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3.6 Social-Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

Syllabus
2025
Topic
3.6
Level
—

Learning objectives

3.6A—Explain how social development relates to behavior and mental processes. UNIT 3 Development and LearningExplain how social development relates to behavior and mental processes. UNIT 3 Development and Learning• The ecological systems theory explores how the social environment influences development. The five systems in this theory are as follows:• Research has identified different parenting styles of caregivers, including authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. Cultural differences exist in the ways these parenting styles affect outcomes in caregivers and children.• Research has identified different attachment styles demonstrated by infants and children, which vary by culture. The types of attachment infants and children display include secure and insecure (avoidant, anxious, and disorganized). T emperament is related to how children attach to caregivers.- i. Separation anxiety occurs when children express heightened anxiety or fear when away from a caregiver or in the presence of a stranger.- ii. Studies with monkeys demonstrate the importance of comfort over food in attachment.• Developmental psychologists study how peer relationships develop over time.- i. Children engage with peers via play (parallel and pretend).- ii. Adolescents gradually rely more on peer relationships as they age. As adolescents interact with peers, they demonstrate a type of egocentrism that is often demonstrated via the imaginary audience and the personal fable.• Developmental psychologists study how adults develop socially over time.- i. Culture plays a role in determining when adulthood begins and when major life events occur (social clock). Some cultures allow for a time of emerging adulthood as a transition from adolescence to adulthood.- ii. Relationships with other adults result in adults forming families or family-like relationships that should provide mutual support and care. Childhood attachment styles can affect how adults form attachments to other adults.• The stage theory of psychosocial development, which was a reconceptualization of the psychosexual theory, proposes that people must resolve psychosocial conflicts at each stage of the lifespan. The stages are as follows:- Exclusion: The psychosexual stage theory of development is outside of the scope of the AP Psychology Exam.• The experience of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has effects on relationships people form throughout the lifespan. Sociocultural differences exist in what is considered an ACE and how ACEs affect outcomes people may experience.• Adolescents develop a sense of identity for who they will be as an adult through the processes of achievement, diffusion, foreclosure, and moratorium. Identity development also includes processes for developing identities such as racial/ethnic identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious identity, occupational identity, and familial identity, often through considering possible selves.

Social-Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

Ecological system Developmental influence
Microsystem Groups in direct contact with the individual
Mesosystem Relationships among microsystem groups
Exosystem Indirect factors in the individual's life
Macrosystem Cultural events affecting the individual and others
Chronosystem The individual's current stage of life

Caregiving is another social influence. Authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles are associated with different caregiver-child outcomes, but those outcomes vary across cultures. Parenting labels therefore describe patterns; they do not produce one universal result in every cultural context.

Attachment may be secure or insecure (avoidant, anxious, or disorganized), and its expression varies by culture and temperament. Separation anxiety is heightened fear when away from a caregiver or with a stranger. Monkey studies show that comfort can matter more than food in attachment.

Peer relationships change with age. Children engage in parallel and pretend play. Adolescents rely more on peers and may show egocentrism through an imaginary audience—the belief that others are closely watching them—or a personal fable—the belief that their experience is uniquely special.

Culture helps set the social clock for adulthood and major life events; some cultures recognize emerging adulthood as a transition. Adults form families or family-like relationships based on mutual support and care, and childhood attachment patterns can influence later attachments.

Psychosocial conflicts across the lifespan
Trust and mistrust
Autonomy and shame and doubt
Initiative and guilt
Industry and inferiority
Identity and role confusion
Intimacy and isolation
Generativity and stagnation
Integrity and despair

Psychosocial stage theory proposes that each lifespan stage presents a social conflict to resolve. The sequence links changing relationships and social demands to mental processes. Psychosexual stage theory is outside AP Psychology exam scope.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can affect relationships across the lifespan. What counts as an ACE and how it affects outcomes can differ socioculturally, so an ACE is a developmental influence rather than a guaranteed outcome.

Adolescent identity process Exploration and commitment
Achievement Exploration followed by commitment
Diffusion Neither active exploration nor commitment
Foreclosure Commitment without prior exploration
Moratorium Active exploration without commitment yet

Adolescents consider possible selves while developing racial or ethnic, gender, sexual-orientation, religious, occupational, and familial identities. These processes concern how a future sense of self is explored and organized.

None of these frameworks makes development inevitable. Ecological level, culture, temperament, attachment, experience, and current relationships interact; a category is a tool for explaining influence, not a complete label for a person.