Development
the changes we go through
during our lifetime
Physical, social, cognitive,
moral
Major questions:
• Nature v. Nurture – How
much do genes and
experience influence our
development?
• Continuity v. Discontinuity –
Is development a gradual
continuous process, or does it
proceed through separate
stages
• Stability v. Change – Do
personality traits stay the
same throughout life or do
they change?
Infant
Reflexes
• Rooting Reflex -- if you touch a baby’s cheek, he/she will turn to
the touch
• Moro Reflex – when startled, baby will throw arms and legs out
and head back and then pull them into body
• Toe Curling Reflex – stroke outer sole and baby spreads toes,
stroke inner sole and baby curls toes.
• Sucking Reflex – touch roof of baby’s mouth and she will suck
• Grasping Reflex – put finger in baby’s palm and baby will grab
• Tonic Neck Reflex – if baby’s head is turned to side, baby
makes “on guard” move with arms
Maturation – development that
reflects the gradual unfolding of
one’s genetic blueprint
Potty training example
• Trends in physical development
– developmental norms (there is variation in the times,
but not the sequence)
– proximodistal trend, cephalocaudal trend
Myth #1: All social behavior in
humans is learned.
Truth: Newborn’s senses
facilitate social
responsiveness.
• See best 8-12” away
• Turn toward human voice
• Gaze longer at facelike
objects
• Identify mother’s smell
Myth #2: Children who are
exposed to many adults are less
distressed leaving their parents
• Truth: Separation anxiety
begins around age 8
months and peaks at 13
months worldwide
regardless of daycare
experience.
Myth #3: Love and affection are not
necessary for healthy physical and
emotional development.
• Truth: Meeting physical needs of
a child is not sufficient for healthy
development.
• monkeys raised in isolation
became withdrawn, fearful,
despairing, strongly attached to
blanket
• children who are severely
neglected tend to have lower
serotonin levels and display
increased aggression
• Children in overcrowded
Romanian orphanages (where
physical needs were met but
nurses had no time for affection)
were both physically and
cognitively delayed.
Myth #4: Babies become attached to their
mothers because they associate them with
food. (“Cupboard love”)
• Truth: Soft, warm contact is more
important than food in the
formation of parent-child
attachment.
• Harry Harlow's Monkey
Experiment
• monkeys raised with cloth
and wire “mother” preferred
cloth mother, even if wire
mother has food.
• Harlow tried different
variables: cold vs. warm
mother, mothers that
rocked vs. still mothers
• Scaring the monkey
Myth #5: Infants have a critical period for
attaching to their caregivers (like the geese in
Lorenz’s imprinting studies). It is very important
that mothers bond with their children in the first
few hours of life.
• Truth: Although this is true with
some bird species, it is NOT true in
humans. Evidence shows that
human children can form several
attachments during their lives.
Children who are separated from
their parents initially exhibit
symptoms of distress but recover if
placed in a stable environment.
Myth #6: Parents who respond every time their
child cries reinforce crying behavior. It spoils them
and makes the clingy mama’s boys.
Truth: Children of responsive mothers are more
self-assured and less clingy that children of
unresponsive mothers.
Mary Ainsworth study, (“strange
situations”)
• observed… parenting as
sensitive or insensitive
- sensitive mothers had
securely attached children
(mom is safe base from which
to explore, distress when
mom leaves and seeks her
contact when she returns)
- insensitive mothers had
insecurely attached children
(cling to mom, distressed
when mom leaves, and hard
to console when she returns,
some refuse mom’s comfort)
Myth #7: Children do not bond with
abusive or neglectful parents.
• Truth: Children even
seem to attach to
abusive parents.
• Harlow made “mothers” that hit
…. mechanism was disrupted,
the babies still bonded
Myth #8 – Newborns are passive observers of
their surroundings.
• Truth: Infants as young as 5 months have demonstrated
an understanding a simple subtraction (2-1=1) in
habituation studies
Question #1: Is it OK to put my child in
daycare and go back to work?
• Answer: We don’t know.
