ASU 1

• Developmental Psychology


  The study of how people change over the course of a lifetime
• The importance of studying life-span development


  • Prepares individual to take responsibility for children
  • Gives insight about individuals' lives
  • Provides knowledge about what individuals' lives will be like as they age
• Development


  • Pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span
  • Involves growth as well as decline brought on by aging and dying
• Life-span perspective


  • Involves growth, maintenance, and regulation
  • Constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working together

  
• The upper boundary of human lifespan is 122 years. The average life expectancy is 79 years.
• In the 20th century, expected life has increased by 32 years
• Currently, there are more people over 60 then under 15
• Implications of rapid increase in life expectancy


  • Society is reflective of the needs of younger individuals
  • E.g. parks, transportation system, staircases, hospitals, etc. do not take into consideration individuals with low stamina or strength
  • Larger focus has been on what older adults lack rather then what they can contribute to society
• Characteristics of the life-span perspective

  • Lifelong
  • Multidimensional
  • Multidirectional
  • Plastic
  • Multidisciplinary
  • Contextual
  • Growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss
  • Co-construction of biology, culture, and individual

  
• Types of contextual influences


  • Normative age-graded influences
  • Normative history-graded influences
  • Nonnormative life events
• Normative age-graded influences


  Similar for individuals in a particular age group, e.g. puberty and menopause
• Normative history-graded influences


  Common to people of a particular generation because of historical circumstances, e.g. Cuban missile crisis; assassination of JFK
• Nonnormative life events


  Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual's life, e.g. death of parent when child is young; winning the lottery
• Contemporary concerns in the field of developmental psychology


  • Health and well-being
  • Parenting and education
  • Sociocultural contexts and diversity
• Culture


  Behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation
• Cross-cultural studies


  Comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures
• Ethnicity


  Based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language
• Socioeconomic status


  Grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics
• Gender


  Characteristics of people as males or females
• Social policy


  National government's course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens
• Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes


  Are bidirectional and inextricably intertwined
• Developmental cognitive neuroscience


  Explores links between development, cognitive processes, and the brain
• Developmental social neuroscience


  Examines connections between socioemotional processes, development, and the brain
• Biological processes


  Changes in an individual's physical nature
• Cognitive processes


  Changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language
• Socioemotional processes


  Changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality
• Developmental periods


  • Prenatal Period
  • Infancy
  • Early childhood
  • Middle and late Childhood
  • Adolescence
  • Early adulthood
  • Middle adulthood
  • Late adulthood

  
• Four ages in adult development and aging


  • First age: Childhood and adolescence
  • Second age: Prime adulthood, ages 20 through 59
  • Third age: Approximately 60 to 79 years of age
  • Fourth age: Approximately 80 years and older

  
• Development in one period is connected to development in another period
• Three developmental patterns of aging


  • Normal aging
  • Pathological aging
  • Successful aging
• Normal aging


  Characterizes most individuals
• Pathological aging


  Characterizes those who show greater than average decline
• Successful aging


  Characterizes those whose positive development is maintained longer
• Significance of age

  • Chronological age
  • Biological age
  • Psychological age
  • Social age
• Chronological age


  Number of years that have elapsed since birth
• Biological age


  Age in terms of biological health
• Psychological age

  Individual's adaptive capacities compared with those of other individuals of the same chronological age
• Social age


  Connectedness with others and the social roles individuals adopt
• Developmental issues


  • Nature-nurture issue
  • Stability-change issue
  • Continuity-discontinuity issue
• Nature-nurture issue


  Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature (organism's biological inheritance) or nurture (environmental experiences)