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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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Why Study Development?

“The child is the father of man (and the mother of woman)” - to understand adults, including ourselves

To understand human nature To foster development and well-being (optimization)

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Objectives

Description Normal development, individual differences

Explanation Typical and individually different development

Optimization Positive development, enhancing human

capacities Prevention and overcoming difficulties

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Lifespan Stages

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What is Development?

Systematic changes and continuities In the individual Between conception and death

“Womb to Tomb”

Three broad domains Physical, Cognitive, Psychosocial

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Cognition

Cognition: the processes by which knowledge is acquired and manipulated – i.e., thinking

All mental activities involved in acquiring, understanding, and modifying information.

Separates humans from other species

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Cognition

A reflection of what is in the mind

Not observed directly – inferred from behavior

Includes unconscious and non-deliberate processes involved in routine activity (e.g., reading).

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At 6 monthsAt 2 monthsThe Newborn

Visual Acuity is poor at birth

An Infant’s View of the Child’s Face at a Distance of 2 feet:

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How Do we Develop?

Nativists: human intellectual abilities are innate Development “constrained” by inherited genetic material

Empiricists: nature provides only a species-general learning mechanism (brain) cognitive development arises from experience Context and culture (family, peers, school, media) are key

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What does innate mean?

There are genetically based constraints on behavior or development.

1. Representational Constraints: Representations that are hard-wired into the brain.

E.g., the nature of objects, mental math. We enter the world able to make sense of these

aspects of the environment.

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Nature/Nurture Issue

Nature: heredity(nativism) Maturational processes guided by genes Biologically based predispositions Biological unfolding of genes Genetic determinism

Nurture: environment (empiricism) Learning: experiences cause changes is

thoughts, feelings, and behaviors Environmental determinism

Interactionist view: nature & nurture interact

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Current View

There is no dichotomy between nature and nurture, i.e., they can not be separated because the two continuously interact.

How do they interact? Perhaps genetic constitution influences how one

experiences the environment. E.g., A sickly lethargic child seeks less stimulation and gets

less cognitively facilitating attention from adults than does a more active, healthy child. The result is a slower or less advanced child.

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Cognitive development is constructed within a social context

Development always occurs within a social context. Vygotsky viewed development as being a

sociocultural process where development is guided by adults interacting with children, where cultural context determines how, where, and when these interactions take place.

This implies that development will be different across cultures.

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Prenatal Development

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Prenatal Development

Conception: Male and Female Sperm Interact The Zygote: Chromosomes fuse together and cells

continue to divide The Embryo: Major organs are formed The Fetus: 9th week onward

In 3rd month starts moving, open fingers, sleep and breathe Recognize and prefers mother’s voice Taste of Food Gender can be guessed by end of 3rd month

Baby take birth by 38th week

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Newborn Development

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Newborn innate Reflexes

Newborn arrives with many behaviors intact Already prepared to face the world

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Newborn Cognitive Development

Likes sweet tasting foods first then adapt to salty items by 4 months

Starts learning new knowledge as tastes, grasps, plays etc

Parents may help this process

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How do we learn about Infants?

Two approaches

1. Observing the sucking behavior As babies face different stimuli their sucking behavior

changes

2. Habituation Decreased responsiveness towards a stimulus after it has

been presented numerous times in succession.

Does infant know mathematics?

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Figure 3.9

FIGURE 3.9 Infants display many of the same emotional expressions as adults do. Carroll Izard believes such expressions show that distinct emotions appear within the first months of life. Other theorists argue that specific emotions come into focus more gradually, as an infant’s nervous system matures. Either way, parents can expect to see a full range of basic emotions by the end of a baby’s first year.

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Childhood Development

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Figure 3.6

FIGURE 3.6 Motor development. Most infants follow an orderly pattern of motor development. Although the order in which children progress is similar, there are large individual differences in the ages at which each ability appears. The ages listed are averages for American children. It is not unusual for many of the skills to appear 1 or 2 months earlier than average or several months later (Frankenberg & Dodds, 1967; Harris & Liebert, 1991). Parents should not be alarmed if a child’s behavior differs some from the average.

