Developmental Psychology (Lesson 3)

The Nature of Development

Biological processes: produce changes in an individual’s physical nature
Genes inherited from parent’s brain development height and weight gains changes in motor skills nutrition and
exercise the hormonal changes of puberty cardiovascular decline
Cognitive Processes: refer to changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language
Socioemotional Processes: involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in
emotions, and changes in personality
Periods of Development
Developmental Period: refers to a time frame in a person’s life that is characterized by certain features
I. Prenatal Period: this is the time from conception to birth.
II. Infancy: is the developmental period from birth to 18 or 24 months.
Toddler is often used to describe a child from about 1 ½ to 3 years of age.
III. Early childhood is the developmental period from 3 through 5 years of age.
IV. Middle and late childhood: is the developmental period from about 6 to 10 or 11 years of age,
approximately corresponding to the elementary school years.
VI. Adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at
approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 21 years of age.
Emerging adulthood: the period from approximately 18 to 25 years of age (Arnett, 2015, 2016a, b).
Early adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the early twenties and lasts through the
thirties.
Middle adulthood is the developmental period from approximately 40 to about 60 years of age.
Late adulthood is the developmental period that begins during the sixties or seventies and lasts until
death.
Three Developmental Patterns of Aging

• Normal Aging
• Pathological Aging
• Successful Aging
Psychological age is an individual’s adaptive capacities compared with those of other individuals of the same
chronological age.
Social age refers to connectedness with others and the social roles individuals adopt
Developmental Issues
A. Nature - Nurture Issue
this refers to the debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture.
Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance.
Nurture to its environmental experiences.
B. Stability - Change Issue
Debate about whether we become older renditions of our early experience (stability) or whether we
develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development (change).
C. Continuity - Discontinuity Issue
Debate about the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or
distinct stages (discontinuity).