DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
also known as Human Development or Lifespan
Development. This studies human development
from prenatal to elderly. It is the scientific study
of ways in which people change, as well as stay
the same, from conception to death.
Psychological development consists of physical,
cognitive, and psychosocial development. In the
process of development, humans have aspects
that are genetic and learned.
LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE
Development is lifelong. Lifespan theorists
believe that development is life-long, and
change is apparent across the lifespan.
Development is multidirectional. Human
change in many directions. May show gains in
some areas while showing losses in the other
area (graduating, getting married, or becoming
a parent, entails growth and loss)
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Development is multidemensional
PHYSICAL
DIFFERENT TYPES OF
DEVELOPMENT
COGNITIVE
PSYCHOSOCIAL
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LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE
Development is multidimensional. Three general domains or dimensions.
>Physical domain - changes in height and weight, sensory capabilities, the nervous
system, prosperity of disease and illness.
>Cognitive domain - encompasses changes n intelligence, wisdom, perception,
problem-solving, memory, and language
>Psyhosocial domain - focuses on changes in emotion, self-perception, and
interpersonal relationships with families, peers, and friends.
The three domains influence each other.
LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE
Development is multidisciplinary. It has a vast topic of study that requires
theories, research methods and a knowledge base of many academic disciplines
Development is characterised by plasticity. Plasticity is about our ability to
change and that many of our characteristics are malleable (adaptable)
Normative history-graded influence: The time period in which you are born
shapes your experience
Generation
Born between
which generation (cohort) are you?
Silent Generation
Baby Boomers
Generation X
Millennials
Generation Z
1928 - 1945
1946 - `964
1965 - 1980
1981 - 1996
1997 - Present
LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE
Non-normative life influence.: each of us has a unique experience that may
shape our development.
Ex. a child who loses his/her parent at a young age has experienced a life event that is not typical of
the age group.
Socioeconomic status (SES) - is a way to identify families and households based on their shared
levels of education, income, and occupation. Individual variations like members of a social class tend
to share similar lifestyles, patterns of consumption, parenting styles, stressors religious preferences,
and other aspects of daily life
Families with higher socioeconomic status usually are in occupations that not only pay
better but also grant them a certain degree of freedom and control over their job.
Poverty level is an income amount established by the government based on a set of income
thresholds that vary by family size.
CULTURE
CULTURE
it is the totality of our shared language, knowedge,
material objects, and behavior.
it includes ideas about what is right and
wrong, what to strive for, what to eat,
how to speak, what is valued, and what
kind of emotions are called for in certain
situations
Ethnocentrism - belief that our own culture is superior
Think of other ways culture may have affected
your development.
Cultural relativity is an appreciation for cultural
differences and the understanding that cultural
practices are best understood from the standpoint of that
particular culture
LIFESPAN
Lifespan or longevity refers to the length
of time a species can exist under the
most optimal conditions
Ex. Jean Calmet : died 1994, age of 122
yrs, 5 months, and 14 days (guinness
World Records 2016.
Grey Wolf can live up to 20 years in
captivity, bald eagle up to 50 years
LIFE EXPECTANCY
This refers to the predicted
number of years a person born
in a particular time period can
reasonably expect to live.
ACCORDING TO THE LATEST WHO DATA
PUBLISHED IN 2020 LIFE EXPECTANCY IN PHILIPPINES IS:
MALE 67.4, FEMALE 73.6 AND TOTAL LIFE EXPECTANCY IS
70.4 WHICH GIVES PHILIPPINES A WORLD LIFE EXPECTANCY
RANKING OF 119.
HOW OLD ARE YOU?
Chronological age: based on the number of
years since your birth
Biological age: how quickly the body is aging
Psychological age: psychologically adaptive
capacity compared to others of your
chronological age
Social age: based on the social norms of our
culture and the expectations our culture has
for people of our age group
CONCEPTION OF AGE
AGE PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
Prenatal
starts at conception, continues
through implantation the uterine
wall by the embryo, & ends at birth
Infancy &
Toddlerhood
starts at two years and continues to
to two years of age
Early Childhood
starts at two yrs of age until six yrs. old
Middle and
Late Childhood
starts at 6 yrs old and continues until
onset of puberty
Adolescence
starts at the onset of puberty until 18
AGE PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
Emerging
Adulthood
starts at 18 until 25
Early Adulthood
starts at 25 until 40-45
Middle Adulthood starts at 40 - 45 until 65
Late Adulthood
starts at 65 onward
Prenatal Development: conception occurs and
development begins.
> understanding nutrition, teratogens, or
environmental factors that can lead to birth
defects, and labor and delivery
teratogens - something that can cause or raise the
risk for a birth defect in a baby or may affect
pregnancies and may cause complications such as
preterm labor, and miscarriage.
4 Types of Teratogens
1. Physical agent
2. Metabolic condition
3. Infection
4. Drugs and chemicals
Infancy and Toddlerhood. First two years
of life are ones of dramatic growth and
change.
> Newborn, with a keen sense of hearing,
very poor vision, transformed into a walking
talking toddler within a relatively short
period of time
> changes in the feeding and sleep schedule
of the caregivers to a constantly moving
guide for a mobile and energetic child
Childhood
Early Chidlhood
The preschool years, two to sxyear old
> busy learning language
> gaining a sense of self and
greater independence
> beginning to learn the
workings of the physical
word
Middle and Late Chidlhood
Age of six to the onset of puberty
> involvement in the early grades of
school
> more curious, learning and testing
new academic skills
> assessing one's ability and
accomplishments by making
comparisons between self and
others.
