Chapter 1
The Study of
Human
Development
Experience Human Development
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
● Describe human development and how its study
has evolved.
● Describe the domains and periods of human
development.
● Give examples of the influences that make one
person different from another.
● Discuss the principles of the lifespan perspective.
Human Development:
An Evolving Field
● Science of Human Development
– Development is systematic
– Development is adaptive
– Development is lifelong (i.e., life-span
development)
Four Goals of
Developmental Psychology
Example: When do children say their first words?
DESCRIBE
Example:
Example: Will delayed
How do language
children EXPLAIN GOALS PREDICT development
learn to use affect
language? speech?
CONTROL
Example: Can therapy help speech delays?
Domains of Development
Change & Stability
Physical Body, brain, senses, motor skills, and
Development health
Cognitive Learning, memory, moral reasoning,
Development language, thinking, and creativity
Psychosocial Personality, emotional life, and
Development relationships
Periods of the Life Span:
A Social Construction
● Based on subjective perceptions or assumptions
● Varies among cultures
● Changes over generations
- Adolescence only recently introduced in industrial
societies
Periods of the Life Span:
A Social Construction
Prenatal Period Conception–Birth
Infancy and Toddlerhood Birth–3 years
Early Childhood 3–6 years
Middle Childhood 6–11 years
Adolescence 11–20 years
Young Adulthood 20–40 years
Middle Adulthood 40–65 years
Late Adulthood 65 years and Over
Influences on Development
Environment
Heredity Physical and Maturation
Inherited traits from social influences Sequences of physical
biological parents and behavioral patterns
Contexts of Development:
Family
● What is a family? … Depends!
● Great changes
- Over time
- Place to place
Nuclear Family
Two generations: parents and children
● Economic unit, history in farming
● Dominant in Western societies
● Increasing numbers of
- Working parents
- Stepchildren
- Gay/lesbian homes
- Single parents
Extended Family
● A multigenerational kinship
- Includes grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles, …
and more!
- Social roles are flexible
- Historically, common in Asian, African, and Latin
American cultures
- Becoming less typical
Contexts of Development:
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
● Includes income, education, and occupation
- Poor children are more likely to:
- Have emotional and behavior problems
- Not reach cognitive potential
- Have poorer school performance
Poverty Hurts Children
Outcome Risk
Health
Death in Infancy 1.6 times
Premature Birth 1.8 times
Inadequate Prenatal Care 2.8 times
No Regular Health Care 2.7 times
Education
Repeat a Grade 2 times
Drop Out (16–24 years) 3.5 times
Low SES &
Related Risk Factors
● Poverty-related risks that increase chance of
negative outcomes include:
- Living in neighborhoods with high unemployment
- Lack of social support
- Social support less likely in
high-unemployment neighborhoods
Contexts of Development:
Culture
● Culture – A way of life
- Includes:
- Customs
- Traditions
- Artwork
- Learned behavior, passed on to children
- Individualistic vs Collectivistic
Contexts of Development:
Race & Ethnicity
● Ethnic Group – A shared identity
- United by ancestry, religion, or origin
- Contributes to shared attitudes and beliefs
● Race – A socially constructed term
- Scholars have no real consensus on definition
- Categories “fluid” – shaped by society and politics
● Ethnic Gloss
- Overgeneralization that obscures cultural differences within a
group (Examples: “Black” or “Hispanic”)
Contexts of Development:
Historical Context
● Unique time in which people live and grow up
● Experiences tied to time and place:
- Great Depression
- World War II
- The ’60s
WHAT’S YOUR GENERATION?
1901–1927 1928–1945 1946–1964 1965–1980 1981–1996 1997-2012 2011-2024
Age-Graded
Normative Influences
● Similar for an age group
- Maturational: Fixed in time
- Puberty or menopause
- Social: Timing is flexible
- Marriage or parenthood
Normative
History-Graded Influences
● Events that shape attitudes of a historical generation
- Historical Generation: A group that experiences an
event at a formative time
- Ex: WWII children have strong social bond to each other
- Cohort: Group born around the same time
- A historical generation can have many cohorts
Non-Normative Influences
● Unusual events affecting individual lives
- Typical events at atypical times
- Puberty at age 20
- Marriage in teens
- Atypical events
- Birth defect
- Winning the lottery
Timing of Influences
● Imprinting
- Instinctively following
first moving object seen
after birth; usually
mother
- Indicates predisposition
or readiness to learn Konrad Lorenz and his ducklings
Timing of Influences:
Critical & Sensitive Periods
● Critical Period
- Specific time when an event (or its absence) has
specific impact on development
● Sensitive Period
- Developmental timing when child is particularly
responsive to certain experiences
Timing of Influences:
Plasticity of Development
● Modifiability of performance
- Plasticity lasts through life span, but has limits
Baltes’s Life Span Approach:
Six Key Principles
● Development is lifelong
- Development is a lifelong process of change. Each period of
the life span is affected by what happened before and will
affect what is to come
● Development is multidimensional
- It occurs along multiple interacting dimensions— biological,
psychological, and social—each of which may develop at
varying rates
Baltes’s Life Span Approach:
Six Key Principles
● Development is multidirectional
- As people gain in one area, they may lose in another,
sometimes at the same time
● Relative influences of biology and culture shift over
the lifespan
- The process of development is influenced by both biology and
culture, but the balance between these influences changes.
Baltes’s Life Span Approach:
Six Key Principles
● Development involves changing resource allocations
- Resources may be used for growth, for maintenance or
recovery, or for dealing with loss.
● Development shows plasticity
- Many abilities, such as memory, strength, and endurance,
can be improved significantly with training and practice,
even late in life.
Baltes’s Life Span Approach:
Six Key Principles
● Development is influenced by the historical
and cultural context
- Each person develops within multiple contexts —
circumstances or conditions defined in part by
maturation and in part by time and place. Human
beings not only influence but also are influenced by
their historical-cultural context.
Thank you!
