Chapter 1

An Introduction to
Lifespan Development

Learning Objectives
LO 1.1 Define the field of lifespan development LO 1.8 Describe how the humanistic perspective
and describe what it encompasses. explains lifespan development.
LO 1.2 Describe the areas that lifespan LO 1.9 Describe how the contextual perspective
development specialists cover. explains lifespan development.
LO 1.3 Describe some of the basic influences LO 1.10 Describe how the evolutionary perspective
on human development. explains lifespan development.
LO 1.4 Summarize four key issues in the field LO 1.11 Discuss the value of applying multiple
of lifespan development. perspectives to lifespan development.
LO 1.5 Describe how the psychodynamic LO 1.12 Describe the role that theories
perspective explains lifespan and hypotheses play in the study
development. of development.
LO 1.6 Describe how the behavioral LO 1.13 Compare the two major categories
perspective explains lifespan of lifespan development research.
development.
LO 1.14 Identify different types of correlational
LO 1.7 Describe how the cognitive perspective studies and their relationship to cause
explains lifespan development. and effect.
21

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 22 PART 1 ● Beginnings

LO 1.15 Explain the main features of an LO 1.17 Compare longitudinal research, ­

experiment. cross-sectional research, and sequential
research.
LO 1.16 Distinguish between theoretical research
and applied research. LO 1.18 Describe some ethical issues that affect
psychological research.

Chapter Overview
An Orientation to Lifespan Development The Contextual Perspective: Taking a Broad Approach
Characterizing Lifespan Development to Development
The Scope of the Field of Lifespan Development Evolutionary Perspectives: Our Ancestors’ Contributions
Influences on Lifespan Development to Behavior
Key Issues and Questions: Determining the Nature— Why “Which Approach Is Right?” Is the Wrong Question
and Nurture—of Lifespan Development Research Methods
Theoretical Perspectives on Lifespan Development Theories and Hypotheses: Posing Developmental
The Psychodynamic Perspective: Focusing on the Inner Questions
Person Choosing a Research Strategy: Answering Questions
The Behavioral Perspective: Focusing on Observable Correlational Studies
Behavior Experiments: Determining Cause and Effect
The Cognitive Perspective: Examining the Roots Theoretical and Applied Research: Complementary
of Understanding Approaches
The Humanistic Perspective: Concentrating Measuring Developmental Change
on the Unique Qualities of Human Beings Ethics and Research

Prologue: New Conceptions

What if for your entire life, the image that others held of you was colored by the way in which you
were conceived?
In some ways, that’s what it has been like for Louise Brown, who was the world’s first “test
tube baby,” born by in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure in which fertilization of a mother’s egg by
a father’s sperm takes place outside of the mother’s body.
Louise was a preschooler when her parents told her how she was conceived, and throughout
her childhood she was bombarded with questions. It became routine to explain to her classmates
that she, in fact, was not born in a laboratory.
As a child, Louise sometimes felt completely alone. “I thought it was something peculiar to
me,” she recalled. But as she grew older, her isolation declined as more and more children were
born in the same manner.
In fact, today Louise is hardly isolated. More than 5 million babies have been born using the
same procedure, which has become almost routine. And at the age of 28, Louise became a mother
herself, giving birth to a baby boy named Cameron—conceived, incidentally, the old-fashioned way
(Falco, 2012; ICMRT, 2012). ■

Looking Ahead
Louise Brown’s conception may have been novel, but her development, from infancy,
through childhood and adolescence, to her marriage and the birth of her baby, has fol-
lowed a predictable pattern. The specifics of our development vary: some encounter eco-
nomic deprivation or live in war-torn ­territories; others contend with genetic or family
issues like divorce and step-parents. The broad strokes of development, however, set in
motion in that test tube all those years ago, are remarkably similar for all of us. Like

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 Chapter 1 ● An Introduction to Lifespan Development 23

­ eBron James, Bill Gates, and the Queen of England, each and
L
every one of us is traversing the territory known as lifespan
­development.
Louise Brown’s conception in the lab is just one of the
brave new worlds of the twenty-first century. Issues ­ranging
from cloning to the consequences of poverty on development
or the prevention of AIDS raise significant concerns that affect
human development. Underlying these are even more funda-
mental i­ssues: How do we develop physically? How does our
understanding of the world grow and change throughout our
lives? And how do our personalities and our social relationships
develop as we move from birth through the entire span of our
lives?
Each of these questions, and many others we’ll encoun- Louise Brown and her son.
ter throughout this book, are central to the field of lifespan
­development. As a field, lifespan development ­encompasses not only a broad span of
time—from before birth to death—but also a wide range of areas of ­development. Con-
sider, for example, the range of interests that different specialists in lifespan development
focus on when considering the life of Louise Brown:

• Lifespan development researchers who investigate behavior at the level of biological

processes might determine if Louise’s functioning prior to birth was affected by her
conception outside the womb.
• Specialists in lifespan development who study genetics might examine how the
­genetic endowment from Louise’s parents affects her later behavior.
• For lifespan development specialists who investigate the ways thinking changes
over the course of life, Louise’s life might be examined in terms of how her under-
standing of the nature of her conception changed as she grew older.
• Researchers in lifespan development who focus on physical growth might c­ onsider
whether her growth rate differed from children conceived more traditionally.
• Lifespan development experts who specialize in the social world and social rela-
tionships might look at the ways that Louise interacted with others and the kinds of
friendships she developed.

Although their interests take many forms, these specialists in lifespan development
share one concern: understanding the growth and change that occur during the course of
life. Taking many differing approaches, developmentalists study how both the biologi-
cal inheritance from our parents and the environment in which we live jointly affect our
behavior.
Some developmentalists focus on explaining how our genetic background can
­determine not only how we look but also how we behave and relate to others in a con-
sistent manner—that is, matters of personality. They explore ways to identify how much
of our potential as human beings is provided—or limited—by heredity. Other lifespan
development specialists look to the environment, exploring ways in which our lives
are shaped by the world that we encounter. They investigate the extent to which we are
shaped by our early environments, and how our current circumstances influence our be-
havior in both subtle and evident ways.
Whether they focus on heredity or environment, all developmental specialists
­acknowledge that neither heredity nor environment alone can account for the full range
of human development and change. Instead, our understanding of people’s d ­ evelopment
requires that we look at the interaction of heredity and environment, ­attempting to grasp
how both, in the end, contribute to human behavior.
In this chapter, we orient ourselves to the field of lifespan development. We begin
with a discussion of the scope of the discipline, illustrating the wide array of topics it

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 24 PART 1 ● Beginnings

covers and the full range of ages, from conception to death, that it examines. We also
survey the key issues and controversies of the field and consider the broad perspectives
that developmentalists take. Finally, we discuss the ways developmentalists use research
to ask and answer questions.

An Orientation to Lifespan Development

Have you ever wondered how it is possible that an infant tightly grips your finger with
tiny, perfectly formed hands? Or marveled at how a preschooler methodically draws a
picture? Or at the way an adolescent can make involved decisions about whom to invite
to a party or the ethics of downloading music files? Or the way a middle-aged politician
can deliver a long, flawless speech from memory? Or wondered what it is that makes a
grandfather at 80 so similar to the father he was when he was 40?
If you’ve ever wondered about such things, you are asking the kinds of questions
that scientists in the field of lifespan development pose. In this section, we’ll examine how
the field of lifespan development is defined, the scope of the field, as well as some basic
influences on human development.

Defining Lifespan Development

LO 1.1 Define the field of lifespan development and describe what it
encompasses.
lifespan development Lifespan development is the field of study that examines patterns of growth, change,
the field of study that examines and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire life span. Although the defini-
patterns of growth, change, and tion of the field seems straightforward, the simplicity is somewhat misleading. In order
stability in behavior that occur to understand what development is actually about, we need to look underneath the vari-
throughout the entire life span ous parts of the definition.
In its study of growth, change, and stability, lifespan development takes a
­scientific a­ pproach. Like members of other scientific disciplines, researchers in lifespan
­development test their assumptions about the nature and course of human develop-
ment by applying scientific methods. As we’ll see later in the chapter, they develop theo-
ries about development, and they use methodical, scientific techniques to validate the
­accuracy of their assumptions systematically.
Lifespan development focuses on human development. Although there are
­developmentalists who study the course of development in nonhuman species, the vast
majority examine growth and change in people.
Some seek to understand universal principles of
development, whereas others focus on how cul-
tural, racial, and ethnic differences affect the course
of development. Still others aim to understand the
unique aspects of individuals, looking at the traits
and characteristics that differentiate one person
from another. Regardless of approach, however, all
developmentalists view development as a continu-
ing process throughout the life span.
As developmental specialists focus on the
ways people change and grow during their lives,
they also consider stability in people’s lives. They
ask in which areas, and in what periods, people
show change and growth, and when and how their
behavior reveals consistency and continuity with
prior behavior.
How people grow and change over the course of their lives is the focus of lifespan Finally, developmentalists assume that the
development. process of development persists ­throughout every

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 Chapter 1 ● An Introduction to Lifespan Development 25

part of people’s lives, beginning with the moment of conception and continuing until
death. Developmental specialists assume that in some ways people continue to grow and
change right up to the end of their lives, while in other respects their behavior remains
stable. At the same time, developmentalists believe that no particular, single period of life
governs all development. Instead, they believe that every period of life contains the po-
tential for both growth and decline in abilities and that individuals maintain the capacity
for substantial growth and change throughout their lives.

