1. Introductory Psychology: Developmental Psychology
AP Psychology: unit VI
Q: How old does a person have to be before you think of him or her as old?
A: The average year old says 67. The average person 60+ says 76.
Topic: Adulthood

2. Adulthood: Physical Development
Part one

3. Adulthood: Physical Development
Young Adulthood (20s-30s)
Physical abilities (strength, reaction time, cardiac output, etc.) peak by the mid-twenties
All down hill after that…
Just kidding..!

4. Adulthood: Physical Development
Middle Adulthood (40s-60s)
Physical decline accelerates
Attributable to age or activity level?
DECLINE IN FERTILITY
Perimenopause (average age: 40s)
Estrogen levels decreases; uterus gets smaller; hot flashes
Menopause (average age: 51)
Cessation of menstrual cycle; no more babies…
Andropause (in men)
Gradual decline of testosterone, sperm count, sexual functioning, etc.
Men rarely lose all reproductive ability

5. Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Social Clock
The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, retirement, etc.
Marks life transitions
Does the midlife crisis really exist??

6. Late Adulthood 65+

7. Adulthood: Physical Development
Late Adulthood (60s+)
Life expectancy…on the rise?
Stopping point?
Sensory abilities
Vision, smell & hearing tend to decline after age 70
Health
More susceptible to life-threatening ailments
Less susceptible to short-term ailments
Brain
Neural processing slows; loss of brain cells; atrophy of frontal lobe and areas important to memory

8. Sensory Abilities

9. Neural processing slows; reaction time decreases

10. Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Part two

11. Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Memory
Recall v. recognition
Recall declines with age; recognition remains stable
Also dependent on the type of information

12. Adulthood: Cognitive Development
Intelligence
Fluid intelligence
Basic reasoning, memory capacity & the speed of information processing
Decreases slowly up to age 75; then more rapidly
Crystallized intelligence
Accumulated knowledge (vocabulary & analogy tests)
Increases (up to old age)

13. KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL AGING
Biological:
Genetic disorders
Nutrition
Neural activity
Psychological:
Optimism
Physically & mentally active
KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL AGING
Socio-cultural:
Family/friend support
Activities
Living conditions
Community involvement

14. Exam Review Developmental Psych - define Research:
Cross-sectional study
Longitudinal study
Cross-sequential study
Prenatal development
Zygote, Embryo, Fetus
Rooting reflex
Habituation
Theory of mind
Henry Harlow - attachment
Intelligence:
Crystallized - vocab
Fluid – reasoning
Recall vs. Recognition
Lev Vygotsky – scaffolding
Carol Gilligan – morality Diana Baumrind - parenting
Mary Ainsworth – stranger
Konrad Lorenz – imprinting
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Gender identity

16. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Pre-conventional
Stage 1 – Punishment Avoidance & Obedience
Stage 2 – Exchange of Favors
Conventional
Stage 3 – Good Boy/Good Girl
Stage 4 – Law and Order
Post-conventional
Stage 5 – Social Contract
Stage 6 – Universal Ethical Principle

17. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development
Description
Problems/Fixation
Oral Stage
Birth to years
Pleasure from oral stimulation – tasting & sucking
Dependency or aggression; Problems with drinking, smoking, eating, nail biting
Anal Stage
15 months to 3 years
Primary focus on controlling bladder and bowels – eliminating/retaining feces
Anal-expulsive (messy, wasteful, destructive) vs. Anal-retentive (orderly, rigid, obsessive)
Phallic Stage
3 – 6
Primary focus is on genitals – differences between male and female
Child becomes rival for the affection of opposite-sex parent – (Oedipus complex)
Child begins to identify with the same-sex parent
Fixation can result in sexual deviancies or confused sexual identity
Freud believed that girls continued to possess feelings of envy or inferiority – penis envy
Latency Stage
6 to puberty
Sexual desires pushed to background
Focus on intellectual and social pursuits
Important stage for development of communication skills and self-confidence
Genital Stage
Puberty through Adulthood
Sexual desires renewed – seek relationships with others
Problems that emerge in this stage are carried over from earlier stages

18. Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
Issue
Description of Task
Infancy
(to 1 year)
Trust vs. Mistrust
If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust
Toddlerhood
(1 to 3 years)
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities
Preschool
(3 to 6 years)
Initiative vs. Guilt
Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent
Elementary school
(6 years to puberty)
Industry vs. Inferiority
Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior
Adolescence
(Teen years to 20s)
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are
Young adulthood
(20s to early 40s)
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Young adults need to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated
Middle adulthood
(40s to 60s)
Generativity vs. Stagnation
In middle age, people discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose
Late adulthood
(late 60s and up)
Integrity vs. Despair
Reflecting on his or her life, an older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure

19. FRQ Prep Advice Research Topics:
Descriptive vs. Inferential statistics
Random assignment vs. random selection
Operational definition
Cross-sectional vs. Longitudinal studies
Benefits of each
Review Piaget’s stages of cognitive development