2022-01-02

WELCOME TO
FUNDAMENTALS OF
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
PSYC 333

Optional textbook
 Laura E. Berk’s “Exploring Lifespan Development” or
“Development through the Lifespan”. 4th, 5th, 6th, or 7th
Edition. Pearson.

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Syllabus
 Instructor: Elmira Ismaylova, Ph.D.
 Email: elmira.ismaylova@concordia.ca
 Course evaluations:
 3 exams (each worth ⅓ of the final grade)
 Syllabus for more information

Overview
 Development

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Lifespan development
 Development: all physical and psychological changes
undergone during the lifetime
 Developmental psychology: interdisciplinary field of
study devoted to understanding
human growth throughout life

Overview
 Development
 Concept of development
 Nature or nurture

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Nature or Nurture?
Nature Nurture
 Hereditary information  Surrounding physical and social
received from parents forces influences
 What/how we are is in  “Nurtured” to behave in certain
our “nature” ways

Overview
 Development
 Concept of development
 Nature or nurture
 Continuous or discontinuous

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Continuous or Discontinuous?

Adapted from Berk, 2008

Continuous or Discontinuous?
 Continuous  Discontinuous
development development
 Quantitative  Qualitative

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Continuous or Discontinuous?
 Continuous: process of gradually upgrading the same
type of skills present from the start

 Discontinuous: context-dependent process in which new

ways of understanding and responding to the world
suddenly emerge at specific times (stages)

Overview
 Development
 Concept of development
 Nature or nurture
 Continuous or discontinuous
 Same or distinct

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Same or Distinct?
 Same developmental milestones

 Distinct developmental context

 E.g. child x parent interaction, household dynamic,
neighborhood

Current view
 Many different potential development pathways in
physical, socioemotional and cognitive domains

Can you think of any

examples?

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Overview
 Development
 Concept of development
 Nature or nurture
 Continuous or discontinuous
 Same or distinct
 Main assumptions

Main assumptions of development

1. Lifelong development with changes in physical,
cognitive, social-emotional areas
2. Development is multidirectional, multidimensional
3. Development is plastic at all ages
Does plasticity change
 Resilience over time? Is it identical
in everyone?

4. Development is influenced by multiple interacting forces

 Age-graded influence
 History-graded influence

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Age-graded influence
 Events strongly predicted by age

History-graded influence: Cohort

 Born: 1946-1964
 Many siblings
 Two-parent households

www.mediavenue.com; theweek.com

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Overview
 Development
 Concept of development
 Nature or nurture
 Continuous or discontinuous
 Same or distinct
 Main assumptions
 Theoretical perspectives

Historical background
 Prior to 17th century
 Poverty and high mortality
 Child labor and maltreatment
 17th-18th centuries: Scientific Revolution
 John Locke
 Children born a tabula rasa
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Inborn “innocence”

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Fundamental definitions
 Theory: organized set of ideas allowing to describe,
explain and predict behavior

Charles Darwin
 Theory of evolution: all species of organisms arise and
develop through natural selection of small inherited
variations that increase individual's ability to survive,
compete and reproduce
 Survival of the fittest: survive in specific environment due
to traits that “fit” well with the former
 “Baby biographies”

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G. Stanley Hall & Arnold Gesell

 Development ≈ genetically determined maturation
processes unfolding automatically
 Behavioral observations and questionnaires of large # of
individuals
 Age norms
 Adolescent “Storm and Stress”

Photo by Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Alfred Binet
 Mental abilities
 Developed Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
 To predict school achievement vs. learning problems

https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/4767551/disp/95b65040f3762fc19ec2d8b9b489f5ae.jpg

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Sigmund Freud
 Psychosexual theory: psychosexual stages leading to
development of personality
 Case studies
 How parents manage child’s sexual and aggression drives

 3 parts of personality:
 Id: “pleasure”; source of (instinctual) drives
 Ego: “reality”; mediator
 Superego: “morality”; conscience

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Erik Erikson
 Psychosocial theory: human development is a product of
interaction between individual’s needs, abilities, societal
expectations and demands

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John B. Watson
 Classical conditioning theory: acquiring behavior via
association with various cues
 Little Albert
 Adults molding child behavior

B.F. Skinner
 Operant conditioning theory: behavior changes as a
function of what follows the behavior
 Behavior can be strengthened or weakened:
 Reinforcement*
 Punishment