• Infants in daycare are more likely to
be insecurely attached at 1 year old,
and disobedient and aggressive at
older ages.
• In children 2 and over, daycare
provides enhanced opportunities for
intellectual and social growth.
• Infants in quality daycare before 6
months were more outgoing, popular,
and academically successful than
those without such daycare.
• Time spent in daycare between 1
month and 6 years correlates
positively with mental development
(at age three) and negatively with
engaged mother-child interactions.
Question #2: When does a baby figure out that
he is the person in the mirror?
Answer: About 18 months.
•
Self-concept test (lipstick on the nose,
see if she touches mirror or nose)
Question #3: Is it better to be a strict or
permissive parent?
Answer: It is better to be somewhere in
between.
Three parenting styles:
• Authoratarian – imposes rules, expects
obedience
• Permissive – few demands, little
punishment, child gets his/her way a lot
• Authoratative – demanding and
responsive (establishes and enforces
rules, but explains reason and allows for
discussion when older)
Children of authoritative parents have
highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and
social competence (true across cultures).
Correlation does not mean causation,
but thought that authoritative parents
make children feel in control of their
lives.
REFLECTION
What do you think the impact of bonding and
security will be on the healthy emotional
development of human beings?
Adulthood
Physical development:
• Physical abilities, such
Top 9 signs you have
as cardiac output,
grown up:
sensory keenness,
muscular strength, and 9. 6:00 AM is when you
reaction time peak in
get up, not when you
the mid-20’s. After that
go to bed.
point, adults see a
8. You hear your favorite
gradual decline in
song in an elevator.
physical abilities.
However, environmental 7. You go from 130 days
factors (like exercise or
of vacation time to 14.
stress) create individual
variations.
Male, female differences
• Women experience
menopause (cessation
of menstruation) in their
40s or 50’s. This is
associated with hot
flashes in many women,
but depression is
actually very rare.
• Men experience a
gradual decline in sperm
count and testosterone
levels and speed of
erection. Most men DO
NOT experience a midlife
crisis.
Top nine signs you’ve grown
up (cont)
6. You’re the one calling the
police because those %&@#
kids next door won’t turn
down the stereo.
5. Older relatives feel
comfortable telling sex
jokes around you.
4. You don’t know what time
Taco Bell closes anymore.
Sensory Abilities
Lens of eye becomes less transparent. Pupils shrink; more light needed to
read.
All senses decline, but it is very gradual and minor up until the age of 75.
However, hearing declines more rapidly then other senses.
Health
• Bad news: is as we get Top 9 signs (cont)…
older our immune system 3. Eating a basket of chicken
weakens, thus we
become more susceptible wings at 3 AM would
to life threatening
severely upset, rather than
ailments (cancer).
settle, your stomach.
• Good News: because
older people build up a 2. You actually eat breakfast
food at breakfast time.
collection of antibodies
throughout the years,
1.
90%
of
the
time
you
spend
they get minor colds less
in front of a computer is for
often.
• Under 5% of people over real work.
65 live in some sort of
assisted living facility.
Aging and the Brain
• Brain cells begin to die by end of the end of
adolescence. Very gradual.
• By age 80, most people have about 5% loss in
brain mass. Some have significantly more
(Alzheimer’s, strokes, drug or alcohol
consumption, tumors)
• Alzheimer’s is a degeneration of acetylcholineproducing neurons. Memory is the first function
to go in people with Alzheimer’s, followed by
reasoning, then language
Memory changes as we age
• Old people lose the ability to recall not
recognize words.
• Older people lose their ability to remember
meaningless information more than their
ability to remember meaningful
information.
Intelligence
Different types of studies show different pictures of the aging
brain:
• Cross-sectional studies – people of different ages compared
to one another.
-- Indicate that IQ decreases fairly uniformly with age.
• Longitudinal studies – the same people are restudied over
a long period
-- IQ remained fairly stable for most of lifetime
Or perhaps there are different types of
intelligence.
Crystallized intelligence: one’s accumulated knowledge
and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
Fluid Intelligence: one’s ability to reason speedily and
abstractly; tends to decline with age.