Chapter 10 Human Development Across the Lifespan Development

Chapter 10 Human Development Across the Lifespan

• Development = sequence of age-related changes that occur as person progresses from conception - death.

Progress Before Birth: Prenatal Development

• Zygote = a one-celled organism formed by the union of a sperm and an egg • prenatal period = from conception to birth, usually encompassing nine months of pregnancy • placenta = structure that allows oxygen & nutrients to pass into fetus from mother’s bloodstream & bodily wastes to pass out to mother • Source: Microsoft Clip. Art

The Course of Prenatal Development • Germinal (first 2 weeks) • Embryonic (2 weeks - 2 months) = period of great vulnerability, as most physiological structures are being formed • Source: Micro. Soft Clip. Art

The Course of Prenatal Development • Fetal stages (2 months - birth) = brings rapid growth as physiological systems mature • Threshold of viability at around 23 -26 weeks. • Source: Microsoft Clip. Art

Environmental Factors & Prenatal Development • Nutrition • Severe maternal malnutrition increases risk of birth complications & neurological deficits for newborn • Stress and Emotion • Prospective mothers’ emotional reactions to stressful events can disrupt delicate hormonal balance that fosters healthy prentatal development

Environmental Factors & Prenatal Development • Drug Use • Maternal use of illicit drugs can be dangerous to unborn child. • Alcohol Consumption • Even normal social drinking & routine tobacco use can be hazardous during prenatal development

Environmental Factors & Prenatal Development • Maternal Illness • Variety of maternal illnesses can interfere with prenatal development. • Environmental Toxins • Recent evidence suggests that prenatal development can “program” fetal brain in ways that influence vulnerability to various types of illness decades later

The Wondrous Years of Early Childhood

Exploring the World: Motor Development • Motor development = progression of muscular coordination required for physical activities • Maturation = development that reflects gradual unfolding of one’s genetic blueprint

Understanding Developmental Norms • Developmental norms = typical (median) age at which individuals display various behaviors & abilities

Cultural Variations • Cultural variations in emergence of basic motor skills show that environmental factors can accelerate or slow early motor development. • Source: Microsoft Clip. Art

Attachment Theory and its Effects on Adult Relationships

Early Emotional Development: Attachment • Attachment = close emotional bonds of affection that develop between infants & their caregivers. • separation anxiety—emotional distress seen in many infants when separated from people with whom they are attached

Theories of Attachment • Harlow’s work with monkeys undermined reinforcement explanation of attachment. • Bowlby proposed an influential evolutionary theory that attachment relationships have survival value.

Patterns of Infant/Mother Attachment • Secure = play & explore comfortably with mother present, become visibly upset when leaves, & are quickly calmed by her return • Anxious-ambivalent = anxious when mothers are near & protest excessively when leaves, but are not comforted when she returns

Patterns of Infant/Mother Attachment • Avoidant = seek little contact with their mothers and often are not distressed when she leaves • Attachment emerges out of an interplay between infant & mother.

Culture & Attachment • Cultural variations in childrearing can affect the patterns of attachment seen in a society, but secure attachment is predominant around the world.

Learning to Communicate: Language Development • Initial vocalizations by infants are similar across languages, but their babbling gradually begins to resemble sounds from surrounding language.

Moving Toward Producing Words • 1 st words around 1 st birthday • Vocab spurt begins 18 months

Using Words • Fast mapping = map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure • overextension = child incorrectly uses word to describe wider set of objects or actions than meant to. • underextensions = incorrectly uses word to describe narrower set of objects or actions than meant to.

Combining Words • Combine words by the end of 2 nd year • Early sentences are telegraphic • mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, & other less critical words omitted. • Gradually learn complexities of grammar

Personality & Cognitive Development in Childhood

Becoming Unique: Personality Development • Stage = developmental period during which characteristic patterns of behavior are exhibited & certain capacities become established.

Stage theories assume that • (1) individuals must progress through specified stages in a particular order because each stage builds on previous stage, • (2) progress through these stages is strongly related to age, • (3) development is marked by major discontinuities that usher in dramatic transitions in behavior

Stage Theories of Development

Erikson’s Stage Theory • Individuals evolve through 8 stages over life span. • Each stage the person wrestles with two opposing tendencies evoked by that stage’s psychosocial crisis. • Erikson’s 4 stages during childhood determine degree of exhibited trust, autonomy, initiative, & industriousness. • Source: Microsoft Clip. Art

Erikson’s Stage Theory

Growth of Thought: Cognitive Development • Cognitive development = transitions in youngsters’ patterns of thinking, including reasoning, remembering, & problem solving

Overview of Piaget’s Stage Theory • (1) sensorimotor period (birth to age 2) • Object permanence = child recognizes that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible.

Overview of Piaget’s Stage Theory • (2) preoperational period (2 - 7) • Centration = tendency to focus on just 1 feature of problem, neglecting other important aspects • Irreversibility = inability to envision reversing an action • Egocentrism = thinking characterized by limited ability to share another person’s viewpoint

Overview of Piaget’s Stage Theory • (2) preoperational period (2 - 7) • Not yet mastered principle of conservation. • Conservation • awareness that physical quantities remain constant in spite of changes in their shape or appearance.

Overview of Piaget’s Stage Theory • (3) concrete operational period ( 7 - 11) • Newfound ability 2 coordinate several aspects of problem helps child appreciate there are several ways to see things through a decline in egocentrism & gradual mastery of conservation as it applies to liquid, mass, number, volume, area, and length.

