Lifespan development

the field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the life span.

lifespan development takes a scientific approach.

Lifespan development focuses on human development

 physical development

examining the ways in which the body’s makeup—the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses, and the need for food, drink, and sleep—helps determine behavior.

For example, one specialist in physical development might examine the effects of malnutrition on the pace of growth in children, while another might look at how athletes’ physical perfor- mance declines during adulthood

cognitive development

seeking to understand how growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person’s behavior.

Cognitive de- velopmentalists examine learning, memory, problem-solving, and intelligence.

For example, specialists in cognitive development might want to see how problem-solving skills change over the course of life, or if cultural differences exist in the way people explain their academic successes and failures, or how traumatic events experienced early in life are remembered later in life

Personality development

the study of stability and change in the characteristics that differentiate one person from another over the life span

Social development

the way in which individuals’ interactions and relationships with others grow, change, and remain stable over the course of life.

A developmentalist interested in personality development might ask whether there are stable, enduring personality traits throughout the life span, while a specialist in social development might examine the effects of racism or poverty or divorce on development.

Age Ranges and Individual Differences

the prenatal period

infancy and toddlerhood

the preschool period 

middle childhood 

adolescence

young adulthood 

middle adulthood 

late adulthood

(from conception to birth)

(birth to 3)

(3 to 6)

(6 to 12)

(12 to 20)

(20 to 40)

(40 to 60)

 (60 to death)

Social construction

 a shared notion of reality that is widely accepted but is a function of society and culture at a given time.

Thus, the age ranges within a period—and even the periods themselves—are in many ways arbitrary and culturally derived.

For example, we’ll see how the concept of childhood as a special period did not even exist during the seventeenth century—children were seen then simply as miniature adults.

Cohort

age-graded influences

Biological and environmental influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group, regardless of when or where they are raised.

For example, biological events such as puberty and menopause are universal events that occur at about the same time in all societies

sociocultural-graded influences

the social and cultural factors present at a particular time for a particular individual, depending on such variables as ethnicity, social class, and subcultural membership.

For example, sociocultural-graded influ- ences will be considerably different for white and nonwhite children, especially if one lives in poverty and the other in affluence

 non-normative life events

specific, atypical events that occur in a particular person’s life at a time when such events do not happen to most people.

For example, a child whose parents die in an automobile accident when she is 6 has experienced a significant non- normative life event.

Three assumptions made by lifespan develop- mentalists are: 1) a focus on human develop- ment, 2) an understanding of stability in addition to growth and change, and 3) ______________.

a. the perception that development persists throughout our entire lives

b. the perception that childhood developmental changes are the only changes worth studying

c. the idea that some periods of the life span are more important than others

d. the perception that development is a stagnant process

Stages of the life span such as adolescence and

stable across history. d True d False

The time when children utter their first complete sentence is an example of:

a. a history-graded influence. b. an age-graded influence.

c. a sociocultural-graded influence. d. a non-normative life event.

continuous change

Development is gradual, with achievements at one level building on those of previous levels.

Continuous change is quantitative; the underlying developmental processes remain the same over the life span. In this view changes are a matter of degree, not of kind—like changes in a person’s height.

Some theorists suggest that changes in people’s thinking abilities are also continuous, building on gradual improvements rather than developing entirely new processing capabilities.

discontinuous change

Devlopment : occurring in distinct stages. Each stage brings about behavior that is assumed to be qualitatively different from behavior at earlier stages.

Consider cognitive development again. Some cognitive developmentalists suggest that our thinking changes in fundamental ways as we develop, not just quantitatively but qualitatively.

critical period

 Specific time during development when a particular event has its greatest consequences. Critical periods occur when the presence of certain kinds of environmental stimuli are neces- sary for development to proceed normally

Although early specialists in lifespan development placed great emphasis on critical peri- ods, recent thinking suggests that individuals are more malleable, particularly in the domain of personality and social development. For instance, rather than suffering permanent damage from a lack of certain early social experiences, there is increasing evidence that people can use later experiences to help overcome earlier deficits.

sensitive periods

In a sensitive period, organisms are particularly susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments.

In contrast to a critical period, however, the absence of those stimuli during a sensitive period does not always produce irreversible consequences.

Developmentalists like this nowadays

In critical periods, it is assumed that the absence of certain kinds of environmental influences is likely to produce permanent, irreversible consequences for the developing individual.

In contrast, although the absence of particular environmental influ- ences during a sensitive period may hinder development, it is possible for later experiences to overcome the earlier deficits.

