Exploring three issues
Lifespan development explores how we change and grow from conception to death. This field of psychology is studied by developmental psychologists.
Developmental psychologists view development as a lifelong process that can be studied scientifically across three developmental domains: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial.
Is development continuous or discontinuous?
Continuous development views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills. With this type of development, there is gradual change. Consider, for example, a child's physical growth: increasing their height year by year.
The concept of continuous development can be visualised as a smooth slope of progression, whereas discontinuous development sees growth in more discrete stages.
In contrast, theorists who view development as discontinuous believe that development takes place in unique stages: It occurs at specific times or ages. With this type of development, the change is more sudden, such as an infant's ability to conceive object permanence.
Is there one course of development or many?
Is development essentially the same, or universal, for all children (i.e., there is one course of development) or does development follow a different course for each child, depending on the child's specific genetics and environment (i.e., there are many courses of development)? Do people across the world share more similarities or more differences in their development? How much do culture and genetics influence a child's behavior?
Stage theories hold that the sequence of development is universal. For example, in cross-cultural studies of language development, children from around the world reach language milestones in a similar sequence.
Infants in all cultures coo before they babble. They begin babbling at about the same age and utter their first word around 12 months old. Yet we live in diverse contexts that have a unique effect on each of us. For example, researchers once believed that motor development follows one course for all children regardless of culture.
However, child care practices vary by culture, and different practices have been found to accelerate or inhibit achievement of developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, and walking.
For instance, the Aché society in Paraguay spend a significant amount of time foraging in forests. While foraging, Aché mothers carry their young children, rarely putting them down in order to protect them from getting hurt in the forest.
Consequently, their children walk much later: They walk around 23 to 25 months old, in comparison to infants in Western cultures who begin to walk around 12 months old. However, as Aché children become older, they are allowed more freedom to move about, and by about age 9, their motor skills surpass those children of the same age: Aché children are able to climb incredibly tall trees and use machetes to chop their way through the forest.
Our development is influenced by multiple contexts, so the timing of basic motor functions may vary across cultures. However, the functions themselves are present in all societies.
How do nature and nurture influence development?
Are we who we are because of nature (biology and genetics), or are we who we are because of nurture (our environment and culture)?
This long standing question is known in psychology as the nature versus nurture debate. It seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors, and how they are shaped by our environment, including our parents, peers, and culture.
For instance, why do children sometimes act like their biological parents—is it because of genetics or because of early childhood environment and what the child has learned from the parents? What about children who are adopted, are they more like their biological families or more like their adoptive families? And how can siblings from the same family be so different?
We are all born with specific genetic traits inherited from our parents, such as eye colour, height, and certain personality traits.
Beyond our basic genotype, however, there is a deep interaction between our genes and our environment: Our unique experiences in our environment influence whether and how particular traits are expressed, and at the same time, our genes influence how we interact with our environment.
There is a reciprocal interaction between nature and nurture as they both shape who we become, but the debate continues as to the relative contributions of each.
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