Development PSYC 241 Intro to Human Development PSYC 341 Infancy PSYC 343 Child Development PSYC 345 Adulthood Aging WVU is often recognized as the birthplace of life span development Principles of Nature and Nurture Stability and Change Extent to which development is influenced by biology and by environment Degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or change Extent development involves Continuity Discontinuity gradual cumulative change continuity or distinct stages discontinuity 8 Periods of Development 6 Principles of 1 Development is 4 Development lifelong involves changing allocation of 2 Development involves both gain 5 Development shows loss plasticity 3 Importance and 6 Influence of History frequency of biological and cultural influences shift Prenatal development 9 months fertilization 6 weeks 3 months Prenatal development cell formed at conception forms a few hundred cells in several layers 2 8 weeks gestation organs develop heart brain arms sex organs etc etc remaining 7 months Starts when bone cells appear Month 2 1 1oz Month 3 major Month 4 6 6oz fetal long Month 6 Month 7 may survive Month 9 20 7lbs complete bones start start Common Poor diet Alcohol Fetal alcohol syndrome Heroin cocaine measles rubella AIDS and other STIs Even tetracycline common produce tooth discoloration can Brain As we grow older our brains get bigger Unique to humans Brains also get more interconnections Development reflexes Permanent e g Breathing Eye blink Lost later e g lost by six months Grasping lost by four months reflexes in Motor Development Tabula Rasa Tabula rasa is the view that neonates have no experiences and thus How can researchers test a newborn s ability gaze time responses e g heart rate respiration Visual in Newborns Infants spend more time looking at patterns than Infants spend the most time looking at a drawing of a human for complexity Is this just or an adaptation Infants were shown a blank shape a face or scrambled facial features The face and scrambled face have same complexity Infants looked LONGER at the face Hearing Memory before Women read one of 3 stories to their fetuses daily in last 6 weeks of pregnancy Cat in the Hat Dog on a Log same rhythm as Cat but different phonemes Song of Hiawatha that 3 days after birth babies given 3 when sucked would play a tape of own mother reading each of the 3 stories Note baby only heard ONE in utero Babies sucked LONGER HARDER on the nipple associated with the story they heard before birth they Strange Situation Strange Situation http www davidsonfilms com Major Theoretical Perspectives on Human Development we ll focus most on Psychodynamic Bronfenbrenner Lawton Nahemow Erikson Learning Watson Skinner Bandura Cognitive Kohlberg Lifespan Baltes Systems Why so many models theories and new research Disciplinary perspectives We re doing an overview you should read about these theories more carefully BUT NOT ALL OR MODELS ARE EQUALLY GOOD a theory Freud s Development 1896 1980 Social Cognitive Development Organismic Stage theory 0 2 years 2 7 years pre operational 7 11 years operational 11 15 years operational http www davidsonfilms com Piaget assumed that development was mostly biological so only used a few children his own when developing his theory Although in some areas Piaget was wrong his theory had tremendous VALUE because it sparked a lot of other research Piaget Cognitive Structures Develop through 3 Evaluating Piaget s Theory Criticisms Piaget Problems with Universality Vygotskey s children s abilities theories theory development Piaget s theory realism 5 10 years adherence to rules Egocentrism of cooperation after 10 years Children learn that rules are social conventions Learning Objective 4 development Kohlberg s theory Level Morality judged in terms of reward and punishment Level Morality judged in terms of social order and approval Level Morality judged in terms of abstract principles like equality and Kohlberg s Levels of Most year olds are reasoning at the preconventional level Most year olds are reasoning at the conventional level Few participants show reasoning indicative of the level Reasoning Criticisms of Kohlberg s Theory Bias Some cultural differences are not reflected in this theory Bias Empirical support for this claim is Connection between moral reasoning and is often indirect moral Adolescence The period of life from puberty to adulthood corresponding roughly to the ages of The onset of adolescence as evidenced by rapid growth rising levels of sex hormones and sexual maturity Cognitive development Piaget s Formal Operations http www davidsonfilms com Adolescent The proportion of time spent with the family decreases almost per year This decline was not found for time spent alone with parents Crisis An adolescent s struggle to establish a personal identity or Learning Objective 8 Adolescence and Personal Development Peer Influences Deepen corresponding to Piaget s stage of in which people are less ego centric Adolescent relationships are Adolescents begin to discover friendships with other sex Conformity rises steadily with age peaks in ninth grade and then Adolescence Adolescence and Health The stereotypic images of adolescents are Mood swings identity crises anxiety depression drug use and suicide Three perceived sources of difficulty in adolescence are Conflict with parents and mood disruption Conflict with parents and risk taking do occur but the idea that adolescents are in a state of distress is Adulthood and Old Age Aging and Functions What do you know about aging Memory and Cognitive abilities inevitably decline Some elderly may show declines on recall tasks however declines on tests of are less likely recognition Memory declines may be due to impairments in sensory acuity and a of neuronal processing We re ALL aging Mid life roughly ages is a time of growth and maintenance It is not a but of transitions that are less time of adulthood stressful than those of Late life roughly ages 65 years is varied and their based on nature interactions 6 of Development 4 Development 1 is involves changing lifelong allocation of resources 2 Development 5 Development involves both gain shows loss 3 Importance and 6 Influence of History frequency of biological and Culture influences shift over time http www davidsonfilms com Age Trends in Measures of intelligence which includes inductive reasoning and spatial ability declines steadily throughout middle and Crystallized intelligence which