PSY101

Introduction to Psychology
 Development
 The pattern of continuity and change in human
capabilities that occurs throughout life
 Involves growth and decline

 Levels of change
 Physical processes
 Cognitive processes
 Socioemotional processes
 Childhood
 Infancy (birth to 24 months) through childhood
(up to around 10 years)

 Adolescence
 From 10-19 years old
 Transition from childhood to adulthood

 Adulthood
 Early adulthood (20s and 30s)
 Middle adulthood (40s and 50s)
 Late adulthood (60+)
 Cross-sectional design
 Group of people are assesses on a psychological
variable at one point in time
 Age difference
 Cohort effects
 Differences between individuals from their historical
time period
 Different experiences of age groups

 Longitudinal design
 Assess same participants multiple times over a
long period of time
 Allows strong statements
 Nature
 Individual’s biological inheritance
 Especially genes
 Nurture
 Individual’s environmental and social experiences

 Interaction/relationship
(nature x nurture)
determine individual’s mind and behaviour
 Developer
 Individual can develop beyond what their heritage or
environment predict
Birth defects, disability etc
Neglect/abuse/poverty etc

 Seek optimal experiences in life

Humans have an active role to play in their development
Go beyond what life has given
World famous examples have included Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson
Mandela, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr

Resilience
 Person’s ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times
 Understand role of negative early experiences
 Usually in childhood and adolescence
 Can characterise adulthood development
There are also debates about whether early or late
experiences have more implications for human
development.

 Early experience doctrine

 After an early period that person becomes fixed in their
makeup
So if as an infant you do not receive warm and tender love
and care in the first year of life, you will not develop to
your full potential.

 Late experience doctrine

 Sensitive care giving is just as important later as it is
earlier
They argue that older children are just as responsive to
change so that tender love and care can still make a
difference
 Human development is determined by
multiple factors. Consequently:

 Whatare the influences of nature and

nurture on human development?

 How are early and later experiences believed

to influence human development?
Total of 3 periods within the prenatal stage:

Germinal period
 Weeks 1 and 2
 Starts with conception
 Zygote – 23 chromosomes from each parent

Embryonic period
 Weeks 3-8
 Increased cell differentiation
 Organs start to appear
 Neural tube takes shape (eventually becomes the spinal
cord)
 Heart begins to beat
 Face starts to form
 Foetal period
 Months 2-9
 Organs become increasingly viable (life could
possibly be sustained outside of the womb)
 The mother can feel the fetus move for the first
time
 At six months
 the eyes and eyelids are completely formed
 a grasping reflex appears
 irregular breathing begins
 Threats to foetus
 Teratogen
 Any agent that causes a birth defect
 Depend on timing of exposure (the body part or organ system
developing at the time of exposure is the most vulnerable)

 Alcohol
FASD = Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders
 Cluster of abnormalities and problems that appear in babies of
mothers who drank heavily during pregnancy
These include a small head (microcephaly), wide-spaced eyes, a
flattened nose, underdeveloped upper lip, heart defects, below average
intelligence etc

 STIs
 Can be transferred to baby
 During pregnancy and/or during birth
 Threats to foetus
 Preterm Infant
Born before 37 weeks
 At risk for developmental difficulties

 Complex issue

Because whether the preterm baby survives depends on how

early the birth is, access to quality medical care, quality
aftercare at home, etc
 Mostphysical development happens during
infancy
 18-24 months

 Reflexes
 Newborns come with prewired reflexes
 Some reflexes gained and others lost as infants
mature
 Perceptual and motor skills
 12 months - can sit, stand, climb, and walk
 2nd year – running and climbing
 Motor and perceptual skills depend on each other
 Environmental experiences
 Play role in motor development

 Preferential Looking
 Research technique
 Give infant choice of what object to look at
 Measure preferences
 Brain development
 Birth – minimal connections between neurons
 2 years – increased interconnections
 Dendritic spreading
 Myelination
 Begins prenatally to adolescence and adulthood
 Encase axons in myelin

 Childhood
 Synaptic connections increase dramatically
 Rapid frontal lobe growth
 3-6 years
 Puberty
Period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that

occurs mainly in early adolescence
 Increases in concentration of certain hormones
Testosterone (androgen) — boys
 genital development, height, voice changes

Estradiol (estrogen) — girls

 breast, uterine, and skeletal development

 Adolescent brain
 Early development of amygdala – emotion
 Late development of prefrontal cortex – reasoning
and decision making
Early Adulthood (20s and 30s)
 most reach the peak of physical development

