Unit 9 Developmental Psychology

gender

The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female. At conception u receive 23 chromosomes from your mom and 23 from dad. Of those 46 , 45 are unisex. Janet Shibley Hyde illustrated that some gender differences are quite modest by graphically representing male and female self-esteem scores across many studies. Other differences are more striking. Compared with the average man, the average woman enters puberty 2 years sooner, and her life span is 5 years longer. She carries 70% more fat, has 40% less muscle, and is 5 inches shorter. She expresses emotions more freely, can smell fainter odors, and is offered help more often. She can become sexually re-aroused soon after orgasm. She is also doubly vulnerable to depression and anxiety and her risk of developing an eating disorder is 10x greater than the average man's. Yet, he is some 4x more likely to commit suicide or develop alcohol use disorder. He is also more likely to be diagnosed with ASD, color blindness, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a child, and antisocial personality disorder as an adult.

Parents, peers, and early experiences

The formative nurture that conspires with nature begins at conception with the prenatal environment in the womb. Embryos receive differing nutrition and varying levels of exposure to toxic agents, Nurture then continues outside the womb, where our early experiences foster brain development. Mark Rosenzweig, David Krech, and their colleagues opened a window on that process when they raised some young rats in solitary confinement and others in a communal playground. When they later analyzed the rats' brains those raised in a the enriched environment, which stimulated a natural environment, usually developed a heavier and thicker brain cortex. Ros. was surprised so he repeated it several before publishing. After 60days in the enriched environment ,, the rats' brain weights increased 7-10%and the number of synapses mushroomed by about 20%. Such results motivated improvements in environments for lab, farm, and zoo animals--and for children in institutions. Stimulation by touch / massage also benefits infant rats and premature babies. Handled infants develop faster neurologically and gain weight more rapidly. By giving preemies massage therapy, neonatal intensive care units now help them to go home sooner. Both nature and nurture sculpt our synapses. After brain maturation provides us with an abundance of neural connections, our experiences trigger a pruning process. Senses activated and strengthen connections. Unused neural pathways weaken. The result of puberty is a massive loss of unemployed connections. During early childhood--while excess connections are still on call--youngsters can most easily master such skills as the grammar and accent of another language. Lacking any exposure to language before adolescence, a person will never mastery any language. The brain cells normally assigned to vision have died or been diverted to other uses. The maturing brain's rule: Use it or lose it. Although normal stimulation during the early years is critical, the brain's development does not end with childhood. Our neural tissue is ever changing and new neurons are born during plasticity. Whether learning to keyboard or skateboard, we preform with increasing skill as our brain incorporates the learning. Parents: Parents do matter. Yet in personality measures, shared environmental influences from the womb onward typically account for less than 10 percent of children's differences. Peer influence: As children attempt to fit in with their peers, they tend to adopt their culture--styles, accents, slang, attitudes. By choosing their children's neighborhoods and schools, parents exert some influence over peer group culture.

schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. His cored idea is that the driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences. To this end, the maturing brain builds schemas, concepts or mental molds into which we pour our experiences. By adulthood we have built countless schemas, ranging from cats and dogs to our concept of love.

Austism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

Developmental psychology

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. It has a focus on 3 major issues: Nurture and nature- How does our genetic inheritance interact with our experiences to influence our development? Continuity and stages- what parts of development are gradual and continous, like riding an escalator? What parts change abruptly in separate stages, like climbing rungs on a ladder? Stability and change: Which of our traits persist throughout life? How do we change as we age? Nature and nurture: Genes predispose both our shared humanity and our individual differences. Our experiences also form us. Even differences initiated by our nature may be amplified by our nurture. We are not formed by nature and nurture interrelationships- their interaction. Regardless of our culture, we share the same life cycle. We speak to our infants in similar ways and respond similarly to their coos and cries. Although ethnic groups differ in school achievement and delinquency, the differences are no more than skin deep. To that extent that family structure, peer influences, and parental education predict behavior in one of these ethnic groups, they do so for others as well. Compared with the person-to-person differences within groups, the differences between groups are small. Continuity and stages: Researchers who emphasize experience and learning see development as slow, continuous shaping process. Those who emphasize biological maturation tend to see development as a sequence of genetically predisposed stages or steps: Although progress through the various stages may be quick or slow, everyone passes through the stages in the same order. The stage theories of Jean Piaget on cognitive development, Lawrence Kohlberg on moral development, and Erik Erikson on psychological development propose that such stages do exist. But some research casts doubt on the idea that life proceed through neatly defined, age-linked stages. Young children have some abilities Piaget attributed to later stages. Kohlberg's work reflected a worldwide view characteristic of individualist cultures and emphasized thinking over acting. Chance events can influence us in ways we would never have predicted. Nevertheless, the concept of stage remains useful. The human brain does experience growth spurts during childhood and puberty that correspond roughly to Piaget's stages. And stage theories contribute a developmental perspective on the whole life span, by suggesting how people of one age think and act differently when they arrive at a later age. Stability and Change: Research reveals that we experience both stability and change. Some of our characteristics, such as temperament (our emotional reactivity and intensity) are very stable. As we grow older our personalities gradually stabilizes. We cannot however predict all our eventual traits based on our early tears of life. Some traits, such as social attitudes. are much less stable then temperament, especially during the impressionable late adolescent learn new ways ways of coping. Although deliquent children have elevate rates of later work problems, substance abuse, and crime, many confused and troubled children blossom into mature, successful adults. Happily for the, life is a process of becoming. In some ways, we all change with age. Changes can occur without changing a person's position relative to others of the same age. Life requires both stability and change. Stability provides our identity. It enables us to depend on others and be concerned about the healthy development of the children in our lives. Our trust in our ability to change gives us our hope for a brighter future. It motivates our concerns about present influences and lets us adapt and grow with experience.

maturation

biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. The orderly sequence of biological growth decrees many of our commonalities. Maturation (nature) sets the basic course of development; experience (nuture) adjusts it. Brain Development: In the wound your developing brain formed nerves at the explosive rate of nearly 1/25 million per minute. The developing brain cortex actually overproduces neurons, with the number peaking at 28wks then subsiding to a stable 23bil or so at birth. From infancy on, brain and mind--neural hardware and cognitive software--develop together. You've had the most braincells u could ever have at birth. After birth, the branching neural networks had a wild growth spurt. From 3-6, the most rapid growth was in your frontal lobes, which enable rational planning. The association areas--those linked with thinking, memory,and language--are the last cortical areas to develop. As they do, mental abilities surge. Fiber pathways supporting language and agility proliferate into puberty. A use it or lose it pruning process shuts down unused links and strengthens others. Motor development: The developing brain enables physical coordination. As an infants' muscles and nervous system mature, skills emerge. With occasional exceptions, the motor development sequence is universal. These behaviors reflect a maturing nervous system. There are however individual differences in timing. The recommended infant back to sleep position (putting babies on their backs to reduce the risk of a smothering crib death) has been associated with somewhat later crawling but not with later walking. Genes guide motor development. Identical twins begin walking nearly the same day. Maturation- including the rapid development of the cerebellum- creates our readiness to learn walking by age 1. Experience before time has a limited effect. The same is true for other physical skills. Before necessary muscular and neural maturation, don't expect pleading or punishment to produce successful toilet training. Brain maturation and infant memory: Our earlier memories seldom predate our 3rd birthday: We see this infantile amnesia in the memories some preschoolers who experienced an emergency fire evacuation caused by a burning popcorn maker. 7 years later they were able to recall the alarm and what caused it--if they were 4-5 years old at the time. Other studies confirm that the age of earliest conscious memory is 3 1/2 years. As children mature, 4-6-8 yrs., childhood amnesia is giving way, and they become increasingly capable of remembering experiences, even for a year or more. The brain areas underlying memory, such as the hippocampus and frontal lobes, continue to mature into adolescence. Apart from constructed memories based on photos and family stories, we consciously recall little from before age 4. Yet our brain was processing and storing information during those early years. For example- the baby and mobile experiment. Traces of forgotten childhood languages may also persist. One study tested English speaking British adults who had no conscious memory of the Hindi or Zulu they had spoken as children. Yet, up to age 40, they could relearn subtle sound contrasts in these languages that other people could not learn. What the conscious mind does not know and cannot express in words, the nervous system somehow remembers.