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Traditional behaviorism
 John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner – a real science
 Study observable, measurable responses
 Understand scientific laws of learning → produce any
desired behavior
 General laws of learning can explain all behavior
 No value for mental concepts in a science of psychology
 Nurture is paramount
 Should never hug, kiss, let kids sit on lap
 Maybe one kiss on forehead before bed
 Shake hands, pat on head for a good job

Albert Bandura
 Social learning theory: children’s motivation to imitate
behavior through observation, modelling, reinforcement
or punishment
 Bobo doll experiment: exposure to AGG + reward (vs. punished)
~ ↑ likely to be AGG

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Jean Piaget
 Cognitive development theory: children actively learn as
they experience the world to, ultimately, achieve
maturation
 Observations and clinical interviews

Jean Piaget
 Cognitive development theory: children actively learn as
they experience the world to, ultimately, achieve
maturation
 Observations, setting up tests

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Jean Piaget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRF27F2bn-A

Jean Piaget – Cognitive Development

Schema

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Lev Vygotsky
 Social development theory: emphasis on sociocultural
influences on cognitive development
 Cognitive development stems from social interaction

https://tadahgroup.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/untitled.jpg

Urie Bronfenbrenner
 Ecological model:
development in complex
systems of relationships
affected by environment
 Multidirectional forces

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Today: Nature and Nurture combined

Principle One:
Our Nature shapes our
Nurture

Principle Two:
We need the right Nurture
to fully express our Nature

Person-Environment fit
 Temperament x environment interplay
 E.g. Very active parent + a child who does not enjoy
physical activity → potential conflict at home

 E.g. Very active child + restrictive school setting → trouble

trying to abide by the rules of conduct

Thomas & Chess, 1977; Goldsmith et al. 1987

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Culture
 Collectivistic cultures:
 Social harmony
 Families have the central role
 Promoting selflessness
 Group success

 Individualistic cultures:
 Individual identity
 Independence
 Competition
 Personal success

Sex & Gender

 Females have longer life expectancy
 Differences in play styles
 Gender roles
 Income inequality

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Overview
 Development
 Nature of development
 Nature or nurture
 Continuous or discontinuous
 Same or different
 Main assumptions
 Theoretical perspectives
 Research methods

Common research methods

 Naturalistic observation
 E.g. Aggressive preschooler
 Controlled observation
 E.g. Stranger anxiety
 Rating scales
 E.g. Observer- or self-reports
 Self-monitoring
 E.g. Beeper

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Common research methods

 Observation
 Naturalistic observation Q. What can be an issue with any
 Controlled observation observation?
A. Observer’s bias; time-consuming.
 Rating scales
 Observer’s reports
 Self-reports
 Self-monitoring
 E.g. Beeper Q. What is the potential issue with
self-reports?
A. Desirability.

Research by correlation
 Correlation
 Statistical relation between two variables
 Positive and negative correlations
 Used to study variables just as they occur
 E.g. Length of relationship ~ similarity in attitudes/opinions?
 Correlation ≠ causation

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Research by experiment
 Experiment
 Manipulating (Independent) Variable and observing its
effects on another (Dependent) Variable
 Stronger inference about causality
 E.g. IV =Exposure to violence via media
DV=subsequent aggressive play

Correlational vs. Experimental

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Experiments indicate effect

relationships by ruling out other forces
that could influence behavior

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Example of a confound

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Experiments indicate effect

relationships by ruling out other forces
that could influence the behavior

Group of Participants

Randomly assign participants

to different groups

Experimental Group Control Group

Compare groups on the

outcome variable
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Example of an experimental study

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Cross-sectional design
 Compare groups of different ages at the same period
of time
 Cohorts: each age group
 E.g. Beliefs about alcohol in 12 vs. 15 vs. 17 years of age

 Advantages
 Easier to carry out
 Less expensive
 Less time
 Limitations
 Cohort effect
 Does not address individual differences

Longitudinal design
 Follow one group of individuals over time
 E.g. Aggression trajectories in boys from 6 to 15 years of
age

 Advantages
 No cohort effect
 Assessing individual change
 Limitations
 More expensive
 Time consuming
 Attrition

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Sequential design
 Repeated study of cohorts over time
 E.g. Changes of substance abuse of 7- vs. 8- vs. 9-graders
over 3 years

Research ethics
 Informed consent
 Following full disclosure
 Children (age ≥7 years) must assent
 Components
 Voluntarism
 Full information
 Comprehension
 Research must be approved by ethics board

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