INTRODUCTION TO

LIFESPAN
DEVELOPMENT
PSY1201:Developmental Psychology
 DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY

Also known as Human Development or Lifespan Development

Is the scientific study of ways in which people change, as well as
stay the same from conception to death

PRESENTATION TITLE 2
 DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY

Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has

expanded to include adolescence and more recently, aging and the
entire life span
Related to other fields and informs several applied fields in
psychology (educational psychology, psychopathology, forensic
developmental psychology, social psychology, cognitive
psychology, comparative psychology)
Draws from theories and research of several scientific fields
including biology, sociology, health care, nutrition and
anthropology

PRESENTATION TITLE 3
 LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

DEVELOPMENT IS LIFELONG. Change is apparent throughout the

lifespan. No single age period is more crucial, characterizes or
dominates human development.
DEVELOPMENT IS MULTIDIRECTIONAL. Humans change in many
directions. We may show gains in some areas of development,
while showing losses in other areas.
DEVELOPMENT IS MULTIDIMENSIONAL. We change across three
general domains/dimensions: physical, cognitive and psychosocial.
All three domains influence each other.

PRESENTATION TITLE 4
 LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

DEVELOPMENT IS MULTI-DISCIPLINARY. Human development is

such a vast topic of study that it requires the theories, research
methods and knowledge base of many academic disciplines.
DEVELOPMENT IS CHARACTERIZED BY PLASTICITY. Plasticity is all
about our ability to change and that many of our characteristics
are malleable.

PRESENTATION TITLE 5
 LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

DEVELOPMENT IS MULTI-CONTEXTUAL. Development occurs in many

contexts.
Normative, age-graded influences (toddler, adolescent, seniors).
Humans in a specific age-grade share particular experiences and
developmental changes.
Normative history-graded influences. The time period in which
you are born shapes your experiences.
Non-normative life-experiences. Despite sharing an age and
history with our peers, each of us also has unique experiences
that may shape our development.

PRESENTATION TITLE 6
 LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

Socio-economic Status (SES) – is a way to identify families, households,

based on their shared levels of education, income and occupation
Poverty level – is an income amount that is based on a set of income
that vary by family size
Culture – is the totality of our shared language, knowledge, material
objects and behavior
Ethnocentrism – the belief that our own culture is superior
and is a normal product of growing up in a culture
Cultural Relativity – is an appreciation for cultural differences
and the understanding that cultural practices are best
understood from the standpoint of that particular culture

PRESENTATION TITLE 7
 LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

Lifespan (longevity) refers to the length of time a species can

exist under most optimal conditions.
Life Expectancy is the predicted number of years a person
born in a particular time period can reasonably expect to
live

Chronological age – Based on the number of years since your

birth
Biological age – How quickly the body is aging
Psychological age – Our psychologically adaptive capacity
compared to others of our chronological age

PRESENTATION TITLE 8
 LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

Social age – based on the social norms of our culture and

the expectations our culture has for people of our age group

PRESENTATION TITLE 9
PRESENTATION TITLE 10
Prenatal Development– conception occurs and development
begins, Understanding nutrition, teratogens or environmental
factors that can lead to birth defects and labor and delivery are
primary concerns.
Infancy and Toddlerhood – ones of dramatic growth and change
Early Childhood – the child is busy learning language, is gaining a
sense of self and greater independence and is beginning to learn
the workings of a physical world

PRESENTATION TITLE 11
Middle and Late Childhood – The world becomes one of learning
and testing new academic skills and by assessing one’s abilities
and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and
others
Adolescence – Period of dramatic physical change marked by an
overall growth spurt and sexual maturation, known as puberty.
Cognitive change – adolescent begins to think of new possibilities
and consider abstract concepts.
Emerging adulthood – Continued identity exploration and
preparation for full independence from parents

PRESENTATION TITLE 12
Early Adulthood – Intimate relationships, establishing families and
work
Middle Adulthood – A period in which ageing becomes more
noticeable and when many people are at their peak of productivity
in love and work
Late Adulthood –
Young old (65-84 y.o) – still relatively healthy, productive,
active and majority continue to live independently
Oldest old (85 y.o. and older)

