Chapter 5: The
Developing Human
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
The Developing Fetus
Stages of Prenatal Development
Brain and Sensory Development Before Birth
Environmental Influences on Detal Development
Maternal Nutrition
Teratogens
The Developing Infant and Child
Physical Development in Infancy and Childhood
Early Motor Development
Early Sensory Development
Early Brain Development
Psychology in the Real World:
Musical Training Changes the Brain
Early Cognitive Development
Theory of Mind
Development of Moral Reasoning
Early Socioemotional Development
Attachment
Developing Social Relationships and Emotions
Breaking New Ground: How
Touch and Comfort Influence Development
The Developing Adolescent
Physical Development in Adolescence
Cognitive and Brain Development
Social Development in Adolescence
The Developing Adult
Sensation and Perception in Adulthood
Cognitive and Brain Development in Adulthood
Cognitive Decline in the Aging Brain
Socioemotional Development in Adults
Death and Dying
Making Connections in Development: Personality Across the Life Span
Chapter Review
EXTENDED CHAPTER OUTLINE
THE DEVELOPING FETUS
Stages of Prenatal Development
Three Stages:
1. Germinal stage: begins at conception and lasts for two weeks.
2. Embryonic stage: marked by the formation of the major organs: the nervous system, heart, eyes, ears, arms, legs, teeth, palate, and external genitalia. Embryonic development continues until about 8 weeks after conception.
3. Fetal stage: the fetal stage is the formation of bone cells at 8 weeks after conception. By this time, all of the major organs have already begun to form. Between 8 and 12 weeks into development, the heartbeat can be detected with a stethoscope. During the fetal stage the organs continue to grow and mature while the fetus rapidly increases in size.
Brain and Sensory Development Before Birth
Environmental Influences on
Fetal Development
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Chemical substances that a pregnant woman
takes in or is exposed to shape the development of the fetus’s brain and other
bodily systems.
Teratogens
THE DEVELOPING INFANT AND CHILD
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Because it is not well formed at birth, the
newborn human brain is especially responsive to the specific world around it,
allowing nurture to shape human nature.
Physical Development in
Infancy and Childhood
Early Motor
Development
Early
Sensory Development
Early Brain
Development
Psychology In The Real World: Musical Training Changes The Brain
example, learning to play an instrument.
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Musicians have better communication between the two sides of the brain than do people who have had no musical training.
Early
Cognitive Development
·
With growth, especially brain growth, comes
cognitive development – advances in the ability to think, reason, remember,
learn, and solve problems.
Piaget’s 4 stages
1.
Sensorimotor stage: Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development (ages
0–2), so called because infants learn about the world by using their senses and
by moving their bodies in it.
· One of the hallmarks of thinking at this age would be object permanence.
· Object
permanence: the ability to realize that objects still exist when they are not
being sensed. Piaget argued this
appears around 9 months of age. However, Baillargeon has found it in infants as
young as 4 months.
2. Preoperational stage: the second major
stage of cognitive development (ages 2–7), which begins with the emergence of
symbolic thought, or the use of symbols such as words or letters to represent
ideas or objects.
·
Symbolic thinking involves using symbols such as
words or letters to represent ideas or objects. Other qualities of
preoperational thinking include animistic thinking, egocentrism, and
lack of conservation.
·
Animistic thinking: the idea that
inanimate objects are alive.
·
Egocentrism: the tendency to
view the world from one’s own perspective and not see things from another
person’s perspective.
·
Conservation: the ability to
recognize that when objects change shape or size, the overall amount stays the
same.
3. Concrete
operational stage: (ages 7–11) children can perform mental operations—on
real, or concrete, objects and events—but they still have trouble with abstract
ideas and reasoning.
· Reversing events is
one type of operation a child masters in this stage.
4. Formal
operational stage: During this stage, formal logic becomes possible. In
addition, adolescents develop scientific reasoning and hypothesis-testing
skills.
