1. Developmental Psychology
Unit 1:
Introducing
Developmental Psychology
37 Slides

2. WHY Why study human development?
You, your friends and acquaintances, the people around you, your spouse, your children, your parents, everyone in the world changes as they grow.
Can we predict what those changes will be and how those changes will occur?
Would it help you in your life to know how different people at different ages will react?
We can study change to learn the variables that make change occur so we can reasonably predict change.
37 Slides

3. Early Approaches
Introspection was the method preferred in the old days.
Baby Biographies
1787: Tiedemann
Observed sensory, motor, language, & cognitive behavior
Thought sucking was learned, not reflexive
1877: Darwin
Observed Behavioral & emotional development
Continued the Nature vs. Nurture debate
37 Slides

4. Late 19th Century Trends Medicine & Science
Discovery of germs, immunizations, fertilization
Increased survival rates in children
Also increasing population and age
● Child Protective Laws
Children spend more time in school
Parents and teachers identified special needs
In the field of Psychology
A better understanding of childhood influences
G. Stanley Hall recognized adolescence as a separate developmental period.
G. Stanley Hall also started the study of the elderly when he published Senescence: The Last Half of Life when he was age 78!
37 Slides

5. The Study of How Humans Develop
Today
The Study of How Humans Develop
We use a scientific approach to study Human Development today.
The main Questions studied are:
How do people change throughout their lives?
And
What characteristics remain stable?
37 Slides

6. Studying the Life-span
Research following children to adulthood:
Stanford Study of Gifted Children
Berkeley Growth and Guidance Studies
It is an interdisciplinary approach which blends the sciences of:
Psychology
Psychiatry
Sociology
Biology & Genetics
37 Slides

7. WHO Who does this research? Child Psychologists Gerontologists
It is a multidisciplinary approach
Biologists
Chemists
Nurses
Neuroscientists
Anthropologists
37 Slides

8. Four Goals of Developmental Psychology
Describe
Example: When do children say their first words?
Explain
Example: How do children learn to use language?
Predict
Example: Will delayed language development affect speech?
Modify
Example: Can therapy help speech delays?
37 Slides

9. WHAT
What do we study?
Prenatal life, childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, and gerontology - in effect the lifespan of humans - is the subject of developmental psychologists.
Aspects from conception to birth through living to dying
Changes in capabilities both thinking & moving.
Working and playing.
Cultural, social and biological influences on behavior.
What makes us healthy and what diseases ravage us?
How do different cultures or other conditions effect change?
Lifespan scientists study our physical, emotional, social and cognitive changes.
37 Slides

10. Domains of Development
We want to know what remains stable AND what changes.
Physical Development
Body, brain, senses, motor skills, & health
Cognitive Development
Learning, memory, moral reasoning, language, thinking, & creativity
Psychosocial Development
Personality, emotional life, & relationships
Anxiety and social supports
Nice!
37 Slides

11. Two Types of Developmental Change
Qualitative Changes (the quality of life)
Structure or Organization
Often difficult to anticipate
Quantitative Changes
Number or Amount
Examples:
Height
Weight
Size of Vocabulary
Example:
Changing from nonverbal to verbal communication
37 Slides

12. Defining the lifespan How do we break up the lifespan?
Youth, Adolescence, Adult, Old age?
The stages are based on subjective perceptions or assumptions
The stages vary among cultures
They can change over generations
Adolescence was only recently introduced in industrial societies and is predicated on a longer life.
Middle and old age are also new constructs created by extending the lifespan.
When you could expect to die at 45 there was no adolescent stage nor middle to old age!
37 Slides

13. Infancy and Toddler hood
Periods of Life Span
This table is the best description of the 8 stages of the lifespan:
Prenatal Period
Conception – Birth
Infancy and Toddler hood
Birth – 3 years
Early Childhood
3 - 6 years
Middle Childhood:
years
Adolescence
years
Young Adulthood
20 – 40 years
Middle Adulthood
40 – 65 years
Late Adulthood:
65 years and Over
37 Slides

