human growth and development-world of psychology--human ：人的成长和发展心理学——人类世界

HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT LIFE-SPAN EXAM 1 DISCUSSION LIFESPAN CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. How do the lives of Ted Kaczynski and Alice Walker illustrate the questions explored in the course textbook? One question is what leads one person, full of promise and potential to commit acts of brutal violence and another to change poverty and trauma into a literary treasure chest. Another question is how are different lives unique. A third question is how does understanding lifespan development illuminate the nature of development and how science seeks to ask and answer questions about development. 2. What is the importance of studying the development using the lifespan perspective? Studying development using the lifespan perspective illustrates how lives are unique contain information about who we are how we came to be the way we are and where future will likely lead us. shows that development involves both growth and decline as well as changes that occur from conception until death. 3. What are 8 characteristics of the lifespan perspective? A. lifelong includes changes from conception until death B. multidimensional body, mind and emotions and relationships change and affect each other throughout life; involves biological, cognitive and socioemotional dimensions C. multidirectional in all phases of life some abilities improve while others decline; example is ability to learn second and third languages decreases as we grow older. D. plastic involves capacity for change and growth during different stages of life in terms of cognition, physiology and social and emotional functioning. E. multidisciplinary lifespan perspective integrates information from psychology, sociology, anthropology, neurology and medicine to help us to understand development F. contextual lifespan perspective emphasizes that development occurs in a particular setting or context (cultural, social, geographical). context of development has 3 types of influence on development: 1)normative age- graded; 2)normative history-graded; and 3)nonnormative. G. involves 3 goals of growth, maintenance and regulating loss of functioning. H. involves interaction of factors associated with biology, culture and individual experiences; biology includes physiological and genetic factors suggesting tendencies and possibilities; culture provides environment and context; individual experience contributes a unique dimension to each persons life. 4. What are 4 contemporary concerns regarding lifespan development? A. health and well-being mental and physical health professionals help us to improve our physical and mental state and feeling of well-being; physical and psychological lifestyle and state affects both mental and physical health. B. parenting and education Understanding lifespan perspective helps us to answer questions about pressures on the family and problems facing educators; other issues: child care, divorce, parenting styles, intergenerational relationships, early childhood education, efforts to promote lifelong learning. C. social and cultural contexts and diversity 4 concepts: 1)culture: behavior patterns, beliefs of a particular group; 2)ethnicity: related to cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion and language; 3)socioeconomic status: position in society with regard to occupation, education and economic resources; 4)gender: psychological and social and cultural experience of being male or female. D. social policy governments course of action for protecting and promoting the welfare of citizens; involves values, economics and politics; special concern for children and elderly individuals. 5. What are 4 features of the nature of development? A. biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes 1)biological processes: changes in physiology; examples, genes from parents, brain development, height and weight gain, hormonal changes in adolescence; 2) cognitive processes: changes in thinking, intelligence and language; examples, watching a crib mobile, creating multiword sentences, imagining what is would be like to president of the United States. 3)social and emotional processes: changes in relationships with other people, emotions and personality; examples, infant smile in response to cuddling, toddlers aggressive behavior toward a playmate, mutual affection expressed by elderly couple. B. periods of development time frame in life characterized by certain features, usually involving an 8-period sequence; 1)prenatal period: conception to birth; from single cell to complete organism with complex brain and nervous system capable to variety of behaviors; 2) infancy: birth to 18-24 months; extreme dependency on adults and other older individuals; psychological activity begins; 3) early childhood: age 2 to 5 or 6; preschool years; become more self-sufficient; learn school readiness skills such as following instructions and recognizing letters and colors; 4) middle and late childhood: from 6 to 11 or 12; elementary school years; master basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic; achievement is central theme; person shows increasing self-control; 5) adolescence: transition from childhood to early adulthood; from 10-12 to age 18-22; begins with rapid physical changes characteristic of puberty; major goals becoming independent and developing an individual identity; thinking more logical and abstract; 6) early adulthood: from late teens through 30s; establish personal, social, emotional and economic independence; beginning career development; select life partner; start family and child rearing; 7)middle adulthood: from early 40s until around age 60; expand personal and social involvement and responsibility; assist next generation; reach and maintain career satisfaction. 