Theory
of Mind
·
Theory of mind refers to our
knowledge and ideas of how other people’s minds work. It involves knowing and
understanding what other people are thinking, wanting, or feeling.
·
Children under the age of 4 do not realize that
people may believe things that are not true. Adults know that people believe
things—such as superstitions—that are untrue. Psychologists created the
false-belief task to determine when children develop theory of mind and come to
know that others can believe something that is false.
· CONNECTION: Autism is marked by a lack of social interest as well as by heightened interest in some things and a tendency for counting things. How might autism be related to deficits in theory of mind?
Development of Moral
Reasoning
·
Lawrence Kohlberg did for moral reasoning what Piaget
did for cognitive development. Kohlberg (1981) studied the development of moral
reasoning in children and adults by giving them a moral dilemma and recording
the reasons they provided for their responses. Their responses were less
important to him than the reasoning behind them.
· Example,
the dilemma of Heinz: “A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one
drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a
druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to
make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to
produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the
drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the
money, but he could only get together about $1,000, which is half of what it
cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it
cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: ‘No, I discovered the drug
and I’m going to make money from it.’ So Heinz got desperate and broke into the
man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have broken into the
laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?” (Kohlberg, 1981).
·
Based on how people answered, he proposed a
three-stage theory of moral reasoning. He found that moral reasoning moves from
being focused on the self to being increasingly focused on others, with a basis
in clear personal principles of morality and ethics.
1.
Preconventional level: the first level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral
reasoning, in which moral reasoning involves avoiding punishment or maximizing
rewards.
2. Conventional
level: the second level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, during
which the person values caring, trust, and relationships, as well as the social
order and lawfulness.
3. Postconventional
level: the third level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, in which
the person acknowledges both the norm and the law, but argues that there are
universal moral rules that may trump unjust or immoral local rules.
· Research supports
Kohlberg’s argument that children tend to reason preconventionally and adults
conventionally. This is found cross-culturally, particularly for the first two
stages.
·
The postconventional level appears to be limited more
to Western cultures. When one realizes that Western cultures place a strong
emphasis on individualism and individual values, this finding makes sense,
because postconventional moral reasoning is heavily based in a personal moral
code. In contrast, many non-Western cultures emphasize the group and community,
and so the highest level of moral reasoning would be likely to involve
compassion and caring for others, altruism, and family honor.
Early Socioemotional Development
Attachment
·
Some animals, especially birds, follow and imitate
the first large creature they see immediately after birth. This behavior is
called imprinting. The newborn sees
this creature as a protector. Usually this creature also happens to be the
protector (mom or dad), so it is a good strategy. Newborn humans cannot follow
around the first large creature they see, so they do not imprint. They attach.
·
Imprinting: the rapid and
innate learning of the characteristics of a caregiver very soon after birth.
·
In everyday usage, attachment means “connectedness.”
In human development, attachment
refers to the strong emotional connection that develops early in life to keep
infants close to their caregivers.
·
John Bowlby (1969) described how infants become
emotionally attached to their caregivers and emotionally distressed when
separated from them. He proposed that the major function of this
affection-based bonding system is to protect infants from predation and other
threats to survival.
·
In his observations of human infants and primates,
Bowlby noted that they went through a clear sequence of reactions—from protest,
to despair, to detachment—when separated from their caregiver.
·
Bowlby defined separation
anxiety as the distress reaction shown by babies when they are separated from
their primary caregiver (typically shown at around 9 months of age).
·
On the basis of such observations, Bowlby developed
his attachment theory, which rests on two fundamental assumptions:
1. A responsive and accessible caregiver
(usually the mother) must create a secure base for the child. The infant needs
to know that the caregiver is accessible and dependable. With a dependable
caregiver, the child can develop confidence and security in exploring the
world.
