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DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER NINE: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER OUTLINE AND KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS (O)
Prologue: The Brave New World of Childhood
Looking Ahead
developmental psychology: The branch of psychology that studies the patterns of growth
and change occurring throughout life
Nature and Nurture: The Enduring Developmental Issue
environmental: The influence of parents, siblings, family, friends, schooling, nutrition,
and all the other experiences to which a child is exposed
hereditary: The influence on growth and development throughout life based on the
genetic makeup of an individual
nature-nurture issue: The issue of the degree to which environment and heredity
influence behaviour
genetic makeup: The inherited biological factors that transmit hereditary information
maturation: The unfolding of biologically predetermined patterns of behaviour
interactionist: Someone who believes that a combination of hereditary and environmental
factors influence development
LECTURE LEAD 9.1: Heredity and Environment Interaction
Determining the Relative Influence of Nature and Nurture
identical twins: Twins who are genetically identical
LECTURE LEAD 9.2: When Identical Twins Aren’t Identical
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.1: Nature-Nurture and Child-Rearing Practices
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.2: Similarities Between Students: Evidence of Long-Lost Twins?
Specific Research Approaches
cross-sectional research: A research method in which people of different ages are
compared at the same point in time
cohort: A group of people who grow up at the same time, in the same place, and under
similar conditions
longitudinal research: A research method that investigates behaviour as participants age
cross-sequential research: A research method that combines cross-sectional and
longitudinal research by taking a number of different age groups and examining them over
several points in time
Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth
conception: Occurs when a male’s sperm cell penetrates a female’s egg cell
The Basics of Genetics
chromosomes: Rod-shaped structures that contain basic hereditary information
genes: The parts of a chromosome through which genetic information is transmitted
DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid: Molecules that compose genes
Applying Psychology in the 21st Century Cloning, Gene Therapy, and the Coming Medical Revolution
Development: From Zygote to Birth
zygote: The new cell formed by the union of an egg and sperm
germinal period: The first two weeks after conception
embryonic period: The period of prenatal development beginning with week two and
ending with week eight
embryo: A developed zygote that has a heart, a brain, and other organs
fetal period: The period of prenatal development beginning with the eighth week and
continuing until birth
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fetus: A developing child, from eight weeks after conception until birth
age of viability: The point at which a fetus can survive if born prematurely
critical period: The first of several stages of development in which specific kinds of
growth must occur to enable further normal development
Genetic Influences on the Fetus
phenylketonuria (PKU): An inherited disease that prevents people from being able to
produce an enzyme that is required for normal development, resulting in profound mental
retardation
sickle-cell anemia: A disease of the blood that affects about 10 percent of the AfricanAmerican population
Tay-Sachs disease: A genetic defect preventing the body from breaking down fat and
typically causing death by the age of 3 or 4
Down Syndrome: A disorder caused by the presence of an extra chromosome, resulting in
mental retardation
Prenatal Environmental Influences
teratogens: Environmental agents such as drugs, chemicals, viruses, or other factors that
produce birth defects
fetal alcohol syndrome: A condition resulting in mental and growth retardation, found in
the children of mothers who consumed heavy or sometimes even moderate amounts of
alcohol during pregnancy
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.3: Can We Reduce Neonatal Drug Addiction and AIDS Infection?
The Extraordinary Newborn
neonate: A newborn child
vernix: A white, greasy material that is secreted to protect a neonate’s skin prior to birth
lanugo: A soft fuzz covering the body of a newborn
Reflexes
reflexes: Unlearned, involuntary responses to certain stimuli
rooting reflex: A neonate’s tendency to turn its head toward things that touch its cheek
sucking reflex: A reflex that prompts an infant to suck at things that touch its lips
gag reflex: An infant’s reflex to clear its throat
startle reflex: A series of movements in which the infant flings out its arms, fans its
fingers, and arches its back in response to a sudden noise
Babinski reflex: The reflex action in which the baby’s toes fan out when the outer edge of
the sole of its foot is stroked
Development of the Senses: Taking in the World
habituation: A decrease in response to repeated presentations of the same stimulus
The Growing Child: Infancy Through Middle Childhood
Physical Development
Development of Social Behaviour: Taking On the World
attachment: The positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular
individual
imprinting: Behaviour that takes place during a critical period and involves attachment to
the first moving object it observes
LECTURE LEAD 9.3: Attachments in Children: Recent Research
Measuring Attachment
Ainsworth strange situation: A sequence of events involving a child and (typically) its
mother that provides a measurement of attachment
securely attached: A child who uses the mother as a home base from which to explore,
and who is distressed when she leaves and approaches her when she returns
avoidant: A child who is not distressed when the mother leaves and avoids her when she
returns, often seeming indifferent
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ambivalent: A child who displays anxiety before separation from the mother, is very upset
when she leaves, yet shows ambivalent reactions when she returns
disorganized-disoriented: A child who shows inconsistent, often contradictory behaviour
The Father’s Role
Social Relationships with Peers
LECTURE LEAD 9.4: Expert Infants: Babies Teaching Babies
The Consequences of Day Care
LECTURE LEAD 9.5: Who’s Caring for the Children? Determining the Effects of Day Care
Parenting Styles and Social Development
authoritarian parents: Parents who are rigid and punitive, and who value unquestioning
obedience from their children
permissive parents: Parents who are lax, inconsistent, and undemanding, yet warm
toward their children
authoritative parents: Parents who are firm, set clear limits, and reason with and explain
things to their children
uninvolved parents: Parents who show little interest in their children and are emotionally
detached
temperament: Basic, innate disposition
LECTURE LEAD 9.6: Born to Be Shy? Inhibited and Uninhibited Children
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.4: Parenting Strategies
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.1: Parent-Child Interactions
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
psychosocial development: Development of individuals’ interactions with and
understanding of each other and of their knowledge and understanding of themselves as
members of society
trust-versus-mistrust stage: According to Erikson, the first stage of psychosocial
development, occurring from birth to 18 months of age, during which time infants develop
feelings of trust or lack of trust
autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt stage: The period during which, according to
Erikson, toddlers (ages 18 months to 3 years) develop independence and autonomy if
exploration and freedom are encouraged, or shame and self-doubt if they are restricted and
overprotected
initiative-versus-guilt stage: According to Erikson, the period during which children aged
3 to 6 years experience conflict between independence of action and the sometimes
negative results of that action
industry-versus-inferiority stage: According to Erikson, the period during which
children aged 6 to 12 years may develop positive social interactions with others or may
feel inadequate and become less sociable
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.5: Sex-Role Stereotyping in Children’s Literature
Cognitive Development: Children’s Thinking About the World
cognitive development: The process by which a child’s understanding of the world
changes as a function of age and experience
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.6: Demonstrating Piaget’s Concepts
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sensorimotor stage: According to Piaget, the stage from birth to 2 years during which a
child has little competence in representing the environment using images, language, or
other symbols
object permanence: The awareness that objects and people do not cease to exist when
they are out of sight
preoperational stage: According to Piaget, the period from 2 to 7 years of age that is
characterized by language development
egocentric thought: A way of thinking in which the child views the world entirely from
his or her own perspective
principle of conservation: The knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement
and physical appearance of objects
concrete operational stage: According to Piaget, the period from 7 to 12 years of age that
is characterized by logical thought and a loss of egocentrism
formal operational stage: According to Piaget, the period from age 12 to adulthood is
characterized by abstract thought
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.2: Children’s Television
Stages versus Continuous Development: Was Piaget Right?
Psychology at Work Kevin Sweryd
Information Processing Approaches: Charting Children’s Mental Programs
information processing: The way in which people take in, use, and store information
metacognition: An awareness and understanding of one’s own cognitive processes
Vygotsky’s View of Cognitive Development: Considering Culture
zone of proximal development (ZPD): The level at which a child can almost, but not
quite fully, comprehend or perform a task on his or her own
scaffolding: The support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence
and growth
LECTURE LEAD 9.7: Vygotsky’s Theory of Development
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.7: Stimulation of Children
Adolescence: Becoming an Adult
adolescence: The developmental stage between childhood and adulthood
Physical Development: The Changing Adolescent
puberty: The period during which maturation of the sexual organs occurs, begins at about
age 11 or 12 for girls and 13 or 14 for boys
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.8: Recent Changes in Childhood and Adolescence
Moral and Cognitive Development: Distinguishing Right from Wrong
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.3: Applying Kohlberg
Moral Development in Females
Social Development: Finding Oneself in a Social World
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development: The Search for Identity
identity-versus-role-confusion stage: According to Erikson, a time in adolescence of
testing to determine one’s own unique qualities
identity: The distinguishing character of the individual: who each of us is, what our roles
are, and what we are capable of
intimacy-versus-isolation stage: According to Erikson, a period during early adulthood
that focuses on developing close relationships
generativity-versus-stagnation stage: According to Erikson, a period in middle
adulthood during which we take stock of our contributions to family
and society
ego-integrity-versus-despair stage: According to Erikson, a period from late adulthood
until death during which we review life’s accomplishments and failures
LECTURE LEAD 9.8: Psychological Health and Drug Use in Adolescence
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LECTURE LEAD 9.9: The Search for Identity during Adolescence: Four Identity Statuses
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.9: The Stresses of Adolescence
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.10: Demonstrations
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.4: Reflections of Your Life
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.5: Applying Erikson and Levinson
PathwaysThrough Psychology Lorrie Sippola
Stormy Adolescence: Myth or Reality?
adolescent egocentrism: A state of self-absorption in which the world is viewed from
one’s own point of view
personal fables: The view held by adolescents that what happens to them is unique,
exceptional, and shared by no one else
LECTURE LEAD 9.10: Violent Teens
Exploring Diversity Rites of Passage: Coming of Age Around the World
Early and Middle Adulthood: The Middle Years of Life
Physical Development: The Peak of Health
menopause: The point at which women stop menstruating and are infertile
estrogen replacement therapy (ERT): Administration of the hormones estrogen and
progesterone to women in menopause
Social Development: Working at Life
midlife transition: Beginning around the age of 40, a period during which we come to the
realization that life is finite
midlife crisis: The negative feelings that accompany the realization that we have not
accomplished in life what we had hoped to
LECTURE LEAD 9.11: Middle Age: The Ups and Downs
Marriage, Children, and Divorce: Family Ties
LECTURE LEAD 9.12: Marriage in the Nineties: Choosing Mr. or Ms. Right
Changing Roles of Men and Women: The Time of Their Lives
Women’s “Second Shift”
The Later Years of Life: Growing Old
gerontologists: Specialists who study aging
Physical Changes in Late Adulthood: The Aging Body
genetic preprogramming theories of aging: Theories that suggest a built-in time limit to
the reproduction of human cells, and that after a certain time they are no longer able to
divide
wear-and-tear theories of aging: Theories that suggest that the mechanical functions of
the body simply stop working efficiently
LECTURE LEAD 9.13: Neurological Changes in Aging
Cognitive Changes: Thinking About—and During—Old Age
fluid intelligence: Reasoning, memory, and information-processing capabilities
crystallized intelligence: Intelligence based on the information, skills, and strategies that
people have learned through experience and that can be applied in problem-solving
situations
Memory Changes in Old Age: Are Older Adults Forgetful?
senility: A broad, imprecise term typically applied to elderly people who experience
progressive deterioration of mental abilities, including memory loss, disorientation to time
and place, and general confusion
Alzheimer’s disease: A progressive brain disorder that leads to a gradual and irreversible
decline in mental abilities
The Social World of Late Adulthood: Old but Not Alone
disengagement theory of aging: A theory that suggests that aging is a gradual withdrawal
from the world on physical, psychological, and social levels
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activity theory of aging: A theory that suggests that the elderly who age most successfully
are those who maintain the interests and activities they had during middle age
life review: The process by which people examine and evaluate their lives
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.11: Aging and Retirement
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.12: Portrayal of Elderly in the Movies
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.13: Older and Wiser: Long-Term Results of Training the Elderly
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.14: Interview with an Elderly Person
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.6: Social Support for the Elderly
INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.7: Life at a Retirement Home
Becoming an Informed Consumer of Psychology Adjusting to Death
Looking Back
Key Terms and Concepts
Psychology on the Web
OLC Preview
Epilogue
LEARNING OBJECTIVES (P)
Nature and Nurture: The Enduring Developmental Issue
1. Define developmental psychology and discuss various topics of study within the field, especially the influence
of nature and nurture on human development. (pp. 290–292)
2. Distinguish
among
cross-sectional,
longitudinal,
and
cross-sequential
research
methods.
