Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 67

Psychology Core Concepts 7th Edition

Zimbardo Solutions Manual


Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://testbankdeal.com/dow
nload/psychology-core-concepts-7th-edition-zimbardo-solutions-manual/
INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL

Sylvia S. Robb, M.S.


Hudson County Community College

Psychology: Core
Concepts
Seventh Edition

Philip G. Zimbardo
Stanford University
Robert L. Johnson
Umpqua Community College
Vivian McCann
Portland Community College
Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

CHAPTER 7
DEVELOPMENT OVER THE LIFESPAN

▲ TABLE OF CONTENTS
To access the resource listed, click on the hot linked title or press CTRL + click
To return to the Table of Contents, click on click on ▲ Return to Table of Contents
To return to a section of the Lecture Guide, click on ► Return to Lecture Guide

► LECTURE GUIDE
 7.1 What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess? (p. 392)
 7.2 What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood? (p. 397)
 7.3 What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence? (p. 406)
 7.4 What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face? (p. 410)
 Chapter Summary (p. 414)

▼ FULL CHAPTER RESOURCES


 Teaching Objectives (p. 414)
 Key Questions (p. 415)
 Core Concepts (p. 415)
 Psychology Matters (p. 415)
 Songs to Launch the Lecture (p. 415)
 Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics (p. 416)
 Activities and Exercises (p. 435)
 Handouts (p. 455)
 Web Resources (p. 461)
 Video Resources (p. 462)
 Multimedia Resources (p. 464)
 CRS “Clicker” Questions (p. 466)
 PowerPoint Slides (p. 466)
 Accessing Resources (p. 466)

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 391


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

LECTURE GUIDE

7.1 WHAT INNATE ABILITIES DOES THE INFANT POSSESS? (text p. 268)
Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:
 Measuring Intelligence in Infants (p. 416)
 Talk That Talk, Baby (p. 417)
 Ultrasound Pictures (p. 417)
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
 Constructing a Life Line to Illustrate Erikson’s Stages of Development (p. 435)
 Evaluating Baby Toys (p. 436)
 Newborn Reflexes (p. 436)
 Reflexes and Motor Development (p. 436)
 Students as Infants (p. 437)
 Take a Stand (p. 437)
Video Resources
 NEW MyPsychLab Video Series (p. 464)
Multimedia Resources in MyPsychLab (www.mypsychlab.com)

7.1 LECTURE OUTLINE: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
(text p. 268)

Development over the Lifespan


 Developmental psychology is the psychology of growth, change and consistency from
conception to death.
 The questions for developmental psychologists are these:
o How do individuals predictably change throughout the lifespan, and what roles
do heredity and environment play in these changes?
o What is the relative weight of each of these factors?
o How might the two factors interact to ultimately produce a given characteristic?
 Two methods for studying the influences of heredity (nature) and environment (nurture)
are twin studies and adoption studies.

7.1 KEY QUESTION


What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.1 CORE CONCEPT
Newborns have innate abilities for finding nourishment, avoiding harmful situations, and
interacting with others – all of which are genetically designed to facilitate survival.

I. Prenatal Development
 The prenatal period, the developmental period between conception and birth, is a time of
furious development that readies the organism for life outside the womb.
 Development typically occurs over the span of nine months and is divided into three
phases: the germinal, embryonic and fetal stages.

A. Three Phases of Prenatal Development


 Shortly after conception, the fertilized egg, or zygote begins to grow through cell
division.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 392


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 During the germinal phase, one cell divides many times, and when the number of
cells reaches about 150, the zygote implants itself in the lining of the uterus.
 At this point, it becomes an embryo , now connected to the mother’s body and thus
affected by anything she eats or drinks or to which she is otherwise exposed.
 During the embryonic phase, the genetic plan determines how all the organs that
will ultimately be part of the newborn starts to form, and in accordance with this
plan, cells start to specialize as components of particular organ systems.
 One example of specialization, or differentiation, is the development of anatomical
sex; if the embryo’s plan contains two X chromosomes, the child will be female, but
if it contains an X and a Y chromosome, a male will develop.
 After the eighth week, the developing embryo is called a fetus, and in the fetal stage,
spontaneous movements and basic reflexes begin to appear.
 By the 16th week, the brain is fully formed and the fetus can feel pain.
 By the 27th week, the fetus can hear sounds outside the womb, enabling the ability to
recognize certain sounds and rhythms shortly after birth.
 The brain continues to develop, growing new neurons at a rate of 250,000 per minute
until at birth the baby’s brain contains some 100 billion neurons.

B. Teratogens: Prenatal Toxins


 During prenatal development, the placenta is the organ that surrounds the fetus and
serves ad a conduit between mother and child.
 The placenta lets nutrients in and takes waste out, and while it can screen out some
harmful substances, some toxic substances, teratogens can still get in.
 Teratogens include viruses, certain drugs and chemicals, some herbs, nicotine and
alcohol.
 Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) can occur in children of mothers who drink alcohol
during pregnancy; it is a leading cause of mental retardation
o Mothers who consume one or more drinks per day risk fetal alcohol exposure,
which can impair development of language ability, memory, learning and other
cognitive and physical functions.
o In some cases, fewer than five drinks per week can result in lower IQ and
significantly retarded physical development.
 Smoking by the mother, which results in the exposure of the fetus to nicotine, and
ingestion of some commonly taken herbs and supplements, can result in children
born with lower birth weight, learning deficits, and a greater risk of sudden infant
death syndrome.

II. The Neonatal Period: Abilities of the Newborn Child


 The term neonatal period refers to the first month after birth.
 Newborns are born with all five senses working, as well as a variety of behavioral
reflexes they use to respond to and manipulate their environment.
 These many abilities effectively help the newborn survive and thrive in their
environment.

A. Sensory Abilities in the Newborn


 Newborns can respond to taste: the sweeter the fluid, the more forcefully and
continuously the infant will suck.
 This and other responses to food are part of the newborn’s ability to seek healthy
nourishment.
 Heredity, which biases a newborn’s sense of taste, also programs a preference for
human faces over other visual patterns.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 393


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 Newborns are nearsighted, which helps them recognize their mother’s face, usually
close by, in a few days after birth.
 Their focal point lengthens over time, and by about seven weeks infants’ visual
pathways and motor coordination enable them to develop eye contact with a
caregiver – an important element in establishing a relationship.
 They have visual preferences as abilities: while color vision is present at birth, their
ability to distinguish them becomes dramatically better a month or two later; they
also prefer to look at objects with a high degree of contrast, such as checkerboards.
 At three months, babies can perceive depth.
 Infants seem to possess a sense of “more” or “less”, comparing a current observed
quantity with that observed in the past, and later providing the foundation for the later
development of more complex skills, such as those required for arithmetic.
 Infants prefer human voices over other sounds, female voice to male, and the sound
and rhythms of their own language to other nonnative languages; within a few weeks
after birth they can recognize the sound of their mother’s voice.

B. Social Abilities
 Infants are built for social interaction and will imitate other people’s behavior, a
response known as mimicry.
 Synchronicity, the close coordination between the gazing, vocalizing, touching and
smiling of infants and caregivers, is the means through which infants interact with
their caregivers, beginning immediately after birth.
 These early interactions, the combined result of nature (mirror neurons) and nurture
(positive reinforcement gained through mimicry, form the basis for the later
development of empathy.

C. Innate Reflexes
 Babies are born with a set of innate reflexes, providing a biological platform for later
development.
 Among these are the postural reflex, allowing babies to sit with support; the
grasping reflex, enabling them to cling to a caregiver; the rooting reflex, enabling
them to turn their heads toward anything that strokes their cheeks and suck on it; and
the stepping reflex, in which babies stretch their legs in a “walking” motion when
they are held upright.
 All of these, plus the cooing, smiling and crying that build social relationships, are
highly adaptive and promote survival.

III. Infancy: Building a Neonatal Blueprint


 Following the neonatal period, the child enters infancy a period that lasts until about 18
months of age, the time when speech begins to become better developed.
 It is a time of rapid, genetically programmed growth and still-heavy reliance on reflexes
and “instinctive” behaviors.

A. Neural Development
 When the prenatal brain focused on producing new brain cells, many of the neurons
are not fully connected with each other at birth.
 Stimulation from the environment assumes an important role in creating and
consolidating connections.
 The more frequently the fledgling neurons are utilized, the more permanent they
become.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 394


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

1. Sensitive Periods
 Not only are the early years the most productive time for brain development in
many areas, including language and emotional intelligence, in some domains
such as hearing and vision, stimulation must occur during a specific window of
opportunity, called sensitive periods, or the ability will not develop normally.

2. Brain Development
 As the dendrites and axons grow and connect, the total mass of neural tissue in
the brain increases rapidly.
 After a 50 percent increase in the first two years and after doubling in the first 4
years, in the next ten years the types of experiences the infant is exposed to will
largely determine which regions and functions of the brain become most
developed.
 By about 11 years of age, unused connections begin to be trimmed away in a
process called synaptic pruning.
 This process does not destroy the neurons themselves but instead returns them to
an uncommitted state, awaiting a role in future development.

B. Maturation and Development


 Sitting, crawling and walking, as well as other processes of physical development, all
occur on their own biological time schedules.
 Psychologists use the term maturation for the unfolding of these genetically
programmed processes of growth and development over time.
 When organisms are raised under adequate environmental conditions, their
maturation follows a predictable pattern.
 While maturation dictates the general time frame in which an individual becomes,
biologically ready for a new phase, heredity can speed up or slow down the process, a
principle known as the genetic leash.

C. Contact Comfort
 As infants develop greater sensory and motor abilities through both nature and
nurture, they rely on caregivers to provide the necessary stimulation.
 Touch, provided by caregivers, provides stimulation and reassurance.
 The Harlows’ experiments with infant monkeys demonstrated that preferred a
terrycloth monkey to a wire monkey that presented food.
 In humans, touch stimulates the release of endorphins and a daily massage results in
faster weight gain.
 Other benefits associated with contact comfort include faster intellectual
development, improved digestive tract functioning, improved circulation and
decreased production of stress hormones.

D. Attachment
 Attachment is the enduring socio-emotional relationship between a child and a
parent or other caregiver.
 The establishment of attachment is important because it lays the foundation for other
close relationships that follow throughout a person’s life.
 Attachment, not limited to biological parents, occurs in other species, as well; birds
will imprint on the first moving object or individual that they see.
 Human attachment begins in the first few weeks and functions as a survival strategy
for infants.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 395


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

1. Attachment Styles
 Researchers Ainsworth and Lamb found that children differ in their styles of
attachment.
 Securely attached children are relaxed and comfortable with their caregivers and
tolerant of new situations and strangers, experiencing separation anxiety when
caregivers left them, but calming down when caregivers returned.
 Insecurely attached children can be divided into two categories: anxious-
ambivalent and avoidant.
 Anxious-ambivalent children wanted contact with their caregivers but
cried with fear and anger when separated from then and proved difficult
to console when reunited.
 Avoidant children weren’t interested in contact, displaying no distress
when separated from their caregivers and no particular happiness when
reunited.
 Overall, some 65 percent of American children are securely attached, about 20
percent are avoidant and 15 percent are anxious ambivalent.
 Since attachment patterns in infancy affect a variety of childhood and adult
behaviors, including aggression, job satisfaction, relationship choices and
intimacy experiences, there has been much research on the topic.
 Attachment styles seem to be a result of the interaction between heredity and
environment.

2. Culture and Attachment


 A judgment of the “ideal” attachment style depends upon the values of the
culture in which it occurs.

3. Long-Term Effects of Attachment


 As children grow up, they widen their attachments to include family members
besides caregivers, friends, teachers, coworkers and others in their community.
 Evidence suggests that the primary attachment continues to serve as the working
model for these other attachments; what the child learns to expect from the
caregiver becomes the lens through which other attachments are viewed.
 Attachment is powerful and is a good predictor of later problems with social
relationships; however, many people succeed in overcoming attachment
difficulties and “reset” the working model.

D. Psychosocial Development: Trust versus Mistrust


 The evidence supporting attachment dovetails with the first stage in Erik Erikson’s
major theory of lifespan theory development.
 His theory, that we form basic beliefs about our social world and ourselves as we go
through life, influencing our development through the critical choices that we make,
begins with the choice between trust and mistrust.
 In the first 18 months, Erikson theorized, the major developmental task facing the
infant is to develop a sense of trust in the world.
 Infants who develop a secure attachment style see the caregiver as a “safe base” from
which to explore the world; are comfortable in new situations; and possess an
adventurous and resilient spirit to help them navigate through life.
 Children who do not develop this will experience difficulties navigating through later
developmental challenges; the issue of trust remains unresolved and acts as a barrier
between the individual and the social world and will have trouble forming and
maintaining relationships.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 396


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 Criticism of Erikson’s theory revolves primarily around whether they can be


experienced at different times for different people (based at least in part on cultural
norms), although critics also note that Erikson based his work primarily on his own
clinical observations rather than on rigorous scientific methods.
 Many of Erikson’s observations have been supported by methodologically sound
research.

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Not Just Fun and Games: The Role of Child’s Play in Life
Success (text p.277)

Self-control is the ability to delay instant gratification in pursuit of longer-range positive


outcomes. It is a psychological trait of the utmost importance in having success in life, because
the ability to restrain impulses and make effective choices is embedded in self-control. Low self-
control in children is a strong predictor of delinquency and criminal behavior. Higher self-control
is linked to a variety of positive outcomes, including happier relationships, higher grades, better
self-esteem, secure attachment and less alcohol abuse.

The sooner that self-control is nurtured, the sooner it is developed. Clear, consistent rules and
routines can help children learn self-control by helping children manage their worlds and
providing guidelines for achieving their goals. Too much structure in childhood play is a concern
to psychologists, however, because it deprives a child of opportunities for imaginative play.
Improvisional thinking requires more thinking, planning creativity and self-management, all of
which are executive functions. Imaginative play also helps build vocabulary and lengthens
attention spans. Parents and teachers should encourage behaviors, including play that encourages
self-control.

