Developmental

Psychology
 Life Span Development
Chapter 1 1. Description – describe when most children
Human Development say their first word or how large their
Scientific study of processes of change and vocabulary is at a certain age by observing
stability throughout the human life span. large groups of children and establish norms
Developmental Scientists or averages, for behavior at various ages.
Individuals engaged in the professional 2. Explanation – explain how children acquire
study of human development. language and why some children learn to
speak later than usual.
They answer questions like: 3. Prediction – predict the likelihood that a child
Which characteristics are most likely to endure? may have serious speech problems.’
Which are likely to change, and why? 4. Intervention – intervene in development by
giving a child speech therapy.
Importance of developmentalists’ research:
Goals of Human Development
• They have applications to child rearing,
1. Development is messy. It is multi-faceted and
education, health and social policy.
shaped by interacting arcs of influence.
• E.g. Research has shown that students who
2. It is best understood with input from a variety
go to school hungry have poorer grades and
of theoretical and research orientation and is
more emotional and behavioral problems than
most appropriately studied using multiple
their classmates and that this effect is more
disciplines.
striking in students from deprived
3. It is best understood with input from a variety
environments.
of theoretical and research orientation and is
• When breakfast programs are implemented,
most appropriately studied using multiple
students show academic gains (improved
disciplines.
nutrition and decrease in absences that
accompanies such programs). Domains of Development
• Research that adolescent brain is still Psychosocial Physical Cognitive
Emotions Growth of the body Learning
immature leading to suggestion that and brain Attention
Personality
adolescents accused of crimes be exempt from Social relationships. Sensory capacities Memory
Motor skills Language
death penalty. Health Thinking
• An understanding of adult development can Reasoning
Creativity
help people understand and deal with life These domains, though separate, are interrelated.
transitions: career change.
Periods of Lifespan
Life Span Development Social construction – a concept or practice that
Now considered by researchers to be from
may appear natural and obvious to those who
“womb” to “tomb”; comprising the entire human
accept it, but that in reality, it is an invention of a
life span from conception to death.
particular culture or society.
Development can be either positive or
Childhood in varied forms across cultures:
negative:
US: children have relative freedom.
Positive: becoming toilet trained or
Children in colonial times do adultlike tasks such
enrolling in a college course after retirement.
as knitting socks and spinning wool.
Negative: once again wetting the bed after a
Inuit parents in Canadian Arctic believe that
traumatic event or isolating yourself after
young children are not yet capable of thought and
retirement.
reason so they are lenient when children cry or
For these reasons, events such as the timing of
become angry. Parents on the Pacific Island of
parenthood, maternal employment, and marital
Tonga regularly beat 3-5 year olds because crying
satisfaction are now studied as part of dev psych.
is attributed to willfulness.
 Periods of Lifespan Hereditary, Environment and Maturation
Prenatal Period Adolesence Only when deviation from the average is
Conception to Birth Ages 11 to 20 extreme should we consider development
Infancy and Emerging and Young exceptionally advanced or delayed.
Toddlerhood Adulthood To understand development, we need to look
Birth to age 3 Ages 20 to 40 at the inherited characteristics that give each
Early Childhood Middle Adulthood person a start in life. We also need to consider the
Ages 3 to 6 Ages 40 to 65 many environmental factors that affect
Middle Childhood Late Adulthood development such as family, neighborhood, socio
Ages 3 to 11 Ages 65 and over economic status, race/ethnicity, and culture.
We need to understand which developments
Influences on Development are primarily maturational and which are not;
What makes each person unique? which influences affect many or most people at a
Students of development are interested in the certain age and how timing can accentuate the
universal processes of development impact of certain influences.
experienced by all normal human beings and Contexts of Development
they also study individual differences. Family
Individual Differences - Differences in Nuclear Family – household unit consisting of one
characteristics, influences, or developmental or two parents and their children, whether
outcomes. biological, adopted, or stepchildren.
