Fall, 2005

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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Visual Acuity is poor at birth

The Newborn

At 2 months

At 6 months

An Infants View of the Childs 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 mothers 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 infants nervous system matures. Either way, parents
can expect to see a full range of basic emotions by the end of a babys 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 childs 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 dont 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 childrens
attachment behavior.

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Ainsworths 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
Mothers response to childs 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 Marcias Stages of Identity

Development

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James Marcias 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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Kohlbergs
Stages 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 dont 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.