4d
teratogens
(literally, "monster maker") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. (p. 170)
The period of adolescence is lengthening in industrialized cultures, such as those in Europe, the United States, and Australia. Adolescents are taking more time to finish their education and establish careers. The average age for a first marriage in the United States has increased more than five years since 1960, to:
29 for men and 27 for women
longitudinal
A researcher who administers a personality test to the same children every three years is conducting a _____ study.
Accommodation
Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
How is adolescence defined, and what physical changes mark this period?
Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to social independence. During puberty, both primary and secondary sex characteristics develop dramatically. Boys seem to benefit from "early" maturation, girls from "late" maturation. The brain's frontal lobes mature and myelin growth increases during adolescence and the early twenties, enabling improved judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning.
menopause
Adrianne is elated because she hasn't gotten her period in over a year and doesn't have to worry about an unintended pregnancy. Adrianne is probably experiencing _____.
What themes and influences mark our social journey from early adulthood to death?
Adults do not progress through an orderly sequence of age-related social stages. Chance events can determine life choices. The social clock is a culture's preferred timing for social events, such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. Adulthood's dominant themes are love and work, which Erikson called intimacy and generativity.
Terminally ill and bereaved people go through predictable stages of grief, such as denial before anger.
All of the following are true about death and dying EXCEPT:
Teratogens
An agent or factor that causes malformation of an embryo
testosterone
Anders is in his mid-fifties. Anders can expect that he will experience a gradual decrease in _____.
How does memory change with age?
As the years pass, recall begins to decline, especially for meaningless information, but recognition memory remains strong. Older adults rely more on time management and memory cues to remember time-based and habitual tasks. Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are brain ailments, not normal parts of aging. Developmental researchers study age-related changes (such as memory) with cross-sectional studies (comparing people of different ages) and longitudinal studies (retesting the same people over a period of years). "Terminal decline" describes the cognitive decline in the final few years of life.
during our teenage years
As we age, we remember events that occurred _____ best.
How do parent-infant attachment bonds form?
At about 8 months, soon after object permanence develops, children separated from their caregivers display stranger anxiety. Infants form attachments not simply because parents gratify biological needs but, more important, because they are comfortable, familiar, and responsive. Ducks and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.
How have psychologists studied attachment differences, and what have they learned?
Attachment has been studied in strange situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely attached. Infants' differing attachment styles reflect both their individual temperament and the responsiveness of their parents and child-care providers. Adult relationships seem to reflect the attachment styles of early childhood, lending support to Erik Erikson's idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experiences with responsive caregivers.
What are some newborn abilities, and how do researchers explore infants' mental abilities?
Babies are born with sensory equipment and reflexes that facilitate their survival and their social interactions with adults. For example, they quickly learn to discriminate their mother's smell and sound. Researchers use techniques that test habituation, such as the novelty-preference procedure, to explore infants' abilities.
Managing the Aging
Biopsychosocial Factors
late adulthood
Birdie frequently experiences tip-of-the-tongue memories—that is, she knows either a word or a memory but is unable to recall it at the moment. Birdie is MOST likely in which stage of development?
online
Casey and Juan have been dating for over a year and are now engaged. Compared with their parents, they are more likely to have met:
Does childhood neglect, abuse, or family disruption affect children's attachments?
Children are very resilient, but those who are moved repeatedly, severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments by age 2 may be at risk for attachment problems.
Piaget's theory
Children construct their understanding of the world while interacting with it in different stages
Cognition
Cognition is all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
What three issues have engaged developmental psychologists?
Developmental psychologists study physical, mental, and social changes throughout the life span. They focus on three issues: nature and nurture (the interaction between our genetic inheritance and our experiences); continuity and stages (whether development is gradual and continuous or a series of relatively abrupt changes); and stability and change (whether our traits endure or change as we age).
How do parents and peers influence adolescents?
During adolescence, parental influence diminishes and peer influence increases. Adolescents adopt their peers' ways of dressing, acting, and communicating. Parents have more influence in religion, politics, and college and career choices.
What are the social tasks and challenges of adolescence?
