PSY 220 - Lifespan Development: Chapters 1 & 2

Developmental psychology

• The scientific study of ways in which people change, as well as stay the same, from conception to death

• Also known as human development or lifespan development

Lifespan perspective

• Development is lifelong

• Development is multidirectional

• Development is multidimensional

• Development is multidisciplinary

• Development is characterized by plasticity

• Development is multicontextual

Physical domain

Includes changes in height and weight, sensory capabilities, the nervous system, and the propensity for disease and illness

Cognitive domain

Encompasses changes in intelligence, wisdom, perception, problem-solving, memory, and language

Psychosocial domain

Focuses on changes in emotion, self-perception, and interpersonal relationships with families, peers, and friends

Plasticity

All about our ability to change and that many of our characteristics are malleable

Contextual influences

• Normative age-graded influences

• Normative history-graded influences

• Non-normative life influences

Age-grade

• A specific age group

• Ex: Toddler, adolescent, senior

Cohort

A group of people who are born at roughly the same period in a particular society

Socioeconomic status (SES)

A way to identify families and households based on their shared levels of education, income, and occupation

Poverty level

An income amount established by the federal government that is based on a set of income thresholds that vary by family size

Culture

The totality of our shared language, knowledge, material objects, and behavior

Ethnocentrism

The belief that our own culture is superior

Cultural relativity

An appreciation for cultural differences and the understanding that cultural practices are best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture

Lifespan

• The length of time a species can exist under the most optimal conditions

• Also known as longevity

Life expectancy

The predicted number of years a person born in a particular time period can reasonably expect to live

Chronological age

The number of years since your birth

Biological age

• How quickly the body is aging

• Determined by our nutrition, level of physical activity, sleeping habits, smoking, alcohol consumption, how we mentally handle stress, the genetic history of our ancestors, and more

Psychological age

Our psychologically adaptive capacity compared to others of our chronological age

Social age

Based on the social norms of our culture and the expectations our culture has for people of our age group

Periods of development

• Prenatal

• Infancy and toddlerhood

• Early childhood

• Middle and late adulthood

• Adolescence

• Emerging adulthood

• Established adulthood

• Middle adulthood

• Late adulthood

Prenatal

• Starts at conception, continues through implantation in the uterine wall by the embryo, and ends at birth

• All of the major structures of the body are forming

• Health of the mother is of primary concern

Teratogens

Environmental factors that can lead to birth defects

Infancy and toddlerhood

• Starts at birth and continues to two years of age

• Dramatic growth and change

Early childhood

• Starts at two years of age until six years of age

• Also referred to as the preschool years

• Consists of the years that follow toddlerhood and precede formal schooling

• The child is busy learning language, is gaining a sense of self and greater independence, and is beginning to learn the workings of the physical world

Middle and late adulthood

• Starts at six years of age and continues until the onset of puberty

• Much of what children experience at this age is connected to their involvement in the early grades of school

• Learning in the world, testing new academic skills, and assessing one’s abilities and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and others

Adolescence

• Starts at the onset of puberty until 18

• A period of dramatic physical change marked by puberty

• Thinking of new possibilities and considering abstract concepts

• Sense of invincibility that puts them at greater risk

Puberty

An overall growth spurt and sexual maturation

Emerging adulthood

• Starts at 18 until 29

• Transitional time between the end of adolescence and before individuals acquire all the benchmarks of adulthood

• Continued identity exploration and preparation for full independence from parents

Established adulthood

• Starts at 30 until 45

• Intimate relationships, establishing families, and work are primary concerns

Middle adulthood

• Starts at 45 until 65

• A period in which aging becomes more noticeable and when many people are at their peak of productivity in love and work

Late adulthood

• Starts at 65 onward

• Sometimes subdivided into two categories: Young-old (65-84) and oldest-old (85 and older)

• Risks of diseases increases substantially

Issues in lifespan development

• Nature and nurture

• Continuity versus discontinuity

• Active versus passive

• Stability versus change

Nature

The argument that heredity plays the most important role in shaping the way we are

Nurture

The argument that one’s environment is most significant in shaping the way we are

Discontinuous development

• Assumes that developmental change often occurs in distinct stages that are qualitatively different from each other and in a set, universal sequence

• Also known as stage theories

Continuous development

Assumes that development is a more slow and gradual process

Preformationism

• The belief that a tiny, fully formed human is implanted in the sperm or egg at conception and then grows in size until birth

• Children were believed to possess all their sensory capabilities, emotions, and mental aptitude at birth, and these abilities unfolded on a predetermined schedule as they developed

• Environment was thought to play no role in development

John Locke

• British philosopher (1632-1704) who refuted the idea of innate knowledge and instead proposed that children are largely shaped by their social environments

• His ideas laid the groundwork for the behavioral perspective and subsequent learning theories of Pavlov, Skinner, and Bandura

Tabula rasa

Blank slate

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Believed (1712-1778) that children were not just little adults and that they developed according to a natural plan which unfolded in different stages

