Chapter 1
• What Is Life-Span Development?
– A pattern of change involving growth and decline, beginning at conception and lasting until death
– Life phases: infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood
– Life-span development is linked with neuroscience and the following areas of psychology:
• Cognitive
• Abnormal
• Social
• The Historical Perspective:
– Childhood has been of interest for a long time
– Adulthood became of interest in the late 1900s
– Three philosophical views of child development:
• Original sin
• Tabula rasa
• Innate goodness
– Childhood seen as special time of growth and change, influenced by child-rearing practices, childhood experiences, and environmental influences
• Since 1900, the older adult population has increased dramatically
–
Greatest increases up to 2040 will be in the
85-and-over and 100-and-over age groups
–
A girl born today in the U.S. has a 1-in-3
chance of living to be 100 years old
• Changes in adulthood are just as important as the changes in childhood
– There are great changes in body, personality, and abilities during adulthood
• Characteristics of the life-span perspective
– Development is lifelong
– Development is multidirectional: some aspects of dimensions shrink and some expand
– Development is plastic: it has the capacity for change
– Development is multidisciplinary: it is of interest to
• psychologists
• sociologists
• anthropologists
• neuroscientists
• medical researchers
– Development is contextual: a person acts on and responds to contexts such as
• Biological processes
• Sociocultural and environmental experiences
• Historical circumstances
• Life events or unusual circumstances impacting on the specific individual
– Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation
Developmental
Processes and Periods
• Life-span psychologists focus on shared characteristics, not individual uniqueness
• Biological processes focus on
– Physical nature and genetic influences
• Height and weight
• Brain development
• Motor skill changes
• Hormonal changes of puberty
• Cardiovascular decline
• Biological research seeks to slow the aging process and extend the human life span
• Cognitive processes focus on changes in individual thought, intelligence, and language
• In many instances, biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes are bidirectional because each can affect the other
Developmental Changes Are a Result of Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes
• Socioemotional processes focus on
– Changes in individual relationships with others
– Emotional changes
– Personality changes
• Periods of development focus on time frames:
– Prenatal period
– Infancy
– Early childhood
– Middle and late childhood
– Adolescence
– Early adulthood
– Middle adulthood
– Late adulthood
• Conceptions of age:
–
Perhaps we are becoming an
age-irrelevant society
– How should age be conceptualized?
• Chronological age
• Biological age
• Psychological age
• Social age
–
The life-span perspective considers
all of the above
Developmental
Issues
• Nature versus nurture
• Continuity and discontinuity
• Stability and change: