Bell Work
•
Review your Unit 9 project prompt.
•
What questions do you have?
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What do you plan to do?
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How much do you have done?
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Prepare to report back to me
Biological
Development
Prenatal development milestones
Teratogens
Infant development
Brain maturation
Developmental Psychology
Issue Details
Nature/Nurture
How do genetic
inheritance (our nature) and experience (the
nurture we receive) influence our behavior?
Continuity/Stages
Is development a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of
separate stages?
Stability/Change
Do our early personality traits persist through life,
or do we become
Prenatal Development and the
Newborn
How, over time, did we come to be who we are? From zygote to birth,
Conception
A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and fuse
Prenatal Development
Once the sperm penetrates the egg, a zygote is formed. This phase lasts about two weeks and consists of rapid cell division.
Less than half of all zygotes survive first two weeks.
About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall.
Prenatal Development
11 At about 14 days the zygote turns into an embryo (a and b) and is nourished by the
yolk sack.
Lasts about 6 weeks.
Prenatal Development
At 9 weeks an embryo turns into a fetus and
begins to gain
nourishment from the placenta. The
placenta is an organ which connects the fetus to the uterine
wall
The fetus by about the 6th month, the stomach
and other organs have formed enough to survive outside of
mother.
At this time the baby can hear (and recognize) sounds and respond to
Teratogens
•
Substances that cross
the placental barrier
and harm the prenatal
environment. They
prevent the fetus from
developing normally
•
Includes: radiation,
toxic chemicals,
viruses, STDs, drugs,
alcohol, nicotine, etc.
– Example: Fetal alcohol
Genetic screening
•
Can be done preconception (the
parents), during the prenatal period,
newborn, childhood, or later in life
•
Somewhat controversial
– Advantages and disadvantages
– Moral issues, socialization and parenting
– Most states mandate screening of newborns
(normally for forms of mental retardation)
– There is nothing that a parent can do to
Infancy and Childhood
Infancy and childhood span from birth to teenage years. During these years the individual grows physically, cognitively
and socially.
Stage Span
Infancy Newborn to toddler
Reflexes present at birth
• Rooting reflex- when
touched on the cheek, a baby will turn toward
the touch and try to eat
• Grasping reflex- baby
will try to grasp any object placed in the their palm or foot pad
• Moro reflex- When
startled a baby will fling its body outward and
then retract them to become as small as possible
• Babinski reflex- Will
Infants’ psychological development depend on their biological development. To understand emergence of motor skills and memory we must
Developing Brain
The developing brain overproduces neurons. Peaking around 28 billion at 7 months, these neurons are pruned to 23
billion at birth. The greatest neuronal spurt is in the frontal lobe enabling the
Maturation
The development of the brain unfolds based on genetic instructions, leading various bodily and mental functions to
occur in sequence— standing before walking, babbling before talking—this is
called maturation.
Maturation and Infant
Memory
Earliest age of conscious memory is around 3½ years (Bauer, 2002). A
5-year-old has a sense of self and an increased long-term memory, thus organization of
memory is different from 3-4 years.
Motor Development
Infants begin to roll over first followed by sitting unsupported, crawling, and finally
Cognitive Development in the
Newborn
Investigators study infants habituation to objects over some duration of time. New objects are paid
Jean Piaget
•
This guy is an all-star
•
First studied
intelligence testing
in France. Later
developed a
theory
of cognitive
development
in
Basis of Cognitive
Development
Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our
biological development amidst
experiences with the environment. Our cognitive development is shaped by errors we make. “We learn from our
Schemas (“schemata”)
•
Concepts or mental frameworks
that people use to organize and
interpret information
•
A person’s “picture of the
world”
•
Perceptual set, expectancy set
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What is your schema of
Assimilation
•
Interpreting a new experience
within the context of existing
schemas
•
The new experience is similar to
Assimilation in High School
When you first meet somebody, you will assimilate them into
a schema that you already have.
If you see two guys dressed like this, what schema would you assimilate them into?
