Ch. 5-Developing Through the Life Span PDF

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Chapter 5: Developing Through the Life Span DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES, PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT, AND THE NEWBORN Developmental Psychology’s Major Issues 1. Nature & Nurture 2. Continuity & Stages  Researchers who emphasize experience & learning see development as a slow, continuous shaping process  Those who emphasize biological maturation see development as a sequence of genetically predisposed stage or steps  Stage theories propose developmental stages o Jean Piaget on cognitive development o Lawrence Kohlberg on moral development o Erik Erikson on psychosocial development

3. Stability & Change  We experience both stability & change o Consistent temperament & emotionality across time  As people grow older, personality gradually stabilizes  Can’t predict all of our traits based on early years o Social attitudes = less stable/consistent  Older children & adolescents learn new ways of coping  Openness, self-esteem, & agreeableness often peak at midlife  Can occur without changing a person’s position relative to others of same age  Life requires both o Stability provides identity o Potential for change gives motivation Prenatal Development & the Newborn 

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Conception o Conception of 1 person:  Starts in grandmother – as egg formed inside developing female inside of her  Mother born with all the immature eggs she’d ever have  Father begins producing sperm cells nonstop at puberty  After puberty, mother’s ovary releases mature egg  250 million sperm race upstream to approach egg  Sperm that reach egg release digestive enzymes that eat away protective coating  Once 1 sperm penetrates coating & is welcomed in, egg’s surface blocks out others  Before ½ has elapsed, egg nucleus & sperm nucleus fuse Prenatal Development o Fewer than ½ of all zygotes (fertilized eggs) survive beyond 1st 2 weeks o Conception of 1 person cont’d:  One cell becomes 2, then 4 – each just like the 1st – until cell division has produced ~100 identical cells within 1st week  Cells begin to differentiate, to specialize in structure & function

Ten days after conception, zygote attaches to mother’s uterine wall Zygote’s inner cells become embryo Many of its outer cells become the placenta – life-link that transfers nutrients & oxygen from mother to embryo  Over following 6 weeks, embryo’s organs begin to form & function  9 weeks after conception, embryo looks human – now a fetus  During 6th month, organs have developed enough to give fetus good chance of survival if born prematurely  By 6th month microphone readings taken inside uterus reveal that fetus is responsive to sound & is exposed to mother’s muffled voice  Immediately after birth, newborns prefer their mother’s voice and language to others  If mother spoke 2 languages during pregnancy, they respond to both after birth  In the 2 months before birth, fetuses demonstrate learning o Some harmful substances slip by placenta  Teratogens (agents such as viruses or drugs) can damage embryo or fetus  Drinking while pregnant can cause damage, and can cause offspring to like alcohol  Persistent heavy drinking puts fetus at risk for birth defects & future behaviour problems, hyperactivity, and lower intelligence  Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) o Marked by lifelong physical & mental abnormalities o Fetal damage may occur bc alcohol has an epigenetic effect (leaves chemical marks on DNA that switch genes abnormally on or off) o If pregnant woman feels extreme stress, stress hormones may indicate survival threat to fetus & produce an early delivery  Substantial prenatal stress exposure puts child at increased risk for health problems (i.e. hypertension, heart disease, obesity, psychiatric disorders) The Competent Newborn o Newborns come with automatic reflex responses ideally suited for survival o When something touches their cheek, they turn toward the touch, open mouth, & vigorously root for a nipple  Finding one, they automatically close on it & begin sucking (sucking requires coordinated sequence of reflexive tonguing, swallowing, breathing)  Failing to find satisfaction, baby may cry (parents find rewarding to relieve) o Habituation – a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation  Fetuses adapt to vibrating, honking device place on mother’s abdomen  Novel stimulus gets attention when 1st presented – with repetition, response weakens o Newborns prefer sights & sounds that facilitate social responsiveness o Within days after birth, brain’s neural networks stamped with mother’s smell   