(p. 293)
Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth
3. Describe the major events that occur from conception to birth. (pp. 294–296)
4. Discuss genetic abnormalities and environmental influences that affect prenatal development. (pp. 297–298)
The Extraordinary Newborn
5. Describe the appearance and behaviour of the neonate. (p. 299)
6. Discuss the sensory and perceptual capacities of newborn infants and their typical course of development. (pp.
300–302)
The Growing Child: Infancy Through Middle Childhood
7. Describe the physical and social development of the infant and child, including attachment issues, the role of
the
father,
peer
social
relationships,
and
the
influence
of
day
care.
(pp. 302-306)
8. Describe the four parenting styles and their effect on children’s social development. (pp. 306–307)
9. Outline and describe the first four psychosocial stages of development as identified by Erik Erikson. (pp. 307308)
10. Outline and describe the cognitive developmental stages identified by Jean Piaget, including criticisms of the
stage approach. (pp. 309–312)
11. Explain the information-processing approach to cognitive development, as well as Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural
approach. (pp. 312–314)
Adolescence: Becoming an Adult
12. Define adolescence, and describe the physical changes that mark its beginning. (pp. 315–316)
13. Describe the moral and cognitive development that occurs during adolescence. (pp. 316–318)
14. Identify and discuss Erikson’s psychosocial stages relevant to adolescence and adulthood. (pp. 318–319)
15. Identify the major problems of adolescence. (p. 319-321)
Early and Middle Adulthood: The Middle Years of Life
16. Define early and middle adulthood, and describe
(pp. 322-323)
208
the
physical
changes
that
accompany
it.
DEVELOPMENT
17. Discuss the concerns of adulthood that result from demands of society and the pressures of work, marriage, and
family. (pp. 323–324)
18. Describe the roles of males and females in marriage and in the family, specifically as they relate to the course of
adult development. (p. 324-325)
The Later Years of Life: Growing Old
19. Define old age, the physical changes that accompany it, and the theories that attempt to account for it. (pp. 325–
326)
20. Identify the changes that occur in cognitive ability, intelligence, and memory during old age. (pp. 326–329)
21. Describe the challenges and changes faced by the elderly in regard to their social involvement. (p. 329)
22. List and define Kübler-Ross’s five stages of adjustment to death. (pp. 330)
LECTURE LEADS
Lecture Lead 9.1: Heredity and Environment Interaction (W)
Describing the following study to your students might both launch a discussion on the interaction of environment
and heredity and illustrate the conduct of longitudinal research.
A longitudinal study published in Developmental Psychology investigated the influence of prenatal parental
preferences for the child’s sex on various aspects of parent–child relations. Stattin and Klackenberg-Larsson (1991)
asked every fourth mother who came for their prenatal visit to the Solna Antenatal Clinic at Karolinska Hospital in
Sweden between December 1955 and April 1958 to participate in their long-term study. Only 3 percent refused,
leaving them with a sample of 212. Demographic data on the subjects indicated that the group of subjects were
representative of a Swedish urban population.
The mothers were interviewed by a psychologist one to two months before delivering. At that interview,
the mothers were asked about their sex preference and their husband’s sex preference for their baby. The researchers
then limited their sample to 113 families where both parents held the same sex preference. Thirty-two boys’ parents
had actually preferred a boy (congruent boys); 30 girls’ parents had actually preferred a girl (congruent girls); 33
girls’ parents had preferred a boy (noncongruent girls); 18 boys’ parents had preferred a girl (noncongruent boys).
Mothers were interviewed when their children were 1 month old, 1 year old, and then annually thereafter
until the children were 18 years old. In addition, at age 25, 73 percent of the original sample of children were
interviewed. Birth order and mother’s age were controlled statistically during the analyses.
Overall, the results revealed more negative consequences for the noncongruent children. Negative
consequences were stronger for girls than boys and appeared more in father–daughter than mother–daughter
relations. Problems of crying, misery, sleeping, feeding, elimination, toilet training, excessive fears, shyness,
dependency, speech, and backwardness were reported more for noncongruent girls than congruent girls in the infant
and toddler ages. When controlled for birth order, the mothers of noncongruent girls reported less time for playing
with their child. The noncongruent girls had significantly more conflicts in relationships with their fathers during
middle, late childhood, and adolescence. They had more conflicts with their mothers in late childhood. Interestingly,
in early adolescence there was a stronger conflicted relationship for the congruent than the noncongruent boys with
the father, and in late adolescence with the mother. Retrospective interviews with the children at age 25 supported
these results.
Hearing about this study might generate some questions from your students who have knowledge of being
noncongruent. They might start by saying something like, “I was supposed to be a girl” or “my parents thought they
would get a boy this time.”
Stattin, H., & Klackenberg-Larsson, I. (1991). The short- and long-term implications for parent–child relations of
parents’ prenatal preferences for their child’s gender. Developmental Psychology, 27, 141–147.
Lecture Lead 9.2: When Identical Twins Aren’t Identical (W)
Jill Neimark has written a fascinating article on twins in which she discusses the ways in which identical twins are
not always so identical (1997). She cites one example in which one twin was a healthy gymnast and the other
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suffered from severe muscular dystrophy and was dead at 16. These were identical twins. How could this be
possible? Here are a few of the ways in which twins can differ:
1.
In the twenty-third pair of chromosomes, the X and Y chromosomes control the sex of the child. These
chromosomes also contain other genes, such as those for muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, and colourblindness.
While boys inherit an X (from the mother) and a Y (from the father), girls inherit two X’s, one from each
parent. What few people realize is that girls automatically shut off one X in every cell. The shut-off X’s can be
some of the mother’s and some of the father’s, or all of the mother’s and all of the father’s. The catch is that an
identical twin girl may not shut off the same X’s that her sister does, resulting in subtle (and not-so-subtle)
differences.
2.
Even the womb environment may be different for identical twins. The timing of the splitting of the egg makes a
vast difference in how much of the environment of the womb is shared. If the split happens within the first four
days of pregnancy, the twins will have separate placentas, chorionic casings, and amniotic sacs. If separation
takes place between day 5 and day 8, the twins will share a single placenta and chorion, but have two sacs. In
this case, one twin’s umbilical cord could be placed better on the placenta and thus deliver more nutrients to that
twin. While this nutritional deficiency can be eradicated after birth in the first few years, other things can affect
twins in separate sacs: viruses can affect twins of this type at different rates or in different ways. If twins split
between day 8 and day 12, they share one sac. They run the risk of getting their cords tangled (which can result
in death for one or both). Twins who split after day 12 are conjoined (Siamese twins), yet even they have
separate cravings, habits, and temperaments!
3.
Even fraternal twins are not always what we think they are—two separate individuals coming from two eggs
fertilized by different sperm. It has been hypothesized that an older egg may split before fertilization, resulting
in twins with different sperm fertilization, but the same genetic material from the mother.
Neimark, J. (1997, July/August). Nature’s clones. Psychology Today, 36–69.
Lecture Lead 9.3: Attachments in Children: Recent Research (W)
Isabella and Belsky (1991) have elaborated on Ainsworth and Bell’s (1970) concepts, further illuminating the
distinction between the two types of insecurely attached infants by investigating the quality of mother and infant
interaction. The researchers differentiate between synchronous and asynchronous exchanges of infants and mothers.
They define synchronous interactions as mutually rewarding, reciprocal exchanges between the mother and the
infant where one member is responsive to the other. For example, the infant fusses or cries, the mother soothes.
Securely attached children come from this type of synchronous interaction between mother and infant.
Asynchronous exchanges, on the other hand, are one-sided, unresponsive, or intrusive exchanges. For example, the
infant fusses or cries, no mother behaviour or the mother stimulates/arouses. Investigators note that asynchronous
exchanges are not only one-sided, ignored, or inconsistent responses, they can be insensitive or inappropriate
responses.
These two types of asynchronous exchanges were related to two different insecure attachment behaviours.
Insecure-avoidant children had mothers who were verbally insensitive or intrusive. For example, the infant would be
drowsy and the mother would speak to the child, or the infant would fuss and the mother would speak louder rather
than attempt to soothe the child. Insecure-resistant children had mothers who were under-involved, did not respond,
or responded inconsistently. The two extremes, under-involvement as well as over-involvement, seem to be
associated with insecure-attachment behaviours.
Margaret McKim of the University of Saskatchewan has examined the relationship between attachment and
decisions made by families about infant care. McKim's study examined 189 families over a 18-month period. The
subjects were infants of both genders between the ages of 2 to 30 months. Her study is interesting because she
found that type of child care was not significantly related to attachment security but the child's temperament and the
mother's sensitivity to the child were. She suggests that alternate care may even be a benefit to difficult children and
mediate insecure relationships with their mothers.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behaviour of
one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41, 49–67.
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Isabella, R. A., & Belsky, J. (1991). Interactional synchrony and the origins of infant–mother attachments: A
replication study. Child Development, 62, 373–384.
McKim, M. K., Cramer, K. M., Stuart, B., & O'Conner, D., L. (1999). Infant care decisions and
attachment security: The Canadian transition to child care study. Canadian Journal of Behavioural
Science, 31(2), 92-106.
Lecture Lead 9.4: Expert Infants: Babies Teaching Babies (W)
Infants are capable of so much more than we ever used to give them credit for. When you consider what babies can
actually do at the age of 10 months it is not really surprising that they are learning from each other. When do actual
signs of intelligence appear in an infant? According to Grunwald (1995), infants can do much, and they can do it
sooner than we thought. With respect to memory, Grunwald reports that children as young as 3 months old may be
forming (and storing) mental images. Researchers present colourful objects to different sides of a monitor and then
map the child’s eye movements. They noted that some infants can anticipate where the next object will appear after
only five tries. Furthermore, two weeks later the infants are able to recall the pattern. Other researchers have tied a
ribbon to the infant’s foot and the other end to an elaborate mobile. The babies soon learn that they can make the
mobile move and kick their leg around a great deal. The mobile is removed and not returned to the crib until weeks
later. When the mobile is returned, the baby, whose feet are left untied, will kick again. The researchers also noted
that if they substitute another mobile the second time, the kicking behaviour does not appear.
Grunwald also reports results presented by Rachel Clifton, a psychologist at the University of
Massachusetts. Clifton found evidence that children exposed to stimulus material at age 6 months demonstrated a
memory of such objects two years later.
In another area of research, Grunwald notes that Karen Wynn, a psychologist at the University of Arizona,
claims that infants as young as 5 months of age have been found to exhibit a rudimentary ability to add and subtract.
One phenomenon noted has been that infants will look longer at something that is unexpected. Wynn had infants
look at a doll and then placed the doll behind a curtain. Another doll was shown and placed behind the curtain. The
curtain was then removed. The infants will look longer if three dolls are present at this point than if the correct
answer of two dolls are present. This may demonstrate a certain amount of understanding of addition.
Grunwald reports that Elizabeth Spelke, a psychologist at Cornell University, argues that infants also have
a rudimentary understanding of physics (or the way the world works). Based on her work, babies gaze longer at
unexpected physical actions: balls rolling through apparently solid barriers, balls that seem to leap between two
platforms, and balls that seem to hang in midair. Babies do not gaze as long at expected actions. Spelke argues that
this indicates that babies have some “core” knowledge about the way physical objects behave.
