CHAPTER 5

The Developing Person

Prenatal Development
and the Newborn
▪ Developmental Psychology
▪ a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive
and social change throughout the life span
Prenatal Development
and the Newborn

Life is sexually transmitted

Prenatal Development
and the Newborn
▪ Zygote
▪ the fertilized egg
▪ enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division
▪ develops into an embryo
▪ Embryo
▪ the developing human organism from 2
weeks through 2nd month
▪ Fetus
▪ the developing human organism from 9
weeks after conception to birth
Prenatal Development
and the Newborn

40 days 45 days 2 months 4 months

Prenatal Development
and the Newborn

▪ 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
▪ symptoms include misproportioned head
Prenatal Development
and the Newborn

▪ Rooting Reflex
▪ tendency to open mouth, and search for
nipple when touched on the cheek
▪ Preferences
▪ human voices and
faces
▪ facelike images-->
▪ smell and sound of
mother
preferred
Prenatal Development
and the Newborn

▪ Habituation
▪ decreasing
responsiveness
with repeated
stimulation
Prenatal Development
and the Newborn

Having
habituated to
the old
stimulus,
newborns
preferred
gazing at a
new one
 Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
▪ Maturation
▪ biological growth
processes that
enable orderly
changes in
behavior
▪ relatively
uninfluenced by
experience At birth 3 months 15 months
Cortical Neurons
Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development

▪ Babies only 3
months old can
learn that
kicking moves
a mobile--and
can retain that
learning for a
month (Rovee-
Collier, 1989,
1997).
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development

▪ Schema
▪ a concept or framework that
organizes and interprets
information
▪ Assimilation
▪ interpreting one’s new experience
in terms of one’s existing
schemas
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development

▪ Accommodation
▪ adapting one’s current
understandings (schemas) to
incorporate new information
▪ Cognition
▪ All the mental activities associated
with thinking, knowing,
remembering, and communicating
Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
Typical Age Description Developmental
Range of Stage Phenomena
Birth to nearly 2 years Sensorimotor •Object permanence
Experiencing the world through •Stranger anxiety
senses and actions (looking,
touching, mouthing)
About 2 to 6 years Preoperational •Pretend play
Representing things •Egocentrism
with words and images •Language development
but lacking logical reasoning
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 Formal operational •Abstract logic
adulthood Abstract reasoning •Potential for
moral reasoning
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
▪ Object Permanence
▪ the awareness that things continue to exist
even when not perceived
 Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development

▪ Baby Mathematics
▪ Shown a numerically impossible outcome, infants
stare longer (Wynn, 1992)
4. Possible outcome:
Screen drops, revealing
one object.

1. Objects placed 2. Screen comes 3. Object is removed.

in case. up. 4. Impossible outcome:
Screen drops, revealing
two objects.
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
▪ Conservation
▪ the principle that properties such as mass,
volume, and number remain the same despite
changes in the forms of objects
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
▪ Egocentrism
▪ the inability of the preoperational child to take
another’s point of view
▪ Theory of Mind
▪ people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental
states- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts
and the behavior these might predict
▪ Autism
▪ a disorder that appears in childhood
▪ Marked by deficient communication, social interaction
and understanding of others’ states of mind
Social Development
▪ Stranger Anxiety
▪ 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 displaying
distress on separation
Social Development
▪ Harlow’s Surrogate
Mother Experiments
▪ Monkeys preferred
contact with the
comfortable cloth
mother, even while
feeding from the
nourishing wire
mother
Social Development
▪ Critical Period
▪ an optimal period shortly after birth
when an organism’s exposure to certain
stimuli or experiences produces proper
development
▪ Imprinting
▪ the process by which certain animals
form attachments during a critical period
very early in life
Social Development
▪ Monkeys raised
by artificial
mothers were
terror-stricken
when placed in
strange
situations
without their
surrogate
mothers.
 Social Development

