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1. Life-Span Perspective
Study: 1) importance of lifespan development, 2) characteristics of lifespan perspective.
3) contemporary concerns

Development
pattern of change/ movement in ones lifespan * starts in conception
Involves growth and decline
Life Span Perspective (Baltes)
Devt is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, multidisciplinary plastic, contextual
Involves growth, maintenance and regulation of loss
Constructed via biological, socio-cultural, and the individual working together
Lifelong

No particular age dominates development

Multidimensional

Development consists of various dimensions biological, cognitive, and

socio-emotional dimensions

Multidirectional

Throughout lifespan, some dimension or its components expand and

shrink

Multidisciplinary

Various disciplines tackle development throughout lifespan, like

anthropology, sociology, etc.

Plastic

Plasticity - capacity for change

Contextual

* Development occurs within various contexts/ settings.

* These contexts are influenced by historical, economic, social, and
cultural factors
* Contexts change and these changes have brought about 3 types of
influences
1.
Normative age-graded influences
1.
particular to an age group
2.
includes biological, sociocultural, environmental
process (ex. puberty, retirement)
2.
Normative history-graded influences
1.
influences that are common to a particular generation
due to historical circumstances
2.
may also be long term changes in genetic & cultural
makeup of a population
3.
Non normative/ Highly Individualised Life Events
1.
Unusual occurrences that have major impact on ones
life (ex. destruction of home)
2.
Does not happen to everyone but when it does the
influence is different for each person.

Involves Growth, Maintenance, and

Regulation of Loss

Mastery of life often involves conflicts and competition among 3

goals of human devt: growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss
*Middle Aged individuals experience more losses than earlier in life

Co-construction of Biology, Culture

and the Individual

all these factors work together

Contemporary Concerns
Health & Well-Being
Parenting & Education
Sociocultural Contexts
Culture - behaviour patterns, beliefs. and all other products of a particular group of
people that are passed on from generation to generation
Cross-Cultural studies - Comparison of cultures provides info abt degree to which devt is
similar. or universal, across cultures, or is instead culture-specific
Ethnicity (ethnic. Gk word= nation) - characteristic based on cultural heritage,
nationality, race, religion, and language
Socioeconomic Status (SES) - grouping of people w/ similar occupational, educational, and
economic characteristics
Gender - characteristics of people as males and females
Social Policy - governments course of action designed to promote welfare of its citizens

2. The Nature of Development

Study: 1) Biological, Cognitive, Socioemotional processes. 2) Periods of Development.
3) The Significance of Age. 4) Developmental issues.

Development is complex bc it is a product of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes.

1. Biological process - Change in physical nature
2. Cognitive process - Change in thought, intelligence, and language
3. Socioemotional process - Change in relationships with people, emotions, and personality
Connection of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes.
"inextricably intertwined"
shown in 2 fields:
1) developmental cognitive neuroscience: explores link between devt, cognitive
processes, and brain
2)developmental social neuroscience: explores link between socioemotional processes,
development, and brain
Bidirectional
the processes influence each other. Interdependent.
Periods of Development - the periods are connected
caused by the interplay of the processes
Developmental Period - time frame in ones life that is characterised by certain features
Periods:
Prenatal - (conception to birth); nine-month period; tremendous growth
Infancy - (birth to 18/24 months); time of extreme dependence on adults; psychological
activities are starting (ex. language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination,
and social learning)
Early childhood - (2-5 years)preschool years; learn self-suffieciency, school readiness.
playing with peers. End marked by 1st grade.
Middle & Late childhood (6-11 years) elementary school years; mastery of fundamental
skills of reading, writing. and arithmetic; importance of achievement; self-control
increases; more exposure to world.
Adolescence (10-12 to 18-21 years) transition; puberty; pursuit of independence and
identity; thought is more logical, abstract, and idealistic. spends less time with
family.
Early adulthood (20s-30s) establishment of personal and economic independence,
career development, and sometimes selecting a mate , starting a family.
Middle adulthood (40s to 50s) - time of expansion of personal and social involvement and
responsibility; assisting new generation in becoming competent, mature individuals,
and reaching and maintaining satisfaction in career.
Late adulthood (60s -70s to death) - time of life review, retirement, and adjustment to
new social role involving decreasing strength and health; longest span of any period of
development
Four Ages

First age: Childhood and adolescence

Second Age: Prime adulthood, 20s through 50s
Third age: Approx. 60-79 years old
Fourth age: Approx. 80 years and older

Significance of Age
Age & Happiness
Conceptions of Age
Chronological Age - time elapsed since birth
Biological Age - persons age in terms of biological health; functional capacities of
vital organs; the younger the biological age the longer one is expected to live
despite chronological age

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Psychological Age - ones adaptive capacities compared to those in the same chronological
age
Social Age - social roles and expectations related to a persons age.
Developmental Issues
Nature vs. Nurture
Stability and Change - involves the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist
through life/ change; Will we become older renditions of our early experience (stability) or
develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point (change)
Stability - result of heredity and early experiences in life
Change - later experiences can cause change; plasticity
Continuity and Discontinuity - focus on degree to which development involves either gradual,
cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)
Those who are pro-nature supports discontinuity; while pro-nurture supports continuity.