Adolescence
Puberty stage- period of dramatic physical change
marked by an overall growth, sexual maturation
cognitive change as they think of new possibilities
more conscious with feelings of love, fear and
freedom
more curious and adventurous, impulsive that puts
them at greater risk of accidents or contracting
sexually transmitted infections because of too much
aggressiveness and being impulsive
Emerging Adulthood
Transitional time from adolescence and the
signs of adulthood
Identity exploration and preparation for full
independence from parents
Early Adulthood
Twenties and thirties
Intimate relationships, establishing families
and work are primary concern at this stage
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Middle Adulthood
Forties through the mid-sixties
Aging becomes more noticeable
At the peak of productivity in love and work
Late Adulthood
Young-old 65 - 85
> relatively healthy, productive, active and continue to live
independently
Oldest-old 85 and older
> both age groups - risk of diseases (hypertension, cancer,
diabetes, dimentia, etc.
Why are you the way you are?
Issues of
Lifespan
Development
1
Nature and Nurture
2
Continuity vs Discontinuity
3
Active vs Passive
4
Stability vs Change
Nature
Nature would argue that
heredity plays the most
important role in bringing
about that feature
Nurture
Nurture would argue that
one's environment is most
significant in shaping the
way we are
Continues argument between the two
Continuity
Discontinuity
Is human development best characterized as a slow, gradual
process or is best viewed as one of more abrupt change
Behaviorists, Vgotsky and
information process
theorists, assume
development is a more
slow and gradual process
known as continuous
development
Stage theories or
discontinuous development
assume that development
change often occurs in
distict stages that are
qualitative from each other,
and in a set, universal
sequence
Active
Passive
How much do you play a role in your own developmental
path?
Piaget, believed that
children actively explore
their world and construct
new ways of thinking to
explain the things they
experience
Many behaviorists view
humans as being more
passive in the
developmental process
(Skinner, John Watson, Albert
Bandura, Carl Rogers, Melanie
Klein, Festinger
Stability
Change
How similar are you to how you were as a child?
Were you the same as
when you were still in
your childhood days?
Are there any changes in
you?
Historical Theories on Development
PREFORMATION VIEW
in the 18th century, children were merely thought of as
little adults.
Preformationism, or the belief that a tiny, fully formed
human is implanted in the sperm or egg at conception and
then grows in size until birth, was the predominant early
theory
children were believed to possess all their sensory
capabilities, emotions, and mental aptitude at birth,
and as they developed these unfolded on a
predetermined schedule
the environment was thought to play no role in
determining development
HOMUNCULUS
“A fully formed, miniature human
body believed, according to some
medical theories of the 16th and 17th
centuries, to be contained in the
spermatozoon.”
A homunculus is a "little man." In the
17th century, theorists called
preformationists argued that a
human being begins life as a tiny,
preformed person — a homunculus
— encapsulated in the sperm or, as
some thought, in the egg.
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HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
JOHN LOCKE (1632 - 1704)
British philosopher
refuted the idea of innate
knowledge and instead
proposed that children are
largely shaped by their social
environments, especially
their education as adults
teach them important
knowledge.
thinking of a child's
mind as a tabula rasa or
blank slate
whatever comes into
the child's mind comes
from the environment
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HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
(1712-1778))
believed that children were not
just little adults
children were developed
according to a natural plan
Father of Developmental Psychology
which unfolded in different
stages
believed children should be allowed to think by
focus on the biological
themselves according to their own ways and inner,
maturation
biological timetable
did not believe in teaching them the correct way to think
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
ARNOLD GESSELL (1880 - 1961)
studied neuromotor
development of children at Yale
Clinic of Child Development for
50 years.
believed that the child's
development was activated by
genes and he called this process
maturaiton
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
SIGMUND FREUD (1856 - 1939)
very influential figure in the
area of development.
emphasized the importance f
early childhood experience in
shaping one's personality and
behavior
assumptions that personality
formed during the first few
years of life.
parents or caregivers were assumed to have
a long-lasting impact on children's emotional
states
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
ERICK ERIKSON (1902 - 1994)
proposed a model of lifespan
development that provides a useful
guideline for thinking about the
changes we experience throughout life
proposed that each period of life has a
unique challenge or crisis that the
person who reaches it must face,
referred to as psychosocial crises
if a person does not resolve a stage
successfully, it may hinder their ability to
deal with later stages.
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Learning Theory
BEHAVIORISM
is 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.
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Social Learning Theory
or learning by watching others
actions are not learned through
conditioning
young children frequently learn
behaviors through imitation
people learn not only as a result of their own beliefs and
expectations but also by "modeling" or observing others, an
idea that led to the development of modern social cognition
theory
Bandura's social learning theory,
learning occurs through observations and
interactions with other people.
Essentially, people learn by watching
others and then imitating these actions.
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive Theory
focus on how our mental processes sor
cognitions change over time
*he believed that intelligence changes as the
child grows
children are active
thinkers, trying to
construct more
advanced
understanding of the
world
Piaget believed that
children's intellectual
skills change over
time and that
maturation, rather
than training, brings
about that change
Research has shown considerable overlap among the 4 stages and that
development is more continuous
HISTORICAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Sociocultural Theory
Vygotsky outlined three main
concepts related to cognitive
development: (i) culture is
significant in learning, (ii) language
is the root of culture, and (iii)
individuals learn and develop within
their role in the community
In general, developmental theories view development as
progress from simple to more complex understandings of the
self and the world over time
Different developmental theories describe different types of
changes.