1. Development
Through the
Life Span
PowerPoint®
Presentation
by Jim Foley
Chapter 4

2. Topics we’ll be bringing to life
 Issues in Thinking about Development
 Nature and Nurture
 Continuity and Stages
 Stability and Change
 Prenatal Development
 Conception  Zygote
 Embryo  Fetus
 Teratogen Risks
 Newborn Skills and Behaviors
Developmental Issues, Prenatal
Development, and the Newborn

3. nature
and
nurture
change
and
stability
continuity
and stages
How do genes and experience
guide development over our
lifespan?
In what
ways do we
change as
we age, and
in what
ways do we
stay the
same?
Issues in
Developmental
Psychology
Is development
a gradual
change or are
there some
leaps to a new
way of thinking
or behaving?

4. Starting the Path to Personhood:
Prenatal Development
and the Newborn
Conception
Prenatal
Development
The Competent
Newborn

5. In the
beginning:
Sperm and egg unite to bring
genetic material together and
form one organism:
the zygote (the fertilized cell).
Conception

6. The Zygote Stage: First 10 to 14 Days
 After the nuclei of the egg and
sperm fuse, the cell divides in 2, 4,
8, 16, 100…
 Milestone of the zygote stage: cells
begin to differentiate into
specialized locations and structures
Prenatal
Development
Implantation: The Embyro, 2 to 8 weeks
 This stage begins with the
multicellular cluster that implants in
the uterine wall.
 Milestone of the implantation stage:
differentiated cells develop into
organs and bones Embryo

7. The Fetus
At nine weeks, hands and face
have developed; the embryo is
now called a fetus (“offspring”).
Placenta
At 4 months, many more
features develop.
Milestone of the fetal stage:
by six months, the fetus
might be able to survive
outside the womb

8. Fetal Life: The Dangers
Dangers
• Teratogens (“monster
makers”) are substances
such as viruses and
chemicals that can damage
the developing embryo or
fetus.
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
(FAS) refers to cognitive,
behavioral, and body/brain
structure abnormalities
caused by exposure to
alcohol in the fetal stage.

9. Fetal life: Responding to Sounds
 Fetuses in the womb can
respond to sounds.
 Fetuses can learn to recognize
and adapt to sounds that they
previously heard only in the
womb.
 Fetuses can habituate to
annoying sounds, becoming
less agitated with repeated
exposure.

10. After the fetal
period,
the child is born!

11. Inborn Skills
Newborns have reflexes to ensure
that they will be fed.
 The rooting reflex--when
something touches a newborn’s
cheek, the infant turns toward
that side with an open mouth.
 The sucking reflex can be
triggered by a fingertip.
 Crying when hungry is the
newborn talent of using just the
right sounds to motivate parents
to end the noise and feed the
baby.
Reflexes are responses that are
inborn and do not have to be learned.
The
Competent
Newborn

12. More Inborn Abilities
 Newborns (one hour old!) will look twice as long at
the image on the left.
 What can we conclude from this behavior?

13. Aspects of starting to grow up
 Physical Development/maturation, inc. brain
 Cognitive Development: Piaget, Vygotsky
 Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete
Operational, Formal Operational Stages
 Egocentrism, Theory of Mind, Autism
 Vygotsky: Mind in Social Context
 Social Development
 Attachment: Origins, Styles, Deprivation
 Day Care; Self-Concept; Parenting Styles

14. Infancy: newborns growing
almost into toddlers
Infancy and Childhood
For each of these stages, we will study:
 brain development.
 motor development.
 cognitive development.
 social and emotional development.
Childhood: toddlers growing
almost into teenagers

15.  In psychology, “maturation” refers to
changes that occur primarily because of
the passage of time.
 In developmental psychology, maturation
refers to biologically-driven growth and
development enabling orderly (predictably
sequential) changes in behavior.
 Experience (nurture) can adjust the timing,
but maturation (nature) sets the sequence.
Maturation:
not the meaning you might think
For example,
infant bodies,
in sequence,
will lift heads,
then sit up,
then crawl,
and then
walk.
Maturation in
infancy and early
childhood affects
the brain and
motor skills.
Maturation, the biological
unfolding, will be seen in:
 brain development.
 motor development.