These researchers are demonstrating that the mind of the infant is more amazing (and complicated) than we
ever dreamed of. What will kids learn as we begin to understand more of their capabilities? We know that children
are now learning things at a much earlier age than children had been taught in the past. One classic example of this
is taking place at a day care program run by Wendy Nashid of Mount Vernon (Smalls, 1995). In this day care
program, children between 3 and 6 years old are part of an international computer-research training project. The
computers are set up to keep data pertaining to each child’s use of the computer, including how long it takes to
complete each keystroke. Children who are 3 years old can turn on a computer and boot up a MS-DOS-driven
program. These day care providers are also discovering that children are capable of learning amazing things.
Grunwald, L. (1995). The amazing minds of infants. Life Magazine. In E. N. Junn and C. J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Annual
Editions: Child Growth and Development 95/96. Guilford, CT: Duskin Publishing Group.
Smalls, F. R. (1995, February 12). Day-care program where CD-ROM is an important as ABC’s. The New York
Times, p. 1, section 13WC.
Lecture Lead 9.5: Who’s Caring for the Children? Determining the Effects of Day
Care (W)
Day care quality can affect emotional development as well as social, intellectual, and familial development. Carollee
Howes (1990) found that children who had been in poor-quality day care from infancy were more hostile and less
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considerate, had less self-control, and were less able to stay on task and pay attention than children who had been in
high-quality day care. Schliecker (1991) and colleagues at Concordia University found that children in poor quality
day care were more likely to have poor language functioning. Scarr’s (1984) research in Bermuda found that entry
into day care before the age of 1 and low levels of interaction between caregivers and the children led to emotional
problems.
In an earlier study, Vaughn, Gove, and England (1980) found that children raised at home had a higher
proportion of secure attachments (using Ainsworth’s concepts) and children placed in day care before the age of 1
tended to avoid their mothers during stressful interactions (again, consistent with Ainsworth’s theory that an
emotionally inaccessible mother can give rise to avoidant patterns). However, the important factor for emotional
development is not where the children receive care, but the quality of that care. High-quality day care does not
create the conditions of emotional maladjustment seen in low-quality day care.
Howes, C. (1990). Can the age of entry into child care and the quality of child care predict adjustment in
kindergarten? Developmental Psychology, 26, 292–303.
Scarr, S. (1984). Mother care/Other care. New York: Basic Books.
Schliecker, E., White, D. R., Jacobs, E. (1991). The role of day care quality in the prediction of Children’s
Vocabulary. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 23 (1), 12-24.
Vaughn, B. E., Gove, F. L., & England, B. (1980). The relationship between out-of-home care and the quality of
infant–mother attachment in an economically disadvantaged population. Child Development, 51, 1203–1214.
Lecture Lead 9.6: Born to Be Shy? Inhibited and Uninhibited Children (W)
For the past fifteen years, Jerome Kagan of Harvard University and his colleagues have been investigating children
falling into two extreme temperamental groups they call “inhibited” and “uninhibited.” When tested in the
laboratory using unfamiliar people or objects during the second year of life, inhibited children are consistently shy,
emotionally reserved, and cautious, while uninhibited children are consistently sociable, spontaneous, and minimally
fearful.
In addition to behavioural differences, the two groups differ in physiological characteristics. Compared to
the uninhibited children, the inhibited have more pupillary dilations, higher increases in heart rate and muscle
tension in response to mild cognitive stress. They also register a higher increase in diastolic blood pressure when
they stand up from a sitting position.
The researchers note that some of these behavioural and physiological differences between the two groups
of children may result, in part, from the variability in the threshold of excitability in the amygdala and the
projections to the motor centers. Previous research related to this idea from two different laboratories prompted
Kagan and his colleagues to consider the role of motor activity and crying in the infant as predictors of later
inhibited and uninhibited profiles of toddlers.
To test the role of infant motor activity and crying, Kagan and his colleagues followed 94 infants through
14 months of age. At 4 months of age, infants were videotaped in infant seats during six episodes, such as while the
mother was smiling down at the child or during presentation of mobiles and toys. Infants were then classified by
independent raters into one of four groups: high motor–high cry, low motor–low cry, high motor–low cry, and low
motor–high cry. At 9 months and again at 14 months of age, the researchers assessed infants’ fearful behaviour to
unfamiliar stimuli. They defined fearful behaviour as fretting or crying and assessed it in a variety of test situations
such as the mother frowning while displaying a moving toy or a female examiner uncovering a rotating toy while
speaking a nonsense phrase in an angry tone and frowning. Children were tested with 16 to 17 such episodes.
Results showed that infants who had been classified as high motor activity–high cry were more fearful than those
classified as low motor activity–low cry when given these unfamiliar situations both at 9 and 14 months of age.
Kagan, J., & Snidman, N. (1991). Infant predictors of inhibited and uninhibited profiles. Psychological Science, 2,
40–44.
Kagan, J. (1994). Galen’s Prophecy. New York: Basic Books.
Lecture Lead 9.7: Vygotsky’s Theory of Development (W)
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Piaget dominated developmental psychology in the 1960s and 1970s, but in the early 1980s, the importance of
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) began to be noticed. Several researchers (e.g., Belmont, 1989;
Rogoff & Morelli, 1989) believe that the ideas of Vygotsky will continue to increase in popularity.
One major idea proposed by Vygotsky was the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD). Every child’s
abilities are continually within some ZPD. At the lower end of this zone, a child is able to solve problems on his
own. At the upper limit of the zone, a child is able to solve problems with the guidance of an able instructor. As the
child learns new information, it sets the stage for a new ZPD. A child who has no guidance from an able teacher will
not increase in his ZPD, and further development is delayed. If someone tries to teach a child a concept beyond the
child’s ZPD, they will be unsuccessful. This also demonstrates that an ineffective teacher will hinder learning of the
child, as the upper end of the ZPD will not be realized. Steward (1994) notes that Vygotsky’s concept of the ZPD is
being effectively applied to teaching children basic academic skills, such as math, reading, and writing.
Unlike Piaget, who proposed that children learn fairly independently of others in their surroundings,
Vygotsky argued that the culture and society in which a child learns has a direct impact on the acquisition of
knowledge. His view asserts that the cultural history provides organization and tools that are necessary for cognitive
development. For example, the teaching styles, interpersonal styles, and new technology all influence the learning of
the child. These factors, along with societal norms and expectations, play a vital role in the child’s mental
development. Vygotsky refers to this absorption of knowledge from the social context in which the child interacts as
“internalization.” The child watches and is involved with others—at home, at school, and at the park. Therefore, a
child learns a great deal by internalizing what he or she sees and experiences in the environment.
The work of Vygotsky has been extended by Feuerstein (1980). Feuerstein explains that parents facilitate
the learning of their children by mediated learning experiences and direct instruction. Mediated learning involves
introducing a child to a new and interesting environment or task and explaining the concepts or task in a way that the
child understands. For example, you may show a child how to fish or take them to the circus. Children can also
develop through direct instruction. In this case, the parent or teacher gives the child specific information that the
child is to learn. A college lecture is a type of direct instruction.
As individuals continue to realize the effect of society and culture on our behaviour, Vygotsky’s work will
increase in popularity. Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is important in that this interaction with cultural
history, as well as with competent instructors (be they teachers or parents), is considered a vital component in the
acquisition of knowledge.
Belmont, J. M. (1989). Cognitive strategies and strategic learning: The socio-instructional approach. American
Psychologist, 14, 142–148.
Feuerstein, R. (1980). Instructional enrichment: An intervention program for cognitive modifiability. Baltimore:
University Park Press.
Rogoff, B., & Morelli, G. (1989). Perspectives on children’s development from cultural psychology. American
Psychologist, 44, 343–348.
Steward, E. P. (1994). Beginning writers in the zone of proximal development. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Lecture Lead 9.8: Psychological Health and Drug Use in Adolescence (W)
Two major problems of adolescence are juvenile delinquency and suicide. One explanation for juvenile delinquency
is the family perspective. This view sees the major cause of delinquency as lack of parental supervision and
involvement (Landers, 1988). In particular, being raised in a family that deviates from the “ideal” (i.e., both
biological parents are present) reduces or eliminates restraints against the various forms of antisocial behaviours
performed by delinquents. Being raised in a home where one or both of the biological parents are not present
increases the likelihood that one of the children will become delinquent.
The sociocultural view of abnormal behaviour sees the stresses placed by society on certain individuals as
underlying maladjusted behaviour. Agnew and Petersen (1989) have proposed a theory that interprets delinquency
as a reaction to unpleasant and constraining social situations. Agnew and Petersen’s “strain theory” contends that
juvenile delinquency occurs as a consequence of an individual’s being kept in an unpleasant environment (e.g.,
school) from which he or she cannot escape. Being unable to legally escape from the aversive situation, the juvenile
seeks illicit ways in order to reestablish his or her freedom or sense of control. Violent behaviour may also be a by-
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product as the frustrated individual seeks an outlet for his or her pent-up anger. In a test of this theory, Agnew and
Petersen (1989) found that adolescents who were in aversive situations from which they could not escape had a
higher probability of becoming delinquents.
A markedly different approach to delinquency is offered by the neuroscience perspective. This view
contends that the impulsive violence of the juvenile delinquent may be the consequence of abnormal brain
functioning. Advocates of this approach generalize from studies that have reported that a majority of criminals have
abnormal EEG patterns. In a study conducted by Lewis et al.. (1979) it was found that about 25 percent of a sample
of juvenile delinquents showed EEG abnormalities, a rate considered significantly higher than the nondelinquent
population.
Despite these varying perspectives, Landers (1988) has summarized the state of delinquency knowledge as
being in “disarray.” While it is known that some variables such as deficits in verbal reasoning, drug use, theft,
truancy, and lack of parental supervision and involvement are associated with delinquency, a full understanding of
the causes and proper treatment of juvenile delinquency has still not been obtained.
Suicide among Adolescents
Sheridan (Ark.) High School sophomore Jerry McCool, 17, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound—
the third apparent student suicide at the school in two days, authorities said. Thomas Smith, 17, shot
himself in a history class Monday after professing his love for a girl; Thomas Chidester, 19, apparently
shot himself at home later. In Fairfax County, VA, Jerry Minnick, 18, killed himself by slamming his
motorcycle into a brick wall at his high school, authorities said. He left a suicide note (USA Today,
May 2, 1990, p. 3A).
Suicide among adolescents has been the target of increasing concern among mental health researchers and
practitioners. According to data reported by Goleman (1985), suicide in the United States occurs at a rate of
12/100,000 with the highest rates being in elderly white males. In males over 75, the rate is greater than three times
that of younger males. Particularly troublesome is that while the overall suicide rate has been decreasing in the last
35 years, it has risen for those between the ages of 15 and 24. Teenage suicide has increased 300 percent during the
last three decades. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among those 15 to 24 years of age, with more than
6,000 in this age group committing suicide in the United States every year. (“Study cites a vulnerability to suicide,”
The New York Times, November 21, 1989).
Explaining the tragedy of suicide has proved to be an elusive task. None of the differing perspectives of
abnormal behaviour has gained widespread acceptance. The complexities of suicide are such that it may be beyond
the explanatory capacity of any one theoretical framework. However, the evidence implicating biochemical factors
in suicide has been increasing.
