Human Development
tasks mastered for typical development to
 Focuses on the scientific study of the systematic
processes of change and stability in people and
throughout the human life span.
 Goals include description, explanation,
prediction, and intervention.
Life-span Development
 “Womb to womb”
 Comprising the entire human life span from
conception to death.
 Lifelong process which can be studied
scientifically.
Development
 Can either be positive or negative.
Three Major Domains of the Self:
1. Physical Development
 Growth of body and brain, including
patterns of change in sensory
capacities, motor skills, and health.
 Physical development affects cognitive
and psychosocial development.
2. Cognitive Development
 Pattern of change in mental abilities,
such as learning, attention, memory,
language, thinking, reasoning and
creativity.
 Cognitive advances and declines are
related to physical and psychosocial
development.
3. Psychosocial Development
 Pattern of change in emotions,
personality and social relationships.
 Psychosocial development can affect
cognitive and physical functioning.
Social Construction
 A concept or practice that may appear natural
and obvious to those who accept it, but that in
reality is an invention of a particular culture or
society.
 There is no objectively definable
moment when a child becomes an adult
or a young person becomes old.
 Certain basic needs must be met and certain
occur.
Individual Differences
 Differences in characteristics, influences, or
developmental outcomes /trajectories.
Heredity
 Nature
 Internal and biological processes.
 Consists of inborn traits or characteristics
inherited from the biological parents.
Environment
 Nurture
 Totality of non-hereditary, or experiential,
influences on development.
Maturation
 Unfolding a natural sequence of physical and
behavioral changes.
Nuclear Family
 Is a household unit consisting of one or two
parents and their children, whether biological,
adopted, or step children.
Extended Family
 Multigenerational kinship network of parents,
children, and other relatives, sometimes living
together in an extended-family household.
Socioeconomic Status
 Combination of economic and social factors
describing an individual of family, including
income, education, and occupation.
Risk Factors
 Conditions that increase the likelihood of a
negative developmental outcome.
Culture
 A society’s or group’s total way of life, including
customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language,
and physical products – all learned behavior,
passed on from parents to children.
 Constantly changing.
Ethnic Group

 A group united by ancestry, race, religion,

language, or national origins, which contribute
to a sense of shared identity.