Chapter Five: Developing Through The Life Span

Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Chapter Five Developing Through the Life Span Overview ▪ Developmental Issues, Prenatal Development, and the Newborn ▪ Infancy and Childhood ▪ Adolescence ▪ Adulthood Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Developmental Psychology’s Major Issues...

Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Chapter Five Developing Through the Life Span Overview ▪ Developmental Issues, Prenatal Development, and the Newborn ▪ Infancy and Childhood ▪ Adolescence ▪ Adulthood Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Developmental Psychology’s Major Issues ▪ Nature and nurture ▪ How is our development influenced by the interaction between our genetic inheritance and experiences? ▪ Continuity and stages ▪ What parts of development are gradual and continuous and what parts change abruptly? ▪ Stability and change ▪ Which of our traits persist and which change through life? Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development ▪ Brain cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. ▪ Birth: Neuronal growth spurt and synaptic pruning ▪ 3-6 months: Rapid frontal lobe growth and continued growth into adolescence and beyond ▪ Early childhood: Critical period for some skills (i.e., language and vision) ▪ Throughout life: Learning changes brain tissue Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Infancy and Childhood: Motor Development ▪ Motor skills ▪ Develop as nervous system and muscles mature ▪ Are primarily universal in sequence, but not in timing ▪ Are guided by genes and influenced by environment ▪ Involve the same sequence throughout the world Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development ▪ Piaget ▪ Children are active thinkers ▪ Minds develops through series of universal, irreversible stages from simple reflexes to adult abstract reasoning ▪ Children’s maturing brains build schemas which are used and adjusted through assimilation and accommodation Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking ▪ Sensorimotor stage (birth to nearly 2 years) • Tools for thinking and reasoning change with development • Adaptation • Assimilation: Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas • Accommodation: Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information • Object permanence • Awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images SCALE ERRORS Children age 18 to 30 months may fail to take the size of an object into account when trying to perform impossible actions with it. At left, a 21month-old attempts to slide down a miniature slide. At right, a 24-monthold opens the door to a miniature car and tries to step inside (DeLoache et al., 2004). Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking ▪ Preoperational stage (about 2 to 7 years) ▪ Child learns to use language but cannot yet perform the mental operations of concrete logic ▪ Conservation ▪ Egocentrism/curse of knowledge Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking ▪ Theory of mind ▪ Involves ability to read mental state of others ▪ Between 3½ and 4½, children worldwide use theory of mind to realize others may hold false beliefs ▪ By 4 to 5, children anticipate false beliefs of friends Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images PIAGET’S TEST OF CONSERVATION This preoperational child does not yet understand the principle of conservation. When the milk is poured into a tall, narrow glass, it suddenly seems like “more” than when it was in the shorter, wider glass. In another year or so, she will understand that the amount stays the same even though it looks different. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking ▪ Concrete operational (7 to 11 years) ▪ Children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. ▪ They begin to understand change in form before change in quantity and become able to understand simple math and conservation. ▪ Formal operational (12 through adulthood) ▪ Children are no longer limited to concrete reasoning based on actual experience. ▪ They are able to think abstractly. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ▪ Children with ASD have impaired theory of mind, social deficiencies, and repetitive behaviors. ▪ Reading faces and social signals is challenging for those with ASD. ▪ Underlying cause of ASD is attributed to poor communication among brain regions that facilitate theory of mind skills and genetic influences Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ▪ Prevalence of ASD ▪ Four boys for every girl ▪ Higher when prenatal testosterone/extreme male brain exists ▪ Higher among elite math students and progeny of engineers and MIT graduates ▪ Higher when identical co-twin has ASD; younger ASD sibling heightens risk Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Self-Concept Self-concept, an understanding and evaluation of who we are, emerges gradually. • 6 months: Self-awareness begins with self recognition in mirror (Darwin) • 15-18 months: Schema of how face should look apparent • School age: More detailed descriptions of gender, group membership, psychological traits, and peer comparisons • By 8-10 years: Self-image stable by 8 to 10 years Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Parenting Styles ▪ Parenting styles reflect varying degrees of control (Baumrind) ▪ Authoritative parents tend to have children with the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence. ▪ Permissive parents tend to have children who are more aggressive and immature. ▪ Authoritarian parents tend to have children with less social skills and self-esteem. