Psychology: Unit 4-Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology: The study of YOU from womb to tomb

Nature vs. Nurture

• The way you were born: Nature
• The way you were raised: Nurture

Physical Development

• Focus on our physical development over time

Prenatal Development

• Conception begins with the drop of an egg and the release of about 200 million sperm
• The sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to penetrate the eggs surface
• Once the sperm  penetrates the egg, we have a fertilized egg called...The zygote

Zygote

• The first stage of prenatal development . Lasts about 2 weeks and consists of rapid cell division
• Less than half of all zygotes survive the first 2 weeks
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta which filters nutrients
• After 2 weeks of conception, the zygote develops into an ...Embryo

Embryo

• Lasts about 6 weeks
• Hearts begins to beat and the organs begin to develop

Fetus

• BY 9 weeks we have a fetus
• 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 light

Teratogens 

• Chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environment
• Alcohol (FAS)
• Other STD's can harm the baby...
• HIV

Healthy Newborns

• Turn head toward voiced
• See 8 to 12 inches from their faces
• Gaze longer at human like objects right from birth. 

Reflex

• Inborn automatic responses
• Rooting: The baby's tendency when touched on the cheek to open the mouth and search for the nipple. 
• Sucking
• Grasping 
• Moro
• Babiaski

Maturation: Physical growth regardless of the environment

Puberty: The period of sexual maturation during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Primary Sexual Characteristics: Body structures that make reproduction possible

Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Non-reproductive sexual characteristics

• Widening of the hips, deeper voice, breast-development

Landmarks for Puberty

• Menarche for girls
• First ejaculation for boys (spermarche)

Physical Milestones 

• Menopause

Death

• Elizabeth Kobler-Ross's Stages of Death/Grief
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Social Development

• At about a year. infants develop stranger anxiety
• Up until about a year, infants do not mind stranger people (maybe because everyone is a stranger to them)
• Separation Anxiety: Wherever a child is separated from their child
• Ex. Mom putting you in daycare

Attachment

• Harry Harlow and his money
• Harry showed that monkeys needed touch to form attachment

Critical Periods: The optimal period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development

• Those who are deprived of touch have trouble forming attachment when they are older

Types of attachment

• Many answorth Strange Situation 
• 3 Types of attachments
1. Secre-okay with being with other people besides parents
2. Avoidant-avoid parents
3. Anxious/avoidant-only need when needed 

Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian-parents in charge
• Permissive-kids in charge
• Authoritative-parents and kids compromise

Erik Erikson

• A neo-Freudian
• Worked with Anna Freud
• Thought our personality was influenced by our experiences with other
• Stages of Psychosocial Development (each stage centers on a  social conflict
1. Trust vs. Mistrust
• 0-2 years
• Can a baby trust the world to fulfill its needs?
• The trust or mistrust they develop can carry on with the child for the rest of their lives
2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Debut
• Toddlers begin to control their bodies (toilet training) 
• Control temper tantrum
• Big word id "No"
• Can they learn to control or will they doubt themselves 
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
• Word turns from "No" to "Why"
• Want to understand the world and ask questions
• Is there curiosity encouraged or scolded?
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
• 6-12 years
• School begins
• We are for the first time evaluated by a formal system and our peers
• Do we feel good or bad about ourselves for the rest of out lives...inferiority complex
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion
• Early teens (13-15)
• In our teenage yeas we try out different roles
• Who am I?
• What group do i fir in with?
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Have to balance work and relationship
• What are my priorities
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Middle adult (40's -50's)
• Is everything going as planned?
• Am I happy with what i have created
• Mid-life crisis!!!
8. Integrity vs. Despair
• Look back on life
• Was my life meaningful or do i have a regret?
• Senior citizens

Cognitive Development 

• It was thought that kids were just stupid versions of adults 
• Then came along Jean Piaget
• Kids learn differently than adults

Schemas

• Children views the world through schemas (as do adults for the most part)
• Schemas are ways we interpret the world around us
• It is basically what you picture in your head when you think of anything

Assimilation: Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas

Accommodation: Changing an existing schema to adapt to new information

Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage
1. Experience the world though our sense
2. Do not have object performance
3. 0-2 years
2. Preoperational Stage
1. 2-7 years
2. have object performance
3. Begin to use language to represent objects and ideas
4. Egocentric: Cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes but their own
5. Conservation: Refers tot he idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and is part of logical thinking
3. Concrete Operational Stage
1. Can demonstrate concept of conservation
2. Learn to think logically
3. 7-11 years
4. Formal Operational Stage
1. Abstract reasoning
2. manipulate objects in our minds without seeing them
3. Hypothesis testing
4. Trial and Error
5. Metacognitive
6. Not every adult gets to this stage 

Types of intelligence

• Crystalized Intelligence
• Accumulated Knowledge
• Increases with age 
• Fluid Intelligence
• Ability to solve problems quickly and think abstractly
• Peaks in the 20's then decreases over time

Moral Development

• 3 Stages Theory by Lawrence Kohlberg
• Preconventional Morality
• Morality based on rewards and punishments
• If you are rewarded then it is okay
• If you are punished, the act must be wrong
• Conventional Morality
• Look at morality based in how others see you
• If your peers, or society, thinks it is wrong, then so do you
• Post Conventional Morality
• Based on self-defined ethical principles
• Your own personal code of ethics