PSYCHOLOGY: DEVELOPMENT (EDITED BY ALI HAMEED KHAN)

Introduction

Life is a series of changes. Beginning as tiny, two-celled organisms, people eventually become
babies, children, teenagers, and adults. Countless new skills, both simple and complicated, accompany
each new stage. Babies learn how to smile and laugh, children learn how to count and spell, and college
students learn how to set their own schedules and wash their own clothes.

All the changes that mark our lives make up a process called development, which is the series of
age-related changes that happen over the course of a life span. Many factors influence development,
including genes, parental upbringing, parents’ educational and economic backgrounds, and life
experiences. Even historical events over which we have no control can influence our development.

Theories of Development

Development is the series of age-related changes that happen over the course of a life span.
Several famous psychologists, including Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence
Kohlberg, describe development as a series of stages. A Stage is a period in development in which
people exhibit typical behavior patterns and establishes particular capacities. The various stage theories
share three assumptions:

1. People pass through stages in a specific order, with each stage building on capacities
developed in the previous stage.
2. Stages are related to age.
3. Development is discontinuous, with qualitatively different capacities emerging in each stage.

Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality

The Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud first described personality development as a series of
stages. Of these stages, Freud believed that early childhood was the most important. He believed that
personality developed by about the age of five.

Freud’s theory of personality development is described in more detail on pages 268-–273 of

Chapter 13, “Personality.”

Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Like Freud, Erik Erikson believed in the importance of early childhood. However, Erikson
believed that personality development happens over the entire course of a person’s life. In the early
1960s, Erikson proposed a theory that describes eight distinct stages of development. According to
Erikson, in each stage people face new challenges and the stage’s outcome depends on how people
handle these challenges. Erikson named the stages according to these possible outcomes:

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

In the first year after birth, babies depend completely on adults for basic needs such as food,
comfort, and warmth. If the caretakers meet these needs reliably, the babies become attached and
develop a sense of security. Otherwise, they may develop a mistrustful, insecure attitude.

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Between the ages of one and three, toddlers start to gain independence and learn skills such as
toilet training, feeding themselves, and dressing themselves. Depending on how they face these
challenges, toddlers can develop a sense of autonomy or a sense of doubt and shame about themselves.

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt

Between the ages of three and six, children must learn to control their impulses and act in a
socially responsible way. If they can do this effectively, children become more self- confident. If not,
they may develop a strong sense of guilt.

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority

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Between the ages of six and twelve, children compete with peers in school and prepare to take
on adult roles. They end this stage with either a sense of competence or a sense of inferiority.

Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion

During adolescence, which is the period between puberty and adulthood, children try to
determine their identity and their direction in life. Depending on their success, they either acquire a
sense of identity or remain uncertain about their roles in life.

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation

In young adulthood, people face the challenge of developing intimate relationships with others.
If they do not succeed, they may become isolated and lonely.

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Self-Absorption

As people reach middle adulthood, they work to become productive members of society, either
through parenting or through their jobs. If they fail, they become overly self-absorbed.

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

In old age, people examine their lives. They may either have a sense of contentment or be
disappointed about their lives and fearful of the future.

Erikson’s theory is useful because it addresses both personality stability and personality change.
To some degree, personality is stable, because childhood experiences influence people even as adults.
However, personality also changes and develops over the life span as people face new challenges. The
problem with Erikson’s theory, as with many stage theories of development, is that he describes only a
typical pattern. The theory doesn’t acknowledge the many differences among individuals.

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Stag Typical Age

e Conflict Faced Range Major Challenge(S)

1 Trust vs. mistrust First year of life Having basic needs met, attaching to people

2 Autonomy vs. shame and doubt1–3 years Gaining independence

3 Initiative vs. guilt 3–6 years Acting in a socially responsible way

4 Industry vs. inferiority 6–12 years Competing with peers, preparing for adult roles

5 Identity vs. role confusion Adolescence Determining one’s identity

6 Intimacy vs. isolation Early adulthood Developing intimate relationships

7 Generativity vs. self-absorption Middle adulthood Being productive

8 Integrity vs. despair Old age Evaluating one’s life

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

While conducting intelligence tests on children, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget began to
investigate how children think. According to Piaget, children’s thought processes change as they mature
physically and interact with the world around them. Piaget believed children develop Schema, or mental
models, to represent the world. As children learn, they expand and modify their schema through the
processes of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the broadening of an existing schema to
include new information. Accommodation is the modification of a schema as new information is
incorporated.

