Chapter 1 AN ORIENTATION TO LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

[Pages:36]Chapter 1 AN ORIENTATION TO LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

CONTENTS

Chapter-at-a-Glance

2

Learning Objectives

4

Key Terms and Concepts

5

Chapter Outline

6

Lecture Launchers

17

Student Activities

21

Supplemental Reading

25

Multimedia Ideas

27

MyDevelopmentLab Video Series + Discussion Questions

27

Additional Video Resources

28

Handouts

30

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CHAPTER-AT-A-GLANCE

Chapter Outline

Module 1.1: Determining the Nature--and Nurture--of Lifespan Development (p. 4) Characterizing Lifespan Development: The Scope of the Field Influences on Lifespan Development Cohort and Other Influences on Development: Developing with Others in a Social World Continuous Change versus Discontinuous Change Critical and Sensitive Periods: Gauging the Impact of Environmental Events Lifespan Approaches versus a Focus on Particular Periods The Relative Influence of Nature and Nurture on Development Module 1.2: Theoretical Perspectives on Lifespan Development (p. 12) Theories Explaining Developmental Change The Psychodynamic Perspective: Focusing on the Inner Person The Behavioral Perspective: Focusing on Observable Behavior The Cognitive Perspective: Examining the Roots of Understanding The Contextual Perspective: Taking a Broad Approach to Development Why Is It Wrong to Ask "Which Approach Is Right?"

Instructor's Resources Learning Objectives 1.1, 1.2 Student Activities 1.1, 1.2, 1.8

Learning Objectives 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 Lecture Launchers 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 Student Activities 1.4, 1.5, 1.9 MyDevelopmentLab Video: Erik Erikson MyDevelopmentLab Video: Mechanisms of Evolution

Professor Notes

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Module 1.3: Research Methods (p. 25) The Scientific Method Correlational Studies Measuring Developmental Change Ethics and Research

< Return to Contents

Learning Objectives 1.6, 1.7 Student Activities 1.3, 1.6, 1.7 MyDevelopmentLab Video: Robert Guthrie: Before Informed Consent

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1.1 What is lifespan development? 1.2 What are some of the basic influences on human development? 1.3 What are the key issues in the field of development? 1.4 Which theoretical perspectives have guided lifespan development? 1.5 What role do theories and hypotheses play in the study of development? 1.6 How are developmental research studies conducted? 1.7 What are some of the ethical issues regarding psychological research? < Return to Contents

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KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

age-graded influences applied research behavior modification behavioral perspective bioecological approach case studies classical conditioning cognitive development cognitive neuroscience approaches cognitive perspective cohort contextual perspective continuous change correlational research critical period cross-sectional research dependent variable discontinuous change evolutionary perspective experiment experimental research field study history-graded influences humanistic perspective hypothesis independent variable

< Return to Contents

information-processing approaches laboratory study lifespan development longitudinal research maturation naturalistic observation non-normative life events operant conditioning personality development physical development psychoanalytic theory psychodynamic perspective psychophysiological methods psychosexual development psychosocial development sample scientific method sensitive period sequential studies social development social-cognitive learning theory sociocultural theory sociocultural-graded influences survey research theoretical research theories

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CHAPTER OUTLINE

I.

Module 1.1 Determining the Nature--and Nurture--of Lifespan Development

Learning Objectives 1.1, 1.2

Student Activities 1.1, 1.2, 1.8

A. Characterizing Lifespan Development: The Scope of the Field

1. LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT is the field of study that examines patterns of

growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan.

a. Developmental psychologists test their assumptions about the nature and

course of human development by applying scientific methods.

b. Lifespan development focuses on human development.

(1) universal principles of development

(2) cultural, racial, ethnic differences

(3) individual traits and characteristics

c.

Lifespan developmentalists view development as a lifelong, continuing

process.

d. Lifespan developmentalists focus on change and growth in addition to

stability, consistency, and continuity in people's lives.

e.

Lifespan developmentalists are interested in people's lives from the moment

of conception until death.

2. The scope of the field of lifespan development is broad.

a.

Topical areas in lifespan development include:

(1) PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT involves the body's physical

makeup, including the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses,

and the need for food, drink, and sleep as a determinant of

behavior.

(2) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT involves the ways that growth

and change in learning, memory, problem-solving, and intelligence

influence a person's behavior.

(3) PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT involves the ways that the

enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from another

change over the lifespan.

(4) SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT is the way in which individuals'

interactions with others and their social relationships grow, change,

and remain stable over the course of life.

3. Age Ranges and Individual Differences

a. The lifespan is usually divided into broad age ranges.

(1) prenatal period (conception to birth)

(2) infancy and toddlerhood (birth to age 3)

(3) preschool period (ages 3 to 6)

(4) middle childhood (ages 6 to 12)

(5) adolescence (ages 12 to 20)

(6) young adulthood (ages 20 to 40)

(7) middle adulthood (ages 40 to 60)

(8) late adulthood (age 60 to death)

b. These broad periods of development are social constructions.

