Lecture Notes: Adolescent Psychology - Developmental Science

Introduction to Developmental Science

• Developmental Science: A field focused on understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan.
• Key Focus: How people grow and change.

Theory

• Definition: An orderly, integrated set of statements to describe, explain, and predict aspects of the natural world.
• Characteristics:
  • Make predictions.
  • Serve as an organizing framework.
  • Must be researchable.
• Example: Darwin’s theory of evolution:
  • Describes: Traits in a population vary; some individuals are better suited to their environment.
  • Explains: Advantageous traits lead to better survival and reproduction.
  • Predicts: Advantageous traits become more common over time.

Basic Issues in Development

• Continuity vs Discontinuity: Is development a gradual, continuous process or a series of distinct stages?
  • Continuous: Gradual augmentation of the same types of skills.
  • Discontinuous: Emergence of new ways of understanding and responding at specific times.
• Universal vs Multiple Courses: Is there one path of development for all, or multiple pathways?
  • Stage Theories: Assume a universal sequence of development.
  • Contexts: Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances leading to different pathways.
• Nature vs Nurture: What roles do genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) play?
  • Stability often linked to nature; plasticity linked to nurture.

Lifespan Perspective

• Characteristics of Development:
  • Lifelong
  • Multidimensional and multidirectional
  • Highly plastic
  • Affected by multiple interacting forces
• Historical Changes: U.S life expectancy has risen from 50 years in 1900 to 79 years today, reflecting lifelong developmental gains.

Domains of Development

• Physical, Cognitive, Emotional
• Multidimensional: Affected by biological, psychological, and social forces.
• Multidirectional: Includes both growth and decline, gains and losses.
• Plasticity: Although it decreases over time, plasticity is always present.

Influences on Development

• Age-Graded: Related to age and predictable (e.g., walking, puberty).
• History-Graded: Unique to a particular historical era (e.g., pandemics).
• Non-Normative: Irregular events that do not follow a predictable timetable (e.g., illness, tragedy).

Scientific Beginnings and Earlier Theories

• Normative Period: Development viewed through an evolutionary lens by G. Stanley Hall.
  • Development as a maturational process.
• Mental Testing Movement: Alfred Binet developed intelligence tests to identify children with learning difficulties.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Key Figures: Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson
• Psychosexual Theory (Freud):
  • Focus on managing children's sexual and aggressive drives for personality development.
  • Structures of Personality: Id, Ego, Superego
• Psychosocial Theory (Erikson):
  • Emphasizes the role of ego in acquiring attitudes and skills.
  • Stages include: Trust vs Mistrust, Autonomy vs Shame/Doubt, Initiative vs Guilt.

Behaviorism and Social Learning

• Key Figures: John Watson, B.F. Skinner, Albert Bandura
• Behaviorism: Focus on observable events, stimuli, and responses.
• Social Learning Theory (Bandura): Emphasizes modeling or observational learning.
• Criticisms: Narrow view of environmental influences.

Cognitive Development Theory

• Key Figure: Jean Piaget
• Concept: Children actively construct knowledge as they explore their world.
• Criticisms: Underestimated children’s capabilities, lacks attention to social/cultural influences.

Other Theories

• Information Processing: Mind as a symbol-manipulating system.
• Developmental Neuroscience: Links between brain changes and cognitive development.
• Ethology and Evolutionary Development: Focus on survival value of behavior.
• Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky): Emphasizes cultural transmission through social interaction.
• Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner): Development within interacting systems (e.g., microsystem, mesosystem).