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Developmental Psychology

Social Development

There was this girl that I met at one of my fraternity parties my junior year of college.  She was beautiful and made Jessica Alba look like Squidward.  I remember walking up to her and offering her a beer (root beer).  Her name was Dawn (from Long Island- in fact every girl from Long Island seems to be named either Jen or Dawn)) and we talked for awhile.

Then I invited her up to my room to look at my fish tank (that is not a euphemism, I actually had a fish tank).

We went up the stairs and studied together for awhile (studying is a euphemism).

After we finished studying (she really knew her material), I told her that I would call her to study again.  I forgot to call her, but she started calling me everyday.  I guess she REALLY wanted to be study partners because she started showing up at the fraternity house almost every day.  When she found out that I had many study partners (there is a lot of material to cover in college), she started to write bad letters about my study habits and posted them up around campus.  It was at this point that I realized that although Dawn developed very well physically, it meant nothing because her social development was severely lacking.  Social development is a really funny thing- who you are now socially really began all the way back when you were an infant.

Social development begins the minute you enter the world.  Psychologists have identified periods of our lives that development MUST be healthy or they will not develop correctly- these times are called Critical Periods.  The first few months of life are a critical period for social development.  The focal issue for the infant is to develop is attachment– a reciprocal relationship between child and caregiver (usually a parent).

Some animals develop attachment through the process of imprinting.  Scientist Konrad Lorenz showed us  baby ducklings would develop an immediate strong attachment with the first object it sees moving.  This object is hopefully the duckling’s mother, but Lorenz imprinted ducklings to humans, dogs and even balls.

Now do humans imprint?  Of course not- otherwise we would all have a thing for doctors and nurses (the first people we see).

Harry Harlow proved to us that touch is critical for higher level mammals (like most of you) to develop attachment.

Harlow was really into baby monkeys.

He separated them from their mothers and used a wire mother- covered in soft cloth- with a nipple with milk- as a mother substitute for the baby.

One day a baby monkey took a poop on the fake mother and Harlow had to wash the cloth.  The baby monkey freaked out with the wire monkey without the soft cloth.  So Harlow wanted to see if the cloth was really that important.   He put baby monkeys into cages with two mothers- one with a soft cloth and no food, one a hard wire mesh with a nipple that provided food.  To everyone’s astonishment, the baby stayed with the cloth mother all day and ignored the one with food.  Even when hungry the baby would quickly reach across, take some food, but run back to the soft mother.

Thus, it was discovered that soft touch is critical for monkeys to develop attachment.   Further studies have been done with humans in orphanages.  Some orphans were touched daily (good touch not bad touch), with some stroking on the head, while other orphans were fed but never touched.  The ones that were never touched became socially isolated and when tested 12 years later, had lower IQs than the ones that were touched.  Yes, this was a cruel experiment.

Years later, psychologist Mary Ainsworth, labeled the various types of attachments humans can have with their parents.  She set up an experiment called Ainsworth’s Stranger Paradigm (I still have no clue what a paradigm really is).  She placed young children into rooms that they had never been in before and then asked their parents to quietly go out the door.

After observing how the child reacts with the parent away, she asked the parents to come back in the room and observed how the child reacted to their mom or dad’s return.  She discovered three main types of attachment.

1. Secure Attachments (66% of infants): confidently explored the room with parent there, became distressed when the parent left, and came back to them for a hug when the parent returned.
2. Avoidant Attachments (21% of infants): explore the environment even when parents leave the room- do not go to parents for comfort.
3. Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment (12% of infants): show stress when parents leave, but do not want comfort when parents return.

* On a little side note about attachment, at around a year old most children develop what most psychologists call stranger anxiety, which is distress young children feel when they are around people they are unfamiliar with.  Stranger anxiety makes alot of sense from an evolutionary perspective.  What happens when kids turn one?  They begin to walk- they become mobile.  Way back in the cave man days, those kids that did not develop stranger anxiety by the time they walked, might have just wandered  off with some Cro-Magnon pedophile and died.  Those that had the anxiety lived long enough to procreate (have kids) and that trait was eventually passed on to you.

Parenting Styles

Do you think your parents have in any way affected your social development?  Think about the following 3 types of parenting styles and see if you can identify traits of your parents within them:

• Authoritarian Parents: these are the “WHY, BECAUSE I SAID SO PARENTS!!!!”.  They set strict standards for the child’s behavior and apply punishments for breaking the rules.  They favor obedience over rationale.

• Permissive Parents: do not set clear guidelines for their children.  The rules are constantly being changed, and it creates a feeling that you can get away with anything.  Your parents are unpredictable- you come home two hours late and one day they will not care, but the next they may ground you for a week.

• Authoritative Parents: have consistent standards for the child’s behavior, but the rules are reasonable and explained.  Encourage the child’s independence, but not to the point where the rules are broken.  They praise as often as they punish, and often let the children help make the rules.

Now most of our parents do not fall exactly in one single category.  They may be permissive about watching TV, but authoritarian about dating.  In general, children of Authoritative parents have been shown to have more success in school.  But is that because authoritative parenting helps with academic success or the child is doing well in school, so the parent acts authoritative?

Stage theorists and Social Development

We already learned that the nature v nurture argument is a big one in psychology.  Another big controversy is an argument called continuity v discontinuity.

Do we develop continually, at a steady rate throughout our lives, or is development discontinuous, marked by periods of rapid development along with periods of stagnation.  If you think about it, some development is continuous, like my ability to play Madden football on my PS3- I always get a little better at it as I practice.  But other development is discontinuous, like riding a bike.  You tend to fall off again and again until one day, you just get it.  The psychologists we are going to talk about believe in discontinuous growth, so we develop socially kinda like riding a bike, we struggle, until one day we just change.

Several famous psychologists who believe is discontinuity profess that we develop in stages- thus they are called stage theorists.  Two very famous stage theorists who are big in developmental psychology are Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson.

Sigmund Freud	Erik Erikson

Both Freud and Erik belong to what we called in the introductory chapter as the psychoanalytic school of psychology.  But they also studied in great detail social development.  They essentially believed that we develop socially in stages (thus you and your parents may be in different stages of social development- so that is why you guys fight so much).  Now these two theories do not really contradict each other, but rather take a different view of social growth.

