Download presentation
1
Chapter 10 Life Span Development
2
Life Span Poster Project
Gather pictures from your childhood 1 from infancy (0-1) 1 from early childhood (2-4) 1 from childhood (5-10) 1 from adolescence (13-15) 1 recent *Any craft items you may want to add; like, glitter or stickers. I will supply tape, glue, markers, colored pencils, and poster board.
3
Developmental Psychology
The study of how people change from birth to old age. “How” and “Why” changes in them occur as people grow older. 3 enduring issues Individual characteristic vs. shared human traits Stability vs. change Heredity vs. environment
4
Individual characteristics vs. Shared human traits
This combination is characteristic of all human development We all take the same developmental journey, but each of us travels somewhat different roads and experience events in different ways.
5
Heredity vs. Environment
Stability vs. Change Human development is characterized by both major life transitions and continuities with the past. Heredity vs. Environment These two constantly interact to shape how people grow.
6
Methods in Developmental Psychology
Advantages Disadvantages Cross-Sectional Inexpensive Takes relatively little time to complete Avoids high attrition rate (dropout of participants from study Different age groups are not necessarily very much alike Differences across age groups may be due to cohort differences rather than age. Longitudinal Generates detailed information about individuals Allows for the study of developmental change in great detail Eliminates differences due to cohorts Expensive and time consuming Potential for high attrition rate-participants may drop out Differences over time may be due to differences in assessment tools rather than age. Biographical or Retrospective (Case study) Generates rich detail about one individual’s life Allows for in-depth study of one individual Individual’s recall often untrustworthy Can be very time consuming and expensive.
7
Check Your Understanding
In a __________ study the researcher studies a group of subjects two or more times as they grow older. a. Cross-sectional b. Retrospective c. Longitudinal
8
What factors can affect children before birth?
Prenatal Development What factors can affect children before birth?
9
The Progression of Prenatal Development
Prenatal Development-the stage of development from conception to birth. Embryo-a developing human between 2 weeks and 3 months after conception. Fetus-a developing human between 3 months after conception and birth. Placenta-an organ that nourishes the embryo and fetus.
11
Week by week development
12
Cont. Teratogens-toxic substances such as alcohol or nicotine that cross the placenta and may result in birth defects. Critical period-a time when certain internal and external influences have a major effect on development; at other periods, the same influences will have little or no effect.
13
Effects of Teratogens Alcohol is the drug most often abused by pregnant women (Riley et al., 2003). Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a condition characterized by facial deformities, heart defects, stunted growth, and cognitive impairments. Smoking may cause over 100,000 miscarriages a year. Babies are more likely to suffer low birth weight which is liked to other developmental problems.
14
The Newborn Baby What can newborn babies do?
15
Newborn Babies *Neonates- newborn babies. Reflexes Rooting Sucking
Baby turns its head toward something that brushes its cheek and gropes around with mouth Sucking Newborn’s tendency to suck on objects placed in the mouth Swallowing Enables newborn babies to swallow liquids without choking Grasping Close fist around anything placed in their hand Stepping Stepping motions made by an infant when held upright
16
Reflexes (Cont.) Babinski Moro Crawling
When the sole of a baby’s foot is touched, the toes curl up and out Moro The “Startle Reflex” Babies arms will open when startled, then will be brought in close to the body Crawling When placed on the stomach, a baby will make a crawling motion
17
Temperament Temperament refers to characteristic patterns of emotional reactions and emotional self-regulation Thomas and Chess identified three basic types of babies Easy Good-natured, easy to care for, adaptable Difficult Moody and intense, react to new situations and people negatively and strongly Slow-to-warm-up Inactive and slow to respond to new things, and when they do react, it is mild
18
Temperament cont. Kagan has added a fourth type Temperament may
Shy child Timid and inhibited, fearful of anything new or strange Temperament may predict later disposition
19
Perceptual Abilities Vision Depth perception Other senses
Clear for 8-10 inches Good vision by 6 months Depth perception Visual cliff research Other senses Ears are functional prior to birth Infants particularly tune in to human voices Taste and smell are fully functional
20
Check Your Understanding
Two reflexes normally disappear after two to three months. They are a. Sucking and swallowing b. Grasping and rooting c. Stepping and grasping d. Stepping and rooting Temperament differences in babies are attributable to a. Biological factors b. maternal emotions during pregnancy c. Parental reactions to an infant’s crying after a baby’s birth d. All of the above Newborns prefer looking at what kind of patterns? a. Colorful ones b. Moving ones c. Contrasting ones
21
Do young children think differently from adults?
Infancy and Childhood Do young children think differently from adults?
