PSY 2114 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Standing Bell, Birth Weight, Twin Study

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 2114
• Professor: Heather Poole

Document Summary

Changes that occur over time in the thought, behavior, reasoning, functioning of a person due to biological, individual, and environmental influences. Common breakdown of periods of development: prenatal period: conception to birth. 2) infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years. 3) early childhood: 2 to 6 years: middle childhood: 6 to 11 years, adolescence: 11 to 20 years, early adulthood, middle adulthood. Keep in mind: age development, age does not cause development. In developmental psychology, we often look at age-related changes. Issues in developmental psychology: nature vs. nurture. For example, : humans are arguably the only species with language, and language skills typically emerge around the same age, not all humans develop language, and different people develop different languages. More generally: theories emphasizing stability across the lifespan emphasize nature, theories emphasizing plasticity across the lifespan emphasize nurture. Differences in genotype are due to parental genetic material: phenotype: characteristics of individual.