Accommodation
•
Adapting current schemas to
incorporate new information
•
The new experience is so novel
Bell Work
Schema – Freshmen are stupid and immature.
• Scenario – A ninth-grader in your Spanish
III class gives an eloquent presentation of the Spanish-American War.
• If you assimilate, you might think…
Today
•
Objective:
– Understand and use Piaget’s stages of
development
•
Review Assimilation and
Accommodation
•
Piaget’s Stages
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Video evidence
•
Social Development
•
Harry Harlow Study
Schema – My parents don’t know what it is like to be a teenager.
• Scenario – Your grandmother tells you a story
about your mother’s rebellious teenage years.
• If you assimilate, you might think…
Schema – Christopher Columbus was a heroic man who discovered America.
• Scenario – You read an article in US History
about how Columbus and other early settlers mistreated Native Americans.
• If you assimilate, you might think…
Schema – I cannot relate to people of different races or ethnicities because we are so different.
• Scenario – You room with someone from a
different race in college and find out that you have a lot more in common than you have differences.
• If you assimilate, you might think…
Sensorimotor Stage
In sensorimotor stage babies take in the world — through senses.
Children younger than 6 months do not have object permanence, i.e., objects that
Stranger Anxiety
The fear of strangers that infants
commonly display, cannot assimilate an
unfamiliar face.
Preoperational Stage
Piaget suggested that from 2 to about 6-7 years, children are in preoperational stage
— too young to perform mental operations. Beginning of language, limited in the ways they can think about
relationships between objects
Egocentrism
Piaget concluded that preschool children are egocentric. They cannot perceive
Theory of Mind
Preschoolers, although still
egocentric, develop the ability to
understand other’s mental states when
they begin forming a theory of mind. Problem on the right
Concrete Operational Stage
In concrete operational stage, given concrete materials, 6 to 7-year-olds grasp conservation
problems and mentally pour liquids back and forth into glasses of different shapes conserving
their quantities.
Think more logically and develop reversibility
Children in this stage are also able to
transform mathematical functions. So if, 4 + 8 = 12 then transformation 12 – 4 = 8
Formal Operational Stage
Around age 12, our reasoning ability expands from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. We can now use symbols and imagined realities to
systematically reason, what Piaget called formal operational thinking.
Some people do not reach this stage in all areas of thought
Bell Work
•
Identify each of Piaget’s 4 stages.
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Give an example of a cognitive skill
or lack of a skill from each stage.
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What are the approximate age
groups of each stage?
Cognitive Development
Adolescents’ ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness. In particular
they can think about:
1. Their own thinking.
2. What others are thinking.
3. And think about what others are thinking about them.
4. How ideals can be reached. Criticize society, parents and even
Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s stage theory has been influential globally, validating a number of ideas regarding growth and development in many cultures and societies. However,
today’s researchers believe:
1. Development is a continuous process. 2. Children express their mental abilities
and operations at earlier ages. 3. Formal logic is a smaller part of
Social Development
•
Attachment
•
Parenting styles
Standard Timeline
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Think about physical development
through the lifespan
•
Think about cognitive development
through the lifespan
•
How might these influence our social
Attachment Theories
Social development begins at birth as a child forms an attachment (a strong emotional bond) with the primary caregiver(s), usually the mother. The bond
between a caregiver and child has a significant impact on a child's development on both a social
Origins of Attachment
Harlow (1971) showed that infants bond with
surrogate mothers because of bodily
contact and not nourishment.
“Contact comfort”
Deprivation of
attachment with real mother had profound long-term effects on the
Origins of Attachment
Like bodily contact, familiarity is another factor for causing attachment. In some animals (goslings) imprinting is the cause
Attachment Differences with
Mary Ainsworth
Placed in a strange situation, 60%
children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in
the presence of their mothers. When mother leaves they show distress.
The other 30% show insecure attachment, these children cling to their mothers or caregivers, and are less likely to explore
Bell Work
•
How can parents balance their
responses to needs and concerns
and that of spoiling their babies?