Sigmund Freud

Freud (his friends called him Siggy) is probably the most recognizable psychologist of all time.  He is the father of the psychoanalytic school of psychology and we WILL discuss him in MUCH more detail when we discuss the psychoanalytic school.  But Freud did talk about social development and stated that all of us go through what he called five psychosexual stages.

Now when you think about sex, you think about using your genitals for stimulation, rated R, late night Cinamax sex.  However to Freud, sex was a concept that explained how we get our pleasure from the world.  For most of you, although your parents would hate to think about it, your sexual pleasure comes from your genitals.  But to younger children they do not.  Freud believed that we all have a libido, or instinctual sexual energy.

Go Ahead- work that libido!!!!

Your libido changes throughout your lifetime, focusing on different parts of your body.  Essentially, your libido has 4 stages of metamorphosis.  If some outside force deters our social development in one of the following stages, Freud said we could become fixated in that stage, meaning that we would become preoccupied with that earlier stage later on in our lives.  Lets explain the stages and see if we can get this to make some sense.

1.Oral Stage: About 0-2 years old, an infants libido is focused around their mouth.  You will notice that babies see the world through their mouths.  If I give my 8 month old son some dog vomit, the first thing he will do is taste it.  Freud believe that if you become fixated in the oral stage than you may overeat, smoke, or just have a childhood dependence on things.

2. Anal Stage: About 2-4 years old, the child becomes focused on controlling bowel movements (crapping).  The libido is focused on holding in and releasing defecation (poo poo).  This usually occurs during toilet training. The child meets the conflict between the parent’s demands and the child’s desires and physical capabilities in one of two ways: Either he puts up a fight or he simply refuses to go. The child who wants to fight takes pleasure in excreting maliciously, perhaps just before or just after being placed on the toilet. If the parents are too lenient and the child manages to derive pleasure and success from this expulsion, it will result in the formation of an anal expulsive character. This character is generally messy, disorganized, reckless, careless, and defiant. Conversely, a child may opt to retain feces, thereby spiting his parents while enjoying the pleasurable pressure of the built-up feces on his intestine. If this tactic succeeds and the child is overindulged, he will develop into an anal retentive character. This character is neat, precise, orderly, careful, stingy, withholding, obstinate, meticulous, and passive-aggressive. The resolution of the anal stage, proper toilet training, permanently affects the individual propensities to possession and attitudes towards authority.

3. Phallic Stage: About 4-6 years old, the child first realizes his or her gender.  In other words, the boy says “look I have an extra finger, Sally where is yours, you freak!!!”. The libido is focused on exploring the penis and vagina (playing doctor- I have fond but disturbing memories of a plastic fisher price med kit) but not in the way you now think about playing with your genitals (you pervert).

During this stage Freud believed that boys can develop an Oedipus Complex, where he begins to have sexual feelings towards his mother (not the “Mom, I want to see you in a pink thong” feeling, but more like I want to be with you on my phallic stage level).

The girl can develop and Electra Complex, where they want to be with the father.  In particular, they develop what Freud called penis envy, or the idea that every woman wants to have a male penis (why did I say male, is there a female penis?).

During these complexes the children often have hateful feelings toward the same sex parent and the stage ends with a “if I can’t beat them, I’ll join them attitude toward that same sex parent.  Now I believe that penis envy has merit, not because I love my penis and think that of course every person would want to have it, but rather, the penis may represent what men have in society and women do not; power.

4. Latency Stage: About 7-11 year olds develop the need to just hang around peers of their own gender.  You might as well call this the “cootie stage”.  Circle circle dot dot now I have my cootie shot.  This is the stage when the libido is hidden in the unconscious (this will be a big topic later) and sexuality is repressed (hidden).  But the libido makes a grand entrance in the next stage.

5. Genital Stage: From about 12 until death, this is the stage you are probably all in now (if not, don’t worry, your time will come).  Here the libido,sexual energy, is focused on your genitals and sex is as you think about it now.  Freud considers fixation in this stage normal- Congrats!!!!

Now we will be going over Freud a lot more later.  Just remember that his theories have some issues.  First, he lived in Vienna, Austria (not Australia dumb ass- it is a whole different continent!!!) and he studies himself, his children and rich white woman in Europe.  Are their thoughts generalizable to the rest of the global population?  Probably not.  Next, his theories cannot be tested, so it is hard to consider them true science.  But they make for cool conversation and many great ideas came from his wacky drugged out mind (yes he did drugs).

Erik Erikson

First of all, what were his parents thinking, naming him Erik, they must have been real deep people.  Erikson came from a group of psychologists that took Fred’s ideas and built upon them, called neo-Freudians (thus you can put Erikson in what school of psychology?- Psychoanalytic).  Erikson thought Freud was a perv and focused too much on sex.  So Erikson came up with his own stages of psychosocial development.  Erikson’s stage theory has eight stages and within each stage their is a social conflict or battle between two forces in our development.

1. Trust versus mistrust: This stage is all about fulfilling needs.  The baby needs to trust the world around them to take take of their needs.  If they are hungry, they need to develop trust that they will be fed.  If they are not fed, or their diaper is left dirty, they may develop a mistrust in the outside world.  This sense of trust of mistrust can effect us throughout the rest of our lives.

2. Autonomy versus same and doubt: Autonomy means being your own boss.  Here a toddler tries to control their own bodies by toilet training and their environment, by always saying “NO!!!!”.  Sometimes they do poopy in their pants or get yelled at by their parents, causing shame and doubt in their own abilities.  If we learn how to control ourselves in reasonable ways, we develop a healthy will.  We are then able to face the later challenges of life.

3. Initiative versus guilt: Here the key word in a child’s life changes from “No!” to why?”.  In this stage children want to understand the world and they ask too many freakin questions!!!!  If their initiative in questioning the world is encouraged, then they will feel comfortable with expressing their curiosity throughout the rest of their life.  If we smack them around and tell them to shut up, then they will feel guilty about their questioning and avoid being inquisitive later.

