Psychology chapter 9: Human Development Developmental psychology: the study of changes, over the life span, in physiology, cognition, emotion and social behavior What shapes us during childhood?- Each human grows and matures at about the same periods in the life span… - Prenatal period: beings with conception and ends with birth - Infancy: begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months - Childhood: beings at the end of infancy and lasts until somewhere between ages 11 and 14- Adolescence: begins at the end of childhood and lasts until somewhere between 18 and 21 years - Adulthood: begins at the end of adolescence and lasts until death o The consistency of these patterns suggests that our genes set up the order of development o Development journey is also influenced by the environment in the mother’s wombo Genes ordinarily tell the brain to develop two symmetrical hemispheres… ex: if the mother drinks during pregnancy then the hemispheres can misshapen and not workproperly - During the prenatal period, the constant interplay between nature and nurture shapes who we are as we develop Development starts in the womb: - The process begins at the moment of conception, when the sperm from the male unites with the egg from the female to create the zygote: the first cell of a new life - 2 weeks after conception, the zygote is firmly implanted in the uterine wall and the next stage begins - 2 weeks to 2 months, the developing human is known as an embryo - During the embryo stage, the organs (such as heart, lungs, liver, kidney and sex organs) and internal systems (such as nervous system) begin to form - The embryo is critically vulnerable to insults to its development… exposure to harm such as alcohol, drugs, stress can have lasting effects on the developing organ systems - After 2 months of prenatal development, the growing human becomes a fetus- Whole body begins to grow into infant form (no new structures emerge after prenatal month2) - Many fetuses can survive outside of the womb after as little as 22 weeks of prenatal development - Healthy full term pregnancies = end with a birth between 38 and 42 weeks Hormonal influences during prenatal development: - Hormones that circulate in the womb influence the developing fetus - Mothers who lack thyroid don’t produce enough hormones and the fetus is at risk for lower IQ and diminished intellectual development - Anxiety and chronic stress while pregnant may interfere with normal development such as low weight, negative cognition and behavioral outcomes that are persistent throughout life Exposure to teratogens during prenatal development: - Teratogens: environmental agents that harm the embryo or fetus o Can impair development in the womb… include drugs, alcohol, chemicals o May be obvious at birth but disorders involving language, reasoning, social behavior or emotional behavior may not develop until child is oldero All depends on when the fetus is exposed to the teratogen (and length of exposure)o Thalidomide (to ease morning sickness) was a drug that caused birth defects such aslimb deformities - FASD: fetal alcohol spectrum disorders - FAS: fetal alcohol syndrome is the most common and severe FASD… symptoms: low birth weight, face and head abnormalities, slight mental retardation and behavioral/cognitive problems- FAS is more likely to occur among infants - Alcohol interferes with normal brain development and can cause permanent brain damage, especially to the neocortex, hippocampus and cerebellum - The use of recreational drugs (meth, coco) can lead to premature birth or sudden infancy death (more likely to lead to sudden death) - Men also play a role in health and developmental factors - Prenatal smoking can lead to infant hydrocephalus and prenatal alcohol use related to infant heart defects - Case study: men who were away at war were more exposed to toxins and chronic stress which can effect infant heart development Biology and environmental influence developmental milestones: - All humans make eye contact quickly after birth, smile around 6 weeks, roll over, sit up, crawl, stand, walk and talk in that order (sometimes steps are skipped or reversed) - Children often achieve developmental milestones at different places depending on culture - Differences are due to different patterns in infant care across cultures - Importance of socialization experiences and parental goals in the development of infant motor skills - Walking is genetically or environmentally factored? We now know that every new development is due to complex and consistent interplays between biological and environmental forces - Dynamic system… dynamic systems theory: the view that development is a self organized process, where new forms of behavior emerge through consistent interactions between a biological being and his or her cultural and environmental contexts - Developmental advances in any domain (physiological, cognitive, emotion or social) occur through both the person’s active exploration of an environment and the constant feedback that environment provides - Every new behavioral skill to emerge is the result of a complex and dynamic system of influences Brain development promotes learning: - To study how humans develop cognitive skills, we must focus on age-related changes in psychological capacities such as perception, language and thinking - Mind develops adaptively - New, useful skills appear at appropriate times, even in the absence of specific training - Newborns come into the world with fairy well adaptive perception… smelling, hearing, tasting and responding to touch - Not fully developed at birth so the newborn is able to process a considerable range of sensory stimuli - Reasonably acute sense of smell, especially with food - Sense of hearing is good after birth - Sense of hearing is much better than vision - Range of visual acuity is 8-12 inches (mothers face to babies face when breast feeding) o Promotes the beginnings of the child’s social interaction - Grasping reflex: when a baby holds your finger (survival mechanism) and is adaptive because the offspring need to be carried from place to place - Rooting reflex: turning an sucking that infants automatically engage in when a nipple or similar object touches their mouths - Brain at birth is sufficiently developed to support basic reflexes, but further development appears necessary for cognitive development to occur Myelination and neuronal connections:- Early brain growth