Intro to Psychology: Ch. 8 - Human Development

infant attachment

the close emotional bond between an infant and its caregiver

development

the pattern of continuity and change in human capabilities that occurs throughout the course of life, involving both growth and decline

gender

the social and psychological aspects of being male or female

preferential looking

a research technique that involves giving an infant a choice of what object to look at **If an infant shows a reliable preference for one stimulus (say, a picture of a face) over another (a scrambled picture of a face) when these are repeatedly presented in differing locations, we can infer that the infant can tell the two images apart.**

authoritarian parenting

a restrictive, punitive parenting style in which the parent exhorts the child to follow the parent's directions and to value hard work and effort

limbic system

a set of subcortical brain structures central to emotion, memory, and reward processing

cohort effects

differences between individuals that stem not necessarily from their ages but from the historical and social time period in which they were born and developed

gender roles

roles that reflect the individual's expectations for how females and males should think, act, and feel

testosterone (an androgen)

associated in boys with the development of genitals, an increase in height, and voice change

estradiol (an estrogen)

associated in girls with breast, uterine, and skeletal development

prosocial behavior

behavior that is intended to benefit other people

In contrast to a cross-sectional study, a longitudinal study assesses the same participants multiple times over a lengthy period. A longitudinal study can find out not only whether age groups differ but also whether the same individuals change with respect to a particular characteristic as they age. Strong statements about developmental changes in psychological characteristics require longitudinal designs. Using these and other methods, human development researchers have grappled with big questions that are relevant to all of psychology, as we consider next.

**Remember, cross-sectional designs involve measuring characteristics at one and only one time point. Longitudinal designs involve measuring the same characteristics in the same people multiple times.**

temperament

an individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of responding

nature

an individual's biological inheritance, especially his or her genes.

nurture

an individual's environmental and social experiences

genotype

an individual's genetic heritage—the actual genetic material

core knowledge approach

A perspective on infant cognitive development that holds that babies are born with domain-specific knowledge systems

Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood The Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) traced cognitive development through childhood into adulthood. Let's begin by reviewing Piaget's approach. **PIAGET'S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT In Piaget's view, human beings use schemas to make sense of their experience. A schema is a mental concept or framework that organizes information and provides a structure for interpreting it. Schemas are expressed as various behaviors and skills that the child can exercise in relation to objects or situations. For example, sucking is an early, simple schema. Later and more complex schemas include licking, blowing, crawling, and hiding. In adulthood, schemas may represent more complex expectations and beliefs about the world. Piaget (1952) described TWO processes responsible for how people use and adapt their schemas: 1. Assimilation occurs when individuals incorporate new information into existing knowledge. As a result of assimilation, the person, when faced with a new experience, applies old ways of doing things. For infants, this might involve applying the schema of sucking to whatever new object they encounter. For an adolescent, it might mean using the skills learned while playing video games to drive a car. For an adult, it might mean solving a conflict with a spouse using ways that worked in the past with friends or previous romantic partners. 2. Accommodation occurs when individuals adjust their schemas to new information. Accommodation means that rather than using one's old ways of doing things, a new experience promotes new ways of dealing with experience. Existing schemas can be changed and new schemas can be developed in response to new experiences. For example, after several months of experience, the infant who has been sticking everything in her mouth might begin to accommodate the sucking schema by being more selective with it. The adolescent who has typically gone with the flow of social pressure might develop a new way of dealing with peer pressure by standing up for his beliefs. For an adult, accommodation may mean rethinking old strategies for problem solving when a new challenge, such as the loss of a job or the onset of illness, presents itself.

Cognitive development refers to how thought, intelligence, and language processes change as people mature. Cognition refers to the operation of thinking and also to our cognitive skills and abilities.

assimilation

an individual's incorporation of new information into existing knowledge

gender similarities hypothesis

Hyde's proposition that men and women (and boys and girls) are much more similar than they are different

sensorimotor stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development, lasting from birth to about 2 years of age, during which infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor (physical) actions

formal operational stage

Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development, which begins at 11 to 15 years of age and continues through the adult years; it features thinking about things that are not concrete, making predictions, and using logic to come up with hypotheses about the future

preoperational stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development, lasting from about 2 to 7 years of age, during which thought is more symbolic than sensorimotor thought

object permanence

Piaget's term for the crucial accomplishment of understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched

concrete operational stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development, lasting from about 7 to 11 years of age, during which the individual uses operations and replaces intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning in concrete situations

