AP Psych Chapter 4: Developing through the Life Span

Introduction Developmental Psychology: Study of physical, cognitive, and social changes throughout the human life cycle. - Much of its research centers on three major issues: 1. Nature/Nurture: How do genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience (the nurture we receive) influence our development? 2. Continuity/stages: Is development a gradual, continuous process like riding an escalator, or does it proceed through a sequence of separate stages, like climbing rungs on a ladder. 3. Stability/Change: Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age? Prenatal Development and the Newborn Conception - Human reproduction starts when a womans ovary releases a mature egg, a cell roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence, and when the 200 million or more sperm deposited during intercourse begin their race upstream towards it. - 1 in 5000 of all immature eggs (woman born with it) will ever mature and be released. - A man begins producing sperm cells at puberty however, which continues being produced 24 hours a day for the rest of his life. Production rate slows with age. - Few sperm cells reach the egg, and the ones that make it release a digestive enzyme that eat away at the eggs protective coating, allowing a sperm to penetrate. Only one can penetrate, as once one passes, the egg blocks out the others. - Fingerlike projections sprout around the successful sperm and pull it in. In less than 12 hours, the egg nucleus and sperm nucleus fuse as one.

Prenatal Development - Zygote: The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. - Fewer than half of all fertilized eggs survive beyond 2 week period. - Beginning as one cell, each of us became 2 cells, and then 4- each cell just like the first. Then after the first week when this cell division produced a zygote of 100 cells, the cells began to differentiate. - Differentiate: Specialize in structure and function - About 10 days after conception, the increasingly diverse cells attack to the mothers uterine wall and begin a 37 week relationship with the mother. - The zygotes outer part attaches to the uterine wall, forming the placenta, through which nourishment passes. - Embryo: The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. (Made up of the inner cells) - Over the next 6 weeks organs begin to form and function and the heart begins to beat. - By 9 weeks after conception, the embryo looks human and is now a fetus. - Fetus: The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. - Organs form and function during the 6th month and allow a prematurely born fetus a chance of survival. Fetus is also responsive to sound at this stage. -At each prenatal stage, genetic and environmental factors affect our development. - Teratogens: Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus by bypassing the placenta during prenatal development and cause harm.

Prenatal Development Zygote: Conception to 2 weeks Embryo: 2 weeks through 8 weeks Fetus: 9 weeks to birth

- Any amount of drug, smoking and alcohol can kill millions of fetal brain cells. - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant womans heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.

The Competent Newborn - The Rooting Reflex: A babys tendencies, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple. - When they find a nipple, they automatically close on it and begin sucking- which requires a coordinated sequence of tonguing, swallowing, and breathing. Failing to find satisfaction, the hungry baby may cry. - Research studies determined: We are born preferring sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness. *Example: We are inclined to pay more attention to a drawing of a face like image then a bulls eye target. Habituation: A simple form of learning that has a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation. A stimulus gets attention when first presented, but loses response when constantly presented.

Infancy and Childhood Physical Development Brain Development - On the day you were born, you had most of the brain cells you would ever have. However, at birth your nervous system was immature. - After birth and during development from age 3-6, the brains neural network sprouted rapidly in the frontal lobes, which enable rational planning. The association areas of the cortex (those linked with thinking, memory, and language) are the last brain areas to develop. - We are born with more than enough neurons. A pruning process shuts down excess connections, while strengthening others.

- Maturation: Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior. Relatively uninfluenced by experience. - Sets the basic course of development; experience adjusts it.

Motor Development - The developing brain enables physical coordination. As an infants muscles and nervous system mature, more complicated skills emerge. - The sequence of physical (motor) development is usually universal. (Roll, crawl, walk) - There are individual differences in the timing of this sequence. For example, 25% of babies in the US walk by 11 months and 50% within a week after their 1st birthday. - Genes play a major role. Identical twins typically progress through motor development on the same day (time format). - Biological maturation including the rapid development of the cerebellum at the back of the brain-creates our readiness to learn walking at about age 1.Experience before that time has limited effect.

Maturation and Infant Memory - Studies confirm average age of earliest conscious memory is 3.5 years. By 4-5 years, childhood amnesia is giving way to remembered experiences. - As the brain cortex matures, toddlers gain a sense of self and their long term storage increases. Trying to access memories of first 4 years is like trying to read a document formatted by an earlier computer OS. Infant preverbal memories do not easily translate to later language. - Some babies can make associations between things like moving their leg propels a mobile; a connection that lasts a month.

