Chapters 1 & 2:

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY The Study of Human Development; Theory and Research

Source: Papalia & Martorell (15th ed.), Santrock (17th ed.), Boyd & Bee (7th ed.)
Life-span Development problems are illogical ideas self-control
• The concept of human development as a lifelong process, which common. about the increase.
can be studied scientifically. world.
• From “womb to tomb,” comprising the entire human life span Handedness Gender identity
from conception to death. appears; fine Memory and develops.
• Can either be positive or negative. and gross language
motor skills improve. Play becomes
Goals of Human Development and strength more
• To describe improve. Intelligence imaginative,
• To explain becomes more more
• To predict predictable. elaborate, and
• To intervene usually more
Preschool social.
Domains of Development experience is
• Physical Development common, and Altruism,
o Growth of the body and brain, sensory capacities, kindergarten aggression,
motor skills, health experience is and
more so. fearfulness are
• Cognitive Development (Mental Abilities)
common.
o Learning, attention, memory, language, thinking,
reasoning, creativity
Family is still
• Psychosocial Development
the focus of
o Emotions, personality, social relationships
social life, but
other children
Each domain/aspect/area of development affects the others. become more
Development in one area sends ripples through all other areas. important.
Division of life span into periods is a social construct. Egocentrism
diminishes.
Typical Major Developments in 8 Periods of Human Development
Physical Cognitive Psychosocial Children begin
Age Period Self-concept
Developments Developments Developments Growth slows. to think logically
becomes more
Normal but concretely.
complex,
fertilization or Strength and
affecting self-
other means. athletic skills Memory and
esteem.
improve. language skills
Genetic Fetus increase.
Abilities to learn Middle Coregulation
Prenatal endowment responds to Respiratory
and remember Childhood reflects gradual
Period interacts with mother’s voice illnesses are Cognitive gains
and to respond (ages 6-11) shift in control
(conception environmental and develops common, but permit children
to sensory from parents to
to birth influences from preference for health is to benefit from
stimuli. child.
the start. it. generally formal
better than at schooling.
Peers assume
Basic body any other time
central
structures and in the life span. Some children
importance.
organs form. show special
All senses and educational
body systems Attachments to needs and
Abilities to learn strengths.
operate at birth parents and
and remember
to varying others form. Physical Ability to think Search for
are present,
degrees. growth and abstractly and identity,
even in early
Self- other changes use scientific including
weeks.
The brain awareness are rapid and reasoning sexual identity,
grows in develops. profound. develops. becomes
Infancy and Use of symbols central.
complexity and
Toddlerhood and ability to
is highly Shift from Reproductive Immature
(birth to age solve problems
sensitive to dependence maturity thinking Relationships
3) develop by end Adolescence
environmental toward occurs. persists in with parents
of second year. (ages 11-20)
influence. autonomy some attitudes are generally
occurs. Major health and behaviors. good.
Comprehension
Physical risks arise from
and use of
growth and Interest in behavioral Education Peer group
language
development other children issues, such as focuses on may exert a
develop rapidly.
of motor skills increases. eating preparation for positive or
are rapid. disorders and college or negative
Thinking is drug abuse. vocation. influence.
Growth is Self-concept
somewhat Thought and Personality
steady; and Physical
egocentric, but moral traits and
appearance understanding condition
understanding judgments styles become
becomes more of emotions peaks, then
of other become more relatively
Early slender and become more Emerging and declines
people’s complex. stable, but
Childhood proportions complex; self- Young slightly.
perspectives changes in
(ages 3-6) more adultlike. esteem is Adulthood
grows. Educational personality
global. (ages 20-40) Lifestyle
and may be
Appetite choices
Cognitive occupational influenced by
diminishes, Independence, influence
immaturity choices are life stages and
and sleep initiative, and health.
results in some made, events.

