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Lifespan Psychology

scientific study of human growth and change from conception → death.

Nature and Nurture

• Nature = biological factors
• Nurture = environment + people

Physical Development

growth/changes in body, movement and coordination.

Fine motor skills

growth/changes in body, movement and coordination.

Includes:
• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills

Gross motor skills

Large muscles
Examples: walking, running.

Psychosocial development

• self-view
• emotions
• relationships

Self awareness & self-concept

Self-awareness = recognising thoughts, emotions and behaviours.

Self-concept = beliefs, likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses.

Amygdala

controls:
• fear
• aggression
• reward
• emotional reactions

Infancy Emotions

2 months → smiles at people
4 months → likes social play
6 months → responds to others’ emotions

Infancy Emotions 1 Year

• peek-a-boo
• favourite people
• stranger shyness
• attachment forms

Infancy First Emotions

• anger
• sadness
• fear
• joy

Childhood Emotions

Age 2:
• affection
• pretend play
• tantrums
• parallel play

Childhood Age 5 Emotions

• cooperate
• take turns
• wider emotions

Adolescence Emotions

Age 12+:
Amygdala highly active →
• more fear/stress
• emotional responses
• less rational thinking

Early Adulthood Emotions

Early adulthood (20–40):
• intimate relationships develop
• independence from family increases

Middle Adulthood Emotions

• fewer negative emotions
• more positive emotions
• possible midlife crisis
• menopause average = 51

Older Adulthood Emotions

• smaller social networks
• more dependence
• possible depression

Cognition

mental processes:
perceiving, remembering, reasoning, imagining, judging, problem solving.

Cognitive Development

changes in thinking, reasoning and language.

Language acquisition

learning native language.

Influenced by:
• biology (maturation)
• environment

Verbal fluency

ability to retrieve and produce words from memory.

Language Development Infants

• crying
• vocalisation (0–6 mths)
• babbling (6 mths)
• gestures
• facial expressions

Childhood Language Development

Age 1 → partial words + ~50 words vocabulary.

Age 3 → ~200 words.

Age 5: clear speech + simple stories.

Age 11: vocabulary ≈ 19,000 words

Adolescence Language Development

• abstract language understood
• idioms
• similes
• larger vocabulary

Adult Language Development

Middle + older age:
• tip-of-the-tongue increases
• slower processing

Neural Plasticity

brain’s ability to reorganise neural connections.

Unused pathways weaken = synaptic pruning.

Used pathways strengthen.

Developmental plasticity

structural plasticity.

Brain changes due to sensory input.

Strongest during childhood.

Developmental plasticity stages

• Proliferation

• Migration

• Synaptogenesis

• Synaptic pruning

• Myelination

Adaptive plasticity

functional plasticity.

Brain reorganises after learning or injury.

Greater in infancy and childhood.

Adaptive plasticity processes

• Rerouting = new pathways form
• Sprouting = new axons/dendrites grow
• Myelination

Proliferation

neuron growth/division.

Fastest in sensory + motor regions.

Migration

neurons move to final location.

Synaptogenesis

synapses form between neurons.

Rapid in infancy.

Synaptic pruning

unused neurons removed.

Occurs mostly in:
• infancy
• adolescence

Improves efficiency.

Myelination

myelin covers axons.

Results:
• faster impulses
• less interference
• improved efficiency

Piaget Theory

children learn through interaction with environment.

Development occurs in stages.

Schema

mental framework about objects/events.

Infants born with schemas from reflexes.

Assimilation

fit new info into existing schema.

Accommodation

change/create schema.

Sensorimotor

Learning through senses + movement.

Develops object permanence.

Object permanence

object exists even when unseen.

Task = invisible displacement.

Preoperational

• symbolic play
• roleplay
• symbols

Egocentrism

Only own perspective

Animism

Objects have feelings

Concrete Operational

Logical thinking with concrete materials.

Develops:
• conservation
• classification
• reversibility

Conversation

quantity stays same after physical change.

Formal Operational

• abstract thinking
• logical reasoning
• hypothetical thinking

Adolescent Brain

Grey matter peaks around:
• females = 11
• males = 12

Then pruning reduces it.

Prefrontal Cortex Functions

• planning
• self-control
• decision making
• predicting consequences

Teen Brain

Amygdala more active than PFC →
• impulsive behaviour
• emotional reactions
• risky decisions

Attachment

Deep emotional bond between infant and caregiver.

Forms within first 6 months.

Attachment Theory

• universal
• innate
• biological
• improves survival

Sensitive period = first year.

Extraneous Variables

Unwanted influences.

Types:
• participant
• environment
• researcher

Confounding variable

Extraneous variable affecting results unevenly.

Creates alternative explanation.

Convenience Sampling

Easiest participants.

• quick
  − biased

Snowball Sampling

Participants recruit others.

Useful for hard-to-find groups.

Stratified Sampling

Divide into groups then randomly sample proportionally.

Best representation.

Ethic Principles

• protection from harm
• informed consent
• withdrawal rights
• deception
• confidentiality
• privacy
• voluntary participation
• debriefing

Confidentiality

How information is stored

Privacy

What information collected