DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY/HUMAN

DEVELOPMENT

Lecturer: Mr Kgabo Mashaba

Office Number: M Block, Psychology Department, 1029
Textbook: Lifespan Development: Infancy Through Adulthood
by L Steinberg, MH Bornstein, D L Vandell, K S Rook, 2011
Additional literature: Any book on Human Development
WELCOME
 Welcome human development, starting from
the period of conception to the beginning of
adulthood. The study of this module will add
scientific (academic and theoretical)
knowledge to your personal experiences, so
that you will know what normal and healthy
developments during these stages are. The
purpose is also that you will know which
factors can promote the optimal development
of the human development.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
The pattern of movement or change that begins at
conception and continues through the human life span
WHY STUDY LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT?
 Describe: what people are like at certain ages, how they
change due to environment
 Explain: what causes developmental changes
 Predict: what the person will be like in future
 Intervene: after gathering the information one need to
intervene in order to enhance people’s lives
 You can gain insight to your own life as a child, adolescent, and
adult.
 You may be a parent or a teacher some day.
 Life-span development is linked with many different areas of
psychology.
Development is Studied by a Number of Disciplines

 Psychologists
 Sociologists
 Anthropologists
 Neuroscientists
 Medical Researchers
 Development is Multidimensional

 There are biological/physical dimensions.

 There are cognitive dimensions.
 There are socioemotional dimensions.
BIOLOGICAL/PHYSICAL DIMESIONS

 Involve changes in the individual’s physical nature

such as:
 Height and weight gains

 The development of the brain

 Changes in motor skills

 Cardiovascular decline
COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS

 Involve changes in the individual’s thought,

intelligence, and language such as:
 Watching a mobile swing above a crib

 Creating a two-word sentence

 Memorizing a poem

 Imagining being a movie star

SOCIOEMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS

 Involve changes in the individual’s relationships

with other people, changes in emotions, and
changes in personality such as:
 An infant smiling from her mother’s touch

 A young boy hitting a playmate

 A girl’s joy at her senior prom

 The affection of an elderly couple

PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT

 The prenatal period

 Infancy
 Early childhood
 Middle and late childhood
 Adolescence
 Early adulthood
 Middle adulthood
 Late adulthood
The Prenatal Period

 The time from conception to birth

 From a single cell to an organism complete with
a brain and behavioral capabilities
 Approximately a 9-month
period
Infancy

 The developmental period from birth to 18 or 24

months
 A time of extreme dependency on adults
 Many psychological activities are just beginning
Early Childhood

 The developmental period extending from the end

of infancy to about 5 or 6 years
 Often called the “preschool years”
 Children learn to become more self-sufficient
 Children now develop school readiness skills
 Children spend many hours playing with peers
 Middle and Late Childhood

 The developmental period extending from about 6 to 11

years of age
 Approximately corresponds to the primary school
years
 Fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic
are mastered
 Child is formally exposed to larger world and its
culture
 Adolescence

 The developmental period of transition from childhood

to early adulthood—entered at 10-12 years, ending at
18-22 years
 Begins with rapid physical changes.
 Pursuit of independence and identity are prominent
 Thought is now more logical, abstract, and idealistic
 Early Adulthood

 The developmental period beginning in the late teens or

early twenties and lasting through the thirties
 A time of establishing personal and economic
independence
 Also a time of career development
 Early adults select a mate, start a family, and rear
children
 Middle Adulthood

 The developmental period beginning around 40 years of

age and extending to about 60
 A time of expanding personal and social involvement and
responsibility
 Also a time of assisting the next generation in becoming
competent
 Middle adults reach and maintain satisfaction in a career
Late Adulthood

 The developmental period beginning in the

sixties or seventies and lasting until death
 A time of adjustment to decreasing strength and
health
 Also a time of life review, retirement, and new
social roles
DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES
 Nature vs. Nurture
 Continuity vs. Discontinuity
 Stability vs. Change
 Activity vs. passivity
 Universal vs. particular
 The Nature-Nurture Issue

 Involves the debate about whether development is

primarily influenced by nature or nurture
Nature

 An organism’s biological inheritance

Nurture

 An organism’s environmental experiences

 The Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

 This issue focuses on the extent to which development

involves gradual, cumulative change or distinct stages.
 Continuity

 Development results from a gradual process occurring

over several weeks, months, and possibly years.
 Discontinuity

 Development occurs through a sequence of stages in

which change is qualitatively rather than quantitatively
different.
The Stability-Change Issue