4. Industry versus inferiority: This is where most children begin formal education (what we call school).  For the first time children are being formally evaluated.  If they raise their hand in class and answer a question correctly. then they will feel industrious (competent).  If he tries to answer a question but stutters to get out the wrong answer and Matt Dunn, Nick Adams and Josh Beiber all start making fun of his speech impediment, then he will feel inferior (it still hurts even today).

5. Identity versus role confusion: In adolescence, Erikson believed that a teenagers main social need is to discover his or her social identity.  While searching for your identity, you may try out different roles, like trying to fit into various social groups, experimenting with drugs or sex, or just changing your wardrobe.  You should be trying to find a stable sense of self now, or Erikson believed you may have an identity crisis later.

I dated this Goth girl freshman year of college for about a week.  Three years later her whole demeanor and style changed to sorority girl.  We then dated again, but that still only lasted about a week.  But the point is- she was searching for her identity- which is what most of you reading this are doing right now.

6. Intimacy versus isolation: Young adults (early 20s into early 30s) are trying to balance their career efforts (work, school or self-improvement) with the need to be in an intimate relationship with another person.  How much time should I spend looking for a relationship?  What is I don’t find anybody?  What if I am all alone for the rest of my life?

7. Generativity versus stagnation: Erikson believed that by the time we reach our mid 30s to mid 50s we start to really examine our lives and see if it is going the way you planned it or did it take a drastic turn.  For example, when I was your age, I thought by the time I was 33 (yes- I am 33) I would be traveling around South America with a whip, discovering lost treasuring and meeting new exotic women from village to village.  Instead, I live in Rye and teach Social Studies in Harrison, with 3 kids and a big mortgage (I don’t even own a whip).  This is where some people take drastic steps and change their lives.  You will see alot of late divorces or extreme changes in clothes or cars- we call this experience a mid life crisis.

Which above best depicts my life now?  Not that I am bitter or anything like that….

8. Integrity versus despair: Towards the end of our lives we look back and evaluate ourselves.  Did we live a good life?  Leave behind a legacy of friends or family?  Or did we waste our time playing Madden 2023 on Playstation 7?  If we feel like there were many lost opportunities along the way we may fall into despair.  I like to use this stage to try to shape my life now- you should too.

There you have it- social development in a nutshell and that is all the reading for today- unless you are ready for cognitive development?

How well do you know your own moral compass? (if you don’t care, you just answered the question)

Ok be honest with me for a second.  If your friend came up to you with a copy of this years AP Psychology examination would you take a peak?

Let’s say you are guaranteed not to get caught, would you cheat?

I am not interested in whether you would or would not cheat, rather I am interested in how you came to your decision.  This is the study of morality and Lawrence Kohlberg came up with the idea that the reasoning behind our morality changing throughout our lifetime– yes, another stage theorist.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Morality

Ok, this is what Kohlberg did:  He asked people of different ages to read the famous Heinz Dilemma asked them what they would do and more importantly why.

Ok, this is what Kohlberg did:  He asked people of different ages to read the famous Heinz Dilemma asked them what they would do and more importantly why. (and it has nothing to do with ketcup)

In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer.  One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered.  The druggist was charging $2000, ten times what the drug had cost him to make.  The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could get together only about half of what it should cost.  He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or to let him pay later.  But the druggist said no.  The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.  Should the husband have done that?  Why?

Preconventional Morality

1. Preconventional Morality: This morality was exhibited by the youngest children in the study (although I make the argument that many of us use this morality throughout our lifetimes).  Preconventional morality is the concept that your morality is linked to getting rewarded and trying to avoid punishment.  If you do not cheat on the the AP Exam because you are afraid that you will get caught and punished you are using preconventional morality.  The same preconventional morality is used when my 6 year old cleans his room because he will get to watch TV- he is cleaning not because he feels some internal sense of moral goodness to clean- but rather, he wants the reward.

If you think Heinz is wrong to steal the drug because he could get punished you are using preconventional morality.  If you think Heinz was right to steal the drug because he will be rewarded with his wife’s life, then you are still using preconventional morality.  It is not about the decision, but rather how you go about reasoning it.

Conventional Morality

2. Conventional Morality: This is the most common moral stage for teenagers.  This is where your morality is based on how you think people will view you.  You think to yourselves, “how will my peers view me”.  If you choose not to cheat on the AP exam because if you get caught your friends will think you are a cheater, you have used conventional morality.

Thus we have the huge cheating problem we face in our educational system today.  Most of you (teenagers) emphasis conventional morality because you REALLY care what your peers think of you.  Cheating is not looked at as the horrific act it once was- thus many of you would not think any less of a cheater- reinforcing people to cheat even more.  If cheating was look at as a “Scarlet Letter”, teenagers would rarely cheat.

In the Heinz example, whether you think people will like him and think him a hero or if you think people will think him a criminal, you are using conventional morality.

Postconventional Morality

3. Postconventional Morality: The highest level of morality, here you rely on what some people call universal ethical principles.  You believe that there is a absolute right and wrong.  So you would cheat or not cheat on the AP Exam depending on what your own personal set of ethics are.

In the Heinz example, you may believe he was justified because a woman’s life outweighs the store owner’s right of personal property.

Criticisms of Kohlberg

Carol Gilligan is well known for her critiques of Kohlberg’s theory.  She basically said that Kohlberg focused only on boys in his study and did not look to separate by gender.  She makes the argument that boys have a more absolute perspective of morality, while girls tend to look at the situation and relationships of the people involved before making a decision.  Just like a woman to criticize…..

That’s all the reading that is due today but if you want to finish this unit lets examine how our genders develop.

Gender Development

While you just finished reading about Gilligan, I might as well use this time to tell you about gender development.

I burp and fart in public and am usually proud of what I do.

Most of the girls I have dated hid the fact that they expelled gas (yes, girls fart too- the secret is out).

Why am I proud and girls usually ashamed….we have different gender roles (parts we think we play as being a boy or a girl in society).

How do these gender roles develop?  there are two common theories.

1. Social Learning Theory (really important psychological theory): This is the idea that we learn things in two steps.  First, we copy what we see or hear.  Then if we are rewarded we continue that behavior, if we are punished we stop that behavior. 