The biochemical evidence for suicide revolves around deficiencies in the neurotransmitter serotonin, which
is thought to be involved in emotional behaviour. A psychiatrist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm named
Marie Asberg found that 40 percent of the depressed patients who had attempted suicide had below-normal levels of
serotonin, while only 15 percent of depressives with normal serotonin levels had attempted suicide. Among those
individuals hospitalized after a suicide attempt, Asberg reported that those with lowered serotonin levels were 10
times as likely to have died from suicide a year later than those whose serotonin levels were near normal (Goleman,
1985). Evidence presented at a September 1985 meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences indicates that
reduced levels of serotonin are associated with a greater probability of impulsive violence. This suggests a sequence
where individuals who possess this tendency toward impulsive violence are more prone to commit suicide when
becoming depressed (Goleman, 1985). While the biochemical evidence is far from conclusive, it offers the
possibility that a treatment may be developed to reduce the risk in individuals with low serotonin levels. Just as
antipsychotic drugs may be effective for the treatment of schizophrenia by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain
(Turkington, 1983), so too may a drug that can rectify the serotonin imbalance observed in suicidal individuals
eventually prove to be literally “life saving.”
Agnew, R. & Petersen, D. M. (1989). Leisure and delinquency. Social Problems, 36, 332–350.
Goleman, D. (1985, October 8). Clues to suicide: A brain chemical is implicated. The New York Times, C1, C8.
Landers, S. (1988, July). Delinquency knowledge in “disarray.” APA Monitor, 19(7), 41.
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Lewis, D. O., Shanok, S. S., Pincus, J. H., & Glaser, G. H. (1979). Violent juvenile delinquents: Psychiatric,
neurological, psychological, and abuse factors. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 18, 307–
319.
Study cites a vulnerability to suicide. (1989, November 21). The New York Times, C5.
Study cites a vulnerability to suicide. (1990, May 2). USA Today, 3A.
Turkington, C. (1983, April). Drugs found to block dopamine receptors. APA Monitor, 14(4), 11.
Lecture Lead 9.9: The Search for Identity during Adolescence: Four Identity
Statuses (W)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
According to Erikson, one of the most crucial tasks facing an adolescent is the development of a stable sense of
identity. The question “Who am I?” becomes central and causes much confusion, turmoil, and anxiety. The identityversus-role-confusion stage is a pivotal stage of development, serving as the climax of development as a child and
the foundation for development as an adult. Many psychologists have studied identity formation in adolescence, and
their findings should be of particular interest to college students for whom the process is still in progress or recently
completed. Marcia (1966) has identified four different identity statuses characteristic of the high-school and college
students he interviewed. A brief description of each follows (also see Overhead Master 9.1):
1.
Identity achievement. These students have already faced and resolved various crises and have made
commitments about career choices, personal and ideological values, etc. Their values and attitudes may or may
not be the same as those of their parents, but they are usually not completely opposite. They have good relations
with peers and adults; they have realistic goals for themselves; they perform well under stress; and they
typically have high grade-point averages.
2.
Identity moratorium. Students with this status are in a period of delay. They are not yet ready to make definite
commitments and they actively experiment with various roles, attitudes, and beliefs. They have high levels of
anxiety and dissatisfaction; they are often rebellious and critical of their parents and other authority figures.
3.
Identity foreclosure. Adolescents with this status appear similar on the surface to those with identity
achievement status in that they too have made commitments. However, they have not carefully examined the
alternatives available to them and instead make premature choices, frequently under heavy parental influence.
The values and career patterns selected typically are very traditional and there is little or no conflict or
experimentation. Although these students show little anxiety and appear to function well, they may find
themselves unhappy many years later because of their foreclosed identity status.
4.
Identity confusion. Students with this status have made no commitments and are not in the process of making
any. In fact, they often go out of their way to avoid commitments, drifting from one person and interest to
another, avoiding challenging situations, etc. They do not know what they want out of their lives, and this lack
of knowledge does not seem to bother them.
Longitudinal research has shown that college students often move from identity foreclosure or moratorium
in their freshman year to identity achievement in their senior year. However, regression sometimes occurs. For
example, entering freshmen who show identity achievement may regress to identity confusion by the end of their
first year because of the variety of new experiences and attitudes they encounter at college. Erikson and others have
argued that college students have a longer moratorium period than their working peers, taking more time to establish
firm ideological and political commitments.
Other factors known to affect identity achievement include the degree of independence an adolescent has
from his or her family. For example, college freshmen who are more independent of their families are more likely to
be identity achievers by the end of their senior year. The nature of parental child-rearing practices is also important.
For example, children of democratic parents who are encouraged to make their own decisions find it easier to
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achieve an identity. Finally, differences in personal style seem to play a role. Identity achievers and those in
moratorium process information and make decisions more carefully than those who are foreclosed or confused.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 3, 551–558.
Waterman, A. S. (1982). Identity development from adolescence to adulthood: An extension of theory and a review
of research. Developmental Psychology, 18, 341–358.
Lecture Lead 9.10: Violent Teens (W)
Richmond, Va., Oct. 30, 1995: Edward Earl Spellman, 18, shoots and wounds four students outside their high
school.
Bethel, Alaska, Feb. 19, 1997: After making multiple threats, Evan Ramsey, 16, fatally guns down his high-school
principal and a classmate.
Edinboro, Pa., April 24, 1998: Andrew Wurst, 14, kills a teacher and wounds three at a school dance.
Richmond, Va., June 15, 1998: A 14-year-old student, Quinshawn Booker, opens fire with a pistol in the hallway
of a high school as students take final exams, wounding a teacher and a volunteer aide.
Mount Morris Township, Mich., Feb. 29, 2000: A 6-year-old boy fatally shoots a classmate in their first-grade
classroom.
Santee, Calif., March 5, 2001: Charles Andrew Williams, a 15-year-old freshman, allegedly uses a .22-caliber
revolver to kill two students and wound 13 others at Santana High School.
As can easily be seen from the above listings, teenagers who become violent are not as rare as we might
hope. Indeed, in recent years, there have been numerous incidents, many involving fatalities, and the story is
becoming a familiar one. The teen is a loner, or one of a pair of “loners” in the case of Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold, the Columbine shooters, and their classmates know them as either “outsiders” or “geeks” or “whipping
boys” for bullies. They are isolated, picked on, and seem to be unable to cope with their anger in any constructive
way. They target the bullies, the popular teens, the teachers who have angered them, or anyone who gets in their
way.
The deaths of teenagers by violence accounts for a whopping 80 percent of all teenage deaths. In the last 30
years, homicides committed by adolescents have increased 300 percent, as has the rate of teenage suicide. What
accounts for this increase? Some will say that it is partly created by the media’s focus on these acts of violence, and
that may be true. But why are our young people unable to solve their problems the way they did in past decades, by
talking to parents, teachers, or counselors? Perhaps some never did solve those problems, instead choosing to ignore
or endure the teasing and the pressure until they were old enough that it no longer mattered.
Today, have video games, television, and the movies replaced the adolescent’s parents as role models? Is
playing a video game with another a likely way to learn to resolve differences with others? This material should be a
good stimulus for a lively and perhaps intense discussion of violence and teenagers.
The Editors. (Summer, 1992). Increasing adolescent violence. On the Horizon, 1(a), 6–7.
Lecture Lead 9.11: Middle Age: The Ups and Downs (W)
Middle age, the period between ages 45 and 65, has traditionally been viewed as a period of turmoil. Indeed, many
people associate the term “middle age” with another of psychology’s contributions to the English language: “midlife
crisis.”
This traditional view has been challenged by work that suggests a more optimistic, positive view of middle
age (Goleman, 1990). According to Goleman’s (1990) summary, rather than being inevitably tumultuous, middle
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age may mark a period of better personal relations and greater caring. Goleman reports that for many, middle age
may represent the true “golden years”: the body has not begun its inevitable breakdown and family and career
pressures have lessened.
This more positive view of middle age can be seen in the results of a national survey of 1,200 men and
women. Most of the respondents viewed middle age as a time of deepening relationships and increased caring.
Eighty-four percent agreed that middle age is associated with more compassion, and 89 percent agreed that family
relationships and friendships deepen during this period (Goleman, 1990).
The increase in helping behaviour during middle age has been demonstrated in a study conducted by
psychologist Elizabeth Midlarsky of the University of Detroit. Individuals in a shopping mall were asked by a
pregnant woman to donate to fighting birth defects. It was found that while 52 percent of those age 15 to 24 and 66
percent of those 25 to 34 donated, the rate of those 35 to 65 who donated was about 85 percent. In general, research
has found greater levels of helping behaviour in middle-age people than in young adults (Goleman, 1990).
If there is to be a period of turmoil during middle age, it often occurs during the decade of the fifties.
People first begin viewing themselves as old after turning 50 (Goleman, 1989).
It is in their 50’s, for example, that most people first think of their lives in terms of how much time is
left rather than how much time has passed. This decade more than any other brings a major reappraisal
of the direction one’s life has taken, of priorities, and most particularly, how best to use the years that
remain. (Goleman, 1989, C1)
Interestingly, men and women may differ in how they view the fifties. For men, having spent most of their
previous adult years building a career, the fifties often is a time to begin assessing how much time is left. For
women, the period is more optimistic. The last of the children has grown and gone, and careers can be continued or
new ones begun. Goleman (1989, C12) quotes one expert who sees the fifties as a time of differing focus for men
and women. The men are developing an exit mentality, calculating how many years are left at work. But the women
of the same age are thinking about making their mark. The result can be a very different focus for men and women
during the decade of the fifties. Men, feeling a new freedom to pursue things that their careers have kept them from,
often become more interested in recapturing the intimacy in their marriage. Women, on the other hand, often want to
plunge into their careers now that they are liberated from the demands of child rearing.
Goleman, D. (1989, February 7). For many, turmoil of aging erupts in the 50s, studies find. The New York Times,
C1, C12.
Goleman, D. (1990, February 6). Compassion and comfort in middle age. The New York Times, C1, C14.
Lecture Lead 9.12: Marriage in the Nineties: Choosing Mr. or Ms. Right (W)
When discussing marriage, most students are also interested in discussing cohabitation and its effect on
subsequent marriage. "Common-law unions" or the francophone " union libre" have become more socially
acceptable in Canada as they have in the United States. It is only since 1981 that census data on cohabitation has
been collected in Canada. Research indicates that 8 percent of Canadians age 15 and over were cohabiting in 1990
(Stout, 1991). In the United States 4 percent were cohabiting in 1987-88 (Bumpass & Sweet, 1989). These same
researchers note that, based on a survey conducted in 1988, that one-half of all young adults have cohabitated at
least once. Furthermore, 60 percent of these relationships resulted in marriage. In Canada approximately 66 percent
of first common law relationships end in marriage (Stout, 1991). This suggests that these are not casual relationships
but are a prelude to marriage.
Why do people choose to cohabitate? When asked, most suggest that it is a good opportunity to ensure that
the two people are "right" for each other before committing to a marriage. Contrary to their expectations, DeMaris
and Rao (1992) found that American couples who cohabitated before marriage are more likely to end their marriage
in divorce. Cohabitators also report less satisfaction with their subsequent marriages. Similar results have been
observed in Canada (Balakrishnan et al. 1987)
This is a good time to reintroduce sampling bias and response bias. Note that 40 percent of the people who
cohabitate do not get married. Therefore, cohabitation may result in fewer divorces. Note also that people who do
cohabitate are those who go against traditional standards (a short time ago it was considered inappropriate to live
together without getting married) and they may find it easier to get a divorce than those who do not cohabitate
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(Cunningham & Antill, 1994). The point here is that we do not have the definitive answer as to whether cohabitating
makes marriages worse, although it does appear that cohabitation does not make them better.
Bumpass, L. L., & Sweet, J. A. (1989). National estimates of cohabitation. Demography, 26, 615–625.
Bumpass, L. L., Sweet, J. A., & Cherlin, A. (1991). The role of cohabitation in declining rates of marriage. Journal
of Marriage and the Family, 53, 913–927.
Cunningham, J. D., & Antill, J. K. (1994). Cohabitation and marriage: Retrospective and predictive comparisons.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11, 77–93.
DeMaris, A., & Rao, K. V. (1992). Premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital stability in the United States: A
reassessment. Journal of Marriage and The Family, 51, 178–190.
