Lifespan Development and Learning
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Module 1 (chapters 1-3)
84 Terms
What is Human Development?
Your professor defines development as the systematic changes and continuities in a person from conception to death.
Let’s break that down.
Changes = things about you that change as you grow.
Continuities = things that stay relatively consistent over time.
Systematic = changes that follow patterns, rather than happening randomly.
Meaning of CHANGES in human development
things about you that change as you grow.
Meaning of CONTINUITIES in Human Development
things that stay relatively consistent over time.
Meaning of SYSTEMATIC in Human Development
changes that follow patterns, rather than happening randomly.
3 Main Areas of Human Development
Physical Development
Cognitive Development
Psychosocial Development
What is Physical Development?
Changes in the body and brain, such as growing taller, puberty, or changes in physical abilities.
What is Cognitive Development?
Changes in thinking, learning, memory, language, and problem-solving.
What is Psychosocial Development?
Changes in emotions, relationships, personality, and how we interact with other people.
Example of the 3 areas of Human Development
Imagine a 5-year-old becoming a teenager.
Their body grows — physical development.
They learn to think through more complicated problems — cognitive development.
Their friendships and sense of identity change — psychosocial development.
One person can experience all three types of development at the same time.
What is Growth?
Physical changes that occur from conception to maturity.
What is Aging?
Physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes in a mature person. These changes can be positive or negative.
It doesn’t only mean getting weaker or older. For example, an older adult might experience slower reaction times but have more life experience and knowledge.
What is Emerging Adulthood?
a period often associated with the late teens through the twenties, when people explore who they are and what they want their lives to look like.
Think of someone who is going to college, changing jobs, exploring relationships, and trying to decide what kind of future they want.
Common Characteristics of Emerging Adulthood
Identity exploration: Figuring out who you are.
Instability: Life may involve changes in school, work, or relationships.
Self-focus: Having more freedom to make decisions for yourself.
Feeling in between: Not feeling completely like an adolescent or an established adult.
Possibilities: Feeling that many different futures are still open to you.
Remember: these are common patterns, not requirements. Everyone’s path is different.
What is Age Grade?
A socially defined age group that comes with certain roles, responsibilities, or privileges.
Example: Children being placed in school grades based on age.
What are Age Norms?
Society’s expectations about what people should do at certain ages.
Example: The expectation that someone should graduate college in their early twenties.
What is Social Clock?
A person’s internal sense of whether they are on time, early, or behind in life according to society’s age expectations.
Example: Someone feels behind because their friends are getting married, but they are not ready for marriage.
Easy way to remember difference between age grade, age norms, and social clock
Age grade = the group and its social role.
Age norms = what society expects.
Social clock = how you feel about your timing in life.
The Lifespan Perspective
The big idea is that human development doesn't stop when childhood ends, and it doesn't mean the same thing at every age.
7 characteristics of Development across the Lifespan
Development is lifelong
Development is multidirectional
Development involves gains and losses
Development is plastic
Development is shaped by historical-cultural context
Development is multiply influenced
Development is multidisciplinary
Development being life long
Baby explanation: You don't finish developing when you turn 18, 25, or 40. You keep changing throughout your life.
A child learns to manage frustration.
A young adult learns to navigate relationships.
An older adult may develop new ways to cope with life changes.
Remember: Development happens from birth to death, not just during childhood.
Development being Multidirectional
Baby explanation: You can get better at some things while other things become harder.
For example, a person might become much wiser and better at understanding other people's emotions as they age, while physical speed or reaction time may decrease.
It's not simply "getting better" or "getting worse." Different abilities can move in different directions at the same time.
Remember: Some things improve while others decline.
Gains and Losses in Development compared to Multidirectional Development
Multidirectional: Different abilities can change in different directions.
Gains and losses: Development involves both things we gain and things we lose.
Imagine someone becoming more confident and independent as an adult, while also losing some free time because of work and family responsibilities.
One life stage can bring both benefits and challenges.
Memory trick: Development isn't a straight staircase going only up. It's more like a road with gains, losses, and unexpected turns.
Development being plastic
Baby explanation: You can change and learn new things, even if you've been doing something the same way for years.