Let’s put this to the gender test.  When my son Caleb was a baby he would sometimes sit down next to me and watch the Yankees play.  I would sometimes scratch myself and Samuel, being the adventurous boy he is, would imitate my behavior.

Man, you can find just about any picture on the internet!!!!

I would look over at him, smile and throw him a cookie.  That reward would make Sam do what?- keep scratching himself.

Now lets say Caleb watches my wife put makeup on and one day, sneaks into the makeup draw (I have no idea if we have a makeup draw in the house because I am a man) and imitates my wife by putting lipstick on.

This time instead of throwing him a cookie I smack him around (don’t freak out, I am only kidding- I am a practicing pacifist).

The beating is a punishment meant to stop Caleb’s makeup applying behavior.

Thus Sam learns his masculine gender role by imitation and then reward/punishment= social learning theory.

2. Gender Schema Theory: This theory does not oppose Social learning theory- it is just different.

I hope you remember what a schema is.  This theory just says that we observe the world and develop schemas of how boys and girls act.  If my oldest Sam only sees girls wear the words JUICY on their asses, then he puts Juicy on jeans in his schema for a girl.  If I buy him Juicy jeans, he would say, “Dad, these are for girls!!!!.”

Don’t we all look like this in our Juicy jeans?

Ooh- one last point about gender- it is true that boys and girls have obvious sexual differences- but for the purposes of the AP Exam- just know that our brain structures differ as well.  For example, girls have larger corpus callosums- you have no idea what that is yet- so you can either look it up or wait until I talk about the brain.  I am really tired of typing- so that is all the Developmental Psychology you have to know for this class- Congrats- you now know about 10% of the AP Exam!!!

Developmental Psychology

Most of you reading this are anywhere from 16 – 20 years old.  I guarantee that just about ten minutes ago this was going through your mind “what’s on TV tonight- I really need to change my myspace picture- I am really fat….that’s it- NO MORE FOOD- but I am supposed to meet the guys at the Cheesecake factory for buffalo blasts and Godiva cheesecake- oh well, no more eating starting next Monday- that guy in math is so cute- I need some new clothes- school sucks- why can’t I park on campus- school sucks- if my mom asks me one more time to clean my room I am going to scream- school sucks- Lance is gay, no way- school sucks…”.

That is unless you are a 16-20 year old boy, then what was going through your head was more simple “sex- school sucks- sex- hungry-me want chicken wings- sex- school sucks- sex-sex-sex-sex -sex” you get the picture.

I often wonder what is going through my 6 year old son Samuel’s head, “POWER RANGERS SBD GOOOOOOO!!!!!- mommy is so pretty- if I had a superpower, I want to turn into a dinosaur- mommy is so pretty- who would win in a fight, Dora or Batman?- mommy is so pretty”.

In my 2 year old Caleb we would have something more like this, “who can I bite now- I want to hurt something- I own everything I see- my Dad is the strongest person ever- give me food of I WILL bite you- what does poo poo taste like- hmmm, not so bad”.

In my 6 month old Harris’s head might be, “want milk, want milk, want milk, want touch, want milk, want touch”.

In my 30 year old wife’s head, “I love my husband so much- he is da bomb- he is like a combination of Ben Affleck’s looks with Matt Damon’s talent and LL Cool J’s body- I want him- need him- love him- he is my life” (this last thought may be more fantasy, but its my fantasy!!!)

The point behind all of this rambling is that people of different ages have diverse thoughts, needs and wants that are important to them at that time.  None of you are worried about paying the mortgage and your parents are not worried about getting those big puss filled zits (I used to love popping those babies and watching them squirt against the mirror).

Some psychologists devote their lives to studying the changes people go through throughout their lifetime.  This branch of psychology is called Developmental Psychology– the study of how our behavior and thoughts change over time.  I like to think of Developmental Psychology as the study of humans womb to tomb (cute eh?).

Before we delve into the inner workings of developmental psychology I would like to discuss two things.

First, we will use this unit to try to answer one of the major themes in psychology called the nature vs. nurture argument.  Nature is the idea that your behaviors, thoughts and traits come from our genetics (we are born with them).  Nurture is the idea that our behaviors come from our environment (we learn them from our surroundings).  My best friends Rob and Rob both twirl their hair.  They have both been doing it for years (Rob A had a bald spot in the back of his head, Rob G in the front).  If you were a proponent of nurture, you would say that they both grew up in Rye (sorry, but I did too- go Garnets!!!), had similar stresses, friends and family structure that shaped them into becoming hair twirlers.  You would also think that if raised in a different environment, say the South Bronx, hair twirling might not be their habit of choice.  But if you were a proponent of nature, you would believe that regardless of where the Robs live, they would twirl their hair , because the hair twirling trait is in their genes.

Most of us like to believe Nurture is the more important factor in our development.  We like to believe that if we try hard enough we can do anything we want to do (a nurture idea).  But Nature does put serious restrictions on our development.  Lets say my father wanted me to play Center for the New York Knicks.  He hires Pat Riley and Mike Krzyzewski (famous basketball coaches) to start training me at 4 years old.

I train 8 hours a day for 20 years on shooting, dribbling, strategy,  and passing.  Sure I would be better than I am now, but would I ever play center for the Knicks?  Not a chance (unless Isaiah Thomas was making the personnel decisions).  Genetics gave me certain limitations and no matter how much I alter my environment I cannot break through the nature barrier.  Of course, the true answer lies in a combination between the two.

The second issue I want to discuss before we begin is how we study developmental psychology.

Twins are the best way to study the issue of nature vs. nurture.

Think about it, if we have a set of identical twins (we will discuss what that is soon- but just know they are two people with almost exactly the same genetic makeup) and one is raised in Harrison by wealthy Jewish parents, the other in Moscow by poor out of work clowns- how similar will the twins be?

If they are very similar, nature scores points, if not, nurture takes the cake.

That said, most studies in developmental psychology are either cross-sectional or longitudinal.

• Cross-Sectional: uses participants of different ages to compare how certain variables may change over the life span.
• Longitudinal: examines one group of participants over a long period of time

Lets say I wanted to see at what age are people the best at playing Halo (if you do not know what Halo is, you have bigger issues than this course).

