1. Theories and methods of life-span development
Lecture 2
Theories and methods of life-span development

2. Researchers formulate problems and hypotheses within theories.

3. Definition of Theory
Theory of theory: A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of statements that help to explain and to make predictions.Often formalized in the natural sciences.
Practice of theory: A theory is a scientific worldview.

4. Requirements for a theory:
Popper: Falsifiability. A scientific theory should be able to generate predictions that could be disconfirmed.

5. Definition of Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a specific assumption or prediction that can be tested to determine its accuracy.

7. Sigmund Freud ( )
Medical doctor specializing in neurology -> Dynamic approach
Developed ideas about psychoanalytic theory from work with mental patients
Considered problems to be the result of experiences early in life

8. Psychoanalytic Theories
Mental life is primarily unconscious— beyond awareness.
Mental life is heavily colored by emotion.
Early experiences with parents extensively shape behavior.

9. Freud’s Structures of PersonalityId
Ego
Superego

10. Psychosexual Development
Five stages
Each stage focuses on a part of the body for experiencing pleasure.
How conflicts between sources of pleasure are resolved determines adult personality.

11. The Five Stages of Psychosexual Development
The Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months)
The Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years)
The Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)
The Latent Stage (6 years to puberty)
The Genital Stage (Puberty on)

12. The Oral Stage
Pleasure centers around the mouth.
Chewing, sucking, biting are sources of pleasure.

13. The Anal Stage
Pleasure centers around the anus.
Eliminative functions are sources of pleasure.

14. The Phallic Stage
Pleasure focuses on the genitals.
Self-manipulation is a source of pleasure.
Oedipus Complex appears.

15. Definition of the Oedipus Complex
The Oedipus Complex is Freud’s term for the young child’s development of an intense desire to replace the same-sex parent and enjoy the affections of the opposite-sex parent.

16. Resolution of the Oedipus Complex
Children recognize that their same-sex parent might punish them for their incestuous wishes.
To reduce this conflict, the child identifies with the same-sex parent, striving to be like him or her.

17. The Latent Stage
The child represses all interest in sexuality.
The child develops social and intellectual skills.
Energy is channeled into emotionally safe areas.
The child forgets the highly stressful conflicts of the phallic stage.

18. The Genital Stage
This is a time of sexual reawakening.
The source of sexual pleasure comes from someone outside the family.

19. When conflict is not resolved:
Individuals may develop a fixation

20. Definition of Fixation
A fixation occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier developmental stage because needs are under- or over-gratified.

21. Examples of Fixations
Oral - Due to a parent weaning too early, as an adult the individual seeks out oral gratification through smoking, drinking, gum chewing.
Anal - Due to a parent being too strict with potty training, as an adult the individual is excessively neat and orderly (known as “Anal Retentive”).
Phallic - Due to a parent punishing the child for masturbating, as an adult the individual seeks out pornography.
Genital - Due to a parent smothering a child with too much attention, as an adult the individual has difficulty in romantic relationships due to being extremely “needy.”

22. Erik Erikson ( )
Recognized Freud’s contributions
Believed Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human development
Developed the Psychosocial Theory of Development

23. The Psychosocial Theory of Development
The primary motivation for human behavior is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people.
Eight stages of development unfold throughout the entire life span.
Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced.

24. The Psychosocial Theory of Development (cont’d)
Crises are not catastrophes but rather turning points of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential.
The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.

25. Stages of Psychosocial Development
Trust vs. Mistrust
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Initiative vs. Guilt
Industry vs. Inferiority
Identity vs. Identity Confusion
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Integrity vs. Despair

26. Example: Identity vs. Identity Confusion (Adolescence)
Individuals are faced with finding out who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life.
Adolescents are confronted with many new roles and adult statuses.
If the adolescent explores roles in a healthy manner and arrives at a positive path in life, then positive identity will be achieved.
If an identity is pushed on the adolescent by parents, if the adolescent does not adequately explore many roles, then identity confusion reigns.

