Dev Psych

• Developmental Psychology


  To understand human behaviour all throughout their lifespan (from womb to tomb)
• Domains of Human Development

  • Physical
  • Cognitive
  • Psychosocial
• Physical domain


  • Body can undergo development
  • Development of brains/sensory capabilities
  • Motor skills (walk, crawl, any body movements)
• Cognitive domain


  • Activities of brain (reasoning, learning, thinking, memorization)
• Psychosocial domain


  • Interacts with the environment around us
  • Discover emotion & personality
  • Builds social relationships
  • Shapes our personality
• Nature


  Inherited traits / Genotype
• Nurture


  From environment / experiences / Phenotype
• Continuity


  Quantitative / cumulative process/ development & changes in individuals occurs gradually
• Discontinuity


  Qualitative / stage theories/ occurs in series of distinct changes
• Universal


  Development of all
• Context-Specific


  Depends on situation/environment of each person
• Biology and Environment


  • Growth during the prenatal period, the onset of puberty, and arrival of gray hair, are primarily biological
  • Learning calculus, navigating the internet, or acquiring a taste of food depend mainly on experience
• Maturation


  Developmental changes in the body or behavior that result from the aging process rather than from learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience
• Learning


  Result of a person's interaction to the environment
• Society


  Refers to the larger group of individuals within which an individual lives
• Culture


  Refers not only to the people but also to the beliefs, the common practices, the language, and norms associated with an individual's society
• Division of the life span into periods is a social construction
• Normative


  Characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group
• Cohort


  A group of people born at about the same time
• Non-normative


  Characteristic of an unusual event that happens to a particular person or a typical event that happens at an unusual time of life
• Key principles of life-span developmental approach

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

  • Biologically based theory
  • Psychodynamic theories
  • Psychosocial theories
  • Cognitive theories
• Biologically based theory


  • Developmental cognitive neuroscience, based on maturation framework
  • Link brain function to behavioural function
  • Genetics
  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Evolution
• Psychodynamic theories


  • Psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud
  • Human development determined by unconscious process
  • Adult personality influenced by early childhood events
  • Three mental processes: Id, Ego, Superego
  • Psychosexual stages of development
• Id


  Houses our instincts, operates from raw and irrational impulses
• Ego


  Develops soon after birth, ruled by the reality principle to deal logically and rationally with the world
• Superego


  Develops during and soon after ego development, responsible for the development of one's moral code and conscience
• Psychosexual stages of development

  • Oral stage (0-2 years)
  • Anal stage (2-3 years)
  • Phallic stage (3-6 years)
  • Latency stage (6-12 years)
  • Genital stage
• Psychosocial theories


  • Lifespan perspective, centered on effects of social interactions in shaping personality
  • Crises should be met to have ego development
  • If crisis is resolved, may result in virtue
• Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development

  • Basic trust vs. mistrust
  • Autonomy vs. shame & doubt
  • Initiative vs. guilt
  • Industry vs. inferiority
  • Identity vs. role confusion
  • Intimacy vs. isolation
  • Generativity vs. stagnation
  • Integrity vs. despair
• Psychosocial theories (according to Erik Erikson)

  • Lifespan perspective
  • Erikson's view centers mainly on the effects of social interactions in shaping personality
  • Crisis should be met to have ego development
  • If the crisis is resolved, may result in virtue
• The eight stages of psychosocial development

  1. Basic trust vs. mistrust

  2. Autonomy vs. shame & doubt

  3. Initiative vs. guilt

  4. Industry vs. inferiority

  5. Identity vs. confusion

  6. Intimacy vs. isolation

  7. Generativity vs. stagnation

  8. Integrity vs. despair
• Basic trust


  A child's expectation that their needs would be met by caregivers and the world is a safe place
• Mistrust


  The result of unmet needs whereby the impression is formed that the world is difficult or unreliable
• Autonomy


  To make decisions on their own / independent
• Shame & doubt


  If the primary caregiver is overprotective, overcontrol, and aren't giving the child the opportunity to do things on their own, that will result in feelings of shame and doubt
• Initiative


  The child is starting to assert themselves, to take control or power over their environment, through direct play and other social interactions
• Guilt


  Those children that are too controlling or exerting too much power, they often experience disapproval which results in guilt
• Industry


  Productivity of an individual
• Inferiority


  Feeling of incompetence/ room for growth