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INFANCY & CHILDHOOD  

Maturation – orderly sequence of biological growth Maturation (nature) sets basic course of development, experience (nurture) adjusts it

Physical Development 

Brain Development o Developing brain forms nerve cells in mother’s womb  Developing brain cortex overproduces neurons (# peaking at 28 weeks) o Infancy on, brain & mind develop together o After birth, branching of neural networks has growth spurt (allows walking, talking, remembering) o Ages 3-6, most rapid growth in frontal lobes (enables rational planning) o Brain’s association areas (those linked with thinking, memory, language) = last cortical areas to develop  Fiber pathways supporting agility, language, and self-control proliferate into puberty  Under influence of adrenal hormones, 10’s of billions of synapses form & organize

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 A use-it-or-lose-it pruning process shuts down unused links Motor Development o Developing brain enables physical coordination o As infant exercises its maturing muscles & nervous system, skills emerge o Genes guide motor development o Maturation (including rapid development of cerebellum at back of brain) creates readiness to learn walking Brain Maturation & Infant Memory o Earliest conscious memories seldom predate 3rd birthday o Babies are capable of learning  Mobile attached with ribbon to baby’s foot

Cognitive Development  

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Cognitive development – development of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating Piaget spent his life studying children’s cognitive development o Convinced that child’s mind is not mini model of an adult’s o Led him to believe that a child’s mind develops through series of stages Piaget’s core idea – our intellectual progression reflects an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences o Maturing brain builds schemas (concepts or mental molds into which we pour our experiences) o By adulthood, have built countless schemas Piaget proposed 2 concepts to explain how schemas are used & adjusted: o We assimilate new experiences – interpret them in terms of our current understandings (schemas) o As we interact with the world, we adjust/accommodate our schemas to incorporate information provided by new experiences Piaget’s Theory & Current Thinking o He believed that children construct their understanding of world while interacting with it  Their minds experience spurts of change, followed by greater stability as they move from 1 cognitive plateau to the next (each with distinctive characteristics that permit specific kinds of thinking) o In his view, cognitive development consisted of 4 major stages:  Sensorimotor Stage  From birth to ~age 2  Babies take in world through their senses & actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, grasping)  V young babies seem to live in present (out of sight out of mind)  Young infants lacked object permanence – awareness that objects continue to exist even when not perceived  By 8 months, infants begin exhibiting memory for things no longer seen o If hide a toy they will momentarily look for it o Within another month or 2, infant will look for it even after being restrained for several seconds  Today’s researchers believed that object permanence is developed more gradually o Also believe Piaget underestimated young children’s competence  Preschoolers think like young scientists – test ideas, make causal inferences, learn from statistical patterns  Example: Baby physics & baby math  Preoperational Stage  From ~age 2 until about age 6 or 7  Able to represent things with words & images but too young to perform mental operations (i.e. imagining an action & mentally reversing it)  Before age 6, children lack concept of conservation – principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape  He didn’t view stage transitions as abrupt

o Symbolic thinking & pretend play appear earlier than he supposed Egocentrism o Piaget contended that preschool children are egocentric – they have difficulty perceiving things from another’s point of view  Example: conversation about brother o Preschoolers haven’t developed ability to take another’s viewpoint o Even adults may overestimate extent to which others share our opinions & perspectives – curse of knowledge  Theory of Mind o Preschoolers develop ability to infer others’ mental states when they begin forming a theory of mind o Infants as young as 7 months show some knowledge of others’ beliefs  With time, ability to take another’s perspective develops o Between 3 & 4 ½ children come to realize that others may hold false beliefs  Pencils in Band-Aid box o By age 4 to 5 children’s theory of mind has leapt forward o Sally & Anne with red & blue cupboards & ball  Children with autism spectrum disorder had difficult understanding that Sally’s state of mind differed from theirs Concrete Operational Stage  By about age 7 children enter this stage (as said by Piaget)  Given concrete (physical) materials, they begin to grasp conservation  They understand that change in form doesn’t mean change in quantity  Piaget believed that children become able to comprehend mathematical transformations & conservation Formal Operational Stage  By age 12, reasoning expands from purely concrete (involving actual experience) to encompass abstract thinking (involving imagined realities & symbols)  As children approach adolescence they can ponder hypothetical propositions & deduce consequences  Formal operational thinking (systematic reasoning) is now within their grasp  Rudiments of formal operational thinking begin earlier than Piaget realized 

