Chapter Ten Human Development - Çankaya...

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Psychology:

From Inquiry to Understanding 2/e

Chapter Ten

Human Development: How and Why We

Change

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lecture Preview

Special considerations in development

The developing body: Physical and motor development

The developing mind: Cognitive development

The developing personality: Social and moral development


Developmental Psychology

The study of how behavior changes over the life span

Several challenges arise when examining human development


Post hoc Fallacy

Logical error where you assume that A causes B, just because B came after A

For example, all serial killers drink milk as babies, so milk causes people to be serial killers

Shy kids become engineers

Correlation vs. Causation problem (remember Chapter 2)


Bidirectional Influences

Human development is almost always a two-way street

Children’s development influences their experiences, but their experiences also influence their development

E.g. Genain quadruplets

Children also change their environments by acting in ways that create changes in others’ behavior


Cohort Effects

Sets of people who lived during one period can differ in some systematic way from sets of people who lived during a different period what do we call this Turkish?

E.g. People’s knowledge of computers should increase with age and levels off at about age 30.

Choosing between cross-sectional and longitudinal designs: cross-sectional does not control for cohort effects

E.g. Divorce leads to externalizing behaviors in children (???)

A longitudinal study says no

Disadvantage: costly and time-consuming, also attrition problem (participants may drop out before the study is completed).

Also may not be feasible for every research question. E.g. Comparing 2 years olds and 2,5 years olds on a memory test.

E.g. Kağıtçıbaşı’s study.


Influence of Early Experience

Early input from the world exerts a significant impact on development…but so does all other input throughout life.

Myths of infant determinism and childhood fragility.

Especially in the first three years of life experiences are almost always more influential than later ones in shaping us as adults.

Later experiences are not less influential.

Separating baby few hours from mom after birth has no lasting effects on emotional development.

Childeren are not resilient or incapable of withstanding stress.

Kidnapped or even sexually abused kids may emerge without severe psychological problems.


The Nature-Nurture Debate

Both play large roles in shaping development

It’s not an “either-or” issue any longer

Hart and Risley’s (1995) study: parents who speak more to their children have kids who have larger vocabularies than parents who don’t.

Can you find out an alternative hypothesis?

Gene-environment interaction

Impact of genes on behavior depends on the environment where behavior develops

E.g. Children with low monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzyme are more prone to engage in violent behavior only when they have a history of maltreatment like physical abuse. So, it is not the only low level of MAO.


The Nature-Nurture Debate

Nature via nurture

Children with certain genetic predispositions often seek out and create their own environments

E.g. Fearful kids seek out safe environments growing up

in safe environements result in fearfulness?

Gene expression

Activation or deactivation of genes by environmental experiences throughout development

Schizophrenia is the best example maybe


Conception & Prenatal Development

Most dramatic changes occur during early prenatal (prior to birth) development

A zygote is formed when sperm cell fertilizes an egg

After this, three stages of development occur

Germinal stage

Embryonic stage

Fetal stage



Prenatal Development

Zygote divides over and over again to form a blastocyst during the germinal stage

Blastocyst is a ball of identical cells that haven’t yet begun to take on any specific function in a body part

Around the middle of the second week, the cells begin to differentiate to function as different organs so,

blastocyst becomes an embryo

Embryonic stage from 2nd to 8th week; limbs, facial

features, major organs begin to take shape (risk of miscarriage)

By the 9th week Fetal stage embryo becomes a

fetus; physical maturation for the rest of the pregnancy is the job





Prenatal Development

By the 9th week and the start of the fetal stage, the major organs are established and heart beats

The fetus continues physical maturation and “bulking up” until birth


Brain Development

Between day 18 and the 6th month, neurons grow at an incredible rate – a process called proliferation

Up to 250,000 neurons per minute at times

Starting from 4th month

migration of cells start, neurons start to sort themselves out (e.g. Hippocampus or cerebellum)

Unlike other organs, continue to develop into even early adulthood


Obstacles to Development

3 factors:

Exposure to hazardous environmental influences

Biological influences resulting from genetic disorders or errors in cell duplication during cell division

Premature birth



Teratogens are environmental factors that can exert a negative impact on prenatal development

Examples are smoking, drugs, chicken pox

Even anxiety and depression

Alcohol consumption can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome

Syndromes include: Learning disabilities, physical growth retardation, facial malformations, behavioral disorders



