Devpsych Reviewer 1

Developmental Psychology
Heredity, Pre-natal, Childbirth

Source: Papalia (2021), Santrock (2018)
Definition of Terms o Polygenetic Inheritance – interaction of
o Fertilization – also known as conception, is the several genes
process by which sperm and ovum (sex cells) o Phenotype – observable characteristics
combine to create a single cell called zygote, o Genotype – underlying genetic makeup
which then duplicates itself again and again by o Epigenesis – environment can influence when
cell division. and which genes turn on and off
o Ovulation – rupture of mature follicle in either  Refers to chemical molecules attached to a
ovary and expulsion of its ovum which occurs gene that alter the way a cell “reads” the
every month until menopause gene’s DNA
o Dizygotic Twins – also known as Fraternal  Cells are susceptible to epigenetic
Twins modification during critical periods such as
 Two separate eggs being fertilized by two puberty and pregnancy
different sperms Chromosomal Abnormalities
 Can be same or different sex Name Description Treatment
 May have genetic basis Extra copy of
Down Surgery,
o Monozygotic Twins – resulted from the chromosome
Syndrome SPED
cleaving of one fertilized egg and are generally 21
genetically identical Extra X
Klinefelter Hormone
o Heredity – genetic transmission of heritable Chromosome
Syndrome Therapy
(XXY)
characteristics from parents to offspring
Abnormality in SPED,
o Deoxyribonucleic Acid – long, spiraling ladder Fragile X
X chromosome Speech
whose steps are made of pairs of chemical units Syndrome
causes ID Therapy
called bases
Missing X
 Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, Guanine Turner Hormone
chromosome
o Chromosomes – coils of DNA of smaller Syndrome Therapy
for females
segments called genes Extra Y No
o Mitosis – cell division of non-sex cells XXY Syndrome
chromosome treatment
o Meiosis – cell division of sex cells Gene-Linked Abnormalities
o Mutation – mistake in copying genetic code Cystic Fibrosis Overproductio Physical
which creates permanent alteration in genetic n of mucus in Therapy
material the lungs and
o Autosomes – not affiliated to sexual expression digestive tract
o Sex Chromosomes – 23rd pair which indicates Diabetes Does not Insulin
the baby’s sex (XX, female: XY, male) produce
enough insulin
o Alleles – produce alternative expressions of
Hemophilia Delayed blood Blood
characteristics
clotting transfusions
o Homozygous – if two alleles are the same
Huntington’s CNS
o Heterozygous – if two alleles are different
deteriorates
o Dominant – allele that is always expressed or producing
shows up as a trait in that person problem in
o Recessive – usually doesn’t show unless paired muscles and
with another recessive trait mental decline
Phenylketonuri Build up of Special Diet a. Passive Correlations: parents tend to
a Phenylalanine provide environment that encourages the
in the body development of that trait
Sickle-Cell Limits body Penicillin, b. Reactive or Evocative: children with
Anemia oxygen supply Antibiotics, differing genetic makeups evoke different
Pain reactions from others, other people react to
Reliever
the children’s genetic makeup
Spina Bifida Incompletely Surgery
c. Active: actively selects or create experiences
closed spinal
consistent with their genetic tendencies
canal
 Niche-Picking – tendency to seek out
Tay-Sachs Accumulation Medication,
Disease of lipids in the Special Diet environments compatible with one’s
NS genotype
Anencephaly Absence of No o Nonshared Environmental Effects – result
brain tissue treatment from the unique environment in which each
Polycystic Enlarged Kidney child in a family grows up
Kidney Disease Kidneys Transplant o Infertility – inability to conceive a child
Alpha Cirrhosis of the No o In Vitro Fertilization – eggs and sperm are
antitrypsin liver in early treatment combined in a laboratory dish
Deficiency infancy
Alpha Severe Anemia; Frequent Prenatal Diagnostic Tests
Thalassemia nearly all die Blood 1. Ultrasound Sonography – high frequency
soon after birth Transfusion sound waves are directed into the pregnant
Beta Severe Anemia; Blood woman’s abdomen
Thalassemia fatal in Transfusion  No risk to the woman or fetus
(Cooley’s adolescence or s  Detect abnormalities, no. of fetuses, and sex
Anemia) Young
2. Fetal MRI – uses powerful magnet and radio
adulthood
images to generate detailed images of the
Duchenne Males with No
body’s organs and structures
Muscular muscle treatment
Dystrophy weakness, 3. Chorionic Villus Sampling – small sample of
minor mental placenta is removed
retardation  Small risk of limb deformity
4. Amniocentesis – sample of amniotic fluid is
o Carriers – carry one bad copy of recessive gene withdrawn and tested for chromosomal and
and one good one metabolic disorders
o Genotype-Environment Interaction – effects 5. Maternal Blood Screening – identifies
of similar environment conditions on genetically pregnancies that have an elevated risk for birth
different individuals defects
o Genotype-Environment Correlation – Prenatal Development
environment often reinforces genetic o Gestation – period between conception and
differences birth
 Between 37 and 41 weeks
 Gestational Age: dated from the first day of o Placenta – allows oxygen, nourishment, and
an expectant mother’s last menstrual cycle wastes to pass between mother and embryo
Stages of Prenatal Development o Umbilical Cord – connects the embryo to the
o Cephalocaudal Principle – development placenta
proceeds from head to the lower extremities Embryonic Period
o Proximodistal – development proceeds from o From 2 to 8 weeks (First 2 monts)
the center to outer parts of the body o Major body systems (respiratory, digestive, and
Early Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy nervous system) develop known as
Tender, Swollen breasts or nipples Organogenesis
Fatigue o Critical Period – most vulnerable to destructive
Slight bleeding or cramping influences
Food Cravings o Spontaneous Abortion (Miscarriage) –
Nausea with or without vomiting expulsion from the uterus of an embryo that is
Frequent Urination unable to survive outside the womb
Frequent, Mild Headaches o Stillbirth – miscarriage occurred after 20 weeks
Constipation of gestation (approx. 5 months)
Mood Swings o Males are more likely to be spontaneously
Faintness and Dizziness
aborted or to be stillborn
Raised Basal Body Temperature
Fetal Period
Germinal Stage
o From 8 weeks to Birth
o From fertilization to about 2 weeks of
o Appearance of the first bone cells
gestational age
o Final stage of gestation
o Zygote enters into cell division (mitosis) while
o Grows rapidly to about 20x its previous length
making its way to the fallopian tube
o Finishing touches
o Differentiation – specialization of the cells to
o Breathe, kick, turn, etc.
perform various tasks
o Facial expressions of pain at 36 weeks
o Blastocyst – fluid-filled sphere which floats
o Responds to mother’s voice
freely in the uterus until 6th day after fertilization
o Fetuses know when they approach the near end
then it implants itself in the uterine wall
of the pregnancy
o Trophoblast – outer layer of cells that later
o Grasping reflex
provides nutrition and support for the embryo
o 6 months or more fetuses can survive outside
o Ectoderm – outer layer (becomes outer layers of
the womb
skin, nails, hair, teeth, sensory organs, and the
o 24-37 months babies need help in breathing
nervous system)
Environmental Influences
o Endoderm – inner layer (becomes digestive
o Teratogen – environmental agent that can
system)
interfere with normal prenatal development
o Mesoderm – middle layer (becomes inner layers
o Teratology – field of study that investigates the
of skin, muscles, skeleton, and excretory and
causes of birth defects
circulatory systems)
Nutrition Maternal Weight
o Amniotic Sacs – encloses the developing
o Women of normal weight are less likely to have
embryo, protecting it and giving it a room and
birth complications
grow
o Overweight women have risk of having longer intestinal tracts of cats that causes fetal brain
deliveries, need more health care services, damage, severely impaired eyesight, seizures,
gestational diabetes, cesarean delivery, birth miscarriage, etc.
defects etc. o Diabetic mothers are most likely to have babies
o Omega-E, DHA, Folic Acid for the development that have heart and neural tube defects
of nervous system Maternal Anxiety, Stress, and Depression
Malnutrition o Stress and anxiety has been associated with
o Results to fetal growth restriction and low birth more irritable and active temperament in
weight newborns
Physical Activity and Work o Chronic stress can result in preterm delivery
o Moderate exercise is recommended to reduce o Depression may cause premature birth or
back pain, risks for gestational diabetes and etc. developmental delays
Drug Intake Maternal Age
o Thalidomide – caused stunted limbs, facial o Chance of miscarriage or stillbirth rises with
deformities, and defective organs maternal age
o Another set of drugs that are harmful for o Adolescent Mothers tend to have premature or
pregnant women: Antibiotics, certain underweight babies
Barbiturates, Opiates, Acutane Outside environmental Hazards
o Opioids are associated with small babies, fetal o Includes air pollution, radiation, chemicals
death, preterm labor, and aspiration of o Fetal exposure to low level of environmental
meconium toxins may result to asthma, allergies, lupus
o Babies born with drug-addicted mothers tend to o X-Rays could triple the risk of having full-term,
experience withdrawal once they are born and low-birth weight babies
no longer receive drugs Paternal Factors
o Neonate Abstinence Syndrome – sleep o Exposure to lead, marijuana, tobacco, radiation,
disturbance, tremors, difficulty regulating the pesticides, etc may result in abnormal or poor
body, irritability, crying and etc. quality sperm
o Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – characterized by a o Babies who fathers had diagnostic x-rays within
combination of retarded growth, face and body the year prior to conception or had a high lead
malformations, and disorders of the central exposure at work tends to have low birth weight
nervous system and slowed fetal growth
o Maternal smoking was identified to be the most o Older fathers may be significant source of birth
important factor for low-birth weight babies defects due to damaged or deteriorated sperm
o Tobacco also increases the risks of miscarriage, such as dwarfism, schizophrenia, bipolar
growth retardation, stillbirth, SIDS, etc. disorder, ASD
o Caffeine has slightly increased risk for Prenatal Care
miscarriage, stillbirth, and low birth weight o Prenatal cell-free DNA Scans – fetal DNA is
babies extracted from the mother’s blood and tested
o Rubella almost certain to cause deafness and for early detection of genetic problems
heart defects to babies Birth Process
o Toxoplasmosis – caused by parasite in the o Labor – process of giving birth
bodies of cattle, sheep, and pigs, and in the
o Parturition – series of uterine, cervical, and b. Anesthesia – used in the late first stage labor
other changes which begins 2 weeks before the and during delivery to block sensation in an
delivery area of the body or to block consciousness
o Braxton-Hicks Contractions – false  Epidural Block – regional anesthesia that
contractions blocks the lower part of the body
o Real labor contractions are more frequent,  Pudendal Block – vaginal anesthesia
rhythmic, and painful, and they increase in c. Oxytocin – hormone that promotes
frequency and intensity contraction (Pitocin)
Stages of Birth o Natural Childbirth – method that aims to
First Stage (Dilation of the Cervix) reduce the mother’s pain by decreasing her fear
Longest stage by providing information about childbirth and
Contractions are 15 to 20 mins apart teaching her and her partner to use breathing
Cervix opened about 10cm methods and relaxation techniques during
For first born, it can last for 6-12 hrs, then shorter delivery
for the next children o Bradley Method – husbands as coaches,
Second Stage (Descent and Emergence of the relation for easier birth and prenatal nutrition
Baby) and exercise
Baby’s head starts to move through the cervix
o Prepared Childbirth or Lamaze method –
Baby is coming out
special breathing technique to control pushing
Approx. 45 mins to hr
in the final stages of labor
Third Stage (Expulsion of the Placenta)
o Vaginal Delivery – usual childbirth
Afterbirth
o Benefits: surge of hormones that clear the
Placenta, Umbilical cord, and other membranes
detached and expelled lungs and excess fluid, mobilize stored fuel to
Shortest stage nourish cells, and send blood to the heart
and brain
o Midwifery – profession that provides health o Cesarean Delivery – baby is removed from the
care to women during pregnancy, birth, and mother’s uterus through an incision made in her
even postpartum period abdomen
o Doula – caregiver who provides continuous  Performed if the baby is lying crosswise,
physical, emotional, and educational support for if the baby’s head is too large,
the mother before, during, and after childbirth complications, or if the mother is
Methods of Childbirth bleeding internally
o Electronic Fetal Monitoring – used to track the  Not recommended prior to 39 weeks of
fetus’ heartbeat during labor and delivery and to gestation unless there is an indication of
indicate how the fetal heart is responding to the fetal lung maturity
stress of uterine contractions  Breech Position – baby’s buttocks are
 can provide valuable information in high- the first part to emerge from the vagina
risk deliveries which can cause respiratory problems
 extremely high false-positive rate  Complications: bleeding, infection,
o Three kinds of drugs are used for labor: damage to pelvic organs, post-operative
a. Analgesia – pain reliever such as pains, riskier future pregnancies
tranquilizers, barbiturates, and narcotics
o Newborn Screening for Medical Conditions -
check for rare genetic, hormone-related, and
metabolic conditions that can cause serious
health problems
o Boys tend to be slightly longer and heavier than
girls
o First born weigh less that laterborns
o Fontanels – where the bones of the skull don’t
meet
o Lanugo – fuzzy prenatal hair
o Vernix Caseosa – oily protection against
infection that dries within the first few days
o Anoxia – lack of oxygen
o Hypoxia – reduced oxygen supply
o Anoxia or Hypoxia may occur during delivery as
a result of repeated compression of the placenta
Assessing the Newborn and umbilical cord that could leave permanent
o APGAR Scale – widely used to assess the health brain damage, mental retardation, behavior
of newborns at 1-5 mins after birth problems or even death
o Meconium – stringy, greenish-black waste
matter formed in the fetal intestinal tract
o Neonatal Jaundice – skin and eyeballs look
yellow caused by immaturity of the liver
Pre-term and Low Birth Weight Infants
o Low Birth Weight Infants – weigh less than 5
pounds and 8 ounces at birth
 Very Low birth Weight – less than 3 pounds
4 ounces
 Extremely Low Birth – less than 2 pounds
 7-10, condition is good
o Pre-term Infants – born three weeks or more
 5, developmental difficulties before pregnancy reach full term (before the
 3 or below, emergency and the baby might
completion of 37 weeks of gestation)
not survive
o Small for Date Infants (Small for Gestational
 9-10 score, risk of developing ADHD in
Age Infants) – those whose birth weight is
childhood
below normal when the length of pregnancy is
o Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment
considered
Scale – performed within 24-36 hrs after birth to
o Progestin – might help in reducing preterm
assess neurological development, reflexes, and
birth
reactions
o Extremely Preterm – born less than 28 weeks
o Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network
gestation
Neurobehavioral Scale – assessment of the
o Very Preterm – less than 33 weeks
newborn’s behavior, neurological and stress
response, and regulatory capacities
o Kangaroo Care – involves skin-to-skin contact Bonding
in which the baby, wearing only diaper, is held o Formation of connection, especially a physical
upright against the parent’s bare chest to help bond between parents and the newborn in the
stabilize the preterm’s heartbeat, temp, and period shortly after birth
breathing o Newborn MUST have close contact with the
o One condition commonly faced by preterm mother in the first few days of like to develop
babies is Respiratory Distress Syndrome optimally is NOT true
wherein there is a lack of surfactant (lung- End - amsl
coating substance) that keeps air sacs from
collapsing
o Postmature Babies – tend to be long and this
because they have kept growing in the womb
but have had an insufficient blood supply
toward the end of gestation
o Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – crib death;
sudden death of an infant under age 1 which
cause of death remains unexplained
Postpartum Period
o Period after childbirth
o Lasts for about 6 weeks or until the mother’s
body has completed the adjustment and
returned to nearly prepregnant state
Physical Adjustment
o Loss of sleep that the primary caregiver
experiences during this period
o Sudden and dramatic hormone production
o Estrogen and progesterone levels drop steeply
and remain low until the ovaries start producing
again
Emotional and Psychological Adjustment
o Emotional fluctuations are common
o Postpartum Blues – 2-3 days after birth they
feel depressed, anxious, and upset
o Postpartum Depression – involves a major
depressive episode that typically occurs about
four weeks after delivery or at least a two-week
period of having trouble coping with their daily
task
o Postpartum Depression could affect how the
mother interacts with her infant
o Fathers may also experience depression or they
may feel replaced by the baby
Infancy
Physical Development o Brain Growth Spurts – brain’s growth occurs in
o Cephalocaudal Principle – growth starts from fits and starts
the top part of the body (i.e., brain to foot) o By birth, spinal cord and brain stem has nearly
o Proximodistal Principle – growth proceed run its course (responsible for breathing, heart
from the center of the body outward (e.g., Palm rate, temp, and sleep-wake cycle)
(grasping) to fingers) o Cerebellum (maintains balance and motor
o Children grow faster during the first 3 years coordination) grows the fastest during the first
o Teething usually begins around 3-4 months year of life
o Growth slows in the second year of life o Lateralization – specialization of the
o Growth isn’t often smooth and continuous but hemispheres
rather is episodic, occurring in spurts
Benefits of Breastfeeding
o Babies are less likely to contract infectious
illnesses
o Lower risks of SIDS and of Post-neonatal death
o Lesser risks of inflammatory bowel disease
o Better visual acuity, neurological development,
and long-term cardiovascular health
o Less likely to develop obesity, asthma, eczema,
diabetes, lymphoma, etc.
