Human Development in the social context key info

What is human development?

Human development is a combination of:

• Life as it progresses through time

• How we make meaning about life as it progresses in time

• How we adapt to the environment of our life

• The effects of our society as we increasingly interact with it

• The effects of our culture, and that of others as we are exposed to more socialisation agents

What are the 3 broad domains of human development?

1. Cognitive

2. Physical

3. Psychosocial

What are 2 key factors in our world which influence the nurture side of our human development?

1. Culture

2. Society

What is a risk factor. Give an example too.

An aspect of a persons nature or nurture that might make it harder for them to function. E.g. a person who had a disposition where they are angrier then usual may find it hard to develop social skills and networks.

What is a protective factor? Give an example too.

An aspect of a persons nature or nurture that might make it easier for them to function. For example, a person who is born into a family whose parents are able to provide them with an enriched environment will have a more positive development

What are 8 key areas of the UN’s SDG’s that align with human development?

1. Healthcare

2. Food

3. Water

4. Poverty

5. Education

6. Working conditions

7. Inequality

8. Responsible use of resources

What 2 parts is the multidimensional approach made up of?

1. Inner world

2. Outer world

What makes up the inner world in MDA?

1. Biological experiences

2. Psychological experiences

3. Spiritual experiences

What makes up the outer world in MDA?

1. relational dimensions

2. social dimensions

3. structural dimensions

4. cultural dimensions

What are the 5 underlying principles of a MDA?

1. Our inner world is multidimensional (is influenced by multiple domains)

2. Our outer world is multidimensional

3. Time and place are multidimensional

4. Adaptation and coping as a result of negative experiences are multidimensional

5. Because of this, when we theorise human development and come up with human service responses, we should do so in a multidimensional way

What makes up our biological experiences in MDA?

Anything related to our bodily functioning, including genetics of course

What make sup our psychological experiences in MDA?

1. Cognitive capacity - capacity to think, use our memory’s, evaluate ourselves and others etc

2. Life interpretation - Optimistic or Pessimistic

3. Emotions - how, how we feel interacts with what we think to form our perceptions of agency and control over situations

What makes up our spiritual experiences in MDA?

What gives us meaning in life and how we make meaning out of things. Not necessarily religious institutions, but can be religious beliefs.

What makes up our relational dimensions in MDA?

This is the micro - the people around us who we have everyday interactions with (not necessarily every day, but part of everyday life)

What makes up our social dimensions in MDA?

This is the meso - things that we don’t have everyday interactions with, or, how our relational dimensions interact

What makes up our structural dimensions in MDA?

This is the exo - the systems that affect us, but which we don’t necessarily have personal contact with

What makes up our cultural dimensions in MDA?

This is the macro - the culture and societal influences of both ourselves, and those around us.

What is the underlying philosophy of Piaget?

• That adaption to the environment is essential for survival

• That we constantly do this by interacting with it

• That this process of interaction and adaption is biologically infused within us and automatic.

• The 2 ways we do this are assimilation and adaptation

What are the 2 ways Piaget said we could adapt to our environment and what do they mean?

1. Assimilation - we add new information into a pre-existing schema if it will fit consistently with the other info in the schema

2. Adaptation - we change our schema to allow for new information which isn’t consistent with the other info already in their to be incorporated

What are the 4 stages (and their associated ages) of development Piaget proposes everyone goes through?

1. Sensorimotor - 0-2

2. Pre-operational - 2-6

3. Concrete operational - 7-12

4. Formal operational - 12 - adult

What does the sensorimotor stage involve?

1. Starting to interact with new environments and the world

2. Separation anxiety

3. Object permanence

What does the pre-operational stage involve?

1. Learning to use symbols but not able to logically apply them yet

2. Able to pretend

3. Egotistical (unable to really think of others perspectives)

What does the concrete operational stage involve?

1. Able to apply logic to objects

2. Able to apply logic to understand conservation (the glass test)

What does the formal operational stage involve?

1. Capable of abstract thinking

2. Capable of moral reasoning

What is the underlying philosophy of Vygotsky?

• Sees the environment as essential to our development and learning

• Sees learning as happening based on the people around us in our environment

• Therefore, uses a constructivist approach to say that our knowledge and perceptions are based off the learning from the people around us

• Uses the principle of ZPD to say that learning is a stepped phenomenon, and if something is too hard we can’t learn it

What is Vygotsky’s principle of ZPD?

• There is a space which exists (a gap) between what we can do and what we can’t do, what we know and what we don’t

• Within that gap, there is a section that we can learn or do with help, and a section outside which is completely beyond our capabilities

• We can use a more knowledgeable other (MKO) to help us to learn or do, things within the section of the gap which we can learn with help

What is the M in the MDI framework?

Bio-material - biological influences on us

Social material - the influence of social structures, networks, society, culture, etc on us

What is the D in the MDI framework?

Discursive - the way different dominant ideas and narratives around things constructs the way things are seen

This includes an individual persons discourse, that of their family, and the many different discourses within society

What is the I in the MDI framework?

Intrapsychic - The sense of self that we have (our subjectivity)