DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Module 1: The Life Span Perspective

This lesson focused on the concept of development as, the importance of studying life span development,
characteristics of the life span perspective and some contemporary concerns. Concept of development pattern of change
begins at conception and continuous through the life span. For life span perspective that: development is lifelong,
multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, science is multidisciplinary, contextual.

For the contemporary concerns are: health and well-being, parenting education, sociocultural context and diversity
and social policy.

Lesson 1 : Importance of Studying Life Span

Each of us develops partly like all other individuals, partly like some other individuals, and partly like no other
individual. Most of the time our attention is directed to each individual’s uniqueness. But as humans, we have all traveled some
common paths. Each of us, if we live long enough, will experience hearing problems and the death of family members and
friends. This is the general course of our development, the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and
continues through the human life span.

We will explore what is meant by the concept of development and why the study of life-span development is
important. We will outline the main characteristics of the life-span perspective and discuss various sources of contextual
influences. In addition, we will examine some contemporary concerns in life-span development.

Characteristics of Life Span Development

Life Expectancy –
Recent increases in human life expectancy have contributed to the popularity of the life-span approach to
development. The upper boundary of the human life span (based on the oldest age documented) is 122 years, this maximum
life span of humans has not changed since the beginning of recorded history.
What has changed is life expectancy—the average number of years that a person born in a particular year can expect
to live. In the twentieth century alone, life expectancy in the United States increased by 32 years, thanks to improvements in
sanitation, nutrition, and medicine (see Figure 2). In 2016, the life expectancy in the United States was 79 years of age (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2017). Today, for most individuals in developed countries, childhood and adolescence represent only about
one-fourth of their lives.

The life-span perspective –

The belief that development occurs throughout life is central to the life-span perspective on human development, but
this perspective has other characteristics as well. According to life-span development expert Paul Baltes (1939–2006), the life-
span perspective views development as lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual,
and as a process that involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss (Baltes, 1987, 2003; Baltes, Lindenberger, &
Staudinger, 2006).
Components of the life-span perspectives:

development is lifelong,
development is multidimensional,
development is multidirectional,
development is plastic
developmental science is multidisciplinary
development is contextual- context exerts three types, normative age-graded influences, normative history graded,
nonnormative or highly individualized life events.

Some of the contemporary concerns are the following:

Health and well being- Clinical psychologist are among the health professionals who help people improve their well
being (see article connecting with careers or video related to health and well being).

Parenting education – the child care, the effects of divorce, parenting style, child maltreatment, intergenerational
interrelationship, early childhood education, links between childhood poverty and education.

Sociocultural context and diversity – to analyze the context there are four concepts especially useful: culture,
ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender.

Social policy is a government course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.

Lesson 2: Periods of Development

This lesson focused on what is the developmental process and periods. It also focused on the key developmental
issues and processes.

Biological Process -  produce changes in an individual’s physical nature. Genes inherited from parents, brain
development, height and weights gains, changes in motor skills, nutrition, exercise, the hormonal changes of puberty and etc.

Cognitive process refers to changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence and language.

Socioemotional Process involve changes in the individual’s relationship with other people, changes in emotions, and
changes in personality.
 

PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENTS
A developmental period refers to a time frame in person’s life that characterized by certain features

1. Prenatal period – is the time from conception to birth. It involves tremendous growth from a single cell to an
organism complete with brain and behavioral capabilities and takes an approximately a 9 month period.
2. Infancy – is a developmental period from birth to 18 to 24 months. Infancy is a time of extreme dependence upon
adults.
3. Toddler, is often used to describe a child from about  1!/2 to 3 years of age. Toddlers are in transitional period
between infancy and the next period, early childhood.
4. Early childhood, is the developmental period from 3 through 5 years of age. This period is sometimes called the
“preschool years”. During this time, young children learn to become more self-sufficient and to take care of
themselves, develop school readiness skills (following instructions, identifying letters), and spend many hours playing
with peers.
5. Middle and Late Childhood is the developmental period from about 6 to 10 or 11 years of age, approximately
corresponding to the elementary school years. During this period, children master the fundamental skills of reading,
writing, and arithmetic and they are formally exposed to the larger world and its culture. Achievement becomes a
more central theme of the child’s world and self-control increases.
6. Adolescence, is the developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood entered at approximately
10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 21 years of age. Adolescence begins with rapid physical changes-dramatic
gains in height and weight, changes in body and contour, and the development of sexual characteristics such as
 enlargements of the breast, growth of pubic and facial hair, and deepening of the voice. The pursuit of independence
and identity is preeminent. The thought is more logical, abstract, and idealistic. More time is spent outside the family.
Many individuals are still exploring which career path they want to follow, what they want their identity to be, which
lifestyle they want to adopt.
7. Early Adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the early twenties and lasts through the thirties. It is a
time of establishing personal and economic independence, advancing in a career, and for many, selecting a mate,
learning to live with that person in an intimate way, starting a family, and rearing children.
8. Middle Adulthood is the developmental period from approximately 40 to about 60 years of age. It is a time of
expanding personal and social involvement and responsibility, of assisting next generation in becoming competent,
mature individuals and of reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career.
9. Late Adulthood is the developmental period that begins during the sixties or seventies and lasts until death. It is a
time of life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles and diminishing strength and health. It has the
longest span of any period of development and as noted earlier, the number of people in this age group has been
increasing dramatically. Life span developmentalists has been paying more attention to late adulthood.
 

