Lifespan Development

1. Lifespan Development Tracing the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development from birth to death.

2. Developmental Psychology • The study of how people change from birth to old age. • Examines how and why changes occur • Emotional, Physical, Cognitive, Social • Essential Questions • How much do individuals differ from each other (diversity vs. universality) • How much does one individual differ over time (stability vs. change) • Is our growth the result of nature or nurture?

3. BabiesPrenatal and Infant Development What factors can affect children before birth? What can newborn babies do?

4. The Progression of Prenatal Development • Prenatal Development-the stage of development from conception to birth. • Embryo-a developing human between 2 weeks and 3 months after conception. • Fetus-a developing human between 3 months after conception and birth. • Placenta-an organ that nourishes the embryo and fetus.

5. Developmental Disturbances • Teratogens-toxic substances such as alcohol or nicotine that cross the placenta and may result in birth defects. • Critical period-a time when certain internal and external influences have a major effect on development; at other periods, the same influences will have little or no effect.

6. Effects of Teratogens • Alcohol is the drug most often abused by pregnant women (Riley et al., 2003). • Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) • facial deformities, heart defects, stunted growth, and cognitive impairments. (1973) • Excerpt: The Broken Cord • Smoking • Cause of over 100,000 miscarriages a year. • Babies are more likely to suffer low birth weight which is liked to other developmental problems.

7. Prenatal Development • Week by week development

11. Infancy and Childhood Do young children think differently from adults? What are the steps of physical, cognitive, moral, and social development?

12. Social Development • What are the most important aspects of a child’s physical, psychological, social, emotional, and cognitive development? • Nature vs. Nurture- Is a child capable of interacting, learning, etc. because of inherited intelligence? • Is parental scaffolding essential to growth? • How important is social interaction with other children? • Education? • How can we study the relative influence of natural, biological development and the influence of parents and peers?

13. The Case of Genie • Father was abusive • Thought she was mentally retarded • Isolated her in a room • Fed her enough to sustain life • Abused her • Strapped her to a “potty chair” • This is an extreme case- What happens when children are simply “neglected”?

14. Journal Entry: • How do you decide when to break rules or not?

15. Cognitive Development Jean PiagetSwiss psychologist (1896-1980) • Most influential theorist in the area of cognitive development. • Believed that cognitive development is a way of adapting to the environment. • In his view, children are intrinsically motivated to explore and understand things. • Progress through 4 basic stages of cognitive development.

16. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT • Sensory-Motor Stage (birth to 2 years) • Object permanence • Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) • Egocentric; Conservation errors; Animism; Artificialism • Concrete Operations (7-11 years) • Principles of conservation; Reversibility • Formal Operations (11-15 years) • Understand abstract ideas

18. Criticisms of Piaget's Theory • Distinct stages in cognitive development that are progressed through in order? • Infants do not understand world? • Social interaction in cognitive development? • Lee Vygotsky and “scaffolding” • Methods?

19. “Heinz dilemma” In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her: a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only come up with about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. (Kohlberg, 1969) *Should the husband have done that? Why?

20. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development (3:24) • Preconventional (preadolescence) • “Good” behavior is mostly to avoid punishment or seek reward • Conventional (adolescence) • Behavior is about pleasing others and, in later adolescence, becoming a good citizen • Postconventional • Emphasis is on abstract principles such as justice, equality, and liberty • What makes for a good society? Is society right?

21. Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory • Research shows that many people never progress past the conventional level • Theory does not take cultural differences into account • Theory is considered by some to be sexist in that girls often scored lower on tests of morality

22. Social Development Parent-Child Relationships in Childhood Relationships with self and peers

23. Development of Attachment • Imprinting (Lorenz): • Tendency to follow the first moving thing seen • Occurs in many species of animals- not humans! • If we hatched a chick and put a dog in front of it, the dog becomes the Mommy. • Attachment • Humans form a bond with those who care for them in infancy • Based upon interaction with caregiver • Harlow revisitied • Ainsworth’s Strange Situation • Autonomy • Sense of independence • Socialization • Process by which children learn appropriate attitudes and behaviors

24. Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

27. Secure • Will explore freely while the mother is present, will engage with strangers, will be visibly upset when the mother departs and happy to see the mother return • Child will not engage with a stranger if their mother is not in the room • Knowledge of a “secure base”

28. Anxious-Ambivalent (or Resistant) Insecure • Anxious of exploration and of strangers, even when the mother is present • Child is extremely distressed when mother departs • When mother returns, child will remain close to the mother but resentful and resistant when the mother initiates attention • Baby may also hit or push his mother and doesn’t “cling”

29. Anxious-Avoidant Insecure • Will avoid or ignore the caregiver - showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns • May run away from his caregiver when they approach and fail to cling to them when they pick him up • The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. Strangers will not be treated much differently from the caregiver • There is not much emotional range displayed regardless of who is in the room or if it is empty.