PRESENTATION TITLE 13
 ISSUES IN LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

Nature VS Nurture (heredity VS environment)

Continuity VS Discontinuity (gradual process VS abrupt change)
Stage theories or discontinuous development – assume that
developmental change often occurs in distinct stages and in
a set, universal sequence (Freud, Erikson, Piaget, Kohlberg)
Continuous development – assume development is a more
slow and gradual process (Vygotsky)
Active VS Passive – some theorists see humans as playing a much more
active role in their development, behaviorists view humans as being
more passive in the developmental process

PRESENTATION TITLE 14
 ISSUES IN LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

Stability VS Change – some theorists argue the personality traits

of adults are rooted in the behavioral and emotional tendencies of
the infant and young child. Others believe that these tendencies
are modified by social and cultural forces over time

PRESENTATION TITLE 15
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Preformationist View – (18th century), children were merely

thought of as little adults
Preformationism is a belief that a tiny, fully formed human is
implanted in the sperm or egg at conception and then grows in
size until birth. The environment was thought to play no role in
determining development.

PRESENTATION TITLE 16
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

John Locke (1632-1704)

Refuted the idea of innate knowledge and instead proposed
children as largely shaped by their social environment
Through education, a child learns socialization
Advocated thinking of a child as a “tabula rasa”

PRESENTATION TITLE 17
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Jean Jacques Rosseau (1712-1778)

Did not believe that children are blank slates but developed
according to a natural plan which unfolded in different stages
Children should be allowed to think by themselves according to
their own ways and an inner, biological timetable
The “father of developmental psychology”

PRESENTATION TITLE 18
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Arnold Gesell(1880-1961)
Studied the neuromotor development of children
Believed that child development is activated by genes and he
called this process “maturation”
Development unfolded in fixed sequences

PRESENTATION TITLE 19
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in
shaping our personality and behavior
We are biological beings and are driven primarily by our instincts
During childhood, we begin to become social beings as we learn
how to manage our instincts and transform them into socially
accepted behaviors
The ways in which parents interacted with children were assumed
to have a long-lasting impact on children’s emotional states

PRESENTATION TITLE 20
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Contemporary Theories on Development

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
Broke with Freud’s emphasis on sexuality as the cornerstone of
social-emotional development and suggested that social
relationships fostered development

PRESENTATION TITLE 21
PRESENTATION TITLE 22
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Learning Theory (Behaviorism)

Based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study
the mind and therefore psychologists should limit their attention to
the study of behavior itself
Burrhus Frederick (BF) Skinner (1904-1990) used the ideas of
stimulus and response along with the application of rewards and
punishments

PRESENTATION TITLE 23
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Social Learning Theory (learning by watching others)

Albert Bandura (1977)
Many of our actions are not learned through conditioning
Young children learn behavior through imitation
We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we
influence our surroundings

PRESENTATION TITLE 24
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive Theory
Focuses on how our mental processes or cognitions change
overtime
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
The first to recognize and map out the ways in which the children’s
intelligence differs from that of adults
Children progressed through four stages of cognitive development

PRESENTATION TITLE 25
HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

PRESENTATION TITLE 26
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

His sociocultural theory emphasizes the importance of culture and
interaction in the development of cognitive abilities

Information-processing – based on the studies and research of several

cognitive scientists, studying how individuals perceive, analyze,
manipulate, use and remember information
This approach assumes that humans gradually improve on their
processing skills, cognitive development is continuous rather than stage
like

PRESENTATION TITLE 27
 HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005)

Developed the Ecological Systems Theory which provides a
framework for understanding and studying many influences on
human development
Human interaction is influenced by larger social forces and that an
understanding of these forces is essential for understanding an
individual

PRESENTATION TITLE 28
HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

PRESENTATION TITLE 29
HISTORICAL THEORIES ON DEVELOPMENT

PRESENTATION TITLE 30
 REFERENCE

Lally, Martha & French Suzanne Valentine (2022). Lifespan Development:

A Psychological Perspective (4th Edition)

PRESENTATION TITLE 31