Lifespan Development Revision

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Lifespan Development

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Age-related changes that occur from birth, throughout a person’s life, into and during old age.

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Developmental Change

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A change throughout a persons life that must be relatively permanent or long lasting.

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Development

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A process involving change in thinking, feeling and behaving.

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Different Stages of Lifespan Development

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infancy — birth to two years
childhood — two years to 10 years
adolescence — 10 years to 20 years
early adulthood — 20 years to 40 years
middle age — 40 years to 65 years
older age — 65 years and beyond.

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Infancy (Birth to 2)

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- Many psychological characteristics are rapidly developing.

- The bond that develops at this time between the infant and primary caregiver is important

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Childhood (2 to 10)

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- Children become increasingly independent from their parents as they learn to do things for themselves and gain more self-control.

- Cognitive skills develop and they also begin to develop an understanding of what is right and wrong.

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Adolescence (10 to 20)

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- Onset of puberty

- Many physical and psychological changes

- Seek more independence

- Friends and peer group influences

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Early Adulthood (20 to 40)

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- Stage of establishing personal and financial independence and establishing and consolidating a career

- Also you look for a intimate relationship and start a family

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Middle Age (40 to 65)

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Stage of Expanding social and personal involvements and responsibilities, advancing a career, and supporting offspring in their development to independent, psychologically mature individuals.

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Older Age (65 to End of Life)

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- Retirement

- Physical abilities decrease

- Declining Health

- More freedom

- Grandparenting role

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Physical Development

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Involves changes in the body and its various systems, such as development of the brain and nervous system, bones and muscles, motor skills (movement), and the hormonal changes of puberty and menopause.

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Social Development

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Involves changes in an individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in interacting with others, such as the ability to form and maintain close relationships with others in a group situation.

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Cognitive Development

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Involves changes in an individual’s mental abilities, such as processing of information through perception, learning, memoir, language, moral reasoning, problem solving and decision making.

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Emotional Development

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Involves changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feelings are expressed, interpreted and dealt with

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Psychological Development

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Social, Cognitive and Emotional Development are collectively known as this.

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Continuous Development

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Development involves 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.

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Discontinuous Development

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Development involves distinct and separate stages, with different kinds of abilities occurring in each stage. According to this view, the development of certain abilities in each stage, such as specific ways of thinking, feeling or socially interacting have identifiable start and end points.

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Quantitative Changes

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Variations in the quantity, or ‘amount’ of a thought, feeling or behaviour.

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Qualitative Changes

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Those that vary in ‘quality’, ‘kind’ or ‘type’. They are changes that make the individual different from the way they were before.

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Heredity

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Involves the transmission of characteristics from biological parents to their offspring via genes at the time of conception.

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Environment

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All the experiences, objects and events to which we are exposed to throughout our lifetime.

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Maturation

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Refers to the orderly and sequential developmental changes which occur in the nervous system and other bodily structures controlled by our genes.

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Principle of Readiness

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This principle states that unless the necessary bodily structures, be they muscles, bones or nerves, are sufficiently mature, then no amount of practice will produce the particular behaviour.

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Sensitive Periods

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A period of time when an individual is more responsive (‘sensitive’) to certain influences from their environment. Outside this period of time, the same environmental influences need to be stronger to produce the same positive or negative effects.

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Biological Perspective in Development

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- Focus on how heredity influences development

- Study the role of the brain, genes and other systems in the body that may influence development

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Behavioural Perspective in Development

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- Study specific factors in their role of influencing development. E.g. Parenting styles

- May also focus on specific periods in development

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Cognitive Perspective

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- Focuses on two key stages; Early Cognitive Development and the decline of cognitive skills in older age

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Socio-Cultural Perspective

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- Focus on specific environmental factors

- Also focus on cultural background differences in development as well as development in different societies

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Longitudinal Studies

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A long-term investigation that follows the same group (or groups) of people over an extended period of time, observing any changes in their thoughts, feelings and/or behaviour that occur at different ages.

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Cross Sectional Study

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Selects and compares groups of participants of different ages over a short period of time.

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Dis/Advantages in Longitudinal Studies

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Advantage/s:

- Relatively useful way of examining consistencies and inconsistencies over time.

Disadvantage/s:

- Can be expensive and can take a long time to get results. Also, there is the hassle of tracking the participants over a number of years

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Dis/Advantages in Cross Sectional Studies:

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Advantages:

- Relatively inexpensive, easy to undertake and not too time consuming

Disadvantages:

- Differences found between age groups may be due to other factors

- Cannot control generational influence (People born in different decades experience different environments)

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Twin Studies

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Involve research using identical and non identical twins as participants

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Monozygotic Twins

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Are formed when a single fertilised egg splits into two in the first couple of days after conception.

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Dizygotic Twins

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Develop when the female produces two separate ova (eggs) which are independently fertilised by two different sperm cells.

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Adoption Studies

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These studies involve the use of participants who are children with no genetic similarity to their adopted parents.

This gains insight into the relative influences of hereditary and environment on a range of behaviours and psychological characteristics.