• Believed children should be allowed to think by themselves according to their own ways and an inner, biological timetable

• Considered the father of developmental psychology

• Gesell, Montessori, and Piaget were followers of his developmental perspective

Arnold Gesell

• Believed (1880-1961) that the child’s development was activated by genes in a process called maturation

• Spent 50 years at the Yale Clinic of Child Development and studied the neuromotor development of children with his colleagues

• Believed that development unfolded in fixed sequences and opposed efforts to teach children ahead of schedule

Sigmund Freud

• A very influential figure (1856-1939) in the area of development

• Emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our personality and behavior

• Assumed that personality formed during the first few years of life

• His beliefs formed the psychodynamic perspective, and his theories of psychosexual development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry until the growth of behaviorism in the 1950s

• His theory has been heavily criticized (very difficult to test scientifically, not validated and cannot be used as evidence for his theories)

Erik Erikson

• Psychodynamic theorist (1902-1994) who proposed a model of lifespan development that consists of eight developmental stages that encompass the entire lifespan

• His psychosocial theory forms the foundation for much of the discussion of psychosocial development

• His psychosocial theory has been criticized for focusing so heavily on crises, assuming that the completion of one crisis is a prerequisite for the next crisis of development, and focusing on the social expectations that are found in certain cultures but not in all

Psychosocial crises

• A unique challenge or crisis in each period of life that the person who reaches it must face

• A part of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory

Erikson’s psychosocial stages

• Trust versus mistrust

• Autonomy versus shame/doubt

• Initiative versus guilt

• Industry versus inferiority

• Identity versus role confusion

• Intimacy versus isolation

• Generativity versus stagnation

• Ego integrity versus despair

Trust versus mistrust

• Age range: Birth to 12 to 18 months

• Positive resolution of crisis: The child develops a feeling of trust in caregivers

Autonomy versus shame/doubt

• Age range: 18 months to 3 years

• Positive resolution of crisis: The child learns what can and cannot be controlled and develops a sense of free will

Initiative versus guilt

• Age range: 3 to 6 years

• Positive resolution of crisis: The child learns to become independent by exploring, manipulating, and taking action

Industry versus inferiority

• Age range: 6 to 12 years

• Positive resolution of crisis: The child learns to do things well or correctly according to standards set by others, particularly in school

Identity versus role confusion

• Age range: 12 to 18 years

• Positive resolution of crisis: The adolescent develops a well-defined and positive sense of self in relationship to others

Intimacy versus isolation

• Age range: 19 to 40 years

• Positive resolution of crisis: The person develops the ability to give and receive love and to make long-term commitments

Generativity versus stagnation

• Age range: 40 to 65 years

• Positive resolution of crisis: The person develops an interest in guiding the development of the next generation, often by becoming a parent

Ego integrity versus despair

• Age range: 65 to death

• Positive resolution of crisis: The person develops acceptance of how one has lived

Learning theory

• Based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore, psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behavior itself

• Also known as behaviorism

B.F. Skinner

• The most famous behaviorist (1904-1990) who expanded the principles of behaviorism and brought them to the attention of the public at large

• Used the ideas of stimulus, response, and reinforcement to train animals

Reinforcement

Application of rewards

Social learning theory

• Learning by watching others

• Developed by Albert Bandura (1977)

Reciprocal determinism

The concept developed by Albert Bandura (1986) that there is interplay between our personality and the way we interpret events and how they influence us

Cognitive theories

Focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over time

Jean Piaget

• One of the most influential cognitive theorists in development (1896-1980)

• One of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s intelligence differs from that of adults

• Believed that children’s intellectual skills change over time and that maturation, rather than training, brings about that change

• Theorized that children progressed through four stages of cognitive development

• Criticized for overemphasizing the role that physical maturation plays in cognitive development and in underestimating the role that culture and experience plays

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

• Sensorimotor

• Preoperational

• Concrete operational

• Formal operational

Sensorimotor stage

• Approximate age range: Birth to about 2 years

• Characteristics: Children experience the world through their fundamental senses of seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting.

• Stage attainments: Object permanence

Preoperational stage

• Approximate age range: 2 to 7 years

• Characteristics: Children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. They also start to see the world from other people’s perspectives.

• Stage attainments: Theory of mind, rapid increase in language ability

Concrete operational stage

• Approximate age range: 7 to 11 years

• Characteristics: Children become able to think logically. They can increasingly perform operations on objects that are real.

• Stage attainments: Conservation

Formal operational

• Approximate age range: 11 years to adulthood

• Characteristics: Adolescents can think systematically, can reason about abstract concepts, and can understand ethics and scientific reasoning.

