Transcript Developmental Psychology

Review Session PowerPoint 4
Research Methods

Most studies in developmental
psychology are either cross-sectional or
longitudinal
 Cross-sectional can be effected by historical
events
 Longitudinal are very time consuming
Prenatal Influences
Genetics- twin studies
 Teratogens- harmful chemical or agents
ingested by the mother

 Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)- small skulls
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and mental retardation
Fetal Alcohol Effect- other problems later in
life
Drugs (cocaine, heroin)
Polluting chemicals
Bacteria and Viruses
Newborn Reflexes

Automatic, inborn, and specific
Rooting Reflex
Sucking Reflex
Grasping Reflex
Moro Reflex
Babinski Reflex
• When touched on the cheek, a baby will turn his or her
head to the side and seek to put the object in his or her
mouth
• When an object is placed in a baby’s mouth, the infant will
suck on it
• If an object is placed on a baby’s palm or footpad, he or
she will try to grasp it with his or her fingers or toes
• When startled, a baby will fling his or her limbs out and
then quickly retract them, making himself or herself as
small as possible
• When a baby’s foot is stroked, he or she will spread out the
toes.
Newborn Senses

Vision is different in important ways
 At birth, hearing is the dominant sense
 Babies can only see well 8-12 inches in front
of them
 Normal vision by about 12 months old
 Babies like to look at faces and face-like
objects more than any other objects
Newborn Motor Development

Motor control develops as neurons in
the brain connect with one another and
become myelinated
 Roll over at about 5 ½ months
 Stand at about 8-9 months
 Walk by themselves at about 12 months
 Very approximate
Attachment Theory

Henry Harlow
 Monkeys preferred
contact with the
comfortable cloth
mother, even while
feeding from the
nourishing wire
mother
Attachment Theory

Mary Ainsworth- the Strange Situation
 Infants were left alone for a short period of
time and then their parents
returned
Attachment Theory
Secure Attachment (66%)- confidently explore
the novel environment with the parents present,
are distressed when they leave, and come to the
parents when they return
Avoidant Attachment (21%)- may resist being
held by the parents and will explore the novel
environment. They do not go to the parents for
comfort when they return after an absence
Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment
(12%)- have ambivalent
reactions, may show extreme
stress when parents leave but
resist being comforted by them
when they return
Parenting Styles
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Authoritarian
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Permissive
 parents impose rules
 submit to children’s
and expect obedience
 “Don’t interrupt”
 “Why? Because I said
so.”
desires
 make few demands
 use little punishment
Authoritative
 parents are both
demanding and
responsive
 set rules, but explain
reasons
 encourage discussion
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Rejecting-neglecting
 disengaged
 expect little
 invest little
Erik Erikson- Psychosocial Devel.
Trust v.
Mistrust
• Babies must
learn that
they can trust
their
caregivers
and that their
requests are
effective
Autonomy
vs. Shame
and Doubt
• Toddlers
learn to
control their
own bodies
through potty
training and
learn to
control their
environment
in reasonable
ways in order
to develop a
healthy will.
Initiative
vs. Guilt
• Children feel
a natural
curiosity
about their
surroundings
and must feel
comfortable
about this
curiosity. If
scolded, will
feel guilty
about asking
questions in
the future.
Industry
vs.
Inferiority
• Beginning of
formal
education,
we must feel
competent. If
we feel as
though we
are falling
behind, we
develop an
inferiority
complex in
that area
Erik Erikson- Psychosocial Devel.
Identity vs.
Role
Confusion
• Main social
task is to
discover which
social identity
we are most
comfortable
with and might
try out different
roles to find
which fits best.
Otherwise, the
result might be
identity crisis
Intimacy vs.
Isolation
• Must figure out
how to balance
their ties
between work
and
relationships
with other
people.
Generativity
vs.
Stagnation
• Looking
critically at our
lift path to
ensure that we
are creating the
life we want.
Might seize
control to
ensure things
are going
according to
plan.
Integrity vs.
Despair
• Are we
satisfied with
what we have
accomplished?
If yes, we can
offer insight. If
no, the result
might be
despair over
lost
opportunities.
Jean Piaget- Cognitive Dev.