3. Theories of Development
Study: 1) Psychoanalytic theories 2) Cognitive theories 3) Behavioural and Social Cognitive Theories
4)Ethological Theory 5) Ecological Theory 6) An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

Scientific method - an approach that can be used to obtain accurate info.

4 steps: 1) conceptualize problem/ process 2) collect data 3) analyse data/ draw conclusion
4) revise, research conclusions and theory
in step 1, researchers often draw on theories and develop hypotheses
Theory - interrelated, coherent set of ideas that help explain and make predictions it may
suggest
hypotheses - specific assumptions and predications that can be tested to determine
accuracy
Psychoanalytic Theories - describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily coloured by
emotion. Behaviour is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to
be analyzed to understand behaviour. Early experiences with parents are emphasized.
Emphasis on developmental framework, family relationships, and unconscious aspects of mind
Criticisms: Emphasis on sexual underpinnings and image of people that is too negative
Both favor Discontinuity

1. Freuds Psychosexual Theory

5 stages:
Adult personality is determined by way we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure
at each stage and demands of reality
Central theme: unconscious thought
Primary motivation for human motivation is sexual in nature
Our basic personality is shaped in the first 5 years of life; emphasis on early
experiences
2. Eriksons Psychosocial Theory
Motivation is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people.
Developmental change occurs throughout lifespan
Emphasis on both early and latter experiences
At each stage there is a unique developmental task introduces a crisis to an individual;
the more successful one will resolve said crisis, the healthier the individual
8 stages:

1. Trust vs Mistrust (Infancy; 1st year) - sets stage for lifelong expectation
that world we be a good place to live; gain/ lose trust in caregiver
2. Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt (Late Infancy to Toddlerhood; 1-3 years) - discover
behaviour is there own. Start to assert independence/ autonomy. Realisation of
will. If they are restrained/ punished too much they will most probably develop
shame and doubt.
3. Initiative vs Guilt (Early childhood; preschool years; 3-5 years) - Child is face
with new responsibilities and challenges as she is more exposed to world. If
the child is irresponsible and and made to feel too anxious, guilt may rise
4. Industry vs Inferiority ( Middle and late childhood; elementary school years; 6
years to puberty) - focus on mastery of knowledge and intellectual skills.
5. Identity vs Identity Confusion ( Adolescence; 10-20 years) - If adolescent
explores roles in a healthy manner and arrive at positive path to follow in
life, then they achieve a positive identity; if not confusion will arise.
6. Intimacy vs Isolation (Early adulthood; 20s, 30s) - developmental task of forming
intimate relationships. if the relationships formed are healthy intimacy is
gained; if not then isolation.
7. Generativity vs Stagnation (Middle adulthood; 40s, 50s)
Generativiy - a concern for helping younger generation to develop and lead
useful lives.
Stagnation - feeling of having done nothing to help next generation
8. Integrity vs Despair ( Late adulthoodl 60s onwards) - reflection on past
If seen as life well spent - Integrity
If seen as life not well spent, will cause gloom/ doubt - Despair

Cognitive Theories
Emphasis on conscious thought
Positive view of development and an emphasis on active construction of understanding to
individual variation
Piagets Cognitive Developmental

Vygotskys Sociocultural

Information-Processing Theory

- Children actively construct

their understanding of world
and of through 4 stages
- 2 processes are used:
Organisation and Adaptation
- Organise our observations
and experiences, adapt to new
environmental demands.
- Cognition is qualitatively
different in one stage compared
to another
- Criticisms: skepticism abt
pureness of Piagets stages and
too little attention to
individual variations

- Emphasis on how culture and

social interaction guide
cognitive development
- Childs development is
inseparable from social and
cultural activities
- Cognitive development
involves learning to use
invention of society (language,
mathematical systems, memory
strategies)
- Childrens social interaction
with more-skilled adults and
peers in indispensable to their
cognitive development
- They learn to us tools that
will help them adapt and be

- Emphasizes that individuals

manipulate info, monitor it,
and strategies about it.
- Individuals develop a
gradually increasing capacity
for processing info, which
allows them to acquire
increasingly complex knowledge
and skills
- Siegler stated that thinking
is information processing; when
individuals perceive, encode,
represent, store and retrieve
info, they are thinking
- Siegler emphasises that
important aspect of development
is learning good strategies for

