Life-Span Developmental Psychology by John Stanrock (Chapters 10-15)

What are some challenges that can affect a child's socioemotional development?

How their parents treat them, whether they are neglected or not, if they have someone in their life to push and reward them. If the child is reassured or has more stressors.

Young children are in the stage of initiative versus guilt.

Authoritative parenting is mot likely to have positive outcomes- play has a special role and is important.

Kozol story

Some teachers focus more on material based learning rather than improving the child's higher thinking abilities. There was one teacher who was capable of having an academic outreach to these students regardless of the conditions of the school.

Self-esteem

The global evaluative dimension of the self. Self-esteem is also referred to as self-worth or self-image.

Self-concept

Domain-specific evaluations of the self.

perspective taking

the ability to assume other people's perspectives and understand their thoughts and feelings;in middle and late childhood it can increase

Identity

introspection and reflection on self-understanding to find an identity.

When do children have the highest self-esteem?

When they perform in domains that are important to them.

What can coping do to a child?

Help their esteem grow and allow them to achieve self-generated approval.

Self efficacy

The belief that one can master a situation and produce favorable outcomes. Children who have low self-efficacy for learning would avoid difficult tasks and those with higher ones would use more effort and persist longer with learning.

Correlation: High self-esteem and academics

Moderate correlations; high-esteem children are prone to both negative and positive outcomes.

Correlation: Aggression and high self-esteem

Increasingly begin to value the rewards that come with their aggressive behaviors.

Inflated self-esteem

Caused by being praised for mediocre activities; leads to low tolerance of competition and criticism.

Self-regulation

Deliberate efforts to manage actions, emotion and behavior; one of the most important aspects of the self in middle and late childhood. Increased capacity of self-regulation is linked to developmental advances in the brain's prefrontal cortex.

Industry versus inferiority

Appears during middle and late childhood- when children are encouraged to create and build, their sense of industry increases. When the creating aspect is deemed as negative, the children will feel inferior.

Constructivist Approach

learner?centered approach that emphasizes the importance of individuals actively constructing their own knowledge and understanding

Direct?Instruction Approach

structured,teacher?centered approach
? Characterized by teacher direction and control

Statewide standardized testing

Large between?state discrepancies
? Nearly all fourth graders in Mississippi are reading at
grade level
? Only half of fourth graders in Massachusetts are reading
at grade level
Problem: States allowed to set standards

The Education of Students from Low?Income
Backgrounds

Minority and low?SES students face more barriers
to learning
Schools in low?income area tend to have:
? More students with low achievement test scores
? Low graduation rates
? Smaller percentages of students going to college
? Young teachers with less exp

Strategies for improving relationships among
ethnically diverse students

Turn the class into a jigsaw classroom
Encourage students to have positive personal
contact with diverse other students
Reduce bias
View the school and community as a team

Cultural differences

-American children perform poorly in math and science
-Asian teachers spend more of their time teaching
math than American teachers
- Asian students average 240 scho0ol days a year
compared to 178 in the U.S.
- American parents believe academic achievemen

G. Stanley Hall (1904): adolescence is a time
of "storm and stress

Recent research has found that adolescents have
a healthy self?image
Most adolescents successfully negotiate the path
from childhood to adulthood

Puberty

a period of rapid physical maturation
involving hormonal and bodily changes that
occur primarily during early adolescence

Sexual maturation, height and weight

Menarche is a girl's first menstruation
Marked weight and height gains
Pubic hair growth
Facial and chest hair growth in males
Breast growth in females
Hormones: chemicals secreted by the endocrine
glands and carried throughout the body by the
bloodstream

Timing and Variations in Puberty

Average age of menarche has declined since mid?19th
century
Improved nutrition and health
For boys, pubertal sequence typically begins from age
10-13 � years. For girls it appears between 9 and 15
years
Precocious Puberty - the very early onset and rapid

Body Image Issues

Preoccupation with body image is especially
strong throughout adolescence
Girls are generally less happy with their
bodies than boys and become more
dissatisfied over time

Anorexia Nervosa

the relentless pursuit of
thinness through starvation
Three Main Characteristics:
? Weight less than 85% of what is considered normal for a
person's age and height
? An intense fear of gaining weight that does not decrease with
weight loss
? Having a dist

Bulimia Nervosa

eating disorder in which the
individual consistently follows a binge?and purge
pattern
Most bulimics:
? Are preoccupied with food
? Have an intense fear of becoming overweight
? Are depressed or anxious
? Have a distorted body image
Typically fall within

