Chapter 11 Grace Anderson

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
A. Stages of prenatal development
Pregnancy
Germinal (0-2wk)
1. Ovum released
2. Cilia move ovum down fallopian tube
3. Sperm fertilises
4. Zygote down fallopian tube
5. Zygote division
6. Specialised division
7. Blastocyst implantation at uterine wall
Embryonic (2-8wk)
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 Foetal

B. Factors influencing prenatal development

Genetic disorders
Gene abnormalities
Chromosome abnormalities
Maternal nutrition
Maternal stress / emotion
Hormones
- epinephrine
- norepinephrine
- adreno-corticotropic hormone
Blood pressure / immune system
Maternal drug use
Alcohol
Smoking
Substances
Prescription / OC medications
Maternal illness / psychopathology
Illnesses posing higher risk for brain development
- rubella
- syphilis
- HIV
600 deaths per 100 000 live births (2007) – nearly double maternal death rate in 2001
Culture, family, environmental toxins

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 Influence on thoughts / decision around pregnancy
and rearing
Miscarriages
Family structure changes
Environmental toxins
- air pollution
- radioactivity

2. MOTOR, LANGUAGE AND SOCIO-

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN
CHILDHOOD
Basics
Motor development: progression of muscular coordination needed for physical
activities
Cephalocaudal trend: head to foot motor development
Proximodistal trend: centre-outward tendency adopted during motor development
Developmental norms: average age abilities and behaviours are shown
Cultural variations: rapid / slow motor development
Emotional development: temperament
Characteristics of mood / activity level / emotional reactivity
Some babies = cheerful vs irritable
Easy
- Happy / adaptable / regular / easy to soothe
Difficult
- Slow adapting / distractible / inflexible / intense reactions / crying
Slow to warm
- Slow adapting / less intense reactions

Emotional development: attachment

Attachment
- Close emotional bonds of affection developed between infants and caregivers
Separation anxiety
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- Emotional distress when separated from people with whom infants have formed an
attachment
Emotional development: attachment theories
John Bowlby (1969) – THEORIES OF ATTACHMENT

 Ethological theory
o Attachment has evolutionary mechanism
 Biological basis
 Behaviours keep carer nearby
o Crying / clinging / proximity seeking

Mary Ainsworth (1979) – PATTERNS OF ATTACHMENT

 Attachment quality
o Maternal sensitivity & infant nature
 Secure – sensitive / responsive
 Infant needs to respond to this too; difficult infants
 Avoidant
 Anxious ambivalent
 Resistant attachment
 Disorganised disoriented attachment
 Main & Solomon (1986, 1990)
Emotional development: attachment culture
Separation anxiety
- Emerges 6-8 months
- Peaks 14-18 months
- Cross-cultural differences in prevalence
of attachment styles = small; secure
attachments = most often globally
Language development
Same pace for most children – continuous
process
Sound structures: learn vowel sounds in womb
- 0-6 months: cry / coo / laugh
- 6 months > : babble – over time grows more complex
- 6-9 months: begin understanding word meanings
- 10-13 months: begin uttering / responding to words
Vocabulary
- Toddlers ~ 50 words by 18 months

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 - Vocab spurt
- By 2 years – combine words to sentences
- By 3 years – complex ideas / plurals / past tense (over regularisations)
- By 6 years ~ 10 000 words
- By 10 years ~ 40 000 words

3. PERSONALITY, COGNITIVE AND MORAL

DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDHOOD
Theory
A. Development in stages
- Progression emphasis
o Each stage builds on the previous

B. Erikson’s stage theory

- 8 stages
- Each stage = ‘psychosocial crisis’ (crucial
turning point)
- Personality – how crisis is dealt with, resolution between two opposing tendencies
(find balance)

In stage 1, trust vs mistrust, the infant in its first year of life

must depend solely on its caregiver, which should lead to a
trusting view of the world.
In stage 2, autonomy vs shame and doubt, the child begins
to take personality responsibility and should acquire a sense
of self-sufficiency.
In stage 3, initiative vs guilt, children should learn to get
along with family members, leading to self-confidence.
In stage 4, industry vs inferiority, children must function
socially outside of the bounds of their family, from which a
sense of competence should evolve.