 This issue involves the degree to which we

become older renditions of our early experience
or whether we develop into someone different
from who we were at an earlier point in
development.
 It considers the extent to which early
experiences (especially in infancy) or later
experiences are the key determinants of a
person’s development.
Guiding principles in studying Human
Development
 Scientists agree that:
- Development results from interplay of biology and
environment
- Development occurs in multi-layered context i.e. one
is affected by interpersonal relationships, social
institutions, culture and historical period in which one
develops
- Development is a dynamic and reciprocal process
- Development is cumulative
- Development occurs throughout the life span
Theories of Development
 Psychoanalytic theory- Emphasis on the inner self and how
emotions determine the way we interpret our experiences and
how we act. The child is born with powerful sexual and
aggressive urges that need to be gratified.
- Psychosexual developmental stages
Oral, anal, phallic, genital and latent
- the child must learn to gratify his desires in socially approved way
-Personality: Id (pleasure principle), Ego (rational, adaptive part of
the self) and Superego (the conscience)
EGO- mediates between the persistent sexual and aggressive
urges, which come from the ID and the demands of the
SUPEREGO and reality.
Psychosocial theory- Erik Erikson
 Believes that development takes place over
the entire life span (childhood to adulthood).
 Like Freud he believes development takes
place through stages (8), each centred on a
different challenge or crisis.
 These challenges are seen as psychosocial
not psychosexual, AND result of social
interaction not inner conflict.
Learning theory
 Emphasis on the role of external influences on behaviour. All
behaviour is learned
- Behaviourism
Ivan Pavlov and JB Watson
- Classical conditioning = based on associations. One starts to
react in a certain way when perceiving a certain stimulus. This
reaction produces a conditioned or learned respond.
BF Skinner
-Operant conditioning = based on results/rewards. People likely to
repeat behaviour that has positive results (behaviour reinforced)
and unlikely to repeat behaviour with negative results
(behaviour punished)
Learning theory
 Social Learning theory
- Observational learning = We learn by
watching what other people (models) do
and imitate their behaviour
Cognitive theory-Jean Piaget

 what goes on in people’s minds: how people learn,

reason, solve problems, understand language,
explain themselves and their experiences and form
beliefs.
4 stages of cognitive development
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs)- child learns by relating
sensations to motor actions
• Preoperational stage(2-7yrs) – children develop a
storehouse of images and symbols of spoken and
written words.
Cognitive theory-Jean Piaget

 Concrete operational stage (7-11yrs)- start to

organise ideas and think logically even if
thinking is still concrete, physical world and
actual experiences and events.
 Formal operational stage (11yrs---)- no longer
relying on concrete experience but able to
think about things that are not there, symbols,
abstract terms, space and time
Cognitive theory-Jean Piaget
 Piaget explains development as a form
of adaptation. Children fit new
information is into the existing way of
thinking- ASSIMILATION ( any four-
legged animal is a cow), then when
corrected children start to create a new
mental category for the new
information- ACCOMODATION
2. Nature with Nurture

Development driven by nature

-Preformationism

The embryo was in the father’s

sperm or mother’s egg long before birth.
-Genetic determinism

The embryo is already present and locked in the genes

development is just a growing process
Nature with Nurture
Development is driven by Nurture
Environmentalists- person’s
characteristics are a result of
experience, upbringing and learning.
John Locke: infant’s mind is a tabula
rasa or blank slate. Everything the child
becomes is a product of environmental
experience
Nature with Nurture
What are genes and what do they do?
- Genes: Segment of the chromosome
- direct the cells of an embryo to
become a human being
-units of heredity that pass
characteristics from one generation to
the next
-Genotypes: formed by 23 pairs of
Nature with Nurture
chromosomes inherited from
parents. Genotype is a package of
biochemical information that
belongs to one individual only
-Phenotype: one’s observable
characteristics and behaviour,
depends on one’s environment and
experience.
Nature with Nurture
The importance of context
Urie Bronfenbrenner (ecological
perspective) came up with contexts
influencing development:
Microsystems- a setting in which the
individual interacts with others face
to face every day, e.g, family,
school, workplace
Nature with Nurture
Mesosystem- the ways in which
microsystems are connected, e.g. how
the child is raised at home affect how
she/he behaves at school.
Exosystem- contexts outside the child’s
immediate, everyday experience. Larger
settings that children know only
Nature with Nurture
in part, like the neighbourhood, and
settings in which children themselves
do not participate, e.g. parent’s
workplace.
Macrosystem- includes larger forces
that define a society at a particular
point in time, such as, the overarching
Nature with Nurture
cultural and religious values, the society’s
economic and political systems, the mass
media and major historical events that
have a lasting and pervasive influence
3. CONCEPTION, PRENATAL
DEVELOPMENT, AND BIRTH
 What happens during the first nine
months of development?
 Will the baby be normal?
 What should parents do during
pregnancy to optimize the baby’s
health?
 What happens during the birth process?
 Conception and the Zygote:
The First Two Weeks

 Gestation – period from conception to birth

 Within hours of conception, the sperm and egg
create a zygote.