Middle Adulthood (40s and 50s)

 most lose height, many gain weight
 menopause for women (late 40s or early 50s)

Late Adulthood (60s until death)

 accumulated wear and tear
 less ability to repair and regenerate
 Biological theories of ageing
 Cellular clock theory
 Leonard Hayflick (1977)
The older you are, the less cells divide
 Number of cell divisions related to individual’s age
 Cells divide maximum 100 times
 Maximum age – 120 years

 Free-radical theory
 People age because oxygen molecules (free radicals) are produced
in cells
 Free radicals damage DNA and other cellular structures
 Range of disorders – age related
For example, Alzheimer’s disease

 Hormonal stress theory

 Ageing in hormonal system lowers resistance to stress
 Increased likelihood of disease
 Ageing and the brain
 Capacity for renewal
 Hippocampus and olfactory bulb
 Repair capability
 Compensating for losses
 Lateralisation
 Specialisation of function in one hemisphere
 Can change in ageing
Refers to how intelligence, thought, and language
processes change as a person grows
 Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)
Until the mid-1900s, psychologists had no working
theory for how children’s thoughts, intelligence,
and language processes advanced as children age.
How do their minds develop?

 Children actively construct their world as they go

through stages

 His theory covered cognitive development from

childhood to adulthood
 Schemas
 Mental concept or framework that organises information and provides
structure for interpreting it
 Used to make sense of experiences
 They are expressed as various behaviours and skills that the child can
exercise in relation to objects and situations
Example: An early schema such as sucking. Later joined by more complex
schemas such as licking, chewing etc.

 Assimilation
 Incorporation of new information into existing knowledge/existing
schema. The new knowledge adds on to existing knowledge.
Example: First, toys are in schema of “picking things up”. Later, keys and
milk bottles can be assimilated into schema of “picking things up”

 Accommodation
 Adjustment of schemas to new information. The schema has to be
changed/adjusted in light of new information.
Example: The schema of “picking things up”: first requires two fingers,
but later has to change to include two hands, and can later realize that
some things are too heavy to be picked up.
 Sensorimotor stage
 Birth to 2 years
 Infants construct an understanding of the world
by coordinating sensory experiences (such as
seeing and hearing) with motor actions
 Begin symbolic thought towards the end of the
stage.
 Object permanence – develops around 8 months
 Before, “out of sight” meant literally “out of mind”
 Understand that objects and events continue to exist
even when they cannot be directly seen, heard, or
touched
 Preoperational stage
 2-7 years
 Thought is more symbolic
 Represent world with words, images, and drawings –
preschool stage
 But their symbolic thinking is still limited
 Cannot perform operations – reversible mental
representations
They understand: 4 + 2 = 6
But cannot understand: 6 – 2 = 4
Or can walk to friend’s house but can’t walk back home

 Cannot grasp concept of conservation

 Permanence of certain attributes of objects despite
superficial changes
***the beaker test***
 Concrete operational stage
 7 to 11 years
 Individual uses operations
 Replace intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning
in concrete situations
 Classify objects into sets and subsets –
classification.
For example, the concept of a family tree. Can
understand that mummy is not just mummy.
Mummy is also a daughter to her parents, a sister
to her siblings, and an aunt to her siblings’
children etc.
 Formal operational stage
 11 -15 years
 Thinking about things that are not concrete –
abstract concepts
 Make predictions
 Use logic to come up with hypotheses about the
future – don’t need to go through trial and error
 More idealistic, and logical
 Hypothetical – deductive reasoning
 More systematic problem solving
 Underestimated infant capabilities
 No role for culture and context
 Too much emphasis on grand stages
 Not enough small details in solving problems
 Overestimated adolescent and adult
cognition
 Cognitive changes after formal operational
stage
 So there other perspectives that we consider
in cognitive development even though Piaget
made significant contributions.
 Adolescent egocentrism
 Belief that others are preoccupied with them
 Sense of uniqueness
 Sense of invincibility

 Early adulthood
 Perceptual speed at its peak
Can put two and two together very quickly.
 More pragmatic and reasonable thinking
 Middle adulthood
 Compare early and middle adulthood on 2
dimensions
 Crystallised intelligence higher in middle adulthood
 Accumulated information and verbal skills
 Fluid intelligence higher in early adulthood
 Ability to reason abstractly

 Reach peak for many intellectual skills

 Numerical skills and perceptual speed declines
 Late adulthood
 Declining processing speed
 Poorer performance in most cognitive tasks
 Memory performance declines
 Wisdom
 Expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life
 Individual variation
 Strategy training and physical activity can
improve cognitive functioning
 Define schemas.