I could go about doing this in two ways.  If I wanted to do a cross-sectional study I could take ten 5 year olds, ten 10 year olds, ten 15 year olds, and ten 20 year olds, have them all play Halo and see which group lasted the longest.  This would be a fast and easy way to do the study and MOST studies are done just like this.

But if I wanted to do a longitudinal study I would take ten five year olds, have them play halo, wait five years and test them again, wait five more years and test them again, them test them again at twenty and I would have my study.  This type of research is much more rare simply because it takes so freaking long!!!!  Both types of research have other advantages and disadvantages that will will discuss in more depth in class.

Lets Get Down to Business

I am going to break developmental psychology down into FOUR sections or types of development.

1. Physical: the ways our body changes from womb to tomb.
2. Social: the ways our social needs change from womb to tomb.
3. Cognitive: the ways our thinking and learning changes from womb to tomb.
4. Moral: the ways we think about right and wrong changes from womb to tomb.

Physical Development

Physical development pretty much starts the same way for all of us.  Our Dad takes our Mom out for a nice dinner and movie, maybe she has too much to drink, they get back to the house, he puts on some of Marvin Gaye’s  Lets Get it On or anything by Barry White….lets just end that right there.

What you should probably know about that experience is that you are here because of chromosomes (and Barry White).  Chromosomes are like books that gives instructions for what the body should do.  If chromosomes are the books then the pages that make up the book are called DNA.  To go further- pages are made up of words and in this messed up analogy, the words would be genes and the letters that make up the words would be called nucleotides.  If that whole book analogy made no sense then here it is in plain English – Chromosomes are made up of DNA which are made up of genes which are made of of nucleotides.  Do you have to know what each piece does- no- but know the order and the fact that they are blueprints to who you are.

Lets get back to Mom and Dad and Marvin Gaye (for those of you who have no idea who Marvin Gay or Barry White are- good for you- you are too young- if a guy every starts playing Barry White – run!!!).  Every cell in your parent’s body has 46 chromosomes (23pairs) except for two types of cells- sex cells- your Pop’s sperm and your Mom’s eggs only have 23 chromosomes.  When the sperm rams into the egg they form 46 chromosomes- which was you.  This newly formed you is called a zygote- the first cells of conception.

Twins

Lets spend a second talking about twins.

If you were not a twin- then one sperm hit one egg- BAM- one zygote.

Sometimes the woman drops down more than one egg from their ovary and they are both (or even more) fertilized.  When we have two zygotes from two different sperm, they are called Fraternal Twins.  They have just as much in common with each other as you and an older or younger sibling (they just happen to be born at the same time).  So fraternal twins can be of different genders.

The most rare type of conception is when one sperm hits one egg- the zygote is formed, but them splits into two separate zygotes.  Both these two zygotes have pretty much the same genetic material (if one committed a crime DNA evidence could nail the other twin).  These twins are called Identical twins and are the most sought after people in developmental psychology research.

Ok- lets get back to you as a zygote.  As a zygote your cells begin to rapidly divide and your heart begins to beat.  A week or so in you become an embryo.  As an embryo, your organs develop and you become a REALLY small version of yourself.  A couple of months later you become a fetus– and basically you grow bigger and more what you would recognize as human (the lungs are usually the last organ to develop as a fetus).

Things that can go wrong in the womb

Unfortunately, there are many things that can go wrong when a baby is developing in the womb or prenatal environment. You have a placenta that acts as a filter to the fetus, but sometimes dangerous chemicals can travel through the placenta and harm the child.  These agents, whether they are cigarette smoking, drugs or alcohol are called as a group; teratogens.  A teratogen is any chemical agent that can cause harm to the prenatal environment.  The most common teratogen is alcohol and can sometimes cause FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) characterized by mental retardation and some skull abnormalities.

Another issue that can effect a baby are chromosomal abnormalities.  For example, our gender is determined by the twenty third pair of chromosomes (a man’s sperm carries an X or Y and a woman’s egg has just an X).  If the male gives an X, we have a girl, a Y we have a boy.  Sometimes a baby is born with just a single X chromosome resulting in Turner’s syndrome (shortness, webbed neck and unusual sexual development).

Babies born with an extra X (XXY) have Klinefelter’s syndrome (minimal sexual development and extreme introversion).

Other chromosomal abnormalities cause mental retardation like Down’s syndrome (rounded face, shorter fingers, eyes wider apart, low cognitive ability) caused by an extra chromosome on the twenty-first pair.

Wow- now that we talked about all that can go wrong- lets talk about what a healthy baby is like physically.

Reflexes

It used to be that babies were believed to be born as a blank slates- like empty pages just waiting to be written upon (the ultimate nurture perspective).  But we now know that we are born with some basic programming- called reflexes.  The following five reflexes you should know for the AP or just to mess with your baby brother or sister.

1. Rooting Reflex: when touched on the cheek, the baby will turn their head towards the touch.
2. Sucking Reflex: the baby will suck on anything put in their mouth.
3. Grasping Reflex: when something is placed in the palm of hand or foot, the baby will try to grab hold of it.
4. Moro Reflex: when startled, the baby will flail out its arms and legs, then retract them, making herself as small as possible.
5. Babinski Reflex: when baby’s foot is stroked, he or she will spread their toes.

Now if your math teacher sticks their finger in your mouth, are you going to begin sucking?

Probably not, because reflexes go away with brain development.  Also note that these reflexes are different then the ones you have when you touch a burning pot (I will address these types later).

The Newborn’s Development

When healthy babies are born, they also are born with certain preferences for sweet foods (for me that never went away) and are attracted to human voices and humanlike faces as soon as they emerge from the birth canal.  Now babies are born legally blind and can only see 8-12 inches from their face (which is about the distance from the baby to the mother’s face when breast feeding).

A baby’s physical development (ours too) is called maturation.  Maturation is our physical develop that occurs regardless of the environment around you (you cannot really stop growing hair in you armpits no matter where you live or how much education you have).  Essentially the order of our maturation is always the same throughout our lives, but timing varies greatly.