30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU

31. When Attachment Goes Wrong • Reactive Attachment Disorder • Inappropriate behaviors in social contexts • Inhibited vs. disinhibited • Eastern European Orphanages • Genie Today

32. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages • For your assigned stage, you must: • Define stage (w/ ages) • Explain the “conflict” and the main “question” that needs to be answered • Give an example of how one might resolve this conflict • State the consequence of failing to resolve this conflict • Create a bumper sticker with a slogan and picture of a person who is in this stage

33. Adolescence

34. Social Changes • Consequence of early and late developers • Adolescent sexual activity • Approximately ¾ of males and ½ of females between 15 and 19 have had intercourse • Average age for first intercourse is 16 for boys and 17 for girls • Teenage pregnancy • Rate of teen pregnancy has fallen in the last 50 years • Highest in U.S. of all industrialized nations- Why?

35. Social Development (Cont.) • Erikson’s Identity vs. Role Confusion • Identity crisis- Intense period of self-exploration • Forming an identity • Achievement • Successfully find identity • Foreclosure • Settle for identity others wish for them • Foreclosure and homosexuality? • Moratorium • Explore various identities • Diffusion • Resistance to “find themselves”

36. Cognitive Changes • Imaginary audience • Adolescent delusion that everyone else is always focused on them • Can lead to self-esteem issues (if they expect others perceive them negatively) • Satisfaction in appearance related to higher self esteem- why? • Personal fable • Delusion that they are unique and very important • Invulnerability • Nothing can harm them • Invulnerability and Driving

37. “Storm” and “Stress” of Adolescence • It has been observed in the past that adolescents are overly stressed and can exhibit that through their “attitudes” or behavior • Many have believed that hormones make teenagers more stressed • Truth: 75% are content and had positive self-images • Those who don’t- Constantly being controlled, as in where to go and when to sleep/wake up, contributes to stress (schedules that don’t match their biological clocks)

38. Adolescence and Suicide • Suicide is the sixth leading cause of death among those 5-14 years old. • Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old. • Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, the suicide rate among U.S. males aged 15-24 more than tripled (from 6.3 per 100,000 in 1955 to 21.3 in 1977). Among females aged 15-24, the rate more than doubled during this period (from 2.0 to 5.2). The youth suicide rate generally leveled off during the 1980s and early 1990s, and since the mid-1990s has been steadily decreasing. • Between 1980-1996, the suicide rate for African-American males aged 15-19 has also doubled. • Risk factors for suicide among the young include suicidal thoughts, psychiatric disorders (such as depression, impulsive aggressive behavior, bipolar disorder, certain anxiety disorders), drug and/or alcohol abuse and previous suicide attempts, with the risk increased if there is situational stress and access to firearms.

39. Other Suicide Statistics • Over 36,000 people in the United States die by suicide every year. • Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 18 and 65 years in the United States. • Currently, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. • A person dies by suicide about every 15 minutes in the United States. • Every day, approximately 101 Americans take their own life. • There are an estimated 8-25 attempted suicides for every suicide death. • Nearly 1,000,000 people make a suicide attempt every year. • Men are nearly 4 times more likely to die by suicide than women. Women attempt suicide 3 times as often as men. • Suicide rates are highest for people between the ages of 40 and 59. • White individuals are most likely to die by suicide, followed by Native American peoples. Click here to view.

40. Why? • The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain

41. Adulthood

42. Love, Partnerships, and Parenting • Forming partnerships(1:15) • First major event of adulthood is forming and maintaining close relationships • Parenthood • Having children alters dynamics of relationships • Marital satisfaction often declines after birth of child • Divorce • Unlucky March?

43. Other Issues • The World of Work • Balancing career and family obligations is a challenge • United States vs. Europe* • Cognitive Changes • Thinking is more flexible and practical- realize that there can be more than one correct answer! • Vocabulary and Verbal memory increase through 50s; Reasoning and spatial awareness increase through 40s; perceptual speed declines at 25; math skills decline at 40 • Can be improved with rehearsal!! (Don’t stop doing crosswords)

44. Other issues • Personality Changes • Psychological health increases • Less self-centered, better coping skills • Some men and women have a midlife crisis- 10% • Vs. midlife transition- reassess and recreate goals • The "Change of Life" • Menopause • Reproduction ceases

45. Late Adulthood

46. Physical Changes • In late adulthood, physical deterioration is inevitable • A person’s response to these changes are important- “You’re only as old as you feel.” • 98 year old playing the piano

47. Social Development • Independent and satisfying lifestyles • Retirement- • Most people will stop working and face challenges with that sudden change • Sexual behavior- • Research shows that many older couples continue to be sexually active

48. Social Development • Integrity vs. Despair • What are the most common regrets of those who are at the end of life?

49. Cognitive Changes • Research has demonstrated that those who continue to “exercise” their mental abilities can delay mental decline • Alzheimer’s disease afflicts approximately 10% of people over 65 and perhaps as many as 50% of those over 85

50. Death • Is it possible to die from a broken heart? • Psychosomatic disorders • Psychological disorders that manifest as physical disorders • Tension headaches, high blood pressure, death? • Dying of a Broken Heart?