 Contrast assimilation and accommodation.

 List all of the stages in Piaget’s theory in order, including

the ages and the main cognitive abilities gained in those
stages.

 Explain the phenomena of object permanence,

conservation, reversible operations, and classification.

 What are the criticisms lodged against Piaget’s theories?

 Explore the changes in cognitive abilities from early to late

adulthood.
Refers to how temperament, attachment, and
relations change as a person grows.
 Temperament
 Individual’s style and characteristic ways of responding
 Emotionality and response to stimuli in environment

 Chess and Thomas (1977) – In their book, called “Temperament and

Development”, they identified 3 basic types of temperament in children:

 Easy child
 Positive mood
 Quickly establishes regular routines
 Easily adapts to new experiences

 Difficult child
 Fussy and cries frequently
 Engages in irregular daily routines
 Slow to accept new experiences

 Slow-to-warm-up child
 Low activity level
 Withdraw from new situations
 Cautious with new experiences
 Temperament
Other researchers have proposed these three dimensions as
the core of temperament:

 Effortful control/self regulation

The ability to control levels of arousal and not be easily
agitated.

 Inhibition
Being shy and showing distress in unfamiliar situation.

 Negative affectivity
Tending to be frustrated or sad.
 Attachment theory
 Attachment is the close and strong emotional
bond between an infant and his or her
caregiver(s)
 It is an important foundation for later
development, especially within the first year of
life
 Attachment theory
 Ainsworth
The “strange situation test”
Mothers were asked to leave their infants alone with a stranger for a couple of minutes and
then return. The way that the infant would respond indicated their attachment style.

Secure attachment – Majority of the infants



 Infants use their mother as a secure base from which to explore the environment.
They are upset when their mother leaves but they soon calm down and are happy to see their
mother when they return.
They are more likely to have a responsive and affectionate mother.

 Avoidant/dismissive attachment
 Won’t notice mother is gone
Or, they notice and become very agitated but will ignore the mother when she returns.

Anxious/preoccupied attachment
 Rage at mother when she returns
Highly distressed by the situation and will show it!!!

Mothers of infants with insecure types of attachment are more likely to be inconsistent in
their care and attention.
 Attachment theory
 Cultural differences not accounted for
In some cultures, especially those in Africa, infants form strong
attachments with people other than their primary caregivers.
Such as older siblings, aunties and uncles, and grandparents

 Temperamental differences not account for

Sometimes, the type of attachment a baby forms with their
mother is not due to the type of care they receive from the
mother. It could be that the baby, for example, might have an
inhibition or negative affectivity temperament.
 Erikson’s theory of socioemotional development
 Emphasised life long development
 8 psychosocial stages of development
 Each stage has a developmental task in which an
individual has to:
 Resolve a crisis
AND
 Personal competence if successfully resolved or weakness

and vulnerability if not.

First Four Stages: Childhood

 trust versus mistrust

 autonomy versus shame and doubt
 initiative versus guilt
 industry versus inferiority
 Next four stages: Adolescence and adulthood

 Identity vs identity confusion

 Intimacy vs isolation
 Generativity vs stagnation
 Integrity vs despair
 Erikson’s theory - evaluation
 Development is a lifelong process
Before Erikson, most scholars held that most of human
development occurs in childhood.

 Teenagers do face an identity crisis

Before, the changes that teens go through were mostly
focused on their sexual development. But now, it is
appreciated that they also have to establish an identity and
carve out a path for themselves

 However, the developmental tasks are too narrow

Missing other aspects that influence development
For example, young adults are not just confronted with issues
of intimacy vs isolation. They have to deal with establishing
and growing in their ability to make a living for themselves,
etc
 Parenting
 Influences children’s socioemotional
development
 4 parenting styles – Suggested by Baumrind
 Authoritarian
 Authoritative
 Neglectful
 Permissive
 Parenting
 Authoritarian parenting
 Restrictive and punitive
 Child is limited and controlled
 Very little verbal exchange
 Have to follow parent directions
 Children
 Lack social skills
 Show poor initiative
 Compare themselves with others
 Parenting
 Authoritative
 Encourages child to be independent
 Places some limits and controls
 Collaborative
 Warm and nurturing
 Children
 Socially competent
 Self-reliant
 Socially responsible
 Parenting
 Neglectful parenting
 Lack of parental involvement
 Children feel they are not a priority
 Children
 Less socially competent
 Handle independence poorly
 Poor self-control
 Parenting
 Permissive parenting
 Few limits on child
 Warm involvement
 Children
 Poor social competence
 Fail to learn to respect others
 Expect to get their own way
 Difficulty controlling behaviour

