Lifespan Development
Lifespan development refers to age-related changes that occur from birth, throughout a person’s
life, into and during old age.
A change must be relatively permanent or ‘lasting’ to be considered a developmental change.
Complete LA 4.1 as a class
Stages of LD
Stages and their appropriate ages are:
Infancy – birth to two years
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Characteristics are rapidly developing: perceptual abilities, ways of thinking, use of language
and social skills. The bond that develops with caregiver is important in terms of emotional
development.
Childhood – two years to 10 years
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Children become increasingly independent as they learn to do things themselves. Acquire
basic skills of reading, writing and maths; much time is spent in play and social learning.
Their cognitive skills develop and start to understand right and wrong.
Adolescence- 10 years to 20 years
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During adolescence the individual moves from childhood to adulthood. The onset of puberty
marks the start of adolescence, involving physical and psychological changes. Dominated by
developing own identity and independence from parents. Friends and peers are most
influential and thought processes are more logical, complex and idealistic. Adolescents have
a greater capacity to reason, problem solve and understand abstract concepts.
Early adulthood- 20 years to 40 years
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Western culture – stage of establishing personal and financial independence and getting a
career. May select a partner, develop an ongoing intimate relationship, start a family and
take on a parenting role.
Middle age - 40 years to 65 years
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A period of expanding social and personal involvements, advancing a career, supporting
offspring.
Older age- 65 years and beyond.
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A period of considerate adjustment to changes to one’s life and self-perceptions, such as
retirement, decreasing strength and stamina, declining health, death or relatives and
friends. Can also be liberating with no work commitments.
AREAS OF LD
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – include changes in the body and its various systems; brain and nervous
system development, bones and muscles, motor skills, hormonal changes, puberty and menopause.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT – changes individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in
interacting with others- forming close relationships and in group situations.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT – changes in individual’s mental abilities such as perception, thinking,
learning, memory, language, moral reasoning, problem solving and decision making.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT – changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how
these feelings are expressed, interpreted and dealt with.
Physical development such as growth (height) movement (crawling) and changes in appearance
(pimples) can be observed. Behaviours assoc with social, cognitive and emotional development are
mental process than are not directly observable.
Social, cognitive and emotional development are referred to collectively as psychological
development.
LA 4.3 in books
Continuous development supporters believe that development involves 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 development supporters believe that development involves distinct and separate
stages, with different kinds of abilities occurring in each stage. The development of certain abilities
in each stage , such as specific ways of thinking, feeling or interacting have identifiable start and end
points.
Sequence of change is observable in many areas of psychological development – use of language
from gurgling to uttering individual words, forming sentences to complex sentences.
Quantitative changes are variations in quantity or ‘amount’ of thought, feeling or behaviour and can
be expressed as numbers. Words spoken
Qualitative changes are those that vary in ‘quality’ ‘kind’ or ‘type’. They are changes that make the
individual different from the way they were before. Understanding of the world
Read box 4.3 Developmental norms
LA 4.4, 4.5, 4.7 (REPORT)
Interaction of Hereditary and Environmental Factors in Shaping Psychological Development
Hereditary involves the transmission of characteristics from biological parents to their offspring via
genes at the time of conception. The genes we inherit from our parents influence many aspects of
our physical development; blood type, hair colour, body shape etc. Also genes influence our brain
chemistry and functioning when certain hormones are produced, such as at puberty.
There is considerable evidence that psychological characteristics such as intelligence and personality
have a genetic component. Genes are also thought to influence the onset of some psychological
illnesses and disorders such as schizophrenia, drug and alcohol dependence, and depression.
It doesn’t mean you will get these things but if your parents have them then you have a increased
likelihood of developing this illness, compared to those whose parents do not have the disorder.
Environment refers to all the experiences, objects and events to which we are exposed throughout
our entire lifetime. Some that may influence our psychological development is siblings, how you are
brought up, friendship groups, schooling, occupation, income level, whether you have a partner, etc.
The influence of some of these factors is less obvious or significant than others, but all can impact
both individually and collectively on the kind of person we become.
John B. Watson adopted the behavioural perspective almost totally ignored the influence of genes in
development. Their basic assumption was the mind of a newborn is totally empty and the
development of all thoughts, feelings and behaviour can be explained in terms of a person’s learning
throughout their life.
This is known as the nature vs nurture debate. Studies are now completed on how hereditary and
environmental factors combine influencing our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Some
environmental factors exerts a greater influence at some stages of the lifespan than in others.
LA 4.8
Read box 4.5 Genetic inheritance
LA 4.10
Copy figure 4.15 in books
Role of Maturation in development
Maturation refers to the orderly and sequential developmental changes which occur in the nervous
system and other bodily structures controlled by our genes.