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Lifespan Development - Video Lecture Flashcards (Vocabulary Style)

Experimental Designs and Measurement

  • Study 1 (Page 1): Diet comparison
    • IV: type of diet (low-fat vs. low-carb vs. usual eating)
    • DV: weight change after 8 weeks
    • Design: participants assigned to one of three groups; weight change measured after 8 weeks
  • Study 2 (Page 1): Note-taking modality and learning
    • IV: method of note taking (handwritten vs. computer typing)
    • DV: learning outcome / score on a multiple-choice test
    • Design: participants listen to a recorded lecture, take notes by one method, then take the test; comparison of scores
  • Study 3 (Page 1): Candy motivation in class participation
    • IV: candy provided for participation (present in class 1, absent in class 2)
    • DV: rate of participation
    • Design: two class conditions with manipulation of incentive
  • Study 4 (Page 1): Use of phone before bed and sleep onset
    • IV: use of phone 30 minutes before sleep (yes vs. no)
    • DV: time to fall asleep
    • Design: sleep lab with explicit time-to-sleep measurement
  • Core idea
    • Variables: IVs (independent variables) are manipulated to observe effects on DVs (dependent variables)
    • Purpose: understand causal relationships between behaviors, practices, or conditions and outcomes

Course Logistics (Things coming up)

  • Chapter 2 quiz: Friday 9/12
  • Exam 1: 9/15–9/17
  • Sign up requirement: RegisterBlast
  • Testing center hours: 10:00 ext{am} - 6:00 ext{pm}
  • Flex day: 9/16
  • Review day for the exam
  • Attendance bonus: +2 points extra credit
  • Personal Reflection 1 due: Tuesday 9/16
    • 2 options: see assignment details on Canvas

Lifespan Development: Big Questions

  • Central question: How do we develop throughout our lives?

Core Topics in Lifespan Development

  • Where does information about human development come from?
  • How does the body develop over time?
  • How does thinking change over time?
  • How and why are relationships important in development?
  • What is the bigger picture?

Sources of Information About Development

  • Types of Research (abstract framework for exploration):
    • Descriptive: e.g., describe social media use among teens by surveying parents and teens on habits
    • Correlational: e.g., is time spent on social media related to depression in teens?
    • Experimental: e.g., assign teens to spend time on social media vs. another activity and assess mood

Research Designs

  • Longitudinal design
  • Cross-sectional design

Cross-Sectional Studies (Studies of Change Across Ages)

  • Examines different age groups at one point in time
  • Pros: allows comparison across many age groups; can collect large amounts of data quickly
  • Cons/Limitations: confounds age effects with cohort effects; cannot directly observe development within individuals
  • Note: Pretty much all experiments fall in this category (in many textbooks)

Longitudinal Studies (Tracking Over Time)

  • Track the same individuals over an extended period
  • Pros: greater confidence that observed changes reflect development rather than cohort effects
  • Cons/Limitations:
    • Logistical: attrition, losing contact with participants; long tracking time
    • Cost: time and resources are high
    • Ethical: hard to ethically control aspects of people’s lives over long periods; experiments become impractical

Human Body Development Over Time

  • Stages: Prenatal period, infancy, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood
  • Key transitions: growth, brain development, hormonal changes, aging-related changes

Prenatal Development: Timeline and Stages

  • Prenatal period: conception to birth
  • Key terms:
    • Zygote: fertilized egg cell; first two weeks
    • Embryo: from 2nd to 8th week; brain, internal organs, limbs develop; placenta forms; neural tube forms (becomes brain and spinal cord)
    • Fetus: from 8th week to birth
  • Formation of three germ layers: ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm
  • Neural tube development; early brain formation
  • Prenatal brain development: neuron formation and migration; synapse formation; synaptic pruning begins closer to birth; hindbrain and midbrain develop first; cerebral cortex develops in middle to late pregnancy; major development in 3rd trimester
  • Key reference: image illustrating prenatal brain development

Prenatal Brain Development in Depth

  • Neurons form in neural tube and migrate to form brain regions
  • Synapse formation begins early; pruning begins closer to birth
  • Sequence of brain areas development: primitive hindbrain and midbrain first; cerebral cortex develops later in pregnancy; ongoing maturation through birth

Physical Development: Timeline Across the Lifespan

  • Infancy (0–1 year): major motor skills development
  • Childhood (1–11 years): motor development, increase in body size
  • Adolescence (12–20 years): puberty, brain development; major neural and hormonal changes including myelination; corpus callosum development
  • Early adulthood (20s–30s): peak physical strength and functioning
  • Middle adulthood (40s–50s): hormonal changes, weight gain, loss of muscle mass; menopause
  • Late adulthood (60+): gradual declines in vision, hearing, strength, reaction time; by mid-70s notable declines in several domains

