Developing Through the Life Span

Chapter Overview
“Life is a journey, from womb to tomb”

1) Prenatal Development,
and the Newborn
2) Infancy and Childhood
3) Adolescence
4) Adulthood
Developmental Psychology:
Major Issues
Developmental Psychology is a branch of
psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and
social change throughout the life span.

1) Nature and Nurture

2) Continuity and Stages

3) Stability and Change

Developmental Psychology:
Major Issues
1) Nature and Nurture

“Nature is all that a man brings with him into the world; nurture
is every influence that affects him after his birth”
Francis Galton, 1874

- Genes predispose both our shared humanity and

individual differences
- Experiences, families and peer relationships also
shape us
- We are formed by the interaction between them
both
Developmental Psychology:
Major Issues
2) Continuity and Stages
A. Researchers who emphasize experience and learning typically
see development as a slow, continuous shaping process
B. Those who emphasize biological maturation tend to see
development as a sequence of genetically predisposed stages
Developmental Psychology:
Major Issues
3) Stability and Change
 Research reveals that we experience both stability and change:

- Some characteristics, such as temperament, are stable across

the life span
-Some characteristics, such as attitudes, are less stable

“Openness, self-esteem and agreeableness often peak in midlife”

“Life requires both stability and change”

“Stability provides our identity, and our potential to change

gives us hope for a brighter future”
Prenatal Development and the Newborn
Though the placenta screens out many harmful substances, some
slip by. Prenatal development is not risk free:

Zygote: Conception to 2 weeks

Embryo: 2 to 9 weeks
Fetus: 9 weeks to birth

- Teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals, viruses or drugs, that can reach the
embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Physical and mental abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant
woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-
of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.
- Alcohol has an epigenetic effect, as does smoking.
The Competent Newborn

- Newborns arrive with automatic

reflex responses that support survival:
Sucking, tonguing, swallowing, and
breathing
- Cry to elicit help and comfort
- Prefer sights and smells that facilitate
social responsiveness
- See close objects (such as faces) and
smell well, and use sensory
equipment to learn
Infancy and Childhood

- Physical Development
- Cognitive Development
- Social Development
Brain Development: Maturation

– Maturation: Biological growth processes that enable

orderly changes in behavior
• Relatively uninfluenced by experience
• Severe deprivation or abuse can slow
development, yet genetic growth patterns are
inborn
– Maturation (nature) sets the course of development;
experience (nurture) adjusts it

Nature and nurture interact

Brain Development: Neural Development

• Womb: number of neurons

grows by about 750,000 new
cells per minute in the middle
trimester
• Birth: Growth spurt of neural
networks
• Infancy: growth in neural
connections takes place initially
in the less complex parts of the
brain (the brainstem and limbic
system), as well as the motor
and sensory strips
How Do The Brain And Motor Skills Develop?

• Ages 3 to 6: Rapid frontal lobe growth, which enables rational

planning, and continued growth into adolescence and beyond
• Early childhood is a critical period for some skills (e.g.,
language and vision). Tens of billions of synapses form and
organize, while a use-it-or-lose-it pruning process shuts down
unused links.
• Last cortical areas to develop are controlling attention and
behavior (frontal lobes) and also in thinking, memory, and
language
• Throughout life: Learning changes brain tissue
Brain Development:
Building and Connecting Neurons

Brain cells are sculpted by heredity and experience:

Brain Development:
Building and Connecting Neurons

Critical period: An optimal period early in the life of

an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or
experiences produces normal development
– Lacking exposure/experience results in abnormal
development
– The brain’s amazing plasticity reorganizes brain
tissues in response to new experiences

“Your genes dictate your overall brain architecture, rather like the lines of a
coloring book, but experience fills in the details”
Kenrick, 2009
Physical Development: Motor Development

– The sequence of motor development

milestones such as sitting, crawling,
walking and running, is the same the
world around, though babies reach
them at varying ages.

– Before necessary muscular and neural

maturation, neither pleading not
punishment will have an effect.
Brain Maturation and Infant Memory

Infants are capable of learning

and remembering. Babies only 3
months old can learn that kicking
moves a mobile, and they can
retain that learning for a month.

– Studies have confirmed that

our average age of earliest
conscious memory is 3.5 years
– Waning of infantile amnesia
by age 7 or so may reflect
brain’s increasing capability of
conscious memory.
Cognitive Development
Cognition refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and communicating.