longitudinal study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period

social clock

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. Social development: Many differences between younger and older adults are created by significant life events. Adulthood's ages and stage: As people enter 40s. they undergo a transition to middle adulthood, a time when they realize that life will soon be mostly behind instead of ahead of them. Some psych. have argued that for many the midlife transition crisis, a time of great struggle, regret, or even feeling struck down by life. Unhappiness, job and martial dissatisfaction, divorce, anxiety, and suicide do not surge during the early forties. The trigger is not age but a major event. Some middle aged adults describe them selves as a sandwich generation. Life events trigger transitions to new life stages at varying ages, The social clock -the definition of the right time to leave home, get a job, marry, children, or retire--varies from era to era and culture to culture. The social clock still ticks, but people feel freer about being out of sync with it. Even chance events can have lasting significance, by deflecting us down one road rather than another. Bandura recalls the ironic true story of a book editor who came to one of Bandura's lectures on the psychology of chance encounters and life paths- an ended up marrying the woman who happened to sit next to him. The sequence that led to my authoring those book began with my being seated near, and getting to know, a distinguished colleague at an international conference. Chance events can change our lives. Adulthood's Commitments: 2 basic aspects of our lives dominate adulthood. Erik Erikson called the intimacy (forming close relationships )and generativity (being productive and achievement, attachment and productivity, connectedness and competence. Freud put it most simply- the healthy adult, he said, is one who can love and work. Love: From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense: parents who cooperated to nurture their children in maturity were more likely to have their genes passed along to posterity than were parents who didn't. Adult bonds of love are most satisfying and enduring when marked by a similarity of interests and value, a sharing of emotional and material support, and intimate self-disclosure. Couples who seal their love with commitment -via marriage for heterosexual couples and civil unions for homo couples-- more often endure. Marriage bonds are especially likely to last when couples marry after age 20 and are well educated. Compared with their counterparts of 50 yrs ago, people in Western countries are better educated and marrying later. Yet, ironically, they are nearly twice as likely to divorce. The divorce rate partly reflects women's lessened economic dependence and men's and women's rising expectations. We now hope not only for an enduring bond, but also for a mate who is a wage earner, caregiver, intimate friend, and warm and responsive lover. Those who cohabit before marriage have had higher rates of divorce and martial dysfunction than those who did not cohabit. The risk appears greatest for those cohabiting prior to engagement. American children born to cohabiting parents are more likely to experience their parents' separation. 2 factors contribute: First, cohabiters tend to be initially less committed to the idea of enduring marriage. 2nd, they become even less marriage supporting while cohabiting. Marriage is a predictor of happiness, sexual satisfaction, income, and physical and mental health. Different styles of marriage can last. John Gottman reported one indicator of martial success : at least 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions. The couples who make it are more often those who refrain from putting down their partners. When children begin to absorb time, money, and emotional energy. This is especially likely among employed women who, more than they expected, carry the traditional burden of doing the chores at home. Putting effort into creating an equitable relationship can thus pay double dividends: a more satisfying marriage, which breeds better parent-child relations. Although love bears children, children eventually leave home. This is a significant and sometimes difficult event. For most however an empty nest is a happy place. Many parents experience a postlaunch honeymoon , especially if they maintain close relationships with their children. Work: Choosing a career is difficult, especially during bad economic times. Even in the best times. a few student in their first 2 years of college or university can predict their later careers. In the end, happiness is about having work that fits your interests and provides u with a sense of competence and accomplishment. It is having a close supportive companion who cheers your accomplishments. And for some, it includes having children who love you and whom you love and feel proud of. Well-Being Across the Life Span: As Gallup researchers discovered, most find that the over 65 years are not notably unhappy. If anything, positive feelings, supported by enhanced emotional control, grow after midlife, and negative feelings subside. Older adults increasingly use words that convey positive emotions and they attend less and less to negative information. Compared with younger adults, for ex: they are slower to perceive negative faces and more attentive to positive news. Older adults also have fewer problems in their social relationships and they experience less intense anger, stress, and worry. The aging brain may help nurture these positive feelings. Brain scans of older adults show that the amygdala, a neural processing center for emotions, responds less actively to negative events and it interacts less with the hippocampus, a brain memory-processing center. Brain-wave reactions to negative images also diminish with age. Moreover, at all ages, the bad feelings we associate with negative events fade faster than do the good feelings we associate with positive events. This contributes to most older peoples sense of life, on balance, has been mostly good. Given that growing older is an outcome of living (an outcome most prefer to early dying), the positivity of later life is comforting. Thanks to biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences, more and more people flourish into later life. Death and Dying: Usually, the most difficult separation is from a spouse-- a loss suffered by 5x more women than men. When, as usually happens, death comes at an expected late-life time, grieving may be relatively short-lived. Grief is especially severe when a loved one's death comes suddenly and before its expected time on the social clock. It may trigger a year or more of memory laden mourning that eventually subsides to a mild depression. For some however the loss is unbearable. Even so, reactions to a loved one's death range more widely than most suppose. Some cultures encourage public weeping and wailing; others hide grief. Within any culture, individuals differ. Given similar losses, some people grieve hard and long, others less so. Contrary to popular misconceptions, however: terminally ill and bereaved people do not go through identical predictable stages, such as denial before anger, those who express the strongest grief immediately do not purge their grief more quickly, bereavement therapy and self-help groups offer support, but there is similar healing power in the passing of time, the support of friends, and the act of giving support and help to others.. Grieving spouses who talk often with others or receive grief counseling adjust about as well as those who grieve more privately. We can be grateful for the warning of death-denying attitudes. Facing death with dignity and openness helps people complete the life cycle with a sense of life's meaningless and unity-- the sense that their existence has been good and that life and death are parts of an ongoing cycle. Although death may be unwelcome, life itself can be affirmed even at death. This is especially so for people who review their lives not with despair but with what Erik Erikson called a sense of integrity-- a feeling that one's life has been meaningful and worthwhile.

Teratogens

(literally, "monster maker") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. Sounds are not the only stimuli fetuses are exposed to in the wound. In addition to transferring nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus, the placenta screens out many harmful substances, but some slip by. Teratogens can damage an embryo or fetus. This is one reason pregnant women are advised to not drink alcoholic beverages. A pregnant woman never drinks alone. As alcohol enters her bloodstream, and her fetus', it depresses activity in both their CNsystems. Alcohol use during pregnancy may prime the woman's offspring to like alcohol and may put them at risk for heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder during their teens. Even light drinking or occasional binge drinking can affect the fetal brain. Persistent heavy drinking puts the fetus at risk for birth defects and for future behavior problems, hyperactivity, and lower intelligence.

self-concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?." Infancy's major social achievement is attachment. Childhood's major social achievement is a positive sense of self. By the end of childhood, at about 12, most children have developed a self-concept--an understanding and assessment of who they are (their self-esteem is how they feel about who they are). Letting the baby's behavior provide clues to the beginnings of their self-awareness. In 1877, biologist Darwin offered 1 idea: Self awareness begins when that the girl in mirror is indeed herself, researchers sneakily dabbed color on the nose. At about 6 months, children reach out to touch their mirror image as if it were another child. By 15-18 mths have a schema of how their face should look, and wonder, "What is that spot doing on my face?" By school age, children's self concept has blossomed into more detailed descriptions that include their gender, group members, psychological traits, and similarities and differences compared w/ other children. They form a concept of which traits, ideally, they would like to have. By 8 or 10, their self image is quite stable. Children's views of themselves affect their actions. Children who form a positive self concept are more confident, independent, optimistic, assertive, and sociable.

Lev Vygotsky

He noted that by 7 they increasingly think in words and use words to solve problems. They do this, he said, by internalizing their culture's language and relying on inner speech. Whether out loud or inaudibly, talking to themselves helps children control their behavior and master new skills. Where Piaget emphasized how the child's mind grows through interaction with the physical environment, Lev emphasized how the child's mind grows through interaction with the social environment. By mentioning children and giving them new words, parents and others provide a temporary scaffold from which children are developmentally ready to learn a new skill. For Lev, a child's zone of proximal development was the zone between what a child can and can't do--it's what a child can do with help. When learning to ride a bike, it's the developmental zone in which a chi;d can ride with training wheels or a steadying parental hand. Piaget identified significant cognitive milestones and stimulated worldwide interest in how the mind develops. His emphasis was less on the ages at which children typically reach specific milestones than on their sequence. Studies around the world have confirmed that human cognition unfolds basically in the sequence Piaget described. However, today's researchers see development as more continuous than did Piaget. By detecting the beginnings of each type of thinking at earlier ages, they have revealed conceptual abilities Piaget missed. Moreover, they see formal logic as a smaller part of cognition than he did. Piaget would not be surprised that today, as part of our own cognitive development, we are adapting his ideas to accommodate new findings. Implications for Parenting and Teaching: Future parents and teachers remember; Young children are incapable of adult logic. Also remember that children are not passive receptacles waiting to be filled w/ knowledge. Better to build on what they already know, engaging them in concrete demonstrations and stimulating them to think for themselves. And, finally, accept children's cognitive immaturity as adaptive. It is nature's strategy for keeping children close to protective adults and providing time for learning and socialization.

critical period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. Familiarity: Contact is one key to attachment. Another is familiarity. In many animals, attachments based on familiarity from during a critical period.

