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Human development
Dr Madhuranga Agampody
What is Human Development?
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It is a pattern of movement and change
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Some things change
Some things stay the same
Movement & change include growth,
transition, and decline.
Developmental psychology
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Developmental psychology is the
scientific study of systematic psychological
changes, emotional changes, and
perception changes that occur in human
beings over the course of their life span.
Originally concerned with infants and
children, the field has expanded to include
adolescence, adult development, aging,
and the entire life span.
Processes in Development
The Lifespan Perspective
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History
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Studied child development since about 1900.
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Studied adult development since about 1960.
The reason for the difference is cultural
change & increased longevity (life
expectancy).
Life Expectancy Changes
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Lifespan, the maximum number of years a
human being could live (about 120 years)
remains relatively constant.
Life expectancy, the number of years a
person can expect to live when born in a
certain place in a certain year, changes.
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U.S., 1900 47 years
U.S., 2005, 77 years (30 year increase)
What are the characteristics of the
lifespan perspective?
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Multidimensional
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Multidirectional
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Biological
Cognitive
Socioemotional
Growth and decline
Plastic
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Potential for change
Lifespan Research is Multidisciplinary
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Where did this information come from?
Research and study in many fields of
endeavor including psychology, sociology,
anthropology, education, and medicine.
What types of influences form the
context of development?
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Normative age-graded (cultural)
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Normative history-graded (historical)
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e.g., puberty, graduation, retirement
e.g., war, famine, earthquakes, terrorism
Non-normative life events & conditions
(personal)
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Individual experiences, biology, personality
What types of influences form
the context of development?
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Worldview – View of Human Nature
Historical Views of Human Nature
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Prevailing views of children (human nature)
throughout history?
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Preformationism
Original Sin
Tabula Rasa
Innate Goodness
How does each view affect child-rearing
practices?
Historical View: Preformationism
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Time: 6th 15th Centuries
View: Children are basically small adults
without unique needs and characteristics.
Effect: Little or no need for special
treatment
Historical View - Original Sin
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Time: 16th Century (Puritan)
View: Children are born sinful and more
apt to grow up to do evil than good.
Effect: Parents must discipline children to
ensure morality and ultimate salvation.
Historical View - Tabula Rasa
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Time: 17th Century, philosopher John
Locke (behaviorist)
View: Children are born “blank slates”
and parents can train them in any
direction they wish (with little resistance).
Effect: Shaping children’s behavior by
reward and punishment.
Historical View – Innate Goodness
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Time: 18th Century, philosopher Jean
Jacque Rousseau (humanist)
View: Children are “noble savages” who
are born with an innate sense of morality.
Effect: Parents should not try to mold
them at all.
What are the issues of
developmental psychology?
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Nature vs. nurture
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Stability vs. change
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Continuity vs. discontinuity
Issue 1: Nature/nurture
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Nature = biological inheritance (genetics)
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Nurture = all experience
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Rousseau (humanists)
Locke (tabula rasa)
Is that all there is? (Is it neither?)
Are they separable? Is it both?
What is epigenetic theory?
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Interaction of nature and nurture
Issue 2: Stability/change
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When characteristics are biologically
inherited or the result of early
experiences, can they be changed?
(This is the issue of plasticity again.)
Are the effects of early and late
experiences equal, or are early ones more
important (or later ones)?
Issue 3: Continuity/discontinuity
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Did the change happen suddenly or
gradually (first step; first word)?
Is there a marker event?
Does the old resemble the new
(butterfly)?
What does age have to do with it?
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How many ways can we conceptualize (think
about) age?
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Chronological age: years since birth
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Biological age: health; vital organ capacity
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Psychological age: adaptable; learning;
flexible; good judgment
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Social age: roles, expectations
What are the periods (age groups) of
development?
These are not standard across textbooks.
However, they roughly agree.
