PY1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: No Age, Moro Reflex, Mental Model
14 Jun 2018
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Lecture 7 – Introduction to Development of Psychology
What is the lifespan development perspective?
- Development: The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues
through the cycle.
o No age period dominates development
o Researches increasingly study the experiences and psychological orientations
of adults at different points in their development
o Early adulthood is not the end point of development
Development is Plastic
- Plasticity involves the degree to which characteristics change or remain stable
Development in Multidisciplinary
- Psychologists
- Sociologists
- Anthropologists
- Neuroscientists
- Medical Researchers
Development is Contextual
- Individuals respond to and act upon contexts, including ones biological makeup,
physical and cultural contexts
- Within contextual view, the following 3 sources influence development
o 1. Normative age graded influences are biological and environmental
influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group. E.g.
puberty, beginning school, retirement
o 2. Normative history graded influences – common to people of a generation
due to historical circumstances they experience. E.g. economic change (great
depression), war, political upheaval, technological revolution, the role of
women in society
o 3. Non-normative life events are unusual occurrences that have a major
impact on an idiiduals life. The occurrence, pattern and sequence of these
events are not applicable to many individuals. E.g. death of a parent of a
young child, a disaster or accident, lottery win
The Life-Span Perspective
- Life Span: based on oldest age documented
- Life expectancy: average number of years that a person can expect to live
o 79 for males in AUS, 84 for females in Aus, 20 years less for Indigenous
o In 1900 human life expectancy in the US was 47 years
o In 20th Century alone life expectancy increased by 30 years large due to the
improvements of sanitation, nutrition and medical knowledge
Period of development
- The time frame in a persons life characterised by certain features. The most widely
used form of classification of this time is as follows
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o The prenatal period
o Infancy
o Early childhood
o Middle and late childhood
o Adolescence
o Early adulthood
o Middle adulthood
o Late adulthood
Infancy
- The developmental period of birth to 18 or 24 months
- A time of extreme dependency on adults
- Many psychological activities just beginning
Early Childhood
- Extends from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years
- Ofte alled peshool eas
- Children learn to become more self-sufficient
- Children now develop school readiness skills
- Children spend many hours playing with peers
Middle and Late childhood
- Extends from 6 – 11 years of age
- Corresponds to the elementary school years
- Fundamental skills of reading, writing and arithmetic are mastered
- Child is formally exposed to the large world and its culture
The Brain
- As an infant walks, talks, runs shakes a rattle, smiles and frowns changes are
occurring in the brain
- As infant begins life as a single cell 9 months later they are born with a brain and
nervous system that contains approximately 100 billion nerve cells or neurons
- Brain continues developing past infancy
The Brains Development
- At birth the new-borns brain is about 25% of its adult weight and by the second
birthday its about 75% of its adult weight
- New-borns have all of the neurons they will ever have – about 100 billion
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- Some areas (primary motor areas), develop earlier than others (primary sensory
areas)
o Among the most dramatic changes in the brain in the first 2 years of life are
spreading connections of dendrites to each other.
Early Experience and the Brain
- Statig shotl afte ith, a as ai podues tillios oe oetios
seldom / never used continues at least until 10 years of age.
- Current belief – infants brain waiting for experiences to determine how connections
made
o Before birth, genes appear to direct how the brain establishes basic wiring
patterns
▪ After birth, environmental experiences important in the brains
development
Sleep
- New-borns sleep 16-17 hours a day with individual variations
- Most 1 month olds begin sleeping longer at night
- Most 4 months olds have moved closer to adult like sleeping patterns
Sleep and Arousal
- New-borns divide sleep time between REM and non REM sleep
- For young infants night begins with REM sleep
o Each cycle last about 1 hour
- Infants spend about one-half of their sleep in REM sleep
o By 3 months percentage of REM sleep falls of 40% no longer starts their sleep
cycle
o Most adults spend 1/5 of nights in REM sleep
▪ Routine important – regular times, methods of waking, feeding and
sleeping
Motor Development
- Reflexes: built in reactions to stimuli, generally carry survival mechanisms
- Rooting Reflex: when the infants cheeky is stroked, the infant will turn its head to
the side that was touched
- Moro Reflex: automatic arching of back and wrapping of arms to centre of body
when startled
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