C81 IAP LECTURE 3:

DEVELOPMENT
THROUGH THE
LIFESPAN
Lecturer: Jessica S. Dunn

Jessica.Dunn@nottingham.edu.my
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
O To identify and explore the core research and
theoretical approaches in developmental
psychology;
O To identify the major physical changes that occur
throughout the life span;
O To examine the different cognitive changes that
take place during the life cycle;
O To understand the processes involved in Socio-
Emotional Development;
O To discuss modern perspectives on the challenges
of adulthood.

WHAT MAJOR QUESTIONS SHOULD I BE ASKING
MYSELF WHEN STUDYING THIS TOPIC?
O What is Developmental Psychology?
O Do genes or environment determine how we develop
and who we become as individuals?
O Does one course of development characterize all
people, or are there many possible courses?
O What are the major physical changes that occur
throughout the life span?
O How does cognition, or the way we think about the
world and process information change during our life
cycle?
O How do attachment and parenting styles affect
development?
WHAT DOES DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
ENTAIL?
O The focus of Developmental Psychology is to identify the
factors that contribute to constancy and change throughout
the human life span.


O Developmental psychologists study a persons age-related
biological, emotional, cognitive, personal and social
development.

O This includes from birth (infancy) to late adulthood (before
death).
OThe study of human development began with
Darwin and other evolutionists.

ODarwin thought if he studied human
development he could further prove his
theory of evolution (Boyd & Bee, 2006).


LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT
Stage Approximate Age
Prenatal Conception to birth
Infancy Birth to 18 months
Early childhood 18 mo. to 6 years
Middle childhood 6-12 years
Adolescence 12-20 years
Young adulthood 20-45 years
Middle adulthood 45-60 years
Late adulthood 60 years to death
THEORETICAL ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
OKey development issues include:
Nature versus nurture debate
O It asks how much nature (genetic factors) and how much
nurture (environmental factors) contribute to a persons
biological, emotional, cognitive, personal & social
development.

O To what extent are behaviors the result of experience or the
result of genetic and biological processes (such as
maturation)? (Huffman, 2007)

O Who should get custody of the child? Dana Wakefield
(Juvenile Court Judge, USA)(Gibbs, 1993 in Plotnik &
Kouyoumdjian, 2011)


)

NATURE VS NURTURE CASE OF CHILD
PRODIGY YEHUDI MENUHIN
O Yehudi Menuhin Russian
Jewish-American violinist who
excelled at age 5 & debuted
professionally at 7yrs.

O Prodigy is a child who shows
highly unusual talent, ability,
genius at a very early age and
does not have mental
retardation of any kind.(This is
different to savants - gifted
autistic children)

YEHUDI MENUHIN
O Menuhin stands, among other prodigies, as a good
example of the interaction between nature and
nurture.

O There were clear prenatal (before birth) effects on
Yehudis development in the form of genetic
instructions. These instructions regulated the
development of his brain and body.

Lets look at Yehudis genetic make-up in
more detail:

Ys father contributed half of his genetic instructions
(23 chromosomes) and the mother the other half (23
chromosomes). Both were teachers with musical
talents and interests.

Yehudis sisters:
O showed early musical abilities and were playing
piano at the ages of 5 &7yrs.
O It is difficult to tell whether their abilities were natural
since they grew up in a historical period where
females had few opportunities in professional music,
so they were unable to develop these skills.
YEHUDI MENUHIN
O Was hailed as the greatest child prodigy since Mozart
and developed into a legendary violin performer,
conductor and teacher.
O Psychologist have long recognised the importance of
learning influences.
O We can see the:
(i) genetic influences played in the genetic inheritance and
wiring of his brain - enabling him to display such abilities at a
very young age and before he even had a chance to learn
them &
(ii) environmental influences (such as being taken to concerts
at age 2 and being encouraged to practice and take lessons

http://youtu.be/xV0IcFyXUWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV0IcFyXUWs

IS DEVELOPMENT CONTINUOUS OR
DISCONTINUOUS?
(a) Some theorists believe development is a smooth,
continuous process.
O Individuals gradually add more of the same types
of skills.