Each person has a unique developmental Increased incidence of divorce also has affected
trajectory - An individual path to follow. the nuclear family.
Hereditary, Environment and Maturation
Extended family – multigenerational kinship
Some influences on development originate
network of parents, children, and other relatives,
primarily with heredity – inborn traits or
sometimes living together in an extended-family
characteristics inherited from the biological
household.
parents.
Today, the extended family household have
Other influences come largely from the
become more common in recent years. Why?
environment – totality of nonhereditary or
1. Both men and women are marrying at later
experiential influences on development.
ages, thus, remaining at home for longer than
Which of these factors has more impact on
was previously typical.
development?
2. Immigrant populations since 1970 are more
Nature vs Nurture historically generated
likely than native-born families to seek out
intense debate.
multigenerational homes for reasons of
Contemporary theorists and researchers are
practicality as well as preference.
more interested in finding ways to explain how
3. Latinos, African Americans, and Asians are all
nature and nurture work together than in arguing
more likely to live in multigenerational families
about which factor is more important.
than are whites.
To get a callus, you have to have callus-
4. People are living longer and elderly parents
making genes of some sort, but the environmental
may sometime benefit from inclusion in their
input of repeated friction on your skin is also
children’ households.
required or a callus would never form.
Many typical changes of infancy and early
childhood, such as the abilities to walk and talk,
are tied to maturation (unfolding of a natural
sequence of physical and behavioral changes) of
the body and brain.
 Socioeconomic Status and Neighbourhood Culture and Race/Ethnicity
Socioeconomic Status – combination of Culture – a society’s or group’s total way of life
economic and social factors describing an including customs, traditions, beliefs, values,
individual or family, including income, education language, and physical products – all learned
and occupation. behavior, passed on from parents to children.
Poverty, if it is long-lasting, can be harmful to Ethnic group – a group united by ancestry, race,
the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial well- religion, language, or national origins, which
being of children and families. contribute to a sense of shared identity and shared
Poor children are more likely than other attitudes, beliefs and values.
children to have emotional or behavioral Ethnic and cultural patterns affect development
problems, and their cognitive potential and by their influence on the composition of a
school performance suffer more. household, its economic and social resources, the
Harm caused by poverty may be indirect: its way its members act toward one another, the
impact is on parents’ emotional state and foods they eat, the games children play, the way
parenting practices and on the home they learn, how well they do in school, the
environment they create. occupations adults engage in, and the way the
Composition of a neighbourhood affects family members think and perceive the world.
children as well. Living in a poor neighbourhood Harm caused by poverty may be indirect: its
with large numbers of unemployed people impact is on parents’ emotional state and parenting
makes it less likely that effective social support practices and on the home environment they
will be available. create.
Still, positive development can occur despite Race – historically and popularly viewed as an
serious risk factors: identifiable biological category. There is no clear
Pulitzer Prize – winning author Maya scientific consensus on its definition, and it is
Angelou impossible to measure reliably.
Country singer – Shania Twain Ethnic gloss – overgeneralization about an
Former US president – Abraham Lincoln ethnic or cultural group that obscures differences
Affluence doesn’t necessarily protect children within the group.
from risk. Some children in affluent families face Historical Context
pressure to achieve and are often left on their Historical context is the time in which people
own by busy parents. live.
They have high rates of substance abuse, At one time, developmentalists paid little
anxiety and depression. attention to it.
Although poor families are often less positive As early longitudinal studies of childhood
about their neighbourhood and feels less safe: extended into the adult years, investigators began
Parents report being just as close with their to focus on how certain experiences, tied to time
children. and place, affect the course of people’s lives.
They attend church with families just as Hence, historical context is now an important
often. part of the study of development.
They feel as safe at home and school.
They eat meals together as a family more
often than wealthier families.
