Lifespan Development/Developmental Psychology

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE
STUDY OF
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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2. Basic Concepts and Why
Do We Study Lifespan
Development?
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3. Development
•The pattern of movement
or change that begins
from conception and
continues throughout the
lifespan
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5. Lifespan
Perspective
Lifelong
Multidimensional
Plastic
Multidisciplinary
Contextual
Involves Growth,
Maintenance,
and Regulation
of Loss
Co-construction
of biology,
culture, and
individual
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6. Influence of Contexts
Normative Age-Graded Influences
• Similar for individuals in a particular age group
(e. g., puberty, menopause)
Normative History-Graded Influences
• Common to people of a particular generation due
to historical influences
• Includes the long-term changes in the genetic and
cultural makeup
Nonnormative Life Events
• Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on
the lives of individuals
• When they occur, they can be influential to
people in different ways.
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7. Benefits From Studying
Lifespan Development
 At any point, you’ll be dealing with your
own children, other children, and
adults.
 It can also be helpful in making you
understand the potential gains and
losses in every stage of development.
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8. Contemporary Issues
with Relevance
 Health and Well-being
 The influence of lifestyle and psychological states on well-
being
 Parenting and Education
 Parenting styles, intergenerational relationships, early
childhood education, bilingual education
 Sociocultural Contexts and Diversity
 Cross-cultural studies, ethnicity, socioeconomic status,
and gender
 Social Policy
 How do we protect the well-being of children and the
elderly?
 Technology
 What are the effects of media use among children?
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9. Biological
Socioemotional
Cognitive
The Nature of Development
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10. Periods of Development
1. Prenatal Period
2. Infancy
3. Early Childhood
4. Middle and Late Childhood
5. Adolescence
6. Early Adulthood
7. Middle Adulthood
8. Late Adulthood
Emerging Adulthood
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11. Patterns of Aging
Normal Aging
• Stable until 50s to early 60s and a modest
decline in the early 80s
Pathological Aging
• Greater than average declines as one
becomes older
Successful Aging
• The positive development across the
different developmental domains are
maintained longer
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12. Conceptions of Age
Chronological Age
• Based on the number of years that has elapsed
since birth
Biological Age
• Based on the functional capacities of vital organs
Psychological Age
• Based on the individual’s adaptive capacities
Social Age
• Based on the connectedness with others and the
social roles we adopt as individuals.
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13. Developmental Issues
Nature vs. Nurture
• Nature – biological inheritance
• Nurture – environmental experience
• Extreme environments can depress development, but basic growth tendencies
are genetically programmed
• Number of studies do reflect the epigenetic view (development is an ongoing,
bidirectional interchange between genes and environment)
Stability vs. Change
• Involves the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through
life or change
• Stability is a result of heredity or early life experiences
• Later experiences can produce change
Continuity vs. Discontinuity
• Focuses on the degree by which development is either gradual, cumultative, or
distinct
Universal vs. Context-Specific
• Determines whether there is only one path for development or several of it
• Some would argue that there’s only one fundamental process for everyone
• On the other hand, there are others that would argue that development is due
to the complex interaction with the environment
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14. Theories of Lifespan
Development
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15. Definition of Terms
 Scientific Method:
 Conceptualization of a problem
 Collecting data
 Analyzing data
 Drawing conclusions
 Theory: an interrelated, coherent set of
ideas that help to explain phenomena and
facilitate predictions
 Hypotheses: specific assertions and
predictions that can be tested
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16. PSYCHOANALYTIC
THEORY: Freud
 The focus of pleasure and sexual impulses
shifts from the mouth to the genitals
 Adult personality is determined by the
manner we resolve conflicts between
sources of pleasures and the demands of
reality
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17. PSYCHOANALYTIC
THEORY: Erikson
 We develop in psychosocial stages
 Social and reflects the desire to affiliate
with other people
 Unlike Freud, Erikson emphasized that
change occurs throughout the lifespan
 At each stage we are confronted with a
crisis that must be resolved
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18. COGNITIVE
THEORY: Piaget
 Children go through the different stages
of cognitive development as they
construct their understanding of the world
 Organization and adaptation underlies the
cognitive construction of the world
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19. COGNITIVE
THEORY: Vygotsky
 Children actively construct their
knowledge
 An interaction with skilled adults and
peers is indispensable to cognitive
development
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20. COGNITIVE THEORY:
Information-Processing
 Manipulation, Monitoring, and Strategizing
about information
 We develop a gradual capacity for processing
information
 Microgenetic Method: to obtain detailed
information about processing mechanisms
from moment to moment
 Uses the computer analogy
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21. BEHAVIORAL
THEORY: Skinner
 The consequences of a behavior produce
changes in the probability of the
behavior’s occurrence
 Development is brought about by rewards
and punishments
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22. SOCIAL-
COGNITIVE
THEORY: Bandura
 Behavioral, environmental, and cognitive
factors play a key role in development
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23. ETHOLOGICAL THEORY:
Lorenz & Bowlby
Konrad Lorenz studied the behavior of graylag
geese. He obtained eggs for some geese to be
hatched by the mother and others inside the
laboratory. Those who were hatched by the
mother, followed the mother, and those who
were hatched in the laboratory, followed him.