(b) Other theorists think that development takes place in
discontinuous stages.
O People change rapidly as they step up to a new level and
then change very little for a while.
O With each new step, the person interprets and responds
to the world in a qualitatively different way.
(Berk, 2007)
CORE ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
HOW IS RESEARCH IN
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
CONDUCTED?
RESEARCH APPROACHES IN DEVELOPMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
DID YOU KNOW?
O When you were conceived you were smaller than
the full-stop at the end of a sentence?

O At birth, your head was approx. (25%) of your
total body size, but as an adult it becomes only
one-eighth?

O During the last few months that your mum carried
you, you could hear sounds outside of her womb?

O As a newborn, within the first few days of life you
can show preference for the smell and taste of
your own mothers milk over another mothers?

PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
Ooccurs in 3 stages:
Germinal Stage -
Ovulation to implantation:
the ovum travels down
the fallopian tube, is
fertilized by a sperm, and
is then implanted within
the wall of the uterus.*
Embryonic period:
implantation to 8 weeks
Fetal stage: 8 weeks to
birth
TERATOGENS AND PRENATAL HAZARDS
O Teratogens are environmental substances that can cause
birth defects in the developing fetus. E.g.
Maternal alcohol use leads to fetal alcohol syndrome (facial
defects, low IQ, neurobehavioral defects)
Nicotine exposure leads to premature births, low birth weights,
fetal deaths, cognitive problems,
behavioral abnormalities.

O PRENATAL HAZARDS
Poor maternal nutrition can impair fetal development
Drug use by father can damage sperm:
Alcohol, opiates, cocaine, lead, and various gases are known to
damage sperm.
WHAT ARE THE HALLMARKS OF
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT?
MOTOR MILESTONES
MOTOR MILESTONES
O Early motor actions of the infant are limited to
reflexes
O Myelination* and further brain development allow
for crawling and then walking.

*Myelination - The human brain is not a finished organ at birth -- in fact, another
10 or 12 years are needed before even a general development is completed.
In the process of physical development, the brain is performing many
functions as well.
Myelination is one such and is involved in the acquisition, development, or
formation of a myelin sheath around a nerve fiber.

h
t
t
p
:
/
/
w
w
w
.
s
i
u
m
e
d
.
e
d
u
/
~
d
k
i
n
g
2
/
s
s
b
/
n
e
u
r
o
n
.
h
t
m
#
m
y
e
l
i
n

RESEARCH ON INFANT PERCEPTUAL
ABILITIES
OInfant vision is poor at birth

OFunctionality of the senses:
Hearing is functional prior to birth
Smell is functional at birth
Touch and pain are functional at birth

OInfant perception can be inferred by
changes in heart rate upon stimulus
exposure or by changes in sucking (and
grasping) rate.
BODY PROPORTIONS CHANGE OVER THE LIFE SPAN
- MALE
BODY PROPORTIONS CHANGE OVER THE LIFE
SPAN - FEMALE
h
t
t
p
:
/
/
w
w
w
.
a
v
e
r
t
.
o
r
g
/
p
u
b
e
r
t
y
-
g
i
r
l
s
.
h
t
m

ADOLESCENCE
O Puberty- dramatic biological
changes during adolescence
that lead to an adult-sized body
and sexual maturity
growth spurt
Menarche (girls): onset of
menstruation
Spermarche (boys): first
ejaculation (wet dream)
secondary sex characteristics
gender traits*

* traits which give an individual an advantage
over its rivals in courtship and aggressive
interactions.
PHYSICAL CHANGES IN
ADOLESCENCE
CHANGES IN ADULTHOOD
O Minor and gradual in young adulthood between 25-
45

And then in middle to late adulthood
O Menopause- the cessation of the menstrual cycle
O Male climacteric- decline in production of sperm
and testosterone.

O After middle-age years, most physical changes are
gradual and occur in the heart, arteries, brain, and
sensory receptors (vision etc).

AGING: LATE ADULTHOOD

O Primary Aging- gradual, inevitable age-related changes in
physical and mental processes.
Programmed theory - asserts that aging is an essential and
innate part of the biology of people; programmed into our body
systems.
- The three main systems that are connected with aging are
the endocrine (hormonal) system, the immune system and our
genes.

