Human Development Notes
Introduction to Human Development
Human development refers to changes over time in a person’s body, thought, and behavior due to biological and environmental influences.
It focuses on common features of human development.
The lifespan is divided into developmental periods or stages shared by most people.
A developmental period is a discrete period during which predictable changes occur.
A chronological approach is organized by age.
Factors Affecting Development
Biological Factors: Genetic, neurological, or physical conditions.
Environmental Factors: Specific situations influencing behavior and development.
Sociocultural Context: Broad social and cultural influences.
Interaction of Developmental Forces
Human development results from interacting forces.
An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to fully understand these forces.
Forces include biological potentials, social and environmental factors, and individual responses.
Most development results from successive interactions between biology and experience (environmental and sociocultural).
Theorists used to debate whether development was solely a function of biology or experience.
Modern theorists debate the degree to which biology or experience influences characteristics/behavior.
Example: Intellectual potential is influenced by genetics, nutrition, home/school experiences, and values placed on academic performance.
Social Context
Context: The setting or situation in which development occurs.
Society: The larger group of individuals within which one lives.
Culture: Beliefs, practices, language, and norms of a society.
Cultural Influences
Collectivist Cultures: Group takes precedence over the individual; cooperation and group achievement are stressed; fosters interdependence.
Individualist Cultures: Competition predominates; personal achievement is valued more than group achievement; individual freedom and choice are emphasized.
Domains of Human Development
Physical: Changes in shape, size, sensory capabilities, motor skills.
Cognitive: Acquisition of skills in perceiving, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, language.
Personality: Acquisition of stable and enduring personality traits.
Sociocultural: Processes of socialization and enculturation.
Changes in each domain interact with each other.
Real people are “whole”.
Babies who stand see the world differently and may feel accomplished, affecting interactions with others.
Theoretical Frameworks
Theories are broad frameworks of understanding.
They are organized sets of ideas that help us understand, explain, and make predictions.
Major types include: Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Biological, and Cognitive theories.
Biological Views of Human Development
Focuses on genetics, developmental neuroscience, evolution, and natural selection.
Biologically determined processes and events exert important influences on development.
Genetics:
Studies biological instructions encoded in the human genome.
Researchers seek to understand how genes are arranged and how they operate to guide development.
Human Genome: The entire arrangement of all human genes, mapped by the Human Genome Project.
Mapping the human genome is a major scientific breakthrough, aiding understanding of diseases and cures and providing insight into biological mechanisms affecting human development.
Developmental Neuroscience:
Studies the development of brain structures and the relationship between brain structures & functions and behavior & development.
Includes the study of brain structures associated with memory and problem-solving, and the neurological basis of personality.
This area is rapidly growing.
Brain scanning techniques are used to understand the underlying brain mechanisms of different behaviors.
Example: "Shy" vs. "bold" children demonstrate different brain responses when shown familiar vs. unfamiliar faces.
Evolution:
Refers to the process through which species change across generations.
Evolutionary theory is traced to Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859/1958).
Natural Selection: Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, where better-adapted individuals survive to reproduce.
This transfers their genes to their offspring and future generations.
Explanations based on mechanisms of evolution are embraced by developmental psychologists.
Psychodynamic Approach
Emphasizes the role of the unconscious mind and interactions of psychic processes.
Sigmund Freud:
Proposed three processes (id, ego, superego) and five psychosexual stages.
Erik Erikson:
Developed psychosocial theory, emphasizing individual and social interactions.
People pass through eight stages.
Psychodynamic Approach: Originated by Freud, emphasizing unconscious processes and the importance of early childhood development.
Much of our behavior and awareness is influenced by the interplay of three intrapsychic (mental) processes: the id, ego, and superego.
Freud proposed that development proceeds through 5 psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
ORAL early infancy oral stimulation
ANAL toddler hood potty training parental environment apporoaches potty training hownchild progress through change
PHALLIC 4- 5 important to identify with the same sex parent. view as rival
LATENCY School age. Time for learning sexual energy is dormant.
GENITAL creating romantic partners and relationships starts at adolescence.
In each stage, the person’s sexual energies are channeled in different directions, and later development depends on how successfully the child moves through the stage.
A fixation may develop when a person experiences difficulty with development, which may result in a primitive behavior being carried into adulthood.
Freud believed that adult personality was heavily influenced by events that occurred in early childhood.
Although today’s reaction to Freud’s theory is typically to note its limitations, it is important to recognize that Freud’s ideas continue to shape our understanding of human development.
Instincts and Unconscious Motivation
Freud viewed the newborn as inherently selfish, driven by instincts (inborn biological forces that motivate behavior).
Believed in unconscious motivation.
Power of instincts to influence our behavior without our awareness
Id, Ego, and Superego
Id
Impulsive, irrational, and selfish part of the personality.
Ego
Rational side of the individual that tries to find realistic ways of gratifying the instincts.
Superego
Individual’s internalized moral standards.
