Psychology 1000 Chapter 12: Chapter 12 - Development over the Lifespan February 12th.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Terry Biggs

Document Summary

Developmental psychology focuses on four broad issues: nature and nurture, critical and sensitive periods . Critical period is an age range in which certain experiences must occur for development to proceed normally or along a certain path. Sensitive period is an optimal age range for certain experiences but if those experiences occur at another time, normally development will still be possible: continuity versus discontinuity. Is development continuous and gradual or is it discontinuous: stability versus change. Developmental psychologists address these issues by describing developmental functions. Inverted u shaped function an ability that emerges after birth, peaks and disappears with age. 4: u shaped function an ability that is present in early life, disappears temporarily and reemerges later. Using cross sectional design, allows researchers to compare things. Longitudinal design repeatedly tests the same cohort as it grows older. Sequential design combines the cross sectional and longitudinal approaches we can repeatedly test several cohorts.