Damage theory systems weaken .and change over time.
AGING
O Secondary aging- changes resulting from disease,
disuse or neglect in lifestyle.

O This includes poor health practices (e.g. no
exercise, smoking, consuming excess fat and other
forms of self-damage).

O This kind of aging is regarded as preventable,
whether through lifestyle choice or modern
medicine.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
OF DEVELOPMENT
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
O Sigmund Freud's psychosexual stages describe the
progression of an individual's unconscious desires.

O Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid
and thus turned to ancient mythology and other research.

O He named his new theory the Oedipus Complex after the
famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.

"I found in myself a constant love for my mother,
and jealousy of my father.
I now consider this to be a universal
event in childhood," Freud said.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
O Freud sought to anchor this pattern of development in
the dynamics of the mind. Each stage is a progression
into adult sexual maturity, characterized by the ability to
delay gratification.

O He argued that as humans develop, they become
fixated on different and specific objects through their
stages of development. Theory formed part of a larger
Psychoanalytic theory of personality.


PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
1. First in the oral stage Usually during the first 18
months of life.

Highlights an infant's pleasure-seeking
impulses, as centred on the mouth especially
in nursing. Involves sucking chewing biting. If
desire goes ungratified in childhood, person
would continue to seek oral gratification as an
adult.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT
2. The anal stage - exemplified from approx. ages
1 - 3yrs when an infant s pleasure seeking is
centred around the anus and its functions and
elimination. (E.g a toddler's pleasure in evacuating
his or her bowels)

O Fixations: Retention vs Elimination

O Retention behaviourally rigid, stingy
O Elimination messy and generous
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
3. The phallic stage (early childhood 3-6years) Freud
argued that children then passed through a stage in
which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object .
Child becomes fascinated by their own genitals (pleasure
seeking behaviours)

O Here the child will also compete with a parent of the same
sex for the affections and pleasures of the parent of the
opposite sex.

O Problems resolving these unconscious desires may leave
the child feeling that they have something to prove in
adulthood.
PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
4. The repressive or dormant latency stage (middle
and late childhood; from age 6-puberty)

O Freud posited that not much happens in
psychosexual development at this stage because
the child represses sexual thoughts and engages in
non-sexual activities, like developing social and
intellectual skills. At puberty however this changes
sexuality reappears!

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE
5. The genital stage (puberty through adulthood) was
the point at which sexually maturity emerged. Here,
the individual has renewed sexual desires that he or
she seeks to fulfil through relationships with
members of the opposite sex.
O Freud's views have sometimes been called
phallocentric (too focused on genital and sexual
impulses)

O Freud highlighted the first 3 stages as the most crucial
in determining future personality and social
development.

PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY
Erik Erikson and the 8 Stages of Life
ERIKSONS THEORY
O Divided lifespan into eight periods. Each period
has a conflict that must be resolved. Type of
resolution has consequences that carry over for the
rest of your life.

ERIKSONS PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY
O Trust vs mistrust (0-1 year)
O Autonomy vs shame and doubt (1-3 years)
O Initiative vs guilt (3-6 years)
O Industry vs inferiority (6 yrs to puberty)
O Identity vs role confusion
O Intimacy vs isolation
O Generativity vs stagnation
O Ego integrity vs despair
TRUST VS MISTRUST
O Early infancy (birth- 1yr)
O Infants need care and attention.
O If parents are responsive to those needs the child
will develop basic trust, which makes it easier for
him or her to trust people later in life.

O If these needs are neglected by parents however
the child may grow to view the word as uncaring
and have difficulty trusting others.
AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT
O Late infancy (1-3years)
O As children begin walking, talking and exploring, it is
expected that they will meet upon conflict with parents.
O This stages is marked by the battle of wills between
parents wishes and the infants own desire to do as they
please.
O If parents encourage the child to explore, he/she will
develop a sense of healthy independence/autonomy.
O On the contrary, if the parents punish or show
disapproval of the childs explorations, they may develop
shame, self-doubt or view independence as bad.
INITIATIVE VS GUILT
O Early Childhood. 3-5 years
O Childs first contact with preschool facilitates
development of cognitive and social skills that they
will rely on to meet the challenges of everyday life.
O These challenges include problem solving, taking
responsibility and making plans.
O If parents encourage initiative the child will develop
these abilities. If they discourage initiative however,
the child will feel uncomfortable, guilty or incapable
of planning their future.
INDUSTRY VS INFERIORITY
O Middle childhood - Ages 5-12years