Parenting Styles

The most heavily researched aspect of parenting has been how, and to what extent, parents seek to control their children. Investigators have identified 3 parenting styles. 1. Authoritarian parents impose rules and expect obedience. 2. Permissive parents submit to their children desires. They make few demands and use little punishment. 3.Authoritative parents are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain the reasons for rules. And especially w/ older children, they encourage open discussion when making the rules and allow exceptions. Diana Baumrind has called these too hard, too soft, and just right. Research indicates that children with high self esteem, self-reliance, and social competence usually have warm, concerned authoritative parents. Those with authoritarian parents tend to have less social skill and self-esteem, and those with permissive parents tend to be more aggressive and immature. The association between certain parenting styles and certain childhood outcomes is correlational. 2 possible alternative explanations: Children's traits may influence parenting and some underlying 3rd factor may be at work like genes that predispose social competence. All advice reflects the advice-giver's values. Culture and Child Raising: Child-raising practices reflect cultural values that vary across time and place. If you live in a Westernized culture, the odds are you prefer independence. Cultures can change. Many Asians and Africans live in cultures that value emotional closeness. These cultures encourage a strong sense of family self--a feeling that what shames the child shames the family, and what brings honor to the family brings honor to the self. Children across place and time have thrived under various child-raising systems. Small diversity in child raising cautions us against presuming that our culture's way is the only way to raise children successfully.

X chromosome

The sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child. In mating-related domains, evolutionary psychologists contend, males differ from females. Our biology may influence our gender differences in 2 ways: genetically, by our differing chromosomes, and physiologically, from our differing concentrations of sex hormones. Males and females are variations of a single form-- of the 46 chromosomes, 45 are unisex. So great is the similarity that until seven weeks after conception, your were anatomically indistinguishable from someone of the other sex. Then your genes activated your biological sex. Your sex was determined by your father's contribution to your 23rd pair of chromosomes, the 2 sex chromosomes. You received an X chromosome from your mom. From your father u receive the one chromosome that is not unisex--either another X,making u a girl, or a Y chromosome making u a boy.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)

a life-threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS depletes the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to infections. Rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs; also called STDs for sexually transmitted diseases) are rising, 2/3 of the new infections occurred in people under 25. Teenage girls are especially vulnerable. Birth control is 98 percent effective, a 2 percent chance of failure in the first such use accumulates. When people feel drawn to a partner, they become motivated to underestimate risks. Condoms offer only limited protection against certain skin-to-skin STIs, such as herpes, but they do reduce other risks. Condoms have also been 80 percent effective in preventing transmission of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus- the virus that causes AIDS). from an infected partner. Sexual transmission is most common. Women's AIDS rates are increasing fastest, partly b/c the virus is passed from man to woman much more often. Semen can carry more of the virus than can a woman's vaginal and cervical secretions. The HIV-infected semen can also linger for days in a woman's vagina and cervix, increasing the time exposure. Most people recently diagnosed with AIDS in the US have been ages 25 to 44. Recent studies show a significant link between oral sex and transmission of STIs, such as human papilloma virus (HPV) . Risks rise with the number of sexual partners. Most HPV infections can now be prevented with a vaccination administered before sexual conduct. Adolescents' physical maturation fosters a sexual dimension to their emerging identity. Yet sexual expression varies dramatically with time and culture. Teen intercourse rates are roughly similar in Western Europe and in Latin America. Environmental factors accounted for almost 3-fourths of the individual variation in age of sexual initiation. Family and cultural values matter. Compared with European teens, American teens have a higher rate of STIs and also of teen pregnancy. What environmental factors contribute to teen pregnancy? Minimal communication about birth control, guilt related to sexual activity ( sexual inhibitions or ambivalence can restrain sexual activity, but if passion overwhelms intentions they may also reduce attempts at birth control), alcohol use (by depressing the brain centers that control judgement, inhibition, and self-awareness, alcohol disarms normal restraints, a phenomenon well known to sexually coercive males), mass media norms of unprotected promiscuity (The more sexual content adolescents view, the more likely they are to perceive their peers as sexually active, to develop sexually permissive attitudes, and to experience early intercourse. Recently there has been a greater emphasis on teen abstinence within some comprehensive sex-education programs. ) The national longitudinal study of adolescent health among 12k teens found several factors that predicted sexual restraint: High intelligence, religious engagement, father presence, and participation in service learning programs.

temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity. Attachment differences: Temperament and parenting. Mary Ainsworth designed the strange situation experiment to see what accounts or children's attachment differences. She observed mother-infant pairs at home during their first 6 months. Later she observed the 1 yr old infants in a strange situation. (usually a lab playroom). Such research has shown that about 60 percent of infants display secure attachment. In their mother's presence they play comfortably, happily exploring their new environment. When she leaves, they become distressed when she returns, they seek contact with her. Other infants avoid attachment or show insecure attachment marked by either anxiety or avoidance of trusting relationships. They are less likely to explore their surroundings they may even cling to their mom. When she leaves they either cry loudly and remain upset or see, indifferent to her departure and return. Ainsworth and others found that sensitive, responsive moms--had infants who exhibited secure attachment. Insensitive, unresponsive moms-moms who attended to their babies when they felt like doing so but ignored them at other times--often had infants who were insecurely attached. The Harlow's monkeys studies, with the unresponsive artificial moms, produced even more striking effects. When put in strange situations without their artificial moms. the deprived infants were terrified. But is attachment style the result of parenting, or is is a result of genetically influenced temperament--a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity? As most parents will tell u after having their 2nd child, babies differ even before gulping their 1st breath. Heredity predisposes temperament differences. From their first weeks, some infants are reactive, intense, and fidgety. Others are easygoing, quiet, and placid. Difficult babies are more irritable, intense and unpredictable. Easy babies are cheerful, relaxed, and predictable in feeding and sleeping. Slow to warm up infants tend to resist or withdraw from new people and situations. And temperament differences typically persist. The most emotionally reactive newborns tend also to be the most reactive 9 month olds. Exceptionally inhibited and fearful 2yr olds often are still relatively shy as 8yr olds; about half will become introverted adolescents. The most emotionally intense preschoolers tend to be relatively intensen young adults reactive and impulsive 3yr olds developed into somewhat more impulsive, aggressive, and conflict prone 21yr olds. The genetic effect appears in psychological differences. Anxious, inhibited infants have high and variable heart rates and a reactive nervous systems. When facing new/strange situations, they become more physiologically aroused. One form of a gene that regulates the serotonin predisposes a fearful temperament and, in combination with unsupportive caregiving, an inhibited child. Such evidence adds to the emerging conclusion that our biologically rooted temperament helps form our enduring personality. By neglecting such inborn differences, the parenting studies, noted Judith Harris are like comparing foxhounds reared in kennels with poodles reared in apartments. So to separate nature and nurture, we would need to vary parenting while controlling temperament. One Dutch researcher's solution was to randomly assign 00 temperamentally difficult 6-9 mth olds to either an experimental group, in which moms received personal training in sensitive responding, or to a control group, in which they did not. At 12 mths, 68 percent of the infants in the experimental group were rated securely attached, as were only 28% of the control group infants. Other studies support the idea that intervention programs can increase parental sensitivity and, to a lesser extent, infant attachment security. As these examples indicate, researchers have more often studied mom care than father care. Infants who lack a caring mom are said to suffer maternal deprivation; those lacking a dad's care merely experience "father's absence". Thus reflects a wider attitude in which "fathering a child" has meant impregnating, and "mothering" has meant nurturing. But dads are more than just mobile sperm banks. A dad's love and acceptance have been comparable to a mom's love in predicting their offspring's health and well-being. In a study fathers who were more involved in parenting tended to achieve more in school, even after controlling for other factors such as parental education and wealth. Children's anxiety over separation peaks at around 13mths, then gradually declines. This happens whether they live with 1 parent or 2, are cared for at home or in daycare, or live in North America or Guatemala. Our capacity for love grows, and our pleasure in touching and holding those we love never ceases. The power of early attachment does nonetheless gradually relax, allowing us to move into a wider range of situations, communicate with strangers more freely, and stay emotionally attached to loved ones despite distance.

