Developmental Psychology Lesson 1: Lifespan Perspective PDF

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Lesson 1 Introduction to Lifespan Perspective Learning Objectives : 1 2 3 4 5 1. Discuss the distinctive 2. Analyze the importance 3. Identify the mo...

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Lesson 1 Introduction to Lifespan Perspective Learning Objectives : 1 2 3 4 5 1. Discuss the distinctive 2. Analyze the importance 3. Identify the most 4. Explore the biological, 5. Discover some features of a life-span of studying life-span important processes, cognitive, and socio- developmental issues perspective on development, periods, and issues in emotional processes in the development. characteristics of the life- development periods of development. span perspective, and some contemporary concerns.  All of us are developing persons interested in ourselves and the other developing people around us. Most college students want to understand how they and those they know have been affected by their experiences, how they have changed over the years, and where they may be headed. “We reach backward to our parents and forward to our children, and through their children to a future we will never see, but about which we need to care.” -Carl Jung- Topic 1: STUDYING LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span. Most development involves growth, although it also includes decline brought on by aging and dying.  3 BROAD DOMAINS: Systematic Changes in Human Development 1. Physical development. The growth of the body and its organs, the functioning of physiological systems including the brain, physical signs of aging, changes in motor abilities, and so on. 2. Cognitive development. Changes and continuities in perception, language, learning, memory, problem solving, and other mental processes. 3. Psychosocial development. Changes and carryover in personal and interpersonal aspects of development, such as motives, emotions, personality traits, interpersonal skills and relationships, and roles played in the family and in the larger society.  LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE The perspective that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; involves growth, maintenance, and regulation; and is constructed through biological, socio-cultural, and individual factors working together. (Baltes, 1987, 2003; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006)  Importance in studying life span development : Provides knowledge about what individuals’ lives will be like as they age Prepares individual to take responsibility for children Gives insight about individuals’ lives CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT Development Is Lifelong Development Is Multidimensional Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Development Is Contextual Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Individual  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development Is Lifelong Development Is Lifelong People continue to develop throughout their lives, and that no age period dominates development. Rather, development occurs throughout all periods of life. Whether a child is learning to feed himself or a new parent is learning how to make decisions based on more than their own selfish interests, people are always growing and changing.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development Is Multidimensional Development Is Multidimensional Change happens across many different aspects of a human life. Biological (or physical), cognitive (or mental) and socioemotional c changes all take place at the same time. Not only that, those three dimensions interact with each other in different ways. EXAMPLE: EXAMPLE: Gina's eyesight is getting worse. This is a biological change that is occurring in her body. But that's not all that happens; this biological change spurs on a cognitive change, too. It makes her think about how she's getting older, which makes her think that she doesn't have very long left to live. These cognitive changes cause socioe-motional changes, too. Her thoughts about aging and dying make her feel depressed and make her want to withdraw from others. As you can see with Gina, the three dimensions of a person's development all have relationships with each other. Gina's biological changes cause cognitive changes, which can cause socioemotional changes.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Multidirectional Closely related to multidimensionality is the idea that development is multidirectional. That is, dimensions and specific components of dimensions grow and shrink during different points in a person's development.  EXAMPLE: EXAMPLE: Timmy is learning to talk. In young children, language acquisition is at its highest point. As he grows older, his facility for language acquisition will shrink. That is, learning new languages will become more difficult for Timmy as he grows older. But other dimensions will grow. For example, as a toddler, Timmy doesn't really understand what's going on when his parents argue or when he sees someone cry. And even if he does understand, he doesn't know what to do. But as he gets older, his ability to understand and navigate complex social situations will grow. He'll understand that his parents are fighting and be able to offer comfort to someone who is crying.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development Is Plastic Development Is Plastic It means that characteristics are malleable or changeable. Plasticity denotes intrapersonal variability and focuses heavily on the potentials and limits of the nature of human development. EXAMPLE: Recently researchers have been analyzing how other senses compensate for the loss of vision in blind individuals. Without visual input, blind humans have demonstrated that tactile and auditory functions still fully develop and they can use tactile and auditory cues to perceive the world around them. One experiment designed by Röder and colleagues (1999) compared the auditory localization skills of people who are blind with people who are sighted by having participants locate sounds presented either centrally or peripherally (lateral) to them. EXAMPLE: cont. Both congenitally blind adults and sighted adults could locate a sound presented in front of them with precision but people who are blind were clearly superior in locating sounds presented laterally. Currently, brain-imaging studies have revealed that the sensory cortices in the brain are reorganized after visual deprivation. These findings suggest that when vision is absent in development, the auditory cortices in the brain recruit areas that are normally devoted to vision, thus becoming further refined.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development Science is Multidisciplinary Any single discipline’s account of development across the lifespan would not be able to express all aspects of this theoretical framework. That is why it is suggested explicitly by lifespan researchers that a combination of disciplines is necessary to understand development.