Early and late maturation

Boys
Early?maturing boys view themselves more
positively and have more successful peer relations
Late maturing boys report a stronger sense of
identity in their 30s
Girls
Early?maturing girls show greater satisfaction early
but less satisfaction later
? A

Adolescents' brains undergo significant
structural changes

Corpus callosum thickens; improves adolescents'
ability to process information
Amygdala (seat of emotions) develops earlier
than the prefrontal cortex (involved in higherlevel
cognitive processes)
? Underdeveloped prefrontal cortex has difficulty
constrai

Developing a Sexual Identity Involves

Learning to manage sexual feelings
Developing new forms of intimacy
Learning skills to regulate sexual behavior

Sexual Identity Includes

Activities
Interests
Styles of behavior
Indication of sexual orientation

Who struggles with sexual identity?

Adolescent gay males and lesbians struggle with
same?sex attractions

Reproductive health outcomes

Family connectedness
Parent?adolescent communication about
sexuality
Parental monitoring
Partner connectedness

Contraceptive use

Adolescents are increasing use of contraceptives
Younger adolescents are less likely to take
contraceptive precautions

Pregnancy in adolescence

Creates health risks for baby and mother
U.S. has 1 of the highest rates in the world
Low birth weight, neurological problems,
childhood illness
Mothers drop out of school and never catch
up economically

Health in adolescence

Poor health habits and early death in adulthood
linked to behaviors beginning during
adolescence
Nutrition and Exercise
21% of 12-19?year?olds are overweight
Decreased intake of fruits and vegetables and less
exercise
Sleep Patterns
Only 31% of U.S. adole

Death in adolescence

Accidents
Homicide
Suicide

Formal Operational Stage (age 11+ years)

More abstract than concrete operational thought
Increased verbal problem?solving ability
Increased tendency to think about thought itself
Thoughts of idealism and possibilities
More logical thought
? Hypothetical?deductive reasoning: involves creating a h

Adolescent Egocentrism

� Heightened self?consciousness of adolescents
� Imaginary Audience: adolescents' belief that others are as
interested in them as they themselves are
� Personal Fable: involves a sense of uniqueness and invincibility
� Invincibility attitudes

Cognitive control

Effective control of thinking in a number of areas
� Control attention and reduce interfering thoughts
� Becognitivelyflexible � Decision making
� Dual?process model: View of thinking in which decision making is influenced by two systems that compete with

Cognitive changes that allow improved critical thinking include:

� Increased speed, automaticity, and capacity of information processing
� More breadth of content knowledge in a variety of domains
� Increased ability to construct new combinations of knowledge
� A greater range and more spontaneous use of strategies for

Top-dog phenomenon

move from being oldest, biggest, and most powerful in elementary school to youngest, smallest, and least powerful in middle school

Transition to Middle or Junior High School

� Drop in school satisfaction
� Less stressful when students have positive relationships

Effective schools for Young Adolescents

� Develop smaller communities
� Lower student?counselor ratios to 10?to?1
� Involve parents and community leaders
� Boost students' health and fitness with more programs
� Integrate several disciplines in a flexible
curriculum
� Provide public health care

Effective highschools

� Many students graduate with inadequate reading, writing, and mathematical skills
� To combat the issues faced by students, following is suggested � Increased school counseling services
� Expanded extracurricular activities
� Competent, supportive adult

Narcissism

a self?centered and self?concerned approach toward others

adolescence

Self esteem of girls declines the most during _______

Identity

Career
� Political
� Religious
� Relationship
� Achievement, Intellectual � Sexual
� Cultural/Ethnic
� Interests
� Personality and physical appearance.

Erikson's Identity vs Identity confusion

� Psychosocial Moratorium: the gap between childhood security
and adult autonomy
� Adolescents experiment with different roles and personalities
� Adolescentswhocopewithconflictingidentitiesemergewitha
new sense of self
� Adolescents who do not successful

Crisis

Period of identity development during which the adolescent is exploring alternatives

Commitment

Personal investment in identity � Four statuses of identity (Marcia, 1980, 1994)

Diffusion

individuals who have not yet experienced a crisis or made any commitments

Foreclosure

individuals who have made a commitment but not experienced a crisis

Moratorium

individuals who are in the midst of a crisis but whose commitments are absent or weak

Achievement

individuals who have undergone a crisis and made a commitment

stable

Identity does not remain _____ throughout life

emerging adulthood

Key changes in identity are more likely to take place in ___________ than in adolescence

