Introduction

• Human development


  The process of growth and change that takes place between birth and maturity [until death]
• Developmental psychology


  The scientific study of age-related changes throughout the human life span
• Developmental psychology

  • Examines how and why people change over time
  • Examines how and why people are both unique and similar to each other
  • Multidisciplinary science based on theories and researches
• Developmental psychology


  Recognizes humans of all societies and cultures as beings who are "in process," or constantly growing and changing
• Developmental psychology


  Identifies the biological, psychological, and social aspects that interact to influence the growing human life-span process
• Norm


  A standard based upon the average abilities or performances of children of a specified age
• Norms


  • Averages of growth, development, work-rate or various other abilities observed across populations
• History of developmental psychology

  1. Ancient times to Middle Ages - children seen as inherently evil, harsh discipline

  2. Modern viewpoints - John Locke (tabula rasa), Jean-Jaques Rousseau (children inherently good, society bad)

  3. 1800's - different stages of development according to age

  4. Beginning with Freud and Piaget, early focus on child development

  5. 1950's - Stanley Hall said there is a stage between childhood and adulthood called adolescence

  6. Last 25 years - expanded focus to include physical, motor, cognitive, intellectual, emotional, personality, social, and moral changes throughout life span
• Assumptions within developmental psychology

  • Development is lifelong
  • Development is multidimensional
  • Development is multidirectional
  • Development is fluid
  • Development is embedded in history
  • Development is multidisciplinary
  • Development is contextual
• Life-span perspective


  An approach to human development which examines changes at all ages, through adolescence and adulthood, to late adulthood, up until death
• Earlier psychological theory


  Personality was fundamentally shaped during the early childhood years and remained the same thereafter
• Current approaches


  Children are no longer seen as passive recipients of environmental influences, but as active protagonists in influencing and moderating these environmental factors
• Heredity


  Inborn characteristics which we inherit through our genes from our parents
• Nativism


  The viewpoint that our characteristics and abilities are chiefly determined by our inborn characteristics (often also referred to as genetic determinism)
• Environmental determinism


  The view that environmental factors exert the greatest influence on human development
• Continuity


  Developmental growth follows a gradual and cumulative pattern
• Discontinuity


  Developmental growth takes place in clearly differentiated stages
• Quantitative changes


  Changes in degree or amount, e.g. changes in height or weight
• Qualitative changes


  Changes in kind, structure or organization, which make a fundamental difference to the individual, e.g. the preverbal infant is qualitatively different to the toddler who can speak
• Phylogeny


  Application of developmental psychology to the understanding of the development of a wider group of people or 'species'
• Ontogeny


  Application of developmental psychology to the understanding of the individual development of the specific child or person
• Critical period


  A specific time during development when a given event has its greatest effect
• Readiness


  The point at which an individual can be said to have matured sufficiently to benefit from a particular learning experience
• Normative


  An event is normative when it occurs in a similar manner for most people in a given group, e.g. physical changes such as puberty or menopause
• Non-normative


  Unusual events that have a significant impact on an individual's life
• The interaction of biological, psychological, and social aspects of developmental psychology form the essence of the holistic biopsychosocial perspective
• In contrast to the biopsychosocial perspective is the reductionistic perspective, which reduces complex phenomenon or events to a single cause
• Contexts for development

  • Biological
  • Social
  • Cultural
  • Historical
  • Economic
  • Intellectual
• Burman's (1994) five general criticisms of developmental psychology: developmental psychology as a means of social regulation and control, the 'normalizing' effects of developmental psychology, the 'colonialism' of normalization, the 'blameworthy mother', and an isolated focus on the individual child
• Psychoanalytic approaches


  Observe the significance of childhood in the development of personality, and propose that it is during childhood that the relationship between culture and physiology is at its most significant
• Cognition


  A collective term for the processes involved in acquiring, organizing, manipulating and using knowledge
• Human Development

  the scientific study of age-related changes throughout the human lifespan