PYC2603
ADULTHOOD AND MATURITY
BASIC CONCEPTS OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT AND AGEING
PERSPECTIVES ON AGE
Chronological age: The number of years that have passed since a person’s birth.
Psychological age: the ability of a person to adjust to the environment and to cope with associated
challenges, as compared to individuals of the same age
Social age (cultural age): determined by the degree in which the person’s role in a society meets the
expectations and perceptions of that society. Strongly influenced by the norms and expectancies of
the specific society
Biological age: The physical condition of a person, in comparison with their peer group.
Functional age: the total ability of an individual to function effectively in his/her environment.
Determined by psychological age, social age and biological age
Primary ageing: typical ageing, especially gradual physical deterioration. It is universal, inevitable
and caused by inborn biological factors.
Secondary ageing: physical deterioration accelerated by disease or external factors such as stress or
unhealthy lifestyle. Not a universal part of the ageing process and is often preventable.
Tertiary ageing: the process of terminal decline that occurs in the time (months, weeks, days) before
death. It is characterised by a significant increase of physical and cognitive deterioration in a
relatively short period after which the individual dies. Signifies the approach of death.
Personal age and the ageless self: how a person perceives and experiences their own age.
Demography (demographic context) – the statistical study of human populations concerning factors
and characteristics such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, education, income, marriage,
family structures, crime, births and deaths.
THE FORCES AND INFLUENCES OF DEVELOPMENT
Biological forces – Include all physical and physiologically related factors that affect development,
such as changes in physical appearance, changes in organ and perceptual systems, body mass,
muscle tone, menopause and health-related factors.
Psychological forces – include cognitive, emotional and personality factors that affect development.
Is the characteristics that we notice about people as unique individuals. Some of these characteristics
may undergo some changes (growth/decline) during the ageing process, while others may remain
stable
Sociocultural forces – interpersonal, societal and cultural forces which provide the overall contexts in
which we develop
Adapted from: Louw, D., & Louw, A. (2009). Adult Development and Ageing. Bloemfontein: Psychology Publications. (ISBN-13: 978-0-86886-755-7)
, Life-cycle forces – forces that affect the course of development and may be a combination of
biological, psychological and sociocultural forces that affect people at different points of their lives.
These forces may either have a positive or negative effect on the individual’s development.
Influences that could affect development:
• Normative age-graded influences – experiences caused by biological, psychological and
sociocultural forces and are usually associated with chronological age.
• Normative history-graded influences – result from events that most people in a specific
culture experience at the same time
• Non-normative influences – random or rare events that may affect a particular individual,
but are not experienced by most people
ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
The nature-nurture issue:
• Concerns the contributions of nature (hereditary, genetic and biological factors) and nurture
(environmental factors and experience).
The stability change issue:
• Concerns the issues whether people change or remain the same over time.
The continuity-discontinuity issue:
• Quantitative changes are changes in degree or amount and indicate continuity
• Qualitative changes refer to changes in kind or type and reflect discontinuity – lies the issue
of how adaptable people are and refers to Baltes’ view of plasticity
• Continuity theorists claim that developmental changes are gradual and quantitative
• Discontinuity theorists claim these changes are abrupt and qualitative
The activity-passivity issue:
• Whether people are actively involved in their own development or whether they are passive
recipients of biological or environmental effects
The universality-context specific issue
• Refers to the extent to which development is common to all humans (universal) or different
from person to person (context specific).
The mechanistic-organismic-interactionist issue:
• Mechanistic - Human behaviour results from biological or environmental forces upon which
the individual passively reacts
• Development is seen as continuous and quantitative in nature
• Human behaviour proceeds in a steadily positive direction until maturity, after which a
steady decline starts.
• Older people will therefore be physically and psychologically in a less favourable position
than younger adults.
