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What is Development?

What is Development?. Systematic changes and continuities In the individual Between conception and death “Womb to Tomb” Three broad domains Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial. Periods of Development. Prenatal period : conception to birth Infancy : birth to 18 to 24 months

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What is Development?

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  1. What is Development? • Systematic changes and continuities • In the individual • Between conception and death • “Womb to Tomb” • Three broad domains • Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial

  2. Periods of Development • Prenatal period: conception to birth • Infancy: birth to 18 to 24 months • Early childhood: end of infancy to 5 or 6 years of age • Middle and late childhood: 6 to 12 years of age • Adolescence: transition from childhood to early adulthood,12 years of age to 20 years • Early adulthood: 20 to 40 years of age • Middle adulthood: 40-65 years of age • Late adulthood: begins in the 60s and lasts until death

  3. Age Grades, Age Norms, and the Social Clock • Age Grade: Socially defined age groups • Statuses, roles, privileges, responsibilities • Adults can vote, children can’t • Age Norms: Behavioral expectations by age • Children attend school • Social Clock: When things should be done • Early adulthood – time for 1st marriages • “Off time” experiences are more difficult

  4. BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT • How do nature and nurture together shape development? • To what degree do early traits and characteristics persist through life or change? • Are people active or passive in their own development? • In what ways is development continuous and in what ways is it discontinuous? • Is development universal or context specific?

  5. Framing the Nature/Nurture Issue • Nature: heredity • Maturational processes guided by genes • Biologically based predispositions • Biological unfolding of genes • Nurture: environment • Learning: experiences cause changes is thoughts, feelings, and behaviors • Interactionist view: nature & nurture interact

  6. Figure 1.1

  7. GOALS OF STUDY OF LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT • Description • Explanation • Optimization

  8. The Importance of Studying Life-Span Development • Parents or teachers • Insight about your own history • What will adult years be like?

  9. Characteristics of the Life-Span Approach • Development is Lifelong • Development is Multidimensional • Development is Multidirectional • Development is Plastic • Development is Multidisciplinary • Development is Contextual • Development is a process that involves growth, maintenance and the regulation of loss • Development is a co-construction of biology, culture and the individual

  10. Conceptions of Age • Chronological age: the number of years that have elapsed since birth • Biological age: a person’s age in terms of biological health • Psychological age: a person’s adaptive capacities compared with those of the individual of the same chronological age

  11. Methods of Studying Life-Span Development • Historical • Baby Biographies: Charles Darwin • Questionnaires: G. Stanley Hall

  12. HOW ISRESEARCH CONDUCTED • The Scientific Method Theory- a set of concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain some aspect of behavior Hypothesis- specific prediction regarding a particular set of observations Sample Selection Random Sample- a sample formed by identifying all members of the larger population and then, by random means, selecting a portion of that population to study.

  13. DATA COLLECTION • Self-report Measures (Verbal Reports) Interviews Questionnaires Surveys Tests/Scales Behavioral Observations Naturalistic Structured Physiological Measurements

  14. CORRELATIONAL METHOD • Involves determining whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way. • Advantage No manipulation • Disadvantage Cannot unambiguously establish a causal relationship between variables

  15. THE EXPERIMENT • Some aspect of the environment is manipulated or altered to see how this affects the behavior of the sample of individuals being investigated. • Independent Variable: variable in the experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter • Dependent Variable: variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment • Random Assignment: researchers assign participants to the experimental and control groups by chance • Advantage Establishes cause • Disadvantages Generalize to the real world; Ethical considerations

  16. DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS • Cross-sectional design- performances of people of different age groups, or cohorts are compared. Looks at age differences • Longitudinal design- the performance of one cohort of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time. Looks at age changes • Sequential design- combines the cross-sectional and longitudinal approach in one study

  17. FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENTAL STUDIES • Age effects- the effects of getting older • Cohort effects- the effects of being born in a particular historical context • Time of measurement effects- the effects of historical events and trends occurring when the data were collected (e.g. the effects of 9/11

  18. Theories of Development Organismic model “nature” maturation genetic blueprint individual seen as active Mechanistic model “nurture” environment learning Contextual model “nature x nurture” ecological models

  19. The Ecology of Human Development • Bronfenbrenner: Bioecological Model • How nature and nurture interact to produce development • The biological, psychological, person • Four environmental systems • Microsystem: family • Mesosystem: interaction among microsystems • Exosystem: settings one step removed • Macrosystem: culture

  20. The Ecology of Human Development • Bronfenbrenner: Bioecological Model • How nature and nurture interact to produce development • The biological, psychological, person • Four environmental systems • Microsystem: family • Mesosystem: interaction among microsystems • Exosystem: settings one step removed • Macrosystem: culture

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