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