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Language Acquisition

Cooing: Repetition of vowel sounds by infants (like “oo” and “ah”); starts at about 8 weeks

Babbling: Repetition of meaningless language sounds (e.g., babababa); starts at about 7 months

Single-Word Stage: The child says one word at a time

Telegraphic Speech: Two word sentences that communicate a single idea (e.g., Want yogurt)

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Cognitive Development during Childhood

Learns t o manipulate and control the environment and exposed to requirements of society E.g: Potty training after 2 years

Piaget worked on development stages of child Argued that children learn passively but also actively

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Cognitive Development during Childhood

Schemas: Patterns of knowledge in long term memory that help

remember, organize and respond to information

Types of Schemas Assimilation: use already developed schemas to learn new

things Accommodation : learning new information and changing the

schema

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Parenting Styles

Authoritarian Parents: Enforce rigid rules and demand strict obedience to authority. Children are obedient and self-controlled.

Overly Permissive: Give little guidance. Allow too much freedom, or don’t hold children accountable for their actions. Children tend to be dependent and immature and frequently misbehave.

Authoritative: Provide firm and consistent guidance combined with love and affection. Children tend to be competent, self-controlled, independent, and assertive.

Neglectful: Little guidance, excessive freedoms, limited to no accountability.

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Types of Child Discipline

Power Assertion: Using physical punishment or a show of force

Withdrawal of Love: Withholding affection; refusing to speak to a child or threatening to leave

Management Techniques: Combine praise, recognition, approval, rules, and reasoning to encourage desirable behavior

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Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development

Piaget believed that all children passed through a set series of stages during their intellectual development; like Freud, he was a Stage Theorist.

Transformations/ Conservation: Mentally changing the shape or form of a substance; children younger than 6 or 7 cannot do this.

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Jean Piaget: Sensorimotor Stage

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Years): it si defined by the direct physical interactions that babies have with the objects around them.

Babies learn from their primary senses i.e. five senses.

All sensory input and motor responses are coordinated; most intellectual development here is nonverbal. After 6 months child develops Oject Permanence Object Permanence: Concept that objects still

exist when they are out of sight.

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Jean Piaget: Preoperational Stage

Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years): Children begin to use language and think symbolically, BUT their thinking is still intuitive and egocentric. Experiments: toy behind the couch

Intuitive: Makes little use of reasoning and logic. Egocentric Thought: Thought that is unable to

accommodate viewpoints of others.

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Jean Piaget: Concrete Operational Stage

Concrete Operational Stage (7-11Years): Children become able to use concepts of time, space, volume, and number BUT in ways that remain simplified and concrete and a little abstract. Child develops conservation: Conservation: Mass, weight, and volume remain

unchanged when the shape or appearance of objects changes. E.g. glass of milk.

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Jean Piaget: Formal Operations

Formal Operations Stage (11 Years and Up): Thinking now includes abstract, theoretical, and hypothetical ideas. Abstract Ideas: Concepts and examples removed

from specific examples and concrete situations. Hypothetical Possibilities: Suppositions, guesses,

or projections.

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Social Development During Childhood

Childs social skills are as important as cognitive skills

Social Skills – the ability to understand, predict and create bonds with the other people in their environments.

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Social Skills: Knowing the Self

Development of Self-Concept: learning about won self existence.

Self-Concept: is important component of consciousness and is defined is a knowledge representation or schema that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, balues, goals and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals.

Experiments: Chimpanzees understand that they are looking themselves in mirror others not.

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Social Skills: Knowing the Self

At the age of 2 child is aware of gender, By age of 4, about physical features like color of hair By 6 years child understands basic emotions and

personality traits. Child also begins social comparisons i.e. making

comparisons with other children Child recognize own abilities in comparisons to others Become aware of social situations i.e. people are looking at

and judging them the same way they judge others.

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Social Skills: Attachment

Attachment: the emotional bonds that we develop with those whom we feel closest. Particularly bonds infants develop with mother or caregiver.

Babies need as secure base that allow them to feel safe.

Ainsworth conducted laboratory tests named as Strange Situation to understand children’s attachment behavior.

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Ainsworth’s four categories of children

Secure Attachment style: child explores freely withle mother is present and engages with the stranger. Feels upset when mother is away.

Ambivalent Attachment Style: in presence of stranger child clings to the mother. Feels distress when mother is away and confused when mother comes.

Avoidant Attachment Style: Child ignores the mother and run away when she approaches. Similarly will ignore the stranger

Disorganized Attachment Style: child has no consistent way. May cry when mother goes and avoid her when she comes.

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Influence on Attachment Style

Social Cultural Factors Innate personality characteristics of infant Mother’s response to child’s needs

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Adolescence Development

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Adolescence (12 to 20 years)

Adolescence: The yeas between the onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood

Develop more advanced patterns of reasoning and stronger sense of self and personal identities

Develop important attachments with people other than parents.