7.2 WHAT ARE THE DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF CHILDHOOD? (text p.


279)
Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:
 Object Permanence Changes (p. 418)
 Day Care and Social Development (p. 418)
 Critical Periods: The Story of Genie (p. 419)
 Gender Roles and Parenting (p. 420)
 Gender Identity and the Case of David Reimer (p. 420)
 A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (p. 421)
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
 The Structure, Hierarchy, and Criterion of Language (p. 438)
 Fallacies in the Use of Language (p. 438)
 Theories of Language Development (p. 440)
 What Is a Stage Theory? (p. 440)
 The Effect of Divorce on Children (p. 441)
 Does Spanking Lead Children to Become More Violent? (p. 442)
 Illustrating Piagetian Concepts (p. 442)
 Take a Stand: Teaching, Learning, and Piaget’s Stages (p. 443)
 Naturalistic Observation (p. 444)
Video Resources
 NEW MyPsychLab Video Series (p. 464)
Multimedia Resources in MyPsychLab (www.mypsychlab.com)

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 397


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.2 LECTURE OUTLINE: What Are the Developmental Tasks of


Childhood? (text p. 279)
7.2 KEY QUESTION
What Are the Developmental tasks of Childhood?
7.2 CORE CONCEPT
Nature and nurture work together to help children master important developmental tasks,
especially in the areas of language acquisition, cognitive development, and development of social
relationships.

I. How Children Acquire Language


 One of the defining characteristics of humans is the use of complex language.

A. Language Structures in the Brain


 Mimicry accounts for only part of language learning; according to Noam
Chomsky, a psycholinguist, an inborn mental structure, the language
acquisition device (LAD) facilitates the learning of language because it is
innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar.
 Chomsky proposed that this “mental software” helps children acquire the
vocabulary, grammar and rules of language to which they are exposed.
 The agreement of experts is reinforced by research based on the Human
Genome Project providing evidence that the foundations of language are in
part genetic; with additional evidence demonstrating that children worldwide
learn their native languages in very similar stages at very similar times.
 Although infants are born with the ability to produce the sounds of the
approximately 4000 languages spoken on earth, by about six months of age
they have zeroed in and focused on the dominant language in their
environment.
 This culture specific language selection suggests that the built-in capacity for
language is not a rigid device, but rather a set of “listening rules” or
guidelines for perceiving language.
 Babies pay attention to the sound strings they hear others speak, especially
the beginnings, endings and stressed syllables and by employing their
“listening guides”, they deduce the patterns and rules for producing their own
speech.

B. Acquiring vocabulary and Grammar


 There is a sequence of learning activities leading to the production of
language.
 Babbling, the production of repetitive syllables, starts as early as 4 months,
and it is the first step in the baby’s experimentation with the building blocks
of language.
 By about one year, babies enter the one-word stage and are speaking full
words.
 At this time, babies begin a “naming explosion,” their efforts at pointing to
objects and naming them.
 By age 2, babies enter the two-word stage, increasing the range of meanings
they can convey.
 At the age, children have a vocabulary of nearly 1000 words, which expands
to about 10,000 by about age 6.
 The pace of vocabulary acquisition increases as time goes on.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 398


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

1. Practice Makes Perfect


 The role of culture and the environment impact the degree and pace
at which children learn language.
 The frequency of practice makes a difference; parents who read and
talk with their children spur language acquisition.

2. Grammar Turns Vocabulary into Language


 Grammar is the set of rules that specifying how to use the elements
of language and word order to produce understandable sentences.
 Different languages use considerably different rules.

3. First Sentences
 In their early two and three-word sentences, children produce
telegraphic speech – short, simple sequences of nouns and verbs
without plurals, tenses or function words.
 To develop the ability to make full sentences, children must learn to
use other forms of speech, such as modifiers (adjectives and adverbs)
and articles (the, those), and they must learn to put words together
grammatically.
 As children’s language ability develops, they become skilled in using
morphemes, the meaningful units that make up words.
 Often, children make mistakes because they don’t know the rules or
apply an inappropriate one.
 A common error is overregularization, applying a word too widely.

C. Other Language Skills


 To communicate effectively, children have to learn the social rules of
conversation: how to join a discussion; to take turns talking and listening;
how to make contributions that are relevant.
 Adult speakers use body language, intonation and facial expressions to
enhance their communication, respond to feedback, and take the perspective
of the listener; children have to master these skills to become successful
communicators.
 As they grow older, children also learn to express abstract meanings,
especially as their thoughts extend beyond the physical world and into their
psychological world.
 Language is a major developmental task of childhood – for which children
are exquisitely prepared.

II. Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Theory


 Cognitive development is the global term for the development of thought processes
from childhood to adulthood.
 Psychologist Jean Piaget observed children for nearly 50 years and formulated his
observations into a comprehensive theory.
 His stage theory of development emphasized Piaget’s view that people undergo
distinctive revolutions in their thought processes, producing four discrete stages that
emerge through childhood and adolescence.
 Three key ideas in Piaget’s approach are 1) schemas, 2) the interaction of
assimilation and accommodation, and 3) the stages of cognitive development.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 399


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

A. Schemas
 Mental structures that guide a developing child’s thought are called schemas.
 Schemas form and change as we develop and organize our knowledge to deal
with new experiences and predict future events.
 Assimilation is a mental process that incorporates new information into
existing schemas, while accommodation is the process of restructuring or
modifying schemas to accommodate the new information.
 For Piaget, cognitive development results from the continual interweaving of
assimilation and accommodation.

B. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development


 Piaget identified and named four stages in a child’s cognitive development:
the sensorimotor stage (birth to about age 2); the preoperational stage (early
childhood); the concrete operational stage (middle childhood) and the formal
operational stage (adolescence).
 While maturation dictates that all children go through these stages, the
interaction of heredity and environment means that some children pass more
quickly through a given stage than others.

1. The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to about Age 2)


 In this stage, children explore the world primarily through their
senses and motor actions.
 They learn to coordinate the information they are receiving through
their senses with their motor abilities – sensorimotor intelligence.
 The major achievement of this stage in object permanence, which
children learn beginning at about 8 months – the knowledge that
objects exist independently of one’s own actions or awareness.
 The early stages of learning object permanence, when infants have
not learned that their caregivers are there even when they go away
temporarily, helps to explain separation anxiety in infants.
 Infants are also learning goal-directed behavior, by which they
develop the ability to keep a single goal in mind as they pursue it.
 They are beginning to form mental representations of objects and
to recognize their own relationship with the world.

2. The Preoperational Stage (from about 2 to 7 Years of Age)


 The cognitive advances of the preoperational stage grow out of the
ability to represent objects mentally; this stage is marked by a well-
developed mental representation and the use of language.
 Its features include egocentrism, animistic thinking, centration
and irreversibility.
 Egocentrism causes children to see the world only in terms of
themselves and their own position.
 Animistic thinking involves the belief that inanimate objects have
life and mental processes, just as people do.
 Centration occurs when a child focuses his attention too narrowly,
missing out on other important information; the child can “center” on
only one bit of information at a time.
 Irreversibility is the inability to think through a series of events or
steps involved in solving a problem and then to reverse course,

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 400


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

returning to the mental starting point; they lack the mental trial-and-
error ability of older children.
 These features might seem as limitations, but actually children are
experimenting with their newly acquired ability to use mental
repr4esentations, and in the process they are often highly creative.

3. The Concrete Operational Stage (from about 7 to about 11 Years of Age)


 In the concrete operational stage, children come to realize that
many things stay essentially the same even when their superficial
appearance changes (conservation).
 They can now solve problems by manipulating concepts entirely in
their minds, performing mental operations.

C. Beyond Piaget: Contemporary Perspectives on Cognitive Development


 Most psychologists accept Piaget’s broad picture, but researchers have
shown that children are in some ways more intellectually sophisticated at
each stage than Piaget believed.

1. Hints of Abilities Earlier Than Piaget Thought


 The limitations that Piaget observed in the sensorimotor and
preoperational stages can be mastered by children in those stages.
 Overall, Piaget’s observations regarding the sequence of stages are
accurate; but children today seem to develop some cognitive skills at
a more accelerated pace than Piaget believed.

2. Theory of Mind
 These cognitive advances signal development of a theory of mind,
which is an understanding that others may have beliefs, desires and
emotions different from one’s own and that these mental states
underlie their behavior.
 It includes expectations about how people will act in certain
situations.
 This understanding facilitates empathy for others, enables deception,
and increases our chance of making sound judgments about people
when it counts.
 These abilities may begin as early as 6 months of age.

3. Stages or Waves?
 A second criticism of Piaget’s theory questions his notion of the
stages as abrupt transition.
 Newer research suggests the transition between one stage and
another are more continuous than the stage theory implies.
 Psychologist Robert Siegler uses the term “waves”, suggesting
gradual change, rather than “stages”, which suggests abrupt
beginnings and endings.

4. The Importance of Culture in Learning


 Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky reemphasized the importance of
cultural values and practices in a child’s cognitive development,
including the role of communication in learning.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 401


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 For Vygotsky, cognitive development was really the mental mastery


of the rules and norms of a culture, transmitted via social interaction.
 Scaffolding, a teaching strategy that emphasizes the role of help
from others in support for a person’s learning, creates a support
structure for constructing learning.
 By paying close attention to a child’s current skill level, parents or
teachers can tailor their instruction to a child by attaching each new
lesson to something a child already knows.
 Children need new challenges a bit beyond the child’s current
learning ability, reachable with a little help, but not so far out of
reach as to set up a child for failure – the zone of proximal
development.

III. Social and Emotional Development


 Social and emotional development is one of the most important developmental tasks
of childhood, and it relies on both nature and nurture.

A. Temperament
 Temperament is an individual’s characteristic manner of behavior or
reaction, and it is assumed to have a strong genetic bias.
 It is a powerful influence upon the way children interact with the world.
 Researcher Jerome Kagan observed that 20 percent of children are born with
tendencies toward shyness, while about 40 percent are born predisposed to
boldness.
 Brain-imaging studies indicate that these differences are physiological.
 While basic temperaments can be recognized almost at birth, the
environment interacts with these genetic tendencies, so that parenting and
other aspects of a child’s experience can modify the way that temperament
expresses itself.
 Children are capable of learning a variety of responses to the world within
their hereditary temperamental range, as long as people in their environment
teach them.
 Temperament is stable over time, capable of being modified, but subject to
the genetic leash.

B. Socialization
 Socialization is the lifelong process of shaping an individual’s behavior
pattern, values, standards, skills, attitudes and motives to conform to those
regarded as desirable in a particular society.
 Institutions such as family, schools, day care and the media exert pressure on
a child to adopt socially approved values.
 One example of socialization is the teaching of gender: boys and girls are
often taught different ways of behaving and interacting.

1. Four Parenting Styles and Their Effects


 Parenting styles are supremely important in the socialization process.
 Most approaches to parenting fall into one of four distinct styles:
 Authoritarian parents live by the slogan, “Spare the rod and spoil
the child.”

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 402


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 Authoritative parents have high expectations of their children


which they enforce with consequences, but which are combined with
warmth and respect for their child’s views.
o Authoritative parents are willing to listen to a child’s ideas
and feelings and often encourage a democratic family
atmosphere.
o Authoritative parents usually place a high emphasis on
reasoning and explaining to help children learn to anticipate
the consequences of their behavior.
 Permissive parents set few rules and allow children to make their
own decisions, giving most decision-making responsibility to their
children.
o Caring and communicative, permissive parents believe
children can learn better from the consequences of their own
actions.
 Uninvolved parents tend to be either rejecting or indifferent,
sometimes to the point of neglect or abuse.
o Typically, uninvolved parents lead such stress-filled lives
that they often have little time or energy for their children.
 There are differing outcomes for each parenting style: children of
authoritative parents tend to be confident, self-reliant and
enthusiastic; children of permissive or uninvolved parents are
typically less mature, more impulsive and demanding and more
dependent; children of authoritarian parents tend to be anxious and
insecure and are at risk for antisocial behavior.
 Culture plays a role in parenting styles and parenting effectiveness.

2. Effects of Day Care


 Is it necessary for a child to have a fulltime caregiver and can day
care supplement or replace some of those care-giving needs?
 Children thrive in day care and both intellectually and socially often
do better than those raised by a full-time caregiver.
 On the other hand, poor-quality day care experiences can influence
children to be aggressive, depressed or otherwise maladjusted.
 Having alternative caregivers does not in itself cause psychological
problems; rather, it is the quality that makes the difference.
 Unfortunately, children who are placed in the poorest quality day
care programs are often from the poorest, most disorganized and
most highly stressed families, and this volatile combination is
inadequate day care and family pressure places some of children at
high risk for emotional and behavioral problems.

3. Leisure Influence
 On average, American children today spend between 40 and 50
percent of their waking hours in discretionary activity, of which
almost seven hours per day (averaged to include weekends) is spent
with media.
 Research findings are mixed as to the influence of leisure time on
development.
 Associated with well-being is time spent with friends and sports; the
effects of television seem to depend primarily upon the type of

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 403


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

program being watched – the content matters more than the medium
itself.
 Educational television has a positive impact on literacy and cognitive
development, whereas heavy viewing of entertainment television is a
strong predictor of later deficiency in reading ability in young
children.
 Violent television, as well as violent videogames, increases
aggressive behavior in viewers and decreases sensitivity to real-
world violence.
 Viewing any kind of entertainment television prior to the age of 3 is
strongly linked to attention problems later on.
 Frequent video-gaming appears to improve visual-spatial processing.
 Educational video games can improve critical thinking and learning
in a variety of subjects.

4. Gender Differences in Socialization


 There are gender differences in social interaction.
 The sexes usually prefer to segregate themselves, a pattern seen
across cultures.
 Boys are typically more aggressive than girls.
 Girls tend to organize themselves in small cooperative groups,
whereas boys tend to form larger hierarchical groups with a “pecking
orders” structure.
 Boys are more likely to play sports or computer games, whereas girls
watch more television.
 While evolutionary psychologists believe that these gender
differences have an innate basis that may be related to testosterone
production, social-cognitive psychologists point out that gender roles
and behaviors are also learned.

C. Psychosocial Development in Childhood: Erikson’s Stages


 In childhood, individuals progress through three more of Erikson’s
psychosocial stages.

1. Autonomy versus Shame or Self-doubt


 During this stage, running from about 16 months to 3 years of age,
toddlers are learning how to walk and talk.
 There are many opportunities to directly influence outcomes and
independence, or autonomy.
 Children need freedom to try to do things on their own when
appropriate; too much restriction leads to self-doubt, and harsh
demands made too early, before the child is ready, can lead to shame
and discourage efforts to persevere in new tasks.
 Children who enter this stage with a general sense of trust in the
world are more likely to successfully develop autonomy.

2. Initiative versus Guilt


 Once a child develops trust and autonomy, the next developmental
task is to develop industry, the ability to initiate activities oneself,
rather than merely responding to others.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 404


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 This stage usually occurs between the ages of 6 and 12, which
coincides with school activities and sports that offer more complex
intellectual and motor skills and provide opportunities for greater
social interaction.
 Supportive parenting in which parents help children reflect on their
experiences and learn from both their successes and failures,
promote industry.
 Children with overly demanding or disengaged parents may have
troubles seeing their failures in perspective and ultimately a sense of
inferiority.
 Likewise, children who had trouble working through one or more of
the earlier stages may become discouraged spectators rather than
performers, leading to the term industry versus inferiority for this
stage.

