Chapter 9: Human Development Notes PDF

[Chapter 9: human development ] **What is development?** - Series of changes for better or worse - Involves trade-offs **Domains of development** - Intelligence - Memory - Mental (Piaget's theory of cognitive development) - Psychosocial (Erikson's psychosocial stages) **Terminol...

[Chapter 9: human development ] **What is development?** - Series of changes for better or worse - Involves trade-offs **Domains of development** - Intelligence - Memory - Mental (Piaget's theory of cognitive development) - Psychosocial (Erikson's psychosocial stages) **Terminology** - Chronological age: - The number of months or years since an individual's birth - Developmental age: - Chronological age at which most children show a particular level of physical or mental development - Ex. Developmental age for walking without assistance is 12 months old - A 10-month-old child can walk without assistance is said to have a developmental age of 12 months - Normative investigations - Research efforts designed to describe what is characteristic of a specific age or developmental stage **Research design** - Longitudinal design - Same participants are observed repeatedly, sometimes over many years - Cross-sectional design - Groups of participants of diff chronological ages are observed and compared at a given time **Example: studying stages of locomotion** - Longitudinal design: tracking the same individual over time - Cross-sectional design: comparing babies of diff ages **Longitudinal design** - Advantages: - Researchers can identify individual differences (ex. Developmental age for walking not same for everyone) - Can examine relationships between early and later events and behaviours - Can test direction of causation - Disadvantages: - Time consuming and costly - Date is easily lost (high drop-out rate) - Data might be contaminated by: - Biased sampling - Practice effects - Cohort effects - A cohort is a group of people who develop in the same time period and are influenced by particular cultural and historical conditions - Results based on one cohort of cultural-historical change on the accuracy of findings **Cross-sectional design** - Advantages: - Takes less time to complete - Less costly - Not subject to practice effects - Disadvantages: - Cannot tell if an early event has an impact on a later event - Cohort effects (especially comparing two cohorts with a big age difference) - Cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of intellectual change in middle adulthood - When assessed cross-sectionally, intellectual ability starts to decline at a very early stage of life - When assessed longitudinally, intellectual ability increases from early adulthood and peaks at middle adulthood - Practice effects don't apply to cross-sectional, only longitudinal - Cohort effects applies to both **Aging and intelligence** - Fluid intelligence (quick problem solving) shows greater decline with age than crystallized intelligence (using past knowledge) - Decrease in fluidity has been attributed to a general slowing down of processing speed - Older adults' performance on intellectual tasks that require many mental processes to occur in small amounts of time is greatly impaired **Use it or lose it** - Correlational study: - Older adults (average age = 69) whose everyday lives had the highest levels of social, physical, and intellectual activities also showed the fastest processing speed on cognitive tasks - However, correlation is NOT causation - Some possible explanations for the observation: - Not using it first, then losing it - Losing it first, then not using it - Cannot tell whether disuse or decay is the true cause of age-related cognitive impairment - People choose to believe that disuse is the cause of impairment because this is a more optimistic view of life -- that we have some control over the losses **Memory** - People experience memory deficits with advancing age, even when they have been highly educated and otherwise have good intellectual skills - However, aging does NOT seem to affect: - Memory of general knowledge (sematic memory) that was acquired long ago - Memory of personal events (episodic memory) that occurred long ago **Free recall vs recognition test** - Results of a free recall test are affected by age; results of a recognition test is unaffected by age **Remote memory vs new memory** - Middle-aged adults could identify 90% of their high-school classmates in yearbooks 35 years after graduation - Older adults were still able to recognize 70% to 80% of their classmates some 50 years later - Aging does have some impact on remote memory, but the damage is not very serious - Aging affects new memory to a much greater extent than it affects remote memory: - Older adults are less capable to remember names of new acquaintance, compared to younger adults **Older people tend to display these memory deficits** - Transience: tendency to lose access to info across time - Absent-mindedness: failure to remember info bc of insufficient attention - Misattribution: remembering a fact correctly but attributing it to an incorrect source or context - Suggestibility: tendency to incorporate info provided by others into your own recollection and memory representation **Memory Deficit** - Memory deficits occur frequently in older individuals than in younger - Mechanisms that underline memory impairment in older adults are unknown - Some possible explanations are: - Lack of organization in older adults - Reduced ability to pay attention in older adults - Neurobiological changes in the brain **Alzheimer's disease** - Cerebral cortex shrivels up, damaging areas involved in thinking, planning, and remembering - Ventricles filled with cerebrospinal fluid grow larger - Hippocampus shrinks severely **Infantile/childhood amnesia** - Inability to remember events and experiences that occurred during the first two to three years of life **Brain development and synaptic pruning** - During infancy, the brain experiences a large amount of growth. There is an explosion of synapse formation between neurons during early brain development. This is called synaptogenesis - This rapid