Chapter 9 - Human Development

Question 1

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages

Answer 1

Trust vs. Mistrust - Infancy (0-1)
Identity vs. Role Confusion - Adolescence (12-18)
Intimacy vs. Isolation - Early adult (18-29)
Generativity vs. Stagnation - Middle adulthood (30-50s)

Question 1

Trust vs. Mistrust

Answer 1

• Stage 1: Infancy - 0-1 years
• Attachment and separation anxiety
• Attachment is the emotional relationship between a child and the parent or regular caregiver.
• Beginning at about 8-12 months, infants show distress when separated from caregivers.
• Separation anxiety increases dramatically at the end of the first year of life.
• Critical for the development of trust in caregivers and the world

Question 2

Characteristics of adolescence

Answer 2

• Storm and stress: extreme mood swings and unpredictable, difficult behaviour
• Role confusion: sense of self as fragmented; shifting, unclear sense of self.
• Attempts to achieve independence from parents.
• Influence from peers: peers appear to compete with parents to shape an adolescents attitudes and behaviours.

Question 3

Peer relationships in adolescence

Answer 3

• influence from peers can be in both the positive or negative directions.
• adolescence is a critical period for:

turning good (pro-social) or turning evil (anti-social)

Question 4

Marcia’s Identity Status Model

Answer 4

Foreclosure, identity diffusion, moratorium, identity achievement.

Question 5

Identity diffusion

Answer 5

lack of exploration or commitment to identity. - role confusion.

Question 6

Identity foreclosure

Answer 6

formation of identity without exploring alternatives.

• a person forms an identity without exploring alternatives (eg. accepting the values of parents).
• being moralistic and conventional
• unable to provide a good rationale for one’s beliefs and choices.

Question 7

Moratorium

Answer 7

• taking time to explore options before making a commitment to an identity.
• development of an identity takes time and work.

Question 8

Identity vs. Role Confusion

Answer 8

• Adolescent : 12-18 years
• adolescents who fail in this stage enter adulthood without a solid sense of who they are or what they think is the meaning of their lives.
• such people bounce around between all sorts of roles and are generally unstable in their relationships, in their jobs, and in their goals and values.

Question 9

Social development in adulthood

Answer 9

In summary, adult hood is a time in which:

social relationships and personal accomplishments take on a special priority.

Question 10

Generativity

Answer 10

Generativity: ability to generate something that an individual cares about in life, usually in the form of:

• fulfilling career
• family with children
• Generativity is a commitment beyond oneself to one’s family, work, society, and future generations.
• a crucial development in the 30s and 40s
• others oriented: focus on well being of others beyond oneself.
• directing personal resources outward for the betterment of society and future generations.

Question 11

Stagnation

Answer 11

• concept opposite of generativity
• stagnation occurs when individuals fail to find meaningful ways to contribute to the world around them.
• self-absorbed, focus on personal needs.
• intolerant of differences, conservative tendencies.

Question 12

Ego Integrity vs. Despair

Answer 12

• last stage
• reflect back on life.
• either satisfied life went well (integrity) or regretting choices and missed opportunities (despair).

Question 13

Integrity

Answer 13

• Integrity (ego integrity): refers to a persons ability to look back on their life with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
• acceptance, feeling at peace, lack of regret.

Question 14

Despair

Answer 14

Despair: looking back on life with feelings of regret, shame, or disappointment.

• bitterness, regret, depression

Question 15

Developmental psychology

Answer 15

• Developmental psychology: The study of changes over the life span in physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior.
• Concerned with what changes and what remains stable across the life span.

Question 16

What is development?

Answer 16

• Development is a series of changes (for the better and for the worse).
• Changes involve trade offs.

Question 17

Domains of development

Answer 17

Look at human life-span development in the following domains:

• Intelligence
• Memory
• Mental (Piaget’s theory of cognitive development)
• Psychosocial (Erikson’s psychosocial stages)

Question 18

Chronological age

Answer 18

Chronological age:
The number of months or years since an individual’s birth.
Ex. 3 months old, 2 years old.

Question 19

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Answer 19

“Will I be loved or will I be alone?”

• Early adult: 18 - 29 years old
• meaningful social connections
• strong social support network
• close romantic relationships

Question 20

Developmental age

Answer 20

The chronological age at which most children show a particular level of physical or mental development.
Ex. The developmental age for walking without assistance is 12 months old.
Ex. A 10-month-old child that can walk without assistance is said to have a developmental age of 12 months.

Question 21

Normative investigations

Answer 21

Research efforts designed to describe what is characteristic of a specific age or developmental stage

Question 22

Longitudinal design

Answer 22

The same participants are observed repeatedly, sometimes over many years.

