1. Psychological Development
Chapter 3
Psychological Development

2. Psychological Development
Developmental psychologists
Concerned with how and why different aspects of human functioning develop and change across life span
Two key questions:
1. How do biological factors interact with environmental factors to determine course of development?
2. Is development best understood as gradual, continuous process or a series of abrupt, qualitatively distinct stages?

3. Heredity and Environment
Key debate
Whether heredity (“nature) or environment (“nurture”) more important in human development
John Locke – “tabula rasa” – advocated nurture
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution – advocated nature
Most agree these days that both nature and nurture are important and that they interact continuously to guide development

4. Heredity and Environment
Stages of development
behavior at a given stage is organised around a coherent set of characteristics
behavior at each stage is qualitatively different from that at earlier or later stages
All children go through the same stages in the same order
Environmental factors may affect speed of progress through, but not the order of, stages
Critical or sensitive periods – time periods during development when specific events must occur for normal development

5. Capacities of the Newborn
Infants born with sensory systems functioning
Vision
Newborns poor visual acuity
Some evidence for facial preference

6. Capacities of the Newborn
Hearing
Newborns turn towards sound and show preference for their mother’s voice
Infants appear to discern rhythm of language and from as young as 6 months able to discriminate between voice intonations indicating approval and disapproval

7. Capacities of the Newborn
Taste and smell
Shortly after birth infants are able to discriminate between tastes, showing preference for sweet-tasting liquids
Newborns also able to discriminate among odors, i.e. turning head away from noxious odors
Learning and memory
Newborns can learn simple responses from birth
By three months infants can show good memories

8. Cognitive Development in Childhood
Piaget’s stage theory
Children construct schemas – theories about how physical and social worlds operate
Children try to assimilate new events into existing schema
Where a new event does not fit, child will modify schema to fit new information – accommodation
Divided cognitive development into four stages

9. Cognitive Development in Childhood
...Piaget’s stage theory
The sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
Differentiates self from objects
Begins to act intentionally, e.g. shake rattle to make noise
Develops object permanence – awareness that object continues to exist if no longer visible
The preoperational stage (2-7 years)
Learn to use language and to represent objects by images and words
Thinking dominated by visual impressions
Thinking egocentric – difficulty taking others viewpoint

10. Cognitive Development in Childhood
...Piaget’s stage theory
Operational stages (7-12 years)
Achieve conservation (amount stays same even if form changes) of number (age 6), mass (age 7) and weight (age 9)
Concrete operational stage – can form mental representations of a series of actions. Can use abstract terms but only in relation to concrete objects
Formal operational stage – able to reason purely in abstract terms and test hypotheses systematically

11. Cognitive Development in Childhood
...Piaget’s stage theory
A critique of Piaget’s theory
Underestimated children’s abilities – tasks Piaget used required additional skills to complete other than that one skill being assessed
Example: Object permanence test required child to show searching behavior and memory for object location in addition to awareness of object’s continued existence. Research taking this into account demonstrates much earlier displays of object permanence than Piaget suggested

12. Cognitive Development in Childhood

13. Cognitive Development in Childhood
Alternatives to Piaget’s theory
Information-processing approaches
View cognitive development as the acquisition of separate information-processing skills
Some see development as smooth and continuous while others see the gradual changes in skills leading to stage-like changes
Knowledge-acquisition approaches
View development as increase in acquisition of domain-specific knowledge – not just more facts but deeper understanding of how facts in particular domain organized

14. Cognitive Development in Childhood
... Alternatives to Piaget’s theory
Sociocultural approaches
Some (including Vygotsky) consider culture to influence children’s development, e.g. through opportunity for activities, frequency of activities, meaning of activities and role in activities
Theory of mind
Understanding that other people have minds
This understanding that other people think, have expectations and beliefs that can be different to our own, develops c.age 4
Suggestion that children with autism lack fundamental theory of mind

15. Cognitive Development in Childhood
The development of moral judgement
Piaget believed children’s understanding of moral rules developed along with cognitive abilities
Kohlberg extended Piaget’s work to include adolescence and adulthood and arrived at six developmental stages of moral judgement, grouped into three levels

16. Cognitive Development in Childhood

17. Personality and Social Development
Temperament
Differences often inborn - challenges purely nurture view
Continuity or discontinuity of temperament result of interaction between inherited traits and environment
Early social behavior
Positive behavior e.g. smiling appears at early age which helps strengthen parent-child bond
Stranger anxiety appears around 7-8 months and separation anxiety peaks around months – both linked to memory development & growth of autonomy

18. Personality and Social Development
Attachment
Infant’s tendency to seek closeness to particular people and feel more secure in their presence
Attachment can be assessed through procedure called the strange situation, a series of episodes in which a child is observed, as the primary caregiver leaves and returns to the room

19. Personality and Social Development
...Attachment
Types of attachment identified on the basis of ‘strange situation’ results
Securely attached – baby seeks interaction with primary caregiver when they return
Insecurely attached: avoidant – baby avoids interacting with primary caregiver during reunion episodes
Insecurely attached: ambivalent – baby shows resistance to primary caregiver during reunion episodes
Disorganised – babies who did not fit above categories as they showed contradictory behaviors in reunion episodes

20. Personality and Social Development
...Attachment
Parenting styles
Some research indicates that a caregiver’s sensitive responsiveness to baby’s needs produces secure attachment
Others suggest attachment patterns reflect interaction between baby’s temperament and parents’ responsiveness
Later development
Research suggests children who are securely attached when enter second year more able to cope with new experiences but could be influenced by current parent-child relationship and temperament

21. Personality and Social Development
...Attachment
Cultural differences in attachment classifications
Strange situation task may be inappropriate test of attachment in some cultures

22. Personality and Social Development
Self-concept
Self-esteem
Children’s self-concepts grow throughout development from a generally positive sense of self to more complex, domain-specific sense of abilities and traits
Gender identity and sex typing
Gender identity – strong sense of self as male or female
Sex typing – acquisition of gender-appropriate behaviors & traits
Social learning theory – focuses on rewards & punishments children receive for gender-appropriate/inappropriate behaviors and learning of sex-typed behavior by observing adults. Weakness of theory - treats children as passive receptors

23. Personality and Social Development
...Self-concept
Gender identity and sex typing
Cognitive development theory – proposes that once children are able to identify with a gender, they are motivated to acquire sex-typed behaviors. Theory of gender and sex corresponds with Piaget’s stages, especially for gender constancy
Gender schema theory – seeks to explain why children base self-concept on gender by pointing to the influence of culture in encouraging children to view world through lens of gender

24. Adolescent Development
Adolescence
Period of transition from childhood to adulthood
Sexual development
Puberty – period of sexual maturation
Menarche – first menstrual period, relatively late in puberty (18 months after growth peak) while boy’s first ejaculation around 2 years after rapid growth begins

25. Adolescent Development
Psychological effects of puberty
Puberty significantly affects adolescent’s body image, self-esteem, mood and relationships
Majority of adolescents emerge from puberty with no enduring problems

26. Adolescent Development
Identity development
Erikson’s theory of identity development:
Major task confronting adolescent is developing sense of identity
Coined term “identity crisis” to refer to active process of self-definition
“Identity confusion” is unsuccessful outcome to identity crisis where an individual has no consistent sense of self or set of internal standards for evaluating self-worth in key areas of life