Human Development

Chapter – 3

DEVELOPMENT

Development is the pattern of progressive, orderly, and predictable changes that begin at

conception and continue throughout life. Development is influenced by an interplay of

biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes.

Life-Span Perspective on Development

The life span perspective of development includes the following assumptions:

1. Development is lifelong.

2. The various processes of human development, i.e., biological, cognitive, and socio-

emotional are interwoven in the development of a person throughout the lifespan.

3. Development is multi-directional.

4. Development is highly plastic.

5. Development is influenced by historical conditions.

6. Development is the concern of a number of disciplines.

7. An individual responds and acts on contexts, which include what was inherited, the

physical environment, social, historical, and cultural contexts.

FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT

There are majorly two factors that influence an individual’s development:

1. Innate which is one’s heredity or genetic makeup-

i. Genetic endowment.
 ii. Prenatal environment.

iii. Temperament.

2. Environment-

i. Nutrition, housing.

ii. Medical care basic safety.

iii. Education, family support.

These two factors together shape us as a person. They are interconnected.

CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT

Bronfenbrenner’s View of Contextual View of Development

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s contextual view of development emphasises the role of environmental

factors in the development of an individual:

1. Microsystem: It is the immediate environment in which individual lives and a child

here directly interacts with the social agents.

2. Mesosystem: It represents the fact that what happens in one ecosystem (family) is

likely to impact another ecosystem.

3. Exosystem: It is defined as the social settings that a person may not experience first-

hand but that still influence development.

4. Macrosystem: It includes the culture in which the individual lives. The macrosystems

are the subcultures and cultures in which the microsystem, mesosystem, and

exosystem are embedded.

5. Chronosystem: It comprises the events in the individual’s course of life and socio-

historical situations which influence their development.

Durganand Sinha’s Ecological Model

Durganand Sinha (1977) has presented an ecological model for understanding the

development of children in Indian context:

1. Upper layer: consist of home, school, peer groups, and so on.

2. Surrounding layers: general geographical environment, institutional setting provided

by caste, class, etc., and general amenities available.

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

Prenatal Stage

Conception to birth (40 weeks).

1. Genetic, environment, diseases carried by mother, teratogens, radiation, certain

chemicals, environmental pollutions, and maternal characteristics effects the

development in this period.

Infancy

The age range of Infancy is 0-2 years old.

1. The neural connections among these cells develop at a rapid rate.

2. The activities needed to sustain life functions are present in the new-born — it

breathes, sucks, swallows, and discharges the bodily wastes.

3. By the first week-

i. can recognise mother’s voice.

ii. Imitate gestures like tongue protrusion and mouth opening.

4. Motor development-

i. Movements are governed by reflexes.

 ii. Reflexes act as adaptive mechanisms.

5. Physical development-

i. Muscles grow.

ii. Nervous system grows.

iii. Basic physical (motor) skills include grasping and reaching for objects, sitting,

crawling, walking and running.

6. Sensory abilities-

i. Ability to recognise mother’s voice.

ii. Vision: they prefer to look at a stimulus. Their vision is lower than that of an

adult it improves by 6 months.

iii. They respond to touch and can feel pain.

iv. Smell is present.

v. Taste is present.

7. Cognitive development-

i. According to Jean Piaget children actively construct their world.

i. Sensorimotor stage

- It starts from birth and ends at 2 years of age.

- Children experience the world through senses and interactions with

objects, through looking, hearing, mouthing, touching, and grasping.

Infants and toddlers think with their eyes, ears, hands, and other

sensorimotor equipment and can’t take many acts inside their head.

- A child at this stage lives in the present what is out of sight is out of the

mind.

- For example, if you hide the toy with which a child was playing. He/she

will behave as if nothing has happened. They will not search for the toy
 and will assume that the toy doesn’t exist. Piaget called this experience a

lack of object permanence. It’s defined as the awareness that the object

continues to exist when not perceived.

ii. As children grow, additional information is acquired and they adapt their

thinking to include new ideas, as this improves their understanding of the

world.

iii. The child during infancy, i.e., the first two years of life, experiences the world

through senses and interactions with objects — through looking, hearing,

touching, mouthing, and grasping.

iv. Object permanence- the awareness that the objects continue to exist when not

perceived.

v. Vocalisation begins with the infant’s babbling, sometime between 3 to 6

months of age.