What I am trying to say is that we will all learn to sit up before walking, but some of us will walk at 9 months, others at 16 months (12 is the average).  Think about a female’s breast development.  All girls when they hit puberty will begin to develop breasts, but the timing varies.  There is always that one girl that develop breasts about a year before anyone else.  Back at Osborn school in Rye- that girl was named Karen.  We used to snap her bra all the time and really make fun of her.  I still feel kinda bad, but she would make fun of my stutter, so I guess that makes us even.

Physical Development- Adolescence (that period of time in between childhood and adulthood where the zits come out)

The next major changes you body undertakes occurs during puberty (the period of sexual maturation where people become capable of reproducing).  Yep, right now you are going through puberty and your bodies are telling you to go out and make babies (but that would probably be unwise at this juncture because a baby would really get in the way of studying for the AP exam- all those smelly diapers).

I am not going to delve that deeply into puberty (that is what health class and late night cable TV is for), but rather the changes that you are experiencing fall under two major categories.

1. Primary Sexual Characteristics: the body structures that make sexual reproduction possible- the things you really need (not sexy underwear) but the penis, testicle (only one is necessary), the vagina and the ovaries.
2. Secondary Sexual Characteristics: nonreproductive sexual characteristics- changes that occur during puberty- but are not necessary for babies (deepening of the make voice, body hair, breasts, widening of the hips).

How do you know when puberty starts?

Well for a boy the landmark is that first ejaculation.
For a girl it would be the first menstrual period (called the menarche)	How tasteless is this graphic?

Physical Development- Adulthood

After puberty, physical development losing its excitement.  The good news is that your senses (like vision, hearing and smell) tend to peak around the age of 27.  The bad news is that after your 20’s everything begins to deteriorate.  Slowly at first, but around the early 60s, you see a RAPID decline in the senses.  The one major physical milestone in adulthood is menopause, which is when a woman stops releasing eggs, thus stops having their periods.  Men will never experience anything like menopause- we can go on producing sperm until the day we die.

A common problem we see today in aging adults is Alzheimer’s Disease (a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, language and physical functioning).  We are not sure of what causes Alzheimer’s Disease but we know it is linked to the deterioration of a natural chemical that our body produces called Acetylcholine (ACH for short).  Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that you will learn a lot about when we go over neuroscience (aren’t you just so excited!!!).

Physically, the story always ends the same way- we die.

Psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said we go through 5 stages before dying (unless you fall into a tree shredder and death happens way to quick to think about.  This is not really physical development, but I could not think of any other place to put it and I might as well write it down while I remember it.

1. Denial: no freakin way this is happing to me
2. Anger: How dare god let this happen- this is BS!!!
3. Bargaining: Just let me live to see my son get married.
4. Depression: I cannot deal with this, what is my family going to do without me.
5. Acceptance:  I am ready, I do not want to fight this anymore.

This is Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, she looks way too nice to focus on death.

That is all the reading you have to do for today- if you really want to read ahead than onward to Social Development, lets go!!!!!

Intelligence means a lot in life (unless you are blessed with my killer looks- then everything in life is easy).  Alot of time and money is spent in your school district to figure out how to increase your learning and utilize what intelligence you may have.  All the thinking that goes on in your head, whether you are in school or hanging out with your friends is called cognition.

Cognition means thinking reasoning and remembering- basically everything that goes on in our heads.

A REALLY famous psychologist Jean Piaget discovered that we learn and think differently throughout our lifetimes.  Before Piaget, it was believed that children were just miniscule versions of adults (just stupider).

Piaget said- “Dudes- kids actually think differently than adults- so we have to teach them differently”.

Thus he came out with Piaget’s cognitive development theory.

How cute is Piaget?

Piaget’s cognitive development theory

Piaget was actually working for Alfred Binet (the inventor of the IQ test, which we will talk about under the intelligence chapter) when he noticed that children tended to answer questions wrong on tests in similar ways.  Piaget hypothesized (guessed) that children have different schemas than adults.  Ok, what is a schema?  This is really kind of important- a schema is a conceptual framework used to solve problems.  What the heck does that mean (is heck a bad word)?  Think of it this way, we use schemas to make judgments about the world.

When I think about Red Sox fans, I think of backwards illogical people who act rude and do not know that much about baseball history.  Thus my schema of Red Sox fans is not very flattering.

Think about what a high school teacher should look like.  The image popping into your head now is your schema of high school teachers.  You are probably thinking about some frumpy boring guy with no style and bad breath.

Now if you meet me- and my youthful charm and good looks- I would not fit into your schema of high school teachers.  What would happen then?  Lets explore….

The first time my son Caleb saw a dog he pointed and said “wuzzsapagaju” (is Caleb speak that means “what is that”).  I tell him that is a dog.  He looks at the dog, sees four legs and a tail and thinks to himself- ok a dog.

Now he has a schema for a dog- four legs and a tail.  The next week Caleb is hanging out at the Rye Recreation park and sees what we would call a cat.  He says to himself “hmmmm- four legs, a tail- it must be a dog” and he goes on to call it a dog.

This is called assimilation– incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.  In fact, every animal he sees that has four legs and a tail, he will probably call a dog- because it fits in his schema of a dog.  Just like if you see a frumpy looking man with bad breath you may say “who is that? hmmm….he fits in my schema of a high school teacher”, so you call him a high school teacher.

Now lets say I tell Caleb that what he sees is really a cat, which looks like a dog, but much smaller.  Then Caleb is hanging out at Garden Catering and he sees a lady with a Chihuahua (a small dog).

Caleb sees the dog- thinks – four legs, tail, small- must be a cat.  I will then correct him and say that sometimes dogs can be small too.

Caleb will then accommodate (change) his schema for dogs to fit both big and little ones.

Lets get back to the high school teacher example.  If you are lucky enough to have me as your teacher, your schemas may be thrown a little out of wack.  I will insist that I am a high school teacher, but all you see is my youthful charm and movie star looks.

I would not fit into your frumpy bad breath schema of teachers.  You would then be forced to change, accommodate, you schema of high school teachers to fit both frumpy and great looking teachers.  I will give you many more examples in class.

