DEV PSYCH 1

• Human Development - study on how we change overtime
• 5 characteristics of human development

  1. Development is multidimensional
  2. Development is lifelong, and change is apparent across to life span
  3. Development is multidirectional
  4. Development is multidisciplinary
  5. Development is multicontextual
• moment of conception, human beings begin a process of change that will continue until the last flicker of life ends.
• Development - pattern and orderly follows a blueprint laid out by our evolutionary history
• Human Development - scientific study of the systematic processes of change and stability of people
• Developmental scientists - they look at way in which people change from conception through maturity as well as the characteristics that remains fairly stable
• developmentalists - their work have a drastic impact to people's life
• Research finding - often have applications to child rearing, education, health and social policy
• When the field of developmental psychology emerged as a scientific discipline, most researchers focused their energies on infant and child development. Growth and development are more obvious during these times given the rapid pace of change
• Developmental psychology - as this field matured, it became clear that development included more than infancy and childhood
• Life-span development - womb to womb
• life-span development - comprising the entire human life span from conception to death
• Positive Development

  • toilet trained
  • enrolling to college course after retirement
• Negative Development - wetting the bed after traumatic event or isolation after retirement
• Because of positive and negative development, events such as timing of parenthood, maternal employment and marital satisfaction are also being studied as part of developmental psychology
• Goals of human development

  • description
  • explanation
  • prediction
  • intervention
• Finally, an understanding of how language develops may be used to intervene in development, for example, by giving a child speech therapy
• most often white men, were the predominant gatekeepers of scientific thought and the producers of the bulk of theory and research
• development is messy. It’s complex and multifaceted and shaped by interacting arcs of influence
• development is best understood with input from a variety of theoretical and research orientations and is most appropriately studied using multiple disciplines.
• Students of human development draw collaboratively from a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, biology, genetics, family science, education, history, and medicine
• life-span development - Concept of human development as a lifelong process, which can be studied scientifically
• human development - Scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life span.
• Brain imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and electroencephalogram (EEG), are used to map where certain thought processes take place within the structure of the brain.
• 3 general domains/dimension of development

  1. physical development
  2. cognitive development
  3. psychosocial development
• Physical development

  • growth in body and brain
  • sensory capacity
  • motor skills
  • health
• Cognitive development

  • learning
  • attention
  • memory
  • language
  • thinking
  • Creativity
  • reasoning
• Psychosocial development

  • emotions
  • personality
  • social relationshio
• psychosocial development - developmental changes in emotions, psychological concern and social relationship
• psychosocial development - In Erikson’s eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self.
• physical development affects cognitive and psychosocial development.

  A child with frequent ear infections may develop language more slowly than a child without this physical problem. During puberty, dramatic physical and hormonal changes affect the developing sense of self. Physical changes in the brains of some older adults may lead to intellectual and personality deterioration.
• cognitive advances and declines are related to physical and psychosocial development. A child who is precocious in language development may bring about positive reactions in others and thus gain self-worth. Memory development reflects gains or losses in physical connections in the brain. An adult who has trouble remembering people’s names may feel shy in social situations.
• psychosocial development can affect cognitive and physical functioning. Indeed, without meaningful social connections, physical and mental health suffer. Motivation and self-confidence are important contributors to school success, whereas negative emotions such as anxiety can impair performance