LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE

What is development?
●​ Learning and change
●​ Includes growth, but also decline and dying

The Life-Span Perspective

1.​ Life-span perspective - Developmental change throughout

adulthood as well as during childhood.
➔​Development occurs throughout childhood and adulthood.
2.​ Human life expectancy
●​ Maximum life span—upper boundary of the human
life span.
➔​Oldest possible age for humans (≈122 years).
●​ Life expectancy—average number of years that a person born
in a particular year can expect to live. Currently 79 years old in
the United States.
➔​Average years a newborn can expect to live (≈79 years in
the U.S.).

Characteristics of development according to the life-span

perspective:

1.​ Lifelong
2.​ Multidimensional
3.​ Multidirectional
4.​ Plastic
5.​ Contextual
6.​ Involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss
7.​ Constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors
working together
Development is contextual

Three types of contextual changes

1.​ Normative age-graded influences - Similar for individuals sharing

the same age group.
➔​Life changes that most people experience at roughly the same
age, regardless of where they live.
➔​Common experiences for people in the same age group.

Example: Starting school at age 6. Almost all children go through this

milestone at a similar age, so it’s considered a shared developmental
experience. Puberty in early teens is another example — it’s biologically
timed and happens to nearly everyone.

2.​ Normative history-graded influences - Common to people of a

particular generation due to historical circumstances.
➔​Events that affect an entire generation because they live
through the same historical period.
➔​Shared events for a generation due to historical circumstances.

Example: COVID-19 pandemic. People who were school-age or working

during the pandemic experienced similar disruptions (lockdowns, online
learning, job changes) because of the same historical event. Someone
born decades later won’t have that exact experience.

3.​ Non-normative life events - Unusual occurrences that have a major

impact on an individual’s life.
➔​Unique events that don’t happen to most people but can shape
a person’s life greatly.
➔​ Unusual events with major personal impact.

Example: Winning the lottery. Not everyone experiences this, and it can
drastically change one person’s financial situation and lifestyle — but it’s
not a shared generational or age-based experience.
Some contemporary concerns

1.​ Health and well-being

2.​ Parenting and education
3.​ Sociocultural contexts and diversity
➔​Culture: behavior patterns, beliefs, and other products of a
people that are passed on from generation to generation.
➔​Ethnicity: characteristic based on cultural heritage,nationality
characteristics, race, religion, and language.
➔​Socioeconomic status (SES) - A person’s social and
economic position based on income, education, and
occupation, which can affect access to resources and life
opportunities.
➔​Gender
4.​ Social policy
●​ Infant/child mortality rates, children, malnourishment,
impoverished families.
●​ Older adults and the growing number of older adults.
●​ Health-care costs and access to adequate health care.
●​ Social support available to older adults.

The Nature of Development

Developmental processes:

1.​ Biological processes

●​ Produce changes in an individual’s physical nature.
➔​Physical changes in the body and how it functions.
●​ Examples: height, weight, and motor skill changes
2.​ Cognitive processes
●​ Involve changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and
language.
➔​Changes in how we think, learn, and use language.
➔​problem-solving, memory, decision-making, speaking, and
understanding concepts.
●​ Examples: two-word sentences and solving a puzzle.
 3.​ Socioemotional processes
●​ Involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other
people, emotions, and personality.
➔​Changes in how we interact with others, regulate
emotions, and develop personality.
●​ Examples: smiling in response to interacting with a playmate.

Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes are similar because

they are all essential parts of human development, are interconnected,
influenced by both nature and nurture, and change continuously throughout
life; however, they differ in focus—biological deals with physical changes in
the body, cognitive involves mental abilities and thinking, and
socioemotional relates to emotions, relationships, and personality.

Two rapidly emerging fields

●​ Developmental cognitive neuroscience - Studies the links between

brain development and cognitive processes (e.g., thinking, memory,
problem-solving).
●​ Developmental social neuroscience - Studies the links between
brain development and socioemotional processes (e.g., relationships,
emotions, personality).

