Lifespan Development Flashcards

Introduction to Lifespan Development

• Developmental Psychology (Human Development/Lifespan Development): Scientific study of how people change and stay the same from conception to death.

  • Examines change across physical/psychophysiological processes, cognition, language, and psychosocial development (family/peer impact).

  • Expanded from infants/children to include adolescence, aging, and the entire lifespan.

  • Adulthood is now recognized as a dynamic period of cognitive, social, and psychological development.

  • Early childhood experiences do not solely dictate future; growth and change continue throughout life.

• Key Questions in Developmental Psychology:

  • Are children qualitatively different from adults?

  • Does development occur through gradual accumulation or distinct stages?

  • Are children born with innate knowledge or learn through experience?

  • Is development driven by social context or internal factors?

• Relationship to Other Fields:

  • Informs educational psychology, psychopathology, and forensic developmental psychology.

  • Complements social psychology, cognitive psychology, and comparative psychology.

  • Draws from biology, sociology, healthcare, nutrition, and anthropology.

Lifespan Perspective

• Paul Baltes' Principles of Lifespan Perspective:

  • Development is lifelong: Change is apparent across the lifespan; no single age is more crucial.

  • Development is multidirectional: Gains in some areas, losses in others; every change entails both growth and loss.

  • Development is multidimensional: Changes across physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains, which influence each other.

Domains of Development

• Physical Domain:

  • Changes in height, weight, sensory capabilities, nervous system.

  • Propensity for disease and illness.

• Cognitive Domain:

  • Changes in intelligence, wisdom, perception, problem-solving, memory, and language.

• Psychosocial Domain:

  • Changes in emotion, self-perception, and interpersonal relationships (family, peers, friends).

Influences on Development

• Development is multidisciplinary: Requires theories, research methods, and knowledge from many academic disciplines.

• Development is characterized by plasticity: Ability to change; many characteristics are malleable (e.g., brain's ability to learn/recover).

• Development is multicontextual: Occurs in many contexts.

  • Baltes' three contextual influences:

    • Normative age-graded influences: Specific age groups share experiences and developmental changes (e.g., toddler, adolescent, senior).

    • Normative history-graded influences: Time period of birth shapes experiences; cohorts experience similar circumstances (see Table 1.1).

      • Generation cohorts and their birth years:

        • Silent Generation: 1928-1945

        • Baby Boomers: 1946-1964

        • Generation X: 1965-1980

        • Millennials: 1981-1996

        • Generation Z: 1997-Present

    • Non-normative life influences: Unique experiences that shape development (e.g., losing a parent at a young age).

    • Socioeconomic status (SES): Identifies families based on education, income, and occupation.

      • Members of a social class share similar lifestyles, consumption patterns, parenting styles, stressors, religious preferences.

      • Higher SES: Occupations offer better pay, freedom, and control, leading to job satisfaction, happiness, and well-being.

      • Lower SES: Occupations are routine, heavily supervised, with less education, and subject to job disruptions.

      • Poverty level: Income below government threshold, leading to poorer health, lower life expectancy, poorer diet, less healthcare, greater stress.

Culture and Development

• Culture: Shared language, knowledge, material objects, and behavior.

  • Includes beliefs about right/wrong, values, emotions, traditions.

  • Learned from parents, schools, media, friends.

  • Ethnocentrism: Belief that one's own culture is superior.

  • Cultural relativity: Appreciation for cultural differences, understanding practices from the culture's standpoint.

Lifespan vs. Life Expectancy

• Lifespan (longevity): Length of time a species can exist under optimal conditions.

  • Example: Jean Calment lived to 122 years, 5 months, 14 days.

• Life expectancy: Predicted years a person born in a particular time period can reasonably expect to live.

Conceptions of Age

• Chronological age: Years since birth.

• Biological age: How quickly the body is aging; determined by nutrition, activity, sleep, smoking, stress, genetics.

• Psychological age: Adaptive capacity compared to others of chronological age; includes cognitive capacity and emotional beliefs about age.

• Social age: Based on social norms and cultural expectations for an age group.

  • Less relevant in the 21st century as social milestones are changing.

