Lifespan Psychology Notes

Lifespan Psychology

Chapter Overview

• Lifespan Psychology
• Introduction to Life Span, Growth, and Development
• The Cohort Effect
• Culture
• Periods of Development
• Research Methods
• Life Stages
• 49 Up
• Meet Neil

Introduction to Life Span, Growth, and Development

• The study of how and why people change or remain the same over time, often referred to as the "womb to tomb" course.
• Human development is interdisciplinary, involving psychologists, nutritionists, sociologists, anthropologists, educators, and health care professionals.
• Examines physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes over time.

Goals of the Discipline:

1. Describing Change: Studies involving description (e.g., Arnold Gesell’s study on infant motor skills).
2. Explaining Changes: Theories explaining why we change over time (e.g., Erikson’s explanation of a two-year-old's temperament).

Types of Change:

• Physical Change: How our bodies change over time.
• Cognitive Change: How our ability to think and remember changes (e.g., differences in thinking between 6, 16, and 46-year-olds).
• Psychosocial Change: Changes in emotions, psychological concerns, and social relationships (e.g., Erikson’s stages of development).
• Our journeys are shaped by culture, history, economic and political realities, as well as physical change.

Importance of Perspective

• Gaining perspective by comparing experiences with others through cross-cultural and historical comparisons.
• Discussing current concerns such as nutrition of children in different countries (e.g., middle-class boy in the US with Pediatric Type II diabetes vs. malnutrition in Ethiopia due to drought).
• Being self-conscious can enhance critical thinking and open new courses of action.
• Knowing about other people and their circumstances enhances social skills.

New Assumptions and Understandings

• Academic knowledge of the life span has changed, with increasing attention to adulthood, especially with the baby boomer generation entering late adulthood.
• Classic stage theorists like Freud, Erikson, and Piaget presented models of development in predictable stages.
• Stage theories had appeal but also costs; those who did not develop predictably were considered delayed or abnormal.
• Freudian interpretations of childhood problems, like autism, blamed poor parenting.
• Freud and Piaget’s stages end during adolescence, while Erikson presents eight stages encompassing the entire lifespan.
• Erikson is known as the "father" of developmental psychology, and his psychosocial theory is foundational.
• Today, there is greater awareness of variations in development and the impact of culture and environment.
• Growth and change continue throughout life, and experience impacts who we are and how we relate to others.
• Adulthood is a dynamic period marked by continued cognitive, social, and psychological development.

Who Studies Human Development?

• Many academic disciplines contribute to the study of life span, including health care, anthropology, nutrition, child development, biology, gerontology, psychology, and sociology.

Contexts

• People are best understood in context, influenced by when and where we live.
• Sternberg describes “contextual” intelligence as understanding what is called for in a situation.
• Behaviors, motivations, emotions, and choices are part of a bigger picture shaped by social climate and realities.
• Social locations include cohort, social class, gender, race, ethnicity, and age.

The Cohort Effect

• A cohort is a group of people born at roughly the same period in a particular society, sharing histories and contexts for living.
• Cohort members experience the same historic events and cultural climates, impacting their values, priorities, and goals.
• Historic contexts shape life choices, motivations, and assessments of success or failure.
• Examples of cohort labels: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation M.

Socioeconomic Status

• Socioeconomic status (SES) identifies families and households based on shared levels of education, income, and occupation.
• Members of a social class tend to share similar lifestyles, consumption patterns, parenting styles, stressors, and religious preferences.

Model of Social Class Based on Socioeconomic Status:

1. Upper Class:
   • Approximately 1% of the population.
   • After-tax annual family income between $200,000$ to $750,000$.
   • Subdivided into "upper-upper" (old money) and "lower-upper" (new money) categories.
   • Old money involves money from investments or inheritance, associated with polish and sophistication.
   • New money involves fortunes made in sports, media, or entrepreneurship, sometimes flaunted.
2. Upper Middle Class:
   • Approximately 14% of the population.
   • Income levels between $100,000$ and $200,000$ annually.
   • Hold professional degrees, paid for education and expertise.
   • White-collar workers with autonomy and control over their occupations.
   • Sense of autonomy is a key factor in job satisfaction, happiness, health, and well-being.
3. Middle Class:
   • Approximately 30% of the population.
   • Work in lower-paying white-collar jobs such as teaching, nursing, or lower-level management.
   • Income typically ranges between $25,000$ and $75,000$ annually.
   • Take on substantial debt to acquire homes, vehicles, healthcare, and travel.
   • Average credit card debt in American households is $8,000$.
   • Carrying debt can be stressful and have negative effects on health and social well-being.
4. Working Class:
   • Approximately 30% of Americans.
   • Work in occupations such as retail, clerical, or factory jobs.
   • Routine jobs with less formal education required than white-collar jobs.
   • Subject to plant closings, lower pay, and more frequent lay-offs.
   • Fewer workers contributing to family income, impacting health care.
   • Social class differences extend beyond financial concerns; working-class parents emphasize obedience, honesty, and conformity, while middle-class parents value independence, initiative, and self-reliance (Melvin Kohn, 1977).
5. Working Poor:
   • Approximately 20% of Americans.
   • Live near the poverty level and hold seasonal or temporary jobs as unskilled laborers.
   • Experience problems impacting development.
6. Underclass:
   • Approximately 5% of Americans.
   • Temporary workers, part-time workers, the chronically unemployed or underemployed.
   • May receive governmental assistance and tend to be looked down upon by other members of society.
   • High unemployment rates can reduce stigma but still cause stress.
   • Many are children or disabled.
   • Approximately 3.5 million homeless people in the United States, 1.5 million of them are children.

