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Chapter 1

Introduction

PowerPoints developed by Nicholas Greco IV, College of Lake County – Grayslake, IL

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The Life-Span Perspective

Developmentthe 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 individualspartly like no other individuals

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Characteristics of the Life-Span Perspective

Learning about ourselves and othersdevelopment involves growth, but it also

includes decline

Traditional approach emphasizes extensive change from birth to adolescence, little or no change in adulthood, and decline in old age

Life-span approach emphasizes developmental change throughout adulthood as well as childhood

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Life Span versus Life Expectancy

Human Life Span Based on the oldest age documented—122

years Maximum life span of humans has not changed

since the beginning of recorded history

Life Expectancy the average number of years that a person

born in a particular year can expect to liveLife expectancy increased by 30 years in the 20th

century

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More Characteristics of the Life-Span Perspective

Life-span perspective views development as

Lifelong Multidimensional MultidirectionalPlasticMultidisciplinary Contextual  

(Baltes, 1987, 2003; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006)

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Contexts: Three Types of Influences

Normative Age-graded Influences Normative History-graded Influences Non-normative Life Events

(Baltes, 2003)

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Contemporary Concerns in Life-Span Development 

Health and Well-Being   Parenting and Education   Sociocultural Contexts and Diversity  

cross-cultural studies ethnicitysocioeconomic status (SES) gender

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Social Policy  

A government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens valueseconomics/povertypolitics

childrenthe elderly

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The Nature of Development

Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature

Cognitive processes refer to changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

Socioemotional processes involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality

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Connecting Biological, Cognitive, and

Socioemotional Processes Inextricably intertwined Two emerging fields

Developmental cognitive neuroscienceDevelopmental social neuroscience

Bidirectional

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Periods of Development

Developmental period refers to a time frame in a person’s life that is characterized by certain featuresprenatal period -- conception to birth infancy -- birth to 18 or 24 months early childhood -- end of infancy to age 5 or 6middle and late childhood -- 6 to 11 years of

age

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Periods of Developmentcon’t

adolescence -- transition from childhood to early adulthood, approximately 10 to 12 to 18 to 22 years of age

early adulthood -- late teens or early twenties through the thirties

middle adulthood -- approximately 40 to about 60 years of age

late adulthood -- sixties or seventies and lasts until death

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Periods of Developmentcon’t

Life-span developmentalists who focus on adult development and aging increasingly describe life-span development in terms of four “ages”first age: childhood and adolescencesecond age: prime adulthood, 20s - 50sthird age: approximately 60 to 79 years fourth age: approximately 80 years and older

(Baltes, 2006; Willis & Schaie, 2006)

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Conceptions of Age

Chronological age -- number of years since birth

Biological age -- age in terms of biological health

Psychological age -- individual’s adaptive capacities

Social age -- society’s age expectations

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Nature and Nurture

The nature-nurture issue concerns the extent to which development is influenced by nature and by nurtureNature refers to an organism’s biological

inheritanceNurture to its environmental experiences

Which has the greatest influence, and how do the two interact?

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Stability and Change The stability-change issue involves the

degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or changeStability is the result of heredity and possibly early

experiences in life Plasticity, the potential for change, exists

throughout the life span

To what degree do early traits and characteristics persist through life, or how much do they change?

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Continuity and Discontinuity  

The continuity-discontinuity issue focuses on the degree to which development involves either gradual, cumulative change or distinct stagesContinuity -- gradual, cumulative change; quantitative Discontinuity -- distinct stages; qualitative

Is change in development gradual or abrupt?

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Evaluating the Developmental Issues

Most life-span developmentalists acknowledge that development is not all nature or all nurture, not all stability or all change, and not all continuity or all discontinuity

Nature and nurture, stability and change, continuity and discontinuity characterize development throughout the human life span

(Gottlieb, 2007; Rutter, 2007)

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Theories of Development The scientific method

Tool to understand or answer questions about development

Four-step process: Conceptualize a process or problem to be

studiedCollect research information (data)Analyze dataDraw conclusions

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Conceptualizing the Problem

Draw on theories A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of

ideas that helps to explain phenomena and make predictions

Develop hypothesesHypotheses are specific assertions and

predictions that can be tested

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Theories of Development

Psychoanalytic Theory Psychosocial Theory Cognitive Theory Behavioral and Social Theory Ethological Theory Ecological Theory

Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

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Psychoanalytic Theory

Primarily unconscious (beyond awareness) and heavily colored by emotion

Understanding of development requires analyzing the symbolic meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind

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Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud’s Theorybehavior and problems are the result of

experiences early in life (mainly first 5 years)adult personality -- resolution of conflicts

between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory   primary motivation for human behavior is social

and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people developmental change occurs throughout the life

span

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Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

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Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages

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Cognitive Theories

Emphasis on conscious thoughts Three important cognitive theories

Piaget’s cognitive developmental theoryVygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theoryInformation-processing theory

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Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory  

Children go through four stages of cognitive development

Processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world organization adaptation

Each stage is age-related and consists of a distinct way of thinking -- a qualitatively different way of understanding

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Piaget’s Cognitive Stages

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Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory  

Emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development

Cognitive development involves learning to use the inventions of society, such as language, mathematical systems, and memory strategies

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The Information-Processing Theory  

Emphasis on ways that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it

Individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information, which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills

(Munakata, 2006; Reed, 2007)

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Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Behaviorism -- we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured

Two versions of behaviorism B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioningAlbert Bandura’s social cognitive theory

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Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Skinner’s Operant Conditioning   consequences of a behavior produce changes

in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence rewards and punishments shape development

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory holds that behavior, environment, and

cognition are the key factors in developmentobservational learning (also called imitation or

modeling)people cognitively represent the behavior of others and then

sometimes adopt this behavior themselves

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Ethological Theory

Ethology stresses Behavior is strongly influenced by biologyIt is tied to evolutionCharacterized by critical or sensitive periods

Noted ethologistsKonrad LorenzJohn Bowlby

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Ecological Theory

Emphasis on environmental factors Noted ecological theories

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theorytheory identifies five environmental

systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem

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An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

No single theory described in this chapter can explain entirely the rich complexity of life-span development, but each has contributed to our understanding of development

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Research in Life-Span Development

Application of scientific method Methods for collecting data

observationlaboratory observationnaturalistic observation

asking questions -- survey and interviewstandardized testingcase studyphysiological measures

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Research Designs

Descriptive research -- observe and record behavior

Correlational research -- describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics

Experiment -- regulated procedure in which one or more factors are manipulated while all other factors are held constant

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Independent and Dependent Variables

Experiments include two types of changeable factors independent variable

manipulated, influential, experimental factor

a potential causedependent variable

can change in response to changes in the independent variable

resulting effect

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Experimental and Control Groups  

Experimental group is a group whose experience is manipulated

A control group is a comparison group As much like the experimental group as

possible, which is treated in every way like the experimental group except for the manipulated factor (independent variable)

Control group serves as a baseline against which the effects of the manipulated condition can be compared

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Time Span of Research

The cross-sectional approach is a research strategy that simultaneously compares individuals of different ages

The longitudinal approach is a research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more

A cohort is a group of people who are born at a similar point in history and share similar experiences Cohort effects are due to a person’s time of birth, era, or

generation but not to actual age

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Conducting Ethical Research

Rights of participant Responsibilities of researchers APA’s guidelines address four important

issues Informed consent ConfidentialityDebriefingDeception