INTRODUCTION TO

DEVELOPMENTAL Prepared by
Ms. Sana Aslam
PSYCHOLOGY
 THE LIFE-SPAN
PERSPECTIVE
Development is the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues
through the life span.
Most development involves growth, although it also includes decline brought on by aging and
dying.
The more you learn about a person, the better you can deal with them.
Development is not something that happens only to children and adolescents, but it is an
extensive change from birth to adolescence, little or no change in adulthood and decline in old
age.
The study of life span development is fascinating and filled with information about who we
are, how we came to be this way and where our future will take us.
The belief that development occurs throughout life is central to the life-span perspective
on human development.
  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
Baltes (life-span development expert) believes that it is important to understand that
development is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working
together.
Baltes views development is
• Lifelong - early adulthood is not the endpoint of development; no age period dominates
development.
• Multidimensional - biological, cognitive, and socioemotional dimensions.
• Multidisciplinary - Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, and
medical researchers all share an interest in unlocking the mysteries of development through
the life span.
• Involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss - the mastery of life often involves
conflicts and competition among three goals of human development: growth, maintenance,
and regulation of loss.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
• Plastic - the capacity for change is different in life-span development.
• Multidirectional - throughout life, some dimensions expand and others shrink
• Contextual – individuals are changing beings in a changing world. contexts
exert three types of influences:
1. normative age-graded: are similar for individuals in a particular age group.
2. normative history-graded: common to people of a particular generation because of
historical circumstances.
3. nonnomative life events: unusual occurrences that have a major impact on the
individual’s life. These events do not happen to all people, and when they do occur they
can influence people in different ways.
• Co-construction of biology, culture and individual - Development is a co-
construction of biological, cultural, and individual factors working together.
 DEVELOPMENT
PROCESSES
The pattern of development is complex because it is the product of biological,
cognitive, and socioeconomic processes.
 Biological processes – changes in physical nature
 Cognitive processes – changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence and
language
 Socioemotional processes – changes in relationships, emotions and
personality
Connecting these three processes: biological, socioeconomic and cognitive
processes are interlinked.
 Developmental cognitive neuroscience - which explores links between development,
cognitive processes, and the brain
 Developmental social neuroscience - which examines connections between socioemotional
 PERIODS OF
DEVELOPMENT
A developmental period refers to a time frame in a person’s life
that is characterized by certain features.
For this purpose, development is characterized by eight periods.
The interplay of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
processes produces the periods of the human life span.
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
 CONT…
Four ages – lifespan developmentalist’s who focus on adult
development and aging describe development in four ages, which are
First age – childhood and adolescence
Second age – prime adulthood, 20s to 50s
Third age – 60-79 years of age
Fourth age – 80 years and older
Major emphasis is on 3rd and 4th age, people of third age are considered healthier,
wiser and active and people of fourth age decline in health and well-being.
Connection across periods of development – a key aspect in the study
of lifespan development is how development in one period is connected
to development in another period.
 DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES
1. Nature vs nurture Issue – The nature-nurture issue involves the extent to
which development is influenced by nature and by nurture.
Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance. Proponents of the
importance of nature acknowledge that extreme environments—those that are
psychologically barren or hostile—can depress development. However, they
believe that basic growth tendencies are genetically programmed into humans.
Nurture refers to organism’s environmental experiences in development.
Experiences run the gamut from the individual’s biological environment
(nutrition, medical care, drugs, and physical accidents) to the social
environment (family, peers, schools, community, media, and culture).
 CONT…
2. Stability-change Issue - It involves the degree to which early traits and
characteristics persist through life or change.
Many developmentalists who emphasize stability in development argue that
stability is the result of heredity and possibly early experiences in life.
Developmentalists who emphasize change take the more optimistic view that
later experiences can produce change.
In the life-span perspective, plasticity, the potential for change, exists
throughout the life span. Experts such as Paul Baltes (2003) argue that with
increasing age and on average older adults often show less capacity for change
in the sense of learning new things than younger adults. However, many older
adults continue to be good at practicing what they have learned in earlier times.
 CONT…
3. Continuity and Discontinuity Issue - For the most part, developmentalists who
emphasize nurture describe development as a gradual, continuous process. Those
who emphasize nature often describe development as a series of distinct stages.
The continuity-discontinuity issue focuses on the degree to which development
involves either gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages
(discontinuity).
In terms of continuity, a child’s first word, though seemingly an abrupt,
discontinuous event, is actually the result of weeks and months of growth and
practice. Puberty might seem abrupt, but it is a gradual process that occurs over
several years.
In terms of discontinuity, as a child moves from not being able to think abstractly
about the world to being able to. This is a qualitative, discontinuous change in
development rather than a quantitative, continuous change.
 RESEARCH IN LIFE-SPAN
DEVELOPMENT
 Methods for collecting data
 Research designs
 Time-span of research
 Conducting ethical research
 Minimizing bias
 METHODS OF COLLECTING
DATA
1. Scientific observation requires an important set of skills. For
observations to be effective, they have to be systematic. We have to have
some idea of what we are looking for. We have to know whom we are
observing, when and where we will observe, how the observations will be
made, and how they will be recorded.
