Development

Development is

Multi-dimensional, Lifelong, Multi-disciplinary, Multi- directional, plastic, and contextual!

traditional

Extensive change from birth to adolescence
• Little or no change during adulthood
• Decline in old age

Lifespan

Developmental change
occurs throughout
childhood and adulthood

Physical/Biological processes

Produce changes in an individual’s physical nature
• Examples: height, weight, and motor skill changes

Cognitive processes

Involve changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language
• Examples: two word sentences and solving a puzzle

Socioemotional processes

Involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other people,
emotions, and personality
• Examples: smiling in response to interacting with a playmate

Normative age-graded influences

Typical things that are similar for all individuals of a certain age

Normative history-graded influences

Things that are similar for all individuals within a particular
generation due to historical events; AKA cohort effects

Nonnormative life events

Unusual things that impact an individual. They don’t occur to everyone, and influence those they impact differently

Normal aging

• describes most individuals
• psychological functioning peaks early middle age.

Pathological aging

• describes individuals with above average decline as they
age
• mild cognitive impairment or chronic disease that impairs daily functioning

Successful aging

• describes individuals maintaining positive physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development longer in life.

Health and well-being

• Lifestyles and psychological states have powerful influences on
health and well-being.
• For example, there is a positive connection between exercise and
cognitive development.

Parenting & Education

• Many questions involve pressures on the contemporary family and
conditions impairing the effectiveness of U.S. schools.

culture

behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a
group passed on from generation to generation

Cross-cultural studies

comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures to gain information about their developmental similarities.

Ethnicity

a characteristic based on cultural heritage,
nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language
• Pride of ethnic identity has positive outcomes

Socioeconomic status

grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.

Gender

characteristics of people as males or females.
• Transgender refers to individuals who adopt a
gender identity that differs from the one
assigned to them at birth.

Social policy

a national government’s course of
action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
• Values, economics, and politics all shape a nation’s social policy.
• Social policy issues include:
• The increase in the number of children living in poverty and resulting stressors.
• The well-being of older adults, with escalating health care costs and the need for access to adequate health care.

Technology

There has been an almost
overwhelming increase in the use of technology at all
points in human development.
• Topics to consider include:
• The potential effects on language development.
• Screen time versus participation in physical activity.
• Whether media multitasking is harmful or beneficial.
• The degree to which older adults are adapting.

Nature and Nurture

Biological inheritance or environmental experience?

Stability and Change

Forever shaped by early experience or is there capacity to
change?

Continuity and Discontinuity

Gradual, cumulative change or distinct stages?

Scientific Method

• Conceptualize process or problem to be studied
• Collect research information (data)
• Analyze data
• Draw conclusions

theory of evolution

Set of ideas to explain a phenomenon and make predictions

Hypotheses

Specific predictions that can be tested

Plastic

The ability for environment/experiences to cause changes in the way traits
are expressed or
• The ability for multiple phenotypes to be expressed by the same genotype or
• The capacity for the human brain to change

Contextual

You have to consider the individual’s changing environments and experiences
when trying to explain or predict their developmental trajectory

Multi-directional

Older adults have fewer friends (a loss)
• But, their relationships with those friends become more intimate and better
quality (a gain)

Multi-disciplinary

A complete study of human development involves knowledge from many
subjects or
• Individuals working in many different disciplines will find a knowledge of
human development informative in doing their job well