Lifespan Development

PSYCHOLOGY - Chapter 9 LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

Introduction to Lifespan Development

• Lifespan development explores how individuals change and remain constant throughout their lives.

  • Key Questions:

  • How have you changed since childhood?

  • How similar are you to your childhood self?

  • Speculations about future selves 25 and 50 years from now.

Developmental Psychology

• Definition: Developmental psychology is the scientific study of development across a lifespan.

• Focus Areas:

  1. Physical Development: Growth and changes in body, brain, senses, motor skills, and health.

  2. Cognitive Development: Processes such as learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.

  3. Psychosocial Development: Involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.

• These domains will be referenced throughout the chapter.

Normative Approach

• Norms: What is considered normal development?

• Normative psychologists study a large number of children to establish norms for developmental milestones, including:

  • Crawling, walking, writing, dressing, naming colors, speaking in sentences, starting puberty.

• Purpose of Norms: To serve as guidelines for comparing children with same-age peers.

Models of Development

• Continuous Development: Represents growth as a smooth progression.

• Discontinuous Development: Characterized by growth in distinct stages.

• Figures: Illustrations will include comparisons of continuous vs. discontinuous development.

Universality in Development

• Debate: Is development universal for all children, or unique to each individual?

  • Do cultural and genetic factors significantly influence child behavior?

  • Stage Theories: Suggest that developmental sequences are shared across cultures, e.g., language milestones.

  • Cultural Variations: Although some milestones are consistent (e.g., babbling occurs typically around the same age), motor development may vary by culture based on practices that either accelerate or delay milestones.

Example: Aché Society in Paraguay

• Traditional child-rearing practices:

  • Aché mothers carry their children, which affects the developmental timeline.

  • Aché children walk around 23-25 months while Western children do so around 12 months.

  • By age 9, Aché children may surpass U.S. peers in certain motor skills, highlighting the influence of cultural contexts on development.

Nature vs. Nurture Debate

• Central Question: Are traits and personalities primarily influenced by biology (nature) or environment and culture (nurture)?

• Inquiry includes:

  • The influence of genetics vs. early childhood environment on behaviors and traits.

Achievement Gap

• Definition: Persistent differences in academic performance between various ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups in terms of grades, test scores, and graduation rates.

• Findings indicate that socioeconomic status significantly affects development and academic achievement.

  • Low-income children face numerous educational disadvantages:

  • Lower standardized test scores

  • Higher rates of school dropout

  • Lower college entrance rates

• Problems often begin before formal schooling starts.

Early Developmental Gap

• Research shows that middle- and high-income parents engage more with their children than low-income parents.

  • At age 3, high-income children recognize almost double the number of words compared to their low-income peers.

  • High-income children score 60% higher on achievement tests before entering kindergarten.

Interventions to Address Gap

• University of Chicago Programs: Encourage richer language interactions at home and design inclusive preschools:

  • Children from various socioeconomic backgrounds learning together showed significant improvements in language skills.

Psychosexual Theory of Development (Sigmund Freud)

• Central Tenets:

  1. Personality is shaped in early childhood.

  2. Development is discontinuous, passing through a series of stages.

  3. Development involves fixation if not nurtured properly.

  4. Five stages of psychosexual development:

  • Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital.

• Freud's ideas are largely unsupported today, but the role of childhood experiences in shaping personality remains valid.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages Table

Psychosocial Theory of Development (Erik Erikson)

• Overview: Personality develops throughout the lifespan through social interactions.

  • Each of Erikson's eight developmental stages poses a crisis or conflict central to identity formation.

• The successful resolution of these crises leads to a sense of competence and a healthy personality.

  • Failure results in feelings of inadequacy.

Erikson’s Developmental Stages

Cognitive Development Overview (Jean Piaget)

• Perspective: Cognitive abilities develop through specific, discrete stages characterized by significant shifts in thinking and reasoning.

• Children develop schemata (mental models) to understand and categorize the world, evolving through:

  1. Assimilation: Integrating new information into existing schemata.

  2. Accommodation: Altering schemata based on new information.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Beyond Formal Operational Thought

• Critical viewpoints suggest Piaget's model may be overly simplistic; supports a more continuous development model.

• Critics propose a potential fifth stage called Postformal Thought, where decision-making is contextual and incorporates emotions and experiences.

• Adult problem-solving incorporates deeper thinking about personal life events, relationships, and societal roles.

Moral Development (Kohlberg)

• Moral reasoning progresses through three levels:

  1. Preconventional Morality: Focuses on self-interest and outcomes.

  2. Conventional Morality: Emphasizes societal norms and expectations.

  3. Postconventional Morality: Involves higher reasoning based on abstract principles.

• Example moral dilemma involving Heinz offers insight into complex moral reasoning and illustrates the nuances of moral decision-making.

Prenatal Development Overview

• Stages of Prenatal Development:

  1. Germinal Stage (Weeks 1-2): Formation of zygote; initial cell division and specialization.

  2. Embryonic Stage (Weeks 3-8): Heartbeat begins; development of basic structures via the placenta.

  3. Fetal Stage (Weeks 9-40): Fetus develops; all organ systems mature; brain undergoes significant growth.

• Teratogens: Environmental agents impacting fetal development adversely, with notable examples such as fetal alcohol syndrome.

INFANCY THROUGH CHILDHOOD Developmental Changes

• Reflexes in Newborns: Automatic responses crucial for survival, such as the rooting and sucking reflexes.

• Milestones of Physical Development: Rapid growth observed; newborns triple weight within a year.

• Motor Skills Development: Progression through fine and gross motor skills; developmental milestones are crucial for assessing growth and development.

• Cognitive Milestones: Recognition of object permanence occurs around 12 months; increasing complexity in language use and cognitive skills during preschool years.

Attachment Theory

• Attachment shapes the bond between parent and child:

  1. John Bowlby: Attachments form essential bonds necessary for normal development.

  2. Mary Ainsworth: Identified different attachment styles through the Strange Situation procedure (secure, avoidant, resistant,
     disorganized)

• Parenting Styles: Variations significantly influence attachment and developmental outcomes:

  • Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, and their impacts on child development.

Adolescence Development

• Physical Development: Characteristic physical changes during puberty; varies significantly by individual.

• Cognitive Development: Transition to complex abstract thought; critical self-identity formation.

• Psychosocial Development: Central to identity questions; peer relationships become paramount.

Adulthood Stages

• Divided into early, middle, and late adulthood:

  • Variations in physical and cognitive development during these times, with particular focus on the psychosocial aspects contributing to well-being and fulfillment.

Death and Dying (Kübler-Ross)

• Stages of grief proposed include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance; understanding variability among individual experiences with these stages.

Conclusion

• Lifespan development involves numerous interacting factors influencing physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth and the development principles are applicable throughout various stages of life, highlighting the interplay of nature and nurture in shaping human experience.