14. Childhood Changing conceptions of childhood
Children required for farm labor
Children farmed out for the industrial revolution
Children as blank slates and noble savages
Mandatory Education in High School
Child welfare laws
Adolescents and the Emerging Adulthood
37 Slides

15. Adulthood and old age Changing ideas about adult life
Is there only one acceptable behavior that defines an “adult” life?
Woman at home – man working
Honor and respect the elderly – retirement age
Divorced and “never married” families
Childless couples and Interracial couples
Changing conceptions of old age
Lifespan improvements – increasing lifespan
Improving the quality of foods and antibiotics
Chronic Diseases of old age on the increase
The young-old and the old-old – new categories
37 Slides

16. Potential Development
Developmental influences can be normative:
The influences experienced by all humans or everyone within a cohort is the norm.
Or they can be specific to an individual:
Non-Normative: Individual differences make each experience unique
It is difficult to factor all variables into one equation
For society and the species the norm is more important than the individual variation.
Has anyone read Asimov’s Foundation trilogy?
37 Slides

17. Influences on Development
Individuals vary in rate and timing of development, due to:
Historical context: what occurs during their lifespan that is different from other generations
Heredity: Inherited traits from biological parents and mutations and teratogens.
Environment: Physical & social influences
Maturation: Sequences (patterns) of physical & behavioral changes that do not include learning. They simply happen!
Nature vs. Nurture
Out of all the above: which is more important?
37 Slides

18. Influences on Development: Historical Context
Unique time in which people live & grow up
Experiences tied to time and place:
Introduction of the automobile
Great Depression
World War II
The “Sixties” – Vietnam
For instance: 1957 – when I was born – birth of color TV
37 Slides

19. Normative History-Graded Influences
Events that shape the attitudes of a historical generation are normative for that historical generation
Historical Generation: A group that experiences an event at a formative time
Ex: WWII children have strong social bonds to each other
An historical generation can have many cohorts if the events last for decades
37 Slides

20. Cohorts A cohort is a birth group.
It is approximately a 20 year time span
It is a subjective period, but is widely accepted
i.e. the baby boomers (1946 to 1964)
There were more babies born in 1957 then in any year in the United States
In May of 1957 there were more babies born then at any other month in the history of the U.S.
baby boomers can also be broken into separate smaller cohorts based on historical timings
37 Slides

21. Normative Age-Graded Influences
Similar for an age group
Maturational: Fixed in time
Puberty or menopause
Social: Timing is flexible
Marriage or parenthood or retirement
37 Slides

22. Non-Normative Influences
Unusual events affecting individual lives
Typical events at atypical times
Puberty at age 20
Marriage or pregnant at 12 years of age
Atypical events
Birth defect
Winning the lottery
Surviving a hurricane or terror attack
37 Slides

23. Timing of Influences Imprinting
Instinctively following first moving object seen after birth; usually mother. Hopefully not a predator.
Konrad Lorenz & his ducklings
Imprinting indicates the predisposition or readiness to learn.
37 Slides

24. Timing of Influences: Critical & Sensitive Periods
Critical Period
Specific time when an event (or its absence) has specific impact on development. Rubella in the first trimester.
Controversy surrounds the idea of the critical period.
Areas of development show plasticity.
Plasticity means that development is changeable, modifiable.
So developmental psychologists view change as having sensitive periods. Although most use the two interchangeably.
Sensitive Period
The time in development when an animal is particularly responsive to certain experiences.
37 Slides

25. Timing of Influences: Plasticity of Development
Modifiability of performance
Plasticity lasts through lifespan, but has limits
Example: Limits and Progress of Genie and Victor in language acquisition.
Victor
No one is sure how victor ended up in the forests of Averyon France. He was captured at about 12 years of age in January 1800.
Genie
Her father locked her in a room from the age of 1 and a half until 13 years when her mother finally ran away with her
37 Slides

26. Environmental Influences on Development:
Family
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Culture & Religion
Race & Ethnicity
Historical Context
Let’s look at each of these
37 Slides

