Psych 111 Chapter 5 and Set in Our Ways Notes PDF

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Yaron Rubin Psychology

CHAPTER 5: Developing Through the Life Span 

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Prenatal development and the Newborn o Conception o Pre-natal development  Zygotes- fertilized eggs; enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo  10 days after conception, zygote attaches to uterine wall  Embryo- the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month o Fetus- the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth o Placenta- transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus; also screens out many potential harmful substances  Teratogens- agents such as chemicals and viruses that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm  Persistently heavy drinking during pregnancy can result in certain birth defects and mental retardation  Fetal alcohol syndrome- physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by pregnant woman’s heavy drinking; in severe cases, symptoms include facial disproportions o The Competent Newborn  William James---newborns experience a “blooming, buzzing confusion”  It was thought that newborns were essentially born without vision, except for meaningless light and dark shadows  Habituation- decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation; as infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner  Gives us a way to ask infants what they see and remember Infancy and Childhood o Physical Development  Brain Development  The association areas (linked to thinking, memory, and language) are the last cortical areas to develop o When they do, mental abilities surge  Maturation- biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience

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Motor Development  Developing brain allows for physical coordination o As infant’s muscles and nervous system mature, more complicated skills emerge  Genes play a major role in motor development o Identical twins begin sitting and walking on nearly the same day  Maturation and Infant Memory  Our earliest memories rarely predate our third birthday  Infantile amnesia (not remembering experiences as an infant o Remembered experiences usually begin b/w ages 4 and 5  Even into adolescence, the brains underlying memory continues to develop  Rovee-Collier---- discovered that infants are in fact capable of learning o Tied string to her sons foot so that he could move the mobile, in which she discovered that he was moving his foot in order to make the mobile move as well o The infants remembered the association between the original mobile, so that if the next day they were given a different mobile, the same kicking response wasn’t evident  “What the conscious mind doesn’t know and cannot express in words, the nervous system somehow remembers” o Cognitive Development  Cognition- all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating  Jean Piaget-- dedicated his life to searching for the answers regarding consciousness  convinced that, after nearly 50 years of research, a child’s mind is not a miniature model of an adult’s o children reason differently than do adults  his studies led him to the idea that a child’s mind develops in stages  his core idea was that the driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences  the maturing brain builds schemas o schema- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

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o by adulthood we have developed several schemas ranging from cats and dogs, to the concept of love  how do we adjust our schemas? o Piaget proposed 2 more concepts  Assimilation- interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas  Accommodation- adapting our current understandings to incorporate new information Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking CHART (PAGE 181)  Sensorimotor Stage o Sensorimotor stage- in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years old) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities like looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping o Young infants lack object permanence  Object permanence- the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived  Preoperational Stage o Preoperational stage- Piaget’s theory; the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years old ) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic 

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i.e. pouring the same amount of milk into a taller, skinnier glass and asking the child which glass has more o Conservation- the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects Egocentrism o Piaget claimed that preschool children are egocentric, meaning that the preoperational child has difficulty talking another’s point of view but rather resorting to solely their own Theory of Mind o Preschoolers, although still egocentric, develop an ability to infer others’ mental states when they begin forming a theory of mind o Theory of mind- people’s ideas about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict

o Whether out loud or inaudibly, talking to themselves helps children control their behavior and emotions and master new skills  Concrete Operational Stage o Concrete operational stage- in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about ages 6or 7 to 11 years old) during which children gain the mental operations hat enable them to think logically about concrete events o During this stage, Piaget believed that children fully gain the mental ability to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation Formal Operational Stage  o By age 12, our reasoning expands from the purely concrete to encompass abstract thinking o As children approach adolescence, many become capable of solving hypothetical propositions and deducing consequences: if this, then that o Formal operations stage- in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts  Autism- a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others’ state of mind  SEE PAGE 186-187  Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory  Piaget identified many significant cognitive milestones and stimulated worldwide interest in how the mind develops  More recent studies have confirmed that human cognition basically unfolds in the way in which Piaget described  Lev Vygotsky---Russian developmental psychologist who studied how a child’s mind feeds on the language of social interaction o Children work out solutions to problems by internalizing their culture’s language and relying on inner speech o Language provides the building blocks for thinking  Implications for Parents and Teachers o Young children are incapable of adult logic o Accept children’s cognitive immaturity as adaptive o Social Development  From birth, babies develop an intense bond with their care givers  At about 8 months old, they develop “stranger anxiety”  Stranger anxiety- the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning at around 8 months old