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS HERE: The Puzzle of ADHD (text p. 294)

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a psychological disorder involving poor


impulse control, difficulty concentrating on a task for a sustained period of time, high
distractability and excessive activity. It affects 3 to 5 percent of school-age American children.
In boys the symptoms manifest themselves in disruptive behavior, and in girls, who are a
minority of affected children, as a lack of organization or a tendency to lose things. ADHD often
result in poor academic performance and unstable relationships. The impact on multiple domains
is a key criterion for diagnosis and a factor in differentiating true ADHD from the commonly
occurring symptoms of stressful lives or features of ordinary child development. Typically
symptoms appear in early childhood and in roughly 50 percent of cases, disappear in adulthood.

Research to determine the causes of ADHD is in its early stages, although twin studies point to a
strong genetic component. From a nurture standpoint, prenatal exposure to nicotine and alcohol
has been found to increase the incidence. A recent longitudinal study with a national
representative sample found that viewing noneducational television before the age of three
predicts attention deficits later in life; the fats-paced movement of entertainment programming
during the time when neural pathways are forming limits the brain’s ability to create pathways for
extended focus and concentration.

Physiologically, the ADHD brain differs from a “normal” brain in dopamine transmission:
people with ADHD seem to receive fewer and weaker dopamine bursts. While ADHD brains
develop normally and achieve normal size, they take a few years longer to do it.

ADHD can be treated effectively with medication and psychological techniques, but optimal
treatment varies from individual to individual. Medication should be carefully monitored.
Behavioral therapy helps children with ADHD control some of their problematic behaviors and
replace them with more effective behaviors. Behavioral therapy is the treatment of choice for
very young children for whom medication is not recommended. It is too soon to know what the
long-term effects of prescribed medication might be.

It should be remembered that ADHD –affected children have many positive traits, as well.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 405


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.3 WHAT CHANGES MARK THE TRANSITION OF ADOLESCENCE? (text p.


296)
Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:
 Identity and the Tasks of Adolescence (p. 421)
 Adolescents Aren’t Just Slackers (p. 423)
 When I Hit Puberty… (p. 424)
 Time Use and Mathematics Achievement (p. 424)
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
 Dear Mom and Dad (p. 444)
 Moral Development (p. 445)
 Adolescence and Identity Development: A Personal Exploration (p. 445)
 Adolescence in Film: The Breakfast Club (p. 446)
 Media Influences on Gender-Role Development (p. 446)
Video Resources:
 NEW MyPsychLab Video Series (p. 464)
Multimedia Resources in MyPsychLab (www.mypsychlab.com)

7.3 LECTURE OUTLINE: What Changes Mark The Transition of


Adolescence? (text p. 296)

7.3 KEY QUESTION


What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.3 CORE CONCEPT
Adolescence offers new developmental challenges growing out of physical changes,
cognitive changes and socioemotional pressures.
 In industrial societies, adolescence is a developmental period beginning at puberty
and ending at adulthood.

I. Adolescence and Culture


 Although the physical changes that take place at this stage are universal, the social
and psychological dimensions of adolescence depend heavily on cultural context.
 In most nonindustrial societies, children move directly into adulthood with rites of
passage, special social rituals that mark the transition between developmental stages.
 While American culture has some rites of passages, they are less well defined and as
a result, they do not provide clear markers for the end of childhood and the beginning
of adulthood.
 In the United States and other industrialized western countries, the central role of
adolescence is establishing one’s identity.

II. Physical Maturity in Adolescence


 Puberty, or sexual maturity, for boys, begins with increasing size of the testicles,
while for girls, begins with the enlargement of the breasts.
 Sprouting of pubic hair generally follows for both sexes, along with growth of the
external genitalia.
 This process generally begins around age 10 or 11 for girls and about 2 years later for
boys; it peaks with the production of live sperm in boys and menarche, the onset of
menstruation, in girls.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 406


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 As these changes occur, there is heightened emphasis on peer acceptance, especially


by sexually attractive peers, and an intensifying concern with body image –
perception of and feelings about their own physical appearance.
 One of the most formidable tasks of adolescence – developing a realistic body image
and accepting it – is dependent not only on measurable features such as height and
weight, but also on perceptions of other people’s assessments and on cultural
standards of physical beauty.
 Physical appearance is one of the biggest concerns among adolescents.
 Culture influences the relationship between body image and self-acceptance.

III. Adolescent Sexuality


 A majority of American adolescents report thinking about sex often.
 By age 17, about 40 percent of teens in the United States and Canada have had their
first sexual experience.
 Many teens lack adequate knowledge or harbor misconceptions about sex and
sexuality, and this lack of accurate knowledge creates a variety of problems.
 Masturbation is the most common orgasmic expression of sexual impulses in
adolescence.
 Sexual orientation, the direction of one’s sexual interests, begins to emerge in
adolescence, with the majority of adolescents reporting a heterosexual experience.
 For females, emotional involvement is an important element of sexual attraction; for
males, personal relationships are less important than the sex act itself.
 Data on both masturbation and sexual orientation must be viewed with caution, as
same-sex sexual behavior does not mean that adolescents consider themselves to be
gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
 For some, sexual experiences are experimental, and about one in eight teens say they
are unsure of their primary sexual orientation.
 Same-sex sexual attraction is difficult to resolve in adolescence, since teens are
intensely concerned with the conventions and norms of their society, and even those
who are aware of their sexual orientation may not resolve their orientation issues
until adulthood.

IV. Neural and Cognitive Development in Adolescence


 Changes that began in the womb continue to occur in the adolescent brain – the
frontal lobes continue to mature throughout adolescence and into young adulthood.

A. Teens: Guided by Reason or Emotion?


 In adolescence, the amygdala, which drives basic impulses, is fully
developed, but the frontal lobes that are necessary for rational thinking and
judgment are not.
 This imbalance in the pace of brain development means that the teen brain is
wired to react more emotionally than an adult, for whom both areas are
developed, or a child, for neither area is developed.
 This imbalance is further complicated by pubescent increases in estrogen and
testosterone levels, and the result is adolescent sensation-seeking and risk-
taking behaviors.
 It may be that increased risk-taking is part of the adolescent search for
identity.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 407


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

B. The Brain Undergoes Major Pruning


 By early adolescence regions of the brain that have not been adequately
stimulated begin to be trimmed away in the process of synaptic pruning.
 As this occurs, the adolescent brain becomes gradually less adept at learning
completely new things as opportunities for neural connections begin to
diminish.
 This allows for enhanced development of stronger regions; continued use of
established connections increases the myelin of the neurons, and processing
speeds up.
 Plasticity is reduced and problematic behavior patterns or traits that have
developed become more resistant to change or intervention.
 If the pruning process goes awry, important connections may be lost, which
could help explain the onset in late adolescence and early adulthood of
disorders such as schizophrenia.

1. Piaget’s Final Stage: Formal Operational Thought


 In his final stage, formal operational thought, occurring during
adolescence, an individual begins to ponder introspective problems,
such as how to become better accepted by peers.
 Teens become capable of dealing with abstract and intangible issues,
such as fairness, love, reasons for existence and hypothetical
problems without needing the concrete base of the earlier stage.
 Current research questions Piaget’s notion that formal operational
thought necessarily develops in adolescence; some adults, it seems,
never develop it.
 The development of formal operational thought appears dependent
upon education and experience, with college-educated people being
more likely to demonstrate it and people being most likely to
demonstrate it in their areas of expertise.

V. Moral Development: Kohlberg’s Theory


 Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg explored the development of moral thought and
based his theory on Piaget’s stages of development, describing that moral
development is a special form of reasoning.
 Kohlberg was interested in the ways that people reason about moral issues, and after
presenting people with moral dilemmas, he concluded that there were six stages in
the process of moral development:
o Stage 1: People think of rewards and punishment.
o Stage 2: An awareness of other people’s perspectives on the issue.
o Stage 3: People base decisions are based upon personal relationships and
keeping people happy.
o Stage 4: Maintaining social order is paramount, with people emphasizing
laws rules, policies, duties and respect.
o Stage 5: Called by Kohlberg the “social contract” stage because it
emphasizes the idea that rules and laws are flexible and can be changed by
social consensus and legislation; fairness is emphasized.
o Stage 6: The individual bases a decision on universal principles of
conscience that he or she would apply to all people in all situations.
 Kohlberg’s stages parallel Piaget’s stages, as the individual moves from the concrete
to the abstract.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 408


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

A. Critiques of Kohlberg’s Theory


 Kohlberg says that cross-cultural work demonstrates that people across
cultures attain the same stages in the same order, although research has
shown that the higher stages, particularly 5 and 6, do not always emerge.
 Psychologist Carol Gilligan criticized Kohlberg’s theory as having a male
bias when she claimed that for women, moral reasoning is embedded in
social relationships and personal caring; later research does not support the
notion of gender differences.
 Research on moral reasoning may have limited practical value, since no close
connection has been found between people’s moral reasoning and their
behavior.

VI. Social and Emotional Issues in Adolescence


 As teens develop their own identity, they begin to spend more time outside the home.
 Their activities are gender-based: friendships are based upon emotional closeness,
with friendships among boy emphasizing activities and talk centering on personal
achievements of others.

A. Do Parents Still Matter?


 In American society, the adolescent encounters new values, receives less
structure and adult guidance, and feels a strong need for peer acceptance.
 Parents are still important, and parents who continue to monitor their teen’s
activities and maintain open and healthy communication throughout the years
are most likely to see their teenagers get through the challenges of
adolescence successfully

B. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development in Adolescence


 According to Erikson, the search for identity can be impeded by the
confusion of playing many different roles for many audiences in an
expanding social world.
 Thus, he called this stage identity versus role confusion.

C. Is Adolescence a Period of Turmoil?


 Problems with loneliness, depression, and shyness can become significant
during adolescence and may account for the sharp increase in suicide among
teenagers.
 Adolescents are likely to have conflicts with their parents, experience
extremes of mood, engage in risky behaviors, and experience problems in
relationships and self-esteem.
 Yet for most adolescents, these years are not a time of anxiety and despair
but of relative tranquility.

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Using Psychology to Learn Psychology: Cognitive


Development in College Students (text p. 304)

Developmental psychologist William Perry has found that thinking abilities continue to develop
well past the formal operational stage, and that cognitive development proceeds in students of all
ages. Perspectives on learning change: what the social sciences are about, and what students are
supposed to learn in college. As students progress through their college experience, they move
away from the “one way of thinking” view and realize that multiple perspectives exist and are
valuable.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 409


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.4 WHAT DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES DO ADULTS FACE? (text p.


305)
Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:
 Is the Potential for Divorce Genetic? (p. 425)
 Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease (p. 426)
 Theories of Physical Aging (p. 427)
 Myths About Aging (p. 428)
 The Benefits of Control (p. 429)
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
 A Test on Aging (p. 447)
 Ageism (p. 448)
 Life Expectancy (p. 448)
 Getting Old (p. 449)
 Exploring Societal Attitudes about Aging (p. 449)
 “Wearing the Shoes” of the Elderly (p. 450)
 Aging in Film: To Dance With the White Dog (p. 450)
Video Resources
 NEW MyPsychLab Video Series (p. 464)
Multimedia Resources in MyPsychLab (www.mypsychlab.com)

7.4 LECTURE OUTLINE: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults


Face? (text p. 305)

7.4 KEY QUESTION


What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
7.4 CORE CONCEPT
Nature and nurture continue to interact as we progress through a series of transitions in
adulthood, with cultural norms about age combining with new technology to increase both the
length and quality of life for many adults.
 Most psychologists now agree that development is continuous, rather than occurring
in rigid stages.
 Adulthood is changing in the western world, thanks to improvements in health care
and technology; most adults are living longer than ever before.
 This revolution in aging is prompting renewed study of adult development to see
whether previous theories still hold up.

I. Early Adulthood: Explorations, Autonomy, and Intimacy

A. Intimacy versus Isolation


 Intimacy, according to Erikson, is the ability to make a full commitment –
sexual, emotional and moral – to another person.
 Making this commitment requires compromising personal preferences,
accepting responsibilities and yielding some privacy and independence in
exchange for great rewards.
 The first step is resolving the crisis of adolescence and achieving a clear
sense of identity.
 As more choices become available in the 21st century than ever before, this
task becomes more complicated than ever before.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 410


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

B. Emerging Adulthood: The In-Between Stage


 Emerging adulthood is the transitional period between adolescence and
adulthood.
 It is a time of exploration and experimentation in all areas, trying out
different kinds of work, exploring alternative lifestyles and worldviews,
and thinking about relationship partners.
 Young adults take more risks than at any time of their lives, including
adolescence.

C. Modern Approaches to Intimacy


 Marriage often occurs more than once in an individual’s life.
 About half of all marriages end in divorce.
 An increasing number of couples are cohabiting rather than marrying.
 Married people are more likely to see each other as partners and friends
and are less likely to feel constrained by society’s expectations of “husband
and wife”– the peer marriage approach.
 There is no correlation between the frequency of a couple’s conflicts and
the health of their relationship.

II. The Challenges of Midlife: Complexity and Generativity


 Research finds middle adulthood to be a peak period of development in many
respects.
 Cognitively, many adults have developed considerable skill in combining and
integrating a variety of thinking styles.
 They are expert at integrating their cognitions and emotions, resulting in more
thoughtful, deliberate and reflective coping responses to stressful events.
 The midlife adult can juggle a variety of interests – work, family, community,
hobbies, and self-care – characterizing a healthy midlife.

A. Generativity versus Stagnation


 According to Erikson, generativity, the process of making a commitment
beyond oneself to family, work, society, or future generations is the major
developmental task of adulthood.
 People in midlife broaden their focus beyond self and partner to include
children, volunteering or participating in the community in other ways.
 Adults who express a strong sense of generativity and productivity also
report high life satisfaction.
 Some few adults who have not resolved earlier crisis of identity may
experience a “midlife crisis”, questioning past choices.
 The notion that adults become depressed and lose direction when their
children leave home is a myth.

B. Transitions
 Adult life is a progression of transitions that involve redefining, or
transformation of life roles.
 Successful transitions typically involve heightened self-reflection,
reappraisal of the current role exploration of new possibilities offering a
renewed sense of meaning, the decision to let go of an old role and a
commitment to a new role.
 Transitions are a natural response to the changing conditions of life, and
adults who live the longest and healthiest lives are the ones who

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 411


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

successfully navigate through them and emerge from each with a renewed
sense of meaning and passion for life.