Example: Suppose a young boy knows his pet parrot is a bird. When he sees a robin outside and
calls it a bird too, he exhibits assimilation, since he broadened his bird schema to include characteristics
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of both parrots and robins. His bird schema might be “all things that fly.” Now suppose a bat flaps out at
him one night and he shrieks, “Bird!” If he learns it was a bat that startled him, he’ll have to modify his
bird schema to “things that fly and have feathers.” In modifying his definition, he enacts
accommodation.

Piaget proposed that children go through four stages of cognitive development:

Stage 1: Sensorimotor Period

In this stage, which lasts from birth to roughly two years, children learn by using their senses
and moving around. By the end of the sensorimotor period, children become capable of Symbolic
Thought, which means they can represent objects in terms of mental symbols. More important, children
achieve object permanence in this stage. Object Permanence is the ability to recognize that an object
can exist even when it’s no longer perceived or in one’s sight.

Example: If a three-month-old baby sees a ball, she’ll probably be fascinated by it. But if
someone hides the ball, the baby won’t show any interest in looking for it. For a very young child, out of
sight is literally out of mind. When the baby is older and has acquired object permanence, she will start
to look for things that are hidden because she will know that things can exist even when they can’t be
seen.

Stage 2: Preoperational Period

This stage lasts from about two to seven years of age. During this stage, children get better at
symbolic thought, but they can’t yet reason. According to Piaget, children aren’t capable of conservation
during this stage. Conservation is the ability to recognize that measurable physical features of objects,
such as length, area, and volume, can be the same even when objects appear different.

Example: Suppose a researcher gives a three-year-old girl two full bottles of juice. The girl will
agree that they both contain the same amount of juice. But if the researcher pours the contents of one
bottle into a short, fat tumbler, the girl will then say that the bottle has more. She doesn’t realize that
the same volume of juice is conserved in the tumbler.

Piaget argued that children are not capable of conservation during the preoperational stage
because of three weaknesses in the way they think. He called these
weaknesses Centration, Irreversibility, and Egocentrism:

 Centration is the tendency to focus on one aspect of a problem and ignore other key aspects. In
the example above, the three-year-old looks only at the higher juice level in the bottle and
ignores the fact that the bottle is narrower than the tumbler. Because of centration, children in
the preoperational stage cannot carry out Hierarchical Classification, which means they can’t
classify things according to more than one level.

 Irreversibility is the inability to mentally reverse an operation. In the example, the three-year-
old can’t imagine pouring the juice from the tumbler back into the bottle. If she poured the juice
back, she’d understand that the tumbler holds the same amount of liquid as the bottle.

 Egocentrism is the inability to take someone else’s point of view. Animism, or the belief that
even inanimate objects are living, results from egocentrism. Children assume that since they are
alive, all other things must be too.

Talking Tables and Dancing Dishwashers

Animism explains the popularity of children’s movies featuring characters such as talking
vegetables or singing candlesticks. Young children can readily believe that objects around them are alive,
which means they can be entertained by stories involving living objects. Children and adolescents past
the age of seven generally lose interest in heroic toasters and prefer stories about people.

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Period

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From the age of seven to about eleven, children become capable of performing mental
operations or working through problems and ideas in their minds. However, they can perform
operations only on tangible objects and real events. Children also achieve conservation, reversibility,
and decentration during this stage:

 Reversibility is the ability to mentally reverse actions.

 Decentration is the ability to focus simultaneously on several aspects of a problem.

Furthermore, children become less egocentric during this stage as they start to consider
simultaneously different ways of looking at a problem.

Stage 4: Formal Operational Period

In this stage, which begins around eleven years of age and continues through adulthood,
children become capable of applying mental operations to abstract concepts. They can imagine and
reason about hypothetical situations. From this point on, people start to think in abstract, systematic,
and logical ways.