 Social/cultural context is very important

You could find that though parents might use a certain
style, the child outcomes are different because of the
cultural context.
 Marcia’s theory of identity status
Expanding on Erikson’s theory (particularly the identity vs
identity confusion stage) Marcia proposed the concept of
identity status to describe a person’s position in the
development of their identity.

Two dimensions of identity are key:

 Identity exploration
 Investigating options for a career and personal values

 Identity commitment
 Deciding which identity path to follow and committing
to attaining that identity.
 Marcia’s theory of identity status
The combinations of exploration and commitment give rise to one of
four identity statuses:

 Identity diffusion
 No exploration or commitment

 Identity moratorium
 Exploration present, but no commitment

 Identity foreclosure
 No exploration, but commitment is present

 Identity achievement
 Exploration and commitment present
 Ethnic identity
 Adolescents from ethnic minorities start to
understand how others evaluate their ethnic
group.
 Biculturalism – when the adolescent identifies
with both their minority group and with the
dominant culture.
 WHERE DO I FIT IN?
 On the other hand, strong ethnic identity serves as a
buffer against discrimination
 Role of parents and peers
 Both parents and peers help the adolescent answer
core questions of identity.
 Parents
 Effective management
When parents locate information, guide and assist the
teenager with their choices, and adequately monitors the
teenager, then they are like an effective manager.

 Peers
 Negative or positive influence
Starting with adolescence, individuals spend more time
with peers than with friends. Due to the dynamics of peer
pressure, peers could have significant positive or negative
influence
 Discuss the theories on temperament in children.

 What are the 3 types of attachment and what

are their indicators and causes?

 Explore in detail Erikson and Marcia’s theories of

socio-emotional development. Including stages,
ages (where applicable), and evaluations of
these theories.

 What are parenting styles and how do they

influence socio-emotional development?
Refers to changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviours
based on the principles and values that guide them
 Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
 Moral development linked to cognitive development –
especially through changes in thinking ability.

 3 stages
 Pre-conventional
 Conventional
 Post-conventional
Beginning in 1958, Kohlberg created 11 stories and asked children,
teens, and adults questions about the stories to determine the stages
of moral development. One of them goes something like this:

A woman was near death from cancer. There was one drug that doctors thought
might save her. This drug was a form of radium recently discovered by a
chemist in the same town. The drug was expensive to make, but the chemist
charged ten times the cost of making the drug.
The husband of the woman went to everyone he knew borrowing money to buy
the drug. But he only got half of the total cost. He took that money to the
chemist, told him that his wife is dying, and began asking him for a discount or
an opportunity to pay the rest of the money later. But the chemist refused.
The chemist said that he discovered the drug and he had plans to make money
from it.
Completely desperate, the husband broke into the pharmacy and stole the
drug.

Then Kohlberg would ask his participants questions like: Should the
husband have done this? Was he right or wrong to do so? Was the
chemist right or wrong for charging so high a price? Etc
 Kohlberg’s theory
 Pre-conventional
Moral reasoning based on consequences from external world
At this stage, moral decisions are based on the fear of punishment. “The husband
should not have done that, he is going to go to jail”

 Conventional
Lives by standards learned from parents and society


Moral decisions are based on order & law, and a sense of duty.
“The husband was right to steal the drug because it is his duty to take care of his
wife”
“The husband is right to want to help his wife but the law is the law”

 Post-conventional
Recognises alternative moral courses and explores options


 Develops a personal moral code

Decisions take into consideration what is accepted by society as well what is best
for members of society.
“The law has no precedence for such a case, the husband’s actions were justified”
“Saving the wife’s life is more important than obeying the law”
 Parentingstrategies associated with
morality in children…
 Warm and supportive rather than harsh
 Reasoning with child when disciplining
 Help child learn to take others’ perspective
 Involve child in decision making
 Model moral behavior and thinking
 Whatis moral development? Discuss
Kohlberg’s contribution to the topic.

 What are the stages of moral development

according to Kohlberg and how do they
differ?

 Discuss
how parents can foster the moral
development of their children.