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Prenatal - conception to birth
Infancy – birth to about 2 years
Early childhood – about ages 2-6 (preschool)
Middle & late childhood – about ages 6-11
Adolescence – ages 10-12 or puberty until about
ages 18-22 or independence
What are the periods (age groups) of
development?
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Early adulthood – ages 20/25 – 40/45
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Middle adulthood – ages 40/45 – 60/65
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Late adulthood – ages 60/65 on
 Young old: 65-84
 Oldest old: 85+
To what extent are we becoming
an age-irrelevant society?
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People‘s lives are more varied.
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We have a loose “social clock.”
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The frequency of reported happiness is
about the same for all ages. (78%)
Five Theories (Perspectives) of
Development
Psychological
 Psychoanalytic (Freud)
 Cognitive
 Behavioral and Social Cognitive
Other
 Ethological
 Ecological
Psychoanalytic Theory:
Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
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Eight psychosocial stages in the lifespan
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Trust v. mistrust
Autonomy v. shame/doubt
Initiative v. guilt
Industry v. inferiority
Identity v. confusion
Intimacy v. isolation
Generativity v. stagnation
Integrity v. despair
Erikson’s Theory
Stage
Age
Psychosexua
l
Psychosocial
Crisis
Virtue
Danger
Infancy
to age 2
Oral/ Sensory
Trust vs. Mistrust
Hope
Withdrawal
Early
2-3
Muscular/ Anal
Autonomy vs.
Shame
Will
Compulsion/
Play Age
3-5
Locomotor/
Initiative vs. Guilt
Purpose
Inhibition
School Age
6-12
Latency
Industry vs.
Inferiority
Competence
Inertia
Puberty
Identity vs.
Identity
Confusion
Fidelity
Role Repudiation
Adolescence
12-18
Young
19-35
Intimacy vs.
Isolation
Love
Exclusivity
Adulthood
35-65
Generativity
vs.Stagnatio
n
Care
Rejectivity
Wisdom
Disdain
Old Age
after 65
Integrity vs.
Despair
Freudian Stages
Cognitive Theories (1960s)
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Emphasize thinking, reasoning, language
Jean Piaget: Swiss (1896-1980)
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Lev Vygotsky: Russian
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Children actively construct understanding
Four stages
Knowledge is constructed through interaction
with other people
Information Processing
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Analogy between human brain & computer
Piaget’s Stages
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According to Piaget, children progress through four
distinct cognitive stage
1.
Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
2.
Preoperations (2-7 years)
3.
Concrete Operations (7-12 years)
4.
Formal Operations (12 and up)
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As a child progresses to a new stage, his/her
thinking is qualitatively different
Piaget’s Stages cont..
Sensorimotor
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Understand the world through senses and motor
actions
Develop object permanence – the idea that an object
still exists even if it can’t be seen
Preoperative (“before logic”)
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Symbolic thought – ability to use words, images, and
symbols to represent the world
Thinking is egocentric (the inability to take another
person’s perspective)
Cont….
Concrete Operations
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Can do logical operations
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Understand reversibility
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Can do conservation – two equal quantities remain equal
even if the appearance of one has changed
Formal Operations:
 Can do abstract & hypothetical reasoning
Piaget’s Four Stages of
Cognitive Development
Information-Processing Theory
culture
literature
science
INPUT
history
religion
math
OUTPUT
Behavioral Theories
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Ivan Pavlov: Classical Conditioning
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Pair a neutral stimulus (CS)with a stimulus
(UCS) that automatically produces a response
(UCR).
John B. Watson: Emotional responses can be
classically conditioned (Little Albert).
B. F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning
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Behavior followed by a reward is more likely
to occur again; punished behavior is less likely
to occur again.
Key terms
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Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS or US)
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Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
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Biologically relevant stimulus, that without
prior learning elicits an….
Neutral stimulus that with many CS – US
pairing elicits a
Conditioned Response (CR)
S-S and S-R
US
CS
UR
Social-cognitive Theories
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Albert Bandura: Most social behaviors are
learned by observing others, including
anger, cruelty, and kindness.