o Less likely to show language and motor delays
o Score higher on cognitive tests
o Left Hemisphere – concerned with language
o Fewer cavities and are less likely to need braces
and logical thinking
o Mothers can quickly recover with childbirth
o Right Hemisphere – concerned with visual and
o They are more likely to return to the pre-
spatial functions
pregnancy weight
o Corpus Callosum – tough band of tissue that
o Reduced risk of anemia and lowered risk of
joins the two hemisphere which allows them to
repeat pregnancy while breastfeeding
share info and coordinate commands
o Report feeling more confident and less anxious
o Less likely to develop osteoporosis or ovarian
and premenopausal breast cancer
o Reduction in type 2 diabetes
o The only acceptable alternative to breast milk is
Iron-Fortified Formula based on either cow’s
milk or soy protein
o Babies should consume nothing but milk during
the first 6 months of life
Brain and Reflex Behavior
o By age of 6, the brain is almost adult size but
some parts are still continuously developing
o Occipital – smallest; concerned with visual
processing
Infancy
o Parietal – involved with integrating sensory info ▪ Emphasized the importance of considering
from the body; movement and manipulation of interactions between experience and gene
objects expression in the brain’s development
o Temporal – interpret smells and sounds and o Reflex Behavior – automatic, innate response
involved in memory to stimulation which are controlled by the lower
o Frontal Lobe – involved in high-order processes brain centers that govern involuntary processes
such as reasoning and problem solving o Primitive reflexes – includes sucking, rooting,
o Cerebral Cortex – outer surface of the and the Moro reflex are related to instinctive
cerebrum; grows rapidly in the first few months needs for survival and protection or may
and are mature by age 6 months support the early connection to the caregiver
o Brain Growth Spurt begins at about the third o Postural Reflexes – reactions to changes in
trimester of gestation and continues until at position or balance
least the 4th year of life o Locomotor Reflex – resemble voluntary
o Neurons – send and receive info in the brain movements that do not appear until months
o Glia or Glial Cells – nourish and protect the after the reflexes have disappeared
neurons o Early Reflexes Disappear during the first 6-12
o Axon – sends signals to other neurons months
o Dendrites – receive incoming messages Early Human Reflexes
o Synapses – tiny gaps which are bridged with the Moro Extend
help of chemicals legs, arms,
o Integration – neurons that control various and fingers,
groups of muscle coordinate their activities arches
o Differentiation – each neuron takes on a back, draws
specific, specialized structure and function back head
o Cell Death – pruning of cells which is a way to Darwinia Make
calibrate the developing brain to the local n strong first
environment and help it work more efficiently, (Grasping
)
beings during the prenatal period and continues
after birth
o Myelination – enables signals to travel faster Tonic Fencer
and more smoothly by coating the neural Neck Position
pathways with myelin
o Children who grew up in deprived environment
may have depressed brain activity Babkin Mouth
o Neuroconstructivist View – biological process opens, eyes
and environmental conditions influences close, neck
development, the brain is plastic, and the child’s flexes, head
cognitive development is closed linked to tilts
development of the brain forward
Infancy
Babinski Toes fan o Evolutionary Perspective: all animals sleep and
out; foot this sleep is necessary for survival (to protect
twist in themselves at night)
o Restorative Perspective: sleep replenishes and
rebuilds the brain and the body such as clearing
Rooting Head turns, out neural tissues
mouth o Plasticity Perspective: sleep is critical for brain
opens, plasticity, i.e., increases synaptic connections
sucking between neurons which is linked to improved
begins consolidation of memories
Walking Steplike
o Newborns sleep approx. 18 hrs/day
motions
o Non-REM Sleep – no eye movement and sleep
is more quiet
o Rapid Eye Movement (REM Sleep) – the eyes
flutter beneath the closed lids
Swimmin Swimming
g movement ▪ Usually appears 1 hr after non-rem (adults)
s ▪ Half of infant’s sleep is REM
▪ May provide infants with added self-
stimulation
o Brain is Plastic, they are living, changeable
▪ Promote brain development in infancy
organs which responds to environmental
influences (Plasticity) ▪ When adults wake up from REM Sleep, they
Early Sensory Capacity report dreaming
o Touch is the first sense to develop, the most o There is a positive link between infant sleep and
mature sensory system for the first several cognitive functioning
months Motor Development
o Newborns can and do feel pain o Denver Developmental Screening Test – used
o Sense of smell and taste begin to develop in the to chart progress between ages 1 month and 6
womb years and to identify children who are not
o Newborns strongly dislike bitter flavors developing normally
o Auditory Discrimination develops rapidly after ▪ Measures Gross Motor Skills (using large
birth muscles), Fine Motor Skills (using small
o At 4 moths, infant’s brain responds muscles), Language Development,
preferentially to speech Personality, and Social Development
o Vision is the least developed sense at birth First Month
o Binocular Vision (the use of both eyes to focus) Infants can turn their Head from side to side
does not develop until 4-5 months Grasping Reflex
o Infants like attractive faces Second-Third Month
Sleep Babies can life their heads
o Sleep restores, replenishes, and rebuilds our
brains and bodies
Infancy
Can grasp moderate sized things until they will be o Crawling – helps babies learn to judge
able to grasp one thing using right hand and distances and perceive depth
transfer it to their left hand o Social Referencing – babies learn to look at
Babies can now hold their head still to find out caregivers for clues as to whether a situation is
whether the object is moving secure or frightening
They can already match the voice to faces o Sensory Perception – enable infants to learn
Distinguish female and male about themselves and their environment so they
Discriminate between faces of their own ethnic
can make better judgements about how to
group and those of other groups
navigate in it
Size constancy
o Visual Guidance – the use of eyes to guide the
Infants develop the ability to perceive that
movements of the hands
occluded objects are whole
o Clumsy corrective movements are more likely to
Fourth Month
Babies can keep their heads erect while being held be illustrating immature cerebellar development
or supported in a sitting position o Depth Perception – the ability to perceive
Can now roll-over, accidentally objects and surfaces in three dimensions
Begin to reach objects o Kinetic Cues – produced by movement of the
Sixth Month object or the observer or both
Babies cannot sit without support o Haptic Perception – ability to acquire
Can start creeping or crawling information by handling objects rather than just
Could successfully reach for objects in the dark looking at them
faster than they could in the light o Posture – dynamic process that is linked with
They can now localize or detect sounds from their sensory information in the skin, joints, and
origins muscles which tell us where we are in space
Seventh Month o Swaddling shows slight delays in motor
Pincer Grasps could already manifest development
Can start standing o Perceptual Constancy – sensory stimulation is
Can now sit independently changing but perception of the physical world
Eighth Month
remains constant
Babies can assume sitting position without help
Infants can now learn to pull themselves up and ▪ Allows infants to perceive that their world as
hold on to a chair stable
Tenth Month ▪ Size Constancy – recognition that an object
They can now stand alone remains the same even though the retinal
Eleventh Month image of the object changes as you move
Babies can let go and stand alone well toward or away from the object
Thirteenth Month
▪ Shape Constancy – an object remains the
Toddlers can now pull a toy attached to a string
and use their hands and legs to climb stairs same shape even though its orientation
Eighteenth to Twenty-Fourth Month changes
Toddlers can now walk quickly, run, and balance Ecological Theory of Perception
on their feet in a squatting position o Locomotor movement depends on infants’
increasing sensitivity to the interaction between
Infancy
their changing physical characteristics and new o Operant Conditioning – focuses on the
and varied characteristics of their environment consequences of behaviors and how they affect
o Babies learn to continually gauge their abilities the likelihood of the behavior occurring again
and adjust their movements to meet the o Babies were able to use contextual cues (e.g.,
demands of their current environment odor) to retrieve memories
o Baby is somewhat a small scientist testing out o Infant memory is context-dependent and
new ideas in each situation appears to be strongly linked to the original
o Gibson’s Ecological View: we directly perceive cues encoded during learning
info that exists in the world around us Psychometric Approach
o Affordances – opportunities for interaction o Intelligent Behavior – presumed to be goal-
offered by objects that fit within our capabilities oriented, meaning it exists for the purposes of
to perform activities attaining a goal
o Newborns cannot see small things that are far o IQ Tests – consists of questions or tasks that are
away supposed to show how much of the measured
Thelen’s Dynamic Systems Theory abilities a person has by comparing that
o Behavior emerges in the movement from the person’s performance with norms
self-organization of multiple components o Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler
o Opportunities and constraints presented by the Development – developmental test designed
infant’s physical characteristics, motivation, to assess children from 1 month to 3 ½ years
energy level, motor strength, and position in the ▪ Cognitive, Language, Motor, Social-
environment at a particular moment in time Emotional, and Adaptive Behavior
affect whether and how an infant achieves a goal
▪ Accompanied by Behavior Rating Scale
o A solution emerges as the baby explores various
taken from the caregiver
combinations of movements and assembles
o Home Observation for Measurement of the
those that most efficiently contribute to that
Environment (HOME) – trained observers
end
interview the primary caregiver and rate on a
o Infants modulate their movement patterns to fit
yes-or-no checklist the intellectual stimulation
a new task by exploring and selecting possible
and support observed in a child’s home
configurations
o Infant actively put together skill to achieve a ▪ Number of books and toys, parents
goal within the constraints set by the infant’s involvement with the child, parental
body and environment emotional and verbal responsiveness,
Cognitive Development acceptance of the child’s behavior,
Behaviorist Approach organization of the environment, and
o Classical Conditioning – a person learns to opportunities for daily and varied stimulation
make a reflex, or involuntary, response to a o Early Intervention – systematic process of
stimulus that originally did not bring about the planning and providing therapeutic and
response educational services for families that need help
o Extinction – if the conditioned learning is not in meeting infants’, toddlers’, and pre-school
reinforced by repeated association children’s developmental needs
Jean Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
Infancy
o The first stage of Jean Piaget’s cognitive Actively explore the world
development is Sensorimotor Stage Trial and error in solving problems
o Approx. from birth to 2 years old 6. Mental Combinations
o Circular Reactions – an infant learns to Can think about events and anticipate
reproduce events originally discovered by consequences without always resorting action
chance Can use symbols such as gestures and words, and
o Schemes – actions or mental representations can pretend
that can be performed on objects Transition to Pre-operational stage
Learns about numbers
o Assimilation – occurs when children use their
o Representational Ability – the ability to
existing schemes to deal with new information
mentally represent objects and actions in
o Accommodation – occurs when children adjust
memory, largely through symbols such as
their schemes to take new information and
words, numbers, and mental picture
experiences into account
o Infants develop the abilities to think and
o Organization – grouping of isolated behaviors
remember
and thoughts into higher-order system
o Visible Imitation that uses body parts that
o Disequilibrium – cognitive conflict
babies can see develops first followed by
o Children constantly assimilate and
Invisible Imitation (involves with parts of the
accommodate as they seek equilibrium
body that babies cannot see)
o Equilibration – children shift from one stage of
o Piaget believed that children under 18 months
thought to the next
could not engage in Deferred Imitation
Substages
1. Use of Reflexes (Birth to 1 Month) ▪ Reproduction of an observed behavior after
Exercise their inborn reflexes and gain some the passage of time
control over them ▪ Children lacked the ability to retain mental
Practice their reflexes and control them (e.g., representations
sucking whenever they want to)
o Infants under the age of about 8 months act as
2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months)
if an object no longer exists once it is out other
Repeat pleasurable behaviors that first occur by
line of sight
chance
o Object Permanence – the realization that
Begin to coordinate sensory information and
grasp objects something continues to exist when out of sight
They turn towards the sounds o Until about 15 months, infants use their hands
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) to explore pictures as if they were objects
Repeat actions that brings interesting results o By 19 months, children are able to point at a
Learns about causality picture of an object while saying its name,
4. Coordination of Secondary Schemes (8-12 demonstrating an understanding that a picture
months) is a symbol of something else
Coordinate previously learned schemes and use o Dual Representation Hypothesis – proposal
previously learned behaviors to attain their goals that children under age of 3 have difficulty
Can anticipate events grasping spatial relationships because of the
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months) need to keep more than one mental
Purposefully vary their actions to see results representation in mind at the same time
Infancy
Information-Processing Approach term storage of information the brain is actively
o Habituation – a type of learning in which processing)
repeated or continuous exposure to a stimulus, o Working memory may be responsible for the
reduces attention to that stimulus slow development of object permanence
▪ Familiarity breeds loss of interest Social-Contextual Approach
o Dishabituation – if a new sight or sound is o Guided Participation – refers to mutual
presented, the baby’s attention is generally interactions with adults that help structure
captured once again, and the baby will reorient children’s activities and bridge the fap between
toward the interesting stimulus and once again a child’s understanding and an adult’s
sucking slows Language
o Visual Preference – tendency to spend more o Language – communication system based on
time looking at one sight rather than another words and grammar
o Visual Recognition Memory – ability that o Infinite Generativity – the ability to produce
depends on the capacity to form and refer to and comprehend an endless no. of meaningful
mental representations sentences using a finite set of words and rules
o Babies like to look at new things o Pre-linguistic Speech – sounds that progress
