2/16: Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology
§The study of how people grow, mature, and change over the life span

• Key themes
• Nature vs. nurture: how do genetic factors versus situation factors influence our development
• Continuity vs. stages: does development occur gradually or  w/in clear stages
•  Stability vs. change: how consistent are we as people from one stage in life to another?
• Research strategies:
• Cross-sectional: people of different ages are examined at the same time and their responses are compared
• Longitudinal: same subjects are retested at different times in their lives
• Infants Research
• Habituation:
• An infant will indicate interest with its gaze
• An infant will become “habituated” to a visual stimulus = way to asses perception/memory
• Turns towards human voices
• An infant will suck on a pacifier more vigorously when it hears its mother’s voice
• Prefers objects 8-12 inches away
• Typical distance of mother to infant when nursing
• Recognizes mother’s smell
• A baby will turn towards the smell of its mother
• Prefers objects that look like human faces
• Preference for “beautiful” faces = symmetrical
• Prefers higher-pitched voices and “baby talk”
• parents in many cultures use exaggerated speech and high-pitched voices dubbed "parentese." 
• The Infant: Neural Development
• Babies have most of the brain cells they will ever have
• But their nervous system is still developing  = they have less neural connections
• Growth spurt from 3-6 in frontal lobes that enables rational planning
• Association areas last to develop
• Neural pathways for language/agility surge until puberty when pruning process occurs
• Children’s memories are processed differently after 4
• Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
• How do children incorporate new information with what they already know?
• They form schemas – mental representations of the world 
• They assimilate new info into schemas and adjust schemas (accommodate) to fit new info
• Theory: children are curious, active, intelligent and constructive thinkers with a DIFFERENT TYPE of logic
• Cognitive development stages Piaget
• Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 yrs)
• Experience the world through sensory and motor interactions 
• E.g. looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, grasping
• 2 Key aspects: 
• 1) Lack of object permanence: awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived
• Acquire object permanence ~ 8 months
• 2) Separation anxiety: acquisition of object permanence = misses mother
• Preoperational stage (2-6 years)
• Children too young to perform mental operations
• Words and images are used to symbolize objects
• 2 key aspects:
• 1) Conservation: No understanding of conservation – physical properties of an object stay the same 
• 2) Egocentrism: unable to adopt another perspective, self-centered
• Concrete operational stage (7-12)
• Definied by acquisition of:
• Logical reasoning: grasp the idea of conservation
• Perspective taking: no longer egocentric
• Grouping
• Subgroups/ serialization
• Can add and subtract without counting
• Formal operational stage (12 yr +)
• Reasoning expands from concrete to
• Reasoning on a logical, hypothetical level
• Abstract thinking
• Systematic reasoning, but may occur earlier than Piaget had thought 
• Self-concept develops
• Piaget’s legacy
• 1st to realize that children actively construct meaning
• Children aren’t developmentally ready for certain tasks until they are at the stage
• Cognitive milestones
• BUT: Development is more continuous than Piaget thought
• Evidence of each “stage” occurs earlier than Piaget though
• Children have high suggestibility
• Social Development: Attachment styles:
• Harlow: 
• studied attachment in primates
• Separated infant rhesus monkeys form mothers after birth and provided them with two dummy ‘mother’ options
• Wire mother with feeding bottle
• Cloth mother
• *NB: monkeys preferred cloth mothers
• • What happens when babies are deprived of social contact?
  • When monkeys reared in total isolation were placed with other monkeys their age, they either cowered in fright or lashed out aggressively
  • When they reached sexual maturity, many were incapable of mating
  • If artificially impregnated, they were neglectful and sometimes murdered their offspring
• Strange situation test
• Ainsworth:  
• Strange situation test to determine strength/nature of attachment bonds b/w mothers and infants (12-18 months)
• Results
• Final stage of test:
• the stranger leaves and the mother returns to comfort her infant. 
• DV: the infant's reaction to reunion with mother 
• the degree to which the infant seeks/avoids proximity to mother
• the degree to which infant tries to maintain/resist contact with his mother 
• Three Attachment groups (based on results)
• Secure: upset at departure but comforted upon return
• Avoidant: no distress at departure, nor response upon return
• Anxious-Ambivalent: upset at departure, difficulty in being comforted upon return
• What causes attachment style?
• Several key aspects:
• 1) Responsiveness of parental behaviour
• • 2) Consistency and sensitivity of care
• Expectations developed with primary caregiver thought to serve as a template for future relationships
• *NB: ‘insecure’ attachment only evident in times of stress or conflict!
• (Avoidant) : I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to another; I find it difficult to trust them completely, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when he/she gets too close, and often, the he/she wants me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being
• (Anxious-ambivalent) : I find that the other person is reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that he/she doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to get very close him/her, and this sometimes scares him/her away.
• (Secure) : I find it relatively easy to get close to another and am comfortable depending on him/her. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about him/her getting too close to me.
