Developmental Psychology Lecture 1

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from a lecture on developmental psychology.

Developmental Psychology

Deals with behavioral changes within people across the lifespan, and with differences between and similarities among people in the nature of these changes.

Focus of Developmental Psychology

Studying normative development and linking important developmental changes to a certain age.

Age Periods in Developmental Psychology

Prenatal, Infancy, Preschool period, Middle childhood, Adolescence, Emerging adulthood, Early adulthood, Middle adulthood, Late adulthood.

Two Phases of Old Age

Young old (60-85 years) and Old old (80+ years).

Variability in Time Scale of Development

Short-term changes that are more or less reversible vs. changes that are more or less enduring.

Cross-Sectional Designs

Individuals of different ages at one point in time, measuring differences.

Longitudinal Designs

The same individuals across different points in time, measuring change.

Cohort Effects

Differences in developmentally relevant variables that arise from non-age-related factors to which each birth cohort was exposed.

Cohort

Any group that shares having experienced the same cultural environment and historical effects.

Time-of-Measurement Effects

Effects of historical events and trends occurring when the data are being collected on observed results.

Advantages of Cross-Sectional Designs

Economic in time, cheap, shows similarities/differences between age groups.

Disadvantages of Cross-Sectional Designs

No info on individual trajectories; age effects confounded with cohort effects; limited generalizability to other times of measurement.

Advantages of Longitudinal Designs

True assessment of intraindividual change; assessment of stability and change of developmental characteristics.

Disadvantages of Longitudinal Designs

Age effects confounded with time-of-measurement effects/retest effects/attrition effects; limited generalizability to other cohorts; long duration; high costs.

Assessment Methods in Developmental Psychology

Self-report vs. report by proxy (e.g., parent, spouse, caregiver); interview, questionnaires, diaries.

Behavioral Observation Types

Naturalistic vs. Structured observation.

Research Designs in Developmental Psychology

Case study, correlational design, experimental design.

Challenges in Developmental Research with Specific Age Groups

Speech reception and production, sensorimotor abilities, suggestibility, attention span, subjective meaning of concepts, proportion of undiagnosed clinical impairment.

Adjustments to Methods for Individual Abilities

Age-adjusted task material, oral responses, alternatives to verbal self-report (observations, physiological methods, proxy report).

Principles of Lifespan Development

Lifelong, multidimensional and multidisciplinary (Bio, Neuro, History, Econ, etc.), multidirectional, gains and losses, plastic, embedded in history, contextualized.