Cognitive Development - Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget studied the thoughts of children. He administered intelligence tests to kids and saw intelligence in the childrens mistakes often similar with age. - Piaget believed that a childs mind develops through a series of stages, in an upward march from the newborns simple reflexes to the adults abstract reasoning power. - He believed that children are not less intelligent than adults. They simply think differently. - An 8 yr old comprehends things a 3 yr old cannot. Likewise, our adult minds engage in reasoning not comprehended by 8 yr olds. - He believed the driving force behind this intellectual progression is our unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences. His core idea is that children are active thinkers, constantly trying to construct more advanced understanding of the world. - Schemas: A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. These are mental molds into which we pour our experiences. We have many schemas by adulthood. - Assimilate: Interpreting ones new experience in terms of ones existing schemas. It is the process of absorbing new info into an existing schema. - Accommodation: Adapting ones current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information. It is the process of adjusting old schemas or developing new ones to incorporate new info. *Example: Young children develop a schema for Santa Claus that includes a jolly old man with a white beard, distinctive red clothing, and rewards good kids with gifts. As they grow older, they see Santa on TV and in the mall and assimilate these Santas into their existing schema by identifying them as Santas helpers. When they are teens, they realize Santa doesnt exist and are forced to develop a new schema that identifies Santa as a fictional character played by Parents, but still gives gifts. - As children interact with the world, they construct and modify their schemas.

Piagets Theory and Current Thinking - Cognition: All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating. - Piaget believed that children experienced spurts of change followed by greater stability as they move from one cognitive developmental plateau to the next.

Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development: Typical Age Range Birth to Nearly 2 years Description of Stage Sensorimotor Experiencing the world through senses and actions. Preoperational Representing things with words and images; use intuitive rather than logical reasoning. Concrete Operational Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations Formal Operational Abstract reasoning Developmental Phenomena - Object permanence - Stranger Anxiety - Pretend play - Egocentrism - Language Development

2 to about 6/7 Years

About 7-11 Years

- Conservation - Mathematical Transformations

About 12 through Adulthood

- Abstract logic - Potential for mature moral reasoning

Sensorimotor Stage - In Piagets theory, the stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. - Very young babies seem to live in the present: What is out of sight, is out of mind. Before age of months, infants would not search for a toy after it is taken away. - Object Permanence: The awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived. Babies lack this until the age of 8 months. - At 8 months, infants begin exhibiting memory for things no longer seen. They would look for the toy for a few seconds. Within a month or two, they will look for it even after being restrained for a few seconds. They developed the ability to form internal images or mental representations of objects; ability called the minds eye. The Preoperational Stage - Piaget believed that during the preschool period and up to about 6 or 7, children are in a preoperational stage. - A stage where a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

- Child in this stage lacks concept of conservation. - Conservation: The principle believed to be part of concrete operational reasoning, that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. - An example is if a kid is shown 2 identical closed beakers with liquid in it. When one is inverted, the kid suddenly believes one carries more volume. - Egocentrism: The preoperational childs difficulty taking another point of view. As a result of this, preoperational children assume others hear, see and think exactly as they do. - Examples: Show mommy the picture The child holds picture up facing his/her own eyes. A child makes himself invisible by putting his hands over his eyes. - Theory of Mind: Peoples ideas about their own and others mental states- about their feelings, perceptions and thoughts and the behavior these might predict. - Enables children to seek to understand why one is in a certain mental state (angry, sad). It also enables us to infer others feelings. Then they understand that thoughts can cause feelings. Finally between 5-8 years, children learn that spontaneous self-produced thoughts can create feelings. - Animistic Thinking: Children in the preoperational stage think that inanimate objects have feelings. - Irreversibility: A childs inability to mentally reverse a sequence of events or logical operations. *Example: Olivia breaks her cookie in pieces and boasts that she has more. Jack is mad but cant understand that if he reverses the process and think if Olivia just puts her pieces back together, its the same cookie as his. Concrete Operational Stage - The stage of cognitive development (from 7-11) during which children gain mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. - They begin to grasp conservation in this stage. They fully gain he mental ability to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation.

Formal Operational Stage - By age 12, our reasoning expands from purely concrete (involving actual experience) to encompass abstract thinking (involving realities and symbols.) - The stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. Piagets Theory Today - Modern research shows that formal logic plays a smaller part in cognitive development than Piaget believed, and that the development of cognitive abilities is more continuous, with stages starting earlier and less abruptly.

