2. Defining Development
The science of human development… - seeks to understand how and why people of all ages and circumstances change or remain the same over time.

3. Defining Development Growth is… multidirectional multicontextual
multicultural
multidisciplinary
plastic

4. Understanding How and Why
Scientific method
Way to answer questions that requires empirical research and data-based conclusions.
Five basic steps of the scientific method
Begin with curiosity and pose a question.
Develop a hypothesis.
Test the hypothesis.
Draw conclusions.
Report the results.
Something that is empirical is based on observations, repeated experiences, verifiable experiments. It is not theoretical.

5. The Scientific Method
A sixth and crucial step-replication-is often needed before the scientific community accepts conclusions.
Replication
Repetition of a study, using different participants

6. Process, Not Proof
Built into the scientific method—in questions, hypotheses, tests, and replication—is a passion for possibilities, especially unexpected ones.

7. The Nature-Nurture Debate
General term for the traits, capacities, and limitations that each individual inherits genetically from his or her parents at the moment of conception
Nurture
General term for all the environmental influences that affect development after an individual is conceived
Nurture refers to environmental influences
health and diet of the embryo’s mother
family
school
community
society

8. The Life-Span Perspective
Approach to the study of human development that takes into account all phases of life, not just childhood or adulthood.

9. Age Ranges for Different Stages of Development

10. The Life-Span Perspective
Development is multidirectional.
Over time, human characteristics change in every direction.
Several major theorists describe stages of development (discontinuous process):
Freud, Erickson, Piaget.
Others view development as a continuous process.

11. Patterns of Developmental Growth
Many patterns of developmental growth have been discovered by careful research. Although linear (or near-linear) progress seems most common, scientists now find that almost no aspect of human change follows the linear pattern exactly.

12. Life-Span Perspective
Development is multidirectional.
Critical period
Time when a particular type of developmental growth (in body or behavior) must happen if it is ever going to happen
Sensitive period
Time when a certain type of development is most likely to happen or happens most easily, although it may still happen later with more difficulty

13. The Life-Span Perspective
Development is multicontextual.
Ecological-systems approach
In the study of human development, the person should be considered in all the contexts and interactions that constitute a life.

14. The Life-Span Perspective
Development is multicontextual. Ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner) Each person is affected by many social contexts and interpersonal interactions. Three nested levels surround individuals and affect them. Approach later named bioecological theory.

15. The Ecological Model
According to developmental researcher Urie Bronfenbrenner, each person is significantly affected by interactions among a number of overlapping systems, which provide the context of development. Microsystems—family, peer groups, classroom, neighborhood, house of worship—intimately and immediately shape human development. Surrounding and supporting the microsystems are the exosystems, which include all the external networks, such as community structures and local educational, medical, employment, and communications systems, that influence the microsystems. Influencing both of these systems is the macrosystem, which includes cultural patterns, political philosophies, economic policies, and social conditions. Mesosystems refer to interactions among systems, as when parents and teachers coordinate to educate a child. Bronfenbrenner added a fifth system, the chronosystem, to emphasize the importance of historical time.

16. The Life-Span Perspective
Development Is multicontextual. Historical context Cohort: All persons born within a few years of one another; group defined by the shared age of its members Example: Attitudes about same-sex marriage
Same-Sex Marriage and Different Ages Support for making same-sex marriage legal shows both cohort and period effects. If the data were only from the population of all ages, not quite half are in favor. But cohort analysis reveals a generational shift, with dramatic trends among the young, much less among the rest.

17. The Life-Span Perspective
Development is multicontextual.
Socioeconomic context
Affected by national and historical texts
Is more critical in some jurisdictions than others
Includes pervasive context of SES
Socioeconomic status (SES)
Person’s position in society as determined by income, wealth, occupation, education, and place of residence

18. The Life-Span Perspective
Development Is multicultural.
Culture
Patterns of behavior passed from one generation to the next
Social construction
Idea based on shared perceptions, not on objective reality
Many age-related terms, such as childhood, adolescence, yuppie, and senior citizen, are social constructions.
Each family, community, and college has a particular culture, and for any one person these cultures may clash.
Individuals within every culture sometime rebel against their culture’s expected beliefs, conventions, norms, behaviors.

