Developmental Psychology

1
Developmental Psychology

• Social development
• Adolescence
• Adulthood

2
Developmental sequence in peer play

• At one, infants interact only when drawn to the
  same object
• Between one and two, conflict is gradually
  replaced turn-taking
• By age two, parallel play is preferred
• By age four, shallow friendships are developed
• Four-year-olds spend three times as much time
  with same-sex playmates as opposite-sex playmates
• By age six, children spend 11 times as much time
  with same-sex playmates

3
Developmental sequence in peer relations

• From grades 5 to 12, there is a steady increase
  in time spent thinking about and, then, being
  with the opposite sex
• Adolescent relationships can be highly intimate
  (e.g., marked by self-disclosure)
• From grades 3 to 12, conformity to peers rises,
  reaches its peak at 9th grade, and then steadily
  declines

4
At risk children and recovery

• Four types of school-age children
• Popular (sociable, skilled, liked)
• Rejected (aggressive or withdrawn, unskilled,
  unliked)
• Controversial (mixture of first two)
• Neglected (less sociable/aggressive and not
  mentioned)
• Rejected children are more likely to
• Feel lonely, drop out of school, have academic
  and drug problems, and have social adjustment
  problems as adults
• What helps rejected children gain acceptance?
• Taking responsibility for the rejection
• Extracurricular activities
• Concerned and active parents
• Having a friend

5
Social development in adolescence

• The central task in adolescence is to establish a
  sense of identity a sense of who one is and what
  ones values and ideals are
• Identity includes gender and racial/ethnic
  aspects
• Very often, the search for identity involves
  breaking away from childhood beliefs by
  challenging parental and societal ideas
• Why is there an identity crisis during
  adolescence?
• Changing physical appearance leads to change in
  self-image
• More sophisticated cognitive abilities, which
  lead to introspection
• Heightened pressure to prepare for the future,
  especially career choices
• See Eriksons Stage 5 for the four different
  types of approaches used by adolescents to
  confront this crisis

6
Relationships with parents

• One stereotype of the teenager living at home is
  that of
• Rebellion against and conflict with parents
• Marked rise in risk-taking behavior (e.g., sexual
  activity)
• Emotional life is marked by mood disruptions and
  state of distress
• Rise in rebelliousness and risk-taking behaviors
  are true
• However, the idea that the teenage years are
  inevitably marked by emotional distress (e.g.,
  confusion, insecurity, etc.) is exaggerated
• Rebelliousness is normal in Western culture,
  where independence and autonomy are highly valued
• Teenager asserts independence arguing about
  chores
• Teenager disengages from family activities
• But it is not inevitable see non-Western
  cultures
• And, even in Western culture, it is often
  positively resolved before independence

7
Sexuality and risk-taking behavior

• Rise in the sexual activity of teenage girls from
  10 in 1940s to 50 in 1980s
• Although more sexually active, todays teenagers
  are not better informed
• Teenage pregnancies
• 60 of college students say they did not use any
  form of contraceptive the first time they had sex
• Why not?
• (1) They are simply engaging in adult activities
  when they are physically, but not
  psychologically, ready
• (2) Engaging in risk-taking behavior is a form of
  rebellion
• (3) They are forced to react to situations for
  which they are unprepared
• (4) If you feel ambivalent about sex, its easier
  to justify having sex if youve been swept off
  your feet, than if actually plan it planning it
  means a lot of cognitive dissonance
• (5) If youre brought up to think that having
  premarital sex is wrong, then you dont spend a
  lot of time thinking about how to have sex and
  how to have it safely as much as you spend time
  trying to deal with your conflicted feelings
  about sex
• (6) A lack of emotional appreciation of the
  risks like that with smoking

8
Social Development Peer relations

• Rowe (1994), Harris (1998)
• The effects of the home environment and parents
  have little impact on adult personality.
• Rather, peers exert the most influence on adult
  personality
• Group socialization theory
• Children learn two sets of behaviors, one for
  inside the home and one for outside the home
• Behaviors learned inside the home are not useful
  in outside social contexts
• Only those behaviors learned outside the home
  have long-term effects on personality
• Parents primary role may be in influencing the
  choices the child makes about which social group
  to join.
• However, the fit between parental style and the
  childs temperament also contributes to the
  childs well-being.

9
Adulthood and Old Age
10
Adulthood and old age

• Life Span The maximum age possible for members
  of a given species (humans 120).
• Life Expectancy The number of years that an
  average member of a species is expected to live
  (men 74 women 80).

11
Eriksons stages 1 and 2

• Basic trust vs. mistrust Infancy (0-1 yrs.)
• From warm, responsive care, infants gain a sense
  of trust or confidence that the world is good.
  Mistrust occurs when infants have to wait too
  long for comfort and are handled harshly.
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt Toddler (1-3 yrs.)
• Using new mental and motor skills, children want
  to choose and decide for themselves. Autonomy is
  fostered when parents permit reasonable free
  choice and do not force or shame the child.

