Lifespan DevelopmentChapter 4

Areas of lifespan Development•Physical development: changes in the body

and its various systems.•Social Development: involves changes in an

individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in interacting with others

•Cognitive development: involves changes in an individual’s mental ability

•Emotional development: involves changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feelings are expressed.

Lifespan•Infancy•Childhood •Adolescence •Early adulthood •Middle Adulthood •Old Age

Human development is influenced by simultaneously occurring changes in each area

EmotionalDevelopment

Social Development

CognitiveDevelopment

Physical Development

Cognitive – eg: Language

Social & Emotional

Movement & coordination

Example:

http://brianne-thompson.com/EDTECH/506/summary.php

How development proceeds: 1.Continuous V Discontinuous

• Continuous Development: gradual and ongoing changes throughout the lifespan without sudden shifts, with abilities in the earlier stages of development providing the basis of skills and abilities required for the next stages.

• Discontinuous: involves distinct and separate stages, with different kinds of abilities occurring in each stage. Specific ways of thinking, feeling or socially interacting have identifiable start and end points.

Infancy

Adulthood

Infancy

Adulthood

2. Sequential nature of Development• The development of many thoughts, feelings and

behaviours occur in an orderly sequence. Sequences of development usually begin with simple thoughts, feeling and behaviours and progress to more complex ones.

For example: -A baby moves from squealing and gurgling through

to uttering individual words and then onto using sentences

- A child learning to count and then progressing to adding numbers together

Quantitative and qualitative changes• Quantitative changes: changes which are

variations in the quantity (or amount) of a thought, feeling or behaviour. These are usually described in numbers.

-For example the number of words spoken in relation to age. As one grows older, their vocabulary grows.

Qualitative changes: Changes which vary in ‘quality’, ‘kind’ or ‘type’. These are usually described in words.

-For example, as a child you don’t understand the concept of honesty, but now as adolescence you do.

3. Individual Differences in Development

•No two individuals develop at exactly the same rate or in exactly the same way, even if they are identical twins

What does that tell us about ‘Nature vs Nurture’?

Discuss activity 4.5

Hereditary & Environment• Hereditary- characteristics are passed on from

parents to off-spring via genes.

• Environment – all the experiences, objects & events to which we are exposed in our life times

• Heredity? Environment? Mixture of both?

Create a table with two columns ‘environment’ and ‘hereditary’. While watching the clip on the ‘wild child’ list all the characteristics that are influenced by either heredity or environment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEnkY2iaKis

Maturation•Sequential changes in the nervous system

& other bodily structures•Automatic, internal•Controlled by our genes

•‘Principle of readiness’▫Nerves, bones, muscles need to be

developed enough for the behaviour to occur

Examples of maturation of nerves & bones

Examples of Maturational developments•Sit before stand•Sounds before words•Adding numbers before starting algebra

•When should a child start school? www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/29/1022569786596.html

Sensitive Periods•Periods of rapid change when individual is more

vulnerable to the environment•Eg: second 6 months of life sensitive to

attachment•Eg: 1.5-3 years sensitive to language acquisition

Different Perspectives on Development

Biological

Behavioural Socio-cultural

Cognitive

Longitudinal studyrepeated observations of the same variables over long periods of timeto study developmental trends across the life span

Advantages• Permanence in

development over time

Disadvantages• Expensive• Takes time with

participants (and researchers) not being available

Research methods in development

Research methods in development

Advantages:• relatively inexpensive• easy to undertake• not too time-consuming.

Disadvantages:• Differences maybe due to

other variables▫ Eg: generational

influences

Cross-sectional studydesigned to look at a variable at a particular point in time.To study developmental differences/similarities between groups eg: memory at different ages

Research MethodsTwin Studies•using identical (mono-zygotic) and non-identical

(fraternal/di-zygotic) twins as participants.•Identical especially for nature vs nurture BUT

danger (eg more likely to be treated the same by parents)

•Personality and intelligence investigations

Discuss 4.17 ranking

Research MethodsAdoption Studies•Children raised by different parents – nature

vs nurture•IQ score studies indicate heredity plays a

large role

Selective Breeding•Using animals with short gestations to study

traits longitudinally, with control of genes•Unethical in humans but can use

Ethics in developmental researchRemember:•Fully informed•Consent – how with a child? How with a

dementia patient?•Confidentiality•Safety•Debrief

Resources•http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychol

ogy/development/dev_flash.html