Psychosexual Stages
Children move through five psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital.
Defense Mechanisms:
Devices the ego adopts unconscious coping to defend itself against anxiety that can arise as conflicts arise
Examples: Repression, regression
Age | Stage | Description |
|---|---|---|
Birth to 18 months | Oral | The infant experiences pleasure from stimulation of the mouth, lips, and oral activities, especially sucking. |
18 months to 3 years | Anal | The child's pleasure focuses on the anus and the elimination functions. |
3 years to 6 years | Phallic | The child's pleasure focuses on the genitals, especially through masturbation. |
6 years to 12 years | Latency | The child represses sexual interests and instead focuses on developing cognitive and interpersonal skills. |
12 years and up | Genital | Adolescence triggers the reemergence of sexual impulses, with gratification dependent on finding a partner. |
Psychosocial Theory
Psychosocial Theory: Erikson’s view that social interactions with others shape the development of personality.
The theory is neo-Freudian. Still believe in early development influences on behavior. however, far less emphasis on the psycho sexual stages.
The core concept of this theory is ego identity, which is a basic sense of who we are as individuals.
The theory differs from Freud’s in that it emphasizes conscious forces and includes stages throughout the lifespan.
Age | Stage | Description |
|---|---|---|
Birth to 12 months | Trust versus mistrust | Infants learn about the basic trustworthiness of their environment from their caregivers. If their needs are consistently met and if they receive attention and affection, they form a global impression of the world as a safe place. However, if their world is inconsistent, painful, stressful, and threatening, they learn to expect more of the same and come to believe that life is unpredictable and untrustworthy. |
12 months to 3 years | Autonomy versus shame and doubt | Toddlers discover their own body and how to control it. They explore feeding and dressing, toilet training, and new ways of moving about. When they begin to succeed in doing things for themselves, they gain a sense of self-confidence and self-control. However, if they continually fail and are punished or labeled as messy, sloppy, inadequate, or bad, they learn to feel shame and self-doubt. |
3 years to 6 years | Initiative versus guilt | Children explore the world beyond themselves. They discover how the world works and how they can affect it. Their world consists of both real and imaginary people and things. If their explorations and activities are generally effective, they learn to deal with people and events in a constructive way and gain a sense of initiative. However, if they are severely criticized or frequently punished, they instead learn to feel guilty for many of their own actions. |
6 years to 12 years | Industry versus inferiority | Children develop numerous skills and competencies in school, at home, and in the outside world. A sense of self is enriched by the realistic development of such competencies. Comparison with peers is increasingly significant. A negative evaluation of self as inferior compared to others is especially disruptive at this time. |
12 years to 18 years or older | Ego identity versus ego diffusion | Before adolescence, children begin to learn a number of different roles: student, friend, older sibling, athlete, musician, and so forth. During adolescence, it becomes important to sort out and integrate those roles into a single, consistent identity. Adolescents seek basic values and attitudes that cut across their various roles. If they fail to form a central identity or if they cannot resolve a major conflict between two major roles with opposing value systems, the result is what Erikson called ego diffusion. |
18 years or older to 40 years | Intimacy versus isolation | In late adolescence and young adulthood, the central developmental conflict is intimacy versus isolation. Intimacy involves more than sexual intimacy. It is the ability for an individual to share oneself with another person of either sex without fear of losing personal identity. Success in establishing intimacy is affected by the extent to which the five earlier conflicts have been resolved. |
40 years to 65 years | Generativity versus self-absorption | In adulthood, after the earlier conflicts have been partly resolved, men and women are free to direct their attention more fully to the assistance of others. Often parents take satisfaction from helping their children. Individuals also can direct their energies associated with generativity to the solution of social issues. Failure to resolve earlier conflicts often leads to a preoccupation with self in terms of health, psychological needs, comfort, and so forth--a result referred to as self-absorption. |
65 years and older | Integrity versus despair | In the last stages of life, it is typical for individuals to look back on their lives and to judge themselves. If people find that they are satisfied that their lives have had meaning and involvement, the result is a sense of integrity. However, if their lives seem to have consisted of a series of misdirected efforts and lost chances, the outcome is a sense of despair. |
Behavioral Views
Highlight processes that produce observable behavior.
Pavlov/Watson: Classical Conditioning: biologically-based responses to the environment.
B.F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning: how rewards and punishment influence our behavior.
Albert Bandura: Social Learning Theory: what we learn from observing others.
Learning Theorist | Type of Learning | What It Involves | What Is Learned |
|---|---|---|---|
John Watson | Classical conditioning | A stimulus comes to elicit a response through its association with an unconditioned stimulus. | Emotional reactions (e.g., pleasant associations, phobias) |
B. F. Skinner | Operant conditioning | Learning involves reacting to the consequences of one's behavior (reinforcement and punishment). | Skills; good and bad habits |
Albert Bandura | Observational learning | Learning involves watching a model and, through vicarious reinforcement or punishment, the consequences of the model's behavior. | Skills, cognitions, and behaviors, including ones that the learner has not been directly reinforced for displaying |
Cognitive Views
Key processes underlie the development of thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Jean Piaget:
Posited processes of assimilation, accommodation, and schemes, or frameworks of knowledge.