End of first week differentiation of cells begins.

During second week implantation occurs.
 Infertility

Primary factors affecting infertility include health, lifestyle,
and age,

Treatments: fertility drugs, artificial insemination, IVF,
surrogate mother
The Embryo: Weeks Three Through Eight
 Specialized layers of cells
 Ectoderm
 Mesoderm
 Endoderm
 Organs begin to function
 “Primitive streak”
 Neurogenesis
The Fetus: Week Eight to Birth
 Size of fetus increases twentyfold
 The brain and behavior

Some neurons die off as others make new
connections.

CNS becomes active and responsive in mid-
pregnancy.

Prenatal behavior shapes further brain development.
 Learning

Fetuses recognize repeated, familiar sounds.
 Individual differences

Differences in heart rate, activity level
Prenatal Development
 Ultrasound imaging
 Chromosomal malformations
 Caused by mutations or accidents during meiosis
 Down Syndrome
 Recessive genes
 Most genetic disorders carried on a recessive gene
 Sickle cell
 Hemophilia
 The Founder Effect
Genetic Counseling
 Beneficial when
 member of group know to be at risk
 Experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or infertility
 Woman is over 35
 Karyotype
 Prenatal testing
 Preimplantation genetic diagnosis
 Amniocentesis
 Chorionic villi sampling
Protecting the Fetus
 Maternal characteristics
 Age
 Diet and nutrition
 Stress
Protecting the Fetus
 Outside influences

Teratogens

Diseases

Medications

Drinking and smoking

Alcohol

Nicotine

Illicit drugs

Heroin

Cocaine

Environmental toxins
Pregnancy and Parents-to-Be
 Experience of pregnancy depends on
timing

 Women’s concerns over course of

pregnancy

 Social and emotional challenges of

pregnancy
Birth
 Labor and delivery
 Mother’s pituitary gland releases oxytocin, which
triggers uterine contractions.
 Labor consists of involuntary contractions.

Stage 1 – cervix opens to 4 centimeters

Stage 2 – baby’s head, then body, pushed into
birth canal

Stage 3 – contractions expel placenta
Birth Complications and Controversies
 Complications
 Anoxia
 Cesarean section
 Newborns at risk
 Preterm
 Low birth weight
 Respiratory distress syndrome
Infant Assessment
 APGAR
 Appearance
 Pulse
 Grimace
 Activity
 Respiration
 Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale
(NBAS)
 4. Physical Development in Infancy
 Physical Growth
 General principles

 Directionality
 Independence of systems
 Canalization
 Norms and Individual Differences
 Represent average outcomes
 Wide variation in individual differences occur within
normal range
Figure 4.2: Changes in Body Proportions from
Prenatal Development Through Adulthood
Development of the CNS
 Division of the nervous system that
consists of brain and spinal cord
 Processes information and directs
behavior
 Develops at many levels at the same
time
 Reciprocal interplay between biology
and context affects brain development
The Brain
 Brain development
 Subcortical structures
 Limbic system
 Cortex and association areas
Brain Cells
 Neurons
 Cell body
 Dendrites
 Axon
Figure 4.4: Areas of the Brain
Figure 4.5: The Neuron and Synapse
Cell Activity

 Hubel and Wiesel – Microelectrode

recording

 Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings

 Event-related potentials (ERPs)


Specific patterns of brain activity evoked by a specific
stimulus
 Brain Plasticity
 Experience-expectant processes
 Prewired processes in the brain
 Experience-dependent processes
 Involve the active formation of new synaptic
connections in response to experience
 Types of plasticity
 modifiability
 compensation
The Autonomic Nervous System
 Regulates many body activities without
voluntary control
 Many systems cycle in identifiable and predictable
rhythms.
 States of arousal
 Regulation of sleep-wake cycle
Reflexes and Development
 Reflexes are simple, involuntary
responses to certain stimuli
 Approach reflexes
 Avoidance reflexes
 Other reflexes
 Most develop before birth and are
normally present for four to eight
months after birth
Motor Development
 Predictable sequence of developmental
milestones
 Motor development influenced by
parental expectations and childrearing
practices
 Milestones also affect parent-infant
interaction
 Dynamic systems theory
Sensing and Perceiving
 Five senses
 Seeing

