PSY 230 Main Page

Chapter 2 

•         All scientific knowledge comes from scientific investigation – a four-step process

–        Identify a problem to be studied

–        Collect data or research information

–        Analyze the data

–        Draw conclusions 

•         Diverse but complimentary theories are used for explaining life-span development:

–        Psychoanalytic theories

–        Cognitive theories

–        Ethological theories

–        Ecological theories 

Psychoanalytic Theories:

•         Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

–        Personality has 3 parts

–        There are 5 stages of psychosexual development

–        Oedipus complex allows child to identify with same-sex parent

–        Fixation is an unresolved conflict during a stage of development

•         Today’s focus is more on cultural experiences and less on sexual instincts  

Oral Stage      Anal Stage      Phallic Stage   Latency Stage            Genital Stage

Infant’s             Child’s                     Child’s             Child                            A time of

Pleasure           pleasure                    pleasure            represses                      sexual

centers on         focuses on                focuses on          sexual                       reawakening;

mouth               anus                         genitals             interest                         source of

                                                                                and develops                sexual

                                                                                social and                     pleasure

                                                                                intellectual                     becomes

                                                                                skills                             someone

                                                                                                                    outside of the

                                                                                                                    family

•         Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:

–        There are 8 stages of psychosocial development

–        Each has a unique developmental task

–        Developmental change occurs throughout life span 

•         Key points of psychoanalytic theories:

–        Early experiences and family relationships are very important to development

–        Unconscious aspects of the mind are considered

–        Personality is best seen as a developmental process

 Cognitive theories: 

•         Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory

–        Stresses conscious mental processes

–        Cognitive processes are influenced by
biological maturation

–        Four stages of cognitive development
in children

–        Assimilation and accommodation underlie
how children understand the world, adapt
to it, and organize their experiences 

• Piaget’s stages

­       Sensorimotor

­       Preoperational

­       Concrete Operational

­       Formal Operational 

•         Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory

–        Children actively construct their knowledge

–        Social interaction and culture guide cognitive development

–        Learning is based upon inventions of society

–        Knowledge is created through interactions with other people and objects in the culture

–        Less skilled persons learn from the more skilled 

•         Information-processing theory

–        Compares computers to the human mind

–        Thinking is information processing 

Behavioral and social cognitive theories:

•         Pavlov’s classical conditioning includes conditioned and unconditioned responses

•         Watson applies association and generalization

•         Operant conditioning focuses on positive and negative reinforcement

•         Social cognitive theory focuses on observation and imitation

•         Ethological theory includes imprinting and attachment  

•         Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory:

–        Environmental factors influence development

–        5 environmental systems affect life-span development 

•         Eclectic theoretical orientation:

–        Selects features from other theories

–        No one theory has all the answers

–        Each theory can make a contribution to understanding life-span development 

Research in Life-Span Development 

•         Types of research:

–        Descriptive: observes and records behavior

•         Laboratory research

•         Naturalistic observation

•         Surveys and interviews

•         Standardized tests

•         Case studies

•         Life-history records

•         Physiological measures 

–        Correlational research

•         Measures relationships; not the same
as causation 

–        Experimental research

•         Independent variable gets manipulated

•         Dependent variable is the resulting change

•         Experimental group is manipulated

•         Control group serves as the “norm”
for comparison 

•         Time-span research

–        Focus on the relation of age to some other variable across the life span (e.g., memory)

–        Cross-sectional approach compares different age groups at one time

–        Longitudinal approach studies a group over a period of time

–        Sequential approach combines longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches

–        Cohort effects: due to time or era of birth but not due to one’s actual age 

Facing Up to Research Challenges 

•         Conducting Ethical Research

–        Informed consent: participants give informed consent and participation is voluntary

–        Confidentiality of participants’ information

–        Participants’ rights will be observed

–        Debriefing after the experiment

–        Deception: researchers ensure any deception will not harm the participants  

•         Minimize bias:

•         Being a Wise Consumer of Information

–        Media only publishes parts of research when
of public interest

–        All information for public consumption may be

•         Oversimplified, condensed with few details

•         Distorted or exaggerated

–        People must consider information carefully

•         Separate group from individual outcomes

•         Do not overgeneralize from small sample

•         Look for additional information on a study

•         Do not attribute causes when none exist

•         Evaluate the source of information