CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION
PSYC 255
Life-Span Developmental Psychology
Fall 2024
SIMON
Chapter Outline

 The Life-Span Perspective

 The Nature of Development
 Theories of Development
 Research in Life-Span Development
THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
The Life-Span Perspective

 Development is the pattern of movement or change that

begins at conception and continues through the human life
span.
 Each of us develops partly like all other individuals.
 Partly like some other individual.
 And partly like no other individual.
 We recognize others for what makes them unique, but we have all
traveled some common paths.
The Importance of Studying Life-Span Development

 Responsibility for children might be a part of your everyday life.

 Parent, teacher, etc.
 The more you learn about them, the better you can raise, teach,
interact, etc.
 There has been increase in life expectancy: the average number
of years that a person born in a particular year can expect to live.
 Could gain insights about our own histories.
 Can look into the future.
 Answers questions such as who we are, how we came to be this
way, and where our future will take us.
Characteristics of the Life-Span Perspective

 The traditional approach to the study of development

emphasizes…
 Extensive change from birth to adolescence, especially during
infancy.
 Little or no change in adulthood.
 Decline in old age.
 The life-span approach…
 Acknowledges that there is great deal of change that occurs in
the decades after adolescence.
 Emphasizes developmental change throughout adulthood, as well
as childhood.
Dimensions of the Life-Span Perspective

• According to Paul Baltes, the life-span perspective views development

as…
• Lifelong: Early adulthood is not the endpoint of development, and no age period
dominates development
• Multidimensional: Consists of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
dimensions.
• Multidirectional: Throughout life, some dimensions or components of a
dimension expand and others shrink.
• Plastic: The plasticity of development refers to its capacity for change.
• Multidisciplinary: Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists,
and medical researchers all share an interest in development through the life
span.
• Contextual: All development occurs within a context, or setting, which includes
families, schools, peer groups, churches, cities, neighborhoods, countries, etc. and
these contexts are influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural
influences.
• A process that involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss.
• A co-construction of biological, sociocultural, and individual factors
Development as Contextual

• Each context of development exerts three types of influences:

• Normative age-graded influences are similar for individuals in
a particular age group.
• Biological processes such as puberty and menopause.
• Sociocultural, environmental processes such as beginning formal
education and retirement.
• Normative history-graded influences are common to people
of a particular generation because of historical circumstances.
• Shared experiences.
• Long-term changes in the genetic and cultural makeup of a
population due to immigration or fertility rates.
• Nonnormative or highly individualized life events are
unusual occurrences that have a major impact on the individual's
life.
• Ex: Death of a parent when child is young, pregnancy in early
adolescence, house fire, winning the lottery.
Contemporary Concerns in Life-Span Development
 Contemporary concerns in life-span development include…
 Health and well-being: Considers the powerful parts that lifestyles and
psychological states play in health, well-being, and developmental outcomes.
 Parenting and education: Considers issues like childcare, the effects of
divorce, parenting styles, intergenerational relationships, early childhood
education and lifelong learning outcomes, children with disabilities, bilingual
education, same-sex parenting, etc.
 Sociocultural contexts: see next slide
 Technology.
 Special concerns: the recent dramatic increase in technology and the use of
technology at different points of the lifespan.
 Social policy: a governments course of action designed to promote the welfare
of its citizens, shaped by values, economics, and politics.
 Special concern: Creating effective social policy, especially to protect the
well-being of children and older adults
Contemporary Concerns in Life-Span Development
 Four concepts in understanding sociocultural contexts are…
 Culture: behavior patterns, beliefs, and other products of a particular group of
people that are passed on from generation to generation.
 Cross-cultural studies compare aspects of two or more cultures to see if
development universal (similar) across cultures or is it culture specific.
 Ethnicity: rooted in cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language.
 Special concern: Ethnic minority children facing prejudice and
discrimination.
 Socioeconomic status: Refers to a person’s position within society based on
occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
 Special concern: Inequalities/unequal opportunities implied by SES; children
in poverty.
 Gender: The characteristics of people as females and males, which are central
to our identity and social relationships.
 Special concerns: transgender individuals (individuals who adopt a gender
identity that differs from the one assigned to them at birth) and conditions
for women such as inadequate educational opportunities, violence, lack of
political access.
Contemporary Concerns in Life-Span Development
 Children who grow up in poverty represent a special
concern in social policy due to negative experiences
and threats to positive development.
 In 2018, 16.2% of U.S. children under 18 years of
age were living in families with incomes below
the poverty line -- much higher than rates in
other developed countries.
 Ethnic minority children more likely to
experience persistent poverty over many years.
 Developmental psychologists are seeking ways
to…
 Help families living in poverty improve their
well-being.
 Improve government policies.
Contemporary Concerns in Life-Span Development