In other words, the concept of sensitive period recognizes the plasticity of developing humans

maturation

 the predetermined unfolding of genetic information

Nature

traits, abilities, and capacities that are inherited from one’s parents

nurture

the environmental influences that shape behavior

Grady believes that human development occurs in small, measurable amounts. His sister Andrea disagrees and suggests that human development is more distinct and steplike. Their argument is most reflective of the ______________ issue.

a. critical and sensitive period

b. nature and nurture

c. continuous and discontinuous

d. lifespan approach and particular period

A ______________ is a specific time during development when a particular event has its greatest consequence.

Theories

explanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest, providing a framework for understanding the relationships among an organized set of facts or principles

psychodynamic perspective

Advocates believe that much behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control.

The inner forces, which may stem from childhood, influence behavior throughout the life span.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

suggests that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior. To Freud, the unconscious is a part of the personality about which a person is unaware. It contains infantile wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are hidden, because of their disturbing nature, from conscious awareness. Freud suggested that the unconscious is responsible for a good part of our everyday behavior.

The id

the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality that is present at birth. It represents primi- tive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. The id operates accord- ing to the pleasure principle, in which the goal is to maximize satisfaction and reduce tension.

The ego

acts as a buffer between the external world and the primitive id. The ego operates on the reality principle, in which instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and help integrate the person into society.

the superego

represents a person’s conscience, incorporating distinctions between right and wrong. It begins to develop around age 5 or 6 and is learned from an individual’s parents, teachers, and other significant figures.

psychosexual development

Occurs as children pass through distinct stages in which pleasure, or gratification, is focused on a particular biological function and body part.

he suggested that pleasure shifts from the mouth (the oral stage) to the anus (the anal stage) and eventually to the genitals (the phallic stage and the genital stage).

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

Oral

Anal

Phallic

Latency

Genital

Oral - Birth to 12–18 months

Anal -12–18 months to 3 years

Phallic - 3 to 5–6 years

Latency - 5–6 years to adolescence

Genital -Adolescence to adulthood

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory.

an alternative psychodynamic view, emphasizing our social interaction with other people. In Erikson’s view, society and culture both challenge and shape us.

Psychosocial development

encompasses changes in our interactions with and understand- ings of one another as well as in our knowledge and understanding of us as members of society 

behavioral perspective

Suggests that the keys to understanding development are observable behavior and environmental stimuli.

If we know the stimuli, we can predict the behavior. In this respect, the behavioral perspective reflects the view that nurture is more important to development than nature.    

Behavioral theories reject the notion that people universally pass through a series of stages. Instead, people are affected by the environmental stimuli to which they happen to be exposed.        

Classical conditioning 

occurs when an organism learns to respond in a particular way to a neutral stimulus.

For instance, if the sound of a bell is paired with the arrival of meat, a dog will learn to react to the bell alone in the same way it reacts to the meat—by salivating and wagging its tail.

The behavior is a result of conditioning, a form of learning in which the response associated with one stimulus (food) comes to be connected to another—in this case, the bell.

Operant conditioning

Reinforcement

The process by which a behavior is followed by a stimulus that increases the probability that the behavior will be repeated

punishment

Behavior modification

 formal technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones.

 social-cognitive learning theory

an approach that emphasizes learning by observing the behavior of another person, called a model (Bandura, 1994, 2002)

According to social-cognitive learning theory, behavior is learned primarily through ob- servation and not through trial and error, as it is with operant conditioning.

cognitive perspective

focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world.

The cognitive perspective emphasizes how people internally represent and think about the world. By using this perspective, developmental researchers hope to understand how children and adults process information and how their ways of thinking and understanding affect their behavior. 

cognitive perspective

the approach that focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world

Piaget’s Theoryof Cognitive Development.

Piaget proposed that all people pass through a fixed sequence of universal stages of cognitive development

Piaget suggested that human thinking is arranged into schemes, organized mental patterns that represent behaviors and actions

Assimilation

the process in which people understand a new experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and existing ways of thinking

-Piaget

accommodation

refers to changes in existing ways of thinking in response to encounters with new stimuli or events. Assimilation and accommodation work in tandem to bring about cognitive development.

-Piaget

humanistic perspective

the theory that contends that people have a natural capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their behavior

contextual perspective

the theory that considers the relationship between individuals and their physical, cognitive, personality, and social worlds

individualism

the dominant Western philosophy that emphasizes personal identity, uniqueness, freedom, and the worth of the individual.

Collectivism

The notion that the well-being of the group is more important than that of the individual.

People raised in collectivistic cultures sometimes emphasize the welfare of the group at the expense of their own personal well-being.

