Lifespan Development

Lifespan Development

Introduction

Lifespan Development is one of the important fields of psychology, which studies the changes of behavior during the entire life of human. The developmental psychologists deal with various concerns such as development of motor skills in children to the moral development in adults. Thus, developmental psychology examines the principles development over the entire life span.

Discussion

1. (A) Gross Motor Skills and Fine Motor Skills

Gross motor skills are skills related to large muscles such as body balance, potency and agility. On the other hand, fine motor skills such as, arm strength; finger swiftness and wrist suppleness are skills of small muscles (Eliason & Jenkins, 1986).

1. (B) Sleep Terrors and Sleep Walking

Sleep Terrors refer to unconscious behaviors that occur during sleep such as talking, walking, and sitting up in bed, or other routine activities. Sleep Walking, also called somnambulism is the one of the group of sleep terror phenomena in children.

1. (C) Encopresis, Enuresis, and Bed-wetting

Encopresis refers to the soiling problem among children of 4 years. If a child regularly poops in inappropriately places unconsciously, then he is suffering from Encopresis. (Oswalt, et.al n.d.) On the other hand, Enuresis is slightly different from Encopresis as it refers to the problem of bed-wetting among children. Bed-wetting is a phenomenon which illustrates the inability of a child to control urination during night time (Oswalt, et.al n.d.).

2. Piaget's Pre operational stage

Piaget's Pre operational stage is the second stage of development, common in children between ages 2 to 7. At this stage, children exhibit symbolic thought and execute symbolic play. They comprehend in egocentric manner, which reflects their inability to understand the point of views of others (McLeod, 2010). Other key aspects of this stage are animism and transductive reasoning. Animism refers to lack of capability in differentiating unanimated objects from live ones. Transductive reasoning indicates linking one particular occurrence with the other in cause and effect relationship. This reasoning results in artificialism and lack of ability to use logical thoughts objectively (McLeod, 2010).

3. Key components of language development in early childhood (Dahlgren, 2008).

Phonology: Basic units of sound.

Morphology: Units of meaning of basic words.

Syntax: Formation of sentences and phrases.

Semantics: Reassign meaning through language.

Pragmatics: Use of accurate words for effective communication.

Orthography: Patterns of spelling words.

Vocabulary: Use of appropriate words and meanings.

4. Baumrind's Parental Styles

1) Authoritative Parents:

They are affectionate but strict. The phrases use by authoritative parents do not include, “Do this because I said.” Instead, they listen to their teens and involve in discussions (Kopko, 2007).

2) Authoritarian Parents:

Authoritarian parents are less warm and very strict. Their common phrases are like, “Do this because I am saying.” They do not let their children engage in debates or decisions.

3) Permissive Parents:

These parents are very lenient and are undemanding. They show little or no control on their children wishes. For example, they would say, “Sure if you want to stay late at your friend's house, you can” (Kopko, 2007).

4) Uninvolved Parents:

They are less interactive, undemanding, and ...