 What makes some children resilient to poverty and other

adversities?
 A number of individual factors influence resiliency, such as good
intellectual functioning.
 Family and extrafamilial contexts, such as close relationships with caring
parent figures and other adults outside the family.
THE NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT
The Nature of Development

• Two concepts that help provide a framework for describing

and understanding an individual’s development:
• Processes: The pattern of development is a complex product of
biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes.

• Periods: Time frames in a person’s life that are characterized by

certain features/changes.
 Processes of Development
• Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature.
• Genes inherited from parents.
• The development of the brain.
• Height and weight gains.
• Changes in motor skills.
• Nutrition.
• Exercise.
• The hormonal changes of puberty.
• Cardiovascular decline.

• Cognitive processes refer to changes in an individual’s thinking, intelligence and language.

• Watching a colorful mobile swinging above the crib.
• Putting together a two-word sentence.
• Memorizing a poem.
• Imagining what it would be like to be a movie star.
• Solving a crossword puzzle.

• Socioemotional processes involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, in

emotional regulation, and in personality.
• An infants smile in response to a parent’s touch.
• A toddler’s aggressive attack on a playmate.
• A school-age child’s development of assertiveness.
• An adolescent’s joy at the senior prom.
Processes of Development

• The interplay of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional

processes:
• Ex: An infants smile in response to a parent’s touch.
• Biological processes -- the physical nature of touch and
responsiveness to it.

• Cognitive processes -- the ability to understand intentional acts.

• Socioemotional processes -- the act of smiling often reflects a

positive emotional feeling and helps connect us with other humans
in a positive way.
Periods of Development

• The interplay of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional

processes over time gives rise to the developmental periods of
the human life span.
• The most widely used classification of developmental periods
involves an eight-period sequence:
1. Prenatal period.
2. Infancy.
3. Early childhood.
4. Middle and late childhood.
5. Adolescence.
6. Early adulthood.
7. Middle adulthood.
8. Late adulthood.
Periods of Development

• Prenatal period: the 9-month period from conception to

birth that involves tremendous growth from a single cell to a
complete organism with a brain and behavioral capacities.
• Infancy: from birth to 18 or 24 months when humans are
extremely dependent on adults. During this period, many
psychological activities are just beginning, such as…
• Language.
• Symbolic thought.
• Sensorimotor coordination.
• Social learning.
Periods of Development

• Early Childhood: from the end of infancy to age 5 or 6. Sometimes

called the “pre-school years”, the end marked by first grade.
During this time, children…
• Learn to become more self-sufficient and to care for themselves.
• Develop school readiness skills (e.g., the ability to follow instructions
and identify letters).
• Spend many hours playing with peers.
• Middle and late childhood: from about 6 to 11 years of age,
corresponding with the elementary school years. During this
period, children…
• Master the fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
• Are formally exposed to the world outside of the family and to culture.
• Demonstrate an increase in self-control.
• Prominent theme: Achievement.
Periods of Development

• Adolescence: encompasses the transition from childhood to

early adulthood, at 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to
22 years of age.
• Begins with the rapid physical changes of puberty (dramatic
gain in height and weight, changes in body contour,
development of sexual characteristics).
• Prominent themes: Independence and identity.
• Thought is more logical, abstract, and idealistic.
• More time spent outside of the family.
Periods of Development

• Emerging Adulthood: the transition between adolescence

and adulthood, at 18 to 25 years of age. A time of
considerable exploration and experimentation, especially in
the areas of identity, careers, and lifestyles.
• Early Adulthood: begins in the late teens or early twenties
and lasts through the thirties. A time for…
• Establishing personal and economic independence.
• Becoming proficient in a career.
• Selecting a mate.
• Learning to live with that person in an intimate way.
• Starting a family.
• Rearing children.
Periods of Development

• Middle Adulthood: 40 years of age to about 60. A time of…

• Expanding personal and social involvement and responsibility.
• Assisting the next generation in becoming competent and
mature individuals.
• Achieving and maintaining satisfaction in a career.
Periods of Development

