Lifespan Human Development

Prenatal development

conception, zygote

    XX, XY sex chromosomes - male susceptibility
    TDF gene on Y chromosome

stages:

  1  germinal - 0-2 weeks - differentiation - blastocyst (person), trophoblast (placenta & umbilical cord)

  2  embryo - 2-8 weeks - organ formation

  3  fetus - 8 weeks > birth - complexity & size of organs, tissue;  sensory experiences, movement (thumb sucking, "breathing" water, eyes open & close

blood does not, but other substances pass through the placental barrier

effects of toxins in 3 different stages - e.g., spina bifida  (folic acid)

proximodistal development - head, torso first

Physical

    weight gain - double by 6 mos, triple by 12 mos

reflexes - adaptive, evolution
    - sucking, rooting, withdrawal,
        Moro, blink, head turn, Babinski -
            - used by pediatrician to assess neural
                functioning

sleeping - 16 hours

3 mos - myelinization of neurons

Perceptual

vision - preferences (face, large shapes, outlines), 4 mos focus on distance, depth cues 6-8 mos, visual cliff

touch - very sensitive at birth

taste - also operational at birth

hearing - can hear in womb; prefer mother's voice

smell - can discriminate at birth; breast pad preference for breast-fed babies

Motor milestones - 7 mos crawling, 12 mos walking, 2 years running

Jean Piaget - stage theory of cognitive development

adaptation (assimilation and accommodation)

Stages

0-2 Sensorimotor
2-7 Preoperational
7-11 Concrete operational
11 +  Formal Operations

Object permanence
Animism
Egocentrism
Decentration
Conservation

Physiological research supports Piaget
Other research (Baillargeon) challenges some facts

symbolic information processing

prelinguistic speech
cooing
babbling (phonemes)
vocabulary

grammar - holophrases

    telegraphic speech

    overregularization - daddy goed, my toeses hurt
"Wh" questions develop after age 2

preconventional, conventional, postconventional

Psychosocial development

    8 stages - "crises"

        trust 0-1
        autonomy 1-3
        initiative 4-5
        industry 6-12
        identity (adolescence)
        intimacy (young adulthood)
        generativity (middle adulthood)
        integrity (late adulthood)

Sigmund Freud - feeding
John Bowlby - internal working model
Harry Harlow - contact comfort
Konrad Lorenz - imprinting

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth

secure, avoidant, ambivalent

Michael Lewis' research suggest that early attachment does not necessarily predict psychological adjustment in adolescence

Stages: indiscriminant

initial-preattachment phase - 0-3 mos
attachment-in-the-making 3-4 mos
clear-cut-attachment 6-7 mos

separation anxiety

promoting instrumental competence

authoritative, authoritarian, permissive

Child Abuse -  predicted by psychological stress of abuser (parent)

        intergenerational transmission (runs in families)
            modeling

            1/3 don't
            1/3 do
            1/3 do under stress

Adolescent Development - an "in-between" period

Physical - Puberty - primary vs secondary sex characteristics

androgens and estrogens in both sexes
menarche & spermarche

Cognitive
    Formal Operations - abstract, hypothetical thinking
    Adolescent Egocentrism
Challenges to Piaget - ages, stages, sequences?

Postconventional moral reasoning - personal values, but altruistic (may be counter to norms or rules, but are not anti-social)

Social / Personality Development

Time of experimentation with beliefs, roles, actions
Autonomy (self-governance)
Parent-child distance (positive and negative)
Ego identity vs role diffusion

Young adulthood
Intimacy vs Isolation
Gender differences - Carol Gilligan, women as caregivers

Middle adulthood
Generativity vs stagnation
Midlife - Transition or Crisis?
Middlescence - renew one's identity
Menopause - hormones, osteoporosis, possible mood changes, freedom from "ball and chain"
Manopause - gradual decline
Empty nest

Late Adulthood
Physical - bones, reaction time, senses
Cognitive - thinking speed, wisdom
Aging - programmed senescence (genetic), wear and tear
Psychosocial - disengagement, activity, continuity
Successful aging - selective optimization with compensation; attitude IS everthing, lifelong growth

Death and Dying - Kubler-Ross' stages - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

Nature - Nurture (genes vs experience)
    e.g., Noam Chomsky, LAD
Continuity - Discontinuity