1. PSYC 206
Lifespan Development
Bilge Yagmurlu

2. Chapter Overview I. Developmental Science
II. Children, Society, and Science
III. The Central Issues of Developmental Science
IV. Theories of Development
V. Methods for Studying Development

3. The Wild Boy of Aveyron
Jean-Marc Itard’s work is the earliest in the study of child development.
Fundamental questions arose from his work.
To what extent is development determined from birth, and to what extent is it influenced by the environment?
What is the role of early experience in shaping development, and can the effects of negative experience be undone?

4. I. Developmental Science
Developmental Science: an interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on the changes that children undergo from conception onward.
The field has two goals:
1. The understand the basic biological and cultural processes that account for the complexities of development.
2. To devise ways of safeguarding children’s health and well-being.

5. Goals of Developmental Research
Basic Research: designed to advance scientific knowledge of human development
Applied Research: designed to answer practical questions related to improving children’s lives and experiences.
Action Research: designed to provide data that can be used in social policy decision making. 5 5

6. The Field of Developmental Science
The Prenatal Period (conception to birth)
Infancy (birth through 2/2.5)
Early Childhood (ages 2.5 to 6)
Middle Childhood (ages 6 through 12)
Adolescence (ages 12 through 18)
Emerging adulthood, adulthood...
Major areas of development:
Social, Emotional, Cognitive, Physical

7. II. Children, Society, and Science
Historical and cultural context of Developmental Science
Medieval Europe: Children as miniature adults
Protestant Reformation (1620): Childrren are born in original sin. Harsher child-rearing practices.

8. History of Developmental Science
Late 18th cc: Industrial Revolution
Altered family life: from rural to urban, decreased birth rate and child death
Altered education and work (from farm to factory)
Contributed to the rise of developmental science

9. History of Developmental Science
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Origin of Species (1859)
New scientific interest in children: If human beings had evolved from earlier species, then the different stages of children’s behavior might offer clues to stages of human evolution.
Early Twentieth Century
Developmental Science as a recognized field: methods of study and stage theories of development

10. III. The Central Issues of Developmental Science
Research focuses on four fundamental issues:
Sources of Development
Plasticity
Continuity/Discontinuity
Individual Difference

11. Sources of Development
Question about the sources of development:
How do nature and nurture interact to produce development?
Nature:
Individual’s inherited biological predispositions
Nurture:
Influences of the social and cultural environment and of the individual’s experience.

12. Plasticity Question about plasticity: Sensitive Periods:
To what degree, and under what conditions, is development open to change and intervention?
Sensitive Periods:
A time in an organism’s development when a particular experience has an especially profound effect. Ex: language development
Critical Periods:
A period during which specific biological or environmental events are required for normal development to occur. Ex: Imprinting

13. Continuity/Discontinuity
Question about Continuity/Discontinuity:
To what extent does development consist of the gradual accumulation of small changes, and to what extent does it involve abrupt transformations, or stages?
Examines
Quantitative versus Qualitative Changes

14. Continuity/Discontinuity
Continuous Development:
Consisting of the gradual accumulation of small changes
Quantitative Changes: e.g., growth in skull size, number of vocabulary
Discontinuity:
Involves a series of abrupt, radical transformations
Qualitative Changes: e.g., crawling to walking
Referred to as Developmental Stages

15. 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

16. Continuity/Discontinuity

17. Individual Differences
Questions about individual differences:
To what extent are individual characteristics stable?
E.g., Do shy babies remain timid into adulthood?
What combination of nature and nurture makes individuals different from one another in terms of sociability vs shyness?

18. IV. Theories of Development
Theory:
A broad conceptual framework to guide the collection and interpretation of facts.
Development is approached from several theoretical perspectives:
Grand Theories
Modern Theories

19. Theoretical Perspectives
Four Grand Theories:
Psychodynamic theories
Social Learning theories
Piaget’s Constructivist theory
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory

20. Psychodynamic Theories
Perspective:
Theories exploring the influence of the universal biological drives and life experiences of individuals on development.
Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson

21. Key Psychodynamic Theories
Freud: psychosexual stages are associated with the changing focus of the sex drive
Mental structures: id, ego and superego
Levels of consciousness: conscious, preconscious, unconscious
Emphasis on infancy and childhood
Development takes place in 5 stages.
Emphasis on biological drives 21