• Late Adulthood: begins in the sixties or seventies and lasts

until death.
• Potentially lasts longer than any other period of development.
• A time of life review, retirement from the workforce, and
adjustment to new social roles and decreasing strength and health.
• Because of the increasing number of people in this age-group,
life-span developmentalists have been paying more attention to
differences within late adulthood…
• Young-old: 65 through 84 years of age; substantial potential for
physical and cognitive fitness; can develop strategies to cope with
the gains and losses of aging
• Oldest-old: 85 years of age and older, where major change takes
place; show considerable loss in cognitive skills, experience
increased rates of chronic stress, are more frail, etc.
Conceptions of Age

• Four types of age:

• Chronological age.

• Biological age: a person’s age in terms of biological health; involves

knowing the functional capacities of a person’s vital organs.
•
• Psychological age: an individual’s adaptive capacities compared with
those of other individuals of the same chronological age.
• Ex: Older adults who continue to learn, remain flexible, are motivated, think
clearly, and have positive personality traits are engaging in adaptive
behaviors.
• Social age: refers to connectedness with others and the social roles
individuals adopt.
• Ex: Individuals who have better social relationships with others are happier
and tend to live longer.
 Ex: A 70-year-old man (chronological age) might be in good physical health
(biological age) but might be experiencing memory problems and having trouble
coping with the demands placed on him by his wife’s recent hospitalization
Conceptions of Age

• Three developmental patterns of aging:

• Normal aging: Characterizes most individuals, for whom
psychological functioning often peaks early in middle age, remains
relatively stable until the late fifties to early sixties, and then slows
to a modest decline through the eighties (marked decline can occur
near death).
• Pathological aging: Characterizes individuals who show greater
than average decline as they age through the adult years. In early
old age, they may have mild cognitive impairment, develop
Alzheimer disease later, or have chronic disease that impairs their
daily functioning.
• Successful aging: Characterizes individuals whose positive
physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development is maintained
longer, declining later in old age than is the case for most people.
Developmental Issues

• The three main issues about the nature of development are:

• Nature-nurture: The extent to which development is
influenced by nature and by nurture.
• Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance.
• Nurture refers to environmental experiences.
• Epigenetic view states that development reflects an
ongoing, bidirectional interchange between genes and the
environment.
• Stability-change: The extent to which early traits and
characteristics persist or change over time.
• Continuity-discontinuity: The extent to which
development involves either gradual, cumulative change
(continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Theories of Development

• The scientific method is the best tool we have to answer our

questions about development.
• The scientific method is a four-step process:
• Conceptualize a process or a problem to be studied.
• Collect research information, also known as data.
• Analyze data.
• Draw conclusions.
Theories of Development

• When researchers are formulating or conceptualizing a

problem to study, they often draw on theories and develop a
hypothesis.
• A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to
explain phenomena and make predictions.
• Theories may suggest hypotheses, which are specific assertions
and predictions that can be tested.
Theories of Development

 Theories of development are how we have tried to answer

questions about development, including those related to the
three major issues (nature-nurture, stability-change, continuity-
discontinuity).
 Look at development from different perspectives.
 Disagree about certain aspects of development.
 Have complementary ideas, each contributing to the larger
puzzle.
Theories of Development

 The major theoretical orientations of development include:

• Psychoanalytic.
• Cognitive.
• Behavioral & Social Cognitive.
• Ethological.
• Ecological.
Psychoanalytic Theories

 Psychoanalytic theories of development describe

development as primarily unconscious, or beyond awareness,
and heavily colored by emotion.
 Emphasize that behavior is merely a surface characteristic.
 Posit that a true understanding of development requires analyzing
the symbolic meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings
of the mind.
 Stress that early experiences with parents extensively shape
development.
• Psychoanalytic theories include…
• Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Theory.
• Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory.
Psychoanalytic Theories

 Freud’s Theory:
 Became convinced that people’s problems were the result of experiences
early in life.
 Thought that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual
impulses shifts from the mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals.
 Believed that as a result, we go through the following five stages of
psychosexual development:
1. Oral.
2. Anal.
3. Phallic.
4. Latency.
5. Genital.
 Concluded that our adult personality is determined by the way we resolve
conflicts between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of
reality.
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Psychoanalytic Theories

 Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:

 Erikson believed that we develop in psychosocial stages, rather
than psychosexual stages.
 Believed that the primary motivation for our behavior is social,
reflecting a desire to affiliate with other people, not sexual.
 Believed developmental change occurs throughout the lifespan,
rather than only in the first five years of life.
 Believed that both early and later experiences are important, rather
earlier experiences trumping later experiences.
 Proposed eight stages of psychosocial development.
 At each stage, a unique developmental task confronts individuals with a
crisis that must be resolved.
 Not a catastrophe, but a turning point marked by increased
vulnerability and enhanced potential.
 The more successfully the crisis is resolved, the healthier their
development will be.
Psychoanalytic Theories

 Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development:

• Trust versus mistrust: infancy, first year of life.
• Autonomy versus shame and doubt: infancy, 1 to 3 years of
age.
• Initiative versus guilt: early childhood, preschool years, 3-5
years of age.
• Industry versus inferiority: middle and late childhood,
elementary school years, 6 years of age to puberty.
• Identity versus identity confusion: adolescence, 10 to 20
years of age.
• Intimacy versus isolation: early adulthood, 20s/30s.
• Generativity versus stagnation: middle adulthood, 40s/50s.
• Integrity versus despair: late adulthood, 60s onward.
Cognitive Theories

 Cognitive theories of development emphasize conscious

thoughts.
 Three important cognitive theories:
1. Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory.
2. Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory.
3. Information- processing theory.
Cognitive Theories

 Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory: Children

actively construct their understanding of the world and go
through four age-related stages of cognitive development.
 Cognition at one stage is qualitatively different in one stage
compared with another.
 Two processes move children through the four stages of cognitive
development:
 Organization: to make sense of our world, we organize our
experiences.
 Separate important ideas from less important ideas.
 Connect one idea to another.
 Adaptation: adjustment to new environmental demands.
Cognitive Theories

• Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development:

1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years of age).
2. Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age).
3. Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years of age).
4. Formal operational stage (11 years of age through
adulthood).
Cognitive Theories

 Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory:

 Believed that children actively construct their knowledge of the
world through social interaction and culture.
 The development of memory, attention, and reasoning involves learning to
use the inventions of society, such as language, mathematical systems, and
memory strategies.
 Social interaction with more skilled adults and peers gives children the tools
they need to thrive in their culture.
 Did not believe that development occurred in stages.
Cognitive Theories

 Information-Processing Theory
 Psychologists began to wonder whether the logical operations carried out by
computers might tell us something about how the human mind works
(hardware = the brain, software = cognition)
 The information-processing theory of development emphasizes that
individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it.
 No stages -- individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing
information, which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and
skills.
 Robert Siegler believed that information procession is thinking.
 When individuals perceive, encode, represent, sore, and retrieve
information, they are thinking.
 Believed that an important aspect of development is learning good strategies for
processing information.
 Thought the best way to understand how children learn is to observe them while
they are learning to discover not just what they know, but the cognitive
processes involved in how they acquired that knowledge.
 Microgenetic method: a means of obtaining detailed information about processing
mechanisms as they are occurring moment to moment.
Cognitive Theories

• Information processing theory uses the computer analogy to

help explain the connection between cognition and the brain.
• Physical brain = computer hardware
• Cognition = computer software
• Sensory and perceptual input = information or data entered
into computer.
• As input comes into the mind, mental processes, or operations, act
on it, just as computer software acts on data.
• The transformed input generates information that remains in
memory, like the way a computer stores what it has worked on.
• Information is retrieved from memory and “printed out” or
“displayed” as an observable response.
Information Processing Theory: The Computer Analogy
Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

 Behaviorism posits that we can study scientifically only what

can be directly observed and measured.
 Development within behaviorism is defined as observable
behavior that can be learned through experience with the
environment.
 Emphasizes continuity in development.
 No stages.
Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

 Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning:

 Classical conditioning: a neutral stimulus (e.g., the ringing bell) produces a
response originally produced by another stimulus (e.g., food).
 Knew that dogs salivate when they taste food.
 Became curious when he observed that dogs salivate to various sights and
sounds before eating their food.
 Paired the ringing of a bell with food, and the bell elicited salivation on its own.

 John B. Watson: demonstrated how classical conditioning occurs in humans.

