DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Lecture 1
Developmental Psychology
· Deals with behavioral changes within a person across the lifespan
· Deals with differences and similarities among persons in the nature of these changes
· Aim - describe these intraindividual changes and interindividual differences
· Explain how they come about and find ways to modify them in an optimum way
What Develops
· Biological
· Cognitive
· Social
· Emotional
When
· What develops when?
· Studying normative development – we link important developmental changes to a certain
age
How can we classify these age periods?
· Prenatal period – conception to birth
· Infancy – first 2 years of life
· Preschool period – 2-5 years
· Middle childhood – 6 to 10 years
· Adolescence – approx. 10-18 years
· Emerging adulthood – 18-25 or 29
· Early adulthood – 25-40 years
· Middle adulthood – 40-65 years
· Late adulthood – 65 years and older
- young old: 60-80 years → still relatively healthy; active
- old old: 80 years on → increased risk for physical and cognitive problems
· Age is not informative – there are huge differences between individuals
What Develops When
· Biological age is never responsible for development and thus does not explain changes
- biological age is often correlated with developmental changes, but it’s just the
‘vehicle’ not the cause
- the real goal in developmental science is to understand the mechanisms (why)
behind these changes
· Development happens on different time scales
· Variability - short term changes that are more or less reversible
· Change - long-term changes that are more or less enduring
· Variability can predict change
- fluctuations in behavior or performance might signal upcoming lasting changes
· We can treat age in a
- continuous way - age x ability correlation
- compare specific age groups - mean age difference in ability x
· We can investigate
- individuals of different ages at one point in time - Cross-sectional designs
we measure differences
- the same individuals across different points in time - Longitudinal designs
we measure change
,Research Designs
Cross-sectional designs
· Studying groups of individuals of different ages at one point in time
→ Measure interindividual differences
Longitudinal designs
· Studying one group of individuals over a longer time period
→ Measure intraindividual change
Challenges Due to Environmental and Historical Influences
· Environmental influences (war, pandemics, crises) can influence observed
results → can give the impression that development takes place ALTHOUGH measures are
caused by environmental conditions
Problems depending on Research Designs
· Cross-sectional design → Cohort Effects
· Longitudinal design → Time-of-measurement effects
Cohort Effects
· Cohort - any group that shares having experiences the same cultural environment and
historical events (same year of birth)
· Cohort effect - differences in developmentally relevant variables that arise from
non-age-related factors to which each birth cohort was exposed
· In cross-sectional designs age effect might be confounded with cohort effects
- wrongly assuming age differences, but the effect caused by the cohort characteristics
is due to their historical context
Time-of-Measurement effects
· Time-of-measurement effects - effects of historical events and trends occurring when the
data are being collected on observed results
· In longitudinal studies age effects and time-of measurement effects are confounded
- wrongly assuming change but the effect comes from the historical context when the
data is collected
Cross-Sectional Designs
Advantages
· Economic in time (short duration between assessment and results)
· Rather cheap
· Shows similarities and differences between age groups
Disadvantages
· No information on individual trajectories (only interindividual changes)
· Age effects confounded with cohort effects
· Limited generalizability to other times of measurements
Longitudinal Designs
Advantages
· True assessment of intraindividual change
· Assessment of stability and change of developmental characteristics
Disadvantages
· Age effects confounded with time-of-measurement effects /retest effects/ attrition effects
· Limited generalizability to other cohorts
· Long duration
· High costs
,Assessment Methods
· Self report vs Report by proxy (parent, spouse, caregiver)
- interview
- questionnaires
- diaries
· Behavioral observations
- naturalistic vs structured
· Standardized Tests / Test batteries
- comparison to norms
· Physiology
- eeg
- heart rate
- eye tracking
- sucking duration
Research Design
· Case study
· Correlational design
· Experimental design
Research Challenges
· In developmental research we focus on age groups that may differ from younger adults in
- speech reception and production
- sensomotoric abilities
- suggestibility
- attention span / fatigue
- subjective meaning of concepts
- proportion of undiagnosed clinical impairment
Adjust methods to abilities of individual
· age-adjusted task material
· oral responses - instead of written
· non-verbal task materials
· use of structured observation, physiological methods or report by proxies - alternatives to
verbal self-report
· consider selectivity of sample - is it representative of the population
· response bias - mindful of influences like social desirability, stereotypes, speed-accuracy
trade-offs
Experimental Infant Research
Habituation/ Dishabituation
1. Orienting response
2. Habituation - slow, changed or stopped response to repeated presentation of the
same stimulus
3. Dishabituation - increase in responding to new stimulus after introducing a deviant
How to measure a response by an infant?