22
Physical Development Children grow about 10 inches and gain about 15 pounds in first year Growth occurs in spurts, as much as 1 inch overnight Growth slows during second year
23
Motor Development Developmental norms Maturation
Ages by which an average child achieves various developmental milestones Maturation Automatic biological unfolding of development in an organism as a function of passage of time
24
Jean Piaget Swiss psychologist (1896-1980)
Most influential theorist in the area of cognitive development. Believed that cognitive development is a way of adapting to the environment. In his view, children are intrinsically motivated to explore and understand things. Progress through 4 basic stages of cognitive development.
25
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensory-Motor Stage (birth to 2 years) Object permanence Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) Egocentric; Conservation errors Concrete Operations (7-11 years) Principles of conservation; Reversibility Formal Operations (11-15 years) Understand abstract ideas
26
Criticisms of Piaget's Theory
Many question assumption that there are distinct stages in cognitive development Criticism of notion that infants do not understand world Piaget may have underestimated influence of social interaction in cognitive development Live!Psych 10.2
27
“Heinz dilemma” In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only come up with about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. (Kohlberg, 1969) *Should the husband have done that? Why?
28
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development (1979, 1981)
Preconventional (preadolescence) “Good” behavior is mostly to avoid punishment or seek reward Conventional (adolescence) Behavior is about pleasing others and, in later adolescence, becoming a good citizen Postconventional Emphasis is on abstract principles such as justice, equality, and liberty
29
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory
Research shows that many people never progress past the conventional level Theory does not take cultural differences into account Theory is considered by some to be sexist in that girls often scored lower on tests of morality
30
Language Development Cooing (2-3 months) Babbling (3-4 months)
Non-descript sounds Babbling (3-4 months) Make the sounds of all language Grunts, “ba”, “da” Intonation (4-6 months) Rising and lowering of pitch Can distinguish between own language and foreign language By 1 year, babies use intonation to communicate Excitement, Anger, Curiosity
31
Language Dev’t (cont.) By 6 months, babies can recognize their own names First words (12 months) Dada Holophrases (12-18 months) One word sentence “Up!”, “Down!”, “More!”
32
Language (con’t) Naming (1-2 years) Short Sentences (2 years)
“Dog!” (very often used incorrectly for objects of any similarity) Short Sentences (2 years) “My ball”, “I do it” Long sentences (2-3 years) “Lea sad” becomes “Lea is sad” Overregularizaton “Goed” instead of “went” Good news: These kids get the basic rules By 5-6, vocabulary is 2,500 words
33
Theories of Language Development
Skinner theorized that language develops as parents reward children for language usage Repeating a baby’s noise Congratulating them for communicating Chomsky proposed the language acquisition device A neural mechanism for acquiring language presumed to be “wired into” all humans Criticism: Children who were not “reinforced” as often (grew up in institutions or homes) developed more slowly
34
Language Development Bilingualism and the development of a second language When small children learn two languages at once, they have one Broca’s area When adolescents learn a second language, two Broca’s areas are needed
35
Parent-Child Relationships in Childhood
Social Development Parent-Child Relationships in Childhood
36
Development of Attachment
Lorenz and Imprinting Tendency to follow the first moving thing seen Occurs in many species of animals- not humans! If we hatched a chick and put a dog in front of it, the dog becomes the Mommy. Attachment Humans form a bond with those who care for them in infancy Based upon interaction with caregiver Autonomy Sense of independence Socialization Process by which children learn appropriate attitudes and behaviors
37
Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
38
Secure Will explore freely while the mother is present, will engage with strangers, will be visibly upset when the mother departs and happy to see the mother return Child will not engage with a stranger if their mother is not in the room Knowledge of a “secure base”
39
Anxious-Ambivalent (or Resistant) Insecure
Anxious of exploration and of strangers, even when the mother is present Child is extremely distressed when mother departs When mother returns, child will remain close to the mother but resentful and resistant when the mother initiates attention Baby may also hit or push his mother and doesn’t “cling”
40
Anxious-Avoidant Insecure
Will avoid or ignore the caregiver - showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns May run away from his caregiver when they approach and fail to cling to them when they pick him up The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. Strangers will not be treated much differently from the caregiver There is not much emotional range displayed regardless of who is in the room or if it is empty.
42
Relationships With Other Children
Solitary play Children first play by themselves Parallel play As they get older, children play side-by-side with other children, but not interacting Cooperative play By about 3 or 3½, children begin playing with others
43
Relationships With Other Children
Peer group A network of same-aged friends and acquaintances who give one another emotional and social support When children start school, peers begin to have greater influence Non-shared environment Unique aspects of the environment that are experienced differently by siblings
44
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Tightly control children’s behavior and insist on obedience Can produce children who have poor communication skills, who are moody, withdrawn, and distrustful Permissive-indifferent Parents have too little control and often are indifferent and neglectful Children tend to become overly dependent and lack social skills and self-control
45
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles
Permissive-indulgent Parents are very attentive and supportive, but do not set limits on behavior Children tend to be immature, disrespectful, impulsive, and out of control Authoritative Parents provide firm structure, but are not overly controlling Parents listen to their children’s opinions and explain their decisions, bur are still clearly in charge Children tend to become self-reliant and socially responsible
46
Scenario You receive a bad grade on your report card (not that this would ever happen to you)… You walk in the door and your parent….
