Life Span Psychology Overview

Life Span Psychology

• Focuses on understanding how people grow, develop, and adapt throughout life
• Explores systematic changes and continuities in individuals, from conception to death.
• This field covers three main domains: Physical, Cognitive, and Psychosocial development.

Objectives of Developmental Psychologists

• To identify common age-related changes in appearance, behavior, and interests.
• To determine when these changes occur.
• To understand the causes of these changes.
• To examine how these changes influence behavior.
• To predict whether these changes are predictable or not.
• To understand whether these changes are universal or individual.

Theoretical Issues in Development

• Nature vs. Nurture: How much does genetics vs. environment influence behavior.
• Stability vs. Change: Are behaviors constant over life or do they change over time.
• Continuity vs. Stages: Change can be gradual (continuity) or separated into distinct, qualitatively different stages.

Significant Facts about Development

• Early foundations are crucial.
• Development is guided by a combination of maturation and learning.
• Development follows a definite and predictable pattern.
• Individuals are different.
• Each developmental stage has characteristic behaviors.
• Each developmental stage has potential hazards.
• Development is aided by stimulation.
• Cultural change influences development.
• Each stage of development is associated with social expectations.

Historical Foundations: Early Philosophers

• Plato and Aristotle believed in the importance of proper child rearing for societal well-being, but differed in their approaches.
• Plato emphasized self-control and discipline, while Aristotle focused on tailoring education to individual needs.

Historical Foundations: Plato vs. Aristotle

• Plato believed children are born with innate knowledge.
• Aristotle believed knowledge is gained through experience.

Historical Foundations: Later Philosophers

• John Locke viewed the mind of a newborn as a blank slate (tabula rasa), advocating for discipline followed by increasing freedom.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed children are born with knowledge and ideas that unfold naturally with age (nativism).

Historical Foundations: Research-Based Approach

• The 19th century saw the emergence of a research-based approach to child development, influenced by social reform movements and Darwin's theory of evolution.

Pioneers of Child Psychology

• G. Stanley Hall conducted the first systematic studies of children in the United States.
• He trained the first generation of developmental researchers, established journals, and believed children's development recapitulates the evolution of the species.
• Hall believed education should encourage children's natural tendencies.

Freud and Watson

• Freud emphasized the influence of biological drives, especially sexual ones on development.
• Watson focused on how rewards and punishments shape behavior.

Arnold Gesell

• Established the Yale Clinic of Child Development and studied the development of typical children.
• He disagreed with Hall about the role of environment and believed development was primarily driven by biological processes (maturation).
• He proposed developmental norms, which describe the typical sequence of behaviors and their age ranges.

Subdivision of the Lifespan Stages

• Prenatal period: Conception to birth.
• Infancy: Birth to the end of the second week.
• Babyhood: End of the second week to the end of the second year.
• Early childhood: Two to six years.
• Late childhood: Six to ten or twelve years.
• Puberty/Preadolescence: Ten or twelve to thirteen years.
• Adolescence: Thirteen or fourteen to eighteen years.
• Early adulthood: Eighteen to forty years.
• Middle age: Forty to sixty years.
• Old age: Sixty years to death.