Imprinting: rapid, innate learning that involves
attachment to the first objects seen
John Bowlby stressed that an attachment to a caregiver
over the first year of life has important consequences
throughout the lifespan
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24. ECOLOGICAL
THEORY:
Bronfenbrenner
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25. COMPETENCE-
ENVIRONMENTAL PRESS
THEORY
 People adapt most effectively when their
competence, or abilities, match the
environmental press, or the demands put on
them by the environment.
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26. SELECTIVE
OPTIMIZATION WITH
COMPENSATION
 According to its proponent, Paul Baltes,
selection, optimization, and compensation
form a system of behavioral action that
generates and regulates development and
aging.
 Selection: occurs when there is a reduction in
involvement due to demands and when is confronted
with real or anticipated losses.
 Compensation: occurs when there is an achievement
of a different goal.
 Optimization: minimizing the losses and maximizing
the gains; involves finding the best match between
resources and desired goals
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27. LIFE-COURSE
PERSPECTIVE
 Various generations experience the biological,
psychological, and sociocultural forces of
development in their respective historical
contexts.
 There is a dynamic interplay between individual
and society.
 The individual timing of life events in relation to
external historical events.
 The synchronization of individual transitions with
collective familial ones.
 The impact of earlier life events, as shaped by
historical events, one subsequent ones.
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28. ECLECTIC
THEORETICAL
ORIENTATION
 Selecting from each theory whatever is
considered its best features
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29. Research in the Study of
Human Development
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30. OBSERVATION
 Watching people carefully and recording
what they do or say.
 This can be done in the real-life situation
(naturalistic) or by means of creating a
situation that would elicit a desired
behavior of interest (structured)
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31. SAMPLING BEHAVIOR
WITH TASKS
 If observation cannot be done, this is an
alternative course of action to obtain
some measures related with the
behavior of interest.
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32. SELF-REPORTS
 The respondents would answer to the
question(s) presented by the researcher
 The responses can lead to the
information needed by the researcher
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33. PHYSIOLOGICAL
MEASURES
 Measurement of hormone levels.
 fMRI: construct the images of one’s
brain tissue and biochemical activity.
 Electroencephalography: to monitor
electrical activity in the brain.
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34. CORRELATIONAL
RESEARCH
 Provide information that can be helpful
for prediction purposes.
 The more strongly two events are
correlated, the more accurate the
prediction can be.
 A correlation coefficient ranges from -1
to +1.
 Correlation does not equate to
causation.
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35. EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH
 Carefully regulated procedures in which
one or several factors are believed to
influence the behavior being studied are
manipulated.
 Random assignment is important
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36. Approaches to the
Study of Human Devt.
CROSS-SECTIONAL APPROACH
•Simultaneous comparisons of individuals of different ages
•It does not provide information regarding how individuals change
LONGITUDINAL APPROACH
•Studying the same individuals over time
•Can provide vital information surrounding which is stable and not
•Problems include the expensiveness and attrition
COHORT EFFECTS
•Study of development brought by the time of birth, era, and
generation
•Cohort effects can be powerful in affecting the depending
measures in a study ostensibly concerned with age
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37. Research Ethics
Informed Consent
• Informing the participants about their participation in the
study and the risks involved
• Participants has the right to withdraw
Confidentiality
• Data is completely anonymous and confidential
Debriefing
• By the end of the study, inform the participants about the
purpose and methods
Deception
• Can be beneficial, but it must be assured that participants will
not be harmed during the study and will be debriefed after the
study
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38. Key Takeaways
 Development is constructed through biological,
psychological, sociocultural, and individual factors
working together.
 A key element in the study of life-span
development is how one period is connected to
the development in another period.
 Nature & nurture, stability & change, and
continuity & discontinuity characterize
development throughout the lifespan.
 Consider the rights of participants in our research
projects.
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39. References
Kail, R. V. & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2019). Human development:
A life-span view (8th ed). Cengage
Santrock, J. W. (2019). Life-span development (17th ed.).
McGraw-Hill.
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