The Scope of the Field of Lifespan Development

LO 1.2 Describe the areas that lifespan development specialists cover.
Clearly, the definition of lifespan development is broad and the scope of the field is ex-
tensive. Consequently, lifespan development specialists cover several quite diverse areas,
and a typical developmentalist will choose to specialize in both a topical area and an age
range.

TOPICAL AREAS IN LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT. Some developmentalists focus on

physical development, examining the ways in which the body’s makeup—the brain, ner- physical development
vous system, muscles, and senses, and the need for food, drink, and sleep—helps deter- development involving the body’s
mine behavior. For example, one specialist in physical development might examine the physical makeup, including the
effects of malnutrition on the pace of growth in children, while another might look at how brain, nervous system, muscles,
athletes’ physical performance declines during adulthood (Fell & Williams, 2008; Muiños and senses, and the need for food,
& Ballesteros, 2014). drink, and sleep
Other developmental specialists examine cognitive development, seeking to under- cognitive development
stand how growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person’s behavior. development involving the
Cognitive developmentalists examine learning, memory, problem-solving skills, and ways that growth and change in
intelligence. For example, specialists in cognitive development might want to see how ­intellectual capabilities influence a
problem-solving skills change over the course of life, or whether cultural differences ex- ­person’s behavior
ist in the way people explain their academic successes and failures. They would also be
interested in how a person who experiences significant or traumatic events early in life
would remember them later in life (Alibali, Phillips, & Fischer, 2009; Dumka et al., 2009;
Penido et al., 2012).
Finally, some developmental specialists focus on personality and social devel-
opment. Personality development is the study of stability and change in the en- personality development
during characteristics that differentiate one person from another over the life span. development involving the ways
Social ­d evelopment is the way in which individuals’ interactions with others and that the enduring characteristics
their s­ ocial relationships grow, change, and remain stable over the course of life. A that differentiate one person from
­d evelopmentalist interested in personality development might ask whether there another change over the life span
are stable, enduring personality traits throughout the life span, whereas a special- social development
ist in ­social ­development might examine the effects of racism or poverty or divorce the way in which individuals’
on development (Evans, Boxhill, & Pinkava, 2008; Lansford, 2009; Tine, 2014). These interactions with others and their
four major topic areas—physical, cognitive, social, and personality development— social relationships grow, change,
are summarized in Table 1-1. and remain stable over the course
of life
AGE RANGES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES. In addition to choosing to special-
ize in a particular topical area, developmentalists also typically look at a particular age
range. The life span is usually divided into broad age ranges: the prenatal period (the
period from conception to birth), infancy and toddlerhood (birth to age 3), the preschool
period (ages 3 to 6), middle childhood (ages 6 to 12), adolescence (ages 12 to 20), young
adulthood (ages 20 to 40), middle adulthood (ages 40 to 65), and late adulthood (age 65
to death).
It’s important to keep in mind that these broad periods—which are largely ­accepted
by lifespan developmentalists—are social constructions. A social construction is a shared
notion of reality, one that is widely accepted but is a function of society and culture
at a given time. Consequently, the age ranges within a period—and even the periods

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 26 PART 1 ● Beginnings

Table 1-1 Approaches to Lifespan Development

Orientation Defining Characteristics Examples of Question Asked*
Physical development Emphasizes how the brain, • What determines the sex of a child? (2)
nervous system, muscles, sensory • What are the long-term results of premature birth? (3)
capabilities, and needs for food, • What are the benefits of breast milk? (4)
drink, and sleep affect behavior • What are the consequences of early or late sexual maturation? (1)
• What leads to obesity in adulthood? (13)
• How do adults cope with stress? (15)
• What are the outward and internal signs of aging? (17)
• How do we define death? (19)
Cognitive development Emphasizes intellectual abilities, • What are the earliest memories that can be recalled from infancy? (5)
including learning, memory, problem • What are the intellectual consequences of watching television? (7)
solving, and intelligence • Do spatial reasoning skills relate to music practice? (7)
• Are there benefits to bilingualism? (9)
• How does an adolescent’s egocentrism affect his or her view of the world? (11)
• Are there ethnic and racial differences in intelligence? (9)
• How does creativity relate to intelligence? (13)
• Does intelligence decline in late adulthood? (17)
Personality and social Emphasizes enduring characteristics • Do newborns respond differently to their mothers than to others? (3)
development that differentiate one person from • What is the best procedure for disciplining children? (8)
another, and how interactions with • When does a sense of gender identity develop? (8)
others and social relationships grow • How can we promote cross-race friendships? (10)
and change over the lifetime • What are the causes of adolescent suicide? (12)
• How do we choose a romantic partner? (14)
• Do the effects of parental divorce last into old age? (18)
• Do people withdraw from others in late adulthood? (18)
• What are the emotions involved in confronting death? (19)

