Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
1
History, Theory, and Research Strategies
 Theory: an orderly, integrated set of statements that
describes, explains, and predicts behaviour.
o provide organizing frameworks for our
observations
o provide a sound basis for practical actions
3 basic issues about human development:
1) Is development continuous or discontinuous?
2) Is there one course or many possible courses?
3) Are genetic or environmental factors more
important in determining development?
 continuous or discontinuous development?
* small smooth changes or abrupt dramatic bursts?
* differences in quantity or quality?
 one course of development or many?
 Stage theorists: we all follow the same sequences of
development.
 But different circumstances can lead to very different
results
 Nature or nurture?
 Darwin versus Watson
 our genetic inheritance provides us with the boundaries
of our potential, and the environment determines the
extent to which these potentials will be met
 Those who emphasize the stability of
characteristics argue for heredity
 Those who say that early experiences are the
key emphasize the environment
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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The Lifespan perspective:
- both continuous and discontinuous changes alternate
with each other
- development can have both universal features and
unique features
- how do nature and nurture work together?
- Four assumptions:
o that development is lifelong
o that development is multidimensional and
multidirectional
o that development is highly plastic
o that development is embedded in multiple contexts
 development as lifelong: events occur during each
major period in life, in 3 broad and overlapping domains:
physical, cognitive, and social
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
PERIOD
Prenatal
3
AGE RANGE
Conceptionbirth
Infancy/toddlerhood Birth to 2
years
DESCRIPTION
One cell  human baby
Early childhood
2 to 6 years
Motor skills refined, language
expands, ties to peers, morality
is evident
Middle childhood
6 to 11 years
Athletic abilities, logical
thought, literacy skills,
understanding of self,
friendship, peer-group
membership
Adolescence
11 to 20 years
Puberty, abstract thinking,
defining personal values,
autonomy from family
Early adulthood
20 to 40 years
Leave home, finish school,
begin work, find intimate
partner, possibly have kids
Middle adulthood
40 to 60 years
Top of their fields, help children
become independent, help
parents adapt to aging
Late adulthood
60 years to
death
Retirement, decreased
strength and health, possible
death of spouse
Dramatic changes in body &
brain, emerging motor,
perceptual, and intellectual
capacities, development of ties
to others
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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 development as multidimensional & multidirectional:
 multidimensional: an intricate blend of biological,
psychological, and social forces.
 multidirectional: every period is a joint expression of
growth and decline
 development as highly plastic: at all ages, development
is flexible. Different people have different amounts of
plasticity.
 development as embedded in multiple contexts:
everyone is embedded in a unique context that influences
them.
age-graded influences
history-graded influences
non-normative influences
Historical Foundations of the Study of Human
Development
Philosophies of childhood.
 medieval times: children were regarded as miniature
adults: preformationism.
 16th century: Protestantism and Puritanism advocated
harsh parental practices
 17th century: John Locke’s tabula rasa. Parents
should be rational tutors.
- development is continuous
- environment turns the child into a
good/bad/smart/stupid, person.
- children are passively acted upon
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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 18th century: Jean Jacques Rousseau’s noble
savages,
o children are endowed with an innate plan for
orderly, healthy growth.
- development as discontinuous
- maturation: a genetically determined,
naturally unfolding course of growth
Philosophies of adulthood and aging:
 18th century: Tetens and Carus said development
continues into adulthood.
o Tetens: the importance of historical eras on the life
course, and that adults can change.
o Carus: 4 stages to describe the entire life course:
childhood, youth, adulthood, and senescence.
Scientific Beginnings
 Darwin: no 2 individuals in a species are exactly alike.
o Natural selection
o Survival of the fittest
o all species descended from common ancestors.
 G. Stanley Hall and Arnold Gessell (early 20th
century): saw development as a genetically determined
process that unfolds automatically.
o the normative approach to child study: gave
children questionnaires asking them about just
about everything about themselves, to see what
was typical and what was unusual
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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 Alfred Binet & Theodore Simon (early 1900s): the 1st
intelligence test, which became the Stanford-Binet
o Sparked tremendous interest in individual
differences in cognitive development
Mid-20th century theories
Psychoanalysis:
o People move through a series of stages in which
they confront conflicts between biological drives
and social expectations.
 Freud’s theory
 intrapsychic events that motivate behaviour
 Conscious or unconscious
5 stages of Psychosexual Development
Stage
Age
Crisis/Major
achievement
Consequence of Fixation
Oral
0-1
weaning
oral behaviours (thumb sucking, nail biting, pencil
chewing, overeating, smoking, talking a lot)
Anal
1-3
toilet training
extreme orderliness and cleanliness, or
the opposite
Phallic
3-6
Oedipus complex
failure to form a complete superego; seeking a life
partner that is a replacement for mom/dad
Latent
6-11
Superego develops
more
None - acquires new social values form people
other than parents; makes bonds with same-sex
peers
Genital
adolescence mature sexual
intimacy
If all is well, mature and genuine intimacy is now
possible
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Freud’s Structure of Personality: a battle between ID and
SUPEREGO, moderated, or refereed by the EGO.