• Stage attainments: Abstract logic

Lev Vygotsky

• Russian psychologist (1896-1934) who developed the sociocultural theory

• Differed with Piaget in that he believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized in given the proper guidance from others

Sociocultural theory

Emphasized the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities

Information processing

• Based on the ideas and research of several cognitive scientists studying how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and remember information

• Assumes that humans gradually improve in their processing skills (continuous rather than stage-like)

Urie Bronfenbrenner

• Developed (1917-2005) the ecological systems theory

• Recognized that human interaction is influenced by larger social forces and that an understanding of these forces is essential for understanding an individual

Ecological systems theory

• Theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner that provides a framework for understanding and studying the many influences on human development

• The individual is impacted by several systems including:

  • Microsystem

  • Mesosystem

  • Exosystem

  • Macrosystem

  • Chronosystem

Microsystem

Includes the individual’s setting and those who have direct, significant contact with the person, such as parents or siblings

Mesosystem

Includes the larger organizational structures, such as school, the family, or religion

Exosystem

Includes the larger contexts of community

Macrosystem

Includes the cultural elements, such as global economic conditions, war, technological trends, values, philosophies, and a society’s responses to the global community

Chronosystem

The historical context in which these experiences occur

Scientific method

The set of assumptions, rules, and procedures scientists use to conduct research

Research design

The specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze, and interpret data

Descriptive research

Research that describes what is occurring at a particular point in time

• Goal: To create a snapshot of the current state of affairs

• Advantages: Provides a relatively complete picture of what is occurring at a given time, allows the development of questions for further study

• Disadvantages: Does not assess relationships among variables, may be unethical if participants do not know they are being observed

Correlational research

Research designed to discover relationships among variables and to allow the prediction of future events from present knowledge

• Goal: To assess the relationships between and among two or more variables

• Advantages: Allows testing of expected relationships between and among variables and the making of predictions, can assess these relationships in everyday life events

• Disadvantages: Cannot be used to draw inferences about the causal relationships between and among the variables (correlation does not demonstrate causation)

Experimental research

Research in which a researcher manipulates one or more variables to see their effects

• Goal: To assess the causal impact of one or more experimental manipulations on a dependent variable

• Advantages: Allows drawing of conclusions about the causal relationships among variables

• Disadvantages: Cannot experimentally manipulate many important variables, may be expensive and time-consuming

Case study

• Descriptive records of one or a small group of individuals’ experiences and behavior

• Advantages: Allows us to get an idea of what is currently happening

• Disadvantages: Usually limited to static pictures, not always transferable to other individuals in similar situations, time consuming, expensive

Naturalistic observation

• Psychologists observe and record behavior that occurs in everyday settings

• Advantages: Behavior is more generalizable to the real world

• Disadvantages: The researcher doesn’t have any control over the environment

Laboratory observation

• Conducted in a setting created by the researcher

• Advantages: The researcher is permitted to control more aspects of the situation

• Disadvantages: Participants are aware that they are being watched, no guarantee that the behavior demonstrated in the laboratory will generalize to the real world

Survey

• A measure administered through either a verbal or written questionnaire to get a picture of the beliefs or behaviors of a sample of people of interest

• Advantages: Gathers information from many individuals in a short period of time, inexpensive to administer

• Disadvantages: Typically yield surface information but may not allow for in-depth understanding of human behavior, social desirability, questions can be perceived differently than intended

Sample

The people chosen to participate in the research

Population

All the people that the researcher wishes to know about

Representative sample

Would include the same percentages of males, females, age groups, ethnic groups, and socio-economic groups as the larger population

Social desirability

Respondents may lie because they want to present themselves in the most favorable light

Interview

• Participants are directly questioned by a researcher

• Advantages: Can solve the problem of misinterpreting the questions posed on surveys

• Disadvantages: Take longer, more expensive to administer, social desirability

Psychophysiological assessment

• Researchers record psychophysiological data, such as measures of heart rate, hormone levels, or brain activity, to help explain development

• May be recorded by themselves or in combination with behavioral data

Event-related potentials (ERPs)

• Recorded by fitting a research participant with a stretchy cap that contains many small sensors or electrodes, which record tiny electrical currents on the scalp of the participant in response to the presentation of stimuli

• Has provided important insight as to how infants and children understand the world around them

Secondary/content analysis

Involves analyzing information that has already been collected or examining documents or media to uncover attitudes, practices, or preferences

Pearson Correlation Coefficient

• The most common statistical measure of the strength of linear relationships among variables

• The value of the correlation coefficient ranges from r = -1.00 to r = +1.00

• The strength of the linear relationship is indexed by the distance of the correlation coefficient from zero (its absolute value)

• The direction of the linear relationship is indicated by the sing of the correlation coefficient

Positive correlation

• When the straight line indicates that individuals who have high values for one variable also tend to have high values for the other variable

• Example: Education and income, age and mathematical abilities in children

Negative correlation

• When high values for one variable tend to be associated with low values for the other variable

• Example: Age of a child and the number of diapers the child uses

Third variable

A variable that is not part of the research hypothesis but produces the observed correlation between them

Hypotheses

Specific statements about the relationship between variables

Variable

Anything that changes in value

Independent variable

The causing variable that is created or manipulated by the experimenter