16. Brain Development:
Building and Connecting Neurons
 In the womb, the number of neurons grows by about
750,000 new cells per minute in the middle trimester.
 Beginning at birth, the connections among neurons
proliferate. As we learn, we form more branches and
more neural networks.
 In infancy, the growth in neural connections takes
place initially in the less complex parts of the brain (the
brainstem and limbic system), as well as the motor and
sensory strips.
 This enables body functions and basic survival skills.
 In early childhood, neural connections proliferate in
the association areas.
 This enables advancements in controlling attention
and behavior (frontal lobes) and also in thinking,
memory, and language.

17. Impact of Experience/Nurture on
Brain Development
The Process Continues into Adulthood
Repeated practice at
a finger-tapping task
begins to activate a
[slightly] larger group
of motor neurons.

18. Experience and Brain Development
Rats living in an “enriched” environment (more
social interaction and physical play) experienced a
greater growth in brain size and complexity than
those rats living in an “impoverished” environment.

19. Motor Development
 Maturation takes place in the body and cerebellum
enabling the sequence below.
 Physical training generally cannot change the timing.

20. Baby Memory
 In infancy, the brain forms memories so
differently from the episodic memory
of adulthood that most people cannot
really recall memories from the first
three years of life.
 A birthday party when turning three
might be a person’s first memory.
Infantile Amnesia
Learning Skills
 Infants can learn skills (procedural
memories).
 This three month old can learn, and
recall a month later, that specific foot
movements move specific mobiles.

21. Cognitive Development
Cognition refers to the mental
activities that help us function,
including:
 problem-solving.
 figuring out how the world
works.
 developing models and
concepts.
 storing and retrieving
knowledge.
 understanding and using
language.
 using self-talk and inner
thoughts.

22. Cognitive Development:
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
 We don’t start out being able to think like adults.
 Jean Piaget studied the errors in cognition made by
children in order to understand in what ways they think
differently than adults.
The error below is an inability to understand scale
(relative size).

23. Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development:
Schemas
 An infant’s mind works hard to make sense of our
experiences in the world.
 An early tool to organize those experiences is a schema,
a mental container we build to hold our experiences.
 Schemas can take the form of images, models, and/or
concepts.
This child has formed a schema called “COW” which he uses
to think about animals of a certain shape and size.
“Cow!” “Cow!”

24. Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development:
Assimilation and Accommodation
How can this girl use her
“dog” schema when
encountering a cat?
 She can assimilate the experience into her schema by
referring to the cat as a “dog”
or
 she can accommodate her animal schema by separating the
cat, and even different types of dogs, into separate schemas.

25. The Course of Development:
Stages
Jean Piaget believed that cognitive development:
1. is a combination of nature and nurture. Children
grow by maturation as well as by learning through
interacting/playing with the environment.
2. is not one continuous progression of change.
Children make leaps in cognitive abilities from one
stage of development to the next.
Issue Jean Piaget’s Vote
Nature vs. Nurture Both
Continuity vs. Stages Stages

26. Jean Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development

27. Sensorimotor
Stage (Birth to
Age 2)
In this stage,
children explore by
looking, hearing,
touching, mouthing,
and grasping.
Cool cognitive trick
learned at 6 to 8
months, coming up
next: object
permanence.

28. Hmm, a bear, should
I put it in my mouth?
Object
Permanence
Through games like
“peekaboo,” kids
learn object
permanence--the
idea that objects
exist even when
they can’t be seen.
There’s a game I’ve
learned to play all
by myself:
peekaboo!

29. Can Children Think Abstractly?
Jean Piaget felt that kids in the
sensorimotor stage did not
think abstractly.
Yet there is some evidence
that kids in this stage can
notice violations in physics
(such as gravity).
Does that mean babies are
doing physics?

30. 30
Is This Math?
If so, kids in the “sensorimotor” stage do math.
Babies stare longer and with surprise
when numbers don’t make sense.
Is this math? Was Jean Piaget wrong?