Question 23

Cross-sectional Design

Answer 23

Groups of participants of different chronological ages are observed and compared at a given time.
- Comparing babies of different ages.

Question 24

Longitudinal Design - Advantages & Disadvantages

Answer 24

Advantages:
- Researchers can identify individual differences (ex. not all babies start to walk at the same age).
- Researchers can examine relationships between early and later events and behaviors.

Disadvantages:
- Time consuming and costly.
- Data is easily lost (high drop-out rate).
- Data might be contaminated by:
1. Biased sampling
2. Practice effects
3. Cohort effects

Question 25

Cohort

Answer 25

• A cohort is a group of people in the same time period and are influenced by particular cultural and historical conditions.
• Results based on one cohort may not apply to another cohort.
• Cohort effects are effects of cultural-historical change on the accuracy of findings.

Question 26

Cross-sectional design Advantages & Disadvantages

Answer 26

Advantages:
- Takes less time to complete
- Less costly
- Not subject to practice effects

Disadvantages:
- Cannot tell if important individual differences exist.
- Cannot tell if an early event has an impact on a later event.
- Cohort effects (especially comparing two cohorts with a big age difference).

Question 27

Fluid Intelligence

Answer 27

• Fluid intelligence: refers to the ability to reason and think flexibly.
• When you encounter an entirely new problem that cannot be solved with your existing knowledge.
• Refers to current ability.
  Solve problems, and adapt to new situations.
• Decreases with age.
• Fluid intelligence shows greater decline with age than crystallized intelligence.

Question 28

Crystalized intelligence

Answer 28

Crystalized intelligence: involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and past experiences.

• Knowledge acquired through experience and education.
• Refers to prior learning
• Involves recalling specific facts.
• Increases with age.
• Ex. Memorizing text, memorizing vocabulary, recalling how to do something, remembering dates and locations.
• Tends to increase with age. - more learning and experience = more crystalized intelligence.

Question 29

Aging and Intelligence

Answer 29

Decrease in fluid intelligence has been attributed to a general slowing down of processing speed (speed at which the brain can perform cognitive operations).

Older adults struggle with tasks that demand quick mental processing and involve multiple cognitive steps in a short time.

Question 30

Use it or Lose it

Answer 30

The “use it or lose it” philosophy suggests that engaging in various activities, particularly social, physical, and intellectual ones, can positively impact cognitive function and potentially slow down cognitive decline in aging individuals.

Question 31

To what extent is the “use it or lose it” philosophy true?:

Answer 31

Correlational study:

• Older adults (average age = 69) with highest levels of: social, physical, and intellectual activities showed fastest processing speed on cognitive tasks.
• Implies a correlation between engagement in activities and cognitive processing speed.
• However, causation cannot be definitively established from correlational studies.

There are possible explanations for the observation:

• Not using cognitive abilities first, then losing them due to lack of use.
• Losing cognitive abilities first, then not using them.

Question 32

Use it or lose it professor study:

Answer 32

Cross-sectional study:

Participants divided into three groups:
- Senior Professors (aged 60 to 71).
- Younger Professors (aged 30 to 59).
- Older adults (control, aged 60 to 71).

Task: listen to tape recordings of brief stories and recall information.

Results:

Senior Professors: High level of performance.
- Maintained the same level of performance as the younger professors.

Younger Professors: High level of performance.

Older adults (control): Low level of performance; showed age-related impairment.

Explanation of results:

• Professors’ occupation demands sustained mental activity, likely contributing to:
• Maintenance of cognitive function.

-Protection against typical age-related cognitive decline.

• Selection bias: Individuals with high mental activity become professors.
• Those who don’t meet this criteria likely don’t become professors.
• Supports the notion of “use it or lose it” regarding cognitive abilities.

Question 33

Disuse or Decay:

Answer 33

Cannot tell whether disuse or decay is the true cause of age-related cognitive impairment.

People choose to believe that disuse is the cause of impairment because this is a more optimistic view of life—that we have some control over the losses.

Question 34

Memory

Answer 34

People experience memory deficits with advancing age, even when they have been highly educated and otherwise have good intellectual skills.

However, aging does NOT seem to affect:

• memory of general knowledge (semantic memory) that was acquired long ago.
• memory of personal events (episodic memory) that occurred long ago.

Question 35

Free Recall vs. Recognition Test:

Answer 35

Free recall test results are influenced by age.

• Free recall: Participants must retrieve information without specific cues.
• Age-related decline may affect the ability to freely recall information.
• Recognition test results are unaffected by age.

Recognition: Participants identify previously encountered items from a list of options.

