Chap 4 lifespan development 2012
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Transcript of Chap 4 lifespan development 2012
Lifespan DevelopmentChapter 4
Areas of lifespan Development•Physical development: changes in the body
and its various systems.•Social Development: involves changes in an
individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in interacting with others
•Cognitive development: involves changes in an individual’s mental ability
•Emotional development: involves changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feelings are expressed.
Lifespan• Infancy – birth to 2 years• Childhood – 2 to 10 years• Adolescence – 10 to 20
years• Early adulthood – 20 to 40
years• Middle age – 40 to 65 years• Older age – 65 years and
beyondWatch ‘the developing child’ http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/05/e05expand.html
Human development is influenced by simultaneously occurring changes in each area
EmotionalDevelopment
Social Development
CognitiveDevelopment
Physical Development
Cognitive – eg: Language
Social & Emotional
Movement & coordination
Example:
http://brianne-thompson.com/EDTECH/506/summary.php
How development proceeds: 1.Continuous V Discontinuous
• Continuous Development: gradual and ongoing changes throughout the lifespan without sudden shifts, with abilities in the earlier stages of development providing the basis of skills and abilities required for the next stages.
• Discontinuous: involves distinct and separate stages, with different kinds of abilities occurring in each stage. Specific ways of thinking, feeling or socially interacting have identifiable start and end points.
Infancy
Adulthood
Infancy
Adulthood
2. Sequential nature of Development
• The development of many thoughts, feelings and behaviours occur in an orderly sequence. Sequences of development usually begin with simple thoughts, feeling and behaviours and progress to more complex ones.
For example: -A baby moves from squealing and gurgling
through to uttering individual words and then onto using sentences
- A child learning to count and then progressing to adding numbers together
These can be Quantitative and qualitative changes
• Quantitative changes: changes which are variations in the quantity (or amount) of a thought, feeling or behaviour. These are usually described in numbers.
-For example the number of words spoken in relation to age. As one grows older, their vocabulary grows.
Qualitative changes: Changes which vary in ‘quality’, ‘kind’ or ‘type’. These are usually described in words.
-For example, as a child you don’t understand the concept of honesty, but now as adolescence you do.
3. Individual Differences in Development
•No two individuals develop at exactly the same rate or in exactly the same way, even if they are identical twins
What does that tell us about ‘Nature vs Nurture’?
Discuss activity 4.5
Hereditary & Environment• Hereditary- characteristics are passed on
from parents to off-spring via genes.
• Environment – all the experiences, objects & events to which we are exposed in our life times
• Heredity? Environment? Mixture of both?Create a table with two columns ‘environment’ and ‘hereditary’. While watching the clip on the ‘wild child’ list all the characteristics that are influenced by either heredity or environment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEnkY2iaKis
Maturation
•Sequential changes in the nervous system & other bodily structures
•Automatic, internal•Controlled by our genes
•‘Principle of readiness’▫Nerves, bones, muscles need to be
developed enough for the behaviour to occur
Examples of maturation of nerves & bones
Examples of Maturational developments•Sit before stand•Sounds before words•Adding numbers before starting algebra
•When should a child start school? www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/29/1022569786596.html
Sensitive Periods•Periods of rapid change when individual is more
vulnerable to the environment•Eg: second 6 months of life sensitive to
attachment•Eg: 1.5-3 years sensitive to language acquisition
Different Perspectives on Development
Biological
Behavioural Socio-cultural
Cognitive
Longitudinal studyrepeated observations of the same variables over long periods of timeto study developmental trends across the life span
Advantages• Permanence in
development over time
Disadvantages• Expensive• Takes time with
participants (and researchers) not being available
Research methods in development
Advantages:• relatively inexpensive• easy to undertake• not too time-consuming.
Disadvantages:• Differences maybe due to
other variables▫ Eg: generational
influences
Cross-sectional studydesigned to look at a variable at a particular point in time.To study developmental differences/similarities between groups eg: memory at different ages
Twin Studies•using identical (mono-zygotic) and non-
identical (fraternal/di-zygotic) twins as participants.
• Identical especially for nature vs nurture BUT danger (eg more likely to be treated the same by parents)
•Personality and intelligence investigations
Discuss 4.17 ranking
Adoption Studies•Children raised by different parents – nature
vs nurture• IQ score studies indicate heredity plays a
large role
Selective Breeding•Using animals with short gestations to study
traits longitudinally, with control of genes•Unethical in humans but can use
Ethics in developmental research
Remember:•Fully informed•Consent – how with a child? How with a
dementia patient?•Confidentiality•Safety•Debrief
Resources
•Discovering Psychology
http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/development/dev_flash.html
Complete the handout using this website