Erikson theorized that each life stage has its own psychosocial task, and that a chief task of adolescence is solidifying one's sense of self—one's identity. This often means "trying on" a number of different roles. Social identity is the part of the self-concept that comes from a person's group memberships.
Critical period
Forms during a critical period, an optimal period early in life when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development
the tugs of the sandwich generation.
Fran's life is more hectic than ever. She is 55 years old and has a full-time job. Her son just graduated from college and is living at home. Her mother is becoming frail, so Fran is thinking about putting her in an assisted-living facility. Fran is experiencing:
_____ vs. stagnation is the stage in Erikson's theory of psychosocial development in which middle-aged adults discover a sense of contributing to the world.
Generativity
10. Your grandmother is in her early 80s and she is starting to seem frail to you. Which of the following are you likely to notice about her abilities?
Her hearing, distance perception, and sense of smell are diminishing.
Familiarity
In addition to body contact, familiarity is key to attachment
Enables control of attention and behavior (frontal lobes) and in thinking, memory, and language.
In early childhood (3-6 years), neural connections proliferate in the association areas.
From the perspectives of Piaget, Vygotsky, and today's researchers, how does a child's mind develop?
In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two years, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex ways of thinking. In the pre-operational stage (about age 2 to about 6 or 7), they develop a theory of mind, but they are egocentric and unable to perform simple logical operations. At about age 7, they enter the concrete operational stage and are able to comprehend the principle of conservation. By about age 12, children enter the formal operational stage and can reason systematically. Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but it also shows that young children are more capable, and their development more continuous, than he believed. Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of learning.
Enables body functions and basic survival skills
In infancy, growth in neural connections takes place initially in less complex parts of the brain (brainstem and limbic system)
Emerging Adulthood
In some countries, more education and later marriage has delayed full adult independence beyond traditional adolescence
Assimilation
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our current understanding (schemas)
social clock
Jenelle is 33 years old. She has a full-time career and is not married. Jenelle's grandmother keeps asking when she will get married and have children, insisting that Jenelle should be a wife and mother by now. Jenelle's grandmother's remarks reflect the _____ of her generation.
The idea that much of our morality is rooted in moral intuitions was stated by _____.
Jonathan Haidt
middle adulthood
Juanita is 56 years old. She is in which stage of adult development?
Which of the following individuals is in the late adulthood stage of development?
Juanita, who is 70 years old
"These programs do not do what they claim to do. While your memory will improve, it will only improve on the practiced skills and will not help you in everyday life."
Lilliana has seen numerous commercials for a "brain fitness" computer training game that claims to help improve cognitive functioning. She is planning on enrolling in the program in hopes of improving her memory. What would you say to Lilliana?
things that happened during their teens and twenties well.
Martin was 25 years old when he moved to a new city. It is highly likely that when Martin is in late adulthood, this will be a vivid memory for him. This is because older adults tend to remember:
sperm count
Men experience a gradual decline in _____, testosterone level, and speed of erection and ejaculation.
testosterone level
Men experience a gradual decline in sperm count, _____, and speed of erection and ejaculation.
Infantile amnesia
Most people cannot remember things that occurred before the age of 3
What physical changes occur during middle and late adulthood?
Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac output begin to decline in the late twenties and continue to decline throughout middle adulthood (roughly age 40 to 65) and late adulthood (the years after 65). Women's period of fertility ends with menopause around age 50; men have no similar age-related sharp drop in hormone levels or fertility. In late adulthood, the immune system weakens, increasing susceptibility to life-threatening illnesses. Chromosome tips (telomeres) wear down, reducing the chances of normal genetic replication. But for some, longevity-supporting genes, low stress, and good health habits enable better health in later life.
cancer
Older adults are more susceptible to diseases such as_____ than when they were younger.
Which of the following is TRUE about the comparison of the emotional well-being of older adults (over 65) and younger adults?
Older adults experience more positive feelings, supported by enhanced emotional control and the subsiding of negative feelings.
How does self-concept develop?
Our stable and positive understanding and evaluation of who we are
What are three parenting styles, and how do children's traits relate to them?
