Chapter 2 Edrolo

• Psychological development encompasses changes across multiple domains, including emotional, social, and cognitive growth
• Individuals can grow and change psychologically across their lives
• Chapter 2 review key knowledge

  • The interactive influences of hereditary and environmental factors on a person’s psychological development
  • The biopsychosocial approach as a model for considering psychological development and mental wellbeing
  • The process of psychological development (emotional, cognitive, and social development) over the course of the life span
  • The role of sensitive and critical periods in a person’s psychological development
• Students explore how biological, psychological, and social factors influence different aspects of a person’s psychological development
• Psychological development is a lifelong gradual process
• Cognitive development involves changes in thought processes that occur as we age, including a more sophisticated production of thought and the ability to comprehend and organize information from the internal and external environment
• What influences psychological development?
• The main domains of psychological development include cognitive, emotional, and social growth
• The psychological development of an individual involves complex interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors
• Psychological development refers to an individual’s changes in functioning across multiple domains, including the lifelong growth across emotional, cognitive, and social domains
• Nature

  The belief that development is directly caused by one's genetic composition, also known as hereditary factors
• Psychological development encompasses emotional, social, and cognitive development
• Aspects of psychological development

  • Cognitive development
  • Emotional development
  • Social development
• Emotional development


  May advance cognitive development by positioning individuals in situations where complex problem-solving skills are required
• Social development

  May provide experience that informs emotional development
• Social development

  The lifelong changes in skills that allow individuals to effectively and appropriately interact with others
• Aspects of psychological development

  Often do not develop in isolation and instead are symbiotic, in that as one develops, the other aspects often follow
• The 'nature versus nurture' debate questions whether development is dependent on hereditary (nature) or environmental (nurture) factors
• Cognitive development

  The changes in thought processes that occur as we age. This includes a more sophisticated production of thought as well as the ability to comprehend and organise information from the internal and external environment
• Emotional development

  The continuous, lifelong changes in skills that allow individuals to control, express, and recognise emotions in an appropriate way
• Cognitive development

  • Learning a second language
  • Learning your times tables
  • Understanding that others have a different perspective to your own
• Aspects of psychological development

  Interconnected and dependent on one another
• Emotional development

  • Learning how to appropriately express emotions, such as anger
  • Recognising your own emotions
  • Understanding how others around you feel
• Philosophers and psychologists have debated the influence of hereditary and environmental factors on psychological development throughout history
• Nature holds the belief that development is predestined at birth and includes aspects such as intelligence, personality, and interests
• Social development

  • Learning how to have conversations with others
  • Learning how to appropriately communicate with your work colleagues
• Psychological development progresses due to an interaction of both nature and nurture, influenced by hereditary and environmental factors
• Psychological development

  Emotional, Social, Cognitive development all influence and interact with one another in order to contribute to psychological development as a whole
• John Locke coined the term ‘tabula rasa’, which means ‘blank slate’ in Latin, emphasizing that every person is born as a ‘blank slate’ and it is our experiences that shape us
• Certain personality traits and levels of intelligence have been linked to genetics, with individuals having a predisposition to inherit certain traits
• Individuals can learn by experiencing the rewards and punishments that follow a behavior they may have carried out
• Environmental factors


  Factors that influence development and arise from an individual’s physical and social surroundings
• Hereditary factors


  Factors that influence development and are genetically passed down from biological parents to their offspring
• Genetic predispositions do not guarantee any specific outcome
• Behaviourism school of thought proposed by psychologist John Watson observed the relationships between stimuli in the environment and subsequent behaviors
• Individuals can also learn from observing other people’s behaviors and subsequent consequences
• Parents or caregivers may shape the development of their kids by teaching them what is right and wrong, as well as important skills and functions
• Heritable traits, such as hair colour or eye colour, involve the expression of certain genes that biological parents hold
• A person with a genetic predisposition to certain mental health disorders may have inherited genes that make them more likely to develop a particular condition than the average person
• If a child has a family history of depression, they are more likely to experience depression in their lifetime