The Study of Human DevelopmentChapter 1 OutlineHuman Development: An Ever-Evolving Field- Human Development: scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life spanStudying the Life Span- Life-span development: human development as a life long processThe Study of Human Development: Basic ConceptsDomains of DevelopmentPhysical development: Pattern of change in growth of the body and brain, sensory capacities, motor skills, and healthCognitive development: Pattern of change in learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativityPsychosocial 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 SpanPrenatal 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.FamilySocioeconomic Status and NeighborhoodSocioeconomic 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 riskComposition of neighborhood also influences childrenPositive development may still occur despite serious risk factors.The Historical ContextThe time in which people liveNormative and Nonnormative InfluencesUnderstanding similarities and differences in developmentNormative 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 timesThe death of a parent when a child is youngAtypical eventsWinning the lotteryTiming of Influences: Critical or Sensitive PeriodsImprinting: 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 performanceSensitive 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 ApproachDevelopment 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 2Theory and ResearchChapter 2 OutlineBasic 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 reactiveContinuous 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 internalEnvironmental 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 amountContinuousUnidirectionalEx. Height, weight, size of vocabulary.-Qualitative change: change in kind, structure, or organizationDiscontinuousChange from non verbal to verbal communicationTheoretical PerspectivesPerspective 1: Psychoanalytic-Human development is shaped by unconscious forces.-Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual TheoryBehavior is controlled by powerful unconscious urges.Early childhood experiences permanently shape personalityId: 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),
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