Parenting styles—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—reflect varying degrees of control. Children with high self-esteem tend to have authoritative parents and to be self-reliant and socially competent, but the direction of cause and effect in this relationship is not clear.
A loved one's death triggers what range of reactions?
People do not grieve in predictable stages, as was once supposed. Strong expressions of emotion do not purge grief, and bereavement therapy is not significantly more effective than grieving without such aid. Erikson viewed the late-adulthood psychosocial task as developing a sense of integrity (versus despair).
pneumonia
Pete is in his mid-seventies and is in remarkably good health. If he were to worry about getting sick, he should probably worry most about _____.
Middle adulthood
Physical decline gradually accelerates with age, but vigor may remain • 35- to 39-year old women half as likely to get pregnant than 19- to 26-year old women • By age 50, many women will experience menopause - the time of natural cessation of menstruation • Men experience a gradual decline in sperm count, testosterone level, and speed of erection/ejaculation
How did Piaget, Kohlberg, and later researchers describe adolescent cognitive and moral development?
Piaget theorized that adolescents develop a capacity for formal operations and that this development is the foundation for moral judgment. Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral reasoning, from a preconventional morality of self-interest, to a conventional morality concerned with upholding laws and social rules, to (in some people) a postconventional morality of universal ethical principles. Other researchers believe that morality lies in moral intuition and moral action as well as thinking. Some critics argue that Kohlberg's postconventional level represents morality from the perspective of individualist, middle-class males.
Moral Intuition
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt believed moral decisions are driven by Moral Intuition - quick, gut-feeling decisions
____ is a time when one is maturing sexually.
Puberty
How does day care affect children?
Quality day care, with responsive adults interacting with children in a safe and stimulating environment, does not appear to harm children's thinking and language skills. Some studies have linked extensive time in day care with increased aggressiveness and defiance, but other factors—the child's temperament, the parents' sensitivity, and the family's economic and educational levels and culture—also matter.
How do children's self-concepts develop?
Self-concept, an understanding and evaluation of who we are, emerges gradually. At 15 to 18 months, children recognize themselves in a mirror. By school age, they can describe many of their own traits, and by age 8 to 10 their self-image is stable.
Do self-confidence and life satisfaction vary with life stages?
Self-confidence tends to strengthen across the life span. Surveys show that life satisfaction is unrelated to age. Positive emotions increase after midlife and negative ones decrease.
Secondary Sex Characteristics
Starts during puberty (release of hormones)
cross-sectional
Studies that compare people of different ages with one another are called _____ studies.
cross-sectional
The National Institute of Mental Health is conducting a study of older adults (30 to 75 years of age) regarding memory and response time in relation to timed tasks. They are bringing in all age groups at once to compare the differences. This is a(n) _____ study.
sectional
The National Institute of Mental Health is conducting a study of older adults (30 to 75 years of age) regarding memory and response time in relation to timed tasks. They are bringing in all age groups at once to compare the differences. This is a(n) cross-_____ study.
Intimacy
The ability to form close, loving relationships
During infancy and childhood, how do the brain and motor skills develop?
The brain's nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. Their interconnections multiply rapidly after birth, a process that continues until puberty, when a pruning process begins shutting down unused connections. Complex motor skills—sitting, standing, walking—develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of that sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture. We have no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 3-1/2, in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.
clock
The culturally preferred timing of events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement is known as the social _____.
Mary Ainsworth
The degree and style of parent- child attachment has been tested by Mary Ainsworth in the "strange situations" test. In this test, a child is observed as: 1. a mother and infant child are alone in an unfamiliar ("strange") room; the child explores the room as the mother just sits. 2. a stranger enters the room, talks to the mother, and approaches the child; the mother leaves the room. 3. After a few moments, the mother returns.
What is the course of prenatal development, and how do teratogens affect that development?
The life cycle begins at conception, when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote. The zygote's inner cells become the embryo, and in the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function. By 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizably human. Teratogens are potentially harmful agents that can pass through the placental screen and harm the developing embryo or fetus, as happens with fetal alcohol syndrome.
What is emerging adulthood?
