Lifespan Development

Lifespan Development
•Developmental Psychology
-Human Development or Lifespan Development
-an ever-evolving field
-The scientific study of ways in which people change, as
well as stay the same, from conception to death
Lifespan Development
•Developmental Psychology
- Scientific study of processes of change and stability
throughout the human lifespan
-Impact of family, peers, and school
Lifespan Development
Human Development is a never ending process.

Physical, cognition, language,

psychosocial development,
Developmental Scientists look at ways in which
people change and study the characteristics that
remain stable.
Lifespan Development
Most researches focused on infant and child
development
Lifespan Development – from womb to
tomb
Timing of parenthood, employment, marital
satisfaction
Lifespan Development

Describe Explain Predict Intervention

language
Speak later than usual Serious speech problems Speech therapy
 Lifespan Development

Have now access to sensitive Work with other professionals in

instruments that measure eye the field of psychiatry, sociology,
movement, heart rate, and muscle anthropology, biology, genetics,
tension education, history, medicine

Digital technology – to analyze

how mothers and babies
communicate
Lifespan Perspective
Domains of Development
• 3 major domains or aspects of the self: physical, cognitive, and
psychosocial

• Growth of the • Learning, attention, • Emotions,

body and brain, memory, language, personality, and
sensory capacities, thinking, reasoning, social
motor skills, and and creativity
health
relationships

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

Development Development Development
Periods of the Lifespan
• Social Construction - concept or practice that is an invention of a
particular culture or society

• e.g. Past:
Young children in the U.S. times were expected to do adultlike tasks
such as knitting socks and spinning wool.

Young people in the United States were considered children until

they left school, married or got a job, and entered the adult world.
Typical Major Developments in Eight Periods of Human Development
1. Prenatal period conception to birth

2. Infancy and Toddlerhood birth to age 3

3. Early Childhood ages 3 to 6

4. Middle Childhood ages 6 to 11

5. Adolescence ages 11 to about

20

6. Emerging and Young Adulthood ages 20 to 40

7. Middle Adulthood ages 40 to 65

8. Late Adulthood age 65 and

over
 I. Age Period: Prenatal Period (conception to birth)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Conception occurs by • Abilities to • Fetus responds
normal fertilization or learn and to mother’s
other means. remember and voice and
to respond to develops a
sensory stimuli preference for
are developing. it.
II. Age Period: Infancy and Toddlerhood (birth to age
3)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Physical growth and • Abilities to • Attachments to
development of learn and parents and
motor skills are rapid. remember are others form.
present, even • Interest in
in early weeks. other children
increases.
III. Age Period: Early Childhood (ages 3 to 6)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Appetite diminishes, • Memory and • Independence,
and sleep problems language initiative, and
improve. self-control
are common. increase.
• Preschool
• Play becomes
experience is more imaginative,
common, and more elaborate,
kindergarten and usually more
experience is social.
more so.
IV. Age Period: Middle Childhood (ages 6 to 11)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Growth slows. • Memory and • Self-concept
• Strength and athletic language skills becomes more
skills improve. increase. complex,
• Some children affecting
show special self-esteem.
educational • Peers assume
needs and central
strengths. importance.
V. Age Period: Adolescence (ages 11 to about 20)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Physical growth and • Ability to think • Search for
other changes are abstractly and use identity, including
rapid and profound. of scientific sexual identity,
reasoning becomes central.
• Reproductive develops. • Relationships with
maturity occurs. • Education focuses parents are
on preparation for generally good.
college or
vocation.
VI. Age Period: Emerging and Young Adulthood (ages 20
to 40)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Physical condition • Thought and moral • Intimate
judgments become relationships and
peaks, then declines more complex.
slightly. personal lifestyles
• Educational and are established
• Lifestyle choices occupational choices
are made,
but may not be
influence health. sometimes after lasting.
period of • Most people
exploration. marry, and most
become parents.
VII. Age Period: Middle Adulthood (ages 40 to 65)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Creative output may • Sense of identity
• Slow deterioration of decline but improve continues to develop;
sensory abilities, health, in quality. midlife transition may
stamina, and strength • For some, career occur.
may begin, but individual success and earning • Dual responsibilities
powers peak; for of caring for children
differences are wide. and parents may
others, burnout or
• Women experience career change may cause stress.
menopause. occur.
VIII. Age Period: Late Adulthood (age 65 and over)

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Most people are • Retirement from
• Most people are healthy mentally alert. workforce may
and active, although • Although intelligence occur and may offer
health and physical and memory may new options for use
abilities generally decline. deteriorate in of time.
• Slowing of reaction time • some areas, most • Relationships with
affects some aspects of people find ways to family and close
compensate. friends can provide
functioning.
important support.
Influences on Development
• What makes each person unique?

• Individual differences – height, weight, gender, body

build, health, energy level, and temperament
Heredity, Environment, and Maturation
• Influences on development can be described in two primary ways:
• 1. Heredity - inborn traits and characteristics
- from our biological parents
• 2. Environment - environment outside the body
- starting at conception with the prenatal
environment in the womb and continuing throughout
life
• Maturation - continues to influence certain biological processes, such
as brain development.
Contexts Of Development
• Human beings = social beings

• 1. Family
nuclear family - one or two parents and their children
(biological, adopted, or stepchildren)
extended family - multigenerational network of grandparents,
aunts, uncles, cousins, and more distant
relatives - is the traditional family form.
Contexts Of Development
• The increased incidence of divorce has affected the nuclear family.