o Senses are unconnected at birth and are only from crying to cooing and babbling
gradually integrated through experience o Crying – newborn’s first means of
o Cross-Modal Transfer – the ability to use communication
information gained from one sense to guide o Between 6-3 months, babies start cooing
another – as when a person negotiates a dark o By 6-10 months, they start babbling
room by feeling for the location of familiar o Phonology – sound system of a language
objects o Morphology – system of meaningful units
Cognitive Neuroscience Approach involved in word formation
o Examines the hardware of the CNS to identify o Syntax – the system that involves the way words
what brain structures are involved in specific are combined to form acceptable phrases and
areas of cognition sentences
o Implicit Memory – refers to remembering that o Semantics – the system that involves the
occurs without effort or even conscious meaning of words and sentences
awareness o Pragmatics – the system of using appropriate
conversation and knowledge of how to
▪ Habits and skills
effectively use language in context
▪ Develop early and is demonstrated by such o Infants start using gestures at about 7-15
actions as an infant’s kicking months
o Explicit Memory – declarative memory; o As early as 5 months, infants recognize their
conscious intentional recollection, usually of name
facts, names, events, or other things that can be o Receptive Vocabulary – words that the child
stated or declared understand
o During the second half of the first year, the o Spoken Vocabulary – words the child
prefrontal cortex and associated circuitry expresses/uses
develop the capacity of working memory (short-
Infancy
o Overextension – tendency to apply a word to o During the 1st month, babies cries when they are
objects that are inappropriate for the word’s unhappy and become quiet at the sound of
meaning by going beyond the set of referents human voice or when they are picked up
an adult would use (e.g. “Dada” not only for her o Four Patterns of Crying of Infants:
Dad but also to other male strangers) 1. Basic Hunger Cry – rhythmic pattern that
o Underextension – tendency to apply the word usually co sist of cry, followed by a briefer
too narrowly; occurs when children fail to use a silence
word to name a relevant event or object 2. Angry Cry – more excess air is forced through
o Children between 18 to 24 months, speak in vocal cords
two-word utterances 3. Pain Cry – sudden long, initial loud cry
o Telegraphic Speech – the use of short and followed by breath holding
precise words without grammatical markers 4. Frustration Cry
such as articles, etc. (“Momi give water”) o A higher pitch an a more monotonic
o Regions involved in Language: Broca’s Area vocalization is associated with autonomic
(Speech Production) and Wernicke’s Area system activity during stressful procedures in
(Language comprehension, sounds) infants
o Aphasia – loss or impairment in language o Earliest smiles resulted from subcortical nervous
processing system activity
o Language Acquisition Device – biological o Involuntary smiles appear during periods of
endowment that enables the child to detect REM Sleep
certain features and rules of language o Social Smiling – newborn infants gaze and
o The support and involvement of caregivers and smile at their parents; smile that occurs in
teachers greatly facilitate a child’s language response to external stimulus (2 months)
o Child-Directed Speech – language spoken with o Reflexive Smile – a smile that does not occur in
a higher-than-normal pitch, slower tempo, and response to external stimuli and appear during
exaggerated intonation, with simple words and the first month after birth
sentences o Anticipatory Smiling – infants smile at an
o Recasting – rephrasing something the child has object then gaze at an adult while continuing to
said that might lack appropriate morphology smile
o Expanding – adding information to a child’s o Self-Conscious emotions arise only after
incomplete sentence children have developed self-awareness
o Labeling – name objects that children o Altruistic Behavior – acting out of concern with
o Storybook reading especially benefits children no expectation of reward
Psychosocial Development o Mirror Neurons – underlie empathy and
o Personality – the relatively consistent blend of altruism
emotions, temperament, thought, and behavior Temperament
that makes each person unique o An early-appearing, biologically based tendency
Emotions to respond to the environment in predictable
o Subjective reactions to experience that are ways
associated with physiological and behavioral
changes
Infancy
o Easy Children – generally happy, rhythmic in o Avoidant Attachment – outwardly unaffected
biological functioning, and accepting of new by a caregiver leaving or returning
experiences o Ambivalent (Resistant) Attachment –
o Difficult Children – more irritable and harder to generally anxious even before the caregiver
please leaves
o Slow-to-Warm-Up Children – mild but slow to o Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment – lack
adapt to new people and situations a cohesive strategy to deal with the stress of the
o Strong links between infant temperament and strange situation; they show contradictory,
childhood personality at age of 7 repetitive, or misdirected behaviors; confused
o Goodness of Fit – the match between a child’s and afraid
temperament and the environmental demands o According to Bowlby, attachment styles resulted
and constraints the child must deal with from repeated interactions with a caregiver
Developmental Issues in Infancy o Stranger Anxiety – wariness of a person she
o According Erik Erikson, as babies, our first does not know
challenge involves forming basic sense of Trust o Separation Anxiety – distress when a familiar
versus Mistrust caregiver leaves her
o Ideally, babies develop a balance between trust o Separation Protest – crying when caregiver
and mistrust leaves
o If trust predominates, as it should, children o Babies react negatively to strangers by 8 or 9
develop Hope and the belief that they can fulfill months
their needs and obtain their desires o Mutual Regulation – the ability of both infant
Approximate Crisis Virtue and caregiver to respond appropriately and
Age Developed sensitively to each other’s mental and emotional
Infancy (0-18 Trust vs. Hope states
months) Mistrust o Social Referencing – seeking emotional
Toddler (18 Autonomy vs. Will information to guide behavior
months – 36 Shame/Doubt Developmental Issues in Toddlerhood
months) o Maladaptive Tendency for Toddler:
o Maladaptive Tendency for Infancy: Sensory
Impulsiveness – shameless willfulness that
Maladjustment – overly trusting and gullible,
leads to jump into things without proper
unrealistic, spoiled
consideration
o Malignant Tendency: Withdrawal – never
o Malignant Tendency for Toddler:
trust anyone, paranoid, neurotic, depressive
Compulsiveness – perfectionism, rule follower
o Significant Individual: Mother
o Sphincter Muscle is developed
o Attachment – reciprocal, enduring emotional
o Self-Concept – our image of ourselves; it
tie between an infant and a caregiver, each of
describes what we know and feel about
whom contributes to the quality of the
ourselves and guides our actions
relationship
o By at least 3 months, infants pay attention to
o Strange Situation – by Mary Ainsworth;
their mirror image
designed to assess attachment patterns
between infant and adult
o Secure Attachment – flexible, resilient
Infancy
o Pretend Play – an early indication of the ability
to understand other’s mental states and their
own
o Usage of person pronouns (me, mine) usually at
20-24 months
o Socialization – process by which children
develop habits, skills, values, and motives that
make them responsible and productive
members of the society
o Children obey societal or parental dictates
because they believe them to be right and true
o The eventual goal is the development of
conscience
o Situational Compliance – extra assistance
provided by their parents reminder and prompts
to complete the task
o Committed Compliance – they were end
committed to following request and could do so
without their parents direct intervention
o Receptive Cooperation – eager willingness to
cooperate harmoniously with a parent, not only
in disciplinary actions, but in variety of daily
interactions
Maltreatment in Infancy and Toddlerhood
A. Nonorganic Failure to thrive – slowed or
arrested physical growth with no known medical
cause, accompanied by poor developmental
and emotional functioning
B. Shaken Baby Syndrome – baby has a weak
neck muscles, and a large, heavy head, shaking
makes the brain bounce back and forth inside
the skull
Moral Development
o According to Kohlberg, children in Infancy stage
is at the first level of Moral Development which
is the Pre-Conventional Level
o Infants or children from 0-2 yrs old is in Pre-
conventional Level, specifically in Stage 1
whereas they desire to obey rules and avoid
being punished
Early Childhood
Summary Children understand the public aspects of
3 years old emotions (understand the things that causes
Children begin to lose their babyish roundness others to be sad or happy)
and take on the slender, athletic appearance of 6 years old
childhood Brain is 90% of its peak volume
Brain is approximately 90% of adult weight Permanent teeth begins to appear
Cannot turn or stop suddenly or quickly Has an expressive vocabulary of 2,600 words and
Can jump a distance of 15-24 inches understands more than 20,000
Can ascend a stairway unaided, alternating feet 7 years old
Can hop Children start to understand that mental states
Handedness is evident can drive emotions
All primary teeth are evident
Can now pick up tiny objects between their thumb Physical Development
and forefingers (tho still clumsy)
o Head is till large, but the other parts of the body
Know the difference between reality and
continue to catch up as body proportions
imagination
Can use 900 to 1000 words steadily become adult-like
Typically begin to use plurals, possessives, and o Growth Hormone Deficiency – absence or
past tense deficiency of growth hormone produced by
4 years old pituitary gland to stimulate the body to grow
Peak of the density of synapses in the prefrontal o Sleep problems are occasional and usually
cortex outgrown
More effective control of stopping, starting, and o Many of sleep problems issues are the result of
turning ineffective parenting
Can jump a distance of 24-33 inches o Persistent sleep problems may indicate
Can descend a long stairway alternating feet if emotional, physiological, or neurological
supported condition that needs to be examines
Able to categorize objects to identify similarities o Night terrors generally peach at about 1 ½ years
and differences and are common between 2 ½ and 4 years of
Can tell the differences in size
age
They conversate in sentences and may be
o Sleepwalking, sleeptalking, and night terrors are
declarative, negative, interrogative, or imperative
common when children are sleep deprived, have
Can recognize facial expressions, recognize
fever or on medications, or when conditions are
emotions thru vocal cues and body postures
5 years old noisy
Can start, turn, and stop effectively in games o Nightmares are common during early childhood
Can descend a long stairway, unaided o Enuresis – repeated involuntary urination at
Run hard and enjoy races with each other night by children old enough to have bladder
Hand, arm, and body move together under better control
command of the eye  Genetics may play role
Can now count to 20 or more and know the o Motor coordination in childhood tends to be
relative sizes of the numbers 1 through 10 relatively stable over time
Speech is quite adultlike o Handedness – the preference of using one hand
over the other
Early Childhood
 Left-handedness run in families o Divided into Symbolic Function and Intuitive
o 41 million children under age 5 were obese in Thought
2016
1. Symbolic Function – being able to think about
o Stunted Children – normal weight but shorter
something in the absence of sensory or motor cues
than they should for their age and may have
cognitive and physical deficiencies, visible in  Can use symbols, or mental representations
developing countries such as words, numbers, or images to which
o Food Allergies are more prevalent in children a person has attached meaning
than in adults and most of them outgrow their  Deferred Imitation – children imitate an
allergies action at some point after observing it
o Car accidents are the most commonly reported  Pretend Play – fantasy play, dramatic play,
cause of accidental death for children over the or imaginary play; children use an object to
age of 4 represent something else
o Children exposed to tobacco smoke are more  The most extensive use of symbolic function
likely to develop wheezing symptoms and is language
asthma, and have a higher risk for high-blood  Occurs between ages of 2 and 4
pressure
2. Intuitive Thought – begin to use primitive
o Other common causes of death in early
reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts
childhood: cancer, congenital abnormalities,
of questions
and chromosomal disorders, assault, heart
disease, respiratory disease and septicemia  Occurs approx. 4-7 yrs of age
o Contextual factors such as poverty and o Children also begin to able to understand the
parenting quality are linked to the development symbols that describe physical spaces
of the brain o Piaget believed that children cannot yet reason
logically about causality
Cognitive Development
o Transduction – they mentally link two events,
Preoperational Stage by Jean Piaget especially events close in time, whether or not
here is logically a causal relationship
o Jean Piaget’s second stage of cognitive
o Identities – the concept that people and many
development
things are basically the same even if they change
o Lasting from ages 2 to 7, characterized by the
in outward form, size, or appearance
expansion in the use of symbolic thought
o Animism – tendency to attribute life to objects
o Children begin to represent the world with
that are not alive
words, images, and drawings
o Centration – the tendency to focus on one
o Dominated by egocentrism and magical beliefs
aspect of a situation and neglect others
o Does not yet perform Operations (which are
 Children cannot Decenter (think about
reversible mental actions that allow children to
several aspects of a situation at one time)
do mentally what before they could do only
 Involves on focusing on one dimension while
physically)
ignoring the other
o Preoperational Thought – beginning of the
 Irreversibility – failure to understand that an
ability to reconstruct in thought what has been
action can go in two or more directions
established in behavior
Early Childhood
o Egocentrism – young children center so much o Executive Function – the conscious control of
on their own point of view that they cannot take thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish
in another’s goals or to solve problems
o Conservation – the fact that two things are  Enables children to plan and carry out goal-
equal remain so if their appearance is altered, as directed mental activity
long as nothing is added or taken away o Recognition – ability to identify something
o Theory of Mind – the awareness of the broad encountered before
range of human mental states – beliefs, intents, o Recall – ability to reproduce knowledge from
desires, dreams, and so forth – and the memory
understanding that others have their own o Generic Memory – begins at 2 years old,
 Allows us to understand and predict the produces a script of a familiar, repeated event
behavior of others and makes the social o Episodic Memory – refers to awareness of
world understandable having experienced a particular event at a
specific time and place (if repeated, it becomes
generic memory)
o Autobiographical memory – refers to
memories of distinctive experiences that form a
Information-Processing Approach: Memory
person’s life history
o Memory can be described as a filing system that  Generally emerges between ages 3 to 4