Pattern, shape, and form

Depth

Movement

Color
 Hearing
 Touching
 Tasting
 Smelling
Figure 4.8: The Visual Cliff
Figure 4.9: Infant Perception of Motion and
Object Continuity
Multimodal and Cross-Modal Perception
 Our senses interact with another and
fuse perceptions into wholes.
 Information obtain by sight, sound, and
touch are coordinated very early in life.
 Self-knowledge might be based on the
coordination of information.
Experience and Early Perceptual
Development
 Perceptual experience is critical for
normal psychological growth and
development.
 Perceptual development provides
examples of the interplay between
biology and experience.
 5. Cognitive Development in Infancy
How do scientists know what babies know?
Habituation

 Loss of interest suggests the baby recognizes the

stimuli.
Novelty responsiveness

 Interest and more time spent looking at new stimuli

Evidence of learning/remembering from prior exposure

Showing a sequence of events and measuring whether baby

imitates them
 Piaget and Infant Cognitive Development
 Infant actively constructs an understanding
of the world.
 Adaptation – process whereby knowledge is
altered by experience
 Assimilation
 Accommodation
 Stages
 Sensorimotor
 Causality
 Object permanence
 Mental representation
 Challenges to Piaget
 Underestimated sensory and organization capacities of
infants
 Object permanence and mental representation appear
much earlier in development.
 Infants more cognitively sophisticated than he believed.
Sensorimotor Stage
Mental Representation in Infancy
 Categorization – grouping separate
items into a set according to some rule
 Remembering – infants remember
previously experienced events
 Play
 Exploratory play
 Symbolic play
Infant “Intelligence”
 How much do children at the same age
vary in their “intelligence”?

 Infant tests
 Bayley Scales of Infant Development
 Lack of predictive validity
Infant Mental Development in Social Context
 Ecological perspective
 Infant development influenced by proximal
and distal forces
 Influence of parents
 Scaffolding
 Ethnotheories
Language Development in Infancy
 Phonology – sounds must be produced
and perceived

 Semantics – meaning of words must be

learned

 Syntax – grammar of language must be

understood for meaningful communication
Language Comprehension and
Production
 Comprehension (understanding language)
comes before production (speaking
language).

 Comprehension of 50 words around 13

months

 Production of 50 words around 18 months

Individual Variation in Language
Development
 Quantitative differences
 Number of words
 Mean length of utterances

 Qualitative differences
 Referential
 Expressive
 The Building Blocks of Language
 Infant-directed speech
 Varying inflection, speed, and word choice
when talking with infants
 Turn taking
 Conversational give-and-take
 Gesture
 nonverbal support of communication
 Making and Understanding Sounds

 Sound Perception
 Sound Production
 Prelinguistic stage
 One-word stage
 Multi-word stage
 How Infants Learn Words

 Holophrasis
 Use of single word for everything
 Problems with learning words
 Immediate reference problem
 Extension problem
 Whole object assumption
 Mutual exclusivity
 How Infants Learn Grammar
 Grammar – set of rules for combining words into
meaningful and interpretable communications
 Skinner suggested that infants learn by imitation and
reinforcement.
 Transitional probabilities

 Chomsky argued that aspects of syntax are innate.

 Universal grammar
 Socioemotional Development in Infancy
 Emotion
 Strong and informative cues about the infant’s current

state
 Temperament
 Reflects stable, biologically based differences in

behavior that affect the child’s interactions with social

and physical environment
 Attachments
 Specific, lasting, social relationships with others,

especially parents and other caregivers

 Emotional Expression
 Two types of emotions: emotional expression and
emotional understanding p 152.
 Development of emotional expressions
 Primary emotions (joy, surprise, sadness, anger, fear,
shyness), rooted in biology and develop early in life
 Secondary emotions (embarrassment, pride, shame,
guilt, envy). Depends on higher level of mental
capacities .e.g to feel guilt/shame you have to know you
have done something wrong (ego/super ego. Emerge
in the 2nd and 3rd years of life
 Emotional Expression cont.
 Maximally Discriminative Facial
Movements Code
 Express emotions with verbalization and
gestures
 Emotional expression is universal and
innate
• The face can convey a broad range of
Emotional Expression
• expressions and helps us to evaluate persons emotions
• Systems that measure facial expressions are:
1. Maximally discriminative facial movements (MAX)
identifies 27 distinct facial patterns
2. Baby FACS (Facial Action Coding System). 92 facial
components
• Infants express different emotions vocally as well, by
cooing, babbling versus fretting and crying
• Infants express emotions with gestures and movements
 Emotional Expression
• Expressions of : Smiles in first month
– Sadness (infant of a depressed mother can acquire the

negative emotions through shared games, imitation of

mom’s beh, effects of mom’s influence and reduced
opportunities for positive social interaction at home
– Joy, Fear and anger , Laughter