 Origins of Attachment  By about 12 months old, infants tend to cling tightly to a parent when frightened or expect separation o Attachment- an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation o For many years, scientists believed that infants grew attached to the people that gave them nourishment…but that was later overturned o Body Contact  Harry and Margaret Harlow  Bred monkeys for their learning study o They separated the monkeys from their mothers ahortly after birth and raised them in sanitary, individual cages which contained baby blanket  When the blankets were removed to be cleaned, the monkeys became distressed  ^^contradicted idea that attachment derived from nourishment o created two artificial mothers…a bare wire cylinder, and a cylinder wrapped in cloth  the monkeys preferred the one in cloth o human infants, just like monkeys, are attached to parents who are soft and warm who rock, feed, and pat o Familiarity  Attachments based on familiarity form during a critical period  Critical period-an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development  Konrad Lorenz--o Introduced imprinting

 Imprinting- the process by which certain animals form attachments during critical period very early in life o Konrad experimented by making him the first thing that ducklings would see after birth, and sure enough, they began following him around  Attachment Differences  Placed in a strange situation, about 60 % of infants display “secure attachment”  Some infants avoid attachment or show “insecure attachment”  Mary Ainsworth--o Designed the strange situation experiments o Studied attachment differences by observing mother-infant pairs at home during their first six months  Moms who noticed what their babies were doing and responded appropriately...had infants w/ secure attachment  Moms who attended to their babies when they felt like it or ignored them…had infants w/ insecure attachment  Van den Boom--- separated nature and nurture by randomly assigning one hundred 6-9 month old temperamentally difficult infants to either an experimental condition, in which mothers received personal training in sensitive responding, or to a control condition in which they did not o At 12 months old, 68% of the experimental condition infants were rated securely attached while only 28% of the control condition infants were  Infants lacking a mother tend to be much worse off than infants who are lacking a father  Anxiety of children over separation from parents peaks at 13 months old, and slowly begins to decline from then on  Erik Erikson--o Securely attached children approach life with a sense of “basic trust”  Basic trust- a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

 Deprivation of Attachment  The unloved often become the unloving  30% of people who were abused abuse their children as well in the future  children who were terrorized by physical abuse or wartime atrocities may suffer lasting wounds such as nightmares, depression, substance abuse, binge eating, or aggression  Disruption of Attachment o When infants are separated from their families, they often become distressed and even despairing o If placed in a more positive environment, most of the infants recover from the separation distress o Adults also suffer when out attachment bonds are severed  Detaching is a process, not an event  Does Day Care Affect Attachment? o Day care quality matters o Has virtually no major impact on child’s development o Children who had spent the most time in daycare, at ages 4.5 to 6, had slightly advanced thinking and language skills; they also had increased rate of aggressiveness and defiance  Self-Concept o By the age of 12 (the end of childhood) most kids have developed a “self-concept”  Self-concept- our understanding and evaluation of who we are o by school age, children begin to describe themselves in terms of their gender, group memberships, and psychological traits, and they compare themselves to other children o as children and adults, will our self-esteem be lower if we have experienced adoption?  Femmie Juffer and Marinus van IJzendoorn  They thought that their self-esteem would be lower, but to their surprise they were wrong o In fact, these children/adults display excessive resilience  Parenting Styles o Three parenting styles:  Authoritarian—  Parents impose rules and expect obedience

 Permissive--- Parents submit to their children’s desires; they make few demands and little punishment  Authoritative--- Parents are both demanding and responsive; exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but also explain the reasons for rules; especially for older children, they encourage open discussion when making the rules and allow exceptions o Children’s traits may influence parenting more than vice versa  Well-behaved children may evoke more trust and warmth from the parents than misguided, troublesome children 