role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave. In psychology, as in a theater, a role refers to a cluster of prescribed actions, or behaviors we expect of those who occupy a particular social position. Gender roles vary overtime and place. In North America, men were traditionally expected to initiate dates, drive, and pick up check. Women were expected to decorate the home, buy and care for kids, and select the wedding gifts. Up through 1990s Mom (about 90% of time in 2 parent families) stayed home with a sick child, arranged the babysitter, and called the doctor. Even in recent years, compared with employed women, employed men have spent about an 1hr and a half more on the job and about 1hr less on household activities and caregiving. Other societies have different expectations. In nomadic societies of food-gathering people, there is little division of labor by sex. In agricultural societies, where women work in fields and men with livestock, children have typically been socialized into more distinct gender roles. Among industrialized industries, gender roles and attitudes vary widely. To see how gender roles vary over time, consider women's voting rights. Gender roles can smooth social relations, avoiding irritating discussions about whose job it is to get the car fixed and who should by the birthday presents. But these quick and easy assumptions come at a cost: If we deviate from conventions, we may feel anxious.

gender role

a set of expected behaviors for males or for females. Culture is everything shared by a group and transmitted across generations. We can see culture's shaping power in gender roles--the social expectations that guide men's and women's behavior.

cross-sectional study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. Cognitive development: Early adulthood is indeed a peak time for some types of learning and remembering. In fact, how well older people remember depends on the task. Recognizing is easier than recall. Younger adults vary in their ability to learn and remember, but 70 yr olds vary much more. No matter how quick or slow we are, remembering seems also to depend on the type of information we are trying to retrieve. If the info. is meaningless, then the older we are, the more errors we are likely to make. If the info is meaningful, older people's rich wen of existing knowledge will help them to hold it. But they make take longer than younger adults to produce the words and things they know. Quick-thinking game show winners are usually young or middle-aged adults. Older people's capacity to learn to remember skills declines less than their verbal recall. Cross sectional studies (comparing people of different ages) and longitudinal studies (restudying the same people over time) have identified mental abilities that do and do not change as people age. Age is less a predictor of memory and intelligence than is proximity to death. In the last 3 or 4 years of life, cognitive decline typically accelerates. Researchers call this near death drop terminal decline.

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. Attachment Styles and Later Relationships: Developmental theorist Erik Erikson working with his wife, Joan Erikson believed that securely attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust. He attributed basic trust not to environment or inborn temperament, but to early parenting. He theorized that infants blessed with sensitive, loving caregivers form a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear. Although debate continues, many researchers now believe that our early attachments form the foundation for our adult relationships and our comfort with affection and intimacy . Our adult styles of romantic love tend to exhibit either secure, trusting attachment; insecure, anxious attachment, or the avoidance of attachment. These adult attachment styles in turn affect relationships with one's own children, as avoidant people find parenting more stressful and unsatisfying. Attachment style is also associated with motivation. Securely attached people exhibit less fear or failure and a greater drive to achieve. But say this for those (nearly half of all humans) who exhibit insecure attachments: Anxious or avoidant tendencies have helped our groups detect or escape dangers. Deprivation of Attachment: People locked at home under conditions of abuse or extreme neglect are often withdrawn, frightened, even speechless. The same is true of those raised in institutions without the stimulation and attention of a regular caregiver as was tragically illustrated during the 1970s -1980s, in Romania. Having decided that economic growth for his impoverished country required more human capital, Nicolae Ceausescu, communist dictator, outlawed contraception, forbade abortion, and taxed families with fewer than 5 children. The birthrate indeed skyrocketed. But unable to afford the kids they have been coerced into having, may families abandoned them to government run orphanages with untrained and overworked staff. The kids were deprived of healthy attachment with at least 1 adult. They tend to fare better on later intelligence tests if raised in family homes. This is especially so for those placed at an early age. Most kids growing up under adversity are resilient they withstand the trauma and become normal adults. So do most victims of childhood sexual abuse, noted Harvard researcher Susan Clancy, while emphasizing that using children for sex is revolting and never the victim's fault. But others, especially those who experience no sharp break from their abusive past, don't bonce back so readily. The Harlow's monkeys raised in total isolation with even an artificial mom, bore lifelong scars. As adults, when placed with other monkeys their age, they either cowered in fright or lashed out in aggression. When they reached sexual maturity, most were incapable of mating. If artificially impregnated, females often were neglectful, abusive, even murderous toward their 1st born. Another primate experiment confirmed the abuse-breeds-abuse phenomenon. In 1 study, 9 of 16 females who had been abused by their moms became abusive parents, as did no female raised by a nonabusive mom. In humans too, the unloved became the unloving. Most abusive parents-- and many condemned murders--have reported being neglected or battered as kids. Some 30% who have been abused later abuse their kids-- a rate lower than found in the primate study, but 4x in the US. national rate of child abuse. Although most abused children do not later become violent criminals or abusive parents, extreme early trauma may nevertheless leave footprints on the brain. Abused children exhibit hypersensitivity to angry faces. As adults, they exhibit stronger startle responses. If repeatedly threatened and attacked while young, normally placid golden hamsters grow up to be cowards when caged with the same-sized hamsters, or bullies when caged with weaker ones. Such animals show changes in serotonin, which calms aggressive impulses. A similarly sluggish serotonin response has been found in abused children who become aggressive teens and adults. Stress can set of a ripple of hormonal changes that permanently wire a child's brain to cope with a malevolent world, concluded abuse researcher Martin Teicher. Such findings help explain why young children who have survived severe or prolonged physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse, or wartime atrocities are at an increased risk for health problem and criminality. Abuse victims are at considerable risk for depression if they carry a gene variation that spurs stress-hormone production. Behavior and emotion arise form a particular environment interacting with genes.Adults also suffer when attachment bonds are severed. A break produced a predictable sequence. Agitated preoccupation with the lost partner is followed by deep sadness and, eventually the beginnings of emotional detachment and a return to normal living. Newly separated couples who have long ago ceased feeling affection are sometimes surprised at their desire to be near the former partner. Deep and longstanding attachments seldom break quickly. Detaching is a process, not an event. ... Daycare: 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. Daycare does not disrupt children's attachment to their parents for high quality daycare programs usually studied. In Mother Care/Other Care, developmental psych. Sandra Scarr explained that children are biologically sturdy individuals.. who can thrive in a wide variety of life situations. Scarr spoke for many developmental psychologists, whose research has uncovered no major impact of maternal employment on children's development, attachment, and achievements. Research then shifted to the effects of differing quality of daycare on different types and ages of children explained that high quality care consists of warm, supportive interactions with adults in a safe, health, and stimulating environment. Poor care is boring and unresponsive to children's needs. Children's ability to thrive under varied types of responsive caregivers should nor surprise us, given cultural variations in attachment patterns. Westernized attachment features one or 2 caregivers and their offspring. Even before the mom holds her newborn, the baby is passed among several women. In the weeks to come, the infant will be constantly held (and fed) by other women. The result is strong multiple attachments. Children ages 4 1/2 to 6, children who has spent the most time in day care had slightly advanced thinking and language skills. They also has an increased rate of aggressiveness and defiance. To developmental psych. Eleanor Maccoby the positive correlation between the increased rate of problem behaviors and time spent in child care suggested. "some risk for children spending extended time in some day-care setting as they're now organized." But the child's temperament, the parents' sensitivity, and the family's economic and educational level influenced aggression more than time spent in daycare. There is little disagreement that the children who merely exist for 9hrs a day in understaffed centers deserve better. What all children need is a consistent, warm relationship with people whom they can learn to trust. The importance of such relationships extend beyond the preschool years, as Finnish psych. Lea Pulkkinen observed in her career-long study of 285 individuals tracked from age 8 to 42. Her finding--that adult monitoring of children predicts favorable outcomes--led her to undertake, with support from Finland's parliament, a nationwide program of adult-supervised activities for all 1st and 2nd graders.

accomidation

adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. But as we interact with the world, we also adjust, or accomodate our schema to incorporate information provided by new experiences.

