Chapter One

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Chapter One

• Introduction

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Studying the Life Span Five Characteristics

• The study of human development is the science
  that seeks to understand
• how and why all kinds of people change over time
• how and why they remain the same
• the generalities and the specifics
• Focus is on all kinds of people
• age, socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity,
  sexuality, background, culture, and nationality

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Studying the Life Span Five Characteristics,
cont.

• Change from conception to deaththe five
  characteristics
• A Life-Span Perspective
• multidirectionalnonlinear progression (1)
• multicontextuala number of contexts (2)
• multiculturalmany cultural settings (3)
• multidisciplinarymany academic disciplines
  contribute data (4)
• plasticitychange through the life span (5)

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Multidirectional (1)

• Each aspect of life is multidirectional
• physical health, intellectual growth, and social
  interaction
• up, down, stable or erratic
• Dynamic Systems
• process of continual change within a person or
  group, in which each change is connected
  systematically to every other development in each
  individual and every society

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Physical Growth

• Growth in height and weight is not linear
• Fluctuations in body weight are affected by many
  other changes
• appetite, nutrition, family, stress, exercise,
  culture, food supply, and climate
• historical changes can have powerful effects
• obesity epidemic in the U.S. today

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Effects, Large and Small

• Butterfly effectthe idea that a small action or
  event may set off a series of changes culminating
  in a major event
• Opposite Idea
• a large change may have little or no effect
• Family Dynamics
• influence vulnerability or resiliency
• strong bond with loving caregiver can protect
  against adversity of many kinds

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Multicontextual (2)

• Humans develop in many contexts that influence
  development
• physical and family
• focus on three facets of social context
• historical, socioeconomic, and cultural

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Three Broad Contexts Within the Social Context
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Historical Context

• Historical context involves cohorts, social
  constructions
• impact of historical context varies with age

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The Socioeconomic Context

• Socioeconomic includes
• socioeconomic status (ses),
• education, income, neighborhood, occupation of
  household head

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Families and Neighborhoods

• Economics
• poverty
• Collective Efficacyneighbors that create a
  functioning, informal network of people who show
  concern for each other and their block
• Supportive Family Relationships
• quality of parenting
• family support best predictor of health and
  happiness

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The Cultural Context

• Culturalset of values, assumptions, and customs
  as well as physical objects such as clothing,
  housing, etc.
• includes all decisions people make
• is dynamic, supportive

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Multicultural (3)

• Two examples of various practices provide
  insights into culture(1) Too Rich to Marry? And
  (2) The Childrens House

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Too Rich to Marry?

• Worldwide, the richer the man, the more likely he
  is to marry
• Is a woman a less desirable mate if she earns
  more income and therefore would be less dependent
  on the male?
• higher income for women
• reduced marriage prospects in Japan
• increased marriage prospects slightly in U.S.
• increased marriage prospects significantly in
  Sweden
• findings reflective of a countrys gender
  equality

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The Childrens House

• Kibbutz Sleeping Arrangements
• different sleeping practices, with some children
  sleeping in Childrens House, while others slept
  at home
• children who slept away ended up having negative
  consequences
• difficulty talking about, relating to family
  members

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Ethnicity, Race, and Income

• Ethnic groupcollection of people who share
  certain attributes, almost always including
  ancestral heritage and often including national
  origin, religion, customs, and language
• People can belong to more than one culture

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Ethnicity, Race, and Income, cont.

• Racea social construction by which biological
  traits are used to differentiate people whose
  ancestors came from various regions of the world
• a distorted concept
• SES variations tend to follow ethnic variations

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Ethnicity, Race, and Income, cont.

