Developmental Psych

 Development- orderly and sequential changes

- occurs with the passage of time as an organism moves from
conception to death.
 - has a pattern that needs to be followed
- natural unfolding

 Pre-natal/ conception- where development begins

 Developmental psychology- branch of psychology that deals with how

individuals change with time. While remaining in some repects the same.
- how we change over time
- not only on how people change but also with stability- what
remains the same through the years.
 Traits- enduring characteristics

Major domains of development

 Physical development- changes that occur in a persons body
 Cognitive development- changes that occur in the mental activity
 Psychological development- changes in personality, emotions, and relationships.

 Adulthood- pre-frontal cortex developed

Nature vs. Nurture

 Nature
- inborn traits or characteristics inherited form the biological parents
- genetical influence
 Nurture
- nonhereditary or environmental influences on development

 Genetic predisposition but not supplemental with experiences it won’t work

 Interaction of nature and nurture. - taking both into account and both has an
influence to development.

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

 Continuity - quantitative change (change in amount)
 Discontinuity- qualitative change ( change in characteristics, kind or type)

The Context of development

Socioeconomic Status
 Socioeconomic status- Combination of economic and social factors describing an
individual or family, including income, education and occupation.
- usually people from richer families, enjoy prestigious
advantages
- effect of poverty in development
 Culture- a society’s or groups’s total way of life, including customs, traditions,
beliefs, values, language and ohysical products- all learned behavior, passed on
from parents to children.
- concerns with beliefs, way of life, tradition.
- some culture don’t have concept of mid-life.
The context of Development
 Social clock- a set of age norms defining a sequence of life experience that is
considered normal at given culture and that all individuals inbthe culture are
expected to follow.
- what to achieve at a certain age
- this is already your situation at certain age.

The timing of development

 Normative age graded influences- a set of influences that include physical,
cognitive and psychosocial changes at predictable stage.
- explains why we are like this right now.
Ex: at adolescence we experience growth and acquire the ability to reproduce. at 40
women will get menopause.

 Normative history-graded influences- historical events that affect large numbers

of individuals at about same time.
- historical generation- are those people who
experienced certain historical event
- change us in a drastic way.
- it affects a certain pereson differently from those who
didn’t experienced it.
Ex: pandemic

 Nonnormative life events- characteristics of an unsual event that happens to a

particular person or a typical event that happens at an unusual time of life
(atypical time)
- not shared and something that is unique.
Ex: losing a parent as a child.

Major domains of development

 A critical period (animal term)/ sensitive period(human term)- is a specific time
when a given event, or its absence has a specific impact on development. It is
beyond this timeline learning comes hard.
Example: learning a language at childhood

7 key principles of a life span developmental approach

1. Development is lifelong- does not stop and it is continuous
2. Development is multidimensional- interaction of various factors
3. Development is multidirectional- not always increasing but also not decreasing
4. Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span- certain changes
take turns
5. Development involves changing resource allocations- change of priorities
6. Development show plasticity-
7. Influenced by the historical and cultural context

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Adolescence (11 to 19/20)

 Adolescence- developmental transition between childhood and adulthood
entailing major physical, cognitive and psychosocial changes.
 Puberty- process by which a person attains sexual maturity and ability to
reproduce

Time risks
 To ride a car without a seat belt or ride with a driver who has been drinking
 To carry weapons
 To have sexual intercourse or have it without condoms
 To attempt suicide

Puberty and Sexual maturity

 Spermache- boy’s first ejaculation
- average: 13 years old
 Menarche- girl’s first mentration
- average: 13 years old
 Many studies have indicated that the start of puberty has shifted downward in the
tentieth century
Ex: secular trend

Puberty and Sexual Maturity

 Puberty- depends in the amount of fats on your body
- those who have absent parents on early age can also experience puberty on
earlier stage or mature fast
 Primary sex characteristics- organs directly related to reproduction
- ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, clitoris and vagina
- testes, penis, scrotum, seminal vescicles and prostate gland
- organs may develop and enlarge
- acquire the ability to reproduce
 Secondary sex characteristics- psychological signs of sexual maturation that do
not involve sex organs.
Ex: breast, chest, body hairs, height. These do not involve in
reproduction but affects attraction.
The Adolescent Brain
 Continuing myelination in the frontal lobe facilitates information processing.
 Processing of information about emotions:
 Limbic and reward systems mature earlier
- risky behavior
 Older adolescents are more likely to use the frontal lobe, which permits more
accurate, reasoned judgment.
 Brain: is not fully mylinated or matured in adlescent

