Myers’ Psychology

Chapter 4
Developmental Psychology

Originally created by: James A. McCubbin, PhD

Clemson University
Wo r t h P u b l i s h e r s

Edited by: Amanda Dabbenigno

HOW TO AGE GRACEFULLY
 LIVE A GOOD LIFE

What does it mean

to live a good life at
the ages of ….?
3
8
14
25
35
55
75
 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

 Branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social

changes through out the life span.
 Look for commonalities between us.
 Look at issues of:
 Nature/nurture
 Continuity/Stages
 Stability/Change
 CONCEPTION

 When male’s sperm

fertilizes female’s egg
 at this point, the egg
blocks all other
sperm
 Women are born with
all eggs they will ever
have
 Men begin producing
sperm at puberty and
produce it 24/7 for
the rest of their life
 PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT

 Zygote Stage: First 10-14 DAYS

 fertilized egg…eventually develops into a embryo after 2
weeks.
 At 2 weeks, zygote becomes an embryo
 EMBRYONIC STAGE (2-8 WEEKS)

 Embryo: developing
human organism.
Considered embryo
from 2 weeks to 2 nd
month.
 This stage is when
pregnancy is officially
established…woman
will miss period.
 Week 4-8 are when all
major organs begin
functioning.
 About an inch long by
week 8
 Has arms, legs, and
face
 FETAL STAGE (8 WEEKS TO BIRTH)

Fetus: developing human organism

from 9 weeks after conception until
birth.
After 12 weeks most of major
development is “finished” except for
brain and lungs.
Around 4 months, fetal movement
strong enough to be detected by
mother
Around 6 months, eye lids open and
fetus had well-developed grasp and
taste buds
After 6 months…premature babies ’
organs sufficiently formed to allow
chance of survival (age of viability)
At the end of 38 weeks (9 ½
months) pregnancy, fetus typically
weighs around 7lbs and is about 20
inches long
 TERATOGENS

Agents such as
chemicals and
viruses that can
reach the embryo or
fetus during
prenatal
development and
cause harm.
Examples: AIDS
virus, drugs,
alcohol can all be
passed onto baby
and cause damage.
 TERATOGENS

Mother’s illness
Rubella (German measles) can cause blindness, deafness, heart
abnormalities and stillbirth
Syphilis can cause mental retardation, physical deformities and
miscarriage for mother
AIDS can be passed on to child prior to birth
Mother’s use of drugs
Illegal drugs like cocaine can result in baby being born addicted
to drug (withdraw)
Even legal substances could cause fetal abnormalities
Alcohol and nicotine
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: condition resulting in mental and growth
retardation
Some physical features associated with FAS -abnormally small,
small eyes and upturned nose, and small or abnormally formed
brain
Smoking leads to lower birth weight and heavy smoking may
affect the brain
 THE COMPETENT NEWBORN

Reflexes are responses that are

inborn and do not have to be learned
Come equipped with reflexes ideally
suited for survival

Examples to make sure they are fed

rooting reflex: baby’s tendency
when touched on the cheek to open
the mouth and search for food.
The sucking Reflex: can be
triggered by a fingertip
Crying when hungry: is the
newborn talent of using just the right
sounds to motivate parents to end
the noise and feed the baby
 MORE INBORN ABILITIES

 Newborns (one hour old!) will look twice as

long at the image on the left.
 What can we conclude from this behavior?
 MATURATION

Biological growth processes that

enable orderly changes in
behavior, relatively uninfluenced
by experience.
 In terms of brain development,
natural maturation causes
neural interconnection to
multiply rapidly after birth.
 However, severe deprivation
and abuse will retard
development. Furthermore,
increased stimulation will cause
early neural connections.
 Maturation sets the basic
course of development;
experience adjusts it.
 MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

 Maturation takes place in the body and cerebellum

enabling the sequence below.
 Physical training generally cannot change the timing
 Universal throughout the world
 roll over, crawl, walk

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 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Cognition refers to the mental

actives that help us function,
including:
 Problem solving
 Figuring out out how the world
works
 Developing models and concepts
 Storing and retrieving knowledge
 Understanding and using
language
 Using self-talk and inner
thoughts
 JEAN PIAGET

 Developed stages of
cognitive development!!!!
 We don’t start out being
able to think like adults
 Piaget studied the errors in
cognition made by children
in order to understand in
what was they think
differently than adults
 Believed that people moved
from stage to stage as they
matured and were exposed
to relevant types of
experiences
 JEAN PIAGET

 The error below is an inability to understand scale (relative

size)
 SCHEMAS

 An infant’s mind works hard to make sense of our

experiences in the world
 An early tool to organize those experiences is a schema
 Schemas can take form of images, models, and/or concepts
 Schemas: concepts of phenomena developed by humans
that increase with development. Adjusted by:

“Cow!” “Cow!”
 SCHEMAS

 Assimilation: incorporating new

experiences into our existing
schema/categories
 Accommodation: adjusting our
schema to better fit our
experiences
 ASSIMILATION AND ACCOMMODATION
How can this girl use her “dog”
schema when encountering a cat?

 She can assimilate the experience into her schema

by referring to the cat as a “dog”
or
 she can accommodate her animal schema by
separating the cat, and even different types of
dogs, into separate schemas.
KNOW THIS CHART!!!!!
 Stage 1: Sensorimotor

 In the sensorimotor stage,

children explore by looking,
hearing, touching, mouthing,
and grasping.
 Birth to age 2
 experience world mostly
through your senses and
movement.