III. Late Adulthood: The Age of Integrity


 As the Baby Boom generation reaches the age of 65, nearly one-fourth of the
American population will be in this age group.
 From a biological perspective, aging means decline – energy reserves are reduced
and cell machinery functions less efficiently.
 From a cognitive perspective many abilities, including some expert skills and some
aspects of memory, can improve.
 Activity, whether physical, social-emotional or cognitive, is the key to healthy aging
– “Use it or lose it!”.
 Many of our negative assumptions about aging are related to cultural values.

A. Ego-Integrity versus Despair


 According to Erikson, an increasing awareness of our own mortality,
physical changes, behavior and social roles result in Erikson’s stage, ego-
integrity versus despair.
 Ego-integrity involves the ability to look back on life and enjoy a sense of
wholeness after reflecting upon good times and bad, appreciating the good
and accepting the bad.
 Erikson believed that previous challenges must have been successfully
resolved, and for those whose previous crises had unhealthy solutions,
despair may be the result.

B. Physical Changes
 Aging people develop wrinkles, have thinning hair and decrease in height
by an inch or two.
 Senses dull and heart and lungs operate less efficiently, decreasing physical
stamina.
 Adults can take control of their bodies in ways that are reducing
deterioration thought at one time to be inevitable, although successful aging
takes into consideration both individual potential and realistic limits.
 A myth in Western culture is that elderly people cannot be physically active.
 There is no age in which sex cannot be enjoyed in late adulthood.

C. Cognitive Changes
 Certain parts of the brain lose mass, but there is little evidence that this
causes general mental decline.
 Performance on tasks requiring imagination seems to decline, and people
acquire information more slowly in their 70’s and 80’s.
 Brain imaging shows that older people’s brains compensate by processing
information differently, using more brain regions.
 Mental exercise keeps aging brains working more effectively.
 Vocabulary is consistently better in the elderly, as are social skills and some
types of skilled performance.
 Physical exercise improves improves learning, memory and other cognitive
functions.
 Age-related memory problems appear in the memory system associated
with processing and storing new information.
 Memory loss does not diminish access to information stored long ago.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 412


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

 People explain memory loss differently depending upon the age of the
forgetful person; younger adults attribute forgetfulness to a lack of effort in
other young adults’ memory failure but to old age in older adults.
 Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the brain that produces
diminished thinking ability, memory problem, and ultimately, death, is
estimated to occur in about 10 percent of the population over the age of 65,
with the incidence increasing to more than 50 percent in people over 85
years.
 An early symptom is memory loss, causing anxiety among older adults
experiencing incidents of forgetfulness.

D. Social and Emotional Changes


 While an unfortunate consequence of living a long life is outliving some
friends and family members, older adults generally maintain healthy
emotions and relationships.
 As people age, they tend to engage in selective social interaction,
maintaining the most rewarding contacts for the investment of physical and
social energy.
 Older adults seem to benefit from emotional systems that grow keener with
age and manage their emotions by seeking out positive environments and
avoiding the negative ones.
 They define well-being in terms of their relationships with others.

E. Keys to Successful Aging


 Remain both active and close to people by doing volunteer work traveling,
joining clubs taking classes and spending time with grandchildren.
 Anything that isolates us from sources of social support – from a reliable
network of friends and family – puts us at risk of a host of physical ills,
mental problems and even social pathologies.
 Successful aging consists of maximizing the most of gains while
minimizing the impact of losses.

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: A Look Back at the Jim Twins and Your Own Development
(text p. 313)

This chapter began with an account of a pair of identical twins raised apart and the similarities in
their traits. Twin studies are an important form of research, but their results have brought
criticism, as well. Studies have shown that identical twins show remarkable similarities, mainly
in the categories in which they might be expected: intelligence, temperament, gestures, postures,
and pace of speech, all of which are genetically influenced. Identical twins do not display
identical behavior across the board, however, and twins reared together show greater similarities
than those raised apart – pointing to the effects of environment. Twin pairs, originally separated
by later reunited before they were studied, resemble each other more closely and have an
incentive to maximize their similarities to researchers. Also, identical twins are often treated
alike because they look alike. Thus, neither heredity nor environment acts alone: they work
together to shape an individual.

CRITICAL THINKING APPLIED: The Mozart Effect (text p. 315)

Could listening to Mozart improve IQ? This finding was announced by a pair of research
scientists and after receiving extensive media coverage, spawned a host of innovations and new

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 413


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

childrearing practices. Using critical thinking questions to analyze research results, it cannot be
concluded that listening to Mozart raises IQ scores.

CHAPTER SUMMARY
Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:
 Scaffolding (p. 430)
 The Consequences of Sexual Abuse (p. 431)
 Case Study Lecture Launcher (p. 431)
 Einstein’s Brain (p. 432)
 Suggestions for Further Reading (p. 433)
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
 Decade Word Association (p. 451)
 Developmental Comparisons Across Species (p. 451)
 Take a Stand (p. 451)
 Constructing a Moral Development Quiz (p. 452)
 Using Children’s Books to Illustrate Developmental Principles (p. 452)
 Using Homemade Videotapes to Teach Developmental Concepts (p. 453)
 The Day Center (p. 453)
Video Resources:
 NEW MyPsychLab Video Series (p. 464)
Multimedia Resources in MyPsychLab (www.mypsychlab.com)

▲ Return to Table of Contents

Teaching Objectives for Chapter 7


After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:

1. Discuss the complex influence of the nature-nurture interaction on human development.


2. Compare and contrast twin and adoption studies in terms of the information they provide
about development.
3. Describe the key phases of prenatal development.
4. Identify the special capabilities of the newborn and explain why these skills and
potentials are important.
5. Describe the progress of physical development in infancy and toddlerhood.
6. Describe the progress of language development in early childhood.
7. Explain how attachment develops and discuss cultural issues related to attachment.
8. Identify the four parenting styles and their effects on a) children and b) adolescents.
9. Evaluate the issue of daycare for a) infants and b) toddlers.
10. Identify the major areas of transition and development in adolescence.
11. Name the developmental challenges of early and middle adulthood.
12. Identify the major areas of transition and development in adulthood.
13. Describe Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and identify the major skill achieved
in each.
14. Describe the tasks identified by Erikson for each phase of development.
15. Discuss the challenges faced by older adults.

▲ Return to Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 414


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Chapter 7 Key Questions


1. What innate abilities does the infant possess?
2. What are the developmental tasks of childhood?
3. What changes mark the transition of adolescence?
4. What developmental challenges do adults face?

▲ Return to Table of Contents

Chapter 7 Core Concepts


1. Newborns have innate abilities for finding nourishment, avoiding harmful situations, and
interacting with others – all of which are genetically designed to facilitate survival.
2. Nature and nurture work together to help children master important developmental tasks,
especially in the areas of language acquisition, cognitive development, and development
of social relationships.
3. Adolescence offers new developmental challenges growing out of physical changes,
cognitive changes, and socioemotional pressures.
4. Nature and nurture continue to interact as we progress through a series of transitions in
adulthood, with cultural norms about age combining with new technology to increase
both the length and quality of life for many adults.

▲ Return to Table of Contents

Chapter 7 Psychology Matters


1. Psychological traits in your genes: While genes contribute to your thoughts and
behaviors, you shouldn’t assume that biology is everything.
2. The Puzzle of ADHD: New research sheds light on the prevalence, causes, and
treatments of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
3. Using Psychology to Learn Psychology: Cognitive Development in College Students:
Our thinking processes continue to grow and develop in a predictable pattern as we
pursue higher degrees of education.
4. A Look Back at the Twin Studies: Remarkable reports of similarities in twins raised apart
from each other may grab our attention, but do they necessarily point to genetics as the
primary cause of human thinking and behavior?

▲ Return to Table of Contents

Songs to Launch the Lecture (See Suggested Activity 1 in Chapter 1 for instructions):
Child Development: “Don’t You Wanna Keep Him Up All Night” (Talking Heads)
“Kristofer David” (David Soul)
Language: “People Just Love to Play with Words” (Men at Work)
“So Much to Say” (Dave Matthews Band)
“Speechless” (Fenix, TX)
Adolescent Development: “Eighteen” (Alice Cooper)
Sexual Orientation: “Lola” (The Kinks)
Adult Development: “When I’m 64" (The Beatles)
Lifespan Development: “Cat’s in the Cradle” (Harry Chapin)

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 415


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

“When I Was Seventeen” (Frank Sinatra)


“It’s Comin’ Round Again” (Carly Simon)
▲ Return to Table of Contents

▼ LECTURE LAUNCHERS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS


Measuring Intelligence in Infants (p. 416)
Talk That Talk, Baby (p. 417)
Ultrasound Pictures (p. 417)
Object Permanence Changes (p. 418)
Day Care and Social Development (p. 418)
Critical Periods: The Story of Genie (p. 419)
Gender Roles and Parenting (p. 420)
Gender Identity and the Case of David Reimer (p. 420)
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (p. 421)
Identity and the Tasks of Adolescence (p. 421)
Adolescents Aren’t Just Slackers (p. 423)
When I Hit Puberty… (p. 424)
Time Use and Mathematics Achievement (p. 424)
Is the Potential for Divorce Genetic? (p. 425)
Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease (p. 426)
Theories of Physical Aging (p. 427)
Myths About Aging (p. 428)
The Benefits of Control (p. 429)
Scaffolding (p. 430)
The Consequences of Sexual Abuse (p. 431)
Case Study Lecture Launcher (p. 431)
Einstein’s Brain (p. 432)
Suggestions for Further Reading (p. 433)

▲ Return to Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Measuring Intelligence in Infants

Most of the intelligence tests discussed in the textbook are designed to assess intelligence in older children
and adults. There are, however, several instruments that are designed to assess intellectual functioning in
infants and very young children. These measures may be examining different aspects of intelligence, such
as physical, psychomotor, and social and emotional development rather than the verbally based measures
typically used by intelligence tests. Although these measures may not accurately predict later intelligence,
they can be useful in identifying potential developmental problems.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 416


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Lecture Launcher: Talk That Talk, Baby

“Does baby want to play with the beads?! Do yoooooouuuu want to play with the beeeeeaaaaads? Yes you
doooooo!! Yes you doooooooo, don’t yooouuuuuuuuu?!!” The high-pitched, drawn-out baby talk that new
babies seem to find mesmerizing and new parents seem to find necessary may have a deeper significance
than previously suspected. That semi-annoying tendency to repeatedly accentuate vowel sounds may serve
an important function in language development, and may have a universal component.

Patricia Kuhl, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, studied mothers in Sweden, Russia, and
Seattle as they talked to their infants. Swedish, Russian, and English have substantially different vowel
systems, yet the vowel sounds that are common to each language—“ee,” “ah,” and “oo”—were the same
sounds that were unintentionally accentuated in the mothers’ speech. These parents did not accentuate all
sounds or raise the pitch of all words, as might someone pretending to speak “baby talk.” Rather, acoustic
profiles of some 2,363 words across all three groups revealed that just these important vowels were
exaggerated, and, according to Kuhl, for good reason. By providing an infant with unambiguous examples
of what vowel sounds belong together, the task of language acquisition is presumably made that much
easier. To a 5-month-old learning to enunciate vowel sounds this can be an important boost.

Some intriguing unanswered questions remain, however. First, although Kuhl and her associates have
demonstrated the type of input given to these infants, it’s not known what babies do with this information
or how and when learning takes place. If an adult did not exaggerate vowel sounds, for example, it’s not
clear whether there would be a negative effect on an infant’s learning or simply no effect at all. Second, the
universality of this effect suggests a biological basis for knowing how to talk to an infant. “Ee,” “ah,” and
“oo” are in fact sounds common to all human languages. Why they are spontaneously stressed under certain
circumstances hints at an important adaptive tendency.

Neergaard, L. (1997, August 1). Baby talk contributes to an infant’s learning. Austin
American-Statesman, A19.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Ultrasound Pictures

Bring pictures of sonograms to class and see if students can identify the various anatomical parts of the
fetus. (You may want to make an overhead out of a sonogram.) Try contacting a local hospital or clinic for
access to sample sonograms.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 417


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Lecture Launcher: Object Permanence Changes

Infants often fail to search for a hidden object until approximately one year of age, which
suggested to Piaget that the infant lacked the concept of object permanence. Flavell, Miller, and Miller,
however, noted that recent research suggests infants may have a greater understanding of object
permanence earlier than Piaget assumed. The belief that object permanence does not stabilize until the
end of the first year may have been the result of Piaget's methodology. That is, his observations were
based upon the child's ability to perform certain motor behaviors that do not appear until later in
development. Flavell and his colleagues noted, however, that a failure to perform a search for the
object does not necessarily mean that the child lacks the concept of object permanence. Researchers
have developed several techniques that visually present situations that are either possible or impossible
given the rules of object permanence. Based upon observations of the reactions of infants to these
presentations, the results indicated that infants as young as 3 to 4 months exhibited surprise reactions
when situations were presented that were impossible given the rules of object permanence. Such
findings suggest that the concept of object permanence may appear much earlier than originally
proposed by Piaget.

Flavell, J. H., Miller, P. H., & Miller, S. A. (1993). Cognitive development (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Reprinted from Hill, W. G. (1995). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. F. Davis and J. J. Palladino.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Day Care and Social Development

The accumulated data from many studies of day care reveal no consistent negative effects. On the contrary,
many studies find that children actually do better in day care than in home care. According to one such
study of 150 children, ages 2 to 4, the social and intellectual development of children who were attending
day-care centers (part time or full time) was advanced over that of children in home care (with the mother,
a sitter, or a day-care provider in the home) (Clarke-Stewart, 1991).

What about the effects of putting infants in day care during their critical first year? In a major longitudinal
study of 2,387 children, Frank Mott (1991) investigated whether various forms of infant care were related
to the child’s performance on tests of physical, cognitive, and social development several years later. First,
he controlled for a wide range of factors that would have been linked with a child’s having been put in day
care during infancy, such as mother’s use of drugs or family income. That done, Mott found no statistically
significant association between day care in infancy and the child’s later motor or social development. As
for cognitive development, the children who had been in day care as infants scored higher than those who
had been at home. On closer inspection, Mott found that healthy baby girls benefited the most by being
away from their mothers in day-care arrangements; healthy baby boys neither gained nor lost by being in
day care; but boys who were physically unhealthy in their first year benefited by being home in maternal
care. Mott concluded that “no type of infant care arrangement can be generalized as being uniformly
preferable or detrimental.”

