1.  Lifespan Development Chapter 4

2. Developmental Psychology A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.

3. Developmental Stages  Prenatal Development and Newborn  Infancy and Childhood  Adolescence  Adulthood  Biological and Cultural Notions of Gender Shaping Experience

4. Milestones A set of functional skills or age- specific tasks that most children can do at a certain age range. These can be physical, cognitive, emotional/social, or relating to communication.

5. Prenatal Development: Conception Fusion of the nucleus of a sperm and the nucleus of an egg to form a zygote

6. Conception  1 out of 200 million or more sperm  1 out of 5000 eggs  Accounting for the age of the universe, the types of sperm, and the probability of sperm fertilizing eggs in your family generation, the chances you exist are…  1/1.8 X 10 403167  If you go back 1 million years, it would take 42 X 10 403149 universe lifetimes to make you.  Essentially, the probability of you existing are virtually 0.

7. Prenatal: Conception to 2 weeks Zygote : a fertilized egg that undergoes 2 weeks of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo You began as 1 cell

8. Prenatal: 2 to 8 weeks Parts of the zygote become the embryo Embryo – the developing organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month Organs form and function and the heart begins to beat

9. Prenatal: 9 weeks to birth 9 weeks after conception the embryo looks human and is a fetus Fetus – the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth Fetus is responsive to sound http://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=fKyljukBE70 http://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=fKyljukBE70

10. Prenatal Development  The placenta transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus and screens out potentially harmful substances  Teratogens – harmful agents that can bypass the placenta and reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development  Ex) Viruses and chemicals (heroin, AIDS, nicotine, alcohol)

11. Prenatal Development  Alcohol  Can kill millions of fetal brain cells  Enters the bloodstream and depresses central nervous system activity  Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)  Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking; in severe cases symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions

12. Prenatal Development  A woman’s psychological state may affect her fetus  Stress in rodents and primates can lead to delayed motor development, increased emotionality, learning deficits, and alterations in neurotransmitter systems Humans…?

13. Competent Newborns Newborns are equipped with reflexes Rooting reflex : a baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple

14. Newborns How can I find out what you know? How can I find out what a newborn baby knows?

15. Newborns Habituation  Our responsiveness decreases with repeated stimulation  As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner Dishabituation  To recognize a new stimulus as different, an infant must remember the initial stimulus  If we had just been habituated (bored), and our attention is renewed, then we have been dishabituated

16. Developmental Stages  Prenatal Development and Newborn  Infancy and Childhood  Adolescence  Adulthood  Biological and Cultural Notions of Gender Shaping Experience

17. Infancy and Childhood Brain development  On the day you were born, you had most of the brain cells you will ever have  BUT…the brain is still immature at birth  Maturation : biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behaviour, relatively uninfluenced by experience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J-JflThHks

18. Infancy and Childhood Motor Development  As muscles and nervous system mature, more complicated skills emerge  Babies roll over  Sit unsupported  Creep on all fours  Walk  Sequence is the same, but the timing may be different  Genes have a major effect  Experience has a limited effect

19. Infancy and Childhood Memory  Average age of earliest conscious memory is 3.5 years  As we gain a sense of self, our long-term memory increases

20. Infancy and Childhood Cognitive Development  Cognition : refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating Jean Piaget

21. Cognitive Development: Piaget  Schema – a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information  ex) cats, dogs, concept of love  Assimilation : we interpret a new experience in terms of our existing schemas  Accommodation : we adapt our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

22. Schema DogsCat

23. Assimilation Peacock Mantis ShrimpYeti Crab

24. Accommodation

25. Piaget’s Theory  Sensorimotor Stage  Preoperational Stage  Concrete Operational Stage  Formal Operational Stage

26. Sensorimotor Stage  Birth to 2 years of age  Experience the world through senses and actions  Stranger Anxiety  Evaluates people as unfamiliar and possibly threatening  Helps protect babies 8 months and older

27. Sensorimotor Stage  Infants have object permanence  Infants under 6 months old lack object awareness  The awareness that things continue to exist even when they are not perceived

28. Preoperational Stage  Age 2 – 6 or 7 years  Represents things with words and images; use intuition rather than logic  Pretend play  Egocentrism – difficulty perceiving things from another’s point of view

29. Preoperational Stage  Lack the concept of conservation – properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects  Language development  Theory of Mind

30. Theory of Mind  People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states (feelings, perceptions, and thoughts)  Empathy  Infer feelings

31. Autism Spectrum Disorder  Impaired theory of mind  Difficulty inferring others’ thoughts and feelings  Difficulty deducing facial expressions  http://www.ted.com/talks/temp le_grandin_the_world_needs_all _kinds_of_minds.html http://www.ted.com/talks/temp le_grandin_the_world_needs_all _kinds_of_minds.html

32. Concrete Operational Stage  Age 7 – 11 years  Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations  Mathematical transformation  What is 8 + 4?  Conservation

33. Formal Operational Stage  Age 12 through adulthood  Abstract reasoning  Abstract logic  Potential for mature moral reasoning