maturation - developmental changes in the body or behavior that result from the aging process

rather than from learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience.

A Chronological Overview of Human Development

1. Prenatal period - Conception to birth

2. Infancy - Birth to 18 months old

3. Toddlerhood - 18 months old to 3 years old

4. Preschool period - 3 to 5 years of age

5. Middle childhood - 5 to 12 or so years of age (until the onset of puberty)

6. Adolescence - 12 or so to 20 years of age (many developmentalists defi ne the end of adolescence

as the point at which the individual begins to work and is reasonably independent of parental
sanctions)

7. Young adulthood - 20 to 40 years of age

8. Middle age - 40 to 65 years of age

9. Old age - 65 years of age or older

holistic perspective - a unified view of the developmental process that emphasizes the important
interrelationships among the physical, mental, social, and emotional aspects of human
development.

A Holistic Process - It was once fashionable to divide developmentalists into three camps:

(1) those who studied physical growth and development, including bodily changes and the
sequencing of motor skills;

(2) those who studied cognitive aspects of development, including perception, language, learning,
and thinking; and

(3) those who concentrated on psychosocial aspects of development, including emotions,

personality, and the growth of interpersonal relationships

Plasticity - refers to a capacity for change in response to positive or negative life experiences.
- capacity for change; a developmental state that has the potential to be shaped by experience.

The Nature of Scientific Theories

■ A theory is a set of concepts and propositions that describe and explain observations. Good
theories are:

■ parsimonious (concise and yet applicable to a wide range of phenomena);

■ falsifi able (able to be disconfi rmed by scientifi c research); and

■ heuristic (they build on existing knowledge by continuing to generate testable hypotheses,

leading to new discoveries and important practical applications).

The Psychoanalytic Viewpoint

Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

unconscious motives - Freud’s term for feelings, experiences, and conflicts that influence a
person’s thinking and behavior, but lie outside the person’s awareness.

repression - a type of motivated forgetting in which anxiety-provoking thoughts and confl icts are
forced out of conscious awareness.

instinct - an inborn biological force that motivates a particular response or class of responses.

Three Components of Personality

id,ego, and superego—develop and gradually become integrated in a series of five developmental
psychosexual stages. Only the id is present at birth. Its sole function is to satisfy inborn biological
instincts, and it will try to do so immediately. Young infants often do seem to be “all id.” When
hungry or wet, they fuss and cry until their needs are met. The ego is the conscious, rational
component of the personality that refl ects the child’s emerging abilities to perceive, learn,
remember, and reason. Its function is to find socially approved means of gratifying instincts, such as
when a hungry toddler, remembering how she gets food, seeks out her parent and says “cookie.” As
their egos mature, children become better at controlling their irrational ids and fi nding appropriate
ways to gratify their needs. However, possible solutions to needs are not always acceptable, as a
hungry 3-year-old who is caught stealing cookies between meals may soon discover. The fi nal
component of personality, or superego, is the seat of the conscience. It develops between the ages
of 3 and 6 as children internalize (take on as their own) the moral values of their parents (Freud,
1933). Once the superego emerges, children do not need an adult to tell them that they have been
good or bad.

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

Oral - Birth to 1 year

The sex instinct centers on the mouth because infants derive pleasure from such oral activities as
sucking, chewing, and biting. Feeding activities are particularly important. For example, an infant
weaned too early or abruptly may later crave close contact and become overdependent on a spouse.

Anal 1 to 3 years

Voluntary urination and defecation become the primary methods of gratifying the sex instinct.
Toilet-training produces major confl icts between children and parents. The emotional climate that
parents create can have lasting effects. For example, children who are punished for toileting
“accidents” may become inhibited, messy, or wasteful.

Phallic 3 to 6 years

Pleasure is now derived from genital stimulation. Children develop an incestuous desire for the
opposite-sex parent (called the Oedipus complex for boys and Electra complex for girls). Anxiety
stemming from this confl ict causes children to internalize the sex-role characteristics and moral
standards of their same-sex parental rival.