Social Development - From birth babies are social creatures and develop an intense bond with heir caregivers. They also come to prefer familiar faces and voices, reacting positively to their dad or mom for example. - After they develop object permanence, children exhibit stranger anxiety. - Stranger Anxiety: The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. - Illustrates the principle: The Brain, mind, and social-emotional behavior develop together.

Origins of Attachment - Attachment: An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. - Developmental psychologists initially believed that infants became attached to those who satisfied their need for nourishment. Although this made sense, this was proven wrong.

Body Contact - Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow bred monkeys. They gave orphaned baby monkeys two artificial surrogate mothers, which in this case was a blanket. A blanket cant provide the monkey with milk/nourishment. -They also made a makeshift mother using a wire and a wooden head. That mother provided milk but no comfort like the blanket. - The monkey showed overwhelming favor for the blanket as he would clutch the blanket when anxious and was attracted by its comfortable qualities. - Conclusion: Harlow concluded that the stimulation and reassurance derived from the physical touch of a parent or a caregiver play a key role in developing healthy physical growth and normal socialization. Human attachment consists of one person providing another with a safe haven when distressed and a secure base from which to explore.

Familiarity - Contact is one key to attachment. Another is familiarity. In many animals, attachments based on familiarity likewise form during a critical period. - Critical Period: An optimal period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. - For a duck, the first moving object it sees during the hours shortly after hatching becomes its mother. From then on, it follows her and her alone. This process is called imprinting. - Imprinting: The process identified by Konrad Lorenz by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. This attachment is difficult to reverse. - Children do not imprint. They do however, become attached to what theyve known. Familiarity is a safety signal for them and it breeds content.

Attachment Differences - Placed in a strange situation (usually a playroom), about 60 percent of infants display secure attachment. - Secure attachment: forms when parents/caregivers consistently meet the infants needs by being warm and responsive. - In their mothers presence, they play comfortably, happily exploring their new environment. When she leaves, they are distressed but immediately seek contact with her when she returns. - Other infants display insecure attachment. - Insecure attachment: forms when parents/caregivers fail to meet infants needs by being neglectful and inconsistent. - They are less likely to explore their surroundings; they may even cling to their mother. When she leaves, they cry loudly and remain upset to their mothers going and returning. - What causes this difference? - One possible source of difference is the mothers behavior. Female rats cared by relaxed, attentive adoptive mothers treated their offspring the same way. - Mary Ainsworth devised a procedure called the Strange Situation to measure attachment. - In this procedure, she placed an infant and his or her mother in an unfamiliar room filled with toys. A few minutes later, a strange person entered the room and after a short time, the mother departed. The mother returned moments later and then repeated the pattern of leaving and returning. - She observed this sequence of repeated separations and reunions through a one way window. Securely attached infants responded to this situation by using their mother as a secure base to explore the room. They displayed positive reactions towards their mother. - Insecurely attached infants were less likely to explore the room and more likely to display negative reactions to their mother. - Current research indicates that the quality of attachment during infancy has long term effects. Securely attached infants tend to be well adjusted, form successful social relationships and perform better in school. Insecurely infants tend to form shallow relationships, appear withdrawn, and sometimes display a never ending need for affection.

- Father love as well as mother love is a predictor of childrens health and well being. - Infants who lack a caring mother suffer from maternal deprivation and those who lack a caring father merely experience father absence. - Theorist Erik Erikson with his wife Joan said that securely attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust. - Basic Trust: A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers. - He attributed basic trust to ones early parenting and not on positive environments. He theorized that infants blessed with sensitive, loving caregivers form a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear.

Deprivation of Attachment - When parents neglect or other trauma deprives children of opportunity to form attachments, children become withdrawn and frightened and may not develop speech. - But not all victims of abuse become criminals. Most children growing up in adversity are resilient and grow to live normal adulthoods. - However, those who experience no sharp break from their abusive past are not so resilient and almost 30 percent of abused abuse their children. -Children terrorized through physical abuse can suffer lasting wounds like nightmares, depression and substance abuse. Child sexual abuse, if severe and prolonged, can also cause psychological disorders and substance abuse. - Extreme childhood trauma can leave footprint son the brain. The chemical Serotonin, which calms aggressive impulses, is found to be sluggish in response within the brains fo abuse children who become aggressive teens and adults.

Disruption of Attachment - When separated from their families, both monkey and human infants became upset and even despairing. Fearing that the stress of separation might cause lasting damage, removing children from their homes is a rare case. - However, if they are placed in a more positive and stable environment, most infants recover from the separation stress. Adults can also suffer when attachment bonds are severed.