31. Yes.
Jim.
Egocentrism:
“I am the World.”
Do you
have a
brother?
What mistake is
this boy making?
How does
this relate
to ego-
centrism?
Does Jim
have a
brother?
No.

32. What can kids do in the preoperational stage?
1. Represent their
schema with words
and images.
2. Perform pretend
play.
3. Picture other points
of view, replacing
egocentrism with
theory of mind.
4. Use intuition, but
not logic and
abstraction yet.

33. Maturing beyond Egocentrism:
Developing a “Theory of Mind”
Theory of
mind refers to
the ability to
understand
that others
have their own
thoughts and
perspective.
With a theory of
mind, you can
picture that Sally
will have the wrong
idea about where
the ball is.

34. Examples of Operations that
Preoperational Children Cannot Do…Yet
Conservation refers to the ability to understand that a
quantity is conserved (does not change) even when it is
arranged in a different shape.
Which row
has more
mice?

35. Autism Spectrum Disorders
 Children with disorders on the autism spectrum have
difficulties in three general areas:
 establishing mutual social interaction
 using language and play symbolically
 displaying flexibility with routines, interests, and
behavior
 Children with disorders on the autism spectrum have
more difficulty than a typical child in mentally
mirroring the thoughts and actions of others; this
difficulty has been called “mind blindness.”

36. How do we teach social/emotional
understanding to children with autism?
Are the autistic kids learning to understand
the emotions of others, or are they
memorizing that certain facial positions
correspond to certain emotion words?
Happytrain

37. The Concrete
Operational Stage
 begins at ages 6-7 (first grade) to age 11
 children now grasp conservation and
other concrete transformations
 they also understand simple
mathematical transformations the
reversibility of operations (reversing
3 + 7 = 10 to figure out that 10 - 7 = 3).

38. Piaget’s stages of development

39. Although Jean Piaget’s
observation and stage
theory are useful, today’s
researchers believe:
1. development is a
continuous process.
2. children show some
mental abilities at an
earlier age than Piaget
thought.
3. formal logic is a smaller
part of cognition, even
for adults, than Piaget
believed.
Views and uses of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget helps us understand
kids fairly. 3 year olds:
 May break things without
intending to;
 Cannot tell that they are
blocking your view, much
less figuratively see from
your viewpoint on issues;
 May complain about a
sibling getting more food if
the same sized pizza was
cut into more pieces.
 May not get your sarcasm.

40. Lev Vygotsky: Alternative to Jean Piaget
 Lev Vygotsky studied kids
too, but focused on how
they learn in the context
of social communication.
 Principle: children learn
thinking skills by
internalizing language
from others and
developing inner speech.
 Vygotsky saw
development as building
on a scaffold of
mentoring, language, and
cognitive support from
parents and others.

41. Stranger anxiety
develops around ages 9
to 13 months. In this
stage, a child notices
and fears new people.
Explaining Stranger Anxiety
How does this develop?
 As children develop schemas for the primary people
in their lives, they are more able to notice when
strangers do not fit those schemas. However, they do
not yet have the ability to assimilate those faces.
Why does this develop?
 An evolutionary psychologist would note that a child
is learning to walk at this age. Some of the children
who walked toward unfamiliar creatures might have
died before having a chance to pass on genes.
Social Development
Stranger Anxiety

42. Social Development:
Attachment
Attachment refers to an emotional tie to another person.
 In children, attachment can appear as a desire for
physical closeness to a caregiver.
Origins of Attachment
Experiments with monkeys
suggest that attachment is
based on physical affection
and comfortable body
contact, and not based on
being rewarded with food.

43. Origins of Attachment: Familiarity
 Most creatures tend to attach to caregivers who
have become familiar.
 Birds have a critical period, hours after hatching,
during which they might imprint: become rigidly
attached to the first moving object they see.

