Development Over the Lifespan (Chapter 14)

Lecture Outline:

Parenting and temperament

Adolescence and other transitions

The “Self”

Self concept What am “I” Physical, active,

social, psychological components are related to progression across ages

Self-esteem Evaluative component How valued am I? People internalize the

evaluative judgements made by others

Parental Styles

Authoritarian: Firm, punitive, unsympathetic, and negative• Children can learn to be sneaky and externally

controlled with low self-esteem

Permissive: Freedom, no rules or discipline• Children can learn to be impulsive, get in trouble

Authoritative: Firm but understanding• Children help make the rules, high self-esteem

Temperament Disposition, intensity, and duration of emotional

experience• Easy: Playful, adaptable, regular in sleep and eating

cycles• Difficult: Fusy, irregular, unadaptable to new situations• Slow-to-warm up: Avoid/ shy with novelty

Temperamental assessment:• Behavioral observations• Physiological reactivity

Goodness-of-fit: person X environment interaction

Irritable Baby

Parenting: Stable Unstable

Baby: More Fussy Less Fussy

Parent: Poor coping Good coping

Toddler: Negative Happy

Fussy Calm

Physiology of adolescence1987, Dr. Marcia E. Herman-Giddens and colleagues described the results

of physical examinations of 17,077 American girls.

Caucasian girls were showing bodily signs of sexual maturity an average of one year earlier than previous studies had indicated, and Black-American girls two years earlier. On the average, breast development was notable before age 10 in white girls and before age 9 in black girls, and the growth of pubic hair generally occurred about a year later. But even at age 7, 27 percent of black girls and nearly 7 percent of white girls had begun to grow breasts, pubic hair or both.

Boys go through puberty earlier, but menarche makes this easier to study in girls.

Why? Nutrition? Body fat content? Family stress? What is the impact on self concept? Do early maturers get in more trouble?

Growing Autonomy of Teenagers

Conflicts with parents• Negotiation and enforcement of rules• Manipulating parents, Individuation

Mood swings and depression• Shy, withdrawn, unattractive, rejection by peers

Risk-taking behavior• Drugs, alcohol, sexuality, gangs, weapons, law

Ethnic identity (Own) and acculturation (Dominant Culture)

• Can be high a low in each, problems when you are low in both

Erik Erikson and Personality Development Trust vs. mistrust: Birth to 1 year Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (1-3) Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6) Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12) Identity vs. Role confusion (adolescence) Intimacy vs. Isolation (early adulthood) Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adult) Integrity vs. Despair (old age)

Life transitions and social clock

Anticipated transitions: Everyone does these at the same time• Examples: go to school, drive a car, vote, serious relationship,

children, retirement Unanticipated transitions: You do something early

• Children (teen parenthood), retirement (forced early but outs), get a job (financial need)

Non-event transitions: Something expected does not happen• Children (late birth-timing), Work (career advancement is

slow), Solitude (not in serious relationship or marriage when you thought you would be)

Cattell’s (1971) Two Subfactors of Intelligence Fluid intelligence Understanding

abstract and new information

Deductive reasoning and analogies

Creative relationships

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulation of knowledge

Vocabulary and general information

Knowing lots of “stuff”

Cognition in later years

Decrease in fluid and increase in crystallized intelligence, e.g., “Lost in Boston”

Overall changes in information processing, but no net deficits

Wisdom: Insight into human development and life• Greater awareness of what you do • not know

Neural plasticity after strokes Degeneration in Alzheimer’s