· Looking, sucking, turning head - interested, surprising outcome, noticed a difference
· NOT looking - loss of interest, recognized as old, did not notice a difference
Experimental Aging Research
Ex. Age Stereotype Threat
· same study material but different instructions to assess:
, - memory abilities - see if their memory is normal
- reading ability condition - asses their reading ability
· In memory condition - older adults performed significantly worse than younger adults
· In reading condition - no significant difference between age groups
· Clear example of stereotype threat
- older adults felt the pressure due to negative stereotypes about aging and memory
decline - led to reduced performance
- when focused on reading no domain is associated with negative aging stereotypes -
performance unaffected
‘How’ in Lifespan Developmental Psychology
Principles in lifespan psychology
· Lifelong
- development continues across the entire lifespan from birth to death (not just early
years)
· Multidimensional and Multidisciplinary
- development includes biological, psychological and social aspects
· Multidirectional
- development isn’t a straight upward path
- some abilities may increase, while other might decline
· Gains and Losses
- growth involves both progress and decline
- as people age they might lose some abilities but gain others (wisdom)
· Plastic
- development is flexible and adaptive
- people can change in response to life experiences, learning - there’s potential for
change at any age
· Embedded in history
- development is shaped by historical context
- different generations face different influences
· Contextualized
- development depends on contexts (family, culture, status, education)
LECTURE 2
Discussion in Developmental Psychology
· Nature-Nurture: is development the product of genes, biology and maturation or of
experience, learning and social influences
· Activity-Passivity: do humans shape their own environments and contribute to their own
development or are they passively shaped by forces beyond their control
· Continuity-Discontinuity: do humans change gradually and in quantitative ways or in
qualitatively very different stages and develop very different competencies and
characteristics
· Universality- Context: is development similar from person to person and from culture to
culture or do pathways of development vary depending on the social context
NATURE-NURTURE
Nature - way you were born (genetics)
Nurture - way we were raised, everything that happens in our life shapes us, the kind of
INTERACTIONS
Lecture 1
Developmental Psychology
· Deals with behavioral changes within a person across the lifespan
· Deals with differences and similarities among persons in the nature of these changes
· Aim - describe these intraindividual changes and interindividual differences
· Explain how they come about and find ways to modify them in an optimum way
What Develops
· Biological
· Cognitive
· Social
· Emotional
When
· What develops when?
· Studying normative development – we link important developmental changes to a certain
age
How can we classify these age periods?
· Prenatal period – conception to birth
· Infancy – first 2 years of life
· Preschool period – 2-5 years
· Middle childhood – 6 to 10 years
· Adolescence – approx. 10-18 years
· Emerging adulthood – 18-25 or 29
· Early adulthood – 25-40 years
· Middle adulthood – 40-65 years
· Late adulthood – 65 years and older
- young old: 60-80 years → still relatively healthy; active
- old old: 80 years on → increased risk for physical and cognitive problems
· Age is not informative – there are huge differences between individuals
What Develops When
· Biological age is never responsible for development and thus does not explain changes
- biological age is often correlated with developmental changes, but it’s just the
‘vehicle’ not the cause
- the real goal in developmental science is to understand the mechanisms (why)
behind these changes
· Development happens on different time scales
· Variability - short term changes that are more or less reversible
· Change - long-term changes that are more or less enduring
· Variability can predict change
- fluctuations in behavior or performance might signal upcoming lasting changes
· We can treat age in a
- continuous way - age x ability correlation
- compare specific age groups - mean age difference in ability x
· We can investigate
- individuals of different ages at one point in time - Cross-sectional designs
we measure differences
- the same individuals across different points in time - Longitudinal designs
we measure change
,Research Designs
Cross-sectional designs
· Studying groups of individuals of different ages at one point in time
→ Measure interindividual differences
Longitudinal designs
· Studying one group of individuals over a longer time period
→ Measure intraindividual change
Challenges Due to Environmental and Historical Influences
· Environmental influences (war, pandemics, crises) can influence observed
results → can give the impression that development takes place ALTHOUGH measures are
caused by environmental conditions
Problems depending on Research Designs
· Cross-sectional design → Cohort Effects
· Longitudinal design → Time-of-measurement effects
Cohort Effects
· Cohort - any group that shares having experiences the same cultural environment and
