Introduction to psychological development Flashcards
What is development?
What does it encompass?
The processes that drive the origins and course of individual behaviour and adaptation throughout the life course
Encompasses:
change at cellular and neurobiological level
physical skills
cognitive and language functions
social and emotional processes
personality and attitudes
behavioural repetoire
Why is understanding development important in practicing medicine?
Provides a context for understanding patients
Need to understand normal in order to understand abnormal
Describe how development has altered in an historical context?
Views about what is appropriate/normative have changed
Describe how culture influences development?
All development takes place in a cultural context
What is normative for one culture may be different for another
Culture influences strucutures that socialise (eg. family, school, religious groups)
Describe general idea behind the stages theory of development?
Life composed of stages that we progress through
Old age is time of decline
Describe Erikson’s theory?
Stages of development that we prgress through
Critical time periods
Psychosocial crises are driving forces
Describe the strengths of Erikson’s theory?
STRENGTHS:
Groundbreaking and creative
Makes intuitive sense
High level of abstraction > broad ways for further stud and application
WEAKNESSES:
Hard to test empirically
Abstract, broad terms
Refects 1950s norms
lack of clarity regarding time limits for stages
Insufficient attention to maladaptive development
Implied linear progression through stages
Describe the idea of tasks and development?
Humans move through stages, and each stage is associated with tasks
Developmental task: one which arises at or about a certain period in life, successful achievement of which leads to happiness and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness and difficulty with later tasks
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the tasks approach to development?
STRENGTHS:
Integrates challenges from different domains
Stresses the individual’s active role in negotiating tasks
WEAKNESSES:
Timeframes no longer appropriate
Sociocultursl changes have transformed expectations of what is normative
Recent research stresses importance of other constructs, such as self-esteem, in future happiness
What are trajectories and turning points?
Trajectory: continuation of a direction that propels us towards a destination
Turning point: disruption to a trajectory that has the long-term impact of altering the probability of life destinations
Describe the influences on life trajectories?
Importance of early experience
Give an example of how a turning point may alter a trajectory?
Describe the transcational model?
Development takes place through transacting factors that operate together dynamically and bi-directionally:
Genetic
Constitutional
Biological/biochemical
Psychological
Environmental
What are risk factors?
Those factors that may contribute to development in an adverse way
Describe multifinality and equifinality?
Multifinality: one risk factor can be associated with a number of different outcomes
Equifinality: multiple possible pathways to the same outcome
What are protective factors?
Factors that protect and individual from adverse outcomes
‘Moderators’ of trajectories
What is resilience?
Dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity
Not evasion of risk, but successful engagement with it
