Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is the lifespan perspective?
A developmental approach based on several key principles such as:
Development is:
-Multidisciplinary
-Multidimensional
-Multidirectional
-Lifelong
-Plastic
-Influenced by contextual and socio-cultural influences
What does it mean that development is multidimensional?
it involves the dynamic interaction of factors like physical, emotional, and psychosocial development
What does it mean that Development is multidirectional?
development can result in gains and losses throughout life.
Baltes states that the development of a particular domain does not occur in a strictly linear fashion but that development of certain traits can be characterized as having the capacity for both an increase and decrease in efficacy over the course of an individual’s life.
According to the process of selective optimization, individuals prioritize particular functions above others, reducing the adaptive capacity of particulars for specialization and improved efficacy of other modalities.
What does it mean that Development is plastic?
that characteristics are malleable or changeable.
The notion of plasticity emphasizes that there are many possible developmental outcomes and that the nature of human development is much more open and pluralistic than originally implied by traditional views; there is no single pathway that must be taken in an individual’s development across the lifespan.
What does it mean that Development is influenced by contextual and socio-cultural influences?
refers to the idea that three systems of biological and environmental influences work together to influence development. Development occurs in context and varies from person to person, depending on factors such as a person’s biology, family, school, church, profession, nationality, and ethnicity. Baltes identified three types of influences that operate throughout the life course: normative age-graded influences, normative history-graded influences, and nonnormative influences. Baltes wrote that these three influences operate throughout the life course, their effects accumulate with time, and, as a dynamic package, they are responsible for how lives develop.
What does it mean that Development is multidisciplinary?
That development is studied by many different academic disciplines.
What does it mean that development is lifelong?
The current view reflects the possibility that specific changes in development can occur later in life, without having been established at birth. The early events of one’s childhood can be transformed by later events in one’s life. This belief clearly emphasizes that all stages of the lifespan contribute to the regulation of the nature of human development.
What is PYD?
Positive Youth Development
holds the belief that all youths have the potential to become productive, contributing members of society. PYD emphasizes the strengths of youth, promoting their development physically, personally, socially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Interventions must be conducted with the needs and preferences of the participants kept in mind, however the individuals’ choice, values, and culture must always be considered.
What is Normative age-graded influence
bio and environmental factors that have a strong correlation with chronological age, such as puberty or menopause, or age-based social practices such as beginning school or entering retirement
What is Normative history-graded influence?
associated with a specific time period that defines the broader environmental and cultural context in which an individual develops. For example, development and identity are influenced by historical events of the people who experience them, such as the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, the Cold War, the War on Terror, or advances in technology.
What are Nonnormative influences
are unpredictable and not tied to a certain developmental time in a person’s development or to a historical period. They are the unique experiences of an individual, whether biological or environmental, that shape the development process. These could include milestones like earning a master’s degree or getting a certain job offer or other events like going through a divorce or coping with the death of a child.
What is the most important aspect of contextualism?
that the three systems of influence work together to affect development.
What is a cohort?
A cohort is a group of people who are born at roughly the same time period in a particular society. Cohorts share histories and contexts for living. Members of a cohort have experienced the same historical events and cultural climates which have an impact on the values, priorities, and goals that may guide their lives.
What is culture?
Culture is often referred to as a blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live. It includes ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, as well as what kinds of emotions are called for in certain situations. Culture teaches us how to live in a society and allows us to advance because each new generation can benefit from the solutions found and passed down from previous generations.
How do we know what we know? What are the 2 common methods?
-Personal history (experiential reality)
-Cultural ideas
(agreement reality)
What is confirmation bias?
the tendency to look for evidence that we are right and in so doing, we ignore contradictory evidence.