(1) A social construction is a shared notion of reality, one that is widely

accepted but is a function of society and culture at a given time.

c. It is important to remember that people mature at different rates and reach

developmental milestones at different points due to individual differences.

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d. Environmental factors such as one's culture can play a significant role in

determining the age at which a particular event is likely to occur.

4. Influences on lifespan development include culture, ethnicity, race, and other social

factors.

a. Developmental Diversity: How Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Influence

Development

(1) Developmentalists must take into consideration broad cultural

factors as well as ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender

differences if they are to achieve an understanding of how people

change and grow throughout the lifespan.

b. Progress concerning issues of human diversity has been slow in the field of

lifespan development.

c. Members of the research community have sometimes used terms such as

race and ethnic group in inappropriate ways.

(1) Race is a biological concept referring to classifications based on

physical and structural characteristics.

(2) Ethnic group and ethnicity are broader terms, referring to cultural

background, nationality, religion, and language.

d. There is little agreement about which names best reflect different races and

ethnic groups (i.e., African American or black).

e.

Race is not independent of environmental and cultural contexts.

5. Cohort and Other Influences on Development: Developing with Others in a Social

World

a.

One's COHORT is the group of people born around the same time and

place.

b. HISTORY-GRADED INFLUENCES are the biological and environmental

influences associated with a particular historical moment.

c.

AGE-GRADED INFLUENCES are biological and environmental

influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group,

regardless of when or where they are raised.

d. SOCIOCULTURAL-GRADED INFLUENCES include the impact of

social and cultural factors present at a particular time for a particular

individual, depending on such variables as ethnicity, social class, and

subcultural membership.

e.

NON-NORMATIVE LIFE EVENTS are specific, atypical events that

occur in a particular person's life at a time when they do not happen to most

people.

B. Key Debates in Lifespan Development

1. Continuous Change Versus Discontinuous Change

a. CONTINUOUS CHANGE involves gradual development in which

achievements at one level build on those of previous levels. These kinds of

changes are quantitative in nature, not changes in kind but gradual changes in

amounts of skills or abilities.

b. DISCONTINUOUS CHANGE is development that occurs in distinct steps

or stages, with each stage bringing about behavior that is assumed to be

qualitatively different from behavior at earlier stages. These are qualitative

changes in types of abilities or stages.

2. Critical and Sensitive Periods: Gauging the Impact of Environmental Events

a. A CRITICAL PERIOD is a specific time during development when a

particular event has its greatest consequences.

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b. Because individuals are now considered more malleable than was first

thought, developmentalists are more likely to speak of SENSITIVE

PERIODS as a point in development when organisms are particularly

susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments, but the absence

of those stimuli does not always produce irreversible consequences.

3. Lifespan Approaches Versus a Focus on Particular Periods

a. Early developmentalists focused on "infancy" and "adolescence."

b. Today, the entire lifespan is seen as important for several reasons.

(1) Growth and change continue throughout life.

(2) An important part of every person's environment is the other people

around him or her--the person's social environment.

(3) Some skills get better over time; others decline relative to other

stages of life.

(4) Resources for motivation, energy, and time are invested and utilized

differently at different ages in life.

4. The Relative Influence of Nature Versus Nurture on Development

a.

Nature refers to traits, abilities, and capacities that are inherited from one's

parents.

(1) It encompasses MATURATION, any factor that is produced by the

predetermined unfolding of genetic information.

b. Nurture refers to the environmental influences that shape behavior

(experiences had through biological, social, and societal origins).

c.

Developmental psychologists reject the notion that behavior is the result

solely of either nature or nurture.

d. It is useful to think of the nature-nurture controversy as a continuum, with

particular behaviors falling somewhere between the two ends.

II. Module 1.2: Theoretical Perspectives on Lifespan Development

Learning Objectives 1.3, 1.4, 1.5

Lecture Launchers 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5

Student Activities 1.4, 1.5, 1.9

MyDevelopmentLab Video: Erik Erikson

MyDevelopmentLab Video: Mechanisms of Evolution

A. Theories Explaining Developmental Change

1. THEORIES are explanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest,

providing a framework for understanding the relationships among an organized set

of facts or principles.

2. The PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE is the approach that states behavior is

motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little

awareness or control.

a. Freud's PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY suggests that unconscious forces

act to determine personality and behavior. According to Freud (1856?1939):

(1) The unconscious is a part of the personality of which a person is

unaware and which is responsible for much of our everyday

behavior.

(2) One's personality has three aspects.

(a) Id: the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality

present at birth that represents primitive drives related to

hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses; operates

according to the pleasure principle, in which the goal is to

maximize satisfaction and reduce tension

(b) Ego: the part of personality that is rational and reasonable

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