Stout, C. (1991). Common law: A growing alternative. Canadian Social Trends, 23. Ottawa: Statistics Canada,
catalogue no. 11-008E.
Lecture Lead 9.13: Neurological Changes in Aging (W)
As people age there is a normal decrease in size and weight of the brain, a decrease in the number of neurons in the
brain, a decreased rate of neural transmission, and a decrease in conduction velocity (Poirier & Finch, 1990). These
physiological changes are thought to account for the slowed response time in the elderly, and have also been
proposed as a reason for memory decline in the elderly. The answer is not so simple, however, as methodological
confounds abound in cognitive function studies comparing young adults to aged adults. Although some studies do
find significant memory differences between young subjects and older subjects, the differences are small and often
do not seem to affect activities of daily living. In terms of day-to-day functioning, much of the thought processes,
reasoning, learning, and memory are retained in normal aging. It should also be noted that even when differences are
found between younger subjects and older subjects, this does not mean that all younger subjects outperform older
subjects. In fact, recent research indicates that “20 to 30 percent of people in their 80’s who volunteer for cognitive
testing perform as well as volunteers in their 30’s and 40’s, who are presumably in their mental primes” (Goleman,
1994, C1).
Although declines in learning and memory are not inevitable, some researchers have demonstrated both
short-term and long-term memory decrements with aging (Poon, 1985). Experimental studies suggest the changes in
long-term memory may be due to difficulty in retrieval rather than cognitive deficits. That is, although the elderly
still possess the same information they always have had, recalling that information becomes harder and harder. One
reason we often do not notice long-term memory deficits in the elderly is that these deficits are very subjective and
if no one is present who can validate the historical facts retrieved, the content is accepted at face value. Such a
process is different than for short-term memory. These changes in short-term memory are more noticeable in
activities of daily living. However, some researchers argue that older adults have a better meta-memory (knowledge
about how well one’s own memory is working) than younger adults, and can therefore counteract deficits through
the use of mnemonics and lists.
Indeed, memory deficits (both actual and implied) can have a negative impact on the elderly leading to
functional deficits and displacement of the older adult. Cognitive dysfunction may or may not be reversible due to
the biological, metabolic, psychological, or social etiology. Changes in memory include difficulty in concentration,
slowness of thought, memory failure, disorientation, and confusion. Unfortunately, these memory changes can also
correlate with the onset of depression in the elderly.
Goleman, D. (1994, April 26). Mental decline in aging need not be inevitable. The New York Times, C1.
Poirier, J., & Finch, C. (1990). Neurochemistry of the aging human brain. In W. R. Hazard, R. Anders, E. Bierman,
and J. Blass (Eds.), Principles of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Poon, L. W. (1985). Differences in human memory and aging: Nature causes and clinical implications. In J. E.
Birren and K. W. Shaie (Eds.), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging. 2nd Ed. New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
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Classroom Activity 9.1: Nature–Nurture and Child-Rearing Practices (Student
Study Guide Essay Question 9.1) (R)
Considering the discussion of the nature–nurture issue at the beginning of the chapter, what is your
assessment of the role of child-rearing practices in the development of the person as a unique
individual? Are certain styles more likely to help individuals reach their potential?
This question can quickly lead to the issue of parental discipline techniques, and it is a topic of great interest to most
students. The text presents Baumrind’s (1971, 1980) analysis of parenting styles and notes that firm discipline is
highly desirable. You can expand and add depth by considering Hoffman’s work. Hoffman’s (1988) work on
discipline practices provides a good framework for considering this issue. Hoffman identified three main discipline
practices: power assertion (using physical punishment or threatening to do so, withdrawing privileges); love
withdrawal (telling children you no longer love them because they misbehaved, threatening to leave them or send
them away); induction (reasoning with children, especially emphasizing how their actions affect other people). After
students have prepared answers to the Study Guide question, present these three discipline techniques, ask the
students what they think about each of these techniques, and have them point out possible advantages and
disadvantages.
Several issues should be considered. It is generally agreed that punishment does have a place in child
rearing, but it is very important that it be used correctly. Research has provided a number of important guidelines for
parents to follow. They should be sure that they administer the punishment consistently, promptly, and in a moderate
amount; they should provide the child with reasons why the punishment is being administered; they should suggest
alternative behaviour that would be more acceptable; and they should make it clear that it is the child’s behaviour
that was bad, not the child. Punishment that is not judiciously applied can have several negative consequences. It
may teach children that aggression is an appropriate way of dealing with behaviours they don’t like, it may create
anxiety and fear of the parent administering the punishment, and it may cause children to believe that they are
behaving properly for external reasons rather than because of internalized standards of good conduct.
Love withdrawal techniques have the potential to be even more harmful psychologically than the
misapplied assertion of power. Love withdrawal borders on emotional abuse, which includes such behaviours as
rejecting, isolating, ignoring, or belittling the child. Such psychological maltreatment may breed low self-esteem and
high levels of anxiety. Emotional abuse has not received as much attention as physical abuse, but it is gaining
recognition as a serious problem. Consider, for example, a recent court case that received national attention in which
a woman faced the possibility of losing custody of her son because of the discipline techniques she used. She made
her son sit in front of his house with his hands tied behind his back to a chair, wearing a pig-snout mask over his
nose, and displaying on his chest a sign that read: “I’m a dumb pig. Ugly is what you will become every time you lie
and steal. My hands are tied because I cannot be trusted. This is a lesson to be learned. Look. Laugh. Thief. Stealing.
Bad Boy.” Although some people do not see this form of discipline as problematic (and you may find some in your
class who share this view), there is consensus among child development researchers that such punishment can cause
serious and long-lasting emotional scars.
The third discipline technique, induction, is regarded by Hoffman and others as highly desirable and is
effective at fostering internalized standards of conduct. Parents who use induction have children who exhibit high
levels of self-control, prosocial behaviour, and moral reasoning and who display sensitivity to the needs and feelings
of others. Induction is effective even with preschool children, although the child needs to have the cognitive ability
to understand the rationales.
Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monographs, 4(1, pt. 2).
Baumrind, D. (1980). New directions in socialization research. Psychological Bulletin, 35, 639–652.
Hoffman, M. L. (1988). Moral development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental Psychology:
An advanced textbook. 2nd Ed. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 497–548.
Rosenberg, M. S. (1987). New directions for research on the psychological maltreatment of children. American
Psychologist, 42, 166–l72.
Emotional child abuse. (1988, October 3). Newsweek, 48, 50.
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Classroom Activity 9.2: Similarities Between Students: Evidence of Long-Lost
Twins? (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
One piece of evidence used to support the nature side of the nature–nurture argument is the finding that twins
separated at birth and later reunited have many similarities. Take for example the twins described in the beginning of
this chapter of the text. These men are amazingly similar. The problem is that statistically, this is not a good way to
determine similarity. If two people are allowed to search through all the beliefs they hold and activities they engage
in, it is not all that amazing that the two can form a similar list. On top of that, when people hear of a particular case
like that of Gerald Levey and Mark Newman, that case is well publicized.
First have students complete Handout Master 9.1a. When they have completed it, ask the students to put it
away in a text or notebook. Next, randomly assign students to groups of two. Have them fill out Handout Master
9.1b. Walk around the room as the students complete this task. Read off the similarities of the pair that match on the
most items (and only read off the best matches of material). Discuss with a class whether it could be coincidence
that these similarities emerged. Perhaps they have similar genetic material? Ask the class as a whole if there are any
other pairs that are amazed at the amount of similarity they possess. Have these groups read off the similarities. Now
have the students get their copies of Handout Master 9.1a and compare the answers within the pairs of students.
They will find that these answers do not match. It will demonstrate to the students that perhaps they are not as
similar as they had thought. This also shows the difference between letting two people sift through life events and
look for similarities versus asking them questions pertaining to common activities and feelings.
Classroom Activity 9.3: Can We Reduce Neonatal Drug Addiction and AIDS
Infection? (R)
There has been an alarming increase in the number of infants who are born addicted to drugs or infected with the
AIDS virus. This increase, of course, is directly attributable to the increased number of pregnant women who are
addicted to drugs or infected with the AIDS virus. As a way of coping with this serious public health problem, some
officials have called for mandatory drug testing and HIV testing of all pregnant women. Others have argued against
this proposal, saying it is difficult enough to get mothers who are drug abusers to come in for prenatal care. The
prospect of testing would keep them away from the clinic or doctor’s office, thereby increasing the risks to their
unborn children even more. Other arguments against mandatory testing are that it would violate a woman’s
constitutional right to privacy and that it would do little good anyway. That is, it would be difficult to keep a drug
abuser away from drugs, short of locking her up. And there is nothing that a woman infected with the AIDS virus
can do to decrease the risk to her fetus.
An obvious alternative to mandatory testing is to educate women about the dangers of drug use and unsafe
sexual practices. But how effective has education been in reaching the target population of drug abusers? Consider
the recent lawsuit against a distillery brought by an alcoholic woman whose child was born with fetal alcohol
syndrome. She claimed she would have quit drinking during pregnancy if she had known it was dangerous. In fact,
the consequences of heavy alcohol use during pregnancy have been widely publicized for many years.
Classroom Activity 9.4: Parenting Strategies (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
This exercise is designed to have students identify the strategies used in parenting. Have students form small groups.
If you have returning students in your class you may either have similar age groups or be certain to distribute the
returning students so that there are mixed-age groups (the exercise will take on a different “tone” depending upon
how you structure the groups). Give each group a copy of Handout Master 9.2 and have them record group
responses to each item pertaining to how they would handle the scenarios of child behaviour. If group members do
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not agree, then they have to compromise until the group has a somewhat unified response (as if they were all parents
to the same child).
Also discuss the extent to which students of different ages agree or disagree on these issues. Was there
more agreement within age groups? Were different styles apparent for different age groups either between or within
discussion groups? Were there differences in how students treat boys and girls?
Classroom Activity 9.5: Sex-Role Stereotyping in Children’s Literature (R)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
For this project you will need to go to the public library or a bookstore. Look through the children’s section and find
a book intended for small children that demonstrates gender stereotypes (this is amazingly easy to find). You may
have some of these books around your house. Books published in the 1960s or 1970s will provide you with
particularly good examples. The ideal book will also be quite short (10 to 12 pages). Make transparencies of the
pages and present them to the class. You will have a lively discussion pertaining to gender stereotyping. There are
several issues you may wish to discuss as a class. How pervasive is gender stereotyping? That is, what proportion of
children’s books today perpetuate such stereotypes? Will these books have any effect on children’s beliefs? Can
parents use these books to introduce the issues of stereotyping to their children?
One option is to find a relatively old children’s book for the classroom discussion and then have the
students visit the library and bookstore to investigate the extent to which gender stereotyping has changed. Have
students randomly select five children’s books and read them quickly. Then have them respond to questions on
Handout Master 9.3.
Classroom Activity 9.6: Demonstrating Piaget’s Concepts (E)
Virtually any of Piaget’s classic tasks can be administered quickly and without elaborate materials. The tasks can be
administered as a classroom demonstration if children are available, or they can be administered as independent
projects by the students. Depending on the ages of the children available, any or all of the following tasks could be
used:
1.
Object concept. The best age for demonstrating the object concept is when the child is at an intermediate
period in its development (8 to 18 months). Provide the child with an object that captures his or her interest,
such as a set of keys. Once he or she is playing with it, take it and hide it under an opaque cover such as a cloth.
A child in an early stage of object concept development (stage 3 or below) will not reach for it at all. At a later
stage (stage 4) the child will remove the cloth and retrieve the object. However, if after several repetitions of
this, you place the object in a new hiding place, the infant will still return to the original place to retrieve the
object.
Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of confidence in children. New York: International Universities Press.
2.
