DevPsy M1

• Human development


  The field that focuses on the scientific study of the systematic processes of change and stability in people
• Developmental scientists (or developmentalists)


  Individuals engaged in the professional study of human development
• Research findings often have applications to child-rearing, education, health, and social policy
• The science of human development reflects the complexity and distinctiveness of each person and experiences as well as the commonalities and patterns across people
• Life-span development


  Development from "womb to tomb", comprising the entire human life span from conception to death
• Researchers acknowledge that development can be either positive or negative
• The life-span developmental approach (Paul Baltes)


  • Development is lifelong
  • Development is multidimensional
  • Development is multidirectional
  • Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life-span
  • Development involves changing resource allocations
  • Development shows plasticity
  • Development is influenced by historical and cultural context
• Development is lifelong


  Development is a lifelong process of change. Each life span period is affected by what happened before and will affect what is to come. Each period has unique characteristics and values. No period is more or less important than any other
• Development is multidimensional


  Development occurs along multiple interacting dimensions (biological, psychological, and social) each of which may develop at varying rates
• Development is multidirectional


  The development of a certain domain is not a straight path. Rather, the development of certain traits can increase or decrease throughout an individual's life. The development process involves growth (gain) and decline (loss), which work together to improve certain abilities
• Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life-span


  The development process is influenced by biology and culture, but the balance between these influences changes. Biological abilities, such as sensory acuity, muscular strength, and coordination, weaken with age, but cultural supports, such as education, relationships, and technologically age-friendly environments, may help compensate
• Development involves changing resource allocations


  Individuals choose to invest their resources of time, energy, talent, money, and social support in varying ways. Resources may be used for growth, maintenance, or recovery
• Development shows plasticity


  Abilities can be improved significantly with training and practice even late in life. However, even in children, plasticity has limits that depend in part on the various influences on development
• Development is influenced by historical and cultural context


  People develop in different ways, based on various factors such as biology, family, school, religion, career, nationality, and ethnicity. Development is influenced by one's surroundings and can vary from person to person
• Four goals of developmental scientists

  • Describe
  • Explain
  • Predict
  • Intervene
• Language delay


  The inability to use language, rather than a refusal to use language. This is when a child has persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language due to deficits in comprehension or production
• Selective mutism


  A complex type of anxiety disorder. This refers to when a child has the ability to speak but won't do it in settings such as at school or in public. Those with selective mutism do not choose where to speak but are more comfortable doing so in select situations
• Domains of development

  • Physical
  • Psychosocial
  • Cognitive
• Periods of a life span are a social construction, based on subjective perceptions or assumptions, varying among cultures and changing over generations
• Periods of a life span

  • Prenatal Period
  • Infancy and Toddlerhood
  • Early Childhood
  • Middle Childhood
  • Adolescence
  • Emerging and Young Adulthood
  • Middle Adulthood
  • Late Adulthood
• Influences on development

  • Genetics
  • Environment
  • Maturity/Maturation
• Context of development

  • Family
  • Socioeconomic status and neighborhood
  • Culture
• 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. This is the traditional family form
• Poor children are more likely than other children to have emotional or behavioral problems, and their cognitive potential and school performance suffer more
• Some children in affluent families face pressure to achieve and are often left on their own by busy parents. Such children have high rates of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression
• Lifespan perspective


  • Normative age-graded influence
  • Normative history-graded influence
  • Non-normative influences
• Normative age-graded influence


  Events or circumstances that are typical or expected to occur within a specific age range and have a predictable impact on development
• Normative history-graded influence


  The impact that a person's historical period has on development. Events occur at a specific time and affect individuals of a particular age group
• Non-normative influences


  Unusual events affecting the lives of individuals. Typical events that happen at atypical times such as the late onset of puberty, teenage pregnancy, and early marriage. Purely atypical events such as birth defect, death due to natural disasters, traumatic experiences
• Timing influences

  • Critical period
  • Plasticity
  • Sensitive period
• Critical period


  Specific time when a given event or its absence has a specific impact on development
• Plasticity


  Range of modifiability of performance
• Sensitive period


  Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences
• Language acquisition


  The critical period hypothesis is a theory in linguistics that states that the first few years of life is the crucial time in which an individual can acquire a first language if presented with adequate stimuli, and that first-language acquisition relies on neuroplasticity
• Organismic model


  A perspective within psychology that emphasizes the holistic nature of individuals and their environment. This model views individuals as complex organisms that interact with their environment in dynamic and multifaceted ways, rather than simply as passive recipients of environmental stimuli

  
• Mechanismic model


  A point of view that sees natural and social processes as systems made up of interconnected pieces, similar to a machine. People are like machines that react to environmental input. This model assumes that psychological processes and behaviors ultimately can be understood in the same way that mechanical or physiological processes are understood

  
• Theories are essential because they provide answers to our questions about how and why we develop. A Theory is an organized set of ideas that is designed to explain development. However, developmental science cannot be completely objective
• Five perspectives in human development

  • Psychodynamic theories
  • Psychosocial theory

  
• Psychodynamic theories


  Personality develops from conflicts that children experience between what they want to do and what society expects them to do. Theorists that have the same ideas or theories with Freud does not want to be associated with him but they tend to be grouped