▪ Groups of
Percentage
of infants
100
infants left by
who cried
when their

their mothers
mothers left Day care
80

60
in a unfamiliar
room (from
40
Home
Kagan, 1976).
20

0
3.5 5.5 7.5 9.5 11.5 13.5 20 29
Age in months
Social Development
▪ Basic Trust (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
▪ a sense of one’s identity and personal
worth
Social Development: Child-
Rearing Practices

▪ Authoritarian
▪ parents impose rules and expect obedience
▪ “Don’t interrupt.” “Why? Because I said so.”
▪ Permissive
▪ submit to children’s desires, make few
demands, use little punishment
▪ Authoritative
▪ both demanding and responsive
▪ set rules, but explain reasons and encourage
open discussion
Social Development:
Child-Rearing Practices
Adolescence
▪ Adolescence
▪ the transition period from childhood to
adulthood
▪ extending from puberty to
independence
▪ Puberty
▪ the period of sexual maturation
▪ when a person becomes capable of
reproduction
Adolescence
▪ Primary Sex Characteristics
▪ body structures that make sexual reproduction possible
▪ ovaries--female
▪ testes--male
▪ external genitalia
▪ Secondary Sex Characteristics
▪ nonreproductive sexual characteristics
▪ female--breast and hips
▪ male--voice quality and body hair
▪ Menarche (meh-NAR-key)
▪ first menstrual period
Adolescence
1890, Women ▪ In the 1890’s
the average
7.2 Year Interval

interval
10 20 between a
Age woman’s
1995, Women menarche and
12.5 Year Interval
marriage was
about 7 years;
10 20 now it is over
Age 12 years
 Adolescence
Height in
centimeters
▪ Throughout
childhood, boys
190
170
150
and girls are
130
similar in height.
110
At puberty, girls
90
surge ahead
70 briefly, but then
50 boys overtake
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
them at about
Age in years age 14.
Boys Girls
Body Changes at
Puberty
 Kohlberg’s Moral
Ladder

Postconventional
Morality of abstract
principles: to affirm ▪ As moral
development
level agreed-upon rights and
personal ethical principles

progresses, the
Conventional Morality of law and
focus of concern
level social rules: to gain
approval or avoid
moves from the
disapproval
self to the wider
Preconventional Morality of self-interest:
social world.
level to avoid punishment
or gain concrete rewards
 Erikson’s Stages of
Psychosocial Development
Approximate
age Stage Description of Task

Infancy Trust vs. mistrust If needs are dependably met, infants

(1st year) develop a sense of basic trust.

Toddler Autonomy vs. shame Toddlers learn to exercise will and

(2nd year) and doubt do things for themselves, or they
doubt their abilities.

Preschooler Initiative vs. guilt Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks

(3-5 years) and carry out plans, or they feel
guilty about efforts to be independent.

Elementary Competence vs. Children learn the pleasure of applying

(6 years- inferiority themselves to tasks, or they feel
puberty) inferior.
 Erikson’s Stages of
Psychosocial Development
Approximate
age Stage Description of Task

Adolescence Identity vs. role Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by

(teens into confusion testing roles and then integrating them to
20’s) form a single identity, or they become
confused about who they are.

Young Adult Intimacy vs. Young adults struggle to form close relation-
(20’s to early isolation ships and to gain the capacity for intimate
40’s) love, or they feel socially isolated.

Middle Adult Generativity vs. The middle-aged discover a sense of contri-

(40’s to 60’s) stagnation buting to the world, usually through family
and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose.

