Development Through the Lifespan

For goodness sake, just pick one! I’m nearly seventeen!

Developmental Psychology:Branch of psychology which studies physical, cognitive

and social changes through the life span.

Issue Details

Nature/NurtureHow do genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience

(the nurture we receive) influence our behavior?

Continuity/StagesIs development a gradual, continuous process or a

sequence of separate stages?

Stability/ChangeDo our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as

we age.

Prenatal Development and the Newborn

How, over time, did we come to be who we are? From zygote to birth,

development progresses in an orderly, though fragile, sequence.

Infancy and ChildhoodInfancy and childhood span from birth to the teenage years. During

these years, the individual grows physically,

cognitively, and socially.

Stage Span

Infancy Newborn to toddler

Childhood Toddler to teenager

Infant ReflexesRooting reflex

Babinski reflex

Moro reflex

Grasping reflex

Infants & Habituation

• Infants look longer at novel stimulus

• Look less at familiar stimuli

Infancy & Childhood Physical Development

• You are born with the most brain cells you would ever have!

• Neural networks multiply as we grow & gain abilities

• Association areas for thinking, memory, and language are last areas to develop

• Maturation - gradual unfolding of genetically-programmed physical changes

Infancy & Childhood Motor Development

• Experience has little effect on motor development; it is mostly due to our genes & maturation

Fig. 11-5, p. 425

Maturation & Infant Memory

• Infantile amnesia– Conscious memory at age

3 ½ (Bauer, 2002)• As we develop language,

the way in which we organize memories change.

• A 5-year-old has a sense of self and an increased long-term memory, thus organization of memory is different from 3-4 years.

Infants do show evidence of some memory.