 Showed infant (Albert) a white rat to see if he was afraid of it.
 Albert was not afraid of the white rat.
 While Albert played with the rat, a loud noise was made behind his head, and
Albert began to cry.
 After several pairings of the loud noise and the rat, Albert began to cry just at the
sight of the rat.
 Albert had been conditioned to fear the rat.
Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

 Skinner’s Operant Conditioning:

 Operant conditioning, the consequences of a behavior produce
changes in the future probability of the behavior’s occurrence.
 A behavior followed by a rewarding stimulus is more likely to recur,
while a behavior followed by a punishing stimulus is less likely to
recur.
 Rewards and punishment shape development.

From the behaviorism standpoint, the key aspect of development is

behavior, not thoughts and feelings.
Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

 Bandura’s Social Cognitive

Theory:
 Bandura believed that there are
three key factors in development
that operate interactively:
1. Behavior.
2. Person/cognition.
1. Forethought: individuals
guide and motivate
themselves by creating
action plans, formulating
goals, and visualizing
positive outcomes of their
actions.
3. Environment.
Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

 Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

 Believed in observational learning (also called imitation
or modeling): learning that occurs through observing what
others do.
 People cognitively represent the behavior of others and then
sometimes adopt this behavior themselves.
 Emphasizes that people acquire a wide range of behaviors,
thoughts, and feelings through observing others’ behavior.
Ethological Theory

 Ethology is the study of the behavior of animals in their

natural habitat.
 Ethological theory stresses that behavior is strongly
influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by
critical or sensitive periods.
 Critical or sensitive periods are specific time frames during
which the presence or absence of certain experiences has a
long-lasting influence on individuals.
 Two important ethologists:
 Konrad Lorenz.
 John Bowlby.
Ethological Theory

 Konrad Lorenz studied geese and discovered imprinting:

the rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to the first
moving object seen that needs to take place at a specific, very
early time in life (known as the critical period).
• John Bowlby stressed that attachment to a caregiver over the first
year of life has important consequences throughout the lifespan
(known as the sensitive period, or the time during infancy when
attachment should occur in order to promote optimal development
of social relationships).
• If attachment is positive and secure, the individual will likely
develop positively in childhood and adulthood.
• If attachment is negative and insecure, development will not
be optimal.
Ecological Theory

• Ecological theory emphasizes environmental factors.

• Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory posits that
development reflects the influence of five environmental
systems:
• Microsystem.
• Mesosystem.
• Exosystem.
• Macrosystem.
• Chronosystem.
• Eventually Bronfenbrenner added biological influences to his
theory and relabeled it a bioecological theory, but it is still
dominated by ecological, environmental contexts.
Ecological Theory
• Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory:
• Microsystem: the setting in which the individual lives (family, peers,
school, neighborhood).
• Direct interactions with social agents (parents, peers, teachers).
• Individual contributes to the microsystem.
• Mesosystem: relations between microsystems or connections
between contexts (e.g., the relation of family experiences to school
experiences, school to church, family to peer, etc).
• Exosystem: links between a social setting, in which the child has no
active role, and the immediate context (e.g., a child’s experience at
home may be influenced by a mother’s experiences at work).
• Macrosystem: the culture in which individuals live.
• Chronosystem: the patterning of environmental events and
transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances.
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory
An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation
 Relying on a single theory to explain development is
probably a mistake.
 An eclectic theoretical orientation does not follow one
theory but presents what are considered the best features
of each theory.
 Represents the study of development as it actually exists –
with different theorists making different assumptions,
stressing different problems, and using different strategies
to discover information.
Theories of Development
RESEARCH IN LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
Research in Life-Span Development

• How are data about life-span development collected?

• What types of research designs are used to study life-span
development?
• What are some ethical considerations in conducting research
on life-span development?
Research in Life-Span Development

 Research methods for collecting data include:

 Observations: systematic observations of behavior that happen in the
lab or the everyday world.
 Survey and interview: directly asking people for information.
 Standardized tests: uniform procedures for administering and
scoring.
 Case studies: an in-depth look at a single individual when the unique
aspects of their life cannot be duplicated/tested in others.
 Physiological measures: hormone levels, neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG,
fNIRS), heartrate, eye movement, hereditary information
Research in Life-Span Development

 In addition to choosing a method for collecting data, you need

to choose a research design.
 Three main types of research designs:
 Descriptive research: when the goal of research is to describe
a phenomenon.

 Correlational research: when the goal of research is to

describe relationships between phenomena.

