development
The pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span.
life-span perspective
The perspective that development is
- lifelong
- multidimensional
- multidirectional
- plastic
- multidisciplinary
- and contextual;
- involves growth, maintenance, and regulation;
- and is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual fac
normative age-graded influences
Influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.
- ex. menopause for women
normative history-graded influences
Influences that are common to people of a particular generation because of historical circumstances.
- ex. great depression of the 1930s
nonnormative life events
Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on the individual's life.
- they do not happen to all people
- when they happen, they have different influences
ex. the death of a parent
culture
The behavior, patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passed on from generation to generation.
cross-cultural studies
Comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and to the degree to which it is culture-specific.
ethnicity
a characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language.
socioeconomic status (SES)
Classification of a person's position in society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
gender
The characteristics of people as males or females.
social policy
A government's course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
- life-span researchers want to get more effective social policy
BOX: Family policy
- ex. improving family policy: when the adults income rose, it was linked to benefits for their children as well
biological processes
Processes that produce changes in an individual's physical nature.
cognitive processes
Processes that involve changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language.
socioemotional processes
Processes that involve changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality.
Biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes are connected
Connection is most obvious is two emerging fields
1- developmental cognitive neuroscience
--- development + cognitive + brain
2- developmental social neuroscience
--- development + socioemotional process + brain
Periods of development
- Prenatal period
---from conception to birth. The
- Infancy
---birth to 18-24 months
- Early childhood
---3-5 years
---sometimes called the "preschool years"
---children learn to become more self sufficient
- Middle and late childhood
---6-10/11 years
--
Emerging adulthood
Jeffrey Arnett describes 5 key features of emerging adulthood
1. Identity exploration
2. Instability
---- ex. in love, work, education
3. Self-focused
---- little commitments to others
4. Feeling in-between
---- don't consider themselves adolescents OR ad
Adulthood
1. Early: teens to early 20s to 30s. Personal + economic independance.
2. Middle: 40-60, expand personal/ social involvement and responsibility. Career satisfaction.
3. Late: 60/70- death. Life review, retirement, new social roles with loss of strength an
Age and happiness
The older people are, the more happy they are. Even through they have physical problems, they are more context with their lives and have better relationships
Conceptions of age
Chronological age - the # of years that have past since birth
Biological age - person's age in terms of biological health
- to determine this, you have to check the person's vital organs
- the younger the person's biological age, the longer the person is
There are 3 developmental issues
the nature-nurture
stability-change
continuity-discontinuity
nature-nurture issue
Debate about whether devlopement is primilary influenced by nature or nurture. Nature refers to to an organism's biological inhertiance, nurture to its environmental experiences.
- EVOLUTIONARY and GENETIC foundation produce commonalities in growth and de
stability-change issue
Debate as to whether and to what degree we become older renditions of our early experience (stability) or whether we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development (change).
- some say stability is the result of heredit
Evaluating the developmental issue
Nature and nurture, stability and change, and continuity and discontinuity characterize development
continuity-discontinuity issue
the continuity-discontinuity issue is a debate that focuses on the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).
- developmentalists who support NURture --> see development as gradual, con
theory
The interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain phenomena and make predictions.
hypotheses
Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy.
There are 5 theoretical orientations of development
1. Psychoanalytic theory
2. Cognitive
3. Behavioral and social cognitive
4. Ethological
5. Ecological
- the theories sometimes disagree, but mainly agree most of the time
psychoanalytic theories
Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion. Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behavior. Early experiences with parents are e
Freud's Theory
Emerging Adulthood Theory: the developmental time frame occurring approximately 18 to 25 years of age; this transitional period b/t adolescence and adulthood is characterized by experimentation and exploration
1. Oral: birth-1 1/2 years
--- infants pleasu
Erikson's theory
Theory that proposes eight stages of human development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
1. Trust vs mistrust
---infancy
2. Autonomy vs shame and doubt
--- infants start to
Piaget's Cognitive Developmental theory
Theory stating that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.
1. The sensorimotor stage
---- senses and motor function
2. Preoperational stage
---- they represent world with words, im
Vygotsky's sociocultural cognitive theory
A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development. He said that development is inseparable from social and cultural acitivities.
He said that children use tools to help them adapt to their envi
BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES
1. Skinner's Operant Conditioning (REWARD):
-consequences of behavior produces change in probability of behavior occuring
-positive reinforcement, rewards and punishment
-SKINNER.... X COGNITION IMPORTANT
2. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (IMITATE):
-
information-processing theory
Theory emphasizing that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to this theory are the processes of memory and thinking.
social cognitive theory
Theoretical view that behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in development.
Lorenze and Baulby's Ethology
Theory stressing that behaviour is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.
1. Critical or sensitive periods are specific time frames where presence/ absence of certain experiences has a
Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory
Bronfenbrenner's environmental systems theory that focuses on five environmental systems (MMEMC)
Microsystem: where people live (e.g. family/ school). Individual NOT PASSIVE (ACTIVE), help construct setting. These are the most direct social interactions.
Table 1.16 Insert Here
...
Eclectic Theoretical Orientation
An orientation that does not follow any one theoretical approach, but rather selects from each theory whatever is considered the best in it.
Review
1. Psychoanalytic theory on the unconscious mind.
2. Erikson's is best for changes in adult development.
3. Piaget/ Vigotskys/ Info Processing... cognitive development
4. Behavioral and Social, Cognitive, Ecological Theory... best for environmental determ
laboratory
A controlled setting in which many of the complex factors of the "real world" are removed.
Drawbacks:
-impossible to conduct without participants knowing they're being studied
-lab setting is unnatural, can behave unnaturally
-people in experiments may no
naturalistic observation
Observing behaviour in real-world settings.
Survey + Interview
Interview = quick
Survey = aka questionnaire
Both conducted in different ways.
Standardized test
A test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring. Many standardized tests allow a person's performance to be compared with the performance of other individuals.
E.g. Stanford-Bidet test.
Criticism:
-Assume a person's behavior is consistent an
case study
An in-depth look at a single individual.
Criticism:
Be cautious of generalizations.
Physiological Measures
1. Interest in hormone level
--cortisol from Adrenal glands linked to stress
-- puberty, change in blood hormones
2. fMRI measures brain activity
--Electromagnetic waves to construct image of brain tissue
3. EEG
--monitors electric charges in the brain, r
Research Designs
1. Descriptive: A type of research that aims to observe and record behaviour.
2. Correlational: A type of research that strives to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.
---CORRELATION COEFFICIENT: A numbe
Research Approaches
1. Cross-Sectional Approach: A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at one time. Can show how cohorts respond, but they can confuse age changes and cohort effects.
2. Longitudinal Approach: A research strategy in which the
Cohort Effect (need to review)
Insert Figure 1.21.
Effects due to a person's time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.
Born in similar point in history and share similar experiences.
1. Teenagers before different from teenagers last year.
2. People before were less educated, changed result
APA Guidelines for Ethical Research
1. Informed Consent
2. Confidentiality
3. Debriefing
4. Deception (don't harm participant and debrief them after)
DDIC!
Bias
Eliminate bias in lifespan development.
1. Gender Bias: Researchers tend to magnify gender differences, gender bias has a less obvious effect in lifespan development. If study is repeated, differences might disappear.
2. Culture/ Ethnic Bias: Try to inclu