PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1 CHAPTER 04- Lifespan Development

Question 0

❓❓❓ Psychologists who study lifespan development aim to…

Answer 0

…understand, describe, and predict the ways in which our thoughts, feelings and behaviour change throughout our lives

Question 1

❓❓❓What does lifespan development refer to?

Answer 1

-refers to age-related changes that occur from birth, throughout a person’s life, into and during old age

Question 2

❓❓❓Define Physical(biological) development (areas of lifespan development)

Answer 2

• Changes in the body and it’s various systems
• development of brain, nervous system, bones, muscles, motor skills(movement) and hormonal changes(puberty/menopause)

interaction between physical and psychological development

Question 3

❓❓❓Define Social development (areas of lifespan development)

Answer 3

-changes in an individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in interacting with others, such as the ability to form and maintain close relationships in a group situation.

also language skills

Question 4

❓❓❓Define Cognitive development (areas of lifespan development)

Answer 4

-changes in an individual’s mental abilities such as processing of information through perception, learning, language, moral reasoning, problem solving, decision making

Question 5

❓❓❓Define emotional development (areas of lifespan development)

Answer 5

-Changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feeling are expressed, interpreted and dealt with

Question 6

☀️☀️☀️

• most physical development changes can be directly observed
• all others: researchers make observations of behaviour believed to be associated with thoughts/feelings and make assumptions about underlying cognition sand emotions

Answer 6

• social development: inferred from observing ‘social behaviour’ assumed to be associated with underlying psychological processes
• social, cognitive and emotional development referred to collectively as ‘psychological development’

Question 7

☀️☀️☀️INTERACTION OF DIFFERENT AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Answer 7

• how you think and/or feel can influence your physiological, state
  e. g. Negative thoughts about your body image can lead to eating disorders
• physical condition can also influence thoughts/feelings
  e. g. If you are stressed/tired you may ‘snap’ at someone

Question 8

❓❓❓What is the age range of ‘Infancy’? Description of developmental changes?

Answer 8

AGE: birth - 2

DESCRIPTION: learning to walk/talk, bond with parents

Question 9

❓❓❓What is the age range of ‘Childhood’? Description of developmental changes?

Answer 9

AGE: 2 - 10

DESCRIPTION: learn to read/write, morals, social interaction with peers

Question 10

❓❓❓What is the age range of ‘Adolescence’? Description of developmental changes?

Answer 10

AGE: 10 - 20

DESCRIPTION: puberty(physical and psychological changes), develop independence from family, abstract/logical thought processes

Question 11

❓❓❓What is the age range of ‘Early Adulthood’? Description of developmental changes?

Answer 11

AGE: 20 - 40

DESCRIPTION: establish personal/financial independence, career, life partner, parenting

Question 12

❓❓❓What is the age range of ‘Middle Age’? Description of developmental changes?

Answer 12

AGE: 40 - 65

DESCRIPTION: further advancement of career, supporting children, social and personal responsibilities

Question 13

❓❓❓What is the age range of ‘Older Age’? Description of developmental changes?

Answer 13

AGE: 65+

DESCRIPTION: retirement, decrease in physical health and abilities, death of friends/relatives

Question 14

❓❓❓What is continuous development?

Answer 14

-gradual and ongoing changes throughout the lifespan without sudden shifts. Can be represented as a single, smooth line

Question 15

❓❓❓What is discontinuous development?

Answer 15

• involves distinct and separate stages with different kinds of abilities occurring set each stage
• identifiable short/end points

Question 16

❓❓❓Define ‘sequential nature of development’

Answer 16

• development of many thought, feelings and behaviours occur in an orderly sequence
• sequences usually begin with simple thought/feelings/behaviours and progress to more complex ones
• possible but unusual to skip a step

e. g.
- walk before running
- count before adding

Question 17

❓❓❓What are quantitative changes?

Answer 17

• variations in the quantity of a thought/feeling/behaviour
• expressed in numbers
  e. g. Number of words spoken in relation to age

Question 18

❓❓❓What are qualitative changes?

Answer 18

• changes that vary in ‘quality’, ‘kind’ or ‘type’
• changes that make an individual different from the way they were before
• described with words
  e. g. 4 year old doesn’t understand most concepts that a 16 year old would

Question 19

☀️☀️☀️INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN DEVELOPMENT

• no two people develop at exactly the same rate or same way
• changes in different areas occur at its own pace within a person

Answer 19

-each person has a unique genetic make-up and set of life experiences which interact continuously, shaping their particular course throughout their lifespan

Question 20

❓❓❓What is heredity (nature)?