44. Attachment Variation:
Styles of Dealing with Separation
“Strange situations” test:
1. a mother and infant
child are alone in an
unfamiliar (“strange”)
room; the child
explores the room .
2. the mother leaves the
room.
3. After a few moments,
the mother returns.
Reactions to Separation
and Reunion
 Secure attachment: mild
distress when mother leaves,
seeking contact with her
when she returns
 Insecure attachment
(anxious style): not
exploring, clinging to mother,
loudly upset when mother
leaves, remaining upset when
she returns
 Insecure attachment
(avoidant style): seeming
indifferent to mother’s
departure and return

45. What causes these different attachment styles:
nature or nurture?
Is the child’s behavior
actually caused by
previous parenting
behavior?
Is the “strange situations”
behavior mainly a function
of the child’s inborn
temperament?
 Temperament refers to a
person’s characteristic style and
intensity of emotional reactivity.
 Some infants have an “easy”
temperament happy, relaxed,
and calm, with predictable
rhythms of hunger and sleep.
 Some infants seem to be
“difficult”; they are irritable, with
unpredictable needs and
behavior, and intense reactions.
 Mary Ainsworth believed
that sensitive, responsive,
calm parenting is
correlated with the secure
attachment style.
 Training in sensitive
responding for parents of
temperamentally-difficult
children led to doubled
rates of secure
attachment.

46. Fathers
Count Too
 Many studies of the
impact of parenting
have focused on
mothers.
 Correlational studies
show a strong
relationship between
paternal (father)
involvement in
parenting and the
child’s academic
success, health, and
overall well-being.

47. Influences on Separation Anxiety
Effects of Environment on Attachment
Separation anxiety peaks and fades whether kids are at
home or in day care.

48. Attachment Styles…
not just about bonding with parents
 Erik Erikson’s concept of
basic trust resembles the
concept of attachment,
but extends beyond the
family into our feeling of
whether the world is
predictable and
trustworthy.
 Attachment style may be
relevant to our ability to
manage and enjoy adult
relationships.
Are basic trust and attachment
styles determined in childhood?
 Erik Erikson believed that basic
trust is established by
relationships with early
caregivers.
 Are trust and attachment styles:
 set by genetics?
 formed by early experiences
with parents?
 reshaped by new relationship
experiences?

49. Deprivation of Attachment
 If children live without safe,
nurturing, affectionate
caretaking, they may still be
resilient, that is bounce back,
attach, and succeed.
 However, if the child
experiences severe, prolonged
deprivation or abuse, he or she
may:
 have difficulty forming
attachments.
 have increased anxiety and
depression.
 have lowered intelligence.
 show increased aggression.

50.  We have seen already
that time in day care
does not significantly
increase or decrease
separation anxiety.
 Warm interaction with
multiple caretakers can
result in multiple healthy
attachments.
 Time in day care
correlates with advanced
thinking skills… and also
with increased
aggression and defiance.
Children in Day Care

51. Childhood: Parenting Styles
Style Response to Child’s Behavior
Authoritarian
“Too Hard”
Parents impose rules “because I said so”
and expect obedience.
Permissive
“Too Soft”
Parents submit to kids’ desires, not enforcing
limits or standards for child behavior.
Authoritative
“Just Right”
Parents enforce rules, limits, and standards
but also explain, discuss, listen, and express
respect for child’s ideas and wishes.

52. Outcomes of these Parenting Styles
Style Long term outcomes for the child
Authoritarian
“Too Hard”
Rebellion, compulsivity, identity issues.
Permissive
“Too Soft”
Legal trouble, substance abuse,
disorganization, unemployment.
Authoritative
“Just Right”
Internalized rules, self-discipline, follow
through, life planning.

53. Outcomes with Parenting Styles
 Authoritative parenting,
more than the other two
styles, seems to be
associated with:
 high self-reliance.
 high social competence.
 high self-esteem.
 low aggression.
 But are these a result of
parenting style, or are
parents responding to a
child’s temperament? Or
are both a function of
culture ? Or genes?

54. Child-rearing: Cultural Differences
 Individualist cultures: raising children to
be self-reliant, independent and
developing a personal identity.
 In Western cultures, parents maintain
control over parenting but might pay
others to care for their children.
 Collectivist cultures, e.g. Asia and Africa:
raising children to be interdependent,
developing a family self (what shames
the child, shames the family).
 Children in Africa and Asia are often
raised in close physical contact with
adults, but also raised later by siblings,
integrated into webs of mutual support.

