week 2 Flashcards
What is the lifespan perspective?
o Lifespan perspective: an integrative, life-span view of individual growth and change
- Looks at multiple interesting factors that impact change
What are contextual influences on development?
o Contextual influences on development: factors that impact change such as sex, ethnicity, social class, income, religion, culture
Contextual influences on development attempt to
Explain the underlying processes of development
Models of individual-environment interactions combines both
views on nature and nurture to explain that there are both individual and environmental factors that contribute to growth and aging
What have researchers started to understand about nature vs. nurture in respect to intelligence?
o Researchers began to understand that neither influence alone could account for individual differences in performance on intelligence tests
What is niche picking?
o Genetic and environmental factors work together to influence the direction of a child’s life
o Children pick out their niche in which they develop their talents and abilities
o Further involvement in activity improves their ability
What is the organismic modeL?
o Heredity drives the course of development throughout life
o Changes over time occur because the individual is programmed to exhibit certain behaviours at certain ages in a stage step-wise fashion
What is the mechanistic model?
o People’s behaviour gradually changes over time, shaped by the outside forces that cause them to adapt to their environments
o Growth throughout life occurs by exposure to experiences that present new learning opportunities
Interactionist model:
o Genetics and the environment interact in complex ways to produce effects on the individual
o Individuals actively shape their own development
o Nature AND nurture
o Development reflects interactive processes between genetics and the environment
Plasticity in development: individuals can alter the rate and direction of what?
o Individuals can alter the rate and direction of the changes associated with the aging process
Ways to promote plasticity:
§ Active interventions (ex: mental and physical exercise)
§ Avoid risky behaviours
o Compensation in aging is a common example of plasticity
Reciprocity in development looks as development as purely environmental. What are three important facts of reciprocity in development?
· People both influence and are influenced by the events in their lives
· Your past life events influenced your current choices
· The effect you have on your environment will affect subsequent events in your life
Ecological perspective was created by brofenbrenner. What is the 5 level of enviornment/systems
o Microsystem: the setting in which people have their daily interactions
o Mesosystem: the realm of the environment in which interactions take place among 2 or more microsystems
o Exosystem: environments that people do not closely experience on a regular basis but have an impact
o Macrosystem: larger social institutions, indirect influence through exosystem
o Chronosystem: the changes that take place over time
What is the focus of the life course perspective?
· Norms, roles, & attitudes about age have an impact on the shape of each person’s life
· “course” à the course or progression of a person’s life events
o Heavily shaped by society’s views of what is appropriate and expected to occur in connection with particular ages
What is a social clock?
o The expectations for the ages at which a society associates with major life events
o Set the pace for how people think they should progress through their family and work timelines
What is activity theory?
o The view that older adults are most satisfied if they are able to remain involved in their social roles
Disengagement theory:
o The normal (and desirable) and natural evolution of life causes older adults to loosen purposefully their social ties
Continuity Theory
o Whether disengagement or activity is beneficial to the older adult depends on the individual’s personality
Agism as a social factor in the Aging process: What is agism
· Ageism: a set of beliefs, attitudes, social institutions, and acts that denigrate individuals or groups based on their chronological age
Where does agism come from? Two theorys are essential, name them
o Terror management theory: people regard with panic and dread the thought that their lives will someday come to an end
o Modernization hypothesis: the increasing urbanization and industrialization of Western society is what causes older adults to be devalued
What is terror management theory?
o Terror management theory: people regard with panic and dread the thought that their lives will someday come to an end