The transition from adolescence to adulthood is now taking longer. Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many young people are not yet fully independent. But critics note that this stage is found mostly in today's Western cultures.
Why is it that older people account for fewer than 10 percent of all automobile crashes when they have slower reaction time and attend less to other vehicles on the road as compared to younger adults?
They drive less than younger adults.
Emotions (Disgust, Elevated Feelings)
This intuition is not just based on moral reasoning, but also on emotions such as: • Disgust: We may turn away from choosing an action because it feels awful • Elevated feelings: We may get a rewarding delight from some moral behavior such as donating to charity
menarche
[meh-NAR-key] the first menstrual period. (p. 191)
developmental psychology
a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. (p. 169)
schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. (p. 174)
autism
a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind. (p. 180)
cross-sectional study
a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. (p. 207)
When we adapt our current understandings to incorporate information we have engaged in:
accommodation.
basic trust
according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers. (p. 186)
accommodation-1
adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. (p. 174)
self-concept
all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?" (pp. 188, 525)
cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. (pp. 174, 338)
attachment
an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. (p. 183)
critical period
an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development. (p. 183)
Which of the following reasons for successful aging is a biological influence in the biopsychosocial approach?
appropriate nutrition
maturation
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. (p. 172)
Teen impulsivity is to late-maturing frontal lobes as old-age _____ is to frontal lobe atrophy.
bluntness
Five-year-old Otto complained to his mom that the pizza was not big enough. When she cut the pizza into smaller slices, Otto was happy because he now thought that there was more pizza. Otto lacks the concept of:
conservation.
The National Institute of Mental Health is conducting a study of older adults (30 to 75 years of age) regarding memory and response time in relation to timed tasks. They are bringing in all age groups at once to compare the differences. This is a(n) _____ study.
cross-sectional
habituation
decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. (p. 171)
Kevin is a tall and popular 16-year-old. He is also starting to use alcohol. It is likely that Kevin matured at a(n) _____ age.
early
Your cousin lost her pregnancy during her eighth week. During what stage of prenatal development did she have the miscarriage?
embryo
Terri is 20 years old and still very much dependent on her parents. They are paying for her college tuition as well as her living expenses. She spends her school holidays at home with them. According to some researchers, she is in the phase of life known as _____ adulthood.
emerging
Malcolm was contemplating dropping out of high school until he began working in a local day-care center, helping the children with their projects. After a few months, it is likely that Malcolm will:
feel better about himself and not drop out.
emerging adulthood
for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood. (p. 199)
Following the death of a local teenager, Jo came to believe that the teen had been profiled as a potential threat because he was African-American. She decided to join in the protests and actively engaged in public demonstrations in her community and high school. Jo has entered the _____ stage of cognitive development, according to Piaget.
formal operational
"Teens are less guilty by reason of adolescence" because their:
frontal lobes are not fully developed.
Marcia is in her forties and has the intense desire to create a mentoring program at her company. According to Erik Erikson, she is likely experiencing the _____ versus stagnation stage.
generativity
When Peter celebrated his 25th anniversary at the company, he felt that the rare autographed baseball he was given, while nice, was just a meaningless trinket. He was glad that he had balanced his work with family life. Peter is in the stage of development called:
generativity versus stagnation.
Reggie is in his mid-fifties. Reggie can expect that he will experience a:
gradual decrease in testosterone.
social identity
he "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships. (p. 197
Petra is considered a "fashionista" at school. At home, she is a tomboy. Petra is trying to find her _____.
identity
intimacy
in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. (p. 197)
egocentrism
in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. (p. 177)
preoperational stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. (p. 177)
sensorimotor stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. (p. 175)
concrete operational stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. (p. 178)
formal operational stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. (p. 179)
Wilbur is 68 years old and is sitting in his recliner reflecting on the mistakes he made in his life as well as the dreams that went unfulfilled. According to Erik Erikson, Wilbur is in the stage of development called _____ vs. despair.
integrity
According to Erik Erikson, older adults can most effectively cope with the prospect of their own death if they have achieved a sense of:
integrity.
assimilation
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. (p. 174)
According to Erik Erikson, one positive outcome of the struggle for identity is a comfortable sense of who one is and a developing capacity for:
intimacy with others.