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Does day care affect parent/child
attachment?
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What is the Ideal parenting style?
Insecure Attachment
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys experience great anxiety if their
terry-cloth mother was removed.
Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety peaks at 13
months of age. No matter whether
Deprivation of Attachment
What happens when circumstances prevent a child from forming
attachments?
In such circumstances children become: 1. Withdrawn
2. Frightened
3. Unable to develop speech
If parental or caregiving support is deprived for long, children are placed at risk for
physical, psychological and social problems, including alterations in brain serotonin
Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parenting correlates with social competence — other factors like common genes may leading to a
easy-going temperament may invoke
Erik Erikson and
Psychosocial Development
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Personality is
profoundly influenced
by our experiences
with others (he was a
Neo-Freudian)
•
Believed people face
different crises in
their lives that they
must resolve in order
to continue healthy
development (8
stages)
Erik Erikson studied in Austria under Anna Freud. He fled to U.S. in 1933 from Austria due to
Bell Work
•
On a separate piece of paper your
respond to Part I questions A & B.
•
Prepare to report on how your Unit 9
Project is progressing
– If nothing has been done, I would like to
know why.
Self-Concept
Self-concept, a sense of one’s identity and
personal worth emerges gradually
around 6 months. Around 15-18 months
they can recognize themselves in the mirror. By 8-10 years,
Social Development in
Adolescence
•
Physical Development
•
Social Development
– Developing identity
– Role of peers vs parents – Imaginary audience
Physical Development of
Adolescence
Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty occurs earlier in females
(11 years) than males (13 years). Thus height
Primary Sexual Characteristics
During puberty primary sexual
characteristics — the reproductive organs and external genitalia — develop rapidly.
Secondary Sexual
Characteristics
Also secondary sexual characteristics—the nonreproductive traits such as breast and hips in girls and facial hair and deepening of
Puberty: Girls
• Ages 8-10• Girls begin to appear chubby. • Reaches peak at age 12.
• Menarche is a women’s first menstrual cycle. • Studies indicate that girls that develop
Puberty: Boys
•
Ages 9-16
•
Growth spurt peak at age 14
•
Develop fat but go right into lean lanky
phase.
•
Spermarche is a boys first ejaculation.
•
Boys tend to have higher self esteem if
Asynchrony
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Awkward stage for both boys and
girls
•
Asynchrony the condition in which
Brain Development
Until puberty neurons increase their connections, however, at
adolescence selective pruning of the neurons begin.
• During adolescence neurons in the frontal
cortex grow myelin which speeds up nerve conduction.
• Frontal cortex lags behind limbic system
development.
• Hormonal surges and limbic system may
Developing an identity
•
Main goal during adolescence is to
develop a clear sense of “self”
•
Will try on various roles in different
settings (home, school, with friends,
etc)
•
Explore their own values
•
While they are trying to define
themselves, there is still a need to
“fit-in”.
– This can be difficult for teens who feel
Parent and Peer Influence
Although teens become independent of their parents as they grow
older, they
nevertheless relate to their parents on a
number of things
including religiosity and career choices. Peer
approval and
relationships are also very important.
This addresses the question “Change vs
Imaginary audience
•
The feeling experienced when
individuals believe everyone is
watching or listening to them – result
of
spotlight effect
•
Stems from egocentrism
•
Part of the
personal fable
(idea that
you are unique, perhaps the only
who has ever experienced this…)
•
Examples- changing clothes a lot,
Emerging Adulthood
Emerging adulthood spans from 18-25 years. During this time young adults live
with their parents and attend college or work. They marry on average in their
Social Clock
•
Culturally (society’s) preferred
timing of social events such as
marriage, parenthood, and
retirement
•
The “best” timing for certain life
events
•
The timing varies from culture
Moral development
•
Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development
Developing Reasoning Power
and ideas about morality
According to Piaget adolescents can handle abstract problems, i.e., they can perform
formal operations. Adolescents can judge
good from evil, truth and justice, and think about God in deeper terms.