55. Nature, Nurture, and Differences
 Childhood involves a genetically-driven process of
maturation, AND a process of interacting with, and
being formed by, the world of objects and media,
parents and peers.
 When racial or ethnic or gender groups of people differ
from each other in traits or abilities, the differences
within groups tends to be greater than the difference
between groups. Why?
 The environment and culture affects all of us, but due to
our similar biological heritage, it affects us in much the
same way.
 Genetic variations within groups affect traits and
behavior more than the variations between groups.

56. Adolescence
Teenage Topics
 Physical Development: Puberty
and more
 Cognitive Development in
Adolescence
 Reasoning Power
 Moral Intuition, Reasoning, and
Action
 Social Development in Adolescence
 Forming an Identity
 Parent and Peer Relationships
 Emerging Adulthood

57. The next phase of development
 Developmental psychologists used to focus
attention only on childhood.
 Lifespan perspective refers to the idea that
development is a lifelong process.
 The next phase of that process is adolescence.
 the transition period
from childhood to
adulthood
 the period of
development ranging
from puberty to
independence
Are these kids adolescents yet?

58. Adolescent Physical Development
Puberty is the time of
sexual maturation
(becoming physically able
to reproduce).
During puberty, increased
sex hormones lead to:
 primary and secondary
sex characteristics.
 some changes in mood
and behavior.
As with other maturation,
the sequence is more
predictable than the
timing.
Effects of Early Physical
Maturation:
Boys who become
strong/athletic early
• become more popular
and confident
• Are at greater risk of
substance abuse,
delinquency, premature
sexual activity.
Girls whose bodies mature
early may associate with
older teens or be teased or
taunted.

59. Adolescent Brain Development
 During puberty, the brain
stops automatically adding
new connections, and
starts pruning away the
neurons and synapses that
aren’t being used (Use
them or lose them!)
 The frontal lobes are still
forming during this time,
still becoming more
efficient at conducting
signals.
 The adolescent brain is at
its peak of learning ability
but not fully able to inhibit
impulses (good
accelerator, bad brakes). “Young man, go to your room and stay
until your frontal lobes finish forming.”

60. Adolescent Cognitive Development
According to Jean Piaget,
adolescents are in the formal
operational stage. They use this
reasoning to:
 think about how reality
compares to ideals.
 think hypothetically about
different choices and their
consequences.
 critique the reasoning of others.
 debate matters of justice,
meaning of life, and human
nature.

61. Building Toward Moral Reasoning
Adolescents see justice
and fairness in terms of
merit and equity
instead of in terms of
everyone getting equal
treatment.
Moral Intuition: Our
reasoning may be
directed by emotions,
such as
 disgust about evil
acts, and
 elevated feelings
about generosity and
courage.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s
Levels of Moral Reasoning
Preconventional morality (up to
age 9): “Follow the rules because
if you don’t, you’ll get in trouble;
if you do, you might get a treat.”
Conventional morality (early
adolescence): “Follow the rules
because we get along better if
everyone does the right thing.”
Postconventional morality (later
adolescence and adulthood):
“Sometimes rules need to be set
aside to pursue higher principles.”

62. Building Toward Moral Reasoning
 Adolescents see
justice and fairness in
terms of merit and
equity instead of in
terms of everyone
getting equal
treatment.
 Adolescents may
strive to advocate for
ideals and political
causes.
 Adolescents think
about god, meaning,
and purpose in
deeper terms than in
childhood.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s
Levels of Moral Reasoning
Preconventional morality (up to
age 9): “Follow the rules because
if you don’t, you’ll get in trouble;
if you do, you might get a treat.”
Conventional morality (early
adolescence): “Follow the rules
because we get along better if
everyone does the right thing.”
Postconventional morality (later
adolescence and adulthood):
“Sometimes rules need to be set
aside to pursue higher principles.”