Early Motor Development Milestones

  • Typical locomotor milestones (timeline chart shows months from 0 to 22):
    • Prone: lifts head
    • Prone: chest up, arm support
    • Rolls over
    • Bears some weight on legs
    • Sits without support
    • Stands holding on
    • Pulls self to stand
    • Walks holding onto furniture
    • Stands well alone
    • Walks well alone
    • Walks up steps
  • Note: developmental milestones are commonly presented as a sequence with approximate age windows

How Thinking Changes Over Time

  • Foundational theories to study cognitive development:
    • Freud’s Psychosexual Theory (not fully accepted today but foundational)
    • Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development
    • Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
    • Information Processing Theory
    • Language Development studied separately but integrated with cognitive development

Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development

  • Stages and zinger points:
    • Oral Stage: Birth to 1 year; Erogenous Zone: Mouth
    • Anal Stage: 1–3 years; Erogenous Zone: Bowel/Bladder Control
    • Phallic Stage: 3–6 years; Erogenous Zone: Genitals
    • Latent Stage: 6 years to puberty; Libido is inactive
    • Genital Stage: Puberty to death; Maturing sexual interests
  • Note: Emphasizes the role of early experiences and erogenous zones in personality development

Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Four main stages:
    • Sensorimotor Stage: Birth–2 years
    • Preoperational Stage: 2–7 years
    • Concrete Operational Stage: 7–11 years
    • Formal Operational Stage: 12 years and older

Sensorimotor Stage (Birth–2 years)

  • Characteristics: sensory and motor development, reflexes, mental representation, object permanence (develops around 8 ext{ months})

Preoperational Stage (2–7 years)

  • Characteristics: language development, imaginary play, egocentrism, errors in logic
  • Notable features: rapid language expansion; symbolic thought; pretend play

Concrete Operational Stage (7–11 years)

  • Characteristics: logical reasoning about concrete events, development of conservation, able to think logically about concrete concepts
  • Limitation: can struggle with abstract thinking

Formal Operational Stage (12+ years)

  • Characteristics: abstract thinking, hypothetical reasoning
  • Examples: logical puzzles and hypothetical scenarios (e.g., determining tallest person under given conditions)

Post-Formal Thought (Adulthood)

  • Moral reasoning beyond pure logic; tolerance for ambiguity; recognition that issues are not strictly good or bad; nuanced thinking

Piaget’s Stages: Quick Concept Check

  • Task: Identify a stage, describe major cognitive skills, age range, and suggest an age-appropriate toy or activity that supports the emerging skill

Examples: Toys and Cognitive Development (Illustrative Toy Groups)

  • Sensorimotor/Preoperational toy ideas and examples used in class exercises
  • Preoperational toys: Candy Land; Alphabet Bingo; Zingo!; pretend play sets
  • Concrete Operational toys: STEM kits; geography-themed games; building sets; LEGO; crafts
  • Note: Toy/activity examples are used to illustrate skill development in different stages

Sociocultural Theory: Vygotsky and Scaffolding

  • Core idea: social interaction and guided participation are essential for cognitive development
  • Scaffolding: what a child cannot do alone, what the child can do with help, and what the child can do independently
  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the range of tasks a child can perform with guidance but cannot yet perform independently

Other Aspects of Cognitive Development

  • Information Processing Theories: approaches that model cognition as Input – Processing – Output
  • Language Development covered in-depth later; includes milestones, stages, and universal patterns
  • Language development involves stages such as cooing, babbling, infant-directed speech, telegraphic speech, and more
  • Concepts like statistical learning and critical periods influence how language and cognition develop

Information Processing Theories: Core Model

  • Model: Input → Process → Storage → Output
  • Visual: Input, Processing, Storage, Output (forms may vary in diagrams but core idea remains)
  • Emphasis: how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved; limits of processing capacity and improvements through practice

Language Development: Milestones and Milieu

  • Early milestones:
    • 3 months: cooing; gurgling
    • 6 months: babbling; infant-directed communication
    • 12 months: first words (on average around 12 ext{ months}); vocabulary growth begins
    • 18 months: about 50 words; two-word phrases appear; telegraphic speech emerges by ~18 ext{ months}
    • 2 years: ~150–300 words; short two- to three-word sentences
    • 3 years: ~900–1,000 words; asks short questions
    • 4 years: ~2,000 words; longer sentences; identifies letters
    • 5+ years: more advanced language; complex sentences; literacy begins with recognizing letters
  • Infant-Directed Speech (IDS): characteristic high-pitch, simplified, repetition-focused speech; universal across cultures; supports early language learning
  • Telegraphic Speech: essential content words only; omission of nonessential words; examples like “Mommy milk!”
  • Statistical Learning: children learn word boundaries by tracking statistical regularities in speech; helps language acquisition
  • Critical Periods: language acquisition has critical windows; ability to acquire language easily is strongest up to puberty, often cited around 12 ext{ years}; stimulation is crucial during these windows

