Lifespan Development

Module 1: Lifespan Development

Module Learning Outcomes

1.0 Explain the primary topics of lifespan development and how research is
conducted in the field

1.1: Define human development and identify the stages of human development
1.2: Explain the lifespan perspective
1.3: Examine how to do research in lifespan development
Introducing Human Development
Learning Outcomes:
Introducing Human Development
1.1: Define human development and identify the stages of human development

1.1.1: Describe human development and its three domains: physical, cognitive,
and psychosocial development

1.1.2: Explain key human development issues about the nature of change:
continuous/discontinuous, one course/multiple courses, and nature/nurture

1.1.3: Describe the basic periods of human development

Domains in Human Development: Physical

• Physical Domain Includes:

• Height
• Weight
• Fine and gross motor skills
• Brain development
• Puberty
• Sexual health
• Fertility and menopause
• Changes in our senses
• Primary and secondary aging
Domains in Human Development: Cognitive

• Cognitive Domain Includes:

• Language development
• Thinking (e.g., logical thinking,
abstract reasoning)
• Learning and understanding
• Memory abilities
• Moral reasoning
• Practical intelligence
• Wisdom
Domains in Human Development: Psychosocial
• Psychosocial Domain Includes:
• Psychological and social development
• Temperament and attachment
• Emotions
• Personality
• Self-esteem
• Relationships
• Identity development
• Dating, romance, cohabitation, marriage,
and having children
• Finding work or a career
• Caregiving, retirement, coping with
losses, and death and dying
Key Human Development Issues: Continuous or
Discontinuous
• Continuous
• Development is a cumulative process
• Gradually improve on existing skills
• Discontinuous
• Development occurs in unique stages
• Development at specific times or ages
Key Human Development Issues: One Course or Many
Courses

• One Course
• Development is essentially the same for all
• Development is universal
• Stage theories

• Many Courses
• Development follows a different course for each
child, depending on the child’s specific genetics,
environment, and culture
Key Human Development Issues: Nature versus Nurture
• Known in psychology as the Nature
versus Nurture Debate
• Nature: Biology and genetics
• Nurture: Environment (e.g., parents,
peers) and culture

• Interaction between genes and

environment
• Both shape who we become
• There is continued debate about the
relative contributions of each
Basic Periods of Human Development
• Prenatal Development: germinal, embryonic, and fetal periods
• Infancy and Toddlerhood: the first two years
• Early Childhood: Ages 2 to 5 or 6
• Middle Childhood: Ages 6 to 11
• Adolescence: Ages 12 to 18
• Early Adulthood: late teens, twenties and thirties
• Middle Adulthood: late thirties (or age 40) through the mid-60s
• Late Adulthood:
• “young old” (65-74 years old)
• “old old” (75-84 years old)
• “oldest old” (85+ years old)
Practice Question 1

The _______ of human development involves one’s feelings, relationships, identity,

and personality.

A. physical domain
B. cognitive domain
C. psychosocial domain
D. lifespan domain
Practice Question 2

Which period of development involves developing independence and feeling like an

adult?

A. Adolescence
B. Early adulthood
C. Middle adulthood
D. Late adulthood
The Lifespan Perspective
Learning Outcomes: The Lifespan Perspective

1.2: Explain the lifespan perspective

1.2.1: Describe Baltes' lifespan perspective with its key principles about
development (lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, contextual,
and multidisciplinary)

1.2.2: Explain what is meant by development being lifelong, multidimensional,

and multidirectional

1.2.3: Explain contextual influences on development

Baltes’ Lifespan Perspective

• Lifespan development: the biological,

cognitive, and psychosocial changes and
constancies that occur throughout the entire
course of life

• Lifespan Perspective: an approach to studying

lifespan development attributed to Paul Baltes,
a German psychologist and leading expert on
lifespan development and aging
Baltes’ Lifespan Perspective: Key Principles

● Development occurs across one’s entire life or is lifelong

● Development is multidimensional
● Development is multidirectional and results in gains and
losses throughout life
● Development is plastic, meaning that characteristics are
malleable or changeable
● Development is influenced by contextual and socio-cultural
influences
● Development is multidisciplinary
Development is Lifelong

Development occurs across one’s entire life or is lifelong

• Development encompasses the entire lifespan, from conception to death
• Traditional view:
• focused on conception to adolescence and the
gradual decline in old age
• It was believed that the five or six decades after
adolescence yielded little to no developmental
change at all
• Current view: changes in development can occur
later in life, without having been established at
birth
Development is Multidimensional

Development is multidimensional
• A complex interaction of biological,
cognitive, and socioemotional changes
influence development across the
lifespan
• Example of puberty in adolescence:
• Physiological/physical changes in hormone levels, primary and secondary
sex characteristics, changes in height and weight
• Cognitive changes in terms of the ability to think abstractly
• Emotional and social changes involving regulating emotions, interacting
with peers, and possibly dating
Development is Multidirectional