2. Infants internalize the bonding
relationship, which provides a mental model on which they build future
friendships and love relationships. Therefore, attachment to a caregiver is the
most critical of all relationships.
Nature-Nurture
Pointer: Human
attachment is based on an affection-based bonding system that protects an
infant from threats to survival.
·
Influenced by Bowlby’s work, Mary Ainsworth developed
a technique for measuring the attachment of infant and caregiver. The strange
situation task: a 20-minute laboratory
session in which a mother and her 12-month-old infant are initially alone in a
playroom. Then a stranger comes into the room, and after a few minutes the
stranger begins a brief interaction with the infant. The mother then leaves for
two separate 2-minute periods. During the first period, the infant is left
alone with the stranger. During the second period, the infant is left
completely alone.
·
The critical behavior that Ainsworth and colleagues
rated was how the infant reacted when the caregiver returned. They presumed
that the infant’s reaction reflects the way the baby has learned to respond to
his or her caregiver and that these reactions are based on the history of
comfort and reassurance the caregiver has provided.
·
Based on
this reunion behavior, Anisworth developed a classification system of three
types:
1. Secure attachment, infants are happy and initiate contact when the
mother returns. They will go over to her and want to be held. After they’ve
been reunited with their mothers, they may return to their play.
· The other two types of attachment represent insecure attachment.
2.
Anxious-resistant attachment:
infants are ambivalent. When their mother leaves the room, they become
unusually upset, and when their mother returns they seek contact with her but
reject attempts at being soothed. These infants give very conflicted messages.
On the one hand, they seek contact with their mother; on the other hand, they
squirm to be put down and may throw away toys that their mother has offered
them.
3.
Anxious-avoidant attachment: infants stay calm when their mother leaves,
they accept the stranger, and when their mother returns, they ignore and avoid
her.
Developing
Social Relationships and Emotions
·
Developmental psychologist James Sorce studied one-year-old
babies and their mothers’ reactions to the visual cliff. In his study, the mom
would place her baby on the visual cliff. She would stand at the other end, put
a toy down, and pose one of five facial expressions of emotion: fear, anger,
sadness, interest, or happiness. She said nothing and did nothing else. When
mom’s facial expression showed fear or anger, the baby did not move to the deep
side. But most babies went willingly over the cliff when the mom smiled.
·
What this means is that by the age of one, children
can make sense of their mothers’ emotional facial expressions and use them to
know what to do. This ability to make use of social information from another
person is known as social referencing.
·
CONNECTION: One way we learn is
by imitating someone else’s behavior. Imitation also contributes to aggressive
behavior.
·
All humans, including babies, respond to cues in
their social environments. Exposure to aggressive conflict between parents, for
example, changes babies’ behavior. Specifically, 6-month-old babies who have
witnessed aggressive conflict between their parents tend to withdraw when
presented with a novel stimulus, such as a new toy.
·
Emotional competence: the ability to
control emotions and to know when it is appropriate to express certain
emotions.
·
The development of emotional competence starts as
early as preschool and continues throughout childhood. The better children do
in school and the fewer stressful and dysfunctional situations they have at
home, the more emotionally skilled and competent they are.
·
Peer interaction: As children get older, their social
world expands from the intimate environment of the home to include play with
other children. Although attachment to the primary caregiver is important for
the baby and young child, relations with other children have a big impact after
early childhood.
·
Nothing influences the behavior of children like
other children – their peers.
·
Peers: persons who share
equal standing or status.
Breaking New Ground: How Touch and Comfort Influence Development
·
See “Breaking New Ground” section for detailed explanation.
THE DEVELOPING ADOLESCENT
·
Adolescence: the transition
period between childhood and adulthood, beginning at about age 11 or 12 and
lasting until around age 18.
Physical Development in
Adolescence
·
Puberty: the period when
sexual maturation begins, marking the beginning of adolescence.
·
During puberty, major hormonal changes prepare the
body for reproduction. On average, girls reach puberty at about age 11and boys
at about age 13.