The years after age 65 are known as _____ adulthood.
late
A researcher who administers a personality test to the same children every three years is conducting a(n) _____ study.
longitudinal
Dr. Greco is conducting a study of military veterans from the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. He plans to evaluate them every year for 10 years to see if those with anxiety disorders have a more pronounced decline in mental abilities and overall memory. This is a(n) _____ study.
longitudinal
Studies that restudy and retest the same people over a long period are called _____studies.
longitudinal
Adrianne is elated because she hasn't gotten her period in over a year and doesn't have to worry about an unintended pregnancy. Adrianne is probably experiencing _____.
menopause
Juanita is 56 years old. She is in which stage of adult development?
middle adulthood
Margie is 90 years old. She still plays golf and walks two miles a day. This exercise aids memory by stimulating the development of ______.
neural connections
secondary sex characteristics
nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. (p. 191)
identity
our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles. (p. 197)
theory of mind
people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. (p. 178)
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions. (p. 170)
Judd believes that choosing to violate government laws is morally justifiable if it is done to protect the lives of innocent people. Lawrence Kohlberg would suggest that this illustrates _____ morality.
postconventional
Robin is 17 years old and has decided to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity this summer because she wants to give back to people who are not as fortunate as she is. Robin has probably reached the _____ stage of moral development.
postconventional
Those in this stage of Kohlberg's theory of moral thinking would be likely to say something like, "People have a right to live."
postconventional morality
Paul thinks he should obey his teachers only if they are watching him. Lawrence Kohlberg would suggest that Paul demonstrates a(n) _____ morality.
preconventional
All of the following are more difficult for older adults than for younger adults EXCEPT:
remembering meaningful information.
Puberty is the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of _____.
reproducing
longitudinal study
research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. (p. 207)
Cross- _____ studies compare people of different ages with one another.
sectional
When parents are consistently warm and responsive to their infant, the infant is likely to develop a(n) _____ attachment to the parents; when parents neglect the infant, are inconsistent, or are insensitive to the infant's needs, the infant is likely to develop a(n) _____ attachment to the parents.
secure; insecure
Puberty is the period of ___maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
sexual
Antonio is a star basketball player on the high school team. He is very tall. He is also very popular with both boys and girls. Antonio is more likely to be:
sexually active.
Many computerized games are designed to improve cognitive functioning and reduce cognitive decline by exercising both memory and attention. Research has shown that those who engage in such games:
show improvement in the practiced skills.
Rolanda is 33 years old. She has a full-time career and is not married. Rolanda's mother keeps asking when she will get married and have children, insisting that Rolanda should be a wife and mother by now. Rolanda's mother's remarks reflect the _____ of her generation.
social clock
Anthony has signed up for a horticulture class. When he walks into the classroom on the first day he realizes that everyone else in the class, including the teacher, are women. He is aware of his:
social identity.
object permanence
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. (p. 176
primary sex characteristics
the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. (p. 191)
social clock
the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. (p. 208)
fetus
the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. (p. 169)
embryo
the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. (p. 169)
stranger anxiety
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. (p. 182)
zygote
the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. (p. 169)
Which of the following is a major contribution to the stage theory of development?
the idea that people of one age think and act differently when they arrive at a later age
puberty
the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. (p. 191)
Which of the following refers to what began as a zygote's outer cells and screens out many harmful substances that might be dangerous to the developing embryo and fetus?
the placenta
conservation
the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. (p. 177)
imprinting
the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. (p. 183)
menopause
the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. (p. 202)
adolescence
the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. (p. 190)
Ethel loves to talk about when she and her husband first were married. She has so many stories about their struggles and accomplishments. This is common, as older adults tend to remember:
things that happened during their teens and twenties well.
Erik Erikson proposed that at each stage of life we face a psychosocial task that needs resolution. The first task that infants wrestle with is:
trust vs. mistrust.