has three steps:  The more unique an event is, the more
1. Encoding – putting information in the memory children remember it better
2. Storage – putting away in the filing cabinet o Attention – defined as the focusing of mental
where it is kept resources on select information
3. Retrieval – searching for the information and  Executive Attention – involves action
take it out of the memory system planning, allocating attention to goals, error
o Three types of Storage: detection and compensation, monitoring
A. Sensory Memory – temporary storage for progress on tasks, etc.
incoming sensory information  Sustained Attention – focused and
B. Working Memory – short-term storehouse for extended engagement with an object, tasks,
information a person is actively working on, and dealing with novel or difficult
trying to understand, remember, or think about circumstances
 Located partly in the prefrontal cortex  Preschool children are likely to pay attention
C. Long-Term Memory – storehouse of virtually to stimuli that stand out (salient)
unlimited capacity that holds information for  Preschool children tend to use haphazard
long period of time comparison strategy, not examining all of the
o The central executive also retrieves information details before making a judgement
from LTM, assisted by:
Intelligence: Psychometric Approach and Lev
1) Phonological Loop – aids in the processing of
Vygotsky
verbal information
2) Visuospatial Sketchpad – maintains and o 3-5 yr old children are more proficient with
manipulates visual information language than younger children
Early Childhood
o Two most commonly used individual tests for o Social Speech – speech intended to be
preschoolers are: understood by a listener
1. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales – used for o Private Speech – talking aloud to oneself with
ages 2 and up, taking 45 to 60 mins no intent to communicate with others
 Child is ask to define words, string beads, (Egocentric Speech)
build blocks, etc.  Immature (Piaget)
 Measure fluid reasoning, knowledge,  Learning Process (Vygotsky)
quantitative reasoning, etc. o Emergent Literacy – development of
2. Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of fundamental skills that eventually lead to being
Intelligence – individual test taking 30 to 60 able to read
mins  Social interaction promotes emergent
 Yields verbal, performance, and combined literacy
scores
Early Childhood Education
 Includes subtests designed to measure both
verbal and nonverbal fluid reasoning, etc. o Child-centered Kindergarten – emphasizes the
o According to Vygotsky, children learn by education of the whole child and concern for his
internalizing the results of interactions with or her physical, cognitive, and socioemotional
adults development
o Zone of Proximal Development – the o Montessori Method – based on the beliefs that
imaginary psychological space between what children’s natural intelligence involves rational,
children can do or know by themselves and what spiritual, and empirical aspects
they could do or know with help  Children have given considerable freedom
 Can be assessed by Dynamic Tests and spontaneity in choosing activities
 Combined with Scaffolding – supportive o Reggio Emilia Approach – less formal than
assistance that a more sophisticated Montessori; teachers follow children’s interest
interaction partner provides, and ideally it and support them in exploration
should be aimed at ZPD o Developmentally Appropriate Practice –
 Takes a social constructivist approach (social based on knowledge of the typical development
contexts of learning and the construction of of children within an age span as well as the
knowledge through social interaction) uniqueness of the child
Language
o Fast Mapping – allows a child to pick up Psychosocial Development

approximate meaning of a new word after
Self
hearing it only once or twice in conversation
 Nouns are easier to fast map than verbs o Self-Concept – our total picture of our abilities
o Syntax – a concept and involves the rules for and traits
putting together sentences in a particular o Children’s self-definition typically change
language between ages 5 and 7
o Pragmatics – practical knowledge of how to use o At about 7, children will be able to describe
language to communicate themselves in terms of generalized traits
Early Childhood
o Self-Esteem – self-evaluative part of the self- o Malignant Tendency: Inhibition – too much
concept, the judgement children make about guilt to do anything so nothing would happen
their overall worth Gender
 Children’s self-esteem tends to be
o Gender Identity – awareness of one’s
unidimensional (either good or bad)
femaleness or maleness and all it implies in
 Children whose self-esteem is contingent on
one’s society of origin
success tend to become demoralized when
o Gender Differences – psychological or
they fail
behavioral differences between males and
 Children with noncontingent self-esteem
females
tend to attribute failure or disappointment to
o Boys and girls do equally well on tasks involving
factors outside themselves or to the need to
basic mathematical skills and are equally
try harder
capable of learning math but show variations in
o Emotional self-regulation helps children guide
specific abilities
their behavior and adjust their responses to
o Gender Roles – behaviors, interests, attitudes,
meet societal expectations
skills, and personality traits that a culture
o Emotion-Coaching Parents – monitor their
considers appropriate for males or females
children’s emotions, view negative emotions as
o Gender-typing – the acquisition of gender role
opportunities for teaching, assist them in
o Gender Stereotypes – preconceived
labelling emotions, and coach them in how to
generalizations about male or female behavior
deal effectively with emotions
o Gender differences were purely cultural
o Emotion-Dismissing Parents – view their role
inventions
as to deny, ignore, or change negative emotions
o Theory of Sexual Selection – the selection of
o Social Emotions – involve a comparison of
sexual partners is a response to differing
one’s self or one’s actions to social standards
reproductive pressures early men and women
 Guilt, shame and pride
confronted in the study for survival
 Developed after they gain self-awareness
o Identification – adoption of characteristics,
and accept the standards of behavior their
beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of the
parents have set
parent of the same sex
o Preschool children can do-and want to do-more
o According to Kohlberg, Children actively search
and more. At the same time, they are learning
for cues about gender in their social world
that some of the things they want to do meet
o Gender Constancy – a child’s realization that his
social approval, whereas others do not
or her gender will always be the same
Approximate Crisis Virtue  Gender Identity – awareness of one’s own
Age Developed gender and that of others, which typically
Play Age (3-5 Initiative Purpose occurs ages 2 and 3
yrs) versus Guilt  Gender Stability – awareness that gender
o Purpose – the courage to envision and pursue does not change
goals without being unduly inhibited by guilt or  Gender Consistency – the realization that a
fear of punishment girl remains a girl even if she has a short
o Maladaptive Tendency: Ruthlessness – don’t haircut and plays with trucks, typically occurs
care who they step in just to achieve their goals between ages 3 and 7
Early Childhood
o Gender-Schema Theory – it views children as d. Parallel Play – plays beside the other children
actively extracting knowledge about gender independently
from their environment before engaging in e. Associative Play – children talk, borrow, and
gender-typed behavior lend toys, follow each other around and play
 Place more emphasis on the influence of similarly
culture f. Cooperative or Organized Supplementary
 Children match their behavior to their Play – child plays in a group organized for some
culture’s view of what boys and girls are goal – to make something, play formal game, or
supposed to be and do dramatize a situation
o According to Walter Mischel, children acquire o Reticent Play – combination of Unoccupied and
gender roles by imitating models and being Onlooker categories is often a manifestation of
rewarded for gender-appropriate behavior shyness
o Social Cognitive Theory – observation enables o Social Play – involves interaction with peers
children to learn much about gender-typed o Constructive play – combines
behaviors before performing them sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic
representation
Play
o Games – activities that children engage in for
o Play is vitally important to development and has pleasure and that have rules
significant current and long-term functions o Sex Segregation is common among
o Enables children to engage with the world preschoolers and becomes more prevalent in
around them, use imagination, to discover middle childhood
flexible ways to use objects and solve problems, o Gender Segregation – a phenomenon wherein
and to prepare for adult roles girls tend to select other girls as playmates, and
o Cognitive Levels of Play: so boys
1. Functional Play (Locomotor Play or
Parenting
Sensorimotor Play)– simplest level; begins
during infancy, consisting of repeated practice o Discipline – refers to methods of molding
in large muscular movements character and of teaching self-control and
2. Constructive Play (Object Play or Practice acceptable behavior
Play) – use of objects or materials to make o External Reinforcements – may be tangible or
something intangible; it must be seen as rewarding and
3. Dramatic Play (Pretend Play, Fantasy Play, received fairly consistently after showing
Imaginative Play) – involves imaginary objects, desired behavior
actions, or roles o Internal Reinforcements – a sense of pleasure
o 6 Types of Play by Parten (1932) or accomplishment
a. Unoccupied Behavior – child does not seem to o Punishment, if consistent, immediate, and
be playing but watches anything of momentary clearly tied to the offense, may be effective
interest  Administered calmly, in private, and aimed at
b. Onlooker Behavior – child spends most time eliciting compliance not guilt
watching others play  Effective when accompanied with short
c. Solitary Independent Play – child plays alone explanation
 The desired behavior should be clear
Early Childhood
 Corporal Punishment – the use of physical o Instrumental Aggression – used aggression as
force with the intention of causing a child to a tool to gain access to a wanted object
experience pain but not injury for the  Overt (Direct) Aggression – boys; tend to
purpose of correction or control of the child’s openly direct aggressive acts at a target
behavior  Relational Aggression – more subtle;
o Inductive Techniques – designed to encourage indirect social aggression
desirable behavior or discourage undesirable
Relationships with other children
behavior by settling limits, demonstrating
logical consequences of the action, explaining, o The quality of siblings relationships tends to
discussing, etc. carry over to relationships with other children
 To consider how her actions would affect and the other way around
others o Only children are more motivated to achieve
o Power Assertion – intended to stop or and to have slightly better self-esteem
discourage undesirable behavior through
Moral Development
physical or verbal enforcement
o Withdrawal of Love – include ignoring, o Involves thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
isolating, or showing dislike for a child regarding rules and conventions about what
o Types of Child Maltreatment people should do in their interactions with other
1) Physical Abuse – infliction of physical injury people
2) Child Neglect – failure to provide child’s basic o According to Freud, children attempts to reduce
needs anxiety, avoid punishment, and maintain
3) Sexual Abuse parental affection by identifying with parents
4) Emotional Abuse – acts or omissions by and internalizing their standards of right and
parents or other caregivers that have caused or wrong, thus forming Superego
could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, or o Piaget’s Moral Reasoning
emotional problems 1. Heteronomous Morality – children think of
o Parenting Styles justice and rules as unchangeable properties of
a. Authoritarian – emphasizes control and the world, removed from the control of people
unquestioning obedience, high control, low  4-7 years of age
responsiveness  Consider its consequences, not its intentions
b. Permissive/Indulgent – make few demands,  “law is law”
warm, noncontrolling, low control, high  Immanent Justice – the concept that if a rule
responsiveness is broken, punishment will happen
c. Authoritative – emphasizes child’s individuality immediately
but also stress limits, high control, high  From 7-10 yrs old, children are in transition
responsiveness showing some features of the first stage of
d. Neglectful or Uninvolved – parents neglect moral reasoning and some stages of the
children; low control, low responsiveness second
o Altruism – motivation to help another person 2. Autonomous Morality – becomes aware with
with no expectation of reward the rules and laws created by people, and in
o Prosocial Behavior – voluntary, positive actions judging an action they consider the actor’s
to help others intentions as well as the consequences
Early Childhood
 10 yrs and older
 Intentions are considered
o Conscience – refers to an internal regulation of
standards of right and wrong that involves
integration of all three components of moral
development
end
Middle and Late Childhood
Physical Development verbal expression or counting out loud (jump
rope, hopscotch)
o Girls retain somewhat more fatty tissue than
 Rough-And-Tumble Play – wrestling,
boys
kicking, tumbling, grappling, and chasing,
o Tooth decay remains one of the most common
accompanied by laughing and screaming
chronic untreated conditions
 6-9 year olds need more flexible rules,
o Access to proper dental care is important for
shorter instruction time, and more free time
young children
to practice than older children
o Recommended calories per day for
 Older children are able to process instruction
schoolchildren 9 to 13 years of range from 1,400
and learn team strategies
to 2,600 depending on gender and activity level
o Body Image (how one believes one looks)
o Sleep: average of 10 hrs a day
becomes important early in middle childhood,
 Factors that affect children’s sleep:
especially for girls, which could lead to eating
 Exposure to media screens
disorders during adolescence (may be
 Physical inactivity
influenced by playing unrealistic dolls such as
 Secondhand smoke
barbie)
 Poor housing
o Causes of obesity:
 Vandalism
 Overweight parents or other relatives
 Lack of parks and playgrounds
 Poor nutrition
 Persistent snoring, at least 3x a week, may
 Eating fast food
indicate a child has sleep-disordered
 Sugar
breathing, which is linked to behavioral and
 Inactivity
learning difficulties
o Acute Medical Conditions – occasional, short-
o Faster and more efficient information
term conditions, such as infections and warts
processing and an increased ability to ignore
o Chronic Medical Conditions – physical,
distractions
developmental, behavioral, or emotional
o The overall volume of gray matter (linked with
conditions that persists 3 months or more such
IQ) increases pre-puberty and declines post-
as asthma and diabetes
puberty
o Asthma – chronic, allergy-based respiratory
 Decline is due to loss in the density of gray
disease characterized by sudden attacks of
matter
coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing
 Gray matter volume peaks 1 to 2 years earlier
 Caused by genetics, smoke exposure, low
in girls than boys
levels of vitamin D
 The loss in density of gray matter with age is
o Diabetes – one of the most common diseases in
balanced by another change – a steady
school-aged children
increase in white matter
 Characterized by high levels of glucose in the
o Motor Skills continue to improve in middle
blood as a result of defective insulin
childhood
production, ineffective insulin action, or both
 Children play games during recess which
 Type 1: result of an insulin deficiency that
usually involves socialization
occurs when insulin-producing-cells in the
 Boys typically play physically (running),
pancreas are destroyed
whereas girls loves games that involves
 Type 2: characterized by insulin resistance Piaget believed that children in the concrete

and used to be found mainly in overweight operations stage only used inductive
and older adults reasoning
o Hypertension – high blood pressure; children  Conservation
with hypertension are more likely to have  Principle of Identity: still same object even
learning disabilities and may have problems tho it has different appearance
with executive functioning  Principle of Reversibility: can picture what
o Accidental Injuries are the leading cause of would happen if he tried to roll back the clay
accidental death among school-age US Children of snake
 Decenter: ability to look at more than one
Cognitive Development
aspect of the two objects at once
Concrete Operational Stage by Jean Piaget  Numbers
o At about 7 years of age, children enter the stage Information-Processing Approach: Planning,
of Concrete Operations according to Jean Attention, Memory
Piaget
o Executive Function – the conscious control of
o Children can now think logically because they
thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish
can take multiple aspects of situations into
goals or solve problems
account
o As children develop the ability to mentally
o However, their thinking is still limited to real
juggle more concepts at the same time, they are
situations in the here and now
also able to develop more complex thinking and
o Better understanding of:
goal-directed planning
 Spatial concepts – allows to interpret maps and
o Development of the ability to regulate attention,
navigate environment
inhibit responses, and monitor errors
 Causality – makes judgement about cause and
o School-age children can concentrate longer
effects
than younger children and can focus on the
 Categorization
information they need and want while screening
 Seriation – arranging objects in a series
out irrelevant information
according to one or more dimensions
 Selective Attention – the ability to
 Transitive Inferences/Transivity – e.g. A <
deliberately direct one’s attention and shut
B<C
out distractions
 Class Inclusion – ability to see the
 Inhibitory control – the voluntary
relationship between a whole and its parts,
suppression of unwanted responses
and to understand categories within a whole
o The efficiency of working memory increases
 Inductive and Deductive reasoning
greatly in middle childhood
 Inductive Reasoning – involves making
o Mnemonic Device – strategy to aid memory
observations about particular members of a
o External Memory Aids – writing down things to
class of people, animals, objects, or events,
remember
and then drawing conclusions about the class
o Rehearsal – conscious repetition
as a whole
o Organization – placing information into
 Deductive Reasoning – starts with a general
categories
statement about a class and applies it to
particular members of the class
o Elaboration – children associate items with c. Contextual: practical, helps people deal with
something else their environment; the ability to size up
o Metamemory – the knowledge of and situation and decide what to do
reflection about memory processes o Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-
ABC-II) – an individual test for ages 3-18,
Psychometric Approach: Assessment of
designed to evaluate cognitive abilities in
Intelligence
children with diverse needs and from varying
o Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children cultural and linguistic backgrounds
(WISC-IV) – most widely used individual test
Language and Literacy
 Another common test is Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scales o Children use increasingly precise verbs, simile
o Otis-Lennon School Ability Test – a popular and metaphor
group tests for kindergarten thru Grade 12 o Rarely use passive voice
o Critics claim that the tests underestimate the o Understanding of rules of syntax becomes more
intelligence of children who are in ill health or sophisticated with age
do not do well on tests o Sentence structure continue to become more
o IQ tests do not directly measure native ability, elaborate
instead, they infer intelligence from what o Boys tend to use more controlling statements,
children already know negative interruptions, and competitive
o Cortical thickness is influenced by genes statements
o Theory of Multiple Intelligence – conventional o Girls phrase their remarks in a more tentative,
intelligence tap only three types of intelligence: conciliatory way and are more polite and
linguistic, logical-mathematical, and to some cooperative
extent spatial
Child in School
 Howard Gardner
 The other five, which are not reflected in IQ o Self-Efficacy – an individuals belief that they
scores are, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, can execute behaviors necessary to attain
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist specific performance
o Triarchic Theory of Intelligence – intelligence o Doing well in school increases self-efficacy
consists of three elements: o Girls tend to do better in school than boys
a. Componential: analytic aspect, determines o Children who are disliked by their peers tend to
how efficiently people process information; do poorly in school
helps people solve problems, monitor o Many educators argue that smaller classes
solutions, and evaluate results benefit students
b. Experiential: insightful or creative,
Educating Children with Special Needs
determines how people approach novel or
familiar tasks; enables people to compare o Intellectual Disability – significantly subnormal
new information with what they already cognitive functioning
know and to come up with new ways of o Intervention programs have helped many of
putting facts together those mildly or moderately disabled and those
considered borderline to hold jobs, live in the
community, and function in society
o Learning Disabilities – difficulty in learning that o According to Erikson, in the event that children
involves understanding or using spoken or are unable to obtain the praise of adults or peers
written language, and the difficulty can appear in their lives, or lack motivation and self-esteem,
in listening, thinking, reading, writing, and they may develop a feeling of low self-worth,
spelling thus develop a sense of inferiority
a. Dyslexia – most commonly diagnosed LD;
Approximate Crisis Virtue
severe impairment in their ability to read
Age Developed
and spell
School Age Industry vs. Competency
b. Dysgraphia – difficulty in handwriting
Age (5-13 yrs) Inferiority
c. Dyscalculia – developmental arithmetic o Developing a sense of industry involves learning
disorder how to work hard to achieve goals
o ADHD – most common mental disorder in o Maladaptive Tendency: Narrow Virtuosity –
childhood children that aren’t allowed to “be children” and
o Autism Spectrum Disorder – Pervasive push into one area of competence
Developmental Disorder o Malignant Tendency: Inertia – suffer from
 Autistic Disorder – severe developmental inferiority complexes
ASD that has onset during the first 3 yrs of o As children grow, they are more aware of their
life own and other people’s feelings
 Asperger Syndrome – mild ASD o Children are typically aware of feeling shame
o Creativity – the ability to see things in a new and pride and a clearer idea of the difference
light-to produce something never seen before between guilt and shame
or to discern problems others fail to recognize o Emotional Self-Regulation – voluntary control
and find new and unusual solutions of emotions, attention, and behavior
o Convergent Thinking – seeks single correct o Children tends to become more empathetic and
answer more inclined to prosocial behaviors
o Divergent Thinking – involves coming up with o Gender Stereotypes – broad categories that
wide array of fresh possibilities reflect general impressions and beliefs about
males and females
Psychosocial Development Child in the Family
Self o Coregulation – children and parents share

power
o At this time, judgement about the self become o The amount of autonomy parents provide
more conscious, realistic, balanced, and affects how their children feel about them
comprehensive as children form o Children are more apt to follow their parents’
representational systems wishes when they believe the parents are fair
o Representational Systems: broad, inclusive and concerned about the child’s welfare
self-concepts that integrate various aspects of o Parents of school-age children tends to use
the self inductive techniques as a form of discipline
o She can compare her real self with her ideal self o Children exposed to high levels of family conflict
and can judge how well she measures up to are more likely to show a variety of responses
social standards in comparison with others
that can include internalizing or externalizing o Peer groups helps children learn how to adjust
behaviors their needs and desires to those of others, when
 Internalizing behaviors – anxiety, fear, to yield, and when to stand firm
depression-anger turned inward o Children can gauge their abilities and gain a
 Externalizing behaviors – aggression, clearer sense of self-efficacy
fighting, disobedience, hostility o Prejudice – unfavorable attitudes towards
o If family conflict is constructive, it can help outsiders
children see the need for rules and standards o Children can be negatively affected by
and learn what issues are worth arguing about discrimination
and what strategies can be effective o Girls are more likely to engage in cross-gender
o The more satisfied a mother is with her activities
employment status, the more effective she is o Positive Nomination – asking children who
likely to be a parent they like to play with, they like the most, or who
o Tho poverty can harm children’s development, they think other kids like the most
high-quality parenting can buffer children from o Negative Nomination – opposite of positive
potential consequences of poverty nomination
o Children tend to do better in families with two o Sociometric Popularity – measures that is
continuously married parents than in composed of positive nominations, negative
cohabiting, divorced, single-parent, or step- nominations or no nominations
families o Popular Children – frequently nominated as
o Parent’s relationship, the quality of their bestie and rarely disliked by peers
parenting, and their ability to create a favorable o Average children – receive an average no of
family atmosphere affect children’s adjustment both positive and negative nominations
more than their marital status does o Neglected Children – infrequently nominated
o Children whose parents later divorce show more as bestie but not really disliked
anxiety, depression, or antisocial behavior prior o Rejected Children – disliked by peers
to the divorce than those parents who stay o Controversial Children – frequently nominated
married both bestie and most disliked
o Children do better with joint custody o Unpopular children can make friends but they
o Co-parenting has been consistently linked to tend to have fewer friends and they prefer
positive child outcomes younger ones
o Most adopted children fall within the normal o Instrumental Aggression – aimed at achieving
range of development an objective
o Children adopted after the age 1 were more  Proactive
likely to show lower school achievement  View force and coercion as effective ways to
o Having a warm and supportive sibling get what they want
relationship is associated with better adjustment o Hostile Aggression – intended to hurt another
and better emotion regulation person
o Sisters are higher in sibling intimacy than  Reactive
brothers or mixed-sex dyads o Hostile Attributional Bias – quickly conclude,
in ambiguous situations that others were acting
Child in the Peer Group
with ill intent and are likely to strike out in 1. Pre-conventional Reasoning – lowest level
retaliation or self-defense
 Children interpret good and bad in terms of
o Bullying – aggression that is deliberately,
rewards and punishments
persistently directed against a particular target
 Or they are nice to others so that others will
be nice for them
Mental Health 2. Conventional Reasoning – individuals abide by

certain standards, but they are the standards of the
o Oppositional Defiant Disorder – pattern of
others, either by parents or the society
defiant, disobedience, and hostility towards
adult authority figures lasting at least 6 months 3. Post-conventional Reasoning – highest level
o Conduct Disorder – persistent, repetitive
 Morality is more internal
pattern, beginning at an early age of aggressive,
 Individuals engage deliberate checks on their
antisocial acts, such as truancy, setting fires,
reasoning to ensure that it meets high ethical
habitual lying, etc.