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 sometimes Contexts of Development
after period of Intimate Family
exploration. relationships • Nuclear Family
and personal o Two-generational kinship, economic, and household
lifestyles are unit consisting of one or two parents and their
established but children, whether biological, adopted, or stepchildren.
may not be • Extended Family
lasting. o Traditional family form in many societies in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America.
Most people o Multigenerational kinship network of parents,
marry, and children, and other relatives, sometimes living
most become together in an extended-family household.
parents. • Polygamy
Mental abilities o Family structure in which one spouse, most
Sense of
peak; expertise commonly a man, is married to more than one partner.
identity
Slow and practical o Primarily within Muslim countries.
continues to
deterioration of problem-solving
develop;
sensory skills are high. Socioeconomic Status (SES)
midlife
abilities, • Based on family income and the educational and occupational
transition may
health, Creative output levels of the adults in the household.
occur.
stamina, and may decline but
Middle strength may improve in Culture
Dual
Adulthood begin, but quality. • A society’s or group’s total way of life, including customs,
responsibilities
(ages 40-65) individual traditions, beliefs, values, language, and physical products—all
of caring for
differences are For some, learned behavior, passed on from parents to children.
children and
wide. career success • Constantly changing
parents may
and earning • Individualistic Cultures
cause stress.
Women powers peak; o Priority on personal goals and encourage people to
experience for others, view themselves as distinct individuals.
Launching of
menopause. burnout or • Collectivistic Cultures
children leaves
career change o Prioritize collaborative social goals ahead of
empty nest.
may occur. individual goals and to view themselves in the context
Retirement of their social relationships.
from workforce
may occur and Ethnicity and Race
may offer new • Ethnic Group
options for use o A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language,
of time. or national origins, which contribute to a sense of
shared identity.
Most people People • Ethnic Minorities
are healthy develop more
Most people o Ethnic groups with national or cultural traditions
and active, flexible
are mentally different from the majority of the population.
although strategies to
alert. o Often affected by prejudice and discrimination.
health and cope with
• Race
physical personal
Late Although o A grouping of humans distinguished by their outward
abilities losses and
Adulthood intelligence and physical characteristics or social qualities from other
generally impending
(ages 65 and memory may groups.
decline death.
over) deteriorate in o Not a biological construct.
some areas,
Slowing of Relationships
most people Historical Context of Development
reaction time with family and
find ways to • Normative Age-Graded Influences
affects some close friends
compensate. o Highly similar for people in a particular age group.
aspects of can provide
o Timing of biological events is fairly predictable within
functioning. important
a normal range.
support.
Example:
▪ Puberty and Menopause
Search for
meaning in life • Normative History-Graded Influences
assumes o Significant events that shape the behavior and
central attitudes of a historical generation.
importance. Example:
▪ World War II and COVID-19 Pandemic
Periods of Development (4 Ages)
First Age Childhood and Adolescence Historical Generation
Second Age Prime Adulthood (ages 20-59) - A group of people who experience the event at a formative
time in their lives.
Third Age ~60 to 79 years old
Fourth Age ~80 years old and older Cohort
- A group of people born at about the same time.
Life-span developmentalists who focus on adult development and
A historical generation may contain more than one cohort, but
aging use the 4 ages periods of development.
cohorts are part of a historical generation only if they experience major,
The major emphasis in the 4 ages is on the third and fourth ages, shaping historical events at a formative point in their lives.
especially the increasing evidence that individuals in the third age are
healthier and can lead more active, productive lives than their
• Nonnormative Influences
predecessors in earlier generations.
o Unusual events that have a major impact on individual
When older adults reach their eighties (fourth age), especially 85 lives because they disturb the expected sequence of
and over, health and well-being decline for many individuals. the life cycle.