Conservation. A variety of different tasks could be used here, as illustrated in the text: conservation of liquid
(equipment needed: glasses of various sizes, coloured liquid); conservation of substance (equipment needed:
clay or some other substance that can be easily molded into different shapes); conservation of length (equipment
needed: matches or sticks that can be laid end to end and then displaced); conservation of number (equipment
needed: coins, candies, or other small objects that can be arranged in one-to-one correspondence in two rows);
conservation of weight (equipment needed: balance scale and the materials used in the substance task). If
possible, administer more than one task to each child tested. Some of the conservations (for example, liquid and
number) are mastered earlier than others (for example, weight and volume), so the same child who conserves
liquid may fail to conserve weight. In administering the tasks, it is very important to get the children’s
justifications of their responses. It would also be desirable to test children of different ages, such as a 5-year-old
(who would almost certainly be preoperational on all the tasks) and an 8-year-old (who would be at the concrete
operational level on at least some of the tasks).
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3.
Propositional reasoning. This is a formal operational task that can be demonstrated easily with the class
members themselves. It typically does not pose difficulty for college students and so should not prove
embarrassing to any of the students in the class. (A real danger of using some of Piaget’s formal operational
tasks for demonstration purposes is that there are indeed many college students who are unable to solve them. If
they take Piaget’s arguments seriously, they may feel inadequate at not having reached the stage of formal
operational reasoning by the age of 18 or so.) The propositional task involves presenting students with a set of
assertions that can be verified on either empirical or logical grounds. Materials needed include several square
sheets of paper in different colours and some sort of shield (for example, a piece of cardboard). Present students
with a set of assertions and ask them to indicate whether each is true or false or whether its truth cannot be
determined. Some of the assertions should be logical tautologies, which are always true (for example, the square
in my hand is green or it is not green). Others should be logical contradictions, which are always false (for
example, the square in my hand is green and it is red). Others should be assertions that require empirical
verification and could be either true or false (for example, the square in my hand is red, or it is green). On some
trials you should hold the squares so that they are visible to the students; on other trials you should shield them
from view. Most of the students should realize that they can verify the logical statements regardless of whether
the squares in question are visible to them or hidden from view. Try to get them to explain that this is because
they are capable of reasoning about language and abstract propositions. Ask them how they think a younger
child would perform on this task. Concrete operational thinkers base their judgments on empirical reality; at any
time the squares are hidden from view, they claim that none of the assertions can be verified (Osherson &
Markman, 1975).
Osherson, D., & Markman, E. M. (1975). Language and the ability to evaluate contradictions and tautologies.
Cognition, 3, 213–226.
Classroom Activity 9.7: Stimulation of Children (Student Study Guide Essay
Question 9.2) (R)
One of the main points of the chapter is that developmental psychologists are interested in finding
ways that the individual potential can be maximized. Children can be stimulated through contact with
parents, through play, while at day care, and they can be encouraged to explore by having appropriate
attachments. What would the world of a perfectly “enriched” child look like? Is it possible to
overstimulate?
Developmental psychologists have shown quite clearly that provision of a stimulating environment during infancy
and early childhood can have beneficial effects on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Research described
in the text has shown that there are a number of things parents can do to foster intellectual development and nurture
exceptional talent (Langway et al., 1983). Moreover, there is considerable evidence, summarized in earlier sections
of the text, that preschool enrichment programs (including day care) can have very positive effects, not only for
underprivileged children who are at risk for intellectual problems because of a lack of home stimulation, but also for
upper- and middle-class children (Lazar & Darlington, 1982). There are also animal studies showing that enriched
environments can lead to permanent changes in neurological structures. Many of these research findings have been
published in sources accessible to the public, so many parents are aware of the importance of early experience.
There is no question that stimulation is valuable; rather, the issue to be debated concerns the amount and kind of
stimulation.
In recent years, a number of formal and informal programs have been established to teach infants and
toddlers such diverse skills as reading, arithmetic, music appreciation, and gymnastics. Consumers of these
programs tend to be children of well-educated, upwardly mobile parents. The parents seem to believe that they must
get their infants off to a good start as early as possible. Accordingly they are engaging in efforts to teach 6-montholds to “read”; to teach 2-year-olds to play the piano; to teach 3-year-olds French. They are afraid that their children
will be at a serious disadvantage in later life if they don’t acquire academic, athletic, or creative skills by the age of
3. In fact, there are some preschools that give children entrance examinations and the competition for admission is
stiff. The parents’ motivations include high aspirations for their offspring as well as guilt assuagement. That is, the
parents may feel guilty that they both work and so try to compensate by doing all they can to enrich their children’s
environments. Are they going too far? Is this degree of emphasis on early education appropriate?
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Langway, L, Jackson, T., Zabarsky, M., Shirley, D., & Whitmore, J. (1983, March 28). Bringing up superbaby.
Newsweek, 62–68.
Lazar, I., & Darlington, R. (1982). Lasting effects of early education: A report from the consortium for longitudinal
studies. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 17, No. 2–3.
Classroom Activity 9.8: Recent Changes in Childhood and Adolescence (W)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
Social commentators and researchers who have studied the lives of children in the past 15 to 20 years contend that
childhood, as we have come to regard it, is diminishing. This means that children today, as in previous centuries, are
living under conditions that threaten their well-being (Wilcox & Naimark, 1991). What are these conditions? In his
book Our Endangered Children: Growing Up in a Changing World, Packard examines the actual setting in which a
child is likely to grow up today and its impact on the child. He suggests that for the majority of today’s children,
being young may mean, among other things (also see Overhead Master 9.2):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Wondering if your parents are going to split up
Living in a single-parent family
Having to adjust to newcomers in your family in case of remarriage
For the very young, being taken care of by a caregiver, usually outside the home
For older children, being left alone in an empty house
Having relatively little contact with adults
Being lonely much of the time
Since most of today’s college students are personally familiar with these issues, you might use the above
list to generate a class discussion about the dramatic changes in the way children are growing up in America today
and what that means in terms of a new research agenda for psychologists today.
Packard, V. (1983). Our endangered children: Growing up in a changing world. Boston: Little, Brown.
Wilcox, B. L., & Naimark, H. (1991). The rights of the child: Progress toward human dignity. American
Psychologist, 46, 49. (Other articles in this series, pp. 50–71.)
Classroom Activity 9.9: The Stresses of Adolescence (Student Study Guide Essay
Question 9.9) (W)
Describe the factors that contribute to problems between parents and teenagers and suggest ways that
these may be overcome. Are the recent changes in childhood and adolescence that result in changes in
the family to blame for some of these factors?
Most of your students will probably mention direct conflicts with parents. Conflict between adolescents and their
parents has received a great deal of attention in the mass media. Until recently, the emphasis has been on the
parent’s perspective and the difficulties associated with dealing with an inconsistent young person. Research that
focuses on adolescents’ point of view identifies three types of challenges: (1) challenges posed by biological
changes—the individual must adjust to a new biological reality and to different physical needs; (2) challenges posed
by entry into a new social system, the junior high school—the individual must adapt to a situation quite different
from the single classroom setting of elementary school; and (3) challenges that stem from the entry into a new role
status—the adolescent now becomes part of the teen culture and is pressured by friends and peers to adopt the values
and roles of that subculture.
Hamburg, B. A. (1974). Early adolescence: A specific and stressful stage of the life cycle. In G. V. Caelho, D. A.
Hamburg, and J. E. Adams (Eds.), Coping and adaptation. New York: Basic Books.
Melton, G. B. (1983). Toward “personhood” for adolescents. American Psychologist 38, 99–103.
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Classroom Activity 9.10: Demonstrations (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
A simple demonstration of adolescent self-definition and identity can be conducted by asking students to write 20
different answers to the question “Who am I?” (see Handout Master 9.4). To introduce a developmental
component, ask your students to indicate how they think an elementary-school child and a preschool child might
respond to this task. Alternatively, ask some of your students to try to find children of roughly these ages to
complete the task.
An interesting finding by Zurcher (1977) was that the sorts of responses given by college students in the
1950s were different from those given by college students in the 1970s. The 1950s students gave a higher proportion
of self-definitions in terms of social affiliations and statuses (for example, “I am a student”; “I am an American”),
whereas the 1970s students tended to define themselves more in terms of personal characteristics (“I am serious”; “I
am happy”). Zurcher interprets the shift in terms of the less stable social order in the 1970s. An alternative
interpretation may be in terms of the “me generation” of students in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Has the pattern
changed again in the early 1990s? Student discussion of their own responses should prove informative.
An empirical study by Montemayor and Eisen (1977) nicely illustrates the changes in self-definitions with
age. Fourth-graders tended to define themselves in terms of categorical, concrete information, such as their ages,
names, genders, addresses, physical attributes, and activities. Twelfth-graders defined themselves more in terms of
traits, beliefs, motivations, and interpersonal affiliations. Try to get the students to recognize that these changes in
self-definition are compatible with Piaget’s cognitive changes: the elementary-school child in the concrete
operational stage responds very concretely, whereas the adolescent in the formal operational stage responds more
abstractly. Presumably a high proportion of the responses actually generated by the students will be of an abstract
nature. Research using similar tasks with preschool children reveals a pattern of responding characteristic of the
egocentrism of the preoperational child. Responses tend to be based on physical possessions and activities.
Montemayor, R., & Eisen, M. (1977). The development of self-conceptions from childhood to adolescence.
Developmental Psychology, 13, 314–319.
Zurcher, L. A. (1977). The mutable self. Beverly Hills, California: Sage.
Classroom Activity 9.11: Aging and Retirement (Student Study Guide Essay
Question 9.2) (R)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
Apply the disengagement and the activity theories of aging to the question of mandatory retirement.
Should there be a mandatory retirement age, and, if either yes or no, what are the exceptions and who
shall judge?
After preparing their responses, students should then engage in a debate on the issue of mandatory retirement. The
disengagement theory holds that more successful aging, in terms of happiness of the individual, will take place if the
person withdraws from the world on a physical, psychological, and social level. Enforced retirement can help
stimulate this withdrawal process and make the transition to old age easier. On the other hand, the activity theory of
aging suggests that aging will be more successful if the elderly remain engaged in activities that they enjoyed during
middle age. This would seem to argue that forced retirement would be detrimental to psychological adjustment. The
research on cognitive changes in the elderly is also relevant to the debate. Finally, consider the broader social issues
such as whether society has an obligation to provide room for younger workers and whether the health and safety of
the public could be jeopardized if the elderly held certain jobs. (Use Handout Master 9.5.)
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PRO
Mandatory retirement is appropriate.
1.
With advancing age, the person is wearing out. Both the wear-and-tear theory and the genetic
preprogramming theory of aging predict that this will happen eventually. The toll that time takes on the
individual results in the following declines:
a. Stamina. This is measured by how many pounds a man can turn on a weighted crank in a minute and
still have his heart rate return to normal after a 2-minute rest. At age 30, an average man can crank
1,110 pounds; by age 60 the figure is down to 870 pounds.
b. Strength. At age 30, an average man can grip with a force of 99 pounds with his right hand; by age 60,
grip strength is down to 86 pounds.
c. Reflexes. The time to press a button when two consecutive even or odd numbers are flashed on a
screen slows from 0.88 seconds at age 30 to 0.95 seconds at age 70.
d. Hearing. At age 30, tones up to 15,000 hertz can be heard, but there is already difficulty in hearing a
cricket’s chirp. By age 60, only tones up to 10,000 hertz can be heard (the upper range of a robin’s
song is lost). By age 70, the limit is 6,000 hertz and some words in normal conversation are lost.
e. Vision. The average person with 20/20 vision at age 30 will by age 60 have 20/25 vision. The lens of
the eye will be less elastic and hence less able to focus on close objects. It will also be yellower and
will filter out some of the wavelengths that make it possible to distinguish blues from greens.
It could be argued that some of these changes make it necessary to have a mandatory retirement policy for
certain professionals (such as airline pilots and surgeons) whose work requires stamina, good reflexes, and
good visual acuity.
