Cog lifespan 10 final overview (1)

Lifespan Lifespan DevelopmentDevelopment

Through the stagesThe lifespan approach

Erikson’s Theory of development

Marcia (1966) proposed four distinct ego identity statuses applied to adolescents, derived from Erikson's theory. Achieving an identity occurs if a person has experienced a crisis and made a commitment. If the young person accepts what is given by parents or some social institution, and does not feel that this conflicts with own identity, this is called "foreclosure." Sometimes teenagers deliberately postpone making any lasting commitment, a "moratorium" phase, with identify put on hold. Finally, there is the "identity diffuse" person who experiences neither an identity crisis nor a commitment to a definite personal identity. This has been called "a commitment to not making a commitment."

Impact

“Foreclosers" tend to have closer relationships with parents.

"Identity diffuse" students tend to regard parents as indifferent or rejecting and are more likely to respond to peer pressures

Levinson on development 1.  Childhood and adolescence: birth to age-twenty

Early childhood transition by age three2.  Early adulthood: age seventeen to forty

Early adult transition-seventeen to twenty-twoEntering the adult world-twenty-two to twenty-eightAge thirty transition-twenty-eight to thirty-threeSettling down-thirty-three to forty

3.  Middle adulthood: age forty to sixty-five Midlife transition-forty to forty-fiveEntering middle adulthood-forty-five to fiftyAge fifty transition-fifty to fifty-fiveCulmination of middle adulthood-fifty-five to sixty

4.  Late adulthood: age sixty onLate adult transition-sixty to sixty-five

Information Processing Theory

This theory examines how children focus their attention, encode information, store it in memory and retrieve it, and monitor those activities

Children become more sophisticated by building specific knowledge bases

Ecological Systems Theory

Bronfenbrenner argues that children develop within a system of complex human relationships that encompass immediate environments such as the family and larger environments such as communities

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky stressed that dialogues between children and others fuels development

Private speech is talking to oneself to guide behaviour

Private speech helps a child understand the world and that of others

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (cont’d)

As the child learns, adults provides less help or make the task slightly harder

This engages the child in more complex reasoning

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (cont’d)

The difference between where a child is and where he or she might be with the appropriate assistance is called the zone of proximal development

Scaffolding is when an adult sets up a structure to help a child solve a problem

Theory of Mind

A recent focus of developmental psychology is the theory of mind

Theory of mind is an understanding of mental states such as feelings and intentions, and their causal role in behaviour

This understanding develops around age 3

Thought in a Social Context

Projects such as Head Start try to raise the social and educational competency of disadvantaged preschoolers

Head Start began as a program to break the poverty cycle by raising the social and educational competency of economically disadvantaged preschool children