Janet Belsky's Experiencing the Lifespan, 3E
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Janet Belsky’s Who We Are and What We Study Experiencing the Lifespan, 3e • Lifespan development: the scientific study of human development throughout life ▫ Conception, Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Emerging Adulthood, and Adulthood ▫ Gerontology Chapter 1: • Study of lifespan development is multidisciplinary The People and The Field • Developmentalists explore ▫ Predictable milestones in development ▫ Individual differences x Nature versus Nurture x Temperament, Talent, Traits ▫ Normative and non-normative transitions Four Contexts of Development Changing Conceptions of Childhood y Historical Background y Cohort: birth group ◦ Poverty; high mortality rates ◦ e.g., baby boom cohort x Child abuse common y Socioeconomic Status y Norms: ◦ Child labor; child abandonment (SES) among poor ◦ education and income y 17th & 18th centuries: level philosophers’ visions ◦ Developed world; ◦ John Locke Developing world x Humans born a “tabula rasa” ◦ Jean Jacques Rousseau y Culture x Infants are innocent ◦ Collectivist and x We should lovingly nurture babies Individualist x These practices not instituted th y Gender until early 20 century 1 Changing Conceptions of Childhood y Late 19th Century: kinder, gentler Changing Conceptions of Later Life: view of children ◦ Childhood protected, dependent life Adulthood and Old Age stage ◦ Universal education: primary school y Life Expectancy mandatory ◦ Low before 20th century medical advances y th 20 Century: Adolescence: th identified by G. Stanley Hall ◦ Today, 20 century life ◦ Stage of “Storm and Stress” expectancy revolution! between childhood and adulthood x Infectious diseases wiped out ◦ In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered high school x Present-day chronic diseases attendance as mandatory. (heart disease, cancer, diabetes) y Emerging Adulthood: newest life stage y New Stages ◦ Age 18 to late 20s ◦ Young-old (60s, 70s) ◦ Time for personal exploration ◦ Old-old (80s and beyond) Cohort Changes in Adult and The Great Recession of 2008 Late Life y Late 20th-Century “Revolution in Lifestyles” ◦ Baby boomers come of age (60s-early 70s) ◦ Civil Rights; Women’s Movement; Sexual Revolution ◦ Positive change: more open society with ability to make new choices at any time of life ◦ Negative changes related to economics: single parenthood; poverty 2 Theories of Development Behaviorism: The Original “Nurture” Theory y Theory • Traditional Behaviorism: John ◦ Any perspective that attempts to explain individual Watson and B. F. behavior Skinner ◦ Allows us to predict behavior ▫ Nurture is all important! ◦ Presents ideas for interventions to improve behavior ▫ A real science: study observable, measurable y Nature/Nurture responses ▫ If we understand the ◦ Are we shaped by biological/genetic forces or is the scientific laws of learning, environment more influential? we can produce any behavior we want! ◦ We’ll look at each theory from this perspective. A Different Perspective: Cognitive B. F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning Behaviorism (Social Learning Theory) y Conditioning = Learning y Albert Bandura y Operant Conditioning y Cognition and Modeling ◦ The law of learning that determines any voluntary ◦ Learn by modeling (imitating) others response x We model people who are nurturant, or involved with ◦ Variable reinforcement schedules us. ◦ We behave a certain way because we are x We model those whom we perceive as being like us. reinforced (rewarded) for certain behaviors. x e.g., At about age 2, gender identification and gender- x Any behavior that is reinforced is likely to be repeated. specific behaviors develop. x Any behavior that is not reinforced is likely to be ◦ Our perceptions about reinforcers (rewards) extinguished. determine our behavior. 3 BanduraBandura:: Cognitive Behaviorism Attachment Theory (mid(mid--2020th Century): Nature, Nurture, and Love y Self-Efficacy ◦ Our belief in our competence • Formulated by John Bowlby ◦ Our sense that through our own efforts, ▫ Shared Freud’s psychoanalytic view: Early life we can be successful at a given task experiences with caregivers shape our personality. ◦ A strong sense of self-efficacy is an x Determines whether we become well-adjusted or important factor in healthy child emotionally impaired adults development. ▫ Bowlby’s Main Focus: “attachment response” x How can we enhance self-efficacy during x Bowlby was an early evolutionary psychologist. childhood and at any time of life? x Attachment response is genetically programmed into our species to promote