Does Day care affect Attachment? - Studies showed that day does not disrupt childrens attachment to their parents. - Psychologist Sandra Scarr explained that children are biologically sturdy individualswho can thrive in a wide variety of life situations. - Quality of day care matters as good quality provides caring, supportive interactions with warm adults while poor quality provides boring and unresponsive actions towards childrens needs. - Family poverty often means children go to lower quality day care, family instability, and more authoritarian parenting. - Another ongoing study that followed 1100 children since age of 1 month found that the children at 4-6 years who had spend the most time in a day care had slightly advanced thinking and language skills. - They also had increased rate of aggressiveness and defiance. - To psychologist Eleanor Maccoby, the positive correlation b/w increased rate of problem behaviors and time spent in day care suggests some risk of children spending extended time in day care settings.

Self Concept - Infancys major social achievement is attachment. Childhoods major social achievement is a positive sense of self. BY age 12, most develop a self concept. - Self Concept: A sense of ones identity and personal worth. - Their behavior provides clues to the beginnings of their self awareness. Darwin offered an idea: Self Awareness begins when one recognizes himself in mirror. Using this indicator, self recognition emerges gradually over a year. - How do we know if a child knows that it is him/her in the mirror and not a playmate? - Researchers dabbed the noses of children with paint. At the age of 15-18 months, children looking at a mirror will touch their own nose upon seeing the dot on the nose in the mirror. Apparently, they had a schema of how their faces should look. - By school age they begin to describe their own traits and compare themselves with others. By age 8-10, their self images are quite stable.

Child-Rearing Practices - Parenting styles vary as some are strict, showing little to no affection; while some are very loving, showering kids with kids and hugs. Do such differences make an impact on kids? - Three parenting styles have been identified: 1. Authoritarian Parents: Those who impose rigid rules, strict punishments and expect obedience. They rarely listen to their childs viewpoint. Children of these parents tend to be moody, aggressive and often lack good communications skills. Example: Do not stay out late. Why? Because I said so or else you will be grounded for a year. 2. Permissive Parents: Those who submit to their childrens desires, make few demands and use little punishment. Children of these parents tend to be impulsive, immature and often fail to respect others. Example: Do not bring friends over. Connor does anyway. House is a mess. We were young and like this too, lets just clean up and move on. 3. Authoritative Parents: Those who are both demanding and responsive. They exert control not only by setting rules and enforcing them, but also explaining their reasons and encouraging open discussion and allowing exceptions when making rules. They listen to their childs viewpoint but still insist on responsible behavior. Children of these parents tend to be well-adjusted, goal oriented and socially competent. Example: Dont stay out late or youll be grounded Lily came later than her previous curfew. Her parents listened to her explanation, but still held her accountable for her actions. She was grounded then moved her curfew up. Temperament - An individuals characteristic manner of behavior. Researchers believe that temperament has a strong genetic base. - Jerome Kagan has identified a number of temperamental patterns. For example, bold babies are easily frightened and more socially responsive than shy babies. - Parenting styles and social interaction can modify a childs temperament.

Adolescence - The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. It starts with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and ends with the social achievement of independent adult status.

Physical Development - Adolescence begins with puberty. - Puberty: The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. It follows a surge of hormones, which may intensity moods and trigger a 2 year period of rapid physical development at age 11 for girls and 13 in boys. Boys grow bigger than girls. - Primary Sex Characteristics: The body structures (ovaries, testes) that make sexual reproduction possible. - Secondary Sex Characteristics: Non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality and body hair. - Boys and girls start being attracted to opposite sex 1 or 2 years before puberty. - Girls puberty starts with breast development at age 10. Ejaculation is the puberty landmark in boys at age 14 and menstrual period is landmark for girls at age 12. - First menstrual period is called menarche. This is a memorable event as nearly all adult women recall it feeling pride, excitement, embarrassment and apprehension. - Men similarly recall their first ejaculation, which usually occurs as a nocturnal emission. - Just as in earlier life stages, the sequence of physical changes in puberty (like visible pubic hair before menarche) is far more predictable than their timing. - Early maturation and developed boys tend to be stronger and more athletic during their early teen years, tend to be more popular, self assured and independent. They are at risk however for drug use and premature sexual activity. - For girls, early maturation can be stressful and if a young girls body is out of sync with her own emotional maturity and her friends development, she may associate with older adolescents and suffer teasing or sexual harassment. - It is not only how we mature that counts, but also how people react to our genetically influenced physical development. *Heredity and environment interact.