Periods of development

●​ Developmental period—a time frame characterized by certain

features.
➔​A specific stage in life defined by unique physical, cognitive,
and socioemotional characteristics.
Periods of Development

1.​ Prenatal Period Conception to Birth.

2.​ Infancy (birth to 18-24 months)
3.​ Early Childhood (3-5 years)
4.​ Middle and Late Childhood (6-10/11 years)
5.​ Adolescence (10-12 to 18-21 years)
6.​ Early Childhood (20 -30)
7.​ Middle Adulthood (40-50)
8.​ Late Adulthood (60-70 to death)

Of recent interest: emerging adulthood

●​ Period of transition from adolescence to adulthood

●​ 18 – 25 years of age

Significance of age

●​ Is one age in life better than another?

●​ Age and happiness
➔​In the U.S., adults are happier as they age
➔​Psychological well-being increases after age 50
➔​Older adults report having more positive emotional experiences
than younger adults

Conceptions of age

1.​ Chronological age—number of years since birth.

2.​ Biological age—age in terms of biological health.
3.​ Psychological age—adaptive capacities compared with others of the
same chronological age.
4.​ Social age—connectedness with others and the social roles that
individuals adopt.
Theories of Development: Psychoanalytic Theories

Psychoanalytic theories

●​ Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily

influenced by emotions.
●​ Stress that early experiences with parents deeply shape
development.

Freud’s stages of psychosexual development

●​ Five stages
●​ Adult personality is determined by how we resolve conflicts between
sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality.

Freudian Stages

1.​ Oral Stage (birth -1 ½ years) - infants pleasure centers on the mouth.
2.​ Anal Stage (1 ½ - 3 years) - child pleasure focuses on the anus.
3.​ Phallic Stage (3 - 6 years) - child pleasure focuses on the genitals.
4.​ Latency Stage (6 - puberty) - child represses sexual interest and
develops social and intellectual skills.
5.​ Genital Stage ( puberty onward) - a time of sexual reaweakening
source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family.

Erikson’s psychosocial theory

●​ Primary motivation for human behavior is social and reflects a desire

to affiliate with other people.
●​ Developmental change occurs throughout the life span
➔​Emphasized the importance of both early and later experiences.
●​ Eight stages, representing eight key crises that must be resolved.
Erikson Eight Life-Span Stages

1.​ Late Adulthood (60 onward)

●​ integrity vs despair
2.​ Middle Adulthood (40-50)
●​ generativity vs stagnation
3.​ Early Childhood (20-30) -
●​ intimacy vs isolation
4.​ Adolescence (10-20) -
●​ identity vs identity confusion
5.​ Middle and Late Childhood (elementary - 6 years to puberty)
●​ Industry vs inferiority
6.​ Early Childhood (preschool 3 - 5)
●​ Initiative vs guilt
7.​ Infancy (1-3)
●​ Autonomy vs shame and doubt
8.​ Infancy (first year)
●​ Trust vs mistrust

Theories of Development

Evaluation of psychoanalytic theories

●​ Stress the importance of the unconscious.

●​ Criticized for a lack of scientific support, an emphasis on sexual
underpinnings, and a negative image of people, lack of cultural
considerations.

Theories of Development: Cognitive Theories

Three important theories:

1.​ Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory

●​ Four stages
●​ Children actively construct their understanding of the world.
●​ Two key processes: organization and adaptation.
●​ Each age-related stage consists of a distinct way of thinking.
 ➔​A child's cognition is qualitatively different in one stage
compared with another.

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

1.​ Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2) - when infants learn about the

world through their senses and actions, moving from simple reflexes
at birth to basic symbolic thinking by about age 2.
2.​ Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years of Age) - when children (about
ages 2–7) use words and images to represent the world, showing
more symbolic thinking beyond just sensory and motor experiences.
3.​ Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 Years of Age) - when children
(about ages 7–11) can think logically about concrete events and
organize objects into categories.
4.​ Formal Operational Stage (11 Years of Age Through Adulthood) -
when adolescents (around age 11 and up) develop the ability to think
abstractly, logically, and about ideal possibilities.