*Numbers in parentheses indicate in which chapter the question is addressed.

t­ hemselves—are in many ways arbitrary and often culturally derived. For example, later
in the book we’ll discuss how the concept of childhood as a special period did not even
exist during the seventeenth century; at that time, children were seen simply as ­miniature
adults. Furthermore, while some periods have a clear-cut boundary (infancy begins with
birth, the preschool period ends with entry into public school, and adolescence starts
with sexual maturity), others don’t.
For instance, consider the period of young adulthood, which at least in Western cul-
tures is typically assumed to begin at age 20. That age, however, is notable only because
it marks the end of the teenage period. In fact, for many people, such as those enrolled
in higher education, the age change from 19 to 20 has little special significance, coming
as it does in the middle of the college years. For them, more substantial changes may
occur when they leave college and enter the workforce, which is more likely to happen
around age 22. Furthermore, in some non-Western cultures, a­ dulthood may be consid-
ered to start much earlier, when children whose educational opportunities are limited
begin full-time work.
In fact, some developmentalists have proposed entirely new developmental pe-
riods. For instance, psychologist Jeffrey Arnett argues that adolescence extends into
emerging adulthood, a period beginning in the late teenage years and continuing into the
­mid-­twenties. During emerging adulthood, people are no longer adolescents, but they
haven’t fully taken on the responsibilities of adulthood. Instead, they are still trying out
different identities and engage in self-focused exploration (Arnett, 2010, de Dios, 2012;
Sumner, Burrow, & Hill, 2015).
In short, there are substantial individual differences in the timing of events in people’s
lives. In part, this is a biological fact of life: People mature at different rates and reach
developmental milestones at different points. However, environmental factors also play
a significant role in determining the age at which a particular event is likely to occur. For
This wedding of two children in India
example, the typical age of marriage varies substantially from one culture to another, de-
is an example of how environmental
factors can play a significant role in
pending in part on the functions that marriage plays in a given culture.
determining the age when a particular It is important to keep in mind, then, that when developmental specialists d ­ iscuss
event is likely to occur. age ranges, they are talking about averages—the times when people, on average, reach

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 Chapter 1 ● An Introduction to Lifespan Development 27

particular milestones. Some people will reach the milestone earlier, some later, and many
will reach it around the time of the average. Such variation becomes noteworthy only
when children show substantial deviation from the average. For example, parents whose
child begins to speak at a much later age than average might decide to have their son or
daughter evaluated by a speech therapist.

THE LINKS BETWEEN TOPICS AND AGES. Each of the broad topical areas of lifespan
development—physical, cognitive, social, and personality development—plays a role
throughout the life span. Consequently, some developmental experts focus on physical
development during the prenatal period, and others during adolescence. Some might
specialize in social development during the preschool years, while o ­ thers look at social
relationships in late adulthood. Still others might take a broader a­ pproach, looking at
cognitive development through every period of life.
In this book, we’ll take a comprehensive approach, proceeding chronologically from
the prenatal period through late adulthood and death. Within each period, we’ll look
at different topical areas: physical, cognitive, social, and personality. Furthermore, we’ll
also be considering the impact of culture on development, as we discuss next.

