PERDEV - Lesson 3 Readings
PERDEV - Lesson 3 Readings
PERDEV - Lesson 3 Readings
1.) Development is Lifelong – early adulthood Cross-cultural studies: comparison of one culture
isn’t the endpoint of development, no age with one or more other cultures
period dominates development
Ethnicity: characteristic based on cultural heritage,
2.) Development is Multidimensional – no
nationality characteristics, race, religion, and
matter what your age might be, your body,
language
mind, emotions, and relationships are
changing and affecting each other Socioeconomic Status: grouping of people with
3.) Development is Multidirectional – some similar occupational, educational, and economic
dimensions or components of a dimension characteristics
expand, and others shrink
Gender: characteristics of people as males or
4.) Development is Plastic – you can still
females
improve in some areas through practice
and training Social Policy: government’s course of action
5.) Developmental Science is Multidisciplinary designed to promote the welfare of its citizens
– psychologists, sociologists,
The Nature of Development:
anthropologists, neuroscientists, and
medical researchers are involved Biological Processes: changes the individual’s
6.) Development is Contextual – all physical nature
development occurs within a context, or
Cognitive Processes: changes an individual’s
setting
thought, intelligence, and language
➢ Normative age-graded influences:
influences that are similar for Socioemotional Processes: changes an
individuals in a particular age group individual’s relationships with other people,
➢ Normative history-graded influence emotions, and personality
– influences common to people of a
Periods of Development:
particular generation because of
historical circumstances 1.) Prenatal Period – time from conception to
birth; 9 months
2.) Infancy – from birth to 18 or 24 months; ➢ Chronological Age - The number of years
time of extreme dependency upon adults that have elapsed after birth
3.) Early Childhood – from 3 through 5 years ➢ Biological Age – a person’s age in terms of
of age; preschool years biological health
- Children learn to become more self- ➢ Psychological Age – an individual’s
sufficient and to care for themselves, adaptive capacities compared with those
develop school readiness skills, and spend of other individuals of the same
many hours playing with peers chronological age
4.) Middle and Late Childhood – 6-10 or 11 ➢ Social Age – connectedness with others
years; elementary school years and the social roles adopt
- Children master the fundamental skills of
Developmental Issues:
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and they
are formally exposed to the larger world Nature-Nurture Issue – a debate about whether
and its culture development is primarily influenced by biological
- Self-control increases inheritance or environmental experiences
5.) Adolescence – transition from childhood to
Stability-Change Issue – debate on whether we
early adulthood; from 10-12 to 18-21
become older renditions of our early experience
years of age
or whether we develop into someone different
- Rapid physical changes, dramatic gains in
from who we were at an early point in
height and weight, changes in body
development
contour, and development of sexual
characteristics Continuity and Discontinuity Issue – debate about
- More time is spent outside the family the extent to which development involves gradual,
6.) Early Adulthood – early 20s through the cumulative change or distinct stages
30s; time of establishing personal and
Theories of Development:
economic independence, advancing in
their career, and for many, selecting a Scientific Method – an approach that can be used
mate to obtain accurate information
7.) Middle Adulthood – 40-60; time of
Theory – interrelated, coherent set of ideas that
expanding social involvement and
helps to explain phenomena and facilitate
responsibility
predictions
- Assisting the next generation in becoming
competent, mature individuals; and of Hypothesis – specific assumptions and predictions
reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a that can be tested to determine their accuracy
career
8.) Late Adulthood – 60-70 until death; time Psychoanalytic Theories: describe development as
primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion
of review, retirement, and adjustment to
new social roles and diminishing strength - Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and
and health the symbolic workings of the mind have to be
- Longest span of any period of development analyzed to understand behavior
- Early experiences with parents are emphasized
Significance of Age: 1.) Freud’s Theory: as children grow up, their
focus of pleasure and sexual impulses shifts
➢ Happiness increases as one ages
from the mouth to the anus and eventually to
Conceptions of Age: the genitals
a.) Oral Stage: infant’s pleasure centers are
on the mouth
b.) Anal Stage: child’s pleasure focuses on the Cognitive Theories: emphasizes conscious thoughts
anus
1.) Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory –
c.) Phallic Stage: child’s pleasure focuses on
theory stating that children actively construct
the genitals
their understanding of the world and go
d.) Latency Stage: child represses sexual
through 4 stages of cognitive development
interest and develops social and intellectual
a.) Sensorimotor Stage: birth to 2 yrs.; infants
skills
construct an understanding of the world by
e.) Genital Stage: a time of sexual
coordinating sensory experiences with
reawakening; source of sexual pleasure
physical actions
becomes someone outside the family
- Progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at
2.) Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory: contrary to
birth to the beginning of symbolic thought
Freud’s theory, rather than sexual motivations,
toward the end of the stage
humans also reflect a desire to socialize and
b.) Preoperational Stage: 2-7; child begins to
affiliate themselves with others
represent the world with words and images
- Increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the
connection of sensory information and physical
action
c.) Concrete Operational Stage: 7-11; child
can now reason logically about concrete
events and classify objects into different
sets
d.) Formal Operational Stage: adolescent
reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and
logical ways
2.) Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory:
emphasizes how culture and social interaction
guide cognitive development
3.) Information-processing Theory emphasizes that
individuals manipulate information, monitor it,
and strategize about it. Central to this theory
are the processes of memory and thinking
Ethological Theory
1.) Descriptive: designed to observe and record Estradiol: type of estrogen that in girls is associated
behavior with breast, uterine, and skeletal development