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1)Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2
years)
- coordination of sensory
experiences and motor, physical
actions,
2) Preoperational Stage (2-7
years)
- representation of world w/
words, images, drawings;
- lack ability to perform
operations (internalised mental
actions that allows one to do
mentally what one previously
could only do physically)
3) Concrete Operational Stage
(7-11 years)
- performance of operations
involving objects
- can reason logically when
reasoning can be applied to
specific/ concrete examples
4) Formal Operational Stage (1115 years, throughout adulthood)
- able to think abstract and
more logical terms
- develop images of ideal
circumstances
- entertain possibilities for
future and are fascinated with
what they can be
- more systematic in problem-

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Behavioural and Social Cognitive Theories
Emphasis on continuity
Development is observable behavior that can be learned via experience with environment.
Emphasis on scientific research and environmental determinants of behavior

Skinners Operant Conditioning

Consequences of a behavior produces changes in

probability of behaviors occurrence

Rewards and punishments shape development

Key aspect of development is behavior that

factors in development

development consists of pattern of behavioral changes

that are brought about by rewards and punishments
Criticism: little emphasis on cognition

Banduras Social Cognitive Theory

Behaviour, environment, and cognition are key
People cognitively represent behavior of others
and then sometimes adopt this behavior themselves
Observational learning
Criticism: insufficient attention to developmental
changes

Ethological Theory
Ethology stresses that behavior is strongly influences by biology, is tied to evolution, and is
characterized by critical/ sensitive periods
Imprinting rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to first moving object seen
Accdg to John Bowlby Attachment to caregiver on first year of life is crucial.
Positive & secure attachment = positive childhood & adulthood. Negative & insecure = Not optimal
development
Accdg to Konrad Lorenz Imprinting needs to specifically occur in a very certain time called the
critical period.
Bronfrenbrenners Ecological Theory
Stress on influences by environment
Individual is influenced by environment; Individual may influence environment
Ripples model.
Pros: usage of widening social contexts
Cons: Too little attention on biological factors; too much focus on cognitive factors
Influence of 5 environmental systems
Microsystem Setting of ones daily life;
direct interaction
Mesosystem Relations/connections of
microsystems
Exosystem Relationship between setting
where one is not active with immediate
context
Macrosystem Culture in which one lives
Chronosystem Patterning of environmental
events and transitions over life course;
sociohistorical conditions

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An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation an orientation that does not allow any one

theoretical approach but

rather select from each theory what is considered best

3. Research in Life Span Development

Study: 1)Methods of collecting data 2)Research Designs 3)Time Span Research
4)Conducting Ethical Research 5) Minimizing Bias

 Methods for Collecting Data

1. Observation
a. Must be systematic
b. In need to control factors that determine behavior
i. Laboratory
1.

controlled setting where many of complex factors of real world are absent

2.

drawbacks:
a. Impossible to conduct a study without participants being aware they are
being studied
b.

Lab setting is unnatural = unnatural behavior

c.

Participant may not be best representative of their diverse cultural

background

d.

Participants who are unfamiliar with university setting, and helping

science = intimidated by lab setting

ii.

Naturalistic Behavior behavior in real world setting; no effort to manipulate/

control situation

2.

Survey and Interview

a. Answers are self-reported attitudes and beliefs
b. Survey/ questionnaire useful when info from numerous people is needed
i. Questions should be clear and unbiased
c.

Drawback: tendency of participants to give what they think are social acceptable/ desirable
answers; not what they truly think/feel

3.

Standardized Test A test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring. Many standardized
tests allow a persons performance to be compared with performance of others
a. Criticism: standardized tests assume ones behavior is consistent & stable, yet personality
and intelligence (2 primary targets of ST) can vary with situation

4.

Case Study in depth look at an individual;

a. performed mainly by mental health professional when unique aspects of ones life cannot be
duplicated/tested in other individuals

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b.

provides info about ones experiences

c.

may focus on any aspect of ones life

d.

criticism: Unknown reliability

Physiological Measures for studying development are different points in life span; neuroimaging
(esp. MRI to construct persons brain tissue and biochemical activity)

Research Designs
1) Descriptive Research aims to observe & record behavior; cannot prove what causes some phenomena but
can reveal important info about ones behavior
2)

Correlational Research aims to describe strength of relationship between 2/more events/characters;

helps predict how people will behave
a) Stronger correlation = more effective prediction
b) Correlation Coefficient number based on statistical analysis that is used to describe degree of
association between 2 variables ; the higher CC, stronger association
c)

3)

Correlation does not mean causation

Experimental Research
a) Experiment carefully regulated procedure in which 1/more factors believed to influence behavior
being studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant

Time Span Research

1) Cross-Sectional Approach