Chapter 5 Lecture Part 1

Developmental Psychology

Definition of Development

• Development refers to change over time.
• Developmental themes involve changes in characteristics over time.
• The primary focus is often on childhood.

Developmental Changes and Age

• Developmental changes significantly occur until around age 25.
• Cognitive deficits may start in a person's fifties for some, while others may not experience them until their seventies.

Financial Planning

• Financial planning includes setting aside money during working years (e.g., 401ks, 503bs) to use during retirement.
• Unlike pensions, 401ks or 503bs deplete when the money runs out.

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy)

• Basic conflict: developing a sense of trust or mistrust.
• Important event: feeding.
• If needs are met promptly and responsively, the individual develops trust in others.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Early Childhood: 2-3 years)

• Important event: toilet training.
• Focus: developing a sense of autonomy versus shame and doubt.
• Toilet training occurs earlier or later depending on cultural factors.

Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool: 3-5 years)

• Focus: exploration and environmental mastery.
• Environmental mastery: navigating complex environments and accomplishing goals.

Industry vs. Inferiority (School Age)

• Focus: thriving in a school environment and enjoying the accomplishment of acquiring primary skills.
• Connection and communication serve as a transition point.
• The expression "terrible twos" exemplifies frustration due to an inability to express oneself.

Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence)

• Proximity seeking: preferring to be around friends more than parents.
• Turning to friends for handling stress.
• Goal: existential authenticity and understanding one's true self.

Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood: 19-40)

• Focus: building personal relationships.
• Conflict: intimacy vs. isolation.
• Building intimate relationships that last.
• Raising a family.

Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood)

• Focus: creating something that will have permanence versus stagnation.

Integrity vs. Despair (Maturity: 65+)

• Achieving maturity.
• Hovering over a child at all times present (helicopter parenting).
• Clearing obstacles for the child (lawnmower parenting).

Theories of Development

Maturational and Biological

• Focus on inherited biological characteristics and how they're unlocked over time.
• Deterministic view based on biological factors.

Psychoanalytic

• Rooted in Freudian views.
• Humans are conflicted beings with internal conflicts.
• Development involves resolving internal conflicts.
• Focus on instincts, needs, and need satisfaction.

Behavioral

• Development shaped by laws and principles of learning.

Cognitive

• Focus on information acquisition, storage, and retrieval.
• Children develop cognitive skills over time.
• Thinking changes qualitatively over time.
• Qualitative Changes: New stages of development with different abilities and perspectives.
• Quantitative Changes: Incremental increases in knowledge or skill.

Resiliency

• Resiliency is a major area of research in developmental psychology.
• Focus on children in high-risk environments thriving despite adversity.

Controversy

• Some viewed resiliency research as minimizing the impact of trauma.

Key Points

• Adverse experiences do not determine life outcomes.
• Resiliency means bouncing back from negative events.