- Adolescents brains are a work in progress. Brain cells increase their connections until puberty. Afterwards during Adolescence, their connections undergo a selective pruning of unused neurons and connections. What we dont use, we lose. - Frontal lobe development occurs too as myelin grows along axons to speeds neurotransmission. This development lags the emotional limbic system and causes teens usual mood swings and risky behaviors. Their frontal lobe is not developed to the point that judgment is still poor and impulses are difficult to control, explaining peer pressure.

Cognitive Development - Adolescents developing ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness and moral judgment. They begin thinking about what is ideally possible, and criticize their society, their parents and even their own shortcomings.

Developing Reasoning Power - During early teen years, reasoning is often self-focused. Adolescents may think their private experiences are unique and think others like parents dont understand how they feel. -Mom, you dont really know what it feels to be in love! - Piaget called the intellectual summit, Formal Operations. Adolescents become more capable of abstract logic: If this, then that. We can see this new reasoning power as adolescents ponder and debate good, evil, and justice. They may have a deeper conception of god than before when they thought he was just a man in the clouds. - Adolescents ability to reason hypothetically and deduce consequences also enables them to detect inconsistencies in others reasoning and to spot hypocrisy. This can lead to heated debates and vows to never lose sight of their own ideals.

Developing Morality - A crucial task of childhood is distinguishing right from wrong. To be a moral person is to think morally and act accordingly.

Moral Thinking - Piaget believed that childrens moral judgments build on their cognitive development. Lawrence Kohlberg agreed and sought to describe the development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong. - As we have seen, infants are born with an array of behavioral reflexes but not with a concept of morality. Moral reasoning of ideas must be learned. - Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas (Heinz Dilemma: Man stole drug for cancer stricken wife from druggist) and asked children, adolescents and adults if the action was right or wrong. He then analyzed the answers for evidence of stages of moral thinking. His findings led him to believe that as we develop intellectually, we pass through 3 basic levels of moral thinking: 1. Preconventional Morality: Before age 9, most children have a preconventional morality of self interest: They obey either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards. Their egocentric moral reasoning is limited to how their choice affects themselves. Ex: Children in this stage typically responded that Heinz shouldnt have stolen the medicine because he would go to jail and be a bad person. 2. Conventional Morality: By early adolescence and in young adults, morality evolves to a more conventional level that cares for others and upholds laws and social rules simply because they are laws and rules. These standards of what is right and wrong are learned from parents, teachers, peers and media. Ex: Children in this stage typically responded that Heinz shouldnt have stolen the medicine because stealing would be breaking the law. 3. Postconventional Morality: Some of those who develop abstract reasoning of formal operational thought may come to a 3rd level. This morality is typically expressed by adults and people here develop personal standards of what is right and wrong. They define morality in terms of abstract principles of justice and what he/she believes is right/wrong. Ex: People in this stage argued that Heinz should have stolen the medicine because his wifes right to live is more important the druggists right to private property. - Kohlbergs claim was that these levels form a moral ladder, from the bottom rung of a young childs immature, preconventional morality, to the top rung of an adults self defined ethical principles. - As our thinking matures, our behavior also becomes less selfish and more caring.

Moral Feeling - The mind makes moral judgments as it makes aesthetic judgments- quickly and automatically. For example, we feel disgusted when we see people doing nasty things. One woman recalled feeling jubilation when she saw a man offer to shovel an elderly womans road. - Moral feelings precede moral reasoning. Moral reasoning aims to convince others of what we intuitively feel. - Imagine a runaway train headed for 5 people. All will be killed unless you press a button that diverts the train to kill one person on the track instead. Do you press it? - Most say yes; kill one, save five. Now what if this time to save the five you had to push that one person in front of the train? Now, most say no; although the logic is the same. A brain study done by Joshua Greene revealed that the brains emotional areas lit up only when faced with the second dilemma. Despite the identical logic, the personal dilemma engaged emotions that altered moral judgment. Moral judgment is more than thinking; it is a gut-level feeling.

Moral Action - Our moral thinking and feeling surely affect our moral talk. Morality involves doing the right thing and what we do also depends on social influences. - Todays character education programs tend to focus both on discussions of moral issues and their implications and on doing the right thing. Thus they teach children empathy for others feelings, and also the self-discipline needed to restrain ones own impulses- to delay small rewards now to enable bigger ones later. - Those who do learn to delay gratification become more socially responsible, academically successful and productive. Moral actions feed moral attitudes.