Influences on Development
LO 1.3 Describe some of the basic influences on human development.
Bob, born in 1947, is a baby boomer; he was born soon after the end of World War II,
when an enormous bulge in the birth rate occurred as soldiers returned to the United
States from overseas. He was an adolescent at the height of the civil rights movement
and the beginning of protests against the Vietnam War. His mother, Leah, was born in
1922; she is part of the generation that passed its childhood and teenage years in the
shadow of the Great Depression. Bob’s son, Jon, was born in 1975. Now building a ­career
after graduating from college and starting his own family, he is a member of what has
been called Generation X. Jon’s younger sister, Sarah, who was born in 1982, is part of the
next generation, which sociologists have called the Millennial Generation.
These people are, in part, products of the social times in which they live. Each
­belongs to a particular cohort, a group of people born at around the same time in the cohort
same place. Such major social events as wars, economic upturns and depressions, fam- a group of people born at around
ines, and epidemics (like the one due to the AIDS virus) work similar ­influences on the same time in the same place
members of a particular cohort (Mitchell, 2002; Dittmann, 2005; Twenge, Gentile, &
Campbell, 2015).
Cohort effects provide an example of history-graded inf luences, which are biologi-
cal and environmental influences associated with a particular historical moment. For
instance, people who lived in New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attack on the
World Trade Center experienced shared biological and environmental challenges due
to the attack (Bonanno et al., 2006; Laugharne, Janca, & Widiger, 2007; Park, Riley, &
Snyder, 2012).
In contrast, age-graded inf luences are biological and environmental influences that
are similar for individuals in a particular age group, regardless of when or where they
are raised. For example, biological events such as puberty and menopause are universal
events that occur at relatively the same time throughout all societies. Similarly, a socio-
cultural event such as entry into formal education can be considered an age-graded influ-
ence because it occurs in most cultures around age six.

From an educator’s perspective

How would a student’s cohort membership affect his or her readiness for school? For example, what
would be the benefits and drawbacks of coming from a cohort in which Internet use was routine,
compared with earlier cohorts prior to the appearance of the Internet?

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 28 PART 1 ● Beginnings

Development is also affected by sociocultural-graded inf luences, the social and cul-
tural factors present at a particular time for a particular individual, depending on such
variables as ethnicity, social class, and subcultural membership. For example, sociocul-
tural-graded influences will be considerably different for children who are white and
affluent than for children who are members of a minority group and living in poverty
(Rose et al., 2003).
Finally, non-normative life events are specific, atypical events that occur in a person’s
life at a time when such events do not happen to most people. For example, a child whose
parents die in an automobile accident when she is six years old has e­ xperienced a signifi-
cant non-normative life event.

Developmental Diversity and Your Life

How Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Influence Development
Mayan mothers in Central America are certain that almost The concept of race has proven especially problematic.
constant contact between themselves and their infant children
is necessary for good parenting, and they are physically
Although it formally refers to biological factors, race has
upset if contact is not possible. They are shocked when they taken on substantially more meanings—many of them
see a North American mother lay her infant down, and they inappropriate—that range from skin color to religion to culture.
attribute the baby’s crying to the poor parenting of the North
Moreover, the concept of race is exceedingly imprecise;
American. (Morelli et al., 1992)
depending on how it is defined, there are between 3 and 300
What are we to make of the two views of parenting expressed races, and no race is genetically distinct. The fact that 99.9
in this passage? Is one right and the other wrong? Probably percent of humans’ genetic makeup is identical in all humans
not, if we take into consideration the cultural context in which makes the question of race seem comparatively insignificant
the mothers are operating. Different cultures and subcultures (Bamshad & Olson, 2003; Helms, Jernigan, & Mascher, 2005;
have their own views of appropriate and inappropriate Smedley & Smedley, 2005).
childrearing, just as they have different developmental goals In addition, there is little agreement about which names
for children (Huijbregts et al., 2009; Chen, Chen & Zheng, best reflect different races and ethnic groups. Should the
2012; Eeckhaut et al., 2014). term African American—which has geographical and cultural
It has become clear that in order to understand implications—be preferred over black, which focuses primarily
development, developmentalists must take into consideration on skin color? Is Native American preferable to Indian?
broad cultural factors, such as an orientation toward Is Hispanic more appropriate than Latino? And how can
individualism or collectivism. They must also consider finer researchers accurately categorize people with multiethnic
ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender differences if they backgrounds? The choice of category has important
are to achieve an understanding of how people change and implications for the validity and usefulness of research.
grow throughout the life span. If developmentalists succeed The choice even has political implications. For example,
in doing so, not only can they achieve a better understanding the decision to permit people to identify themselves as
of human development, but they may be able to derive “multiracial” on U.S. government forms and in the U.S. Census
more precise applications for improving the human social initially was highly controversial (Perlmann & Waters, 2002).
condition. In order to fully understand development, then, we
Efforts to understand how diversity affects development need to take the complex issues associated with human
have been hindered by difficulties in finding an appropriate diversity into account. It is only by looking for similarities and
vocabulary. For example, members of the research differences among various ethnic, cultural, and racial groups
community—as well as society at large—have sometimes that developmental researchers can distinguish principles
used terms such as race and ethnic group in inappropriate of development that are universal from principles that are
ways. Race is a biological concept, which should be employed culturally determined. In the years ahead, then, it is likely that
to refer to classifications based on physical and structural lifespan development will move from a discipline that focuses
characteristics of species. In contrast, ethnic group and primarily on North American and European development to one
ethnicity are broader terms, referring to cultural background, that encompasses development around the globe (Fowers &
nationality, religion, and language. Davidov, 2006; Matsumoto & Yoo, 2006; Kloep et al., 2009).

