Prelim

• Developmental Psychology


  The scientific study of how people change and grow throughout their lifespan
• Goals of Developmental Psychology

  • Describe
  • Explain
  • Predict
  • Intervene
• Development happens throughout the lifespan
• Periods of Development include Prenatal, Infancy and Toddlerhood, Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, Adolescence, Emerging & Young Adulthood, Middle Adulthood, and Late Adulthood
• Periods of Development

  • Prenatal (Conception to Birth)
  • Infancy and Toddlerhood (Birth – Age 2)
  • Early Childhood (Age 3-6)
  • Middle Childhood (Age 6-11)
  • Adolescence (Age 11-19)
  • Emerging & Young Adulthood (Age 20-40)
  • Middle Adulthood (Age 40-65)
  • Late Adulthood (Age 65 & above)
• Multidimensionality


  • Development occurs in multiple domains: physical, cognitive, social, and emotional
• Domains of Development


  • Physical
  • Cognitive
  • Psychosocial
• Nature vs Nurture


  The process of development is influenced by both biology and culture
• Maturation


  Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes
• Heredity


  Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents
• Environment


  Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influences on development
• Multidirectionality


  People may gain in some areas and lose in others or sometimes occur at the same time
• Changing Priorities


  Resources may be used for growth, maintenance or dealing with loss
• Plasticity


  The capability to change and adapt throughout life
• Influences on Development


  • Family
  • Socio-economic Status
  • Culture and Race
  • History
• Types of Family

  • Nuclear Family
  • Extended Family
• Nuclear Family


  Two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of one or two parents and their biological children, adopted children, or stepchildren
• Extended Family


  Multigenerational kinship network of parents, children, and other relatives, sometimes living together in an extended-family household
• Socio-economic Status


  Combination of economic and social factors describing an individual or family, including income, education, and occupation
• Culture and Race


  A society’s or group’s total way of life, including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and physical products
• Ethnic group


  A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, or national origins
• Historical generation


  A group of people strongly influenced by a major historical event during their formative period
• 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
• Nonnormative


  Characteristic of an unusual event that happens to a particular person or a typical event that happens at an unusual time of life
• Basic Theoretical Issues


  • Active vs Reactive
  • Continuity vs Discontinuity
  • Quantitative vs Qualitative
• Active (Organismic)


  Actively in motion and initiate motion
• Reactive (Mechanistic)


  Reacts in environmental input
• Continuity (Gradual)


  Development is always governed by the same processes and involves the gradual refinement and extension of early skills into later abilities
• Discontinuity (Stage-based)


  Marked by the emergence of new phenomena that could not be easily predicted on the basis of past functioning
• Quantitative change


  Changes in number or amount
• Qualitative change


  Discontinuous changes in kind, structure, or organization
• Theoretical Perspectives


  • Psychoanalytic Perspective
  • Learning Perspective (Behaviorism)
  • Cognitive Perspective
  • Ecological Perspective
  • Evolutionary Perspective
• Psychoanalytic Perspective


  • Explains personality development and long term stages
  • Difficult to Test
• Psychosexual Perspective


  • Focus on unconscious mind and psychosexual stages
  • Proponent: Sigmund Freud
• Psychosexual Stages


  • Oral
  • Anal
  • Phallic
  • Latent
  • Genital
• ID


  Operates under pleasure principle
• EGO


  Finds reason to gratify pleasure
• SUPEREGO


  Incorporated with social acceptance; The conscience
• EROGENOUS ZONE


  Areas of body where the source of pleasure is found