2.
Research has shown that declines in fluid intelligence occur; this means that the older individual will have
more trouble dealing with new situations. Some jobs demand such skill.
3.
Another argument that can be made is that retirement is handled better if it can be planned for. Recent
evidence (Atchley, 1980) has shown that people who are forced to retire suddenly because of disease,
automation, or a failing business are much less happy in retirement. A mandatory retirement age allows
people to get used to the idea of retirement and to plan for it in advance.
4.
Many younger individuals are unable to find jobs because older people are filling them. Because the older
people who retire would receive social security benefits, they would still be better off financially than the
younger people who are unemployed.
CON
No one should be forced to retire.
1.
The activity theory of aging predicts that those who continue to engage in activities that they enjoyed
during middle age adjust more easily to old age. Recent evidence (Atchley, 1980) has shown that those who
had many outside activities and interests and continued them into retirement were better able to adjust to
retirement. If work is considered a pleasant activity, forced exit from the working environment would be
detrimental.
2.
Another argument that could be made against forced retirement is that elderly people have a lifetime of
acquired knowledge and experience in their field. Why should they be forced to retire if they are still
contributing productively?
3.
Perhaps one of the best arguments against mandatory retirement is the list of people who were past the age
of retirement when they made large contributions to their fields or even became famous in other fields.
Among these are:
a. Golda Meir: Became prime minister of Israel at 71 and held that post for five years.
b. Cathleen Nesbitt: At 92, she revived the role of Professor Higgins’s mother in My Fair Lady, a role she
had first created on Broadway 25 years earlier.
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c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Pablo Picasso: Married for a second time at 77, then executed three series of drawings between 85 and
90.
Dr. John Rock: At 70 he introduced the birth control pill and spent the next 20 years promoting it.
Arthur Rubenstein: Gave one of his greatest performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall when he was
89.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Completed New York’s Guggenheim Museum at age 89.
Adolph Zukor: At 91 became chairman of Paramount Pictures.
George Abbott: At 106 helped plan the Broadway revival of “Damn Yankees.”
Atchley, R. C. (1980). The social forces in later life. Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
Shapiro, W. (1980, February 23). The age-baiting ploy. The New Republic; 13–16.
Classroom Activity 9.12: Portrayal of Elderly in the Movies (R)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
There are many very good movies that depict the elderly in one way or another. In fact, many films actually have
growing old as the central theme. Select one of these films and either show it to the students or if your library has a
movie department, assign the students to watch the film (use Handout Master 9.6). As a class, discuss the film in
terms of stereotypes of the elderly and developmental stages experienced by the elderly (such as Erikson’s stage of
integrity versus despair). A few of the many films are listed below: Trip to the Bountiful, I Never Sang for My
Father, The Joy Luck Club, The Whales of August, Driving Miss Daisy, Grumpy Old Men, On Golden Pond, and
Dads.
This project also makes a very good extra-credit assignment.
Classroom Activity 9.13: Older and Wiser: Long-Term Results of Training the
Elderly (R)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
In addition to the possible benefits of training for spatial tasks, the elderly have begun to show up in unexpected
places. Wal-Mart has actively hired elderly workers since it began as a major discount department store. Fast-food
restaurants also hire many elderly individuals. There are several advantages of hiring the elderly over regular
employees. Elderly workers, including retirees, are more dependable; they are self-starters and highly motivated;
they have strong work habits; and they are excellent role models for the younger workers. Other advantages include
the fact that they often prefer part-time work that typifies the restaurant trade. In this case, the maturity and
experience of the elderly is actually a working advantage. They may not have the stamina and the quickness of the
younger workers, but their maturity, work experience, and willingness and experience at learning new tasks makes
them well suited to the jobs available in the fast-food industry.
Have the students form small groups. Give each group a copy of Handout Master 9.7. For this activity, the
students are to describe the pros and cons of hiring an elderly person versus a teenage person to work in a hardware
store, a sporting goods store, and in construction. Watch for stereotypes of the elderly as students complete this
project.
Classroom Activity 9.14: Interview with an Elderly Person (E)
Students have such preconceived ideas about the elderly that reading information is often inadequate to breaking
such stereotypes. One additional problem is that many students do not ever really interact with elderly people (or
may only interact with one or two elderly grandparents). One possibility for a classroom activity is to bring an
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elderly person into the room to talk with the students. If you do not know of anyone willing to do such a task, check
with the local senior center or other senior support services in your community. Typically it is not difficult to find
such a person, especially if you offer to buy them lunch in exchange for their services. This will work especially
well if you find a person who spent their entire life in the community. Students are fascinated by stories of the way
the community responded in times of war, what happened to the community during the depression, perhaps the
building of the campus, and changes in the culture of the community.
You may also wish to ask the elderly person to discuss aspects of their life that they perceive to be better as
a result of growing older. That is, many students see nothing but negatives associated with growing old. Have your
guest tell students what it is like to not have to work, to be able to travel at will, to have generally less stress in life,
and maybe to have the ability to see more global (as opposed to very specific) issues pertaining to life.
MULTIMEDIA
Online Learning Center Preview
Instructors should check the Online Learning Center for applicable PowerPoint slides and other resources relevant to
this chapter. Tables and figures available from the Image Gallery for this chapter are:





TABLE 9-1: Characteristics Influenced Significantly by Genetic Factors
TABLE 9-2: Environmental Factors Affecting Prenatal Development
TABLE 9-3: The Four Main Parenting Styles
TABLE 9-4: Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
FIGURE 9-8: Zone of Proximal Development
In-Psych Student CD-ROM
The In-Psych Student CD-ROM is organized according to the textbook chapter outlines and features exercises
chosen to illustrate especially difficult core introductory psychology concepts. Each exercise showcases one of three
types of media assets—an audio clip, a video clip, or a simulation—and includes a pre-test, follow-up assignments,
and Web resources. The CD-ROM also includes chapter quizzes, a student research guide, and an interactive
timeline that puts events, key figures, and research in psychology in historical perspective. As these
features effectively engage the student and help reinforce new knowledge retention, they function superbly as
homework or extra-credit assignments. The following [is/are] available on the CD-ROM for this chapter:
[Chapter 9 Development]
Timeline
Secure Attachment (Video)
Premature Babies (Audio)
Formal Operational Thought (Interactive Activity)
Neighborhood Violence (Audio)
Teenage Dieting (Audio)
Chapter Quiz
Video Resources
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FILMS FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
Pregnancy and Substance Abuse (28 minutes)
David with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (45 minutes)
The Broken Cord: Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris (30 minutes)
Down’s Syndrome (28 minutes)
Prenatal Testing: A Mixed Blessing (51 minutes)
The First Year of Life (28 minutes)
The Newborn (23 minutes)
Babywatching (50 minutes)
Child Development (60 minutes)
The Psychological Development of the Child (eight-part series, 21–28 minutes each)
Simple Beginnings? Child Development from Birth to Age Five (24 minutes)
Myths of Childhood (three-part series, 55 minutes each)
Learning in Context: Probing the Theories of Piaget and Vygotsky (30 minutes)
Teens: What Makes Them Tick? (43 minutes)
Grounded for Life: Teenage Pregnancy (26 minutes)
Family Affair: Educating Today’s Parents (24 minutes)
The Gift of Aging (29 minutes)
Aging (23 minutes)
Women at Midlife (29 minutes)
Alzheimer’s Disease: How Families Cope (28 minutes)
To Be Old, Black, and Poor (57 minutes)
Abandoning the Elderly (16 minutes)
The Oldest Victims: Elder Abuse (45 minutes)
The Sandwich Generation: Caring for Both Children and Parents (28 minutes)
Elderly Suicide (28 minutes)
Living Fully Until Death (29 minutes)
Letting Go: A Hospice Journey (90 minutes)
(Contact information for this material can be found in the Preface of this manual.)
PsychLink
www.mcgrawhill.ca/college/feldman
INDEPENDENT PROJECTS
Independent Project 9.1: Parent-Child Interactions (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
Have students go to a local mall or park (any place where they can watch how parents interact with small children).
The students are to watch parents interact with their children. Specifically, the students should note the amount of
talking and touching in the interaction (use Handout Master 9.8). The students should also indicate the type of
parenting style used.
Independent Project 9.2: Children’s Television (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
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Have students watch a children’s television program. They may watch any program aimed at children: cartoons,
Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, etc. Give the students a copy of Handout Master 9.9 to fill out. In this
Handout Master, they will be asked to indicate the properties of the show that make it appealing to children. You
may also wish to have students form groups during the next class period and discuss their findings.
Independent Project 9.3: Applying Kohlberg (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
This project, based on Kohlberg’s theory, can be carried out with the students’ peers and with younger children if
they are available for interviewing. Have the students use the classic drug dilemma that appears in the text so that
they can more easily relate their subjects’ responses to the sample responses given for each of six stages of moral
reasoning (use Handout Master 9.10). Ideally there will be some students in the class who can present the dilemma
to children as young as 7 or 8; this will ensure that some of the judgments will be characteristic of preconventional
reasoning.
Class discussion and pooling of the responses will make the project more meaningful for the students. They
will probably see that it is difficult to assign many of the responses they collect to one specific stage, and there may
well be disagreement among class members as to how a particular response should be scored. This raises several
important issues about the reliability of Kohlberg’s system. You may also wish to consider the issue of sex
differences; do girls and women characteristically give different types of responses than men, as the work by
Gilligan cited in the text suggests?
Independent Project 9.4: Reflections of Your Life (R)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
Ask students to think of the 10 most important events of their lives (Handout Master 9.11). Warn them that the
recency effect will cause them to think of recent events first and list those quickly. The student should think about
events throughout their lives. They are to list the approximate age at the time of the event and to describe how that
event may have shaped who they are today and who they will be in the future. If the student is able, he or she should
attempt to put the event into one of the developmental theories. For example, was this an event that helped to resolve
identity vs. role confusion?
For a class activity, you may wish to have students list the ages at each of the major life events (for this
activity they would not have to discuss the events, only the ages). Use Overhead Master 9.3 to make a bar graph of
the important ages. Discuss why certain ages seem to come up with respect to shaping who they are now and who
they will be in the future.
Independent Project 9.5: Applying Erikson and Levinson (R)
Have your students interview older adults they know, such as parents, grandparents, and other relatives, to study the
validity of Erikson’s theory of the crises adults face at different times in their lives and of Levinson’s model based
on major life events. In particular, have them focus on what Levinson termed the midlife transition and Erikson the
generativity-versus-stagnation crisis. Recall that Levinson suggests that the transition occurs at about the age of 40
or 45 in men, but he did not study women. Does such a period occur earlier for women?
Another question to focus on with respect to women is their responses to menopause. Did menopause make
(or does the thought of it make) the woman feel old and depressed? Depending on the age of the persons
interviewed, additional questions could tap their responses to later life events, such as retirement, declines in
physical and sensory capabilities, etc. This project could be a particularly valuable learning experience if you ask the
class to participate in structuring the interview questions they will ask and discussing the results of the interviews
after they are completed.
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CHAPTER NINE
Also, Rosenfeld and Stark (1987) summarize the results of two surveys conducted 20 years apart, in the late
1950s and the late 1970s, that showed a dramatic decline in consensus on the “proper” age for achieving various
milestones. This survey could be administered to the students in your class to compare their responses to those
obtained in the earlier surveys. Students could also be asked to administer the survey to their parents. (This would
make possible a more direct comparison to the earlier surveys, in which the subjects were middle-aged adults.)
Consult Rosenfeld and Stark for a list of the percentages of men and women in the 1950s and the 1970s
who agree that a given age range is the “right time” for the following activities or events: best age for a man and for
a woman to marry, when a man and when a woman accomplish most, when a man and when a woman have the most
responsibilities, when most people should become grandparents, when people should be ready to retire, best age for
most people to finish school and go to work, when most men should be settled on a career, when most men hold
their top jobs, the prime of life for a man.