congition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Jean Piaget spent his life searching for the answers to questions like when did our conscious develop and how did the mind unfold from there. He studied cognitive development--all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. His interest began in 1920, when he was in Paris developing questions for children's intelligence tests. While administering the tests, Piaget became intrigued by children's wrong answers, which were often strikingly similar among same-age children. Where others saw childish mistakes Piaget saw intelligence at work. A half-century spent with children convinced him that a child's mind is not a miniature model of an adult's. Thanks partly to his work, we now understand that children reason differently than adults, in wildly illogical ways about problems whose solutions are self-evident to adults. Piaget's studies led him to believe that a child's mind develops through a series of stages, in an upward march from the newborns simple reflexes t the adults abstract reasoning power. His cored idea is that the driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences. To this end, the maturing brain builds schemas, concepts or mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

attachement

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. 1yr olds typically cling tightly to a parent when they are frightened or expect separation. Reunited after being apart, they shower the parent with smiles and hugs. This attachment bond is a powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers. They become attached to those (typically parents) who are comfortable and familiar. Body contact: During 1960s, University of Wisconsin psychologists Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow bred monkeys for their learning studies. They recognized that this intense attachment to the blanket contradicted the idea that attachment derives from an association with nourishment. To pit the drawing power of a food source against the contact comfort of a blanket, they created 2 artificial moms. 1 was a bare wire cylinder with a wood head and an attached feeding bottle, the other wrapped with terry cloth. When raised with both, the monkeys overwhelming preferred the comfy cloth mother. They would cling to their cloth monkey when anxious. When exploring their environment, they used her as a secure base, as if attached to her by an invisible elastic band that stretched only so far before pulling them back. Researchers soon realized that other qualities--rocking, warmth, and feeding--made the cloth mom even more appealing. Human infants too, become attached to parents who are soft and warm and who rock, feed, and pat. Much parent-infant emotional communication occurs via touch, which can either be soothing (snuggles) or arousing (tickles). Human attachment also consists of one person providing another with a secure base from which to explore and a safe haven when distressed. As we mature, our secure base and safe haven shift-- from parents to peers and partners. But at all ages we are social creatures. We gain strength when someone offers, by words and actions, a safe haven.

sexual orientation

an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation). We express the direction of our sexual interest in our sexual orientation- our enduring sexual attraction toward members of our own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (herero. orientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation). Compared with men's sexual orientation, women's tends to be less strongly felt and may be more variable. Men's lesser erotic plasticity (sexual variability) is apparent in many ways. Adult women's sexual drive and interests are more flexible and varying than are adult's men. Women, more than men, for exmaple, prefer, to alternate periods of high sexual activity with periods of almost none. They are also more likely than men to feel and act on bisexual attractions. So, our sexual orientation is something we do not choose (especially for males) seemingly cannot change. In a search for possible environmental influences on sexual orientation. Kinsey Institute investigators interviewed 100 homos and 500 heteros. They assessed nearly every imaginable psychological cause of homosexuality--parental relationships, childhood sexual experiences, peer relationships, and dating experiences. Their findings: Homos were no more likely then heteros to have been smothered by maternal love or neglected by their father. A bottom line: If there are environmental factors that influence sexual orientation, we do not yet know what they are. The lack of evidence for environmental causes of homosexuality has motivated researchers to explore possible biological influences. They have considered evidence of homosexuality in other species, gay-straight brain differences, genetics, and prenatal hormones. Some degree of homosexual behavior seems a natural part of the world. Researcher Simon LeVay studied sections of hypothalamus (linked to emotion) taken from deceased hetero and homo people. As a gay man, LeVay wanted to do something connected with his gay identity. To avoid biasing results, he did a blind study, without knowing which donors were gay or straight. After 9 months of peering through a microscope he consulted the donor records. The cell cluster was reliably larger in hetero men than in women and homo men. Brains differ with sexual orientation. Everything psychological is simultaneously biological. LeVay doesn't view this cell cluster as an on-off button for sexual orientation. Rather, he believes it is an important part of a brain pathway that is active during sexual behavior. He agrees that sexual behavior patterns could influence the brain's anatomy. (Neural pathways do grow stronger with use). But LeVay believes it more likely that brain anatomy influences sexual orientation. Such differences seem to develop soon after birth, perhaps even before birth. Since LeVay discovery, others have reported additional gay-straight brain activity differences. One is an area of the hypothalamus that governs arousal. Three lines of evidence suggest a genetic influence on sexual orientation. Family Studies: Researchers have speculated about possible reasons why gay genes might persist in the human gene pool, give that same-sex couples cannot naturally reproduce. One possible answer is kin selection. Recall that evolutionary psychology reminder that many of our genes reside in our biological relatives. Perhaps, the, gay people's genes live on through their supporting the survival and reproductive success of their nieces, nephews, and other relatives (who may also carry the same genes) . Gay men make generous uncles, suggests one study of Samoans. An alternative "fertile females" theory suggests that maternal genetics may also be at work. Homo men tend to have more homo relatives on their moms side then their fathers. And the relatives on the mom side also produce more offspring than do the maternal relatives of hetero men. Perhaps the genes that dispose women to be strongly attracted to men, and therefore have more children, also dispose some men to be attracted to men. Twin studies: they indicate that genes influence sexual orientation. Identical twins and somewhat more likely than fraternal to share a homo orientation. However, b/c sexual orientation differs in many identical twins pairs (especially female twins), other factors must also play a role. Fruit fly studies: Lab experiments on fruit flies offered a single gene and changed the sexual orientation and behavior. During courtship, females acted like males (pursuing other females), and males acted like females. With humans, it's likely that multiple genes, possibly in interaction with other influences, shape sexual orientation. In search of such genetic markers, one study financed by the US NIH is analyzing the genes of more than 1000 gay brothers. Prenatal influences: Twins also share a prenatal environment. 2 sets of findings indicate that it matters. 1st in humans, a critical period for brain development seems to fall between the middle of the 2nd and 5th months after conception. Exposure to the hormone levels typically experienced by female fetuses during this period may predispose a person to be attracted to males in later life. When pregnant sheep were injected with testosterone during a similar critical period, their female offspring later showed homo behavior. Second, the mother's immune system may play a role in the development of sexual orientation. Men who have older brothers are somewhat more likely to be gay--about a third more likely for each additional older brother. If the odds of homosexuality are roughly 2 percent among 1st sons, they would rise nearly 3 percent among second son, 4 percent for third, and so on. The reason for this curious effect--called the older-brother or fraternal birth-order effect- is unclear. But the explanation does seem biological. The effect does not occur among adopted brothers. Researchers suspect the mother;s immune system may have a defensive response to substances produced by male fetuses. After each pregnancy with a male fetus, the maternal antibodies may become stronger and may prevent the fetal brain from developing in a typical male pattern. Gay-straight trait differences. On several traits, gays, and lesbians appear to fall midway between straight females and males. Gay men tend to be shorter and lighter than straight men--a difference that appears even at birth. Women in same sex marriages were mostly heavier than average at birth. Data from 20 studies have also revealed handedness difference. Homo participants were 39 percent more likely to not be right handed. Gay straight spatial abilities also differ. On mental rotation tasks straight men tend to outscore straight women but the scores of gays and lesbians fall between those of straight men and women. But straight women and gays both outperform straight men at remembering objects' spatial locations in tasks like those found in memory games. The consistency of the brain, genetic, and prenatal findings has swung the pendulum toward a biological explanation of sexual orientation. Although much remains to be discovered, concludes LeVay., the same processes that are involved in the biological development of our bodies and brains as male and female are also involved in the development of sexual orientation.

transgender

an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex. For some, comparing themselves with their culture's concepts of gender produces feelings of confusion and discord. Transgender people's gender identity or gender expression (their communication if gender through behavior or experience) differs from that typical of their birth sex. A person may feel like a man in a womans body, or a woman in a man's body. These include transsexual people who live, or wish to live, as members of the gender opposite to their birth sex, often aided by medical treatment that supports gender reassignment. Note that gender identity is distinct from sexual orientation (the direction of one's sexual attraction). Transgender people may be heterosexual, homo, bi, or asexual. Some trans perons express their gender identity by dressing as a person of the other biological sex typically would. Most cross-dressers are biological males, the majority of whom feel an attraction to females.

aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy. Men admit to more aggression than women do in surveys. This aggression gender gap pertains to harmful physical aggression, rather indirect or verbal relational aggression such as ostracism or spreading rumors. As John Archer noted based on women studies, women may be slightly more likely to commit acts of relational aggression, such as passing along gossip. Men's tendency to behave more aggressively can be seen in experiments where they deliver what they believe are more painful electric shocks. Violent crime rates illustrate the gender difference even more strikingly. The male to female arrest ratio for murder, for ex, is 9-1 in US. Men also express more support for war. Gender and Social Power: Around the world people perceive power differences between men and women. Indeed, in most societies men do place more importance on power and achievement and are socially dominant. When groups form, whether as juries or companies, leadership tend to go to males. Men's power hunger is more expected and accepted. As leaders men tend to be more directive, even autocratic. Women tend to be more democratic, more welcoming of subordinates' input in decision making. When people interact, men are more likely to utter opinions, women to express support. Men also smile and apologize less. Such behaviors help sustain social power inequities. Gender and Social Connectedness In the 1980s, many developmental psychologists believed that all children struggle to create a separate, independent identity. Research by Carol Gilligan suggested that this struggle describes western individualist males more than relationship-oriented females. She believed females tend to differ from males both in being less concerned with viewing themselves as separate individuals and in being more concerned with "making connections." Indeed, later research has found that females are more independent than males, and this difference surfaces early. As adults, women take more pleasure in talking face to face and use conversation to explore relationships and men tend to use conversation to communicate solutions. Women worldwide have oriented their interests and vocations more to people and less to things. Women's emphasis on caring helps explain another interesting finding: Although 69% said they have a close relationship with their dad, 90 percent said they feel close to their mom. When coping with their own stress, women more than men turn to others for support--they tend and befriend. Gender differences in social connectedness, power, and other traits peak in late adolescence and early childhood. As teenagers, girls become progressively less assertive and more flirtatious; boys become more domineering and unexpressive. By age 50, parenthood-related gender differences subside. Men become more empathic and less domineering, and women --especially those with paid employment--become more assertive and self-confident,

