lifespan perspective on development

 lifespan perspective on development

What is developmental science and what factors stimulated expansion of the field?

 

·         a field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan. Factors that influence consistencies and transformation in people from conception to death

 

ID three basic issues on which theories of human development take a stand

 

·         Is the course of development continuous or discontinuous? (2) Does one course of development characterize all people, or are there many possible courses? (3) What are the roles of genetic and environmental factors-nature and nurture- in development?

 

Describe the lifespan perspective on development

 

·         Four assumptions make up this broader view: that development is (1) lifelong, (2) multidimensional and multidirectional, (3) highly plastic, and (4) affected by multiple, interacting forces

 

What theories influenced human development research in the mid-twentieth century?

 

·         psychosexual theory (freud), psychosocial theory (Erikson), Social learning theory (Bandura), Cognitive- developmental theory (Piaget)

 

Describe recent theoretical perspectives on human development.

 

·         information processing: human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulation system through which information flows
developmental cognitive neuroscience: it brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person's cognitive processing and behavior patterns
Ethology: concerned with the adaptive, or survival, value of behavior and its evolutionary history.
evolutionary developmental psychology: seeks to understand the adaptive value of specieswide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as those competencies change with age.
sociocultural theory: focuses on how culture is transmitted to the next generation. social interaction necessary
ecological systems theory: views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment

 

Identify the stand taken by each theory on the three basic issues of human development

 

·         Psychoanalytic perspective: discontinuous, one course of development, both nature and nurture
Behaviorism and social learning theory: continuous, many courses of development, emphasis on nurture
Piaget's cognitive-development theory: discontinuous, one course, both nature and nurture
Informative processing: continuous, one course, both
Ethology and evolutionary developmental psychology: both, one course, both
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory: both, many courses, both
Ecological systems theory: not specified, many courses, both
Lifespan perspective: both, many courses, both

 

Describe methods commonly used in research on human development

 

·         Naturalistic Observation: go into a field, or natural environment, and record the behavior of interest
Structured Observations: the investigator sets up a laboratory situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has equal opportunity to display the response
Clinical Interview: researchers use a flexible, conversational style to probe for the participant's point of view
Structured interviews: each participant is asked the same set of questions in the same way
Clinical or Case study method: brings together a wide range of information on one person, including interviews, observations, and test scores
Ethnography: a descriptive, qualitative technique. But instead of aiming to understand a single individual, it is directed toward understanding a culture or a distinct social group through participant observation.

 

Distinguish between correlational and experimental research designs, noting the strengths and limitations of each

 

·         Correlational design: researches gather information on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, without altering their experiences. Then they look at relationships between participants' characteristics and their behavior or development.
Experimental design: permits inferences about cause and effect because researchers use an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditions

 

Describe designs for studying development, noting the strengths and limitations of each.

 

·         Longitudinal Design: participants are studied repeatedly, and changes are noted as they get older.
Cross sectional design: groups of people differing in age are studied at the same point in time

 

What special ethical concerns arise in research on human development?

 

·         protection from harm, informed consent, privacy, knowledge of results, beneficial treatments

 

 

According to Freud, in each stage of psychosexual development, parents walk a fine line between permitting too much or too little gratification of their child's basic needs.

 

·         T

 

Both Freud and Erikson pointed out that normal development must be understood in relation to each culture's life situation.

 

·         F

 

Behaviorism and social learning theory have been praised for acknowledging people's contributions to their own development.

 

·         F

 

In Piaget's theory, as the brain develops and children's experiences expand, they move through four broad stages, each characterized by qualitatively distinct ways of thinking.

 

·         T

 

Research Indicates that Piaget underestimated the competencies of infants and preschoolers.

 

·         T

 

Information-processing researchers view the mind as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows.

 

·         T

 

Evolutionary psychologists are solely concerned with the biological bases of development.

 

·         F

 

Vygotsky believes that social interaction is necessary for children to acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community's culture.

 

·         T

 

The mesosystem is made up of social settings that do not contain the developing persons buy nevertheless affect experiences in immediate settings.

 

·         F

 

Bronfenbrenner characterized the environment as dynamic and ever-changing.

 

·         T

 

Which research design is being described?
The researcher studies groups of participants who differ in age at the same point in time.

 

·         Cross-sectional

 

Which research design is being described?
The researcher is interested in whether frquent exposure to violent televioson in early childhood predicts aggressive and antisocial behavior in adulthood.

 

·         Longitudinal

 

Which research design is being described?
Reveals cohort effects.

 

·         Sequential

 

Which research design is being described?
Age-related changes may be distorted because of biased sampling, participant dropout, practice effects, or cohort effects.

 

·         Longitudinal

 

Which research design is being described?
The researcher follows a sequence of samples(two or more age groups), collecting data on them at the same points in time.

 

·         Sequential

 

Which research design is being described?
Does not permit the study of individual developmental trends. Age differences may be distorted because of cohort effects

 

·         Cross-sectional

 

Which research design is being described?
The researcher is interested in age related changes in adult's problem solving skills. The researcher selects 3 samples-adults in their thirties, adults in their fifties, adults in their seventies-and tracks them for five years.

 

·         sequential

 

Which research design is being described?
The researcher is interested in how children of different ages process traumatic events, such as school violence. The researcher recruits children in grades 3, 6, 9, 12 for the study and interviews them about the mass shooting in Newtown, Conneticut.

 

·         Cross-sectional

 

Which research design is being described?
The researcher studies the same group of participants repeatedly at different ages.

 

·         Longitudinal