ch5

Overview

This lecture explains the main ideas and theories about how people grow and develop, including physical, mental, social, and moral changes. It covers important psychologists, the stages of development, and ways people cope with stress.

Key Concepts of Growth and Development

• Growth: Physical increase in size (like height and weight).
• Development: Gaining new skills and abilities (like learning to walk or talk).
• Maturation: Skills and abilities appear naturally as you get older, even without practice.
• Cephalocaudal: Growth starts at the head and moves down to the feet.
• Proximodistal: Growth starts at the center of the body and moves out to the arms and legs.

Five Characteristics of Growth and Development

• Happens in a set order, from simple to more complex (you learn to hold your head up before you can sit).
• Is a continuous process, with times of fast growth (like infancy) and times of slow, steady growth.
• Each person grows and develops at their own pace (everyone has their own timetable).
• All body systems are affected, but different parts grow at different times (like puberty for reproductive organs).
• Growth and development affect the whole person—body, mind, and social life.

Major Influences on Growth and Development

• Genetics (Heredity): Traits you are born with, like hair color, eye color, body shape, and size.
• Environment: Everything around you that can affect how you grow and develop, including your personality.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• Three Levels of Awareness:
  • Conscious: What you are aware of right now (your thoughts and reality).
  • Subconscious (Preconscious): Memories and feelings you can remember if you try.
  • Unconscious: Deep memories and feelings you are not aware of, often because they are painful.
• Three Parts of the Mind:
  • Id: Wants instant pleasure and satisfaction (like a baby crying for food).
  • Ego: The “manager” that deals with reality and tries to balance the id and superego.
  • Superego: Your conscience; tells you what is right and wrong.
• Defense Mechanisms: Ways people protect themselves from stress or anxiety. Examples:
  • Suppression: Pushing away feelings to deal with them later (like ignoring anger at work).
  • Rationalization: Making excuses for bad behavior or mistakes.
  • Identification: Copying someone you admire.
  • Sublimation: Turning bad feelings into something positive (like writing a song when sad).
  • Regression: Acting like a younger child when upset (like bedwetting after a new sibling arrives).
  • Denial: Refusing to believe something bad has happened.
  • Displacement: Taking out feelings on someone or something else (yelling at your family when mad at your boss).
  • Projection: Blaming others for your own feelings or actions.
  • Compensation: Making up for a weakness by excelling in another area.
  • Undoing: Trying to “cancel out” a bad action with a good one.
  • Reaction Formation: Acting the opposite of how you really feel.
  • Conversion: Turning emotional stress into a physical symptom (like becoming blind after seeing something traumatic).

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

• Oral (Birth–1 year): Pleasure comes from the mouth (sucking, biting).
• Anal (1–3 years): Focus on control and toilet training.
• Phallic (3–6 years): Interest in genitals; children may want to be like the same-sex parent (Oedipus/Electra complex).
• Latency (6–12 years): Sexual feelings are quiet; focus is on school, friends, and hobbies.
• Genital (Puberty and up): Sexual feelings return; focus on relationships and independence.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

• People go through eight stages, each with a challenge to solve:
  • Trust vs. Mistrust (Infant): Learning to trust caregivers.
  • Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (Toddler): Learning to do things alone (like dressing or using the toilet).
  • Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool): Starting activities and making choices.
  • Industry vs. Inferiority (School-age): Learning new skills and working with others.
  • Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence): Figuring out who you are.
  • Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adult): Forming close relationships.
  • Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adult): Helping the next generation and being productive.
  • Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Older Adult): Looking back on life with satisfaction or regret.

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

• Explains how thinking and understanding grow in four stages:
  • Sensorimotor (Birth–2 years): Learning through senses and movement.
  • Preoperational (2–7 years): Using words and images, but thinking is still simple.
  • Concrete Operational (7–11 years): Thinking logically about real things.
  • Formal Operational (12+ years): Thinking about ideas and possibilities.
• Key Ideas:
  • Schema: A pattern or plan for understanding the world (like a mental file folder).
  • Assimilation: Adding new information to what you already know.
  • Accommodation: Changing what you know to fit new information.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• People have needs in a certain order:
  1. Physiological: Food, water, air (basic survival).
  2. Safety: Feeling safe and secure.
  3. Belonging/Love: Friends, family, feeling accepted.
  4. Esteem: Feeling good about yourself, being respected.
  5. Self-Actualization: Reaching your full potential.

Kohlberg and Gilligan—Moral Development

• Kohlberg: Three levels of moral thinking:
  • Pre-conventional (4–10 years): Obeying rules to avoid punishment.
  • Conventional (10–13 years): Wanting to please others and follow rules.
  • Post-conventional (Teens and up): Making decisions based on personal values.
• Gilligan: Said Kohlberg’s theory missed how girls and women make moral choices. She believed females focus more on caring and relationships.

Key Terms & Definitions

• Growth: Getting bigger physically.
• Development: Learning new skills and abilities.
• Maturation: Skills appear naturally as you get older.
• Cephalocaudal: Growth from head to toe.
• Proximodistal: Growth from the center out to the arms and legs.
• Id/Ego/Superego: Parts of the mind that control urges, reality, and morals.
• Defense Mechanism: Ways people protect themselves from stress or bad feelings.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Read textbook pages 62–73 and look at all tables and boxes for more details.
• Review the key points and tables at the end of chapter 5.
• Complete the chapter review questions to check your understanding.