Lifespan Development

Lifespan Development

Introduction

Lifespan development is the gradual growth of human beings, from infancy to early and middle childhood to adolescent, early and middle adulthood and eventually old age. Lifespan development is also known as Developmental Psychology, which is the scientific study of how a person changes from an infant to an adult. Some people have developed an interest in pursuing human development, particularly the stages that human being undergoes to reach old age. The changes are psychological and physical, social and cognitive. Initially, this study mostly revolved around children and infants but has since expanded to adolescents and adults.

Human development is rather multidimensional as mentioned above and mostly involves physical, change in weight and height, nervous system and sensory capabilities. Social, change in interpersonal relationships, self-perception and emotions. (Lally, 2019) Cognitive,  changes in memory, perception, intelligence and problem-solving techniques. The growth of all these dimensions are mostly influenced by culture learnt from our parents, teachers, peers, siblings and the society at large (Lally, 2019). The kind of values and customs displayed by our cultures end up being the biggest influencers of our lives, our expectations and routines. Another factor that influences human development is socioeconomic factors where families are distinguished according to their level of income, power, education and influence. In this essay, we are going to look at the cognitive development of 15 months old infants based on an article by Onishi and Baillargeon 2005. This article mostly evaluates the cognitive dimension of the infant using the theory of mind concept that proposes that at 15 months, an infant is aware that there are different perceptions in their surroundings.

Discussion

• Summary

Onishi and Baillargeon used a non-verbal task to try and explain the theory of mind. This is by putting 56 15 months old healthy infants in a room with an actor who plays with a melon toy to try and explain the beliefs of the infants. To illustrate the theory of mind, the false belief task is applied, which implies that the infants tend to know what the other part doesn’t know. The first experiment involves and actor with two toys who familiarizes the infants with these toys by picking one and holding it firmly. He then exchanges the position of the two toys and reaches out for the other toy. At this point, the infants gaze at the other toy for quite some time, showing that there is a change of what their mind had already perceived.

Another experiment involves the actor using a melon toy and two boxes, a green box and a yellow box. This experiment is carried to identify if the infants are in apposition to identify where the toy is hidden between the two boxes also to explain if they understand false belief. In this experiment the actor first familiarizes the infants to the experiment where he first places the toy in between the green and yellow box, plays with the toy then hides it in the green box, she then pauses with her hand inside the green box then removes her hand and repeatedly inserts her hand as if reaching for the toy three times.

The next demonstration is a single belief trial where the actor has disguised the beliefs of the infants by making them think that the actor is unaware of where the toy is. The only belief trial has four version where the first and second versions are known as the true-belief trail (TB-green) where the actor believes that the toy is in the green box and the true-belief trail (TB-yellow) the actor and the infants through the back of the box see the toy moving from the green box to the yellow box. The third and fourth versions are known as the false-belief trail (FB green) which is identical to the TB-yellow with an exception that the infants see the toy move from the green box to the yellow box and false-belief trail (FB-yellow) that is identical to TB-green with a defence that the actor sees the back of the green box open and the toy moves from the green box to the yellow box. The next demonstration was a single test trial where the actor makes half of the infants witness her reaching to the green box and the other half reaching to the yellow box.

These experiments lasted between 8 seconds to 24 seconds, with only five infants who followed the whole experiment. The infants were divided into 8 groups with seven infants each. A total of 14 infants were eliminated due to attention issues, 4 others for observer errors, 4 for nit-picky, 4 for interference from parents and another 4 for other distinctive conditions. All these infants were between 14 to 15 and a half months.

• Evaluation

The mind of a human is something that exists, but we cannot give a clear rationale of how or why it operates the way it does. This implies that human mind functionality is quite controversial, given that people have varying views and perceptions regarding the same. However, scientists have created concepts that have helped to understand the symmetrical reliance of the mind, the nervous system and the brain (Bowman et al., 2019). Theory of mind is attributed to personal mental intents, beliefs and emotions towards others, us and other things (Bowman et al., 2019). This theory clearly shows that every human being has their mind, thoughts and instincts that can be influenced socially, psychologically and cognitively by other people’s influence and actions.  It also acknowledges that our thoughts and mind are different from others (Bowman et al., 2019). Therefore, the theory seeks to justify why they have varying perspective regarding their immediate environment and reactions to stimuli or events surrounding them.

In our case,15 months old infants who are in the second stage of lifespan development are put in an experiment to measure whether at their age they can be able to understand the behavior of others. Researchers have also argued that the theory of mind is much present in the earlier lives of infants and children (Brock et al., 2019). Using our experiments, the infants looking times during the experiment were evaluated to identify whether they were able to comprehend what was happening. In this cases, where the infants believed that they knew where the toy was when the actor reached out to the wrong box, the infants looked longer to the box, but when the actor reached out to the right box where the infants that the toy was, they quickly followed the movement of the actor.

This shows that infants from an early age can distinguish what they believe to be true or false. They base their beliefs on the actions that follow prior to the final action. In our cases, the infants not only found in what they saw but expected that the actor would repeat her actions as she had earlier performed them. Therefore, they become confused when the actor holds a false belief instead of looking for the object where she last placed it. This also shows that from an early age child can distinguish other people’s actions. A good illustration is that of 2.7-year-old who can identify whether their parents are around by merely looking for the presence or absence of their toys (Renee Baillargeon, 2015)

Conclusion

The theory of mind is important in the development process of a person. It helps people to understand how people work, behave and engage with others. Theory of mind gradually develops as the human develops from an infant to an adult with the exception of those who are mentally challenged like autistic children who have a deficient theory of mind (Renne Baillargeon, 2015). It is also important to note that as the children grow, they get to understand that people hold a false belief about various things. Take an example from the article of the 3-year-old and the 2-year-old children who are involved in a similar experiment where the first character hides the toy and leaves then the second character picks the toy and hides it elsewhere. On arrival of the first character, most of the children look at the correct position of the toy, leaving the first character with a false belief of where the toy is.

In conclusion, it is true that infants understand false belief and can identify what is true from what is not. This is through how they glance at a true belief versus how long they glance at a false belief. Other studies have explained that theory of mind is a relative concept that varies from a child’s cultural and social surroundings. The false-belief task is the most common and practical method used to measure theory of mind. However, other non-sequential tasks need to be applied to measure the theory of mind since sequential practices are done predictably. It is also essential to recognize diversity given the assumptions explanation on why people differ and the difference in the line of thoughts.

References

Bowman, L. C., Dodell-Feder, D., Saxe, R., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2019). CHILDREN’S THEORY OF MIND.

Brock, L. L., Kim, H., Gutshall, C. C., & Grissmer, D. W. (2019). The development of a theory of mind: predictors and moderators of improvement in kindergarten. Early Child Development and Care, 189(12), 1914-1924.

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Cotter, E (2019). Lectures and Test Bank for Human Growth and Development

Lally, M. (2019) Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective Second Edition by Martha Lally and Suzzanne Valentine-French

Lindenberger, U, & Lovden, M (2019). Brain Plasticity in Human Lifespan Development: The Exploration-Selection-Refinement Model.