Physical Self

Physical Self

• Refers to the body that includes basic parts such as head, neck, arms, and legs.
• Made up of other organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and muscles.
• In general, the body performs its functions least well during infancy and old age.
• Physical efficiency generally peaks in early adulthood and declines into middle age.
• Physical development and growth during childhood continue at a slow rate compared with rapid rate of growth in babyhood.
• One of the most crucial stages of development is the adolescence stage, which begins with the onset of puberty and is characterized by rapid physical changes.

Life Span

• Elizabeth B. Hurlock outlined the stages of life span or development from conception to death.
• She divided the stages into 10 parts:
  • Prenatal: Fertilization to birth
  • Infancy: Birth to 2 weeks of life
  • Babyhood: 2 weeks of life to 2nd year
  • Early childhood: 2 to 6 years old
  • Late childhood: 6 to 10 or 12 years old
  • Puberty: 10 or 12 to 14 years old
  • Adolescence: 14 to 18 years old
  • Early adulthood: 18 to 40 years old
  • Middle adulthood: 40 to 60 years old
  • Late adulthood: 60 to death

Factors Affecting Physical Growth

• Human Nature (Nature) vs. Nurture:
  • Nature: Socio-biologists, psychologists, and others in the natural sciences argue that behavior traits can be explained by genetics.
  • Nurture: Sociologists, anthropologists, and others in the social sciences argue that human behavior is learned and shaped through interaction.

Heredity

• The biological process of transmission of traits from parents to offspring.
• The sex and other physical traits are determined by the combination of chromosomes and genes during fertilization.

Chromosomes

• Thread-like tissue that carries genes, and are usually found in pairs.
• A human typically has 23 pairs of chromosomes.
• 2 types:
  • Autosome or trait chromosomes (22 pairs)
  • Gonosome or sex chromosomes (the X and Y)

Genes

• Basic carriers of hereditary traits.
• Can be classified into:
  • Recessive (weak genes): The trait not expressed when the dominant form of the trait is present.
  • Dominant (strong genes): The expressed form of the trait when present (even if it's just 1 allele)

Environment

• Refers to the factors to which the individual is exposed after conception to death, which includes learning and experience.
• Factors such as diet, nutrition, and diseases play an important role in physical development.