1. Development
Chapter 5

2. Developmental Psychology
Study of the patterns of growth and change that occur throughout life

3. Developmental Psychology
Issue
Details
Nature/Nurture
How do genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience (the nurture we receive) influence our behavior?
Continuity/Stages
Is development a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages?
Stability/Change
Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age.

4. Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth
The Earliest Development
9 weeks looks human
6 months point at which it can survive if born prematurely

5. Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth
Prenatal Environmental Influences
Teratogens
Mother’s nutrition (especially lack of folic acid)
Mother’s illness
Mother’s emotional state
Mother’s use of drugs
Alcohol
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Fetal alcohol effects (FAE)
Nicotine use

6. The Extraordinary Newborn
Reflexes
Unlearned, involuntary responses that occur automatically in the presence of certain stimuli
Rooting reflex
Sucking reflex
Gag reflex
Startle reflex
Swallowing reflex

7. The Extraordinary Newborn
Senses
All functional at birth, but vision is the least developed

8. Early Brain Development
Large increase in numbers of neurons
Connections grow between the neurons
Pruning: the connections and neurons that are not used will die or become weakened
Myelination

9. Early Brain Development
Experience Shapes the Brain
brain structure and growth depends on genes and experiences

10. Early Brain Development
Implications for Caregivers
Early brain growth is rapid and reflects experience…
caressing a newborn,
talking to a preverbal infant
…are essential to develop that person’s full potential

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

12. Maturation and Infant Memory
The earliest age of conscious memory is around 3½ years (Bauer, 2002).

13. Cognitive Development
Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our biological development amidst experiences with the environment.
Preview Question 4: From the perspective of Piaget and of today’s researchers, how does a child’s mind develop?
Both photos: Courtesy of Judy DeLoache

14. Schemas
Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

15. Assimilation and Accommodation
Bill Anderson/ Photo Researchers, Inc.
Jean Piaget with a subject

16. Attachment Harry Harlow’s study on attachment
“Wire monkey versus cloth monkey”
Figure 6 of Module 28

17. Attachment Differences
Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their mother leave, they show distress.
Preview Question 6: How have psychologists studied attachment differences, and what have they learned?
The other 30% show insecure attachment. These children cling to their mothers or caregivers and are less likely to explore the environment.

18. Secure Attachment
Relaxed and attentive caregiving becomes the backbone of secure attachment.
Berry Hewlett

19. Deprivation of Attachment
In such circumstances children become:
Withdrawn
Frightened
Unable to develop speech
Preview Question 7: Do parental neglect, family disruption, or day care affect children’s attachments?

20. Child-Rearing Practices
Description
Authoritarian
Parents impose rules and expect obedience.
Permissive
Parents submit to children’s demands.
Authoritative
Parents are demanding but responsive to their children.
Preview Question 8: How do children’s self-concepts develop, and how are children’s traits related to parenting styles?

21. Authoritative Parenting

22. Adolescence
AP Photo/ Jeff Chiu

23. Physical Development
Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13 years). Thus height in females increases before males.
Preview Question 9: What physical changes mark adolescence?

24. Frontal Cortex
During adolescence, neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, which speeds up nerve conduction. The frontal cortex lags behind the limbic system’s development. Hormonal surges and the limbic system may explain occasional teen impulsiveness.

25. Cognitive Development
Adolescents’ ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness. In particular, they may think about the following:
Their own thinking.
What others are thinking.
What others are thinking about them.
How ideals can be reached. They criticize society, parents, and even themselves.
Preview Question 10: How did Piaget, Kohlberg, and later researchers describe adolescent cognitive and moral development?

26. Developing Reasoning Power
According to Piaget, adolescents can handle abstract problems.
William Thomas Cain/ Getty Images
AP/Wide World Photos

27. 3 Basic Levels of Moral Thinking
Preconventional Morality:
Conventional Morality:
Postconventional Morality:

28. Forming an Identity
In Western cultures, many adolescents try out different selves before settling into a consistent and comfortable identity. Having such an identity leads to forming close relationships.
Matthias Clamer/ Getty Images
Leland Bobble/ Getty Images

29. Emerging Adulthood Preview Question 12: What is emerging adulthood?
Ariel Skelley/ Corbis

30. Adulthood
Rick Doyle/ Corbis

31. Middle Adulthood Batting performance of Willie Mays.
Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline after the mid-twenties. Around age 50, women go through menopause, and men experience decreased levels of hormones and fertility.
Bettman/ Corbis
Batting performance of Willie Mays.

32. Old Age: Sensory Abilities
Michael Newman/ PhotoEdit

33. Aging and memory
Normal healthy adults (even in the absence of disease) show age-related differences in performance on many cognitive tasks
Working memory
Episodic memory
Prospective memory
Executive functions
Short term memory
Long term memory for events
Memory for future events
A set of cognitive abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviors

34. It’s not all downhill
Many cognitive functions are preserved with age such as:
Implicit memory
Semantic memory
Vocabulary
Memory without consciousness of it
Memory for facts
Vocabulary

35. Aging and Intelligence
fluid intelligence (ability to reason speedily) declines with age, but crystalline intelligence (accumulated knowledge and skills) does not. We gain vocabulary and knowledge but lose recall memory and process more slowly.

36. Aging and Intelligence
A number of cognitive abilities decline with age. However, vocabulary and general knowledge increase with age.

37. Adulthood’s Ages and Stages
Is the mid-life crisis real?
Preview Question 15: What themes and influences mark our social journey from early adulthood to death?
Neuroticism scores, 10,000 subjects
(McCrae & Costa, 1996).

38. Adulthood’s Commitments
Happiness stems from working in a job that fits your interests and provides you with a sense of competence and accomplishment.
Charles Harbutt/ Actuality

39. Well-Being Across the Life Span
Well-being and people’s feelings of satisfaction are stable across the life span.

40. Successful Aging

41. The Later Years of Life: Growing Old
The Social World of Late Adulthood: Old but Not Alone
Activity Theory of Aging

42. Death and Dying
Grief is more severe if death occurs unexpectedly. People who view their lives with a sense of integrity (in Erikson’s terms) see life as meaningful and worthwhile.
Chris Steele-Perkins/ Magnum Photos