– Mothers may socialize their infants’ expressive styles

from the early months of life.

• Secondary emotions such as shame, guilt etc. increase as
infant becomes self-aware.
 Infant Temperament
 Temperament
 Biologically based source of individual differences in
behavioral functioning, Develop early in life
Temperaments could also be heritable, affected by the
interaction between innate predispositions and
experience (social issues such as divorce) and
environment, Culture also plays important role in their
development
 Measuring Temperament: Interview parents &
 Observations
Attachment and Infant Social
Development
• Bowlby: Environment of evolutionary adaptedness –
survival depended on close relationships with
protective adults to obtain comfort, nourishment and
security
– Phases

• Indiscriminate Social Responsiveness

• Discriminate Sociability

• Attachments

• Separation protest

• Goal-Corrected Partnerships
 How do attachments form?
 Predisposition to form attachments
 Sensitive period- The 1st six postnatal months during

which the organism is especially vulnerable to

experience and form attachments
 Attached to persons who have associated with

regularly over time and who have consistent,

predictable, and appropriate responses to the baby’s
signals and as well as to his /her needs
 The quality of adult –infant interaction is also important

 Parents and caregivers especially Mothers play crucial

role in attachment.
 How is infant attachment measured?

 Strange Situation Assessment

 Insecure-avoidant (Type A)
 Securely attached (Type B)
 Insecure-resistant /ambiguous (Type C)
 Disorganized (Type D)
 Parent-Child Interaction and
Attachment Security
 Reciprocity
 Infants learn that in social interaction, partners take
turns acting and reacting to the other’s behavior.
 Effectance
 Infants learn that his/her behavior can affect the
behavior of others in a consistent and predictable
fashion.
 Trust
 Infants learn that caregivers can be counted on to
respond when signaled.
 Secure Base
• Infants use attachment figures as a secure base from which to explore
and interact with other people.
• Secure infants readily explore objects in their environment.
• Infants count on attachments figures to protect them and to be
accessible when needed and so use them as a secure base
• Sensitive parenting and attuned infant-mother interactions are
associated with secure (Type B) attachments.
Secure Base cont…
 people who perceive themselves to be rejected by
attachment figures are usually anxious and insecure
and are likely to develop distorted mental
representation of the self, others and the world
 Securely attached individuals remember their parents
as warm, accepting, engaged and supportive
individuals
 Those high on avoidance recollect their mothers as
rejecting and distant
 Those high on anxiety recollect their mothers as
overprotective, intrusive and controlling
 Attachment Security and Infant
Temperament
 Temperament does not have direct effect
on attachment security.

 Temperament affects quality of infant-

parent interaction which in turn affects
security.
 Attachment and Later Relationships
 Attachment security of an infant influences
the way in which he/she relates with
others later in development.
 Predicts social relationships with peers and
siblings
 Associated with prosocial behaviors and
mature forms of interaction
 Associated with superior problem-solving
Parental Behavior and Interaction with Infants

 Contact comfort
 Harlow’s research
 Mothers and Fathers
 Mothers more likely to spend time with
infants than fathers.
 Fathers tend to view themselves as
helpers rather than as having primary
responsibility.
 Nonparental Care
 Criteria that needs to be achieved to ensure Quality of
infant care
 Health and safety

 Small groups

 Each child has primary caregiver

 Continuity of care

 Responsive caregiving

 Meeting individual needs

 Cultural and linguistic continuity

 Stimulating physical environment

 Does not disrupt attachment relationship

 Gender and Infant Socioemotional
Development
 Gender typed preferences seem to be promoted by the
child’s social environment from early in life , and parents
contribute to them
 Differential socialization of male and female infants
 Sex-typed colors and toys

 Parents interact preferentially with same sex child.

