Unit 1 Growth & Development PDF

# **A1 - Growth & Development** **Growth**: increase in some part of an individual that can be measured. **Development**: the complex changes including increase in skills, abilities, and capabilities. ## **Stages of Growth** - **Infancy (0-2 years)** - Infants grow rapidly reaching approximat...

# **A1 - Growth & Development** **Growth**: increase in some part of an individual that can be measured. **Development**: the complex changes including increase in skills, abilities, and capabilities. ## **Stages of Growth** - **Infancy (0-2 years)** - Infants grow rapidly reaching approximately half their adult height by the time they are 2 years old. - By around 1 year old, infants can walk, and by 2 they can run. - **Early Childhood (3-8 years)** - Children continue to grow at a steady pace and develop strength and coordination. - **Adolescence (9-18 years)** - Adolescents experience growth spurts. - They develop sexual characteristics during puberty. - **Early Adulthood (19-45 years)** - Young adults reach the peak of their physical fitness. - **Middle Adulthood (46-65 years)** - The aging process begins with some loss of strength and stamina. - Women go through menopause. - **Later Adulthood (65+)** - The aging process continues with gradual loss of mobility. - Older adults will experience a loss of height of up to a few centimeters. ## **Principles of Growth** - Growth rates are not constant. - Different parts of the body grow at different times. - Growth rates vary between children. - Boys usually grow faster than girls, as they tend to grow taller than women. **Growth describes an increase in quantity including height and weight.** # **A2 - Intellectual Development** **Intellectual Development**: - Is how individuals organize their minds, ideas, and thoughts to make sense of the world they live in. ## **Aspects of Intellectual Development** - **Language development**: organizing thoughts. - **Problem-Solving**: working things out and predicting what might happen. - **Memory**: storing, recalling, and retrieving information. - **Moral development**: reasoning and making choices. - Informs the individual how to act in particular situations and toward self and others. - **Abstract thoughts and creative thinking**: discussing situations and events that cannot be observed. ## **Stages of Intellectual Development** | Stage | Development | |---|---| | Infancy and early childhood | Stages of rapid intellectual development | | Adolescence to early adulthood | Development of logical thought, problem-solving, and memory recall skills | | Middle adulthood | Can think through problems and make sound judgments using life experience | | Later adulthood | Changes in the brain can cause short-term memory decline, slower thought processes, and reaction times | # **A3 - Attachments** **Attachment**: two-way emotional bond where people depend on each other for a sense of security. ## **Types of Attachment Styles** - Secure - Avoidant - Anxious avoidant ## Stages of Attachment - **Pre-Attachment (0-12 weeks):** babies cry to gain attention. - **Indiscriminate Attachment (3-7 months):** can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces. - Become more responsive to the primary caregiver. - **Discriminate Attachment (7-9 months):** - Separation anxiety: the child is anxious when the primary caregiver leaves (e.g., going to nursery). - Stranger fear: they show distress when left with a stranger. - **Multiple Attachments (9+ months):** the child begins to make attachments with others, but these bonds are never as close as the bond between a child and their primary caregiver. # **A4 - Play** **Play** involves concentration, interest, independence, coordination, confidence, and social skills. ## **The Role of Play** - Play is a vital activity in children developing age-appropriate skills and understanding their space in the world. - Play is the voluntary engagement in self-motivated activities that are normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment. ## **Stages of Play** | Stage | Description | |---|---| | Unoccupied Solo Play | The child is seemingly not engaged or actively playing with others at all. This stage is mostly seen in newborns and infants. | | Parallel Play | Children play side-by-side but there is a lack of group involvement. This is common in toddlers. | | Associative Play | Children play together but not towards a common goal. This is where children may continue to play separately from one another. | | Cooperative Play | Play becomes organized into groups and teamwork is seen. Children are now interested in both the people they are playing with as well as the activity at hand. | # **B1 - Nature vs. Nurture** **Nature**: is the genetic inheritance and other biological factors. **Nurture**: the external influences such as the environment you grew up in, or social influences. ## **Maturation Theory - Gesell** - A child is born with a set of genetic instructions passed down from their parents. - Physical, cognitive, and other developmental processes unfold over time. - Development is pre-determined by biological factors. ## **Gesell's 3 Main Assumptions.** - Children develop through similar and predictable sequences. - Development starts to occur before a child's birth. - The pace is influenced by internal factors such as physical and mental development and genetics. # **B2 - Socialization** **Primary Socialization**: the influences we experience from our family home. **Secondary Socialization**: the influences we experience after we leave the family home, including role models in media, teachers, peers, and cultural leaders. ## **Imitation and Social Learning Theory** - When we observe others behaving, we also notice what kind of response they get. - If a child observes someone engaging in negative behavior but there are no negative responses, the child may view this as acceptable. ## **Classroom & Social Learning Theory** - If a school child is disruptive in class, others will observe whether or not this behavior is reinforced. - This will influence their decision about whether or not to imitate the behavior. - This is also known as latent learning. ## **Motivation and Social Learning Theory** - We need motivation to perform imitating behaviors. - Motivation depends on: - How attractive or prestigious the model is. - The consequences. - We are more likely to imitate someone we admire. ## **Influence of Group Behaviors** - Our behavior is very much influenced by the presence of others. ## **Influence of Society** - Young people under the age of 25 are the easiest to influence through the media. ## **Influences of Culture** - Culture is about shared values, norms, language, customs and practices of a group. # **B3 - Social Learning Theory** - We learn our behavior by imitating and modeling those around us. ## **Bandura** - Bandura believed that behavior is copied from others without any reinforcement or conditioned learning. ## **Bandura - Bobo Doll Study** - Children who watched adults behaving aggressively towards the doll were twice as likely to act aggressively toward the doll than those who had not seen the aggressive behavior. - This suggests that not all behavior is learned through reinforcement and conditioning. - We are also influenced by what we see happening to others. ## **Factors That Make Us More Likely to Copy Behavior** - If we see the behavior being rewarded. - If we like and respect the person whose behavior we observe. - If we see ourselves as similar to the person whose behavior we observe. - If behavior can be copied without too much difficulty. ## **Bandura - Strengths** - Behaviour is shaped by more than just rewards and reinforcement. - Role models, such as teachers, encourage positive behaviors. - People carry out behaviors even when there is no external reward. ## **Bandura - Weaknesses** - Doesn't always explain how all behavior is learned. - Not all behavior is copied from someone else. - Doesn't take personality (nature) into account. # **B4 - The Stress Diathesis Model** **Diathesis**: is a predisposition or vulnerability to mental disorder through abnormality of the brain on neurotransmitters. - The stress diathesis psychological model helps to explain how stress caused by life events (nurture) can interact with an individual's genetic vulnerability (nature) to impact on their mental health. - According to this theory, some individuals are born with certain biological or genetic predispositions. - A person who has a genetic predisposition might never develop the disorder if they do not experience stress in their life. - High levels of stress, such as family conflict, abuse, trauma, or problems at school, could trigger the onset for those with a predisposition.