Overview of Piaget’s Stage Theory • (4) formal operational period (11 onward) • children begin to apply their operations to abstract concepts in addition to concrete objects • further developments in thinking are changes in degree rather than fundamental changes in nature of thinking

Evaluating Piaget’s Theory • Piaget appears to have underestimated young children’s cognitive development ( Birney et al. , 2005). • children understand object permanence much earlier than Piaget thought ( Birney & Sternberg, 2011).

Evaluating Piaget’s Theory • Children often simultaneously display patterns of thinking, characteristic of several stages. • This “mixing” of stages & transitions between stages are gradual rather than abrupt, call into question value of organizing cognitive development in terms of stages ( Bjorklund, 2005; Krojgaard, 2005).

Evaluating Piaget’s Theory • Sequence of stages is largely invariant, but timetable that children follow in passing through these stages varies considerably across cultures (Dasen, 1994; Rogoff, 2003). • Infants appear to understand surprisingly complex concepts with virtually no opportunity to learn them.

The Development of Moral Reasoning • Morality = ability to distinguish right from wrong & behave accordingly.

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory ~ Moral Reasoning • Focuses on moral reasoning rather than overt behavior • Progresses through six stages related to age & determined by cognitive development. • Preconventional thinking emphasizes external authority. • Conventional moral reasoning focuses on adherence to social order. • Postconventional reasoning involves working out a personal code of ethics.

Kohlberg’s Stage Theory

Evaluating Kohlberg’s Theory • Age-related progress in moral reasoning has been found in research, • Lots of overlap occurs between adjacent stages • Theory is more culture-specific than he realized.

The Transition of Adolescence

Physiological Changes • Growth spurt at puberty is prominent event involving development of reproductive maturity & secondary sex characteristics.

Physiological Changes • primary sex characteristics—the structures necessary for reproduction • secondary sex characteristics—physical features that distinguish one sex from other but not essential for reproduction

Physiological Changes • menarche—the first occurrence of menstruation • at ages 12– 13 w/ sexual maturation continuing until approx age 16 • spermarche—the first occurrence of ejaculation • at ages 13– 14 w/ sexual maturation continuing until approx age 18

Physiological Changes • Generational changes exist in timing of puberty. • Girls who mature early & boys who mature late experience more subjective distress with the transition to adolescence. • Early sexual maturation = greater variety of behavioral problems for both sexes.

Neural Development • During adolescence neurons are becoming more myelinated, while synaptic pruning continues to sculpt neural networks. • Prefrontal cortex (executive control center) appears to be the last area of the brain to mature fully. • Contributing to adolescent risk taking.

Peer Influence on Risk Taking

The Search for Identity • Erikson’s 5 th stage; Identity vs. Role Confusion. • James Marcia identified four patterns of identity formation: • Foreclosure = premature commitment to visions, values, & roles— typically prescribed by parents (conformity)

The Search for Identity • Moratorium = delaying commitment to experiment w/ alternative ideologies & careers • Identity diffusion = a state of rudderless apathy, with no commitment to an ideology • Identity achievement = arriving at sense of self & direction after some consideration of alternative possibilities, associated w/ higher self-esteem, conscientiousness, security, achievement motivation, & capacity for intimacy

Emerging Adulthood as a New Developmental Stage • Arnett argues we ought to recognize existence of a new developmental stage in modern societies; christened emerging adulthood. • Central features of this stage include feeling in between adolescence & adulthood & experiencing continued identity formation.

The Expanse of Adulthood

Personality Development • Personality marked by both stability and change, as percentile scores remain stable, but mean raw scores change in predictable ways. • Agreeableness & conscientiousness tend to increase in the adult years, • Extraversion, neuroticism & openness to experience tend to decline

Erikson’s View of Adulthood • Intimacy Versus Isolation - develop the capacity to share intimacy with others • Generativity Versus Self-Absorption - to acquire a genuine concern for the welfare of future generations • Integrity Versus Despair - to find meaning and satisfaction in their lives, rather than wallow in bitterness and resentment

Memorize Erikson's 8 Theories of development fast - phycology test prep

Transitions in Family Life • % of young adults who are postponing marriage until their late 20’s or early 30’s steadily risen since mid-60’s • Source: Microsoft clip. Art

Adjusting to Marriage • Premarital cohabitation used to be predictive of an increased likelihood of marital dissolution later, but the situation seems to be changing. • Difficulty adjusting to marriage is more likely when spouses have different role expectations, especially about housework.

Adjusting to Parenthood • (1)parents exhibit lower marital satisfaction than comparable nonparents, • (2)mothers of infants report the steepest decline in marital satisfaction, • (3)more children couples have, lower their marital satisfaction tends to be ( Twenge, Campbell, & Foster, 2003).

Aging & Physiological Changes • During adulthood, age-related physiological transitions include changes in appearance, sensory losses (especially in vision and hearing), & hormonal changes.

Aging & Neural Changes • Drastic mental decline not part of normal aging process, • Dementia 5%-8% of people ages 65 -70 and 15%-20% of those aged 75 -80.

Aging & Neural Changes • Alzheimer’s disease has a subtle onset marked by chronic forgetting of newly learned information, followed by a progressive deterioration over 8 -10 years. • causes of disease not well understood, although genetic factors & chronic inflammation appear to contribute.

Aging & Cognitive Changes • Studies found decreases in older adults’ memory capabilities. • Mental speed declines in late adulthood,

Aging & Cognitive Changes • Studies suggest that high levels of mental activity in late adulthood can delay the typical age-related declines in cognitive functioning.