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Receive A plus PYC4805 EXAM NOTES - Child Development
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
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- Child Development
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Question 1: p13-15 (p3-12 extra reading)• 4 important forces that direct our development namely biological,
psychological, sociocultural and life cycle
• Forces of development (interaction)
- Biological forces:
Genetic & health related factors that affect development e.g. menopause,
facial wrinkling.
- Psychological forces:
Internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors that affect
development.
Characteristics we notice about people that make them individuals
- Sociocultural forces:
Interpersonal, societal, cultural, and ethnic factors
Provide the overall context in which we develop
- Life-cycle forces:
Difference in how the same events or combination of biological,
psychological and sociocultural forces affect people at different points in
their lives
Provides the context for the developmental differences
Each person is a product of the interaction of B+P+S+L
Biopsychosocial framework is used to organize B+P+S forces of human
nature
▪ Each of us is a product of unique combination of these forces
▪ Not focusing on all 3 forces would provide an incomplete view of
how the person feels
▪ E.g. how people feel about forgetting – consider biological factors
(caused by underlying disease) psychological factors (persons
memory ability throughout life & individuals beliefs about what
happens to memory ability with increasing age) sociocultural factors
(social stereotype about forgetting p2) & age of person when
forgetting experience occurs.
,• Interrelation among the forces: developmental influences:
- All the forces combine to create peoples developmental experiences
- Consider this combination is to consider the degree to which they are
common or unique to people of specific age
- Cohort: a group of people born at the same point or specific time span in
historical time
- Baltes identifies 3 sets of influences that interact to produce
developmental changes over life span
1. Normative age-graded influences:
▪ Experiences caused by biological (menopause – women can
no longer bear children without medical intervention: indicate
major change in a person’s life) psychological (focusing on
certain concerns at different points in adulthood – middle-aged
persons concerned with socializing younger generation) and
sociocultural (time when first marriage occurs) forces that
occur to most people of a particular age.
▪ Typically correspond to major time-marker events (often
ritualised) – these events provide the most convenient way to
judge where we are on our social clock.
2. Normative history-graded influences:
▪ Events that most people in specific culture experience at the
same time
▪ Biological (epidemics)
▪ Psychological (particular stereotypes)
▪ Sociocultural (changing attitudes towards sexuality)
▪ Gives a generation its unique identity e.g. baby-boom
generation (born between 1946-1964)
▪ These influences can have big effect
3. Nonnormative influences:
▪ Random/rare events that may be important for a specific
individual but are not experienced by most people
(favourable/unfavourable)
▪ Unpredictability of events make them unique
, - Life-cycle forces are important in in understanding the importance of N N
N e.g. history-graded influences may produce generational differences &
conflict (parents experiences as young adults in 1960’s & 1970’s may have
little to do with issues faced by young adults today.
- Interactions have important implications for understanding differences that
appear to be age related (different life experiences – normative history-
graded influences - rather than as part of aging itself – normative age-
graded influences)
Question 2: p 17-20
Nature – nurture issue:
• Characteristic you and several other family members share
- The answer to these questions illustrate difference between nature vs.
nurture
• Nature-nurture: involves the degree to which genetic or hereditary influences
(nature) and experiential or environmental influences (nurture) determine the
kind of person you are.
• Scientists aimed at determining cause (nature/nurture)
• Today – no feature of life-span development is due exclusively to either
hereditary or environment } always both } mutually interactive influences }
account of why we behave the way we do
• To explain a person’s behaviour and discover where to focus intervention }
look at the unique interaction for that person between nature and nurture
• E.g. ( need eg in textbook)
Stability – change issue:
• The degree to which people remain the same over time.
• Stability is essential to recognise that one is the same person as time goes by
• BUT we also believe that our characteristics are not set in concrete, we can
change ourselves if we so desire
• Controversy of change in adulthood} stem from how characteristics are
defined and measured
, • E.g.
Continuity-discontinuity issue:
• Whether a particular phenomenon represents a smooth progression over time
(continuity) or a series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity).
• Continuity approaches focus on the amount of characteristics a person has
(on day-to-day basis behaviours often look nearly identical)
• Discontinuity approaches focus on the kinds of characteristics a person has
(behaviours viewed over long course of time, behaviour may have changed)
• E.g.
• Discontinuity: how adaptable people are in situations as they age????
- Baltes & colleagues used term plasticity to describe this in relation to
peoples capacity
- Plasticity: belief that capacity is not fixed, but can learned or improved with
practice
- Limits to the degree of potential improvements
- E.g.
Universal vs. context-specific development controversy:
• Whether there is just one path of development or several
• E.g. } explain each theory i.t.o. this e.g.
• 2 opposing theories:
1. Difference in development are variations on a fundamental developmental
process
▪ One theory explain difference among groups – difference is not real
▪ Development worldwide reflects one basic process for everyone
2. Adult development and aging are inextricably intertwined with the context
within which they occur
▪ Not simply variation on theme
▪ Persons development is a product of complex interaction with
environment
▪ Interactions are not fundamentally the same in all environments
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