• problem-solving.
• figuring out how the world
works.
• developing models and
concepts.
• storing and retrieving
knowledge.
• understanding and using
language.
• using self-talk and inner
thoughts.
Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development:
Schemas
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a pioneering
developmental psychologist who studied
children’s cognitive development
• Children are active thinkers
• Minds develops through series of universal,
irreversible stages from simple reflexes to
adult abstract reasoning
• Children’s maturing brains build schemas: concepts or frameworks
that organize and interpret information
• Schemas are used and adjusted through
- Assimilation: Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing
understandings (schemas), and
- Accommodation: Adapting current understandings (schemas)
to incorporate new information
Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development:
Assimilation and Accommodation
How can this girl use her
“dog” schema when
encountering a cat?

She can assimilate the experience into her schema by referring to

the cat as a “dog”
or
She can accommodate her animal schema by separating the cat,
and even different types of dogs, into separate schemas.
 The Course of Development:
Stages
Jean Piaget believed that children construct their
understanding of the world while interacting with it.
He believed that children make leaps in cognitive abilities
from one stage of development to the next. The four major
stages are as follows:

1) Sensorimotor
2) Preoperational
3) Concrete Operational
4) Formal Operational
 Sensorimotor Stage
(Birth to Age 2)

In this stage, children explore

the world through their senses
and actions - by looking,
hearing, touching, mouthing,
and grasping.
 Object
Permanence
Mastered around 8 months of age
Through games like “peekaboo,” kids learn object
permanence--the idea that objects exist even when
they can’t be seen.
 Preoperational Stage
(Age 2 to 6 or 7)
In this stage, children are able to represent things with words and
images but are too young to perform mental operations (such as
imagining an action and mentally reversing it).
• Before age 6, Piaget says that children lack the concept of
conservation – the principle that quantity remains the same
despite changes in shape.
 Preoperational Stage
Pretend Play and Egocentrism

Egocentrism
“Do you have a brother?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name?”
“Jim.”
“Does Jim have a brother?”
“No.”

• Children are egocentric –

• Children can engage they have difficulty
in Pretend Play perceiving things from
another’s point of view
 Preoperational Stage
Theory of Mind

Children begin forming a Theory of Mind which is the ability to

understand others’ minds – the ability to understand that others
have their own thoughts and perspective.

• Between ages 3 and 4½, children worldwide use theory of

mind to realize others may hold false beliefs
• By age 4 to 5, children anticipate false beliefs of friends
• Children with autism spectrum disorder have difficulty
understanding that another’s state of mind differs from their
own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLubgpY2_w
 Concrete Operational Stage
(Age 7 to 11)

• Children gain the mental operations that enable them to

think logically about concrete events. They can now grasp
conservation and other concrete transformations.

• They begin to understanding that a change in form does not

mean a change in quantity and become able to understand
simple math and conservation. They also understand simple
mathematical transformations the reversibility of operations
(reversing 3 + 7 = 10 to figure out that 10 - 7 = 3).
 Formal Operational Stage
(Age 12 through adulthood)

• Children are no longer limited to concrete reasoning based on

actual experience.

• They encompass abstract thinking involving imagined realities

and symbols

• They are able to think logically about abstract concepts.

• As children approach adolescence, they can ponder

hypothetical propositions and deduce consequences
If this, then that
Jean Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
Views and uses of Piaget’s Theory

Although Jean Piaget’s Piaget helps us understand

observation and stage kids fairly - 3-year-olds:
theory are useful, today’s • May break things without
researchers believe: intending to;
1) development is a • Cannot tell that they are
continuous process. blocking your view, much
2) children show some less figuratively see from
mental abilities at an your viewpoint on issues;
earlier age than Piaget • May complain about a
thought. sibling getting more food if
3) formal logic is a smaller the same sized pizza was
part of cognition, even cut into more pieces.
for adults, than Piaget • May not get your sarcasm.
believed.
An Alternative View Point:
Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) and the Social Child

• Piaget emphasized that children’s minds grow through

interaction with the physical environment, but Vygotsky
focused on how the child’s mind grows through interaction
with the social environment.
• By age 7, children are able to think and solve problems with
words.
• By mentoring children, parents and others provide a
temporary scaffold to facilitate a child’s higher level of
thinking.
• Language, an important ingredient of social mentoring,
provides the building blocks for thinking.
 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Autism spectrum disorder: a disorder that appears in childhood and is
marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social
interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
• Children with ASD have
impaired theory of mind;
reading faces and social
signals is challenging for
those with ASD.
• 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.
 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Autism spectrum disorder’s
biological factors:
• Genetic influences
• Abnormal brain
development
• Prenatal maternal infection,
inflammation, psychiatric
drug use, or stress
hormones
• Childhood MMR vaccines
do not lead to ASD
Prevalence of ASD
• Four boys for every girl
• Risk greater when there are higher
levels of prenatal testosterone;
Simon Baron-Cohen suggests ASD
represents an “extreme male brain”
• Higher when identical co-twin has
ASD; younger siblings of those with
ASD sibling also at heightened risk
• Random genetic mutations in
sperm-producing cells may also play
a role; over-40 fathers have much
higher risk fathering a child with
ASD than do men under age 30
 Social Development
How do parent-infant attachment bonds form?