period of synaptogenesis plays a vital role in learning, memory formation, and adaptation early in life. At about 2 to 3 years of age, the number of synapses hits a peak level. But then shortly after this period of synaptic growth, the brain starts to remove synapses that it no longer needs. This process is called synaptic pruning **Piaget's insight into mental development** - Looked for qualitative differences between children and adults and tried to document the orderly progression of cognitive development from childhood to adulthood - In his view, intellectual growth involves the gradual emancipation from the here and now of the immediate, concrete present to a conception of the world in symbolic and abstract terms **Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development** - Sensorimotor (0-2 years) - Preoperational (2-7 years) - Concrete operations (7-11) - Formal operations (11-on) **Sensorimotor stage (0-2)** - At the beginning of this stage: - In the infant's world, there are neither real objects nor any conception of a self - There is nothing at first but a succession of transient, unconnected sensory impressions and motor reactions - The first few months on earth contains neither past nor future - There is no distinction between stable objects and fleeting events - A one-month-old infant will grasp a toy when the toy is applied to its hand - The infant will suck it when the toy is applied to its lips - She is unable to grasp what it is sucking, or suck what it is grasping - The coordination of these sensory impressions is not yet developed - A one-month-old infant will follow an object with its eyes, but, when the object disappears from view, she turns away as if the object has also disappeared from her mind - This suggests the one-month-old has no memory of the object - At the end of this stage: - Children will search for those disappearing objects - Children begin to understand the concept of object permanence -- that objects exist and behave independently of their actions or awareness - This observation suggests that children in this stage have developed long-term memory - Have no sense of object permanence at the beginning, object permanence by age 2 **Preoperational stage (2-7)** - Characteristics of this stage are presented in the form of deficiency (ex. Lack of concrete operations) - In this stage, the child lacks: - The ability to take the perspective of another person (egocentrism) - The concept of conservation (quantity of a substance is conserved despite changes in its shape) - Egocentrism (fail to see from other perspectives), do not understand conservation - Mountain example and water in diff cups example **Concrete operations stage (7-11)** - Children can do what they failed to do in the preoperational stage - They can: - See from other people's perspective when the subject of observation are concrete - Tell that any given quantity remains the same no matter how its shape changes - Children are capable of mental operations, actions performed in the mind that give rise to logical thinking - Ex. They can mentally pour the liquid back and forth between containers of different shapes and reason that change in shape does not mean change in quantity - Concrete operations allow children to replace physical action with mental action - Can see from other perspectives when the subject of observation is concrete, understand conservation, can replace physical actions with mental actions **Formal operations stage (11-on)** - Final stage of operational growth - Features of this stage are: - Able to think in abstract terms - Able to ponder deep questions of truth, justice, and existence - Can see reality from multiple vantage points when the subject of observation is abstract - Can think in abstract terms (ex. Deductive reasoning), can see reality from multiple vantage points when the subject of observation is abstract (ex. Moral judgement) **Erikson's psychosocial stages** **Approx. age** **Crisis** -------------------------------- ---------------------------- Infancy (0-1) Trust vs mistrust Toddler (1-3) Autonomy vs self-doubt Preschool (3-6) Initiative vs guilt Childhood (6-12) Industry vs inferiority Adolescence (12-18) Identity vs role confusion Early adult (18-29) Intimacy vs isolation Middle adulthood (30-50s) Generativity vs stagnation Late adulthood (60s and older) Ego integrity vs despair **Infancy: trust vs mistrust** - Attachment and separation anxiety - Attachment is the emotional relationship between a child and the parent or regular caregiver - Beginning at about 8-12 months, infants show distress when separated from caregivers - Separation anxiety increases dramatically at the end of the first year of life **The strange situation test (Mary Ainsworth)** - Widely used research procedure to assess attachment and separation anxiety - Child is brought into an unfamiliar room filled with toys - With the mother present, the child is encouraged to explore the room and to play - After several minutes, a stranger comes in, talks to the mother, and approaches the child - Next, the mother exists the room - After this brief separation, the mother returns, there is reunion with the child, and the stranger leaves - The researchers record the child's behaviours at separation and reunion **Test results** - Children's behaviour can be categorized into 3 types: - Securely attached - Insecurely attached -- avoidant - Insecurely attached -- ambivalent/resistant **Securely attached** - Children show some distress when the parent leaves the room; seek proximity, comfort and contact upon reunion; and then gradually return to play - About 70% of children display this attachment style **Insecurely attached -- avoidant** - Children ignore mother while she is present - Show minimum distress when the mother leaves - Children seem aloof and may actively avoid and ignore the parent upon her return - About 20% of children display this style of attachment **Insecurely attached -- ambivalent/resistant** - Children become very upset and anxious when the parent leaves; at reunion they may seek contact. But when contact is achieved, they cannot be comforted. They show anger