Children view the world through schemas,
cognitive rules for interpreting the world.
Assimilation
 interpreting one’s new experience in
terms of one’s existing schemas
 Accommodation
 adapting one’s current understandings
(schemas) to incorporate new information

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
Typical Age
Range
Description
of Stage
Developmental
Phenomena
Birth to nearly 2 years
Sensorimotor
Experiencing the world through
senses and actions (looking,
touching, mouthing)
•Object permanence
•Stranger anxiety
About 2 to 6 years
Preoperational
Representing things
with words and images
but lacking logical reasoning
•Pretend play
•Egocentrism
•Language development
About 7 to 11 years
Concrete operational
•Conservation
Thinking logically about concrete
•Mathematical
events; grasping concrete analogies
transformations
and performing arithmetical operations
About 12 through
adulthood
Formal operational
Abstract reasoning
•Abstract logic
•Potential for
moral reasoning
Cognitive Development

Object Permanence
 the awareness that things continue to exist even
when not perceived

Conservation
 the principle that properties remain the same
despite changes in the forms of objects
○ Volume
○ Area
○ Number
 part of Piaget’s concrete operational reasoning
Criticisms of Piaget
Many children go through the stages
faster and earlier than Piaget predicted
 Tests might have relied to heavily on
language use
 Development may occur more
continuously
 Information-processing model- our
abilities to memorize, interpret, and
perceive gradually develop as we age
rather than developing in distinct stages

Lawrence Kohlberg- Moral Dev.
Describes how our ability to reason
about ethical situations changes
 Used the Heinz dilemma
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Kohlberg’s Moral Ladder
Postconventional
level
Morality of abstract
principles: to affirm
agreed-upon rights and
personal ethical principles
Conventional
level
Morality of law and
social rules: to gain
approval or avoid
disapproval
Preconventional
level
Morality of self-interest:
to avoid punishment
or gain concrete rewards

As moral
development
progresses, the
focus of concern
moves from the
self to the wider
social world.
Kohlberg Criticisms

Carol Gilligan- Kohlberg developed the
model based on the responses of boys
 Her research showed that boys have a more
absolute view of what is moral while girls
pay more attention to situational factors
 Recent research does not support her
theory
Gender Development
Different gender roles across culture
 Biopsychological differences
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 Differences in the brain (women have a larger
corpus callosum)
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Psychodynamic theory
 Gender development as a competition

Social-cognitive theory
 React to boys and girls differently
 Gender-schema theory- we internalize
messages about gender into rules about how
genders should behave
Practice Questions
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1) Some researchers consider developmental
psychology an applied research topic because
 It is more easily applied to people’s lives than
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research such as behaviorism
Researchers apply findings and theories from other
areas of psychology to the specific topic of human
development
It is more commonly studied by a graduate student
rather than an undergraduate because of the
applications for other research
Doing original research in this area is difficult, so
most of the research is about application
Pure research is difficult to gain support for,
especially when a researcher needs to recruit
children as participants
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2) You read in your philosophy textbook that humans
are born with “Tabula Rasa” or “blank slates”. As a
student of psychology, which of the following
responses would you have?
 The statement is incorrect. Humans may be born without
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reflexes and instincts, but we are born with the ability to
learn them.
The statement is correct. Humans are born without
instincts or other mechanisms to help us survive.
The statement is correct. Humans are born with a certain
number of neurons, but most develop later as we learn.
The statement is incorrect. Humans are born with a set of
reflexes that help us survive.
The statement is impossible to prove since we cannot
infer what babies know or not know due to their lack of
language.
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3) Which of the following statements is most
true about how a newborn’s senses function?
 A newborn’s senses function the same as an adult’s
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since the sensory apparatus develops in the womb
All of our senses function normally when we are
newborns except taste due to lack of stimulation in
the womb
All of our senses function normally when we are
newborns except touch due to a lack of stimulation
in the womb
A newborn’s senses function at a very low level but
develop very quickly with experience
Most senses function normally, but sight develops
slowly with experience.
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4) Most prenatal influences on humans
are genetic or hormonal in origin except
for
 Teratogens
 Stress on the mother
 Parents’ level of education about fetal
development
 Family history of mental illnesses
 Operant conditioning occurring before birth
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5) Parental involvement can have
dramatic effects on all the following
human traits except
 Intelligence
 Reading ability
 Self-esteem
 Motor development
 Emotional development
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6) A principal difference between a
longitudinal study and a cross-sectional
study is
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The number or participants involved
The developmental stage of the participants
The time span of the study
The statistical methods employed to
evaluate the data
 The sampling method used to choose
participants
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7) A major difference between the
psychoanalytic stage theories (Freud and
Erikson) and the more cognitive or experiential
stage theories (Piaget and Kohlberg) is
 The psychoanalytic theories are less empirical
 The psychoanalytic theories were based exclusively
on data from children with developmental disorders
 Freud and Erikson studied only young children, while
Piaget and Kohlberg studied the full range of
development
 Only the psychoanalytic theories take parental
effects into account
 The psychoanalytic theories are continuous, the
others are discontinuous.

8) You have a cousin named Holden who
flunked our of three expensive private schools
and was arrested for wandering the streets of
New York using his parents’ credit card.
Holden is intelligent but cannot seem to get
motivated toward any career. What conflict
would Erikson say Holden is struggling with?
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Autonomy vs. identity
Integrity vs. role confusion
Integrity vs. despair
Industry vs. inferiority
Trust vs. mistrust