19. Socioeconomic Status and Human Development
Less developed countries typically have higher birth rates, but they also have much higher rates of mortality in the first year of life. Simply, and sadly, that means that more babies are born, and more die, in impoverished nations.
Globally and locally, socioeconomic status is one of the most accurate predictors of health. Poverty rates and level of education almost always correlate with health indicators (such as mortality) in just about every phase of the life span.

20. Global Trends
The United Nations categorizes nations as more, less, or least developed, based on economic growth. As indicated here, a nation’s economic status correlates closely with birth rate, which itself correlates with levels of female literacy.
This is a rough guide. For example, fewer newborns die in their first year in the United States than in nations with high poverty rates, but the U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than 33 other nations, some (such as Portugal and Greece) with lower average income.

21. Infant Mortality in the U.S.
About two-thirds of infant deaths in the United States occur within the first 28 days of life. The single biggest cause of infant death in the United States is preterm birth.

22. The Life-Span Perspective
Development Is Multicultural.
Difference-equals-deficit error
Mistaken belief that a deviation from some norm is necessarily inferior to behavior or characteristics that meet the standard
Vygotsky: Guided participation
Is universal process used by mentors to teach cultural knowledge, skills, and habits
Can occur through school instruction, but more often it happens informally
Entails culturally different goals
Guided participation is a universal process used by mentors to teach cultural knowledge, skills, and habits. Guided participation can occur through school instruction, but more often it happens informally, through “mutual involvement in several widespread cultural practices with great importance for learning: narratives, routines, and play” (Rogoff, 2003, p. 285). Each culture guides toward different goals.

23. The Life-Span Perspective
Development Is multicultural.
Ethnic group
People whose ancestors were born in the same region and who often share a language, culture, and religion
Race
Group of people who are regarded by themselves or by others as distinct from other groups on the basis of physical appearance

24. The Life-Span Perspective
Development Is multidisciplinary.
All important human characteristics are epigenetic.
Referring to the effects of environmental forces on the expression of an individual’s, or a species’, genetic inheritance
Some epigenetic influences impede development; others facilitate it.
The inevitable epigenetic interaction between genes and the environment (nature and nurture) is illustrated on the next slide.
Genetics and neuroscience are two of the newer disciplines in lifespan research.
Every trait—psychological as well as physical—is influenced by genes.

25. An Epigenetic Model of Development
Notice that there are as many arrows going down as there are going up, at all levels. Although development begins with genes at conception, it requires that all four factors interact.

26. Red Means Stop
At top, the red areas on this PET scan show abnormally low metabolic activity and blood flow in a depressed person’s brain, in contrast to the normal brain at bottom.

27. The Life-Span Perspective
Multidisciplinary research on depression
Depression
Is partly genetic, biochemical, and neurological
Is also developmental
Leads to better treatment
Broadens and deepens the scientific perspective
Links to depression
Low serotonin
Caregiver depression
SAD
Malnutrition
Anthropology
Diseases
Disruptive social interaction
Father absence
Siblings
Poverty
Low cognitive skills
As you see, discovery of each of these factors arises from research in a different discipline. Every trait—psychological as well as physical—is influenced by genes.
No single factor determines any outcome, and no single discipline portrays the entire story of human life. Indeed, some people who experience one, and only one, of the dozen factors listed above are not depressed at all.

28. Why?
Interpretation of these data depends on the interpreter’s assumption. The low rates in Japan could be caused by something wonderful in Japanese culture—close human bonds, for instance. Or it could be something negative—repression of emotions, perhaps, which would reduce the rate of diagnosed depression, but not the rate of actual depression. As with the results of most research, data often raise new questions.