Physical and Mental Health

Why do adolescents stay up late?
 Playing video games. talking to or texting friends, and surfing the web.
 Later secretion of melatonin.
 Starting school later, or at least offering difficult courses later in the day, would
positively influence key outcomes such as student attendance, fatigue, and
academic achievement
 body image - Descriptive and evaluative beliefs about ones appearance
 Anorexia nervosa - Eating disorder characterized by self-starvation.
 Bulimia Nervosa - Eating disorder in which a person regularly eats huge
quantities of food and then purges the body by laxatives, induced vomiting.
fasting. or excessive exercise.
 Binge eating disorder - Eating disorder in which a person loses control over
eating and binges huge quantities of food.
 Addiction
 Substance abuse - Repeated, harmful use of a substance, usually alcohol or other
drugs.
 Substance dependence - Addiction (physical, or psychological, or both) to a
harmful substance.
 Binge drinking - Consuming 5 or more drinks (for men) or 4 or more drinks (for
women) on one occasion.

Formal Operations
 Formal operations - Piaget's final stage of cognitive development, characterized
by the ability to think abstractly.
- abstract reasoning
- systematic solving which they do not relay on trial and error
- understanding symbols in mathematics
T - they can use symbols to represent other symbols (math)
- Can find richer meanings in literature.
- They can think in terms of what might be, not just what is.
- They can imagine possibilities and can form and test hypotheses
- Hypothetico-deduclive reasoning - ability to develop. consider, and
test hypotheses
 Immaturities of adolescence- logical reasoning
Stages Age Core cognitive capacities
sensorimotor 6-2  Knowledge is through listening,seeing,smelling, touching
 Object permanence develops between 4-9 months
Preoperation 2-7  Verbal and egocentric thinking develops
al  Can do mentally once could only do physically
 Conversation of shape, number, are not yet possible
Concrete 7-11  Conversation of shape and number are now possible
operational  Logic and reasoning are developed but limited
 Appearance is what is correctly observed
Formal 11+  Abstract reasoning- principles and ideals developed
operational  Systematic problems is core possible no longer trial and error
 Ability to think about and reflect upon one’s thinking
 Scientific reasoning

 Naive idealism- is manifested when adolescents use formal operational thinking

to mentally construct an ideal world and then compare the real world to it which
makes them disappointed

Immature Aspects of Adolescent Thought (Elkind)

 imaginary audience - adolescents often assume everyone else is thinking about
the same thing they are thinking about. (ego-centrism)
 personal fable - belief by adolescents that they are special, their experience is
unique, and they are not subject to the rules that govern the rest of the world; the
 belief that the events of one's life are controlled by a mentally constructed
autobiography.
- believes that your experiences are unique and you are unique
Ex: you are trying to use drugs cos you feel it won’t affect you.
"Nobody understands me."; "I will not get pregnant."

Kohlberg’s theory of morality

 Level I: Preconventional morality (ages 4 to 10) - They obey rules to avoid
punishment or reap rewards, or they act out of self-interest
 Stage 1; Punishment/obedience orientation
• Children obey rules to avoid punishment.
 Stage 2: Instrumental purpose and exchange
• Children conform to rules out of self-interest and consideration for what others can
do for them.

 Level Il: conventional morality (ages 10 to 13 or beyond) - concerned about being

"good," pleasing others, and maintaining the social order
 Stage 3; Good Boy/Girl Orientation
- Children want to please and help others, can judge the intentions of others, and
develop their own ideas of what a good person is.
 Stage 4; Law and order orientation
- People are concerned with doing their duty, showing respect for higher authority,
and maintaining the social order. They consider an act always wrong. regardless of
motive or circumstances, if it violates a rule and harms others
- what is legal and illegal

 Level Ill: Postconventional morality (early adolescence, or not until young

adulthood, or never) - People recognize conflicts between moral standards and
make their own judgments on the basis of principles of right, fairness, and justice.
 Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
- People think in rational terms, valuing the will of the majority and the welfare of
soclety: "greatest good for the greatest number"
 Stage 6: Universal and Ethical Principles
- People do what they as individuals think is right, regardless of legal restrictions or
the opinions of others.
- Justice, compassion, and equality
 Criticism: very western view and not applicable to some non-western societies
According to Giligan- Kolberg’s theory was more applicable to men cos it more on
justice

Psychosocial development

Identity versus Identity Confusion

 Identity versus Identity Confusion - an adolescent seeks to develop a coherent
sense of self, including the role she or he is to play in society. Also called identity
versus role confusion.
 Fidelity: sustained loyalty, faith, or a sense of belonging to a loved one, friends,
or companions; identification with a set of values, an ideology, a religion, a
political movement, or an ethnic group.
James Marcia’s Identity Statures
No commitments Commitment made
No crisis experienced Diffusion (lowest identity)
Foreclosure( committed
but does not evaluate it.
No crisis)
Crisis experienced Moratorium (experience Identity achievement
crisis but not committed ( undergo crisis before
before you achieve commitment)
achievement)