Critiques of Piaget’s Theories

Although Piaget made important contributions to the research on cognitive development, his
theory has come under attack for several reasons:

 Recent research has shown that he greatly underestimated children’s capabilities. For
example, researchers have shown that babies achieve object permanence much sooner than
Piaget said they do.
 Children sometimes simultaneously develop skills that are characteristic of more than one
stage, which makes the idea of stages seem less viable.
 Piaget ignored cultural influences. Research has shown that children from different cultures
tend to go through Piaget’s stages in the same order, but the timing and length of stages
vary from culture to culture.
 Some people never develop the capacity for formal reasoning, even as adults.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Stage Age Important Features

1Sensorimotor First two years of lifeObject permanence, symbolic thought

2Preoperational 2–7 years Centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and animism

Concrete Reversibility, decentration, decrease in egocentrism,

3operational 7–11 years conservation

11 through
4Formal operational adulthood Abstract thought

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg focused on Moral Reasoning, or why people think the way they do about
right and wrong. Influenced by Piaget, who believed that moral reasoning depends on the level of
cognitive development, Kohlberg proposed that people pass through three levels of moral development.
He divided each level into two stages.

Level 1: The Preconventional Level

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At this level, children ascribe great importance to the authority of adults. For children in the first
stage of this level, an action is wrong if it’s punished, whereas in the second stage, an action is right if it’s
rewarded.

Level 2: The Conventional Level

In the next level, children value rules, which they follow in order to get approval from others. In
the first stage of this level, children want the approval only of people who are close to them. In the
second stage, children become more concerned with the rules of the broader society.

Level 3: The Postconventional Level

In the final level, people become more flexible and consider what’s personally important to
them. In the first stage of this level, people still want to follow society’s rules, but they don’t see those
rules as absolute. In the second stage, people figure out right and wrong for themselves, based on
abstract ethical principles. Only a small proportion of people reach this last stage of moral reasoning.

Critiques of Kohlberg’s Theories

Research supports key parts of Kohlberg’s theory. People do tend to progress in order through
Kohlberg’s stages, and cognitive and moral development do affect each other. However, critics of
Kohlberg’s theory have two main concerns:

 People often show the reasoning characteristic of several different levels simultaneously.
For instance, in one situation, a person might reason as if he is at a conventional stage, and
in another situation, he might use reasoning typical of a postconventional stage.
 Kohlberg’s theory of moral development favors cultures that value individualism. In other
cultures, highly moral people may base their reasoning on communal values rather than
abstract ethical principles.

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Stag
Level e What Determines Right And Wrong

1
. Preconventional 1 Punishment by adults

2 Reward by adults

2
. Conventional 3 Rules set by close people

4 Rules set by society

3
. Postconventional5 Rules set by society, judged by what’s personally important

6 Rules based on abstract ethical principle

Prenatal Development

Development happens quickly during the Prenatal Period, which is the time between
conception and birth. This period is generally divided into three stages: the germinal stage, the
embryonic stage, and the fetal stage.

Stage 1: The Germinal Stage

The two-week period after conception is called the Germinal Stage. Conception occurs when a
sperm cell combines with an egg cell to form a Zygote. About thirty-six hours after conception, the
zygote begins to divide quickly. The resulting ball of cells moves along the mother’s fallopian tube to the
uterus.
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Around seven days after conception, the ball of cells starts to become embedded in the wall of
the uterus. This process is called Implantation and takes about a week to complete. If implantation fails,
as is quite common, the pregnancy terminates. One key feature of the germinal stage is the formation of
a tissue called the Placenta. The placenta has two important functions:

 Passing oxygen and nutrients from the mother’s blood into the embryo or fetus
 Removing waste materials from the embryo or fetus

Stage 2: The Embryonic Stage

The Embryonic Stage lasts from the end of the germinal stage to two months after conception.
The developing ball of cells is now called an Embryo. In this stage, all the major organs form, and the
embryo becomes very fragile. The biggest dangers are teratogens, which are agents such as viruses,
drugs, or radiation that can cause deformities in an embryo or fetus. At the end of the embryonic
period, the embryo is only about an inch long.