Adolescence o Adolescence- the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence o Physical Development  Puberty- period of sexual maturation during which a person becomes capable of producing  Primary sex characteristics- the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) tat make sexual reproduction possible  Secondary sex characteristics- non-reproductive sexual characteristics such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair  A year or two before puberty, boy and girls start to feel the attraction towards those of the other (or their own) sex  In girls, puberty starts with breast development  Often begins by age 10 In boys, the landmark is a boy’s first ejaculation (“spermarche”)   Usually by about age 14  In girls, the first menstrual period, the “menarche”  Frontal lobe maturation lags the emotional limbic system  This accounts for occasional impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and emotional storms i.e. slamming the door… by teenagers o Cognitive Development  Teenagers begin thinking about what others are thinking about them  Developing Reasoning Power  Developing hypothetical reasoning and deducing consequences enables teens to detect inconsistencies in

others’ reasoning and spot hypocrisy  leads to arguments with parents and such  Developing Morality  Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg o Vital to discern right from wrong  Three basic levels of moral thinking:  Pre-conventional morality o Before age 9, most children’s morality focuses on selfinterest: they obey rules either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards  Conventional morality o By early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws and rules  Post-conventional morality o With the abstract reasoning or formal operational thought, people may reach a third moral level; actions are judged “right” because they flow from people’s rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles  Moral Feeling o The mind makes moral judgments quick and automatically o Moral feelings precede moral reasoning  Moral Action o Our moral thinking and feeling surely influence our moral talk o As our thinking matures, our behaviors also become less selfish and more caring o Social Development  Erik Erikson-- Claimed that each stage of life had its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution  Young children wrestle with issues of trust, then independence, then initiative  School-age children strive for competence  Erikson’s interest in such things sprung from his own upbringing being a Jew and Danish

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 Forming an Identity  Identity- our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles  Group identities often form around how we differ from those around us  Social identity- the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships  Some adolescents forge their identities early, simply by adopting the values and expectations of their parents and vice versa  Erikson realized that adolescent identity stage is followed in young adulthood by a developing capacity for intimacy o Intimacy- the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood  Parent and Peer Relationships  Parent-child conflict during transition to adolescence tends to be greater with first-born than with second-born children  Positive parent-teen relationships often translate to positive peer relationships o Emerging Adulthood  In young adulthood, emotional ties with parents loosen even further  In the modern day, adolescence is a larger chunk of time then in earlier days where shortly after sexual maturity, people would become far more independent  Today’s earlier sexual maturity is due to both increased body fat and to weakened parent-child bonds, including absent fathers  Emerging adulthood- for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to early twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood  Westerners typically ease their way into adulthood whereas many other cultures immediately dive into it Adulthood o Physical Development  Physical changes in Middle Adulthood  Aging brings a gradual decline in athleticism as well as fertility o A woman’s foremost sign of aging = menopause  Menopause- the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines

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o Men experience no equivalent to menopause  Men do experience a gradual decline in sperm count, testosterone level, and speed of erection and ejaculation o After middle age, most men and women remain capable of satisfying sexual activity o Not until after age 75 where most women and nearly half of men experience little sexual desire Physical Changes in Later Life  Life Expectancy o Life expectancy has increased monumentally over the years, providing a bigger and bigger population segment of older people o Males are more prone to dying than females o With age, people’s chromosome tips, called “telomeres” wear down just like the tip of a shoelace frays away over time o “death deferral” phenomenon  patterns that include more Americans dying on the two days before and after Christmas than on Christmas day itself  death rate increases when people reach their birthdays  Sensory Abilities o Visual sharpness diminishes, distance perception and adaptation to changes in light level are less acute o With age, pupils in the eyes shrink which reduces the amount of light reaching the retina  Health o The disease fighting immune system in the body grows weaker as one gets older making them more susceptible to ailments such as cancer and leukemia o People over 65 suffer fewer short-term ailments like the flu and the common cold o Aging slows down neural processing  Older people take more time to react and to process information o Brain regions that contribute to memory begin to decline with age as well o Physical exercise stimulates brain development, which is a reason why active older adults tend to be mentally more acute than those that aren’t active

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Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

o Dementia- series of small strokes, a brain tumor, or alcohol dependence can progressively damage the brain, causing mental erosion o Alzheimer’s disease- first memory deteriorates, then reasoning; diminishing sense of smell, becoming emotionally flat, then disoriented and disinhibited, then incontinent, then mentally vacant —essentially a living death (nearly unresponsive type state)  Underlying the symptoms of Alzheimer’s is a los of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce neurotransmitter acetylcholine (when deprived of this chemical, memory and thinking suffer immensely)  Researchers are constantly gaining new knowledge as to the chemical, neural, and genetic roots of Alzheimer’s  Those who use their brains are less likely to lose it o Cognitive Development  Aging and Memory  Early adulthood is a peak time for some types of learning and remembering  “prospective memory” remains strong when events help trigger memories, as when walking by a convenience store triggers a ‘pick up milk’ memory  no matter how quick or slow we are, remembering seems to also depend on the type of information we are trying to retrieve o i...