Human Development, Concepts and Approaches

Human Development

  • is the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through lifespan.

  • includes growth and decline

  • development can be positive and negative

Major Principles of Growth and Development

Principle 1: Development is Relatively Orderly

Proximodistal Pattern

  • muscular growth of the trunk and the arms comes earlier compared to hands and fingers

  • is where growth starts at the center of the body and moves towards the extremities

Cephalocaudal Pattern

  • during infancy, the greatest growth always occurs at the top- the head with physical growth in size, weight, and future differentiation

Principle 2: While the pattern of development is likely to be similar, the outcome of the development process and the rate of development are likely to vary among individuals

Principle 3: Development takes place gradually

Principle 4: Development as a process is complex because it is the product of biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes

Biological

  • changes in the individual’s physical nature

Cognitive

  • changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

Socio-emotional

  • changes in the individual’s relationship with other people

  • changes un emotions, and changes in personality

Approaches to Human Development

Traditional Human Development

  • extensive changes from birth to adolescence, little or no change in adulthood, and decline in late old age.

Life-span Human Development

  • occurs all throughout the life-span of an individual

Characteristics of Life-span Development

Development is Life-long

  • it does not end by adulthood and no development stage dominates the development

Development is Multi-dimensional

  • consists of biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions

Development is Plastic

  • plasticity refers to the potential for change

Development is Contextual

  • the paradigm of contextualism

  • refers to the idea that three systems of biological and environmental influences work together to influence development

Development involves Growth, Maintenance, and Regulation

  • growth starts early on in life from infancy to adulthood

  • maintenance and regulation follows after that around middle and late adulthood as individual’s capacities take center stage