63. Example:
looting after a natural disaster
Which level of moral reasoning is involved?
 Looting is a problem; if everyone did it, there would be
escalating chaos and greater damage to the economy.
 Looting is generally wrong, yet morally right when your
family’s survival seems to depend on it.
 Looting is wrong because you might get punished, but if no
one is punished, that’s a sign that it’s okay.

64. Moral Intuition
 Jonathan Haidt believed moral
decisions are often driven by
moral intuition, that is, quick,
gut-feeling decisions.
 This intuition is not just based
in moral reasoning but also in
emotions such as:
 disgust. We may turn away
from choosing an action
because it feels awful.
 elevated feelings. We may
get a rewarding delight from
some moral behavior such
as donating to charity.
An Example of Moral
Intuition:
Given a hypothetical
choice to save five people
from an oncoming trolley
by killing one person,
many people’s choice is
determined not just by
reasoning, but by disgust.
Many people would flip a
switch to make this
choice, but not as many
would push a person on
the tracks to save five
others.

65. Moral Action: Doing the Right Thing
Character
education:
what helps
people choose
principled
actions over
selfishness or
social pressure?
Empathy for
the feelings
of others
Self-
discipline,
or the ability
to resist
impulses
Delaying
gratification
to plan for
larger goals
Experience
serving
others/the
greater
good

66. Psychosocial Development: Erikson’s
Stages
 Each age involves an “issue,” a psychological
challenge in managing our interaction with the social
world.
 The “vs.” part: there is tension between two
opposing tendencies.
 Successfully resolving this tension gives us strengths
that help us move to the next stage.
 Not resolving this tension can lead to lifelong
emotional and social difficulties.

67. Social Development: Erik Erikson
 Erik Erikson’s model of lifelong
psychosocial developmentsees
adolescence as a struggle to
form an identity, a sense of
self.
 Adolescents may in different
roles with peers, with parents,
and with teachers, try out
different “selves.”
 For Erikson, the challenge in
adolescence is to test and
integrate the roles/selves in
order to prevent role
confusion (which of those
selves, or what combination, is
really me?).

68. Erik Erikson: Stages of Psychosocial Development

69. Other Eriksonian stages on the minds
of adolescents
While currently in the
identity vs. role
confusion stage,
 adolescents have
ideally just finished
working through
the tension of
competence vs.
inferiority.
 They are ready
after adolescence
to take on the
challenge of
intimacy vs.
isolation.

70. Peer Influence
 The degree of peer influence is hard to trace. Apparent
conformity (the whole group smokes) could be a selection
effect (they get together because they want to be with
others who like to smoke).
 Interaction with peers can teach new social skills.
 Parents may try to have indirect influence by selecting a
child’s peers, such as by selecting a school or neighborhood.
However, ultimately, most children self-select their peers.

71. Influences on Identity:
Parent and Peer
Relationships
 During adolescence,
peer relationships take
center stage.
 Conflicts arise in this
stage, especially with
first born children.
 The challenge: finding
how adolescent
relationships with
peers and with parents
can coexist well, rather
than being in conflict.

72. Parents vs. Peers
Battling over non-genetic influence
Parents have more
influence on:
Education and career path
Cooperation
Self-discipline
Responsibility
Charitableness
Religion
Style of interaction with
authority figures
Peers have more
influence on:
Learning cooperation skills
Learning the path to
popularity
Choice of music and other
recreation
Choice of clothing and
other cultural choices
Good and bad habits

73. Adolescence, the sequel…
Emerging Adulthood
In some countries, added years of
education and later marriage has
delayed full adult independence
beyond traditional adolescence. This
seems to have created a new phase
which can be called emerging
adulthood, ages 18-25.

74. Stages and Continuity
 Three different types of development--cognitive,
moral, and psychosocial--have been running in parallel.
 Are they really separate stages, or a continuous process
of development?

75. Continuity vs. Stages
Researchers who see
development as a
function of
experience tend to
see development
as continuous and
gradual.
Nurture is
continuous.
Researchers who
focus on biological
maturation see spurts
of growth and other
changes that make
one stage of
development very
different from
another.
Nature has stages.

