Dev. Psych

• Human development


  The study of how we change over time
• Characteristics of human development

  • Development is multidimensional
  • Development is lifelong, and change is apparent across the lifespan
  • Development is multidirectional
  • Development is multidisciplinary
  • Development is multicontextual
• 3 general domains/dimensions of human development

  • Physical
  • Cognitive
  • Psychosocial
• Psychosocial development


  Refers to developmental changes in emotions & psychological concerns, & social relationships
• Views of development


  • Discontinuous development (stage theories)
  • Continuous development (Vygotsky, information processing theorists)
• Erik Erikson


  "Father" of developmental psychology, encompassing the entire lifespan in his theory, psychosocial theory forms a foundation for much of our discussion of psychosocial development

  
• We no longer assume that those who develop in predictable ways are normal and those who do not are abnormal
• Adulthood is also a dynamic period of life marked by continued cognitive, social, and psychological development
• Human development is multidisciplinary


  • Developmental psychology is related to other applied fields like educational psychology, psychopathology, and forensic developmental psychology
  • Complements fields like social psychology, cognitive psychology, gerontology, and child development
  • Many academic disciplines contribute and collaborate to the study of life span
• Our journeys through life are more than biological; they are shaped by culture, history, economic, and political realities as much as they are influenced by physical change
• Human development is multicontextual


  • People are best understood in context
  • Triarchic theory of Intelligence describes "contextual" intelligence as the ability to understand what is called for in a situation
• Different contexts that affect development

  • The cohort effect
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Culture
• Cohort effect


  A group of people who are born at roughly the same period in a particular society, who share histories and contexts for living
• Socioeconomic status


  A way to identify families and households based on their shared levels of education, income, and occupation
• Culture


  A blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live, including ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, and what kinds of emotions are called for in certain situations
• Periods of development


  • Prenatal
  • Infancy
  • Childhood
  • Juvenile era
  • Pre-adolescence
  • Early adolescence
  • Late adolescence
  • Adulthood
• Developmental psychology is the scientific study of changes that occur in human beings throughout their lives
• Topics examined in developmental psychology

  • Physical development (motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes)
  • Cognitive development (problem-solving, language acquisition)
  • Social and emotional development
  • Self-concept and identity formation
• Much of what is known concerning the lifespan has been information gathered through research