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development is Contextual Development occurs in context and varies from person to person, depending on factors such as a person’s biology, family, school, church, profession, nationality, and ethnicity. In Baltes’ theory, the paradigm of contextualism refers to the idea that three systems of biological and environmental influences work together to influence development. 3 System that Influence Development Development is Contextual Normative age- Normative history- graded influences graded influences Non-normative influences  Development is Contextual: 3 System that Influence Development Normative age-graded Normative history-graded Non-normative influences influences influences are unpredictable and not tied to a are those biological and are associated with a specific time certain developmental time in a environmental factors that period that defines the broader person’s development or to a have a strong correlation environmental and cultural context historical period. They are the unique with chronological age, in which an individual develops. For experiences of an individual, whether such as puberty or example, development and identity biological or environmental, that menopause, or age-based are influenced by historical events shape the development process. social practices such as of the people who experience them, These could include milestones like beginning school or such as the Great Depression, earning a master’s degree or getting a entering retirement. WWII, Vietnam, the Cold War, the certain job offer or other events like War on Terror, or advances in going through a divorce or coping technology. with the death of a child.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual  Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss As individuals age into middle and late adulthood, the maintenance and regulation of loss in their capacities takes center stage away from growth. Thus, a 75- year-old man might aim not to improve his memory or his golf swing but to maintain his independence and his ability to play golf at all.  CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE-SPAN Development Is Lifelong Development Is Contextual Development Is Multidimensional Development Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss Development Is Multidirectional Development Is Plastic Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Developmental Science Is Multidisciplinary Individual Development Is a Co-Construction of Biology, Culture, and the Individual Development is a co-construction of biological, cultural, and individual factors working together (Baltes, Reuter- Lorenz, & Rösler, 2006). For example, the brain shapes culture, but it is also shaped by culture and the experiences that individuals have or pursue. In terms of individual factors, we can go beyond what our genetic inheritance and environment give us. We can author a unique developmental path by actively choosing from the environment the things that optimize our lives (Rathunde & Csikszentmihalyi, 2006). CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS 1. Health and Well-being Health professionals today 2. Parenting and Education recognize the power of lifestyles and psychological states in health The effects of divorce, parenting styles, child and well-being (Hahn, Payne, & maltreatment, intergenerational relationships, Lucas, 2011; Sparling & Redican, early childhood education, relationships between childhood poverty and education, 2011). Clinical psychologists are bilingual education, new educational efforts to among the health professionals improve lifelong learning, and many other who help people improve their issues related to parenting and education well-being. Read about one clinical (Bredekamp, 2011). psychologist who helps adolescents who have become juvenile delinquents or substance abusers in Connecting With Careers. CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS 3. Sociocultural Context and Culture. The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all Diversity other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation. Health, parenting, and Ethnicity. A characteristic based on cultural education—like heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, development itself—are and language. all shaped by their socio- cultural context. To Socioeconomic status (SES). Refers to the grouping of analyze this context, people with similar occupational, educational, and four concepts are economic characteristics. especially useful: culture, ethnicity, socioeconomic Gender. The characteristics of people as males or status, and gender. females.  CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS The national government, and city 4. Social Policy governments all play a role in influencing the well-being of children Connecting development in (Children’s Defense Fund, 2009). When Social Policy is a government’s course of families fail or seriously endanger a action designed to promote the welfare of child’s well-being, governments often its citizens. Values, economics, and politics all shape a nation’s social policy. step in to help. At the national and state Out of concern that policy makers are levels, policy makers have debated for life doing too little to protect the well-being of decades whether helping poor parents children and older adults, life-span ends up helping their children as well. researchers are increasingly undertaking Researchers are providing some studies that they hope will lead to answers by examining the effects of effective social policy (Balsano, Theokas, specific policies (McLoyd & others, & Bobek, 2009). 2009). In the Philippines, what program/s support the welfare of its citizen?  CONNECT Give your own example (not found in this chapter) of how biology, culture, and individual experience interact to affect development. REFLECT Imagine what your development would been like in a culture that offered fewer or distinctly different choices. How might your development have been different if your family had been significantly richer or poorer? REFERENCES Santrock, J. W. (2021). Life-span development. McGraw-Hill Education. Sigelman, C. K., George-Walker, L. D., Cunial, K., & Rider, E. A. (2019). Life span human development. Cengage Learning Australia. Lally, M., & Valentine-French, S. Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/lifespan-development-a-psychological-perspective. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/lifespandevelopment2/chapter/lecture-lesson 5/#:~:text=Early%20childhood%20is%20sometimes%20referred,or%202%20to%206%20years.&text=But%206%20year%20old%20chil dren,bodies%20as%20their%20torso%20lengthens. https://www.rsd.k12.pa.us/Downloads/Development_Chart_for_Booklet.pdf