Human Development Overview

Human Development

• Human development is the scientific study of how people change and remain consistent throughout their lives.
• This includes growth, learning, and adaptation across the lifespan.
• Life-span development encompasses a lifelong process of growth, change, and stability, studied across all stages.
• The life-span perspective views development as lifelong, multidimensional (across areas), multidirectional (changing in various ways), plastic (flexible), multidisciplinary (involving many fields), and contextual (influenced by society, family, and culture). It also involves maintaining and regaining abilities.

Domains of Development

• Physical development encompasses physical changes, sensory abilities, motor skills, and overall health.
• Cognitive development focuses on learning, attention, memory, language, reasoning, creativity, and abstract thought.
• Psychosocial development involves changes in emotions, personality, and social relationships.

Important Issues in Development

• Social Construction: Concepts shaped by society, not necessarily biological. Examples include the concept of a specific age like "teenager."
• Stability-Change Issue: Focuses on whether traits established early in life remain or shift throughout life.
• Continuity-Discontinuity Issue: Considers whether development occurs gradually or in distinct stages.

Growth, Maturation, and Development

• Growth refers to measurable physical changes.
• Maturation is the natural biological unfolding of physical and behavioral patterns.
• Development includes functional changes across physical, mental, and social areas.
• Learning is adapting to the environment through experiences.

Genetics and Heredity

• Behavioral Genetics examines the influence of genetics and environment on traits.
• Heritability measures the proportion of a trait's variation attributable to genes.
• Gregor Mendel studied heredity in plants, foundational to genetic understanding.
• Selective Breeding tests trait inheritance in animals.
• Concordance Rate shows trait similarity in pairs (e.g., twins).
• Reaction Range illustrates the range of potential trait outcomes based on environment.
• Canalized Range depicts traits with limited potential for environmental influence.
• Epigenetics explains how environmental factors influence gene expression.
• Gene-Environment Interaction highlights the combined impact of genes and environment on traits.

Contributions to Emotional Differences

• Genes, Shared Environmental Influences, and Non-shared Environmental Influences contribute to individual emotional variations.

Gene-Environment Correlations

• Passive: Parents create environment influenced by their genes, impacting children.
• Evocative: A child's traits evoke reactions from others.
• Active: A child's traits lead them to select specific environments.

Context of Development

• Heredity encompasses traits inherited from parents.
• Environment encompasses external factors influencing development.
• Individual Differences highlights variations in traits among individuals.

Family Structures

• Nuclear Family: Two parents and their children.
• Extended Family: Includes additional relatives.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

• SES (income, education, occupation) impacts development resources and opportunities.

Cultural Influences

• Culture refers to shared beliefs, customs, and values, influencing development.
• Ethnic Gloss oversimplifies and categorizes groups inadequately.
• Race is socially constructed, not purely biological.
• Gender encompasses social, cultural, and psychological traits related to biological sex, though these norms are evolving.
• History affects development through societal events.

Normative Influences

• Normative Influences: Generally similar impacts on most individuals.
• Normative Age-Graded Influences: Influences linked to specific ages across people, e.g., walking.
• Normative History-Graded Influencers: Societal influences during a specific historical timeframe, affecting specific generations.
• Historical Generation: Group that experiences significant historical events during formative ages.
• Age Cohort: Group born around the same time, experiencing similar societal influences.

Nonnormative Influences

• Nonnormative Influences: Unusual events impacting individual development, e.g., divorce.

Imprinting, Critical and Sensitive Periods

• Imprinting: Learning specific types of responses in critical periods early in life.
• Critical Period: Specific time when an event significantly affects development.
• Sensitive Period: Period of particular responsiveness to specific environmental influences.

Plasticity

• Plasticity: the brain's ability to adapt and change based on experiences.

Theories and Models of Development

• Theory: Related concepts explaining and predicting development.
• Hypothesis: Testable prediction.
• John Locke – Tabula Rasa: Children are born as blank slates, shaped by experience.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Noble Savages: Children are innately good, developing naturally if nurtured.
• Mechanistic Model: Development is a result of environmental stimuli (child reaction).
• Organismic Model: Development is a self-active process (child initiative).

Types of Development

• Continuous Development: Gradual, cumulative changes.
• Discontinuous Development: Distinct phases with different behaviors.
• Quantitative Change: Measurable change in amount (e.g., height).
• Qualitative Change: Change in type or kind (e.g., abstract thinking).
• Evolutionary Psychology: Development shaped by adaptation and survival.
• Nativist Perspective: Emphasizes innate abilities.
• Empiricist Perspective: Development is shaped by experiences.
• Noam Chomsky – Universal Grammar: Humans are biologically predisposed to learn language.