Human Development Lecture Nones

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Development: the pattern of continuity and change in human capabilities that occurs throughout the course of life -physical processes: changes person’s biological nature; maturation -cognitive processes: changes in a person’s thinking, intelligence and language. -socioemotional processes: changes in social relationships, in emotions, and personality -Since age cannot be manipulated experimentally, the relationship between age and other characteristics are correlational -cross sectional studies: researchers assess characters of people of different ages at one time point -the correlation of age with those characteristics tells us whether younger people differ from older ones -pos. Correlation means that older people are higher on some characteristic than younger people for example -longitudinal study: assess the same participants multiple times over a lengthy period of time Nature (genes) : refers to a person’s biological inheritance, especially the person’s genes Nurture (environment) : refers to a person’s environmental and social experiences Lifespan developmentalists: study children and adults; say that both early and later experiences make significant contributions to development Resilience: a person’s ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times -resilient children= capable adults -the developer has responsibilities in human development beyond nature and nurture Childhood development Development from zygote to fetus is divided into 3 periods: 1. Germinal period: weeks 1&2: a. begins with conception b. After 1 week and many cell divisions the zygote is made up of 100-150 cells c. By the end of 2 weeks, the mass of cells has attached to the uterine wall 2. Embryonic period: weeks 3-8 a. Rate of cell differentiation intensifies, support systems for the cells develop, and the beginnings of organs appear b. Week 3 the neural tube (becomes spinal cord) starts to take shape c. 4 weeks neural tube is formed d. By the end the heart begins to beat, arms and legs become more differentiated, face starts to form, intestinal tract 3. Fetal period: 2-9 months a. b. c. d. 2 months the fetus is the size of a kidney bean 4 months the fetus is 5in long and 5oz 6 months the fetus has grown to 1.5 pounds Last 3 months are the time when organ functioning increases and the fetus puts on considerable size -treats to fetus: fetal alc syndrome, STIs, preterm infant (<37 weeks) Reflexes -babies are born w the ability to suck and swallow, hold breath under water, rooting, gripping, toe curling, moro or startle, galant -between 3-5 months the ability to reach for an object involves -sensory capacities, motivation, attention, bodily control, learning Cognitive development -memory: a schema is a mental concept or framework that organizes and provides a structure for interpreting information -schemas are expressed as various behaviors and skills that the child can exercise in relation to objects or situations -assimilation: occurs when individuals incorporate new information into existing knowledge. The mens that when people are faced with a new experience, they apply old ways of doing things -accomodation: when people adjust their schemas in response to new experiences -existing schemas are changed,m or new schemas are created -rather than using one’s old ways of doing things, a new experience promotes new ways of dealing with experience sensorimotor stage: birth-2yr -sensation and movement; babies construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (like seeing and hearing) with motor actions -object permanence: crucial accomplishment of understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched -out of sight out of mind for babies -operations: mental representations of changes in objects that can be reversed preoperational stage: 2-7 years -preoperational children have difficulty understanding that reversing an action may restore the original conditions from which the action began -conservation: understanding the permanence of some attributes of objects despite superficial changes -according to Piaget, the concept of conservation is the knowledge that certain attributes of objects remain the same despite superficial changes and part of the concrete operational stage Concrete operational stage: 7-11 years -the individual uses operations and replaces intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning in concrete situations Formal operational stage: 11-15 yrs (and into adulthood) -thought is more abstract and logical than concrete operational thought -thinking about things that arent concrete, making predictions, and using logic to come up with hypotheses about the future -information processing theory: focuses on how people encode information, manipulate it, and create strategies for handling it -executive function: higher-order complex cog processes that include thinking, planning, and problem solving -temperament : an individual’s behavioral style and characteristic ways of responding -infant attachment: close emotional bond between infant and caregiver -Bowlby said this is instinctual and that all the cute things babies do are to stimulate the caregiver to respond -Erik Erikson: proposed 8 psychosocial stages of development from infancy through old age that trace socioemotional development -authoritarian parenting: a restrictive punitive style in which the parent exhorts the child to follow the parent’s directions -neglectful parenting: a parenting style characterized by a lack of parental involvement in the child’s life -permissive parenting: involves placing few limits on the child’s behavior. A permissive parent lets the child do whatever the child desires -lawrence kohlberg: moral development involves changes over time in thoughts, feelings , and behaviors regarding the principles and values that guide what people do Adolescence -puberty: a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence -adolescent egocentrism: involves the belief that others are as preoccupied with the adolescent as the adolescent is Emerging adulthood: transitional period from adolescence to adulthood ; new paths, identities, and close relationships Piaget’s theory of schemas -schemas are expressed as various behaviors and skills -schema is a concept or framework that exists in a person’s mind that organizes information and provides a framework for interpreting the information -a schema organizes information -accomodation: occurs when people adjust schemas to new information -assimilation: when individuals incorporate new information into an existing schema Attachment styles defined by Ainsworth -secure attachment -avoidant insecure attachment -anxious/ambivalent insecure attachment -authoritative parenting: involves encouraging the child to be independent but placing limits and controls on behavior ; collaborative -permissive parenting: hippie Moral development: involves changes with age in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding the principles and values that guide what people should do A life theme involves one’s efforts to cultivate meaningful optimal experiences Memory in late adulthood: -Older adults take longer than younger adults to retrieve information about the world but often can remember it. -Older adults tend to do more poorly than younger adults in most aspects of memory.