Developing Morality
Kohlberg (1981, 1984) sought to describe the development of moral reasoning. He believed it coincided with Piaget’s ideas of
cognitive development
Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas, like
“Whether a person should steal medicine to save a loved one’s life,” to children and
adolescents and found stages of moral development.
Heinz dilemma
•
Kohlberg based his stages on the
responses of school-aged children to
following situation:
In Europe, a woman was near death from
cancer. One drug might save her, a form of
radium that a druggist in the same town
had recently discovered. The druggist was
charging $2,000, ten times what the drug
cost him to make. The sick woman’s
husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew
to borrow the money, but he could only get
together about half of what it cost. He told
the druggist that his wife was dying and
asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay
later. But the druggist said, “No.” The
• Your partner is dying from a rare disease. Luckily a
cure has recently been invented, by one druggist who lives fairly close to you. This druggist is selling the cure for ten times the amount it cost him to
make it. You try to raise the money, but even
borrowing from friends and taking a loan from the bank, you can only raise half the amount. You go to the druggist and offer to pay him half now and half later, but he refuses, saying that he invented the cure and is determined to make money off it. You beg him to sell it cheaper as your partner will die before you can raise the full amount, but he still refuses.
• You believe you could break into his store one
night after he has gone home and steal the cure. This would definitely save your partner, although you might be arrested for the crime.
• What should you do?
• What if you could only steal the cure by killing the
druggist?
Responses to the Heinz
dilemma:
“pre-conventional level”
•
Stage one (obedience):
Heinz should
not steal the medicine, because he
will consequently be put in prison.
•
Stage two (self-interest):
Heinz
Responses to the Heinz
dilemma:
“conventional level”
•
Stage three (conformity):
Heinz should
steal the medicine, because his wife
expects it; he wants to be a good
husband.
•
Stage four (law-and-order):
Heinz should
Responses to the Heinz
dilemma: “post
conventional level”
•
Stage five (human rights):
Heinz should
steal the medicine, because everyone has
a right to choose life, regardless of the
law. Or: Heinz should not steal the
medicine, because the scientist has a
right to fair compensation.
•
Stage six (universal human ethics):
Heinz
should steal the medicine, because
saving a human life is a more
fundamental value than the property
rights of another person. Or: Heinz should
not steal the medicine, because others
How about a modern day
Heinz dilemma…
•
Millions of Medicare-age Americans
are drug dependent, not because of
addiction but because of common
chronic health problems such as
diabetes, heart failure, high blood
pressure and arthritis. Seniors are
upset because drug company control
of distribution and pricing of
pharmaceuticals is eating away
hard-earned nest eggs. Who cares?
•
You witness a man rob a bank, but
instead of keeping the money for
himself, he donates it to a local
orphanage. You know this orphanage
has been struggling for funding, and
this money will allow the children to
receive proper food, clothing and
medical care. If you report the crime,
the money will be taken away from
the orphanage and given back to the
bank.
•
What should you do?
• You are an EMS technician that has just been
called to the scene of an accident. When you
arrive you see that the car belongs to your wife. Fearing the worst you rush over, only to see she is trapped in her car with another man. He is
obviously her lover, with whom she’s been having an affair.
• You reel back in shock, devastated by what you
have just found out. As you step back, the wreck in front of you comes into focus. You see your wife is seriously hurt and she needs attention right
away. Even if she gets immediate attention
there’s a very high chance she’ll die. You look at the seat next to her and see her lover. He’s
bleeding heavily from a wound to the neck and you need to stem the flow of blood immediately.
• If you attend to your wife, her lover will bleed to
death, and you may not be able to save her
anyway. If you work on the lover, you can save his life, but your wife will definitely die.
• Who should you choose to work on?
•
You are an inmate in a concentration
camp. A sadistic guard is about to
hang your son who tried to escape
and wants you to pull the chair from
underneath him. He says that if you
don’t he will not only kill your son but
some other innocent inmate as well.
You don’t have any doubt that he
means what he says.
•
What should you do?