Cognitive development
Transitions in patterns of thinking, including reasoning, remembering and problem
solving
Theory
- Piaget’s stage theory
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 permanence

- 4 stages
In the sensorimotor stage, a child progressively develops object permanence, or the
recognition that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible.
In the preoperational stage, children engage in symbolic thought, with characteristic
flaws in their reasoning such as centration, the tendency to focus on just one feature of a
problem, and egocentrism, the limited ability to share another’s viewpoint. This results
in animism, the belief that all things are living, just like oneself.
- Beakers example: A and B contain the same amount of water, B is poured into a
taller, narrower beaker, child responds that taller beaker C has more water than A
The concrete operational stage is characterized by the ability to perform operations
with symbolic thought such as reversing or mentally undoing an action. Children in the
concrete operational stage are able to focus on more than one feature of a problem
simultaneously, a process called decentration. These new cognitive skills lead to
conservation or recognizing that amount of a substance does not change just because
appearance is changed.
The formal operational period is marked by the ability to apply operations to abstract
concepts such as justice, love, and free will.
Flaws
- Underestimated young children’s’ development
- Stages appear more gradual than abrupt

Piaget Vygotsky

Child is agent of change/ Guided participation: Social interaction with parents,

teachers and older children/Begeleide deelname:
Kind is agent van verandering
sosiale interaksie met ouers, onderwysers en ouer
kinders

Cognitive development as universal process / Culture exerts greatest influence on cognitive

development /Kultuur het die grootste invloed op
Kognitiewe ontwikkeling as universele proses
kognitiewe ontwikkeling

Viewed children’s gradual mastery of language as
another aspect of cognitive development/ Sien kinders
se geleidelike beheersing van taal as ander apek van
kognitiewe ontwikkeling
Language acquisition plays a crucial central role in
fostering development /
Taalverwerwing speel 'n belangrike rol in die
ontwikkeling van ontwikkeling

- Underestimated influence of cultural factors on rate of progression through stages

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 Moral development
Kohlberg’s stage theory
- Lawrence Kohlberg – stage theory of
moral development based on subjects’
response to presented moral dilemmas
- Interest in person’s reasoning, not
necessarily their answer
- Theorised that people progress through
3 levels of moral development, each of
which can be broken into 2 sublevels
- Each stage represents a different way of
thinking about right and wrong
Younger children at the preconventional
level think in terms of external authority - acts are considered wrong or right based on
whether or not they are punished for them.
Older children who have reached the conventional level of moral reasoning see rules
as necessary for maintaining social order.
Adolescence represents the move to the postconventional level of moral reasoning,
where acts are individually judged by a personal code of ethics.

4. SUMMARY
A. Prenatal development
i. Stages
1. Germinal: zygote -> blastocyst -> implants at uterine wall -> placenta
formation begins
2. Embryonic: most vital organs + bodily systems form (very vulnerable
period)
3. Foetal: organ growth continues + function begins -> threshold of foetal
viability = 23-25 weeks
ii. Environmental influences
1. Maternal malnutrition -> linked to birth complications + other issues;
maternal emotions -> impact prenatal development
2. Maternal substance use -> can be dangerous to foetus
3. Mental illness -> can interfere at prenatal development; environmental
toxins -> source of concern
4. Evidence suggests prenatal development can programme foetal brain ->
influence vulnerability to various illnesses later

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B. Development in childhood
i. Motor development
1. Rapid, uneven physical growth during infancy -> sudden growth bursts
2. Early motor skill progress traditionally attributed to maturation ->
research suggests infant’s exploration = also important
3. Cultural variation in pacing of motor development -> demonstrates
potential importance of learning
ii. Attachment
1. Refers to close emotional bonds developed between infant and caregivers
2. Bowlby: argued evolutionary and biological basis of attachment
3. Ainsworth: 3 infant-mother attachment categories -> secure / anxious
ambivalent / avoidant
4. Relatively secure attachment -> toddlers tend to be resilient, competent
and have high self-esteem
5. Cultural variation to rearing -> influence on attachment pattern in a
society
iii. Language development
1. Roughly at the same pace in most children
2. Initial infant vocalisations = similar across languages; babbling gradually
resembles sounds of surrounding language
3. First words near 1 st birthday
4. Slow initial vocabulary growth -> spurt around 18 months
5. Gradually learn complexities of grammar over next few years -> many
over-regularisations
iv. Personality development
1. Erikson’s theory ->evolve through 8 stages over a lifespan -> each stage
marked by specific psychosocial crisis
2. Stage theories -> assume progression through stages in a particular order
-> progress strongly related to age -> new stages = major changes
3. Erikson’s 4 child phases -> trust vs mistrust -> autonomy vs shame &
doubt -> initiative vs guilt -> industry vs inferiority
v. Cognitive development
1. Piaget proposed -> children evolve though 4 stages of cognitive
development
2. Major achievement of sensorimotor period (birth – 2 years) =
development of object permanence
3. Thought during preoperational period (2 – 7 years) = centration,
animism, irreversibility, egocentrism