Reciprocal determinism: behavior, the
environment, and the person (and their
cognitions) mutually influence each other.
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model
Ethological Theory
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Based on study of animal behavior
Considers the influence of
biology/evolution
Considers critical or sensitive periods
Konrad Lorenz: imprinting-rapid, innate
learning
John Bowlby: attachment
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Imprinting is the term used in psychology and
ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive
learning (learning occurring at a particular age
or a particular life stage) that is rapid and
apparently independent of the consequences of
behavior. It was first used to describe situations
in which an animal or person learns the
characteristics of some stimulus, which is
therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the
subject.
Innate - native
Ecological Theory
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Urie Bronfenbrenner
Emphasizes environmental concepts
Microsystem: daily life
Mesosystem: relates microsystems
Exosystem: influences from other social
systems
Macrosystem: culture
Chronosystem: (time) personal/social history
Review of Theories
Why would you want to know
about development?
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Life planning and coping.
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To
To
To
To
anticipate events and changes
avoid known pitfalls
understand what is happening to you
help others in the same ways
Why would we collectively want to know
about human development?
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How do we apply the results of research on lifespan
development?
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Parenting advice, self-help, public information.
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Designing educational programs.
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Business & economic planning (e.g., insurance sales,
marketing,) .
Social policy decisions (e.g., laws on marriage, city
planning, social programs such as welfare, social security,
Medicare).
Social Policy Example: Does the government
have/spend adequate social welfare
resources on children?
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Statistical Facts
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15% of US children (almost 50% of ethnic minority
children) will be raised in poverty including increased
risk for stress from violence, crowding, poor housing,
family turmoil, etc.
Social values, beliefs, and priorities.
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Parenting and nurturing the next generation of children
is our society‘s most important function and we need to
take it more seriously than we have in the past.
Marian Edelman (Children‘s Defense Fund, 2004)
Social Policy Examples
Competing needs and priorities lead to
research questions?
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40-50% of US children can expect to spend at
least 4-5 years in a single-parent home.
Drug-use and AIDS are still problems
Older adults need more medical care
Generational inequity
Data
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Where do we get our data?
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What information are we going to believe?
What are the techniques of
collecting data?
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Observation
Survey/interview: asking questions
Standardized Tests
Physiological Measures
Case Study
Life-history records
What are the techniques of
collecting data?
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Observation
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Laboratory
Naturalistic
People act/react differently when they know
they are being watched.
What are the techniques of
collecting data?
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Survey/interview: asking questions
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Unstructured/open-ended
Structured, quantitative
Ask the right questions of the right people.
What are the techniques of
collecting data?
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Standardized tests: comparison of
performance with others
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Remember tests are cultural and they do not
predict behavior in non-test situations.
You may also have difficulty finding a test
that measures your variable of interest.
What are the techniques of
collecting data?
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Physiological measures: hormones in
blood; neurological measures (PET; fMRI)
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Remember there is never a one-to-one
relationship between a physiological measure
and a psychological state.
What are the techniques of
collecting data?
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Case study: intensive, in-depth study of a
single case as with a physician-patient or
therapist-patient relationship. Good for
gaining insight.
Life-history records: education, work,
medical, family
Research Designs
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Descriptive – includes more detail
Correlational – numbers show strength &
direction of relationship
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Used for prediction
Ranges from -1.00 to +1.00 (+ is direct; - is
inverse)
Remember: correlation does not equal
causation
Practical Critical Thinking
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1. Stop to think.
2. Theories are not proven facts.
3. Findings of research can be misinterpreted.
4. Correlations are not evidence of causation.
5. Be very suspicious of politicized research.
6. Beware journalistic media as a source of
presentation of scientific findings.
7. Always ask whether the topic is more likely a
law or principle rather than a social convention.