Life Span Perspective 1 Development is a life long process Every stage of development involves particular tasks How does development in one stage affect the development in another Development can take many directions 2 Multidirectionality 3 Plasticity lifespan The degree to which characteristics can or cannot change throughout the 4 Development must be viewed in historical context Social movements Technology War All of these factors affect a person s development Ex if someone grew up during a world war their development was influenced in a certain way 5 Contextualism Development must be studied in various contexts Development is an ongoing interaction between a changing individual in a changing environment The individual influences and is influenced by his or her environment Biological cognitive social and emotional factors interact to affect 6 Reciprocal Influence 7 Multidimensionality development 8 Multidisciplinary The study of human development should involve collaboration across various fields of study Developmental Age Classifications Infancy and Toddlerhood birth to 2 Early childhood 2 6 Middle childhood 6 11 Adolescence 11 18 Early adulthood 18 40 Emerging adulthood 19 25 this is us we still rely on our parents but we are on our own Middle adulthood 40 65 Late adulthood 65 older Nature Vs Nuture Nature the influence of heredity on development or biologically based predispositions o Jerome Kegan temperaments nature side of the argument o Inhibited kids vs uninhibited kids o Inhibited kids are more uncomfortable in new situations and not as outgoing o Whatever type of kid you are that is the type of adult you will be Nuture forces in the environment that influence development What we are studying now is how nature and nurture interact with each other to affect development Just because you have a predisposition to something does not mean we know how it will manifest into your life Traits which have substantial genetic predisposition o Intelligence o Verbal ability o Vocational interest o Scholastic achievement o Memory o Extroversion introversion o Neuroticism o Openness o Conscientiousness o Agreeableness o Depression o Autism o Alzheimer s disease o Schizophrenia o Alcoholism Stability and Change Is personality stable over time Scientific Investigation Goals 2007 Study of Baby Einstein Videos Dr Christakis and Zimmerman Evidence to suggest that videos may impede language development for infants ages 8 16 months 17 drop in vocabulary for babies who watched videos compared to babies who did not watch videos but instead engaged in face to face interactions w adults Disorders which have a substantial genetic predisposition When researchers report that traits are heritable they typically mean that genes account for 30 60 of the variation you see in that trait The environment modifies or enhances traits to which we are predisposed o Description of average trends o Explanation of why we develop as we do Mothers o Optimization how can we help people to develop in a positive direction Science is not defined by what it studies but how it conducts investigations Theory is a set of assumptions that attempt to describe predict or explain a phenomenon The Cycle of Science 1 Observations 2 Theory 3 Hypothesis 4 Systematic Observation 5 Support or modify the theory relationship between 2 variables Correlational research the goal is to describe the strength and direction of the Ex Is there a relationship between the amount of conflict in a marriage and the marriage ending in divorce No there is not The result of correlational research is a correlation coefficient that ranges in value from 1 00 to 1 00 The closer to 1 or 1 the stronger the correlation Direction of the line on the graph tells you the sign of the correlation positive or negative Positive as one variable increases the other variable increases Negative as one variable increases the other variable decreases In correlational research we can predict one variable from the other but correlation does NOT equal causation However there may be a third variable that causes the correlation between the two variables Research Question Is there a relationship between X and Y Hypothesis states an expected relationship between 2 concepts You always have to operationalize the 2 concepts which means providing a clear definition of each concept and designating a particular measurement instrument to measure each concept Psychoanalytic Theory of Freud Development is directed by the interaction of nature drives and instincts and nurture early experience primarily parents ID present at birth our basic instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain to express the self SUPEREGO in place by 3 6 years old constraints placed upon child by parents and the demands of society EGO begins to form in infancy the way in which we cope with our instinctual drives ID and the demands made by parents and society SUPEREGO balance between both Internal conflict anxiety that results from a struggle between biological demands and societal expectations Iceberg Theory 1 Conscious mind that which we are aware of 2 Preconscious mind stored information that can be brought to the mind at will 3 Unconscious mind that which is kept from out awareness o The memory or experience was too threatening and becomes a repressed memory o Primal drives that must stay in check o Implicit memories memories formed in infancy and early childhood Freud said dreams are the royal road to the unconscious When repressed implicit memories slip into your conscious mind they are often disguised Behavioral Theory Skinner and Bandura Personality is shaped by early experience which involved learning Learning for Skinner involves o Positive reinforcement bring rewarded for a desired behavior o Negative reinforcement the removal of an aversive event when desired behavior appears taking away something that someone does not like Learning for Bandura involves o Modeling learning how to behave by observing significant others o How a parent behaves is much more important than what the parent says to the child about how he or she should behave Erikson s Psychosocial Theory of Development includes notions of the lifespan perspective contextualism ie Relationships lifelong development plasticity we can change at any time multidimensionality biological cognitive factors multidirectionality There are specific periods of life during which we are confronted with a unique problem The term for this is psychosocial crisis