Developmental Psychology
- The study of human growth and development from infancy to death
- Womb to tomb
What is development?
- How humans change through the lifespan, from conception through
childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and death
- Developmental psychologists see lifespan development as a process that can
be studied
- Naturalistic observations
- surveys/self-report
- Experiments
Domains of development
- Physical
- Body and brain, senses, motor skills, health and wellness
- Cognitive
- Learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and
creativity
- Psychological
- Emotions, personality, social relationships
Major themes
- The nature/nurture debate
- Continuous or discontinuous change?
- Stability and change
- One or many courses of development
Nature/Nurture debate
- Which influences development more?
- A long-standing debate in developmental psychology
- Our environment and experiences (nurture) interact with our genetic makeup
and biology (nature) to influence our development
Continuous or discontinuous change?
- Continuous development sees development as a cumulative process, with
gradual change
- Researchers who emphasize experience and learning tend to see
development this way
- Discontinuous development sees development as an “ages and stages”
process, where development happens in stepwise fashion, or in a series of
distinct stages
- Researchers who emphasize biological maturation tend to see
development this way
- Many historical developmental theorists tended to be “ages and
stages” psychologists
, Stability/change
- Do we experience more stability over our lifespan, or do we experience more
change?
- Some things, like our temperament, tend to be stable
- The Dunedin study has followed 1000 people from age three to age 38
- Researchers found the children who lacked self-control tended to
engage in riskier behaviors as adolescents and adults
- But we also change as we get older
- Social attitudes and ways of coping tend to be less stable
- Most people become more conscientious, agreeable, and
self-confident in early adulthood
- “Life requires both stability and change. Stability provides our identity. Change
gives us hope for a brighter future”
One course of development, or many?
- Is there one course of development (across cultures), or are there many
(depending on culture)?
- Stage. (discontinuous) theorists tend to see development as universal
- Early theorists especially focused on “normative” development
- Developmental milestones: specific normative events, such as
crawling, walking, speaking, naming colors, starting puberty
- What we think of as “normative” or “normal” may not be universal across all
cultures
Development and culture
- Biological milestones (starting puberty): tend to be more universal than social
milestones (when you start school)
- Historically, research on development, even biological development, has
tended to focus on western, mostly white, babies
- recently , this has started to change, but global standards still use
norms developed through research in the western world
- Examples
- In tajikistan and other parts of central asia, parents restrict their babies’
movements through a process called “gahvora” cradling. Babies in
these countries tend to walk later than their western counterparts
- South african children could drink from a cup independently earlier than
their same-aged peers in argentina because of different parenting
styles
Lifespan development theorists
- Freud: psychosexual
- Erikson: psychosocial
- Piaget: Cognitive
- Vygotsky: Sociocultural
- Kholberg: Moral
- The study of human growth and development from infancy to death
- Womb to tomb
What is development?
- How humans change through the lifespan, from conception through
childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and death
- Developmental psychologists see lifespan development as a process that can
be studied
- Naturalistic observations
- surveys/self-report
- Experiments
Domains of development
- Physical
- Body and brain, senses, motor skills, health and wellness
- Cognitive
- Learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and
creativity
- Psychological
- Emotions, personality, social relationships
Major themes
- The nature/nurture debate
- Continuous or discontinuous change?
- Stability and change
- One or many courses of development
Nature/Nurture debate
- Which influences development more?
- A long-standing debate in developmental psychology
- Our environment and experiences (nurture) interact with our genetic makeup
and biology (nature) to influence our development
Continuous or discontinuous change?
- Continuous development sees development as a cumulative process, with
gradual change
- Researchers who emphasize experience and learning tend to see
development this way
- Discontinuous development sees development as an “ages and stages”
process, where development happens in stepwise fashion, or in a series of
distinct stages
- Researchers who emphasize biological maturation tend to see
development this way
- Many historical developmental theorists tended to be “ages and
stages” psychologists
, Stability/change
- Do we experience more stability over our lifespan, or do we experience more
change?
- Some things, like our temperament, tend to be stable
- The Dunedin study has followed 1000 people from age three to age 38
- Researchers found the children who lacked self-control tended to
engage in riskier behaviors as adolescents and adults
- But we also change as we get older
- Social attitudes and ways of coping tend to be less stable
- Most people become more conscientious, agreeable, and
self-confident in early adulthood
- “Life requires both stability and change. Stability provides our identity. Change
gives us hope for a brighter future”
One course of development, or many?
- Is there one course of development (across cultures), or are there many
(depending on culture)?
- Stage. (discontinuous) theorists tend to see development as universal
- Early theorists especially focused on “normative” development
- Developmental milestones: specific normative events, such as
crawling, walking, speaking, naming colors, starting puberty
- What we think of as “normative” or “normal” may not be universal across all
cultures
Development and culture
- Biological milestones (starting puberty): tend to be more universal than social
milestones (when you start school)
- Historically, research on development, even biological development, has
tended to focus on western, mostly white, babies
- recently , this has started to change, but global standards still use
norms developed through research in the western world
- Examples
- In tajikistan and other parts of central asia, parents restrict their babies’
movements through a process called “gahvora” cradling. Babies in
these countries tend to walk later than their western counterparts
- South african children could drink from a cup independently earlier than
their same-aged peers in argentina because of different parenting
styles
Lifespan development theorists
- Freud: psychosexual
- Erikson: psychosocial
- Piaget: Cognitive
- Vygotsky: Sociocultural
- Kholberg: Moral