Latency 6 to 11 years

Traumas of the phallic stage cause sexual confl icts to be repressed and sexual urges to be
rechanneled into schoolwork and vigorous play. The ego and superego continue to develop as the
child gains more problem-solving abilities at school and internalizes societal values.

Genital age 12 onward

Puberty triggers a reawakening of sexual urges. Adolescents must now learn how to express these
urges in socially acceptable ways. If development has been healthy, the mature sex instinct is satisfi
ed by marriage and raising children.

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

■ Eric Erikson’s psychosocial theory extended Freud’s theory by:

■ concentrating less on the sex instinct;

■ concentrating more on sociocultural determinants of development; and

■ arguing that people progress through a series of eight psychosocial conflicts.

■ The confl icts begin with “trust versus mistrust” in infancy and conclude with “integrity versus
despair” in old age.

■ Each confl ict must be resolved in favor of the positive trait (trust, for example) for healthy
development.
Birth to 1 year (Basic trust versus mistrust - oral)

Infants must learn to trust others to care for their basic needs. If caregivers are rejecting or
inconsistent, the infant may view the world as a dangerous place filled with untrustworthy or
unreliable people. The primary caregiver is the key social agent.

1 to 3 years (Autonomy versus shame and doubt - Anal)

Children must learn to be “autonomous”—to feed and dress themselves, to look after their own
hygiene, and so on. Failure to achieve this independence may force the child to doubt his or her own
abilities and feel ashamed. Parents are the key social agents.

3 to 6 years (Initiative versus guilt - Phallic)

Children attempt to act grown up and will try to accept responsibilities that are beyond their
capacity to handle. They sometimes undertake goals or activities that confl ict with those of parents
and other family members, and these confl icts may make them feel guilty. Successful resolution of
this crisis requires a balance: The child must retain a sense of initiative and yet learn not to impinge
on the rights, privileges, or goals of others. The family is the key social agent.

6 to 12 years (Industry versus inferiority - Latency)

Children must master important social and academic skills. This is a period when the child
compares him- or herself with peers. If suffi ciently industrious, children acquire the social and
academic skills to feel self-assured. Failure to acquire these important attributes leads to feelings of
inferiority. Signifi cant social agents are teachers and peers.

12 to 20 years (Identity versus role confusion - Early genital "adolescence")

This is the crossroad between childhood and maturity. The adolescent grapples with the question
“Who am I?” Adolescents must establish basic social and occupational identities, or they will
remain confused about the roles they should play as adults. The key social agent is the society of
peers.

20 to 40 years (young adulthood) ( Intimacy versus isolation - Genital )

The primary task at this stage is to form strong friendships and to achieve a sense of love and
companionship (or a shared identity) with another person. Feelings of loneliness or isolation are
likely to result from an inability to form friendships or an intimate relationship. Key social agents
are lovers, spouses, and close friends (of both sexes).

(40 to 65 years (middle adulthood) Generativity versus stagnation - Genital)

At this stage adults face the tasks of becoming productive in their work and raising their families or
otherwise looking after the needs of young people. These standards of “generativity” are defi ned by
one’s culture. Those who are unable or unwilling to assume these responsibilities become stagnant
and self-centered. Signifi cant social agents are the spouse, children, and cultural norms.

Old age Ego - (integrity versus despair - Genital)

The older adult looks back at life, viewing it as either a meaningful, productive, and happy
experience or a major disappointment full of unfulfi lled promise and unrealized goals. One’s life
experiences, particularly social experiences, determine the outcome of this fi nal life crisis.

The Learning Viewpoint

■ The learning viewpoint, or behaviorism, originated with John B. Watson:

■ viewed infants as tabulae rasae who develop habits from learning experiences;

■ viewed development as a continuous process; and

■ viewed the environment as responsible for the direction of individuals’ development.

behaviorism

a school of thinking in psychology that holds that conclusions about human development should be
based on controlled observations of overt behavior rather than speculation about unconscious
motives or other unobservable phenomena; the philosophical underpinning for the early theories of
learning.

habits

well-learned associations between stimuli and responses that represent the stable aspects of one’s
personality

■ B. F. Skinner proposed operant learning theory:

■ claimed that development refl ects the operant conditioning of children who are passively shaped
by the reinforcers and punishments that accompany their behaviors.

operant

the initially voluntary act that becomes more or less probable of occurring depending on the
consequence that it produces.
reinforcer

any consequence of an act that increases the probability that the act will recur.

punisher

any consequence of an act that suppresses that act and/or decreases the probability that it will
recur.