Think of your brain and abilities as having some flexibility. You're not permanently stuck at your current level.
Example: An adult who struggles with reading can improve with practice and support. Someone who has difficulty managing stress can learn healthier coping skills.
Remember: Plasticity = the capacity for change.
Development being shaped by historical-cultural context
Baby explanation: The time period and the culture you grow up in can influence how your life develops.
Imagine growing up as a teenager today versus growing up as a teenager in the 1950s. Technology, social expectations, education, and opportunities would be very different.
Culture matters, too. Different communities can have different expectations about independence, marriage, work, and family responsibilities.
Remember: When and where you grow up matter.
Development being multiply influenced
Baby explanation: You're not shaped by just ONE thing. Lots of influences work together to affect your development.
These can include:
Genetics and biology
Family and relationships
Culture and community
Life experiences
Economic circumstances
Example: A child's school performance might be influenced by their learning abilities, sleep, stress at home, teacher support, and access to resources.
You usually can't explain a person's development by pointing to one cause alone.
Remember: Multiple influences = many things shape who you become.
Development being multidisciplinary
Baby explanation: Understanding human development takes more than one field of study.
Psychologists study thoughts and behavior. Biologists study the body and genetics. Sociologists study social structures and relationships. Neuroscientists study the brain.
They can all contribute to understanding how humans develop.
Example: To understand why a teenager is struggling emotionally, we might consider brain development, family relationships, social pressures, and psychological experiences.
Remember: Multidisciplinary = multiple academic fields working to understand development.
Theories of Human Development
A theory is an explanation for why something happens or how it works.
In lifespan development, researchers use theories to explain why people change as they grow, how their experiences affect them, and why people develop differently.
5 Major Theoretical Perspectives
1. Evolutionary perspective
2. Psychoanalytic perspective
3. Learning and social cognitive perspectives
4. Cognitive-developmental perspective
5. Bioecological systems perspective
What is the Evolutionary Perspective?
Baby explanation: This perspective looks at how behaviors may have developed because they helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.
Example: Babies cry to signal that they need care. Getting an adult's attention can help keep a baby safe and cared for.
Behaviors may have developed because they help with survival and reproduction.
What is the Psychoanalytical Perspective?
Baby explanation: People are influenced by their emotions, inner conflicts, and early experiences, especially experiences with their family.
Example: Someone who grew up feeling that they had to earn their parents' approval might struggle with needing everyone to like them as an adult.
This perspective focuses on personality and the emotional forces that influence behavior.
Basically, it is how personality develops and how emotions, inner conflicts, and early family experiences influence people.
What are the Learning and social cognitive perspectives?
Baby explanation: People learn behaviors from their experiences, from consequences, and from watching other people.
The social cognitive perspective also emphasizes that people actively think about what they observe. They don't just automatically copy everything.
Example: A child sees an older sibling get praised for helping clean up. The child may start helping too because they've seen that behavior rewarded.
Basically, People learn through experience and observation, and their thinking influences their learning and behavior.
What is the Cognitive-developmental perspective?
This perspective focuses on how people's thinking and intelligence change as they develop.
Your PowerPoint highlights Jean Piaget, who viewed intelligence as a process that helps people adapt to their environment.
Example: A toddler might think that a taller glass holds more juice than a shorter, wider glass, even when both contain the same amount. As the child's thinking develops, they become better at understanding the situation.
Basically, How thinking and intelligence develop and help people adapt to their environment.
What is the Bioecological systems perspective?
Baby explanation: People develop through interactions with the world around them, and those interactions go both ways. The person affects their environment, and the environment affects the person.
Example: A child's development can be affected by their family, school, neighborhood, culture, and the larger society. At the same time, the child's behavior can affect how family members and teachers respond to them.
Your PowerPoint connects systems theory with Urie Bronfenbrenner.
Basically, Development happens through ongoing interactions between a changing person and their changing environment.
Memory Trick to help remember the 5 perspectives
Perspective | Think of… |
|---|---|
Evolutionary | Survival |
Psychoanalytic | Emotions and early experiences |
Learning/social cognitive | Experience and observation |
Cognitive-developmental | Thinking |
Bioecological systems | Person and environment |
4 big questions addressed by developmental theories
Nature vs. nurture
Continuity vs. discontinuity
Universality vs. context-specific development
Activity vs. Passivity
What is Nature vs. Nurture?
