Fundamentals of
Lifespan Development
SEPTEMBER 5 TH , 2014 – HISTORY, THEORY, AND RESEARCH
STRATEGIES
Video
Why do researchers need to obtain informed consent from
participants?
Ewen Cameron, Memory Thief – Part 1
Ewen Cameron, Memory Thief – Part 2
Ewen Cameron, Memory Thief – Part 3
The Fifth Estate documentary on Ewen Cameron
Rights of Research Participants
Rights of Research Participants
Table 1.7 on Page 31 of Exploring Lifespan Development
What is Developmental Science?
A field of study devoted to understanding constancy and
change throughout the lifespan
Interdisciplinary
- Psychology, sociology, biology, neuroscience,
medicine, social services, education, family studies,
public health….
Methods & Designs in Developmental
Psychology
Methods
Table 1.5 on Page 23 of Exploring Lifespan Development
Designs
Table 1.6 on Page 28 of Exploring Lifespan Development
Overview of Theories
Theory of Evolution (Early 1800)
Natural Selection
Darwin & Spencer
Normative Approach (Middle 1800)
Measures of behaviour are taken on large numbers of individuals, and age-related averages are
computed to represent typical development.
Hall & Gesell – Maturational process: a genetically determined series of events that unfold
automatically, much like a flower.
The Mental Testing Movement (Early 1900)
Development of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Binet
Overview of Theories
Psychoanalytic (Early to Middle 1900)
People move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social
expectations. How these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to get along with others, and
cope with anxiety.
Freud – Psychosexual
Erikson – Psychosocial
Behaviourism and Social Learning Theory (Early to Middle 1900)
Directly observable events – stimuli and response – are the appropriate focus of study.
Pavlov – Classical Conditioning
Watson – School of Behaviourism
Skinner – Operant Conditioning
Bandura – Social Learning Theory
Cognitive Development Theory (Middle 1900)
Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore the external world.
Piaget
Overview of Theories
Information Processing (Middle to Late 1900)
The design of digital computers that use mathematically specified steps to solve problems
suggested to psychologists that the human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulating
system through which information flows.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Late 1900)
Brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the
relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person’s cognitive processing and
behaviour patterns.
Ethnology (Middle 1900)
Concerned with the adaptive, or survival, value, of behaviour and its evolutionary history.
Lorenz & Tinbergen – Imprinting - critical period vs sensitive period
Overview of Theories
Sociocultural Theory (late 1800 Early 1900)
Focuses on how culture – the values, beliefs, customs, and skills of a social group – is transmitted
to the next generation. According to Vygotsky, social interaction – in particular, cooperative
dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society – is necessary for children to acquire the
ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community’s culture.
Vygotsky
Ecological Systems Theory
Views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple
levels of the surrounding environment.
Bronfenbrenner – Chronosystem (temporal dimension)
Tables in Text Book
Stances on Major Theories on Basic Issues in Human Development
Table 1.4 on Page 22 of Exploring Lifespan Development
Freud & Erikson
Table 1.2 on Page 13 of Exploring Lifespan Development
Piaget
Table 1.3 on Page 15 of Exploring Lifespan Development
Ecological Systems Theory
Figure 1.5 on Page 19 of Exploring Lifespan Development
Discussion
Psychology research is based in positivism – a form of research that focuses on information that
is scientifically verifiable, usually measured by mathematical formulas.
There are other ways to understand the world. What are some of these ways?
What are limitations to positivism?