■ Albert Bandura proposed social cognitive theory:

■ viewed children as active information processors;

■ viewed observational learning as the source of children’s learning;

■ rejected Watson’s environmental determinism; and

■ proposed reciprocal determinism, in which children have a hand in creating the environments
that influence their development.

observational learning

learning that results from observing the behavior of others

environmental determinism

the notion that children are passive creatures who are molded by their environments.

reciprocal determinism

the notion that the flow of infl uence between children and their environments is a two-way street;
the environment may affect the child, but the child’s behavior also influences the environment.

The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint

cognitive development

age-related changes that occur in mental activities such as attending, perceiving, learning, thinking,
and remembering.

assimilation
Piaget’s term for the process by which children interpret new experiences by incorporating them
into their existing schemes.

accommodation

Piaget’s term for the process by which children modify their existing schemes in order to
incorporate or adapt to new experiences.

scheme

an organized pattern of thought or action that a child constructs to make sense of some aspect of his
or her experience; Piaget sometimes uses the term cognitive structures as a synonym for schemes.

■ Jean Piaget pioneered the cognitive-developmental viewpoint:

■ This theory views children as active explorers who construct cognitive schemes.

■ The processes of assimilation and accommodation enable children to resolve disequilibriums and
adapt to their environments.

■ Piaget described cognitive development as an invariant sequence of four stages:

■ sensorimotor - Birth to 2 years

Infants use sensory and motor capabilities to explore and gain a basic understanding of the
environment. At birth they have only innate reflexes with which to engage the world. By the end of
the sensorimotor behavioral schemes period, they are capable of complex sensorimotor
coordinations.

Infants acquire a primitive sense of “self” and “others,” learn that objects continue to exist when
they are outof sight (object permanence), and begin to internalize to produce images or mental
schemes.

■ preoperational - 2 to 7 years

Children use symbolism (images and language) to represent and understand various aspects of the
environment. They respond to objects and events according to the way things appear to be. Thought
is egocentric, meaning that children think everyone sees the world in much the same way that they
do.
Children become imaginative in their play activities. They gradually begin to recognize that other
people may not always perceive the world as they do.

■ concrete-operational - 7 to 11–12 years

Children acquire and use cognitive operations (mental activities that are components of
logical thought).

Children are no longer fooled by appearances. By relying on cognitive operations, they

understand the basic properties of and relations among objects and events in the everyday
world. They are becoming much more profi cient at inferring motives by observing others’
behavior and the circumstances in which it occurs.

■ formal-operational - 7 to 11–12 years and beyond

Adolescents’ cognitive operations are reorganized in a way that permits them to operate on
operations (think about thinking). Thought is now systematic and abstract.

Logical thinking is no longer limited to the concrete or the observable. Adolescents enjoy pondering
hypothetical issues and, as a result, may become rather idealistic. They are capable of systematic,
deductive reasoning that permits them to consider many possible solutions to a problem and to
pick the correct answer.

■ The child’s stage of development determines how she will interpret various events and what she
learns from her experiences.

■ Lev Vygotsky proposed the sociocultural theory:

■ views cognitive growth as a socially mediated activity; any

■ views cognitive growth as heavily infl uenced by culture.

■ Information-processing perspectives were adapted to explain cognitive development:

■ view the mind as a complex symbol-manipulating system:

■ Information flows into the system, is operated on, and is converted to output (answers,
inferences, and solutions).

■ view cognitive development as continuous:

■ Children and adolescents gradually become better at:

■ attending to information;

■ remembering and retrieving information; and

■ formulating strategies to solve problems.

