What is Lifespan Psychology?

1. What is Lifespan Psychology?

2. Covers the entire lifespan • Examines domains of functioning • Social, Emotional, Behavioral, Physical and Cognitive • Seeks to understand how/why we develop as we do-when development goes right and when it goes wrong

3. Psychosocial Theory • Biopsychosocial premise • Describes and explains the developmental process throughout the lifespan • The epigenetic principle • Defines core concepts and leaves room for various psychological processes, e.g. learning, cognitive process, etc. • Allows for cultural relevancy

4. Basic concepts as applied to President Obama… Social domain? Emotional? Cognitive? Physical? Behavioral?

5. Stages of development • A defined period of time characterized by a particular way of thinking or behavior. • Qualitative differences distinguish stages. • 8 stages evolved into 11… • What stage is Obama in now? • What stage was he in when he was in Indonesia? (6-10)

6. Developmental tasks • Skills/competencies that should be gained during each stage. • A reflection of the physical capacity of the person. • A reflection of the societal expectations of the person. • Managing a career? Nurturing intimate relationships?

7. Psychosocial crisis • The predictable challenge arising from the gap between an individual’s capacity and the demands of society. • Builds on previous resolution of crises. • Prepares for future crises. • At Obama’s stage, the crisis is generativity vs. stagnation

8. Centralprocess • The dominant context/mechanism for resolution of the crisis. • Person-environment interaction/creativity • For infants, what might this context be? • How about teens? • Older adults?

9. Radius of significant relationships • Groups of important relationships influencing one’s development. • As we grow up, these expand. The details differ for each of us. • Who was especially important to you during middle childhood? • How about in the stage you’re in now?

10. Coping behavior:Prime adaptive ego qualityCore pathology • Active efforts to respond to stress, both ordinary and extraordinary stressors. • Represents a state of mind. • Can support or interfere with further development, e.g. • Fidelity to others is a precondition for love. • Care vs. rejectivity - how might Obama’s mother have contributed to his development of care.

11. Biological Vulnerabilities to Developmental Problems • Genetic- • About half of intelligence is attributed to genes • Oppositional behavior is “moderately” heritable. • Anatomical-structure of the brain • Remember Phineas Gage? • less gray matter in frontal lobe with ADHD and conduct disorder • Functional-activity in the brain • Lower than normal physiological arousal in highly aggressive people-skin conductance and heart rate • Neurochemical-processing of neurotransmitters • Serotonin is related to both aggression and depression. • Dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin are involved in adhd

12. Structuring the lifespan • Divide up the lifespan into 8-12 age groups that make sense to you. • Pick one…what are some important characteristics of it? • What are some of the prominent influences at that stage? • What must be accomplished at this stage in order to move on?? • What does healthy development look like at the end of that stage in each domain?

13. Small Groups • Create a subject-You’ll be assigned a developmental stage; make up demographics • Describe her/his radius of sig. relationships • Describe the central process for this individual • Explain how the central process supports accomplishment of the developmental tasks. • Debrief with whole class • Describe your “person” and two important points about psychosocial theory.