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Developmental Domain. 3 major debates in developmental psychology. Development is influence by both “nature,” or heredity and “nurture,” or the environment
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Development is influence by both “nature,” or heredity and “nurture,” or the environment • Although each individual inherits a specific pattern of genes from his or her parents, the expression of those genes is influenced by the environment in which the individual grows • Discussion revolves around to what extent heredity and environment influence our behaviors • Specific environmental factors can influence the expression of genes
Continuity and change in development • Development is viewed in stages, but this is not a fixed moment in time for everyone • Ex. Teenagers hit puberty a different ages • In early development, certain factors must be present at specific ages for growth to occur normally • Ex. growth of the nervous system, crawl before you can walk
Stability and Change • Over the course of a life time, is a person’s personality consistent, or do they change? • Researchers generally agree on the following points: • The first two years of life provide a poor basis for predicting a person’s eventual traits • Some characteristics, such as temperament, are more stable than others, such as social attitudes • In some ways, we all change with age
Basic terms • Life span – the biological limits to life’s length, determined by species-specific hereditary factors • Life expectancy – the average length of time that a given age-based cohort is expected to live • Life course – used by sociologists to refer to the normal, expected set of events that take place over an individuals life, determined in many ways by the society’s norms
Research methods in life span development • 3 main concepts underlying research • Age – the chronological age of the individual • Cohort – the historical period in which the individual was born • Time of measurement – the historical period in which testing takes place
Descriptive • Cross-sectional – individuals from different cohorts are compared at one point in time • Longitudinal – individuals from one cohort are followed over several time periods • Time lag – individuals of the same age who were born at different times and are being tested in the same year • Sequential • Time-sequential design – a longitudinal study is replicated on more than one cohort
Prenatal Development • Prenatal defined as “before birth” • Prenatal stage begins at conception and ends with the birth of the child.
Zygote • A fertilized egg • The first two weeks are a period of rapid cell division. • Attaches to the mother’s uterine wall • At the end of 14 days becomes an embryo
Embryo • Developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization until the end of the eight week • Most of the major organs are formed during this time. • At the end of the eight week the fetal period begins.
Fetus • Developing human organism from nine weeks after conception to birth
Placenta • A cushion of cells in the mother by which the fetus receives oxygen and nutrition • Acts as a filter to screen out substances that could harm the fetus
Teratogens • Substances that cross the placental barrier and prevent the fetus from developing normally • Includes: radiation, toxic chemicals, viruses, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, etc.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) • Physical and cognitive abnormalities that appear in children whose mothers consumed large amounts of alcohol while pregnant
Inborn Abilities • Reflexes • Withdraw limbs to escape pain • If a cloth is over out face and interferes with breathing, we turn our head from side to side and swipe at it • Preferred sights, sounds, and scents • Turn head in direction of human voice • Choose mother’s smell over a stranger
Rooting Reflex • Baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to open the mouth and search for the nipple • Is an automatic, unlearned response
Temperament • Person’s characteristic emotional excitability • A child might be: • An “easy” or “difficult” baby • Temperament shown in infancy appears to carry through a person’s life.
Infant, Toddler, Child • Infant: First year • Toddler: From about 1 year to 3 years of age • Child: Span between toddler and teen
Maturation • Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior • Relatively uninfluenced by experience
Memory • Our earliest memories seldom predate our third birthday • This is explained by the lack of neural connections
Motor Development • Includes all physical skills and muscular coordination • With minor exception, the sequence of physical development is universal.
Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood: Piaget’s Cognitive Stages
Jean Piaget (pee-ah-ZHAY) • Pioneer in the study of developmental psychology who introduced a stage theory of cognitive development that lead to a better understanding of children’s thought processes • Proposed a theory consisting of four stages of cognitive development
Cognition • All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering • Children think differently than adults do
Schemas • Concepts or mental frameworks that people use to organize and interpret information • Sometimes called schemes • A person’s “picture of the world”
Assimilation • Interpreting a new experience within the context of existing schemas • The new experience is similar to other previous experiences
Accommodation • Adapting current schemas to incorporate new information • The new experience is so novel the person’s schemata must be changed to accommodate it
Sensorimotor Stage • Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development • From birth to about age two • Child gathers information about the world through sensory impressions and motor activities • Child learns object permanence
Object Permanence • Awareness that things continue to exist even when you cannot see or hear them • “Out of sight, out of mind”
Preoperational Stage • Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development • From about age 2 to age 6 or 7 • Children learns to use language but cannot yet think logically
Egocentrism • In Piaget’s theory, the inability of the preoperational child to take another person’s point of view • Includes a child’s inability to understand that symbols can represent other objects
Concrete Operational Stage • Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development • From about age 6 to 11 • Child gain the mental skills that let them think logically about concrete events • Learn conservation
Conservation • An understanding that certain properties remain constant despite changes in their form • The properties can include mass, volume, and numbers.