Answers the questions, “Are we shaped by genetics, our environment, or both?”
What is Continuity vs. Discontinuity?
Answers the questions, “Do we change gradually, or do we develop in distinct stages?”
What is Universality vs. context-specific development
Answers the questions, “Do people develop in similar ways, or does development vary depending on culture and circumstances?”
What is Activity vs. Passivity?
Answers the questions, “are people active participants in shaping their development, or are they mainly shaped by outside forces?”
What were Baby Biographies?
Researchers began by writing detailed observations about babies’ development, often studying their own children.
People started learning about development by carefully watching babies grow and recording what they noticed.
Detailed observations and records of infants’ development, often written by parents studying their own children.
Who was G. Stanley Hall?
Hall was an early influential figure in the scientific study of child development. He helped make child development a subject for systematic research.
Baby explanation: He helped move the study of children toward a more organized, scientific approach.
-Basically, he was an early influential researcher who helped establish the scientific study of child development.
What is a theory?
An explanation for why something happens.
What is Data?
Information researchers collect to investigate whether an explanation makes sense.
What is Falsifiability?
A theory must be testable in a way that could show it is wrong.
Example: Someone claims that children learn better after getting enough sleep. Researchers could test that claim by collecting information about sleep and learning. If an explanation cannot be tested at all, it is not scientifically falsifiable.
Why do we study Human Development?
Researchers have four main goals when studying human development.
Description — What is happening?
Prediction — What might happen next?
Explanation — Why is it happening?
Optimization — How can we improve it?
Goal 1: Descriptions
What is happening?
Researchers observe and describe what people do or how they develop.
Example: What language skills do most two-year-olds have?
Goal 2: Prediction
What might happen next?
Researchers identify patterns that help anticipate future behavior or development.
Example: Can early language skills help predict later reading skills?
Goal 3: Explanation
Why is it happening?
Researchers investigate the reasons behind a behavior or developmental change.
Example: Why do some children develop language earlier than others?
Goal 4: Optimization
How can we improve it?
Researchers use what they learn to improve development and people's lives.
Example: What teaching approach best helps children build language skills?
Memory trick for the 4 Goals
Describe = what?
Predict = what next?
Explain = why?
Optimize = how can we improve it?
What is the Scientific Method?
Researchers let the facts and evidence help determine whether their ideas make sense.
Using facts and evidence to evaluate ideas.
What is Theory? (Scientific Method)
Baby explanation: A theory is an explanation for something. It helps researchers understand why something might happen.
Example: A theory might explain how children learn by watching other people.
Basically, Concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain phenomena.
What is Hypothesis? (Scientific Method)
Baby explanation: A hypothesis is a specific prediction that comes from a theory. Researchers can test it.
Example: If children learn by observing others, then children who see adults sharing may be more likely to share.
Basically, A specific prediction generated from a theory.
The difference to remember (Scientific Method)
Theory = explanation
Why might this happen?
Hypothesis = prediction
What do I expect to happen?
Scientific method = evidence-based investigation
How do I test the idea?
What does Population mean? (Research)
The entire well-defined group a researcher wants to study.
Example: All students enrolled at a particular university.
What does Sample Mean?
The smaller group of individuals actually studied.
Example: 100 students selected to participate in a study.
What is Random Sampling?
Researchers identify the members of the larger population and use a random method to select some of them for the study.
Example: Every student on a university list has a chance of being randomly selected.
Random Sampling vs. Random Assignment
random sampling is about who gets selected for the study
Theory Vs. Hypothesis (what’s the difference?)
🧠 Theory = WHY
An explanation of why something happens.
Example: Children learn behaviors by watching other people.
🔮 Hypothesis = WHAT I PREDICT
A specific prediction you can test.
Example: Children who watch an adult share will be more likely to share themselves.
Think of it like this:
Theory → Hypothesis → Test it with research
You start with an explanation, make a specific prediction based on it, and then collect evidence to see whether the prediction holds up.
