Lifespan Development - Module 1 Guided Notes

Chapter 1 Reading Guide While reading Chapter 1, complete the following guide by filling in the missing components. 1. This is the general course of our development, the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span. 2. When he was 6 months old, he was hospitalized with a severe allergic reaction, and his parents were rarely allowed to visit him. According to his mother, the previously happy baby was never the same after his hospital stay….In his mother’s view, the events that occurred during her son’s infancy warped the development of her son’s mind and emotions. 3. Plasticity means the capacity for change. 4. A cultural group can be as large as the United States or as small as an isolated Appalachian town. 5. Cross-cultural studies compare of two or more cultures. The comparison provides information about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, or is instead culture-specific. 6. Socioeconomic status refers to a person’s position within society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics. 7. Out of concern that policy makers are doing too little to protect the well-being of children and older adults, life-span researchers are increasingly undertaking studies that they hope will lead to effective social policy. 8. Genes inherited from parents, the development of the brain, height and weight gains, changes in motor skills, nutrition, exercise, the hormonal changes of puberty, and cardiovascular decline are all examples of biological processes that affect development. 9. Watching a colorful mobile swinging above the crib, putting together a two-word sentence, memorizing a poem, imagining what it would be like to be a movie star, and solving a crossword puzzle all involve cognitive processes. 10. An infant’s smile in response to a parent’s touch, a toddler’s aggressive attack on a playmate, a school-age child’s development of assertiveness, an adolescent’s joy at the senior prom, and the affection of an elderly couple all reflect the role of socioemotional processes in development. 11. Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes are inextricably intertwined. 12. The prenatal period is the time from conception to birth. 13. Infancy is the developmental period from birth to 18 or 24 months where humans are extremely dependent on adults. 14. Early childhood is the developmental period from the end of infancy to age 5 or 6. This period is sometimes called the “preschool years.” During this time, young children learn to become more self-sufficient and to care for themselves. 15. Middle and late childhood is the developmental period from about 6 to 11 years of age, approximately corresponding to the elementary school years. During this period, children master the fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. 16. Adolescence encompasses the transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 22 years of age. Adolescence begins with rapid physical changes -- dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in body contour, and the development of sexual characteristics such as enlargement of the breasts, growth of pubic and facial hair, and deepening of the voice. At this point in development, the pursuit of independence and an identity are prominent themes. 17. Early adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the late teens or early twenties and lasts through the thirties. For young adults, this is a time for establishing personal and economic independence, becoming proficient in a career, and for many, selecting a mate, learning to live with that person in an intimate way, starting a family, and rearing children. 18. Middle adulthood is the developmental period from approximately 40 years of age to about 60. It is the time of expanding personal and social involvement and responsibility; of assisting the 1 Chapter 1 Reading Guide 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. next generation in becoming competent, mature individuals; and of achieving and maintaining satisfaction in a career. Late adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the sixties or seventies and lasts until death. It is a time of life review retirement from the workforce, and adjustment to new social roles involving decreasing strength and health. Chronological age is the number of years that have elapsed since birth. Biological age is a person’s age in terms of biological health. Determining biological age involves knowing the functional capacities of a person’s vital organs. Psychological age is an individual’s adaptive capacities compared with those of other individuals Social age refers to connectedness with others and the social roles individuals adopt. Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences. A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain phenomena and make predictions. Psychoanalytic theories describe development primarily in terms of unconscious processes that are heavily colored by emotion. Freud developed a technique called psychoanalysis. As he listened to, probed, and analyzed his patients, he became convinced that their problems were the result of experiences early in life. He thought that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from the mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals. Consequently, he determined, we pass through five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. For one thing, Erikson said we develop in scychosocial stages, rather than the psychosexual stages that Freud described. According to Freud, the primary motivation for human behavior is sexual in nature; According to Erikson, motivation is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people. Piaget’s theory states that children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world. Two processes unerlie this cognitive construction of the world: organization and adaptation. Relying on a single theory to explain development is probably a mistake. This book instead takes an eclectic theoretical orientation, which does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather presents what are considered the best features of each theory. Where should we make our observations? We have two choices: the laboratory and the everyday world. Naturalistic observation means observing behavior in real-world settings and making no effort to manipulate or control the situation. A study case provides information about one person’s experiences; it may focus on nearly any aspect of the subject’s life that helps the researcher understand the person’s mind, behavior, or other attributes. An experiment is a carefully regulated procedure in which one of more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant. A typical cross-sectional study might include three groups of children: 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and 11-year-olds. Another study might include groups of 15-year-olds, 25-year-olds, and 45-yearolds. The groups can be compared with respect to a variety of dependent variables, such as IQ, memory, peer relations, attachment to parents, hormonal changes, and so on. All of this can be accomplished in a short time. In some studies data are collected in a single day. Even in largescale cross-sectional studies with hundreds of subjects, data collection does not usually take longer than several months to complete. The main advantage of the cross-sectional study is that the researcher does not have to wait for the individuals to grow up or become older. The longitudinal approach a research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more. 2 Chapter 1 Reading Guide 36. Even after informed consent is given, participants must retain the right to withdraw from the study at any time and for any reason. 37. Researchers are responsible for keeping all of the date they gather on individuals completely confidential and, when possible, completely anonymous. 38. After the study has been completed, participants should be informed of its purpose and the methods that were used. 39. In all cases of deception, however, the psychologist must ensure that the deception will not harm the participants and that the participant will be debriefed as soon as possible after the study is completed. 3