Psyc 351
Lifespan Development
Instructor: Michael Liebhaber, PhD
Developmental Psychology
• Looks at ways in which people change from
conception through maturity, and how and why.
• The study of human development has been
interdisciplinary. It draws from a wide range of
disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry,
sociology, anthropology, biology, genetics, family
science, education, history, and medicine.
Periods of the Life Span
(mostly arbitrary)
Prenatal Period
Conception–Birth
Infancy and Toddlerhood
Birth–3 years
Early Childhood
3–6 years
Middle Childhood
6–11 years
Adolescence
11–20 years
Young Adulthood
20–40 years
Middle Adulthood
40–65 years
Late Adulthood
65 years and Over
© 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Did You Know…..
• In some societies there is no concept of
adolescence or middle age?
• Minority children in the United States will
become the majority by 2023?
Domains of Development
• physical - Growth of the body and brain,
sensory capacities, motor skills, and health
• cognitive - Learning, attention, memory,
language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity
• psychosocial - Emotions, personality, and
social relationships
Critical & Sensitive Periods
– Critical Period
• Specific time when an event (or its absence) has
specific impact on development
– Sensitive Period
• Developmental timing when child is particularly
responsive to certain experiences
© 2012 by the McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc
Developmental Research
• Findings have applications to child rearing,
education, health, and social policy
• Example: In middle school children - what is a
good way to
– Improve math grades?
– Reduce absences and tardiness?
– Reduce emotional and behavioral problems?
Research in a Boston school district
• Found that students who went to school hungry or
lacked essential nutrients in their diet had poorer
grades and more emotional and behavioral problems
than their classmates.
• After the schools started a free-breakfast program,
participating students improved their math grades,
were absent and tardy less often, and had fewer
emotional and behavioral problems (Kleinman et al.,
2002; Murphy et al., 1998).
Influences on Development
Individuals vary in rate and timing of
development due to:
o Heredity: Inherited traits from biological parents
o Environment: Physical and social influences
o Maturation: Sequences of physical and
behavioral patterns
© 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Contexts of Development
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Family
SES
Culture
Ethnicity
Historical
Contexts of Development: Family
• What is a family?
• Cultures have different types of family systems
• Families have structure and functions
– Structure - the number of members of the family and familial positions (e.g., mother,
father, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunts, cousins and other
kin)
– Functions - procreation and socialization of children, sexual regulation, economic
cooperation, and provision of care, affection and companionship.
• Two Generation Families
– Nuclear family consists of two generations: the wife/mother, husband/father, and their
children.
– One-parent family, divorced or unmarried parent, is also a two-generation family.
• Three Generation Families
– Many types of extended families that consist of at least three generations
– Georgas, J. (2003). Family: Variations and changes across cultures.
http://www.wwu.edu/culture/georgea.htm
Contexts of Development: SES
• Socioeconomic Status (SES) - A family’s SES is
based on family income and the educational and
occupational levels of the adults in the
household.
• SES affects developmental processes and
outcomes indirectly
– the kinds of homes and neighborhoods people live in
– the quality of nutrition, medical care, and schooling
available to them
– parents’ emotional state and parenting practices
Contexts of Development: SES
• In the United States, where poverty thresholds
depend on family size and composition, 21 percent
of all children under age 18 live in poverty.
– Virtually all progress made with respect to child poverty
since 1974 was wiped out by the current recession (Child
and Youth Well-Being Index, 2010).
• Affluence doesn’t necessarily protect children from
risk.
Contexts of Development:
Culture
• Culture – A way of life
– Beliefs
– Values
– Rituals
– All of the behavior and attitudes that are learned,
shared, and transmitted among members of a
social group.
© 2012 by the McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc
Contexts of Development:
Race & Ethnicity
• Ethnic Group – A shared identity
– United by ancestry, religion, or origin
– Contributes to shared attitudes and beliefs
• Race – A socially constructed term
– Scholars have no real consensus on definition
– Categories “fluid” – shaped by society and politics
• Ethnic Gloss
– Overgeneralization that obscures cultural differences
within a group
• Examples: “Black” or “Hispanic”
Contexts of Development:
Historical Context
• Unique time in which people live and grow up
• Familial Generation – Time from birth of a
mother to the birth of her first child
– High 20s in industrialized nations
– Low 20s in less industrialized nations
• Cultural Generation – Defined by historical or
social events (e.g., baby boom, the ‘60s)
– Defined “after the fact” by writers, etc.
• Cohort: Group born around the same time