76. Adulthood
Topics Grown-Ups Think
About
 Physical Changes in Middle
Adulthood and in Later
Life: Life expectancy,
Sensory changes,
Dementias including
Alzheimer’s Disease
 Cognitive Development
and decline
 Social Development: Love,
Work
 Well-Being across the
Lifespan
 Dying and Death

77. Adulthood
Is the rest of the
developmental story just
one long plateau of work
and possibly raising kids?
 Physical Development
 physical decline
 lifespan and death
 sensory changes
 Cognitive
Development
 memory
 Social Development
 commitments

78. Adult Physical Development
 In our mid-20’s, we reach
a peak in the natural
physical abilities which
come with biological
maturation:
 muscular strength
 cardiac output
 reaction time
 sensory sensitivity
 To what extent can
training overcome the
decline that follows?

79. Physical Changes:
Middle Adulthood
The end the
reproductive years
 There is a gradual
decline in sexual
activity in
adulthood,
although sexuality
can continue
throughout life.
 Around age 50,
women enter
menopause (the
end of being able
to get pregnant).
 According to
evolutionary
psychologists, why
might it make
sense for women’s
fertility to end?
Between ages 40 and 60,
physical vitality (such as
endurance and strength)
may still be more of a
function of lifestyle than
of biological decline.
Some
changes are
still driven by
genetic
maturation,
especially the
end of our
reproductive
years.

80. More Aged Women
 The rise in life expectancy,
combined with declining
birth rates, means a higher
percentage of the world’s
population is old.
 More elderly people are
women because more men
die than women at every
age. By age 100, women
outnumber men by a ratio
of 5 to 1.
The Aging Body
 Potential lifespan for the
human body is estimated to
be about 122 years.
 Life expectancy refers to the
average expected life span.
 The worldwide average has
increased from 49 in 1950 to
69 in 2010. In 2012:
South Africa—49
Cameroon—55
Pakistan—66
Thailand--74
United States--75
Ireland--80
Australia—82
Japan--84

81. Why don’t we live forever?
Possible biological answers…
 Nurture/Environment
An accumulation of stress, damage, and disease
wears us down until one of these factors kills
us.
 Genes
Some people have genes that protect against
some kinds of damage.
 Even with great genes and environment,
telomeres (the tips at the end of chromosomes)
wear down with every generation of cell
duplication and we stop healing well.

82. The Death-Deferral Phenomenon
Can people will themselves to hold off death?
There is some evidence that some people are able
to stay alive to be with families at Christmas time.

83. Physical Changes with Age
The following abilities
decline as we age:
 visual acuity, both
sharpness and
brightness
 hearing, especially
sensing higher pitch
 reaction time and
general motor abilities
 neural processing speed,
especially for complex
and novel tasks

84. Impact of Sensory and Motor Decline
What specific factors and changes might
explain the results below?
Age

85. Health/Immunity Changes with Age
The
bad
news
The
good
news
The immune system
declines with age, and
can have difficulty
fighting off major
illnesses.
The immune system has
a lifetime’s accumulation
of antibodies, and does
well fighting off minor
illnesses.

86. Exercise Can Slow the Aging Process
Exercise can:
 build muscles and
bones.
 stimulate neurogenesis
(in the hippocampus)
and new neural
connections.
 maintain telomeres.
 improve cognition.
 reduce the risk of
dementia.

87. Changes in the Brain with Age
 Myelin-enhanced neural
processing speed peaks in
the teen years, and
declines thereafter.
 Regions of the brain
related to memory begin to
shrink with age, making it
harder to form new
memories.
 The frontal lobes atrophy,
leading eventually to
decreased inhibition and
self-control.
 By age 80, a healthy brain
is 5 percent lighter than a
brain in middle adulthood.

