Developmental

Psychology B
Session 1:
Introduction to
Adult Development
and Aging
SACAP Online Flexi campus
(Term 1, 2024)
Educator: Tamarin Epstein
 Module Structure
o See Module Outline
o NQF 6: 14 Credits (140 notional hours)
Webinars (lecture sessions):
• There will be 4 Zoom webinars (90 mins each) for the module:
✓ Please diarise the dates! (on next slide).
✓ Attendance is optional, but highly recommended.
✓ Please access the recording via MySACAP, in the event that you miss
one/more webinars.
✓ Each webinar is structured around a specific theme.
✓ Time will be allocated in webinars for Q & A’s.
✓ Join webinars from the link on MySACAP (under the relevant Session).
 Dev Psych B Zoom Webinar Timetable
2024 (Term 1)

Webinar Date Time Delivery Details

platform
Webinar 1 Wed 6 10:00 – 11:30 Zoom Introduction to module
(Week 1) March Q&A

Webinar 2 Wed 20 10:00 – 11:30 Zoom Brief Lecture

(Week 3) March Breakout Group Activity
Q&A
Webinar 3 Wed 27 18:00 – 19:30 Zoom Assessment 1 Prep session
(Week 4) March Q&A
Webinar 4 Wed 24 April 18:00 – 19:30 Zoom Assessment 2 Prep session
(Week 8) Q&A
 Weekly Learning Activities
➢ The content for each week/’Session’ will be released on MySACAP by
9am on the Monday.

Do the following each week:

1. Watch the Session Video (on MySACAP).
2. Actively Read the Prescribed Reading (See Module Outline).
→ Most prescribed readings are from your Prescribed textbook:
Louw, D. & Louw, A. (2019). Adult development and ageing (2nd
ed.). Haga Haga Psychology Publications.
3. Access the Recommended Reading for the week, to enrich your
learning (See Module Outline).
4. Access the Prescribed Resources (TEDx Talks): for Session 8 & 10 only.
❖ Tip: Links to all Readings are provided in the Module Outline (except
for textbook links, due to copyright).
 Weekly Learning Activities
5. Complete the Asynchronous Assignment
→ For each session, an Assignment will be given by your
educator (an asynchronous activity, e.g. a Discussion, Quiz,
Debate, etc.). The Assignment will appear under the
relevant ’Session’ (week) on MySACAP.
6. Pdf slides will be provided by your educator. It is required that
you study these, as they contain important information and
course material.
7. Additional readings/links/resources/activities may be
provided by your educator, to enrich your learning.

❖ Tip: Ensure that you time plan carefully, allocating enough time
each week to complete the weekly learning activities.
 Module Grading
How will you be assessed and graded?
1. Your educator will assign you a Module Engagement (ME)
grade
(Mark weighting: 20%)
o ME grade is based on your participation in the 10 weekly
Asynchronous Assignments on MySACAP.
• The quantity (minimum of 8 out of the 10) and the quality of your
participation, will be considered.
• ME grades are allocated at the end of term.
2. There are 2 Assessments:
o Assessment 1: Essay (due Session 6: Mon 15 April 2024)
(Mark weighting: 40%)
o Assessment 2: Essay (due Session 10: Mon 13 May 2024)
(Mark weighting: 40%)
 Module Assessments

• See Module Outline for Specifications for Assessment 1 and

Assessment 2.
• Assessment 1 and Assessment 2 must be submitted via
MySACAP by their respective due dates. (Submission links
appear under Session 6 and Session 10 respectively).
• Extensions: Applications for extensions are done via MySACAP.
Please correspond with Student Admin, if you have any queries
relating to assessment extensions.