Stage 3: The Fetal Stage

The last stage of prenatal development is the Fetal Stage, which lasts from two months after
conception until birth. About one month into this stage, the sex organs of the fetus begin to form. The
fetus quickly grows as bones and muscles form, and it begins to move inside the uterus. Organ systems
develop further and start to function. During the last three months, the brain increases rapidly in size, an
insulating layer of fat forms under the skin, and the respiratory and digestive systems start to work
independently.

Fetal Viability

Around twenty-two to twenty-six weeks after conception, the fetus reaches the age of viability,
after which it has some chance of surviving out-side the womb if it is born prematurely. The chances of a
premature baby’s survival increase significantly with each additional week it remains in the mother’s
uterus.

Adverse Factors Affecting Fetal Development

Although the womb provides protection, the fetus remains indirectly connected to the outside
world through its mother. Several factors that are linked to the mother can harm the fetus:

 Poor nutrition
 Use of alcohol
 Smoking
 Use of certain prescription or over-the-counter drugs
 Use of recreational drugs such as cocaine, sedatives, and narcotics
 X-rays and other kinds of radiation
 Ingested toxins, such as lead
 Illnesses such as AIDS, German measles, syphilis, cholera, smallpox, mumps, or severe flu

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Mothers who drink heavily during pregnancy may have babies with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Babies with this syndrome may have problems such as small head size, heart defects, irritability,
hyperactivity, mental retardation, or slowed motor development. Fetal alcohol syndrome is incurable.

Infancy and Childhood

Babies come into the world with many Innate Abilities, or abilities that are present from birth.
At birth, they possess motor reflexes such as the sucking reflex and the grasping reflex. Newborns can
also hear, smell, touch, taste, and see, and these sensory abilities develop quickly.

Motor Development
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Motor development also progresses quickly. Motor Development is the increasing coordination
of muscles that makes physical movements possible. Developmental Norms tell us the median age at
which babies develop specific behaviors and abilities. Babies often deviate a fair amount from these
norms.

Researchers used to think motor skill development could be explained mostly by Maturation,
genetically programmed growth and development. According to this view, babies learn to sit up, pull
themselves to a standing position, and walk at particular ages because they are hard-wired that way.
However, recent research suggests that motor development isn’t just a passive process. Although
maturation plays a large role, babies also actively develop motor skills by moving around and exploring
their environments. Both maturation and experience influence motor development.

It’s Not All Maturation

Maturation plays a much greater role in the development of early motor skills, such as crawling
and walking, than in development of later motor skills, such as juggling or playing basketball. The
development of later motor skills depends on genetic predisposition, exposure to good teachers, and
social factors.

Cultural differences also affect how quickly motor skills develop, although the timing and
sequence of early motor skill development remains similar across all cultures.

Example: In cultures where babies receive early training in sitting up, standing, and walking,
they develop these skills earlier. Conversely, in other cultures, mothers carry babies most of the time, and
babies develop these skills later.

Temperament

Some babies have fussy personalities, while others have chirpy or quiet natures. These
differences result from Temperament, the kind of personality features babies are born with.
Researchers generally agree that temperament depends more on biological factors than on
environment. In the 1970s, Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess, two researchers who study
temperament, described three basic types of temperament: easy, slow to warm up, and difficult. In their
research, 40 percent of the children were easy, 15 percent were slow to warm up, and 10 percent were
difficult. The remaining 35 percent of the children displayed a mixture of these temperaments:

 Easy children tend to be happy and adapt easily to change. They have regular sleeping and
eating patterns and don’t upset easily.
 Slow-To-Warm-Up children tend to be less cheerful and less adaptable than easy children.
They are cautious about new experiences. Their sleeping and eating patterns are less regular
than those of easy children.
 Difficult children tend to be glum and irritable, and they dislike change. Their eating and
sleeping patterns are irregular.

Attachment

Attachment is the close bond between infants and their caregivers. Researchers used to think
that infants attach to people who feed them and keep them warm. However, researchers Margaret and
Harry Harlow showed that attachment could not occur without contact comfort. Contact Comfort is
comfort derived from physical closeness with a caregiver.