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 Chapter 1 ● An Introduction to Lifespan Development 29

Key Issues and Questions: Determining the

Nature—and Nurture—of Lifespan Development
LO 1.4 Summarize four key issues in the field of lifespan development.
Lifespan development is a decades-long journey. Though there are some shared ­markers
along the way—such as learning to speak, going to school, and finding a job—there are,
as we have just seen, many individual routes with twists and turns along the way that
also influence this journey.
For developmentalists working in the field, the range and variation in lifespan devel-
opment raises a number of issues and questions. What are the best ways to think about
the enormous changes that a person undergoes from before birth to death? How impor-
tant is chronological age? Is there a clear timetable for development? How can one begin
to find common threads and patterns?
These questions have been debated since lifespan development first became
­established as a separate field in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though
a fascination with the nature and course of human development can be traced back to the
ancient Egyptians and Greeks. We will look at some of these issues, which are summa-
rized in Table 1-2.

CONTINUOUS CHANGE VERSUS DISCONTINUOUS CHANGE. One of the ­primary

issues challenging developmentalists is whether development proceeds in a continuous
or discontinuous fashion. In continuous change, development is gradual, with achieve- continuous change
ments at one level building on those of previous levels. Continuous change is quantita- gradual development in which
tive in nature; the basic underlying developmental processes that drive change remain achievements at one level build on
the same over the course of the life span. Continuous change, then, produces changes those of previous levels
that are a matter of degree, not of kind. Changes in height prior to adulthood, for ex-
ample, are continuous. Similarly, as we’ll see later in the chapter, some theorists sug-
gest that changes in people’s thinking capabilities are also continuous, showing gradual
quantitative improvements rather than developing entirely new cognitive processing
capabilities.
In contrast, one can view development as being made up of primarily ­discontinuous discontinuous change
change, occurring in distinct stages. Each stage or change brings about behavior that is development that occurs in dis-
assumed to be qualitatively different from behavior at earlier stages. Consider the exam- tinct steps or stages, with each
ple of cognitive development again. We’ll see later in the ­chapter that some cognitive de- stage bringing about behavior that
velopmentalists suggest that as we develop, our thinking changes in ­fundamental ways, is assumed to be qualitatively dif-
and that such development is not just a matter of quantitative change but of qualitative ferent from behavior at earlier
change. stages

Table 1-2 Major Issues in Lifespan Development

Continuous Change Discontinuous Change
• Change is gradual. • Change occurs in distinct steps or stages.
• Achievements at one level build on previous level. • Behavior and processes are qualitatively different
• Underlying developmental processes remain the at different stages.
same over the life span.
Critical Periods Sensitive Periods
• Certain environmental stimuli are necessary for • People are susceptible to certain environmental
normal development. stimuli, but consequences of absent stimuli are
• Emphasized by early developmentalists. reversible.
• Current emphasis in lifespan development.
Lifespan Approach Focus on Particular Periods
• Current theories emphasize growth and change • Infancy and adolescence emphasized by early
throughout life, relatedness of different periods. ­developmentalists as most important periods.
Nature (Genetic Factors) Nurture (Environmental Factors)
• Emphasis is on discovering inherited genetic • Emphasis is on environmental influences that
traits and abilities. affect a person’s development.

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 30 PART 1 ● Beginnings

Most developmentalists agree that taking an either/or position on the c­ ontinuous–

discontinuous issue is inappropriate. While many types of developmental change are
continuous, others are clearly discontinuous.