Four Ages:  Life Span developmentalists who focus on adult development and aging increasingly describe life-span
development in terms of four ages (Baltes 2006, Willis & Sachie 2006)

1. First age – childhood and adolescence

2. Second age – prime adulthood ages 20 thru 59
3. Third age -  approximately 60 – 79 years of age
4. Fourth age – approximately 80 years and older

Three developmental Patterns of Aging

1. Normal aging characterizes most individuals for who psychological functioning often peaks in early middle age,
remains relatively stable until the late fifties to early sixties, and then shows a modest decline through the early
eighties. However, the marked decline can occur as individuals approach death.
2. Pathological aging , characterizes individuals who show greater than average decline as they age through the adult
years. In early old age, they may have a mild cognitive impairment, develop Alzheimer the disease later on, or have a
chronic disease that impairs their daily functioning.
3. Successful aging characterizes individuals whose positive physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development is
maintained longer, declining later in old age than is the case for most people.
 
The Significance of Age

Age and happiness is there the best age to be? An increasing number of studies indicate that in the United States
adults are happier as they age. Not all studies, though have found an increase in life satisfaction with age (Stone 2015) Some
studies indicate that the lowest level of life satisfaction occurs in middle age, especially from 45 to 54 years of age (OECD,
2014) Further, older adults in poor health such as those with cardiovascular disease, chronicling disease and depression tend
to be less satisfied with their lives than their healthier older adult counterparts ( Lamont 2017).
Reference: 
Santrock, J. W. (2018). Life-span development.

Lesson 3: Theories of Development

How can we answer questions about the roles of nature and nurture, stability and change, and  continuity and
discontinuity in development? How can we determine, for example, whether deterioration of memory in older adults can be
prevented or whether special care can repair the harm inflicted by child neglect? The scientific method is the best tool we have
to answer such questions (Smith & Davis, 2016).

This section outlines key aspects of five theoretical orientations to development: psychoanalytic,  cognitive, behavioral
and social cognitive, ethological, and ecological. Each contributes an important piece to the life-span development puzzle.
Although the theories disagree about certain aspects of development, many of their ideas are complementary rather than
contradictory. Together they let us see the total landscape of life-span development in all its richness.
3.1. Psychoanalytic Theories

Psychoanalytic theories - describe development as primarily unconscious (beyond awareness) and heavily colored
by emotion. Psychoanalytic theorists emphasize that behavior is merely a surface characteristic and that a true understanding
of development requires analyzing the symbolic meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind.
Psychoanalytic theorists also stress that early experiences with parents extensively shape development. These
characteristics are highlighted in the main psychoanalytic theory, that of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939).

Freudian Stages of Development – 

Freud’s theory has been significantly revised by a number of psychoanalytic theorists. Many of today’s psychoanalytic
theorists maintain that Freud overemphasized sexual instincts; they argue that more emphasis should be placed on cultural
experiences as determinants of an individual’s development. Unconscious thought remains a central theme, but
conscious thought plays a greater role than Freud envisioned. One of the most influential revisionists of  Freud’s ideas was Erik
Erikson.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Erik Erikson (1902–1994) 

recognized Freud’s contributions but believed that Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human
development. For one thing, Erikson (1950, 1968) said we develop in psychosocial stages, rather than in psychosexual stages
as Freud maintained. According to Freud, the primary motivation for human behavior is sexual in nature; according to Erikson,
it is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people. According to Freud, our basic personality is shaped during the
first five years of life; according to Erikson, developmental change occurs throughout the life span. Thus, in terms of the early-
versus-later-experience issue described earlier in the chapter, Freud viewed early experience as being far more important
than later experiences, whereas Erikson emphasized the importance of both early and later experiences.
In Erikson’s theory, eight stages of development unfold as we go through life. At each stage, a unique 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 increased vulnerability and enhanced potential. The more successfully an individual resolves each crisis,
the healthier development will be.

Contributions of psychoanalytic theories include an emphasis on a developmental framework, family relationships,

and unconscious aspects of the mind. Criticisms include a lack of scientific support, too much emphasis on sexual
underpinnings, and an image of people that is too negative.
3.2. Cognitive Theories

Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory. 