• Aging doesn’t significantly impair recognition abilities.

Question 36

Remote Memory vs. New Memory:

Answer 36

• Middle-aged adults can recall 90% of high school classmates 35 years post-graduation.
• Older adults retain recognition of 70-80% of classmates even 50 years later.
• Aging affects remote memory but with less severity.
• Remote memory involves recalling past events or knowledge acquired long ago.
• Aging impacts new memory more than remote memory:
• New memory involves recent events or learning.
• Older adults struggle more with remembering names of new acquaintances.

Question 37

Memory Deficits in Older People:

Answer 37

transience, absent-mindedness, misattribution,
suggestibility

These deficits are common in older individuals but can occur at any age.
They can impact daily functioning and quality of life.
Understanding these deficits helps in developing strategies to support memory and cognitive function in older adults.

Question 38

Transience

Answer 38

Transience: Loss of access to information over time.

Question 39

Absent-mindedness

Answer 39

Absent-mindedness: Forgetting due to insufficient attention.

Question 40

Misattribution

Answer 40

Misattribution: Correctly remembering a fact but attributing it to the wrong source or context.

Question 41

Suggestibility

Answer 41

Suggestibility: Incorporating information from others into one’s own memory and recollection.

Question 42

Memory Deficit

Answer 42

Memory deficits occur more frequently in older individuals than in younger.

Mechanisms that underlie memory impairment in older adults are unknown.

Some possible explanations are:

• Neurobiological changes in the brain (see the next slide)
• Lack of organization in older adults
• Reduced ability to pay attention in older adults

Question 43

Synaptogenesis

Answer 43

Synaptogenesis: During infancy, large amounts of synapses form between neurons.
0-2 years

Question 44

Synaptic pruning

Answer 44

Synaptic pruning: Amount of synapses peaks at age 2-3, brain starts removing unneeded synapses.

Question 45

Infants early social interactions with caregivers are crucial for their ability to:

Answer 45

• Understand other people.
• Communicate with others through language.
• Live successfully in society.

Question 46

Language Learning Process for Children:

Answer 46

• Caregivers respond to infants in ways they can understand (e.g., baby talk).
• Baby talk/parentese: involves exaggerated facial expressions and high-pitched voices.
• Infants respond by maintaining eye contact.
• Baby talk/parentese helps infants learn spoken language by separating words, phrases, and sentences.
• It strengthens the bond between caregivers and infants.
• Caregivers adjust speech based on children’s abilities, supporting further language development.

Question 47

Theory of Mind

Answer 47

• Humans possess an innate ability to understand that others have minds with desires, intentions, beliefs, and mental states.
• Individuals can form theories about others’ desires, intentions, beliefs, and mental states, with some degree of accuracy.
• Coined by David Premack and Guy Woodruff in 1978.
• Theory of Mind refers to the ability to infer what another person is feeling or thinking.
• Based on these inferences, individuals can predict the behavior of others.
• This ability is fundamental for social interaction, empathy, and understanding the perspectives of others.

Question 48

Theory of Mind in Children

Answer 48

• Infants begin to understand that people perform actions for reasons.
• This recognition reflects the capacity for Theory of Mind, enabling understanding, prediction, and influence of others’ behavior.
• In a study, infants older than 9 months displayed impatience when adults were unwilling to hand over a toy compared to when they were unable to do so.
• This indicates that young children comprehend others’ intentions, capabilities, and reasoning behind their actions.
• By the end of the second year, children become proficient at reading intentions, possibly as early as 13 to 15 months.
• Despite preschool-age children’s egocentric tendencies, they demonstrate cognitive ability to understand others’ perspectives.

Question 49

False Belief and Theory of Mind

Answer 49

• False belief: someone believes something that isn’t true or that doesn’t match reality.
• Understanding complex mental states, such as false beliefs, develops later in childhood.
• False belief tests are commonly used to assess this understanding.

Question 50

False Belief - Sally-Ann Test:

Answer 50

There are two characters, Sally and Anne, in a story:

1. Sally has a ball and puts it in a basket.
2. Then Sally leaves the room.
3. While Sally is away, Anne takes the ball out of the basket and puts it in a box.
4. Now, Sally comes back into the room.

Here’s the critical question: Where does Sally think the ball is?

• Children who understand false belief realize that Sally doesn’t know the ball was moved by Anne. Even though they know where the ball actually is, they understand that Sally will think it’s still in the basket because she didn’t see Anne move it.
• Understanding false belief is significant because it shows that children can understand and differentiate between their own knowledge and the knowledge of others.
• This ability is considered crucial for developing social skills, empathy, and understanding others’ perspectives.