• The Person Within the System
• divergent directions, contextual influences,
  cohort effect

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Multidisciplinary (4)

• Body, Mind, and Spirit
• Three domains
• biosocial
• cognitive
• psychosocial
• Williams Family Example
• Combination of Nature vs. Nurture

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Plasticity (5)

• Plasticitycapacity to change
• Characteristics can be molded into different
  forms and shapes or a durability can be
  maintained
• Provides hope and realism
• change is possible
• people must build on what came before (raw
  materials genes, families, cultures,
  experiences)

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The Person Within the Context

• Person is guided in divergent directions by many
  contextual influences
• No one is average each person unique
• each person has unique genes and experiences
• Paul Baltes (Founder of lifespan developmental
  study)
• We need to keep in mind that the future is not
  something we simply enter, the future is also
  something we help create.

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Developmental Study as a Science

• Based on objective evidence (objective)
• Laden with personal implications and applications
  (subjective)

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Scientific Method

• Scientific methodgeneral way to seek evidence to
  answer question, involving four basic steps and
  sometimes a fifth.
• 1. formulate a research question
• 2. develop a hypothesis
• hypothesisa specific prediction that is stated
  in such a way it can be tested and either
  confirmed or refuted

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Scientific Method, cont.

• 3. test the hypothesis
• 4. draw conclusions
• 5. make findings available
• replicationthe repetition of a scientific study
  using the same procedures on another group of
  participants to verify or refute the original
  studys conclusion

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Research Methods

• Four Methods of Testing Hypotheses
• observations
• experiments
• surveys
• case studies

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Observation

• Scientific observationobserving and recording
  (unbiased) in a systematic way what people do
• Limitation it does not indicate what causes
  behavior we observe

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Observation, cont.

• Correlation and Causation
• Naturalistic observation provides no definitive
  answers about causes
• Correlation exists between two variables if one
  variable is more (or less) likely to occur when
  the other occurs
• correlation indicates a connection, but does not
  specify reason (cause) for it

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The Experiment

• Experimentinvestigation designed to untangle
  cause from effect
• independent variableimposed treatment or special
  condition
• dependent variablespecific behavior being
  studied
• experimental groupparticipants who are given
  particular treatment
• comparison (control) groupparticipants who are
  not given special treatment but are similar to
  experimental group in other relevant ways

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How to Conduct an Experiment
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The Survey

• Surveyinformation collected from personal
  interview, questionnaire, etc.

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The Case Study

• Case studyintensive study of one individual or
  situation

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Studying Changes over Time

• Developmental research must be able to deal with
  changes that continue over time
• research design allows researchers to include
  time, or age, as a factor
• three basic designs
• cross-sectional, longitudinal, cross-sequential

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Cross-sectional Research

• Cross-sectional research-research that studies
  groups differing in age but sharing other
  important characteristics (education, SES,
  ethnicity)

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Longitudinal Research

• Longitudinal researchresearch that studies
  individuals over a long period valuable
  developmental information from longitudinal
  studies includes
• adjustment to divorce
• role of fathers in child development
• prevention of teenage delinquency

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Cross-Sequential Research

• Cross-sequential researchresearch that studies
  several groups of people of different ages, then
  follows those groups longitudinally

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Cross-sectional, Longitudinal, and
Cross-Sequential Research Which is Best?
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Cross-sectional, Longitudinal, and
Cross-Sequential Research Which is Best?, cont.
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The Ecological-Systems Approach A Synthesis

• Ecological-systems approachresearch that takes
  into consideration the relationship between the
  individual and the environment
• Uri Bronfrenbrenner

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Ethics and Science

• General principles of code of ethics
• never harm participants either physically or
  psychologically
• explain purposes and procedures of study
• secure informed consent
• keep data on participants private
• allow participants to stop at any time

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Implications of Research

• Deliberate or accidental deception?
• Misinterpretation?
• Replicable?

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What Should We Study?

• Are scientists studying issues that are crucial
  to human development?
• human sexual urges and actions to prevent STDs,
  pregnancy, and sexual abuse and to cure
  infertility
• stress, poverty, and prejudice
• childrens anger
• retirement