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. The competent newborn: We as newborns come equipped with automatic reflex responses ideally suited for our survival. WE withdrew our limbs to escape pain. Thanks to the rooting reflex, when something touches their cheek, babies turn toward that touch, open their mouth, and vigorously root for a nipple. Finding one they automatically close on it and begin sucking- which itself requires a coordination sequence of reflexive tonguing, swallowing, and breathing. Failing ti find satisfaction, the baby may cry-- a behavior parents find highly unpleasant and very rewarding to relieve. William James presumed that the newborn experiences a blooming, buzzing confusion, an assumption few people challenged until the 1960s. But then scientists discovered that babie can tell u a lot-- if u know how to ask. To ask, you must capitalize on what they can do- gaze, suck, turn their heads. So, equipped with eye-tracking machines and pacifiers wired to electronic gear, researchers set out to answer parents age-old questions: What can my baby see, hear, smell, and think? Consider how researchers exploit habituation-- a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation. The novel stimulus get attention when 1st presented. With repetition, the response weakens. This seeming boredom with familiar stimuli gives us a way to ask infants what they see and remember. Infants focus on the face first not the body. We prefer sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness. Within days after birth, our brain's neural networks were stamped with the smell of our mother's body. Week-old nursing babies, placed between a gauze pad from their mother;s bra and one from another nursing mother, have usually turned toward the smell of their own mothers pad. The smell preference lasts. One experiment capitalized on the fact that some nursing mothers in a French maternity ward applied a balm with a chamomile scent to prevent nipple soreness. 21 months later their toddlers preferred playing with chamomile-scented toys. Their peers who had not sniffed the sent while breast feeding showed no such preference.

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. In the western world, adolescence now roughly corresponds to the teen years. Shortly after sexual maturity, young people would assume adult responsibilities and status. The event might be celebrated with an elaborate initiation- a public rite of passage. The new adult would then work, marry, and have children. When schooling became compulsory in many western countries, independence was put on hold until graduation. Adolescents are now taking more time to establish themselves as adults. Delayed independence his overlapped with an earlier onset of puberty. Earlier sexual maturity is related both to girls increased body fat (which can support pregnancy and nursing) and to weakened parent-child bonds, including absent fathers. Together, later independence and earlier sexual maturity have widened the once-brief interlude biological maturity and social independence. In prosperous communities, the time from 18 to mid twenties is an increasingly not yet settled phase of life, which we call emerging adulthood. These people having not yet assumed full adult responsibilities and independence feel in between. Recognizing todays more gradually emerging adulthood, the US government now allows dependent children up to age 26 to remain on their parents health insurance.

intimacy

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. Erikson contended that the adolescent identity stage is followed in young adulthood by a developing capacity for intimacy. Those who enjoy high qualiity relationships tend to also enjoy similarly high-quality romantic relationships in adolescence, which set the stage for healthy adult relationships. When Mihaly C. and Jeremy Hunter used a beeper to sample the daily experiences of American teens, they found them unhappiest when alone and happiest when with friends. Parents and Peer relationships: As adolescents in western cultures seek to form their own identities, they begin to pull away from their parents. The transition happens gradually. Parent-child conflict during the transition to adolescent tends to be greater with the 1st born then second children, and greater with moms. For a minority of parents ad their adolescents, differences lead to real splits and great stress. Positive parent-teen relations and positive peer relations often go hand in hand. Adolescent is typically a time of diminishing parental influence and growing peer influence. Heredity does much of the heavy lifting in forming an individual temperament and personality differences and peer influence do much of the rest. Online communication stimulates intimate self-disclosure. Those who withdraw are vulnerable to loneliness, low self-esteem, and depression. Teens see their parents as having more influence in other areas- for example religion, college and career choice, and politics.

egocentrism

in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. Piaget contended that preschool children are egocentric. Overestimating the extent to which others share our opinions and perspectives a trait known as the curse of knowledge. We assume that something will be clear to others if it is clear to us. Children are even more susceptible to this tendency.

preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations (such as imagining an action and mentally reversing it). of concrete logic. Piaget believed that until about age 6 or 7, children are in this stage.

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. Piaget's Theory and Current Thinking: He believed that children construct their understanding of the world while interacting with it. Their minds experience spurts of change, followed by greater stability as they move from one cognitive plateau to the next, each with distinctive characteristics that permit specific kinds of thinking. In his view, cognitive development of 4 major stages--sensiormotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Sensorimotor stage: In this stage, from birth to nearly age 2, babies take in the world through their senses and actions. They learn to make things happen. Very young babies seem to live in the present- out of sight out of mind.

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. By age 6 or 7, children enter this stage. Given concrete (physical) materials, they begin to grasp conservation. Piaget believed that during the concrete op. stage, children become able to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation.

formal operation 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. By age 12, our reasoning expands from the the purely concrete (involving actual experience) to encompass abstract thinking (involving imagined realities and symbols). As children approach adolescence, said Piaget, many become capable of thinking more like scientists. They can ponder hypothetical propositions and deduce consequences: If this, then that. Systematic reasoning, what Piaget called formal operational thinking is now within their grasp.

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. To explain how we use and adjust our schemas. Piaget proposed 2 or more concepts. First, we assimilate new experiences--we interpret them in terms of our current understanding (schemas).

secondary sex characteristics

nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. The secondary sex characteristics, the nonreproductive traits such as breasts and hips in girls, facial hair and deepend voice in boys, and pubic hair and underarm hair in both sexes. In various countries, girls are developing breasts earlier (sometimes before age 10) and reaching puberty earlier than in the past. This phenomenon is variously attributed to increased body fat, increased hormone-mimicking chemicals, and increased stress related to family distribution.

gender identity

our sense of being male or female.

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. Erik Erikson contended that each stage of life has it own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution. Young children wrestle with issues of trust, then autonomy (independence), then initative. School-age children strive for competence, feeling able and productive. Erikson called this quest the adolescent's search for identity. His interests were bred by his own life experience. As the son of a Jewish mom and a Danish Gentile father, he was doubly an outsider. He was scorned as a jew in school but mocked as a Gentile in the synagogue b/c of his blond hair and blue eyes. This fueled his interest in the adolescent struggle for identity. To refine their sense of identity , adolescents in individualist cultures usually try out different selves in different situations. The discomfort can be considerable. The resolution is a self-definition that unifies the various selves into a consistent and comfortable sense of who one is--identity.

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. Theory of mind; Preschoolers, although still egocentric, develop this ability to infer others mental states when they begin forming a theory of mind (a term 1st coined by psychologists to describe chimps seeming ability to read intentions). Infants as young as 7 mnths show some knowledge of others' beliefs. With time, the ability to take another's perspective develops. They begin to tease, empathize, and persuade. Between about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. children worldwide come to realize that others may hold false beliefs. By age 4-5 the children's theory of mind had leapt forward.

fetal alchohol syndrome (FAS)

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features. For 1 in about 800 infants, the effects are visible as FAS, marked by lifelong physical and mental brain abnormalities. The fetal dam,age may occur because alcohol has an epignetic effect: It leaves chemical marks on DNA that switch genes abnormally on or off.

social identity

the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group membership. For both adults and adolescents. group identities are often formed by how we differ from those around us. For international students, for those in a minority ethnic group, for people with a disability, for those on a team, a social identity often forms around their distinctiveness. But not always. Erikson noticed that some adolescents forge their identity early, simply by adopting their parents' values and expectations. (Traditional, less individualist cultures teach adolescents who they are, rather than encouraging them to decide on their own). Other adolescents may adopt an identity defined in opposition to parents but in conformity with a particular group. Most young people do develop a sense of contentment with their lives. William Damon have contended that a key task of adolescence is to achieve a purpose--a desire to accomplish something personally meaningful that makes a difference to the world beyond oneself. Collegians who have achieved a clear sense of identity are less prone to self-destructive behavior.

gender typing

the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role. Some critics have objected, saying that parental modeling and rewarding of male-female differences are not enough to explain gender typing, the way some children seem more attuned than others to traditional male or female roles. Even in families that discourage gender typing, children organize themselves into boy and girl worlds each guided by rules for what boys and girls do. Cognition also matters. In your childhood you formed concepts that helped u make sense of your world and one of these was your gender schema, you framework for organizing boy-girl characteristics. This gender schema then became a lens through which u viewed your experiences. Gender schemas form early in life, and social learning helps form them. Before 1 u began to discriminate male and female voices and faces. After age 2, language forced u to begin organizing your world on the basis of gender. English for example uses the pronouns he and she; other languages classify objects as masculine or feminine.Young kids are "gender detectives." Once they grasp that 2 sorts of people exist--and that they are one of the sort--they search for clues about gender, and they find them in language, dress, toys, and songs. Girls, they may decide, are the ones with the long hair. Having divide the world in half, 3yr olds will then like their own kind better and seek them out for play. And having compared themselves with their concept of gender, they will adjust their behavior accordingly. These rigid boy-girl stereotypes peak at about 5 or 6.

