Human Development and Heredity

Human Development

• Focuses on the scientific study of systematic processes of change and stability in people
• Lifespan development is a lifelong process, studied scientifically
• Development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual
• Involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss

Learning

• How a person adapts to the environment
• Behavioral Genetics studies the extent to which genetic and environmental differences affect behaviour

Heredity

• Heritability: percentage of trait variability linked to genetic differences
• Gregor Mendel studied heredity in plants
• Selective Breeding attempts to breed animals for a specific trait to determine heritability
• Genes influence characteristics like activity level, emotionality, aggressiveness, and sex drive

Adoption, Twin, and Family Studies

• Adoption Studies: research on traits in adopted children
• Twin Studies: research on concordance rates among twins (matching traits)
• Family Studies: research on traits in family members

Gene-Environment Interaction

• Genes turn on and off in patterned ways throughout the lifespan (Epigenetics)
• Gene-Environment Interaction: the effects of genes are dependent on environment
• Heritability influences intelligence alongside parental, peer and educational influences

Environmental Influences

• Normative Age-Graded Influences: events that affect most people at the same age
• Normative History-Graded Influences events that impact most people of a particular generation (specific time of life)

General Principles

• Beneficence and Nonmaleficence: take care to do no harm, minimize harm
• Fidelity and Responsibility: establish trustworthy relationships, uphold professional standards of conduct
• Integrity: promote honesty, accuracy, and truthfulness
• Justice: fairness and justice to all people in relation to access and benefits of psychology

Research Methods

• Case Study: study of a particular individual or group. Useful in rare cases and can give in-depth information
• Ethnographic Study: describes a pattern of culture and society's way of life
• Correlational Study: find relationships between variables, no cause/effect
• Experiment: controlled setting to study cause and effect
• Quasi-Experiment: a natural experiment, compares two groups based on circumstances of life
• Cross-Sectional Study: data collected at one time, with different age groups
• Longitudinal Study: same group studied at different points in time

Developmental Theories

• Psychosexual Theory: Freud's theory about how personality develops in stages, based on the stages of sexual gratification

• Psychosexual Stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital

• Defense Mechanisms: unconscious strategies that the ego uses to reduce anxiety

• Repression: pushing unpleasant thoughts or feelings into an unconscious part of the mind.

• Oedipus Complex: attraction to the mother; fear of punishment by the father

• Electra Complex: attraction to the father; fear of punishment by the mother

• Identification process of taking traits of the same-sex parent

• Psychosocial Theory: Erikson's theory about how the development of personality through life stages, based on crises

• Trust vs Mistrust (Infant)

• Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt (Toddler)

• Initiative vs Guilt (Early childhood)

• Industry vs Inferiority (Middle and Late Childhood)

• Identity vs Role Confusion (Adolescence)

• Intimacy vs Isolation (Young adulthood)

• Generativity vs Stagnation (Middle adulthood)

• Ego Integrity vs Despair (Late Adulthood)

• Cognitive Development: Piaget’s theory of development and reasoning in stages, from sensorimotor to formal operational.

• Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years)

• Preoperational (2 - 7 years)

• Concrete Operational (7 - 11 years)

• Formal Operational (11 years onwards)

• Sociocultural Theory: Vygotsky's theory about how social interaction and culture contribute to development and learning

• Zone of Proximal Development: gap between what a child can do alone and with support, to help guide learning

Moral Development

• Preconventional Morality: obedience and punishment, self-interest
• Conventional Morality: interpersonal relationships, social order
• Postconventional Morality: social contract, universal principles

Ecological Model

• Microsystem: immediate surroundings (family, school, peers)
• Mesosystem: connections between microsystems (home-school, parents-peers)
• Exosystem: external structures influencing the child (school policy, neighbour)
• Macrosystem: culture background (policies, political situations)
• Chronosystem: changes occurring over time (historical, social)

Attachment Theory

• Attachment Theory: attachment, a close emotional bond between a child and primary caregiver, impacts social development
• Secure Attachment: child comfortable and confident with caregiver leaving the room
• Insecure-Avoidant Attachment: child avoids closeness to caregiver
• Insecure-Ambivalent Attachment: child alternates between closeness and distancing behaviours
• Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment: contradictory, mixed behaviours
• Attachment styles influence adult relationships and emotional maturity

Cognitive Development

• Assimilation: fitting new information into existing schemas
• Accommodation: adjusting schemas to fit new information
• Sensorimotor: experiencing the world through senses and actions
• Preoperational: symbolic thought, but illogical reasoning
• Concrete operational: logical reasoning about concrete events
• Formal operational: abstract and hypothetical reasoning

Explore the scientific study of human development across the lifespan and the influence of genetics on behavior. This quiz covers concepts such as growth, heredity, and the impact of environmental factors on adaptation. Test your understanding of key principles and research methods in development psychology.