standards
o School Phobia – unrealistic fear of going to
school
o Separation Anxiety Disorder – excessive
anxiety for at least 4 weeks concerning
separation from home or from people to whom
the child is attached
o Social Phobia or Social Anxiety – extreme fear
and/or avoidance of social situations such as
speaking in class
o Generalized Anxiety Disorder – children worry
about everything, tends to be self-conscious,
self-doubting, and excessively concerned with
meeting the expectations of others
o Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder – obsessed by
repetitive, intrusive thoughts, image, or o Kohlberg placed too much emphasis on moral
impulses, or may show compulsive behaviors thought and not enough for moral behaviors
o Childhood Depression – disorder of mood that o Care Perspective – moral perspective that views
goes beyond normal, temporary sadness people in terms of their connectedness with
o Resilient Children – are those who weather others and emphasizes interpersonal
circumstances that might blight others, who communication, relationship with others, and
maintain their composure and competence concerns fir ithers
under challenge or threat o Domain Theory of Moral Development –
o Two most important protective factors: Good there are different domains of social knowledge
family relationship and cognitive functioning and reasoning, including moral, social
Moral Development conventional, and personal domains
o Social Conventional Reasoning – focuses on
o Kohlberg’s Moral Development Levels: conventional rules that have been established
by social consensus in order to control behavior
and maintain the social system
o Moral Personality – pattern of moral
characteristics that is distinctively their own
a. Moral Identity: when moral notions and
moral commitments are central to their lives
b. Moral Character – has willpower, desire, and
integrity to stand up to pressure, overcome
distractions and disappointments, and
behave morally
c. Moral Exemplars – people who have lived
exemplary moral lives
end
Adolescence
Introduction o Secular Trend – children may be starting puberty
o Puberty – process that leads to sexual maturity or earlier but spending more time to reach full sexual
fertility maturity
o Adolescence offer opportunities for growth in  May be due to higher standard of living,
cognitive and social competence, autonomy, self- undernutrition, health, exposure to endocrine-
esteem, and intimacy disrupting chemicals
o Psychologist believe the tendency to engage in  May also because they were firstborn, being
risky behaviors may reflect the immaturity of the born to a single mother and harsh maternal
adolescent brain parenting practices
Physical Development  However, it was concluded that children who
Puberty are exposed to high stress when young tend to
o How Puberty Begins? reach pubertal milestone earlier than those who
 Hypothalamus releases elevated levels of are not
Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone which triggers o Early maturation has been liked to adult health
the rise of Lutenizing Hormone and Follicle- issues such as cancers, diabetes, and
stimulating Hormone cardiovascular disease
 Increased FSH = onset of menstruation o Early puberty can be a predictor of adult obesity
 LH = initiates the release of testosterone and and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) –
androstenedione disorder causing acne, irregular periods, excess
o Puberty can be broken down into two basic stages: hair growth, and the growth of cysts on ovaries
a. Adrenarche – adrenal glands secretes o Effects of early or late maturation are most likely to
increasing androgens be negative when adolescents are much more or
(Dehydroepiandrosterone) between ages 6-8 less developed than peers
yrs old The Adolescent Brain
 DHEA influences the growth of pubic, axillary, o A steady increase in white matter, nerve fibers that
and facial hair connect distant portions of the brain, permits faster
b. Gonadarche – maturation of sex organs, which information and better communication across
triggers the second burst of DHEA productions hemispheres
o Primary Sex Characteristics – organs necessary for o Increase in white matter occurs early in women
reproduction (e.g., ovaries, vagina, testes, penis) than men
o Secondary Sex Characteristics – physiological signs o By mid- to late adolescence, young people have
of sexual maturation that do not directly involve sex fewer but stronger, smoother, and more effective
organs (e.g., changes in voice, breast enlargement, neuronal connections, making cognitive
broad shoulders) processing more efficient
o Adolescent Growth Spurt – rapid increase in o Development of the brain starts are the back and
height, weight, and muscle and bone growth that moves forward
occurs during puberty o The underdevelopment of frontal cortical systems
o Spermarche – first ejaculation; principal sign of by comparison may help explain why adolescent
sexual maturity in boys tend to seek thrills and novelty and why many of
o Menarche – first menstruation (monthly shedding them find it hard to focus on long-term goals
of tissues from the lining of the womb) o Peers tend to exert a stronger influence in
adolescence in part because of a heightened
Adolescence
neurobehavioral susceptibility to social reward span during which teens should be particularly
cues and concurrent immaturity in the cognitive sensitive to environmental influences
control system o Alcohol interacts with inhibitory and excitatory
Physical and Mental Health receptor systems that are developing in
o Exercise affects both physical and mental health adolescence, making them more sensitive to
o A sedentary lifestyle may result in increased risk of rewarding effects of alcohol and less sensitive to its
poor mental health, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and negative features
an increased likelihood of heart disease and cancer o Those who drink show changes in key prefrontal
in adulthood areas, including middle frontal gyrus, superior
o Children generally go to sleep later and sleep less frontal gyrus, left frontal cortex, frontal pole, and
on school days the older they get left frontal gyrus – all areas involved in executive
o Sleep deprivation can sap motivation and cause control
irritability, and concentration and school o Being female is a risk factor for depression
performance can suffer o This may be due to biological changes associated
o After puberty, the secretion of melatonin takes with puberty
place later at night, making it difficult for o Motor Vehicle collisions are the leading cause of
adolescent to go to bed early accidental deaths among US teenagers
o Overweight teenagers tend to be in poorer health o Homicides are the third leading cause
than their peers and are more likely have difficulty o Suicide is the second cause of death
attending school or engaging in strenuous activity o Young people who consider or attempt suicide
o Body Image – one’s perception, thoughts, and tend to have histories of emotional illness
feelings about one’s body Cognitive Development
 Girls tend to express the highest level of body Aspects of Cognitive Maturation
satisfaction when underweight, some o Adolescents enter what Piaget called the highest
dissatisfaction when average weight, and the level of cognitive development – Formal
most dissatisfaction when overweight Operations
 Anorexia Nervosa – distorted body image, o Adolescents move away from their reliance on
severely underweight, may be withdrawn or concrete, real-world stimuli, and develop the
depressed, and afraid of losing control and capacity for abstract thought
becoming overweight o Usually around 11 yrs old
 Bulimia Nervosa – short-lived binge eating and o They can now use symbols to represent other
then purging by self-induced vomiting, strict symbols, hidden messages, imagine possibilities,
dieting, excessive exercise, etc. create hypotheses
 Binge-eating disorder – binging without o Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning – methodical,
purging of food scientific approach to problem solving, and it
o A recent trend is the abuse of nonprescription characterizes formal operations thinking
cough and cold meds (dextromethorphan)  Involves ability to develop, consider, and test
o Binge Drinking – consuming five or more drinks on hypotheses
one occasion  Piaget attributed it to a combination of brain
o When the brain is undergoing significant structural maturation and expanding environmental
and functional change, might be a period of the life opportunities
Adolescence
o According to David Elkind, the new way of thinking The child/individual is good to AVOID PUNISHMENT
of adolescents, the way they look at themselves because punishment equates, they must have done
and their world, is as unfamiliar to them as their something wrong
reshaped bodies, and they sometimes feel just
awkward in its use “What will happen to me if I do this?”
o Adolescents can keep many alternatives in mind at Stage 2: Individualism and Exchange
the same time yet may lack effective strategies for Children recognize that there is not just one right
view that is handed down by authorities. They
choosing them
conform to rules out of self-interest and
o Self-Consciousness – adolescents can think about
consideration what others can do for them.
thinking – their own and the other people’s
o Imaginary Audience – a conceptualized “observer” “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
who is concerned with a young person’s thoughts Level II: Conventional Morality (Morality of
and behavior as he or she is Conventional Role Conformity) (8-13 yrs old)
o Adolescents often assume everyone is thinking Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationship
about the same thing they are thinking about: The child is good in order to be seen as a good
themselves person by others. Approval of others is important.
o Personal Fable – belief that they are special, their
experience is unique, and they are not subject to e.g., Donating to the victims of the recent typhoon
the rules that govern the rest of the world and posting it on social media so everyone knows
 Underlies much risky, self-destructive behavior they did something good.
 Brain immaturity biases adolescent toward risky Stage 4: Maintaining Social Order
The child becomes aware of the rules of the society,
decision making
so judgement concern obeying the rules to uphold
o Adolescents also become more skilled in social
the law and avoid guilt.
perspective-taking, the ability to tailor their speech
to another person’s POV e.g., Crossing the pedestrian crossing or going on a
o Fuzzy-Trace Theory Dual-Process Model – full stop when the traffic light turned red.
decision making is influenced by two cognitive Level III: Postconventional Morality (Morality of
systems: verbatim analytical and gist-intuitional, Autonomous Moral Principles) (14-older yrs old)
which operate in parallel Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
Moral Development Child becomes aware that while rules might exist for
o Adolescents are better able than younger children the betterment of everyone, there are times you have
to take another person’s perspective, to solve to bend the law for self-interests.
social problems, to deal with interpersonal
relationships, and to see themselves as social e.g., Some lawyers study the law so in case they need
beings it, they can find a loophole so they won’t be
convicted.
o Heinz’s Dilemma – the cancer patient and the
Stage 6: Universal Principles
greedy drug dealer, most famous example of
People developed their own set of moral guidelines,
Lawrence Kohlberg’s approach to studying moral
which may or may not fit the law. The principles apply
development
to everyone. They do what they think is right
Level I: Preconventional Morality (3-7 yrs old) regardless of legal restrictions or opinion of others.
Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
Adolescence
e.g., LGBTQIA++ community are still being supported from teachers and other students, and
discriminated and just tolerated by the society, but if the curriculum and instruction are meaningful
certain someone thinks that they deserve better. and appropriately challenging and fit their
Thus, they do everything to recognize the rights of interests, skill level, and needs
the people of the minority. o Dropout reasons:
o Cosmic Stage – people consider the effect of their  Low teacher expectations
actions not only on other people but on the  Differential treatment
universe as a whole  Less teacher support
o Just because a person is capable of moral  Perceived irrelevance of the curriculum to
reasoning does not necessarily mean the person culturally under-represented groups
actually engages in moral reasoning o Self-Efficacy beliefs help shape the occupational
o Kohlberg’s System is biased against non-western options students consider and the way they
cultures prepare for careers
o Gilligan argued that men viewed morality in terms o Service Learning – form of education that
of justice and fairness. However, women placed promotes social responsibility and service to the
caring and avoiding harm as the higher goals than community
justice. Psychosocial Development
o Girls tend to show more prosocial behavior and The Search for Identity
empathetic concern than boys o Identity – coherent conception of the self, made up
o Peers could increase or decrease the occurrence of of goals, values, and beliefs to which the person is
prosocial behavior solidly committed
o Volunteering is a common form of prosocial  Forms as young people resolve three major
behavior issues: the choice of an occupation, the
Educational and Vocational Issues adoption of values to live by, and the
o School – offers opportunities to learn info, master development of a satisfying sexual identity
new skills, and sharpen old skills Approximate Crisis Virtue
o Educational Practices are based on the assumption Age Developed
that students are, or can be motivated to learn Adolescence Identity vs. Fidelity
o Boys are more likely to fail to achieve a baseline of (14-20 yrs) Identity/Role
proficiency in reading, mathematics, and science Confusion
o Girls do better on verbal tasks that involve writing o Adolescence is a time-out period (Psychosocial
and language usage Moratorium), which is the ideal for the
o Boys do better in activities that involve visual and development of identity, allowing young people
spatial functions helpful in math and science the opportunity to search for commitments to
o Spillover – experiences in different contexts which they could be faithful
influence each other o Fidelity – sustained loyalty, faith, or a sense of
o A good middle or high school has an orderly, safe belonging to a loved one, friends or companions
environment, an adequate material resources, a  Identification with a set of values, an ideology, a
stable teaching staff, and a positive sense of religion, a political movement, or an ethnic
community group
o Adolescents are more satisfied with school if
allowed to participate in making rules, if they feel
Adolescence
 Inability to develop fidelity may have an o Brains of gay men and straight women are more
unstable sense of self, insecure, and fail to plan symmetrical, whereas lesbians and straight men,
for themselves and the future the right hemisphere is slightly larger
o A man is not capable of real intimacy until he has o Transgender – biological sex at birth and gender
achieved a stable identity, whereas women define identity are not the same
themselves through marriage and motherhood o Transsexual – people who seek medical assistance
o Crisis – a period of conscious decision-making to permanently transition to their preferred gender
 Process of grappling with what to believe and o Two major concerns about adolescent sexual
who to be (Erikson) activity are the risks of contracting STIs and
o Commitment – a personal investment in an pregnancy
occupation or ideology o Sexually Transmitted Infections – diseases spread
o Maladaptive Tendency: Fanaticism – believes that by sexual contact
his “ways” are the only ways  Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) or Genital Warts
o Malignant Tendency: Repudiation – repudiate their – leading cause of cervical cancer in women
membership in the world of adults and, even more,  Most curable STIs are Chlamydia and
they repudiate their need for an identity Gonorrhea
o 4 types of Identity status:  Genital Herpes – chronic, recurring, often
1. Identity Achievement: crisis leading to commitment painful, and highly contagious disease
2. Foreclosure: commitment without crisis  Hepatitis B – affects the liver causing both acute
 Result of exploring choices but accepting and chronic issues that can lead to cirrhosis,
someone else’s plans for her life liver cancer or death
 Uncritically accepted others’ opinions  Trichomoniasis – parasitic infection
3. Moratorium: crisis with no commitment yet  Human Immunodeficiency Virus – causes
 Actively grappling with his identity and trying to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS),
decide the path he wants his life to take transmitted thru bodily fluids
 Exploration  Gonorrhea – caused by bacterium Neisseria
4. Identity Diffusion: no commitment, no crisis gonorrhoeae, spread by contact between
 Not seriously considered options and has infected moist membranes, characterized by
avoided commitments discharge from penis or vagina and painful
o Young women are more competent at intimacy urination
than men  Syphilis – appearance of a sore where syphilis
o Cultural Socialization – includes practices that ente the body
teach children about their racial or ethnic heritage, o Teenage moms are likely to have premature or
promote cultural customs and traditions, and foster dangerously small and are at heightened risk of
racial/ethnic and cultural pride other birth complications
Sexuality Relationships with Family, Peers, and Adult Society
o Sexual Identity – seeing oneself as a sexual being, o Teenage years have been called a time of
recognizing one’s sexual orientation, and forming adolescent rebellion
romantic or sexual attachments o Family conflict, depression, and risky behavior are
o Sexual Orientation – whether the person is more common than during other parts of the life
attracted to person of other sex (Heterosexual), span
same sex (Bisexual), or of both sexes (Bisexual)
Adolescence
o Negative emotions and mood swings are most behaviors in early childhood and may have been
intense during early adolescence harsh or inconsistent with their discipline
o Individuation – listening to different music from end
parents, dressed differently, and felt it was
reasonable to keep private things from parents
 Involves the struggle for autonomy and
differentiation, or personal identity
o Teens are more likely to disclose information when
parents maintain a warm, responsive family climate
and provide clear expectations without being
overly controlling
o Adolescents tends to be less close to siblings than
to friends
o Three levels of peer groupings:
1) Dyadic – one-to-one
2) Cliques – structured group of friends who do
things together
3) Crowd – based on personal interactions but on
reputation, image, or identity
o Friendships during this stage tends to become
more reciprocal, more equal, and more table
o Greater intimacy, loyalty, and sharing with friends
mark a transition toward adultlike friendships
o Girl friendships are more intimate
o Adolescents are no better able to express their
private thoughts and feelings and consider another
person’s POV
Antisocial Behavior and Juvenile Delinquency
o Juvenile Delinquency – adolescent who breaks the
law or engages in behavior considered as illegal
o Antisocial behaviors tends to run in families
o Individuals who have low arousal levels may be
prone to antisocial behaviors as a form of sensation
seeking to achieve arousal levels a normal person
experiences
o An early onset type (beginning by age 11) tends to
lead to chronic juvenile delinquency in adolescence
o Milder late onset type, tends to arise temporarily in
adolescence
o Parents of children who become chronically
antisocial may have failed to reinforce good
Young Adulthood
o Three criteria defines “Adulthood” o High levels of chronic stress are related to a host of
 Accepting responsibility for oneself physical and immunological impairments
 Making independent decisions o Stress may lead young adults to engage in risky
 Becoming financially independent behaviors, eat unhealthily, have poor quality of
o Emerging Adulthood – represents a period of time sleep, etc.
during which young adults can figure out who they o Emotion-Focused Coping – manage emotions by
are and what they want to be refusing to think about an issue or reframing the
 Characterized by: identity exploration, event in the positive light
instability, self-focused, feeling in-between, and o Problem-Focused Coping – involves addressing an
age of possibilities issue head-on and developing action-oriented
Physical Development ways of managing and changing a bad situation
Health and Fitness o College-age women more likely to use emotion-
o The habits that young adults develop during this focused strategies
time in the life span tend to become ingrained over o Among college students, family stress, academic
time and are highly predictive of the likelihood they stress, is associated with high levels of insomnia
will experience good health at older ages o Sleep Deprivation affects not only the physical
o Genes affect the action of the hormone receptors, health but also cognitive, emotional, and social
stress response systems, and synaptic plasticity functioning as well
may influence a person’s ability to respond o Primary cognitive consequence is impaired
adaptively to stressful events attention and vigilance
o Poor diets and lack of physical activity are among o Chronic sleep deprivation can seriously worsen
the leading causes of preventable diseases, cognitive performance
overweight, and obesity o Sleep deprivation has been linked to depression
o WHO recommends Mediterranean-style diet rich and insomnia and sleep disturbances also are
in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and unsaturated related to the risk of postpartum depression
fats o Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death,
o Increase snacking, availability of inexpensive fast illness and impoverishment worldwide
foods, supersized portions, labor-saving o A tendency to addiction may be genetic
technologies, high-fat diets, and sedentary o College students tend to drink more frequently and
recreational pursuits explains obesity epidemic more heavily than their noncollegiate peers
o Bariatric Surgery – any surgery that is carried out o Risky Drinking – consuming more than 14 drinks a
to induce weight loss, and it generally involves week or 4 drinks on any single day for men and
rerouting or removing parts of the stomach or more than 7 drinks a week or 3 days on any single
small intestine day for women
o The most common eating disorders in Young o Social Integration – active engagement in a broad
Adulthood are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia range of social relationships, activities, and roles
Nervosa o Social Support – refers to material information, and
o People who are physically active maintain healthy psychological resources derived from the social
body weight, builds muscles, strengthen heart and network on which a person can rely for help in
lungs, lowers blood pressure, protects against coping with stress
heart disease, etc.
Young Adulthood
o Alcoholism – long term physical condition o Premenstrual Syndrome – disorder that produces
characterized by compulsive drinking that a person physical discomfort and emotional tension for up
is unable to control to 2 weeks before menstrual period
o The most common habit-forming drugs include  Response to monthly surges of female
marijuana and prescription painkillers, followed by hormones
cocaine and heroin  More typical in women in their 30s or older
o Adolescence and emerging adulthood appear to  Dysmenorrhea – caused by contractions of the
be sensitive periods for the onset of depressive uterus which are set in motion by prostaglandin
disorders o Infertility – inability to conceive a baby
o Adolescents who are depressed and who  Common causes in women: failure to produce
depression carries over into adulthood, tend to ova, mucus in the cervix or disease of the
have had significant childhood risk factors, such as uterine lining
neurological or developmental disorders, Cognitive Development
dysfunctional or unstable families, and childhood Perspective on Adult Cognition
behavioral disorders o Reflective Thinking – active, persistent, and careful
o Adult-onset group tend to have had low levels of consideration of information or beliefs
childhood risk factors and to possess more  Continually question facts, draw inferences, and
resources to deal with the challenges of emerging make connections
adulthood  Frequently engage in critical thinking
Sexual and Reproductive Issues  At approx. 20-25 years of age, the brain forms
o Pre-marital sex has been increasing for adults over new neurons, synapses, and dendritic
18 connections, and the cortical regions that
o Acceptability of homosexual unions is growing, handle higher-level thinking become fully
especially in younger cohorts and in women myelinated
o Sexual Script – stereotyped pattern of role o Postformal Thought – characterized by the ability
prescriptions for how individuals should behave to deal with inconsistency, contradiction, and
sexually compromise
o Emerging adults tend to have more sexual partners  Draws on intuition and emotion as well as logic
than in older age groups, but they have sex less to help people cope with situations such as
frequently social dilemmas
o The most common contraceptive are the birth  Acknowledges that there may be more than
control pills, female sterilization, and condoms one valid way of viewing an issue and that the
o Casual Sex is fairly common world is made up of shades of gray
o However, Sexual assaults are problem o Schaie: A lifespan Model of Cognitive
o Rape – forcible sexual intercourse Development
o Date or Acquaintance Rape – coercive sexual Acquisitive Stage (Childhood and Adolescence)
activity directed at someone with whom the Children acquire info and skills mainly for their own
perpetrator is at least casually acquianted sake or as preparation in society
o Most lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Achieving Stage (Late teens or early twenties to
persons are clear about their sexual identity thirties)
They use what they know to pursue goals
Responsible Stage (Late 30s to early 60s)
Young Adulthood
Use their minds to solve practical problems o Distance Learning – courses are delivered via mail,
associated with responsibilities to others internet, or other technological means
Executive Stage (30s or 40s through middle age) o Family support seems to be a key factor in college
Responsible for societal systems or social movements adjustment
Reorganizational Stage (end of middle age, o As students gain more experience and think more
beginning of late adulthood) deeply, they begin to realize that much knowledge
Enter retirement reorganize their lives and intellectual and many values are somewhat relative
energies around meaningful pursuits that take place o Commitment within Relativism – students decide
of paid work
for themselves, ideally, what they want to believe
Reintegrative Stage (Late Adulthood)
o Whether a person completes college may depend
Focus on the purpose of what they do and
not only on motivation, academic aptitude, and
concentrate on tasks that have most meaning for
them preparation, and ability to work independently, but
Legacy-Creating Stage (advanced old age) also on social integration and social support
Older people may create instructions for the o People seem to grow in challenging hobs
disposition of prized possessions, make funeral o Substantive Complexity – the degree of thought
arrangements, provide oral histories, or write their life and independent judgement it requires – and a
stories as legacy for their loved ones person’s flexibility in coping with cognitive
o Componential Knowledge – analytical abilities demands
o Experiential Intelligence – original thinking, o Spillover Hypothesis – cognitive gains from work
experience-based carry over to nonworking hours
o Contextual Intelligence – knowing your way around Psychosocial Development
o Tacit Knowledge – inside information, know-how, Emerging Adulthood: Patterns and Tasks
“hacks”, not formally taught or openly expressed; o Traditionally, adulthood was defined by markers
commonsense knowledge of how to get agead such as moving out of the family home, marriage,
 Includes self-management, management of children, full-time employment, or establishment of
tasks, and management of others career
o Emotional Intelligence – refers to four related skills: o Early marriage and family formation are associated
the abilities to perceive, use, understand, and with poverty and substance use
manage or regulate emotions to achieve goals o Emerging adults with the highest well-being were
(Salovey & Mayer, 1990) those who were not yet married, had no children,
 Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence attend college, and lived away from their childhood
Test) home
Moral Reasoning o Emerging adulthood offers Moratorium – time out
o In Kohlberg’s Postconventional Morality, people from developmental pressures and allow young
became more capable of fully principled moral people the freedom to experiment various roles
reasoning, and that they made moral decisions on and lifestyles
the basis of universal principles of justice o Recentering – name for the process that underlies
o Culture affects the understanding of morality the shift to an adult identity
Education and Work Stage 1: Beginning
o Gap Year – taking a year off from formal education Individual is still embedded in the family of origin, but
or the workplace expectations for self-reliance and self-directedness
begin to increase
Young Adulthood
Stage 2: During o Timing-of-Events Model – holds that the course of
Individual remains connected to but no longer development depends on when certain events
embedded within the family of origin occur in people’s lives
Stage 3: Usually by Age 30 o Normative Life Events (Normative Age-Graded
Marked independence from the family of origin and Events) – those typically happen at certain times of
commitment to a career, a partner, and possibly life
children o Social Clock – society’s norms for appropriate
o Moratorium – self-conscious crisis that ideally leads timing of life events
to a resolution and identity achievement status o Trait Models – psychological models that focus on
o Many young adults seem to do little active,
the measurement and examination of different
conscious deliberation, instead of taking passive
traits
approach or taking the lead from the parents o McCrae’s Five-Factor Model – Openness,
o Positive parent-child relationships during early
Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness,
adolescence predict warmer and less conflicted Neuroticism
relationships with both parents when children
o People’s personalities remain similar does not
reach age 26
mean no change occurs
o The view that these young adults who “fail to
launch” and do not move out of their parents’
homes are selfish slackers who refuse to grow up is
largely inaccurate
Personality Development o Typological Approach – seeks to complement and
o Normative-Stage Models – theoretical approaches expand trait research by looking at personality
that hold that adults follow a basic sequence of functioning whole
age-related psychosocial changes o Ego-Resilient – well-adjusted, self-confident,
Approximate Crisis Virtue articulate, attentive, helpful, Cooperative, task-
Age Developed focused
Young Intimacy vs. Love o Overcontrolled – shy, quiet, anxious, dependable,
Adulthood (21- Isoclation tend to keep thoughts to themselves and withdraw
39 yrs) from conflict, subject to depression
o According to Erikson, if adults cannot make deep o Undercontrolled – active, energetic, impulsive,
personal commitments to others, they risk stubborn, and easily distracted
becoming overly isolated and self-absorbed o Three Attachment Styles:
o As young adults work to resolve conflicting 1. Secure – have positive views in relationships,
demands for intimacy and competitiveness, they find it easy to get close to others, and are not
develop an ethical sense, which Erikson considered overly concerned about romantic relationships
a marker of adulthood 2. Avoidant – hesitant about getting involved in
o Love – a mutual devotion between partners who romantic relationships and once they do, they
have chosen to share their lives and have children distance themselves to their partners
o Maladaptive Tendency: Promiscuity – tendency to 3. Anxious – demand closeness, less trusting,
become intimate too freely, too easily more emotional, jealous, and possessive
o Malignant Tendency: Exclusion – tendency to Foundations of Intimate Relationships
isolate oneself from everyone
Young Adulthood
o Intimate relationship requires self-awareness, Found in long-term relationship that have lost both
empathy, the ability to communicate emotions, intimacy and passion
resolve conflict, and sustain commitments e.g., arranged marriage (justin-hailey charot)
o Friendships during young adulthood are much less Companionate Love
stable because people relocate more frequently Intimacy and Commitment present
o They tend to center on work, sharing confidence Long-term, committed friendship, no physical
and advice attraction
o Women have more intimate friendships than men e.g., Couple with no sex life charot, BESTIEEEEES
Fatuous Love
o Men are more likely to share information and
Passion and Commitment only
activities
Couple makes commitment without allowing
o Fictive Kin – treated as family members despite a
themselves to develop intimacy
lack of blood relationship
e.g., Fuck Buddies
o Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love – the way
Consummate Love
love develops is a story. The loves are its authors, All three components completed
and the story they create reflects their personalities e.g., SANA ALL
and their conceptions of love. Marital and Nonmarital Lifestyles
o Three elements of love: o Some young adults stay single because they have
a. Intimacy – emotional element, involves self- not found the right mate, some are single by
disclosure, which leads to connection, warmth, choice
and trust o Friends With Benefits – relationships of friendships
b. Passion – motivational element, based on inner blended with physical intimacy, but little
drives that translate physiological arousal into commitment
sexual desire o Gay and Lesbian relationships mirror heterosexual
c. Commitment – cognitive element, the decision relationships
to love and make the relationship work  More likely to negotiate household chores on a
(exclusive or marry) more egalitarian basis
Nonlove  Resolve conflicts in more positive ways
No intimacy, passion, nor commitment  Less stable
Casual Interactions  Lesbian couples are more likely to divorce than
e.g., friends, acquaintances
gay couples (AAAAWWW
Liking
CALZONAAAAAAAA)
Intimacy present
o Cohabitation – unmarried couple involved in sexual
There is closeness, understanding, emotional
relationship live together
support, affection, bondedness, and warmth
o Most young adults plan to marry, but only when
e.g., ka-talking stage mo na ayaw makipag-meet up
at walang label they feel ready, and they see getting on their feet
Infatuation financially and establishing themselves in a stable
Passion present jobs or careers
Strong physical attraction o Married people tend to be happier than unmarried
e.g., crushes, someone na naka-salubong mo sa people
kanto tapos crush mo agad o Sex impacts relationship quality
Empty Love o Women tend to place more importance on
Commitment only emotional expressiveness than men do
Young Adulthood
Parenthood
o Marital satisfaction typically declines during the
child-raising years, and the more children, the
greater decline
o Many couples find their relationship becoming
more traditional following the birth of a child, with
the woman often engaging in the bulk of
caregiving and housekeeping
o Combining work and family roles is good for both
men’s and women’s mental and physical health
and has positive effects on the strength of their
relationship
When Marriage Ends
o The most cited reasons are incompatibility, lack of
emotional support, lack of career support, abuse,
premarital cohabitation, and infidelity
o Couples are more likely to stay married if they have
children. However, it can create more conflict and
does greater damage
o Adults with divorced parents are more likely to
expect that their marriage will not last
(commitment issues)
o Divorce tends to reduce long-term well-being
o People who were thought they were happily
married tend to react more negatively and adapt
more slowly to divorce
o Remarriage is the triumph of hope over experience
o Families in which both parents bring children into
marriage are marked by higher levels of conflict
o Remarriages are more likely to end in divorce than
second marriage
end
Middle Adulthood
o Middle Adulthood – years between ages 40 and 65 o Menopause – when a woman permanently stop
o Middle age can be a time of decline and loss, or it can ovulating and menstruating and can no longer
be a time of mastery, competence, and growth conceive a child
o “Afternoon of Life” – Carl Jung  One year after the last menstrual period
o Balancing work and relationship responsibilities in  Perimenopause (Climacteric) – beginning of
the midst of physical and psychological changes menopause; woman’s production of mature ova
associated with aging begins to decline, and the ovaries produce less
Physical Development estrogen
Physical Changes  Hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, sleep
o Age-related visual problems occur mainly in five disturbances, mood disturbances, urinary
areas: near vision, dynamic vision, sensitivity to incontinence, cognitive disturbances, somatic
light, visual search, and speed of processing visual symptoms, sexual dysfunction
information  Menopause Hormone Therapy and SSRIs
o Presbyopia – difficulty focusing on near objects o At age 30, men’s testosterone levels, sperm count,
o Myopia – nearsightedness genetic quality declines
o Presbycusis – gradual hearing loss o Men at this age also experiences sexual dysfunction
 Men experience hearing loss quickly than women due to diabetes, obesity, hypertension, depression,
 Noise experienced at the work site etc.