Late Adult Integrity vs. When reflecting on his or her life, the older
(late 60’s and despair adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or
up) failure.
Adolescence: Social
Development
▪ Identity
▪ one’s sense of self
▪ the adolescent’s task is to solidify a
sense of self by testing and integrating
various roles
▪ Intimacy
▪ the ability to form close, loving
relationships
▪ a primary developmental task in late
adolescence and early adulthood
Adolescence: Social
Development
▪ The changing parent-child relationship
100%
Percent with
positive, warm
interaction 80
with parents

60

40

20

0
2 to 4 5 to 8 9 to 11
Ages of child in years
Adulthood: Physical
Development

▪ Menopause
▪ the time of natural cessation of menstruation
▪ also refers to the biological changes a woman
experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
▪ Alzheimer’s Disease
▪ a progressive and irreversible brain disorder
▪ characterized by a gradual deterioration of
memory, reasoning, language, and finally,
physical functioning
Adulthood: Physical
Development
▪ The Aging Senses

1.00

0.75

0.50 Proportion of normal

(20/20) vision when
identifying letters on
0.25 an eye chart

0
10 30 50 70 90
Age in years
Adulthood: Physical
Development
▪ The Aging Senses

90

Percent correct when

70
Identifying smells

50
10 30 50 70 90
Age in years
Adulthood: Physical
Development
▪ The Aging Senses

90

70 Percent correct when

identifying spoken
words

50
10 30 50 70 90
Age in years
 Adulthood: Physical
Development
Fatal
accident 12 ▪ Slowing
rate
10 Fatal accidents reactions
contribute to
per 100 million miles
8

6 Fatal accidents
per 10,000 drivers increased
4
accident risks
2
among those
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 and 75 and older.
0
16
over

Age
Adulthood: Physical
Development
▪ Incidence of Dementia by Age
Percentage
with dementia Risk of dementia
40% increases in later
years
30

20

10

0
60-64 70-74 80-84 90-95
65-69 75-79 85-89
Age Group
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
100
▪ Recalling new
Older age groups have
Percent
90 poorer performance
names
of names
recalled 80

introductions introduced
After three
70
60 once, twice, or
50
After two three times is
40
30
introductions
easier for
20
younger adults
After one
10 introductions than for older
0 ones (Crook &
18 40 50 60
Age group
70
West, 1990).
 Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
Number
Of words 24 ▪ In a study by
remembered Schonfield &
20
Robertson (1966),
the ability to recall
Number of words
16 recognized is
stable with age new information
12 declined during early
8
and middle
adulthood, but the
Number of words
recalled declines
4 with age ability to recognize
0 new information did
20 30 40 50 60 70 not.
Age in years
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
Reasoning
Cross-sectional method
▪ Cross-Sectional
ability suggests decline
score 60
Study
55 ▪ a study in which
50
people of different
ages are compared
Longitudinal method
45 suggests more stability with one another

40
▪ Longitudinal Study
▪ a study in which
35
25 32 39 46 53 60 67 74 81 the same people
Age in years are restudied and
Cross-sectional method retested over a
Longitudinal method long period
Adulthood- Cognitive
Development

▪ Verbal
Intelligence
(IQ) score Verbal scores are
105
stable with age intelligence
100
scores hold
95
steady with age,
90 while nonverbal
85
Nonverbal scores
decline with age intelligence
80 scores decline
75
20 25 35 45 55 65 70 (adapted from
Verbal scores
Kaufman &
Nonverbal scores
Age group
others, 1989).
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development

▪ Crystallized Intelligence
▪ one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal
skills
▪ tends to increase with age
▪ Fluid Intelligence
▪ ones ability to reason speedily and
abstractly
▪ tends to decrease during late adulthood
 Adulthood: Social
Development
▪ Early-forties midlife crisis?
Emotional
instability
24%
No early 40s
emotional crisis
16 Females

8
Males

0
33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54
Age in Years
Adulthood: Social
Changes

▪ Social Clock
▪ the culturally preferred timing of
social events
▪ marriage
▪ parenthood
▪ retirement
Adulthood: Social
Changes

Percentage 80
▪ Multinational
“satisfied” surveys show
with life
as a whole 60 that age
40 differences in
life satisfaction
20
are trivial
0
15 25 35 45 55 65+
(Inglehart,
1990).
Age group
Adulthood: Social
Changes