Developmental Psychology

1. Developmental Psychology Social development Adolescence Adulthood

2. Developmental sequence in peer play • At one, infants interact only when drawn to the same object • Between one and two, conflict is gradually replaced turn-taking • By age two, parallel play is preferred • By age four, “shallow” friendships are developed • Four-year-olds spend three times as much time with same-sex playmates as opposite-sex playmates • By age six, children spend 11 times as much time with same-sex playmates

3. Developmental sequence in peer relations • From grades 5 to 12, there is a steady increase in time spent thinking about and, then, being with the opposite sex • Adolescent relationships can be highly intimate (e.g., marked by self-disclosure) • From grades 3 to 12, conformity to peers rises, reaches it’s peak at 9th grade, and then steadily declines

4. “At risk” children and recovery • Four types of school-age children • Popular (sociable, skilled, liked) • Rejected (aggressive or withdrawn, unskilled, unliked) • Controversial (mixture of first two) • Neglected (less sociable/aggressive and not mentioned) • Rejected children are more likely to • Feel lonely, drop out of school, have academic and drug problems, and have social adjustment problems as adults • What helps rejected children gain acceptance? • Taking responsibility for the rejection • Extracurricular activities • Concerned and active parents • Having a friend

5. Social development in adolescence • The central task in adolescence is to establish a sense of identity: a sense of who one is and what one’s values and ideals are • Identity includes gender and racial/ethnic aspects • Very often, the search for identity involves breaking away from childhood beliefs by challenging parental and societal ideas • Why is there an identity crisis during adolescence? • Changing physical appearance leads to change in self-image • More sophisticated cognitive abilities, which lead to introspection • Heightened pressure to prepare for the future, especially career choices • See Erikson’s Stage 5 for the four different types of approaches used by adolescents to confront this crisis

6. Relationships with parents • One stereotype of the teenager living at home is that of • Rebellion against and conflict with parents • Marked rise in risk-taking behavior (e.g., sexual activity) • Emotional life is marked by mood disruptions and state of distress • Rise in rebelliousness and risk-taking behaviors are true • However, the idea that the teenage years are inevitably marked by emotional distress (e.g., confusion, insecurity, etc.) is exaggerated • Rebelliousness is normal in Western culture, where independence and autonomy are highly valued • Teenager asserts independence: arguing about chores • Teenager disengages from family activities • But it is not inevitable: see non-Western cultures • And, even in Western culture, it is often positively resolved before independence

7. Sexuality and risk-taking behavior • Rise in the sexual activity of teenage girls from 10% in 1940’s to 50% in 1980’s • Although more sexually active, today’s teenagers are not better informed • Teenage pregnancies • 60% of college students say they did not use any form of contraceptive the first time they had sex • Why not? • (1) They are simply engaging in adult activities when they are physically, but not psychologically, ready • (2) Engaging in risk-taking behavior is a form of rebellion • (3) They are forced to react to situations for which they are unprepared • (4) If you feel ambivalent about sex, it’s easier to justify having sex if you’ve been “swept off your feet”, than if actually plan it; planning it means a lot of cognitive dissonance • (5) If you’re brought up to think that having premarital sex is wrong, then you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how to have sex and how to have it safely as much as you spend time trying to deal with your conflicted feelings about sex • (6) A lack of emotional appreciation of the risks; like that with smoking

8. Social Development: Peer relations • Rowe (1994), Harris (1998) • The effects of the home environment and parents have little impact on adult personality. • Rather, peers exert the most influence on adult personality • Group socialization theory • Children learn two sets of behaviors, one for inside the home and one for outside the home • Behaviors learned inside the home are not useful in outside social contexts • Only those behaviors learned outside the home have long-term effects on personality • Parent’s primary role may be in influencing the choices the child makes about which social group to join. • However, the fit between parental style and the child’s temperament also contributes to the child’s well-being.

9. Adulthood and Old Age

10. Adulthood and old age • Life Span: The maximum age possible for members of a given species (humans: 120). • Life Expectancy: The number of years that an average member of a species is expected to live (men ~ 74; women ~ 80).

11. Erikson’s stages: 1 and 2 • Basic trust vs. mistrust; Infancy (0-1 yrs.) • From warm, responsive care, infants gain a sense of trust or confidence that the world is good. Mistrust occurs when infants have to wait too long for comfort and are handled harshly. • Autonomy vs. shame and doubt; Toddler (1-3 yrs.) • Using new mental and motor skills, children want to choose and decide for themselves. Autonomy is fostered when parents permit reasonable free choice and do not force or shame the child.

