1. 1. Lifespan Development
Jen Smith

2. Today Introductions Syllabus Textbook E-mail
What is Psychology of the Lifespan?

3. Learning Goals for Today
Understand guidelines and schedule of the course.
Describe the Lifespan Perspective of development.
Understand how different historical ideas about development affected children.
Describe the 3 basic key developmental issues.

4. “Why do people turn out the way that they do?”
Lifespan Development
Pattern of change that begins at conceptions and continues through the life cycle.
The BIG question:
“Why do people turn out the way that they do?”

5. Jo the Nanny
Nick Nolte
Paris Hilton
old Japanese man
Andre 3000
Meth addict

6. Do you believe that development is influenced by:
environment
biology
both

7. Historical Perspective
Child Development
Middle ages…original sin view
End of the 17th Century….tabula rasa view (John Locke)
18th Century…innate goodness view (Rousseau)

8. So What? Implications of each of these views on parenting? Bad child
Blank tablet
Innate goodness

9. Implications
Original sin, born bad…salvation, remove sin from the child’s life
Tabula rasa….childhood experiences are important in determining adult characteristics…parents teach, spend time
Innate goodness….children should be permitted to grow naturally with little parental monitoring or constraint
Speculate about what students think our perspective is today.

10. Today Childhood lays the foundation for the adult years
Distinct periods…shared characteristics (e.g., we all walked at about 1 year)

11. Contemporary Concerns
Health and well-being (e.g., exercise, loneliness)
Parenting
Education
Sociocultural Contexts; context, culture, ethnicity and gender
Political Policies…will they be good for our children?

12. 3 Key Developmental Issues
Nature v. Nurture
Genetics vs. environment
Continuity v. Discontinuity
Gradual changes or distinct stages
One Course v. Many Possible Courses
One size fits all or many options for dev’t?

13. The Lifespan Perspective
Development is:
Lifelong
Multidimensional
biological cognitive socioemotional
Multidirectional (e.g., language)- maintenance and decline

14. The 3 Multidimensional Developmental Processes
Biological….changes in individual physical nature
Cognitive…changes in individuals thoughts, intelligence, and language
Socioemotional ….changes in individual relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality.

15. Development is also Contextual:
Normative age-graded influences….biological and environmental influence of a particular age group (e.g., puberty, retirement)
Normative history-graded influence…common to particular generation (e.g., Role of women, technology revolution)
Non-normative life events…..major impacts that are unique to individuals (e.g., death of child, winning the lottery)

16. Healthy males experience puberty withn a certain age range
Normative age-graded influence
Normative history-graded influence
Non-normative life event influence

17. Losing a parent in childhood
Normative age-graded influence
Normative history-graded influence
Non-Normative life event influence

18. Challenger space shuttle explosion
Normative age-graded influence
Normative history-graded influence
Non-normative life event influence

19. Periods of development
Prenatal period: conception to birth
Infancy: birth -2 years
Early childhood: 2 -6 years ( before school)
Middle and late childhood: 6 -11
Adolescent: /20
Early Adulthood:
Middle Adulthood: 40-65
Late Adulthood: 65 –death (retirement phase)

20. Question:
What do you think is the best age to be?
Why?

21. Age is not related to happiness!
Good News
Age is not related to happiness!
Different ways to conceptualize age:
Chronological age….years since birth
Biological age….biological health
Psychological age…adaptive capacities
Social age….social roles and expectations

22. Re-cap: Learning Goals for Today
Understand guidelines and schedule of the course.
Describe the Lifespan Perspective of development.
Understand how different historical ideas about development affected children.
Describe the 3 basic key developmental issues.