survival. x Early attachments affect development. Evolutionary Psychology: Nature Behavioral Genetics: Nature y Evolutionary psychologists focus on biological predispositions: • Field devoted to scientifically ◦ Inborn, species-specific behaviors determining the role that hereditary forces play in individual influence human development. differences in behavior: Monozygotic ◦ Speculate about the genetic roots of ▫ Twin Studies (identical and fraternal) human behaviors ▫ Adoption Studies ◦ Survival of the fittest! ▫ Twin/Adoption Studies ▫ Heritability: ranges from 1 (totally genetic) to 0 (no genetic contribution) x Statistic to summarize the extent to which a given behavior is shaped by genetics Dizygotic 4 Person−Environment Fit Nature and Nurture Combined y Nature interacts with Nurture when y The extent to which the environment is tailored to studying human development! our biological tendencies and talents y Evocative Forces ◦ Inborn talents and temperamental y tendencies naturally evoke certain The basic goal of developmental science is to responses from others. foster the correct person−environment fit. ◦ Bidirectional forces in relationships y Active Forces y The real impact of the “nature” revolution is to ◦ We actively select our environments allow us to intervene to change the environment based on our genetic tendencies. in order to enhance one’s quality of life. y Person−Environment Fit crucial to flourishing in life! AgeAge--LinkedLinked Theories: Freud Psychosocial Development: Erikson y Psychoanalytic Theory Considered “the father of lifespan ◦ Analyzes our psyche or “inner life” development” Believed we continue to develop ◦ Deterministic: “mothering” during first five years throughout life determines adult personality and mental health Exception to Freud’s idea that y Id, Ego, Superego development ends in adolescence y Age-Linked Stages Identified core developmental tasks, or psychosocial tasks, for ◦ Focus on erogenous zones each of eight stages from infancy ◦ Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency to old age y Therapy = Psychoanalysis Believed that we need to master the task of each previous stage in order to progress to the next 5 A Preview of Erikson’s Stages AgeAge--LinkedLinked Theories: Piaget y Cognitive-Developmental Theory y Qualitatively different stages exist in the way thinking develops (different age groups conceptualize the world in completely different ways). ◦ Schemas (cognitive structures) ◦ Assimilation, Accommodation ◦ Studies focused on children Cognitive Development: Piaget A Preview of Piaget’s Stages ◦ Tried to understand the unique qualities of childhood cognition by entering children’s mental framework, setting up tests, watching children’s actions, and listening to them speak ◦ Believed that we grow mentally through assimilation, fitting information from the outside world into our “schemas” (or current mental capacities), and accommodation, enlarging our capacities to fit in this “data” from the world 6 Summary of Major Current Theories in The Developmental Systems Lifespan Development Perspective Urie Bronfenbrenner: Highlighted multidirectional forces in human development The total ecology, or life situation of the child, influences his/her development. Developmental Systems Approach: Stresses the need to use many different approaches in understanding human behavior We must look at the interaction of processes (genes, environment, family, society, culture). Research Methods: Correlational Research Methods y Two standard research strategies: ◦ Correlational Study x Researchers chart the relationships between variables. x Correlation does not mean causation! ◦ Experiments x Randomly assign individuals to groups. x Give each group a different treatment. x Experimental group and Control group x Determine if intervention produced a predicted effect. x Experiments can determine cause! 7 CrossCross--SectionalSectional and Longitudinal Research Methods: Experiments Studies: How do we change with age? y Cross-Sectional ◦ Testing and comparing different age groups at the same time x Gives differences between age groups x Does not tell us the changes that occur with age y Longitudinal ◦ Test at intervals – one group over many years x Dunedin Multidisciplinary and Development Study Quantitative and Qualitative Research y Quantitative ◦ The typical research mode in developmental science using groups and statistical analyses to make general predictions about behavior y Qualitative Scientist not interested in numerical comparisons Studying the life of a single person through observation and interviews, or observing a single individual in depth 8.