o Sensitivity to taste and smell also declines in midlife Physical and Mental Health
o Some loss of muscle strength is usually noticeable by o Hypertension – high blood pressure, increasing
age of 45 important concern from midlife and the world’s
o Basal Metabolism – minimum amount of energy leading preventable cause of early death
that your body needs to maintain vital functions o Cancer has replaced heath disease as the leading
while resting cause of death between ages 45 and 64
o Manual Dexterity generally becomes less efficient o Type 2 Diabetes – mature onset, the most common
with age type; develops after age 30; glucose levels rise
o Aging brain works more slowly and have difficulty because the cells lose their ability to use insulin
juggling multiple tasks o Type 1 Diabetes – juvenile-onset, or insulin-
o The ability to ignore distractions declines with age dependent, in which the levels of blood sugar rises
o Decrease in the volume of gray matter and myelin because the body does not produce enough insulin
begins to break down with age o Excess weight in middle age increases the risk of
o Physical activity and fitness are associated with impaired health and death
higher white and gray matter volume o People with low socioeconomic status tend to have
o Meditation affords cognitive benefits to middle aged poorer health, shorter life expectancy, more activity
adults and may help offset declines limitations due to chronic disease, and lower well-
o Skin may become less taut and smooth as the layer being than people with higher SES
of fat below the surface becomes thinner, collagen o Women have a higher life expectancy than men and
molecules more rigid, and elastin fibers more brittle lower death rates, may be due to genetic protection
o Middle-aged people tend to gain weight as a result of given by the second X chromosome and before
accumulation of body fat and lose height due to menopause, to beneficial effects of estrogen on both
shrinkage of the intervertebral disks cardiovascular and cognitive health
o Vital Capacity – the maximum volume of air the o However, women report being in fair or poor health
lungs can draw in and expel – may begin to diminish than men
at about age of 40 o Osteoporosis – bones become thin and brittle as a
o Middle-aged adults are less likely to fall asleep at result of calcium depletion (due to falling of estrogen
daytime, need less sleep to maintain alertness, and levels)
slow reductions in slow wave sleeps at night  Good lifestyle habits can reduce risk, if started
early in life
Middle Adulthood
o Breast cancer is responsible for the largest number of o Mature adults show increasing competence in
cancer-related deaths among women solving problems in their chosen field
 Risks: overweight, alcoholism, early menarche  Specialized Knowledge or Expertise – form of
and late menopause, history of breast cancer in crystallized intelligence that is related to the
the family, no children, did not breast-feed, or late process of encapsulation
pregnancy  Adults do not usually depend on the brain’s
 Treated by removal of part or all breast and information-processing-machinery because some
chemotherapy adult’s fluid intelligence becomes encapsulated
 Mammography – diagnostic x-ray of the breasts (dedicated in handling specific kinds of
o The most troublesome physical effects of menopause knowledge)
are linked to reduce levels of estrogen and hormone  Expert thinking often seems automatic and
therapy intuitive
 Hormone Therapy – treatment with artificial  Such intuitive, experience-based thinking is also
estrogen a characteristic of Postformal Thought
o Stress – the damage that occurs when perceived o An important feature of postformal thought is its
environmental demands or stressors exceed a integrative nature – adults interpret what they read,
person’s capacity to cope with them see, or hear in terms of its meaning for them
 Stress in midlife may come from role changes, Creativity
career transitions, grown children leaving home, o Intelligence seems to be more strongly influenced by
and the renegotiation of family relationships genetic processes than creativity does
 Women experience more stress than men and to o Creativity seems to be the product of particular social
be more concerned about stress contexts as well as individual proclivities
 The classic stress response – fight or flight – may  Develop from diverse experiences that weaken
be more characteristic of men, activated in part by conventional constraints and challenging
testosterone experiences that strengthen the ability to
o The brain interacts with all of the body’s biological persevere and overcome obstacles
systems, feelings and beliefs affect bodily functions,  Characteristics: self-starters, risk-takers,
including the functioning of the immune system independent, nonconformist, unconventional,
Cognitive Development high in emotional intelligence, high in positive
Measuring Cognitive Abilities in Middle Age affect, and open to new ideas and experiences
o Middle-Aged people are in their prime  Divergent thinking peaks at late 30s
o Individuals who scored the highest in the study of Work and Education
Schaie tended to have high educational levels, o Phased Retirement – people reduce works hours or
flexible personalities, intact families, pursue days, gradually moving into retirement over a
cognitively complex occupations and other number of years
activities, to be married to someone more cognitively o Bridge Employment – switching to another
advanced, to be satisfied with their accomplishments company or new line of work
o Fluid Intelligence – ability to solve novel problems, o If work, both on job and home, could be made
such as problems that require little or no previous meaningful and challenging, more adults might
knowledge retain or improve cognitive abilities
 Peak in young adulthood o Employers see benefits of workplace education in
 Many older adults perform in the real world at improved morale, increased quality of work, better
high levels despite declines in fluid intelligence teamwork and problem solving, and greater ability to
o Crystallized Intelligence – ability to remember and cope with new technology and other changes in
use information acquired over a lifetime, such as workplace
academics o Literacy – fundamental requisite for participation
 Increase through middle age and often until the not only in the workplace but in all facets of a
end of life modern, information-driven society
The Distinctiveness of Adult Cognition Religion
Middle Adulthood
o Religion – organized set of beliefs, practices, rituals, o People who do not find generativity run the risk of
and symbols that increases an individual’s becoming self-absorbed, self-indulgent, and stagnant
connection to a sacred or transcendent other o Stagnation – disconnected from the communities
o Religiousness – degree of affiliation with an because of their failure to contribute
organized religion, participation in its rituals and o Women report higher generativity than men
practices o For men, having a child early is associated with
o Spirituality – involves experiencing something greater generativity
beyond oneself in transcendent manner o Maladaptive Tendency: Overextension – they no
o Women have consistently shown stronger interest in longer allow themselves to relax and rest
religion and spirituality than men o Malignant Tendency: Rejectivity – no longer
o Viktor Frankl said that the three most distinct human participating or contributing in the society
qualities are spirituality, freedom, and responsibility o According to Levinson, the transition to middle
 Spirituality, in his view, refers to a human being’s adulthood lasts about five years and requires the
uniqueness of spirit, philosophy, and mind adult male to come to grips with the four major
 Having a sense of meaning in life can lead to conflicts: (1) being young vs old; (2) being
clearer guidelines for living one’s life and destructive versus being constructive; (3) being
enhanced motivation to take care of oneself and masculine vs. feminine; (4) being attached to others
reach goals vs. separated from them
 Four main needs for meaning that guide how o Midlife as a crisis, arguing that middle-aged adults is
people try to make sense of their lives: suspended between past and the future, trying to cope
i. Need for Purpose – goals and fulfillments with this gap that threatens life’s continuity
ii. Need for Values – enable people to decide The Self at Midlife
whether certain acts are right or wrong o Midlife Crisis – changes in personality and lifestyle
iii. Need for a sense of efficacy – belief that they can during middle forties
control their environment  Many people realize that they will not be able to
iv. Need for Self-Worth fulfill the dreams of their youth, or that
Psychosocial Development fulfillment of their own mortality
Change at Midlife  People who do have crisis at midlife generally
o In middle adulthood, conscientiousness is the highest also have crises at other times in their lives as well
maybe due to result of work experiences  Manifestation of a neurotic personality rather
o However, unemployed ones will show decrease in than developmental phase
agreeableness and conscientiousness o Turning Point – psychological transition that
o Middle-aged men who remarry tend to become less involves significant change or transformation in the
neurotic, those who divorce decrease in extraversion perceived meaning, purpose, or direction of a
o Generativity – involved finding meaning through person’s life
contributing to society and leaving a legacy for future  Triggered by major life events, normative
generations changes, or a new understanding of past
 Parenting, teaching, mentorship, productivity, experience
self-generation or self-development o Midlife Review – involves recognizing the
 “Maintenance of the work” finiteness of life and can be a time of taking stock,
 Associated with prosocial behaviors discovering new insights about the self, and spurring
o Care – widening commitment to take care of midcourse corrections in the design and trajectory of
persons, products, and the ideas one has learned to one’s life
take care for o Developmental Deadlines – time constraints on
Approximate Crisis Virtue o Ego Resiliency – the ability to adapt flexibly and
Age Developed resourcefully to potential source of stress
Middle Generativity vs. Care o Identity Process Theory (IPT) – physical
Adulthood (40- Stagnation characteristics, cognitive abilities, and personality
65 yrs)
Middle Adulthood
traits are incorporation into identity schemas (Susan satisfaction followed by a plateau, then further,
Krauss Whitbourne) slower declines over the longer term
 Assimilation – interpretation of new information o One of the negative impact of marital satisfaction is
via existing cognitive structure the birth of a child
 Accommodation – involves changing cognitive o Couples who are sexually satisfied are generally
structures to more closely align with what is satisfied with their marriages
encountered o When older adults cohabitate, their relationships are
 Identity Assimilation – involves holding onto a more stable than those of younger cohabiting adults
consistent sense of self in the face of new o Higher divorce rates at middle age
experiences that do not fit the current o Divorce is associated with elevated chance of
understanding of the self chronic health conditions and mortality in both
 Identity Accommodation – involves adjusting sexes, but specially in men
the identity schema to fit new experiences o Long-standing marriages may be less likely to break
 Identity Balance – stable sense of self while up than more recent ones
adjusting their self-schemas to incorporate new o Marital Capital – the longer a couple is married, the
information more likely they are to have built up joint financial
o Narrative Psychology – views the development of assets, to share the same friends, to go through
self as a continuous process of constructing one’s life important experiences together, and to get used to the
story emotional benefits that marriage can provide
o Generativity Scripts – feature redemption and o Marriage is associated with encouragement of
associated with psychological well-being health-promoting behaviors
o Increase in positive emotions through early o One factor that seems to affect relationship quality in
adulthood to old age gays and lesbians is whether or one they have
Relationships at Midlife internalized society’s negative views on
o Social Convoy Theory – people move through life homosexuality
surrounded by Social Convoys in whom they rely on o The quality of midlife friendships often makes up for
assistance, well-being, and social support what they lack in quantity of time spent
 Social Convoys – circles of close friends and Relationships with Maturing Children
family o Empty Nest – occurs when the youngest child leaves
 Characteristics of the person together with home
characteristics of that person’s situation influence o In a good marriage, departure of children generally
the size and composition of the convoy, the increases marital satisfaction
amount and kinds of social support a person o Revolving Door Syndrome or Boomerang
receives, and the satisfaction derived from this Phenomenon – returning to parent’s home,
support sometimes with their own families
o Socioemotional Selectivity Theory – social o Prolonged Parenting may lead to intergenerational
interaction has 3 main goals: (1) it is a source of tension when it contradicts parent’s normative
information; (2) it helps people develop and maintain expectations
a sense of self; and (3) it is a source of emotional Other Kinship Ties
well-being o Positive relationships with parents contribute to a
o Older adults increasingly seek out others who make strong sense of self and to emotional well-being at
them feel good midlife
o Relationships are the key to well-being o Filial Crisis – adults learn to balance love and duty
Consensual Relationships to their parents with autonomy in a two-way
o The most common pattern for marriages was for relationship
marriages to be broken by death and for survivors to o Sandwich Generation – caught in squeeze between
remarry the competing needs of their own children and the
o Marriages generally follow a developmental emerging needs of their parents
sequence, with initial sharp declines in marriage
Middle Adulthood
o Caregiver Burnout – a physical, mental, and
emotional exhaustion that can affect adults who care
for aged relatives
o Respite Care – giving caregivers some time off
o Relationships with siblings who remain in contact
can be central to psychological well-being in midlife
o Grandmothers have closer, warmer, more
affectionate relationships with their grandchildren
o Kinship Care – grandparents that provides care but
don’t become foster parents or gain custody, have no
legal status and few rights
end
Old Age
o Ageism – prejudice or discrimination based on age o Programmed Senescence Theory – aging also may
o Primary Aging – gradual, inevitable process of be influenced by specific genes “switching off” after
bodily deterioration that begins early in life and age-related losses occur (Epigenesis)
continues through years irrespective of what o Epigenetic changes do not involve changes in the
people do to stave it off (nature) underlying genetic code; rather, they involve
o Secondary Aging – results from disease, abuse, changes in how genes are expressed
and disuse – factors that are often within a person’s o Telomeres become shorter as the cell divides (cells
control (nurture) can divide for no more than 50 times [ Hayflick
o Young Old – 65-74 yrs old Limit ])
o Old Old – 75-84 yrs old o Once cells can no longer replicate, the body loses
o Oldest old – 85 and above its ability to repair damaged tissue and thus, begin
o Functional Age – how well a person functions in a to age
physical and social environment in comparison o Endocrine Theory – biological clocks act through
with others of the same chronological age hormones to control the pace of aging
o Gerontology – study of the aged and aging o Immunological Theory – programmed decline in
processes immune system functions leads to increased
o Geriatrics – branch of medicine concerned with vulnerability to infectious disease and thus to aging
aging and death
Physical Development o Evolutionary Theory – Aging is an evolved trait thus
Longevity and Aging genes that promote reproduction are selected at
o Life Expectancy – the age to which a person born higher rates than genes that extend lives
at a certain time and place is statistically likely to o Variable-Rate Theories – aging is the results of
live, given his or her current age and health status random processes that vary from person to person
o Longevity – actual length of life of members of a (Error theories)
population o Wear-and-Tear Theory – cells and tissues have vital
o Mortality Rates – death rates parts that wear out
o Human Life Span – longest period that members o Free-Radical Theory – Accumulated damage from
of our species can live oxygen radicals causes cells and eventually organs
o Women live longer and have lower mortality rates to stop functioning
at all ages than men o Rate-of-Living Theory – the greater an organism’s
o Women’s longer lives also have been attributed to rate of metabolism, the shorter its life span
their greater tendency to take care of themselves o Autoimmune Theory – Immune system becomes
and to seek medical care, the higher level of social confused and attacks its own body cells
support they enjoy, and the rise in women’s o Survival Curve – represents the percentage of
socioeconomic status in recent decades people or animals alive at various age
o Senescence – the decline in body functioning o The most fruitful area for longevity interventions
associated with aging should be focused on risk reduction and living a
o Genetic Programming Theories – propose that healthy lifestyle
people’s bodies age according to instructions built Physical Changes
into genes and that aging is a normal part of o Older skin tends to become paler and less elastic,
development varicose veins appears in legs
Old Age
o They become shorter due to disks between spinal may experience longer intervals between erections
vertebrae atrophy or may have difficulty doing it
o Lungs become less effective because of reductions o Women have difficulty in arousal, orgasm, etc.