and resistance to the parent - About 10% of children display this type of attachment Abusing parenting style -- disorganized attachment **Characteristics of secure attachment** **As children** **As adults** ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Seek comfort from parents when frightened Comfortable sharing feelings with friends and parents Return of parents is met with positive emotions Tend to have good self esteem Prefers parents to strangers Seek out social support **Characteristics of avoidant attachment** **As children** **As adults** ----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- May avoid parents May have problems with intimacy Does not seek much comfort and contact with parents Invest little emotion in social and romantic relationships Shows little or no preference between parent and stranger Unable or unwilling to share thoughts and feelings with others **Characteristics of ambivalent/resistant attachment** **As children** **As adults** ----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- May be wary of strangers Reluctant to become close to others Become greatly distressed when the parent leaves Worry that their partner does not love them Do not appear to be comforted by the return of the parent Become very distraught when a relationship ends **Parent-infant attachment style vs adult relationship style** - There is a positive correlation between the parent-infant attachment style and the later relationship style developed in adulthood - Adults with an avoidant relationship style tend to have: - Parents with unhappy marriages - Aloof and distant family members - Adults with an avoidant relationship style did not feel much warmth or trust either toward or from their parents - Direction of causation is unknown **Marcia's identity status model** - Foreclosure: low exploration, high commitment - Identity achievement: high exploration, high commitment - Identity diffusion: low exploration, low commitment - Moratorium: high exploration, low commitment **Identity vs role confusion** - Identity diffusion: - Neither explore nor make commitments - Identity foreclosure: - A person forms an identity without exploring alternatives (ex. Accepting the values of parents) - Being moralistic and conventional - Unable to provide a good rationale for one's beliefs and choices - Moratorium - Taking time to explore options before making a commitment to an identity - Development of an identity takes time and work - Identity diffusion -- moratorium -- identity achievement - Adolescents who fail in this stage enter adulthood without a solid sense of who they are or what they think is the meaning of their lives - Such people bounce around between all sorts of roles and are generally unstable in their relationships, in their jobs, and in their goals and values (bad transition to adulthood) **The red zone** - Refers to a period of time early in one's first year at college or uni during which women are thought to be at particularly high risk for unwanted sexual experiences (UWS) - Parameters of the Red Zone vary from one college to another in the US - Between august and November - Between freshman move in and fall break (mid October) - Between freshman move in and the first week of classes - The first 6 weeks of the fall sem **Hypothesized reasons for year 1 Red Zone** - Partying - Alcohol consumption - Social vulnerability of first year sections - Need rides (subjecting oneself to an isolated private place then) - Lack of experience with alcohol - New-found freedom - Lack of knowledge regarding tacit rules avoiding sexual assault **Protecting oneself from date rape** - Be aware of excessive alcohol and drug use - Do not leave your drink unattended - Watch out for each other - Avoid private places when dating someone new - Clearly communicate about sexual activity **3 stages of date rape** - Isolation - Intrusion - Desensitization - A scenario: - Tara and Jaden were watching Netflix in Jaden\'s dorm. Tara became\ very interested in the film and watched it intently, but Jaden started\ fondling Tara and progressed to touching her sexually. Tara continued\ watching the film as Jaden touched her. Jaden persisted in touching Tara\ and eventually they had sex. **Social development in adulthood** - Adulthood is a time in which - Social relationships and - Personal accomplishments take on special priority **Inadequate communication** - 4 communication patterns that are risk factors for divorce: - Contempt - Criticism - Defensiveness - Stonewalling **Middle adulthood developmental outcome: generativity** - Generativity: ability to generate something that an individual cares about in life, usually in the form of: - Career - Family with children - Generativity is a commitment beyond oneself to one's family, work, society, and future generations - A crucial development in 30s and 40s - Others oriented - Directing personal resources outward **Characteristics of generativity** - Attitude of care and inclusion - Open to experience - Tolerant of differences - Creative-productive tendencies - Broad scope of concern - Other-focused (next generation) - Conscious of being a guide - Generous mentor, shared knowledge - Encourages others to lead in own style/voice - Emphasis on interpersonal values **Characteristics of stagnation** - Attitude of exclusion (rejectivity) - Closed to experience - Intolerant of differences - Conservative tendencies - Narrow scope of concern - Self-absorbed - Self-interest, focused on personal needs - Little self-less giving and outreach to others - Enforces current practices and conventions - Emphasis on instrument values **Generativity and midlife crisis** - According to Erikson, the crisis for later adults is ego integrity vs despair - Adequate resolution of the crisis: - Sense of wholeness, basic satisfaction with life - Inadequate resolution of the crisis: - Feelings of futility, disappointment **Take-home message** - Midlife is often a time for reflection or reassessment - You reap what you sow in midlife - Early adulthood (20-40): time to sow - Middle adulthood (40-65): time to reap - Late adulthood (65 and older): wintertime, nothing will grow