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Typical Age Range Birth to nearly 2 years

About 2 to about 6 or 7 years

About 7 to 11 years

About 12 through adulthood

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Description of Stage Sensorimotor Experiencing the world through senses & actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping) Preoperational Representing things with words & images; using intuitive rather than logical reasoning Concrete operational Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies & performing arithmetical operations Formal operational Abstract reasoning

Developmental Phenomena  Object permanence  Stranger anxiety

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Pretend play Egocentrism

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Conservation Mathematical transformations

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Abstract logic Potential for mature moral reasoning

An Alternative Viewpoint: Lev Vygotsky & the Social Child o He was also studying how children think & learn o He noted that by age 7, they increasingly think in words & use words to solve problems (done by internalizing their culture’s language & relying on inner speech) o He emphasized how child’s mind grows through interaction with social environment

By mentoring children & giving them new words, parents & others provide temporary scaffold from which children can step to higher levels of thinking  Language provides building blocks for thinking Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory o Piaget identified significant cognitive milestones & stimulated worldwide interest in how mind develops  His emphasis = less on ages at which children typically each specific milestones than on their sequence  Studies around the globe have confirmed that human cognition unfolds basically in sequence Piaget described o Today’s researchers see development as more continuous  They have revealed conceptual abilities Piaget missed  They see formal logic as a smaller part of cognition than he did o Implication for Parents & Teachers  Young children are incapable of adult logic  Children aren’t passive receptacles waiting to be filled with knowledge  Better to build on what they already know, engage them in concrete demonstrations & stimulate them to think for themselves  Accept children’s cognitive immaturity as adaptive Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) o A disorder marked by social deficiencies & repetitive behaviours o Underlying source of ASD’s symptoms seems to be poor communication among brain regions that normally work together to let us take another’s viewpoint o From age 2 months on, other children spend more & more time looking into others’ eyes  Those who later develop ASD do so less & less o Said to have impaired theory of mind o Mind reading that most find intuitive, those with ASD find difficult  They have difficulty inferring & remembering other’s thoughts & feelings, learning what facial expressions mean which, and appreciating that others might view things differently o Has differing levels of severity  Some generally function at high level  They have normal intelligence, often accompanied by exceptional skill or talent in specific area  Deficient social & communication skills & tendency to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli o Biological factors (genetic influences & abnormal brain development) contribute to ASD o Afflicts about 4 boys for every girl o If 1 identical twin is diagnosed, change are 50-70% that co-twin will be as well o Younger sibling of a child with ASD is at heightened risk o Many genes (not just one) contribute o Underconnectivity is a partial cause  Fewer than normal fiber tracts connecting front of brain to back  Less of the whole-brain synchrony that integrates visual & emotional information o Those with ASD = less imitative & show less activity in brain areas involved in mirroring others’ actions 

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Social Development   

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Babies are social creatures – form bond with their caregiver Infants prefer familiar faces & voices After 8 months, soon after object permanence emerges & children become mobile – they develop stranger anxiety o May greet strangers by crying & reaching for familiar caregivers Human Bonding o Infants have attachment bond which is a powerful survival impulse that keeps them close to their caregivers  Infants become attached to those who are comfortable & familiar

Body Contact  Human infants become attached to parents who are soft & warm & who rock, feed, and pat  Infants use mother as secure base  Much parent-infant emotional communication occurs via soothing or arousing touch  Human attachment consists of 1 person providing another with secure base from which to explore & a safe haven when distressed  As we mature, our secure base & safe haven shift from parents to peers & partners  At all ages we are social creatures – we gain strength when someone offers a safe haven o Familiarity  Attachments based on familiarity form during a critical period – an optimal period when certain events must take place to facilitate proper development  Imprinting = rigid attachment process  Once formed, difficult to reverse  Children don’t imprint  But they do become attached to what they’ve known  Mere exposure to people & things fosters fondness  Familiarity is a safety signal; it breeds content Attachment Differences o Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment:  Most infants display secure attachment  In mother’s presence they play comfortably, happily exploring their new environment  When she leaves, they become distressed  When she returns, they seek contact with her  Other infants avoid attachment or show insecure attachment – marked either by anxiety or avoidance of trusting relationships  Less likely to explore surroundings  May cling to their mother  When she leaves their either cry loudly & remain upset or seem indifferent to her departure & return  Sensitive, responsive mothers had infants who exhibited secure attachment  Insensitive, unresponsive mothers often had infants who were insecurely attached o Heredity matters as well  Shortly after birth, some babies are noticeably difficult (irritable, intense, & unpredictable)  Others are easy (cheerful, relaxed, and feeing & sleeping on predictable schedules) o Children’s anxiety over separation from parents peaks at around 13 months, then gradually declines o Attachment Styles & Later Relationships  Erik Erikson believed that securely attached children approach life with sense of basic trust – sense that world is predictable & reliable  He attributed this to early parenting  Infants blessed with sensitive, loving caregivers form a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear  Our adult styles of romantic love tend to exhibit either:  Secure, trusting attachment  Insecure, anxious attachment  Avoidance of attachment  Feeling insecurely attached to other may take either of 2 main forms:  Anxiety – people constantly crave acceptance but remain vigilant to signs of possible rejections  Avoidance – people experience discomfort getting close to others & use avoidant strategies to maintain distance from others Deprivation of Attachment o Most children growing up under adversity are resilient – they withstand trauma & become normal adults o In humans, the unloved may become the unloving  Most abusive parents have reported being neglected or battered as children o Serotonin levels affected in children who are abused or neglected o

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By sensitizing the stress response system, early stress can permanently heighten reactions to later stress o Adults also suffer when attachment bonds are severed Self-Concept o By end of childhood (age 12) most children have developed a self-concept – an understanding & assessment of who they are o At about 6 months children reach out to touch their mirror image as if it were another child o By 15-18 months they begin to touch their own noses when they see coloured spot in mirror o 18 month olds have schema of how their face should look o By school age children’s self-concept expands into more detailed descriptions (including gender, group memberships, psychological traits, similarities & differences compared with other children)  They form concepts of which traits they have and which they would like to have o By age 8 or 10, their self-image is quite stable Parenting Styles o 3 parenting styles:  Authoritarian parents = coercive  Impose rules & expect obedience  Permissive parents = unrestraining  They make few demands & use little punishment  May be indifferent, unresponsive, or unwilling to set limits  Authoritative parents = confrontive  Both demanding & responsive  Exert control by setting rules, but, especially withholder children, they encourage open discussion & allow exceptions o Children with highest self-esteem, self-reliance, & social competence usually have warm, concerned, authoritative parents o Those with authoritarian parents tend to have less social skill & self-esteem o Those with permissive parents tend to be more aggressive & immature o Effects = stronger when children = embedded in authoritative communities with connected adults who model a good life o Association between certain parenting styles (firm but open) & certain childhood outcomes (social competence) = correlational  Correlation is not causation o Parents who struggle with conflicting advice should remember that all advice reflects the advicegiver’s values 

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ADOLESCENCE  

Development is lifelong = life-span perspective Adolescence – years spent morphing from child to adult o Begins with physical beginnings of sexual maturity & ends with social achievement of independent adult status

Physical Development 

Adolescence begins with puberty – time when we mature sexually o Puberty follows surge of hormones, which may intensify moods & which trigger...