in Lung volume, atrophy in muscles involve in Physical and Mental Health
breathing, and reductions in the ability of cilia o Lifelong program of exercise may prevent many
o Elderly adults are more likely to suffer from physical changes once associated with normal
Arrythmia (irregular heartbeat), the muscle walls aging
thicken, and the valves that control the flow of o Inactivity contributes to heart disease, diabetes,
blood in and out of the heart may no longer open colon cancer, and high blood pressure
completely o Dementia – the general term for physiologically
o Reserve Capacity – backup capacity that helps caused cognitive and behavioral decline sufficient
body system function to their utmost limits in times to interfere with daily activities
of stress  Alzheimer’s – most common type, caused by
o In late adulthood, the brain gradually diminishes in specific changes in the brain (abnormal build up
volume and weight, particularly in the frontal and of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaque in
temporal regions the brain)
o Hippocampus (memory area) also shrinks a. Amnesia – memory loss
o Decrease in the number of dopamine b. Aphasia – inability to express through
neurotransmitters due to losses of synapses speech
o Older eyes need more light to see, are more c. Agnosia – inability to recognize familiar
sensitive to glare, and may have trouble locating objects, tastes, smells
and reading signs d. Apraxia – misuse of objects because failure
o Cataracts – cloudy or opaque areas in the lends of to identify them
the eyes, are common in older adults e. Anomia – inability to remember the names
o Age-Related Macular Degeneration – leading of things
cause of visual impairment in older adults; the  Vascular – caused by strokes or other issues of
retinal cells in the macula degenerate over time, blood flow in the brain; may be due to diabetes
and the center of the retina gradually loses the and high cholesterol; have strokes like episodes
ability to sharply distinguish fine details  Lewy Bodies – have movement or balance
o Glaucoma – irreversible damage to the optic nerve (stiffness or trembling); daytime sleepiness,
caused by increased pressure in the eye confusion, or staring; trouble sleeping at night
o Loss of strength is greater for lower than for upper and visual hallucinations
limbs  Frontotemporal – leads to personality and
o Falls, the most common cause of fracturs, become behavior changes and problems in language
increasingly common with age skills
o Functional Fitness – exercises or activities that  Huntington’s – resulted from gene mutation
improve daily activity which impacts movement, behavior, and
o Older people tend to sleep and dream less than cognition; personality also changes, loss of
before driven by the normative changes in coordination, difficulty in swallowing and
circadian rhythms speaking
o Men typically take longer to develop erection and  Parkinson’s – uncontrollable movements,
to ejaculate, may need more manual stimulation, tremor, stiffness, slow movement, prevalent in
Old Age
men than women; nerve cells in basal ganglia o Older adults seems to have difficulty encoding new
become impaired; L-Dopa as treatment episodic memories because of difficulties in
Cognitive Development forming and later recalling a coherent and
Aspects of Cognitive Development cohesive episode
o Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – measure the o Storage also deteriorate to the point retrieval
intelligence of older adults becomes difficult
 Older adults tend not to perform as well as o Wisdom – exceptional breadth and depth of
younger adults in WAIS but the difference is knowledge about the conditions of life and human
primarily processing speed and nonverbal affects and reflective judgement about the
performance application of knowledge
 Classic Aging Pattern – scores drop with age in  May involve the lead to transcendence,
performance scale and slightly on other scales detachment from preoccupation with the self
 For tasks that do not requires speed, declines  The ability to navigate the messiness of life
are less likely  Older adults tend to make the most of their
o Cognitive deterioration often may be related to abilities, often exploiting gains in one area to
disuse offset declines in another
o Older adults have more extensive repertoires of o Cognitive Mechanics – the hardware of the mind
strategies to apply to interpersonal situations than and reflect the neurophysiological architecture of
younger adults do, and they are more likely to the brain that was developed thru evolution
chose a highly effective strategies  Speed and accuracy, visual and motor memory,
o Older adults also tend to have more difficulty with discrimination, comparison, and categorization
switching attention  Decline begins as soon as early midlife
o Sensory Memory – brief storage of sensory o Cognitive Pragmatics – culture-based software
information program of the mind
o Working Memory – short-term storage of  Reading and writing, language, educational
information being actively process qualifications, professional skills, life skills
o Tasks that require only rehearsal, show a little  Decline in old age
decline o Selective Attention – focusing on specific aspect of
o Tasks that requires reorganization or elaboration experience that is relevant and ignoring irrelevant
show greater falloff info
o Episodic Memory – linked to specific events; most o Divided Attention – concentrating on more than
likely to deteriorate with age one activity at the same time
o Semantic Memory – consists of meanings, facts, o Sustained Attention – focused and extended
and concepts accumulated over lifetime learning; engagement with an object, task, event, or some
little decline other aspect of the environment
o Procedural Memory – motor skills and habits that o Executive Attention – involves planning actions,
once learned; relatively unaffected by age allocating attention to goals, detecting and
o Language problems are probably results of the compensating for errors, monitoring progress on
problems accessing and retrieving information tasks, etc.
from the memory o Source Memory – ability to remember where one
o Dysfunction in frontal lobes and hippocampus may learned something
cause false memories
Old Age
o Prospective Memory – remembering to do o Positivity Effect – older adults are more likely to pay
something in the future attention to and then remember positive events
Psychosocial Development than negative events
Theory and Research on Personality Development o Terminal Drop – rapid decline in well-being and life
o For Erik Erikson, the crowning achievement of late satisfaction approx. 3-5 yrs before death
adulthood is Ego Integrity or integrity of the self – o Coping – adaptive thinking or behavior aimed at
need to evaluate and accept their lives so as to reducing or relieving stress that arises from
accept death harmful, threatening, or challenging conditions
Approximate Crisis Virtue o Cognitive-Appraisal Model – people respond to
Age Developed stressful or challenging situations on the basis of
Old Age (65- Ego Integrity vs. Wisdom two types of analyses:
older) Despair 1. Primary Appraisal – people analyze situation
o Wisdom – informed and detached concern with life and decide
itself in the face of death itself 2. Secondary Appraisal – people evaluate what
 Accepting one has lived, without major regrets can be done to prevent harm
o Maladaptive Tendency: Presumption – presumes o Older adults tend to use more emotion-focused
ego integrity without actually facing the difficulties coping than younger people
of old age o Older adults are more religious than younger
o Malignant Tendency: Disdain – contempt of life, adults
one’s own or anyone’s o Disengagement Theory – normal part of aging
o Stability declines in late adulthood involves gradual reduction in social involvement
o Increases in agreeableness, self-confidence, and greater preoccupation with the self
warmth, emotional stability, and conscientiousness o Activity Theory – the more active older people are,
and declines in neuroticism, social vitality, and the better they age
openness to experience o Continuity Theory – people’s need to maintain
o Why do people show normative changes in connection between past and present is
personality characteristics? Some researchers emphasized, and activity is viewed as important,
argue that these processes are driven primarily by not for its own sake but because it represents
intrinsic genetic differences between people that continuation of previous lifestyle
unfold over time o Selective Optimization with Compensation –
o Personality traits influence behavior, and behavior involves developing abilities that allow for
influences health maximum gain as well as developing abilities that
Well-Being in Late Adulthood compensate for decline and could lead to loss
o In general, older adults have fewer mental  Older adults conserve resources by selecting
disorders and are happier and more satisfied with meaningful goals, optimizing the resources they
life than younger adults have to achieve it, and compensating for the
o Happiness tends to be high in early adulthood, losses by using resources in alternative ways to
declines until people reach 50 years of age, and achieve their goals
then tends to rise again until 85 Practical and Social Issues related to Aging
o As people get older, they tend to seek out activities o Retirement is a single event but a dynamic
and people that give them emotional gratification adjustment process that is best conceptualized as
o They are also better at regulating emotions a form of decision making
Old Age
o Five broad categories of resources that help o Social Convoy Theory – aging adults maintain their
determine how well a person adjusts to retirement: level of social support by identifying members of
1. Individual attributes such as health and financial their social network who can help them
status o Socioemotional Selectivity Theory – as remaining
2. Pre-retirement job-related variables such as job time becomes short, older adults choose to spend
stress time with people and in activities that meet
3. Family-related variables such as marriage immediate emotional needs
quality and dependents Marital Relationships
4. Retirement transition-related variables o Married couples who are still together in late
5. Postretirement activities adulthood are more likely than middle-aged
o Volunteering during retirement has been positively couples to report higher satisfaction and fewer
associated with good health and negatively adjustment problems in their marriages
associated with depression, functional limitations, o Close marital relationship can moderate the
and mortality negative psychological effects of functional
o Phases of Retirement: disabilities by reducing psychological distress
1. Pre-Retirement – begin to think seriously about the o Widowhood has been increasingly associated with
life they want for themselves in retirement and whether increased mortality, with sharpest declines seen in
they are financially on track to achieve it the first 6 months following the death of a spouse
2. Retirement – makes the transition from full-time work Nonmarital Lifestyles and Relationships
to retirement they’ve planned o Old never-married adults are more likely to prefer
3. Contentment – positive phase when retirees get to single life and less likely to be lonely
enjoy the fruits of a lifetime of labor (Honeymoon o Less likely to experience “Single Strain” – chronic
period) practical and emotional stressor attributed to the
4. Disenchantment – they may experience some of the lack of intimate partner
emotional downsides of retirements such as loneliness, o Gay and Lesbian relationships in late life tend to be
disillusionment, and a feeling of uselessness strong, supportive, and diverse
5. Reorientation – people try to figure who they are and Nonmarital Kinship Ties
map their place in the world as a retiree o Older adults who receive more help from their
6. Routine – people accept their situation and settle into children than they give them, over time, are more
a new set of routines likely to show increases in psychological stress
o Aging In Place – staying in their own home o Relationships with siblings tend to be among the
o Group living arrangements for Older Adults long lasting of all relationships
a. Retirement Hotel o To mourn for a sibling is to mourn for the lost
b. Retirement Community completeness of the original family within which
c. Shared Housing one came to know oneself and can bring home
d. ECHO (Elder Cottage Housing Opportunity) one’s own nearness to death
Housing end
e. Congregate Housing
f. Assisted-Living Facility
g. Foster-Care Home
h. Continuing Care Retirement Community
Personal Relationships in Late Life
Death
The Many, Changing Meanings of Death and Dying
o Cultural aspects of death include care of and o Chronic Grief – distressed for a long time
behavior toward the dying and the dead, the setting, o Resilience – the mourner shows a low and gradually
mourning customs and rituals diminishing level of grief in response to the death of
o Top causes of deaths in 1900s are: Pneumonia, a loved one
Influenza, Tuberculosis, Diarrhea, and Enteritis o By age 4, children build a partial understanding of
o Today, the most common are heart disease and the biological nature of death
cancer o Adjusting to loss is more difficult if a child had a
o Thanatology – study of death and dying troubled relationship with the person who died
o Hospice Care – personal, patient- and family- o They do not understand death, but they understand
centered, compassionate care for the terminally ill loss
o Palliative Care – includes relief of pain and suffering, o Often, teens turn to peers for support
controlling of symptoms, alleviation of stress, and o Young adults will find their entire world collapsing at
attempts to maintain a satisfactory quality of life once when they knew they are dying instead of
Facing Death and Loss dealing with other issues
o Terminal Drop or Terminal Decline – specifically to o Middle-Aged and Older adults are more prepared
a widely observed decline in cognitive abilities with death
shortly before death o Terror Management Theory – human’s unique
o Near-Death Experience – often involving a sense of understanding of death, in concert with self-
being out of the body or sucked into a tunnel and preservation needs and capacity for fear, results in
visions of bright lights or mystical encounters common emotional and psychological responses
 Linked to stimulation or damage of various brain when mortality, or thoughts of death are made
areas, most notably in bilateral frontal and salient
occipital areas Significant Losses
 Generally experienced as positive as a result of o Bereavement for women can lead to headaches,
the release of endorphins memory problems, difficulty with concentration,
o Five Stages of Death dizziness, indigestion, loss of appetite, or chest pain
1. Denial o Distress of loss can be catalyst for introspection and
2. Anger growth
3. Bargain o Losing a parent can push adults into resolving
4. Depression important developmental issues: achieving a
5. Acceptance stronger sense of self and more pressing, realistic
o Grief – emotional response that generally follows awareness of their own morality, along with greater
closely on the heels of death sense of purpose, responsibility, commitment, and
o Bereavement – response to the loss of some whom interconnectedness to others
a person feels close o After death of a parent, siblings tends to be closer
o Grief Work – working out of psychological issues o Losing a child weakens and destroys the marriage if
connected with grief often takes the following path: the marriage is not strong
1. Shock and Disbelief Medical, Legal, and Ethical Issues: “The Right to Die”
2. Preoccupation with the memory of the dead o Brain Death – neurological condition which states
person the person is brain dead when all electrical activity
3. Resolution of the brain has ceased for a specific period of time
o Recovery Pattern – mourner goes high to low  Higher portions of the brains dies sooner than
distress lower parts which facilitates breathing and
o Delayed Grief – moderate or elevated initial grief, heartbeat
and symptoms worsen over time
Death
 That is why your brain could be dead but you still
have heartbeat for the mean time
o Euthanasia – good death, intended to end suffering
or to allow terminally ill person to die with dignity
 Passive – involves withholding or discontinuing
treatment that might extend the life of a
terminally ill patient such as life support
 Active – “mercy killing” involves action taken
directly or deliberate to shorten life
o Advance Directive – contains instructions for when
and how to discontinue futile medical care
 Living will or a more formal legal document
called a durable power of attorney
 Durable Power of Attorney – appoints another
person if the maker of the document becomes
incompetent to do so
o Assisted Suicide – physician or someone else helps
a person bring about a self-inflicted death
Finding Meaning and Purpose in Life and Death
o Life Review – a process of reminisce that enables a
person to see the significance of his or her life
o Within a limited life span, no person can realize all
capabilities, gratify all desires, explore all interest, or
experience all the richness that life has to offer
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Developmental Psychology

Heredity, Pre-natal, Childbirth

o Fast Mapping – allows a child to pick up Psychosocial Development

Psychosocial Development Child in the Family

Self o Coregulation – children and parents share

Mental Health 2. Conventional Reasoning – individuals abide by

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