 Experimental research: when the goal of research is to

determine the cause and effects of a phenomenon.
Correlational Research

 Correlational research yields a correlation coefficient: a number

based on statistical analysis that is used to describe the degree of
association between two variables; ranges from -1.00 to +1.00.
 The sign (positive or negative) indicates direction of the relationship.
 The number indicates strength of the relationship: the higher, the
stronger (regardless of positive or negative).
 0.00 means no association between variables.

 Correlation does not equal causation

Correlational Research
Experimental Research
 Experimental research can be used to study causality.
 An experiment is a carefully regulated procedure in which one or
more factors believed to cause the behavior being studied are
manipulated, while all other factors are held constant.
 If the behavior under study changes when a factor is manipulated,
we say that the manipulated factor has caused the behavior to
change.
 Experiments demonstrate cause and effect, where the cause is the
factor that was manipulated (independent variable) and the effect is
the behavior that changed because of the manipulation (dependent
variable).
Experimental Research
 Experiments use two types of groups to make comparisons:
 An experimental group is the group whose experience is manipulated.
 A control group is a comparison group that is as much like the
experimental group as possible and that is treated in every way like the
experimental group except for they experience the manipulated factor
(that is, the independent variable).
 Random assignment: An important principle for deciding whether
each participant will be placed in the experimental group or the
control group in which participants are assigned to the groups by
chance, reducing the likelihood that the experiment’s results will be
due to any preexisting differences between groups.
Experimental Research
Time Span of Developmental Research

 Research in child development has a special concern with the

relation of age to some other variable.
 Can study different individuals of various ages and compare
them or the same individuals as they age over time.
 There are two approaches to address the factor of time/age in
developmental research:
 Cross-sectional approach.
 Longitudinal approach.
Cross-Sectional Research

 Cross-sectional approach: a research strategy in which

individuals of different ages are compared at one time.
 Ex: When studying three different groups of 5-year-olds, 8-year-
olds, and 11-year-olds, the groups can be compared with respect
to a variety of dependent variables (e.g., intelligence, memory,
peer relations, attachment to parents, hormonal changes, etc.)
 Does not take much time to complete a study like this.
 Don’t have to wait for children to grow older.
 Drawbacks:
 No information about how individual children change or about the
stability of their characteristics.
 Can obscure the increases and decreases of development.
Longitudinal Research

 Longitudinal approach: a research strategy in which the

same individuals are studied over time, usually several years
or more.
 Ex: If a study of self-esteem were conducted longitudinally, the
same children might be assessed three times – at 5, 8, and 11
years of age.
 Provide a lot of information about important issues such as
stability and change and the influence of early experience on
later development.
 Drawbacks:
 Expensive and time-consuming.
 The longer the study lasts, the more participants drop out (people
move, get sick, lost interest, etc.).
Cohort Effects

 A cohort is a group of people who are born at a similar point in

history and share similar experiences.
 Ex: Growing up in the same city around the same time.
 Shared experiences can produce differences in development
between cohorts.
 Ex: Children and their parents who grew up during the Great
Depression and WWII are likely to differ from their counterparts during
the 1990s, which were economically booming.
 Educational opportunities.
 Economic status.
 How they were raised.
 Attitudes and experiences related to gender.
 Exposure to technology.

 Cohort effects: due to a person’s time of birth, era, or

generation but not actual age.
Research in Life-Span Development

 The American Psychological Association (APA) has

developed a code of ethics that instructs psychologists to
protect their research participants from mental and physical
harm.
 APA guidelines address four important issues:​
1. Informed consent.
2. Confidentiality.
3. Debriefing.
4. Deception.
Research in Life-Span Development

 Informed consent: All participants must know what their research participation will
involve and what risks might develop. Even after informed consent is given,
participants must retain the right to withdraw from the study at any time and for any
reason.​
 Confidentiality: Researchers are responsible for keeping all of the data they gather
on individuals completely confidential and, when possible, completely anonymous.​
 Debriefing: After the study has been completed, participants should be informed of
its purpose and the methods that were used. In most cases, the experimenter can
inform participants in a general manner beforehand about the purpose of the
research without leading participants to behave in a way they think that the
experimenter is expecting.​
 Deception: In some cases, telling the participants beforehand what the research
study is about substantially alters behavior and invalidates data. In cases of
deception, the researcher must ensure that the deception will not harm the
participants and they will be debriefed or told the complete nature of the study as
soon as possible once the study is completed.