•
What if the other inmate was your
Moral Thinking
1. Preconventional Morality: Before age 9, children show morality to avoid
punishment or gain reward. How it affects them
2. Conventional Morality: By early adolescence social rules and laws are upheld for their own sake. What others will think
3. Postconventional Morality: Affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows
personally perceived ethical principles. Examines rights and values involved in
Carol Gilligan
•
Criticized Kohlberg
– Kohlberg only looked at male subjects
• She contended that males and females
respond differently to situations
–Men look at more absolutes
(justice-based orientation)
–Women are more relative and
Moral Feeling
Moral feeling is more than moral thinking. When posed with simulated moral
dilemmas the brain’s emotional areas only lighted up when the nature of the dilemmas
Moral Action
Moral action involves doing the right thing. People who engage in doing the right thing,
develop empathy for others, self-discipline for themselves to restrain their own
Adulthood (2 cards)
Adult development
Aging and abilities
Adulthood
Although adulthood begins sometimes after mid-twenties. Defining adulthood into stages is more difficult than defining
Physical Development
Peak of physical performance occurs around 20 years of age, after which it declines
imperceptibly for most of us.
Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline
after mid-twenties.
Around 50, women go through menopause; and men experience decreased levels of
Old Age: Life Expectancy
Life expectancy at birth from 49 in 1950 to 67 in 2004, and to 80 in developed
countries. Women outlive men by 5 to 6 years and out number them at most ages.
Males are at higher risk of dying.
Old Age: Sensory Abilities
After age 70, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell diminish, as do
muscle strength, reaction time and stamina. After 80, neural processes slow down,
especially for complex tasks.
Old Age: Motor Abilities
At 70, our motor abilities also decline. A 70-year old is no match for a 20 70-year old
Cognitive Development
Do cognitive abilities like memory, creativity, and intelligence decline with
Old Age: Dementia
With increasing age the risk of dementia also increases. Dementia is not a normal
part of growing old.
Old Age: Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease also increases with age. Individuals who are in the early stages of this disease show more MRI activity in the
brain than normals of the same age.
At risk Alzheimer Normal
Aging and Memory
As we age we remember some things well. These include recent past
events and events that happened a
decade or two back. However, recalling names
Abilities:
Memory
Recognition memory does not decline with aging, and material that is meaningful is recalled better than meaningless material.
The same is true for prospective memory
(remember to …).
Abilities:
Intelligence
Longitudinal studies
suggest that
intelligence remains relatively stable as we
age. It is believed today that fluid
intelligence (ability to reason speedily)
declines with age, but not crystalline
intelligence
(accumulated
Aging and Other Abilities
A number of
cognitive abilities decline with age.
However,
Adulthood’s Ages and Stages
Psychologists doubt that adults
pass through an orderly sequences
of age-bound stages. Mid-life crises at 40 are less likely to occur
than crises
triggered by major events (divorce,
new marriage).
Social Development
Many differences between young and old are not simply based on physical and
cognitive abilities, but may be based on life events associated with family, relationships
Adulthood’s Social
Commitments
Love and work are defining themes in adult life. Evolutionary psychologists believe that
commitment has survival value. Couples tend to grow stronger as the years go on
(companionate love)
Adulthood’s Social
Commitments
Happiness stems from working in a job that fits your interests and provides you with a sense of competence and accomplishment.
Death and Dying
There is no “normal” reaction or series of grief stages after the death of a loved one. Grief is more sudden
if death occurs
unexpectedly. People who reach a sense of
integrity in life (in Erickson’s terms) see
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
•
Denial
•
Anger
Developmental Issues
Researchers viewing development as a slow continuous process are generally those who
emphasize experience and learning.
Biologists, on the other hand view maturation and development as a series of genetically
predisposed steps or stages.
(These include psychologists like Piaget, Kohlberg and Erickson.)
Developmental Issues
Lifelong development features both stability and change.
Personality gradually stabilizes as people age. However, this does not mean that our
traits do not change over a lifetime.
Some temperaments are more stable than others.