12. Erikson’s stages: 3 and 4 • Initiative vs. guilt; Early childhood (3-6 yrs.) • Through make-believe play, children experiment with the kind of person they can become. Initiative – a sense of ambition and responsibility – develops when parents support their child’s new sense of purpose and direction. The danger is that parents will demand too much self-control, which leads to overcontrol, or too much guilt. • Industry vs. inferiority; Childhood (6-11 yrs.) • At school, children develop the capacity to work and cooperate with others. Inferiority develops when negative experiences at home, at school, or with peers lead to feelings of incompetence and inferiority.

13. Erikson’s stages: 5 • Identity vs. Role confusion; Adolescence (13-19) • The central task in adolescence is to establish a sense of identity: a sense of who one is and what one’s values and ideals are • Four approaches to the identity crisis • Achievement: explored alternatives and committed to one • Moratorium: in the process of exploring • Foreclosure: accepted ready-made identity from authority without thinking • Diffusion (confusion): no commitment because they find exploration too threatening • See slide 5 (Social development in adolescence) for more on the identity crisis

14. Erikson’s stages: 6 • Intimacy vs. Isolation; Young adulthood (20-40) • When a person has a secure sense of intimacy, they are cooperative, tolerant, and accepting at work and in their friendships • A mature sense of intimacy involves balancing the need for identity (and independence) with the demand to redefine yourself in terms of someone else • When a person has not achieved identity and independence in stage 5, they lose the capacity for a truly mature sense of intimacy and they become isolated • They define themselves in terms of their partner, sacrificing their self-respect and initiative • They fear to form close ties because they fear the loss of their own weak identity • They are easily threatened when others get too close • This leads to competition, rather than cooperation, in personal, social, and work relationships • They become self-absorbed and lose the ability for generativity in stage 7

15. The three pillars of adulthood • Career • Marriage • Married people live longer • A majority of people report they are satisfied with their marriages • Yet ½ of all marriages end in divorce • Your chances of ending up in a happy marriage are 1 in 3 • Children • One way to be generative (see next slide) • Having children is stressful, joyful, and central to how adults define themselves • Social clock • A set of cultural expectations concerning the most appropriate age for men and women to leave home, marry, start career, have children, and retire • Following the social clock breeds confidence • Not following the social clock breeds distress

16. Erikson’s stages: 7 • Generativity vs. Stagnation; Middle adulthood (40-65 years) • Generativity: A person’s focus moves beyond oneself (identity) and one’s partner (intimacy) to include • Contributions to larger groups, such as one’s community or society in general • Enhancement of future through • Having and parenting children • Passing on one’s knowledge to others • Creating products (e.g., works of art, ideas) that survive beyond one’s own lifetime • Stagnation: A person becomes self-centered and self-indulgent, placing their own comfort and security above challenge and sacrifice

17. The Myth of a ”Midlife Crisis" • 10,000 adults filled out a questionnaire that measured emotional instability • Neither males nor females showed increased instability during the 40’s or early 50’s

18. Erikson’s stages: 8 • Integrity vs. Despair; Late adulthood (65 and older) • Integrity: coming to terms with one’s own life • Person has adapted to the mix of triumphs and disappointments that are an inevitable part of life • Person has a capacity to view one’s life in the larger context of all humanity • Despair: feeling that one has made the wrong decisions, but time is too short to set things right • Hard to accept that death is near • Overwhelmed with bitterness, defeat, and hopelessness • Contempt of oneself is often expressed as anger and contempt for others

19. The Aging of America

20. Life Satisfaction and Age • In multiple cultures, 75-80% say they are satisfied with life. • This does not vary appreciably with age.

21. Are Old People More Depressed? • Depression decreases from early adulthood into middle and later years • Depression is increased in the very old

22. Aging and “senility” • 10-15% of the elderly (60-75) suffer mild to moderate memory loss • 10% of the elderly (65 and older) suffer from dementia, the progressive and global disturbance of higher cognitive functions • Half of all dementia is caused by Alzheimer’s disease, in which brain cells are destroyed by plaques and tangles • The other major cause of dementia is small strokes that affect blood supply in the brain

23. Cognitive development in adulthood • Loss of mental speed: an increase in time between stimulus input and motor output; begins in mid-20’s • Consistent evidence that the frontal lobes shrink as people grow older • Changes in memory • Loss of confidence in memory abilities • Loss of working memory (e.g., dual task) capacity • More decline in recall than recognition • Can be attenuated by encouraging specific encoding strategies • Decline in fluid, but rise in crystallized, intelligence • Correlation between work productivity and age is 0

24. Dying and Death • Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed five stages in approaching death: • Denial • Anger • Bargaining • Depression • Acceptance • Empirical evidence shows some support, but not all people experience all stages