The Ethological and Evolutionary Viewpoints

■ The ethological and evolutionary viewpoints:

■ view humans as born with adaptive attributes that have evolved through natural selection;

■ say that adaptive attributes channel development to promote survival;

■ view humans as influenced by their experiences;

■ argue that certain adaptive characteristics are most

likely to develop during sensitive periods, provided that

the environment fosters this development; and

■ emphasize that humans’ biologically infl uenced attributes affect the kind of learning experiences
they are likely to have.

modern evolutionary theory

the study of the bioevolutionary basis of behavior and development with a focus on survival of the
genes.

altruism

a selfl ess concern for the welfare of others that is expressed through prosocial acts such as sharing,
cooperating, and helping.

The Ecological Systems Viewpoint

■ Urie Bronfenbrenner proposed the ecological systems theory:

■ views development as the product of transactions between an ever-changing person and an ever-
changing environment.

■ Bronfenbrenner proposes that the natural environment actually consists of interacting contexts
or systems:
■ microsystem

Bronfenbrenner’s innermost environmental layer, or microsystem, refers to the activities and

interactions that occur in the person’s immediate surroundings. For most young infants, the
microsystem may be limited to the family.

■ mesosystem

The second of Bronfenbrenner’s environmental layers, or mesosystem, refers to the connections or

interrelationships among such microsystems as homes, schools, and peer groups. Bronfenbrenner
argues that development is likely to be optimized by strong, supportive links between
microsystems.

■ exosystem

Bronfenbrenner’s third environmental layer, or exosystem, consists of contexts that children and
adolescents are not a part of but that may nevertheless infl uence their development. For example,
parents’ work environments are an exosystem infl uence. Children’s emotional relationships at
home may be infl uenced considerably by whether or not their parents enjoy their work

■ macrosystem

Bronfenbrenner also stresses that development occurs in a macrosystem—that is, a cultural,

subcultural, or social class context in which microsystems, mesosystems, and exosystems are
embedded. The macrosystem is really a broad, overarching ideology that

■ chronosystem

Bronfenbrenner also stresses that development occurs in a macrosystem—that is, a cultural,

subcultural, or social class context in which microsystems, mesosystems, and exosystems are
embedded. The macrosystem is really a broad, overarching ideology that

■ This detailed analysis of person–environment interactions has stimulated many new

interpretations of development.

GARDNER’S THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES - Gardner’s theory that humans display as

many as nine distinct kinds of intelligence, each linked to a particular area of the brain, and several
of which are not measured by IQ tests.

LINGUISTIC - Sensitivity to the meanings and sounds of words, to the structure of language, and to
the many ways language can be used.

Left hemisphere, temporal and frontal lobes

Poet, novelist, journalist

SPATIAL - Ability to perceive visual-spatial relationships accurately, to transform these
perceptions, and to re-create aspects of one’s visual experience in the absence of the pertinent
stimuli.

Right hemisphere, parietal posterior occipital lobe

Engineer, sculptor, cartographer

LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL - Ability to operate on and to perceive relationships in abstract symbol

systems and to think logically and systematically in evaluating one’s ideas.

Left parietal lobes and adjacent temporal and occipital association areas Left hemisphere for verbal
naming Right hemisphere for spatial organization Frontal system for planning and goal setting

Mathematician, scientist

MUSICAL - Sensitivity to pitch, melody; ability to combine tones and musical phrases into larger
rhythms; understanding of the emotional aspects of music.

Right anterior temporal Frontal lobes

Musician, composer

BODY-KINESTHETIC - Ability to use the body skillfully to express oneself or achieve goals; ability to
handle objects skillfully

Cerebral motor strip Thalamus Basal ganglia Cerebellum

Dancer, athlete

INTERPERSONAL - Ability to detect and respond appropriately to the mood, temperaments,

motives, and intentions of others.

Frontal lobes as integrating station between internal and external states/people

Therapist, public relations specialist, salesperson

INTRAPERSONAL - Sensitivity to one’s own inner states; recognition of personal strengths and
weaknesses and ability to use information about the self to behave adaptively.