Most psychologists today, instead of assuming that day care is universally helpful or harmful, are asking
different questions. Specifically, they are concerned with how the quality of day care affects children’s

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 418


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

development, which children do well and which do poorly in different environments, and how parents and
day-care programs can work effectively together. Children develop well in many kinds of caretaking
arrangements. They go through the same stages of indiscriminate friendliness, fear of strangers, and
independence, whether they are at home or in day care, as long as the care is good (Clarke-Stewart, 1991;
Mott, 1991).

Clarke-Stewart, K. A. (1991). A home is not a school: The effects of child care on children’s development. In S.
L. Hofferth & D.A. Phillips (eds.), Child Care Policy Research. Journal of Social Issues, 47(2), 105-124.
Mott, F. L. (1991). Developmental effects of infant care: The mediating role of gender and health. In S. L.
Hofferth & D. A. Phillips (eds.), Child Care Policy Research. Journal of Social Issues, 47(2), 139-158.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Critical Periods: The Story of Genie

In 1970, a thirteen-year-old girl was discovered in Los Angeles. Her name was Genie, and the conditions in
which she was found were appalling. Genie had been treated like an animal since the age of twenty months.
She was confined to a small, curtained room and spent most of her days strapped to a potty chair, unable to
move except for her hands and feet. At night, Genie was confined in a cage-like crib and restrained in a
straightjacket-type garment. She had no bowel or bladder control, could not stand in an erect posture, was
severely malnourished, and was unable to chew solid food. Genie was also mute; she could not speak and
could not understand language. The only sounds she had ever heard were those made by her father on the
occasions he beat her for crying or making noises. Genie had been held prisoner by her father, a man who
never spoke to her and would not allow anyone else to do so.
Genie was removed from her father’s custody and taken to Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, where she was
nursed back to physical health. She underwent psychological evaluation to determine her mental status and
level of cognitive functioning, including her ability to produce and comprehend language. Following all
necessary assessments, psychologists embarked on the task of teaching Genie language. Because Genie was
attempting to acquire language at age thirteen, her psychologists were presented with a unique opportunity
to study the critical period theory relative to learning language, the notion that there is a time early in a
child’s life when language learning must begin, if language is to be learned at all. Genie was far past that
proposed critical period. Further, she knew no grammar and had virtually no language ability.
The researchers working with Genie approached the task of teaching her language in much the same
manner they would teach a younger child, by direct exposure to spoken language as a function of
engagement in daily activities. Initially, Genie would speak only one or two words at a time, but she did
progress, up to a point. Though she eventually progressed to the degree of combining two and three words
into phrases, she never progressed beyond the level of a three- or four-year-old child in her language
abilities, and never made the progression from simple words into grammatically correct sentences.
The fact that Genie actually did acquire some facility for language denied support for the hypothesis that
there is a critical period for language acquisition, and that this period falls somewhere between age two and
puberty. However, Genie’s failure to attain fluency and grammar did point to the potential for an optimal
period for language acquisition, a period that, if missed, would result in failure ever to attain complete
facility for language. Unfortunately, no more specific information could be gained from Genie’s
experiences, because her lack of facility for language could be attributable to her severely malnourished
state, the emotional and physical abuse suffered at the hands of her father, and her social isolation, as much

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 419


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

as to a potential optimal period for language acquisition.


By age twenty-four, Genie had received eleven years of special education and rehabilitation to include
foster care, yet her language capability remained short of that expected in a five-year-old child. Did Genie
miss her critical period for language acquisition? We do not know. Her plight has offered many insights to
developmental psychologists, but many final answers remain elusive.
► Return to Lecture Guide Section:
7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Gender Roles and Parenting

Diana Baumrind noted that some researchers have suggested that androgynous individuals may assume a
more authoritative parenting style, exhibiting more flexibility and competence as parents. In order to test
this hypothesis, she examined parenting and child behaviors as a function of degree of sex-typing. Data
were gathered on 9-year-old children and their parents using naturalistic and structured observations,
interviews, tests (including the Bem Sex Role Inventory), and self-reports.

Overall, Baumrind found that there were no differences in parenting styles between androgynous and
nonandrogynous women. Androgynous men, however, tended to be more similar to women in their
approach to childrearing. In addition, she found that androgynous men were also more unconventional and
autonomous in their overall lifestyle patterns. Furthermore, androgynous parents were more child-centered
(responsive to the child), less demanding, and less authoritative in their parenting practices. Corresponding
to their general attitude, sex-typed fathers tended to be firm, demanding, and positively reinforcing with
their children, while sex-typed mothers were more loving and responsive. Baumrind also reported that both
male and female children of sex-typed parents were somewhat more competent on several social and
cognitive tasks, and females were more assertive. Baumrind concluded that her results indicated that
assumptions by some researchers of advantages associated with androgynous parents with respect to
childrearing and development may not be correct.

Baumrind, D. (1982). Are androgynous individuals more effective persons and parents? Child Development, 53, 44–
75.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Gender Identity and the Case of David Reimer

David Reimer, a Canadian, was born in 1965 as a healthy boy. During circumcision, his penis was
inadvertently destroyed, and he was subsequently raised as a girl. Psychologist John Money oversaw the
case and reported the reassignment as successful, as evidence that gender identity is primarily learned. This
case was particularly interesting as David had an identical twin brother. Much controversy followed,

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 420


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

including David’s admission that he never identified himself as a female and his subsequent suicide in
2004. Extensive information about this case is available online, as well as in a book by John Colapinto, As
Nature Made Him.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Young children sometimes have difficulty recalling information. A recent study suggests that
drawing can enhance children’s memories for events.

Sarnia Butler, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, led a study involving 5- and
6-years-olds who took a field trip to a fire station. While there the children clambered on the fire engines,
watched drills performed by the firefighters, tried on the firefighting gear, and even watched as one of their
chaperones slid down the firepole, much to the displeasure of the tour leader, who reprimanded her. (This
event, and several others, were prearranged ahead of time.) Both one day and one month later, the children
were asked about their outing. Those children who were asked to draw and describe the events of that day -
how they got there, what they saw, the events that transpired - accurately reported much more information
than those children who were simply asked to tell what happened. This effect was not observed among 3-
to 4-year-olds, although among both groups drawing did not appear to increase errors in recall.

This research indicates that memory for pleasant events may be increased by coupling words and
pictures. It remains to be seen whether the same effect would hold for negative events. If so, this
technique may hold promise for boosting children’s recall of abuse, incest, or other traumatic events.

Staff (1995). Kids draw on their memories. Science News, 148, 111.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Identity and the Tasks of Adolescence

Sometimes a concept from academic research or theory catches the attention of the public and becomes
integrated into the framework of society's “general knowledge.” Perhaps this occurs because the concept is
particularly relevant at the time, or because it provides a framework for a generally recognized problem or
issue. The “identity crisis” proposed by Erik Erikson is such a concept. It was eagerly adopted by American
society in the 1960s. At that time, the baby-boom cohort was reaching youth and adolescence. The Vietnam
War loomed as a threat to youth, civil rights activists challenged the thoughtless discrimination of older
generations, and the women's liberation movement contested traditional ideas of female identity.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 421


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Also, by the 1960s, adolescence had become established as a life stage created by technological society: a
span of years between childhood and full adult status in which the young person prepared to live and work
in an increasingly complex society.

Erikson saw adolescence as a pivotal stage of development in which earlier psychosocial conflicts return in
a new form, and in which the foundations are laid for the intimacy, generativity, and wisdom that are the
favorable outcomes of later stages.

Developmental psychologists sometimes organize discussion of life stages around the developmental tasks
of the stage, the things we must do to be ready to move on to the next stage. The elements of the identity
crisis can be considered “tasks of adolescence.''

1. Acquiring temporal perspective. One aspect of temporal perspective is to have a clear


conception of past and future and to have the confidence to plan for the future. Another
aspect of temporal perspective is the ability to regulate one's own time. Freshmen
entering the university who are living away from home for the first time often have
difficulty regulating their own time. With no parent present to say, “Go to bed,” they will
solve the world's problems all night and be unable to get up for class the next morning.
There are people in middle age who lose jobs, miss airplanes, and alienate friends
because of their lack of ability to regulate their time.

2. Acquiring self-certainty. Self-certainty is equivalent to what is also referred to as


self-confidence or self-esteem. Erikson thought that efforts to begin to “sever the apron
strings” and to become an autonomous or independent person begin early in life, about
the time we begin to walk. If the child sees herself being able to do for herself and
accomplish little things independently, then she has the basis to develop confidence in
herself. In adolescence there are new threats to self-confidence--the prospect of having to
be financially independent and to find a desirable partner, for example. Another aspect of
self-certainty or self-esteem is that it must be accompanied by a self-image that is
compatible with reality. Self-esteem that is unrealistic is a defense, a fantasy that prevents
self-fulfillment.

3. Role experimentation. During childhood, we usually look to parents or teachers for role
models. In adolescence, young people are likely to reject earlier models and to go through
a series of “trying on” different roles. The movies and television provide a smorgasbord
of roles and role models. Role models can be real people, characters from fiction,
historical personages, or creations of our own imagination. Erikson thought that role
experimentation is a healthy manifestation of the search for identity, but at some time we
have to take the pieces we like from our role experimentation and put them together into
a consistent identity. The opposite of role experimentation is role fixation. Sometimes
one encounters a young person who has had an identity laid on him so heavily by parents
that attempts at role experimentation produce too much guilt to be pursued.

4. Apprenticeship. Theorists are often reluctant to talk about anything as mundane as


getting a job and earning a living. Erikson recognized that the prospect of having to be
self-supporting is a real concern of adolescents. This doesn't mean that an adolescent has
to choose his or her life's work in junior high school, but it does mean making general
preparation for independence. You may not have chosen a career or even have decided on
a major, but the fact that you are here in class suggests that you do not suffer from what
Erikson called “work paralysis.”

5. Sexual polarization. The obvious meaning of this aspect of identity is that adolescents
must decide whether they are heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual. It must be very
difficult for the young person who has a homosexual orientation to establish a positive
identity during adolescence. There are great pressures for denial and for conformity to
sexual roles that parents and most peers consider “normal.” Erikson wrote about the

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 422


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

aspect of sexual polarization that can be described as “comfort and confidence in the role
of male or female.” In early adolescence, young people often feel sexually inadequate
because their bodies are less than perfect, or because they feel inferior to peers who tell
tall tales of sexual adventures and prowess. Sexual roles are not as clearly delineated as
they formerly were, particularly in the case of the female role, and young females may
feel less than feminine if they have ambitious career aspirations and inadequate as
humans if they don't.

6. Questions of authority and being a leader and a follower. Resentment of authority is


so common among American adolescents that it is tempting to think of it as normal.
Differentiating between legitimate authority and arbitrary authority is a task of identity
establishment. Identity formation includes being able to take the role of leader or follower
in the appropriate circumstances.

7. Ideological commitment. As the identity is formed, young people must select a basic
philosophy, a set of values, an orientation toward religion and politics. Excessive zeal for
a cause, dramatic religious conversion, or allegiance to a cult are some of the more
extreme symptoms of young people searching for something to believe in. The task the
adolescent faces is to adopt an ideology that is internally consistent and compatible with
the self and the self-image.

It may seem as though identity formation requires that one lay down plans for the remainder of one's life
and adopt beliefs that will guide one's behavior for all future time. This is, of course, not the situation.
Identity formation is bringing together various aspects of the self into a coherent whole and establishes a
psychic “core” that defines the self. It is probably not a coincidence that Erikson's identity crisis begins
concurrently with Piaget's stage of formal operations. Some of the cognitive skills of the mature intellect
represented by this stage of cognitive development are instrumental in bringing together the threads of the
self.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Adolescents Aren’t just Slackers

Many of the negative stereotypes about adolescents involve their “laziness” and inability to pay attention
and complete tasks. Since most college students are in their early 20’s they can easily recall situations in
which their parents seemed to get frustrated by their behaviors and decisions. There is a general sense that
teenagers are “flaky” and seem to “lose their minds” during puberty. It may make students relieved to find
out that many of the attention and concentration problems of adolescence are related to a lack of brain
maturation. Recent studies have demonstrated that the brain areas related to multi-tasking, which are
located in the frontal cortex, are continuing to develop throughout adolescence. Another source of conflict
between parents and teens is associated with teen sleeping patterns. Contrary to earlier beliefs that teens are
just lazy, research has shown that teenagers need to sleep longer and later than adults in order to function
optimally.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 423


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?


7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents
Lecture Launcher: When I Hit Puberty…

Ask students to complete the sentence "When I hit puberty…” After a few students share their responses,
lead a discussion about the psychological impact of the timing of puberty and how it can shape the self-
image with which we enter adulthood.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Time Use and Mathematics Achievement

A number of reports have shown that students in East Asian countries achieve at a higher level in
school than do American children. One possible explanation for these cross-national differences is that
children and adolescents in East Asian countries have different patterns of time use. In order to investigate
this possibility, Andrew Fuligni and Harold Stevenson studied the use of time by 11th-grade adolescents
(ages 16-17) in three cities in three countries: Minneapolis (United States, n = 204), Taipei (Taiwan, n =
222), and Sendai (Japan, n = 152). There were some differences among the samples in the three cities. For
example, the Minneapolis sample had the highest level of education and highest percentage of working
mothers. Parents of the Minneapolis sample were more likely to be employed in professional and semi-
professional occupations than parents in the other cities. Sendai is the Japanese city most comparable to
Minneapolis in socioeconomic and cultural status; Taipei was the only large Chinese-speaking city where
the study could be conducted.

The researchers asked identical questions of these students during the 1990-1991 school year. The
information was gathered from interviews of the students conducted by native speakers residing in each
city. In addition, the students completed a mathematics achievement test.

When the researchers examined information about the normal school day (from the time a student
arrived to the time he or she left), they found that Japanese and Chinese students were at school for an hour
or two longer than the American students: 8.6 and 9.2 hours versus 7.3 hours. A closer examination of
students in each sample who were in the top 16 percent (one standard deviation above the mean) of time
spent at school found the Japanese students spent over 10 hours a day and Chinese over 11½ hours a day at
school compared to 8½ hours for the corresponding American students. Moreover, half-day classes on
Saturday result in substantially more time spent in school by Chinese and Japanese than American students.
The average number of hours spent at school per week was approximately 50 hours in Taiwan, 47 hours in
Japan, and 36 hours in the United States. As a result of the differences in number of hours spent at school,
students in Taiwan and Japan take more classes compared to American students.

