This document discusses key concepts in human development across the lifespan. It covers 3 main areas of development - physical, cognitive, and socioemotional. For cognitive development, it summarizes Piaget's stages of cognitive development and Vygotsky's theory on the role of social interactions and the zone of proximal development. For socioemotional development, it outlines Erikson's psychosocial stages and discusses infant attachment theories from Harlow and Ainsworth. It also covers concepts like temperament and parenting styles.

1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
AP Psychology (Mr. Hinder)

2. Development
 The pattern of
continuity and change
that occurs throughout
the lifespan
 Three areas
 Physical processes
 Cognitive processes
 Socioemotional
processes
Physical
CognitiveSocioemotional

3. Development
 Nature – Biological Inheritance
 Nurture – Environmental Experiences
 Optimal experiences – Individuals take
active roles in their own development
 Early Experience versus Later Experience

4. Early vs Later Experiences
Early
 Some psychologists believe
that unless infants experience
warm, nurturing care in the
first year of life, they will not
develop to their full potential
 early experience doctrine rests
on the belief that each life is
an unbroken trail on which a
psychological quality can be
traced back to its origin
 later experience: liken
development in later years
to the ebb and flow of a
river.
 Later experience advocates
argue that children are
responsive to change and
that sensitive caregiving is
just as important later as it
is earlier

5. Cognitive
 Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
 Children actively construct their cognitive
world using…
 Schemas – concepts or frameworks that
organize information
 Assimilation – incorporate new info into existing
schemas
 Accomodation – adjust existing schemas to
incorporate new information

6. Piaget
Swiss psychologist
Jean Piaget (1926,
1977) spent over 50
years exploring how
a child’s thought
processes develop.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage Age (Years) Major Characteristics
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
Birth to 2
2 to 7
7 to 12
12 on
• Infant understands world through sensory and motor
experiences
• Achieves object permanence
• Exhibits emergence of symbolic thought
• Child uses symbolic thinking in the form of words and
images to represent objects and experiences
• Symbolic thinking enables child to engage in pretend
play
• Thinking displays egocentrism, irreversibility, and
centration
• Child can think logically about concrete events
• Grasps concepts of conservation and serial ordering
• Adolescent can think more logically, abstractly, and
flexibly
• Can form hypotheses and systematically test them

7. Evaluating Piaget’s Theory
 Some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than
Piaget thought
 Piaget placed too much emphasis on discrete
stages and ignored individual differences
 Culture and environment also influence
development

8. Vygotsky’s Theory
 the culture in which we are raised significantly
affects our cognitive development
• Cognitive development occurs as a consequence of
social interactions in which children work with others
to jointly solve problems.
• Children’s cognitive abilities increase when they
encounter information that falls within their zone of
proximal development (ZPD).
• ZPD is the level at which a child can almost, but not
fully, comprehend or perform a task on his or her own.
When children receive information that falls within the
ZPD, they can increase understanding or master a new
task.

9. Vygotsky’s Theory
Although the
performances of the two
children initially working
at a task without aid are
similar, the second child
benefits more from aid
and thus has a larger zone
of proximal development.
Child A Child B
ZPD ZPD
Performance

10. Socioemotional
 Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
 Theory emphasizes lifelong development
 Eight psychosocial stages of development
 Each stage represents a developmental task
 Crisis that must be resolved
 Personal competence or weakness

11. Erikson

12. Evaluating Erikson
 Primary focus on case-study research
 Omitted important developmental tasks
 Development is a lifelong challenge

13. Infant Attachment
 The close emotional bond between an infant
and its caregiver
 Typically develops during first year of life
 May provide important foundation for
subsequent development
 Attachment intensifies at 6-7 months

14. Infant Attachment
 Harry Harlow – Infant rhesus monkeys
 What matters? Nourishment or contact
 Choose between two surrogate “mothers”
 Cold wire mother versus warm cloth mother
 Infants preferred cloth mother across situations
 Contact comfort is critical to attachment
 Harlow's Monkeys
 Harlow 2

15. Infant Attachment
 Mary Ainsworth – Strange Situation
 Procedure: Caregivers leave infant alone with
stranger, then return
 SecureAttachment: Use caregiver as a base
for exploration; happy when caregiver returns
 Insecure Attachment: Does not care if
caregiver gone
 AttachmentTheory

16. Temperament
 An individual’s behavioral style or
characteristic way of responding
 Three clusters of temperament
 Easy
 Difficult: can cry often, irregular routines
 slow-to-warm-up: low activity level
 Another perspective on temperament
 Effortful control, self-regulation, and negative
affectivity

17. Parenting Styles