CHAPTER 1

An Orientation to
Lifespan
Development
Developmental psychology

 Both biological inheritance from our parents

and the environment in which we live 
behavior, personality, human beings
 The interaction of heredity and environment
Lifespan Development

 What do you understand from development?

 Lifespan development  examining patterns of
growth, change, and stability in behavior that
occur throughout lifespan
 Scientific method  developing theories and
validating the accuracy of the assumptions by
methodological and scientific techniques
Lifespan Development
 Physical development  how brain, nervous system,
muscles, sense, the need for food, drink, sleep helps
determine behavior (e.g. Adolescence)
 Cognitive development  how growth and change in
intellectual capacity influence behavior
 Learning, memory, problem solving, intelligence
 E.g. Bilingualism
 Personality development  stability and change in
personality
 Social development  how relationships with others
change, grow, and remain stable
 E.g. The effects of racism, divorce, poverty
Age ranges
 Prenatal period: from conception to birth
 Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 3
 Preschool period: 3 to 6
 Middle childhood: 6 to 12
 Adolescence: 12 to 20
 Young adulthood: 20 to 40
 Middle adulthood: 40 to 65
 Late adulthood: 65 to death
 Social construction: shared notion of reality that is
widely accepted but it is a function of society and
culture at a given time
Influences on Lifespan
Development
 Cultural factors such as orientation to
individualism and collectivism
 Ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender
differences
 Majority of the studies were conducted in
Western cultures (individualistic cultures)
 History-graded influences  cohort effects
 Age-graded influences  universal events
 Sociocultural-graded influences
 Non-normative life events
Key debates in Lifespan
Development
 Continuous change  gradual, quantitative change
 Discontinuous change  distinct stages, qualitative
change
 Critical period  specific time period when a
particular event has its greatest consequences
 Sensitive period  susceptibility to certain stimuli in
a certain time period
 Lifespan approach vs. focus on a particular period
 Lifespan development includes both gains and losses
 Nature vs. nurture
 Gene x environment interaction!
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Psychodynamic perspective: much
behavior is motivated by inner forces,
memories, and conflicts that we have
little awareness or control
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Mind
Conscious: contents of current
awareness
Unconscious: can’t be accessed
consciously - strong influence on
behavior
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Id
Raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality
Primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, irrational
impulses
Pleasure principal  to maximize satisfaction and minimize tension
Ego
Rational and reasonable
Buffer between external world and primitive id
Reality principle  to maintain safety and help integrate individual
into society
Superego
Conscience  distinction between right or wrong
Learned from parents, teachers, other significant figures (around age
of 5 or 6)
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Emphasize on social interactions  society and

culture
Eight stages which emerge in a fixed pattern for
all people
A crisis or conflict that we must resolve
Lifespan development
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Behavioral perspective
Keys to understand development  observable behavior and
environmental stimuli
The role of nurture instead of nature

‘’Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own

specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take
any one at random and train him to become any type of
specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-
chief, and yes, even beggar man and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race
of his ancestors.’’ (John Watson, 1925)

Concept of "Tabula rasa" - organisms are born as blank

slates
Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned Unconditioned
Stimulus (UCS) Response (UCR)

Neutral Unconditioned Unconditioned

Stimulus (NS) Stimulus (UCS) Response (UCR)

Conditioned Conditioned
Stimulus (CS) Response (CR)
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Operant Conditioning
 Organisms operate on the
environment, & operative
behaviors have Reinforcement Punishment
consequences
 Consequences serve to Adding
increase or decrease Give you Give you
stimulus
likelihood of making response
again (positive) Chocolate Bar Electric Shock
 Reinforcement: any
consequence of behavior
that increases the Taking out
behavior stimulus Excused from Take Away
 Punishment: any (negative) Chores TV privileges
consequence of behavior
that decreases the
behavior
 Behavior modification
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Behavioral perspective

Social-Cognitive Theory: also learn through observation,

imitation, & modeling
More complex view of operant conditioning
“social”:along with reinforcement & punishment, other
people are important source of information
Observational learning: observing & imitating behavior
of others
 Often referred to as modeling
 Occurs beyond effects of positive & negative
reinforcement
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
The Cognitive Perspective

Focusing on the processes that allow people to know,

understand, and think about the world
To understand how children and adults process information
and how their ways of thinking affect behavior
Quantitative and qualitative change in intellectual abilities
How one cognitive ability is related to another
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Piaget’s Theory

Not only the quantity but also the quality of information

changes through stages
Schemes: organized mental patterns that represent
behaviors and actions
Growth in children’s understanding of the world 
assimilation and accommodation
Important in the area of cognitive development
Criticisms  age issues, universality, discontinuous change
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Information Processing Approaches
To identify the ways individuals use and store information
Thinking can be broken down into individual, specific steps
Children have limited capacity for processing information, as they
develop, their capacities increase quantitatively rather than
qualitatively
As we age, our control on our thinking process improve
Neo-Piagetian Theory  cognitive development occurs more quickly
in some areas and more slowly in others
 More emphasis on experience compared to traditional Piagetian
approach
Less emphasis on the social context
 Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

Looking at cognitive development at the level of brain

processes
Focusing on neural activity that underlies thinking, problem
solving, and other cognitive behaviors
Using brain scanning techniques
Identifying actual locations and functions within the brain
Identifying genes associated with disorders  the chance to
intervene
Description rather than explanation
 Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Humanistic Perspective
The unique qualities of humans are the central focus
Natural capacity to make decisions about our lives and to control our
behavior
Naturally seek to reach our full potential
Free will: the ability to make choices and come to decisions about
our lives
Carl Rogers: need for positive regard  our self-worth is a
reflection of how we think others view us
Abraham Maslow: self-actualization is the primary goal
 A state of self-fulfillment in which people achieve their highest potential
Not focusing on lifespan developmental change
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
The Contextual Perspective
These influences do not occur in
isolation, but they interact constantly
Relationship between physical,
cognitive, personality and social world
The role of social and cultural context

Bioecological Approach
Bronfenbrenner  five levels of
environment simultaneously influence
individuals
Interconnectedness of the influences
Less focus on biological influences
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

How cognitive development occurs as a result of social

interaction
Interaction with adults and other children
Reciprocal transaction between child’s environment
and the child
One of the first developmentalists to recognize the
importance of cultural environment
Less focus on biological influences
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development
The Evolutionary Perspective

To identify behavior that is the result of our genetic

inheritance from our ancestors
Charles Darwin
Not only physical traits such as skin and eye color, but also
certain personality traits and social behaviors
Ethology: the ways in which our biological makeup influences
our behavior
Behavioral genetics: studying the effects of heredity on
behavior
Less focus on environmental and social factors
Difficult to test scientifically
Theoretical Perspectives
on Lifespan Development

 Which approach is right?  Wrong question!

 Eclectic approach  drawing on several perspectives
simultaneously
 Research is important to understand human behavior