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. Young infants lack object permanence. By 8 mths infants begin exhibiting memory for things no longer seen. Researchers believe object permanence unfolds gradually, and they see development as more continuous than Piaget did. Even young infants will momentarily look for a toy. Researchers also believe Piaget underestimated young kids competence.

primary sex characteristics

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. About the time of puberty, boy's growth propels them to greater height than their female counterparts. During this growth spurt, the primary sex characteristics-- the reproductive organs and external genitalia-- develop dramatically.

fetus

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. By 9 weeks after conception, an embryo looks unmistakably human. It is now a fetus, During the 6th month, organs such as the stomach have developed enough to give the fetus a good chance of survival if born prematurely. At each prenantal stage, genetic and environmental factors effect our development. By the 6th month, microphone readings taken inside the uterus reveal that the fetus is responsive to sound and is exposed to the sound of the muffled voice. Immediately after birth, emerging from living 38 or so weeks underwater, newborns prefer her voice to another woman's or to their father's. They also prefer hearing their mother's language. And just after birth, the melodic ups and downs of newborn's cries bear the tuneful signature of their mother's native tongue. Babies born to french speaking moms tend to cry with rising intonation of french. The learning of language begins in the wound. In the 2 months before birth, fetuses demonstrate learning in other ways, as when they adapt to a vibrating, honking device placed on their mom's abdomen. Fetuses adapt to the sounds. Moreover, 4 weeks later, they recall the sound( as evidenced by their blase response, compared with reactions of those not previously exposed.

embryo

the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. The zygote inner cell become the embryo. The outer cells become the placenta, the life-link that transfers nutrient and oxygen from mother to embryo. A healthy and well-nourished mother helps form a healthy baby to-be. Over the next 6 weeks, the embryos organs begin to form and function. The heart begins to beat. For 1/270 sets of parents, though, there is a bonus. 2 heartbeats will reveal that the zygote, during its early days of development, has split into 2. If all goes well, 2 genetically identical babies will start life together some 8 months later.

stranger anxiety

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. They greet strangers by crying and self-protectively reaching for familiar caregivers. Children this age have schemas for familiar faces; when thy cannot assimilate the new face into these remembered schemas, they become distressed. Once again, we see an important principle: The brain, mind, and social-emotional behavior develop together.

zygote

the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. Conception starts with a woman's ovary releasing a mature egg-. The woman was born with all the immature eggs she would ever have. although only 1 in 5000 will ever mature and be released. A man begins producing sperm cells at puberty. For the rest of his life, 24 hrs a day. he will be a nonstop sperm factory, with the rate of production -in the beginning more than 1000 a second --slowing with age.The 200 million or more deposited sperm begin their race upstream, approaching a cell 85k times their own size. The relatively few reaching the egg release digestive enzymes that eat away its protective coating. As soon as one sperm penetrates the coating it is welcome in. The eggs surface blocks our the others. Before half a day elapses, the egg nucleus and the sperm nucleus fuse. The 2 have become one. Prenatal Development Fewer than half of the fertilized eggs, called zygotes survive beyond the first 2 weeks. One cell divides until some 100 identical cells are within the 1st week. Then they begin to differentiate -to specialize in structure and function. About 10 days after conception, the zygote attaches to the mother's uterine wall, beginning approximately 37 weeks of the closest human relationship. The zygote inner cell become the embryo.

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. Before about age 6, said Piaget, children lack the concept of conservation. He did not view the stage transitions as abrupt. Even so, symbolic thinking (repersenting things with words and images) appears at an earlier age than he supposed. Judy DeLoache discovered this when she showed children a model of a room and hid a model toy in it. The 2 1/2 yr olds easily remembered where to find the toy, but they could not use the model to locate an actual stuffed toy behind a couch in a real room. 3yr olds usually went right to the actual stuffed animal in the real room, showing they could think of the model as a symbol for the room.

menarche

the first menstrual period. Puberty's landmarks are the first ejaculation in boys (spermarche), usually by about age 14 and the first menstrual period in girl (menarche), usually within a year of age 12 1/2. Menarche appears to occur a few months earlier, on average, for girls who have experienced stresses related to father absence, sexual abuse, or insecure attachments. Girls who have been prepared for menarche usually experience it as a positive life transition. Studies have shown that nearly all adult women recall their first menstrual period and remember experiencing a mixture of feelings-- pride, excitement, embarrassment, and apprehension. Most men have similarly recalled their first ejaculation which usually occurs as a nocturnal emission. Sometimes nature blurs the line between males and females. Atypical hormone exposure or sensitivity may cause atypical fetal development. Intersex individuals are born with intermediate or unusual combinations of male and female physical features. Genetic males, for example, may be born with normal male hormones and testes but without a penis or with a very small one. Until recently pediatricians recommended surgery to create a female identity. Although not born with an intersex condition, a little boy lost his penis during a botched circumcision became a famous case illustrating the problem's involved in sex-reassignment surgery. Brenda Reimer was not like most girls. He immediately rejected the assigned female identity. He went back to being a male and a stepfather and later committed suicide. The bottom line: Sex matters/. In combination with the environment, sex-related genes and physiology result in behavioral and cognitive differences between males and females. Nature and nurture work together.

testosterone

the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty. The Y chromosome includes a single gene which about 7 weeks after conception, throws a master switch which triggering the testes to develop and to produce the principal male hormone, testosterone. This hormone starts the development of the male sex organs. Females also have testosterone, but less of it. Another key period for sexual differentiation falls during the 4th and 5th prenatal months. During this period, sex hormones bathe the fetal brain and influence of the male's greater testosterone and the female's ovarian hormones.

puberty

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. A surge of hormones triggers a 2 year period of rapid physical development usually beginning at about age 11 in girls and at about age 13 in boys.A year of 2 before that, however, boys and girls often feel the first stirrings of physical attraction.

imprinting

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period. Konrad Lorenz explored this rigid attachment process, called imprinting. He wondered what would ducklings do if he was the first moving creature they observed. What they did was follow him around. Although baby birds imprint best to their own species, they also will imprint to a variety of moving objects--an animal of another species, a box on wheels.... Once formed, this attachment is difficult to reverse. Children unlike ducklings do not imprint. But they do become attached, during a less precisely defined sensitive period, to what they've known. Mere exposure to people and things foster fondness. Familiarity is a safety signal and breed content.

Y chromosome

the sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child.

social learning theory

the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished. It assumes that children acquire this identity by observing and imitating others' gender-linked behavior s and by being rewarded or punished for acting in certain ways themselves.

