Developmental Psychology: studies physical, cognitive & psychosocial changes across the life span

• Longitudinal research: study same participants over long period of time
• Issues: environmental (e.g., day care, divorce) vs. genetic effects on human development
• Problems: expensive, drop-outs

Themes of cognitive development

• Assimilation: use of existing schemas to take in new stimuli and respond accordingly
• Accommodation: changing a schema to cope with broader range of situations

• Stage 1: Sensorimotor (birth to year 2)
• Learns to coordinate sensory experiences & motor behavior
• At end of this stage, object permanence (understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be immediately perceived) is obtained
• Stage 2: Preoperational (age 2 to age 7)
• Ability to form mental representations makes language more sophisticated but there is still trouble with mental manipulation of information (e.g., lacking conservation)
• Egocentrism: cannot take on perspective/views of others yet
• Stage 3: Concrete Operational (age 7 to age 11)
• Can now take on others’ perspectives/views
• Child learns to logically reason about objects and their corresponding mental representations: classifying objects/properties, grasping concepts such as length, width, volume, time, simple arithmetic
• Transitive inferences: using reversible conceptualizations of concrete objects (e.g., conservation of objects)
• Conservation: certain properties of objects remain the same even when their appearance changes, provided that nothing is added or removed (e.g., cutting a pizza into 8 or 12 slices does not increased the total amount of pizza; pouring liquid from a short, wide glass into a tall, thinner glass does not increase the total amount of liquid)
• Stage 4: Formal Operational (age 11/12 – on)
• Adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic and logical ways
• Start of reversible conceptualizations of abstract concepts (e.g., what would happen if I did this rather than doing that?)

Erikson: Stages of psychosocial development (the effects of maturation & learning on personality and relationships)

• Trust vs. mistrust (birth-age 1)
• Treatment by caregivers creates trust in a good world
• Autonomy vs. shame & doubt (age 1-age 3)
• Child is allowed to make independent decisions or is made to feel ashamed/full of doubt about own decisions
• Initiative vs. guilt (3-6 years)
• Child either develops own purpose/direction or is made to feel guilty by overly controlling caregivers
• Industry vs. inferiority (6-11 years)
• Child either feels competent working with others or inferior
• Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence)
• Adolescent either grasps sense of identity or become confused about possible future roles as adult
• Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood)
• Forming deep/intimate relationships with others or becoming socially isolated
• Generativity vs. self-absorption/stagnation (middle adulthood)
• Determining what to leave behind for future generations or failing to grasp a sense of meaning in life
• Integrity vs. despair (old age)
• Feeling that life was worthwhile or feeling despair about one’s life and fearing death

Attachment: Enduring relationships with specific individuals

• The earliest roots of attachment are found in childhood when infants form strong bonds with adults (e.g., parents).
• Infant behavior is selected to attain attachment: smiling, crying, etc.
• Obstacles to attachment lead to anxiety in infancy

• (a) Secure – 50% of infants
• Infants feel comfortable to explore with responsive mother
• “I can count on my mother/father to be there when I need her/him!”
• (b) Avoidant – 25% of infants
• Infants appear detached from unresponsive or rejecting parent
• “I cannot count on my mother/father to be there when I need her/him!”
• (c) Anxious-Ambivalent – 25% of infants
• Infants cling to inconsistent caregiver and extremely protest when needs aren’t met
• “I think I can count on my mother/father to be there when I need her/him, but I’m not always sure...”

• The attachment style we develop as infants will cause us to grow up with certain expectations or schemas about the various relationships we form.
• Future research is needed to track persons’ attachment styles from infancy to adulthood (i.e., a longitudinal study).
• Many attachment researchers believe that styles can change over the course of a lifetime.
• This change is believed to go from insecure to secure.
• However, Hazan & Hutt (1991) found that 25% of two different samples reported a change in style from secure to insecure.
• Attachment Styles Within Couples
• We saw that most people report having a secure attachment style; most secure people get together with secure people...but very few, if any, couples are composed of two matching non-secure styles (i.e., two avoidants or two anxious-ambivalents)

Preconventional

• Punishment orientation: avoid punishment
• Naïve reward orientation: obtain rewards

• Good boy-Nice girl orientation: gain approval & avoid disapproval
• Society-maintaining orientation: fulfill one’s duty to avoid feelings of guilt

• Social-contract orientation: follow mutually agreed upon rules
• Universal ethical principle orientation: uphold one’s own principles & avoid self condemnation