Adolescence

Adolescence: the transition period from childhood to adulthood

Puberty: the sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Primary sexual characteristics:
-body structures that make  reproduction possible

Secondary  sexual characteristics
-non reproductive sexual characteristics
-widening of the hips
-deeper voice
-body hair
-breast development

Landmarks for puberty
-menarche for girls (period)
-first ejaculation for boys - spermarche 

• Adulthood
• All physical abilities essentially peak by our mid twenties
• Physical Milestones
• Menopause- natural rate ending of a woman's ability to reproduce
• These are physical symptoms led by a lack of estrogen
• Men do not experience anything like menopause
• Types of Intelligence
• Crystalized I - Accumulated knowledge
• Increases with age
• Fluid I - Ability to solve problems quickly and think abstractly
• Peaks in the 20's and then decreases over time

• Alzheimer's Disease
• A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, language, and physical functioning
• Runs its course in 5 to 20 years
• Caused by a deterioration of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter... Acetylocholine
• Life Expectancy
• Life expectancy keeps increasing - now about 75
• Women outlive men by about 4 years
• But more men are conceived 126 to 100, then 105 to 100 by birth. In other words, men die easier
• Death
• Elizabeth Kublerr Ross's stages of death
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance 

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Stage theorists: these psychologists believe that we travel from stage to stage throughout our lifetimes

Sigmund Freud

• we all have a libido (sexual drive)
• our libido travels to different areas of our body throughout our development
• if we become preoccupied with any area, Freud said we have become fixated on it

Oral stage (0-1)

• seek pleasure through our mouths 
• babies put everything in their mouths
• psychological task-weaning

Anal stage (1-3)

• psychological task-toilet training
• libido is focused on controlling waste and expelling waste

Phallic stage (3-6)

• children first recognize their gender 
• psychological task-identify with the same sex parent
• causes conflict in families with the Oedipus and Electra complexes

Latency stage (6-11)

• libido is hidden
• cooties stage
• conflicts from earlier stages remain dormant or below the surface

Genital stage (11 and up)

• libido is focused on their genitals
• experience sexual feelings towards others
• conflicts from early childhood reappear

Criticisms of Kohlberg

• Carol Gillian pointed out that Kohlberg only tested boys
• bots tend to have a more absolute value of morality
• girls tend to look at situational factors

Maturation

Maturation: physical growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, regardless of environment
-although the timing of our growth may be different, the sequence is almost always the same

Cognition: all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing and remembering

Cognitive development: researched by Jean Piagnet

Schemas: ways we interpret the world around us (concepts)

Assimilation: incorporating new experiences into existing schemas
-assimilation in high school: when you first meet somebody, you will assimilate them into a schema that you already have

Accommodation: changing an existing schema to adapt to new information

Conservation: refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and is part of logical thinking

Information processing model: says children do not learn in stages but rather in a gradual continuous growth pattern
-studies show that our attention span grows gradually over time

Stranger anxiety: at about a year, infants develop it
-infants do not mind strange people (maybe because everyone is strange to them)
-fear of strangers that infants commonly display
-beginning by about 8 months of age

Separation of anxiety
-distress the infant shows when the object of attachment leaves
-peaks between 14 and 18 months

Attachment: the most important social construct an infant must develop is

• attachment (a bond with caregiver)
• Konrad Lorenz discovered that some animals form attachment through imprinting

Harry Harlow and his monkeys

-showed that monkeys needed touch or body contact to form attachment

For many animals there is a critical period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development

-those who are deprived of touch have trouble forming attachment when they are older

Mary Ainsworth's displays of attachment 

• Secure attachment (ideal): children show some distress when parent leaves, seek contact at the reunion, explore when parent gone, play and greet when parent present
• Insecure attachments lack one or more of these traits 

Behaviorists: what should the parent do in this scenario (assuming it's real)

Parenting styles:

1. Authoritarian parents: have strict standards for their children behavior
2. Permissive parents: allows freedom, there is lax parenting, don't enforce rules consistently
3. Authoritative parents: set reasonable standards of expectation and they encourage independence 

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology: the study of YOU from womb to tomb
-we are going to study how we change physically, socially, cognitively and morally over our time

Nature vs nurture
Nature: the way you were born
Nurture: the way you were raised

Physical development: focus in our physical changes over time

Prenatal development: conception begins with the drop of an egg and the release of about 200 million sperm
-sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to penetrate the egg's surface

Once the sperm penetrates the egg-we have a fertilized egg called a zygote
-1st stage of prenatal development

• lasts about two weeks and consists of rapid cell division
• less then half of all zygotes survive first 2 weeks
• after 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall
• outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta: structure that allows oxygen and nutrients to pass into fetus from mother's bloodstream and bodily waste to pass out to the mother (which filters nutrients)

After two weeks, the zygote developed into an embryo.

• lasts about six weeks
• heart begins to beat and the organs begin to develop

By nine weeks we have a fetus.

• the fetus but he sixth month, the stomach and other organs have formed enough to survive outside of mother

Teratogens: chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environment

• alcohol
• STDs
• HIV
• herpes

Reflexes

-inborn automatic responses

1. Rooting (cheek): when a newborn infant is touched on the cheek, the infant will run its head toward the source of stimulation
2. Grasping: if an object is placed into a baby's palm, the baby will try to grasp the object with his/her fingers
3. Moro (startle): when startled, a baby will fling his or her limbs out and then quickly retract them
4. Babinski (foot): when a baby's foot is stroked, he/she will spread their toes