Developmental Psychology Overview

Developmental Psychology

• Definition: The study of how people change physically, cognitively, and socially throughout their lives.
• Research Methods:
  • Longitudinal Study: Tracks the same individuals over time.
  • Cross-Sectional Study: Compares different age groups at one point.
• Prenatal Development:
  • Stages: Germinal (0-2 weeks), Embryonic (3-8 weeks), Fetal (9 weeks-birth).
  • Conception: Sperm fertilizes egg in the fallopian tube.
  • Key Milestones:
    • 12 weeks: Major organs are formed (end of 1st trimester).
    • 22 weeks: Age of viability (can survive outside the womb).
    • 38 weeks: Full term.
  • Teratogens: Harmful agents that can affect prenatal development (e.g., drugs, alcohol).
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Caused by maternal alcohol consumption; results in physical and cognitive disabilities.
• Infancy:
  • Reflexes & Preferences: Infants are born with reflexes and show preferences for stimuli (e.g., faces, voices).
  • Brain Development: The prefrontal cortex (responsible for reasoning) develops later.
  • Motor Development: Typically begin walking between 9-15 months.
  • Temperament: Inherent emotional responses (easy, difficult, slow-to-warm, mixed).
  • Social-Emotional Development: Stranger and separation anxiety (6-9 months).
• Attachment Studies:
  • Harlow's Monkeys: Showed the importance of comfort for attachment.
  • Ainsworth's Strange Situation: Observed infant attachment in response to caregiver absence and return.
  • Attachment Styles: Secure, Avoidant, Ambivalent/Resistant, Disorganized.
• Parenting Styles:
  • Authoritarian: High control, low warmth.
  • Authoritative: High control, high warmth (most effective).
  • Permissive: Low control, high warmth.
  • Neglectful: Low control, low warmth.
  • Uninvolved: Lack of emotional support.
• Piaget's Cognitive Development:
  • Stages: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational.
  • Concepts: Conservation, Egocentrism, Object Permanence.
• Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory:
  • Scaffolding: Support provided by more knowledgeable individuals to assist development.

Adolescence

• Puberty: Physical changes leading to sexual maturity.
• Sexual Characteristics: Primary (reproductive organs), Secondary (non-reproductive traits).
• Identity Development: Formation of sense of self and values.

Adulthood

• Emerging Adulthood: Exploration period between adolescence and adulthood.
• Social Clock: Culturally expected timing for life events.
• Middle Adulthood:
  • Menopause: Cessation of menstruation.
  • Midlife Crisis: Emotional turmoil due to perceived lack of accomplishments.
  • Empty Nest: Feeling of loss when children leave home.
• Late Adulthood:
  • Cognitive Changes: Possible decline in memory and intelligence, but wisdom often increases.

Kohlberg's Moral Theory

• Levels of Moral Development: Pre-conventional, Conventional, Post-conventional.

Erikson's Psychosocial Development

• Stages: Eight stages across lifespan (Trust vs. Mistrust, etc.).

Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief

• Stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.

Maslow's Theory of Motivation

• Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, Self-Actualization.

Personality

• Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious; Id, Ego, Superego; Psychosexual Stages (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital); Oedipus/Electra Complex; Defense Mechanisms.
• Neo-Freudians: Jung (collective unconscious), Adler (inferiority complex), Horney (social relationships).
• Humanistic Theories: Maslow (hierarchy of needs), Rogers (unconditional positive regard).
• Trait Theories: Big Five (OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism).
• Social Cognitive Theory: Cognitive, Behavioral, Environmental factors; Locus of Control; Self-Efficacy.
• Biopsychosocial Approach: Considers biological, psychological, and social factors in behavior.