·
The beginning of puberty stems from the release of
sex hormones.
·
First, the pituitary gland sends hormonal signals to
the sex glands, telling them to mature. The sex glands, or gonads, then release
sex hormones.
· The male gonads are called testes; they release the male sex hormone testosterone,
·
The female gonads are the ovaries; they release estradiol.
·
In girls, breast development can start as early as
age 10. The next major change is the onset of menstruation, known as menarche. The age of menarche is highly
variable, but it often occurs by age 12. In most Western cultures, the age of
menarche has dropped from about age 16 during the 1800s to 12 or 13 today.
·
In boys, the event that signals readiness to
reproduce is spermarche, or the
first ejaculation.
Cognitive and Brain
Development
·
During adolescence, children gain the ability to
reason about abstract concepts and problems. This is the stage of cognitive
development that Piaget termed the formal operational stage.
· In this stage, teens may show the ability to engage in scientific reasoning and hypothesis testing. Adolescents and even adults do not all develop this reasoning ability to the same degree.
· The extent to which people develop scientific reasoning skills is related to their ability to think and solve problems systematically, rather than relying on the trial-and-error method that children use. It is also related to the ability to distinguish one’s thoughts about how the world works from the evidence for how it really works.
·
Neuroscientists have only recently uncovered how
changes in thinking correspond with changes in the adolescent brain. Indeed,
many of the cognitive developments of adolescence, such as abstract reasoning
and logical thinking, may be a consequence of brain development.
·
In particular, the last part of the brain to fully
develop—the frontal lobes—continues to mature until late adolescence or early
adulthood.
·
The frontal lobes are involved in planning,
attention, working memory, abstract thought, and impulse control. It is not so
much that the frontal lobes are growing in size as that they are growing in
complexity.
·
Specifically, the adolescent brain develops more
myelin around the axons as well as more neural connections.
·
Myelination proceeds from the back of the brain to
the front, where the frontal lobes are, during the period from childhood to
adolescence.
·
The onset of formal operational and scientific
thinking occurs after the frontal lobes have developed more fully.
·
CONNECTION: Can Internet
gaming and alternative realities and personalities (avatars) be an addiction
for some people? (See Chapter 15.)
· What effect does brain development have on intelligence? Researchers have known for decades that overall brain size is not correlated with overall intelligence. As it turns out, however, intelligence does seem to be associated with how the brain develops and, in particular, how the cortex develops.
·
At age 7 the highly intelligent children had thinner
frontal cortexes, but by mid-adolescence their cortexes had become thicker than
those of the children of average intelligence. Moreover, by age 19 the
thickness of the cortex in the two groups was the same. These results suggest
that the brains of highly intelligent people are more elastic and plastic and
trace a different developmental path.
Social Development in
Adolescence
·
An important part of social development in
adolescence is the search for identity.
· Puberty brings profound changes not only in the body but also in relationships. Family becomes less central, and peer and sexual relationships become paramount. Having close, intimate friends during adolescence is associated with many positive social and emotional outcomes, such as self-confidence, better relationships with parents and authority figures, and better performance in school.
·
Compared to childhood, the most obvious change in
adolescent social development is the emergence of sexual interest and sexual
relationships. Teens not only become interested in sexual relationships, but
sexual thoughts and feelings also occupy much of their attention and time.
·
The average age for first sexual intercourse for men
and women is around 17 years old, although there is quite a bit of variability
in when people start having sex.
THE DEVELOPING ADULT
·
As people enter their 30s, development has
largely stabilized.
Sensation and
Perception in Adulthood
·
Many people experience some loss of vision or hearing
or both by middle adulthood.
·
Hearing declines, too, with age. A recent large-scale
study found that as many as 50% of older adults (mean age of 67) experience
some degree of hearing loss.