 Normative and Non-normative Influences Timing of influences: critical or sensitive periods
Normative influences – biological or Imprinting – instinctive form of learning in
environmental events that affect many or most which, during a critical period in early
people in a society in similar ways and events development, a young animal forms an
that touch only certain individuals. attachment to the first moving object it sees,
Normative age-graded influences – highly usually the mother. It was believed to be
similar for people in a particular age group. The automatic and irreversible.
timing of biological events is fairly predictable In a well-known study, Konrad Lorenz, an
within a normal range. E.g. people don’t Austrian zoologist, showed that newly hatched
experience puberty at age 35 or menopause at ducklings will instinctively follow the first moving
12. object they see, whether it is a member of their
Normative history graded influences – species or not.
significant events that shape the behavior and Critical period – specific time when a given
attitudes of a historical generation event, or its absence, has a specific impact on
Historical generation - a group of people who development.
experience the event at a formative time in their If a woman receives X-ray, takes certain drugs,
lives. or contracts certain diseases at certain times
E.g. Depending on when and where they live, during pregnancy, the fetus may show specific ill
entire generations may feel the impact of effects, depending on the nature of the insult, its
famines, nuclear explosions, or terrorist attacks. timing, and characteristics of the fetus itself.
Historical generation is not the same as an age If a muscle problem interfering with the ability
cohort: a group of people born at about the same to focus both eyes on the same object is not
time. Historical generation may contain more than corrected within a critical period early in
one cohort, but cohorts are part of a historical childhood, depth perception will not develop.
generation only if they experience major, shaping However, the concept of critical periods in
historical events at a formative point in their lives. humans is controversial.
Nonnormative influences – are unusual events Because many aspects of development, even in
that have a major impact on individual lives the physical domain, have been found to show
because they disturb the expected sequence of plasticity – modifiability of a performance, it may
the life cycle. be more useful to think about sensitive periods –
They are either typical events that happen at times in development when a person is
an atypical time of life (death of a parent when a particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.
child is young) or atypical events (surviving a
plane crash).
Some of these influences are largely beyond a
person’s control and may present rare
opportunities or severe challenges that the
person perceives as turning points.
On the other hand, people sometimes help
create their own nonnormative life events.
E.g. deciding to have a baby in their mid-fifties or
taking up a risky hobby such as skydiving.
Normative age-graded, normative history-
graded and nonnormative influences contribute to
the complexity of human development as well as
to the challenges people experience in trying to
build their lives.
 The Life-Span Developmental Approach
PRINCIPLES OF A LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH

1. DEVELOPMENT IS LIFELONG
Each period of the lifespan is affected by what happened before and will affect what
is to come. Each period has unique characteristics and value. each
2. DEVELOPMENT IS MULTIDIMENSIONAL
It occurs along multiple interacting dimensions – biological, psychological, and social
– each of which may develop at varying rates.
3. RELATIVE INFLUENCES OF BIOLOGY AND CULTURE SHIFT OVER
THE LIFE SPAN.
Biological abilities, such as sensory acuity and muscular strength and coordination,
weaken with age, but cultural supports, such as education, relationships, and
technologically age-friendly environments, may help compensate.
4. DEVELOPMENT IVOLVES CHANGING
RESOURCE ALLOCATIONS.
Individuals choose to invest their resources of time, energy, talent, money and social
support in varying ways.
Resources may be used for growth, for maintenance or recovery, or for dealing with
loss.
Childhood and young adulthood →Growth
Old Age → regulation of loss
Midlife → allocation is more balanced
5. DEVELOPMENT SHOWS PLASTICITY
Many abilities such as memory, strength, and endurance, can be improved
significantly with training and practice, even late in life.
However, even in children, plasticity has limits that depend in part on the various
influences on development.
One of the tasks of developmental research is to discover to what extent particular
kinds of development can be modified at various ages.
6. DEVELOPMENT is Influenced by the Historical and Cultural context
Human beings not only influence but also are influenced by their historical-cultural
context