Summing the amount of time spent studying, taking lessons, and reading for pleasure leads to an
average of 25.5 hours for Chinese students, 17.2 hours for Japanese students, and 15.4 hours for American
students. Once again, the researchers looked at the upper 16 percent within each sample and found for
Chinese, Japanese, and American students the number of hours was 44.5, 30.9, and 30.4 hours respectively.
"The large amounts of time spent in academic pursuits by the Chinese students placed them at an advantage
in terms of opportunities for learning and practice related to their schoolwork" (p. 834).

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 424


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Eighty percent of the American teenagers held part-time jobs, but only 26 percent of the Chinese
students and 27 percent of the Japanese students worked outside the home. Nearly all of the Chinese and
half of the Japanese students who worked were enrolled in vocational high schools and were employed in
jobs that were closely related to those for which they were receiving vocational training.

Compared to Chinese and Japanese students, American students spend a great deal of time after
school socializing with friends. In fact, they spend 80 percent more time socializing with friends than
studying. The relative emphases were reversed for Chinese adolescents, who spent nearly twice as much
time studying as they did socializing with friends. Japanese students engaged in both types of activities
with nearly equal amounts of time. The amount of time spent studying was correlated (low but significant)
in each city with scores on the mathematics achievement test. The amount of television watched and time
spent with friends were also negatively correlated with achievement on that test.

These cross-national findings corroborate the relationship between use of time and academic
achievement. However, despite the amount of time that East Asian students spend on schoolwork compared
to American students, "they did not appear to lead lives that were notably less well balanced than those of
their American peers" (p. 840). Although the Japanese students are most frequently described as being
overburdened by the demands of schoolwork, they were more similar to American than to Chinese
students. Yet even the Chinese students participated in sports and extracurricular activities, spent time with
their friends, and engaged in various types of social and artistic activities.

Fuligni, A. J., & Stevenson, H. W. (1995). Time use and mathematics achievement among American, Chinese, and Japanese
high school students. Child Development, 66, 83-842.

Adapted from Davis, S. F., & Palladino, J. J. (1996) Interactions: A newsletter to accompany Psychology, 2(Spr), 3.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Is the Potential for Divorce Genetic?

McGue and Lykken noted that one of the strongest predictors of divorce is a family background that
includes parental divorce. Although most researchers have attributed this effect to environmental factors
such as social modeling, McGue and Lykken investigated potential genetic factors. Using subjects from the
Minnesota Twin Registry, they obtained survey information on marital history from 722 same-sex
monozygotic twins, 794 same-sex dizygotic twins, their parents, and their spouse’s parents. They reported
that the concordance rate for divorce was significantly higher for monozygotic twins than for dizygotic
twins. Based upon their results, they estimated that the predicted divorce rate for a hypothetical marriage
between two monozygotic twins with divorced parents and a divorced co-twin would be 77.5%, while the
predicted divorce rate for a marriage between two monozygotic twins with a background of no familial
divorce would be 5.3%. The researchers concluded that their “data suggest that cultural factors influence
the threshold for divorce while, within a given culture, variations in underlying aggregate risk are strongly
influenced by genetic factors” (p. 372). They do, however, emphasize that genetic factors may be mediated
by personality factors such as personal values and the individual’s capacity for happiness.

McGue, M., & Lykken, D. T. (1992). Genetic influence on risk of divorce. Psychological Science, 3, 368–373.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 425


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?


7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease tragically afflicts many elderly people each year, resulting in a gradual deterioration of
memory, reasoning ability, and personality. Even more disturbing is that the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s can
only be made conclusively upon autopsy, when the plaques and tangles in the brain characteristic of the
disorder can be confirmed. However, the results of an archival study have suggested that linguistic markers
may predict Alzheimer’s with some degree of accuracy.

David Snowdon, an epidemiologist at the University of Kentucky, led a research team that examined the
writings of 93 nuns. In the 1930s, when these women entered a Milwaukee convent, they composed brief
autobiographical essays, which subsequently were scored by Snowdon’s team for linguistic markers such
as the density of ideas or grammatical complexity. For example, a nun who might have written “I plan to
give my all to God” probably would score low on such measures, whereas a nun who composed the
beatitude “I long to linger in the sweet garden of Christ, rejoicing in the splendor that He is and thanking
Him daily for His abundances” might not win a literature contest, but certainly shows a greater degree of
complexity in her writing. All of the nuns lived under highly similar conditions. Sixty years later, however,
those nuns who scored low on the psycholinguistic markers were more prone to develop Alzheimer’s. Of
the 14 nuns who had died, in fact, five had low idea density scores, and all five had Alzheimer’s disease.

What this reveals about the course of Alzheimer’s is still something of a mystery. It may be, for example,
that as young women these nuns were already showing signs of the disorder, suggesting that Alzheimer’s
develops slowly and insidiously over a prolonged period of time. Studies showing that some forms of
Alzheimer’s can afflict people in their 20s complement this idea. An alternative, however, is that linguistic
skills may offer some “immunity” to the development of Alzheimer’s, much as the adage “use it or lose it”
suggests. Perhaps those nuns with more highly developed linguistic ability were better able to stave off the
effects of this disorder. As with most studies of this nature, the causality of events remains murky. Other
archival data, or other markers of ability (such as mathematics scores, or measures of reasoning or
memory) may shed more light on this encouraging line of research.

Indeed, Snowdon and his associates have imposed on the generous nuns of the School Sisters of Notre
Dame one more time. The research team has recently discovered an important link between strokes and
declines in mental abilities seen in Alzheimer’s patients. Among 61 deceased nuns whose brains all clearly
showed signs of Alzheimer’s, 19 seemed in life to have escaped the confusion, dementia, and mental
deterioration so characteristic of the disease. In one case, a 101-year-old nun remained, by all accounts, as
sharp as a tack, even though her brain was a battlefield of plagues, tangles, and gaping holes. The key was
that she, like 18 of the others, had not suffered from strokes during old age. In fact, only 57% of stroke-free
nuns developed Alzheimer’s, compared to 93% of nuns who had a history of ministrokes. In an additional
comparison, Snowdon looked at the brains of 41 nuns who did not have Alzheimer’s-like brains but who
had suffered strokes; these women had no significant decrease in their overall mental competence.

An avenue for treatment suggests itself. By preventing strokes it may be possible to delay the onset of
symptoms in Alzheimer’s patients. The “double-whammy” of dealing with two brain diseases in a single
individual may be halved, providing substantial comfort to those dealing with Alzheimer’s.

Nash, J. M. (March 24, 1997). Medicine. Time, 80–82.

Rogers, A. (1996, March 4). The weight of words: Can writing style predict dementia? Newsweek, 55.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 426


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?


7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary

▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Theories of Physical Aging

Growing old, it’s been said, sure beats the alternative. The process of aging may be inevitable, but
at least the mechanisms of aging can be understood with some degree of certainty.

Wear and Tear Theories

This general class of theories proposes that the human body is analogous to a machine in that our
parts begin to wear down and malfunction as they age. Although this seems to make sense and may apply
to some body systems (e.g., elbow or knee problems experienced by athletes), it fails to account for the fact
that the body's systems are continuously engaged in repairing and replacing damaged tissue. In addition, it
does not explain why continued use or exertion of body systems, such as that associated with routine
exercise, actually improves functioning.

Accumulation Theories

This group of theories focuses on explanations of aging that are the result of problems at the
cellular level. One theory attributes aging to an accumulation of cellular reproduction errors. For example,
the aging of the skin may be the result of increasing errors in cellular reproduction due to damage in
cellular DNA from exposure to the sun and other toxic substances. Another accumulation theory is the
metabolic waste theory. This theory suggests that aging results from the accumulation of undisposed waste
products in the cells. Waste accumulation, however, seems to result from changes in the body's ability to
remove waste and thus may be more a symptom of aging than a cause. A third accumulation theory
attributes aging to the buildup of fibrous proteins (collagen and elastin) in the body. The buildup of these
proteins is associated with external aspects of aging such as wrinkles and sagging skin.

Immune System Malfunction

Another theory focuses on the potential contribution of declines in immune system functioning
with age. For example, research has demonstrated that the ability of the immune system to produce
antibodies begins to decline after adolescence. Some studies also have suggested that the immune system
may lose its ability to detect and destroy slightly mutated cells, allowing them to reproduce and accumulate
in the body. The autoimmune theory of aging, however, suggests that the immune system loses its ability
to differentiate between normal and abnormal cells, resulting in the destruction of healthy cells.

Genetic Clock

This approach suggests that cells are preprogrammed to survive and reproduce for a specific
period, after which they begin to degenerate and die. Based upon studies of human cell regeneration limits,
researchers estimate that the maximum human life span would be between 110 and 120 years.

Berger, K. S. (1994). The developing person through the life span (3rd ed.). New York: Worth.
Hayslip, B., Jr., & Panek, P. E. (1993). Adult development and aging (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

Adapted from Hill, W. G. (1995). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. F. Davis and J. J. Palladino. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 427


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?


7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Myths about Aging

Aging is one of the mysteries of human life that has been a focus of science for a number of years.
Researchers divide aging into two categories: primary aging and secondary aging. Secondary aging is
change that occurs as a result of disease, stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, or exposure to toxic
substances—any factor that contributes to aging that is actually or potentially preventable. What is left is
primary aging. If genes were programmed to effect changes with age that would be primary aging.
As research progresses, many of the myths, misconceptions, and stereotypes associated with aging are
being shattered; more of what was thought to be primary aging is, in fact, secondary aging. For example,
research done in the 1950s and 1960s by highly regarded psychologists showed that IQ scores reach a peak
in the twenties, remain stable until forty, decrease slowly from forty to sixty, and decline very rapidly after
the age of sixty. The idea of deterioration of cognitive functions with age seemed to be established, but
more recent research using longitudinal data has challenged the earlier studies. Recent research has shown
that significant changes in cognitive functions do not begin until the mid-seventies, and even then
intellectual capacities remain intact for people who continue to exercise them and remain in good health. In
studies with rats, Marian Diamond has shown that rats that live in an enriched environment continue to
show thickening of the cortex when they are beyond the normal life span of rats.
One of the myths of aging is that people undergo personality changes as they grow older. Longitudinal data
have been collected on a large group of volunteers for thirty years by the Gerontological Research Center
for the National Institute on Aging. The data show stability of personality from young adulthood through
old age. The director of the research noted that a person who is warm, sociable, and outgoing at twenty is
likely to be warm, sociable, and outgoing at eighty. He also observed that if you are likely to complain
about physical symptoms when you are eighty, you were probably a complainer when you were twenty.
Based on research in the 1950s, it was concluded that there is an age-related decrease in cardiac output, the
amount of blood the heart pumps per unit of time. Thirty years later, using the same treadmill test, the
results were different. Many of the older participants showed no decrease in cardiac output, and among
those who showed a decrease, the problem was associated with lack of exercise. During the thirty years, a
great deal was learned about heart disease. Many of the participants in the earlier study were not the
healthy-hearted specimens they were believed to be. The conclusions from the recent research are that
decrease in cardiac output is probably secondary aging, and not an inevitable consequence of growing
older.
Growing old is something we do not like to think about. When you consider the alternative, growing old is
not bad. Many young people do not like to face the fact that habits and lifestyles they adopt today are likely
to have a profound effect at the other end of life. Some young people say they don’t want to live that long,
but there is never a good day to die, and most young people of today are likely to grow old, to live to be at
least seventy-five or eighty. When you get there, you may not consider yourself old, like the 83-years-old
woman that refused to shop in a certain store because she considered the clothes they carried only
appropriate for old ladies.

AN AGING SOCIETY
With the emphasis on “saving social security” that everyone saw in the 2004 presidential election, we have
just begun to see the coming impact of the aging of American society. As the population continues to age,
and there are relatively fewer young people to physically and economically care for older people, there will
clearly have to be some major changes in many social programs and how some elements in our society

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 428


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

function. For example, social security will have to be changed to keep it from becoming insolvent when the
“baby boom” generation reaches its peak retirement years. Programs like Medicare will also have to be
revamped. Retirement ages may be moved farther back, so that the standard retirement age in the not-too-
distant future may be seventy instead of sixty-five. While today’s elderly are generally healthier than the
elderly of previous generations, as they reach their eighties and nineties (and even one-hundreds) many will
need extensive health care and nursing home care. This will require record numbers of health-care workers
to help care for the elderly. In what other ways might an aging population impact society? This can be a
thought-provoking discussion for students.

EUTHANASIA
One of the more controversial issues related to aging, and the health problems that often accompany it, is
the issue of euthanasia. Dr. Jack Kervorkian’s active euthanasia efforts eventually resulted in his being
jailed but brought a lot of controversy and publicity to this issue. You might ask students how they feel
about this issue. Is active euthanasia ever justified? If so, under what circumstances? What moral issues
does active euthanasia raise? What potential abuses could result from legalized active euthanasia? What
about the slippery slope argument that once we begin allowing active euthanasia in some cases, it becomes
easier to begin allowing it for less severe cases, and eventually it becomes just an easy way of getting rid of
“inconvenient” elderly people who are a “nuisance” because of their ill health and discomfort?
While most Americans oppose active euthanasia, because of these potential abuses, the picture is not as
clear when it comes to the issue of passive euthanasia, in which no active steps are taken to shorten the
person’s life, but no efforts are made to keep them alive when the person could be kept alive with outside
help. Some researchers claim that well over 50 percent of physicians have occasionally engaged in passive
euthanasia. How do students feel about this? How do their feelings about passive euthanasia differ from
their feelings about active euthanasia?
► Return to Lecture Guide Section:
7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: The Benefits of Control

A sad reality of aging in the United States is that the elderly are sometimes demoted to the status
of “second-class citizens.” Consigned to nursing homes due to frailty, hardship, or the indifference of
family members, the elderly often find themselves in an environment not of their choosing and inconsistent
with their previous lifestyles. Consequently, they may feel unable to control, predict, or determine their
outcomes, even on a day-to-day basis. A classic study by Ellen Langer and Judy Rodin did much to
illustrate the benefits to the elderly of being in control.

Langer and Rodin enlisted the cooperation of the Arden House nursing home in Connecticut to
perform an intervention using its residents. Those who lived on the four floors of the Arden House were all
from similar backgrounds, of similar states of health, and generally assigned to floors and rooms on a
random basis. Langer and Rodin therefore randomly chose the residents of one floor to receive an
increased responsibility treatment, leaving the residents of another floor as a comparison group.