ID:
- storehouse of the fundamental drives
- irrational, impulsive, seeking immediate gratification
- uncaring of what is possible, acceptable, moral
- Pleasure Principle: search for gratification
SUPEREGO: - values, morals; your “conscience”
- when child accepts values of parents/society
- “ought”, “should not”
EGO:
- reality-based
- mediates conflict between id and superego
- conscious beliefs about reality
- “Reality Principle”: reasonable choices
 Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:
1) Trust vs. mistrust (birth to 1 year)
2) Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1 to 3 years)
3) Initiative vs. guilt (3 to 6 years)
4) Industry vs. inferiority (6 to 11 years)
5) Identity versus Identity Confusion (adolescence)
6) Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)
7) Generativity vs. Self-Absorption (middle adulthood)
8) Ego Integrity vs. Despair (old age)
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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Behaviourism and Social Learning Theory
 John Watson wanted to create an objective science of
psychology
 Traditional Behaviourism:
 one stimulus/event predicts another stimulus/event
 organism learns a new association between two stimuli a neutral stimulus and a more powerful stimulus
 after conditioning, the neutral stimulus elicits same
reflexive response as the powerful stimulus
 Pavlov’s dog
bell + meat  salivation
bell  salivation
This came to be known as classical conditioning.
 BF Skinner’s Operant conditioning
operant: an observable voluntary behaviour that has an effect
on the environment
 Operant conditioning: the probability of a response
is changed by its consequences
Reinforcement: behaviours can be increased if they are
followed by reinforcers, like praise, money, food, smiles, etc
Punishment: a technique for decreasing the probability of a
response (e.g., disapproval, physical punishment)
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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 Social Learning Theory: Albert Bandura.
 Observational learning: organism’s responding is
influenced by the observation of models
 Children develop personal standards for behaviour and a
sense of self-efficacy: the belief that their own abilities
and characteristics will help them succeed.
 Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory:
Jean Piaget: children actively construct knowledge as they
manipulate and explore their world, and their cognitive
development takes place in 4 stages.
1) Sensorimotor period (birth to age 2): developing the
ability to coordinate sensory input with motor actions
 gradual appearance of symbolic thought
 object permanence isn't mastered til about 18
months old
2) Preoperational period (age 2 to 7): progress in
symbolic thought
o egocentrism: a limited ability to share another
person’s view
o animism: the belief that all things are living
3) Concrete Operational Period (age 7 to 11): gradual
mastery of conservation, develop new problem-solving
abilities , including the ability to use hierarchical
classification formats. But thinking is not yet abstract.
4) Formal operational period (age 11 and beyond): kids
begin to apply their operations to abstract concepts in
addition to concrete objects. Thinking is abstract,
systematic, logical, and reflective.
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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Contributions and Limitations of Piaget:
 convinced others that children are active learners
 however he underestimated the competencies of
infants and preschoolers
 his stages end after adolescence
 others have given up the idea of stages altogether
Recent Perspectives
 Information Processing:
 the human mind is a symbol-manipulating system
through which information flows
 people are active beings who modify their thinking in
response to environmental demands
 no stages of development
 committed to careful, rigorous research methods
 ignores things like creativity and imagination
 Ethology: Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen
 the adaptive, or survival, value of behaviour and its
evolutionary history.
 imprinting: the early following behaviour of certain
baby birds that ensures that the young will stay close
to the mother and be fed and protected from danger.
 Critical period: a limited time span during which the
individual is biologically prepared to acquire certain
adaptive behaviours but needs the support of an
appropriately stimulating environment.
 Sensitive period: a time that is optimal for certain
capacities to emerge and in which the individual is
especially responsive to environmental influences,
but with less well defined boundaries than a critical
period
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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 John Bowlby (1969): attachment behaviours of
babies are built-in social signals that encourage the
parent to approach, care for, and interact with the
baby.
o Many aspects of social behaviour resemble
those of our primate ancestors
Sociocultural theory (Vygotsky): how culture is
transmitted to the next generation.
 social interaction is necessary for children to acquire
the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a
community’s culture.
 communication between adults and more expert
peers and children becomes part of the child’s own
thinking
 cognitive development is a socially mediated process
 did not believe all kids go through the same
sequences of stages.
 Ecological systems theory: Urie Bronfenbrenner
 we develop within a complex system of relationships
that are affected by multiple levels of the surrounding
 environment.
 the environment is a series of nested structures
o the microsystem
o the mesosystem
o the exosystem
o the macrosystem
o the chronosystem
 People are both products and producers of their
environments.
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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Research Methods
Systematic Observation:
 naturalistic observation
 structured observations
Self-report methods:
 the clinical interview
 questionnaires
the case study method or clinical method
Ways to study culture:
 how characteristics differ from culture to culture
 ethnography & participant observation
General Research Designs
 correlational design
 correlation coefficient (r) reflects the extent to
which two variables are related
 from –1 to +1
 if r = 0 this means no relationship at all.
 we can’t make causal statements based on findings
 experimental design
 lets us make statements about causation.
o randomly-assigned groups
 independent and dependent variables
 modified experimental designs
 field experiments
 natural experiments
Lifespan overheads, Chapter 1
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Designs for studying development:
 longitudinal design
 follow one group of people over time and measure them
several times to see how they are changing
 We could be talking 6 months, 2 years, 10 years, 3
years.. depending on the scope of the study.
 can look at whether certain characteristics or
behaviours are stable over time
 can look at individual paths of change
 time consuming, expensive
 “history-graded influences”, which represent a major
potential cohort effect
 cross-sectional designs
 several samples at different stages of development
 can look at a wide range of ages in a short period of
time
 cohort effects when compared the groups to each other
 no individual paths of change
 The Longitudinal- Sequential design:
 samples of different age groups followed for a short
period of time
 saves time
 additional information
Ethics in Lifespan Research
American Psychological Association guidelines:
 protection from harm, informed consent & debriefing,
privacy, knowledge of results, beneficial treatments