Genetic disruptions can be from disorders or random errors in cell division

Mental retardation, including Down syndrome

Prematurity, being born prior to 36 weeks, can result in numerous problems

Normal birth is given after 40 weeks of pregnancy

The less time in utero, the greater chance of serious complications

Viability point: the point in pregnancy at which infants can survive on their own is around 25 weeks

Those who born 22 weeks can also survive; but with physical and cognitive impairments



Motor Development

Infants are born with a large set of automatic motor behaviors (reflexes)

Sucking and rooting reflexes

Motor behaviors are bodily motions that occur as result of self-initiated force that moves the bones and muscles

Sitting up – 6 months, crawling – 9 months, standing unsupported – 11 months, walking – 13 months, running – 18-24 months

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIgzqRaYJsg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksbJQr5_xw



Factors Affecting Motor Development Wide range in the rate and manner in which children achieve motor

milestones

Influenced by physical maturity, as well as cultural and parenting practices

In Peru and China – tightly swaddled in blankets, limiting free movement of the limbs

African and West Indian mothers – stretching, massage, strength-building exercises with their infants

But they are always achieved in the same developmental sequence

Motor patterns are innately programmed and become activated at specific time points

Some motor achievements also depend on the physical maturation of the body

Also the body weight of the baby matters – heavier babies tend to achieve milestones more gradually


Physical Development in Childhood

The relative size of our body parts changes dramatically during first 20 years

Infants – no neck, head almost half the size of torso, arms don’t even reach the top of the head

Growth spurts are real


Adolescence

Transitional period between childhood and adulthood commonly associated with the teenage years

This is when our bodies reach full maturity, in part due to hormonal release

The pituitary gland stimulates physical growth and the reproductive system releases sex hormones into the bloodstream triggering growth and other physical changes

Estrogens and androgens – both types of hormones are present in both sexes in varying proportions


Adolescence

Testesterone in boys: Increases in muscle tissue, growth of facial and body hair, broadening of the shoulders

Estrogens in girls: Breast growth, uterus and vaginal maturation, hip broadening, onset of menstruation

Androgens in girls: Physical growth and the growth of pubic hair


Adolescence

Attainment of puberty (sexual maturation – the attainment of physical potential for reproduction) is largely due to that hormonal release

Causes changes in primary (reproductive organs and genitals) and secondary sex characteristics (sex-differentiating characteristics that are not directly related to reproduction)

Menarche (the onset of menstrution) and spermarche (the first ejaculation – around age 13)

Menarche – body’s insurance plan againist allowing girls to become pregnant before their bodies can carry an infant to term and give birth safely

Genetic and environmental factors (e.g., SES) influence timing of puberty



Physical Development in Adults

Most of us reach our physical peaks in early 20s

Strength, coordination, speed of cognitive processing, and physical flexibility

Declines begin shortly after, including muscle, sensory processes, and fertility

Menopause signals the end of a female’s reproductive ability

Triggered by decrease in estrogen – hot flahes; hot, sweaty, and dry-mouthed, mood swings, sleep disruption, and temporary loss of sexual drive or pleasure

These effects vary across cultures – 50 percent of American women vs. 15 percent of Japanese women. Why?

Changes in agility and physical coordination with age – Variations are great


Theories of Cognitive Development

Numerous explanations of how we acquire the ability to learn, think, communicate, and remember over time

Differ in three ways

Stagelike (sudden spurts followed by periods of stability) vs gradual changes in understanding

Domain-general vs domain-specific

Principal source of learning


Jean Piaget

Swiss psychologist who presented first complete account of cognitive development

Stage theorist who believed skills were domain-general

Led to formation of cognitive development as a distinct discipline

Showed that childrens’ understanding of the world fundementally differs from adults’

Children are not passive observers of their worlds, but active learners who seek info and observe the results of their actions

Thought end point of cognitive development is ability to reason logically about hypotheticals


Piaget’s Theory

Cognitive change is marked by equilibration – maintaining a balance between what we experience and what we think about it

Children use assimilation to acquire new knowledge within a stage

When one can no longer assimilate new information, accommodation forces change between stages

What shape is the Earth?