The Harlows’ Baby Monkeys

The Harlows raised orphaned baby rhesus monkeys and studied their behavior. In place of its
real mother, each baby monkey had two substitute or surrogate mothers. One “mother” had a head
attached to a wire frame, warming lights, and a feeding bottle. The other “mother” had the same
construction except that foam rubber and terry cloth covered its wire frame. The Harlows found that
although both mothers provided milk and warmth, the baby monkeys greatly preferred the cloth
mother. They clung to the cloth mother even between feedings and went to it for comfort when they
felt afraid.
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Responsive Mothering

Psychologist Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues found that attachment happens through a
complex set of interactions between mothers and infants. The infants of sensitive, responsive mothers
have stronger attachments than the infants of insensitive mothers or mothers who respond
inconsistently to their infants’ needs. However, an infant’s temperament also plays a role in attachment.
Difficult infants who fuss, refuse to eat, and sleep irregularly tax their mothers, which makes it hard for
the mothers to be properly responsive.

Attachment Styles

Ainsworth devised an experiment called the Strange Situation in order to study attachment
behavior. She asked each mother in the sample to bring her infant to an unfamiliar room that contained
various toys. After the mother and infant had spent some time in the room, a stranger entered the room
and tried to play with the infant. A short while later, the mother left the room, leaving the infant with
the stranger. Then the mother returned to the room, and the stranger left. A little later, the mother left
the room again, briefly leaving the infant alone. Finally, the mother returned to the room

Based on her observations of infants’ behavior in the Strange Situation, Ainsworth described
three types of attachment patterns:

1. Secure Attachment: Most infants in the sample had a secure attachment to their mothers.
These infants expressed unhappiness when their mothers left but still played with the
stranger. When their mothers returned, the infants looked happy. The infants displayed
greater attachment to their mothers than to the stranger.
2. Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment: Some infants showed a type of insecure attachment
called an anxious-ambivalent attachment. These infants became upset when their mothers
left but resisted contact with their mothers when they returned.
3. Avoidant Attachment: Other infants showed a type of insecure attachment called an
avoidant attachment. These infants didn’t seem upset when their mothers left and avoided
their mothers when they returned. Researchers did not see a significant difference in the
way these infants treated their mothers and the stranger.

Culture and Attachment Style

Culture can influence attachment style because different cultures have different child-rearing
practices. Ainsworth’s research in the United States showed that most of her white, middle-class sample
of infants had a secure attachment to their mothers. However, in Germany, where parents encourage
independence from an early age, a much higher proportion of infants display an avoidant attachment,
according to Ainsworth’s classification. In Japan, where infants rarely separate from their mothers, the
avoidant style is nonexistent, although a higher proportion of anxious-ambivalent attachments occurred
than in the United States.

Separation Anxiety

Whether they are securely attached or not, most babies do experience separation
anxiety. Separation Anxiety is the emotional distress infants show when they separate from people to
whom they are attached. Separation anxiety typically begins at about six to eight months of age and
reaches peak intensity when an infant is about fourteen to eighteen months old.

Day Care

Controversy surrounds the question of whether or not to place children in day care. Some
research has suggested that babies have a greater chance of developing insecure attachments if a
nonparental figure cares for them for more than twenty hours per week. However, most of the evidence
suggests that day care doesn’t create poor attachment. Studies have even shown that day care can have
positive effects on social development.
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Gender Development

Sex isn’t the same as gender. Sex refers to a biological distinction between males and females.
An example of sex difference is the timing of puberty. Because of biological processes, girls’ sexual
organs mature before those of boys. Gender refers to a learned distinction between masculinity and
femininity. An example of gender difference is girls’ and boys’ attitudes toward dolls. Very early on,
American society teaches boys that playing with dolls is considered a girlish thing to do. Gender
Stereotypes are societal beliefs about the characteristics of males and females.

Gender Differences

Some gender differences exist, although certainly not as many as stereotypes suggest. For
example, starting in preschool, gender differences arise in play behavior. Boys prefer playing with boys
and girls with girls. Boys prefer to play with boyish toys like trucks and girls with girlish toys like dolls.
Different people give different answers for why this is so:

 Researchers who emphasize biological differences between the sexes say that these
preferences arise from biological factors such as genetics and evolution, prenatal hormones,
or brain structure.
 Researchers who focus on cognitive development believe that these preferences exist
because boys and girls develop different gender schemas or mental models about gender.
 Researchers who study learning think that environment produces these preferences. They
point out that almost from the moment of birth, girls and boys receive different treatment.
Gender preferences, these researchers say, simply reflect what society teaches children
about gender.