Question 51

Theory of Mind and the Frontal Lobe:

Answer 51

• Theory of Mind development aligns with the maturation of the brain’s frontal lobes.
• Brain imaging studies show increased activity in prefrontal brain regions when children and adolescents think about others’ mental states.
• Damage to the prefrontal region correlates with difficulty attributing mental states to characters in stories.
• Children as young as 3 use prefrontal regions to anticipate others’ actions.
• Brain imaging studies across different countries reveal similar patterns of prefrontal activity during theory of mind tasks.

Question 52

Theory of Mind and Understanding Social Emotions:

Answer 52

• Insight into other minds helps predict how people will feel in various situations.
• Children learn to predict the emotional states of caregivers, siblings, and friends, such as anger, sadness, or embarrassment.
• Research on children’s social emotions, particularly empathy, highlights the understanding of others’ emotional states, relying on Theory of Mind.
• Children as young as 4 years old can grasp that someone in pain might be distressed and would benefit from comfort, such as a gift or hug.
• Prosocial behavior involves voluntary actions aimed at benefiting others.
• ex. Seeking to comfort a person who is upset.
• Children as young as 1 year old demonstrate prosocial behavior, such as helping by picking up objects for someone who dropped them.
• A meta-analysis reveals that children with higher Theory of Mind scores are more likely to behave prosocially, emphasizing the link between understanding others’ perspectives and engaging in helpful behaviors.

Question 53

Caregiving Behavior and Children’s Behavior:

Answer 53

• Caregivers high in sympathy and who allow children to express negative emotions without shame or hostility tend to have children high in sympathy.
• Research establishes a link between caregiving behaviors and children’s social emotions and prosocial behavior.
• Caregivers fostering sympathy, promoting understanding of others, and not expressing hostility tend to raise sympathetic children.
• Children allowed to express negative emotions in constructive ways and helped to cope with them tend to exhibit high sympathy.
• Bidirectional nature of caregiver-child relationship: Children with higher prosocial behavior levels at age 9 have better relationships with caregivers two years later.

Question 54

Piaget vs. Vygotsky in Cognitive Development:

Piaget:

Answer 54

• Revolutionized understanding of cognitive development.
• Infants learn about the world through sensorimotor exploration.
• Individuals progress from intuitive, illogical thinking to more logical understanding.
• Piaget’s framework suggests uniform logic use across stages, leaving little room for individual or cultural cognitive differences.

Question 55

Piaget vs. Vygotsky in Cognitive Development:
Vygotsky

Answer 55

Vygotsky:

• Emphasized social relations over objects in cognitive development.
• Highlighted the role of social and cultural context in cognition and language development.
• Humans use symbols and psychological tools (speech, writing, etc.) to create culture.
• Culture influences what people learn and the skills they develop.
• Culture dictates how individuals think and relate to the world.
• Distinguished between elementary and higher mental functions, with culture primarily influencing these capacities.

-Culture shapes individuals’ thinking patterns and behaviors, emphasizing diverse cognitive strategies and skills across cultures.

Question 56

Vygotsky’s Influence on Language and Cognitive Development:

Answer 56

• Social and cultural context shapes language development, which, in turn, influences cognitive development.
• Children initially use speech for specific communications with others, such as requesting food or toys.
• As children mature, they begin using speech internally, directing it toward themselves, like giving directions or talking while playing.
• Eventually, children internalize speech into inner speech, which guides both behavior and cognition.
• Thoughts are rooted in the language acquired from society and culture, and inner speech reflects higher-order cognitive processes.
• Vygotsky’s theory challenges Piaget’s idea of universal developmental milestones, emphasizing the interaction between self and environment.
• Children often move between Piagetian stages based on tasks requiring different skill levels.
• Brain theorists propose that different brain areas are responsible for various skills, and development doesn’t strictly follow uniform stages.
• Vygotsky’s theory highlights the dynamic nature of cognitive development, influenced by social interactions and cultural contexts, and challenges Piaget’s notion of fixed developmental stages.

Question 57

Trends in Cognitive Development and Critiques of Piaget’s Theory:

Answer 57

• Modern interpretations view Piaget’s theory in terms of trends rather than rigid stages.
• Children’s thinking shifts gradually over a wider range of ages than previously thought.
• Children can demonstrate thinking skills from more than one stage simultaneously.
• Piaget believed all adults were formal operational thinkers, but subsequent research shows many adults reason in concrete operational ways without specific training.
• Formal operational thinking needs to be taught and may not develop spontaneously.
• Adults may think abstractly in familiar topics but struggle with new and unfamiliar tasks.
• Piaget underestimated the age at which certain skills develop, such as object permanence.