❖Time-planning Tip: Remember to also allocate enough

time each week to Prepare your Assessments!
 More about Asynchronous Assignments

1. There will be one Asynchronous Assignment per week.

2. It is compulsory to participate in a minimum of 8 out of
the 10 weekly Assignments.
3. Instructions will be given for each weekly Assignment.
Please follow them correctly and fully.
Direct any questions to your educator.
 More about Asynchronous Assignments

4. Each Asynchronous Assignment must be completed within

ONE WEEK from it’s release on MySACAP.
Deadline: 11:55pm on the following Monday.
5. Important Note: In order to meet the requirements for the
Module, and to maintain fairness to all students, please
note that No late submissions will be accepted, under any
circumstances.
 More about Asynchronous Assignments

6. Please ensure that you always:

❖ Respond to and engage with the activity in a positive,
meaningful way.
❖ Motivate (substantiate) what you say by giving reasons
(e.g. don't just say you agree or disagree with something,
or like/dislike something... explain clearly why you
agree/disagree).
 Etiquette
Some activities may require you to write/record your comments, ideas,
reflections, or thoughts about a topic… and sometimes also to respond to posts
made by the educator and/or by other students (e.g. you may be asked to
indicate your thoughts about another student's reflections, to give an opinion,
or comment on something).
❖ Ensure that all posts and responses are respectful, polite, constructive,
useful, supportive, professional, and friendly. Let's have fun discussions
and share our experiences in a safe space, so we can learn from one
another! Kindly avoid any conflict, strong (emotionally charged) opinions, or
arguments. No hate speech, bad language, or unkind comments are
permitted, under any circumstances.
 Etiquette
❖ Remember that whatever we think or say are seldom objective facts, and
more often only personal, subjective opinions/observations/reflections.
❖ Avoid giving unsolicited advice (this is always good practice for everyone,
including counsellors and therapists!).
❖ It is important to remember that online we cannot see your facial
expressions, body language, or hear your tone of voice, so remember to
reach out if you need help.
❖ Remember that your fellow students will be your colleagues one day! While
people usually don’t remember everything you say, they always remember
how they felt about what you said.
Everyone wants to feel valued and included!
 Etiquette
❖ Always consider how your tone or writing style will be received.
Keep the following points in mind:
o Things like humour and sarcasm can be difficult to convey in text so be
careful when you are trying to be funny.
o Communicate clearly.
o Think through and re-read your message before sharing.
o Don’t be afraid to use emoticons (emojis). Use of emojis is considered a
friendly and informal style of communicating feelings in plain text
messages. But, be careful not to rely too much on emoticons or symbols
in your communication as they may not be easily understood by others or
may distract from your intended message.
 Engage fully, but avoid burnout!
• In order to stay engaged and meet the requirements for the
module, it is recommended that you log into your online
module at least once a day.
• While it is understandable that many of you may be working
and/or have family commitments, please try and get as much
work done during the week so that you can have a mental
break over the weekend (or at another predetermined time
during the week).
• Daily Self-care is vital.
 Getting in touch with your Educator
• You can send a message to Tamarin via MySACAP (preferred) or via
email: tamarinepstein@gmail.com
(Please allow a response time of 48 hours)
• We should be able to address most queries via MySACAP/email, or in
the Q & A time during the Zoom lecture sessions.
• Should this not be possible, we can schedule a one-on-one Zoom
consultation, at a time suitable for both the student and the educator.
 Privacy
❖ Remember that all posts to the weekly Assignments can be seen
by everyone enrolled in the module.
❖ Private chats/messages in MySACAP and via email should be
considered private between sender and recipient(s). Do not send
communication that you would not want shared and do not share
communication that was intended to be a private message to you.
 Substages of adulthood