Why “Which Approach Is Right?” Is the Wrong Question

each perspective emphasizes different aspects of development

For instance, the psychodynamic approach emphasizes unconscious determinants of behavior, while behavioral perspectives emphasize overt behavior. The cognitive and humanistic perspectives look more at what people think than at what they do. The contextual perspective examines social and cultural influences on development, and the evolutionary perspective focuses on how inherited biological factors underlie development.

According to the humanistic perspective, people reject the urge to seek love and respect from others and strive to achieve personal indepen- dence free of societal interconnections.

d True dFalse

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological approach and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory fall under the category of the ______________ perspective.

a. humanistic b. ethnological c. contextual d. evolutionary

The contextual perspective

The contextual perspective

The contextual perspective examines social and cultural influences on development, and the evolutionary perspective focuses on how inherited biological factors underlie development.

scientific method

the process of posing and answering questions using careful, controlled techniques that include systematic, orderly observation and the collection of data

(1) identifying questions of interest, (2) formulating an explanation, and (3) carrying out research that either lends support to the explanation or refutes it.

correlational research

Correlational research seeks to identify whether an association or relationship be- tween two factors exists

For instance, correlational research could tell us if there is an association between the number of minutes a mother and her newborn child are together immediately after birth and the quality of the mother–child relationship when the child reaches age 2. Such correlational research indicates whether the two factors are associated or related to one another, but not whether the initial contact caused the relationship to develop in a particular way

experimental research

experimental research is designed to discover causal relationships between various factors. In experimental research, researchers deliberately introduce a change in a carefully structured situation in order to see the consequences of that change.

For instance, a researcher conducting an experiment might vary the number of minutes that mothers and children interact immediately following birth, in an attempt to see whether the bonding time affects the mother–child relationship.

naturalistic observation a type of correlational study in which some naturally occurring behavior is observed without intervention in the situation

case studies

studies that involve extensive, in-depth interviews with a particular individual or small group of individuals

survey research

a type of study where a group of people chosen to represent some larger population are asked questions about their attitudes, behavior, or thinking on a given topic

psychophysiological methods

research that focuses on the relationship between physiological processes and behavior

– Capture behavior in real-life settings

– Participants may behave more naturally

– May be used in correlational studies and 

experiments

– Often difficult to exert control over situation 

and environment

– Hold events constant

– Enables researchers to learn more clearly how 

treatment affect participants

random assignment

participants are assigned to different experimental groups or “conditions” purely on the basis of chance. This way the laws of sta- tistics ensure that personal characteristics that might affect the outcome of the experiment are divided proportionally among the participants in the different groups, making the groups equivalent.

field study

a research investigation carried out in a naturally occurring setting

Theoretical research

designed to test some developmental explanation and expand scientific knowledge

For instance, if we were interested in the processes of cognitive change during childhood, we might carry out a study of how many dig- its children of various ages can remember after one exposure to multidigit numbers—a theo- retical approach

applied research

meant to provide practical solutions to immediate problems

more practical question of how teachers can help children to remember information more easily. Such a study would represent applied research, because the findings are applied to a particular setting and problem.

Using Developmental Research to 

Improve Public Policy

Research findings can provide policymakers a means of 

determining what questions to ask in the first place. 

• Research findings and the testimony of researchers are often 

part of the process by which laws are drafted.

• Policymakers and other professionals use research findings to 

determine how best to implement programs. 

• Research techniques are used to evaluate the effectiveness of 

existing programs and policies.

longitudinal research

the behavior of one or more study participants is measured as they age

Measuring people of different ages at same point 

in time

research in which researchers examine a number of different age groups over several points in time

• Researchers must protect participants from 

physical and psychological harm.

• Researchers must obtain informed consent from 

participants before their involvement in a study. 

• The use of deception in research must be justified 

and cause no harm.

• Participants’ privacy must be maintained.

zygote

About an hour or so after the sperm enters the ovum, the two gametes suddenly fuse, becoming one cell, a zygote.

Monozygotic twins

Monozygotic twins are twins who are genetically identical. Any differ- ences in their future development can be attributed only to environmental factors.

 dizygotic twins

multiple births are more commonly the result of two separate sperm fertilizing two separate ova at roughly the same time. Twins produced in this fashion are known as dizygotic twins

Because they are the result of two separate ovum– sperm combinations, they are no more genetically similar than two siblings born at different times.

polygenic inheritance

In polygenic inheritance, a combination of multiple gene pairs is responsible for the production of a particular trait.