MAMA

repeated cycles of moratorium to achievement

Ethnic identity

An enduring aspect of the self that includes a sense of
membership in an ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings related to that membership

Bicultural identity

Identify in some ways with their ethnic group and in other ways with the majority culture

Cognitive Development and Religion in Adolescence

Increase in abstract thinking lets adolescents consider various ideas about religious and spiritual concepts

The Positive Role of Religion in Adolescents' Lives

related to well?being, self?esteem, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness

Parents should supervise

� Social settings
� Activities
� Friends
� Academic efforts

Authoritative actions

parents encourage adolescents to
be independent but still place limits and controls on their actions

Push for Autonomy

- May puzzle and anger many parents
� Helped by appropriate adult reactions to their desire for control
� Boys are often given more independence than girls

Autonomy and attachment

Parents must weigh needs for autonomy and control, independence and connection

Friendships affect on Teens

� Most teens prefer a smaller number of friendships that are more intense and more intimate
� Friends become increasingly important in meeting social needs
� Developmental advantages occur when adolescents have friends who are:
� Sociallyskilled
� Support

Three Stages of Dating and Romantic Relationships

11to13 years of age:Entry into romantic attractions and
affiliations
� 14to16yearsofage:Exploringromanticrelationships
� 17 to 19 years of age: Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds

Gay and Lesbian Youth

May date those of the opposite sex to distinguish or disguise their sexual orientation.

Sociocultural context and dating

� Differences in dating patterns among ethnic groups in the U.S.
� Values, beliefs, and traditions often dictate the age at which dating begins

Middle adulthood

__________ is the age period in which gains (growth) and losses (decline) balance each other

Late Midlife (55 to 65) is likely to be characterized by

Death of a parent
Last child leaving the parental home Becoming a grandparent
Preparation for and actual retirement

The body in late midlife

Sarcopenia: age?related loss of muscle mass and strength
Cushions for bone movement become less efficient, often leading to joint stiffness and more difficulty in movement
Progressive bone loss
Wakeful periods become more frequent in the 40's
Less deep sl

Main cause of death during middle adulthood

Cancer
Heart disease

Baumeister and Vohs (2002) argue that the quest for the meaning of life may be understood in terms of four main needs:

Need for purpose
Need for values
Need for a sense of efficacy
Need for self?worth

Immigration

� High rates of immigration are contributing to the growth of ethnic
minorities in the U.S.
� Immigrants often experience stressors uncommon to longtime residents

Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status can

interact in ways that exaggerate the influence of ethnicity

Females are

more likely to attempt suicide, but men are more likely to succeed.

Emerging Adulthood

the transition from adolescence to adulthood
Occurs from approximately 18 to 25 years of age

Helping Adolescence Mature

Provide them with opportunities to be contributors Give candid, quality feedback
Create positive adult connections
Challenge adolescents to become more competent

Alcoholism

a disorder that involves long- term, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcoholic beverages
Impairs the drinker's health and social relationships

Patterns of heterosexual behavior

Males have more casual sex partners, while females
report being more selective

Heterosexual sexual active

1/3 have sex twice a week or more
1/3 a few times a month
1/3 a few times a year or not at all

Unemployment

produces stress and is related to physical
problems, mental problems, marital difficulties, and homicide

Infancy to adulthood

Securely attached infants were securely attached 20 years later in their adult romantic relationships.

Secure Attachment Style

? Have a positive view of relationships and find it
easy to get close to others

Avoidant Attachment Style

? Are hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships

Anxious Attachment Style

? Demand closeness, are less trusting, more emotional, jealous and possessive.

Matching Hypothesis

Choosing partners who match your own level of attractiveness.

Intimacy vs isolation

? Intimacy is finding oneself while losing oneself in another person
? Failure to achieve intimacy results in social isolation

Intimacy and Independence

Balance between intimacy and commitment, commitment and freedom.

Gender + Friendship

Women have more friends than men; female friendships involve more self-disclosure and exchange of mutual support

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Love

Passion: physical and sexual attraction to
another
Intimacy: emotional feelings of warmth, closeness, and sharing
Commitment: cognitive appraisal of the relationship and the intent to maintain the relationship even in the face of problems

7 principles of a working marriage

? Establishing love maps
? Nurturing fondness and admiration
? Turning toward each other instead of away
? Letting your partner influence you
? Solving solvable conflicts
? Overcoming gridlock
? Creating shared meanings