1. PSYC 206
Lifespan Development
Aylin Küntay

2. The Study of Human Development: Issues and Methods
PSYC 206: Life-Span Development
Lecture 1
Aylin Küntay

3. Show and Tell
Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) social policy report
Family dinner times

4. Developmental psychology
B = f (S x O)
behavior is a function of a Subject’s (organism’s) interaction with outer Objects (environment)
Development
Regular, relatively permanent changes in the interaction of Subject and Object
Changes can occur in biological, cognitive, and psychosocial domains

5. Developmental psychology
Developmental Psyc describes the sequence of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes that humans undergo they grow older
investigates the processes that lead to age-related changes & transitions between successive developmental states
applies this knowledge base in everyday, practical situations such as
designing toys for children
curricula in schools
therapeutic methods to deal with developmental psychopathology
foster healthy parenting practices, etc...

6. One Big Theory of Development
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory
consists of 4 environmental systems…
microsystem: the setting in which the individual lives
mesosystem: relations of microsystems or connections between contexts (e.g., relation of family exp to school experiences)
exosystem: experiences in a setting where the individual does not have an active role
macrosystem: involves the culture in which the individual lives– values, beliefs, customs…

7. Figure 1.5 Cole, Cole, and Lightfoot: The Development of Children, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2005 by Worth Publishers

8. 3 important issues in dev psyc
Continuity vs. discontinuity
whether development can be characterized as a gradual process of change or sudden, distinct emergence of changes
Maturation and Experience
whether development is primarily influenced by biologically inherited, genetic factors or environmental experiences (nature vs. Nurture)
Individual differences
what makes individuals different from others?
to what extent are individual characteristics stable over time?

9. Continuity vs. discontinuity
continuity of development: the view that development involves gradual, cumulative change from conception to death
the sponge example: mostly quantitative changes
e.g., growth in skull size, number of vocabulary
discontinuity of development: the view that development involves distinct stages in the life span
the seed-artichoke example: mostly qualitative changes
e.g., walking to crawling; emergence of social smiling

10. Figure 1.2 Cole, Cole, and Lightfoot: The Development of Children, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2005 by Worth Publishers

11. The concept of Stage
qualitative changes: reorganization of the behavior under consideration
pervasive: transitions between stages bring about simultaneous changes in many different aspects of a child’s behavior
rapidity: dramatic spurts rather than slow growth

12. Maturation vs. experience: nature-nurture issue
nature: the biologically inherited and genetically determined capacities and constraints that affect development
nurture: the environmental influences on development
the challenge is to figure out the relative contributions and the interaction of nature and nurture
not to take one side on the controversy

13. Individual differences
what makes individuals physically and psychologically different from one another?
are individual traits stable over time?
does an easy going child turn into a calm child, calm adult?
Example: Kagan finds that shy babies remain timid into adulthood, and outgoing babies become more unconstrained adults

14. today
Review 3 issues
Methods
Major theories

15. 3 important issues in dev psyc
Continuity vs. discontinuity
whether development can be characterized as a gradual process of change or sudden, distinct emergence of changes
Maturation and Experience
whether development is primarily influenced by biologically inherited, genetic factors or environmental experiences (nature vs. Nurture)
Individual differences
what makes individuals different from others?
to what extent are individual characteristics stable over time?

16. Different data collection methods
Self-report
Naturalistic Observation
Experiments
ethics!
Different designs
Cross-sectional Design
Longitudinal Design
Cross-sequential Design

17. Data collection methods
Self-report: asking participants to report on their own behaviors and internal states through interviews and questionnaires
only parental reports work with young children, and on certain issues such as vocabulary development
parents tend to be influenced by cultural expectations and notions about optimum development
used for studying children who are old enough to self-report, such as adolescents

18. Data collection methods
Naturalistic observation: a method where behavior is studied in real-world settings
baby biographies: diaries recording observations of children-- currently, rarely used outside studies of language development
but diaries are very important for studying early language development
very important in the study of ethology, which studies the biological foundations of behavior in natural settings

19. Data collection methods
Experiments: the researcher systematically manipulates one variable and observes the effect of this manipulation on other variables
the fear of heights experiment (Campos & Barrett) disproved that fear of heights is an innate predisposition in the human infant
isolated locomotion as the causal factor determining the development of this fear
Ethics of experimentation
special care should be given when studying children

20. Ethical standards for studying children: SRCD (Society of Research in Child Development)
non-harmful procedures: not cause physical or psychological harm
informed consent: get parental consent; respect child’s freedom to choose
incentives: fair and not excessive
anonymity/confidentiality: appropriate use of institutional records; conceal identity in reports
unforeseen consequences: take immediate corrective measures

21. Table 1.2 Cole, Cole, and Lightfoot: The Development of Children, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2005 by Worth Publishers

22. Remainder Different research designs for studying development
Different theories for describing and explaining development

23. Different designs
Cross-sectional: a research method in which subjects of different ages are studied simultaneously to examine the effects of age on some aspect of behavior
Question 1: Do people who lick icecream spill different amounts at different ages?
Question 2: How does memory of a film watched a week ago change across increasing age groups?

