Chapter 2: Human Development
Across the Life Span
Development
• Physical, behavioral, cognitive, and personality
changes or lack of changes that occur
throughout the lifespan.
Chronological Periods
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Prenatal
Infancy
Preschool/Early Childhood
School Age/Middle Childhood
Adolescence
Early Adulthood
Middle Adulthood
Late Adulthood
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Conception – Birth
0 to 2
2 to 5/6
6 to 12
12 to 20
20 to 40
40 to 65
65 and older
Prenatal Period
Conception - Birth
Conception
• Zygote
– One-celled organism formed by the union of
the sperm and the egg.
– Usually occurs in fallopian tubes.
Fertilization
1
5
14
28
• Egg is viable for
24 hours
• Sperm is viable for
3 to 5 days
• “Unsafe period” is from
day 9 to 15 if ovulation occurs on day 14
day 7 to 17 could be unsafe
Progress Before Birth:
Prenatal Development
• 3 phases
– Germinal stage = Conception to 2 weeks
• Conception
• Implantation
• Formation of placenta
Progress Before Birth:
Prenatal Development
• 3 phases
– Embryonic stage = 2 weeks – 2 months
• Formation of vital organs and systems
• Most birth defects occur during this stage
• Sexual differentiation
Progress Before Birth:
Prenatal Development
• 3 phases
– Fetal stage = 2 months – birth
• Bodily growth continues, movement capability
begins, brain cells multiply
• Age of viability – 22 to 26 weeks
• Movement can be felt
• Average weight and height
In Utero Development
• baby stages image 184789436
Environmental Factors
and Prenatal Development
• Maternal nutrition
– Malnutrition linked to increased risk of birth
complications, neurological problems, and
psychopathology
• Maternal drug use
– Tobacco, alcohol, prescription, and recreational
drugs
– Fetal alcohol syndrome
Environmental Factors
and Prenatal Development
• Maternal illness
– Rubella, syphilis, mumps, genital herpes, AIDS,
severe influenza
– Prenatal health care
– Prevention through guidance
Childhood
0-12 years
The Childhood Years: Motor Development
• Basic Principles
– Cephalocaudal trend – head to foot
– Proximodistal trend – center-outward
• Maturation – gradual unfolding of genetic
blueprint
• Developmental norms – median age
– Cultural variations
Attachment Theories
• Behaviorism
– Food is a reinforcer
• Harlow’s Monkeys
– Contact Comfort
• Bowlby
– Biological Basis
• Current
– Bi-directional
Early Emotional Development: Attachment
• Separation anxiety
– Ainsworth (1979)
– The strange situation and patterns of
attachment
• Secure
• Anxious-ambivalent
• Anxious-Avoidant
Becoming Unique: Personality Development
• Stage theories, three components
– progress through stages in order
– progress through stages related to age
– major discontinuities in development
• Erik Erikson (1963)
– Eight stages spanning the lifespan
– Psychosocial crises determining balance
between opposing polarities in personality
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
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Trust vs. Mistrust
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Initiative vs. Guilt
Industry vs. Inferiority
Identity vs. Confusion
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Integrity vs. Despair
The Growth of Thought:
Cognitive Development
• Jean Piaget (1920s-1980s)
– Children think different at different ages
– Basic Concepts
• Schemes
• Adaptation
– Assimilation/
– Accommodation
Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget
4 stages and major milestones
• Sensorimotor
– Object permanence
• Preoperational
– Centration, Egocentrism
• Concrete Operational
– Decentration, Reversibility, Conservation
• Formal Operational
– Abstraction
Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
• Criticisms
– Piaget underestimated children’s abilities
– Problems with stage theories
– Universality
• Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
– Developed under a different political system
– Evidence of scientific zeitgeist
– Strong empirical support
The Development of Moral Reasoning
• Kohlberg (1976)
– Reasoning as opposed to behavior
• Moral dilemmas
– Measured nature and progression of moral reasoning
– 3 levels, each with 2 sublevels
• Preconventional
• Conventional
• Postconventional
Kohlberg’s Moral Development
Adolescence: Physiological Changes
• Puberty
– Secondary sex characteristics
– Primary sex characteristics
• Menarche
• Spermarche
– Maturation: early vs. late
Adolescence: Neural Changes
• Increasing myelinization
• Changes in prefrontal cortex
The Search for Identity
• Erik Erikson (1968)
– Key challenge - forming a sense of identity
• James Marcia (1988)
– Four identity statuses
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Identity diffusion
Identity foreclosure
Identity moratorium
Identity achievement
The Expanse of Adulthood
• Early Adulthood
• Middle Adulthood
• Late Adulthood