27. Example: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early Adulthood)
Individuals face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships with others.
Intimacy is defined as finding oneself yet losing oneself in another.
Intimacy is achieved through the formation of healthy friendships and an intimate relationship with another individual.
Isolation results from failure to achieve the above.

28. Example: Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood)
This involves reflecting on the past and either piecing together a positive review or concluding that one’s life has not been well spent.
Integrity is achieved through reflecting on a past deemed worthwhile.
If the older adult resolved many of the earlier stages negatively, looking back will lead to doubt or gloom (despair).

29. Contributions of Psychoanalytic Theories
Early experiences play an important part in development.
Family relationships are a central aspect of development.
Personality can be better understood if it is examined developmentally.
The mind is not all conscious; unconscious aspects of the mind need to be considered.
Changes take place in the adulthood as well as the childhood years (Erikson).

30. Criticisms of Psychoanalytic Theories
The main concepts have been difficult to test.
Much of the data used to support these theories come from individuals’ reconstruction of the past, often the distant past.
The sexual underpinnings of development are given too much importance by Freud.
Psychoanalytic theories are culture- and gender-biased.

31. Cognitive Theories
Piaget’s cognitive development theory
Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory
The information-processing approach

32. Jean Piaget ( )
Swiss psychologist
Observed his own children to develop theory of cognitive development
Changed how we think about the development of children’s minds

33. Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
Children actively construct their understanding of the world.
Children progress through four stages of cognitive development.

34. Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 yrs.)
Preoperational Stage (2-7 yrs.)
Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 yrs.)
Formal Operational Stage (11 and up)

35. The Sensorimotor Stage
Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motor actions.

36. The Preoperational Stage
Children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings.

37. Definition of Operations
Internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously did physically

38. The Concrete Operational Stage
Children can perform mental operations.
Logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought, as long as reasoning can be applied to concrete examples.

39. The Formal Operational Stage
Individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract, more logical terms.
Problem solving is more systematic and involves hypotheses.

40. Mechanisms of Development
Organization
Adaptation
Equilibration

41. Organization
Tendency for parts of a system to form and to be integrated into a whole.

42. Adaptation
Assimilation: Incorporating new information into one’s existing knowledge
Accommodation: Adapting one’s existing knowledge to new information

43. Equilibration
Every organism tends towards equilibrium with the environment and equilibrium within itself.

44. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory
Shares Piaget’s view that children actively construct their knowledge.
Emphasizes developmental analysis, the role of language, and social relations.
Like Piaget, Vygotsky’s ideas were not introduced in America until the 1960s.

45. Vygotsky’s 3 Basic Claims about Children’s Development
Cognitive skills have their origins in social relations and are embedded in a sociocultural backdrop.
The child’s cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed and interpreted.
Cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse.

46. The Information-Processing Approach
Emphasizes that individuals manipulate, monitor, and strategize about information.
Central are the processes of memory and thinking.
Individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information.
This enables the acquisition of increasingly complex knowledge and skills.

47. Contributions of the Cognitive Theories
They present a positive view of development, emphasizing individuals’ conscious thinking.
They emphasize the individual’s active construction of understanding.
Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories underscore the importance of examining developmental changes in children’s thinking.
The information-processing approach offers detailed descriptions of cognitive processes.

48. Discussion
What happened to our early childhood memories?

49. Criticisms of the Cognitive Theories
There is skepticism about the pureness of Piaget’s stages.
They do not give adequate attention to individual variations in cognitive development.
Information processing doesn’t provide adequate description of developmental changes in cognition.
Psychoanalytic theorists argue that the cognitive theories do not give enough credit to unconscious thought.

50. Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories
These theories believe that scientifically we can only study what can be directly observed and measured.
They also believe that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment.

51. Classical Conditioning
In the early 1900s, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered the phenomenon in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a behavioral response originally produced by another stimulus.

52. Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner demonstrated that the consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior occurring again.
Consequences can be either rewards (increasing the likelihood of behavior recurrence), or punishment (decreasing this chance).

53. Social Cognitive Theory
Learning occurs through observing what others do, as individuals cognitively represent what they see and adopt the behavior themselves.
Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel believe that cognitive processes are important mediators of environment-behavior connections.

54. Contributions of Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories
They emphasize the importance of scientific research.
They focus on the environmental determinants of behavior.
They underscore the importance of observational learning (Bandura).

55. Criticisms of Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories
Pavlov and Skinner neglect cognition.
They put too much emphasis on environmental determinants.
They are too mechanical and give inadequate consideration to the spontaneity and creativity of humans.

56. Ethological Theory
Behavior is strongly influenced by biology.
Behavior is tied to evolution.
Behavior is characterized by critical periods.
Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz ( ) identified imprinting.
John Bowlby theorizes about attachment.

57. Definition of Critical Period
A fixed time period very early in development during which certain behaviors optimally emerge

58. Definition of Imprinting
The rapid, innate learning within a limited critical period of time that involves attachment to the first moving object seen

59. Attachment
A concept based on principles of ethological theory.
Attachment to a caregiver over the first year of life has important consequences:
Positive and secure attachment results in positive development.
Negative and insecure attachment results in problematic development.

60. Contributions of Ethological Theory
It has an increased focus on the biological and evolutionary basis of development.
It uses careful observations in naturalistic settings.
It emphasizes critical periods of development.

61. Criticisms of Ethological Theory
The critical period concept may be too rigid.
It places too strong an emphasis on biological foundations.
It gives inadequate attention to cognition.
It has been better at generating research with animals than with humans.

62. Ecological Theory
Developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner.
Consists of 5 environmental systems:
The Microsystem
The Mesosystem
The Exosystem
The Macrosystem
The Chronosystem

63. Contributions of Ecological Theory
It provides a systematic examination of macro and micro dimensions of environmental systems.
It gives consideration to sociohistorical influences on development.

64. Criticisms of Ecological Theory
Even with the added discussion of biological influences in recent years, there is still too little attention to biological foundations of development.
It gives inadequate attention to cognitive processes.

65. An Eclectic Theoretical Orientation
Does not follow any one theoretical approach
Selects and uses whatever is considered best from each theory

66. Methods
Developmental designs
Correlational versus experimental research

67. Developmental Designs
The Cross-Sectional Approach
The Longitudinal Approach
The Sequential Approach

68. The Cross-Sectional Approach: Individuals of different ages are compared at one time.
Pros
Study can be accomplished in a short period of time.
Researchers don’t have to wait for subjects to age.
Cons
Provides no information about how individuals change.
Provides no information about the stability of characteristics.

69. The Longitudinal Approach: The same individuals are studied over a period of time.
Cons
Expensive and time consuming.
Subjects more likely to drop out due to moving, losing interest, or illness.
Pros
Provide a wealth of information about stability and change in development.
Provide insight into the importance of early experience for later development.

70. The Sequential Approach
A combination of the cross-sectional and longitudinal approach.
Begins with a cross-sectional study of individuals of different ages.
Months or years later, the same individuals are tested again along with a new group of subjects for each age level.

71. The Sequential Approach (cont’d)
Complex, expensive, and time consuming.
Provides information not obtainable through using either the cross-sectional or longitudinal designs alone.
Especially helpful in examining cohort effects in life-span development.

72. Cohort Effects
Cohort effects are due to a person’s time of birth or generation, but not to actual age.

73. Correlational Research
The goal is to describe the strength of the relation between two or more events or characteristics.
It needs to be used with caution as correlation does not equal causation.

74. Experimental Research
This allows researchers to determine the causes of behavior.
It uses experimentation: carefully regulated procedures in which one or more significant factors is manipulated, and all others held constant.
Experimental research involves independent and dependent variables, experimental groups, control groups, and random assignment.