What is Development?

• Systematic

changes

and

continuities

–In the individual –Between conception and death • “Womb to Tomb”

•

Three broad domains

–Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial

Periods of Development

• • • • • • • •

Prenatal period

: conception to birth

Infancy

: birth to 18 to 24 months

Early childhood

: end of infancy to 5 or 6 years of age

Middle and late childhood

: 6 to 12 years of age

Adolescence

: transition from childhood to early adulthood,12 years of age to 20 years

Early adulthood

: 20 to 40 years of age

Middle adulthood

: 40-65 years of age

Late adulthood

: begins in the 60s and lasts until death

Age Grades, Age Norms, and the Social Clock

•

Age Grade:

Socially defined age groups – Statuses, roles, privileges, responsibilities – Adults can vote, children can’t •

Age Norms:

Behavioral expectations by age – Children attend school •

Social Clock:

When things

should

be done – Early adulthood – time for 1 st marriages • “Off time” experiences are more difficult

BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT

• How do nature and nurture together shape development?

• To what degree do early traits and characteristics persist through life or change?

• Are people active or passive in their own development?

• In what ways is development continuous and in what ways is it discontinuous?

• Is development universal or context specific?

Framing the Nature/Nurture Issue

•

Nature:

heredity – Maturational processes guided by genes – Biologically based predispositions – Biological unfolding of genes •

Nurture:

environment – Learning: experiences cause changes is thoughts, feelings, and behaviors •

Interactionist view:

nature & nurture interact

Figure 1.1

GOALS OF STUDY OF LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT • Description • Explanation • Optimization

The Importance of Studying Life Span Development

• Parents or teachers • Insight about your own history • What will adult years be like?

Characteristics of the Life-Span Approach

• Development is Lifelong • Development is Multidimensional • Development is Multidirectional • Development is Plastic • Development is Multidisciplinary • Development is Contextual • Development is a process that involves growth, maintenance and the regulation of loss • Development is a co-construction of biology, culture and the individual

Conceptions of Age

• • •

Chronological age

: the number of years that have elapsed since birth

Biological age

: a person’s age in terms of biological health

Psychological age

: a person’s adaptive capacities compared with those of the individual of the same chronological age

Methods of Studying Life-Span Development

• Historical – Baby Biographies: Charles Darwin – Questionnaires: G. Stanley Hall

HOW IS RESEARCH CONDUCTED •

The Scientific Method Theory

- a set of concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain some aspect of behavior

Hypothesis

- specific prediction regarding a particular set of observations

Sample Selection Random Sample-

a sample formed by identifying all members of the larger population and then, by random means, selecting a portion of that population to study .

DATA COLLECTION

•

Self-report Measures

(Verbal Reports) Interviews Questionnaires Surveys Tests/Scales

Behavioral Observations

Naturalistic Structured

Physiological Measurements

CORRELATIONAL METHOD

• Involves determining whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way.

• Advantage No manipulation • Disadvantage Cannot unambiguously establish a causal relationship between variables

THE EXPERIMENT

•

Some aspect of the environment is manipulated or altered to see how this affects the behavior of the sample of individuals being investigated.

•

Independent Variable: variable in the experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter

•

Dependent Variable: variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment

•

Random Assignment: researchers assign participants to the experimental and control groups by chance

•

Advantage Establishes cause

•

Disadvantages Generalize to the real world; Ethical considerations

DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS

•

Cross-sectional design-

performances of people of different age groups, or cohorts are compared. Looks at

age differences

•

Longitudinal design-

the performance of one cohort of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time. Looks at

age changes

•

Sequential design-

combines the cross sectional and longitudinal approach in one study

FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENTAL STUDIES

• •

Age effects-

the effects of getting older

Cohort effects-

the effects of being born in a particular historical context •

Time of measurement

effects- the effects of historical events and trends occurring when the data were collected (e.g. the effects of 9/11

Theories of Development

Organismic model

“nature” maturation genetic blueprint individual seen as active

Mechanistic model

“nurture” environment learning

Contextual model

“nature x nurture” ecological models

The Ecology of Human Development

•

Bronfenbrenner: Bioecological Model – How nature and nurture interact to produce development • • The biological, psychological, person Four environmental systems –

Microsystem:

family –

Mesosystem:

interaction among microsystems –

Exosystem:

settings one step removed –

Macrosystem:

culture

The Ecology of Human Development

•

Bronfenbrenner: Bioecological Model – How nature and nurture interact to produce development • • The biological, psychological, person Four environmental systems –

Microsystem:

family –

Mesosystem:

interaction among microsystems –

Exosystem:

settings one step removed –

Macrosystem:

culture