historical events (same year of birth)
· Cohort effect - differences in developmentally relevant variables that arise from
non-age-related factors to which each birth cohort was exposed
· In cross-sectional designs age effect might be confounded with cohort effects
- wrongly assuming age differences, but the effect caused by the cohort characteristics
is due to their historical context
Time-of-Measurement effects
· Time-of-measurement effects - effects of historical events and trends occurring when the
data are being collected on observed results
· In longitudinal studies age effects and time-of measurement effects are confounded
- wrongly assuming change but the effect comes from the historical context when the
data is collected
Cross-Sectional Designs
Advantages
· Economic in time (short duration between assessment and results)
· Rather cheap
· Shows similarities and differences between age groups
Disadvantages
· No information on individual trajectories (only interindividual changes)
· Age effects confounded with cohort effects
· Limited generalizability to other times of measurements
Longitudinal Designs
Advantages
· True assessment of intraindividual change
· Assessment of stability and change of developmental characteristics
Disadvantages
· Age effects confounded with time-of-measurement effects /retest effects/ attrition effects
· Limited generalizability to other cohorts
· Long duration
· High costs
,Assessment Methods
· Self report vs Report by proxy (parent, spouse, caregiver)
- interview
- questionnaires
- diaries
· Behavioral observations
- naturalistic vs structured
· Standardized Tests / Test batteries
- comparison to norms
· Physiology
- eeg
- heart rate
- eye tracking
- sucking duration
Research Design
· Case study
· Correlational design
· Experimental design
Research Challenges
· In developmental research we focus on age groups that may differ from younger adults in
- speech reception and production
- sensomotoric abilities
- suggestibility
- attention span / fatigue
- subjective meaning of concepts
- proportion of undiagnosed clinical impairment
Adjust methods to abilities of individual
· age-adjusted task material
· oral responses - instead of written
· non-verbal task materials
· use of structured observation, physiological methods or report by proxies - alternatives to
verbal self-report
· consider selectivity of sample - is it representative of the population
· response bias - mindful of influences like social desirability, stereotypes, speed-accuracy
trade-offs
Experimental Infant Research
Habituation/ Dishabituation
1. Orienting response
2. Habituation - slow, changed or stopped response to repeated presentation of the
same stimulus
3. Dishabituation - increase in responding to new stimulus after introducing a deviant
How to measure a response by an infant?
· Looking, sucking, turning head - interested, surprising outcome, noticed a difference
· NOT looking - loss of interest, recognized as old, did not notice a difference
Experimental Aging Research
Ex. Age Stereotype Threat
· same study material but different instructions to assess:
, - memory abilities - see if their memory is normal
- reading ability condition - asses their reading ability
· In memory condition - older adults performed significantly worse than younger adults
· In reading condition - no significant difference between age groups
· Clear example of stereotype threat
- older adults felt the pressure due to negative stereotypes about aging and memory
decline - led to reduced performance
- when focused on reading no domain is associated with negative aging stereotypes -
performance unaffected
‘How’ in Lifespan Developmental Psychology
Principles in lifespan psychology
· Lifelong
- development continues across the entire lifespan from birth to death (not just early
years)
· Multidimensional and Multidisciplinary
- development includes biological, psychological and social aspects
· Multidirectional
- development isn’t a straight upward path
- some abilities may increase, while other might decline
· Gains and Losses
- growth involves both progress and decline
- as people age they might lose some abilities but gain others (wisdom)
· Plastic
- development is flexible and adaptive
- people can change in response to life experiences, learning - there’s potential for
change at any age
· Embedded in history
- development is shaped by historical context
- different generations face different influences
· Contextualized
- development depends on contexts (family, culture, status, education)
LECTURE 2
Discussion in Developmental Psychology
· Nature-Nurture: is development the product of genes, biology and maturation or of
experience, learning and social influences
· Activity-Passivity: do humans shape their own environments and contribute to their own
development or are they passively shaped by forces beyond their control
· Continuity-Discontinuity: do humans change gradually and in quantitative ways or in
qualitatively very different stages and develop very different competencies and
characteristics
· Universality- Context: is development similar from person to person and from culture to
culture or do pathways of development vary depending on the social context
NATURE-NURTURE
Nature - way you were born (genetics)
Nurture - way we were raised, everything that happens in our life shapes us, the kind of
INTERACTIONS