Adolescence

Adolescence used to be automatically associated with trouble. Recently, however, researchers

have found that adolescence is not always so difficult, even with all the changes that occur during this
period.

Physical Changes

Pubescence refers to the two years before puberty. The adolescent growth spurt actually begins
during pubescence, at about age eleven in girls and about age thirteen in boys. At this time, children get
taller and heavier and develop secondary sex characteristics. Secondary Sex Characteristics are sex-
specific physical characteristics that are not essential for reproduction. Girls develop breasts, widened
pelvic bones, and wider hips. Boys develop facial hair, broader shoulders, and deeper voices.

After pubescence and at the beginning of adolescence, Puberty occurs. Puberty is the point at
which sexual organs mature. Sexual organs include the ovaries in girls and the penis and testes in boys.

Menarche, or the first menstrual period, marks the onset of puberty in girls. The average age of
menarche for American girls is about twelve and a half. The beginning of Nocturnal Emissions, so-called
wet dreams, marks the onset of puberty in boys. American boys typically begin to produce sperm by
fourteen years of age. Girls reach full sexual maturation around age sixteen, and boys reach sexual
maturity at around eighteen.

Earlier Onset Of Puberty

Girls and boys in the United States reach puberty earlier now than they did a few generations ago,
possibly because nutrition and medical care have changed over the years. In Western Europe and the
United States, girls have their first menstrual periods at around age twelve or thirteen. In poorer regions
of Africa, which lack proper nutrition and health care, girls may not begin to menstruate until they are
between the ages of fourteen and seventeen.
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Varying Maturation Rates

Puberty occurs at different rates for different people. In girls, puberty usually happens between
ages ten and fifteen and in boys between ages eleven and sixteen. Early or late maturation can have the
following consequences:

 Early-maturing girls and late-maturing boys tend to have more psychological and social
problems than their peers.
 In girls, a correlation exists between early maturation and poorer school performance,
earlier sexual activity, more unwanted pregnancies, and a higher likelihood of eating
disorders.
 Both boys and girls who mature early use more alcohol and drugs and have more problems
with the law than their peers.

Identity

As Erik Erikson pointed out, the search for identity marks an important step in adolescence.
Adolescents may go through an identity crisis, during which they struggle to understand themselves and
decide their future. The psychologist James Marciadescribed four identity states, based on where
people stand on the path to identity:

 Identity Foreclosure happens when a person prematurely commits to values or roles that
others prescribe.
 Identity Moratorium happens when a person delays commitment to an identity. He or she
may experiment with various values and roles.
 Identity Diffusion occurs when a person lacks a clear sense of identity but still hasn’t
explored issues related to identity development.
 Identity Achievement occurs when a person considers alternative possibilities and commits
to a certain identity and path in life.

Adulthood

Certain experiences tend to occur in adulthood, including:

 Marriage
 Parenthood
 The empty nest
 The midlife crisis
 Menopause (for women)
 Aging

Not all adults go through all these experiences, and the timing of particular experiences can vary
greatly from person to person. However, average ages for major life events do exist. Social
Clocks indicate the typical life events, behaviors, and issues for a particular age. Each culture and
historical period has a specific social clock. A middle-class white woman living in contemporary U.S.
culture may be “off time” for motherhood if she had her first child at age fifteen. In another cultural
context or another historical period, however, motherhood at age fifteen may have been “on time.”

A Midlife Crisis is a time of doubt and anxiety in middle adulthood. Research suggests, however,
that midlife crises don’t automatically happen when people reach middle age. The Empty Nest refers to
the time in parents’ lives when their children have grown up and left home. Parents who have other
roles in addition to parenting usually find this period less difficult.

Menopause is the gradual, permanent cessation of menstruation and usually begins between
ages forty-five and fifty-five. Though many women suffer uncomfortable physical symptoms during
menopause, such as hot flashes, emotional reactions to menopause are far from universal: many
women have strong emotional reactions, while just as many others may not. Though men don’t
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experience menopause, they do experience a gradual decline in testosterone production and sperm
count as they age.

