CHILD AND ADO

• Developmental psychology


  A branch of psychology that studies intra-individual changes and inter-individual changes within these intra-individual changes
• La Bouvie: 'Developmental Psychology is not only description but also explication of age-related changes in behavior in terms of antecedent-consequent relationships'
• What other developmental psychologists study

  • Developmental change covering the life span from conception to death
• SIEGEL: 'Has explained developmental psychology was pre-occupied with ages and stages, meaning there is a definite age-range in every stage in the life span'
• Prenatal stage


  Covers 10 lunar months (based on trimester), 9 calendar months, approximately 270 days from the time the individual is conceived up to birth (fertilization- meeting of the egg cell and sperm cell where a new individual is formed and developed). Stage where sex and hereditary traits are endowed
• Preemies (premature births)


  Born ahead of time than the expected time of delivery- 5, 6 or months
• Post term babies


  Born late than the expected date or time of delivery- 9 moths and weeks later
• Infancy


  Stage covering the first two weeks of life. It is the shortest period in the life span
• Subdivisions of infancy


  • Period of the Partunate - birth up to 15 to 30 min. after birth
  • Period of the Neonate - from the cutting and tying of the umbilical cord up to the end of the 2nd week of postnatal life
• Babyhood stage


  Regarded as the toddler stage, the stage when individuals would like to independently perform tasks which in most cases are still incapable of handling such tasks. Begins at the end of the 2nd week and ends at age two. The start of foundation age
• Childhood stage


  Refers to the time of being a child, time of innocence where one is free from responsibility but vulnerable to forces in his environment
• Early childhood stage


  Regarded as the true foundation stage. Begins at the end of the 2nd year and ends at age 6. The pre-school age, the beginning of the 3 r's (rudiments in learning) reading, writing and arithmetic, play and socialization skills
• Characteristics of early childhood stage

  • Imitative stage
  • Inquisitive stage
  • Exploratory stage
  • Play age/socialization stage
  • Creative stage
  • Manipulative stage
• Late childhood stage


  The formal education stage. The formative years of development. Learning and knowledge becomes permanent- children of this age do not only assimilate but accommodate learning. Starts at 6 and ends at age 12. Gang age
• Puberty stage


  The stage when a lot of physical changes occur. Both boys and girls experience the primary and secondary sex characteristics of development -maturation, fertilization and ovulation-specific for girls. Girls experience menarche (first menstrual flow).
• Adolescence stage


  The stage when one experiences a lot of psychological changes. Comes from the latin, adolescentia, from adolescere, "to grow up". The period of psychological and social transition between childhood and adulthood(dividing line). "teenager"- from 12, 14 up to 18 years of age. Transitional period in which a juvenile matures into an adult (biological, social and psychological changes). Derived from the latin "dolor"- "pain" when one experiences dramatic changes in the body along with developments in his psychology and career. Teenager-is a person whose age is a number ending in "teen"- from 13-19
• Early adulthood stage


  The settling down stage, building of family and career development. Ages from 18, 19 to 40 years of age
• Middle adulthood stage


  The stage when individuals experience more or less fixed pattern of life. No more job hopping. Family life is established. Start to be engaged in socio-civic responsibilities. Taking care of aged parents. Ages from 40-60 years of age (sometimes called the "empty nest stage"- when children start their own life and leave the home)
• Old age/adulthood


  Decline and deterioration of physical strength and mental health. Ages from 60 to death. Senior citizen stage. "Rocking chair philosophy". "Sunset stage". "Sensitive stage-emotionally dramatic, self-pity stage". Ego-integrity vs. despair
• Development


  Means a progressive series of changes that occur as a result of maturation and experience
• VAN DEN DAELE: 'Has pointed out development implies qualitative change. This means that development does not consists only of adding inches to one's height or of improving one's ability but it is a complex process of integrating many structures and functions'
• Two essentially antagonistic processes that take place in development

  • Growth or evolution - rapid growth and change during the early years of life(womb)
  • Atrophy or involution - gradually declines and deteriorates as one approaches the later years of life (tomb)
• JEAN PIAGET: 'Has explained, structures are "far from being static and given from the start.'' Instead, a maturating organism undergoes continued and progressive changes in response to experiential conditions, and these result in a complex network of interaction'
• Pattern of change


  Resembles a bell-shaped curve rising abruptly at the start and flattening out during the middle years, only to decline slowly or abruptly in old age
• Goal of developmental changes

  To enable people to adapt to the environment in which they live. To achieve this goal, self-realization or self-actualization is essential
• Self-actualization