2.​ Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory

●​ Children actively construct knowledge about the world.
●​ Culture and social interaction play a greater role.
●​ Social interaction with more-skilled adults and peers is
necessary for cognitive development.

3.​ Information-processing theory

●​ Individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize
about it.
●​ Development is gradual rather than stage-like, allowing them to
acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills.
Theories of Development

Evaluating cognitive theories

●​ Noted for an emphasis on the active construction of understanding.

●​ Criticized for insufficient attention to individual variation.

Behavioral and social cognitive theories

●​ Development is observable behavior that we can learn through

experience with the environment.
●​ Emphasize continuity in development.
●​ Two significant versions:
➔​Skinner’s operant conditioning
➔​Bandura’s social cognitive theory

Theories of Development: Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

1.​ Skinner’s operant conditioning

●​ Consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability
of the behavior’s occurrence.
●​ Rewards and punishments shape behavior
2.​ Bandura’s social cognitive theory
●​ shaped through observational learning
●​ The model of learning and development includes three
elements: behavior, the person/cognition, and the environment.

Theories of Development: Ethological Theory

Ethological theory

●​ Behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and

characterized by critical or sensitive periods.
●​ Presence or absence of certain experiences during specific time
frames has a long-lasting influence.
Konrad Lorenz

●​ European zoologist who studied the behavior of greylag geese.

●​ Imprinting: rapid, innate learning involving attachment to the first
moving object seen.
●​ Imprinting takes place in a critical period.

John Bowlby

●​ Applied ethological theory to human development.

●​ Studied attachment to caregivers.
●​ Attachment over the first year of life has important consequences
throughout the life span.
●​ Secure attachment predicts optimal development in childhood and
adulthood.
●​ Attachment should occur in a sensitive period.

Theories of Development: Ecological Theory

Ecological theory

●​ Emphasizes environmental factors on development.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

●​ Development reflects the influence of several systems.

1.​ Microsystem
2.​ Mesosystem
3.​ Exosystem
4.​ Macrosystem
5.​ Chronosystem
So, why do we care?

●​ They can help us order our thinking.

●​ They can help us make sense out of processes, events, and
situations.
●​ They can provide red flags.

THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive Development - the construction of human thought or mental

processes.

Piaget Theory and Vygotsky (Social-Cultural Theory)

1. Schema - the cognitive structure by which individuals intellectually adapt

to and organize their environment.

2. Assimilation - the process of fitting a new experience into an existing or

previously created cognitive structure or schema.

3. Accommodation - the process of creating a new schema.

4. Equilibrium - the process of achieving proper balance between

assimilation and accommodation.

Jean Piaget's

A child's capacity to understand certain concepts is based on the child's

developmental stage.

• Family setting
1. Sensori-motor Stage

•from birth to infancy

The stage when a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking and
reaching becomes more organized in his movement and activity.

Object permanence

- the ability of a child to know that an object still exist even when out of
sight.

2. Pre Operational stage

• from 2-7 years old.

• Intelligence is intuitive in nature.

#its all about asking something

Abilities Symbol Function

1. Egocentrism

2. Centration

3. Irrevers

3. Concrete operational stage

Ages between 8-11 years (elementary school years)

The ability of the child to think logically but only in terms of concrete
objects.
4. Formal operational stage

• Ages between 12-15 years

• thinking becomes more logical

Hypothetical Reasoning

analogical Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

Lev Vygotsky's SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

Social Interaction - takes on a major role in one development. Learning

happens through participation in social activities.

Cultural Factors - it affects and influences the mental growth and

development of children.

Language - open the door for learners to acquire knowledge the others
already have. Serve a social function but it also has an important individual
function. (Talking to oneself)

Zone of Proximal Development

Scaffolding - the support or assistance that lets the child accomplish a
task he cannot accomplish independently.

Scaffold and fade-away technique

•when learners become more proficient able to complete tasks on their own
that they could initially do without assistance the guidance can be
withdrawn.