• Developmental psychology

OR
Life span psychology
interaction of biological, cognitive, social and emotional factors in
the course of growth and development across the life-span.
• Development: Changes occurring throughout the lifespan that
are orderly and adaptive
• Development proceeds in a somewhat orderly
and predictable pattern.
• Developmental milestones
• Different children develop at different rates.
• Development is continually affected by both
nature and nurture.
• Temperaments and sensitive periods
• Nature: An organism’s biological inheritance
• Nurture: An organism’s environmental
experiences

• Nature vs Nurture debate:

To what extent are behaviors the result of
experience or the result of biological processes
such as maturation?
• What is role of heredity vs. environment in determining
psychological makeup?
• Is your IQ inherited or determined by nutrition and early
environment?
• Is there a ‘criminal’ gene or does poverty lead to criminal
behavior?
• Is sexual orientation a choice or genetically determined?
• Piaget was a Swiss psychologist with a background in
biology.
• He noticed age-related similarities in how children
attempted to solve certain tasks.
• He saw that within specific age ranges there were specific
types of deficits and specific types of strengths in problem-
solving skills.
• His theory describes how children’s thinking and
learning develops
• He believed knowledge is built by the child over time.
• Children are active learners or active thinkers, always
trying to make sense of the world.
• Knowledge is the result of interactions:

Child

Environment

Understanding

Interest

Learning
• To make sense of the world, children develop schemas.
• Schema:
• A concept or framework that organizes and interprets
information.
• Conceptual models of how the world works
• Schemas and stages build on one another through
learning by:
• Assimilation
• Accommodation
• The process of interpreting new experiences by
incorporating them into existing schemes.
• The process of modifying existing schemes in
order to incorporate or adapt to new
experiences.
• “That animal is much bigger than a dog, it has
shorter legs, and its face looks different. It’s not
a dog. It’s a bear.”
• Piaget proposed that
children move through
four stages.
• Periods of time are
consistent in age and
developmental
sequence.
• Age ranges are
averages.
• Some children are in
transition from one
stage to the next.
• His theory is sometimes referred to as the socio-cultural
perspective because of its emphasis on the impact of
society and culture on cognitive development.
• Theory suggests that social interaction leads to continuous
step by step changes in a child’s thought and behaviour
that can vary greatly from culture to culture.
• Vygotsky’s theory
• Places emphasis on culture affecting/shaping cognitive
development
• Empahizes social factors that contribute to cognitive development
• Places emphasis on the role of language in cognitive development
• Language plays a central role in mental
development
• Development can not be separated from its
social context
• Learning can lead development
• Children construct their knowledge
• Vygotsky saw cognitive development as depending
more on interactions with people & tools in the child’s
world.
• Tools are real: pens, paper, computers;
or
• Tools are symbols: language, math systems, signs
• Play allows children to stretch themselves cognitively
• Vygotsky believed that children will acquire ways of
thinking and behaving that make up a culture by
interacting with a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).
• This refers to the difference in a child’s performance
when he or she attempts the problem on his or her own
compared to when an adult or older child provides
assistance
• Encourage students to talk themselves through difficult
tasks
• Provide cognitive tools that students can use to make
difficult tasks easier
• Present some tasks that students can perform
successfully only with assistance
• Provide sufficient scaffolding to enable students to
attempt to perform challenging tasks
• Have students work in small groups on complex tasks
• Provide opportunities to engage in adult-like activities
• Give young children time to practice adult roles and
behaviors through play
• Emphasized the role of a teacher in cognitive development, and the
need to have support from a More Knowledgeable Other, or MKO.
• The zone of proximal development, or ZPD, differentiates between a
learner’s current development and their potential development when
being taught from a MKO.
• Scaffolding provides an effective way to reach potential levels of
development, but only when different levels of assistance are given
when required.
• Social and cultural tools are an important means of gaining
intelligence.
• There is a close link between the acquisition of language and the
development of thinking.
• Internalizing monologues, and therefore becoming a verbal thinker, is
a stepping stone to higher levels of thinking.
• Psychosocial development theory is based on eight
stages of development
• Erikson’s theory is based on the idea that development
through life is a series of stages which are each
defined by a crisis or challenge
• The early stages provide the foundations for later
stages so if a child does not resolve a crisis in a
particular stage, they will have problems in later
stages
• Infancy (birth to 12 -18 months)
• Caregiver meets needs: child develops trust
• Caregiver does not meet needs: child develops
mistrust
• If the proper balance is achieved, the child will
develop the virtue of hope.

Mama? Papa?
• Toddler (ages 1-3)
• Child able to exercise some degree of choice
• Child’s independence is thwarted: child develops
feelings of self-doubt, shame in dealing with others
• Basic Strength: Will
• Determination to exercise freedom of choice in face of
society’s demands

Up, up and away?

