Lifespan Development

There are numerous domains

Physical:

Height
• Weight
• Fine and gross motor skills
• Brain development
• Puberty
• Sexual health
• Fertility and menopause
• Changes in our senses
• Primary and secondary aging

Cognitive:

Language development
• Thinking (e.g., logical thinking, abstract reasoning)
• Learning and understanding
• Memory abilities
• Moral reasoning
• Practical intelligence
• Wisdom

Psychosocial:


Psychological and social development
• Temperament and attachment
• Emotions
• Personality
• Self-esteem
• Relationships
• Identity development
• Dating, romance, cohabitation, marriage, and having children
• Finding work or a career
• Caregiving, retirement, coping with losses, and death and dying

Periods of Human Development

Prenatal development: Conception - Birth

Infancy = birth - 2

Preschoolers = 2-6

Middle childhood = 6-11

Adolescence = 12-20

Young adult = 20-40

Middle Adult = 40-65

Late adult = 65+

Key human development issues : Continuous or Discontinuous

Continuous:

Development is a cumulative process

Gradually improve on existing skills

Discontinuous:

Development occurs in unique stages

Development at specific times or ages

One course or many courses:

One Course
• Development is essentially the same for all
• Development is universal
• Stage theories

Many Courses
• Development follows a different course for each child, depending on
the child’s specific genetics, environment, and culture

Influences on development

  • Heredity: referring to the traits you inherited from your parents

  • Environment: includes physical and social influences — internal environment (hunger, etc)

  • Maturation: the sequence of physical and behavioral patterns

Nature vs Nurture Debate

Genetics vs Everything Else

Context of development

Family : Nuclear vs extended

Social-Econmic Status: Includes income, education level, occupation of parents.

Culture: Includes customs, traditions, artwork.

Race does not have any affect on development unless there it a genetic disorder.

Ethnic Group — Carries cultural norms

Ethnicity

Culture is constantly changing

History

Cohort — A group of people who are born at roughly the same time period in a society

A generation is different than a cohort.

Normative Influences

— Age graded: puberty, retirement, graduating high school, driving, first day of kindergarden, etc.

Non-normative

Unusual events affecting a life.

Non-normative typical : something that should’ve happened to you but occurred outside the normal range (happened when it shouldn’t have) (ex: puberty too young or too old, married too young)

Non-normative atypical: crazy things that should not happen like at all (ex: winning the lottery, birth defects)

Critical period — something must happen within a window of time to see the outcome. (We used to think babies needed to be around verbal language)

Sensitive Period — brain and body are primed for a skill during this window (you will acquire the skill faster during that period)