PSY 101 Chapter 2

• Human Development is the scientificof study the patterns of growth and change that occurs throughout life.
• Two Types of Change

  1. Quantitative change
  2. Qualitative change
• Quantitative change refers to physical growth like progress in height or weight.
• Qualitative change refers to the change of function of an organ, resulting to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Aspects of Human Development

  1. Physical development
  2. Perceptual development
  3. Cognitive or Intellectual development
  4. Personality development
  5. Social development
• Physical development - changes in the body structure and motor skills.
• Perceptual development - development of sensory capacities such as the changes in the seeing and hearing abilities of infants.
• Cognitive or Intellectual development - change in mental abilities, learning capacity, memory, reasoning thought processes and language.
• Personality development - patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that distinguish one individual from another.
• Social development - acquisition of social skills, the formation of relationships, and the understanding of social norms and roles.
• Longitudinal Design is a study that have the same participants at different times.
• Cross-sectional design is done with different participants at the same time.
• Factors of Development

  1. Biological Factor (Nature)
  2. Environmental Factor (Nurture)
• Biological Factor- Human behavior is the result of already-present biological factors
• Environmental Factor- Human behavior is the result of interaction with one’s environment
• The Nature/Nurture Debate

  • The role of innate and inherited features.
  • The role of the environment and nurturing.
• 8 Stages of Development

  1. Prenatal stage
  2. Infancy (0-1 year old)
  3. Early childhood (2-6 years old)
  4. Middle childhood (7-12 years old)
  5. Adolescence (13-19 years old)
  6. Young adulthood (20-40 years old)
  7. Middle adulthood (41-65 years old)
  8. Late adulthood/Old age (66 years old- Death)
• Heredity - The transmission of genetic information from parents to offspring. This process occurs through the combination of genetic material in the egg and sperm during fertilization.
• Every 28 days a female ovulates and releases egg cell to fallopian tube.
• At the height of copulation the male parent releases sperm cells (300-500 million) inside the female’s vagina.
• The healthy sperms are programmed to swim and seek out the egg cell and fertilize it.
• Out of the millions of sperms, only about 50 of them will be able to come close to the egg cell
• The sperms will release enzyme that dissolves the jelly- like coating of the egg cell.
• Meanwhile, the egg is no passive participant; it actually embraces the lucky sperm cell.
• To avoid penetration by more than one sperm, the egg produces brief electrical shocks on its surface (lasting about 30 seconds) followed by a hard protein coat.
• The sperm cell is held down on the egg’s membrane, while the coat rises above it, pushing all the other sperms away.
• The egg pulls the sperm inside itself, and moves its nucleus to meet that of the sperm.
• Fertilization, the union of the egg and the sperm, produces a single cell that is called the zygote, which contains 23 chromosomes (strands of genetic material) contributed by the sperm and 23 chromosomes contributed by the egg.
• Chromosomes are made up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), each segment of the DNA is a gene, the basic unit of heredity.
• 46 chromosomes – it is called as the karyotype
• Karyotype provide programming for inherited characteristics like blood type, height, skin color, and so forth.
• Karyotype can help identify chromosome abnormalities that are evident in either the structure or the number of chromosomes.
• The first 22 pairs are called autosomes.\
• The 23rd pair are called sex chromosomes.
• Sex chromosomes determine the sex or gender of the developing baby.
• All eggs and 50% of all sperm cells contain x sex chromosomes, while only the remaining 50% the sperm cells have a y sex chromosome.
• XX- female

  XY - male
• Sperm cell

  • X and Y chromosomes
• Egg cell

  • X chromosome
• Transmission of Traits

  • Chromosomes
  • Genes
  • DNA