Terms to Remember
ya betch
Identity
• According to Erikson, adolescents synthesize past, present, and future roles into a clearer identity • Our sense of self
Adolescence Social Development (notes)
• Adolescents in Western cultures tend to gradually pull away from their parents • Parent-child conflict tends to be greater with the first-born child and greater with mothers • But most disagreements are harmless, and positive parent- teen relations correlate with positive peer relations • As parental influence decreases, peer influence becomes greater
Adolescence Cognitive Development (Developing Morality)
• Adolescents see justice and fairness in terms of merit and equity instead of everyone getting equal treatment • Adolescents may advocate for ideals and political causes • Adolescents think about god, meaning, and purpose in deeper terms than in childhood
Love and Work
• Adulthood's Commitments • Two basic aspects dominate adulthood
How does a person respond in the mirror?
• Age 6 months, child thinks it's someone else • Age 15-18 months, child realizes it's him/her • Age 8-10 years, child recognizes skills, preferences, goals
Infancy and Childhood Motor Development
• As muscles and nervous system mature, skills emerge • The sequence of physical development is generally universal - Roll, sit, crawl, walk, run • Experience does not change this sequence or the timing of development - Identical twins typically learn to walk on the same day
Stranger anxiety
• At around 8 months, after object permanence emerges and children become mobile, they develop stranger anxiety
Outcomes with parenting styles
• 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?
Successful aging
• Biological influences - No genetic disorder - Appropriate nutrition • Psychological influences - Physically and mentally active life style - Optimistic outlook • Social-cultural influences - Support from family and friends - Safe living conditions - Cultural respect from aging
Social Clock
• Clock of achievement in society's expectations that you should get married, get a job, etc. by a certain age in adulthood
Nurture
• Continuous • Care for and encourage the growth or development of • The nurture theory holds that genetic influence over abstract traits may exist
Embryo
• Development from 2 weeks to 2 months • Zygote attaches to uterine wall • Inner cells become embryo; outer cells become placenta, providing nutrients and oxygen • Organs begin to form and function
Fetus
• Development from 9 weeks to 6 months • Hands and face developed by 9 weeks • By 6 months, organs have developed enough so that fetus might survive outside the womb • At 6 months, fetus will respond to sounds • At birth, newborns prefer mother's voice over another woman or father • Even intonation of cries resembles mother's language
Adolescence Cognitive Development (Developing Reasoning)
• During Piaget's formal operational stage, adolescents develop reasoning skills • They may think about what is ideally possible and compare that with reality • They may think hypothetically about different choices and their consequences • They may think about what others think of them
Adulthood Stages
• Early adulthood (20s and 30s) • Middle adulthood (to age 65) • Late adulthood (after 65)
How does memory change with age?
• Early adulthood is peak time for learning and memory • The ability to recognize information, and to use previous knowledge as expertise, does not decline with age • Rote memorization ability declines more than ability to learn meaningful information • Prospective memory - planning to recall ("I must remember to do...) - also declines • The ability to learn new skills declines less than the ability to learn new information
Early adulthood
• Early adulthood: By mid-20s, our physical abilities begin to decline (when do professional athletes peak?) • Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, cardiac output
Zygote
• Fertilized egg • Rapid cell division during first 2 weeks • May split into 2 (monozygotic twins) • Fewer than half survive beyond 2 weeks
Primary Sex Characteristics
• Followed by a 2 year period of rapid growth and development • The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
Late Adulthood: Life Expectancy
• From 1950 - 2010, life expectancy increased from 49 to 69 y. • Greater life expectancy in developed countries - South Africa - 49 - Pakistan - 66 - U.S. - 78 - Canada - 81 - Japan - 84 • Males are more prone to death than females • 126:100 - male to female embryos • 105:100 - males to females born • Males 25% more likely to die within first year of life • Men die four years earlier than women • What leads to death? - Disease, aging - Hot weather, fall, minor infection - Smoking, obesity, stress - Chronic anger and depression • Can people "will" themselves to survive? YES
Formal operational stage
• From ages 12 through adulthood • Stage during which children begin to think logically about abstract concepts • They can ponder hypothetical propositions and deduce consequences
Preoperational stage
• From ages 2 to 6 or 7 • Children learn to use language, but do not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic • Children lack conservation - The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects • Children are egocentric - they have difficulty perceiving things from another's point of view • Child becomes invisible by covering his/her eyes • Child stands right in front of the TV and assumes you still see what he/she sees • Children may develop an ability to infer others' mental states when they begin forming a theory of mind - Ideas about one's own and others' mental states, about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict
Concrete operational stage
• From ages 7 to 11 • Stage during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events • Children also become able to comprehend mathematical transformations (1+2=3; what is 3-2?) and conservation
Sensorimotor stage
• From birth to nearly age 2 • Babies take in the world through their senses and actions - looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping • At < 6 months, babies lack object permanence - Awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived • Today's research suggests that object awareness develops more gradually
Infancy
• From newborn to toddler
Childhood
• From toddler to teenager
Harry and Margaret
• Harry and Margaret Harlow raised monkeys with two artificial mothers - One a bare wire cylinder with a wooden head and an attached feeding bottle, the other a cylinder with no bottle but covered with a terry cloth • The monkeys would cling to their cloth mothers when anxious and used her as a secure base when exploring their environment • Human attachment also consists of one person providing a secure base
What happens during deprivation of attachment?