Periods of Development

• Prenatal Development: Conception to birth; major body structures form, maternal health is primary concern.

• Infancy and Toddlerhood: First two years; dramatic growth and change.

• Early Childhood: Two to six years (preschool years); language learning, gaining independence, learning about the physical world.

• Middle and Late Childhood: Six to puberty; involvement in early grades of school, learning academic skills, comparing oneself to others.

• Adolescence: Puberty to 18; physical and cognitive change (abstract thinking); sense of invincibility.

• Emerging Adulthood: 18 to 25; transition between adolescence and adulthood; identity exploration.

• Early Adulthood: Twenties and thirties; intimate relationships, establishing families, work.

• Middle Adulthood: Forties to mid-sixties; aging becomes noticeable, peak of productivity.

• Late Adulthood: Mid-sixties onward; young-old (65-84) and oldest-old (85+); increased risk of diseases.

Issues in Lifespan Development

• Nature and Nurture: Heredity vs. environmental factors.

  • Debate on the importance of each; most agree on interplay between the two.

• Continuity versus Discontinuity: Gradual process vs. abrupt change.

  • Stage theories (Freud, Erikson, Piaget, Kohlberg) assume discontinuous development.

  • Behaviorists, Vygotsky, and information processing theorists assume continuous development.

• Active versus Passive: Role in one's developmental path.

  • Piaget believed children actively explore their world.

  • Behaviorists view humans as more passive.

• Stability versus Change: Similarity to childhood self.

  • Some theorists argue personality traits are rooted in childhood tendencies.

  • Others believe initial tendencies are modified over time.

Historical Theories on Development

• Preformationist View: Children were thought of as little adults with abilities unfolding on a predetermined schedule. Environment was thought to have no affect.

• John Locke (1632-1704):

  • Refuted innate knowledge; children shaped by social environments/education.

  • Mind as a tabula rasa (blank slate); environment exerts effects through associations, repetition, imitation, rewards, and punishments.

  • Laid groundwork for behavioral perspective and learning theories.

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778):

  • Children develop according to a natural plan in different stages.

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

  • Focus on biological maturation; considered the father of developmental psychology.

• Arnold Gesell (1880-1961):

  • Child's development activated by genes (maturation).

  • Development unfolds in fixed sequences; opposed teaching ahead of schedule.

• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939):

  • Early childhood experiences shape personality and behavior.

  • Instincts transformed into socially acceptable behaviors.

  • Personality formed during first few years of life.

Contemporary Theories on Development

• Erik Erikson (1902-1994) and Psychosocial Theory:

  • Eight developmental stages encompassing entire lifespan.

  • Social relationships foster development rather than sexuality.

  • Each life period has a unique challenge/crisis (psychosocial crises).

• Erikson's Psychosocial Stages:

  • Age range Psychosocial crisis Positive resolution of crisis

  • Birth to 12 to 18 months Trust versus Mistrust The child develops a feeling of trust in caregivers.

  • 18 months to 3 years Autonomy versus Shame/Doubt The child learns what can and cannot be controlled and develops a sense of free will.

  • 3 to 6 years Initiative versus Guilt The child learns to become independent by exploring, manipulating, and taking action.

  • 6 to 12 years Industry versus Inferiority The child learns to do things well or correctly according to standards set by others, particularly in school.

  • 12 to 18 years Identity versus Role Confusion The adolescent develops a well-defined and positive sense of self in relationship to others.

  • 19 to 40 years Intimacy versus Isolation The person develops the ability to give and receive love and to make long-term commitments.

  • 40 to 65 years Generativity versus Stagnation The person develops an interest in guiding the development of the next generation, often by becoming a parent.

  • 65 to death Ego Integrity versus Despair The person develops acceptance of how one has lived.

  • Successful development involves resolving each crisis positively.

  • Criticisms: Focus on crises, assumes completion of one crisis is prerequisite for the next, focuses on social expectations in certain cultures.

• Learning Theory (Behaviorism):

  • Focus on study of behavior, not the mind.

  • B. F. Skinner: Principles of behaviorism, stimulus and response, rewards/reinforcements.

  • Contributions: Principles of learning, nature-nurture debate, free will.

• Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura):

  • Learning by watching others (modeling).

  • Reciprocal determinism: Interplay between environment and individual.

  • Bandura, Ross and Ross (1963): Impact of television violence on children's behavior.

• Cognitive Theory:

  • Focus on how mental processes change over time.

  • Jean Piaget: Children's intelligence differs from adults, maturation brings about change.

  • Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development:

    • Stage Approximate age range Characteristics Stage attainments

    • Sensorimotor Birth to about 2 years Children experience the world through their fundamental senses of seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting. Object permanence

    • Preoperational 2 to 7 years 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. Theory of mind; rapid increase in language ability

    • Concrete operational 7 to 11 years Children become able to think logically. They can increasingly perform operations on objects that are real. Conservation

    • Formal operational 11 years to adulthood Adolescents can think systematically, can reason about abstract concepts, and can understand ethics and scientific reasoning. Abstract logic

  • Criticisms: Overemphasizes physical maturation, underestimates culture/experience, considerable overlap among stages.

• Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934):

  • Sociocultural theory: Importance of culture and interaction in cognitive abilities.

  • Zone of proximal development: Potential abilities realized with guidance.

• Information Processing:

  • How individuals perceive, analyze, use, and remember information.

  • Continuous development; humans gradually improve in processing skills.

  • Brain maturation and environmental interactions aid in development.

• Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005):

  • Ecological Systems Theory: Framework for understanding the many influences on human development.

  • Microsystem: immediate environment/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.

Research Methods

• Scientific Method: Procedures to keep questioning alive while describing, explaining, or testing phenomena.

• Research Design: Method to collect, analyze, and interpret data.

  • Descriptive research, correlational research, experimental research.

• Descriptive Research:

  • Describes what is occurring at a particular point in time.

  • Case Study: Descriptive records of one or a small group of individuals’ experiences and behavior.

  • Observations:

    • Naturalistic: Observe and record behavior in everyday settings.

    • Laboratory: Conducted in a setting created by the researcher.

  • Survey: Verbal or written questionnaire to get a picture of beliefs or behaviors.

  • Interviews: Directly questioning participants.

  • Psychophysiological Assessment: Record psychophysiological data (e.g., heart rate, hormone levels, brain activity).

  • Secondary/Content Analysis: Analyzing information that has already been collected.

• Correlational Research:

  • Measurement of two or more relevant variables and an assessment of the relationship between or among those variables.

  • Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r): Measures the strength of linear relationships among variables (ranges from -1.00 to +1.00).
    r = –1.00 to r = +1.00

    phi = (ad - bc) / sqrt((a + b)(c + d)(a + c)(b + d))

    a: Both variables are present (e.g., both are yes).

  • b: Variable 1 is present, but Variable 2 is absent (e.g., yes and no).

  • c: Variable 1 is absent, but Variable 2 is present (e.g., no and yes).

  • d: Neither variable is present (e.g., both are no).

  • Strength: Indexed by the distance of the correlation coefficient from zero (its absolute value).

  • + values indicate that the relationship is positive.

  • - values indicate indicate negative relationships.

  • An important limitation of correlational research designs is that they cannot be used to draw conclusions about the causal relationships among the measured variables.

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

• Experimental Research:

  • To provide more definitive conclusions about the causal relationships among the variables in a research hypothesis.

  • Manipulates one or more variables to see their effects.

  • Independent variable: Variable that is created or manipulated by the experimenter.

  • Dependent variable: Variable that is expected to be influenced by the experimental manipulation.

  • At least two groups that are compared (experimental and control).

Research Involving Time-Spans

• Cross-sectional research: Compares samples that represent a cross-section of the population who vary in age. In cross-sectional research, respondents are measured only once.

• Longitudinal research: Involves studying a group of people who are the same age, and measuring them repeatedly over a period-of-time.

• Sequential research: Includes elements of both longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs.

Conducting Ethical Research

• Guiding Principles:

  • No Harm: Prevent harm to research participants.

  • Informed Consent: Explain the true nature of the study.

  • Confidentiality: Protect the privacy of participants.

  • Deception: Only used when necessary and justified.

  • Debriefing: Explain purposes and procedures and remove any harmful aftereffects.