Answer 20

• transmission of characteristics from biological parents to offspring via genes at time of conception
• genes influence psychological development

Question 21

❓❓❓What is environment(nurture)?

Answer 21

• refers to all experiences, objects, events to which we are exposed throughout our lifetimes
• environmental factors: siblings, up brining, friendship groups, schooling, income level, religion, relationships etc.

Question 22

☀️☀️☀️NATURE VS NURTURE

• over time, research showed that it is neither one or the other that is solely responsible
• now focuses on how much heredity and environment contribute to the development of particular characteristics

Answer 22

-general agreement: development begins with genetic ‘instructions’ act as ‘building blocks’ for development of characteristics. Environment interacts with inherited potential to determine how the genetic plan unfolds

Question 23

❓❓❓What is maturation?

Answer 23

-a the orderly sequential development. Changes which occurs in the nervous system and other bodily structures by our genes

Question 24

❓❓❓What is the principle of readiness?

Answer 24

-States that unless the necessary bodily structures(muscles, nones, nerves etc) are sufficiently mature, them no amount of practise will produce the particular behaviour -

Question 25

❓❓❓What is a sensitive period in development?

Answer 25

-a period of time when an individual is more responsive(sensitive) to certain influences from their environment ☀️☀️☀️physical characteristics= longer sensitive period Psychological characteristics= shorter sensitive period

Question 26

❓❓❓What is the Biological Perspective on development?

Answer 26

- focuses on biological/physiological bases of development | e. g. How hormones influence psychological changes during and after puberty

Question 27

❓❓❓What is the Behavioural Perspective on development?

Answer 27

- focuses on how behaviour is acquired or changes as a result of environmental influences e. g. may consider the role of parenting styles on the psychological development of children

Question 28

❓❓❓What is the Cognitive Perspective on development?

Answer 28

- focuses on changes in how we acquire, process, remember and use information throughout the lifespan e. g. Whether there is a large cognitive change form middle age to older age

Question 29

❓❓❓What is the Socio-Cultural Perspective on development?

Answer 29

- emphasis on the roles of social and cultural influences on human behaviour and mental processes - focuses on effects of specific environmental factors on developments (age, race, gender, income, culture) e.g. The effect on adolescent confidence of living in the city compared with living in an isolated community

Question 30

❓❓❓What is a longitudinal study? Advantages? Limitations?

Answer 30

DESCRIPTION: A longitudinal study is a long-term investigation that follows the same group (or groups) of people over an extended period of time, observing any changes in their thoughts, feelings and/or behaviour that occur at different ages ADVANTAGES: -lets psychologists understand long term changes in thoughts/feelings/behaviours LIMITATIONS: - expensive - long time to get results - participants may lose interest/die

Question 31

❓❓❓What is a Cross-sectional study? Advantages? Limitations?

Answer 31

DESCRIPTION: The cross-sectional study selects and compares groups of participants of different ages over a short period of time ADVANTAGES: - inexpensive - not too time consuming LIMITATIONS: - differences may be due to background of participants - generational influence( people in their 80s would have experienced childhood during the Great Depression so the difference would not be from age, but form that life experience)

Question 32

❓❓❓What is a Cohort-Sequential method? Advantages?

Answer 32

DESCRIPTION: -combines the other two methods. Involves two or more groups of participants (called cohorts) who overlap in age ADVANTAGES: - comparison between groups with an overlap in participants' ages - sample size is larger - bigger diversity of participants

Question 33

☀️☀️☀️TWIN STUDIES

Answer 33

- research using identical(monozygotic) and non-identical(dizygotic) twins - if a characteristic is mainly influenced by the environment, then monozygotic twins could show significant differences in that characteristic

Question 34

☀️☀️☀️ADOPTION STUDIES

Answer 34

- psychologists compare characteristics of adopted children with their adopted and biological families - similarities with adopted parents= evidence for environmental influence - similarities with biological parents= evidence for heredity

Question 35

☀️☀️☀️SELECTIVE BREEDING (animals)

Answer 35

-Involves mating a female and male animals from family lines with desired characteristics to increase the likelihood that offspring will have their characteristics