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Parenting Styles ▪ Culture ▪ Cultural values vary from place to place and from one time to another within the same place. ▪ Children have survived and flourished throughout history under various child-rearing systems. ▪ Diversity in child rearing should be a reminder that no single culture has the only way to raise children successfully. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adolescence: Physical Development ▪ Adolescence is the transition from puberty to social independence. ▪ Early maturing boys: More popular, self-assured, and independent; more at risk for alcohol use, delinquency, and premature sexual activity. ▪ Early maturing girls: Mismatch between physical and emotional maturity may encourage search for older teens; teasing or sexual harassment may occur. ▪ Teens: Frontal lobe development and synaptic pruning occur and may produce irrational and risky behaviors. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adolescence: Cognitive Development ▪ Developing reasoning power: Piaget ▪ Develop new abstract thinking tools (formal operations) ▪ Reason logically and develop moral judgment ▪ Developing moral reasoning: Kohlberg ▪ Use moral reasoning that develops in universal sequence to guide moral actions Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Thinking Level (approximate age) Focus Preconventional morality (before age 9) Self-interest; obey rules “If you save your dying to avoid punishment or wife, you’ll be a hero.” gain concrete rewards Conventional morality (early adolescence) Uphold laws and rules “If you steal the drug for to gain social approval her, everyone will think or maintain social order you’re a criminal.” Actions reflect belief in Postconventional morality basic rights and self(adolescence and beyond) defined ethical principles Example “People have a right to live.” Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adolescence: Social Development ▪ Adolescence struggle involves identity versus role confusion-continuing into adulthood. ▪ Social identity involves the “we” aspect of self- concept that comes from group memberships. ▪ Healthy identity formation is followed by a capacity to build close relationships. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adolescence: Parent and Peer Relationships ▪ People seek to fit in and are influenced by their groups, especially during childhood and teen years. Influence of parents and peers is complementary. ▪ Parents ▪ Parent-child arguments increase but most adolescents report liking their parents. Argument content often genderrelated. ▪ Peers ▪ Peers influence behavior, social networking is often extensive, and exclusion can be painful or worse. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images What Happens Next? ▪ Emerging adulthood ▪ Includes the time from 18 to mid-twenties in a not-yetsettled phase of life ▪ Characterized by not yet assuming adult responsibilities and independences and feelings of being “in between” ▪ May involve living with and still being emotionally dependent on parents ▪ Found mostly in today’s Western cultures Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adulthood: Physical Development ▪ Early adulthood ▪ Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness and cardiac output peak in mid-twenties. ▪ Middle adulthood ▪ Physical vigor more closely linked to health and exercise than age ▪ Physical decline is gradual; gradual decline in fertility ▪ Female: menopause; Male: gradual decline in sperm count, testosterone level, erection and ejaculation speed Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adulthood: Physical Development ▪ Late adulthood ▪ Life expectancy worldwide increased from 46.5 to 70 years; telomeres tips shorten ▪ Visual sharpness, distance perception, and stamina diminish; pupils shrink and become less transparent ▪ Immune system weakens and susceptibility to lifethreatening disease increases ▪ Neural processing lag occurs; brain regions related to memory begin to atrophy; speech slows ▪ Exercise slows aging and stimulates brain cell development and neural connections Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adulthood: Aging and Memory ▪ Early adulthood is peak time for some learning and memory. ▪ Middle adulthood shows greater decline in ability to recall rather than recognize memory. ▪ Late adulthood is characterized by better retention of meaningful than meaningless information, longer word production time. ▪ End of life is characterized by terminal decline; typically occurs during last four years of life Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adulthood: Ages and Stages • Transitions • Midlife transition occurs in early forties • Social clock varies from era to era and culture to culture • Change events have lasting impact • Commitments • Intimacy (forming close relationships) • Generativity (being productive and supporting future generations) Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adulthood Commitments ▪ Marriage ▪ Satisfaction related to shared interests and values, mutual emotional and material support, and self-disclosure ▪ Marriage is predictive of happiness, sexual satisfaction, income and mental health. ▪ Divorce ▪ Divorce rates related to women’s increased ability to support themselves and their higher expectations for a mate ▪ Trial marriage related to higher divorce rates Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Adulthood: Social Development ▪ Adult’s commitments: Work ▪ Work provides a sense of competence, accomplishment, and self-definition for many adults. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Well-Being Across the Life Span ▪ Positive feelings grow after midlife and negative feelings decline. ▪ Older adults report less anger, stress, and worry and have fewer social relationship problems. ▪ Brain-wave reactions to negative images diminish with age. ▪ At all ages, people are happiest when they are not alone.