A Psychological Perspective
By Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French
, Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective
By Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French
This Open Education Resource (OER) textbook was funded by a grant from the
College of Lake County Foundation and supported by the Business and Social
Sciences Division.
This textbook can be found at:
http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/LifespanDevelopment.pdf
Publication is under the following license:
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 unported license to view a copy
of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative
Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
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, Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to Lifespan Development
Chapter 2: Heredity, Prenatal Development, and Birth
Chapter 3: Infancy and Toddlerhood
Chapter 4: Early Childhood
Chapter 5: Middle and Late Childhood
Chapter 6: Adolescence
Chapter 7: Emerging and Early Adulthood
Chapter 8: Middle Adulthood
Chapter 9: Late Adulthood
Chapter 10: Death and Dying
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, Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to Lifespan Development ....................................................................................... 8
Lifespan Perspective ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Conceptions of Age ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Periods of Development .................................................................................................................................... 13
Issues in Lifespan Development ....................................................................................................................... 15
Historical Theories on Development ................................................................................................................. 16
Contemporary Theories on Development ......................................................................................................... 17
Descriptive Research......................................................................................................................................... 23
Correlational Research ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Experimental Research...................................................................................................................................... 27
Research Involving Time-Spans ....................................................................................................................... 28
Conducting Ethical Research ............................................................................................................................. 31
References ......................................................................................................................................................... 32
Chapter 2: Heredity, Prenatal Development, and Birth.............................................................................. 34
Heredity............................................................................................................................................................. 34
Genotypes and Phenotypes ............................................................................................................................... 35
Genetic Disorders .............................................................................................................................................. 36
Chromosomal Abnormalities ............................................................................................................................ 38
Behavioral Genetics .......................................................................................................................................... 39
Prenatal Development ....................................................................................................................................... 42
The Germinal Period ......................................................................................................................................... 42
The Embryonic Period ...................................................................................................................................... 43
The Fetal Period ................................................................................................................................................ 44
Prenatal Brain Development ............................................................................................................................. 45
Teratogens ......................................................................................................................................................... 46
Maternal Factors ............................................................................................................................................... 52
Prenatal Assessment .......................................................................................................................................... 56
Complications of Pregnancy ............................................................................................................................. 58
Preparation for Childbirth ................................................................................................................................. 59
Stages of Birth for Vaginal Delivery ................................................................................................................. 59
Assessing the Neonate....................................................................................................................................... 62
Problems of the Newborn .................................................................................................................................. 62
References ......................................................................................................................................................... 63
Chapter 3: Infancy and Toddlerhood .......................................................................................................... 68
The Brain in the First Two Years ...................................................................................................................... 69
Infant Sleep ....................................................................................................................................................... 71
............................................................................................................................................................ 71
From Reflexes to Voluntary Movements .......................................................................................................... 73
Motor Development .......................................................................................................................................... 75
Sensory Capacities ............................................................................................................................................ 76
Nutrition ............................................................................................................................................................ 78
Global Considerations and Malnutrition ........................................................................................................... 80
Piaget and the Sensorimotor Stage .................................................................................................................... 81
Infant Memory .................................................................................................................................................. 84
Language ........................................................................................................................................................... 85
Components of Language.................................................................................................................................. 86
Language Developmental Progression .............................................................................................................. 87
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