Anjali Pillai PSYC 111 Chapter 5 Notes Developing Through the Life Span Developmental Psychology s Major Issues Developmental psychology a branch of psychology that studies physical cognitive and social change throughout the life span Nature and nurture how do genes interact with our experiences to influence development Continuity and stages what parts of dev are gradual or stages Stability and change which of our traits persist through life and how do we change as we age Prenatal Development and the Newborn zygote embryo fetus Zygote the fertilized egg it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo Embryo the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month Fetus the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth Teratogens agents such as chemicals and viruses that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm Fetal alcohol syndrome FAS physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman s heavy drinking In severe cases symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions 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 Conception woman born with all eggs men begin producing sperm at puberty Prenatal development o Zygotes inner cells embryo outer placenta o 9 weeks human like and fetus o 6 months organs such as stomach have dev o Like listening to mothers voice after birth cries in synch with native language o Teratogens can damage embryo or fetus FAS The Competent Newborn automatic reflexes for survival o Infants focus on face Also habituation o Respond to mothers scent Infancy and childhood Maturation biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior relatively uninfluenced by experience Cognition all the mental activities associated with thinking knowing remembering and communicating Schema a concept or framework that organizes and interprets new information Assimilation interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas Accommodation adapting our current understandings schemas to incorporate new information 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 Object permanence the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived Egocentrism in Piaget s theory the preoperational child s difficulty taking another s point of view Preoperational stage in Piaget s theory the stage from about 2 6 7 during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic 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 Theory of mind people s ideas about their own and other s mental states about their feelings perceptions and thoughts and the behaviors these might predict Concrete operational stage in Piaget s theory the stage of cognitive development from about 6 7 to 11 years of age during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events Formal operational stage in Piaget s theory the stage of cognitive development normally beginning about age 12 during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts Autism a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked be deficient communication social interaction and understanding of others states of mind Stranger anxiety the fear of strangers that infants commonly display beginning by about 8 months of age Attachment an emotional tie with another person shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress in separation Critical period an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development Imprinting the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life 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 Self concept our understanding and evaluation of who we are Physical Development o Brain Development brain cortex overproduces neurons 3 6 most rapid growth in frontal lobes rational planning and association areas linked with thinking memory and language are last to develop pruning process o Motor Development rool over sit crawl walk Dependent on muscular and neural maturation o Brain Maturation and Infant Memory infantile amnesia 3 5 is earliest age of memory Hippocampus and frontal lobes continue to mature into adolescence Sometimes what conscious memory can t recall nervous sys can babies mobile Cognitive Development o Piaget driving force behind intellectual progression is struggle to make sense of exp Mind builds schemas first assimilate new exp then accommodate schemas Piaget s Stages of Cognitive Development Typical Age Range Birth to nearly 2 years About 2 to about 6 or 7 years About 7 11 years About 12 Adulthood Description of Stage SENSORIMOTOR experiencing the world through senses and actions looking hearing touching mouthing and grasping PREOPERATIONAL representing things with words and images using intuitive rather than logical reasoning CONCRETE OPERATIONAL thinking logically about concrete events grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations FORMAL OPERATIONAL abstract reasoning Developmental Phenomena Object permanence Stranger anxiety Pretend play Egocentrism Conservation Mathematical transformations Abstract logic Potential for mature moral reasoning o Piaget s Theory and Current Thinking Theory of Mind o An Alternative Viewpoint Lev Vygotsky s Scaffolding Studied how children learn and think child s mind grows through interactions with the social environment Important to mentor children and give them new words to allow children to step up to higher levels of thinking i e with language o Reflecting on Piaget s Theory human cognition in a sequence Now considered more continuous than Piaget and formal logic less of a role in cognition than Piaget thought Implications for Parents and Teachers young kids capable of adult logic o Origins of
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