8. Socio-emotional development-

i. Starts preferring familiar faces.

ii. Responds to parent’s presence by cooing and gurgling.

iii. Infants develop strong emotional bonds with their caregivers. They learn to

trust, love, and feel secure.

iv. Infants also begin to develop their own unique personalities. They start to

show their preferences for certain activities and people.

v. They show attachment towards objects that provide comfort.

vi. Secure vs insecure attachment.

Childhood

Age ranges from 2-12 years.

1. Growth slows down.

2. Physical Development-

i. Early development follows.

ii. two principles:

- Cephalocaudally- from the cephalic or head region to the caudal or tail

region.

- Proximodistal- children gain control over their torso before their

extremities.

iii. Trunk lengthens.

iv. Fat decreases.

v. Brain and head grow rapidly.

3. Motor Development-

i. Gross motor skills develop.

 ii. Fine motor skills develop.

4. Cognitive Development-

Children actively construct their understanding of the world. He believed that a child’s mind

passes through a series of stages of thought from infancy to adolescence. Each stage is

marked by a distinct way of thinking and is age-related.

ii. Pre-operational stage

- Early childhood- This stage starts at 2 years and lasts by 7 years of age.

- During this stage, the child has a concept of object permanence, which

allows him/her to use mental symbols to represent objects.

- A symbol is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a written

word, or a spoken word comes to be understood as representing a real dog.

The use of language is, of course, the prime example, but another good

example of symbol use is make-believe plays. The child gains an ability to

mentally represent an object that is not physically present.

- Make-believe plays: Make-believe plays are excellent examples of the

development of representation during early childhood, wherein

 checkers are cookies, papers are dishes, and a box is a table, and so on.

They help the child in the following ways:

a. They increase mental health ability.

b. Helps the child to learn sustained attention.

c. Increases memory, literacy, imagination, creativity, and the ability

to reflect on one’s thinking.

d. Inhibits impulses.

e. Increases ability to understand other’s perspectives and expand

child’s mental world.

- The child’s thought is egocentrism (self-focused) that is, they see

things pretty much from their point of view and are not able to

appreciate other’s point of view.

- Children because of egocentrism engage in animism, thinking that all

things are living, like oneself. They attribute lifelike qualities to

inanimate objects. For example, if a child slips while running on the

road, he/she may show animism by saying that ‘road hurt me’.

- Children’s thought at the pre-operational stage is characterized by

centration that is focusing on a single characteristic or feature for

understanding an event. For example, they may not understand you

when you tell them “Your father is my husband.” Or they may say

things like “I don’t live in the USA; I live in Pennsylvania!” the most

famous example of the pre-operational child’s centrism is what Piaget

refers to as their inability to conserve liquid volume. For example, a

child may insist on drinking a big glass of juice, preferring a tall

 narrow glass to a short, broad one, even though both might be holding

the same amount of juice.

iii. Concrete operational

- Middle and Late Childhood- Starts at 7 years of age and lasts up to 11

years.

- During this stage, the child has an ability that allows him/her to do actions

mentally what was done physically before. In one test, the child is

presented with two identical balls of clay. One ball is rolled by the

experimenter into a long thin strip and the other ball remains in its original

shape. On being asked, what has more clay? A child of 7 or 8 years would

answer that both have the same clay. This is because a child imagines the

ball being rolled into a thin strip and a ball. As the child imagines

reversible mental actions on concrete/ real objects.

- Concrete operations allow a child to focus on different characteristics and

not focus on one aspect of the object. This helps the child to appreciate

that there are many perspectives to look at things, which also results in the

decline of egocentrism.

