Human Growth and Development

• Growth


  Physical increase in some quantity over time, including changes in height, weight, body proportions and general physical appearance
• Development

  Qualitative changes in the organism as a whole, a continuous process through which physical, emotional and intellectual changes occur
• Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live
• Capabilities


  Basic capabilities valued by virtually everyone include: good health, access to knowledge, and a decent material standard of living. Other capabilities central to a fulfilling life could include the ability to participate in the decisions that affect one's life, to have control over one's living environment, to enjoy freedom from violence, to have societal respect, and to relax and have fun
• Types of human development

  • Physical development
  • Cognitive development
  • Psychosocial development
• Physical development

  • Growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness
• Cognitive development


  • Learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity
• Psychosocial development


  • Emotions, personality, and social relationships
• Principles of development

  • Development involves change
  • Development is a continuous process
  • Development follows a direction and uniform pattern in an orderly manner
  • Individual differences in the development process
  • Development depends on maturation and learning
  • Development is predictable
  • Early development is more critical than later development
  • Development involves social expectations
  • Development has potential hazards
  • Happiness varies at different periods of development
• Nutrition

  Good nutrition is essential for normal growth and development, especially in the first 6 months of life where malnutrition may inhibit brain growth
• Emotional support

  The first 5 years of life are critical for the foundation of skills, a child needs full emotional support including love, security, acceptance, self-respect, achievement, recognition, independence, and authority
• Approaches to human development

  • Life-span approach
  • Traditional approach
  • Multidimensional approach
• Life-span approach


  • Development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, and contextual
• Heredity


  The genetic heritage passed down by biological parents, including physical and behavioral traits
• Genetics and personality


  Personality is not determined by any single gene, but by the complex relationship of many genes working together with environmental factors
• Biological factors are the basic framework of human development, interacting with cognitive, socio-emotional and ecological processes
• Genetic variant


  A pattern of genes that may increase risk for a particular trait
• Having a genetic variant


  Does not necessarily mean a particular trait will develop
• The effect of our genes on our behavior is entirely dependent on the context of our life as it unfolds day to day</b>
• Based on our genes, no one can say what kind of human being we will turn out to be or what we will do in life
• Human development


  • Result of interaction of biological, cognitive, socio-emotional and ecological processes
  • Genetic factors are the basic framework of the biological processes of development
• Biological processes of development


  • Development of brain, heart, lungs, nervous system
  • Changes in height, weight, sex characteristics
• As human being lives in a society, with his biological endowments he interacts with different stimuli of the environment
• Social traditions, culture, beliefs, nationality and others influence human behavior
• Human development and behaviors are combination of biological, social and psychological influences
• Characteristics of biological influences on human growth and behaviors

  • Behaviors are reproduced in successive generations
  • Change in biological process determines change in behaviors
  • Behaviors run in families/transmitted in families
  • Genes are evolutionary
• Socialization


  Ongoing process of social interaction which enables us to develop the skills we will need to participate in human society
• Culture


  Beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects shared by a particular group of people
• Culture is not innate; human beings create culture
• Culture consists of a set of principles and traditions transmitted from generation to generation, yet because human beings have created it, culture is flexible and subject to change
• Environment


  Provides the necessary input and experiential base for development of the child
• Enrichment or impoverishment of the environment


  Produces differences in abilities
• Environmental factors affecting human development

  • Home environment
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Normative influences (biological or environmental events)
  • Education and training