Alexandra Hampton Nate Peters Brandon Thomas Jon Lieberman.

DEVELOPMENTAlexandra Hampton

Nate PetersBrandon Thomas

Jon Lieberman

Developmental Psychology

The study of continuity and change across the lifespan.

Prenatal Development

Zygote – Fertilized egg that contains chromosomes from both a sperm and en egg.

Germinal Stage – The zygote begins to divide into two cells, then four.

Prenatal Development Cont’d

Embryonic Stage – A period that lasts from the second week until the eighth week

Fetal Stage – A period that lasts from the ninth week until birth. The embryo at this stage is known as a fetus.

Myelination Occurs

Prenatal Environment

Placenta – is an organ that physically links the bloodstreams of the mother and the developing embryo or fetus and permits the exchange of materials.

The children of mothers who received insufficient nutrition during pregnancy tend to have both physical and psychological problems.

Parental Environment Cont’d

Teratogens – Agents that damage the process of development.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – A developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy.

* Some studies suggest that light drinking doesn’t, but at the present there is no medical consensus about what is a “SAFE” amount.

Becoming a Person

Infancy – the stage of development that begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months.

-Motor Development -Reflexes-Cephalocaudal Rule (head to feet)-Proximodistal Rule (inside to outside)

Discovering the World

Childhood – stage begins at about 18 to 24 months and lasts until adolescents.

Preoperational Stage – (ages 2 to 6) children learns about physical objects

Concrete Operational Stage – (ages 6 to 11) Age of development when a child learns how to transform objects

Formal Operational Stage (ages 11 to adulthood) reason about abstract concepts

Discovering other minds

As children develop, they discover their own minds but they also discover the minds of others. But they don’t fully grasp the fact that others see the same objects in different ways.

Failure to understand that the world appears differently to different people is called

Egocentrism.

Once they understand that people can have different perceptions and beliefs they are said to have acquired a theory of mind. Which is the idea that human behavior is guided by mental representations.

Children’s ability to learn skills depends on three fundamental skills they

acquire early on.

Joint attention: The ability to focus on what another person is focused on.

Social referencing: The ability to use another person’s reactions as information.

Imitation: The ability to do what another person does. Infants are natural mimics and will do what they see adults do.

Four basic styles of attachment

Secure attachment: Infants get distressed when caregiver leaves and feels calmed by their proximity. Avoidant attachment: These infants are generally not distressed when their caregiver leaves the room. They generally do not acknowledge her when she returns

Ambivalent attachment: These infants are almost always distressed when their caregiver leaves the room. But when she returns rejects her attempt to calm them.

Disorganized attachment: These infants show no consistent pattern of responses when their caregiver leaves or returns.

Piaget’s 3 Shifts

Kohlberg’s 3 Stages

Pre-Conventional (Punishment)

Conventional (Social Rules)

Post-Conventional (Ethical Principles)

What Comes First?

Do you react more with your morals?

Or

Do you react more with your emotions?

Adolescence

11 to 21

Peak Height Velocity and Muscle to Fat Ratio

Primary and Secondary Sex Characteristics

Changes in the Brain

Puberty in the Last Century

Early Development

The “Gap”

Angry Teens

Sexuality

-When looking at the brain of a gay person, some studies have found that it is similar to the brain of a straight person of the opposite gender. (Savic & Lindstrom, 2008)

-The shaping of the brain causes a child to have the capacity to choose sexual behavior; but not sexual orientation.

-Puberty is a time with a marked increase in tension between a child and his/her parents.

-When the values of the child and parents coincide there is often less conflict.

-Peer over parent interactions and groups "peeling off".

The decline of the health and body