1. Development & Learning
Domain Three

2. Development

3. Definition
Developmental Psychology is the study of how people grow and change throughout the life span, from birth to death.
Includes physical, social, and cognitive development.

4. Reasons to study development
To see how childhood experiences effect adulthood
To discover causes of developmental problems
To explore how heredity and environment influence development
Nature: some development is triggered by genetics
Nurture: family can have a positive and a negative influence on development
To see if development is gradual or in defined stages

5. Infancy & Childhood

6. Pre-birth First 8 weeks—embryo
Develops fingers, toes, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, heart, and circulatory system
8 weeks to birth—fetus
Develops organs and body systems
A newborn weighs a billion or more times what it weighed at conception!

7. Infancy Birth to two years
Have reflexes at birth (grasping, breathing, rooting, moro/startle)
Hearing is better at birth than vision
Have a parental attachment by 4 months

8. Harry Harlow
Used monkeys to study the issues of attachment, separation anxiety, and contact comfort
Harlow's Explanation

9. childhood Age two to adolescence
Self-esteem declines during elementary school
Make judgments based on what society’s views of what is right or wrong

10. Child abuse and neglect
Which is more common?
neglect
Influencing Factors
Stress
Family History
Acceptance of Violence
Substance Abuse

11. Adolescence

12. Phases of Adolescence Early Adolescence Ages 11 to 14
Middle Adolescence
Ages 15 to 18
Late Adolescence
Ages 18 to 21

13. Physical Development The adolescent growth spurt Lasts 2 to 3 years
Begins first for girls
Leads to the awkward look of early teens
Boys that mature early are looked at as leaders and are popular
Adolescence begins with the onset of puberty
Girls that mature early are often teased and have lower self-esteem

14. Social Development
There is a shift during adolescence from relying on parents to relying more on friends for emotional support
Parents can still have some influence over morals, education, and career goals
Friendships
Clique: a group of 4 to 5 close friends
Crowd: a group of acquaintances that isn’t as close

15. Identity Formation
Some adolescents suffer an identity crisis: a turning point in redefining one’s values and life decisions
Girls focus on relationships, boys focus on goals and achievements

16. Challenges of Adolescence
Eating Disorders
Substance Exploration and Abuse
Sexuality
Juvenile Delinquency
Avoiding Problems

17. Adulthood

18. Phases of Adulthood Young Adulthood Ages 20 to 40 Middle Adulthood
Late Adulthood
Begins at age 65

19. Young Adulthood
Key goals for this phase: becoming independent and establishing relationships
The Age 30 Transition: verify that decisions on career, marriage, and children are the correct choices

20. Marriage
Erik Erikson thinks those without intimate relationships will be lonely and isolated
20% of Americans do not marry
Men are marrying around age 29, women marry around age 27
Most Americans marry for love
Influences on choice: parents, ethnicity, education, religion, social class, geography

21. Divorce Why is divorce more common today? It’s easy to obtain
Women are economically able
No stigma
About half of all American marriages end in divorce
About one-third of all children live in a single-parent home
Future marriages usually end up in divorce too

22. Middle Adulthood
Key goals for this phase: build upon the foundation established in early adulthood in regards to careers, marriage, and family

23. Middle Adulthood Issues
Transition
Changing perspectives because they’ve reached mid-life
May include a mid-life crisis
Middlescence: create a new identity just as in adolescence
Sandwich Generation
Care for children and aging parents
Empty-Nest Syndrome
What happens when the children all move out?
Menopause
Women reach the end of the menstruation, lose hormone production, and have mood swings
Men also have a “menopause” with a decrease in hormone production

24. Late Adulthood
Key goals for this phase: dealing with physical, emotional, cognitive, and financial changes

25. Issues for this Phase Changes Wrinkles Decline in senses
Memory loss (usually forget names)
Dementia or Alzheimer’s
Retirement
Grandparenthood
Living Arrangements
Why do we age?
Programmed Theories: genetics determine how we’ll age
Cellular Damage Theories: our cells become injured by trauma and/or toxins

26. How to Age Successfully
Accept your age
Plan ahead for financial stability
Be positive
Find appropriate hobbies
Look for challenges

27. Death and Dying Stages of Dying Denial Anger Bargaining Depression
Acceptance
The Funeral
Type depends on religion and culture
Creates a symbolic separation
Bereavement
How we mourn a person’s death

28. Choices with Death
Hospice: a facility that prepares a person and his/her family for an impending death
No visiting hours
Care is in a home-like facility or in the patient’s home
There isn’t any planning for “treatment”
Euthanasia: also called assisted suicide; helps a patient choose when he/she will die
Living Will: a legal document that forbids any life support for a patient

29. Learning

30. Classical Conditioning
Definition: a simple form of learning in which a stimulus (a trigger) produces a response (a desired reaction)

31. Ivan Pavlov’s Research
Taught a dog to salivate / drool at the sound of a bell.
Dogs (and people) produce saliva to digest food. When we smell or see food, we often begin producing saliva.
Pavlov rang a bell (the stimulus) when he fed the dog. Since the dog saw the food, he began to drool.
After a while, the bell alone made the dog drool (the response).

32. Taste Aversion We also learn to dislike certain foods.
If we become ill after eating something (perhaps it was spoiled), we often won’t want to eat that item again.

33. Operant Conditioning
Definition: learning from the consequences of our actions
If we like the consequences we will repeat the behavior, if we don’t we are more likely to avoid the behavior again

34. Reinforcement
Used to increase the chance that the behavior will happen again.
Can be positive (we are given something we like following a certain behavior).
Can be negative (we are given something we do not like following a certain behavior).
Introduced by BF Skinner

35. Cognitive Factors in Learning
Remember—cognitive is what’s taking place in our minds; our thoughts
Latent Learning: remains hidden until it is needed.
Observational Learning: we imitate others; there is thought (and concern) that we receive learning from the media.