• Causes

– Genetics

– Spontaneous mutation

– Environmental insult

• Consequences

– Down Syndrome

– Sickle-cell Anemia

– Tay-Sachs Disease

Down syndrome

Instead of 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs, individuals with Down syn- drome have an extra chromosome on the 21st pair. Once referred to as mongolism, Down syndrome is the most frequent cause of mental retardation. It occurs in about 1 out of 500 births, although the risk is much greater in mothers who are unusually young or old

Fragile X syndrome

Fragile X syndrome occurs when a particular gene is injured on the X chromosome. The result is mild to moderate mental retardation

Sickle-cell anemia

Around one-tenth of people of African descent carry genes that produce sickle-cell anemia, and 1 individual in 400 actually has the disease. Sickle-cell anemia is a blood disorder named for the shape of the red blood cells in those who have it. Symptoms include poor appetite, stunted growth, swollen stomach, and yellowish eyes. People afflicted with the most severe form rarely live beyond childhood.

Tay-Sachs disease

Occurring mainly in Jews of eastern European ancestry and in French- Canadians, Tay-Sachs disease usually causes death before its victims reach school age. There is no treatment for the disorder, which produces blindness and muscle degeneration prior to death.

Klinefelter’s syndrome

One male out of every 400 is born with Klinefelter’s syndrome, the presence of an extra X chromosome. The resulting XXY complement produces un- derdeveloped genitals, extreme height, and enlarged breasts. Klinefelter’s syndrome is one of a number of genetic abnormalities that result from receiving the improper number of sex chromosomes

patterns of arousal and emotionality that represent consistent and enduring characteristics in an individual

The determination of traits by a combination of both genetic and environmental factors in which a genotype provides a range within which a phenotype may be expressed

Moment of 

conception

Joining of sperm 

and ovum = zygote

• Germinal

• Embryonic

• Fetal

• Fertilization --- two weeks

– Shortest stage

– Fertilized egg now called blastocyst

– Travels to and implants in uterus

– Characterized by methodical cell division

– With division comes cell specialization

Embryonic Stage

• 2 weeks --- 8 weeks

– Organism firmly secures to uterus and called an embryo

– Development of major organs and basic anatomy

• Three distinct layers that ultimately form different set 

of structures:

– Ectoderm

– Endoderm

– Mesoderm

• 8 weeks --- Birth

– Formally starts when differentiation of major 

organs has occurred 

– Organism now called fetus

– Characterized by rapid development

• Organs become more differentiated and begin working

• Interconnections between body parents become more 

complex and integrated

• Brain becomes more sophisticated

Infertility

Some 15 percent of couples suffer from infertility, the inability to conceive after 12 to 18 months of trying. Infertility is correlated with age: The older the parents, the more likely infertility will occur

miscarriage

A miscarriage—known as a spontaneous abortion—occurs when the embryo detaches from the wall of the uterus and is expelled before the child can survive outside the womb. Some 15 to 20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, usually in the first several months. Some sort of genetic abnormality accounts for most miscarriages.

teratogen

 A teratogen is an environmental agent such as a drug, chemical, virus, or other factor that produces a birth defect. Although the placenta is respon- sible for keeping teratogens from the fetus, it is not 100 percent successful and probably every fetus is exposed to some teratogens.

Apgar scale

a standard measurement system that looks for a variety of indications of good health in newborns

a restriction of oxygen to the baby, lasting a few minutes during the birth process, which can produce cognitive defects

bonding

close physical and emotional contact between parent and child during the period immediately following birth

neonates

the term used for newborns

first stage of labor

the uterine contractions initially occur around every 8 to 10 minutes and last about 30 seconds. As labor proceeds, the contractions occur more frequently and last longer. Toward the end of labor, the contractions may occur every 2 minutes and last almost 2 minutes.

The baby's head starts to move through the cervix and birth canal. Typically lasting around 90 minutes, the second stage ends when the baby has completely left the mother's body.

The child's umbilical cord (still attached to the neonate) and the placenta are expelled from the mother. This stage is the quickest and easiest, taking just a few minutes.

Preterm infants, or premature infants, are born prior to 38 weeks after concep- tion. Because they have not had time to develop fully, preterm infants are at high risk for illness and death.

Small-for-gestational- age infants are infants who, because of delayed fetal growth, weigh 90 percent (or less) of the average weight of infants of the same gestational age. 

low-birthweight infants

 infants who weigh less than 2,500 grams (around 5 1/2 pounds) at birth

Postpartum depression

a period of deep depression following the birth of a child, affects some 10 percent of new mothers.

meconium

a greenish-black material that is a remnant of the neonate’s days as a fetus.

neonatal jaundice 

Because the liver, a critical component of the digestive system, does not always work effec- tively at first, almost half of newborns develop a yellowish tinge to their bodies and eyes.

habituation

the decrease in the response to a stimulus that occurs after repeated presentations of the same stimulus