menopause

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. It is difficult to generalize about adulthood stages then early years of life. Yet our life courses are in some way similar. Physically, cognitively, and especially socially, we differ at age 50 from our 25 self. We recognize these differences ans use 3 terms: early adulthood (roughly 20s and 30s), middle adulthood (to age 65), and late adulthood (after 64). Within each of these stages, people will vary widely in development. Our physical abilities -muscular, reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac output--all begin an almost imperceptible decline in our mid 20s. Athletes are often the first to notice. World class sprinters and swimmer peak by their early 20s. Women--who mature earlier than men-also peak earlier. But most of us- especially those of us whose daily lives do not require top physical performance--hardly perceive the early signs of decline. Physical decline gradually accelerates. During early and middle adulthood, physical vigor has less to do with age than with a person's health and exercise habits. Many todays 50yr olds run 4 miles with ease, while sedentary 25 yr old find themselves huffing and puffing up 2 flight of stairs. Aging also brings a gradual decline in fertility, especially for women. 35-39 the chances of getting pregnanrt after a single act of intercourse are only half those of a woman. 19 to 26. Men experience a gradual decline in sperm count, testosterone level, and speed of erection and ejaculation. Women experience menopause, as menstrual cycles end, usually within a few years of age 50. Expectations and attitudes influence the emotional impact of this event. For men, too, expectations can influence perceptions. Some experience distress related to a perception of declining virility and physical capacities, but most age without such problems. With age, sexual activity lessens. Nevertheless, most men and women remain capable of satisfying sexual activity, and most express satisfaction with their sex life. Given good health and a willing partner, the flames of desire, though simmered down, live on. Physical Changes in Later Life: Strength Stamina- Although physical decline begins in early adulthood, we are not usually acutely aware of it until later life, when the stairs get steeper, the print gets smaller, and other people seem to mumble more. Muscle strength, reaction time, and stamina diminish in late adulthood. Even diminished vigor is sufficient for normal activities. Moreover, exercise slows aging. Active older adults tend to be mentally quick older adults. Physical exercise not only enhances muscles, bones, and energy and helps to prevent obesity and heart disease, it also stimulates brain cell development and neural connections, thanks perhaps to increased oxygen and nutrient flow. Sensory abilities With age, visual sharpness diminishes, and distance perception and adaption to light-level changes are less acute. The eye's pupil shrinks and its lens become less transparent reducing the amount of light reaching the retina. This also explains why older people sometimes ask people your age don't you need better light for reading. The senses of smell and hearing also diminish. In Wales, teens' loitering around a convenience store has been discourage by a device that emits an aversive high-pitched sound almost no one over 30 year can hear. Health: The body's immune system weakens, making older adults more susceptible to life threatening ailments, like cancer and pneumonia. Thanks partly to a lifetime's accumulation of antibodies, people over 5 suffer fewer short term ailments, like common cold and flu viruses. Brain aging: Up to teen years we process info. with greater and greater speed. But compared with you, older people take a bit more time to react, to solve perceptual puzzles, even to remember names. The neural processing lag is greatest on complex tasks. Slower neural processing combined with diminished sensory abilities can increase accident risks. Fatal accident rates per mile driven increases sharply after 75. By 85, they exceed the 16yr old level. Nevertheless, b/c older people drive less, they account for fewer than 10 percent of crashes. Brain regions important to memory begin to atrophy during aging. In early adulthood, a small, gradual net loss of brain cells begins, contributing by 80 to a brain-weight reduction of 5 percent or so. Late-maturing frontal lobes help account for teen impulsivity. Late in life, atrophy of the inhibition-controlling frontal lobes seemingly explains older people's occasional blunt questions and comments. Exercise helps counteract some effects of brain aging.It aids memory by stimulating the development of neural connections and by promoting neurogenesis, the birth of new nerve cells, in the hippocampus. Sedentary older adults randomly assigned to aerobic exercise programs exhibit enhanced memory, sharpened judgement, and reduced risk of neurocognitive disorder (formely called dementia). Exercise also helps maintain the telomeres, which protect the end of chromosomes. With age, they wear down. This wear is accentuated by smoking, obesity, or stress. As they shorten, aging cells may die without being replaced with perfect genetic replicas. We are more likely to rust from disuse than to wear from overuse.

adolesence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. Today's developmental psychologists see development as lifelong and this life-span perspective emerged, psychologists began to look at how maturation and experience shape is not only in infancy and childhood, but also in adolescence and beyond. Adolescence-the years spent morphing from child to adult-starts with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and ends with the social achievement of independent adult status. G. Stanley Hall was one of the 1st psych. to describe adolescence, believed that the tension between biological maturity and social dependence creates a period of storm and stress. But, for many, adolescence is a time of vitality without the cares of adulthood, a time of rewarding friendships, heightened idealism, and a growing sense of life's exciting possibilities. Physical Development: Adolescence begins with puberty, the time when we mature sexually. Puberty follows a surge of hormones, which may intensify moods and which trigger a series of bodily changes. The sequence of physical changes in puberty is far more predictable than their timing. Though such variations have little effect on height at maturity, they may have psychological consequences: It is not only when we mature that counts, but how people react to our physical development. For boys, early maturation has mixed effects. Boys who are strong during early teen years tend to be more popular and independent but also more at risk for alcohol use, and deliquency. If a girls body is out of sync with her emotional maturity and her friends' physical development and experiences, she may suffer teasing. An adolescent brain is also a work in progress. Until puberty, brain cells increase their connections. Then, during adolescence comes a selective pruning of unused neurons and connections. As teens mature, their frontal lobes continue to develop. The growth of myelin enables better communication with other brain regions. These developments bring improved judgement, impulse control, and long-term planning. Maturation of the frontal lobes nevertheless lags behind the emotional limbic system. Puberty's hormonal surge and limbic system development help explain teens' occasional impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and emotional storms. Now wonder younger teens (whose frontal aren't fully equipped for making long term plans and curbing impulses) so often succumb to the tobacco corporations, which most adult smokers could tell them they will later regret it. Teens don't actually underestimate the risks of smoking. They just, when reasoning from their gut, weigh the immediate benefits more heavily. They seek thrills and rewards, but they can't yet locate the brake pedal controlling their impulses. Frontal lobe will continue maturing until about age 25. In 2004, the APA joined the 7 other arguing the death penalty for 16 and 17yr olds. Laurence Steinberg said teens are less guilty and Elizabeth Scott concurred, declaring juvenile death penalties unconstitutional. Cognitive Development: When adolescents achieve the intellectual summit called formal operations, they apply their new abstract reasoning tools to the world around them. They may think about what is ideally possible and compare that with the imperfect reality around them. Having left behind the concrete images of early childhood, they may now seek a deeper conception of God and existence. Reasoning hypothetically and deducing consequences also enables adolescents to detect inconsistencies and spot hypocrisy in others' reasoning. This can lead to heated debates with parents and silent vows never to lose sight of their own ideals. 2 crucial tasks of childhood and adolescence are discerning right from wrong and developing a character--the psychological muscles for controlling impulses. To be a moral person is to think morally and act accordingly. Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg proposed that moral reasoning guides moral actions. A newer view builds on psychology's game-changing new recognition that much of our functioning occurs not on the high road of deliberate, conscious thinking but on the low road of unconscious automatic thinking. Piaget believed that children moral judgments build on their cognitive development. Agreeing with Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg sought to describe the development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider the development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong, kohlberg posed moral dilemmas and asked children, adolescents and adults whether the action was right or wrong. He then analyzed their answers for evidence of stages of moral thinking. His findings led him to propose 3 basic levels of moral thinking: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. He claimed these levels form a new moral ladder. As with all stage theories, the sequence is unvarying. His critics noted that his postconventional stage is culturally limited, appearing mostly among people who prize individualism. Jonathan Haidt believes that much of our morality is rooted in moral intuitions. According to this intuitionist view, the mind makes moral judgments as it makes aesthetic judgments--quickly and automatically. We feel disgust when seeing people engaged in degrading or subhuman acts. These feelings in turn trigger moral reasoning said Haidt. The desire to punish wrongdoings is mostly driven by emotional reactions. Moral reasoning aims to convince us and others of the logic of what we have intuitively felt. This intutionist perspective on morality finds support in a study of moral paradoxes. Princeton research team led by Joshua Green used brain imaging to spy on people's neural responses as they contemplated such dilemmas. Only when given the body-pushing type of moral dilemma did their brains emotions areas acivate. Despite the identical logic, the personal dilemma engaged emotions that altered moral judgment. While the moral psychology illustrates the many ways moral intuitions trump moral reasoning, others reaffirm the importance of moral reasoning. The religious and moral reasoning of the Amish, for example, shaped their practices of forgiveness, communal life, and modesty. Joshua Greene likens our moral cognition to a camera. Usually, we rely on the automatic point and shoot. But sometimes we use reason to manually override the camera's automatic impulse. Our moral thinking and feeling surely affect our moral talk. But sometimes talk is cheap and emotions are fleeting. Morality involves doing the right thing, and what we do also depends on social influences. As Hannah Arendt observed, many Nazi concentration camp guards during WW2 were ordinary "moral" people who were corrupted by a powerfully evil situation. Today's character education programs tend to focus on the whole moral package--thinking, feeling, and doing the right thing. As children's thinking matures, their behavior also become less selfish and more caring. Today's programs also teach teach children empathy for other's feelings, and the self discipline needed to restrain one's own impulse -- to delay small gratifiations now to enable bigger rewards later. Those who do not learn to delay gratification become more socially responsible, academically successful, and productive. In service-learning rpograms, teens tutor, clean up their neighborhoods, and assist the elderly. The result? The teens sense of competence and desire to serve increase, and their school absenteeism and drop-out rates diminish. Moral action feeds moral attitudes.