This theory says that children go through four 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
adaptation. To make sense our world, we organize our experiences. Example, we separate important ideas from less
important ideas, and we connect one idea to another. To organize our observations and experiences, we adapt, adjusting t new
environmental demands.
Piaget (1954) identified four stages in understanding the world:

1. Sensorimotor stage , which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age. In this stage infants construct an understanding
of the world by coordinating sensory experiences. (seeing and hearing ) sensorimotor ( physical and motoric actions.
2. Preoperational stage, (2 to 7 years of age ) This child begins to represent the world with words and images. These
words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and
physical action. According to Piaget , preschool child lack the ability to perform what he calls operations, which are
internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously could only do physically.
3. Concrete operational stage , (7 to 11 years of age ) The child can now reason logically about concrete events and
classify objects into different sets. Children can perform operations that involve objects, and they can reason logically
when the reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples.
4. Formal operational stage , (11 years of age through adulthood ) The adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic
and logical ways. In this stage individuals move beyond concrete experiences and begin to think abstract and more
logical terms. As part of thinking more abstractly, adolescents develop images of ideal circumstances. They might
think about the what an ideal parent would be like and compare their parents to this ideal standards. They begin to
entertain possibilities for the future and are fascinated with what they can be.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

Russian developmentalist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) argued that children actively construct their knowledge.
However Vygotsky (1962) gave social interaction and culture far more important roles in cognitive development that Piaget
did. According to Vygostky's theory , it is a sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction
guide cognitive development.

Vygostky portrayed the child's development as inseparable from social and cultural activities (Daniels 2017) He
maintained that cognitive development involves learning to use the inventions of society, such as language, mathematical
systems and memory strategies. Thus in one culture, children might learn to count with the help of computer, in another they
might learn by using beads. Children's social interaction with more skilled adults and peer is indispensable to their cognitive
development. Through this interaction, they learn to use tools that will help them adapt

3.3. Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Behavioural and Social Cognitive Theories
               
Behaviorism essentially holds that we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured. Out
of the behavioral tradition grew the belief that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience
with the environment (Maag, 2018).
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning- According to B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), through operant conditioning the
consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence. A behavior followed by a
rewarding stimulus is more likely to recur, whereas a behavior followed by a punishing stimulus is less likely to recur.
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory-Social cognitive theory holds that behavior, environment, and cognition are the
key factors in development. American psychologist Albert Bandura emphasizes that cognitive processes have important links
with the environment and behaviour. His early research program focused heavily on observational learning (also called
imitation or modelling), which is learning that occurs through observing what others do.

Ethological Theory

Ethology stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical
or sensitive periods. These are specific time frames during which, according to ethologists, the presence or absence of certain
experiences has a long-lasting influence on individuals (Bateson, 2015)
 European zoologist Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) helped bring ethology to prominence. In his best-known research,
Lorenz (1965) studied the behavior of greylag geese, which will follow their mothers as soon as they hatch. Each group of
goslings went directly to its “mother.” Lorenz called this process imprinting—the rapid, innate learning that involves
attachment to the first moving object seen.

John Bowlby (1969, 1989) illustrated an important application of ethological theory to human development. Bowlby
stressed that attachment to a caregiver over the first year of life has important consequences throughout the life span. In his
view, if this attachment is positive and secure, the individual will likely develop positively in childhood and adulthood. If the
attachment is negative and insecure, life-span development will likely not be optimal.

Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1986, 2004; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998, 2006) holds that
development reflects the influence of several environmental systems. The theory identifies five environmental systems:
microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.
The microsystem is the setting in which the individual lives. These contexts include the person’s family, peers, school,
and neighborhood. It is in the microsystem that the most direct interactions with social agents take place—with parents,
peers, and teachers.
The mesosystem involves relations between microsystems or connections between contexts. Examples are the
relation of family experiences to school experiences, school experiences to religious experiences, and family experiences to
peer experiences.
The exosystem consists of links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the
individual’s immediate context. For example, a husband’s or child’s experiences at home may be influenced by a mother’s
experiences at work. The mother might receive a promotion that requires more travel, which might increase conflict with the
husband and change patterns of interaction with the child.
The macrosystem involves the culture in which individuals live. Remember from earlier in the chapter that culture
refers to the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passed on from generation to
generation.
The chronosystem consists of the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as
sociohistorical circumstances.

An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

Although theories are helpful guides, relying on a single theory to explain development is probably a mistake.
An eclectic theoretical orientation, which does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather selects from each
theory whatever is considered its best features. In this way, you can view the study of development as it actually exists—with
different theorists making different assumptions, stressing different empirical problems, and using different strategies to
discover information

Lesson 4: Research on Life-Span Development

Generally, research on life-span development is designed to test hypotheses, which in some cases are derived from the
theories just described. Through research, theories are modified to reflect new data, and occasionally new theories arise. How
are data about life-span development collected? What types of research designs are used to study life-span development? And
what are some ethical considerations in conducting research on life-span development?

Cross-sectional research- Groups of people who are different in age but similar in all other important ways are
compared to the characteristic that is interesting to the researcher (s). One limitation of cross-sectional research is that it is
always possible that some variables other than age differentiate the groups.

Longitudinal research- Is particularly useful in studying developmental trends that occur over a long age span. Both
longitudinal and cross-sectional researchers must bear in mind that research on a cohort may not be valid for people
developing in an earlier later cohort.

Cross-Sequential research- Several groups of people of different ages are followed over time.

Correlation- Is a number indicating the degree of relationship between two variables.

Quantitative- Is the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data. It can be used to find patterns and averages,
make predictions, test causal relationships, and generalize results to wider populations.
 Qualitative- involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts,
opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research.