The Life-Span Perspective & The Nature of Development Flashcards
What are developmentalists? What are they interested in?
An expert in or advocate of developmental psychology.
Interested in the diversity of development, how we can track and expect change over time and how humans are alike and unique.
How did development expert Paul Baltes (1939–2006) define the ‘Life-span Perspective’?
The perspective that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; that it involves growth, maintenance, and regulation; and that it is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working together.
What is development?
The pattern of movement or change that starts at conception and continues through the lifespan.
How did development expert Paul Baltes (1939–2006) view development?
Lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual, and as a process that involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss (Baltes, 1987, 2003; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006).
How is development Multidirectional?
Throughout life, some dimensions or components of a dimension expand and others shrink (Gazes & others, 2020).
During adolescence, as individuals establish romantic relationships, their relationships with friends might decrease.
During late adulthood, older adults might become wiser by being able to call on experience to guide their intellectual decision making (Kunzmann, 2019), but they perform more poorly on tasks that require speed in processing information (Salthouse, 2020).
How is development plastic?
Plasticity means the capacity for change.
What are normative age-graded influences?
Biological and environmental influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.
e.g. puberty, menopause, stating school, retiring
What are normative history-graded influences?
Biological and environmental influences that are associated with history. These influences are common to people of a particular generation.
e.g. political upheavals, great depression, war, integration of computers
What is culture?
The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation.
What are cross-cultural studies?
Comparisons of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which children’s development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific.
Where does the word ethnic come from?
The word ethnic comes from the Greek word for “nation”
What is ethnicity?
A range of characteristics rooted in cultural heritage, including nationality, race, religion, and language.
What is a socioeconomic status (SES) ?
Refers to the conceptual grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
Socioeconomic status implies certain inequalities (Cambron & others, 2020; Mortimer, 2020). Differences in the ability to control resources and to participate in society’s rewards produce unequal opportunities (Roos, Wall-Wieler, & Lee, 2020).
What is Social Policy?
A national government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
Poor/middle-income children are more likely to experience what 6 stressors?
Family turmoil, separation from a parent, violence, crowding, excessive noise, and poor housing (Evans & English, 2002)
What factors may influence resilience?
Good intellectual functions, a close relationship to a parent figure, bonds to caring adults outside of the family.
(Masten, 2006, 2014, 2019; Masten, Motti-Stefanidi, & Rahl-Brigman, 2020)
What is resilience?
The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development.
(Berk, 2018, p.10).
What is cognition?
A term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension.
It includes learning, problem solving, memory, creativity and language.
What is a socioemotional processes?
Processes involved in emotional and social development, personality development, identity and sense of self and development in relationships.
e.g. An infant’s smile in response to a parent’s touch, an adolescent’s joy at the senior prom
What are the 3 processes that define the nature of development?
Biological, cognitive and socioemotional
What is the eight-period sequence of developmental periods?
- Prenatal
- Infancy (18 - 24m)
- Early childhood (24m - 5-6y)
- Middle-late childhood (6 - 11y)
- Adolescence (10-12 - 18-22y)
- Early adulthood (20s - 30s)
- Middle adulthood (40s - 60s)
- Late adulthood (60s - death)
Note: Emerging adulthood (18-25y) is being explored
What are the four types of age?
Chronological, biological, psychological and social
What are the three developmental patterns of aging?
- Normal - Peaks in middle age and shows a modest decline till death
- Pathological - Shows greater cognitive and biological decline in adult years (e.g. Alzheimers)
- Successful - Positive physical, cognitive and socioemotional development is maintained into old age
What is the ‘stability and change’ developmental issue?
The debate about the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or change.
e.g. Will the shy child grow into a wallflower or a sociable individual?
