1. Developing through the Life Span
By Joey Luna, BA Psych., MSW, ACSW

2. Life Span Developmental Issues, Prenatal Development and the Newborn
Teratogens
Reflexes: Sucking, Grasping
Development Issues
Nature / Nurture, Stability Change & Continuity Stages
Infancy and Childhood
Physical Development
Cognitive Development
Social Development
Adolescents
Puberty
Developing reasoning of power

3. Life Span cont.
Adulthood
Menopause
Memory Changes
Love and Work

4. Developmental Psychology
Examine our physical, cognitive and social development across the life span with a focus on three issues:
Nature and Nurture- How does our genetic inheritance (our nature) interact with our experiences (nurture) to influence our development?
Continuity and Stages- What parts of development are gradual and continuous, which are abrupt in seperate stages?
Stability and Change- which of our traits persist through life? How do we change through age?

5. Prenatal Development Conception
Sperm fertalized the egg- life is sexually transmitted.
Prenatal Development
Zygot- fertilized egg. Fewer than half survive first two weeks. After 10 days, zygote attaches to the utrine wall.
Zygot’s inner cell becomes the embryo, developing human organism after 2 weeks. Outter cells become the placenta, the life link that transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to embryo.
Over 6 weeks, organs begin to form and function and the heart begins to beat. 9 weeks after conception, an embryo looks like a human and it is now a fetus- human organism after 9 weeks.
At each prenatal stage- genetic and envionment factors affect development. By the sixth month, fetus becomes responsive to sound.

6. Prenatal Development cont.
Sounds are learned in the womb and babies are sensative to the mothers sounds and her enviornment.
Placenta screens out many harmful substances
Teratogens- agents of viruses and drugs can damage the embryo and fetus.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome- physical and cognitive abnormalities can occur.

7. Prenatal Development cont.
Newborn
Babies who survive the prenatal hazards are preloaded with neural softwares in their hard drives- they have automatic refex responses that are suited for survival.
Swallowing, breathing, tonguing, sucking and crying.
William James, American Psychogist believed that babies were born confused and daised- BUT!!!! until the 1960’s researchers have found that babies can hear, see, hear, smell and think!
Habituation- decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. Infants gain familiarity- their interest wanes and they look away sooner. Important for socialization!

8. Infancy and Childhood Physical Development Brain Development
When in mothers womb, you develop brain cells and when you are born you will have all that you will ever have. However, your nervous system is still immature and these neural networks will branch out and grow through childhood.
Age 3 to 6, there is significant growth in the front lobes- which enable planning. This continues through adolescents and beyond.
Cortical areas associated with thinking, memory and language also develop. Enviornment also has in impact in the development of the brain.
Critical period- a period early in life of an organism when exposure to certain stiumuli produces normal development.

9. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Motor Development
Brain enables physical coordination- babies roll over before they sit unsupported, they crawl, etc. Reflect a maturing nervous system.
Cerebellum- creates our readiness to learn walking by the age of 1.
Brain Maturation and Infant Memory
Studies have confirmed that our average age of earliest conscious memory is 3.5 years. But as children mature, by age 7, infantile amnesia wanes.

10. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget, a developmental psychologist spent his life searching for answers to, how through life journey, do we become conscious.
Cognitive Psych- Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, communication. \
Piaget proposed that we assimilate- interpret our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas-a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
He believed that children construct their world through interacting with it.
Four stages; Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational

11. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage- birth to 2 year- babies take in the world through their senses and actions- looking, hearing, touching, mouthing and grasping.
Object permanence- awareness that objects continue to exist.
Memory begins by 8 months-
Researchers believe that infants are smarter that Piaget appreciated. Babies are processing their minds.
Preoperational Stage- age 2 to age 6 or 7- children are able to represent things with words and images.Unable to perform mental operations- imagining an action and mental reversing it.
Conservation- principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.
Pretend Play
Egocentrism- difficulty in perceiving things from another's point of view.
Theory of mind- ability to interpret others feelings, thoughts, etc.

12. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Cognitive Development
Concrete Operational Stage- by age 7, this age they begin to grasp conservation. This stage they are able to grasp jokes and mathematical transformations and conservations.
Formal Operational Stage- by about age 12, our reasoning expands, maturity of our moral reasoning also expands.

13. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Lev Vygotsky
Noted that by age 7, children think in words and use words to solve problems.
Whereas Piaget believed that children develop through interactions with their environment, Vygotsky emphasized that children develop through social development.
Reflection on Piaget
Piaget identified significant cognitive milestones and got the rest of the world thinking in how the mind develops
However, today’s researchers see development as more continuous than did Piaget.

14. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Social Development
Human Bonding
Babies are very social creatures and prefer familiar faces and voices. After 8 months- stranger anxiety- the fear of strangers. They become distressed.
Attachment is very important, bond between caregiver and baby.
Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow- Monkeys Study (1950).
Familiarity and Imprinting- the process certain animals form to build strong attachments during early life.
Attachment Differences
Attachment theory (Secure, Anxious, Avoidant)
Attachment Deprivation
Children in abuse or extreme neglectful homes are often withdrawn, frightened and sometimes speechless
Romania- Orphanages ( s)

15. Infancy and Childhood cont.
Social Development
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian (Don’t be out late or you will be grounded!), Permissive (Few Demands, Chill), Authoritative (Demanding and Responsive).
Culture, has a big impact!

16. Adolescence Physical Development Brain Development
Adolescence is defined as the years spent morphing from child to adult. Starts with sexual maturity and ends with social achievement of independent adult status.
Puberty- the time when adolescence mature sexually.
Cognitive Development
Reasoning of Power
Deeper Reasoning skills, understanding of their world around them, form their own thoughts and opinions.
Develop Morality
Moral judgements (right and wrong).
Moral Intuition, gut feelings emotions
Moral Actions
Doing the right thing.

17. Adolescence cont.
Social Development
Erik Erickson (1963)

18. Adolescence cont. Social Development Forming an Identity
Self definition that unifies the various selves into a consistent and comfortable sense is an identity.
Social identity- the “who am I” that comes from our group membership.
Many adolescents may adopt a sense of identity through their culture or parents values and expectation. Others through particular peer groups- jocks, preps, geeks, ect.
Intimacy- the ability to form close relationships, through your 20s.

19. Adolescence cont. Social Development Parent and Peer Relationships
Western Cultures- they seek to form own identities, they pull away from parents.
Parent arguments occur more frequent.
Peer friendships become important.

20. Emerging Adulthood
In the US, average age of marriage is 29 for men and 27 for women. More and more adolescence are taking more time to establish themselves as young adults before marriage.
Emerging Adulthood- a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties- no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved independence as adults.

21. Adulthood Physical Development Physical Changes in Middle Adulthood
Over the age of 40, physical decline gradually accelerates. Aging also brings gradual decline in fertility, especially for women.
Menopause- the time of natural cessation of menstruation, biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.
Muscle strength and reaction time diminish. Eye pupils shrink.
Body’s immune system becomes weaker.
Recalling names, solving puzzles become more challenging.
Exercise is important and can counter these affects.

22. Adulthood cont. Cognitive Development Aging and Memory
Meaningful memories seem to be recalled more.
Sustaining Mental Abilities
Studies suggest that brain-training exercises can sharpen the mind.

23. Adulthood cont. Social Development Love Work Death and Dying
Death is our inevitable end. Many of us will cope and mourn for those relatives and friends who have died.

24. Questions???