22. Key Psychodynamic Theories
Erik Erikson: psychosocial stages are associated with tasks or crises shaped by social and cultural factors.
Emphasis on life span development
Development takes place in 8 stages. Each stage is associated with a main task which is source of conflict. Successful resolution of conflict leads to healthy development.
Emphasis on sociocultural context 22

23. Psychodynamic Theories

24. Learning Theories Perspective: Key Learning Theorists
Development is the result of learning.
Behavioral changes result from the individual’s forming associations between behavior and consequences.
Developmental change is gradual and continuous.
Key Learning Theorists
John B. Watson
B. F. Skinner
Albert Bandura 24

25. “Give me a dozen healthy infants...”
Watson: Extreme position: development is the product of learning alone.
“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 and teachers.
Skinner-type behaviorism: biological factors provide a foundation, but learning is the major cause of developmental change-- especially patterns of reward and punishment. 25

26. Two concepts introduced:
Social learning theory (Bandura & Mischel): We are not like mindless robots, responding mechanically to others in our environment.
Emphasizes both environmental and personal/cognitive factors such as values and beliefs.
Two concepts introduced:
1)Modeling: process by which children observe and imitate others.
2) Self-efficacy: beliefs about own abilities 26

27. Social Learning Theories
Behavior modification programs: depend on the viewpoint that behavior problems (such as aggression and extreme inhibition) are learned, so they can also be unlearned. 27

28. Piaget’s Constructivist Theory
Perspective:
Cognitive development results from children’s active construction of reality based on their experiences with the world.
Children actively construct their own cognitive worlds. Information is not just poured into their minds from environment or they don’t simply “discover” the world. 28

29. Concepts:
Schema: the most basic unit of cognitive functioning. It is a mental structure that provides a model for understanding the world.
Maturation and accumulating experience/knowledge demand making an organization and adaptation in our schemas 29

30. Adaptation strengthens or transforms schemas:
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) 30

31. Adaptation strengthens or transforms schemas and helps the child find a balance between new experiences and existing schemas. This creates a new balance in the child’s understading. This process is called equilibration.
Equilibration is the main source of development. Brings the child to a new stage.
Further imbalances appear as the child matures biologically and gains new experiences. 31

32. Piaget’s Constructivist Theory
Stages and processes of cognitive development are universal.
Pace of development may vary depending on the environmental factors.
Both innate factors and environment play important roles in development. 32

33. Piaget’s Constructivist Theory

34. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Perspective:
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

35. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Zone of Proximal Development:
The gap between what children can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish when interacting with others who are more competent.
Scaffolding: children learn better through finely tuned interactions with others who are more competent. 35

36. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Zone of Proximal Development 36

37. 37

38. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Scaffolding (Jerome Bruner)
has come to be used for “interactional support”
often in the form of adult-child dialogue (vertical relationships rather than horizontal ones)
structured by the adult to maximize the growth of the child’s functioning
includes the gradual withdrawal of adult control and support as a function of children’s increasing mastery of a given task. 38

39. Popular Model within Education
With appropriate scaffolding, children can learn quicker and more effectively than they are able to by trial-and-error problem solving alone.
Scaffolding recognizes the social aspect of learning 39

40. Popular Model within Education40

41. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Vygotsky’s theory focuses on:
1) children learning through finely tuned interactions with others who are more competent.
2) the role of culture in development 41 41

42. Four Grand Theories

43. Influential Modern Theories
Four Modern Theories
Evolutionary Theories
Information-Processing Theories
Systems Theories
Critical Theories 43

44. Evolutionary Theories
Perspective:
Theories look at how human characteristics contributed to the survival of the species and to how our evolutionary past influences individual development.
What products of evolution do children possess that insures they will be cared for? 44

45. Information-Processing Theories
Perspective:
Theories look at how children process, store, organize, retrieve, and manipulate information in increasingly efficient ways.
Analogous with computer processing
Topics: attention, memory, social problem solving strategies etc. 45

46. System Theories Perspective:
Theories that envision development in terms of complex wholes made up of parts and that explore how these wholes and their parts are organized and interact over time. 46

47. System Theories Dynamic systems theory:
Focuses on the development of new systems of behavior from the interaction of less complex parts
E.g., reaching and grasping behavior 47