• If children live without safe, nurturing, affectionate caretaking, they may still be resilient, bounce back, attach, and succeed • However, if the child experiences severe, prolonged deprivation or abuse, he or she may: - have difficulty forming attachments - have increased anxiety and depression - have lowered intelligence - show increased aggression
Late Adulthood: Health
• Immune system weakens, but...because of a lifetime of building antibodies, people over 65 suffer fewer colds/flus • Neural processing and reaction slows • Fatal accident rates per mile driven increase sharply after age 75 • Memory-related brain areas begin to atrophy • Inhibition-controlling frontal lobes begin to atrophy • Exercise can slow the aging process - Enhances muscle, bones, energy - Prevents obesity and heart disease - Stimulates neural development and connections - Promotes neurogenesis - the birth of new neurons - in the hippocampus
Imprinting
• Imprinting - the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period - In ducks, occurs during first hours of life - What if the mother duck is not available? - Children do not imprint, they become attached to familiarity
Death and Dying
• Individual responses to death may vary: • Grief is more intense when death occurs unexpectedly (especially if also too early on the social clock) • There is NO standard pattern or length of the grieving process • It seems to help to have the support of friends or groups, and to face the reality of death and grief while affirming the value of life
Attached
• Infants become attached to their parents - An emotional tie with another person (children seek closeness to caregiver, show distress on separation)
Infancy and Childhood Social Development (notes)
• Is attachment style the result of parenting (nurture) or temperament (nature)? • Some infants are "easy", some are "difficult" • Being sensitive to the needs of "difficult" infants produced 68% (vs. 26%) secure attachment • Fathers matter too! - "Maternal deprivation" vs. "absent father" - Father's love and acceptance predicts offspring's health and well-being - Leads to higher school achievement • Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months • Allows us to move out into a wider range of situations and communicate with strangers more freely • Securely attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust - a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy • Attributed to early parenting • May form the foundation for our adult relationships • Also affects our relationships with our own children • Securely attached people exhibit less fear of failure and a greater drive to achieve
Well-being Across the Life Span
• Life satisfaction, as measured by how close people feel to the "best possible life," is apparently not a function of age • Positive feelings, supported by enhanced emotional control, grow after midlife • Older adults have fewer problems in social relationships and experience less stress, anger, and worry • Possibly because the amygdala is less active to negative events in older adults
The three different types of development
• Moral • Psychosocial • Cognitive - Run in parallel
Moral Action
• Morality involves doing the right thing, not just thinking or talking about it • Be less selfish and more caring • Have empathy for others' feelings • Delay small gratifications now for bigger rewards later • Serve others
Adolescence Physical Development
• Neurons increase connections until puberty • Unused neurons and connections are pruned during adolescence • Frontal lobe continues to develop during adolescence, promoting improved judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning • Frontal lobe development lags limbic system development • The result is more impulsive, risky, and emotional behavior • The benefits of such behavior tend to outweigh the risks • In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, after hearing arguments from the APA, that the death penalty should not be given to 16- and 17-year-olds because they have adolescent brains
Babies are born with several coordinated reflexes
• Pain reflex - withdrawing a limb from a painful stimulus • Breathing reflex - turning head when breathing is blocked • Rooting/sucking reflex - positioning for breastfeeding • Crying reflex - when hungry
Lawrence Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Reasoning
• Pre-conventional morality (before 9) Self-interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or gain rewards • Conventional morality (early adolescence) Uphold laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order • Post-conventional morality (adolescence and beyond) Actions reflect belief in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles
Late Adulthood: Neurocognitive Disorders (formerly dementia)
• Results from substantial neural loss that is not a normal part of the aging process - Heavy smoking and drinking increases risk • Alzheimer's disease - Deterioration of neurons that produce acetylcholine (important for memory) - Emotionally flat - Disoriented and disinhibited - Incontinent - Can be prevented by "exercising" your mind!
