Life span psychology

Psychological understanding from

beginning to Ending
Definition
• Life span psychology is a branch of
psychology which studies life long process
of change .

• Life span psychology or developmental

psychology
What is Development?
• Systematic changes and continuities
– In the individual
– Between conception and death
• “Womb to Tomb”
• Three broad domains
– Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial
Major objectives of
developmental psychologist
• To find out what are the common and
characteristics age changes in appearance ,in
behavior ,in interest
• To find out when these changes occur
• To find out what causes them
• To find out how they influence behavior
• To find out whether they can or can not be
predictable
• To find out whether they are universal or individual
Theoretical Issues
• Key development issues include:
– Nature versus nurture
• To what extent are behaviors the result of experience or
the result of biological processes such as maturation?
– Stability versus change
• To what extent are behaviors constant over the life span?
– Continuity versus stages
• Continuity view suggests that change is uniform and
gradual
• Stage theory suggests that change can be rapid with
qualitatively different stages evident across the life span
Significance facts about
development
• Early foundations are critical
• Role of maturation and learning in development
• Development follows a definite and predictable patterns
• All individuals are different
• Each phase of development has characteristic behavior
• Each phase of development has hazards
• Development is aided by stimulation
• Development is affected by cultural changes
• Social expectation for every stage of development
Developmental Research Methods
Historical Foundations: Early
Philosophers
• Provided enduring insights about
critical issues in childrearing, even
though their methods were
unscientific
• Both Plato and Aristotle believed
that the long-term welfare of
society depended on children’s
being raised properly, but they
differed in their approaches
Historical Foundations:
Plato vs. Aristotle
• Plato emphasized self-control and
discipline
– Aristotle was concerned with fitting child
rearing to the needs of the individual child
• Plato believed that children are born
with innate knowledge
– Aristotle believed that knowledge comes
from experience
Historical Foundations: Later
Philosophers
• The English philosopher John Locke(1632-
1704), like Aristotle, saw the children are created
(born) equal , and the mind of a newborn infant is like a
piece of white paper as a tabula rasa and advocated
first instilling discipline, then gradually increasing the
child’s freedom
• Child is products of their environment and upbringing
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French
philosopher, believed that children born with knowledge and
ideas, which unfold naturally with age .
• Referred as Nativism
• (THEORY THAT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESULTS
PRINCIPLY FROM INBORN PROCESSES THAT GUIDED THE
EMERGENCE OF BEHAVIORS IN PREDICTABLE MANER )
• Development fallows a predictable series of stages that are
guided by inborn timetable .
• child Knowledge acquired gradually from
1)Intraction with environment
2)Child own interest
3)Level of development
• He considered pioneer for guiding child rearing practices
and educational psychology
• Child rearing practicing principle
• According to him child learning based on processes of
exploration and discovery .
He argued that parents and society should give the child
maximum freedom from the beginning
Educating the child
3 suggestions regarding educating the child that are
promoted by many educators today
1) children should be exposed to new body of knowledge
only after they display cognitive “readiness" to learn it
2) Children learn best when they are allowed to acquired
ideas or information through their own discovery process
3) Educators should encourage a permissive style that
allows children to follow their own natural inclinations
Historical Foundations:
Research-Based Approach

• Emerged in the nineteenth century, in part as a result of

two converging forces
– Social reform movements established a legacy of
research conducted for the benefit of children and
provided some of the earliest descriptions of the adverse
effects that harsh environments can have on child
development
– Charles Darwin’s theory of
evolution inspired research in child development in order
to gain insights into the nature of the human species
Pioneers of child psychology
• G .Stanley Hall(1846-1924)
• He conducted and published the first systematic
studies of children in united state.
• He trained first generation of developmental
researchers.
• He established several journal for reporting findings
related to child development researches.
• He adopted the view that children's development
RECAPITULATES THE EVOLUTION OF THE
SPECIES
• Education and child rearing should
encourage the NATURAL tendencies of the
child that reflect the behavior and
development of earlier form of the species

• Adolescence marked end of biological

recapitulation and first opportunity for the
child to developed individual talents and
abilities .
• Child development
emerged as a formal field
of inquiry in the late
nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries

• Sigmund Freud and

John Watson formulated
influential theories of
development during this
period
• Freud concluded that biological drives, especially sexual
ones, exerted a crucial influence on development

• Watson argued that children’s behavior arises largely

from the rewards and punishments that follow particular
behaviors

• Although the research methods on which these theories

were based were limited, the theories were better
grounded in research and inspired more sophisticated
thinking than their predecessors
Arnold Gesell (1880-1961)
• He established yale clinic of childe development
and spent 50 years with studying development of
typical child
• Disagree with HALL and limit the role of
environment
• Believed on biological process of series of change
• Growth and motor skills should follow the
predictable patterns
• (age can change but sequence can not change)
• Two basic concept
1)Maturation
2)Norms
Maturation ; biological process that guide
development

NORMS; a sort of developmental timetable that

describes the usual order in which children
display various early behaviors and the age
range within which each behavior normally
appear.
Subdivision of the life span
stages in the life span
• Prenatal period (conception to birth)
• Infancy (birth to the end of second week)
• Babyhood(end of the second week to end
of the second year )
• Early childhood (two to six year)
• Late childhood (six to ten or twelve years)
• stages in the life span
• Puberty or preadolescents ( ten or
twelve to thirteen or fourteen to
eighteen years)
• Adolescence (thirteen or fourteen to
eighteen years)
• Early adulthood (eighteen to forty
years)
• Middle age (forty to sixty years)
• Old age (sixty year to death)