• Organismic - People develop according to internally generated patterns of development
Adapted from: Louw, D., & Louw, A. (2009). Adult Development and Ageing. Bloemfontein: Psychology Publications. (ISBN-13: 978-0-86886-755-7)
, • Development occurs in stages in a specific order
• Each stage is qualitatively different, and usually more advanced than the next.
• These stages occur universally, although the timing of the stages may differ
• People are seen to be actively involved in their development and environmental influences
may accelerate or delay development
• Interactionist – both genetics and the environment/context interact in complex ways towards
the individual’s development.
• The individual actively participates in their own development through reciprocal relations
with the environment
• Individual differences are recognised
• Development is viewed as both multidirectional (pathways) and multidimensional
(processes).
DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT
Physical development – concerns changes in the biological systems and structures of the body
(sensory capacities, organ and nervous systems, endocrine and immune systems, and motor skills).
Cognitive development – includes changes in mental functioning (memory, intelligence, practical
problem solving, creativity and wisdom)
Personality development – involves the unique way in which individuals deal with the world, how
they think about themselves and how they express thoughts and emotions
Social development – refers to changes in the person’s social world (interpersonal relationships,
social roles, social networks and social responsibilities).
RESEARCH IN ADULT DEVELOPMENT
Kinds of research
Psychology research categories:
Quantitative Research Qualitative Research
Developed from the natural sciences and is a process Attempts to provide an in-depth understanding of
where mainly statistical data is used to obtain what people experience.
information and to make predictions concerning a
specific topic
Obtain information through numbers Obtain information through words
Research process is objective Research process is subjective
Large numbers of research participants with emphasis Small number of research participants with emphasis
on averages, frequencies, etc. on individual emotions, thoughts, etc.
Results largely generalised Results usually not generalised
Attempt to control and structure research Relative absence of control and structure in research
environment environment
Employ data analyses that rely on statistical Focus is on description and interpretation of
procedures behaviour
Methods of gathering information
Adapted from: Louw, D., & Louw, A. (2009). Adult Development and Ageing. Bloemfontein: Psychology Publications. (ISBN-13: 978-0-86886-755-7)
, Hypothesis: a tentative assumption about behaviour or a phenomenon that has to be investigated
empirically (through research)
Common research methods:
1. Systematic observation of behaviour
Involves watching people and carefully recording what they do or say
Two forms:
Naturalistic observation: people are observed in some natural or real-life situation.
Structured observation – the researcher creates a setting likely to elicit the behaviour that is
being researched
2. Self-reports
Interviews
The questionnaire is a set of written questions to which people have to respond
May be used with individuals or groups
Self-report questionnaires are valuable tools to investigate people’s attitudes, feelings and
behaviours
3. Psychological tests
Are instruments that have been compiled for the purpose of measuring psychological
qualities (e.g. personality characteristics, intelligence)
Standardisation – a psychological test has been compiled in such a way that it is reliable,
valid and has norms
Reliability – the results are consistent over time
Validity – a test should measure what it is supposed to measure
A norm – is a statistical number that makes it possible to compare any individual’s test score
with the achievement of a comparable group.
General research designs
1. Experimental research
The researcher controls the conditions in such a way that it is possible to determine to what
extent a given factor influences the behaviour to be investigated.
An experimental (exposed to variable) and control group (not exposed) are often used
Independent variable – is any factor the researcher expects to cause change in another
variable
Dependant variable – the factor the researcher expects to be influenced by the independent
variable in an experiment
Disadvantages:
Many questions cannot be answered because of ethical objections
The experimental situation is largely artificial and may differ from everyday life situations
2. Correlation research
to determine whether there is correlation between variables and describe the strength of
the relationship between two or more events/characteristics
3. Case studies
In depth study of a single person, event, situation or other unit
Disadvantages:
As the subject of a case study is unique, the findings cannot be generalised to other subjects.
The results could be subjective and therefore not very reliable
Adapted from: Louw, D., & Louw, A. (2009). Adult Development and Ageing. Bloemfontein: Psychology Publications. (ISBN-13: 978-0-86886-755-7)