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 o Either typical events that happen at an atypical time • Pathological Aging
of life (death of a parent in childhood) or atypical o Characterizes individuals who show greater than
events (surviving a plane crash). average decline as they age through the adult years.
• Successful Aging
Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz) o Characterizes individuals whose positive physical,
- Instinctive form of learning in which, during a critical period in cognitive, and socioemotional development is
early development, a young animal forms an attachment to the maintained longer, declining later in old age than is
first moving object it sees, usually the mother. the case for most people.
- Result of the readiness of an organism’s nervous system to
acquire certain information during a brief critical period in early Conceptions of Age
life. • Chronological Age
o Number of years that have elapsed since birth.
Critical Period • Biological Age
- Specific time when a given event or its absence has a o Person’s age in terms of biological health.
specific impact on development. • Psychological Age (maturity)
Sensitive Period o Individual’s adaptive capacities compared with those
- Times in development when a person is particularly open to of other individuals of the same chronological age.
certain kinds of experiences. • Social Age
o Connectedness with others and the social roles
Life-Span Developmental Approach individuals adopt.
• Development is a lifelong process of change.
o Each period of the life span is affected by what Developmental Issues
happened before and will affect what is to come. Nature and Nurture
• Development is multidimensional. • Heredity (nature)
o It occurs along multiple interacting dimensions— o Inborn traits & characteristics inherited from our
biological, psychological, and social—each of which biological parents.
may develop at varying rates. o Genetic roll of the dice
• Development is multidirectional. • Environment (nurture)
o As people gain in one area, they may lose in another, o Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influence.
sometimes at the same time. o Starting with the prenatal environment in the womb &
• Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span. continuous throughout the lifespan.
o The process of development is influenced by both
biology and culture, but the balance between these Stability and Change
influences changes. • Stability
• Development involves changing resource allocations. o A result of heredity & early experiences in life.
o Individuals choose to invest their resources of time, • Change
energy, talent, money, and social support in varying o Takes a more optimistic view that later experiences
ways. can produce change.
o Resources may be used for growth, for maintenance
or recovery, or for dealing with loss when Continuity and Discontinuity
maintenance and recovery are not possible. • Continuity
• Development shows plasticity. o Development is gradual, continuous process.
o Many abilities, such as memory, strength, and o Allows for prediction about future characteristics.
endurance, can be improved significantly with training Example:
and practice, even late in life. ▪ Height, weight, hair, (mostly physical
o One of the tasks of developmental research is to characteristics.)
discover to what extent particular kinds of • Discontinuity
development can be modified at various ages. o Development occurs in a series of distinct stages.
o Marked by the emergence of a new phenomenon that
Plasticity could not be easily predicted on the basis of past
- Range of modifiability of performance. functioning.
- Modifiability, or “molding,” of the brain through experience.
- Capacity for change. Basic Theoretical Issues
Is Development Active or Reactive?
• Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context. • Reactive Development
o Each person develops within multiple contexts— o Conceptualize the developing child as a hungry
circumstances or conditions defined in part by sponge that soaks up experiences and is shaped by
maturation and in part by time and place. this input over time.
• Developmental science is multidisciplinary. o Mechanistic Model
o Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, ▪ People are like machines that react to
neuroscientists, and medical researchers all share an environmental input.
interest in unlocking the mysteries of development ▪ Human behavior results from the operation
through the life span. of biological parts in response to external or
internal stimuli.
• Development is a co-construction of biology, culture, and the
individual factors working together. • Active Development
o The brain shapes culture, but it is also shaped by o People create experiences for themselves and are
culture and the experiences that individuals have or motivated to learn about the world around them.
pursue. o Organismic Model
o In terms of individual factors, we can go beyond what ▪ Sees people as active, growing organisms
our genetic inheritance and our environment give us. who set their own development in motion.
▪ Driving force for change is internal.
Three Developmental Patterns of Aging
Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
• Normal Aging
o Characterizes most individuals, for whom • Qualitative Change
psychological functioning often peaks in early middle o Development is always governed by the same
age, remains relatively stable until the late fifties to processes and involves the gradual refinement and
early sixties, and then shows a modest decline extension of early skills into later abilities, allowing
through the early eighties. one to make predictions about future characteristics
on the basis of past performance.

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 o A change in number or amount, such as height, Psychosocial Stages
weight, or vocabulary size. Crisis Age Basic Strength
o Lens of mechanistic theorists Trust vs. Mistrust Infancy (first year) Hope
• Qualitative Change Autonomy vs.
o Discontinuous and marked by the emergence of new Infancy (1-3 years) Will
Shame and Doubt
phenomena that could not be easily predicted on the Early Childhood
basis of past functioning. Initiative vs. Guilt (preschool years, 3-5 Purpose
o A change in kind, structure, or organization, not just in years)
number. Middle and Late
o Organismic theorists are proponents of stage theories Adulthood
in which development is seen as occurring in a series Industry vs.
(elementary school Competence
of distinct stages, like stairsteps. Inferiority
years, 6 years –
puberty)
Theoretical Perspectives Identity vs. Identity Adolescence (10-20
Fidelity
Confusion years)
Early Adulthood
Intimacy vs. Isolation Love
(20s-30s)
Generativity vs, Middle Adulthood
Care
Stagnation (40s-50s)
Late Adulthood (60s
Integrity vs. Despair Wisdom
onward)

Psychoanalytic Theories Evaluation

Theory Strengths Weaknesses
Emphasizes the
importance of
Sexual feelings are
experiences in
Psychosexual not as important in
infancy and early
Theory (Sigmund personality
childhood; provides
Freud) development as
psychological
Freud claimed.
explanations for
mental illness.
Helps explain the
role of culture in
personality
development; Describing each
important in lifespan period in terms of a
Psychosocial Theory
psychology; useful single crisis is
(Erik Erikson)
description of major probably an
themes of oversimplification.
personality
development at
different ages.