Lev Vygotsky:
Emphasized the importance of learning from other people.
Cognitive Developmental Theory
Cognitive Developmental Theory: Focuses on the development of thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
Piaget noticed that children’s thought is qualitatively different from that of adults. He identified 4 stages that represent these qualitative differences in thinking.
Schemes (or schemas): Piaget’s term for mental structures that process information, perception, and experiences; the schemes of individuals change as they grow.
Assimilation: In Piaget’s theory, the process of incorporating new information into existing schemes.
Accommodation: Piaget’s term for the process that requires schemes to change when a new object or event does not fit.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor: Birth to 2 years
Milestones: looking, grasping, mouthing, reflexes to voluntary behaviors
Preoperational: 2 years to 7 years
Milestones: language, daily experiences
Concrete operational: 7 years to 11 or 12 years
Milestones: logical thinking
Formal operational: 11 or 12 years and up
Milestones: logic regarding both concrete and abstract
Integrative Approaches
Broader focus on all contexts in which humans develop are involved.
Lev Vygotsky:
Proposed cognitive development is “apprenticeships”.
Argued learning is transmitted through shared meanings of objects and events.
Emphasized the role of experts or more skilled others in guided participation.
Cognitive Developmental Theory (Vygotsky)
Emphasized the social context in which a large share of children’s cognitive development takes place.
Guided Participation: Vygotsky’s concept that people develop understanding and expertise mainly through apprenticeship with more knowledgeable learners.
Integrative Approaches
Broader focus on all contexts in which humans develop is central.
Urie Bronfenbrenner:
Developed the bioecological model that emphasizes the interaction between the individual and family and societal forces.
Systems approach.
Integrates biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and ecological perspectives.
Bioecological Model
Each person’s development is influenced by a broad set of biological and environmental factors that continually interact as development unfolds across time.
Influences of family and culture are especially important.
Scientific Approach to Studying Human Development
Uses specific techniques and ethical guidelines to study human behavior.
Methods include Descriptive, Longitudinal Studies, Correlational research, and Experiments.
Descriptive Methods
Case Studies:
Compilation of detailed information on an individual, family, or community through interviews, observations, and formal testing.
Baby biography: recording mini milestones of child development.
Case studies are the preferred approach to studying rare conditions or events.
Disadvantages mean they are not commonly used in developmental research.
Systematic observation:
Naturalistic Observation: Researchers go into everyday settings and observe and record behavior while being as unobtrusive as possible.
Laboratory Observation: Researchers set up controlled situations designed to elicit the behavior of interest.
Descriptive Methods (cont.)
Questionnaire
Paper and pencil method that asks respondents to answer questions
Survey
Questionnaire administered to a large group
Interview
Questionnaire that is administered verbally, usually in a one on one setting
Descriptive Methods (cont. 2)
Psychological tests
Often involve measurement of intelligence or personality traits
Must be carefully constructed and administered so that accurate results are obtained
Studying Development Across Time
Longitudinal design
Same participants are studied at various points in time to see how they change with age
Cross-sectional design
Compares individuals of different ages at one point in time
Confounding: Cohort effects
Sequential cohort design
Several overlapping cohorts of different ages are studied longitudinally
Developmental Research Designs Compared
Cross-sectional design
Longitudinal design
Correlational Research
Correlation
Research technique that describes the relationship between two variables
Correlation coefficient
Research technique that describes relationship, or correspondence, between two variables
Causation
Correlation tells us nothing about causation
Experimental Research
Study of Cause and Effect
Focusing on Groups
Includes: Random assignment, Independent variable, and Dependent variable
Representative Sampling
Selecting a sample from a larger population so that the sample represents or mirrors the population in every important way
Experimental Research (cont.)
Random Assignment: Placing participants in groups with the hope that the groups will be roughly equivalent.
Each group is exposed to a different condition.
Independent Variable: The variable in an experiment that is manipulated in order to observe its effects on the dependent variable.
Dependent Variable: The variable in an experiment that changes as a result of manipulating the independent variable.
Quasi-Experimental Method: A research method, much like an experiment, which is used when an experiment is not possible, typically when random assignment to groups is not practical.
Replication: Systematic repetitions of an experiment to determine if the findings are valid and if they can be generalized.
Ethics in Developmental Research
Organizational ethical guidelines
Organizations: American Psychological Association (APA) and Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
Recommendations and laws
Ethical guidelines are not merely recommendations; they are backed up by law
Ethical Research with Human Participants
Moral Foundations
IRBs
Protection from Harm
Informed Consent
Privacy and Confidentiality
Knowledge of Results
Beneficial Treatments