- Thinking at this stage becomes more flexible and children can think about

alternatives when solving problems. They also can-do abstract thinking,

i.e., manipulate ideas in the absence of solutions. For example, they can

imagine a line of latitude or longitude across the earth.

iv. Formal Operational Stage (11-15 years)

5. Socio-emotional Development-

i. The important dimensions of children’s socioemotional development- self,

gender, and moral development.

ii. The child due to socialisation has developed a sense of who s/he is and whom

s/he wants to be identified with.

iii. The way parents respond to their self-initiated activities leads to developing a

sense of initiative or sense of guilt.

iv. Self-understanding in early childhood is limited to defining oneself through

physical characteristics.

v. During middle and late childhood, the child is likely to define oneself through

internal characteristics.

vi. Children’s self-understanding also includes social comparison.

vii. The increased time that children spend with their peers shapes their

development.

6. Moral Development:
i. The way children come to distinguish right from wrong, to feel guilty, to put

themselves in other people’s position, and to help others when they are in

trouble, are all components of moral development.

ii. A child before the age of 9 thinks in terms of external authority.

iii. As they reach adolescence,

iv. As they grow, they develop personal moral code. they develop moral

reasoning through rules set by others.

Challenges of Adolescence

Age ranges from 12- 18 years.

1. Onset of puberty / sexual maturity is attained.

2. Physical development-

i. Development of primary sexual characteristics.

ii. Development of secondary sexual characters.

iii. Puberty in boys is characterized by an acceleration in growth, facial hair, and

change in voice and height.

iv. Puberty in girls is marked by menarche, which is the onset of menstruation,

the rapid growth of height, etc.

3. Psychological changes-
 i. An increase in interest in members of the opposite sex and in sexual matters

and a new awareness of sexual feelings develops.

ii. The development of a sexual identity defines the sexual orientation and guides

sexual behaviour.

iii. Adolescents are preoccupied with what they are like and develop individual

images of what they look like.

4. Cognitive development changes-

i. Adolescents’ thought becomes more abstract, logical, and idealistic.

ii. Due to their developing reasoning skills, they reach a new level of cognitive

and social awareness.

iii. Formal operational thought (appears during 11 years – 15 years continues to

adulthood)

- From concrete to abstract thinking.

- Their thinking is also very idealistic. They begin to think about ideal

characteristics about themselves and others and then compare themselves

and others with these standards. For example, they may have an ideal

standard of a parent, to which they compare them. This may at times,

create problems for them.

- In formal operational children’s thinking becomes more systematic in

solving problems, they think of possible course of action, why something

is happening the way it’s and systematically seek a solution. We often call

this hypothetical thinking.

iv. Abstract and idealistic thinking.

v. Hypothetical deductive reasoning- More systematic in problem solving.

vi. Development of moral reasoning.

 vii. Egocentrism-

- Imaginary audience.

- Personal fable.

5. Forming an Identity-

i. Quest to define self or search for identity.

ii. Go through a detachment process.

iii. Identity confusion.

iv. The formation of identity during adolescence is influenced by- the cultural

background, family and societal values, ethnic background, and

socioeconomic status.

v. Decreased interaction with parents and increased interaction with peers.

vi. Vocational commitment.

6. Some major concerns-

i. Peer pressure.

ii. Substance abuse.

iii. periods of uncertainty, loneliness, self-doubt, anxiety, and concern about

themselves and their future,

iv. Delinquency.

v. Eating disorders.

Adulthood

1. An adult is generally defined as someone who is responsible, mature, self-supporting,

and well-integrated into society.

2. The assumption of adult roles is directed by an individual’s social context.

 3. Early adulthood (early twenties)- exploring the possibilities for adult living and

developing a stable life structure.

4. Transition from dependence to independence.

5. Career and work become important.

6. Marriage, Parenthood, and Family

7. Physical changes during Middle Ages are caused by maturational changes in the body.

8. decline in vision, sensitivity to glare, hearing loss and changes in physical appearance.

9. Decline in memory is more in tasks involving long-term memory than short-term

memory.

Old Age

1. Definition of old age depends on person to person.

2. The experience of old age also depends on the socio-economic conditions, availability

of health care, attitude of people, expectations of society and the available support

system.

3. Older adults also need to adjust to changes in the family structure and new roles.

4. In old age feeling of loss of energy, and dwindling of health and financial assets, to

insecurity and dependency.

5. Death and its understanding.