Psychoanalytic Theories
- Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious
and heavily colored by emotion.
- Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic
workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand
behavior.
- Early experiences with parents are emphasized.
Psychosexual Theory (Sigmund Freud)
- Problems were the result of experiences early in life.
- Basic personality is shaped during the first 5 years of life.
- First 3 stages are crucial to for personality development.
- If f children receive too little or too much gratification in any of
these stages, they are at risk of fixation, an arrest in
development that can show up in adult personality.
Learning Theories
- Development was the result of learning, a relatively long-lasting
change based on experience or adaptation to the environment.
- Saw development as continuous, emphasizing incremental
quantitative changes over time, and reactive, occurring in
response to environmental input.
Behaviorism (John Watson)
- Mechanistic theory that describes observed behavior as a
predictable response to experience.
Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
• A type of learning in which a response (salivation) to a stimulus
(a bell) is elicited after repeated association with a stimulus that
normally elicits the response (food).
• John Watson’s Little Albert

Psychosexual Stages Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)

Stage Age Erogenous Zone • The consequences of a behavior produce changes in the
Oral Birth to 1 ½ years Mouth probability of the behavior’s occurrence.
Anal 1 ½ years to 3 years Anus • Reinforcement
Phallic 3 to 6 years Genitals o The process by which a behavior is strengthened,
Latency 6 years to puberty - increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be
Genital Puberty onward - repeated.
o Can be positive reinforcement or negative
Psychosocial Development Theory (Erik Erikson) reinforcement.
- Primary motivation for human behavior is social in nature and • Punishment
reflects a desire to affiliate with other people. o The process by which a behavior is weakened,
- Each stage involves what Erikson originally called a crisis in decreasing the likelihood of repetition.
personality—a major psychosocial challenge that is particularly o Can be positive punishment or negative punishment.
important at that time. These issues must be satisfactorily
resolved for healthy ego development. Social Learning Theory/Social Cognitive Theory (Albert Bandura)
- Each stage requires the balancing of a positive trait and a • Behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in
corresponding negative one. development.