Aging

Researchers now know quite a bit about the process of growing old. Some abilities and functions
decline:

 As people age, they usually lose neurons in the brain, but this loss rarely causes problems
such as Dementia, which is a condition characterized by several significant psychological
deficits.
 Vision and hearing tend to decline as people grow older.
 Some aspects of memory decrease in old age. This results from a decline in the speed of
mental processing. Decrease in memory capacity is normal and is not necessarily related to
dementia.

Other abilities and functions stay the same or even improve as people age:

 Crystallized Intelligence, which is intelligence based on a life span of knowledge and skills,
remains constant or increases.
 Physical exercise and mental stimulation can form new connections between neurons in the
brains of older adults.
 Most people’s overall sense of well-being increases as they get older.

Quick Review

Theories of Development

 Many psychologists have proposed stage theories of development, which argue that people
pass through Stages in specific orders, with challenges related to age and different capacities
emerging in each stage.

 Sigmund Freud first described personality development in terms of stages and believed
personality developed by age five.

 Erik Erikson proposed a theory of psychosocial development that occurs in eight stages over a
person’s lifetime. He proposed that people face new challenges at each stage: Trust Vs.
Mistrust, Autonomy Vs. Shame And Doubt, Initiative Vs. Guilt, Industry Vs. Inferiority, Identity
Vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy Vs. Isolation, Generativity Vs. Self-Absorption, and Integrity Vs.
Despair.

 Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development states that children develop Schema or mental
models to represent the world. He proposed four stages of cognitive development:
the Sensorimotor Period, the Preoperational Period, the Concrete Operational Period, and
the Formal Operational Period.

 Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a theory of moral development that includes three levels or
stages: the Preconventional Level, the Conventional Level, and the Postconventional Level.

Prenatal Development

 Prenatal Development occurs between conception and birth.

 Prenatal development is divided into three stages: the Germinal Stage, the Embryonic Stage,
and the Fetal Stage.

Infancy and Childhood

 Motor Development or increasing coordination of muscles improves rapidly in infancy and

childhood.
 PSYCHOLOGY: DEVELOPMENT (EDITED BY ALI HAMEED KHAN)

 Maturation is genetically programmed growth and development. Maturation and experience

influence motor development.

 Temperament refers to the personality features a person is born with. Alexander

Thomas and Stella Chess proposed three basic types of temperament: easy, slow to warm up,
and difficult.

 Attachment is the close bond between babies and their caregivers. Margaret And Harry
Harlow concluded that attachment requires Contact Comfort, which is the comfort deriving
from physical closeness.

 After conducting an experiment called the Strange Situation, Mary Ainsworth proposed three
types of Attachment Styles: Secure Attachment, Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment,
and Avoidant Attachment.

 Separation Anxiety is the emotional distress infants show when separated from people to
whom they are attached.

 Gender is the learned distinction between masculinity and femininity. Gender Stereotypes are
societal beliefs about the characteristics of males and females.

 Depending on their perspective, researchers ascribe different causes for gender differences.

Adolescence

 Pubescence refers to the two years before puberty and entails growth spurts and the
development of secondary sex characteristics. Secondary Sex Characteristics are sex-specific
physical traits that are not essential to reproduction, such as breasts, widened hips, facial hair,
and deepened voices.

 Puberty, the point at which sexual organs mature, occurs at the beginning of
adolescence. Menarche refers to the first menstrual period.

 On average, puberty occurs between ages ten and fifteen for girls and eleven and sixteen for
boys. Maturing before or after these ages can have adverse consequences.

 The search for identity is an important step in adolescence. James Marcia described four identity
stages: Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, Identity Diffusion, and Identity
Achievement.

Adulthood

 Adulthood usually includes experiences such as marriage, parenthood, the empty nest, the
midlife crisis, Menopause, and aging.

 Social Clocks indicate the typical life events, behaviors, and concerns for a particular age.

 As people age, they tend to experience loss of neurons in the brain, a decline in vision and
hearing, and decreased memory. People may also experience increased Crystallized
Intelligence, which is intelligence based on accumulated knowledge and skills. Physical exercise
and mental stimulation can create new neural brain connections, and older adults generally
have a better sense of well-being.