1. Early (age 20 to 39)

2. Middle (age 40 to 59)
3. Late (age 60 to death):
oYoung-old (65 to 74)
oOld-old (75 to 84)
oOldest-old (85 and older)
 Terminology
• Gerontology: multidisciplinary study of old age, and the process of
aging.
• Geropsychology (gerontological psychology/geriatric psychology):
branch of psychology relating to the many aspects of normal and
abnormal psychological changes in later life.
• Primary aging: normal aging (e.g. gradual physical deterioration)
• Secondary aging: impaired aging - accelerated physical or psychological
deterioration, due to:
oDisease (e.g. Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease)
oExternal factors (e.g. stress, unhealthy lifestyle)
• Tertiary aging: process of terminal decline taking place in the time
before death (months/weeks/days): increased physical and cognitive
deterioration in a relatively short time, followed by death.
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary aging: cumulative processes, resulting
in death.
 Terminology
• Life span: the absolute length of time a member of a given species may
live (120 years in humans)
• Life expectancy: the length of time an average member of a particular
cohort can expect to live (the age at which half of a particular cohort
will have died)
oIn almost all countries, women enjoy higher life expectancies than
men.
• Age-specific life expectancy: the average number of years that
members of a given cohort who have reached a specific age can expect
to live, e.g.:
opeople who survive to age 65 can expect to live another 18 or 20
years, even if the average life expectancy for their cohort is much
lower.
• Cohort (peer group): a group of people who share the same birth year,
or sometimes those who shared historical events, e.g. World War 2.
oCohort effects
 Terminology
• Mortality : death
• Mortality rate: the number of people who died during a given period of time.
• Epidemiological and biomedical studies may attempt to predict all-cause
mortality (the total number of deaths in a population),or they may try to
predict specific causes of mortality, e.g. heart disease, cancer.
• Morbidity: illness
• Morbidity rate: the prevalence (total number of cases) of a specific disease in a
population
• Incidence of illness: the number of new cases in a year.
• Acute illness: often self-limiting and/or can be successfully treated with medicines
• Chronic illness: often incurable, and treatment focus is on the management and
the delay of disability rather than cure (e.g. cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer,
arthritis, diabetes.
• Nearly 80% of people over the age of 65 have at least one chronic disease.
• Although some diseases such as CVD and cancer are the leading causes of death in
late life, others (e.g. arthritis) are not fatal, but can adversely affect quality of life.
 Perspectives on Aging
The aging process has been found to have plasticity:
othere are turning points through which people can change the trajectories
of their life course.
ohow we age and the rate at which we age are balanced between resources
to which we have access, and our exposure to various toxins. These are
partly reflections of the choices we make.
odialectic between cumulative resources and vulnerabilities across the life
span and the idea of plasticity.
othere are both protective psychosocial factors and risk factors

• There is growing interest in how the various aging processes respond to

behavioural and environmental factors that are at least partly under our
control.
• Optimal/successful aging: age-related changes that improve the person’s
functioning
 Perspectives on Aging

• Aging involves losses and gains:

Consider:
oWhat did you lose and what did you gain, in the period
between birth and adolescence?
oWhat did you lose and what did you gain, in the period
between adolescence and now?
 Perspectives on Age
Age is a relative concept:
• Chronological age: how many years you have been alive
• Age of legal maturity: 18 years (old enough to make your own decisions):
oWhat are some of these decisions/what can you do as an adult, that you
couldn’t do as a child?
• Social age (cultural age):
oSocial roles: degree to which your role in society meets social expectations
and perceptions
oconnectedness with others
oPeople with better interpersonal relationships are happier and more likely to
live longer, than lonely individuals
• Biological age:
oyour physical condition (biological health, vital organ functioning), compared
to peers
oa good predictor of longevity
• Functional age (total ability to function effectively in environment)
 Perspectives on Age
• Personal age: how a person perceives and experiences his/her age
oAdults (especially older people) mostly feel younger than their
age, because the ageless self (core of personality) remains much
the same, regardless of biological and chronological aging
oAdults who feel younger are more educated, healthier, more active
in the community
oOlder people who feel younger, have a reduced mortality.