CRITICAL AND SENSITIVE PERIODS: GAUGING THE IMPACT OF ­E NVIRON-

MENTAL EVENTS. If a woman comes down with a case of rubella (German m
­ easles)
in the first twenty weeks of pregnancy, the consequences for the child she is carrying are
likely to be devastating: They include the potential for blindness, deafness, and heart
defects. However, if she comes down with the exact same strain of rubella in the thirtieth
week of pregnancy, damage to the child is unlikely.
The differing outcomes of the disease in the two periods demonstrate the concept
critical period of critical periods. A critical period is a specific time during development when a par-
a specific time during develop- ticular event has its greatest consequences. Critical periods occur when the presence of
ment when a particular event has certain kinds of environmental stimuli is necessary for development to proceed normally
its greatest consequences and the (Uylings, 2006).
presence of certain kinds of envi- Although early specialists in lifespan development placed great emphasis on the
ronmental stimuli is necessary for importance of critical periods, more recent thinking suggests that in many realms,
development to proceed normally
­individuals are more malleable than was first thought, particularly in the domain of per-
sonality and social development. For instance, rather than suffering permanent damage
from a lack of certain kinds of early social experiences, there is increasing evidence that
people can use later experiences to their benefit, to help them overcome earlier deficits.
Consequently, developmentalists are now more likely to speak of sensitive ­periods
sensitive period rather than critical periods. In a sensitive period, organisms are particularly s­ usceptible
a point in development when to certain kinds of stimuli in their environment. A sensitive period represents the optimal
organisms are particularly sus- period for particular capacities to emerge, and children are particularly sensitive to envi-
ceptible to certain kinds of stimuli ronmental influences.
in their environments, but the It is important to understand the difference between the concepts of critical periods
absence of those stimuli does not and sensitive periods. In critical periods, it is assumed that the absence of certain kinds of
always produce irreversible conse-
environmental influences is likely to produce permanent, irreversible consequences for
quences
the developing individual. In contrast, although the absence of particular environmental
influences during a sensitive period may hinder development, it is possible for later ex-
periences to overcome the earlier deficits. In other words, the concept of sensitive period
recognizes the plasticity of developing humans (Armstrong, et al., 2006; Hooks & Chen,
2008; Hartley & Lee, 2015).

LIFESPAN APPROACHES VERSUS A FOCUS ON PARTICULAR PERIODS. On which

part of the life span should developmentalists focus their attention? For early develop-
mentalists, the answers tended to be infancy and adolescence. Most attention was clearly
concentrated on those two periods, largely to the exclusion of other parts of the life span.
Today, the story is different. Developmentalists now believe that the entire life span
is important, for several reasons. One is the discovery that developmental growth and
change continue during every part of life—as we’ll discuss throughout this book.
Furthermore, an important part of every person’s environment is the presence of
other people around him or her, the person’s social environment. To fully understand the
social influences on people of a given age, we need to understand the people who are in
large measure providing those influences. For instance, to understand development in
infants, we need to unravel the effects of their parents’ ages on their social environments.
A fifteen-year-old first-time mother will provide parental influences of a very different
sort from those provided by an experienced thirty-seven-year-old mother. Consequently,
infant development is in part an outgrowth consequence of adult development.
In addition, as lifespan developmentalist Paul Baltes points out, development across
the life span involves both gains and losses. With age, certain capabilities ­become more
refined and sophisticated, while others involve loss of skill and capacity. For example,
vocabulary tends to grow throughout childhood and continues this growth through most
of adulthood. At the same time, certain physical abilities, like reaction time, ­improve

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 Chapter 1 ● An Introduction to Lifespan Development 31

­ ntil early and middle adulthood, when they begin to decline (Baltes, Staudinger, &
u
­Lindenberger, 1999; Baltes, 2003).
People also shift in how they invest their resources (in terms of motivation, ­energy,
and time) at different points during the life span. Early in life, more of one’s personal
resources are devoted to activities involving growth, such as studying or learning new
skills. As one grows older, more resources are devoted to dealing with the losses people
face during late adulthood (Staudinger & Leipold, 2003).

THE RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF NATURE AND NURTURE ON DEVELOPMENT. One

of the enduring questions of development involves how much of people’s behavior is
due to their genetically determined nature and how much is due to nurture, the influ-
ences of the physical and social environment in which a child is raised. This issue, which
has deep philosophical and historical roots, has dominated much work in l­ ifespan devel-
opment (Wexler, 2006).
In this context, nature refers to traits, abilities, and capacities that are inherited from
one’s parents. It encompasses any factor that is produced by the predetermined unfold-
ing of genetic information—a process known as maturation. These genetic, ­inherited maturation
influences are at work as we move from the one-cell organism that is created at the mo- the predetermined unfolding of
ment of conception to the billions of cells that make up a fully formed human. Nature genetic information
influences whether our eyes are blue or brown, whether we have thick hair throughout
life or eventually go bald, and how good we are at athletics. Nature allows our brains to
develop in such a way that we can read the words on this page.
In contrast, nurture refers to the environmental influences that shape behavior. Some
of these influences may be biological, such as the impact of a pregnant mother’s use of
cocaine on her unborn child or the amount and kind of food available to c­ hildren. Other
environmental influences are more social, such as the ways parents discipline their chil-
dren and the effects of peer pressure on an adolescent. Finally, some influences are a
result of larger, societal-level factors, such as the socioeconomic circumstances in which
people find themselves.