12
Eriksons stages 3 and 4

• Initiative vs. guilt Early childhood (3-6 yrs.)
• Through make-believe play, children experiment
  with the kind of person they can become.
  Initiative a sense of ambition and
  responsibility develops when parents support
  their childs new sense of purpose and direction.
  The danger is that parents will demand too much
  self-control, which leads to overcontrol, or too
  much guilt.
• Industry vs. inferiority Childhood (6-11 yrs.)
• At school, children develop the capacity to work
  and cooperate with others. Inferiority develops
  when negative experiences at home, at school, or
  with peers lead to feelings of incompetence and
  inferiority.

13
Eriksons stages 5

• Identity vs. Role confusion Adolescence (13-19)
• The central task in adolescence is to establish a
  sense of identity a sense of who one is and what
  ones values and ideals are
• Four approaches to the identity crisis
• Achievement explored alternatives and committed
  to one
• Moratorium in the process of exploring
• Foreclosure accepted ready-made identity from
  authority without thinking
• Diffusion (confusion) no commitment because they
  find exploration too threatening
• See slide 5 (Social development in adolescence)
  for more on the identity crisis

14
Eriksons stages 6

• Intimacy vs. Isolation Young adulthood (20-40)
• When a person has a secure sense of intimacy,
  they are cooperative, tolerant, and accepting at
  work and in their friendships
• A mature sense of intimacy involves balancing the
  need for identity (and independence) with the
  demand to redefine yourself in terms of someone
  else
• When a person has not achieved identity and
  independence in stage 5, they lose the capacity
  for a truly mature sense of intimacy and they
  become isolated
• They define themselves in terms of their partner,
  sacrificing their self-respect and initiative
• They fear to form close ties because they fear
  the loss of their own weak identity
• They are easily threatened when others get too
  close
• This leads to competition, rather than
  cooperation, in personal, social, and work
  relationships
• They become self-absorbed and lose the ability
  for generativity in stage 7

15
The three pillars of adulthood

• Career
• Marriage
• Married people live longer
• A majority of people report they are satisfied
  with their marriages
• Yet ½ of all marriages end in divorce
• Your chances of ending up in a happy marriage are
  1 in 3
• Children
• One way to be generative (see next slide)
• Having children is stressful, joyful, and central
  to how adults define themselves
• Social clock
• A set of cultural expectations concerning the
  most appropriate age for men and women to leave
  home, marry, start career, have children, and
  retire
• Following the social clock breeds confidence
• Not following the social clock breeds distress

16
Eriksons stages 7

• Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle adulthood
  (40-65 years)
• Generativity A persons focus moves beyond
  oneself (identity) and ones partner (intimacy)
  to include
• Contributions to larger groups, such as ones
  community or society in general
• Enhancement of future through
• Having and parenting children
• Passing on ones knowledge to others
• Creating products (e.g., works of art, ideas)
  that survive beyond ones own lifetime
• Stagnation A person becomes self-centered and
  self-indulgent, placing their own comfort and
  security above challenge and sacrifice

17
The Myth of a Midlife Crisis"

• 10,000 adults filled out a questionnaire that
  measured emotional instability
• Neither males nor females showed increased
  instability during the 40s or early 50s

18
Eriksons stages 8

• Integrity vs. Despair Late adulthood (65 and
  older)
• Integrity coming to terms with ones own life
• Person has adapted to the mix of triumphs and
  disappointments that are an inevitable part of
  life
• Person has a capacity to view ones life in the
  larger context of all humanity
• Despair feeling that one has made the wrong
  decisions, but time is too short to set things
  right
• Hard to accept that death is near
• Overwhelmed with bitterness, defeat, and
  hopelessness
• Contempt of oneself is often expressed as anger
  and contempt for others

19
The Aging of America
20
Life Satisfaction and Age

• In multiple cultures, 75-80 say they are
  satisfied with life.
• This does not vary appreciably with age.

21
Are Old People More Depressed?

• Depression decreases from early adulthood into
  middle and later years
• Depression is increased in the very old

22
Aging and senility

• 10-15 of the elderly (60-75) suffer mild to
  moderate memory loss
• 10 of the elderly (65 and older) suffer from
  dementia, the progressive and global disturbance
  of higher cognitive functions
• Half of all dementia is caused by Alzheimers
  disease, in which brain cells are destroyed by
  plaques and tangles
• The other major cause of dementia is small
  strokes that affect blood supply in the brain

23
Cognitive development in adulthood

• Loss of mental speed an increase in time between
  stimulus input and motor output begins in
  mid-20s
• Consistent evidence that the frontal lobes shrink
  as people grow older
• Changes in memory
• Loss of confidence in memory abilities
• Loss of working memory (e.g., dual task) capacity
• More decline in recall than recognition
• Can be attenuated by encouraging specific
  encoding strategies
• Decline in fluid, but rise in crystallized,
  intelligence
• Correlation between work productivity and age is 0

24
Dying and Death

• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed five stages in
  approaching death
• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance
• Empirical evidence shows some support, but not
  all people experience all stages