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 4. Concrete operational period (7 – 11 years) = ability to perform operations
on mental representations
5. Formal operational stage (11 years – on) = more systematic, abstract,
logical thought
6. Piaget may have underestimated -> some aspects of cognitive
development, overlapping stages, and impact of culture
7. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory -> asserts that cognitive development =
shaped by social interactions, language progress, cultural factors
vi. Moral development
1. Kohlberg’s theory -> progress through 3 levels of moral reasoning
2. Preconventional reasoning -> focus on consequences of acts;
postconventional reasoning -> focus on working out a personal code of
ethics
3. Age-related progress in moral reasoning -> found in research, but… ->
lots of overlap between stages

TRANSITION OF ADOLESCENCE

ADOLESCENCE
Transition period age 12-19 where tasks, rights and hopes of childhood and adulthood =
shared and superimposed
Characterised by changes + development in physical appearance, sexuality and
biological characteristics, also by changes in social and romantic relationships
Peer relationships deepen, autonomy in decision making develops, intellectual
endeavours pursued, need for social belonging intensifies
- Early adolescence (12-14)
o Growth spurts for boys; girls may have already grown
o May question family values
o Experiment with challenging behaviour
- Middle adolescence (14-16)
o Try to show more independence
o Sexual behaviour intensifies
o Peer groups = highly influential
- Late adolescence (17-19)
o Activities lead towards greater definition of self / of belonging to certain
societal groups
A. Personality development
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- Erikson’s stage theory
o Identity vs role confusion
o Conflict centred on developing a personal identity
o Successful completion = strong sense of self throughout life
o May feel confusion / insecurity surrounding how they fit into society
o Experiment with different roles / activities / behaviours
o Important in forming a strong identity + developing a sense of direction
C. Cognitive development
- Piaget: formal operational period
o Thinking on abstract concepts / mulling over hypothetical possibilities
related to abstractions such as; justice / love / free will / concern for social
issues / identity
o Thought processes = relatively systematic + logical + reflective
D. Components of adolescence
- Self-esteem: measure of self-worth based on perceived success + Self Esteem
achievements + how much a person is valued by peers / family
- Moral development: set of values and beliefs about behavioural
codes conforming to those shared by others in society. Develop
behaviour patterns characteristic of their family / educational Moral
environment / imitation of admired peers and adults Development
- Socializing process: embrace ability to find acceptance in peer
relationships + development of more mature social cognition. Being
viewed as socially competent by peers = crucial in building good Socialising
self-esteem + fostering positive social interactions. Belonging to Process
peer group = regarded as adaptive = appropriate developmental
step in stepping away from parents + turning focus and loyalty to
friends Cognitive
- Cognitive maturation: amplified ability to infer logical conclusions
Maturation
in technical quests + with peer relations in social situations. Also
have all-powerful belief systems which strengthen a sense of
protection from threats, even when challenged with reasonable Physical
dangers Development
- Physical development: usually seen first in weight and height.
Reach physical and sexual maturation
E. Identity status
o Identity diffusion: apathy and no commitment

 state of lack of direction and apathy, where a person does not

confront the challenge and commit to an ideology

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 o Identity foreclosure: premature commitment

 premature commitment to a role prescribed by one’s parents

o Identity Moratorium: experiment alternatives

 involves delaying commitment and engaging in experimentation

with different roles
o Identity achievement: sense of self

 involves arriving at a sense of self and direction after some

consideration of alternative possibilities
James Marcia asserts that a presence / absence of crisis + commitment during identity
formation stage can combine in various ways to produce 4 different identity
statuses

THE EXPANSE OF ADULTHOOD

Development initially was only thought to include childhood = adolescence
Now recognised as a lifelong journey
Adulthood begins around at 18 – 20 years – with its own divers developmental patterns
(possibly more so than childhood / adolescence) adulthood has divergent pathways and
timetables
A. Personality development
- Erikson’s view of adulthood (Erikson’s 8 stages -> what changes to expect)
o Intimacy vs isolation

 Early adulthood
 Capacity to share intimacy with others – invest in others – forge
romantic relationships – find a healthy, well-balanced sense of love.
o Generativity vs self-absorption

 Middle adulthood
 Genuine concern for the welfare of future generations – provision of
unselfish guidance to younger people
o Integrity vs despair

