H S 1 0 0 3 L I F E S PA N

D E V E LO P M E N T

WEEK 1
WHY STUDY DEVELOPMENT?
Lifespan development study will:
1. Provide you with realistic expectations about children, adolescents and
adults
 Typical development
2. Help you recognise when departures from typical development are
significant
 Atypical development
3. Help you to respond appropriately to a client’s challenges or concerns
 Evidence base professional judgement
4. Help you to better understand yourself & people you care about
5. Make you a professional advocate for the needs and rights of people of all
ages
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFESPAN
DEVELOPMENT
• Lifelong development

• Continuity and Change

• Culture and the lifespan

– Nature vs Nurture

• Normative lifespan transitions

– Milestone events

(Peterson, 2010)
CHARACTERISTICS OF
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
• Multidirectional/Multidimensional
– Interaction of different factors
• Not always linear
• Plastic
– Never too late to grow & change
UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT
OF DEVELOPMENT
Change can be:
– Quantitative (discontinuous)
• Changes in number or amount.

– Qualatative (continuous)
• Changes in kind, structure or organization

– Permanent

– Generalizable
• Not being unique to only one cohort

– Progressive
PERIODS/STAGES OF LIFESPAN
Prenatal period Conception to birth

Infancy & Toddlerhood First 2-3 years

Early childhood 3-6 years
Middle childhood 6-11 years
Adolescence 11-20years
Young adulthood 20-40 years
Middle adulthood 40-65 years
Late adulthood 65 years />
THE IMPORTANCE OF AGE IN
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
• Founded in psychology
– Investigating & understanding behavior
– Objective scientific methodology

• Age as a guide

• Biobehavioural process

• Age group membership

(Peterson, 2010)
AGE AND SOCIETY

• Formal and informal impact of ‘age’

– Alcohol, vote, driver’s license etc
– Pressure to conform to age-appropriate standard

• Age norms (social clock)

– Possibility of social disapproval
– May be loosening these days

(Peterson, 2010)
THE PERSONAL MEANING OF AGE

• Expressed in people’s attitudes to their age

– Asset or liability

– Future plan may be affected

• Media influence

• Affect feelings and thoughts

(Peterson, 2010)
CULTURAL INFLUENCE
Impact on our perceptions
• Attitudinal factors
– Filial piety
• Institutional factors
– School etc

(Peterson, 2010)
BRONFENBRENNER
ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY
BRONFENBRENNER
ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY
• The environment is dynamic

• Ecological transitions
– Turning points

• Chronosystems
– Temporal aspect of the model
– Life changes = external and/or internal changes

• We are products and producers of our environment

 DOMAINS OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
ADAPTED FR O M BER K (2008 ) P.10 .

Adulthood

Childhood
Development

Infancy

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

DOMAINS OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

• Biological • Thought/intellect • Personality,

• Growth of body, ual functioning social
sensory, motor • Learning, relationships,
skills etc memory, decision feelings, identity
making, attention etc
span etc
 RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
• Variations in Time Frames
– Cross-sectional study
• compares persons of different ages at a single point in time

– Longitudinal study
• observes same group of persons (cohort) at different points in time

– Sequential study
• combine elements of above two; at least 2 cohorts observed longitudinally
and comparisons made both within each cohort across time and between
cohorts at particular points in time.

– Ethnography
• Observation of a culture or a particular social group over a period of years.
RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
• Variations in Control
–Naturalistic studies
• observes persons in naturally occurring
situations or circumstances
–Experimental studies
• observes person where circumstances are
carefully controlled
RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
Variations in Sample Size
– Surveys
• large-scale, specific, focused interviews of large numbers of
people
– Interviews
• smaller numbers, more in-depth and/or complex information
– Case studies
• one or few individuals, gather wide range of information using
different methods and brings this together.
USEFULNESS OF THEORY IN
PRACTICE
Theories can provide:
1. Meaningful explanations of developmental change

2. Platform for research and learning (form hypotheses which are then
tested)

3. Guidance - sound basis for practical action

 MAJOR THEORETICAL
PERSPECTIVES
1. Psychoanalytical – Freud, Erikson

2. Learning – Skinner, Bandura

3. Cognitive – Piaget, Information-processing

4. Contextual – Bronfenbrenner, Vygotsky

5. Adult specific – Normative-crisis, timing-of-events

ERIKSON’S THEORY
– Neo-Freudian (expanded & modified theory)

Physical

Psychosocial Cognitive
ERIKSON’S THEORY

– Identified 8 stages of development

• Each in the form of a crisis
• The person must resolve to develop a fully functioning personality