• Attachment Style in Adults
• Hazan & Shaver, 1987
• Attachment style originates from relationship with primary caregiver = working models
• Model of self: expectation of whether the self is worthy of support and affection
• Model of other: expectation of the likelihood that other people are reliable and will treat the self well
• Translates to how individuals act in romantic relationships
• “Style” evident in times of stress
• Attachment styles
• Secure: 
• Responsive caregiver
• trusting, view that one is worthy and well-liked
• Satisfying romantic relationships
• Anxious-Ambivalent: 
• Erratic caregiver
• Fall in love easily, worries, fear of being abandoned, idealizes and devaluates partner, 
• Relationship =  emotional highs and lows, jealousy and conflict
• Avoidant
• Negligent caregiver
• Independent, difficulty with intimacy, preference for social distance
• low levels of intimacy, commitment and satisfaction, and high levels of negative emotional experiences 
• Coping strategies
• Secure: talk to partner
• Anxious: rumination
• Avoidant: distancing
• Distribution in population
• 56% Secure, 25% Avoidant, 19% Anxious
• Gender differences
• Men more likely to be avoidant, women more likely to be anxious
• Avoidant & Anxious-Ambivalent pairings
• Secure buffer
• Continuous vs. categorical
• 4 category model
• Static vs. flexible
• Problems with attachment styles
• Several continued criticisms of attachment style research:
• 1) Attachment styles are just another personality variable
• 2) Attachment styles have no tested, organized universal format or standard
• Continuous? Categorical? 3? 4? Hierarchical? WHO KNOWS
• Everyone is just focused on a little piece of the puzzle
• Stages of Social Development
• Erik Erikson
• Development of "Ego Identity"
• changes constantly with regards to environment
• experience of self based on interactions
• Competence and personal adequacy
• each stage = different aspect of mastery
• stage managed well = feelings of competence
• stage managed poorly = feelings of inadequacy
• Erikson's 8 Stages of Life
• Stage 1: Infancy
• Trust vs Mistrust: How can I be secure?
• upbringing and learning
• Stage 2: Early Childhood
• Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt: ....be independent?
• controlling parents---fail----shame/doubt
• Stage 3: Childhood (play age)
• Initiative vs Guilt:  .....be powerful?
• excessive punishment = guilt
• no punishment = excessive initiative/power
• Stage 4: Childhood(school age)
• Industry vs Inferiority: .... be good?
• master task = feelings of capability, industry
• fail task = feelings of inferiority
• Stage 5: Adolescence/ Young Adulthood
• Identity vs Role confusion: ... who am I? how do I fit in the adult world?
• resolution = live up to who you are
• failure = matching personality of others to blend
• Stage 6: Young Adulthood
• Intimacy vs Isolation: how can I love?
• share self with people = success
• fail = isolate
• Stage 7: Mature Adulthood
• Generativity vs Stagnation: ..be creative?
• break from mold = success
• "conform" = fail
• Stage 8: Old Age
• Ego Integrity vs Despair: have I accomplished what I would've liked
• retrospection
• Adolescence
• sexual maturity----------socially achieving adult status
• surging hormones
• frontal lobe lags behind the rest of the developing system
• lose unused neural connections
• Frontal Lobe Maturation
• Moral Development in Adolescents
• Kohlberg
• key step in personal growth = distinguishing right from wrong
• moral thinking steps occurs in stages
• 3 main stages
• provides moral dilemmas to children
• Answers = Unimportant
• Reasoning = Important
• Kohlberg's Moral Reasoning Stages
• 1). Preconventional (before 9): obey to avoid punishment or gain reward
• Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation
• what is right up to authorities
• Stage 2: Indivudalism and Exchange
• recognizing there are many different perspectives; useful to make deals and exchange favors with others
• 2). Conventional Morality : peoplt think as members of the conventional society with its values, norms, and expectations
• Stage 3: Good Interpersonal Relationships
• emphasize helpful motives toward close people
• Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order
• concern shifts toward obeying laws to maintain society
• 3). Postconventional Morality: people are less concerned with maintaing society for its own sake and more concerned with principles and values for a good society
• Stage 5: Social Contract and Individual Rights
• emphasize basic rights and the democratic processes that give everyone a say
• (Stage 6: define principles by which agreement which will be more just)
• Theoritic stage- lack of just reasoning
• Criticisms of Kohlberg's Theory
• Culturally Biased
• morals vary across
• Gender Biased
• women score differently but are just as moral
• Limited
• morality conists of more than just an ability to think sophisticated
• Adulthood
• physical changes
• Only 30% of physical losses of old age are genetically based- other 70% do with psychological factors
• actions speak louder than words 
• Memory
• decrease occurs with age
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Progressive and Irreversible 
• Caused by Deterioation of Neurons producing Acetylcholine
• Cross-sectional studies: intelligence declines with age
• Longitudinal studies: intelligence remains stable
• Crystallized intelligence(accumulation) increases
• Fluid intelligece(ability to reason quickly) decreases with age
• Love
• like people when we perceive interactions with them are profitable
• Attraction
• "Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction" - Aristotle
• More attractive people are treated better
• Halo effect: what is beautiful is seen as good
• beautiful people are assumed to be good
• varies to what culture defines as good
• Situational Factors(attraction and likeability)
• Proximity: liking the ones that are near
• necessary but not sufficient condition
• strong correlation between proximity and attraction/likeability
• why does it work?
• rewarding, distance is costly
• increases Familiarity
• Familiarity
• mere exposure effect
• negative = does Not work
• positive= slightly
• neutral= turns into positive
• influential become
• unfamiliarity = possible threat
• familiar----similarity----liking
• Similarity
• most demographics
• one exception: dominant and submissive people
• Reassuring to meet others like us
• Way you are is valued by someone else
• More likely to like us
• Fewer points of disagreement
• Adulthood: Life Satisfaction
• Happiness requires:
• love 
• work
• marital satisfaction tends to decline when children arrive
• old = unhappy is a fallacy e.g. 16 countries example