  It is an urge to do what one is fitted to do, the urge to become the person both physically and psychologically that one wants to be. (Self-fulfillment, contentment and happiness). It plays an important role in mental health, though it is relative
• Significant facts about development

  • Early foundations are critical - attitudes, values, habits, skills and patterns of behavior established during the early years of life will determine to a large extent how successfully adjust to life as they grow older
  • Child's experiences during this time span do more to determine future competence than at any time before or after
  • Erick Erikson claims that babyhood is the period when one learns general attitudes of trust or mistrust which remains persistent throughout life
• Roles of maturation and learning in development


  • Maturation - provides the raw material for learning & determines the more general pattern and sequences of behavior. Phylogenetic functions - are functions which are common to the human race such as creeping, sitting and walking. Development comes from maturation
  • Learning - is development that comes from exercise and effort on the individual's part. Ontogenetic functions - those that are specific to the individual such as writing, driving a car or swimming. Learning in the form of training and exercise. There is a definite timetable for learning. The individual cannot learn until ready. Developmental readiness - determines the moment when learning can and should take place. Harris emphasized the importance of providing an opportunity to learn when the individual is ready
• Laws of developmental direction

  • Cephalocaudal law - maintains the development spreads over the body from head to foot.(brain development comes during the 1st trimester)
  • Proximodistal law - maintains the development spreads outward from the central axis of the body to the extremities
• The importance of developmental laws is that it makes it possible to predict what people will do at a given age and to plan their education and training to fit into this pattern
• Every person is indeed biologically and genetically different from every other even in the case of identical twins. As all individuals are different, no two people can be expected to react or respond to the same manner, to the same environmental stimuli
• Characteristic behavior in each phase of development

  • Equilibrium - when individuals adapt easily to the environmental demands resulting to good personal and social adjustments
  • Disequilibrium - when they experience difficulty in adaptation, as a result make poor personal and social adjustments
• Some stages of growing up are marked by more difficult behavior than others
• Each period in the life span has associated with it certain developmental hazards whether physical, psychological or environmental in origin- and these inevitably involve adjustment problems
• Stimulation


  Has been found out to be specially effective at the time when the ability is normally developing though it is important at all times. The more often parents talk to their pre-school age children, the sooner the children learn to talk and the stronger their motivation to do so. Stimulation of the muscles during the early years results in earlier and better coordinated motor skills
• Developmental tasks


  Tasks which arises at or about a certain period in the life of the individual, successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with the later task while failure leads to unhappiness and difficulty with later tasks
• These beliefs about physical and psychological characteristics affect the judgments of others as well as their self-evaluations. In our culture, stereotypes relating to old age can lead to unfavorable treatment of people in their later years of their lives. Traditional beliefs about sex differences and the cultural stereotypes of males and females at all ages have a profound influence on the developmental pattern
• Developmental tasks for different life stages

  • Babyhood - learning to take solid foods, to talk and to walk
  • Early childhood - learning to control the elimination of body wastes and learning sex differences and modesty, distinguish right and wrong, beginning to develop a conscience and getting ready to read
  • Late childhood - learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games, building a wholesome attitude toward oneself as a growing organism, getting along with age-mates, developing appropriate masculine/feminine social roles, developing fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating and also concepts necessary for everyday living, conscience, sense of morality and a scale of values, attitude toward social groups and institutions; achieving personal independence
  • Adolescence - achieving new more mature relations with age-mates of both sexes, masculine/feminine social role, emotional independence from parents and other adults and accepting one's physique and using one's body effectively, achieving socially responsible behavior, preparing for economic career, marriage and family life, acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior – developing an ideology
  • Early adulthood - getting started in an occupation, selecting a mate, learning to live with a marriage partner, starting a family, rearing children, managing a home, taking on civic responsibility and finding a congenial social group
  • Middle age - achieving adult civic and social responsibility, assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults, developing adult leisure time activities, relating oneself to one's spouse as a person, accepting and adjusting to the physiological changes of middle age, reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance in one's occupational career; adjusting to aging parents
  • Old age - adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health, retirement and reduced income, death of spouse, adapting to social roles in a flexible way, establishing an explicit affiliation with members of one's age group; satisfactory physical living arrangements
• The child's development is influenced by the environment, including physical surroundings, social interactions, cultural norms, and economic conditions.
• Jean Piaget proposed that there are four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years), preoperational stage (ages 2-7), concrete operational stage (ages 7-11), formal operational stage (adolescence).