CHAPTER 1

• HUMAN DEVELOPMENT- scientific study of the systematic processes of change and stability in people
• LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT- concept of human development as a lifelong process, which can be studied scientifically
• Goals of developmental psychology

  description, explanation, prediction, intervention
• description


  Describe changes that typically occur across the lifespan/ typical pattern of development
• explanation 


  Explain the changes to specify the determinants of developmental change
• prediction


  Predict future behavio
• intervention


  Intervene to improve behaviors
• Developmentalists study processes of change and stability in all domains, or aspects, of development throughout all periods of the life span.
• Three Major Domains of the Self: Physical Development Cognitive Development Psychosocial Development
• physical


  Growth of the body and brain, sensory capacities, motor skills, and health.
• cognitive


  Learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity
• psychosocial 


  Emotions, personality, and social relationships
• Social Construction- a concept or practice that is an invention of a particular culture or society; varies across cultures
• Individual Differences- differences in characteristics, influences, or developmental outcomes.
• Influences on development can be described in two primary ways (Nature vs. Nurture)
• Heredity (Nature): Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents
• Environment (Nurture): outside the body; totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influences on development
• Maturation— the unfolding of a natural sequence of physical changes and behavior patterns.
• context of development

  family, socioeconomic status, culture & race\ ethnicity, historical context
• Nuclear Family: a household unit consisting of one or two parents and their children, whether biological, adopted, or stepchildren
• Extended Family: a multigenerational network of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more distant relatives—is the traditionalfamily form
• SOCIOECONOMICSTATUS Combination of economic and socialfactors. Poverty is a problem worldwide; stressful and can damage children and families. Affluence doesn’t necessarily protect children from risk. Adolescents from affluent families are at higher risk for Substance Abuse problem
• THEHISTORICALCONTEXT It focuses on how certain experiences, tied to time and place, affect the course of people’s lives
• NormativeInfluences biological or environmental events that affect many or most people in a society in similar ways and events that touch only certain individuals
• NORMATIVEAGE-GRADED INFLUENCES: highly similar for people in a particular age group; the timing of biological events is fairly predictable within a normal range
• NORMATIVE HISTORY-GRADED INFLUENCES: significant events that shape the behavior and attitudes of a historical generation: a group of people who experience the event at a formative time in their lives
• NonnormativeInfluences unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives because they disturb the expected sequence of the life cycle
• IMPRINTING- phenomenon in which newly birthed species will instinctively follow the first moving object they see, whether it is a member of their species or not; automatic and irreversible (Lorenz, 1957)
• CRITICAL PERIODS: a specific time when a given event, or its absence, has a specific impact on development.
• SENSITIVE PERIODS: when a developing person is especially responsive to certain kinds of experiences
• BIOLOGICAl Age-In terms of biological health; involves knowing the functional capacities of a person’s vital organ.
• Psychological Age-Individual’s adaptive capacities compared with those of other individuals.
• social age-Social roles and expectations related to a person;s age.
• conception of age: biological, psychological, social age
• Development: Lifelong, Multidimensional, Multidirectional, Plastic, Contextual, Involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation of Loss, and a Co-construction of Biology, Culture, and the Individual
• Development is a lifelong process of change. Each period of the life span is affected by what happened before and will affect what is to come. Each period has unique characteristics and value. No period is more or less important than any other
• Development is Multidimensional


  It occurs along multiple interacting dimensions— biological, psychological, and social—each of which may develop at varying rates.
• Development is Multidimensional


  , The case of Ted Kaczynski— he was hospitalized when he was 6 months old due to a severe allergic reaction and his parents were rarely allowed to visit him. As a result, the previously happy baby was never the same after his hospitalization. He became withdrawn and unresponsive (Biological—social
• Development is Multidirectional


  As people gain (expand) in one area, they may lose (shrink) in another, sometimes at the same time
• Development is Multidirectional


  ., As individuals establish romantic relationships, their time spent with friends may decrease.