·
CONNECTION: Mosquito ring tones
for cell phones were developed by young people to exploit older adults’
decreasing ability to hear high-pitched sounds. (See Chapter 4.)
·
Some people also experience a loss of sensitivity to
taste and smell, though these changes vary considerably among individuals.
·
Losing one’s sense of smell can dampen the sense of
taste to the point that food no longer has much appeal, somewhat like what
happens when you have a bad cold. As many as half the people over 65
demonstrate significant loss of smell.
Cognitive and
Brain Development in Adulthood
·
The older brain does not change as rapidly as the
younger brain. Yet new experiences and mastery of new skills continue to give
rise to neural branching and growth throughout life.
Nature-Nurture
Pointer: Mastering
new skills stimulates neural growth and the formation of new synapses
throughout the life span.
Healthy Aging
·
Aging is not a slow decline over time (Kenyon, 2005).
Keeping the mind active increases neural branching, which in turn improves
cognitive performance.
·
For optimal aging, we can engage in some healthy
activities. “Use it or lose it” is one approach to healthy aging. Learning new
skills, such as a new language, a new game, or a new computer activity can lead
to new neural growth.
Cognitive Decline in the Aging Brain
·
Normal changes in the brain occur with age. We used
to think that the brain lost cells as part of normal aging. This appears to be
an overstatement. Just as body mass gradually decreases with age, so too does
brain mass.
·
Dementia: a loss of cognitive functions,
including memory problems and difficulty reasoning, solving problems, making
decisions, and using language. Several neurological conditions, including
stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, can lead to dementia in the elderly.
·
Alzheimer’s disease: a degenerative
disease marked by progressive cognitive decline and characterized by a
collection of symptoms, including confusion, memory loss, mood swings, and
eventual loss of physical function.
·
Alzheimer’s accounts for 60–70% of the cases of
dementia among the elderly.
·
Some evidence suggests that neurogenesis in the adult
brain might offset or even prevent the kind of neural degeneration seen in
Alzheimer’s and other age-related brain disorders.
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Aerobic exercise appears to protect against a decline
in higher mental processing among aging adults and may actually make the brain
grow.
Socioemotional Development
in Adults
·
In spite of the dramatic changes that can occur in
cognitive functioning, there are fewer age-related changes in emotional
functioning.
·
According to socioemotional selectivity theory, as
people age and become more aware of their limited time, they become more
selective about where they expend their resources in personal and emotional
relationships. They waste less time in superficial acquaintances and invest
more in sustaining meaningful, fulfilling connections in their lives.
Death and Dying
· In psychological terms, death is a complex event that marks the end of life.
Making Connections in Development: Personality Across the Life Span
KEY TERMS
adolescence: the transition period between childhood and adulthood.
Alzheimer’s disease: a degenerative disease marked by progressive cognitive decline and characterized by a collection of symptoms, including confusion, memory loss, mood swings, and eventual loss of physical function.
animistic thinking: belief that inanimate objects are alive.
anxious-avoidant: attachment style characterized by infants who stay calm when their primary caregiver leaves and who ignore and avoid her when she returns.
anxious-resistant attachment: attachment style characterized by infants who are ambivalent when separated and reunited.
attachment: the strong emotional connection that develops early in life between infants and their caregivers.
concrete operational stage: Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development, which spans ages
6–11, during which the child can perform mental operations—such as reversing—on real objects or events.
conservation: recognition that when some properties (such as shape) of an object change, other properties (such as volume) remain constant.
conventional level: the second level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, during which the person values caring, trust, and relationships as well as the social order and lawfulness.
critical period: specific period in development when individuals are most receptive to a particular kind of input from the environment (such as visual stimulation and language).
dementia: a loss of mental function, in which many cognitive processes are impaired, such as the ability to remember, reason, solve problems, make decisions, and use language.
egocentrism: viewing the world from one’s own perspective and not being capable of seeing things from another person’s perspective.
embryo: the term for the developing organism from 2 weeks until about 8 weeks after conception.
embryonic stage: the second prenatal stage, from 2 weeks to 8 weeks after conception, when all of the major organs form.
emotional competence: the ability to control emotions and know when it is appropriate to express certain emotions.