Social Development - Theorist Erik Erikson contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution. He said that each stage occurs in a distinctive social setting and that the combination of psychological change within a new social environment creates a crisis that can be resolved with either a positive or negative response. - As maturing individuals work out solutions to these crises, they gradually develop a stable identity. - Identity: A persons definition or description of himself or herself.

STAGE 1: Trust vs. Mistrust, Infancy (birth to 1 year) - If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust. - Prior to birth, an infants psychological needs are automatically taken care of within its mothers womb. After birth, infants are dependent upon adult care for their survival. - Erikson emphasized the crucial role played by the mother within the family social setting. Inconsistent and neglecting care can result in basic mistrust. Consistent and warm care will result in inner certainty, or a sense of trust that the world is predictable and reliable. - If we learn to mistrust adults during infancy, we may change during school when teachers behavior encourages trust. (Same vice versa) Ex: An orphaned child who is moving from foster home to foster home would develop feelings of mistrust and avoid becoming emotionally involved with others.

STAGE 2: Autonomy vs. Doubt, Toddlerhood (1-2 yrs) - Toddlers learn to exercise will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities. - During the 2nd and third years of life, children develop new physical and mental skills. They can climb and walk and children are proud of these accomplishments, insisting on doing everything themselves. - The crisis that arise stems from a childs growing desire for autonomy. Parents who accept their childs need to control his/her body, impulses foster a sense of autonomy, preparing the child for independence later in life. - If parents insist on being overly controlling however and harshly critical, kids foster a growing sense of doubt and lack of confidence.

STAGE 3: Initiative vs. Guilt, Preschooler (3-5 yrs) - Between ages of 3-6, a childs physical capacities develop to the point where he/she can initiate play activities rather than follow other children. They play act as adult roles (role-playing) and ask many questions, a sign of intellectual initiative. - If parents encourage these efforts, they will enhance their childs sense of initiative. If, however, children are made to feel their activities are bad, their play-acting absurd, questions a nuisance, they will develop a sense of guilt about self initiated activities that will be detrimental in the future.

STAGE 4: Industry vs. Inferiority, Elementary School (6yrs to puberty) - Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior. - Between the ages of 6 and 12, the social setting expands from family to school where children are exposed to formal and impersonal rules for the first time. Here, young children demonstrate industry as they build tree houses, model planes and school projects. - A childs sense of industry will be reinforced if parents and teachers praise his/her projects. However if they are scolded for making a mess and teachers assign a child low grades, they can instill a lasting sense of inferiority.

STAGE 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion, Adolescence (10-20s) -Teens work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are. - Adolescents as teens begin maturing physically as they enter puberty. At the same time, they become capable of abstract thought. The teen peer group provides an important social setting. - This stage of life produces a psychological crisis called identity vs. role confusion. No longer kids, but not yet adults, adolescents struggle to interpret their past, present and future and combine them into a meaningful sense of identity. - Erikson emphasizes the role which culture plays in influencing an adolescents selection of identity. Role confusion can result from failure to resolve lifes earlier crises or from major cultural conflicts, such as war and financial problems.

STAGE 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation, Young Adulthood (20-40s) - Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated. - Young adults search for a partner to care about and share their lives with. Those who feel threatened by an intimate relationship will avoid intimacy with another person rather than risk being swallowed up. A person who is unable to maintain a meaningful relationship with others can become lonely and isolated. - Intimacy: The ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.

STAGE 7: Generativity vs. Self-Absorption, Middle Adulthood (40-60s) - In middle age, people discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work or they may feel a lack of purpose. - Family and work are the dominant social settings here. Erikson defined generativity as the the concern in establishing and guiding the next gen. If this fails, an individual can become absorbed w/ material possessions and personal problems.

STAGE 8: Integrity vs. Despair, Late Adulthood (>60s) - When reflecting on his or her life, the older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure. - During this last stage, a person must come to terms with dying. Therefore, this stage is a time of reflection and evaluation. - People who can look back and accept their life as successful will feel a sense of self-acceptance called integrity. - Those who see their lives as missed opportunities and might have been will probably give into despair.

- Most adolescents try out different selves before settling into a consistent and comfortable identity. A smaller number adopt the identity of their parents or rejecting the values of parents and society, take on the identity of peers. - Teens relate to their parents pretty well and parents continue to influence teens in areas like religion and career choices. - Peer approval and relationships are important and teens talk, dress and act like their peers. - Self esteem increases with identity achievement. Erikson believed that having a clear and comfortable identity is a precondition for forming close relationships.