Major Development During this

stage:
A. Stranger Anxiety
B. Object Permanence:
awareness that things
continue to exist even when
not perceived. Why Babies
like peek-a-boo. (out of
sight, out of mind)
 Stage 2: Preoperational

 Age 2-6
 child learns to represent
things with language but
does not understand
concrete logic.

Major Development During

this stage:
1. Pretend Play
2. Language Development
3. Egocentrism: inability
to take another point of
view.
 EGOCENTRISM:“I AM THE WORLD.”

What mistake is the boy

making?
Do you
have a Yes.
brother? Jim.

Does Jim
have a
brother? No.

How does this relate to

our definition of
egocentrism? 25
 Stage 3: Concrete Operational

 Ages 7 to 11
 child begins to think concretely and complete math operations.
Major Development During this Stage:
1. Conservation: principle that mass, volume, and number remain
the same despite their form
 Stage 4: Formal Operational

 Age 12 to adulthood,
 ability to abstractly
reason and use
abstract logic.
Major Developments
During This Stage:
1. Abstract Logic:
hypothetical
situations, ideas like
communism
2. Mature Moral
Reasoning: ideas like
“right to life,” “right
to liberty,” Etc.
FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (AGE 11 +)

Concrete operations Includes arithmetic

include analogies such transformations:
as “My brain is like a
computer.” if 4 + 8 = 12, 12 – 4 = ?

Formal operations includes

allegorical thinking such Includes algebra:
as “People who live in
glass houses shouldn’t
if x = 3y and x – 2y = 4,
throw stones”
what is x?
(understanding that this is
a comment on hypocrisy).
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 CURRENT THINKING

 Piaget’s sequence is
right but timing is not
exact.
 Some cognitive events
occur earlier than he
thought
 process as a whole is
more continuous.
LEV VYGOTSKY: ALTERNATIVE TO
JEAN PIAGET
 Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) studied kids
too, but focused on how they learn in the
context of social communication not
environment like Piaget
 Theor y of the Mind: people’s ideas about
their own and others’ mental states
 Principle: children learn thinking skills by
internalizing language from others and
developing inner speech: “Put the big
blocks on the bottom, not the top… ”
 Vygotsky saw development as building on
a scaf fold of mentoring, language, and
cognitive support from parents and
others.
 Autism Spectrum
 VYGOTSKY

 Zone of Proximal
Development
(ZPD) relates to
the gap or
difference
between what the
child can learn
unaided and what
he or she can
learn with the
help of an adult
or a more capable
peer.
UNDERSTANDING VYGOTSKY
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: HARRY HARLOW
AND COMFORT
 Took infant monkeys away from
biological mother at birth
 Gave baby monkey two options
1. “wire” mother that provide milk
2. “cloth” mother that was warm but no
milk
 Baby monkey spent most of time
clinging to cloth “monkey” and
went occasionally to “milk”
monkey
 Infants become intensely attached
to entities that provide comfortable
body contact to them. Things like
rocking, warmth, and feeding make
attachment stronger.
 IMPORTANCE: NOT nourishment
that provides attachment as
originally thought.
MONKEY EXPERIMENT
 ATTACHMENT

A positive emotional bond

that develops between
child and primary
caregiver
Emotional tie with another
person; shown in young
children by their seeking
closeness to the caregiver
and showing distress on
separation.
Why do children become
attached to mother and
father? Theories?
 Harlow’s Theory of
Attachment
The idea was transferred to
humans
Human attachment grows though
the responsiveness of the
infants’ caregivers to the signals
the babies provide (crying,
smiling reaching etc.)
The more a caregiver responds,
the more secure the attachment

Attachment is based on:

1.Body Contact
2.Familiarity
3.Responsive Parenting
 KONRAD LORENZ AND FAMILIARITY

 Also key in understanding

attachment.
 A.) Critical Period: optimal
period shortly after birth when
certain events must take place to
facilitate proper development.
Ex: First moving object a
duckling sees it will attach to as
its mother…would follow person,
moving ball, etc.
 B.) Imprinting: process by
which certain animals form
attachments during a critical
period very early in life. NOT
FOR HUMANS. However do
become attached to what they
know. (Konrad Lorenz and
ducklings)
 MARY AINSWORTH
RESPONSIVE PARENTING

 Responsive Parenting leads

to secure attachment.
 Secure Attachment: in
mother’s presence will
explore new territories and
play comfortably. When
mother leaves will become
distressed, when returns will
seek contact with her.
 Insecure Attachment: in
mother’s presence are less
likely to explore their
surroundings; cling to mother.
When leaves, cry loudly and
remain upset or seem
indifferent to their mother ’s
comings and goings.
CONSEQUENCES OF INSECURE
ATTACHMENT
 Under conditions of abuse
and neglect, humans are
often withdrawn,
frightened, even
speechless.
 Harlow’s monkeys often
incapable of mating or
extremely abusive,
neglectful, or murderous
towards first-born.
 Most abusers were abused;
abused are more likely to
abuse…even though the
majority of them don’t.
 CHILDHOOD:
HYPOTHETICAL PARENTING ST YLES

Style Response to Child’s Behavior

Authoritarian Parents impose rules “because I said so”

“Too Hard” and expect obedience.

Permissive Parents submit to kids’ desires, not

enforcing
“Too Soft” limits or standards for child behavior.
Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards
Authoritative
but also explain, discuss, listen, and express
“Just Right”
respect for child’s ideas and wishes.
40
OUTCOMES WITH PARENTING ST YLES

 Authoritative parenting,
more than the other two
styles, seems to be
associated with:
 high self-reliance.
 high social competence.
 high self-esteem.
 low aggression.

 But are these a result of

parenting style, or are
parents responding to a
child’s temperament?
Or are both a function
of culture ? Or genes?
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