Frontal lobes as integrating station between internal and external states/people

Contributes to success in almost any walk of life

NATURALIST - Sensitivity to the factors infl uencing and influenced by organisms (fauna and fl ora)
in the natural environment
Left parietal lobe (discriminating living from nonliving things)

Biologist, naturalist

SPIRITUAL/EXISTENTIAL(SPECULATIVE AT THIS POINT) - Sensitivity to issues related to the

meaning of life, death, and other aspects of the human condition.

Hypothesized as specifi c regions in the right temporal lobe

Philosopher, theologian

INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (IQ) - a numerical measure of a person’s performance on an

intelligence test relative to the performance of other examinees.

TACIT (OR PRACTICAL) INTELLIGENCE ability to size up everyday problems and solve them; only
modestly related to IQ.

FLYNN EFFECT systematic increase in IQ scores observed over the 20th century

GIFTEDNESS the possession of unusually high intellectual potential or other special talents.

CREATIVITY the ability to generate novel ideas or works that are useful and valued by others.

CONVERGENT THINKING thinking that requires one to come up with a single correct answer to a
problem; what IQ tests measure.

DIVERGENT THINKING thinking that requires a variety of ideas or solutions to a problem when
there is no one correct answer

DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS

PSYCHOLINGUISTS those who study the structure and development of children’s language.

PHONEMES the basic units of sound that are used in a spoken language.

MORPHEMES smallest meaningful language units.

FIVE COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE

MORPHOLOGY rules governing the formation of meaningful words from sounds.

PHONOLOGY the sound system of a language and the rules for combining these sounds to produce
meaningful units of speech.

SEMANTICS the expressed meaning of words and sentences

SYNTAX the structure of a language; the rules specifying how words and grammatical markers are
to be combined to produce meaningful sentences.

PRAGMATICS principles that underlie the effective and appropriate use of language in social
contexts.

IMPORTANT MILESTONES IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

AGE (YEARS) 0–1

PHONOLOGY

Receptivity to speech and discrimination of speech sounds Babbling begins to resemble the sounds
of native language

SEMANTICS

Some interpretation of intonational cues in others’ speech

Preverbal gestures appear

Vocables appear

Little if any understanding of individual words

MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX

Preference for phrase structure and stress patterns of native language

PRAGMATICS

Joint attention with caregiver to objects and events

Turn-taking in games and vocalizations

Appearance of preverbal gestures

METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

None

AGE (YEARS) 1–2

PHONOLOGY

Appearance of strategies to simplify word pronunciations

SEMANTICS
First words appear

Rapid expansion of vocabulary after age 18 months

Overextensions and underextensions of word meanings

MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX

Holophrases give way to two-word telegraphic speech

Sentences express distinct semantic relations

Acquisition of some grammatical morphemes

PRAGMATICS

Use of gestures and intonational cues to clarify messages

Richer understanding of vocal turn-taking rules

First signs of etiquette in children’s speech

METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

None

AGE (YEARS) 3–5

PHONOLOGY

Pronunciations improve

SEMANTICS

Vocabulary expands

Understanding of spatial relations and use of spatial words in speech

MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX

Grammatical morphemes added in regular sequence

Awareness of most rules of transformational grammar

PRAGMATICS

Beginning understanding of illocutionary intent

Some adjustment of speech to different audiences

Some attempts at clarifying obviously ambiguous messages

METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

Some phonemic and grammatical awareness

AGE (YEARS) 6–ADOLESCENCE

PHONOLOGY

Pronunciations become adultlike

SEMANTICS

Dramatic expansion of vocabulary, including abstract words during adolescence

Appearance and refinement ofsemantic integrations

MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX

Acquisition of morphological knowledge

Correction of earlier grammatical errors

Acquisition of complex syntactical rules

PRAGMATICS

Referential communication improves, especially the ability to detect and repair uninformative messages
one sends and receives

METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

Metalinguistic awareness blossoms and becomes more extensive with age