Human Growth and Development REVIEWER

HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT -Social workers work with people at all stages of life -Human Growth and Development provides a knowledge base about human development from conception to death. *-Growth and development are complementary processes*. Growth indicates the quantitative changes in the bod...

HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT -Social workers work with people at all stages of life -Human Growth and Development provides a knowledge base about human development from conception to death. *-Growth and development are complementary processes*. Growth indicates the quantitative changes in the body, that is height and weight, while development refers to both the qualitative and quantitative changes PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 1\. All growth and development follow an orderly sequence. A child can sit only when the muscle of the back are ready to support the body. 2\. Each child normally passes through a number of stages, each with its own essential characteristics. 3\. There are individual differences in development. Every child grows at his own pace. You know that children start walking by the time they are one year old but you may have also noticed that some are early and others are late. 4\. Though the human being develops as a unified whole, each part of the body develops at different rates. Basically there are two sequences in the rate of development.  a. Cephalocaudal i.e. development proceeds from head to toe. The head and brain develops first, then the torso, the neck etc. b. Proximodistal i.e. development proceeds from center to extremeties. The child first gains control over the spine, then arms, then fingers. 5\. Development is essentially the result of the interaction between maturation and learning. While maturation is the 'unfolding of characteristics potentially present in the individual's genetic endowment', learning refers to the \"relatively\" enduring changes that come about as a result of practice and experience. Genetic endowment characteristics inherited from the parents by the offspring. FACTORS AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT 1\. Heredity - It is the process by which the features and characteristics are passed from parents to the child before the child is born. Thus features like the colour of the skin and eyes, the height, body build, intellect and talents, etc., are all fixed and no one can change them beyond a limit. 2\. Prenatal environment - This is the environment of the fetus in the womb. If the mother gets poor nutrition, is emotionally upset or smokes, drinks, or takes some medicine or suffers from certain diseases, the growth of the child can be adversely affected. 3\. Nutrition - Proper nutrition is essential for the healthy development of the child. A malnourished child's growth may be retarded or slow. 4\. Intelligence - Higher intelligence is associated with faster development while lower intelligence is associated with retardation in various aspects of development. 5.Emotional climate of home - If there is a lot of discord/fights at home or the child is not given enough love and attention or there is physical/mental abuse of the child, then the child's development is adversely affected. 6.Health of the child - If the child frequently falls sick, suffers from some disorder, is disabled or has disturbed endocrine functioning, the development is likely to suffer. 7\. Level of stimulation - The amount of stimulation the environment provides to the child i.e., the opportunities for exploration of environment, opportunities of interaction with other people, etc., all influence the rate of development. 8\. Socio-economic status - It also influences the development by deciding the kind of nutrition, stimulation, facilities, opportunities, genetic endowment the child gets. 9\. Sex - All children follow the same sequence of development. However, certain skills are faster in girls than in boys and some other skills are faster in boys than girls. For example, language - PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT Development essentially means change as a result of the complex interactions between many processes - biological, social and cognitive. **Biological processes** involve changes that are physical in nature. Our genetic heritage, growth of body organs, acquisition of motor skills, hormonal changes at puberty, all reflect the role of biological processes in development. **Cognitive processes** involve changes in the thinking, intelligence and language of the child. Perception, attention, understanding, problem solving, memorizing, and imagination, all reflect the cognitive processes in children's development. **Social processes** involve the changes in the child's relationship with other people, emotions and personality. The first smile of an infant, the development of attachment between the mother and child, children learning to share, to assert, to take turns, to play with others, all reflect the social processes in development. **THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT** **STAGE THEORIES**- claims that life can be understood as senses of stages (conception- old age) **ATTACHMENT THEORIES**- infants are born with a drive form of attachment and parents are programmed to respond with care and protection, attachment can be develop throughout life but early attachment are very influential in shaping later attitude and behavior **PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES**- existence of conflicting motivation and interest and views some of them unconscious **HUMANISTIC MODEL**- Roger's person centered approach people from childhood onwards have a drive to achieve something in life **LEARNING THEORIES**- including cognitive and social learning perception (behavior is shaped by rewards and punishment that is accepted in the past) **MODELS OF THE EXPERIENCE OF 'SPOILED IDENTITIES'-** growth to positive self identified in the face of widespread social attitude indicating the individual is past of a problem group **THEORIES OF AGING**- including the social disengagement, activity theory and political economy theory -- there is a advantage for individual and society if the older generations gradually withdraw from social interaction and responsibility **SOCIOLOGICAL THINKING**- the life course of the mother and baby will profoundly effected by social factors (location and community) **BRONFENBRENNERS ECOLOGICAL MODEL**- micro, macro, macro environment **LIFECOURSE APPROACH**- there is NO universal 'natural cycle' of life **THE GENE ENVIRONMENT CONCEPT** 1. **'Instruction set'** that tells your body how to build itself your eye colour, whether you are male or female, your brain's ability to learn languages, whether you are likely to develop breast cancer -- is contained in biological structures called **genes.