48. System Theories Ecological systems theory:
Focuses on the organization of the environmental contexts within which children develop.
Child develops in multiple, nested and interacting environmental systems 48

49. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system49

50. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system
Microsystem: the setting in which the individual has face-to-face interactions.
Development is strongly affected by the nature and extent of experiences in the microsystem:
Family
proximal processes: experiences with people and objects. 50

51. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system
Mesosystem: connections between microsystems
Number and quality of connections betwen settings have important implications for child’s development.
Do parents and teachers communicate with one another often?
Do they have similar expectations of him? 51

52. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system
Exosystem: experiences in a setting where the individual does not have an active role.
Contexts experienced vicariously and yet have impact on child.
E.g., child realizes stress of parent’s workplace without ever being in these places.
“Risk” factors alone don’t determine whether or not a child develops his potential. They can increase likelihood of experiences. 52

53. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system
Macrosystem: involves the culture in which the individual lives– values, beliefs, customs, dominant ideologies…
dominant ideologies and cultural patterns organize all other social institutions. 53

54. Social class and cultural variations in child rearing
McLoyd: economic hardship creates its own psychological distress, making adults more edgy and irritable, reducing their capacity to be warm and involved.
The Family Distress Model (Conger et al.) 54

55. insufficient surveillance lack of control displays of hostility55

56. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system
Macrosystem:
How communities organize themselves.
Social policy related to parenting and child:
Mother-child program may positively impact a young mother through educational resource. It may empower her life so that she is more affectionate and caring with her little one. 56

57. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological system
Interaction between ecologies
Employer, work hours and family-related policies
Lobbying for political and economic policies that support parents’ roles in their children’s development 57

58. Contributions of the Model:
Transformed how scientists approach the study of human beings and their environment.
Enabled exploration and understanding of the interrelatedness of such abstract concepts as culture and ideology to the practical realities of caring for young children. 58

59. Critical Theories Perspective:
Theories that address cultural biases that may be present in traditional developmental theories and that examine power relations between groups and the influence on development gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class.
E.g., Feminist approaches 59

60. Methods of Studying Development
Criteria for Developmental Research
Objectivity: gathering and analyzing data should not be biased by the investigator’s preconceptions
Reliability: consistency of research findings
Replicability: repeat the same procedures and obtain the same results
Validity: the tool measures what it intends to measure
Ethically Sound 60

61. Methods of Studying Development
Naturalistic observation
Experiment
Ecological validity
Experimental group
Control group
Clinical method
Causation
Correlation
Correlation coefficient 61

62. Research Design 62

63. AmoebaWeb: Developmental Psychology
Where can I get information online about developmental psychology topics?
There are several well-crafted and well-maintained websites that are devoted partly or entirely to developmental psychology. All offer links to a variety of other websites concerned with relevant topics; some also have internal search engines that allow you to seek information about a specific topic. The following are some of the best sites:
AmoebaWeb: Developmental Psychology
European Society for Developmental Psychology 63

64. American Psychological Association: Careers in Psychology
For what sorts of careers can the study of developmental psychology help prepare me?
A background in developmental psychology has many potential applications. Developmental psychology is relevant to a wide range of careers that involve teaching, training, counseling, organizing, supervising, advising, and otherwise interacting with people in a variety of professional, organizational, political, business, healthcare, and community contexts.
Potential employers of persons with training in developmental psychology include schools and pre-schools, colleges and universities, businesses of various kinds, government agencies, hospitals and clinics, research institutes, social service agencies, non-profit organizations, charitable foundations, churches, and law enforcement agencies.
The following sites provide a variety of interesting career ideas (some of which you may not have ever thought of!) and other information about career choice and preparation:
American Psychological Association: Careers in Psychology
American Psychological Association: Non-Academic Careers for Scientific Psychologists
American Psychological Association: PsycCareers 64

65. PsycPORT: Psychology in the News
Where can I get news releases and other up-to-date information about current issues and research in developmental psychology?
The following sites offer news releases (frequently updated) as well as research reports, policy statements, reviews of recently published books, contact information for institutions and organizations, and links to related sites:
American Psychological Association: Public Interest Directorate: Children, Youth, and Families Office
PsycPORT: Psychology in the News
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 65