Development is multidirectional and results in

gains and losses throughout life
• We have the capacity for both an increase and
decrease in the efficacy of certain traits over
the course of the lifespan
• Selective optimization with compensation:
prioritizing and improving the efficacy of
particular functions, thereby reducing the
adaptive capacity of other functions
• Example:
• Childhood: difficulty with regulating emotions and impulsive actions
• Adolescence: increased ability to regulate emotions and impulses, but they
may sacrifice spontaneity, creativity, or fast responding
Development is Plastic

Development is plastic, meaning that

characteristics are malleable or
changeable
• The nature of human development is
more pluralistic than originally
thought; there is no single pathway in
development
• Consider the example of cognitive decline in aging
• Dimensions of cognitive decline are partially
reversible because the brain retains the lifelong
capacity for plasticity and reorganization of
cortical tissue
• Research suggests that cognitive function, such as
memory, can be improved in mature adults with
age-related cognitive decline by using brain
plasticity-based training methods
Development is Contextual

Development is influenced by contextual and socio-

cultural influences
• Development varies from person to person, depending
on factors such as a person’s biology, family, school,
church, profession, nationality, and ethnicity
• Three types of contextual influences
operate across the lifespan:
• normative age-graded influences
• normative history-graded
influences
• nonnormative influences
Normative Age-Graded Influences
• Biological and environmental factors
that have a strong correlation with
chronological age, such as puberty or
menopause

• Age-based social practices such as

beginning school or entering
retirement
Normative History-Graded Influences

• Associated with a specific time period that defines the broader environmental
and cultural context in which an individual develops
• Development and identity are influenced by historical events that people
experience. For example,
• Great Depression
• WWII
• The Vietnam War
• The Cold War
• The War on Terror
• Advances in technology
Nonnormative Influences

• Unpredictable and not tied to a certain

time in a person’s development or to a
historical period
• The unique experiences of an individual,
whether biological or environmental, that
shape the development process
• Examples of nonnormative influences:
• Earning a master’s degree
• Getting a certain job offer
• Going through a divorce
• Coping with the death of a child
Class Activity: Contextual Influences on Your Development

1. Get into groups of four or more and discuss the following three types of
contextual influences on your own development, with special attention to
cognitive and psychosocial domains:
a. Age-based social practices, such as when you started college (age-graded
influences)
b. Historical events that have shaped your development (history-graded
influences)
c. Unique life experiences that have influenced your development
(nonnormative influences)
2. Listen for commonalities and differences in your group
3. Share your observations with the class
Other Contextual Influences: Cohort

• Cohort: a group of people who are born at roughly the same time period in a
particular society
• Members of a cohort experience the same historical events and cultural climates
which influence their values, priorities, and goals
• Consider your cohort. Can you identify it? Does it have a name and if
so, what does the name imply?
• To what extent does your cohort shape your values, thoughts, and
aspirations?
• (Some cohort labels popularized in the media for generations in the
United States include Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and
Generation Z.)
Other Contextual Influences: Socioeconomic Status

• Socioeconomic Status or Social Class: a

way to identify families and households
based on their shared levels of education,
income, and occupation
• Members of a social class tend to share similar lifestyles, patterns of
consumption, parenting styles, stressors, religious preferences, and other aspects
of daily life (although there are individual variations)
Other Contextual Influences: Culture

• Often referred to as a blueprint shared by a group of people that specifies how to

live
• Culture includes ideas about the
following:
• what is right and wrong
• what to strive for
• what to eat
• how to speak
• what is valued
• what kinds of emotions are called for
in certain situations
• Culture is learned from parents, schools, churches, media, friends, and others
throughout a lifetime
Other Contextual Influences: Culture continued
• Ethnocentrism: the belief that our own culture’s practices and expectations are
the right ones or are superior
• This is a normal byproduct of growing up in a culture
• It becomes a roadblock when it inhibits understanding of cultural practices
from other societies
• Cultural relativity: an appreciation
for cultural differences and the
understanding that cultural practices
are best understood from the
standpoint of that particular culture
• Think of other ways culture may have affected
your development.
• How might cultural differences influence
interactions between teachers and students?
Development is Multidisciplinary
Development is multidisciplinary
• Any one discipline would not be able to account for all aspects of lifespan
development
• Lifespan researchers state that it takes a combination of disciplines to
understand development:
• Psychologists
• Sociologists
• Neuroscientists
• Anthropologists
• Educators
• Economists
• Historians
• Medical researchers
Practice Question 3

Brain training programs capitalize on the brain’s lifelong capacity to reorganize

cortical tissue, which aligns with Baltes’ key principle of lifespan development that
_______.

A. development is plastic
B. development is multidimensional
C. development is multidirectional
D. development is lifelong
Practice Question 4

Millennials, those born between 1982 and 2000, are considered tech-savvy because
they grew up with technology and rely on it for daily activities. Which of Baltes’
contextual influences does this represent?

A. Normative age-graded influences

B. Normative history-graded influences
C. Nonnormative influences
D. Normative contextual influences