Can be stressful period as it involves new emotions, the social needs and increasing sense of responsibility and independence.

Many teenagers can break the law, however, will not develop criminal career.

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Physical Changes in Adolescence

Age for reaching puberty is between 9 and 14 for girls Between 10 and 17 for boys

Growth of pubic and under arm hair Growth of facial hair in boys usually between 14 and

16 years Early mature boys feel more confident than their

fellows and have more chance to involve antisocial activities

Early mature girls more likely to have emotional problems like lower self image, depression and anxiety.

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Cognitive Development in Adolescence

The cognitive development in Adolescence is slower than the development in childhood.

Adolescents make most decisions impulsively rather than thoughtfully. May be due to strong emotional development

They may engage in risky behavior like smoking, dangerous driving and breaking the social norms.

They develop new feeling of egocentricism Believe that they can do anything and they know better than

anyone else including parents.

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Cognitive Development in Adolescence

They become very self conscious and create Imaginary Audience Feel that everyone is noticing them As they think so much about themselves, they mistakenly

believe that other are also thing about them too What their parents do publically may feel embarrassing to

them

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Social Development in Adolescence

Development of self-concept Attachment moves from parents to friends Search for Unique Identity:

Ability to answer the question ‘Who I am’ or “What Should I be”

James Marica identified four types of approaches to identity development based on questions related to occupation, politics, religion and social behavior.

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James Marcia’s Stages of Identity Development

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James Marcia’s Stages of Identity Development

Some teens may simply adopt the beliefs of their parents or the first role that is offered to them. (Foreclosure Status)

Others may spend years trying on different possible identities (Moratorium status) may maintain one identity at home and a diferent type of

personality among friends. The social circle teen chooses for belonging allows him/her

to try different identities.

Some teenagers feel comfortable with different possibilities and accept that as the self concept (identity achievement status).

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Moral Development in Adolescence

The independence in adolescence requires independent thinking as well as development of morality.

Morality refers to standards of behavior that are generally agreed on within a culture to be right or proper.

As we move from childhood to adulthood our standards of right and wrong also change

Kohelberg argued tha tchildren learn their moral values through active thinking and reasoning and that he moral development follows as series of stages.

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Kohlberg’sStages of Moral Development

Preconventional: Moral thinking guided by consequences of actions (punishment, reward, exchange of favors)

Conventional: Reasoning based on a desire to please others or to follow accepted rules and values

Postconventional: Follows self-accepted moral principles

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Early and Middle Adulthood

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Early an Middle Adulthood

Physical, cognitive an emotional Reponses continue to develop throughout the life. Early Adulthood ( 25 to 45 years) Middle Adulthood (45 to 65 years)

Longest Period of in Life stages We make most of our contribution to society

We learn to give and receive care and love We develop interest in developing upcoming generations

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Physical and Cognitive Changes

During 30s and 40s physical abilities diminish Visual acuity may diminish and feel need for glasses Hearing loss High blood pressure can begin

Cognitive abilities also start diminish after 30s

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Social Changes

Ability to create effective and independent life Sequence of Major Life events happen known as Social Clock

Culturally preferred right time for major life events such as moving out of childhood home, marriage, parentage etc.

People who are married report greater life satisfaction than those how don’t marry (Liu & umberson, 2008)

Divorce is becoming common too in modern society as compared to 50 years ago.

Parenthood stage involves long-lasting commitment Time and Finances invested in children may create stress and

may result in decreased marital satisfaction.

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Late Adulthood

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Late Adulthood

Starts after 60s Aging process leads to faster changes in our

capabilities Value their connections with family and friends Memories of lives become more positive

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Cognitive Changes

Different in different people and do not necessarily interfere healthy life.

People who are best able to adjust well to changing situations better adjust in later life.

Perception matters: People with positive perception about oldage live healthy life

Memory loss in healthy older adults is not as common is as usually perceived.

Have more crystallized intelligence due to better knowledge of the world and language.

Outperform teens due to the Wisdom advantage

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Death, Dying and Bereavement

Ross describes five phases of grief people passes through when they get knowledge of dying: Denial: I feel fine Anger: Why me? Its not fair! Bargaining: Just let me live to see my children Depression: I am so sand, I am going to die Acceptance: I know my time has come

However, attitude towards death and dying is greatly different across cultures and religions.

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