Chapter 2:
The Science of Life-Span Development

Objectives

·        Describe theories (Freud, Erikson, Piaget, Bronfenbrenner) of lifespan development.

·        Explain how research in lifespan development is conducted.

·        Discuss research challenges in lifespan development.

What is a theory?

·        An interrelated, coherent set of ideas.

·        It helps to explain and to make predictions.

·        Hypotheses: predictions and testable assumptions.

What is a Developmental theory?

·        A systematic statement of principles and generalizations.

·        A framework for studying and explaining development.

Theories of Development

1. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

·        Behavior is primarily unconscious.

·        Problems are the result of childhood experiences.

·        children move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations.

·        Freud emphasized family relationships and early experiences as crucial to later development.

·        Emphasis on understanding the unique developmental history of each child.

            Stages of Psychosexual Development

Oral                 birth-1year

Anal                 1-3 years

Phallic              3-6 years

Latency            6-11 years

Genital              Adolescence

Three basic structures of personality.

1. Id

·        Instinctual component of personality.

·        No morality or contact with reality.

2. Ego

·        Realistic component of personality.

·        Uses reasoning to make decisions.

·        Balance the demands of the id and the superego.

3. The Super Ego

·        The moral component of personality.

Before going on

·        In Freud’s view, how do the id, ego, and superego work together to keep the personality functioning?

Criticism of Psychoanalytic Theory

·        Difficult to test scientifically.

·        Too much emphasis on past and childhood.

·        Too much emphasis on sexual underpinnings.

·        Too much credit for unconscious mind.

·        A negative image of humans.

·        Culture and gender biased.

   2. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

·        Erikson was Neo Freudian.

·        Replaced sexual motivations with social motivations.

·        Reflected individual’s desire to affiliate with people.

·        Each stage confronts individuals with a developmental task/crisis that must be faced.

·        Consists of 8 stages that extend through the life span.

Evaluating Erikson’s Theory

·        Importance of family and social relationships in development.

·        Developmental understanding of personality.

·        Changes in adulthood as well as childhood.

·        Importance of individual’s characteristics and the support of the social environment.

Think about it!

·        How do Erikson’s stages differ from Freud?

Cognitive Theory

·        Structure and development of the individual’s thought process and understanding.

3. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

·        States that children actively construct their understanding of the world.

·        Piaget Observed his own children to develop theory.

Four age-related stages of cognitive development.

1. Sensory motor

2. Preoperational

3. Concrete operational

4. Formal operational

·        Qualitatively different ways of thinking in each stage.

·        Four Processes that underlie cognitive construction.

1. Organization

·         Rearrangement of schemes based on experience.

2. Adaptation

·        Changing of cognitive schemes.

3. Assimilation

·        Incorporation of new information into existing knowledge.

4. Accommodation

·        Creation of new knowledge or modification of existing knowledge.

Critical thinking

§Describe some examples of assimilation and accommodation in your everyday life or from the life of a child.

Evaluation of Cognitive Theory

Positive

·        Revolutionized research by focusing attention on active mental processes.

·        New insight into human thinking processes.

·        A positive view of development.

Negative

·        No focus on cognitive development in adults and elderly.

·        No attention to individual variations in cognitive development.

Ecological Systems Theory (Urie Bronfenbrenner)

·        Explains development in terms of relationships between people and their environment or contexts.

·        The environment is not a static force that uniformly affects individuals—it is ever-changing.

·        Consists of five environmental systems

·        The microsystem is the innermost level of the environment (family, peers etc.).

·        The mesosystem is composed of connections among microsystems that foster individual’s development.

·        The exosystem contains contexts that do not include individual but affect their experiences in immediate settings.

·        The macrosystem is the outermost layer, which includes a culture’s laws, values, customs, and resources.

·        The temporal dimension of this model is the chronosystem (environmental, socio-historical circumstances).

Figure: Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory of Development

RESEARCH METHODS

Scientific Research

·        A way to seek evidence to answer a question.

             Four basic steps in a scientific research.

·        Formulate a research question

·        Develop a hypothesis

·        Test the hypothesis

·        Draw conclusions

Scientific Research

1. Descriptive Research

Observation

·        Systematic and unbiased

·        Recording and categorizing information.

·        Two types of observation:

·        Laboratory observation

·        Naturalistic observation

Surveys and Interviews

Quick and easy to get information.

Problems: Socially acceptable response.

Standardized Tests

Provide information about individual differences.

Give us comparison.

Assessment of performance in different domains.

Use in research, education, and clinics.

Problem: Culturally biased.

Case Studies

• Provide in depth look at an individual.
• Explain unique aspects of an individual’s life.
• Problem: Lack of generalization.

Life-History Records

2. Correlational Research

·        Describes the strength of the relation between two or more events or characteristics.

·        The stronger the two events are correlated, the more effectively we can predict one from the other.

·        Correlation does not equal causation.

3. Experimental Research

·        Determines the causes of behavior.

·        Some factors are manipulated and some are held constant.

·        Cause: the manipulated factor being studied.

·        Effect: the behavior that changes due to manipulation.

·        Reliable and controlled method of research.

·        Involves independent and dependent variables.

Independent variable

·        Can be manipulated, influential, experimental factor.

Dependent variable

·        It is measured in an experiment.

• It can change as the independent variable is manipulated.
• An experimental group: whose experience is manipulated.
• A control group: that is treated in every way like the experimental group except for the manipulated factor.

·        Random assignment involves assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance.

Time Span of Developmental Research

·        Study the relation of age to other variables.

1. Cross-Sectional Approach

• Individuals of different ages are compared at one time. 
• Advantage:
• Time-efficient approach.
• Disadvantage: Provides no information about how individuals change or about the stability of their characteristics.

2. Longitudinal Approach

·        The same individuals are studied over a period of time.

·        Advantages: Information regarding stability and change.

·        Importance of early experience for later development.

·        Disadvantages: Expensive and time-consuming.

·        Potential for subjects to drop out.

3. Sequential Approach

·        Combination of the cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches.

·        Individuals of different ages (cross-sectional) are tested over a period of time (longitudinal).

·        Cohort effects can be assessed.

Cohort

• A group of people born in a particular time period.
• Problem
• Complex, expensive, and time-consuming.

• Think about it?
• A researcher wants to study the thoughts and feelings of children who experiences their parent’s divorce. Which method is best suited for investigating this question? Why?

Research Challenges

Ethics

·        Informed consent

·        Rights of the participants

·        Confidentiality

·        Gender bias

·        Cultural and ethnic bias.