29. The Life-Span Perspective
Development Is plastic.
Plasticity denotes two complementary aspects of development.
Human traits can be molded
People maintain a certain durability of identity
Dynamic systems: Human development is viewed as an ongoing, ever-changing interaction.
Between the physical and emotional being and
Between the person and every aspect of his or her environment, including the family and society

30. The Life-Span Perspective
Development is plastic.
Dynamic systems approach
Builds on the multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural, and multidisciplinary nature of development
Urges consideration of all the interrelated aspects, every social and cultural factor, over days and years

31. The Life-Span Perspective
Development is plastic.
Plasticity emphasizes that people can and do change, that predictions are not always accurate
More accurate predictions could improve prevention of developmental problems.
Three insights advance benefits of prediction.
Nature and nurture
Sensitive periods
Differential sensitivity
Plasticity emphasizes that people can and do change, that predictions are not always accurate. More accurate predictions could improve prevention of developmental problems.
Some people are more vulnerable than others to certain experiences, usually because of genetic differences.

32. Using the Scientific Method
Scientific Observation
Requires the researcher to record behavior systematically and objectively
May be done in a naturalistic setting such as a home, school, or other public place
May be done in a laboratory

33. Using the Scientific Method
Statistical measures often used to analyze research results
Effect size
Significance
Cost-benefit analysis
Odds ratio
Factor analysis
Meta-analysis
Who Participates?
For all these measures, the characteristics of the people who participate in the study (formerly called the subjects, now called the participants) are important, as is the number of people who are studied.
This also is presented with statistics.
See Table 1.4 for additional information

34. Using the Scientific Method
Experiment
Research method in which the researcher tries to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between two variables
Independent variable
Variable that is introduced to see what effect it has on the dependent variable
Dependent variable
Variable that may change as a result of whatever new condition or situation the experimenter adds
Independent variable: In an experiment, the variable that is introduced to see what effect it has on the dependent variable. (Also called experimental variable.)
Dependent variable: In an experiment, the variable that may change as a result of whatever new condition or situation the experimenter adds. In other words, the dependent variable depends on the independent variable.

35. Using the Scientific Method
Experimental group
Subjected to the particular treatment or condition (the independent variable)
Comparison group (also called a control group)
Does not receive the experimental group treatment
Two groups of participants are studied

36. How to Conduct an Experiment
The basic sequence diagrammed here applies to all experiments. Many additional features, especially the statistical measures listed in Table 1.4 and various ways of reducing experimenter bias, affect whether publication occurs. (Scientific journals reject reports of experiments that were not rigorous in method and analysis.)

37. Using the Scientific Method
The Survey
Involves collection of information from a large number of people
Presents challenges in acquiring valid information
Produces answers that are influenced by the wording and the sequence of the survey questions
Some people lie, some change their minds.

38. I Forgot?
If this were the only data available, you might conclude that ninth-graders have suddenly become more sexually active than twelfth-graders. But we have 20 years of data—those who are ninth-graders now will answer differently by twelfth grade.

39. Studying Development over the Life Span
Cross-sectional Research
Groups of people of one age compared with people of another age
Longitudinal Research
Collecting data repeatedly on the same individuals as they age
Cross-sequential Research
Study several groups of people of different ages (a cross-sectional approach) and follow them over the years (a longitudinal approach)

40. Which Approach Is Best?

41. Which Approach Is Best?
Which Approach Is Best? Cohort-sequential research is the most time-consuming and complex, but it yields the best information. One reason that hundreds of scientists conduct research on the same topics, replicating one another’s work, is to gain some advantages of cohort-sequential research without waiting for decades.

42. Correlation is not causation
Cautions from Science
Correlation and Causation
Correlation exists between two variables if one variable is more (or less) likely to occur when the other does.
Positive correlation - Both variables tend to increase or decrease together.
Negative correlation - One variable tends to increase while the other decreases.
Zero correlation - No connection is evident.
Correlation is not causation

43. Quiz on Correlation

44. Cautions from Science Quantitative research Qualitative research
Provides data that can be expressed with numbers, such as ranks or scales.
Qualitative research
Considers qualities instead of quantities.
Descriptions of particular conditions and participants’ expressed ideas are often part of qualitative studies.

45. Ethics
Each academic discipline and professional society involved in the study of human development has a code of ethics.
An Institutional Review Board (IRB) ensures that research follows established guidelines and remains ethical.
Participation is voluntary, confidential, and harmless.
Research subjects must give informed consent- understand the research procedures and any risks involved.