O Here the child begins participating in school,
playing games with other children and learning to
complete projects.
O The child will develop a feeling of industry if the
child feels free to direct their energy into working on
such tasks
O If the child has difficulty applying themselves, they
may develop a feeling of inferiority.

IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION
O Ages 12-20 a.k.a adolescence
O Here, adolescents leave behind the carefree
irresponsible behaviours and attitudes of childhood
and seek to develop the more purposeful
responsible and planned behaviours of adults.
O If successful in making this change, they will
develop a sense of confidence and a positive
identity and if unsuccessful they will experience role
confusion (associated with immaturity, low self
esteem and social withdrawal).
INTIMACY VS ISOLATION
O Ages 20-40
O Young adulthood is a time for finding intimacy,
loving and meaningful relationships.
O If intimacy is found it, can have positive effects,
however, if not, it may lead to isolation and painful
feelings from an inability to develop personal
relationships.
GENERATIVITY VS STAGNATION
O Middle adulthood 40-65
O Here, the focus is on helping the younger
generation to develop worthwhile lives
O Generativity is a state of personal accomplishment
which comes from raising either your own children,
your relatives, or other peoples kids.
O This can also be achieved through mentoring at
work and helping others.
O If not achieved, stagnation is said to have been
reached a sense of having nothing to offer to the
younger generation.
INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR
O Late adulthood (65 and older)

O Here persons reflect on how well they have met
previous challenges in their lives.

O If they look back and feel content, their is a sense
of integrity.

O However if there is regret from crises, problems and
bad experiences - despair ensues.
INTEGRITY & ACHIEVEMENT IN LATE ADULTHOOD
SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
OAttachment is defined as an active, intense,
emotional relationship between two people that
endures over time.

OAttachment is an innate process:
Bowlby argued that infants have verbal (cooing) and
nonverbal (smiling, following) responses that elicit
nurturance.

OAttachment comes in part from contact comfort:
Harlow found that infant monkeys preferred contact
with terry cloth surface over access to food.
ATTACHMENT
OAinsworth found 3 distinct categories of
attachment evident in children in a strange
situation:

Secure attachment: infant stays close to mother,
shows moderate distress when separated, and is
happy when mother returns
Avoidant: infant does not seek contact with
mother and does not cry when she leaves
Anxious/Ambivalent: infant is upset when
mother leaves and angry when she returns

PARENTING STYLES
O Baumrind studied parenting styles and identified the
following:
Authoritarian: Parent places a high value on obedience
and respect for authority.
Permissive: Parent imposes minimal controls on their
children.
Authoritative: Parent enforces standards, but
encourages verbal give-and-take with the child.


FINDINGS ON PARENTING STYLE
O Parenting style affects childrens behavior:
Authoritarian parents produce children with low
independence, low self-esteem, and an external
locus of control.
Permissive parents produce children with poor
self-control and poor social skills
Authoritative parents produce children who
become self-reliant, self-controlled and high
achieving.

CRITICISMS OF BAUMRINDS ANALYSIS
O These results may reflect childs unique
temperament and reactions to parental efforts.

O A childs expectation of how parents should behave
also plays an important role in parenting styles.

O The most important variable in parenting styles and
child development might be the degree of warmth
versus rejection.

ROGERS: UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE
REGARD
O Introduced by Humanist, Carl Rogers

O Refers to basic acceptance and support of a person
regardless of what the person says or does.

O People who have not experienced it may come to see
themselves in the negative ways that others have
made them feel, so UPR is essential to healthy
psychological development.

