1. Developmental Psychology
Studies physical, cognitive and social development throughout the life span

2. Give your best estimate of the age (in months) at which about 50 percent of children begin to:
1. Laugh
2 months
2. Pedal a tricycle
24 months
3. Sit without support
5-6 months
4. Feel ashamed
24 months
5. Walk unassisted
12 months
6. Stand on one foot for 10 seconds
53 months (4.5 y)
7. Recognize and smile at caregivers
4-5 months
8. Kick a ball forward
20 months
9. Think about things that cannot be seen
24 months
10. Make two-word sentences
20-22 months

3. Nature versus nurture Continuity versus stages Stability versus change
Three major issues
Nature versus nurture Continuity versus stages Stability versus change

4. Continuity and stages:
Three major issues
Continuity and stages:
What parts of development are gradual and continuous and which are changed abruptly in separate stages?
Debate – These stages reflect specific world views and adult life progressing through fixed, predictable stages

6. Stability and Change: Three major issues
Which of our traits persist through life? How do we change as we age?
We experience both stability and change in who we are
Temperament is stable
One study followed 1000 three year old New Zealanders
Those who were low in conscientiousness and self-control were more vulnerable to ill health, substance abuse, arrest and single parenthood.
Social attitudes are more likely to change

8. Maturation
The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, causing various bodily and mental functions to occur in sequence— e.g. standing before walking, babbling before talking—this is called maturation.
Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it.

9. Infant cortex development

10. How we know the behavior is due to maturation?
Criteria: 1. universal 2. sequential 3. relatively uninfluenced by experience

11. Motor Development
First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk. Experience has little effect on this sequence.
Renee Altier for Worth Publishers
Phototake Inc./ Alamy Images
Profimedia.CZ s.r.o./ Alamy
Jim Craigmyle/ Corbis

13. Toilet training
Bowel and bladder control are other examples of behavior where experience has a limited impact
Pleading or punishment are not going to produce successful toileting before muscular and neuronal maturation

14. Nature/Nurture Maturation: A key nature concept
Critical Period: A key nurture concept
A critical period is a specific time period during development when a specific kind of stimulation (or lack of stimulation) can have a profound effect on later development

15. Stages of Prenatal Development
conception (fertilization)
zygote (0-2 wks)
embryo (2-8 wks)
rapid cell division; major organs present
fetal period (9 wks-birth)
further refining of organs, growth of the fetus, fat accumulation, etc

16. Conception

17. …into a Zygote

18. … and then an Embryo and into a Fetus
40 days days months 4 months

19. Teratogens: Agents harmful to an organism
Drugs
cigarettes; alcohol (FAS); cocaine; heroin; marijuana; thalidomide
Diseases
Rubella and critical periods
Zika virus
microcephaly

20. Newborn Capabilities Reflexes Personality Preferences
Easy, Difficult, Slow-to-Warm
Preferences
High contrast;
movement;
face-like objects;
smell and sound of mom!
The face-like image was gazed at almost twice as long as the other

21. Newborn Capabilities
Reflexes
rooting; sucking; grasping; Babinski; Moro; swimming; habituation

22. Reflexes
Babinski (when present in a child older than 2 or an adult, it often indicates a brain or nervous system disorder; Moro (clinging to parent if lose balance); swimming;

23. Habituation
Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations
A novel stimulus gets attention when it is first presented but there is a weakening of response with repeated exposure
Take the cat head vs dog head – after a series of cat images infants looked longer at dog head
Infants focus first on the face not the body

24. Babies can learn and retain information
As young as three months, infants learn that kicking moves a mobile.
That learning can be retained for a month.
However, it is context dependent.

25. Love in Infant Monkeys: Experiments in Attachment Harlow’s Studies – 1950s
Harry and Margaret Harlow
Investigated prevalent notion that children became attached because parents fed them
Accidental discovery
Harlow’s Surrogate Mother Experiments
Monkeys preferred the comfortable cloth mother, to the nourishing wire mother

27. Experiments in Attachment
Evidence of Attachment in Harlow’s Studies: 1. Contact comfort 2. Fear reduction 3. Secure base (for exploration)
Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror-stricken when placed in strange situations without their surrogate mothers

28. Secure Attachment in Humans
Comes from
Body Contact
skin to skin is encourages for first 2 hours and as much as possible in the first 24 hours
Familiarity/Consistency
Evidence of a critical period in many animals (sensitive in humans)

30. Familiarity Critical Period for imprinting
Imprinting: at 12 hours after birth, ducklings attach to objects that move

31. Secure Attachment in Humans
Comes from
Body Contact
skin to skin is encourages for first 2 hours and as much as possible in the first 24 hours
Familiarity/Consistency
Evidence of a critical period in many animals (sensitive in humans)
Responsive Parenting

32. Social Development: Attachment in Infants
Secure Attachment:
prefers contact with loved one
can be soothed
follows loved one
cries when loved one leaves
Attachment is evidenced by:
Stranger Anxiety: infant is apprehensive when confronted by a stranger (approx 6 mo. old).
Stranger anxiety is seen in all cultures (maturation?)

33. Attachment styles Mary Ainsworth and the strange situation
100 middle class Americans; 8 episodes 3 min each
(1) Mother, baby, and experimenter (lasts less than one minute)
(2) Mother and baby alone
(3) A stranger joins the mother and infant
(4) Mother leaves baby and stranger alone
(5) Mother returns and stranger leaves
(6) Mother leaves; infant left completely alone
(7) Stranger returns
(8) Mother returns and stranger leaves.

34. Attachment styles Secure Attachment – Insecure Avoidant –
Insecure Ambivalent –

36. Attachment styles Secure Attachment –
Play happily and explore the new environment in presence of attachment figure; distressed when they leave and calmed by contact

37. Attachment styles Insecure Avoidant – Insecure Ambivalent –
do not seek contact with the attachment figure when distressed…likely to have a caregiver who is insensitive and rejecting of their needs (Ainsworth, 1979).
Insecure Ambivalent –
Does not develop any feelings of security from the attachment figure; have difficulty moving away from the attachment figure to explore novel surroundings. When distressed they are difficult to soothe and are not comforted by interaction with the attachment figure; from an inconsistent level of response to their needs from the primary caregiver

38. Can you stump ‘em?
With a partner, create a short scenario that reveals the attachment between an individual and their primary caregiver (or go boldly and stretch it beyond childhood)
First step is to choose your character’s attachment style
Then design a short scene that highlights the attachment style
Then write an explanation of how we see the attachment style (your answer key)
Then join with your previous group

39. Insecure Ambivalent
Secure
Insecure Avoidant