The Study of Human Development Chapter 1 Outline Human Development An Ever Evolving Field Human Development scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life span Studying the Life Span Life span development human development as a life long process The Study of Human Development Basic Concepts Domains of Development Physical development Pattern of change in growth of the body and brain sensory capacities motor skills and health Cognitive development Pattern of change in learning attention memory language thinking reasoning and creativity Psychosocial development Pattern of change in emotions personality social relationships Physical cognitive and psychosocial developments are all interrelated one affects the other in a unified process Periods of the Life Span Prenatal period conception to birth Infancy and Toddlerhood Birth to age 3 Early Childhood Ages 3 to 6 Middle Childhood ages 6 to 11 Adolescence ages 11 till about 20 Emerging and young adulthood ages 20 to 40 Middle Adulthood Ages 40 to 65 Late Adulthood Age 65 and older Influences on Development Individual differences differences in characteristics influences and developmental outcomes that make the person unique Hereditary Environment and Maturation Hereditary inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents Environment totality of nonhereditary or experiential influences on development The world outside the self beginning in the womb and the learning that comes from experience Nature Heredity vs Nurture Environmental Scientists have proven these two concepts work together instead of against each other They each affect the individual by interacting Contexts of Development Human beings are social beings from the beginning For infants the immediate context is family but neighborhood community and society in turn influence this family Family Socioeconomic Status and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status SES Combination of economic and social factors describing an individual or family including income education and occupation 36 5 Million people in the US have incomes below poverty level When poverty is long lasting it affects physical cognitive and psychosocial well being of children and families Poor children have higher chances of having emotional and behavioral problems Poverty can impact children in indirect ways through parents emotional state and the home environment that they provide Risk Factors conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome Affluence does not always protect children from being at risk Composition of neighborhood also influences children Positive development may still occur despite serious risk factors The Historical Context The time in which people live Normative and Nonnormative Influences Understanding similarities and differences in development Normative influences biological or environmental characteristics of an event that affect many or most people in a society in a similar way Normative age graded influences highly similar for people in a particular age group Normative history graded influences are significant environmental events that shape the behavior and attitudes of an age cohort or a historical generation Nonnormative influences are unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives because they disturb the expected sequence of the life cycle Typical events that happen at atypical times The death of a parent when a child is young Atypical events Winning the lottery Timing of Influences Critical or Sensitive Periods Imprinting Instinctive form of learning in which during a critical period in early development a young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees usually the mother Critical periods specific time when a given event or its absence has a specific impact on development Example if a woman takes x rays or has some type of drug use during pregnancy Both may significantly affect the fetus depending on the nature of the shock and its timing Plasticity range of modifiability of performance Sensitive periods times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experience We may consider focusing on sensitive periods rather than critical periods Paul B Baltes s Life Span Developmental Approach Development is lifelong Development is multidimensional Development is multidirectional Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span Development involves changing resource allocations Development shows plasticity Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context Chapter 2 Theory and Research Chapter 2 Outline Basic Theoretical Issues Theory Coherent set of logically related concepts that seek to organize explain and predict data Hypotheses Possible explanations for phenomena used to predict the outcomes of research Way theorists explain development Active or reactive Continuous or discontinuous occurring in stages Issue 1 Development Active or Reactive We now know Children have internal drives and needs that influence development but we are also social animals that cannot develop optimally in isolation Mechanistic model model that views human development as a series of predictable responses to stimuli Seeks to identify the factors that make people behave as they do Possibly looking at environmental influences Organismic Model model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages We initiate events not just react Driving force for change is internal Environmental influences don t cause development but they can speed it up or slow it down Issue 2 Development Continuous or Discontinuous Quantitative change change in number or amount Continuous Unidirectional Ex Height weight size of vocabulary Qualitative change change in kind structure or organization Discontinuous Change from non verbal to verbal communication Theoretical Perspectives Perspective 1 Psychoanalytic Human development is shaped by unconscious forces Sigmund Freud s Psychosexual Theory Behavior is controlled by powerful unconscious urges Early childhood experiences permanently shape personality Id pleasure principle Ego reality principle superego moral principle Stage theory Oral stage birth to 12 18 months Anal stage 12 18 months to 3 years Phallic stage 3 to 6 years Latency stage 6 to puberty Genital stage puberty to adulthood Erik Erikson s Psychosocial Theory Ego development is
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