47
Role Play!!! Read your assigned parenting style and reenact a scenario in which the parent displays this behavior and the child reacts
48
Sex-Role Development Gender identity Gender constancy
Knowledge of being a boy or girl Occurs by age 3 Gender constancy Child realizes that gender cannot change Occurs by age 4 or 5
49
Sex-Role Development Gender-role awareness Gender stereotypes
Knowing appropriate behavior for each gender Gender stereotypes Beliefs about presumed characteristics of each gender Sex-typed behavior Socially defined ways to behave different for boys and girls May be at least partly biological in origin
50
Adolescence
51
Physical Changes Growth spurt Sexual development
Begins about age 10½ in girls and about 12½ in boys Sexual development Puberty Onset of sexual maturation Menarche First menstrual period for girls
52
Physical Changes Early and late developers Adolescent sexual activity
Approximately ¾ of males and ½ of females between 15 and 19 have had intercourse Average age for first intercourse is 16 for boys and 17 for girls Teenage pregnancy Rate of teen pregnancy has fallen in the last 50 years Highest in U.S. of all industrialized nations
53
Cognitive Changes Imaginary audience Personal fable Invulnerability
Adolescent delusion that everyone else is always focused on them Personal fable Delusion that they are unique and very important Invulnerability Nothing can harm them
54
“Storm” and “Stress” of Adolescence
It has been observed in the past that adolescents are overly stressed and can exhibit that through their “attitudes” or behavior Many have believed that hormones make teenagers more stressed Truth: 75% are content and had positive self-images Those who don’t- Constantly being controlled, as in where to go and when to sleep/wake up, contributes to stress (schedules that don’t match their biological clocks)
55
Personality and Social Development
Major occurrence in adolescence is identity formation Identify crisis- Intense period of self-exploration Forming an identity Achievement Successfully find identity Foreclosure Settle for identity others wish for them Moratorium Explore various identities Diffusion Unable to “find themselves”
56
Relationships with peers
Cont… Relationships with peers Adolescents often form cliques, or groups with similar interests and strong mutual attachment Unisex at first, then mixed-sex, then couples less group-oriented, more about dating Relationships with parents Adolescents test and question every rule and guideline from parents
57
Some Problems of Adolescence
Declines in self-esteem Related to appearance (Name of fallacy?) Satisfaction in appearance is related to higher self-esteem Depression and suicide Rate of suicide among adolescents has increased 600% since 1950, but has leveled off in ’90s Suicide often related to depression, drug abuse, and disruptive behaviors Males are more successful, but twice as many females attempt
58
Adulthood
59
Love, Partnerships, and Parenting
Forming partnerships First major event of adulthood is forming and maintaining close relationships Parenthood Having children alters dynamics of relationships Marital satisfaction often declines after birth of child
60
Marital Satisfaction
61
Other Issues The World of Work Cognitive Changes
Balancing career and family obligations is a challenge Cognitive Changes Thinking is more flexible and practical- realize that there can be more than one correct answer! Vocabulary and Verbal memory increase through 50s; Reasoning and spatial awareness increase through 40s; perceptual speed declines at 25; math skills decline at 40 Can be improved with rehearsal!! (Don’t stop doing crosswords)
62
Other issues Personality Changes The "Change of Life"
Psychological health increases Less self-centered, better coping skills Some men and women have a midlife crisis- 10% Vs. midlife transition- reassess and recreate goals The "Change of Life" Menopause Reproduction ceases
63
Empty Nest Myth Article by Lindsay Lyon
64
Late Adulthood
65
Physical Changes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgYfys7vErI
In late adulthood, physical deterioration is inevitable A person’s response to these changes are important- “You’re only as old as you feel.”
66
Social Development Independent and satisfying lifestyles Retirement
Most people will stop working and face challenges with that sudden change Sexual behavior Research shows that many older couples continue to be sexually active
67
Cognitive Changes Research has demonstrated that those who continue to “exercise” their mental abilities can delay mental decline Alzheimer’s disease afflicts approximately 10% of people over 65 and perhaps as many as 50% of those over 85
68
Facing the End of Life Kubler-Ross’s stages of dying Denial Anger
Bargaining Depression Acceptance
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.