Language Development: Beginnings and Infancy

  • Beginnings: language development starts in utero; newborns recognize mother’s voice and native language at birth
  • Infancy: crying as initial communication; smiles and laughter emerge after a few months; social feedback supports language growth
  • 4–5 months: cooing; long vowel-like sounds
  • 6–11 months: babbling; use of gestures; comprehension of 8–10 words
  • First words: around 12 ext{ months}; early vocabulary limited; underextension/overextension common
  • Relationship with caregivers and language learning: caregiver talk styles influence language development

Language Development: Infant-Directed Speech and Telegraphic Speech

  • IDS: universal, supports phoneme discrimination and word learning; high-pitch, slow tempo, exaggerated intonation
  • Telegraphic Speech: early effective communication with essential words; importance for syntax development

Language Development: Critical Periods and Learning

  • Critical periods: windows of heightened neural plasticity for language acquisition; post-puberty learning becomes more difficult
  • Language learning and exposure: quality and quantity of exposure shape outcomes

Relationships: Why Relationships Matter in Development

  • Attachment: internal working model (Bowlby) and Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth)
    • Attachment categories: Secure, Avoidant, Ambivalent, Disorganized

Adult Romantic Attachment Styles (Hazan & Shaver, 1987)

  • Secure attachment: comfortable with closeness, trusting, relationships last longer (avg. 10.02 ext{ yrs})
  • Avoidant attachment: fear of intimacy, emotional highs and lows, jealousy; average relationship length 5.97 ext{ yrs}; divorced in 6 ext{%} of cases
  • Anxious-ambivalent attachment: obsessive demanding passion, jealousy; average length 4.86 ext{ yrs}; divorced in 12 ext{%} of cases
  • Best predictor of adult attachment: perceived quality of relationships with parents and parental relationships
  • Those with secure adult relationships tend to describe childhood relations with parents as caring, affectionate, and non-harmful; had mothers who were confident and respectful; fathers who were caring and affectionate

Parenting Styles (Baumrind)

  • Parenting styles matrix (Warmth vs. Control):
    • Authoritative: High warmth, High to Moderate Control
    • Authoritarian: Low warmth, High control
    • Permissive: High warmth, Low control
    • Indifferent/Uninvolved: Low warmth, Low control

Effects of Parenting Styles on Children

  • Children of authoritarian parents: unhappy, low self-esteem, aggressive
  • Children of authoritative parents: higher grades, more responsible, more friendly, self-reliant
  • Children of permissive parents: impulsive, poor self-control, entitled feelings
  • Children of uninvolved parents: poor school performance, aggression

Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner)

  • Systems levels:
    • Microsystem: immediate environment (family, school, peers)
    • Mesosystem: interactions between microsystems (e.g., family-school collaboration)
    • Exosystem: external settings that indirectly influence development (e.g., parents’ workplace, community services)
    • Macrosystem: broader cultural and societal norms
    • Chronosystem: the dimension of time; life transitions and sociohistorical conditions
  • Emphasis: development results from interactions across multiple, nested contexts

The Bigger Picture in Development

  • Integrates attachment, parenting styles, and ecological systems theory to explain how people develop within complex environments

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development

  • Eight psychosocial crises across the lifespan:
    • Trust vs. Mistrust (0–18 months): developing trust in caregivers
    • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1–3): becoming independent
    • Initiative vs. Guilt (3–6): taking the lead and exploring
    • Industry vs. Inferiority (6–12): mastering skills and competence
    • Identity vs. Role Confusion (12–18): forming a sense of self
    • Intimacy vs. Isolation (18–40): forming intimate relationships
    • Generativity vs. Stagnation (40–65): contributing to the next generation
    • Integrity vs. Despair (65+): reflecting on life meaning and legacy

Baltes’ Life-Span Perspective

  • Core principles:
    • Multiple directions of development
    • Plasticity: capacity for change
    • Historical context: development occurs within a historical period
    • Multiple causes: biological, environmental, social factors interact
  • Time: how past, present, and future contexts shape development
  • Nature + Nurture: interaction of genetics and environment