A summary of the book 'Experiencing the Lifespan' for the course Developmental Psychology, written by Janet Belsky. This summary includes all the chapters required for the examination, and is written in English.
Part I: The Foundation
Chapter 1 ‘The People and the Field’
Lifespan development: The scientific study of human growth throughout life. It routs lie in child
development, the study of childhood and the teenage years. The other core discipline in lifespan
development is gerontology, the scientific study of aging, and it’s related field adult development.
Cohort: refers to our birth group, the age group we belong to.
Socioeconomic Status (SES): refers to our education and income. High SES means good education
and enough/high income which leads to a higher life expectancy, low SES means bad education and
low income which leads to a lower life expectancy.
Societies can be categorized according to their basic values, apart from their wealth:
- Collectivist cultures: place a premium on social harmony. The family generations expect to live
together, even as adults. Children are taught to obey their elders, to suppress their feelings, to value
being respectful and to subordinate their needs to the good of the wider group.
- Individualistic cultures: emphasize independence, competition and personal success. Children are
encouraged to openly express their emotions, to believe in their own personal power, to leave their
parents, to stand on their own as self-sufficient and independent adults.
Theories: offer insights into that crucial why question. They attempt to explain what causes us to act
as we do. They may allow us to predict the future. In developmental science they may offer broad
general explanations of behavior that apply to people at every age. Or they may focus on describing
specific changes that occur at particular ages.
Examples of broad theories:
1) The Original Blockbuster ‘Nurture’ Theory (Behaviourism).
- Skinner’s operant conditioning: Rewarded responses will be reinforced.
- Social learning theory: Modelling, learning by watching and imitating what other people do.
- Attachment theory: Bowlby agreed that our early experiences with caregivers shape our adult
ability to love, but he focused on what he called the attachment response.
2) Evolutionary Psychology: Theorizing About the ‘Nature’ of Human Similarities.
- Behavioral genetics: is the name for research strategies devoted to examining the genetic
contribution to the differences we see between human beings.
- The most striking evidence for the power of genetics comes from the rare twin/adoption studies.
3) Nature and Nurture combined
- Our nature (genetic tendencies) shapes our nurture (life experiences).
- Evocative forces: refer to the fact that our inborn talents and temperamental tendencies
naturally evoke, or produce, certain responses from the human world.
- Active forces: refer to the fact that we actively select our environments based on our genetic
tendencies.
- We need the right nurture (life experiences) to fully express our nature (genetic talents).
- To promote our species-specific genetic human potential, we need to provide the best possible
overall environment. On a personal level, we also need to provide the environment that best
, promotes our unique capacities, talents and traits. Therefore, a core goal of developmental
science is to foster the correct person-environment fit.
The Developmental Systems Perspective:
1) Developmental systems theorists stress the need to use many different approaches.
Our actions have many causes, to fully understand development, we need to draw on the
principles of behaviourism, attachment theory, evolutionary psychology and Piaget. At the widest
societal level, we need to look outward to our culture and cohort. At the tiniest molecular level, we
need to look inward to focus on our genes.
2) Developmental systems theorists emphasize the need to look at the interactions of processes.
Our genetic tendencies influence the cultures we construct; the cultures we live in affect the
expression of our genes.
Self-efficacy: refers to our belief in our competence, according to Bandura, efficacy feelings
determine the goals we set.
Cross-sectional studies: researchers compare different age groups at the same time on the trait or
characteristic they are interested in. Cross-sectional studies give us a current snapshot of differences
among cohorts, but they measure only group differences. Not individual differences or changes that
occur as we grow old.
Longitudinal studies: researchers typically select a group of a particular age and periodically test
those people over years.
, Chapter 2 ‘Prenatal Development, Pregnancy, and Birth’
Genetics of fertilization:
- Chromosomes: ropy structures composed of long ladder-like strands of the genetic material DNA.
- Genes: Arrayed along each chromosome are segments of DNA, which function as the templates for
creating the proteins responsible for carrying out all the physical processes of life.
Principles of prenatal development:
1) Growth follows the proximodistal sequence, from the most interior (proximal) part of the body to
the outer (distal) sides.
2) Development takes place according to the cephalocaudal sequence, meaning from top to bottom.
3) Development begins with the basic building blocks and then fills in details, so the mass-to-specific
sequence is the third basic principle of body growth.
Prenatal development:
- First two weeks – the Germinal stage
- The first two weeks after fertilization, when the cell mass has not yet fully attached to the
wall of the uterus.
- Within 36 hours, the fertilized ovum (zygote) makes its first cell division and continues to
divide every 12 to 15 hours.
- When the cells passes into the uterine cavity, it sheds it outer wall and differentiates into
layers and is now called a blastocyst. This is implantation; the process of embedding into the
uterine wall.
- At about day 9, the blastocyst will land and blood vessels will help making up the placenta.
-Week 3 to week 8 – the Embryonic stage:
- Last roughly six weeks and during this time, all the major organs are constructed.
- By the third week, the heart starts to beat. Around the same time, the rudiments of the
nervous system appear. Between 20 and 24 days, the neural tube is formed, which will form
the first neurons.
-Week 9 to birth – the Fetal stage:
- It takes seven months to transform the fully formed embryo into a resilient baby ready to
embrace life. Why does this take so long? One reason is to allow time for the neurons to
move into place.
- The age of viability: the date at which babies possibly can live (has dropped these days to 22
to 23 weeks by high-quality medical care).
Pregnancy is divided into three segments, called trimesters. They comprise roughly three months
each. Pregnancy differs from the patterned process of prenatal development. Although there are
some classic symptoms, there is no universal pregnancy experience at all.
- First trimester: often feeling tired and ill.
- Second trimester: feeling much better and connecting emotionally.
- Third trimester: getting very large and waiting for birth.
Threats to the developing baby (birth defects or health problems at birth):
1) Threats from outside: Teratogens - any substance that crosses the placenta to harm the fetus.
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