LIFE CYCLE DEVELOPMENT

Developmental
Psychology

Study of the changes

that occur in people
from birth to old age.
 Embryo
The egg fertilized two
Prenatal weeks after conception.
Development
The period between
conception and birth.
Fetus
Three months after
conception.

Teratogens

Substances that cross the

placenta and cause birth
defects.(alcohol, tabaco,
drugs and other
substances
 • Search Reflex When the cheek is
Reflexes touched, the newborn turns its head
in that direction and explores with its
in mouth.
the • Sucking reflex causes the
newborn to suck on anything that
newborn is placed in his mouth.
• Swallowing reflex allows you to
swallow liquids without choking.
• Grasp réflex It causes the
newborn to clench his fist around
anything that is put in his hand.
• Gait réflex It causes the baby to
take small steps if he is held in an
upright position with his feet barely
touching a surface.
 Infants' Perceptual Abilities: They can
see from birth. Vision is blurry at first, but
visual acuity improves quickly.

• Crawling age children sense depth.

• Fetuses can hear sounds in the uterus.
• Newborns are able to identify the direction
of sound.
• Babies distinguish between some speech
sounds that adults cannot.
Physical development The
body's growth is faster during the
first year. Later it slows down until
early adolescence. During the
prenatal period and the first two
years of life, the head grows rapidly.
From that moment on, the body is Development Standards
what grows the most. They indicate the ages at
which the average child
reaches certain developmental
milestones.

Motor development Motor

development refers to the Maturation Biological
acquisition of skills such as processes that unfold as we
grasping and walking. grow.
 • Sensorimotor stage(From birth to 2
years) children develop object permanence
and acquire the ability to form mental
Piaget's Stages representations.
of Cognitive • Pre-operational stage(from 2 to 7 years
old) use mental representations and
Development language plays an important role.
Preoperational thinking is egocentric.
• Stage of concrete operations(ages 7
to 11) can pay attention to more than one
thing at a time and understand someone
else's point of view. They grasp
conservation principles and understand
classification schemes.
• Stage of formal operations(Between
the ages of 11 and 15), teens can think in
abstract terms and test their ideas internally
using logic.
 Moral • Preconventional Doing good
Development or evil is a function of physical
Lawrence Kohlberg consequences.
elaborated a theory of
stages in moral
development: • Conventional Doing good or
evil is a function of what others
think.
• Post-conventional It believes
that right conduct is based on
a system of values and justice.
Language Development

Lullabies

Babbling

First word usually uttered around 12 months

Holophrases within the next six to eight months

They begin to put words together in simple sentences between the 2

of them
and 3 years
Children supplement sentences and use the past and present tenses
between the ages of three and four
 Theories of Language
Development

Critical Period
Hypothesis
There is a critical time Skinner
for language acquisition. Parents listen to
their child's babbling
and reinforce
Chomsky (reward) the baby
Children are born with a for making sounds
language acquisition device, an similar to adult
innate mechanism that allows speech.
them to understand the rules of
grammar, make sense of the
speech they hear, and form
comprehensible sentences.
 Social
development
Attachment
An emotional bond that develops in
the first year of life that causes human
Impronta
babies to cling to their caregivers in
Tendency in certain species
search of safety and comfort.
to follow the first moving
object
(usually the mother)
seen after birth or
hatching.
Socialization The process by
which children learn behaviors and
attitudes appropriate to their family
and culture.
 Adolescence

Physical Changes
"Growth Spurt"
Puberty
Menarche

Elkind He described two

thought patterns
Cognitive Changes characteristic of this age:
Transition to Formal
- The Imaginary
Operations Thinking Audience
- Personal Fable
 Adolescence

Identity FormationThe process by

which a person develops a stable sense
of self. Identity formation takes place
during an identity crisis.

• Most teens seek social and emotional support from a

peer group, sometimes rigidly adhering to their friends'
values.
• Teens become aware of their parents' shortcomings
and question every parenting role. Conflicts are most
common during early adolescence.
 Adultize

• Relationships
Paternity
Work
Personality changes

With age, adults become less

Cognitive Changes
An adult's thinking is more
flexible and practical than
an adolescent's.
self-centered and develop
better coping skills.
• Maturity crisis
Maturity Transition
Menopause
 Old age
• The physical changes of old age affect the outward appearance
and functioning of all organs.
People's reactions to leaving the world of paid work
differ depending on their financial condition and
feelings towards work.
Sexual responses are slower in older adults.

Cognitive Changes
• Cognitive skills remain largely intact for a considerable number of
older adults.
Seniors who engage in stimulating intellectual activities
remain mentally alert.
Some older people suffer from a specific disorder called
Alzheimer's disease.
Kübler-Ross He described a
sequence of five stages that
people go through when they are
dying:

• Negation
Wrath
Negotiation
Depression
Acceptance