Chapter 1 Notes Lecture 1 studying human development o how people change o how people remain the same over time o multidisciplinary study o why you are the way you are genetic economic historical development and change etc o development is NOT POSSIBLE without change o not all change is development o for change to be considered developmentally significant o must be functionally significant must be relatively permanent why are you the way you are reflect and list some factors o o how do these fit into categories one implication you can change some relationships and some events and some conditions so you CAN influence development development is probabilistic NOT deterministic o i e people in larger families TEND TO ACT a certain way compared to those in larger families Lifespan development from conception to death o o bio psycho social spiritual o during a life o history and cohort effects a cohort is pretty much a group of people born at the same time development takes place in contexts race class gender sexual preference cohort culture o multiple intersecting contexts that we often associate with diversity o o o health ability personality o o educational attainment family form big questions in development persistent across time and context o nature nurture heredity environment o o universal context specific everyone personal o pendulum swings within disciplines and then social backlashes continuity discontinuity smooth progression abrupt shifts life span perspectives o understanding development is critical for provision of optimal services to clients patients students and families o understanding development is beneficial for enhancing your own development life satisfaction and relationships o understanding the inter relatedness of choices actions contexts and development in a practical applied perspective allows you to navigate and process life and development in more positive ways shaping human development in applied perspective building an understanding of development o approach to course o so that you can describe HOW you are in professional terms your developmental status abilities and challenges explain development WHY you are the way you are in professional terms predict development WHAT you may become given what and where you are now control development within reason and shape it know and understand the stuff that matters fact to ponder o Worldwide somewhere between 1 and 6 7 of the population attain a college university degree o 40 4 of Americans 25 65 have an associate s degree or higher now ranked 12 in world changing contexts of demographics and economics o Chapter 1 continued Lecture 2 Overview Life span Principles Theories and Research Methods Main Ideas o development entails multi faceted systematic change o both individual and family systems are important for understanding o development theories offer ways to explain development and focus attention for important questions for research and methods of intervention qualities of development o quantitative easily counted or numericized i e height age IQ weight o qualitative having to do with quality of functioning o realistically all development entails both to some degree o matter of focus or emphasis the life span perspective o o o o o elaborations on Paul Baltes pg 14 development is a lifelong process development is multiply determined cannot be understood within the scope of a single framework 4 central features of life span perspective multidirectionality gains and losses in same or different areas at different rates plasticity capacity is not predetermined many skills can be learned or improved with practice historical and contextual embeddedness history and culture strongly influence development multiple causation intersection of biological psychological socio cultural and life course forces o systems thinking human beings are developing systems in the context of other developing systems changing one component of the system has an effect on all parts of the system examples at an individual level stone in your shoe biological psychological social spiritual changes need to move beyond individual level to begin thinking about family systems when you have 2 people you have 2 reciprocal relationships in a 3 person system you have 6 reciprocal relationships there are also indirect relationships in a 4 person system you have 12 reciprocal direct relationships formula is n 2 n how is being the 4th child different than being the first what if dad leaves has substance use issues gets laid off injured etc what if it s a blended family instead of biological systematic systems thinking THAT is why it is important to understand systems thinking and how it influences development of individual people developing as a system bio psycho social spiritual in the context of families with each person within the family developing as a system in the context of neighborhoods communities cultures history etc with developing people in developing families developmental principles o o o o o o o there is variation among individuals there are significant differences between what is possible what is normal and what is desirable important to value differences and respect choice to a large degree developmentally you do reap what you sow o health fitness social relationships cognitive development o o implication set goals priorities and work toward them invest in them you can shape your developmental future to a significant degree by the choices you make and act on NOW planning is good action is different development is complex o developing people are complex o families being collections of developing people are even more complex o we will be studying developing individuals in the context of developing families communities etc everything matters o research and theory the basis for developmental knowledge reflection o o a seldom questioned cultural value is our emphasis on data based research is an excellent basis for knowing things decision making and objectivity o evidence based practice and grants need to also have ecologically valid and meaningful research findings developmental research studies how people change across time and what age related variables are associated with those changes chronological age is often an independent variable contexts of development or characteristics of person often independent variables as well o none of these variables are randomly assigned o dependent variables are usually selected physical and psychological