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD): a consequence of prenatal alcohol exposure that causes multiple problems, notably brain damage and mental retardation.
fetal stage: the third prenatal stage, which begins with the formation of bone cells 8 weeks after conception and ends at birth.
formal operational stage: Piaget’s fi nal stage of cognitive development, from age 11 or 12 on through adulthood, when formal logic is possible.
generativity: a term Erik Erikson used to describe the process in adulthood of creating new ideas, products, or people.
germinal stage: the first pre natal stage of development, which begins at conception and lasts two weeks.
human development: the study of change and continuity in the individual across the life span.
imprinting: the rapid and innate learning of the characteristics of a caregiver very soon after birth.
menarche: the first menstrual period.
neural migration: the movement of neurons from one part of the fetal brain to their more permanent destination; occurs during months 3–5 of the fetal stage.
object permanence: the ability to realize that objects still exist when they are not being sensed.
peers: people who share equal standing or status and are at the same level, in terms of age, gender, skill, or power.
preconventional level: the first level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, focusing on avoiding punishment or maximizing rewards.
prenatal programming: the process by which events in the womb alter the development of physical and psychological health.
preoperational stage: the second major stage of cognitive development (ages 2–5), which begins with the emergence of symbolic thought.
postconventional level: the third level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, in which the person recognizes universal moral rules that may trump unjust or immoral local rules.
pruning: the degradation of synapses and dying off of neurons that are not strengthened by experience.
puberty: the period when sexual maturation begins; it marks the beginning of adolescence.
secure attachment: attachment style characterized by infants who will gradually explore new situations when the caregiver leaves, and they initiate contact when the caregiver returns after separation.
sensorimotor stage: Piaget’s fi rst stage of cognitive development (ages 0–2), when infants learn about the world by using their senses and by moving their bodies.
separation anxiety: the distress reaction shown by babies when they are separated from their primary caregiver (typically shown at around 9 months of age).
social referencing: the ability to make use of social and emotional information from another person—especially a caregiver—in an uncertain situation.
spermarche: the first ejaculation.
temperament: the biologically based tendency to behave in particular ways from very early in life.
teratogens: substances that can disrupt normal prenatal development and cause lifelong deficits.
theory of mind: ideas and knowledge about how other people’s minds work.
zygote: the single cell that results when a sperm fertilizes an egg.
MAKING
THE CONNECTIONS
Teratogens
CONNECTION: Catching the flu virus while pregnant changes the way neurons grow in the developing fetus and increases vulnerability to schizophrenia later in life. (See Chapter 15.)
Early Brain Development
CONNECTION: Experience is crucial in the formation of synaptic connections and the growth of neurons (neurogenesis) in the brain throughout the life span. Pruning is nature’s way of making the brain more efficient. (See Chapter 3.)
o Discussion: This is a good time to discuss the concept of epigenisis. A great site on pruning is: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html. I typically show clips from the PBS series “The Secret Life of the Brain”: An overview of the series: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/work/adolescent.html and the video links: the link for the infant: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode1/video.html, the child: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode2/video.html, and the teenager: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode3/video.html.
Theory of
Mind
CONNECTION: Autism is marked by a lack of social interest as well as by heightened interest in some things and a tendency for counting things. How might autism be related to deficits in theory of mind?
Developing Social Relationships and Emotions
CONNECTION: One way we learn is
by imitating someone else’s behavior. Imitation also contributes to aggressive
behavior.
o Discussion: This is a great time to
discuss social learning theory (see Chapter 8 on Learning). If you are not
prepared to go into discussing Bandura’s work on media effects on aggressive
behavior in depth, it still can be a useful example of modeling and imitation.