Piaget took these ideas on how children think and came up with his own stage theory of cognitive development (don’t worry, this unit has 90% of all the stage theorists, so no more memorizing stages after developmental psychology).  Just remember, Freud and Erikson were stages of social development- while these are stages of cognitive development.

1. Sensorimotor Stage: (birth to 2)- Babies explore the world strictly through their senses.  You learn and develop schemas by senses the world through sight, hearing, touch, smell and most importantly taste.  When I give you a quiz on this stuff, are you going to pick up the quiz and taste it?

Hopefully not (unless you hungry hungry hippo hungry) because you are out of this stage.  Also during this stage babies do not have what Piaget called object permanence: the realization that objects continue to exist even when you cannot see them.  Think about it, why do babies get such a kick out of the pick-a-boo game.

When you hide you face, they actually think it is gone from existence.  When you show them the face again, they think you are the cats meow.  When babies finally develop object permanence, they enter the next stage.

2. Preoperational Stage: (2-7)- Here babies start using symbols to represent real world objects.  The most important development in this stage is speech.  During this stage children are egocentric, which means they think the world was created solely for them- and when they sleep the world sleeps too.

Children do NOT yet understand the concepts of conservation in this stage (that is that objects remain the same even when their shapes change).  To you eight ounces of water in a short fat cup is the same as eight ounces in a tall thin cup- to this child the amounts are different.  Or if I took two pizzas, one dived into 8 slices, one into 4.  A child in the preoperational stage would thing that the pizza with 8 slices is more (you should know by now that it makes little difference).  But I do notice that when there is a chocolate cake around I tend to take many small pieces instead of one huge one- somehow thinking that I am saving calories.

There are 3 main categories of conservation (volume, area and number- the first one to ask me about them in class gets 5 points on their next quiz).  When the child understands the laws of conservation- they then move on to the next stage.

3. Concrete Operational Stage: (8-12) Here they understand the laws of conservation.  In this stage the child begins to look at the world more logically and can piece together logic statement- God is love, love is blind, Stevie Wonder is blind thus….Stevie Wonder must be god (not really but you get the point).  The child cannot yet think about abstract concepts such as parallel lines, god or calculus (but then again, neither can I ).

4. Formal Operational Stage: (12-adulthood) Piaget said that not all of us reach this stage.  This is where we can manipulate objects in our minds that we have never actually seen.  Also, in this stage we can learn to think about the way we think, called metacognition.

Information Processing Model of Thinking

Now, Piaget was a bright guy, but some people say that he underestimated children by limiting the way that they think.  Maybe he emphasized language in his testing techniques- and some children advance way more quickly than he ever hypothesized.  Maybe our cognitive skills do not develop in stages, but rather continuously throughout our lifetimes- thus we have the information-processing model.

This model basically says that we increase our ability to learn gradually over time.  It has been shown that our attention span increases as we get older, and maybe children don’t understand things like the laws of conservation not because they are unable to do so (as Piaget would have you think) but rather because they cannot pay attention long enough to learn it.  Neither Piaget or the information processing model is perfect – well nothing is ever really perfect- except my wife (who will probably read this- hi honey).  That is the reading for today unless you want to move ahead to Moral Development.

Cognitive psychology is the most popular school of psychology today.  Cognitive psychologists focus on our thinking patterns.  They are concerned with how our mind processing information and the schemas we form (see Piaget).  Unlike other schools of psychology, cognitive psychologists use the scientific method to analyze thought patterns.  If you break up with your significant other and go into a great depression, the cognitive therapist would say that you have learned somewhere along the line to act depressed when you end a relationship (you have a schema for a breakup).  They would focus on changing your schema to get you out of the funk.  They might say things like “there are other fish in the sea” or “you will find somebody better”.  If they can change the way you view a situation (your schema) then they help you function more efficiently in society.  If you think about it, we are all cognitive therapists.  We all give advice to our friends by trying to change their perspective of a dire situation.

Cognitive Therapies

As cognitive therapists locate the cause of psychological problems in the way people think, their methods of therapy concentrate on changing these unhealthy thought patterns.  Cognitive therapy is quite often combative (aggressive) as therapists challenge the irrational thinking patterns of their clients.  In other words, the therapist often give advice using strong words in an attempt to break the unreasonable thoughts of the client.

The two most famous cognitive therapists are Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.

• Albert Ellis created what we know as Rational Emotive Therapy (REBT).  Therapists employing REBT look to expose and confront the dysfunctional thoughts of their clients.  For instance, someone suffering from a social phobia (speaking in public) might voice concern over being publicly embarrassed when giving a class presentation.  By using REBT, a therapist would question both the likelihood of such embarrassment occurring and the impact that would result.  The therapist’s goal would be to show the client that not only that his or her failure an unlikely occurrence but that, even if it did occur, it would not be such a big deal.

• Aaron Beck is the biggest guy in this field and he created Cognitive Therapy, a process most often used to treat depression.  This method involves trying to get clients to engage in pursuits that will bring them success.  He is often quoted as saying “we have to take the dark sunglasses of depression off and see the world for the bight, wonderful place it is”.  Beck explains depression using the cognitive triad, people’s beliefs about themselves, their worlds, and their futures.  People suffering from depression often have irrationally negative beliefs about all three of these areas.  Cognitive therapy aims to make these beliefs more positive.

No matter how much you may try to deny it, you do think!!!  In fact, almost everybody thinks (although some not so well).  Trying to describe though itself, is both thorny and problematic because describing thought is in itself thought (ouch). 

So instead, lets break down categories of thoughts.  We often think using concepts, which are rules in how we see everything in the world around us (basically the same thing as Piaget’s notion of schemas). 

Our concept of mom is very different from our concept of dad, which is different from our concept of lobster.  Very often we base our concepts on prototypes, or what we think is the best example of that concept.  For example, when I think of the concept of funny, the prototype Homer Simpson may pop up in my head.  If I am watching TV and some character is similar to Homer (my prototype of funny) than I may think of that character as humorous.

Another type of thought is called an image, which is a mental picture that we create in our mind of the outside world.  Do you think images have to be just visual?  You can probably have an image dealing with any of our senses.