– Focused on the social and cultural influences

– Conflicts never fully resolved

• Therefore conflicts from earlier stage may affect later development

– Development of ‘virtue’
ERIKSON’S THEORY
Psychosocial Stages and Developmental processes

Birth to 1 year Trust vs Mistrust

Hope
1- 3 years Autonomy vs Shame and doubt
Will
3 – 6 years Initiative vs Guilt
Purpose
6-12 years Industry vs Inferiority
Competence
12 – 19 years Identity vs Role confusion
Fidelity
19 – 25 years Intimacy vs Isolation
Love
25 – 50 years Generativity vs Stagnation
Care
50 years and Integrity vs Despair
older Wisdom
 LEARNING THEORIES

• Human development = the product of experience

• Behaviour modification/Cognitive behaviour therapy

• Two key theories:

– Behavioural learning (Pavlov & Skinner)
– Social cognitive learning (Bandura)
BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING
THEORIES
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (PAVLOV)
Change a
behaviour based
on what
happens before
the behaviour
happens

Use a stimulus
to elicit a
behaviour.
Stimulus Behaviour
Stimulus Behaviour
BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING
THEORIES
OPERANT CONDITIONING (SKINNER)
– Change a behaviour based on what happens
after the behaviour
– Once a behaviour happens use a reinforcer or
punishment.

Positive
Reinforcement
Behaviour Negative
Punishment

Behaviour Behaviour
Repeated Reduced/Ceased
SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING
THEORY
BANDURA
• Behaviors are learned primarily through observing & imitating
models + reward and punishment

• Observational learning = imitation and modeling

 IMITATION

• Child is directly repeating or

copying the actions of others
 MODELLING

• Child learns through

vicarious (indirect)
reinforcement the behaviours
and personality traits of a
parent or other model.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING
THEORY - BANDURA

• Learner is active – reciprocal

• Cognition (patterns of thinking) is important, including observations of
our behaviours and responses to these
• Form standards for judging their actions
• Development of self-efficacy
• Limitations
– Narrow focus
– Unable to explain complex behaviour
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL
THEORIES •Focus on how thinking and
problem-solving skills
Physical develop

•How cognitive activities

contribute to the overall
Psychosocial Cognitive process of development

Thought and intellectual

functioning
COGNITION –QUICK
OVERVIEW
Planning
Categorising
Perception information

Cognition
Attention Comprehension
Problem
Memory
Solving
 PIAGET’S COGNITIVE STAGES

Four major stages:

Sensorimotor Birth – 2yrs

Preoperational 2-7yrs

Concrete 7-11yrs
operations

Formal 11yrs - through

operations adulthood
PIAGET’S COGNITIVE STAGES
CONT.

• Direct Learning

• Social transmission
– Social contact

• Maturation
– Biologically determined changes
INFORMATION-PROCESSING
THEORY
• Consider human mind as a symbol-manipulating system

• Active learners but not in stages

– Accumulated knowledge

• Age-related development in cognition

INFORMATION-PROCESSING
THEORY
INFORMATION-PROCESSING
THEORY
• Control processes
– Increased efficiency and comprehension

• Metacognition
– Thinking about thinking (you’re aware of your own thinking)
– Knowing thinking strategies

• Development of expertise knowledge

– Knowledge base development
CONTEXTUAL DEVELOPMENTAL
THEORIES

Individual Environment

Two primary theorists:

•Bronfenbrenner
•Vygotsky

Next page
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

•Emphasizes social interaction in

development
•Higher mental function
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Potential
capacity

Child’s own
capacity
CONTRIBUTIONS OF CONTEXTUAL
DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

• Let us explore people’s social context

• Complex issues can be systematically organized

• Useful for preventative programs

 SUMMARY
• Check Table 2.7 on page 82 & 83 for a summary of the theories
mentioned
– Or page 60 of older editions of textbook

• Theories are used for practical application across many areas

• No one theory of human development is universally

accepted

• Need to be able to apply those theories to everyday situations

REFERENCES
Berk. L.E. (2008). Exploring lifespan development.
Boston:Pearson Education, Inc.
Hoffnung, M., Hoffnung, R.J., Seifert, K.L., Burton Smith, R.,
Hine, A. & Ward, L. et al. (2019). Lifespan development: Fourth
Australian Edition. Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia
Ltd.
Peterson, C.C. (2010). Looking forward through lifespan:
Developmental psychology (5th ed.). NSW: Pearson Australia.