Piaget’s Stages

Four stages, each with a specific way of looking at the world and cognitive limitations

Sensorimotor (birth – 2 years)

Focus on the here and now

Lack object permanence (the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view) and deferred imitation (the ability to perform an action observed earlier)

Major milestone is mental representation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBh9ld_yIo






Piaget’s Stages

Preoperational stage (2 – 7 years)

Marked by an ability to construct mental representations of experience

E.g. Banana is a phone, hair brush is a microphone (displaying symbolic behavior)

Hampered by egocentrism (inability to see the world from others’ point of view) and inability to perform mental operations

Piaget’s three mountain task

Lack conservation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLEWVu815o


Piaget’s Stages

Concrete operations (7 – 11 years)

Can perform mental operations, but only for actual physical events

Can pass conservation tasks

Formal operations (11 – adulthood)

Can understand hypothetical reasoning beyond the here and now

Logical concepts like if-then statements and either-or statements

Also logical concepts and abstract questions such as meaning of life


Pros and Cons of Piaget

Inaccurate in a number of ways

Development is more continuous

Horizontal decalage – cases in which a child is more advanced in one cognitive domain than another

Probably underestimated children’s competence

Culturally biased methods

Many observations were based on formally educated children and his own three children

Still, highly influential and helped change how we think about cognitive development

Viewing children as different in kind rather than degree from adults

Characterizing learning as an active process

Exploring general cognitive processes that may cut across multiple domains of knowledge


Lev Vygotsky

Theory focused on social and cultural influences on cognitive development

Parents structure environments for learning and then gradually remove it (scaffolding)

Zone of proximal development (the phase when children are receptive to learn a new skill but aren’t yet successful at it) and developmental readiness for learning

Piaget emphasized physical interaction with the world as the primary source and Vygotsky emphasized social interaction


Contemporary Theories

General cognitive accounts

General cognitive processes and experience-based learning but not stagelike; rather gradual

Sociocultural accounts

Social context and interaction with caregivers

Modular accounts

Domain-specific learning, separate spheres of knowledge in different domains

Understanding of language may be independent of the ability to reason about space


Cognitive Landmarks

Aside from accomplishments in perception, memory, and language, there are many others

Naïve physics and how physical objects behave

E.g. İnfants know that an object that is unsupported should fall

Categorizing objects by kind

Even infants showing pictures study

Categorizing is crucial

Concept of self and others and theory of mind (ability to reason about what other people believe)

Even by three months of age self as distinct from others

12 months recognize own image on mirror

2 years call their names on a photo

False belief task to test the theory of mind most children do not pass until they are 4 or 5


Cognitive Landmarks

Aside from accomplishments in perception, memory, and language, there are many others

Counting and math

Numbers are about amount

Number words refer to specific quantities

Numbers are ordered from smallest to largest in quantity

Two elephants is the same number as two grains of rice – so, size of entities isn’t relevant to quantities this insight is extremely difficult for children

Cross-cultural differences in how parents and teachers introduce counting and linguistic differences about numbers (e.g., «twelve» vs «one ten two»)


Cognitive Changes in Adolescence

Frontal lobes don’t fully mature until late adolescence or early adulthood

Also limbic structures involved in social reward systems become more active vulnerable to deviant peer group

influences

Personal fable and feeling unique and special

Teens may just not care about risks

Changing attitudes toward knowledge

Frustrated by the answer «it depends» during college years


Cognitive Function in Late Adulthood

Many aspects of cognition decline

Ability to recall information (decreasing volume in the cortex and the hippocampus)

Overall speed of processing (that’s why you beat your father on video games )

But many stay stable or increase

Cued recall and recognition – remain intact

Remembering pertinent information – little decline

Vocabulary and knowledge tasks – better than youngers!

Older is wiser


THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY: SOCIAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT Early Social Development

Infants develop interest in other people very quickly after birth

Prefer looking at faces over other objects, as early as 4 days prefer to look at mother’s face over another woman’s face

Stranger (eight months) anxiety starts at 8-9 months, peaks at 12-15 months, then declines

Adaptive mechanism to keep infants away from danger; makes evolutionary sense since it is universal

Differences in children’s social and emotional styles reflect differences in temperament


Temperament

Early appearing and largely genetic

Three major styles (Thomas & Chess, 1977)

Easy (40%)

Difficult (10%)

Slow-to-warm up (15%)

Approximately 10% of children may be behaviorally inhibited – like «scaredy cats» (Kagan et al., 2007)

Inhibition not at all bad – kids with very low levels of inhibition may be at risk for impulsive behaviors as adolescents

There are cultural differences in temparement which are observed among as early as 4-day-old infants

Environmental factors may alter, although it is mostly genetic


Attachment

Emotional connection we share with those to whom we feel closest

Lorenz’s study with goslings

Imprinting (even with moving objects) and possible sensitive periods for healthy interpersonal relationships

