DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

A Brief Report
 Objectives
 Explain the concept of socialization;

 Assess the importance of early experience for later social and emotional development;

 Explain the impact of social and biological factors on the stages of human development.

 Describe and evaluate Piaget’s theory of cognitive development;

 Consider the educational implications of theories of cognitive development;

 Identify and discuss physical and psychological changes that take place during

adolescence;

 Discuss the impact of particular life events on adulthood; for example marriage,

parenting, divorce, unemployment, retirement, bereavement and death;

 Explain Erickson’s psych-social development stages.

 What is developmental psychology?
• The field of psychology concerned with the
lifelong process of change.

• Change here means any qualitative and/or

quantitative modification in structure and
function.
 Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
• Jean Piaget was a Swiss
psychologist known for his
work on child
development.

• He carved out his own

niche in a discipline that
he called genetic
epistemology, the study
of how intelligence
changes as children grow.
 Environment vs. Heredity

• The transition from infancy to adulthood is an orderly sequence

common to all normal members of the human species. It is
governed by the combined action of heredity and environment.

• Developmental psychologists take an interactionist position. They

consider the combined influence of heredity and environment.
Stages of Human
Development
 1. Pre-natal
Development
(before birth)
 Germinal Period

• After fertilization, the

egg begins the process
of cell division.

• What triggers this

development is still not
clearly known for
developmental
psychologists.
 Embryonic Period
• Four weeks after
conception, the
embryo is one-fifth of
an inch and 10,000
times larger than the
original fertilized egg.

• It has developed a
spinal cord and a two-
lobe.
 Fetal Period

• Until birth, the developing

organism is known as a
fetus.
• Nine weeks, it bends its
fingers and curls or
straightens its toes in
response to touches on
the palm of the hand or
the sole of the foot.
 Fetal Period

• 16-20 weeks, all 100

billion neurons have
developed.
• The mother can feel
movement during this
time.
• By twenty-three weeks,
the fetus has become
quite active, sleeping
and waking.
 Environmental
Influences on the
Unborn Baby
2. Post-natal
Development
(after birth)
 Infancy
• Human babies are born
with good motor
coordination and highly
acute sensory capabilities.

• Though human infants are

the most helpless and
immature when they come
to this world, their sensory
development is mature and
well integrated even before
birth.
 Infancy
• But they can perceive
and be influenced by
that environment from
the moment of birth.

• Different kinds of
reflexes and motor
activities help newborn
babies to survive after
birth.
 Infancy
1. Motor skills
2. Reflexes
 Grasping reflex
 Rooting reflex
 Reaching reflex
 Swimming reflex-
 Early Childhood
• In line with biological
development, children
progress from immature
stages of mental
development to complex
stages of mental
development.

• This developmental
aspect is called cognitive
development.
 Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

• The Swiss psychologist

Jean Piaget (1970)
suggested that children
throughout the world
pass through a series of
four stages in their
cognitive development.
The Four Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensory motor stage (birth to two years)

• Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age)

• Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)

• Formal operational thought (adolescence)

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Click for video

 Late Childhood
• At about the time children
begin school, they enter
the stage of concrete
operational stage (7 to 12
years)

• This stage of cognitive

development is marked by
mastery of the principle of
conservation. They can
think logically though their
thought process is limited
to the concrete.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Click for video

 Adolescence
• Adolescence is the
development stage
between childhood and
adult hood during which
many physical, cognitive,
and social changes take
place.

• Most dramatic biological

changes occur during this
stage. Major physical and
sexual changes and their
corresponding average
range of ages for both
sexes.
 Adolescence
• A new set of cognitive capabilities, which
Piaget called formal operational thought
starts to emerge during adolescence. At this
stage adolescents:
– Use scientific reasoning;
– Test possible explanations in an attempt to prove
or
– disprove hypothesis (example, adolescents sexual
practice)
– Use abstract thinking.
 Adulthood
• It includes the years
from 20-60 but usually
20-40.

• Physical changes during

this period are less
apparent and occur
more gradually than the
preceding stages.
 Adulthood
• Although physical strength
and status of health are
great at early adulthood
period, gradually they
decrease.

• The body begins to operate

less efficiently and immune
system decreases.

• At about late forties and

early fifties, women stop
menstruating (Menopause)
 Adulthood
• Except in decline in the
amount of sperm
production and
frequency of orgasm,
men remain fertile up
to old age.
• In general adulthood is
a time of peak
intellectual
accomplishment.
 Adulthood
• An increase in IQ is
observed at this stage.
• They perform better
on any learning or
memory task. They
find it easy to accept
new ideas and they
can readily shift their
strategies for solving
different problems.
Adulthood
 Old Age
• Physical changes brought
about by the aging
process include skin
wrinkling and folding,
slight loss of height due
to decrease in the size of
disks between
vertebrates in the
spines. Sensory activities
i.e. Vision, hearing, smell
and taste decrease.
 Old Age
The major theoretical
explanations or reasons for
physical decline are:

1. Genetic programming
theories of aging
• The theory suggests that
there is built in time limit to
the reproduction of human
cells.
• Some cells are genetically
programmed and become
harmful and self destructive
to the internal biology of the
body.
 Old Age
2. Wear and tear theories of
aging
• The theory suggests that as
time goes on functioning of
the body stop working
efficiently.
• Waste-by- products
eventually accumulate and in
effect creates problem on
cells reproduction
Erikson’s 8 Stages of Development

Click for video

End of Report