• Psychological age:
oyour ability to adjust to environment and cope with challenges,
compared to peers; how old you feel and behave
oongoing learning, flexibility, motivation, positive personality traits
(e.g. adaptability), emotional control, and clear thinking.
 Demographics of Human Population
• The Demographic context of adult development:
ostatistical study of populations
olooks at factors and characteristics like age, gender., race, ethnicity, social
class, education, income, marriage, family structures, crime, births, deaths)
• The dramatic increase in the human population is one of history’s outstanding
demographic characteristics.
• Another trend is the gradual aging of the world’s population, especially people
over 60 years: an increase in the number of elderly people.
• Decline in population growth rates in most countries:
• higher access to and use of contraceptives (especially condoms)
• Decline in life expectancy at birth – because of HIV/AIDS and more freedom
of choice for women about pregnancy
• Patterns of more migration (relocating, especially of highly skilled people to
developed countries) and urbanisation
• Illegal immigration (usually to a more developed country)
oAssociated with increase in crime and taking local jobs
oEasily leads to xenophobia, which has led to many deaths in South Africa.
 Wellbeing
• Wellbeing: quality of life
• Positive psychology focuses on wellbeing and optimal
functioning
oStrength-based approach
oImproving lives of everybody (those with and without
mental illnesses)

• Which life circumstances have the greatest effect on our

wellbeing?
oUnemployment
oFinancial/political corruption
oPoverty and social inequality
oCrime and violence
 Human Development
• Human development is the multidisciplinary study of
how people change and how they remain the same over
time.

The science of human development:

1.reflects the complexity and uniqueness of each person
and their experiences
2.seeks to understand commonalities and patterns across
people
3.has a firm theoretical grounding
4.seeks to understand human behaviour
 A Life-Span
Developmental Perspective
Life-span development researchers and developmental
psychologists systematically study development, to understand it
more fully:
• to describe processes involved in normal development and
individual differences and variations from normal development
(variations are known as idiopathic development)
• to explain why there are similarities and differences in
development, between individuals, groups, cultures, and the
entire human population
• to use knowledge gained from the systematic study of
development for the purposes of optimising the development of
others
 Characteristics of
the Life-span Developmental Perspective
(Paul Baltes)
• Development is Multidimensional
Development takes place on biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
levels. Every level has numerous aspects. At any age, the body, mind,
emotions, and relationships change and have an effect on each other.
• Development is Multidirectional
Growth takes place in one area, whilst another area may decline or
remain unchanged.
• Development is Plastic
oPlasticity refers to the capacity for change/adaptation.
oPeople have more or less plasticity in various dimensions, at
different stages of development.
oPlasticity may decrease, with age.
 Characteristics of
the Life-span Developmental Perspective
(Paul Baltes)
• Development is co-constructed by history and context
oDevelopment always takes place within a context (setting).
oEvery setting (e.g. family, school, city) is affected by many factors (e.g.
historical, economic, social, political, cultural).
oLike people, contexts change.
oDevelopment is multiply influenced by factors like biology, culture, and the
individual
oThere are interacting causes, both internal (biological/nature) and external
(environmental/nurture).
• Development is Lifelong
Development takes place at every stage of an individual’s life.
At every stage in a person’s life, s/he is never too old to develop new plans and
ideas, develop and express longstanding talents, or make a productive
contribution to the wellbeing of younger people and future generations.
 Characteristics of
the Life-span Developmental Perspective
(Paul Baltes)

• Development involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation

of Loss

Development often involves conflict and competition between 3

developmental goals:
1. growth
2. maintenance
3. regulating loss.
 Characteristics of
the Life-span Developmental Perspective
(Paul Baltes)
• Developmental Science is Multidisciplinary
o Understanding development requires knowledge from
multiple disciplines, e.g.
• Psychology • Biology
• Sociology • History
• Anthropology • Social anthropology
• Neuroscience • Religion/spirituality
• Medicine • Mathematics
• Science • Economics
• Philosophy • The Arts
 Forces and Influences of Development
➢Biological
➢Psychological
➢Sociocultural
➢Life-cycle

1.Normative age-graded influences (similar for all people

in a certain age group, e.g. puberty, school, retirement).
2.Normative history-graded influences (common for all
people of the same generation, due to historical events)
3.Non-normative influences (individualised/unusual
events affecting a person’s life).
 Debates/Issues relating to Development
• Nature-nurture-interactionist-reciprocity debate
• Continuous-discontinuous debate
• Universality-context specific debate