 Infants show preferences of sex-typed toys

 Sex-typed preferences promoted by social

environment.
Early childhood/Preschool
period (2-6 yrs)
 Developmental tasks:
 Progressive motor development (increasingly
active participant!)
 Rapid language development
 Symbolic thought development
 Separation from primary caregiver/socialization
beyond family
 Gender identity
Early childhood/Preschool
period (2-6 yrs)
 Motor development:
 Progressive improvement in tone/strength
 Progressive improvement in motor skills

Drawing, Climbing stairs

Jumping, Hopping
 Control of bowel and bladder
 Period of high activity level
Early childhood/Preschool
period (2-6 yrs)
 Cognitive Development:
 Receptive language increases; vocabulary
increases, sentence structure more elaborate
 Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

Symbolic thought, Egocentrism, animism, imitation
 Cognitive-Processing Perspective

Attention span improves, Selective attention
improves
 Importance of Play
Early childhood/Preschool
period (2-6 yrs)
 Socioemotional development:
 Erikson’s Psychosocial Stage Theory

Autonomy vs. Doubt (1-3 years)

Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years)
 Socialization/Sex-Role Development

Parenting Styles

Sociocultural Influences

Social Learning
School Age (6-12 years)
Developmental Tasks
Progressive Motor Development
Mastery of Concrete Information about
World/Culture
Beginning Movement away from Nuclear
Family
Socialization with Peers
School Age (6-12 years)

Improved Balance
Riding bike, skating
Improved Coordination
Gross motor
Fine motor (writing)
School Age (6-12 years)
Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Stage Theory: Concrete Operations

Assembling, classifying, compartmentalizing large
amounts of information
Establishing concept of conservation (number, class,
length, weight)
Cognitive-Processing Changes
Attention/Sustained attention
Memory strategies
Problem-solving
School Age (6-12 years)
Movement away from family
Increasing independence from parents
School and neighborhood influences
Peer groups: companionship, information,
cooperative play, independence from adults
Discipline and Social Norms
Club Formation
Sex Stereotyping
New Adults and Role Models
School Age (6-12 years)
Emotional/Personality Development

 Psychosocial Stage theory (Erikson)


Industry vs. Inferiority
 Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

Observational Learning

Cognitive characteristics important
 Intellectual ability, personal goals
 Expectancies, plans, interpretation of events
Adolescence (12-18 years)
Developmental Tasks

 Adjust to Biologic Changes


Timing of Puberty: Early vs. Late Maturation

Growth Spurt: Rapid height and weight gain

Body Image (size, appearance, sexuality)
 Separation/Individuation from Parents
 Develop Abstract Thinking Abilities
 Continue Developing Identity
Adolescence (12-18 years)
Developmental Tasks

 Adjust to Biologic Changes


Timing of Puberty: Early vs. Late Maturation

Growth Spurt: Rapid height and weight gain

Body Image (size, appearance, sexuality)
 Separation/Individuation from Parents
 Develop Abstract Thinking Abilities
 Continue Developing Identity
Adolescence (12-18 years)
Cognitive Development

 Piaget’s Stage Theory (Formal Operational

Thought)

Improved Logic, abstract thinking, reasoning

Potential versus Performance
 Elkin: Adolescent Egocentrism (perceive selves as
more central & on “social stage” than actually are)

Imaginary Audience

Invincibility Fable
Adolescence (12-18 years)
Social/Emotional/Personality Development


Identity Development

Define self as unique person

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stage: Identity vs. Role Diffusion

Social Influences: Rites of Passage

Peer Influences

Changing Definitions of Friendship

Social Structure of Peer Groups: Crowds & Cliques

Graduation Transition to Sexual Intimacy

Parental Influences

“Generation Gap?”

Parenting Styles/Limit-Setting/Values
ADULTHOOD
Guiding Principles and
Assumptions
Development continues into
adulthood.
The paths of development are
more variable and self-directed
than in earlier life periods.
ADULTHOOD
Interindvidual variability
People act as agents of their
own development
Development in adulthood
involves more than growth.
Involves maintaining stability
and adapting to declines and
losses
Development is cumulative.
ADULTHOOD
Three Major Periods of Adulthood
Emerging adulthood (18-25
years old)
Middle adulthood (25-65 years
old)
Later adulthood (65 years old)
ADULTHOOD

 Conceptions of adulthood emphasize

the idea of being self-sufficient.
 Becoming an adult is a gradual process
not an event.
 Transition may be easier in societies
where adult status is linked to social
roles.
ADULTHOOD

Longer Transition to Adulthood

Linked to need for extensive
education
Entering workforce, marrying,
becoming parents later
Lack of clear structure could lead to
stress.