Rutter’s studies of Romanian orphans: those adopted after 6 months of age more serious emotional and

psychological problems

There is another possible explanation (they were more difficult to begin with, so they were placed later) but replicated in studies with various methods


Contact Comfort

Behaviorists assumed children bonded with those that provided them nourishment

Harry Harlow’s work with rhesus monkeys showed otherwise (wire mother vs terry cloth mother)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlfOecrr6kI

Reassuring physical contact played huge role in developing attachment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlfOecrr6kI


Attachment Styles

Refers to how infants react when separated from primary caregiver

Strange Situation task with 1-year old kids (Ainsworth et al., 1978)

Four categories of behavior

Secure attachment (60%): Mom is the secure base

Insecure-avoidant attachment (15%-20%): Indifferent mom’s departure and coming back

Insecure-anxious attachment (15%-20%): Panics, but mixed emotional responses when mom returns

Disorganized attachment (5%-10%): Inconsistant and confused set of responses when mom comes back





Attachment Styles

Show large cultural differences

Japan: More insecure-anxious; USA: Insecure-avoidant

Subject to the mono-operations bias; the mistake of relying on only a single measure to draw conclusions; Strange situation is only one method to measure or one indicator of attachment style

Lack of reliability on the Strange Situation

Changing styles over brief times

Different styles for mom vs dad (40% of infants)


Parenting Styles (Baumrind, 1971, 1991)

Permissive – tend to be lenient, little discipline, very affectionate (FALL BETWEEN)

Authoritarian – Very strict, punishing, little affection (FALL BETWEEN)

Authoritative – Supportive but set clear and firm limits (BEST)


Parenting Styles

Uninvolved – neglectful and ignoring (WORST)

Cultural differences

May not matter as much as once thought, as long as an average expectable environment is provided

Matter most if they are toxic or child is genetically predisposed towards impulsivity or violent behavior


Other Parenting Issues

Relative influence of peers vs parents on social development – Harris’s (1995) group socialization theory of development

Fathers differ from mothers in several ways

Less attentive and affectionate towards babies

Spend less time with babies

More time in physical play

Preferred as playmates by children



Impact of single-parenthood on children is unclear

A lot of confounding variables such as SES, high stress, etc.

Impact of same-sex parents on development is much clearer

No difference from opposite-sex couples in social adjustment, academics, or sexual orientation



Most children come out of divorce without long-term emotional damage

Effects depend on severity of conflict prior to the divorce

The higher the conflict the better the outcome

ANOTHER ISSUE: Impulse control, Mischel’s delay of gratification experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4WF3cSd9Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4WF3cSd9Q


Development of Gender Identity

Sex refers to biological status, gender to psychological characteristics

Gender identity vs gender role

As a woman may have a female identity but act very different from traditional gender role, vice versa

Biological influence on gender differences

Which toys are played with

Sex segregation during play (3 years old)


Development of Gender Identity

Social influences also play a role in gender development

Encouragement of types of behavior

Expectations of behavior (jack-in-the-box experiment; anger vs fear perceptions for same startled reaction )

Gender-role socialization tends to be stricter for boys than girls


Social and Emotional Development in Adolescence

One main challenges during adolescence is development of an identity – who we are, our goals and priorities

Erikson developed a comprehensive model to explain identity development

Slim research basis for support, though

ANOTHER ISSUE: Emerging Adulthood Period between 18

and 25 (role experimentation time)



Kohlberg’s Moral Development

Used several moral problems to see what principles people used to solve them

Three major stages

Preconventional – focus on punishment and reward

Conventional – focus on societal values

Postconventional – focus on internal moral principles


Criticisms

Cultural bias - individualist vs. collectivist cultures

Sex bias - ‘justice’ vs. ‘caring’ orientations

Low correlation with moral behavior

Confounded with verbal intelligence

Assumes moral reasoning precedes emotional reaction to moral issues


Life Transitions in Adulthood

Careers and job satisfaction

Average Americans change jobs 10.5 times between ages of 18 and 40

U shaped curve on job satisfaction over the life span

Love and commitment

Parenthood

More realistic expectations are required to adapt more easily

Marital satisfaction decreases and rebounds once children reach school age


Social Transitions in Later Years

Midlife crisis (a myth) and empty nest syndrome (overstated, may be particular to Caucasian women who don’t work outside the house)

Sandvich generation – caring both their own kids and their old parents

Chronological age is not a good predictor of measuring impact of changes in later life

Instead, consider others that may be more indicative

Biological, psychological, functional, and social age

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Chapter Ten Human Development - Çankaya...

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