There are two types of observation method:
a) Laboratory observation - When we observe scientifically, we often
need to control certain factors that determine behavior but are not the
focus of our inquiry.
b)Naturalistic observation – it deals with observing behavior in real-
world settings, making no effort to manipulate or control the situation.
 CONT…
2. Survey and Interview - Sometimes the best and quickest way to get
information about people is to ask them for it. One technique is to interview
them directly. A related method is the survey (sometimes referred to as a
questionnaire), which is especially useful when information from many
people is needed. A standard set of questions is used to obtain peoples’ self-
reported attitudes or beliefs about a particular topic. In a good survey, the
questions are clear and unbiased, allowing respondents to answer
unambiguously.
3. A standardized test has uniform procedures for administration and
scoring. Many standardized tests allow a person’s performance to be
compared with that of other individuals; thus they provide information about
individual differences among people.
 CONT…
4. A case study is an in-depth look at a single individual. Case studies are
performed mainly by mental health professionals when, for either
practical or ethical reasons, the unique aspects of an individual’s life
cannot be duplicated and tested in other individuals. A case study provides
information about one person’s experiences; it may focus on nearly any
aspect of the subject’s life that helps the researcher understand the
person’s mind, behavior, or other attributes. A researcher may gather
information for a case study from interviews and medical records. A case
study can provide a dramatic, in-depth portrayal of an individual’s life.
5. Researchers are increasingly using physiological measures when they
study development at different points in the life span.
 RESEARCH DESIGNS
In conducting research on life-span development, a research design is needed. There are
three main types of research design:
1. Descriptive research is aimed to observe and record behavior. It can reveal important
information about people’s behaviour.
2. In correlational research, the goal is to describe the strength of the relationship
between two or more events or characteristics. The more strongly the two events are
correlated (or related or associated), the more effectively we can predict one event from
the other. Correlation coefficient is used to describe the degree of association between
two variables. The correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to +1. A negative number means
an inverse relation. The higher the correlation coefficient (whether positive or negative),
the stronger the association between the two variables. Number shows the strength and
positive/negative shows the direction of relationship.
 CONT…
3. Experimental research studies causality as an experiment is a carefully
regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the
behavior being studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant. If
the behavior under study changes when a factor is manipulated, we say that the
manipulated factor has caused the behavior to change. In other words, the
experiment has demonstrated cause and effect. The cause is the factor that was
manipulated. The effect is the behavior that changed because of the manipulation.
Experiments include two types of changeable factors, or variables: independent
and dependent.
An independent variable is a manipulated, influential, experimental factor. It is
a potential cause. The label “independent” is used because this variable can be
manipulated independently of other factors to determine its effect.
 CONT…
A dependent variable is a factor that can change in an experiment, in
response to changes in the independent variable. As researchers
manipulate the independent variable, they measure the dependent
variable for any resulting effect.
Experiments can involve one or more experimental groups and one or
more control groups.
An experimental group is a group whose experience is manipulated.
A control group is a comparison group that is as much like the
experimental group as possible and that is treated in every way like the
experimental group except for the manipulated factor (independent
variable).
TIMESPAN OF RESEARCH
1. The cross-sectional approach is a research strategy that
simultaneously compares individuals of different ages. The main
advantage of the cross-sectional study is that the researcher does not
have to wait for the individuals to grow up or become older.
2. The longitudinal approach is a research strategy in which the same
individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or
more. Longitudinal studies provide a wealth of information about
vital issues such as stability and change in development and the
importance of early experience for later development.
 CONDUCTING ETHICAL
RESEARCH
The American Psychological Association (APA) has developed ethics
guidelines for its members. The code of ethics instructs psychologists to protect
their participants from mental and physical harm. APA’s guidelines address
four important issues:
1. Informed consent. All participants must know what their research
participation will involve and what risks might develop. Even after informed
consent is given, participants must retain the right to withdraw from the study
at any time and for any reason.
2. Confidentiality . Researchers are responsible for keeping all of the data they
gather on individuals completely confidential and, when possible, completely
anonymous.
 CONT…
3. Debriefing . After the study has been completed, participants should be
informed of its purpose and the methods that were used.
4. Deception . In some circumstances, telling the participants beforehand
what the research study is about substantially alters the participants’
behavior and invalidates the researcher’s data. In all cases of deception,
however, the psychologist must ensure that the deception will not harm
the participants and that the participants will be debriefed as soon as
possible after the study is completed.
MINIMIZING BIAS
Researchers need to guard against gender, cultural, and ethnic bias
in research.
Gender - Every effort should be made to make research equitable
for both females and males.
Cultural and ethnic - Individuals from varied ethnic backgrounds
need to be included as participants in life-span research, and
overgeneralization about diverse members within a group must be
avoided.