Both groups attended information meetings led by the director of the facility, who worked in
cooperation with the researchers. However, the increased responsibility residents were told that they
should take charge of arranging their room as they wished, making their complaints known to the director,
and scheduling the activities they wished to participate in. For example, these residents were told of
upcoming movies to be shown on a Thursday and Friday night, and were asked to indicate their preference
for attending. Similarly, these residents each selected a small houseplant to care for and were told that it

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 429


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

would be their responsibility to tend to its needs. In contrast, the residents of the comparison group were
given slightly different information. They were also told that their comfort and happiness were of primary
importance, although the director stated that it was the staff’s responsibility to make sure that happened.
As an example, the houseplants given to this group would be watered and tended to by the nurses. And
although they too heard about the upcoming “nights at the movies,” they were informed that they would be
told which night they could attend. In short, Langer and Rodin manipulated the amount of responsibility
the two groups had for their own outcomes.

All the residents had completed a questionnaire on their satisfaction with the living arrangements a
week prior to the director’s presentation. A similar questionnaire was completed three weeks after the talk.
The increased responsibility residents reported being happier and more active (compared to the control
group) on the second questionnaire, which was complemented by interviewer’s ratings of increased
alertness for this same group. Furthermore, nurses (who remained uninformed about each resident’s
experimental status) rated the increased responsibility residents as showing greater general improvement
and as spending more time visiting other residents, talking to staff, and visiting with guests, and
significantly less time simply sitting and watching the staff. Interestingly, more members of the
responsibility group attended the film that was shown, and although 10 “responsibility residents” entered a
jellybean-guessing contest that night, only 1 member of the comparison group did.

Finally, the most provocative difference was in the mortality rate of the two groups of residents:
Thirty percent of the comparison group had died during the 18-month interval between the original study
and a subsequent follow-up visit, compared to only fifteen percent of the increased responsibility
participants. Although other factors surely played a role, this “ultimate DV” provides startling evidence of
the importance of control in our daily lives.

Langer, E. J., & Rodin, J. (1976). The effects of choice and enhanced personal responsibility for the aged: A field
experiment in an institutional setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 191-198.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Scaffolding

Retrieve some change from your pocket or purse and count it silently. Look up at the class and explain that
your throat is dry and you would like to buy a drink from a vending machine before beginning or
continuing your lecture. Tell the class that you are a dime short of having enough change. Ask if there is
anyone who will lend you a dime. After a student responds, give the coin back and explain that the class
has just witnessed a demonstration of one of Lev Vygotsky's most important concepts about cognitive
development: scaffolding. Ask students to generate examples of how teacher and parents provide minimal
help to children (analogous to the dime you borrowed) that enables them to achieve tasks they would not be
able to do on their own.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 430


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Lecture Launcher: The Consequences of Sexual Abuse

There is evidence that severe childhood sexual abuse leaves a permanent mark on the brain. The
researchers in both cases used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the hippocampus, a brain
structure involved in organizing memory, in groups of women. The studies found that the hippocampal
volume of women who had suffered severe sexual abuse as children was smaller than that of women who
were comparable in age, but who had not been abused. Both groups of women were recruited from the
same women’s health clinic, where they were receiving general care.

The research teams suggest that this cerebral alteration may predispose people to experience dissociation
and to develop the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other investigators have reported
similar reductions in hippocampal volume among Vietnam combat veterans suffering from PTSD.
However, the point at which the reduction takes place is not clear, especially given that many adults who
develop PTSD have experienced prior traumas.

If the severe traumas of child sexual abuse or combat release stress hormones that harm the hippocampus, it
may account in part for the fragmented memories experienced by many people suffering from PTSD.
However, it is also known that many trauma survivors display no memory disruptions, dissociation, or
symptoms of PTSD. This has led some researchers to speculate that a genetic predisposition to react
strongly to extreme stress may also be implicated, especially in men. Further research will hopefully clarify
this link between behavior and brain.

Bower, B. (1995). Child sex abuse leaves mark on brain. Science News, 147, 340.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Case Study Lecture Launcher

At the age of sixteen, Edith Eva Eger’s world turned upside down. She and her family were suddenly
arrested and interned in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Shortly after they arrived at
Auschwitz, her mother was sent to the gas chamber. Before she was taken away, she urged Edith and her
sister to live their lives fully. “Remember,” she said, “What you put inside your brain, no one can take
away.” (Eger, 1990, p. 6).
In the horror-filled existence of concentration camp life, Edith found that the basic logic of the world was
reversed. The notions of good behavior she had learned growing up “were replaced by a kind of animal
quiver, which instantly smelled out danger and acted to deflect it.” Matters of life and death were decided
as casually as flipping a coin. You could be sent to the “showers of death” for having a loosely tied
shoelace.
After years of being brutalized, the camp inmates longed for freedom, yet, paradoxically, also dreaded it.
When their liberators arrived, some prisoners “rushed forward but most retreated and even returned to their
barracks.”
Edith was a fortunate survivor. She later married, immigrated to the United States, and became a clinical
psychologist. Recently, at the age of 61, Dr. Eger’s need to understand the twisted reality of the camps
motivated her to return to Auschwitz. “I came to mourn the dead and celebrate the living, I also needed to

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 431


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

formally put an end to the denial that I had been a victim and to assign guilt to the oppressor.” For many
years, she had denied the horrible truths of her camp experiences, but eventually denial was unacceptable to
her. By reliving the events of her incarceration and forcing herself to think about the meaning of that
horror, Dr. Eger believes she has become better able to help others understand events that seem
inexplicable in the context of their everyday lives.
The fundamental human desire to comprehend the nature of one’s existence that motivated Dr. Eger was
eloquently described by another survivor of Auschwitz, Italian writer Primo Levi. He reports, “It might be
surprising that in the camps one of the most frequent states of mind was curiosity. And yet, besides being
frightened, humiliated, and desperate, we were curious, hungry for bread and also to understand. The world
around us was upside down and somebody must have turned it upside down . . . to twist that which was
straight, to befoul that which was clean” (Levi, 1985, p. 99).
Edith took her mother’s last words to heart. No one can take away what she has put in her brain. No one
can take away what you have put in your brain. By becoming a psychotherapist, Dr. Eger chose a career in
which she helps others cope with personal realities that defy rational explanation. Noting that today’s
college students have little knowledge of the Holocaust, she hopes “that some day, when they are ready, my
grandchildren will have the curiosity to ask their grandmother questions about the time when the world was
turned upside down. So that if it starts tilting again, they and millions of others can redress it before it is too
late” (p. 9).

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Einstein’s Brain

After Albert Einstein died of a hemorrhaged abdominal aneurysm in 1955, pathologist Dr. Thomas
Harvey removed Einstein’s brain and kept it for scientific study. He noted that on a gross-anatomical level,
Einstein’s brain was no larger or heavier than the normal human brain. Since 1955, Einstein’s brain has
been photographed extensively and sectioned for further investigation. In 1996, Dr. Sandra Witelson
obtained a significant section of Einstein’s brain and has reported with her colleagues that although
Einstein’s brain was reported as average in size and weight, Einstein’s inferior parietal lobe was 15% wider
than comparable parietal lobes. This brain area is associated with visual-spatial cognition, mathematical
thought, and imagery of movement. Note that Einstein’s theoretical insights were usually the result of
mental imagery that he translated into the mathematical language. Witelson and her colleagues also found
that the sylvian fissure, which separates the frontal and temporal lobes, was shorter than average,
suggesting tightly packed neurons and interconnections and thus increased communication between
neurons in this brain region.

It is still unknown whether Einstein was born with an extraordinary mind, or whether the brain reorganized
itself around Einstein’s life work (following the principles of neural plasticity). As long as humans are
intrigued by intelligence, we will always be interested in the mystery behind genius.

Witelson, S. F., Kigar, D. L., & Harvey, T. (1999). The exceptional brain of Albert Einstein. The Lancet, 353,
2149-2153.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 432


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?


Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Lecture Launcher: Suggestions for Further Readings

Baumrind, D. (1978). “Parental Disciplinary Patterns and Social Competence in Children.” Youth and
Society, 9, 239–276. Contains a description of each of the three patterns of parenting styles:
authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Somewhat dated in that new parenting styles are evolving,
but still highly relevant in parenting research.
Bee, H. (1994). Lifespan Development. New York: Harper Collins. Presents a comprehensive overview of
research and theory on development across the life span.
Bigner, J. J. (1994). Individual and Family Development: A Lifespan Interdisciplinary Perspective.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice -Hall. A comprehensive womb-to-tomb text that details physical,
emotional, and cognitive developmental issues across the life span.
Carstensen, L., & Turk-Charles, S. (1994). “The Salience of Emotion across the Adult Life Span.”
Psychology & Aging, 9(2), 259–264. Presents research that shows emotionality does not diminish as one
ages, and, in fact, may increase as we grow older.
Cox, M. V. (1991). The Child’s Point of View, 2nd Edition. New York: Narvester Heartsheaf. An
investigation of development of awareness in children, challenging notions that they are “inferior
adults,” and demonstrating their sophisticated level of awareness of others’ beliefs and feelings.
Craig, G. J., & Kermis, M. D. (1995). Children Today. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Csikszentimihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (1984). Being Adolescent: Conflict and Growth in the Teenage Years.
New York: Basic Books. Although an older text, this volume provides an excellent report of day-to-day
adolescent life, complete with research that records adolescent thoughts and activities at all hours of the
day and night.
Cutler, N., Gottfries, C., & Siegfried, K. (Eds.). (1995). Alzheimer’s Disease: Clinical and Treatment
Perspectives. New York: J. Wiley & Sons.
Flavell, J. (1963). The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand. Includes a
presentation of Piaget’s theoretical systems, such as the concepts of assimilation and accommodation,
grouping, equilibrium and their various roles within Piaget’s schema of developmental stages. Offers a
critical evaluation, both methodologically and in the light of related research by others, of Piaget’s
system and work.
Flavell, J. (1996). “Piaget’s Legacy.” Psychological Science, 7(4), 200–203. Presents eleven contributions
by Piaget to the field of cognitive development to explain what is known and thought about concerning
his theories of cognitive development.
Flavell, J., Miller, P., & Miller, S. (1993). Cognitive Development (3rd ed). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc. An interesting introduction to human cognitive development. Appeals to individuals
from diverse backgrounds, and, in keeping with trends in the field, devotes much attention to current
theories and research.
Fried, S. B. (1988). “Learning Activities for Understanding Aging.” Teaching of Psychology, 15, 160–162.
Detailed instructions on five activities usable in conjunction with lectures on aging.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory In Practice. New York: Basic Books. Provides an
excellent overview of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Brings together work on the subject in
one convenient book.

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 433


Instructor’s Manual for Zimbardo/Johnson/McCann, Psychology: Core Concepts, 7th Edition

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press. A classic, exploring the differences in the way that men and women think. An
alternative to Kohlberg and seminal in its own right as the first true criticism of Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development.
Ginsburg, H., & Opper, S. (1998). Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development (3rd Ed). Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Provides examples of Piagetian cognitive tasks that are easily adapted to lectures
on cognitive development.
Hanin, I., Mitsuo, Y., & Fisher, A. (Eds.). (1995). Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases: Recent
Developments. New York: Plenum Press.
Henry, C., & Ulijaszek, S. (Eds.). (1996). Long-Term Consequences of Early Environment: Growth,
Development, and the Lifespan Developmental Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lawton, M., & Salthouse, T. (Eds.). (1998). Essential Papers on the Psychology of Aging. New York: New
York University Press.
Lerner, R., & Galambos, N. (1998). “Adolescent Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Research,
Programs, and Policies.” Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 413–446. Discusses the basic challenges and
opportunities facing both adolescents and the psychologists who study them.
Levine, M., & Levine, A. (1992). Helping Children: A Social History. New York: Oxford University Press.
A narrative of how our American society addresses children’s issues, from the formation of the foster
care system to the Gary Schools Project and Ben Lindsey’s formation of the juvenile courts system. An
excellent resource for the history of children’s issues.
Parke, R., Ornstein, P., Rieser, J., & Zahn-Waxier, C. (1994). A Century of Developmental Psychology.
Washington: American Psychological Association. Highlights the contributions of the most important
developmental psychologists in the field. Traces the theoretical and empirical changes in developmental
psychology over the past one-hundred years.
Sternberg, R. J. (1990). Metaphors of Mind: Conceptions of the Nature of Intelligence. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. An overview of human intelligence from the combined, rather than
individualistic, perspectives of psychology, anthropology, and sociology.
Turner, J., & Helms, D. (1995). Lifespan Development (5th ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College
Publishers. An introduction to life span development that focuses on seven essential themes. These
themes are the interrelatedness of aging processes, theoretical perspectives on life span development, the
interaction of heredity and environment, epigenetics, continuity and discontinuity, active and reactive
models of development, and gender issues.
Van Hasselt, V., & Hersen, M. (1992). Handbook of Social Development: A Lifespan Perspective. New
York, Plenum Press. Investigates the process of social development from a life span perspective. Covers
all stages of life from the crib to old age. An excellent reference.
Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and Language. Revised and edited by A. Kozulin. Cambridge: MIT Press. A
1986 revision of the original volume, this text helps balance the various trends of thought on the
connections between psychology and language.

► Return to Lecture Guide Section:


7.1: What Innate Abilities Does the Infant Possess?
7.2: What are the Developmental Tasks of Childhood?
7.3: What Changes Mark the Transition of Adolescence?
7.4: What Developmental Challenges Do Adults Face?
Chapter Summary
▼Return to complete list of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Development Over the Lifespan 434


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Boarding party
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Boarding party

Author: Robert F. Young

Illustrator: Virgil Finlay

Release date: December 4, 2023 [eBook #72310]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company,


1963

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOARDING


PARTY ***
The fey Mr. Young continues his scholarly researches
in the scientific origins of our myth and legend
with this tale of an agile—and avaricious—one-man

BOARDING PARTY

By ROBERT F. YOUNG

Illustrated by FINLAY

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from


Amazing Stories September 1963
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
(Translator's note: The original of the following report was recently
acquired by the Terran Industrial Library through the Interstellar
Historical Exchange Society, into whose illustrious fold the member
nations of the Terran Economic Bloc have at last been admitted. The
narrative is of primary interest to the library officials because it
provides unequivocable proof that, long before the Interstellar
Economic Community took official cognizance of our existence,
several articles of Community Commerce found their way into our
culture. To the layman, however, the narrative is of primary interest
because it provides an intriguing parallel to a narrative of an
altogether different nature.)

TO: Interstellar Nurseries, Frimm 4


FROM: Captain of the Greenship Uxurient, Urtz 2
SUBJECT(S): (1) Why the Uxurient put in to an out-of-bounds
system during the Frimm 4-Urtz 2 run; (2) how a boarding party of
one gained the greendeck and made off with a Uterium 5 snirk bird,
a toy friddlefork, and two containers of yellow trading disks; (3) why
the Uxurient's flexible ship-to-ground capillary tube is ten exids
shorter than it used to be.

