Life Span and Development EXAM 1 Chapter 1

Continuity and discontinuity issue

focuses on the degree to which development involves either gradual, cumulative change (continuity) , or distinct stages (discontinuity) Continuity- first word, puberty Discontinuity- caterpillar to butterfly, not being able to think abstractly to abstract thinking

Scientific method

four step process 1) conceptualize a process or problem to be studied 2) collect research information 3) analyze data 4) draw conclusions

Qualitative

having to do with quality of functioning ex) state of mind, communication, relationships

3 types of Contextual influences

1) normative age-graded influences 2) normative history- graded influences 3) non-normative or highly individualized life events

Connecting all 3 processes

Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional processes are all intertwined. Consider a baby smiling in response to a parents touch. this is biological ( the physical nature of a touch) cognitive (the ability to understand intentional acts) socioemtional (act of smiling reflects positive emotional feeling)

Sequential Designs

Combine cross-sectional longitudinal and time lag components in a single research design. Complex, expensive, and rare.

Emerging Adulthood

Identity exploration Self-focused Instability Feeling in-between The age of possibilities, a time where individuals have an opportunity to transform their lives

Developmental theory

Internally consistent (no contradictions) Empirically valid (supported by research findings) Testable/ falsifiable (generates research/ parsimonious) Capable of integrating previous research (communicates/ explains) Practically applicable * you can evaluate a theory by checking if it has these characteristics

Biological age

a persons age in terms of health

Freud's theory

he though that as children grow up their focus of pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from mouth to the anus and eventually the genitals. As a result we go through 5 stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Our adult personality Frued claimed is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality.

Cohort

can be defined as a group of people born at the same general time. Cohort effects are differences between individuals that are the result of experiences and circumstances

laboratory or Naturalistic observation

real world settings vrs. controlled setting where real world factors are not present

Social Age

refers to contentedness with others and the social roles individuals adopt

Before change can be considered development it has to be what?

1) Functionally significant 2) Relatively permanent

Biological Processes

Produce changes in an individuals physical nature

Hypotheses

Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy

Ways of observation

Survey and interview standardized test case study physiological measures

Life Course Perspective

considers the interaction of the individual development and collective family development in the context of changing historical conditions emphasizes that both individual and family development are affected by sociohistorical context

Maturation

developmental changes that are programmed primarily by genes rather than caused primarily by learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience

Quantitative

easily counted or #s ex) age, height, weight, grade

Systems perspective

human beings are developing systems in the context of other developing systems. we are developing while everything around is us too. one change can effect all parts of a system ( stone in your shoe)

Cross-Sectional Research

most frequently used observation of people of all different ages at the same time

Chronological age

number of years that have elapsed since birth

Skinner's Operant Conditioning

operant conditioning is where the consequences of a behavior changes the behavior occurrence. Skinner believes such rewards and punishments shape development. the key aspect of development is behavior.

Life Span Perspective

(Paul Baltes) life span perspective views development as a life long, multidimensional, multi directional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual process that includes growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss

Social Support

1) informational 2) physical 3) ideological 4) relational everyone needs all 4 kinds of support,

Development is Contextual

All development occurs within a context or setting. Contexts include: families, neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, work settings, churches ect.. each of these settings is influenced bu historical, economical, social, and cultural factors.

Change

Development is not possible without change. Change is not always a bad thing. different rates/ focus of development in different eras. Not all periods of life are equal in change. Not all change is considered development.

When does development stop?

Development is something that carries on throughout your entire life. This is called life span perspective. A life span perspective emphasizes developmental change throughout adulthood as well as childhood.

Age Effects

Differences between individuals due to biological, psychological, or socio-cultural processes across the time. *age is correlated but does not cause development

Multidimensional/ Cognitive dimension

attention, memory, abstract thinking, speed of processing information and social intelligence are all part of the cognitive dimension

What is Development constructed through?

biological, sociocultural, and individual factors all working together.

Late Adulthood

developmental period that starts at the 60s and lasts until death. Late adulthood has the longest span of any developmental period the number of people in this age group is expanding greatly. decreasing strength and health, retirement

Cognitive Processes

refer to changes in the individuals thought process, intelligence, and language

Socioeconomic Status

refers to a person's position within society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.

Developmental period

refers to a time frame in a persons life that is characterized by certain features

Gender

refers to the characteristics of people as males or females. Few aspects of our development are more central to our identity and social relationships than gender.

Psychological age

reflects an individuals adaptive capacities compared with those of other individuals of the same chronological age

Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

social cognitive theory- behavior along with environment and cognition are all key factors in development. observational learning- learning that occurs through observing what others do. bandura believes you develop through the environment. he believes that people cognitively represent/ mimic the behavior of others around them 3 factors of development: Behavior, Environment, and a person/cognition

Piaget's Theory

states that children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world. two processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world: organization and adaption the sensorimotor stage (birth-2) construct an understanding of the world through senses the preoperational (2-7) represent the world through words images and drawings the concrete operational (7-11) preform operations that involve objects, they can reason logically when the reasoning can be applied to concrete examples the formal stage (11-15-adulthood) individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in more abstract and more logical terms.

ethology

stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods

Time Lag Designs

study people at the same age born at different time periods. Answers the question "do they make them like they use too". Studies the effect of cohort and history

Systems Perspective

system within a system within a system (family, church). life span perspective focuses mainly on an individual

Plasticity

the capacity for change

Biological Aging

the deterioration of organisms that leads to death

Middle and Late Childhood

the developmental period between 6 to 11 During this time the fundamental skills of writing and reading are mastered

Early Childhood

the developmental period from the end of infancy too age 5 to 6 during this time children become more self-sufficient and start to care for themselves.