• Preschool (3 to 5 years)
• Children begin to plan activities, make up games, and
initiate activities with others.
• Children who are successful at this stage develop a
sense of initiative & feel capable and able to lead
others.
• Those who fail to acquire these skills
are left with a sense of guilt &
self-doubt
• Basic strength: Purpose
• Courage to imagine and pursue
goals
• School age (6 to teens)
• Child develops cognitive abilities to enable in task completion
(school work, play)
• Successful completion leads children to develop a feeling of
competence and belief in their skills.
• Those who are unsuccessful doubt their ability to be successful.
• Basic strength: Competence
• Exertion of skill and intelligence in pursuing and completing tasks

Scared of school?
• Stages 1-4
• Largely determined by others (parents, teachers)
• Stages 5-8
• Individual has more control over environment
• Individual responsibility for crisis resolution in each stage
• Adolescence (teens to 20's)
• A common question adolescents ask is a straight-forward question
of identity: "Who am I?"
• During adolescence, children are exploring their independence
and developing a sense of self. They form their identity based
upon the outcome of their explorations
• Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement will
emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling
of independence and control.
• Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will insecure
and confused about themselves and the future.
• Basic strength: Fidelity - means loyalty, the ability to live by
society’s standards despite their imperfections and
incompleteness and inconsistencies.
• Young adulthood (20's to 35-40 years)
• Undertake productive work and establish intimate
relationships
• Inability to establish intimacy leads to social isolation
• Basic strength: Love
• Mutual devotion in a shared identity
• Fusing of oneself with another person
• Middle adulthood (40 to 60 years)
• Generativity: Interest in guiding the next generation
• Stagnation: When one is only concerned with one’s
own needs and comforts
• Basic strength: Care
• Broad concern for others
• Need to teach others
• Late adulthood (from 60 years)
• This stage is focused on reflecting back on life.
• Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will
feel a sense of integrity. Success at this stage leads to
feelings of wisdom.
• While failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.
• Basic strength: Wisdom
• Detached concern with the whole of life
• Heinz's wife was near death, and her only hope was a
drug that had been discovered by a pharmacist who was
selling it for an exorbitant price. The drug cost $20,000 to
make, and the pharmacist was selling it for $200,000.
Heinz could only raise $50,000 and insurance wouldn't
make up the difference. He offered what he had to the
pharmacist, and when his offer was rejected, Heinz said he
would pay the rest later. Still the pharmacist refused. In
desperation, Heinz considered stealing the drug. Would it
be wrong for him to do that?
• Should Heinz have broken into the store to steal the drug
for his wife? Why or why not?
• Family as the first source of values and moral
development.

• Moral development is a function of cognitive

development and socialization.

• People progress in their moral reasoning

through a series of stages.

• Six stages classified into three levels.

• At this level a person’s view of right and wrong is
usually influenced by their family, mainly their parents
and older siblings, and the consequences attached to
their behavior.
• Right or wrong is identified in terms of what results in
rewards and punishments
• If one of these authority figures is morally and ethically
corrupt, there is a good chance the child will be to.
• What is right is to obey the rules, avoid physical
damage to persons and property.
• children see rules as fixed and absolute.
• The worse the punishment for the act, the more bad
the act is perceived to be
• The reason is that one wants to avoid punishment.

• Example: "The last time I did that I got spanked so

I will not do it again."
• Right action is defined by whatever is in the
individual’s best interest.
• Limited interest in the need of others.
• Elements of fairness, reciprocity, and equal sharing are
present, but they are always interpreted in a physical,
practical way.
• Example: ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’
• Young people have internalized the ethical and moral
beliefs of their family and the group they associate
with.
• Concerned with fulfilling role expectations, maintaining
and supporting the social order, and identifying
persons or groups involved in this order.
• Individual's moral judgment is motivated by a need to
avoid rejection, disaffection, or disapproval from
others
• Good behavior is what pleases or helps others and is
approved by them.
• One earns approval by being ‘nice’
• If one person violates a law, perhaps everyone would-
thus there is an obligation and a duty to uphold laws
and rules.

• “The individual is oriented toward authority, fixed

rules, and the maintenance of the social order.
• Right behavior consists in doing one’s duty, showing
respect for authority, and maintaining the given social
order for its own sake.” (Kohlberg, 1971)
• A person at this level makes his/her ethical decisions
based on what any reasonable person would know as
right and wrong.
• These decisions are based on universal ideals of justice
or human rights or human welfare
• Define moral values on own values (do not rely on
authority’s definition)
• Acts for the welfare of others
• Wants other people to be safe and happy; willing to
change law if necessary
• Laws are regarded as social contracts.
• Human rights take precedence over laws

“Greatest good for the greatest number of people”

• Acts because of her/his own conscience/set of beliefs
• Wants all human beings to be respected for their
dignity, believes in justice and equality; will disregard
law if necessary
• The individual acts because it is right, and not because
it is instrumental, expected, legal, or previously
agreed upon.
• Kohlberg found it difficult to identify individuals who
consistently operated at that level
• It can't be right that huge corporations sometimes pay no taxes;
that law needs to be changed, so that the burden of taxes falls
more equally on everyone's shoulders.
• If Katy is nice to me, I'll be nice to her, but if she is mean to me, I
won't feel bad about being mean too.
• I refuse to obey a law which treats a large portion of the
population as second-class citizens.
• It would be bad for me to take my friend's toy because the
teacher will punish me
• I better not drink and drive because my friends will think less of
me and I, in turn, will think less of myself.
• I am personally against the war, but would never publicly
protest it on campus without the administration's permission.