A theory explains a phenomenon; a hypothesis makes a specific, testable prediction based on a theory.
What are 3 Major Types of Data Collection?
Verbal Reports
Behavioral Observations
Physiological Measurements
What are Verbal Reports?
asking people questions or having them complete tests
What are 4 types of Verbal Reports?
Interviews
Written questionnaires or surveys
Ability and achievement tests
Personality scales
What are interviews?
A researcher asks someone questions and records their answers.
Example: Asking a person to describe their childhood experiences.
What are written questionnaires or surveys?
People answer questions in writing.
Example: Completing a survey about stress.
What are Ability and achievement tests?
Tests measure abilities or what someone has learned.
Example: A test measuring reading skills.
What are Personality Scales?
Questionnaires used to assess personality characteristics.
Example: Answering questions about whether you prefer social situations or time alone.
What are the 2 types of observations used by researchers?
Naturalistic Observation
Structured Observation
What is Naturalistic Observation?
watching in everyday surroundings
The researcher observes behavior where it normally happens, rather than creating a special situation.
Example: Watching how children interact while playing at school.
Limitations to Naturalistic Observation
Some behaviors happen too rarely or unexpectedly to observe.
It can be difficult to identify what caused the behavior.
People may act differently when they know someone is watching.
What is Structured Observation?
setting up a specific situation
The researcher creates a task, stimulus, or situation to encourage the behavior they want to study.
Example: Setting up a task to see how a child shares toys with another child.
Main advantage: The researcher has more control over the conditions.
Questions to remember: Will people behave naturally in this setup? Will their behavior be similar in real life?
Way to remember difference between Naturalistic & Structured Observation
Naturalistic: Watch what happens naturally.
Structured: Set up a situation and watch what happens.
What are Physiological Measurements?
measuring what is happening in the body or brain.
Your slides focus on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures increases in blood flow to areas of the brain when those areas are active.
Points/ Facts about fMRI
It is hard to fake.
It can be useful when studying infants.
It is not always clear exactly what the measurement tells researchers.
What does fMRI measure?
It measure: Increases in blood flow to brain areas when they are active.
Why can fMRI be useful for studying infants?
It can measure brain activity without relying only on verbal answers.
4 Research Methods
There are four key ideas in this section:
case studies
experiments
correlational research
meta-analysis.
The big quiz goal is to recognize which method a researcher is using and what that method can or cannot tell us.
What is a Case Study?
looks closely at one person or a very small group to understand them in depth.
Example: A researcher studies one child with a rare developmental condition, collecting detailed information about the child’s experiences and behavior.
Strength: Gives lots of detailed information.
Limitation: Because it focuses on one person or a small group, the findings may not apply to everyone.
What is an Experiment?
a research method used to test whether one thing causes a change in another thing. Researchers manipulate something and measure what happens.
Imagine a researcher wants to know whether a certain learning activity helps children remember new words. The researcher might assign children randomly to either the new learning activity or a comparison activity, then compare their scores.
Strength: Experiments can provide evidence about cause and effect.
Important: Random assignment is about which group participants enter. It is different from random sampling, which is about who gets selected for the study.
What is an Independent Variable?
What the researcher changes or manipulates
Example: Which learning activity the children receive.
What is a Dependent Variable?
What the researcher measures
Example: How many new words the children remember.
What is Random Assignment?
How participants are placed into different groups by chance
This helps make the groups comparable.
What is Correlational Research?
examines whether two variables are related.
Example: A researcher finds that children who get more sleep tend to do better on memory tests.
The researcher has found a relationship between sleep and memory performance. But that does not prove that more sleep caused the better scores.
Why not?
Directionality problem: We can’t tell which variable influences the other. Does more sleep improve memory, or do children with better routines both sleep more and perform better?
Third-variable problem: Another factor may influence both variables. For example, family routines could affect both sleep and study habits.
What is a Correlation Coefficient?
a number that describes the strength and direction of a relationship between variables.
Positive correlation: Both variables tend to move in the same direction.
Negative correlation: As one variable increases, the other tends to decrease.
No correlation: There is no clear relationship between the variables.
Remember: correlation does not establish causation.