Adolescence

the developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood. entered at 10-12 years and ends at 18-21 years. Adolescence begins with rapid physical changes dramatic gains in height and weight development of sexual characteristics ans deepening of voice. At this point independence and identity are prominent. thought of more logical, abstract, and idealistic. More time spent outside of the family.

Early Adulthood

the developmental period that begins in the late teens and or early twenties and lasts through 30s. time of establishing personal and economical independence, persuing career development and for many selecting a mate learning to live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family and maybe children.

Development

the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span

Growth

the physical change that occurs from conception to maturity (physical)

Prenatal Period

the time from conception to birth. it involves tremendous growth, from a single call to a complete organism within a 9 month period

Variation

there is a huge variation among all individuals. There are significant differences between what is POSSIBLE what is NORMAL and what is DESIRABLE. Only you know what is desirable, while normal is set by the standards of society.

Normative age-graded influences

these influences include processes such as puberty and menopause. they also include sociocultural or environmental processes such as beginning formal education and retirement.

Time/Timing

time: individual time family time historical time and their intersections timing: "social clock" a cultural or sub-cultural sense of whether it is the right time for something to happen or not highly influenced by age norms vary by cohort timing can be combined with assessment of normativeness normative, nonnormative, on time, off time,

Nonnormative life events

unusual occurrences that have major impacts on an individual factors working together (examples: death of a parent when young, getting pregnant early, wining the lottery)

Research Methods

Descriptive research Correlation Research Experimental Research Cross-sectional Longitudinal Approach Cohort effects-due to a persons time of birth, era, or generation, but not actual age Make sure all research is ethical.

Longitudinal Research

Follow the same group of people across time study of age changes. This is the only way to study age changes. Links earlier behavior or developmental status to later outcomes Advantages- studies age changes, early to late linkages, truly developmental disadvantages- time, publish or perish, only one cohort

Learning

a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from a persons experiences

Theory

a set of concepts and propositions designed to organize and describe and explain a set of observations. an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps explain phenomena and make predictions. Observations or facts do not organize or explain themselves.

Normative History-Graded Influences

are common to people of a particular generation because of historical circumstances. they include economic, political, and social upheavals (examples: 9/11 , WWII, great Depression, as well as cell phones ipods and computers.)

Erikson's theory

at each stage a different developmental task confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved according to Erikson this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point marked by both increasing vulnerability and enhanced potential. the more successfully individuals resolve these crises , the healthier their life will be trust vrs mistrust autonomy vrs shame & doubt initiative vrs guilt industry vrs inferiority identity vrs identity confusion intimacy vrs isolation generativity vrs stagnation integrity vrs despair

What do developmental theories do?

developmental theories organize knowledge (facts) in order to provide: 1) focused descriptions of the ways that behaviors change over time 2) Testable explanations of human behavior 3) ways to intervene in the developmental trajectory

Time of Measurement

effects differences due to social, environmental, historical, or other events that have occurred at the same time that the data are collected

Information processing theory

emphasizing that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. this theory does not development as stage like, instead individuals gradually increase capacity for processing information which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills

Culture

encompasses the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a particular group of people that are passed on from generation to generation

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological theory

holds that development reflects the influence of several environmental systems microsystem-the setting in which the individual lives mesosystem-involves relations between microsystems or connections between contexts exosystem- consists of links between the individuals immediate context and a social setting in which the individual does not play an active role macrosystem-involves the culture in which individuals live chronosystem- consists of the patterning environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances.

Developmental Research

in our culture we rely heavily on the scientific method. research is not the only way to know something. developmental research- studies how people change across time and what age related variables are associated with those changes. Chronological age is often an "independent variable" Dependent Variables are usually selected physical and psychological measures.

Socioemotional Processes

involve changes in the individuals relationship with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality

Stability-Change Issue

involves the degree in which early traits and characteristics persist or change as a person matures. many develop-mentalists who emphasize stability in development argue that stability is the result of heredity and possibly early experiences in life. Develop-mentalist who emphasize change take more optimistic views that later experiences can produce change

Nature vs Nurture Issue

involves the extent to which development is influenced by nature and by nurture. Nature refers to an organisms biological inheritance and nurture is its environmental experiences

Social Policy

is a governments course of action designed to promote the welfare of citizens

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

is a sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development. Vygotsky portrayed the child's development as inseparable from social and cultural activities.

Ethnicity

is rooted in cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language

Middle Adulthood

is the developmental period from aprox 40-60 expanding personal and social involvement and responsibility satisfaction with a career

Infancy

is the developmental period from birth to 18 or 24 months during this period many physiological activities- language symbolic thought , social learning are just beginning

Transition

life changes which involve shifts in role involvements and social identity. often marked by events and associated rituals BUT. the event itself is not the transition Create functional relationships that did not exist before unhook functional relationships that existed before the transition important to observe in human services, education, and health care fields...

Trajectory

longer views of life course commonly identified with the study of careers in the classic sociological sense each life course contains multiple, interlocking trajectories their scheduling and managing is one aspect of life course development