week 1 Flashcards
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The Life-Span Perspective (Paul Baltes)
- Multidirectionality
- Plasticity
- Historical context
- Multiple causation
•Human Experience is:
- Long-term/life long
- Multilevel
- Contextual
- Dynamic
Human Experience/ lifespan development is Influenced by:
- Macro & micro factors
- Gains and losses
- Risks and resiliencies
percentage of aus pop 65 years+ (2015)
15%
Conceptualisations of age
Chronological
Biological
Psychological
Sociocultural
Biological Age
A description of an individual’s age based on bio markers – a recordable molecular or cellular event (e.g., increases and decreases in hormones, degradation of tissues)
Psychological Age
How old one feels, acts, and behaves:
Experience
Logic
Emotion
Sociocultural Age
Age based on the set of expectations that people in a given culture have about when life’s major events “should” occur.
Subjective or Percieved age
How old one feels, acts, and behaves:
Percieved age - how old others perceive us to be?
4 Forces Influencing Ageing and Development
Biological forces - genetic and health-related factors
Psychological forces - internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors
Sociocultural forces - interpersonal, societal, cultural, and ethnic factors
Life-cycle forces- differences in how the same event or combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces
Factors Influence Lifecycle Forces
Normative age-graded factors
Experiences caused by biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces that occur to most people of a particular age.
Normative history-graded & cohort-specific factors
Events that most people in a specific culture / period / locality experience at the same time.
Non-normative or Idiosyncratic factors
Random or rare events that may be important for a specific individual but are not experienced by most people
Core Issues in Development
Nature-nurture
Stability-change
Continuity-discontinuity
Universal versus context-specific
Nature-Nuture
Involves the degree to which genetic or hereditary influences (nature) and experiential or environmental influences (nurture) determine the kind of person you are.
Stability - Change
The degree to which people remain the same over time (or not)
Development as gains and losses
Plasticity - opportunity for change and growth throughout the lifespan
- Neurobiological Plasticity
- Behavioural Plasticity
- Societal Plasticity
Continuity - Discontinuity
Concerns whether a particular developmental phenomenon represents:
Smooth progressions over time (continuity/ Quantitative)
A series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity / Qualitative)
Universal versus context-specific
Concerns whether there is just one path of development or several:
Differences in development are simply variations on a fundamental developmental process
Adult development and aging are inextricably intertwined with the context in which they occur.
Positive/Healthy/Successful Ageing
- Avoidance of disease & disability
- Continuation of effective physical & psychological functioning
- Continued social engagement with life
Positive Ageing
Promoting resilience and a sense of fulfilment and control, despite the challenges that associated with growing older
Positive and constructive views of growing older which accepts aging as the continuous and normal development which occurs in human life
“In short, the positive aging movement is about striving to create a society for all ages that prepares for and celebrates the aging process.”
Why is it important to study adult development and ageing?
A belief in Life span/Life course development
Demographic Changes
Necessity for psychological practice
Impacts on everyone
What are the 4 different conceptualisations of age?
Chronological
Biological
Psychological
Sociocultural
What are the 4 main forces that shape development?
Biological forces - genetic and health-related factors
Psychological forces - internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors
Sociocultural forces - interpersonal, societal, cultural, and ethnic factors
Life-cycle forces- differences in how the same event or combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces
What are the 3 main influences on ageing and development?
Normative age-graded factors
Experiences caused by biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces that occur to most people of a particular age.
Normative history-graded & cohort-specific factors
Events that most people in a specific culture / period / locality experience at the same time.
Non-normative or Idiosyncratic factors
Random or rare events that may be important for a specific individual but are not experienced by most people
What are the 4 key theoretical issues in ageing and development?
Nature-nurture
Stability-change
Continuity-discontinuity
Universal versus context-specific