Stranger Anxiety
• Since birth we show
interest in social
interaction
• Stranger anxiety develops
around age 8 months. In
this stage, a child notices Stranger anxiety is the newly
and fears new people. emerging ability to evaluate
• Children this age have people as unfamiliar and possibly
threatening helps protect babies
schemas for familiar faces 8 months and older.
Social Development: Attachment
Attachment refers to an emotional tie with
another person; shown in young children by
their seeking closeness to the caregiver and
showing distress on separation.
In children, attachment can appear as a desire
for physical closeness to a caregiver.

How do we develop attachment?

 Human Bonding: Body Contact

- Harry Harlow and Margaret

Harlow (1950s) raised monkeys
for their learning studies

- Monkeys separated from their

moms at birth, raised in cages
with a baby blanket.

- Infant monkeys used “cloth

mothers” as secure base to
explore and as a safe haven when
distressed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O60TYAIgC4
 Human Bonding: Body Contact

- Attachment is based on physical

affection and comfortable body
contact, and not based on being
rewarded with food.

- Similar to human infants, who

also become attached to parents
who are soft and warm—much
parent-infant communication
occurs via touch
 Human Bonding: Familiarity

- Attachments based on Konrad Lorenz

familiarity form during the (1937)
critical period
- Birds have a critical period of
attachment called imprinting -
hours after hatching: they
become rigidly attached to the
first moving object they see.
- Most creatures tend to attach
to caregivers who have become
familiar
Attachment Variation:
Styles of Dealing with Separation
Mary Ainsworth (1979) Reactions to Separation
“Strange Situation” and Reunion
Experiment: - Secure Attachment
comfortably plays during
1.a mother and infant child mother’s presence, become
are alone in an unfamiliar upset when leaves, seek contact
(“strange”) room; the child when she returns. Mothers were
explores the room. sensitive and responsive.
- Insecure Attachment
2.the mother leaves the 1. Anxiety not exploring,
room. clinging to mother, loudly
upset when mother leaves,
3.After a few moments, remaining upset when she
the mother returns. returns
2. Avoidance: seeming
indifferent to mother’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v departure and return
=QTsewNrHUHU&t=14s
 What causes these different attachment styles:
nature or nurture?
Is the “strange situations”
behavior mainly a function of
the child’s inborn
temperament?
 Temperament refers to a person’s
characteristic emotional reactivity
and intensity.
 Some infants have an “easy”
temperament happy, relaxed, and
calm, with predictable rhythms of
hunger and sleep.
 Some infants seem to be “difficult”;
they are irritable, with unpredictable
needs and behavior, and intense
reactions.
Is the child’s behavior
actually caused by previous
parenting behavior?
 Mary Ainsworth believed that
sensitive, responsive, calm
parenting is correlated with the
secure attachment style.
 Training in sensitive responding
for parents of temperamentally-
difficult children led to doubled
rates of secure attachment.
Attachment Style and Later Relationships

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) believed that securely attached children

approach life with a sense of basic trust – a sense that the world
is predictable and trustworthy (formed during infancy by
sensitive, loving and responsive caregivers).
– Insecure-anxious attachment: People constantly crave
acceptance but remain alert to signs of rejection
– Insecure-avoidant attachment: People experience
discomfort getting close to others, and use avoidant
strategies to maintain distance from others

“Out of conflict between trust and mistrust, the infant develops hope,
which is the earliest form of what gradually becomes faith in adults.”
Erik Erikson (1983)
Deprivation of Attachment
– Most children growing up in adversity or experiencing
abuse are resilient, withstanding trauma and becoming
well-adjusted adults.
– Those who are severely neglected by their parents, or
otherwise prevented from forming attachments at an early
age, may be at risk for attachment problems.

In this 1980s Romanian orphanage, the

250 children between ages one and five
outnumbered caregivers 15 to 1. When
such children were tested after
Romania’s dictator was executed, they
had lower intelligence scores, reduced
brain development, and double the
anxiety symptoms found in children in
quality foster care settings.
Parenting Styles
Parenting styles reflect varying degrees of control (Diana Baumrind)
Parenting Style Characteristics Children Traits

Authoritarian Parents are coercive. They impose rules Less social skills
and expect obedience. and self-esteem.