ABSENT
ABSENT Identity Diffusion
“ I haven’t given the future
a lot of thought, I’m sure
something will come along
to push me in one direction
or another”
PRESENT Moratorium
“I like psychology and am
taking a variety of courses
to determine whether I
want to major it or not”
PRESENT
Identity Foreclosure
“I am going to the
military, because that’s
what everyone in my
family does when they
finished high school”
Identity Achievement
“I want to help people and
am good at science, so I
decided to be a nurse”

Gender Identity
 Gender- what do you think about yourself
 Cisgender - a person whose gender Identity corresponds to their sex assigned at
birth.
(male-male, female-female)
 Transgender- is a term that refers to individuals whose biological sex at birth and
gender identity are not the same.
 Genderqueer - to refer to a wide range of variable identities that may be neither
fully male nor fully female

Sexual Orientation
 Heterosexual - attracted to persons of the other sex.
 Homosexual - attracted to persons of the same sex.
 Bisexual - attracted persons of both sexes.

Emerging and Young Adulthood- not fully adult and treat themselves as teenagers. It
is the extension of adolescence. (schooling are taking longer)

Adulthood
When does a person become an adult? For most laypeople, three criteria define
adulthood:
(1) accepting responsibility for oneself,
(2) making independent decisions, and
(3) becoming financially independent
 Emerging Adulthood - Proposed transitional period between adolescence and
adulthood commonly found in industnalized countries

Reproductive Health
 Infertility - Inability to conceive a child after 12 months of sexual intercourse
without the use of birth control.
• Low sperm count, blockage in fallopian tube, polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Women's fertility begins to decline in their late twenties
• Men's fertility is less affected by age but begins to decline in the late thirties.
 Cognition- we continue to develop cognitively
- the frontal lobe reaches maturity- capable of making logical
decisions.
-At approximately 20 to 25 years of age, the brain forms new neurons,
synapses, and connections, and the cortical regions that handle higher-
level thinking become fully myelinated.
- Reflective thinking - continuous, active evaluation of information and beliefs
in the light of evidence and implications. think of it carefully before doing
something.

Postformal Thought
 Postformal Thought - Mature type of thinking that relies on subjective experience
and intuition as well as logic and allows room for ambiguity. uncertainty,
inconsistency, contradiction, imperfection, and compromise.
 Provisional/ skeptical - Many young adults also become more skeptical about the
truth and seem unwilling to accept an answer as final.
- does not accept anything immediately
 Use of both formal logical thought and experience.- when you don’t know what ti
di you ask someone older.
 Relativistic thought - acknowledges that there may be more than one valid way of
viewing an issue and that the world is made up of shades of gray.

Cognitive Growth at Work

- Cognitively stimulating- allow our brain to develop
- A great deal of development in the frontal lobes occurs in young adulthood. problem
solving and planning. working memory (multitasking). self-control.
- our brain needs some degree of challenge
 "Substantive complexity - Degree to which a person's work requires thought and
independent judgment.
 Spillover hypothesis - Hypothesis that there is a carryover of cognitive gains from
work to leisure that explains the positive relationship between activities in the
quality of intellectual functioning

Personality Development
 Intimacy versus isolation - young adults either form strong. long-lasting bonds
with friends and romantic partners or face a possible sense of isolation and self-
absorption.
 Love = mature devotion that overcomes differences
 Exclusivity = becomes pathological when it blocks one's ability to cooperate,
 Fictive kin - Friends who are considered and behave like family members
Strenberg’s triangular theory of love
 Intimacy- feeling of closeness (trust and warmth)
 Infatuation- be romantic
 Empty love/commitment- stay in love

 Marriage- most young adults plan to marry but only when they feel ready
- Historically. the most common way of selecting a mate has been
through arrangement.
- Cohabitation can be a trial marriage, an alternative to marriage, or, in
some places, almost indistinguishable from marriage. "sharing household
chores" is important to marital success.
 Parenthood- people nowadays desire to have fewer children than the older
generation
- Men are apt to invest a greater amount of time in fathering.
-parental care is often supplemented by institutional care

Parenting Myths
 The birth of a child will save a failing marriage.
 As a possession or extension of the parent, the child will think, feel, and behave
as the parent did in his or her childhood.
 Having a child gives the parents a "second chance" to achieve what they wish
they had achieved.
 Parenting is instinctual and requires no training