Models of development
• Organismic model: naturist: we all develop according to internally
generated patterns of development, in an orderly stage-like
(discontinuous) pattern
• Mechanistic model: nurturist: our behaviour results from our
passive reactions to external forces, development takes place
continuously through exposure to learning opportunities
• Interactionist model: genetics and environment (context) interact
in complex ways, in our development.
Domains (areas) of Human Development
• physical
• cognitive
• personality
• social
 Research in Adult Development
Kinds of research
• Quantitative
• Qualitative
• Mixed-method

Gathering information
• Formulate research question and hypothesis
• Sampling:
• Convenience
• Random
• Stratified (sample has same characteristics as the whole
population, e.g. same proportion of males and females)
• Sample needs to be representative, to generalise the results to
the whole population
 Research in Adult Development

Research methods to gather information

• Systematic observation of behaviour: naturalistic (in natural
setting) or structured (in a structured setting)
• Self-reports (interviews, questionnaires)
• Psychological tests
• Tests need to be standardised (administered and scored in a
specific way)
• Tests must be reliable (results are consistent over time)
• Tests must be valid (the test should test the variable/s that it
claims to measure)
 Research in Adult Development

General research designs

• Experimental (experimental and control groups,
independent and dependent variables/factors)
• Correlational (to measure the strength of any
relationship/association between variables)
• Case studies, e.g. Phineas Gage
• Meta-analysis (statistical analysis of the results of
existing studies on a topic, to determine whether more
clarity can be achieved, especially on the role of a
specific variable)
 Research in Adult Development
Research designs for studying adult development
• Longitudinal (same sample of people is studied at different stages, over
a long period)
oDisadvantages:
➢the practice effect (people become ‘test-wise’)
➢the drop-out effect (selective attrition)
➢Measurement effect (Hawthorne effect): knowing we are being
observed could lead to changes in behaviour
• Cross-sectional (studies cohorts)
• Sequential (uses both longitudinal and cross-sectional).

❖Cross-cultural research is important in the South African context

❖Conducting research on the internet saves resources (e.g. time
and money) and creates many opportunities for research.
 References
• Louw, D. & Louw, A. (2019). Adult development and ageing (2nd ed. Ch. 1). Haga Haga Psychology
Publications.
• Laptop on desk image (Slide 2):
https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5e851e67328c5600084cf7f4/4:3/w_2275,h_1706,c_limit/Wid
dicombe-ZoomClass.jpg
• Woman reading and using computer image (Slide 4, 5): https://www.iteach.net/wp-
content/uploads/2020/07/young-african-american-woman-doing-research-970x647.jpg
• Smiley face with glasses emoji image (Slide 6, 7):
https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/02/40/65/74/360_F_240657495_nw5uxoTGkNez27JjSPFs7tSHQAlaD7Oq.jpg
• Woman typing on laptop image (Slide 8, 9, 10):
https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/smI3PbKrjOSuYhrUQc7F4MaAPE0=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():m
ax_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/young-woman-working-at-home-1035789090-
5c4a0d4546e0fb0001d11aea.jpg
• Feeling sick emoji image (Slide 11, 12): https://www.alamy.com/emoticon-feeling-unwell-sad-
shaken-or-horrified-image360150762.html?imageid=C566F07D-C2EF-42AA-A78A-
0505A76C1930&p=727716&pn=1&searchId=a500e372b0d5829b7c2a484267840299&searchtype=0
• Emoji balloons image (Slide 13): https://images.pexels.com/photos/3612885/pexels-photo-
3612885.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=1&w=500
• Meditating emoji image (Slide 14): https://image.shutterstock.com/image-vector/meditating-
emoticon-260nw-101783353.jpg
• Letter image (Slide 15, 16): https://www.webdesignservices.net/wp-
content/uploads/2017/11/email-emoji-1080x675.jpg