O Good parents show their children unconditional
positive regard.
RESEARCH TOPICS WHICH HAVE EMERGED IN
MODERN DAY.
Some additional socio-emotional issues faced in
Adulthood include:

O Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood at all stages
O Marriage overcoming unrealistic expectations
O Work, Employment and Retirement
O Domestic Violence in Families
O Empty-nest Syndrome
O Grief and Attitudes toward Death and Dying


COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE
LIFESPAN
THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT -
JEAN PIAGET
OCognitive reasoning is primitive
at birth and changes
substantially from infancy to
adulthood (from sucking to MP4s).

OSchemas are the basic units of
intellect.
OThey are ideas (cognitive
structures) that organise our
interactions with the
environment.
OSchemas grow and differentiate
with experience.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
OCognitive adaptation reflects the actions of
two complementary processes:

Assimilation: absorbing new information into
existing schemas (frameworks).

Accommodation: adjusting old schemas or
developing new ones to better fit with the new
information.

4 STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
O Sensorimotor period: Birth through age 2
Infant schemas are developed through sensory and motor skills
Object permanence awareness that people (objects) continue to
exist even when they cant be seen or heard.


O Preoperational period: Age 2 to 7
Child begins to use mental representations, but problem solving is
limited
Egocentrism unable to consider anothers point of view.
Animism attributing human qualities to inanimate objects
4 STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
O Concrete operations: Age 7 to 11
Child performs slightly more complex mental operations and
calculations
Can distinguish varying forms of Conservation

O Formal operations: Age 12 through adulthood
Child can use formal problem-solving and higher level abstract
thinking
Adolescent Egocentrism (personal fable, imaginary audience)
no one understands me.
Risk-taking - engaging in sexual intercourse without protection,
reckless driving, using drugs.
Feeling immortal.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH
THE LIFESPAN
THE SITUATION:
O In a small town, a woman was near death from a rare
kind of cancer.

O There was one drug that the doctors thought might save
her. It was a drug that a pharmacist in the same town
recently discovered.

O The drug was expensive to make and the pharmacist
was charging 10 times the cost to make it.

O The Pharmacist paid 5000 for the radium and was
charging 50,000 for a small dose of the drug.
THE SITUATION
O The sick womans husband went to everyone he
knew in order to borrow money but he could only
get together 25,000, which was half of what the
drug cost.

O He told the pharmacist that his wife was dying and
asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But
the pharmacist said, no I discovered the drug and
Im going to make money from it.

O So the husband got desperate and broke into the
mans store to steal the drug for his wife.

SHOULD THE HUSBAND
HAVE DONE THAT?

WAS HIS BEHAVIOUR
WRONG OR RIGHT?
IS IT A HUSBANDS DUTY
TO STEAL THE DRUG FOR
HIS WIFE IF HE CANT GET
IT ANY OTHER WAY?

WHAT WOULD A GOOD
HUSBAND DO?
DID THE PHARMACIST
HAVE THE RIGHT TO
CHARGE THAT MUCH
WHEN THERE IS NO LAW
ACTUALLY SETTING A
LIMIT TO THE PRICE?
MORAL THOUGHT
O At different points in our lives, we exhibit different
thoughts and beliefs regarding moral behavior

O Kohlberg examined moral thought by asking people of
various ages to comment on moral situations evident in a
vignette like the one given:

Heinz stole an expensive drug in order
to save the life of his wife who suffers
from cancer
KOHLBERGS THEORY OF MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
BRIEF SUMMARY
OToday we have reviewed development
through the lifespan from several
perspectives:
Physical,
Psychosexual, social and emotional
Cognitive
Moral

Next week we will examine personality
development.
REFERENCES USED FOR THIS
LECTURE
O Gerrig, R. & Zimbardo, P. (2010). Psychology and
Life, 19
th
Edition, Boston: Pearson (Chapter 10)

O Huffman, K. (2007). Psychology in Action, 8
th
Ed.
MA: John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Chapters 9 & 10:
Life Span Development I & II)

O Plotnik, R. & Kouyoumdjian, H. (2011). Introduction
to Psychology, 9
th
Ed. (Intl Ed.). Belmont, USA:
Cengage. [Chapter 17]

WEB LINKS FOR IMAGES
O http://library.thinkquest.org/27178/en/section/3/2.ht
ml

Also See Web URL: www.dmacc.edu