Using our thinking to Solve Problems

Many researchers try to study thought by examining the results of thinking.  Researchers can ask participants to solve problems and then investigate how the solutions were reached.  This research indicates at least two different problem solving methods we commonly use and some traps to avoid when solving a problem.

Algorithms:

An algorithm is a rule that guarantees the right solution by using a formula or other foolproof method.  Some algorithms are incredible long (by trying almost every solution) while others are shorter.  Think about math class for a minute (I know it hurts but try). 

You may be given a problem and told to use a formula to come up with the solution.  Sometimes you know of shorter ways to solve the problem, but your teacher wants you to use the algorithm regardless.  The algorithm takes longer than the shortcut, but if done correctly you are assured the right answer.

Heuristics:

A heuristic is a rule of thumb or shortcut that generally, but not always, solves the problem.  Pretend there is a teacher in your school that grades papers based on heuristics.  They might know the reputation of Johnny is that of a great student and give them an A on a paper without even reading it. 

Boris may have a reputation of being a C student and the teacher may give Boris a C also without reading the paper.  In both cases the teacher may be right using the heuristic, but it is possible that Boris worked his butt off and Johnny smoked the pipe that morning.  There are two types of heuristics that the College Board LOVE putting on the AP Exam:

• Availability Heuristic: Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that come to mind initially.  In other words, you take personal experiences and overestimate their significance.  For example, as a student at Harrison High School, you may judge Harrison students as being smarter than students from other schools because you are more familiar with the smart students at Harrison and do not have any information “available” about smart students from other schools.

• Representativeness Heuristic: Judging a situation based on how similar the aspects are to prototypes the person holds in his or her mind.  For example, you see a tough looking bulldog walking down the street.

The dog matches your prototype of a dangerous animal.  The big teeth and the stout body will probably want to make you stay away.  It is possible that the dog is very friendly, but the quick representative heuristic causes you to stay away.

Now it can work the other way as well.  Let’s say you are walking down the street and see a bunny.

The bunny is smiling and hopping.  It closely matches your prototype of a harmless animal.  You may reach out to touch it and it bites your jugular artery and you bleed to death.

In this case your representative heuristic led you astray.  But in reality we need both the availability and representative heuristic to make quick judgments about the world around us (even though they are not always dead on accurate).

Other problems with our thinking

Sometimes overconfidence creates a tendency to overestimate how accurate our judgments are.  How confident we are in a judgment is not a good indicator of whether or not we are right.  In many studies, people who report extreme confidence in a solution are just as likely to be wrong as those who are not so sure.  Two closely related concepts to overconfidence are belief bias and belief perseverance.  Both of these concepts concern our tendency not to change our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence. 

Belief bias occurs when we make illogical conclusions in order to confirm our preexisting beliefs.  Belief perseverance refers to our tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence we used to form the belief is contradicted.  I see this all the time in high school.  Pretend you hear that Rahindi talked some smack about you.  You will start thinking that Rahindi is a real schmoolie.  Then you later find out that Rahindi never ever said those bad things.  The feelings you have developed about Rahindi still may not change even though you discovered evidence that should make them.

Another real issue to problem solving is the concept of rigidity (or mental sets).  This refers to our tendency to fall into established thought patterns.  Most people will use solutions or past experience to try to solve new problems ( they think “what worked in the past is bound to work now”). 

Occasionally, this this tendency prevents them from seeing a novel solution.  One specific example of rigidity is functional fixedness, the inability to see a new use for an object.  Just recently, I needed to change the batteries on one of my son’s toys.  the problem was I could not find a regular flat headed screwdriver.

 I spent hours looking for it and became pretty frustrated.  My oldest son looked at me and said “Dad, why don’t you use a dime, like Mommy does”.  I did not think about the possibility of using a dime because I thought of only a singular use of that object, spending it; thus an perfect example of functional fixedness.

Another obstacle to successful problem solving is confirmation bias.  Many studies show that we tend to look for evidence that confirms our beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts what we think is true.  As a consequence, we may miss evidence important to finding the correct solution. 

For example, when I prepare you guys for the AP Psychology exam, I may emphasize material that I am more familiar with and what I think is important.  What I think is important may be very different than what the AP testy designers think and emphasize on the test.  Thus my confirmation bias could hinder your success on the AP; in other words, do NOT trust me!!!

Even the way a problem is presented can get in the way of solving it.  Framing refers to the way a problem is presented.  Presentation can drastically change the way view a problem or an issue. 

If you went to a doctor to get liposuction surgery and she said, “this surgery has a 95% success rate”, you would be likely to go through with it.  But if the doctor said “if you have this surgery, there is a 5% chance you will die”, you may have second thoughts.  The chances of success are the same in both cases, but the way the issue is framed can change your perspective.

Creativity

One last aspect of thinking we should discuss is creativity.  There is NO concrete definition of what creativity actually is (I guess no one was creative enough to come up with a good one).  We generally define something as creative if it is novel and fits the situation we are looking at.   

We do know that there is little correlation (relationship) between creativity and intelligence.  Some researchers investigate creativity by examining the differences between convergent and divergent thinking.  Convergent thinking is thinking that is pointed towards one solution. 

Divergent thinking is thinking that searches for multiple possible answers to a question.  Divergent thinking is more closely associated to creativity than convergent thinking.

How Memories are Physically Stored in our Brain

We know that the hippocampus in the limbic system in involved in the process of memories.  For example, damage to the hippocampus can cause anterograde amnesia.  People with anterograde amnesia cannot encode new memories but remember ones already in their long term memory.  Sometimes they can learn new skills, but will never remember having learned them, showing us that procedural memories are not handled by the hippocampus.   But memories are actually stored throughout our whole brain.

The current theory on how memories are stored on a neural level is called long-term potentiation.  Studies show that neurons can strengthen connections between each other.  Through repeated firings, the connection is strengthened and the receiving neuron becomes more sensitive to the messages from the sending neuron.  In other words, it is kind of like using a machete to clear a pathway (in the case neural) in a jungle.  The first time you chop through (fire) it is a slow and messy process.  Like trying to memorize a song for the first time.  But the more times you chop through that path, it becomes clearer.  Eventually, you have a clear path (strong neural connection) and a great memory- it is rehearsal for our neurons!