8) late adulthood: from 60s and 70s until death; time of review and reflection; retirement and adjusting to decreasing strength and health; longest span of any developmental period C. conceptions of age 1)chronological age: number of years since birth; 2)biological age: describes biological health and functional capacity of vital organs, such as heart, lungs, kidneys, circulatory system; 3)psychological age: measure of adaptive capacities, including ability to learn, establish and maintain motivation, be flexible and think clearly. D. Developmental issues start here mon sep7 1) nature and nurture: extent to which our development is affected by biological inheritance and environmental experiences; evolutionary and genetic tendencies (nature) as well as environmental setting result in shared growth and developmental experiences; some controversy as to how much nature and nurture influence development. 2) stability and change: involves degree to which early traits and characteristics persist throughout life; some disagreement about amount of stability or change we are likely to experience; remember idea of plasticity suggesting potential for change exists throughout the lifespan. 3)continuity and discontinuity: focus on degree to which development is gradual and continuous or occurs in distinct stages; usually continuous within stages and discontinuous or discrete between stages. 6. Describe 6 theoretical approaches that help understand development theory = set of related ideas about development that explain what happens and why A. psychoanalytic B. Cognitive C. Behavioral and Social Cognitive D. Ethological E. Ecological F. Eclectic Testing a theory involves using scientific method a. state a process or problem to be studied; b. collect research information or data; c. analyze the data; d. draw conclusions; e. share findings with others. A. psychoanalytic assumes development is mostly unconscious and influenced by emotions; emphasizes behavior consists of mainly surface characteristics; true understanding involves analyzing symbolic meaning; stresses early childhood experiences. Examples of psychoanalytic theories from Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson; Freud suggested 5 stages of development including oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital; personality depends on how we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure and demands of reality at each stage. Erikson proposed 8 stages of development; each stage involves unique developmental task presenting the person with a crisis to resolve. Ericksons crises are turning points characterized by increased vulnerability and potential. Ericksons stages: 1)trust vs mistrust first year 2)autonomy vs shame and doubt second year 3)initiative vs guilt ages 3-5 4) industry vs inferiority ages 6-12 5)identity vs role confusion ages 13-19 6)intimacy vs isolation 20s -30s 7) generativity vs stagnation 40s-50s 8)integrity vs despair 60s -death B. Cognitive theories emphasize effects of conscious thoughts on development. Examples of cognitive theories a. Piagets cognitive stages, b. Vygotskys Sociocultural cognitive theory, c. information processing theory. a. Piaget: proposed 4 stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational; suggested we actively construct our understanding of the world; Cognitive understanding involves organization (deciding how to separate ideas and describe how the ideas relate to each other) and adaptation (adjusting to environmental demands). Each stage is age-related and characterized by a distinct way of thinking that is qualitatively different from thinking in other stages. Description of Piagets cognitive stages: 1)sensorimotor birth to 2 years; coordinate sensory experiences with physical motor or muscle responses; 2)preoperational 2-7 years; represent world with words, images and drawings; lack ability to perform operations internalized mental actions allow child to accomplish mentally what could previously be done only physically. 3)concrete operational 7-12 years; perform operations involving objects; reason logically when reasoning applied to specific or concrete examples. 4)formal operational from 11-15 through adult life; think in abstract and logical terms; develop images of ideal circumstances used for comparison with reality; think about future possibilities; Formal operations more systematic in problem solving compared to earlier stages; develop hypotheses about why something happens and test hypotheses. b. Vygotskys sociocultural cognitive theory: believed child actively constructs knowledge about the world; emphasized effects of social interaction and culture; believed child development inseparable from social and cultural activities; Vygotsky proposed cognitive development involves learning to use social inventions such as language, math, memory strategies; believed social interaction with skilled adults and peers essential to cognitive development; learn through social interaction to use tools needed for adaptation and success in a particular culture. c. Information processing theory: emphasizes manipulating and monitoring information developing strategies about information; propose a gradually increasing capacity for processing information allowing a person to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills; IP theory proposes people perceive, encode, represent, store and retrieve information while thinking; important to learn effective information processing strategies. C. Behavioral and social cognitive theories development described in terms of behaviors learned through interaction with the environment. a. behaviorism: study scientifically only what we directly observe and measure; examples: Skinners operant conditioning Banduras social cognitive theory 1)Skinners operant conditioning theory = consequences of behavior produce changes in probability of behavior occurring; behavior followed by reward more likely to occur later; behavior followed by punishment or no consequences less likely to occur in the future; Skinners key to development: behavior rather than thought and feelings; emphasize development as pattern of behavioral changes resulting from rewards and punishment. 