24. Problem with cross-sectional design: cohort effect
Cohort effect: a problem sometimes found in cross-sectional research, in which subjects of a given age are affected by factors unique to their generation
if we find that 35-year-olds perform better in problem solving tasks than 70-year-olds, can we conclude that cognitive development declines with increasing age? Not necessarily
we should be ready to suspect that growing up during a certain social event such as a war might have affected the development of problem solving skills in the older cohort

25. Different designs
Longitudinal: a research method in which the same subjects are studied repeatedly over time
Question 1: Do irritable infants tend to be less (or more?) adaptive in their first year at preschool?
correlational: measure temperament of newborns, then again when they start preschool
Question 2: How does memory of a film change across increasing age?

26. Problems with longitudinal design
subject attrition
loss of subjects because of the extended period of research
repeated-design effect
repeated exposures to a situation or repeated administrations of a test may lead to ¨shallow¨development
e.g., a study concerned with the stability of a child’s intelligence administers IQ tests at regular intervals
repeated experiences with tests, in and of itself, may make a child ¨test wise¨ to the type of answers or responses that are expected

27. Different designs
Cross-Sequential design (Cohort sequential design): combines longitudinal and cross-sectional designs. Groups of children at different ages are first studied simultaneously, then studied again at one or more later times to provide a longitudinal perspective
amount of competitiveness by 4-, 7-, and 10-year olds in a game. Retest the children 3 years later, who are now 7, 10, and 13.
if data for the groups at age 7 and 10 during the first testing differ from data for these groups during the second testing, then either a cohort effect or a repeated-testing effect

28. Theories of Development
biological-maturational framework
environmental-learning framework
cognitive constructivist theory (Piaget)
cultural-context framework
Lightfoot and Cole and Cole (your textbook)
an eclectic approach
bio-social-behavioral shifts (from Emde)

29. Theories of Development
The Biological-Maturation Framework
emphasize the biological and evolutionary basis of development
the major impetus for development is maturational mechanisms-- the course of which is determined by genetically coded information
the environment plays a secondary role
e.g., proponents of maturation of a language capacity
challenged by the environmental-learning framework

30. Theories of Development
The environmental-learning framework
Skinner-type behaviorism: biological factors provide a foundation, but learning is the major cause of developmental change-- especially patterns of reward and punishment
John Watson: ¨Give me a dozen healthy infants…¨
shy children are shaped into their temperaments because they have learned to be shy through interactions with family members, teachers

31. Environmental-learning theory 2
Social learning theory (Bandura & Mischel): we are not like mindless robots, responding mechanically to others in our environment.
observational learning: we cognitively represent others’ behavior and then adopt this behavior ourselves
emphasizes both environmental and personal/cognitive factors such as values and beliefs

32. Cognitive constructivist theory (Piaget):
innate factors and environment both play important roles
children actively construct their own cognitive worlds
information is not just poured into their minds from environment
organization & adaptation: two innate processes that underlie individual’s construction of the world– Piaget calls organization and adaptation invariant psychobiological functions
to make sense of the world, we organize our observations and experiences
we also adapt our thinking to form new ideas

33. Cognitive constructivist theory
Piaget believed that we adapt in two ways:
Assimilation: when individuals incorporate new information into their existing knowledge
newborns reflexively suck everything that touches their lips
Accommodation: when individuals change their existing knowledge structures to adjust to new information
after several weeks of experience, differentiate between suckable objects (mother’s breast, fingers) & non-suckable objects (fuzzy blankets)

34. Cultural-context theory
emphasizes the role of children’s cultural groups in organizing their experiences
the same biological and environmental factors may have different consequences for development when they appear in different cultural contexts
numerical knowledge-- numbers as abstract symbols vs. body parts
Oksapmin of New Guinea learn a system of counting that involves body parts (Saxe)
may not be very practical in Western type of school environments or money-based economies

35. Figure 1.9 Cole, Cole, and Lightfoot: The Development of Children, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2005 by Worth Publishers

36. Your textbook: Cole, Cole, Lightfoot
demonstrate how the biological, social, and cultural influences on development are integrated together at every chronological time period
an eclectic approach
transitions between time periods are determined by what they call bio-social-behavioral shifts
a blend of biological, social, and behavioral changes give rise to distinctly new forms of interaction of the subject with its environment