** A man has a gene (call it G1) on his Y chromosome. Will that gene ever have been operating in a female? Answer: No, because women never have a Y chromosome in their body -- they are X-X. A woman has a gene (call it G2) on her X chromosome. Has this ever been operating in a male? Answer: Yes, because female bodies have X-X and men have X-Y. A daughter will always have one X chromosome from her father. Of all the Y chromosomes in the population (say, a country), how many are in male bodies? Answer: All of them. Of all the X chromosomes in a population, how many are in female bodies at any given time? Answer: Two out of three. Women have X-X and men have X-Y chromosomes. 2\) **discrete category**: a grouping which contains items which definitely do not belong in a contrasting group -- there's a yes/no answer to whether they belong -- for example, someone is pregnant or they are not. 3\) **continuous variable**: a quality which does not fall into discrete categories, but varies by infinitesimally small progressions, progressions so small that whenever you choose two items which differ, you can always specify a third item which is in between (such as height). 4\) **constitutional:** It describes how someone's body seems to be in itself, often implying that it's without special treatment or training. Someone might be described as having a 'strong constitution' because they seldom become ill and usually resist infections, or they might be constitutionally suited to being a weightlifter because they have a powerful, compact body. 5\) **pathways**: a term used to describe the route by which someone's personal qualities come into existence. The pathway to having blue eyes is a genetic makeup which sets off certain chemical and biological processes. \*\*\*The pathway to becoming a good social worker is...? 6\) **Correlations**: some factors which have an effect on an outcome can be changed separately from each other. **GENES ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR CORRELATIONS** **Biological variation is not the same as genetic variation** - **'Constitutional'** conditions may be biological but not necessarily genetic in origin. Even when present at birth, they may be caused by nutrition, prenatal environment in the womb, viruses or complex interactions between genetic factors and environment. For example, Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition in which people constantly mix little verbal explosions, sometimes swear words, into their speech (National Institutes of Health, 2005). One suggested cause of Tourette's syndrome is that it is manifest after an individual with a particular genetic makeup is exposed to a particular balance of hormones in the womb (Eapen et al., 1997). - There are physiological signs that high-achieving athletes often received higher than average amounts of testosterone in the womb (Paul et al., 2006). If so, this would be a factor which is constitutional, but not in itself genetic **Genes can conflict** - Darwin's formulation of evolution was based on the realization that each individual varies from its parents. - This does not, however, imply that the changes that take place in evolution are best for the survival of all the species. **The distinction between behaviors that from a separate category and those that are continuous with the behavioral range in the general population** A mother may wonder whether her son's aggressiveness (or intellectual level) is a result of his genes or how he was brought up. In an example earlier, caregivers of a teenager in local authority children's home may wonder whether her seeming lack of maternal feeling towards her unborn baby is because of genes or experience. Social workers, if only to give educated replies to their service users and colleagues, have an interest in the relative importance of genes and environment in 'psychosocial' qualities such as aggression, intelligence and mental confusion **There can be different ways to the same behavioral characteristics** This illustrates another feature of gene--environment antecedents of behaviour. In many cases, the same psychosocial behavioural outcome can arise from different gene--environment pathways. For example (Rutter, 2006: 29), depression in adulthood may be caused by a genetic predisposition combined with early negative upbringing (including sexual abuse). But it may also be the outcome for people without the negative upbringing but with particular current social stressors. It is likely that some genetic component is implicated in a propensity to antisocial aggressive behaviour in boys or in men. But some boys with this genetic makeup will not commit antisocial acts, and others without the propensity will do so in particular social circumstances **Environment are not always independent of genes and genetic effects are affected by environment** **EVOCATIVE GENE INFLUENCES -- CHILDREN'S** **GENETIC MAKEUP EVOKES PARTICULAR** **ENVIRONMENTS FROM ADULTS.** **This is an environmental effect (special coaching and attention) which is an evocative gene effect, modified itself by a 'random' environmental effect** **The heredity and environment might be different from the reasons for variability between average scores of groups of people** - The way the genotype (the information in the genes) is expressed is itself shaped by the environment -- often through what are now called epigenetic effects. Epigenetics examines the way in which genetic material controls which genes are switched on or off EVOCATIVE GENE INFLUENCES -- CHILDREN'S GENETIC MAKEUP EVOKES PARTICULAR ENVIRONMENTS FROM ADULTS. This is an environmental effect (special coaching and attention) which is an evocative gene effect, modified itself by a 'random' environmental effect