Parents are unrestraining. They make few

Permissive demands and use little punishment. They More aggressive
may be indifferent, unresponsive, or and immature.
unwilling to set limits.

Parents are warmly concerned and

confrontive. They are both demanding Highest self-
and responsive. They exert control by esteem, self-
Authoritative reliance, and
setting rules, but, especially with older social
children, they encourage open discussion
and allow exceptions. competence.
Culture and Child Raising

– Cultural values vary from

place to place and from
one time to another
within the same place.
– Children have survived
and flourished
throughout history
under various child-
raising systems.
– Diversity in child raising
should be a reminder
that no single culture has
the only way to raise
children successfully.
 Adolescence

Adolescence is the transition from childhood to

adulthood
• Extends from puberty to independence
• Tension between biological maturity and social
independence creates a period of “storm and
stress” (Stanley Hall, 1904)
 Adolescence
Physical Development

• Puberty: the period of sexual maturity, during which a

person becomes capable of reproducing
• Early maturing boys: More popular, self-assured, and
independent; more at risk for alcohol use, delinquency, and
premature sexual activity.
• Early maturing girls: Mismatch between physical and
emotional maturity may encourage search for older teens;
teasing or sexual harassment may occur.
• The teenage brain: Frontal lobe development and synaptic
pruning occur. Maturation of the frontal lobes lags behind
that of the emotional limbic system; this and puberty’s
hormonal surge may produce irrational and risky behaviors.
 Cognitive Development
Developing Reasoning Power

How Did Piaget, Kohlberg, and Later Researchers Describe

Adolescent Cognitive And Moral Development?

• Develop new abstract thinking tools (formal operations)

• They may debate human nature, good and evil, truth
and justice
• Reason hypothetically and deduce consequences
• Detect inconsistencies in others’ reasoning, sometimes
leading to heated debates with parents and silent vows
to never lose sight of their own ideals
• Reason logically and develop moral judgment
 Cognitive Development
Developing Morality
Moral Reasoning
• Jean Piaget: Children’s moral judgments build on their
cognitive development.
• Lawrence Kohlberg: Agreed, and sought to describe a
moral reasoning that develops in universal sequence to
guide moral actions
Moral Intuition
• Jonathan Haidt: Much of morality rooted in moral
intuitions that are made quickly and automatically (gut
feeling)
Moral Action
• Moral action feeds moral attitudes.
• Walter Mischel: Ability to delay gratification linked to more
positive outcomes in adulthood (marshmallow test)
Kohlberg’s Level of Moral Thinking
 Social Development: Forming an Identity

What Are The Social Tasks And Challenges Of Adolescence?

• Adolescence struggle involves identity versus role confusion, a

struggle that continues into adulthood.
• Identity: Our sense of self; according to Erik Erikson (1963), the
adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and
integrating various roles.
• Social identity: Involves the “we” aspect of self-concept that
comes from group memberships often around distinctiveness.
• Healthy identity formation is followed by a capacity to build close
relationships.
• Intimacy: In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving
relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood.
Psychosocial Development: Erikson’s Stages

 Each age involves an “issue,” a psychological challenge

in managing our interaction with the social world.
 There is tension between two opposing tendencies.
 Successfully resolving this tension gives us strengths
that help us move to the next stage.
 Not resolving this tension can lead to lifelong
emotional and social difficulties.
Erik Erikson: Stages of Psychosocial Development
 Social Development: Parents and Peers

How Do Parents And Peers Influence Adolescents?

People seek to fit in with and are influenced by their groups,
especially during childhood and teen years. Influence of parents and
peers is complementary.
• Parents: Parent-child arguments increase but most adolescents
report liking their parents. Argument content is usually over
mundane things, and tends to be greater during adolescents with
first-born than with second-born children and with mothers than
fathers.
• Peers: Peers influence behavior, social networking is often
extensive, and exclusion can be painful or worse.
 Social Development: Parents and Peers

Positive parent-teen relations and positive peer relations

often go hand-in-hand.

Parents
• Are more important when it
comes to education,
discipline, charitableness,
responsibility, orderliness,
and ways of interacting with
authority figures
Peers
• Are more important for
learning cooperation, for
finding the road to
popularity, for inventing
styles of interaction among
people of the same age
 Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

• Includes the time from about age 18 to the mid-

twenties
• Characterized by not yet assuming adult
responsibilities and independences and by feelings
of being “in between”
• May involve living with and emotionally dependent
upon parents