• Children of divorced parents may live with one or the other parent
or may move back and forth between them.

• There are increasing numbers of single and childless adults,

unmarried parents, gay, and lesbian households.

• Families are now characterized as diverse.

Contexts Of Development
• In 2016, about 64 million people in the U.S. lived in multigenerational
families.
• Multigenerational families ( 2 to 3 related adult generations) are becoming
more common because of the following reasons:
• 1. Both men and women are marrying at later ages and remain at home for
longer than was previous typical.
• 2. There has been an influx of immigrant populations since 1970, and these
immigrants are more likely to have multigenerational homes (for practical
reasons).
• 3. People are living longer and elderly parents may sometimes benefit from
living in their children’s household.
Contexts Of Development
• 2. Socioeconomic status
• Poverty is a problem worldwide.
• Poverty is stressful and can damage children’s and families’
physical, cognitive, and psychosocial wellbeing.
• Poor children -> hungry, have illnesses, lack access to healthcare,
experience violence, family conflict, behavioral problems.
• Risk Factors – conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative
developmental outcome (e.g. poverty, homelessness, drugs,
alcohol).
Contexts Of Development
• 3. Culture and Race / Ethnicity
• refers to a society’s or group’s total way of life (customs, traditions,
laws, knowledge, beliefs, values, language, and physical products,
from tools to artworks
• All of the behavior and attitudes that are learned, shared, and
transmitted among members of a social group.
• E.g. Philippines: close ties, respect, religiosity, affection for the
elderly
• Culture is constantly changing (At present, we use email, texting,
social media, etc.)
Contexts Of Development
• Ethnic group - A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, or national
origins, which contribute to a sense of shared identity.
• E.g. Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Visayan
• Child rearing practices (use of corporal punishment)

• Ethnic and cultural patterns influenced the composition of a household, its

economic and social resources, the way its members act toward one another.

• (e.g. the food they eat, the games children play, the way they learn, how well,
they do in school, occupations, and the way family members think and
perceive the world).
 Contexts Of Development
• 3. The Historical Context
Refers to the social, religious, economic, and political
conditions that existed during a certain time and
place.

Experiences are tied to time and place - > the course of

people’s lives.
Normative and Non-normative influences

•contribute to the complexity of human

development as well as to the challenges
people experience in trying to build their
lives.
Normative and Non-normative influences
• Normative influences – biological or environmental events that
affect many or most people in a society
• Three types of influences:
• 1. Normative age-graded influences – highly similar for people in
a particular age group (e.g. People don’t experience puberty at
age 35 or menopause at 12).
• 2. Normative history-graded influences significant events (such as
Great Depression and World War II) that shape the behavior and
attitudes of a historical generation -> a group of people who
experience the event at a formative time in their lives.
Normative and Non-normative influences
• For example: Those who survived The Great
Depression and World War II have a sense of social
interdependence and trust (declined over the years)

• As children grow up today, they are influenced by

computers, digital television, the Internet, and other
technological developments.
Normative and Non-normative influences
3. Nonnormative influences - are unusual events that have a
major impact on individual lives because they disturb the
expected sequence of the life cycle.
E.g. atypical events: Beyond the control of the individual
surviving a plane crash, death of parents when the child
was still young,
• Critical period - is a specific time when a given event, or its
absence, has a specific impact on development.
• E.g. If a woman receives X-rays, takes certain drugs, or contracts
certain diseases at certain times during pregnancy, the fetus may
show specific ill effects.

• Plasticity - range of modifiability of performance

• E.g. change for some abilities such as physical functioning
can be affected by regular exercise.
• Aggression can be minimized by behavior modification.
• Sensitive periods - Times in development when a person is
particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.
• E.g. sensitive period for learning to speak a second
language as if it were a first language, occurs from ages
0-12.
Lifespan Developmental Approach
Paul Baltes and his colleagues identified seven key
principles:

Relative
influences of
Lifelong Multidirectional Multidimensional biology and
culture shift over
the life span
Lifespan Developmental Approach
Paul Baltes and his colleagues identified seven key
principles:

Development Development is
involves Development influenced by
changing shows the historical
resource plasticity and cultural
allocations context.
Summary
• Developmental Psychology – definition

• Factors that affect human development – parenthood, school, employment,

marital satisfaction

• Lifespan Perspective

• Domains of Development – physical, cognitive, and psychosocial

• Social Construction
Summary
• Typical Major Developments in Eight Periods of Human Development
• Prenatal period
• Infancy and Toddlerhood
• Early Childhood
• Middle Childhood
• Adolescence
• Emerging and Young Adulthood
• Middle Adulthood
• Late Adulthood
Summary
• Influences on Development
• Heredity
• Environment

• Contexts of Development
• Family
• Socioeconomic status
• Culture and Race / Ethnicity
• Historical context

• Normative and Non-normative influences

• Lifespan Developmental Approach