27. Influences on Development: The Family
What is a family? Depends!
Recently Great changes have occurred In western countries, but western countries aren’t the only countries with families.
Nuclear families
Extended families.
Single parent families
Same sex parent families!
Matriarchal or Patriarchal
Polygamy and Polyandry
37 Slides

28. Influences on Development: The Nuclear Family
Two generations: the parents and the children
Basically created as an Economic unit
Its history is in farming
Dominant in western societies
The typical 50’s family is less common today
Two heterosexual or homosexual parents
Working parents with latchkey kids
Stepchildren & adopted or foster children
Single parent families
Multigenerational families
37 Slides

29. Influences on Development: The Extended Family
A multi generational kinship
Includes grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles
Social roles are flexible within the group
Historically common in Asian, African, & Latin American cultures
Becoming less typical in all cultures
It breaks down as newer generations leave for work
However increases in gas costs may slow down the disintegration of the extended family.
37 Slides

30. Influences on Development: Socioeconomic Status (SES)
SES Includes income, education & occupation
SES is a Risk Factor:
A condition that would increase the likelihood of a negative outcome
For instance: Poor children are more likely to:
Have emotional & behavior problems
Not reach cognitive potential
Have poorer school performance
Live in less than favorable conditions
Within the United States
Decreasing income leads to decreasing health, education & longevity
In the wider world
Dire conditions of poverty still exist
37 Slides

31. Poverty in Children increases the risk for poor physical and mental health
Outcome
Risk Increase
Poverties effect on Health
Death in Infancy
1.6x
Premature Birth
1.8x
Inadequate Prenatal Care
2.8x
No regular healthcare
2.7x
Poverties effect on Education
Repeat a Grade 2x
Dropping Out ( years)
3.5x
37 Slides

32. Low SES & Related Risk Factors
Some poverty related risks that increase the chance of negative outcomes include:
Living in neighborhoods with high unemployment
Lack of social support
Social support is less likely in high unemployment neighborhoods
37 Slides

33. Influences on Development: Culture & Religion
Culture – A way of life
Learned behavior, passed on to children
Not necessarily obvious at first glance
Contributes to shared attitudes & beliefs
Includes:
Gender expectations
Can determine life roles, aggression, life expectancy and stereotypes
Attitudes towards divorce & arranged marriage
Collectivism Vs. Individualism
Customs, Traditions, Values
Artwork, Laws, Beliefs, Language
Economic casts
37 Slides

34. Influences on Development: Race & Ethnicity
Ethnic Group – A shared identity
United by ancestry or origin and culture
Contributes to shared attitudes & beliefs
Race – A Socially Constructed Term
Scholars have no real consensus on a definition
Categories are ‘fluid’
shaped by society & politics
Race is maintained by environmental factors.
Race is no different than an ethnic group
37 Slides

35. Race & Ethnicity terms:
Acculturation
adopting another culture’s values
Ethnic Gloss
Over-generalization that obscures cultural differences within a group
Examples: ‘Black’ or ‘Hispanic’ or ‘Jewish’ or ‘Christian’ or “Muslim”
You have an expectation as soon as you hear or determine that a person belongs in one of these “groups”
37 Slides

36. Development – Controllable or not?
So far we can’t control the genetic factors but we can control some of the environmental factors.
We use two forms of control over our lives.
Primary control
Attempts to change the external world so that it fits your needs and desires. If you don’t like someone stay away from them – avoid contact – changes your external world.
Secondary control
Attempts to change your internal state so that you more fit into the world in which you live. If you don’t like someone, find out why and deal with it – change the way you feel.
37 Slides

37. Baltes’s Life Span Approach: 6 Key Principles
1. Development is lifelong
Change & adaptation occur throughout life
2. Development involves both gain & loss
Ex: Gaining vocabulary - Losing eidetic memory
3. Biological & cultural influences shift over time
Ex: Sickness, grey hair and wrinkles, religion, WASP, language
4. Development involves changing allocation of resources
Resources are used for growth, maintenance & recovery
5. Development shows plasticity
Ex: Memory can be improved with practice
6. Development is influenced by historical and cultural context.
Ex: War, Flood, Famine, Sports, Agriculture, Industry & Depression
37 Slides