 Late adulthood
 Challenge to avoid the tendency to dwell on the past mistakes and
one’s imminent death
- Levinson’s four seasons
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 o Pre adulthood; birth – 22

o Early adulthood; 17 – 45

o Middle adulthood; 40 – 65

o Late adulthood; 60 +

 Between each stage = transition period of 5 – 7 years = when an

individual transitions from one era to the next
B. Ageing: physiological changes
- Appearance
- Sensory domain
- Hormonal functioning
C. Ageing: neural changes
- Brain tissue
- Dementia
- Alzheimer’s disease
D. Ageing: psychosocial aspects
- Death and dying
- Bereavement, grief and loss

AT RISK AND VULNERABLE

CHILDREN (SA EXAMPLE)
Vulnerable child : whose survival / care / protection / development may be
compromised due to a particular condition / situation / circumstance and which
prevents the fulfilment of his / her rights

Children affected by HIV and AIDS

- Higher risk
- Studies and statistics
- Case study

Children who are vulnerable due to HIV infection

Multiple adversities
- Literature
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- Case study
Protective factors
- Bronfenbrenner
- Extended family
Intervention and support services
- Early childhood education
- Psychosocial support
- Case study

Conclusions and reflections

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 Chapter 14

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
- Psychosocial perspective
- Impact of lifestyle
- Factors that promote & maintain health
- Scientific study
The scientific study of psychological and behavioural processes in health + illness +
health-care and how these processes influence one another
Main focus on health-related issues
Good health + the ability to cope with illness are affected by psychological
factors such as thoughts + emotions + the ability to manage stress.

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL
Title Journal Finding

Psychosocial predictors Psycho-oncology More than a third reported elevated distress

of distress and and depression
depression among SA Body change stress and social support sign
breast cancer patients predictors
The construction and Healthcare for 35 item measure
validation of the SEQOL Women 8 dimensions
international
Coping strategies J Health Problem-focused strategies
employed by women Psychology Emotion-focused coping strategies
with endometriosis in a
public health-care
setting
Salient aspects of quality J Health 10 categories e.g. 1) medical factors,(2)
of life among women Psychology physical functioning,(3) psychological
diagnosed with functioning,(4) sexual functioning, (9)
endometriosis: A healthcare and medical treatment
qualitative study
Overlap of biology + psychology + social context = health
- Biology

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 o Gender
o physical illness
o disability
o genetic vulnerability
o immune function
o neurochemistry
o stress reactivity
o medication effects
- Psychology
o Learning / memory
o Attitudes / beliefs
o Personality
o Behaviours
o Emotions
o Coping skills
o Past trauma
- Social context
o Social supports
o Family background
o Cultural traditions
o Social/economic status
o Education

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Chapter 10

THEORIES OF MOTIVES AND

EMOTIONS

MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

Emotions:

 Feelings associated with various forms of activity

Motivation:

 Why people choose to behave in certain ways + initiate and maintain their
actions
 Set of processes that arouse, direct and maintain behaviour
 Needs, wants, interests and desires propelling people to act
 Goal-directed behaviour involved

MOTIVES

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION; IN-BUILT BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS

o Behaviour = innate

A. Instincts

 Born with specific knowledge on how to do things

 Pre-programmed into genes from birth
Criticisms
o Circular argument
o Doesn’t explain behavioural complexity / diversity
o Doesn’t account for learning
o Not all humans share the same behaviour

F. Drives

 Humans = motivated by biologically based factors

 These needs create an internal arousal / tension
 Need to respond to maintain homeostasis
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  = Internal state of tension that motivates an organism to engage in an
activity
o e.g. hunger / thirst / breathe / pain avoidance / sleep & rest

Criticisms
o People tend to be motivated to do things in the absence of tensions
o Can’t explain prosocial behaviours

EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES
 Argue that behaviours and motives have evolved over time
 Natural selection
 Favours behaviours that increase chances or reproductive success
 Helps explain motives like;
o Affiliation
o Achievement
o Dominance
o Aggression
o Sex drive

G. Unconscious motives

 Freudian theory of motivation – posits that unconscious psychological forces

like hidden desires & motives, shapes an individual’s behaviour
 Much of human behaviour = unconscious
 Two basic drives;
o Eros (life)
 Life instinct, including sexual instincts + drive to live + basic instinctual
impulses like thirst / hunger
o Thanatos (death)
 Death instinct concept (first described in Beyond the Pleasure Principle –
Freud)
 He proposed “the goal of all life is death” and believed death instincts to be
channelled outward
H. Biological factors