Nature
• Stages • The coding of genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we have, more dominantly on the physical attributes like eye color, hair color, ear size, height, and other traits
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
• Studied the errors in cognition made by children in order to understand in what ways they think differently than adults • A child's mind is not a miniature model of an adult's mind • A child's mind develops through a series of stages from a newborn's simple reflexes to an adult's abstract reasoning • Our intellectual progression is based on our desire to make sense of our experiences • To do this, we build schemas - concepts or frameworks that organize and interpret information (cat, dog, love).
Reassessment of Piaget's theory
• Symbolic thinking: 3-year-olds can use tiny model of a room as a map, helping them find location of objects in a full-sized room • Does this 3-year-old ability mean that Piaget was wrong? Do kids use symbolic thought much earlier than he suggested? • Although Jean Piaget's observation and stage theory are useful, today's researchers believe: 1. development is a continuous process 2. children show some mental abilities and operations at an earlier age than Piaget thought 3. formal logic is a smaller part of cognition, even for adults, than Piaget believed • Key point: children are incapable of adult logic!
Fetal Dangers
• Teratogens, viruses or drugs, can enter the placenta and damage an embryo or fetus • For example, alcohol (depressant) inhibits neural activity of the mother and embryo/fetus • Fetal alcohol syndrome: chronic exposure to prenatal alcohol resulting in small head, slow growth, facial abnormalities, and lifelong brain abnormalities (mental retardation)
Adulthood's Ages and Stages
• The "midlife crisis" - re-evaluating one's life plan and success - does not seem to peak at any age • For the 25% of adults who do have this emotional crisis, the trigger seems to be the challenge of major illness, divorce, job loss, or parenting • Although the "midlife crisis" is not a function of age, people feel pressured by a social clock of achievement expectation
Brain Maturation and Infant Memory
• The average age of earliest conscious memory is 3.5 years • Maturation of brain areas responsible for memory (frontal lobe, hippocampus) after the age of 3 • But infants can learn skills (procedural memories) - 3 month old can learn, and recall a month later, that specific foot movements move specific mobiles
Maturation
• The orderly sequence of biological growth that enables changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
Puberty
• The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing • Begins around age 11 in girls, age 13 in boys
Adolescence
• The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
What about daycare? Is it bad for children?
• Time in day care does not significantly increase or decrease separation anxiety • Warm interaction with multiple caretakers can result in multiple healthy attachments. • Time in day care correlates with advanced thinking skills... and also with increased aggression and defiance
Babies prefer sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness
• Turn head in direction of human voices • Gaze longer at face-like images • Recognize the scent of mother
Late Adulthood: Sensory Abilities
• Visual sharpness diminishes - Distance perception and adaptation to light-level changes as less acute • Muscle strength, reaction time, and stamina also diminish • Sense of smell and hearing diminish • Eye's pupil shrinks and lens becomes less transparent, resulting in 1/3 less light entering retina at 65 vs. 20
Conception
• Women are born with all of their eggs • Men begin producing sperm at puberty • 200 million sperm cells released during ejaculation • Few reach the egg, one makes it in, egg blocks the rest • Sperm and egg nuclei fuse together