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 • Reciprocal Determinism Sociocultural Cognitive Theory (Lev Vygotsky)
o Bandura’s term for bidirectional forces that affect - Emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive
development. development.
• Observational Learning or Modeling - Child’s development is inseparable from social and cultural
o People learn appropriate social behavior chiefly by activities.
observing and imitating models. - Can also be a contextual theory.
- Cognitive development involves learning to use the inventions
Learning Theories Evaluation of society, such as language, mathematical systems, and
Theory Strengths Weaknesses memory strategies.
Explanation of - Children’s social interaction with more skilled adults and peers
Useful in explaining behavior change is is indispensable to their cognitive development and helps
Classical children cross the zone of proximal development (ZPD).
how emotional too limited to serve
Conditioning (Ivan
responses such as as comprehensive
Pavlov) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
phobias are learned. theory of human
development. - The gap between what they are already able to do by
Humans are not as themselves and what they can accomplish with assistance.
Basis of many useful passive as Skinner Scaffolding
Operant strategies for claimed; the theory - The supportive assistance with a task that parents, teachers,
Conditioning (B.F. managing and ignores hereditary, or others give a child.
Skinner) changing human cognitive, emotional,
behavior. and social factors in Information-Processing Theory
development. - Seeks to explain cognitive development by analyzing the
Helps explain how processes involved in making sense of incoming information
models influence and performing tasks effectively.
behavior; explains - Emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it,
more about and strategize about it.
Social Learning Does not provide an
development than - Individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for
Theory (Albert overall picture of
other learning processing information, which allows them to acquire
Bandura) development.
theories do because increasingly complex knowledge and skills.
of addition of
cognitive and Cognitive Theories Evaluation
emotional factors. Theory Strengths Weaknesses
Stage concept may
Cognitive Theories cause adults to
Cognitive Developmental Theory (Jean Piaget) Helps explain how
Cognitive underestimate
- Viewed development organismically. children of different
Development Theory children’s reasoning
- Cognitive development begins with an inborn ability to adapt to ages think about and
(Jean Piaget) abilities; there may
the environment. act on the world.
be additional stages
- Emphasizes mental aspects of developments such as logic and in adulthood.
memory. Helps explain how
much information
Three Interrelated Processes of Cognitive Growth Human information
people of different
• Organization processing is much
ages can manage at
o Tendency to create categories, such as birds, by more complex than
one time and how
observing the characteristics that individual members Information- that of a computer;
they process it;
of a category, such as sparrows and cardinals, have Processing Theory the theory doesn’t
provides a useful
in common. provide an overall
framework for
o Schemes picture of
studying individual
▪ Organized patterns of thought and behavior development.
differences in people
used in particular situations. of the same age.
• Adaptation Incorporates group
o How children handle new information in light of what learning processes Insufficient evidence
they already know. Sociocultural Theory
into explanations of to support most
o Assimilation (Lev Vygotsky)
individual cognitive ideas.
▪ Taking in new information and incorporating development.
it into existing cognitive structures.
o Accommodation Contextual Theories
▪ Adjusting one’s cognitive structures to fit - Development can be understood only in its social context.
the new information. - See the individual not as a separate entity interacting with the
• Equilibration environment but as an inseparable part of it.
o A constant striving for a stable balance.
o Motivates the shift between assimilation and Ecological Theory (Urie Bronfenbrenner)
accommodation. - Development reflects the influence of several environmental
systems.
Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory - The child is not seen as just an outcome of development; the
• Sensorimotor Stage (birth to about 2 years old) child is an active shaper of development.
o Infants construct an understanding of the world by
coordinating sensory experiences (such as seeing Five Environmental Systems
and hearing) with physical, motoric actions. • Microsystem
• Preoperational Stage (~2 years old to 7 years old) o Setting in which the individual lives.
o Children represent the world with words, images, and o Most direct interactions with social agents take place.
drawings. Example:
• Concrete Operational Stage (~7 years old to 11 years old) ▪ Family, peers, school, and neighborhood
o Children can perform operations that involve objects, • Mesosystem
and they can reason logically when the reasoning can o Relations between microsystems or connections
be applied to specific or concrete examples. between contexts.
• Formal Operational Stage (11-15 years and through adulthood) Example:
o Individuals begin to think in abstract and more logical ▪ Relation of family experiences to school
terms. experiences, school experiences to religious

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 experiences, and family experiences to peer Attrition
experiences - Loss of study units from a sample.
• Exosystem
o Links between a social setting in which the individual • Sequential
does not have an active role and the individual’s o Data are collected on successive cross-sectional or
immediate context. longitudinal samples.
Example: o Can avoid drawbacks of both cross-sectional and
▪ Husband’s or child’s experiences at home may longitudinal designs.
be influenced by a mother’s experiences at work o Requires large amount of time and effort and analysis
• Macrosystem of very complex data.
o Culture in which individuals live.
• Chronosystem
o Patterning of environmental events and transitions
over the life course, as well as sociohistorical
circumstances.
Example:
▪ Divorce

Evolutionary/Sociobiological Theories
• Ethology
o Study of the adaptive behaviors of animal species in
natural contexts.
o Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by
biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by
critical or sensitive periods.
• Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)
o The rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to
the first moving object seen.

Developmental Research Designs

• Cross-Sectional
o Data are collected on people of different ages at the
same time.
o Can show similarities and differences among age
groups; speedy, economical; presents no problem of
attrition or repeated testing.
o Cannot establish age effects; masks individual
differences; can be confounded by cohort effects

Cohort Effect
- Result of the research is affected or influenced by the
characteristics and experiences of the age cohorts.

• Longitudinal
o Data are collected on same person or persons over a
period of time.
o Can show age-related change or continuity; avoids
confounding age with cohort effects.
o Time-consuming, expensive; presents problems of
attrition, bias in sample, and effects of repeated
testing; results may be valid only for cohort tested or
sample studied.

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