Cognitive and Brain
Development
CONNECTION: Can Internet
gaming and alternative realities and personalities (avatars) be an addiction
for some people? (See Chapter 15.)
Sensation and
Perception in Adulthood
CONNECTION: Mosquito ring tones
for cell phones were developed by young people to exploit older adults’
decreasing ability to hear high-pitched sounds. (See Chapter 4.)
Making Connections in
Development: Personality Across the Life Span
Temperament and Personality in the Fetus and
Infant
1. Easy: predictable in daily functions, is
happy most of the time, and is adaptable. About 40% of children fall into this
category.
2. Difficult: unpredictable in daily
functions, is unhappy most of the time, and is slow to adapt to new situations.
About 10% fall into this category.
3. Slow-to-warm-up: mildly intense in his or
her reactions to new situations and mildly irregular in the daily patterns of
eating, sleeping, and eliminating. Although his or her first response to new
situations might be negative, after repeated exposures, he or she develops an
approaching style. About 15% of the children fall into this category.
Childhood Temperament and Personality
Nature-Nurture
Pointer: Infants
born to mothers who experienced an unusual amount of stress during pregnancy
tend to be more sensitive to stress throughout childhood and beyond.
Adolescent and Adult Personality Development
NATURE-NURTURE
POINTERS
Environmental Influences on
Fetal Development
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Chemical substances that a pregnant woman takes in or is exposed to shape the development of the fetus’s brain and other bodily systems.
The Developing Infant and
Child
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Because it is not well formed at birth, the newborn human brain is especially responsive to the specific world around it, allowing nurture to shape human nature.
Psychology in the Real World: Music Lessons May Make Children Smarter
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Musicians have better communication between the two sides of the brain than do people who have had no musical training.
Attachment
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Human attachment is based on an affection-based bonding system that protects an infant from threats to survival.
Discussion: This is a great time to discuss the
evolutionary adaptive value of imprinting and attachment. Here is a cute clip
of ducks following a canoe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvDoV5ZRzE.
You may want to tie this in to how infant attachment most likely operates on a
similar level. You could also relate this to
Cognitive and
Brain Development in Adulthood
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Mastering new skills stimulates neural growth and the formation of new synapses throughout the life span.
o Discussion: Remind students that the brain never stops developing. All
interactions and knowledge change the way the brain works. Repeated information
and exposure tends to strengthen neural networks and allow for more connected
thinking.
Cognitive Decline in the Aging Brain
Nature Nurture Pointer: Aerobic exercise
appears to protect against a decline in higher mental processing among aging
adults and may actually make the brain grow.
Breaking New Ground: How Touch and Comfort Influence Development
·
One of the surest ways to soothe a crying newborn is
to pick her up and cuddle her close. Aside from its calming effect, how
important is contact for a developing infant?
And what purpose does it serve?
Do Babies’ Needs Extend Beyond Hunger and
Thirst?
·
In the early part of the 20th century, psychologists
assumed that all babies needed to survive was to have their internal biological
needs met – hunger, thirst, and temperature regulation.
·
External needs, including love, affection, and social
contact, were considered secondary. According to this view, babies liked being
held by their mothers because they had come to associate mom with the ability
to satisfy their primary hunger needs.
The importance of Comfort and Physical Contact
·
Harry Harlow thought there might be more to infants’
desire for contact than a need for nourishment. In his early work,
·
To test his hunch, Harlow and his colleagues carried
out a series of studies with newborn monkeys whom they separated from their
mothers. They housed them with surrogate mothers constructed of wire and wood.
One was just a wire frame with a crude head. The other was a wire frame covered
with soft terry cloth. Both mothers were heated and either could be hooked up
to a bottle of milk.
·
In the first study,
·
·
·
Field and her colleagues (1986) decided to test
whether regular touch might help tiny premature infants. She randomly assigned
40 preterm infants from a hospital’s newborn intensive care unit to either
receive touch therapy (experimental group) or not (control group). All of the
premature infants lived in isolettes, plastic-covered bassinets designed to
prevent infection. This touch therapy involved gently stroking the baby with
warmed hands (no gloves) through portholes in the isolette for 15 minutes,
three times a day for 10 days.
·
Over the treatment period, babies who received touch
therapy gained significantly more weight than those who did not, even though
they did not eat more.
·
Later research showed the same effect in weight gain
when mothers touched their preterm infants. Touch also leads to reduced stress
levels in premature babies and to fewer diarrheas. So touch in this case, makes
for better health!
Extending the Benefits of Touch Therapy
·
Massage therapy also helps people with developmental
disorders, such as autism. A study of Qigong (a Chinese touch therapy) showed
improvements in sensory, social, and basic living skills in autistic children.
·
Massage improves well-being, motor dexterity,
sleeping, and overall health in kids with other disabilities.
INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTION
Additional Discussion Topics
Activities
Suggested Films
1. An interview with David Elkind discussing Piaget: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9014865592046332725
2. A brief clip on Vygotsky’s theory: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=634376752589779456&hl=en
3.
A Vygotskyan approach to play: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=36813446619688577&hl=en
4. A brief overview of Mary Ainsworth and attachment: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3634664472704568591
5. The strange situation task: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3479676835864606277&hl=en
6. Erik Erikson’s work: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7953598721199398444&hl=en
7. Montessori and her work: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=748019594080989064&hl=en
8. Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2953790276071699877&hl=en
9. Cute clip of a conservation task: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7120969848896411546&vt=lf&hl=en
10. NOVA clips on life’s greatest miracle: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/miracle/program.html
11.
Martin
Seligman on positive psychology: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html
Suggested Websites
1. The student page is great as a resource of Piaget’s work: http://www.piaget.org/
2. Educational implications of Piaget’s theory: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VD4-40V4CM7-8&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9b8ba4e000130888c49d5efa3c628b7f
3. A great site on cognitive development: http://cogweb.ucla.edu/
4. Piaget’s website: http://www.piaget.org/
5. An overview of Piaget’s theory: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html
6. An overview of Erikson’s theory: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/affsys/erikson.html
7. An overview of Kohlberg’s stages: http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg.htm
8.
An overview of
9. A quiz on Piaget’s stages: http://psychology.about.com/library/quiz/bl_piaget_quiz.htm
10. Some great psychology tests and quizzes, including excerpts from the Hazan and Shaver adult attachment inventory: http://psychology.about.com/lr/psychology_quizzes/2370/3/
11. An overview of Ainsworth’s work: http://www.enotes.com/psychology-theories/ainsworth-mary-d-salter
12. Another Kohlberg page: http://www.vtaide.com/blessing/Kohlberg.htm
13. A great Piaget page: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm
14. A great overview of developmental theories: http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/overview.html
Suggested
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M.C., Waters, M.,
& Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of
Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation.
Beilen,
H. (1992). Piaget’s enduring contribution to developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 28, 191-204.
Bruner,
J. (1966). Studies in cognitive growth: A
collaboration at the Center for Cognitive Studies.
Elkind,
D. (1988). The Hurried Child: Growing Up
Too Fast Too Soon.
Erikson,
E. (1950). Childhood and Society.
Gilligan,
C. (1982). In a different voice:
Psychological theory and women's development.
Kuhn,
D., Langer, J., Kohlberg, L., & Haan, N. S. (1977). The development of
formal operations in logical and moral judgment. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 95, 97-188.
Piaget,
J. (1990). The child’s conception of the
world.
Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child.
The Free Press:
Power, F. C., Higgins, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1989).
Vygotsky,
L. (1986). Thought and Language.
Williams, G.C. (1966). Adaptation and
Natural Selection: A Critique of some Current Evolutionary Thought.