2)Banduras social cognitive theory propose behavior, environment and personal+cognitive factors key to development; emphasize cognitive processes important link to environment and behavior; early focus on observational learning(imitation or modeling) we learn by observing others; Banduras cognitive link to observational learning: person representing behavior cognitively or mentally and adopting the observed behavior; most recent model of social cognitive theory has 3 elements: behavior, personal cognition and environment; person develops while experiencing confidence about controlling success in life based on cognitive strategies learned and used. D. Ethological theory stresses behavior influenced by biology and genetics; behavior characterized by critical periods or sensitive periods or special time frames associated with the absence or presence of experiences having lasting influence on the persons development. Examples Konrad Lorenz and John Bowlby Lorenzs critical period is important for imprinting very early in life as with baby geese. Sensitive periods similar to Bowlbys idea of a time period in the life of human infants. 1) Konrad Lorenz promoted ethology the study of animal behavior with emphasis on the behavioral patterns that occur in natural environments. Lorenz studied behavior of greylag geese who follow mother soon after hatching; Lorenz separated a group of eggs from one mother goose; Group A eggs were returned to mother goose for hatching and care; these baby geese later behaved as expected; Group B eggs were hatched in an incubator and saw “mother” Lorenz immediately after hatching; later all baby geese placed in a box with a lid; when lid was lifted Group A babies headed for mother goose as expected; Group B babies headed for “mother”Lorenz; Lorenz called the process imprinting, a rapid innate learning involved in attachment to the first moving object viewed after hatching. 2) John Bowlby proposed important application of ethology to development; suggested a childs attachment to caregiver during first year of life is important influence; if attachment is positive and secure, future development is likely positive; if attachment is negative and insecure, future develop likely characterized by problems. E. Ecological theory emphasizes environmental factors effect on development 1. Bronfenbrenners ecological theory: development reflect effects of 5 environmental systems: a. microsystem setting in which person lives, such as family, peers, school, neighborhood; most direct interaction with social agents such as parents, teachers and peers; person helps to construct developmental setting; b. mesosystem Controls relations between microsystem and connections between contexts; example: relationship between family and school or school and church; c. exosystem links between social setting where individual is not active and persons immediate context; example childs experience at home influenced by moms experience at work; d. macrosystem culture in which individual lives Includes behavior patterns, beliefs and products of a group shared among different generations; and e. chronosystem pattern of environmental events and transitions over life course plus sociohistorical circumstances; examples divorce as transition; recent increased career opportunities for women as sociohistorical circumstances. Recent addition of biological influences has resulted in bioecological theory, heavy emphasis on ecological influences. F. Eclectic theoretical orientation All theories together form a more complete picture of development. Psychoanalytic theories best at explaining unconscious mind. Eriksons theory best to explain adult development. Piaget and Vygotsky + information processing theory best to explain cognitive development. Behavioral and social cognitive + ecological theories best to explain environmental influences. Ethological theory best to explain effects of biological factors and influence of sensitive periods. Course textbook best described as eclectic in orientation. 7. Describe 3 features of research in development A. 5 methods for collecting data, B. 3 research designs; C. 3 time frames for research A. Methods for collecting data: 1)observation: must be systematic; know what you are looking for; know when, where and how to make observations and how to record observations; where to make observations in laboratory or everyday life; observe scientifically in controlled conditions in laboratory; drawbacks to lab: unnatural setting, participants aware of observation, people willing to come to lab may not be typical; - participants could be intimidated by lab setting; naturalistic (everyday life) observations: eg observing parents and children in science museum with no attempt to control or influence behavior. Observations easier to relate to typical experiences 2) surveys and interviews: ask people directly; survey or questionnaire using standard set of questions; useful to get information on wide range of information; - Difficulty with surveys and interviews: people tend to give what they consider socially acceptable answers. 3)standardized tests: uniform procedure for administering and scoring; allow comparison with other people; gives information about individual differences; example: Stanford-Binet intelligence test (Ch 7); - Cri