PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 2025 PDF

Updates/Announcements  CSL folks coming today  Webinar PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 1  Updates/Announcements  Self-ID form  < 5 min  Chance to win $200 gc  Flyer uploaded to “Student Resources” folder...

Updates/Announcements  CSL folks coming today  Webinar PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 1  Updates/Announcements  Self-ID form  < 5 min  Chance to win $200 gc  Flyer uploaded to “Student Resources” folder PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 2 Introduction to Developmental Psychology PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 3  Getting acquainted with Developmental Psychology  What is development? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 4  Getting acquainted with Developmental Psychology  What is development? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 5  Getting acquainted with Developmental Psychology  Development= (Relatively) enduring change  as opposed to transitory changes, e.g., mood swings PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 6  Getting acquainted with Developmental Psychology  Development= (Relatively) enduring change  as opposed to transitory changes, e.g., mood swings  Not limited to a particular age period  From “womb to tomb” PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 7  Getting acquainted with Developmental Psychology  Development= (relatively) enduring change  as opposed to transitory changes, e.g., mood swings  Not limited to a particular age period  From “womb to tomb”  The absence of change is equally as important PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 8  Getting acquainted with Developmental Psychology  Development= (relatively) enduring change  as opposed to transitory changes, e.g., mood swings  Not limited to a particular age period  From “womb to tomb”  The absence of change is equally as important  What is “developmental psychology”?  The study of continuity and change from conception to death  “Developmental science” is a better name  I will use the term “development” to broadly refer to processes involving change and continuity over the life- span PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 9 Classic assumptions about development Order Growth Progression through stages Linear and straight PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 10 Classic assumptions about development Rise and fall Sunny side and shady side One pinnacle and turning point in life Fixed stages associated with chronological age PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 11 Classic assumptions about development PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 12 Human development is far more interesting than that Many bright and dark sides e.g., cognitive skills and knowledge in old age Gerd Arntz "Spiraltreppe" PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 13 Human development is far more interesting than that Many bright and dark sides e.g., cognitive skills and knowledge in old age Linear and non-linear Fast and slow Change and continuity Gerd Arntz "Spiraltreppe" PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 14 Example of a classical view: Stage theories  Age-graded change  In direction of an ideal end-state (teleological)  Higher stages presumed to be better than lower stages  Follows a fixed sequence of stages  No stage skipping, no reversals Example: Stages of Gross Motor Development PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 15 Example of a classical view: Stage theories  Age-graded change  In direction of an ideal end-state (teleological)  Higher stages presumed to be better than lower stages  Follows a fixed sequence of stages  No stage skipping, no reversals  Universal, not culture specific Example: Stages of Gross Motor Development PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 16 Problems with the classical view  Reality is more complex  Assumption that higher stages are better than lower stages can be problematic  Group-level variations (e.g., culture) are not taken into consideration  Developmental decline is excluded PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 17 Domains of Development  Physical development  Body (size and shape), motor skills, brain functions, puberty  Cognitive development  Attention, memory, problem solving, logical thinking  Psychosocial development  Emotions and personality characteristics  Motivation, self and identity  Relationships and contexts  Family (parents, siblings)  Peers (friends, partners)  Schools  Behavior (adaptive and maladaptive) PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 18 Periods of Development  Prenatal period  Conception to birth  Infancy (from Latin infantem: “unable to speak”)  Birth to 18 months  Toddler period  18 months to 3 years  Early childhood/preschool period  3 to 5 years  Middle/late childhood  6 to 10-12 years (onset of puberty)  Adolescence- roughly 2nd decade of life  Puberty to point where individual begins to lead an independent life (used to be around 20 years in recent past, tends to be later now) PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 19 Periods of Development (cont'd)  Young adulthood  20 to 40 years  Some scholars discuss “emerging adulthood” between 18-25 years  Middle age  40 to 65 years  Old age  65+  Young Old Age 65-80 years  Old Old Age +80 years PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 20 Classic themes in the study of development  Nature vs. Nurture  Active vs. Passive  Quantitative vs. Qualitative Change  Continuous vs. Discontinuous Change PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 21 Nature vs. Nurture  Nature  Biological and genetic influences  Pre-wired, predisposition, innate PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 22 Nature vs. Nurture  Nurture  Environmental influences  Experiences, exposure, learning PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 23 Nature vs. Nurture  Outdated questions:  Is development driven by nature or nurture?  Which is more important?  How much does each contribute?  The real question we face now is:  How and under what circumstances do they both interact?  Example: Epigenetic processes PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 24  Nature vs. Nurture  Epigenetics  Genes/DNA are not influenced by environment PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 25  Nature vs. Nurture  Epigenetics  Genes/DNA are not influenced by environment  How genes/DNA are expressed is influenced by environment  methylation PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 26  Nature vs. Nurture  Epigenetics  Genes/DNA are not influenced by environment  How genes/DNA are expressed is influenced by environment  methylation  Evolutionarily adaptive, but has downsides PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 27 Passive vs. Active  Passive: Is human development a by-product of social and/or biological forces? Are we like pieces of clay that are molded and shaped? Are our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours determined by experiences and/or genes? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 28 Passive vs. Active  Did affluenza make him do it? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 29 Passive vs. Active  Active: Or do we have agency in our lives? Do we have control over our decisions? Do we have an influence on the world around us? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 30 Passive vs. Active  Active: Or do we have agency in our lives? Do we have control over our decisions? Do we have an influence on the world around us? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 31 Passive vs. Active  Seems to be both (although perhaps we’ll never know for sure)  We are not mindless robots or sponges  We try to make sense of the world  We have beliefs and desires, often ones that contradict what we’ve been taught  Experience is a two-way street. We are influenced by our biology and the environment, but we also act on the world  Whether we truly live in a deterministic universe is a question for people much smarter than me PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 32  Passive vs. Active  Research areas traditionally associated with….  …passive view of development  Parenting  Biological processes (neuroscience, puberty, genetics)  Psychopathology (Greek: “soul” + “suffering”)- psychological disorders  Culture (e.g., individualist vs. collectivist)  …active view of development  Cognitive and social-cognitive development  Identity and autonomy  Culture (e.g., meaning-making, participation, resistance) PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 33  Development: Foundational Principle  Development is always a joint function of genes, Individual environment and the active individual  Without one of these factors there is no development Developme  nt Does not mean that you have to study all of these Genes Environment at the same time PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 34 Quantitative vs. Qualitative Change  Quantitative change: changes in amount or degree  From birth to adolescence, kids grow a bit taller year over year  Quantifying amount of something  Seeing how much and when it changes  Understanding what PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 35 impacts rate of Quantitative vs. Qualitative Change  Qualitative change: changes in form or kind  Zygote vs. adult  Describing nature of something  Seeing how and when it changes form  Understanding what impacts transformation PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 36 Continuous vs. Discontinuous Change  The term “continuity” can be a little confusing and gets used in different ways.  One way it’s used is to describe different ways in which something can change  In a steady and smooth fashion (continuous change)  A more start and stop fashion or in spurts (discontinuous change) PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 37 Continuity vs. Stability  Continuity/discontinuity can also be used in a different way  Continuity vs. stability (discontinuity vs. instability)  Often used interchangeably, but in developmental science they actually refer to different things  If I told you that X trait is stable during adolescence, how would you interpret that? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 38 Continuity  Continuity/discontinuity can refer to mean or average levels PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 39 Continuity Hermanussen et al. (2012)  A= absolute height  B= rate of growth  Discontinuity from birth to adulthood  More discontinuity in infancy and adolescence relative to early and middle childhood  Continuity once adulthood is reached PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 40 Stability  Stability/instability refers to rank order or relative standing  Are different people showing different trajectories of growth?  To what extent were the people who were highest at an earlier time point still highest at later time point? PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 41 Continuity vs. Stability  These terms reflect different aspects of development PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 42 Panel A: Continuity and Stability  Static and unchanging  Height between 30 and 35 years of age PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 43  Panel B: Continuity and Instability  Study looking at academic achievement in a school  School GPA at T1 = 3.00  High performing students had avg GPA = 4.0 at T1. Placed into harder advanced placement classes mid semester.  Low performing students had avg GPA = 2.0 at T1. Placed into easier remedial classes mid semester.  School GPA at T2 = 3.00  B/c the material was harder for high performing students, their T2 GPAs dropped to 2.0 (declined by 2 points)  B/c the material was easier for low performing students, their T2 GPAs rose to 4.0 (increased by 2 points)  Average GPA did not change (continuity). Which students had the highest GPAs at T1 and T2 did change (instability). PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 44  Panel C: Continuity and Stability  Mean changes are roughly the same for everyone  Language development from 3 to 5 years PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 45  Panel D: Discontinuity and Instability  Study looking at perceived incompetence (10pt scale) during transition to graduate school  On average, there is a general increase in how incompetent most students feel (T1 Mean= 5 vs. T2 Mean= 8)  But for some students who felt highly incompetent to begin with:  Grad school didn’t really change anything  Incompetence declined b/c maybe they felt like they were performing better than they thought they would  Average mean levels of perceived incompetence went up (discontinuity), but maybe those who had lowest scores at T1 weren’t necessarily the same who had lowest scores at T2 (instability) PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 46 Goals of Developmental Research  Description: How do individuals change?  Typical patterns of change (“normative” development)  Individual variations in normative development  Deviations from normative development (delays, atypical development) PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 47 Goals of Developmental Research  Description: How do individuals change?  Typical patterns of change (“normative” development)  Individual variations in normative development  Deviations from normative development (delays, atypical development)  Explanation: Why do individuals develop? What accounts for development?  Developmental theories  Optimization: How can we help individuals to develop in positive ways?  e.g., assist children with learning difficulties; help socially unskilled children develop social skills, help teenagers to survive adolescence PS276 Adolescent Development Dev Psych 48