(1)
Why the Uxurient put in to an Out-of-Bounds System during the
Frimm 4-Urtz 2 Run
Two light-cycles out from Frimm 4, the first shoots of the yumquat
trees broke through the greendeck precisely on schedule. A little
over a light-cycle farther out I noticed during one of my periodic
inspections that the young leaves were beginning to turn yellow, and
subsequent tests of several greendeck soil samples revealed an
acute deficiency of mineral elements D-2 and Z-1, plus an advanced
aridity. I immediately retired to the greenship's subdeck, where I
found the contents of the soil-solution vat to be at a shockingly low
level. An analysis of the contents indicated a near-total absence of
mineral elements D-2 and Z-1.
Further investigations have since convinced me that the
responsibility for this critical shortage rests upon the shoulders of
none other than Ur-Lon-Ho-Lee, Interstellar Nurseries' senior
shipping clerk, but at the time, the yumquat-tree shipment pre-
empted my attention to the exclusion of all other matters. If the trees
were to be allowed to shoot up at the usual accelerated growth rate
and were to be delivered in satisfactory sapling stage to the Urtz 2
customer who had ordered them, I had but one course of action
open to me: to put in to the nearest system, find a planet with a soil
rich in moisture and rich in mineral elements D-2 and Z-1, and
replenish the soil-solution vat by means of the Uxurient's ship-to-
ground capillary tube. Fortunately, there happened to be a system in
the vicinity of the Uxurient's present position, but unfortunately it
happened to be one of the many systems that are out-of-bounds to
Interstellar Economic Community ships. Before coming to a decision,
then, I had to weigh the importance of my mission against the risk of
causing "a substantial interference in the normal evolution of an
extra-Community culture"—a possibility that is always present when
a Community ship is forced to enter an out-of-bounds system. I
decided that it was my responsibility both to the customer and to the
company to run this risk, and proceeded to put in to the system at
once.
I wasted no time on the outer worlds, knowing from experience that
such worlds rarely yield anything in the way of flora and hence could
not possibly possess the kind of soil I needed, but arrowed in to the
orbital regions of the first four. Perceiving at once that Four would not
serve my purpose, I continued on to Three. Three turned out to be a
Frimm 4-type planet in all respects save its slightly smaller size; it
also turned out to be the reason for the system's having been placed
out-of-bounds. I was not surprised: One seldom finds soil of the type
employed by Frimm 4 nurseries without finding intelligent life in the
immediate vicinity. In this instance, I used the term "intelligent life" in
its broadest sense, for the several civilizations I transchecked at
random revealed technologies not far removed from the paleolithic
stage, and in one case, in the very midst of it.

On several of the land masses I detected scattered deposits of the


soil-type I needed, and I could have replenished the Uxurient's soil-
solution vat from any of them. However, I chose an unusually rich
one on a large island near the major land mass, reasoning that the
less time I consumed in the operation, the less chance there would
be of my occasioning "a substantial interference in the normal
evolution of an extra-Community culture". This particular deposit
bordered a small community of scattered, thatch-roofed dwellings,
and abounded in trees similar to the yumquat species. After
activating the Uxurient's ventral camouflage-unit, I brought the
greenship down to about two hundred mirids, gravved it into position
above the edge of the forest, and opened the capillary-tube lock. I
timed my maneuver to coincide with the passing of the dusk belt,
but, reluctant to attract any more attention than was absolutely
necessary, I waited through most of the ensuing night phase before
lowering the capillary tube. Unfortunately, I erred somewhat in my
calculations, and the tube's rhizomorphous feeding system, owing
partially to the rather strong wind that had sprung up during the night
phase, entered the soil much closer to one of the native dwellings
than I had intended should be the case; however, dawn being near
at hand, I lacked sufficient time to recoil and relocate the device, so I
left it where it was. I was not particularly worried: the natives'
superstitious fear of the tube would probably preclude their
approaching it closely enough for them to be able to damage it, and
if their superstitious fear of the tube itself was not strong enough to
make them keep their distance, their fear of the "low-lying cloud"
from which the tube depended should be.
My mind at ease in this respect then, I reduced the opacity of the
hull's upper hemisphere to complete transparency so that the
greendeck would benefit from the rays of the system's sun, after
which I retired to the subdeck to check on the first influx of nutrients
into the soil-solution vat. The length of the capillary tube prohibited
any immediate change in the solution-level, so while I waited, I
busied myself checking the tubes that run down to the vat from the
section of the greendeck where the upper extremities of the capillary
tube are affixed. Next, I checked the outgoing tubes that feed the
greendeck soil. By the time I finished, the level had begun to rise.
I waited till it rose above the halfway mark, then I took a sample and
ran an analysis. The result delighted me: the D-2 and Z-1 mineral
element content had quadrupled! If the rapidity with which the vat
was filling continued, I would be able to disengage the capillary tube,
recoil it, and be on my way before the next night phase.
I lingered for a while longer, watching the level climb. Finally,
remembering that I had not eaten since before my discovery of the
soil deficiency, I left the vat-room, picked up three lliaka hind
quarters in the meat-compartment, attached them to my belt, and
proceeded up the ramp to the greendeck. The thought of the fine
steaks which the quarters would yield made me realize how truly
hungry I was, and I set off across the greendeck toward my distant
living quarters with quickened steps. As I walked, the sight of the arid
soil stretching away in every direction afflicted me with melancholy,
even though I knew that the deplorable condition was well on its way
toward being corrected. The leaves of the baby yumquat trees, I saw
to my dismay, had more than merely yellowed: they had shriveled
too. And so scrawny were the little shoots that, had I not known that
they were there, I might very well have walked in their midst and
have been unaware of their existence. Indeed, the greendeck,
awash now with bright morning sunlight, had more of the aspect of a
desert than it did an aspect of a thriving oasis where plants are
grown during shipment. I submit that my bringing the Uxurient in to
an out-of-bounds system was more than merely justified: it was in
keeping with the highest ideals that govern man in his relationship to
plant-life.
(2)

How a Boarding Party of One gained the Greendeck and made off
with a Uterium 5 Snirk Bird, a Toy Friddlefork, and Two Containers of
Yellow Trading Disks.
Arriving at my living quarters, I removed my greendeck fatigues and
laid them upon the arms of the rack beside the entrance, wondering
as I always do on such occasions how Ho-Hat-Li-Tum, the
company's morale manager, could have fallen for so blatantly
whimsical an appointment as a clothes rack in the form of a life-size
woman. Granted, greenship pilots lead lonely lives, but tell me this:
how can the mere act of their laying their outer garments upon the
outstretched arms of a brainless, speechless, feelingless mannequin
in the least alleviate their loneliness? If Ho-Hat-Li-Tum were really
concerned about the morale of the greenship pilots, he would spurn
such halfway measures and concentrate his energies on getting the
regulation that forbids pilots to take their wives into space with them
rescinded.
To continue: Once in my living quarters, I proceeded directly to the
galley where I cut two large steaks from one of the lliaka
hindquarters. Placing the steaks upon the grill to sear, I got a loaf of
bread and decanter of wine out of the provision closet, after which I
set the table. When the steaks were done, I placed them on a large
platter and sat down to eat. It was at this point that I received a very
definite impression that I was being watched.
I looked around the galley. Other than myself, of course, no one was
there, and certainly the various cupboards were much too small to
harbor a secret onlooker. A secret onlooker indeed! Angry with
myself, I put the matter from my mind, concluding that the condition
of the yumquat trees had depressed me to a greater extent than I
had realized, and that I had fallen prey to preposterous imaginings. I
wish now that I had been less eager to ascribe what proved to be a
perfectly valid psychosensory perception to my emotional letdown.
I ate ravenously, devouring both of the steaks and the entire loaf of
bread. Afterward, a feeling of peace and good will stole over me, and
on an impulse I called the Uterium 5 snirk bird down from its perch
above the galley doorway and persuaded it by means of a crust of
bread to perch upon my forefinger. Despite the large and ovoid
xanthous droppings which these birds sporadically deposit on chairs,
tables and floors, they make wonderful pets, and I envied the
particular customer who was to receive this one—a tiny, bright-eyed
female—as a partial bonus for his yumquat-tree order. The other
components of his bonus—the toy friddlefork and the two containers
of yellow trading disks—stood on a shelf just behind me, and
reaching around and procuring them, I set them on the table before
me. Such evidence of largess invariably renews my faith in the
company, and on long runs I often get out customer bonuses and
speculate on the munificence of a concern such as ours. Thus I
speculated now—but not for long. I had not slept for nearly two zodal
periods and was far more tired than I realized, and to complicate
matters, the heavy meal which I had just consumed had had a
soporific effect upon me. Almost before I knew it, I dozed off.

I believe that my first apprisal that the previously mentioned


psychosensory perception had not been illusory after all was the
creak of one of the cupboard doors. Unfortunately, this apprisal was
on the unconscious, rather than the conscious, level, and failed to
arouse me from my stupor. It took the hysterical cackling of the
Uterium 5 snirk bird, a few moments later, to bring me back to true
awareness, and by that time, it was too late. The tiny man who had
shinned up the table leg and seized the snirk bird, the two containers
of yellow trading disks, and the toy friddlefork had already regained
the deck and was running toward the doorway. In the process of
climbing back down, he must have bumped the toy friddlefork and
accidentally activated its tonal unit, for it was bleating away
insistently as he bore it away. Indeed, so insistent were its cries that
one would have thought that it expected me to come after it and
succor it.
Incredulously, I got to my feet. I saw then that the thief was not a
man, but a boy—the tiniest boy that I have ever seen in my whole
life. Assuming his stature to be average, it is unlikely that even a full-
grown adult of his species would come any higher than a Frimm 4's
citizen's knee-cap!
I called after him, uttering my name in as gentle a tone of voice as I
could manage and assuring him that if he would return the articles
he had stolen no harm would come to him. He only ran the faster,
and fairly streaked through the galley doorway, down the entrance
corridor, and out onto the greendeck. I had no choice but to set off in
pursuit, and this I did, naively believing that I could overtake him
easily. In this I erred indeed. Never have I ever seen anyone run so
fast. Why, there were times when I could have sworn that his feet
weren't even touching the deck!
As I lumbered along in his wake, I wondered how he could
conceivably have gotten on board. Had he climbed the capillary
tube? This didn't seem possible in view of the Uxurient's altitude and
in view of his diminutiveness, but I could think of no other answer.
There was no need for me to, I saw presently: that he had climbed
up the tube was unequivocably demonstrated by the ease and the
celerity with which he now began to climb down it.
(3)
Why the Uxurient's Flexible Ship-to-Ground Capillary Tube is now
Ten Exids Shorter than It used to be
Loath to give up the chase, I started climbing down the tube myself.
This is not as difficult as one would at first imagine—as I myself had
imagined, in fact, prior to making the attempt. The branch-like
protuberances that absorb the sunlight and transmute it into the
energy required for the capillary-action provide numerous hand- and
footholds, and had it not been for the almost gale-force wind that had
developed, my descent would have been relatively easy. Even with
the wind, I found myself in no great danger, and I have no doubt but
what I would have reached the ground in due course had I not
underestimated the resourcefulness—and the blood-thirstiness—of
my youthful quarry. He kept calling out repeatedly at the top of his
voice, but I did not suspect what he was up to until, halfway down, I
paused and looked below me. I was just in time to see a woman run
out of the thatch-roofed dwelling near which the tube had rooted
itself and hand him a small object the very moment his feet touched
the ground.
I deduced from the shards of sunlight that the object threw off that it
was a cutting tool of some kind. I was not long left in doubt in any
event, for no sooner did the boy have it in his possession than he
began to wield it. A series of thuds was borne upward by the wind,
and with each thud, the tube gave a convulsive shudder. I had seen
unattached ship-to-ground capillary tubes at the mercy of the wind
before, and I knew the danger that confronted me. Consequently I
began climbing back up toward the Uxurient at once. While I will not
attempt to deny that I was frightened, I would like to point out that it
wasn't so much my predicament that frightened me, but the cold-
blooded attitude of the young savage below me. He thought that by
severing the tube he could bring it crashing to the ground, and the
ferocity and the frequency of his blows testified to the eagerness with
which he awaited my destruction.
It was his very attitude, I believe, that gave me the strength and the
determination to gain the Uxurient after the tube broke free and
began lashing wildly back and forth. For a long while I lay gasping on
the greendeck; then, when my breath came back, I recoiled the tube,
secured the tube-lock, and lifted into space. The soil-solution vat was
not as full as I would have wished, but by careful rationing I knew
that I could make its contents suffice. Whether I could or not, I
wanted no more part of the world I had just left. I never want to see
the place again.
I would like to append a word in my defense. While it is true that I
was instrumental in exposing an extra-Community culture to a
technology far beyond its ken, it must be remembered that all such
cultures are flexible in nature and can absorb the seemingly
inexplicable with the utmost equanimity. They achieve this quite
simply by identifying the unfamiliar with the familiar, and by ascribing
those phenomena which happen to be beyond their experience to
the workings of magic. Far from having an adverse effect, the
present instance will, I am sure, provide the basis for a colorful
legend. No doubt the legend will acquire a more satisfying ending,
and unquestionably the boy's exploits will be exaggerated. As
regards the Uterium 5 snirk bird, the toy friddlefork, and the two
containers of yellow trading disks, you may be sure that the young
rascal had already identified them with objects with which he was
familiar (and which he coveted) before he left the galley cupboard in
which he was hiding. If he had not done so, he would not have stolen
them. In any case, I am not unduly bitter about their loss, even
though I must make that loss good. The measure of a Frimm 4
citizen's true worth is the quantity of his magnanimity; hence I hope
that both the boy and the woman—probably his mother—live happily
ever after.

(signed)
Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum
THE END
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOARDING
PARTY ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S.


copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in
these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it
in the United States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of
this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept
and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and
may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the
terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of
the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as
creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.
Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given
away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with
eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject
to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE


THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free


distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and


Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree
to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be
bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from
the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in
paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be


used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people
who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a
few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic
works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.
See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with
Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the
collection of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the
individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the
United States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in
the United States and you are located in the United States, we do
not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing,
performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the
work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg™
mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely
sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name
associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of
this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its
attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it without
charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the
United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms
of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying,
performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this
work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes
no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in
any country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other


immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must
appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™
work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or
with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is
accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived


from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a
notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright
holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the
United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must
comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through
1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted


with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted
with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of
this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project


Gutenberg™ License terms from this work, or any files containing a
part of this work or any other work associated with Project
Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this


electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg™ License.

You might also like