 Digestive regulation
 Hormonal regulation
o Eat food -> stomach sends various signals to brain to prevent eating
more
 Vagus nerve; carries info about stomach wall stretching to
indicate it is full

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 o Hormones circulating in bloodstream also show an effect
 Ghrelin (secr by stomach) causes stomach contractions and
promotes hunger
 Ghrelin = double duty -> neurotransmitter @ nervous system
-> hormone @ endocrine system -> both systems increased
levels are associated with increased food intake
 Insulin (secr by pancreas) must be present for cells to use
blood glucose
 Increased insulin -> increased hunger
 Leptin (released from fat cells) signals hypothalamus about
fat stores -> decreased hunger when fat stores are high
I. Environmental factors
Hunger = largely biological
= also regulated by environmental factors – such as learned preferences

 People like foods familiar to them

o e.g. fish eyes are a delicacy elsewhere, but off-putting in SA

J. Eating and weight

 The vast majority live in environments providing abundant, reliable supplies of

food.
 Tendency to overeat when food is plentiful -> path of chronic excessive food
consumption
 By this line of thought; most people tend to overeat in relation to physiological
needs. However, only some become overweight due to variation in
metabolisms / genetics / other factors.
 Stanley Schachter = externality hypothesis
o Obese people = extra sensitive to external cues affecting hunger
o Relatively insensitive to internal physiological signs
o Normal-weight individual = eating regulated by internal signals

K. Sexual motivation and behaviour

 Explaining sexual behaviour = crucial to evolutionary biologists

 Thinking guided by
o Parental Investment Theory
o What each sex has to invest to produce + care for offspring
o Explains gender differences in patterns of sexual activity

THEORIES OF MOTIVES; LEARNED MOTIVES

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  To understand motivation = need to understand how and what people learn
 Operant conditioning
 Learning occurs through reward and punishment
self
actu
alis
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION; NEEDS- atio
n
BASED THEORIES esteem and status

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

 Motivated by hierarchical needs loving and belonging

 Serial processing approach

safety and security
 Needs arranged in a pyramid – cannot
move to the next level until the base
physiological needs
needs are fulfilled
Criticisms
 Strict stage theory
 Westernised and individualist model of needs

2. Alderfer’s erg model existence

needs
 Motivated to satisfy 3 basic needs
 Simultaneous / parallel processing of needs

3. Murray’s social needs

 Behaviour determined by various social motives relatedness growth
needs needs
o E.g. achievement /autonomy / affiliation /
dominance / exhibition …
o Motives vary person to person

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION; INCENTIVE THEORIES

 Suggests external stimuli control motivation 1. Hedonism
 Push vs pull theories 2. Pursuit of pleasure –
sensual self-indulgence
4. Positive and negative emotional forces
3. Theory that pleasure /
 Motivated either to;
happiness = the highest good
o Avoid unpleasant things
and the aim of all human life
o Seek out pleasant things
 Positive rewards considered > motivating than negative rewards.
5. intrinsic and extrinsic factors
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  intrinsic
o interest in / enjoyment of task itself
o pride / interest / achievement / curiosity
 extrinsic
o perform a task to attain a certain outcome
o grades / punishment / money / praise

EMOTIONS
 individual state occurring in response to either an external or internal
event and typically involves physiological / cognitive / behavioural
components.

COGNITIVE COMPONENTS; SUBJECTIVE FEELINGS

Knowledge aspect of emotions
 Interpretative component
o What do you make of the situation
o Draws heavily on memory
o Interpretation and appraisal of a situation
 Evaluative component
o Evaluating an emotion as pleasant / unpleasant

BEHAVIOURAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL COMPONENTS

 Concerned with how we show our or outwardly express our emotions
 Fight or flight
 Physical manifestations of emotions often result from activation of the
autonomic nervous system

NEURAL CIRCUITS OF EMOTION

 Emotion is controlled by various brain structures – amygdala / hypothalamus /
limbic system
o Amygdala
 Key role in conditioned fears
 Processes information quickly
 Detects a treat -> instant response triggered
o Prefrontal cortex

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  Voluntary control of emotions role
o Mesolimbic dopamine pathway
 Experience of pleasurable emotions role
o Mirror neurons
 Experience of empathy role

THEORIES OF EMOTION
 James-Lange
o Goes against common sense
o Common sense says; stimulus -> conscious feeling -> autonomic arousal
 E.g. spider -> fear -> tremble
o James-Lange theory says; stimulus -> autonomic arousal -> conscious
feeling
 E.g. spider -> tremble -> fear

 Cannon-Bard
o Physiological arousal

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