Other Consequences of Poverty

• Poverty level is an income amount based on the "thrifty food plan" that allows one-third of income for food.
• Living at or near poverty level can make sustaining a household extremely difficult, often resulting in buying cheaper, less nutritious foods.
• Associated with poorer health and a lower life expectancy due to poorer diet, less healthcare, greater stress, dangerous occupations, higher infant mortality rates, poorer prenatal care, greater iron deficiencies, and greater difficulties in school.
• The poor may have greater concerns over losing housing than the middle class losing status.
• The poor are more likely to eat or smoke in response to stress, while the middle class uses shopping or travel (Seccombe and Warner, 2004).

Culture

• Culture is a blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live.
• Includes ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, and what is valued.
• Culture teaches us how to live in a society and allows each generation to benefit from previous generations' solutions.
• Traditions and values help members function in their own society and value it.
• Ethnocentrism is the belief that our own culture is superior, which can inhibit understanding of other cultures.
• Cultural relativity is an appreciation for cultural differences and understanding that cultural practices are best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture.
• Understanding development requires being able to identify which features of development are culturally based.

Cultural Examples:

• Erikson’s assumption that teenagers struggle with identity assumes a society with many options, which is not the case worldwide.
• Cultural responses to menstruation vary: in the U.S., girls receive information and hygiene products, while in Africa, lack of sanitary towels causes many girls to miss school.

Periods of Development

• Developmentalists break the life span into nine stages:

1. Prenatal Development
2. Infancy and Toddlerhood
3. Early Childhood
4. Middle Childhood
5. Adolescence
6. Early Adulthood
7. Middle Adulthood
8. Late Adulthood
9. Death and Dying

Stage Overviews:

1. Prenatal Development: Conception occurs and development begins, with the mother's health of primary concern.
2. Infancy and Toddlerhood: The first year and a half to two years involve dramatic growth and change.
3. Early Childhood: The preschool years (3-5 years old) involve learning language, gaining a sense of self and independence, and understanding the physical world.
4. Middle Childhood: Ages 6-11, connected to involvement in early grades of school, learning and testing academic skills.
5. Adolescence: Dramatic physical change marked by growth spurt and sexual maturation (puberty), as well as cognitive changes.
6. Early Adulthood: Twenties and thirties, a time of physiological peak but also risk for violent crimes and substance abuse, focusing on future choices.
7. Middle Adulthood: Late thirties through mid-sixties, aging becomes more noticeable, peak of productivity, gaining expertise.
8. Late Adulthood: Increased in length in the last 100 years, subdivided into “young old” (65-79) and “old old” (80+).
   • Young old are similar to midlife adults, while old old face increased risks of diseases.
   • Diversity is better appreciated by examining optimal, normal, or impaired aging.
9. Death and Dying: Examination of physical, psychological, and social aspects of death, grief, and cultural variations in mourning.

Research Methods

• Science involves continuously renewing our understanding of subjects and investigating how and why events occur.
• In development, changes occur in recommendations for nutrition, explanations of psychological states, and parenting advice.

Personal Knowledge

• Based on experiential reality (own history) or agreement reality (what others have told you or cultural ideas).
• Problems with personal inquiry include the tendency to see what we believe; assumptions guide perceptions.
• Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for evidence that we are right while ignoring contradictory evidence.
• $Popper$ suggests that science is falsifiable, involving rejecting or refuting theories.

Scientific Methods

• Systematic way to make comparisons and guard against bias.
• Techniques include random sampling to avoid sampling bias, ensuring all members have an equal chance of being selected.

Steps in Scientific Investigation:

1. Determining a research question
2. Reviewing previous studies (literature review)
3. Determining a method of gathering information
4. Conducting the study
5. Interpreting results
6. Drawing conclusions; stating limitations and suggestions for future research
7. Making findings available to others

Qualitative Research:

1. Begin with a broad area of interest
2. Gain entrance into a group to be researched
3. Gather field notes
4. Ask open-ended questions
5. Modify research questions as study continues
6. Note patterns or consistencies
7. Explore new areas deemed important by participants
8. Report findings

• Theoretical ideas are grounded in the experiences of the participants.
• Researchers are aware of their biases and assumptions.

Types of Studies:

1. Descriptive Studies: Focus on describing an occurrence (e.g., "How much time do parents spend with children?").
2. Explanatory Studies: Answer the question “why” (e.g., "Why have rates of divorce leveled off?").
3. Evaluation Research: Designed to assess the effectiveness of policies or programs.