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Human Development: An Ever-Evolving Field

• Human beings undergo continuous change from conception to death, following a blueprint determined by evolution.
• Human development focuses on systematically studying these change and stability processes.
• Developmental scientists study changes from conception through maturity and consistent characteristics.

Impact of Developmental Research

• Developmentalists' research has practical implications for child rearing, education, health, and social policy.
• Research on delayed school start times has shown improved student results in sleep, mood, and driving safety.
• These outcomes correlate with adolescent circadian rhythms.

Life-Span Development

• Researchers initially concentrated on infant and child development and later recognized development occurs throughout life, from "womb to tomb."
• Development spans the entire human existence and can manifest positively or negatively.
• Events such as timing of parenthood, maternal employment, and martial contentment now factor in developmental psychology.

Goals of Human Development Study

• Description, explanation, prediction, and intervention are now the goals.
• Description includes milestones, such as vocabulary size at a certain age.
• Explanation involves how kids learn speech and possible speech problems.
• Prediction example is the likelihood of speech issues.
• Intervention can involve speech therapy.
• Human development studies have been interdisciplinary from the start as the field requires diverse theoretical and research perspectives.
• Disciplines include psychology, psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, biology, genetics, family science, education, history, and medicine.

Basic Concepts in the Study of Human Development

• Developmentalists analyze change and stability in all aspects, or domains, of development across the life span.

Domains of Development

• The primary domains are physical, cognitive, and psychosocial.
• Physical development includes growth, brain development, sensory capacities, and motor skills.
• Cognitive development includes learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and invention.
• Psychosocial development includes emotions, personality, and social relationships.

Domain Interrelation

• While the domains are often discussed separately, they are intricately interconnected, as reverberations in one domain usually affect other domains.
• For example, a child who develops ear infections could take longer to learn language.

Periods of Life Span

• Dividing the life span includes social construction or concepts/practices, which can differ among societies.
• Childhood understandings vary across cultures.
• Adolescence is also socially constructed as it emerged as society industrialized.
• This book outlines eight periods (prenatal, infancy & toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, emerging & young adulthood, middle adulthood, and later adulthood as commonly accepted terms).

Individual Differences in Human Development

• Although general developmental stages exist there are individual differences.
• Developmentalists believe certain basic needs must be met and tasks should be mastered in every period.
• Each period has particular concerns including developing autonomy, searching for identity, decline in capabilities, and dealing with loss.

Major Influences on Development

• Development is both universal and individual so processes are studied in all typical or normal human beings.

Heredity, Environment, and Maturation

• Some internal and hereditary influences consist of traits from parents as they biologically contribute to inborn traits.
• Other influences are environmental.
• Nature (hereditary or biology) vs. nurture (environmental) influence debates continue as nature and nurture work together to impact intelligence.

Maturation and Averages

• Walking and talking tie to maturation of the body and brain for typical changes from a natural sequence.
• As you age, innate characteristics and experience play more important roles in life.
• Although processes exist for all people undergoing development, rates and timing vary and averages are merely averages.

Contexts of Development

• Humans are seen as social and from birth form development in a social and historical context.

Family Context

• Nuclear families including one or two parents and children are most common in Western societies.
• Because of economic pressures, multi generation households are on the rise as men and women marry later.
• These households are becoming more common because men and women are marrying later and immigrants might also seek multi generation households.
• However, poverty is a problem worldwide as the majority of the global poor live in rural areas, work in agriculture, and are poorly educated.

Socioeconomic Status

• Poverty also affects children's families and is stressful while it can damage their physical, cognitive, and social-emotional well-being.

Culture and Ethnicity

• Culture is a way of life with customs, traditions, and beliefs which transmits among social groups while it is constantly changing.

Social Constructs

• Certain practices can appear natural but are a certain culture's inventions.
• There are regional soft drink names.

Ethnic Groups

• People are united by ancestry, race, religion, language, or national origins offering shared identity.
• By 2044, ethnic minorities in the United States are expected to become the majority and patterns affect development.

Ethnic Origins

• Origins shifted from Europe/Canada to Asia/Latin America with >20 percent of the population as immigrants/children of.
• Majority immigrate from Mexico. Diversity exists in these groups as well and cultural ties play a role in race concepts.

Individual Differences

• Despite dealing with characteristics events/issues, certain base needs must be met for development.
• Adolescents deal with maturity and prepare to leave the familial home. Then comes full fulfillment of tasks, physical capability decline leading to contemplation.