THE LATER ACTION OF NATURE AND NURTURE. If our traits and behavior were de-
termined solely by either nature or nurture, there would probably be little debate re-
garding the issue. However, for most critical behaviors this is hardly the case. Take, for
instance, one of the most controversial areas: intelligence. As we’ll consider in detail in
Chapter 9, the question of whether intelligence is determined primarily by inherited,
genetic factors—nature—or is shaped by environmental factors—nurture—has caused
lively and often bitter arguments that have spilled out of the scientific arena and into the
realm of politics and social policy.
Consider the implications of the issue: If the extent of one’s intelligence is primarily
determined by heredity and consequently is largely fixed at birth, then efforts to improve
intellectual performance later in life may be doomed to failure. In contrast, if intelligence
is primarily a result of environmental factors, such as the amount and quality of school-
ing and stimulation to which one is exposed, then we would expect that an improvement
in social conditions could bring about an increase in intelligence.
The extent of social policy affected by ideas about the origins of intelligence
­illustrates the significance of issues that involve the nature–nurture question. As we ad-
dress this question in relation to several topical areas throughout this book, we should
keep in mind that developmentalists reject the notion that behavior is the ­result solely of
either nature or nurture. Instead, the question is one of degree—and the specifics of that,
too, are hotly debated.
Furthermore, the interaction of genetic and environmental factors is complex, in part
because certain genetically determined traits have not only a direct influence on children’s
behavior, but an indirect influence in shaping children’s environments as well. For exam-
ple, a child who is consistently cranky and who cries a great deal—a trait that may be
produced by genetic factors—may influence his or her environment by making his or her

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 32 PART 1 ● Beginnings

parents so highly responsive to the insistent crying that they rush to comfort the child
whenever he or she cries. Their responsivity to the child’s genetically determined behavior
consequently becomes an environmental influence on his or her subsequent development
(Bradley & Corwyn, 2008; Stright, Gallagher, & Kelley, 2008; Barnes & Boutwell, 2012).
Similarly, although our genetic background orients us toward particular behaviors,
those behaviors will not necessarily occur in the absence of an appropriate ­environment.
People with similar genetic backgrounds (such as identical twins) may behave in very
different ways; and people with highly dissimilar genetic backgrounds can behave quite
similarly to one another in certain areas (Coll, Bearer, & Lerner, 2004; Kato & Pedersen,
2005; Segal et al., 2015).
In sum, the question of how much of a given behavior is due to nature, and how
much to nurture, is a challenging one. Ultimately, we should consider the two sides of
the nature–nurture issue as opposite ends of a continuum, with particular behaviors fall-
ing somewhere between the two ends. We can say something similar about the other
controversies that we have considered. For instance, continuous versus discontinuous
development is not an either/or proposition; some forms of development fall toward
the continuous end of the continuum, whereas others lie closer to the discontinuous end.
In short, few statements about development involve either/or absolutes (Rutter, 2006;
Deater-Deckard & Cahill, 2007).

Module 1.1 Review

■■ Lifespan development, a scientific approach to understanding also play an important role in development, both broad
human growth and change throughout life, encompasses culture and aspects of culture, such as race, ethnicity, and
physical, cognitive, social, and personality development. socioeconomic status.
■■ Developmentalists focus on physical development, cognitive ■■ Four important issues in lifespan development are continuity
development, and on personality and social development. In versus discontinuity in development, the importance of
addition to choosing to specialize in a particular topical area, critical periods, whether to focus on certain periods or on the
developmentalists also typically look at a particular entire life span, and the ­nature–nurture controversy.
age range.
■■ Membership in a cohort, based on age and place of birth,
subjects people to influences based on historical events Journal Writing Prompt
(history-graded influences). People are also subject to Applying Lifespan Development: Give some examples of the
age-graded influences, sociocultural-graded influences, ways culture (either broad culture or aspects of culture) affects
and non-normative life events. Culture and ethnicity human development.

Theoretical Perspectives on Lifespan

Development
In Europe, there was no concept of “childhood” until the seventeenth century. Instead,
children were simply thought of as miniature adults. They were assumed to be subject to
the same needs and desires as adults, to have the same vices and virtues as adults, and to
warrant no more privileges than adults. They were dressed the same as adults, and their
work hours were the same as adults. Children also received the same punishments for
misdeeds. If they stole, they were hanged; if they did well, they could achieve prosperity, at
least so far as their station in life or social class would allow.

This view of childhood seems wrong-headed now, but at the time it was what passed for
lifespan development. From this perspective, there were no differences due to age; except
for size, people were ­assumed to be virtually unchanging, at least on a psychological level,
throughout most of the life span (Ariès, 1962; Acocella, 2003; Hutton, 2004; Wines, 2006).

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