Stage Age Range

Infancy Birth – 2 years

Childhood Two – 10 years

Adolescence

10 – 20 years

Early Adulthood

20 – 40 years

Middle age 40 – 65 years

Old age 65 years and beyond

Area of development

Example

Physical Bodily changes

Social Relationship changes

Cognitive Mental abilities

Emotional Experiencing and expressing feelings.

Researchers have been in constant debate of which plays a bigger role on our development: hereditary; that is our genes and what we inherit from our parents or environment; that is the external influences on our development.

Psychologists agree a combination of both factors effects our development

Longitudinal Study: A long term investigation that follows the same group of people over an extended period of time.

Cross-sectional Study: Selects and comparesgroups of participants of different ages over a short period of time.

Perceptual development- Gibson Emotional development- Bowlby,

Ainsworth, Harlow. Cognitive development- Piaget Moral development- Kohlberg Psychosocial Development - Erikson

According to Gibson, infants actively explore their environment: they continually monitor what is going on, they actively search for and obtain information about the environment and themselves. They self-initiate experiences, and as their senses develop they can learn more about people, events and objects in the world.

Gibson designed an experiment to test the development of depth perception in infants 6-12 months old. The mother callsto the baby from the deep side. The baby Is observed to see if it will crawl to the mother.

Age related changes, how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feelings are expressed interpreted and dealt with across the lifespan.

Bowlby and Ainsworth: Attachment Theory Harry Harlow: Monkey Experiment.

Sensorimotor stage: Birth-2 yrs

Pre-operational stage: 2-7 yrs

Concrete operational stage: 7-12 yrs

Formal operational stage: 12+ yrs

By the end of this stage, these cognitive accomplishments should have been achieved:› Goal-directed behaviour: behaviour carried out with a

particular purpose in mind, or to achieve a certain goal.

› Object permanence: early on in this stage, children do not have any concept of an object’s existence if it is out of sight. This is what makes peekaboo so fun! By the end of this stage, children know that objects are permanent and that they

don’t just cease to exist if they cannot be seen.

Animism: the belief that everything that exists has some kind of consciousness or awareness. Eg. If a child stubs their toe on a step, they might say “naughty step!”

Centration: the ability to only focus on one quality or feature of an object at a time.

Transformation: understanding that something can change from one state to another, eg. Icecream melts, water evaporates into steam.

Reversibility: the ability to follow a line of reasoning back to its starting point, eg 1+1=2 and 2-1=1.

Egocentrism: only capable of seeing the world from their point of view.

Conservation: the idea that an object does not change its essential properties when its shape or appearance changes.

Classification: the ability to organise things into categories based on common features that set them apart from other groups/categories.

Abstract thinking: this kind of thinking does not rely on being able to see or visualise concepts to understand them (distinct from the concrete operational stage). Eg, being able to understand justice or guilt.

Logical thinking: the ability to develop strategies, predictions and explanations systematically. Eg, in studying for a Psychology test, developing a plan for how to revise rather than just opening up the textbook at a random place and reading what you find.

Piaget only used a small sample, as well as his own children.

Infants know a lot more, and sooner, than Piaget believed. › Consequently, the age ranges vary more than

Piaget stated.› The children in Piaget’s studies may have been

unable to undertake certain tasks, not because of a lack in cognitive abilities, but because of a lack of concentration , forgetting parts of the problems they were given, or misunderstanding.

A moral dilemma is a social problem which has two or more solutions, each of which is ‘wrong’ in some way.

Moral development involves the gradual development of an individual’s concept of right and wrong. It includes developing a ‘conscience’, religious values, social attitudes and certain behaviour.

Age Level Stage

0-9 years Preconventional 1.Obedience and punishment orientation2. Naively egotistical orientation

10-15 years Conventional 3. Good boy/nice girl orientation4. Law-and-social-order-maintaining orientation

16+ years Postconventional 5. Legalistic-social-contractOrientation6. Universal-ethical orientation

Psychosocial development: a combination of the effects of psychological processes which take place within individuals, and the experiences of people within their lifetimes, particularly their interaction with other people.

Erikson’s theory, unlike many other theories of development, describes changes which take place over the entire lifespan.

Stage

Age Developmental period

Psychosocial crisis

1 birth to 12-18 months

Early infancy Trust vs mistrust

2 18 months to 3 years

Late infancy Autonomy vs shame and doubt

3 3 to 5 years Early childhood Initiative vs guilt

4 5 to 12 years

Middle and late childhood

Industry vs inferiority

5 12 to 18 years

Adolescence Identity vs identity confusion

6 18 to 25 years

Young adulthood Intimacy vs isolation

7 25 to 65 years

Adulthood Generativity vs stagnation

8 65+ years Late adulthood Integrity vs despair

Mental health primarily involves the mind, whereas physical health primarily involves the body.

45% of the Australian population have reported experiencing a mental illness of some kind at some stage in their life.

As with a physical illness, someone with a mental illness should consult a mental health professional for a diagnosis and treatment plan.

A psychological dysfunction experienced by an individual and usually involving distress, impairment in the ability to cope with everyday life and/or behaviour that are not typical of the person or appropriate within their society and/or culture.

A breakdown in cognitive, emotional and/or behavioural ‘functioning’ during which a person’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour differ from those that would usually occur or be expected for that individual in that situation.

When a person is distressed, they are extremely upset. People experience distress in their everyday life, however, it is also often present when people experience mental illness.

Inability to cope with everyday life. People can also experience this as part of their everyday life, however, it is also often present when people experience mental illness.

The person responds in a way(s) that is not usual for them.

Each culture/society has its own set of norms about what is considered normal and abnormal behaviour.

Is a psychotic mental illness characterised by distorted perceptions, bizarre thoughts, disorganised speech, disturbed emotions and a deterioration of coping with everyday life.

Only affects about 1% of the population Brain chemistry in schizophrenics is different

to those who do not have the illness, this supports a biological cause for the illness.

Medication is often used as a form of treatment and social support to live with the illness as there is no cure.