Rosenfeld, A., & Stark, E. (1987). The prime of our lives. Psychology Today, 62–72.
Independent Project 9.6: Social Support for the Elderly (E)
Overhead Masters or Handout Masters are provided with this activity.
Identify local resources available to the young adult, adult at mid-life, and the aged adult in your community (use
Handout Master 9.12). A listing of these resources may be found in local newspapers, telephone books, chamber of
commerce, or even local advertising (such as billboards or street posters). Note any service that may be used by
members of these age groups. This in itself will make a good independent project and demonstrate to students all of
the support available in the area, as well as developing skills on how to locate such support.
As an added aspect of this project, after the students have collected the information on each age group,
have the students interview one individual from each age group and have each person attempt to list all the support
in the community for people of their age. If the person being asked cannot identify the sources of support, ask the
individual how such information may be gained.
Independent Project 9.7: Life at a Retirement Home (E)
Have students visit several local retirement homes (with permission from the directors, of course). Students should
write a short paper or summary of the services and resources available for the retirement home resident (brochures
from the home may be of help). For example, what kind of social activities are planned? How frequently? Do the
residents have a means of transportation? Are they taken shopping? What kind of assistance is provided with respect
to hygiene and housekeeping?
230
OVERHEAD MASTER 9.1: USE WITH LECTURE LEAD 9.9
Four Identity Statuses
1.
Identity Achievement: These students have made
commitments to careers and personal values after
careful consideration.
2. Identity Moratorium: These students are in a period
of delay.
3. Identity Foreclosure: These students have made
commitments to careers and personal values, but
never really examined alternatives.
4. Identity Confusion: These students are avoiding
commitments.
HANDOUT MASTER 9.1A (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.2)
INTEREST INVENTORY
1.
What is your favorite book?
2.
What is the name of one of your best friends from high school?
3.
What was the colour of the house you lived in when you were 10 years old?
4.
What is your present major in college?
5.
What was your favorite subject in all of high school?
6.
If you could select any type and colour of car (under $30,000), what would it be?
7.
What is your favorite sport or hobby in which you participate?
8.
How many children would you like to have in your lifetime?
9.
What job would you like to have 10 years from now?
10. What is your favorite sport to watch?
HANDOUT MASTER 9.1B (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.2)
SIMILARITY PROFILE
1.
Is there a movie you both like a lot?
2.
What places would you both like to see?
3.
What states have you both been in?
4.
Do you have any friends or family members with the same name?
5.
Do you agree on qualities important in a friend?
6.
What TV programs do you both regularly watch?
7.
What sports do you both like to watch?
8.
Is there a kind of dog you both like?
9.
Is there a flavor of ice cream you both like?
10. Is there a type of flower you both like?
HANDOUT MASTER 9.2 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.4)
This exercise is designed to have you identify the strategies used in parenting. For each of the scenarios listed below,
indicate how a permissive parent, an authoritative parent, and an authoritarian parent might respond. Also indicate
how your group would respond. If you do not agree within your group, try to compromise (as parents often do). If
you cannot come to an agreement, put down the major responses.
1.
Your 7-year-old daughter wants to sleep over at the house of one of her classmates (one other friend will also
sleep over to make it three girls). Her parents will call you in about an hour to let you know that they don’t mind
if their daughter has a sleepover. You have seen this other little girl at the school when you drop your daughter
off and pick her up, but she has never been to your house and you have not talked to her parents before this
time.
Permissive Response
Authoritative Response
Authoritarian Response
Your Group Response
2.
Your 8-year-old son has decided to run away. You caught him just as he is headed out the door. He has on a
backpack that he says contains a blanket, his stuffed bear, a slice of bread (to eat when he gets hungry), and a
dollar. He is heading to live with his friend, who lives two miles away and has nice parents. He is mad because
you won’t let him stay up past 8:30 p.m.
Permissive Response
Authoritative Response
Authoritarian Response
Your Group Response
HANDOUT MASTER 9.2 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.4
[continued])
3.
Your 7-year-old son coloured on the wall for the first time.
Permissive Response
Authoritative Response
Authoritarian Response
Your Group Response
4. You are cleaning up your 8-year-old daughter’s room (legitimate cleaning, not snooping) and while putting
some clothing in her dresser you find a small box. You open it and find a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
Permissive Response
Authoritative Response
Authoritarian Response
Your Group Response
5. How would your group responses have differed in the above scenarios if the child in number 1 and 4 had been a
boy, or the child in number 2 and 3 had been a girl?
HANDOUT MASTER 9.3 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.5)
For this project you will need to go to the public library or a bookstore. I am interested in noting the extent to which
gender stereotyping is still included in children’s literature. Look through the children’s section and randomly select
five short children’s books and read them quickly. Look for children’s books that are about 15 to 50 pages and that
can be read in 5 minutes or less. Respond to the questions below for each of the books.
Book #1: Title/Author.
1. What age is this book marketed for?
2. Is this book designed specifically for boys or girls?
3. What is the major theme of the story?
4. Did you notice any gender stereotyping?
5. How could the book be rewritten to eliminate the stereotypes?
Book #2: Title/Author:
1. What age is this book marketed for?
2. Is this book designed specifically for boys or girls?
3. What is the major theme of the story?
4. Did you notice any gender stereotyping?
5. How could the book be rewritten to eliminate the stereotypes?
HANDOUT MASTER 9.3 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.5
[continued])
Book #3: Title/Author:
1. What age is this book marketed for?
2. Is this book designed specifically for boys or girls?
3. What is the major theme of the story?
4. Did you notice any gender stereotyping?
5. How could the book be rewritten to eliminate the stereotypes?
Book #4: Title/Author:
1. What age is this book marketed for?
2. Is this book designed specifically for boys or girls?
3. What is the major theme of the story?
4. Did you notice any gender stereotyping?
5. How could the book be rewritten to eliminate the stereotypes?
Book #5: Title/Author:
1. What age is this book marketed for?
2. Is this book designed specifically for boys or girls?
3. What is the major theme of the story?
4. Did you notice any gender stereotyping?
5. How could the book be rewritten to eliminate the stereotypes?
OVERHEAD MASTER 9.2 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.8)
How Are Children Likely
to Grow Up?
1.
Wondering if parents are going to split up
2.
Living in a single-parent family
3.
Having to adjust to newcomers in the family in case of
remarriage
4.
For the very young, being taken care of by a caregiver,
usually outside the home
5.
For older children, being left alone in an empty house
6.
Having relatively little contact with adults
7.
Being lonely much of the time
HANDOUT MASTER 9.4 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.10)
Who Am I?
This activity is designed to identify how you see yourself. For this activity, you are to simply state on the
20 lines below who you are. List a different response for each line.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
HANDOUT MASTER 9.5 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.11)
Mandatory Retirement
Now that you have responded to Student Study Guide Essay Question 9.2, I would like your group to
list the pros and cons associated with mandatory retirement.
PROS
CONS
HANDOUT MASTER 9.6 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.12)
Aging in the Movies
Name of the movie.
Major plot points with respect to aging.
Discuss any stereotypes of the elderly you noted.
Were the elderly people in the movie represented accurately, based on what you know about the elderly?
Discuss.
Discuss any developmental issues faced by the elderly people in the movie.
HANDOUT MASTER 9.7 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.13)
Who to Hire?
Discuss within your group the relative pros and cons of hiring a person who is 55 or older versus hiring a
person who is 18 for each of the following jobs.
Hardware Store: Job includes pricing merchandise, stocking shelves, and working as salesperson.
PROS
CONS
HANDOUT MASTER 9.7 (USE WITH CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 9.13
[continued])
Sporting Goods Store: Job includes unloading shipments from delivery truck and working as
salesperson.
PROS
CONS
Construction: Job includes framing houses, roofing, and working with concrete.
PROS
CONS
HANDOUT MASTER 9.8 (USE WITH INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.1)
Go to a local mall or park (any place where you can watch how parents interact with small children). For this project
you are to watch parents interact with their children for 15 minutes. Respond to the items listed below.
Interaction Between a Parent and a Child
1. Write down all instances of verbal interaction that you noted. Some guidelines are provided. What was the tone
of the vocalizations? Did the parent talk “down” to the child or were there equal levels of communication? Did
either yell?
2. Write down the amount and type of smiling or laughing you observed.
3. Write down any physical contact between the parent and child. Did they hold hands? Did they wrestle (more
likely at the park than the mall)? Was the parent holding the child?
4. Overall, explain the tone of the interaction. Was the interaction generally positive or generally negative?
5. Could you identify a parenting style? Was the parent permissive, authoritarian, or authoritative? Explain.
HANDOUT MASTER 9.9 (USE WITH INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.2)
What Do They Put in a Children’s TV Program?
For this project you are to watch a children’s television program. You may watch any program aimed at children (a
cartoon, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, etc.). Answer the items listed below.
1.
What was the name of the show and what time and day was this program aired?
2.
Who do you think is the primary intended audience of this program (males, females, age)?
3.
What aspects of the show make it appeal to the intended audience?
4.
Some shows work at many levels, whereas others are just for a certain age and gender. Have the producers of
this show made any attempt to appeal to both males and females, or even adults? That is, are there aspects of
this program that you found engaging or interesting?
5.
Explain any problems you noted with this show. For example, do you think the intended audience will not like
the show? Is there too much violence? Are there instances of gender stereotyping? Any other problems?
HANDOUT MASTER 9.10 (USE WITH INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.3)
Assessment of Moral Development
Read the following scenario to a child and have them respond. Indicate below the age and gender of the
respondent. Also list which of Kohlberg’s stages you believe the subject is operating in based on his/her
answer.
In Europe, a woman is near death from a special kind of cancer. The one drug that the doctors
think might save her is a form of radium that a druggist in the same town has recently
discovered. The drug is expensive to make, and the druggist is charging 10 times the cost, or
$2,000, for a small dose. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, approaches everyone he knows
in hopes of borrowing money, but he can get together only about $1,000. He tells the druggist
that his wife is dying and asks him to lower the price of the drug or let him pay later. The
druggist says, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” Heinz is
desperate and considers breaking into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.
What would you tell Heinz to do? (from Kohlberg, 1984).
Age of child you read story to: ______
Gender of child you read story to (circle one):
Male / Female
Child’s response:
Your assessment of the level of moral development for this child (explain your rating):
HANDOUT MASTER 9.11 (USE WITH INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.4)
Important Life Events
For this project, I would like you to think of the 10 most important events of your life. The recency effect
will cause you to think of recent events first and list those quickly. Try to also think about events
throughout your life. Also list your approximate age at the time of the event and describe how that event
may have shaped who you are today and who you will be in the future. If you are able, put the event into
one of the developmental theories. For example, was this an event that helped to resolve identity vs. roleconfusion?
Age
Event
_____ 1.
_____ 2.
_____ 3.
_____ 4.
_____ 5.
_____ 6.
_____ 7.
_____ 8.
_____ 9.
_____ 10.
OVERHEAD MASTER 9.3 (USE WITH INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.4)
Graph of Ages at Most Important Life Events
HANDOUT MASTER 9.12 (USE WITH INDEPENDENT PROJECT 9.6)
Local Resources for Community Members
Identify local resources available to the young adult, adult at mid-life, and the aged adult in your
community. A listing of these resources may be found in local newspapers, telephone books, chamber of
commerce, or even local advertising (such as billboards or street posters). Note any service that may be
used by members of these age groups.
Local Resources Designed for Youth and Young Adults:
Local Resources Designed for Adults at Mid-life:
Local Resources Designed for the Elderly:
Where did you locate these sources?
Do you feel there are adequate resources for each age group? If not, what should be added?
Do you feel the people in each of these age groups could locate these resources? If not, how might
they be better advertised?