanence.
  • Preoperational (2-7 years): Uses symbols and language, characterized by egocentrism and lack of conservation.
  • Concrete Operational (7-11 years): Logical thinking, understanding conservation and reversibility.
  • Formal Operational (12+ years): Abstract thinking, problem-solving.
• Key Concepts:
  • Conservation: Understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance.
  • Egocentrism: Inability to understand different perspectives.
  • Object Permanence: Understanding that objects continue to exist when hidden.

Vygotsky's Theory

• Scaffolding: Support provided by more knowledgeable individuals to facilitate learning and skill development.

Adolescence

• Puberty: Physical changes leading to sexual maturity.
• Sexual Characteristics:
  • Primary: Directly involved in reproduction (e.g., ovaries, testes).
  • Secondary: Non-reproductive features (e.g., body hair, breast development).
• Identity: Development of a sense of self and values.

Adulthood

• Emerging Adulthood: The period between adolescence and full adulthood, often characterized by exploration.
• Social Clock: Culturally expected timing of life events (e.g., marriage, having children).
• Middle Adulthood:
  • Menopause: Cessation of menstruation, typically around age 50.
  • Midlife Crisis: Possible period of emotional turmoil in middle age.
  • Empty Nest: Feeling of loss when children leave home.
• Late Adulthood:
  • Cognitive Changes: Possible declines in memory and intelligence, though wisdom may increase.

Kohlberg's Moral Theory

• Levels of Moral Development:
  • Pre-conventional: Morality based on personal gain or punishment avoidance.
  • Conventional: Morality based on societal rules.
  • Post-conventional: Morality based on abstract principles and rights.
• Gender Differences: Kohlberg proposed differences in moral reasoning between men and women, primarily in focus on care vs justice.

Erikson's Psychosocial Development

• Stages:
  • Stages of psychosocial development spanning the lifespan, addressing issues at each stage.

Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Stages:
  • Physiological: Basic needs (food, water, shelter).
  • Safety: Security and stability.
  • Love/Belonging: Relationships and connections.
  • Esteem: Self-respect and recognition.
  • Self-Actualization: Achieving full potential.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

• Levels of Awareness: Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious, with the unconscious holding repressed memories.
• Structures of Personality: Id (primitive desires), ego (realistic component), superego (moral conscience).
• Principles: Pleasure principle (immediate gratification), reality principle (meeting desires realistically).
• Psychosexual Stages: Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital.
• Conflicts: Oedipus/Electra complexes.
• Defense Mechanisms: Strategies the ego uses to cope with anxiety (e.g., repression, denial, displacement).

Neo-Freudians

• Jung: Proposed the collective unconscious.
• Adler: Focused on individual psychology and inferiority complexes.
• Horney: Emphasized the importance of social relationships and anxiety.

Humanistic Theories

• Rogers: Emphasized unconditional positive regard.
• Maslow: Hierarchy of needs.

Trait Theories

• Big Five (OCEAN): Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Social Cognitive Theory

• Elements: Cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors interact.
• Locus of Control: Internal vs external belief in control over events.
• Self-Efficacy: Belief in ability to succeed.

Biopsychosocial Approach

• Integration: A model considering biological, psychological, and social factors in understanding behavior and mental processes.