1. Developmental Issues Nature versus Nurture Continuity versus Stages
How is our development influenced by our heredity (nature) and by our experience (nurture)?
Continuity versus Stages
Is developmental change gradual and continuous or does it proceed through a sequence of separate stages?
Stability versus Change
Do we grow into older versions of our early selves or do we become new persons?

3. Germinal Period - Inner cells of zygote (fertilized egg) becomes the embryo.
By 6 weeks the heart begins to beat and liver makes red blood cells.
By 9 weeks the embryo is now a fetus.
7 WEEKS
18 WEEKS

4. GO TO

6. Teratogens
Agents (chemicals) that are capable of causing developmental abnormalities in utero are called teratogens.
Some of these drugs are:
Barbituates - sodium barbital, phenobarbital
Anti-nausea - Thalidomide
Anti-acne – Accutane
Effects of Smoking

7. F.A.S.
Consuming alcohol during pregnancy is the cause of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a leading preventable cause of birth defects and mental retardation.
FAS is a serious, lifelong condition that is characterized by:
facial abnormalities
growth retardation
central nervous system deficits including learning and developmental disorders

8. What can a newborn do? Reflexes (ex: rooting)
Turn heads in the direction of voices
Prefer to look at objects 8-12 inches away
Can distinguish mother’s odor/voice within days of birth
Gaze a human face (given a choice)

10. Cognitive Development
Habituation
decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
newborns become bored with a repeated stimulus, but renew their attention to a slightly different stimulus

11. Infancy and Childhood Maturation
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior
sets the course for development while experience adjusts it
At birth
3 months
15 months
Cortical Neurons

12. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

13. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Motor Development
Universal w/ individual differences.
Nature or Nurture?
Cerebellum Development
Motor Development

14. Brain Development

15. Infancy and Childhood
Impoverished environment
Enriched environment
Rats reared in an environment enriched with playthings show increased development of the cerebral cortex (Rosenzweig, et al., 1972).

16. Infancy and Childhood Plasticity the brain’s capacity for modification
evidence for plasticity
brain reorganization following damage
especially in children
experiments on the effects of experience on brain development

18. Infancy and Childhood Cognition Schema Assimilation Accommodation
mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering
Schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation
interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas
Accommodation
adapting one’s current schemas to incorporate new information

19. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Object Permanence
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Conservation
the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects
part of Piaget’s concrete operational reasoning
Egocentrism
the inability of the preoperational child to take another’s point of view

20. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Typical Age
Range
Description
of Stage
Developmental
Phenomena
Birth to nearly 2 years
Sensorimotor
Experiencing the world through
senses and actions (looking,
touching, mouthing)
Object permanence
Stranger anxiety
About 2 to 6 years
About 7 to 11 years
About 12 through
adulthood
Preoperational
Representing things
with words and images
but lacking logical reasoning
Pretend play
Egocentrism
Language development
Concrete operational
Thinking logically about concrete
events; grasping concrete analogies
and performing arithmetical operations
Conservation
Mathematical transformations
Formal operational
Abstract reasoning
Abstract logic
Potential for moral reasoning

21. Cognitive Development
Baby Mathematics
Shown a numerically impossible outcome, infants stare longer (Wynn, 1992)
4. Possible outcome: Screen
drops, revealing one object.
1. Objects placed
in case.
2. Screen
comes up.
3. One object
is removed.
4. Possible outcome: Screen
drops, revealing two object.

22. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
AGE (Yrs) STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT
Birth to 1.5 Basic trust vs. Mistrust
1.5 to 3 Autonomy vs. Doubt
3-6 Initiative vs. Guilt
Industry vs. Inferiority
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Yng. Adult Intimacy vs. Isolation
Adult Generativity vs. Stagnation
Older Adult Ego Integrity vs. Despair
© John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

23. The Developing Child Testosterone Gender
most important of the male sex hormones
both males and females have it
additional testosterone in males
stimulates growth of male sex organs in the fetus
stimulates development of male sex characteristics during puberty
Gender
characteristics, whether biologically or socially influenced, by which people define male and female

24. Y and X Chromosomes

25. Kholberg & Moral Development
Preconventional (before 9), awards and punishment
Conventional (early adolescence) – uphold laws and social rules
Post-conventional – people have rights

26. Social Development Harlow’s monkey’s
Attachment is the infant-parent bond
Where does it come from?
Body Contact
Harlow’s monkey’s

27. Responsive Parenting
Secure Attachment – 60% of infants – when mother leaves they are distressed and seek contact when she returns.
Predictor of social competence
Basic trust
Insecure Attachment – Cling to mother; when she leaves they cry; when she returns, their indifferent.
Deprivation of Attachment
withdrawn
Insecure and afraid
aggressive
Does Daycare Effect Attachment?

28. Social Development
Critical period – optimal period when certain events must take place to facilitate proper development
Imprinting – rigid attachment process (Konrad Lorenz)

29. Parenting Styles Authoritarian – impose rules and expect obedience
Permissive – few demands and submissive
Authoritative – demanding and responsive and open

30. Adoption Studies Why are children of the same family so different?
Environmental factors have little effect on personality.
Children are more similar to their biological parents.
Greatest parental influence is on religious beliefs.

31. Heritability
Extent to which variation among individuals is due to their differing genes.
As environments become more similar, heredity becomes more likely to be the source of individual differences.
If all other things (school, home, parents, etc.) are equal then heritability would increase.
Would the heritability of a boy who grew up in the city and one that grew up in Pittsford be high or low?

32. Temperament Studies
Inborn reactive excitability – easygoing, intense, fidgety, quiet, irritable, etc.
Most emotional reactive newborns are most reactive 9-month-olds.
Research shows stability throughout time.

33. Twin Studies Identical – one egg; clones Fraternal – separate eggs
60% chance of Alzheimers if you’re identical, 30% if fraternal.
Separated identical twins have similar tastes, physical attributes, attitudes, personalities, interests, and fears.

34. Sexuality & Gender Differences
80% of adult video store customers are males
Is it alright for two people who like each other to have sex after a short period of time?
53% of men said yes
30% of women said yes
How often do you think about sex? Everyday? Several times a day?
54% of men said yes
19% of women said yes
If someone came up to you and asked to have sex with you tonight would you do it?
75% or men agreed; Why wait till tonight?
All women declined
Why is there this double standard? Cultural or Nature? Evolutionary?

35. Aging and Memory
Crystallized intelligence - accumulated knowledge which increases up to old age
Fluid intelligence - ability to reason speedily decreases slowly up until 75 when rapid increases occur.
Dementia – loss of brain cells
Alzheimer’s strikes 3% of world pop. by 75
Memory, reasoning, and language deteriorate
Deterioration of neurons that produce acetylcholine.
Plaques found on neuron branches
Estrogen supplements?