Physical Development in Adolescence Adolescence refers to the developmental period spanning the transition from childhood to adulthood, beginning around 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 21 years of age. Dramatic physical changes characterize adolescence, especially early adolescence. Among the major physical changes of adolescence are those involving puberty and the brain. **PUBERTY The signature physical change in adolescence is puberty, a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence. In general, we know when an individual is going through puberty, but we have a hard time pinpointing its beginning and its end. Except for menarche (girls' first menstrual cycle), no single marker defines it. For boys, the first whisker or first nocturnal ejaculation (or wet dream) could mark its appearance, but both may go unnoticed. The jump in height and weight that characterizes pubertal change occurs about two years earlier for girls than for boys. In the United States today, the average beginning of the growth spurt is 9 years of age for girls and 11 years for boys. The peak of pubertal change occurs at an average age of 11½ for girls and 13½ for boys. Hormonal changes lie at the core of pubertal development. The concentrations of certain hormones increase dramatically during puberty. Testosterone, an androgen, is associated in boys with the development of genitals, an increase in height, and voice change. Estradiol, an estrogen, is associated in girls with breast, uterine, and skeletal development. Developmental psychologists believe that hormonal changes account for at least some of the emotional ups and downs of adolescence, but hormones are not alone responsible for adolescent behavior. From our discussion earlier in this chapter, recall that physical and socioemotional development are intertwined. This link is demonstrated in the implications of the timing of puberty for socioemotional outcomes. Boys who mature earlier than their peers tend to show more positive socioemotional outcomes, such as being popular with their peers and having higher self-esteem. In one study, boys who matured early in adolescence were more successful and less likely to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes than late-maturing boys some 39 years later. In contrast, an increasing number of researchers have found that early maturation increases girls' vulnerability to a number of problems. Early-maturing girls are more likely to smoke, drink, be depressed, have an eating disorder, struggle for earlier independence from their parents, and have older friends; and their bodies are likely to elicit responses from males that lead to earlier dating and earlier sexual experiences. **THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN The dogma of the unchanging brain has been discarded; researchers are primarily focused on context-induced plasticity of the brain over time. The development of the brain mainly changes in a bottom-up, top-down sequence with sensory, appetitive (eating, drinking), sexual, sensation-seeking, and risk-taking brain linkages maturing first and higher-level brain linkages, such as self-control, planning, and reasoning, maturing later. In adolescence, these changes focus on the earlier development at a lower, subcortical level in the limbic system, which is the seat of emotions and where rewards are experienced. The limbic system matures much earlier than the prefrontal cortex and is almost completely developed by early adolescence. The limbic system structure that is especially involved in emotion is the amygdala. These changes in the brain may help to explain why adolescents often display very strong emotions and seek immediate rewards but may not successfully control these passions. Because of the relatively slow development of the prefrontal cortex, which continues to mature into early adulthood, adolescents may lack the cognitive skills to control their impulses effectively. This developmental disjunction may account for increased risk-taking and other problems in adolescence.

Testosterone, an androgen, is associated in boys with the development of genitals, an increase in height, and voice change. Estradiol, an estrogen, is associated in girls with breast, uterine, and skeletal development.

wisdom

expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life

menarche

a girl's first menstrual cycle

neglectful parenting

a parenting style characterized by a lack of parental involvement in the child's life

permissive parenting

a parenting style characterized by the placement of few limits on the child's behavior

authoritative parenting

a parenting style that encourages the child to be independent but that still places limits and controls on behavior

puberty

a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence

resilience

a person's ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times

phenotype

a person's observable characteristics **The phenotype shows the contributions of both nature (genetic heritage) and nurture (environment). Whether and how the genotype is expressed in the phenotype may depend on the environment. For example, a person might be born with the genes to be the next LeBron James, but in the absence of environmental factors such as good nutrition, sound medical care, access to a basketball court, and superb coaching, that potential might never be reached.**

accommodation

an individual's adjustment of his or her schemas to new information

teratogen

any agent that causes a birth defect. **Teratogens include chemical substances ingested by the mother (such as nicotine, if the mother smokes, or alcohol, if she drinks) and certain illnesses (such as rubella, or German measles). Substances that are ingested by the mother can lead to serious birth defects. Heroin is an example of a teratogen. Babies born to heroin users are at risk for many problems, including premature birth, low birth weight, physical defects, breathing problems, and death.**

cross-sectional design

research design in which a group of people are assessed on a psychological variable at one point in time

emerging adulthood

the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood, spanning approximately 18 to 25 years of age

secure attachment

the ways that infants use their caregiver, usually their mother, as a secure base from which to explore the environment