88. Alzheimer’s Disease
and Other Dementias
Dementia, including the
Alzheimer’s type, is NOT a
“normal” part of aging.
Dementia Symptoms
 decreased ability to recall
recent events and the names
of familiar objects and
people
 emotional unpredictability;
flat, then uninhibited, then
angry
 confusion, disorientation,
and eventual inability to
think or communicate
Brain Changes of
Alzheimer’s Disease
 loss of brain cells and
neural network
connections
 deterioration of neurons
that produce
acetylcholine, the memory
neurotransmitter
 shriveled and broken
protein filaments forming
plaques at the tips of
neurons
 dramatic shrinking of the
brain

89. Cognitive
Development
and Memory
Can you describe and explain the differences in
performance changes in these charts?
 Even without the brain changes of
dementia, there are some changes in
our ability to learn, process, and recall
information.
 The ability to recognize information, and
to use previous knowledge as expertise,
does not decline with age.

90. More Learning and Memory Changes
 Rote memorization ability
declines more than ability to
learn meaningful
information.
 Prospective memory,
planning to recall, (“I must
remember to do…) also
declines.
 The ability to learn new
skills declines less than the
ability to learn new
information.

91. Comparing Young and Old People
 Cross-sectional studies
compare people at different
ages all at one time.
 What disadvantages can
you see with this method?
Hint: when, and how, were
today’s 80-year-olds raised?
 Longitudinal studies
compare the attributes of the
same people as they change
over time.
Any disadvantages?
Is it practical?
Is it generalizable?

92. Social Development in Adulthood
Is adult social development driven by biological
maturation or by life experiences and roles?
 The “midlife crisis”--re-evaluating one’s life plan and
success--does not seem to peak at any age.
 For the 25 percent of adults who do have this
emotional crisis, the trigger seems to be the
challenge of major illness, divorce, job loss, or
parenting.

93. Psychosocial Development
 Although the “midlife crisis” may not be a function of
age, people do feel pressured by a “social clock” of
achievement expectation.
 Erik Erikson’s observations of age-related issues:

94. Challenges of Healthy Adulthood
Arising first:
Erik Erikson’s
intimacy issue
(a.k.a. affiliation,
attachment,
connectedness)
Arising later: Erik
Erikson’s
generativity issue
(achievement,
productivity,
competence)
Sigmund Freud
used simpler
terms, saying that
the healthy adult
must find ways to
love and to work.

95. Commitment
to Love
 The desire to commit to a
loving relationship may have
evolved to help vulnerable
human children survive long
enough to reproduce.
 Couples who go through
marriage/union ceremonies
tend to stay together more
than couples who simply live
together.
 Marriage, compared to being
single, is associated with
‘happiness’ and with fewer
social problems such as crime
and child delinquency.
 Work roles can largely define
adult identity, especially in
individualistic capitalist
societies.
 Tough economic times make it
difficult to find work, much less
follow a career path.
 Work satisfaction seems to be a
function of having the work fit
a person’s interests and
providing a sense of
competence and
accomplishment.
Commitment
to Work

96. Well-Being across the Lifespan
Life satisfaction, as measured by
how close people feel to the
“best possible life,” is apparently
not a function of age.

97. Why do people claim to
be happy even as their
body declines?
 Older people attend less to
negative information and more
to positive information.
 They are also more likely to
have accumulated many mildly
positive memories, which last
longer than mildly negative
memories.
 Older people feel an increased
sense of competence and
control, and have greater
stability in mood.

98. Managing the Aging Process:
Biopsychosocial Factors
Many factors
can support
well-being in
old age.

99. Coping with Death and Dying
Below is an average reaction to a spouse’s death.

100. Coping with Death and Dying
Individual responses to death
may vary.
 Grief is more intense when
death occurs unexpectedly
(especially if also too early on
the social clock).
 There is NO standard pattern
or length of the grieving
process.
 It seems to help to have the
support of friends or groups,
and to face the reality of
death and grief while
affirming the value of life.

101. Reflections on Change and Stability
 Are there some parts of who we are that remain stable
throughout development?
Our temperament? Our overall personality?
 Do some of our attributes change during development
(even while we maintain our sense of identity)?
Our abilities? Our interests? Our habits? Our traits?

102. The Final Issue in Development:
Stability and Change
Are we essentially the same person over long
periods?
 In general, temperament seems stable.
 Traits can vary, especially attitudes, coping
strategies, work habits, and styles of
socializing.
 Personality seems to stabilize with age.
Stability helps us form identity, while the
potential for change gives us control over our
lives.