Chapter 1 Flashcards
Development
The pattern of change beginning at conception and
continuing throughout the life span.
* Involves growth.
* Also includes decline brought on by aging and dying.
Life-Span study (approach, disciplines involved)
the perspective that development is
lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic,
multidisciplinary, and contextual.
* Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation and
is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual
factors working together.
* The emphasis is on developmental change throughout
childhood and adulthood.
Paul Baltes
Paul B. Baltes was a German psychologist whose broad scientific agenda was devoted to establishing and promoting the life-span orientation of human development. He was also a theorist in the field of the psychology of aging.
Normative age-graded influences
similar events for individuals in a
particular age group.
* For example, starting school, puberty, and menopause.
Normative history-graded influences
ave common generational
experiences due to historical events.
* In the 19 30s, the Great Depression; in the 19 60s to 19 70s, the civil rights and women’s rights movements; in 2001, the attacks on 9/11.
Culture
behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a
group passed on from generation to generation.
Socioeconomic Status
grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
Cognitive/Socioemotional Processes
Cognitive Processes: changes in an individual’s thoughts,
intelligence, and language.
Socioemotional Processes: changes in an individual’s
relationships, emotions, and personality.
Early/Late Adulthood period
Early: early twenties through the thirties.
Late: sixties or seventies, until death.
Nature/Nurture
The debate about whether development is
primarily influenced by nature or nurture.
* Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance.
* Nurture refers to its environmental experiences.
Freud (period- personality developed/shaped)
Through his work with patients, Freud became convinced that
their problems were the result of experiences early in life.
* He defined five stages of psychosexual development.
* Adult personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality.
Erikson (what theory did he create? Stages (how many? Period covered)
Erikson’s theory: includes eight stages of human development,
each representing a crisis that must be resolved.
rust versus mistrust: first year of infancy.
* Autonomy versus shame and doubt: 1 to 3 years.
* Initiative versus guilt: 3 to 5 years.
* Industry versus inferiority: 6 years to puberty.
* Identity versus identity confusion: 10 to 20 years.
* Intimacy versus isolation: twenties and thirties.
* Generativity versus stagnation: forties and fifties.
* Integrity versus despair: sixties to death.
Psychoanalytic theories (criticism)
Contributions include an emphasis on a developmental framework,
family relationships, and unconscious aspects of the mind.
Criticisms of psychoanalytic theories:
* Lack of scientific support.
* Too much emphasis on sexual underpinnings.
* An image of people that is too negative.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development (timeframe of each stage)
children go through four stages of cognitive
development as they actively construct their understanding of
the world.
* Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years of age).
* Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age).
* Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years of age).
* Formal operational stage (11 years of age through adulthood.
Two processes underlie this: organization and adaptation.
Vygotsky’s Theory (Emphasis)
emphasizes how culture and social
interaction guide and are inseparable from cognitive
development.
