INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
WHY DO WE STUDY
THIS SUBJECT?
■ Human Development – Scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout
the human life span.
■ Life Span Development – Concept of human development as a lifelong process, which
can be studied scientifically.

Systematic

Coherent
Development and
Organized
is Adaptive
EARLY APPROACHES
■ Baby Biographies
■ Charles Darwin’s publication 1877
■ 19th century – scientific development, mystery of conception, Nature and Nurture,
germs and immunisation, Laws protecting children
■ Stanley Hall, Adolescence

At present –
Goals – Description, Explanation, Prediction and Modification of Behavior/Intervention
 DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT

Physical Cognitive
Developme Developme
nt nt

Psychosoci
al
Developme
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PERIODS OF LIFESPAN
PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
1. Development involves change
■ Growth – quantitative change
■ Development – qualitative change
■ Goal – self realization/achievement of genetic potentials
■ Types:
– Change in size
– Change in proportions
– Disappearance of old features
– Appearance of new features
■ Attitude towards the change
– Children usually welcome change
– Attitude is influenced by – awareness, how it affects their behavior, social attitude, cultural
attitude
2. Early development is more critical than later development
■ Conditions affecting early development
– Favorable interpersonal relations
– Emotional states
– Child-training methods Criteria for
– Early role-playing readiness to learn:
– Childhood family structure • Interest
• Sustained
– Environmental stimulation
interest
■ Important in adjustment • Improvement

3. Development is the product of maturation and learning

■ Intrinsic Maturating – unfolding of characteristics potentially present in the individual that come
from individual’s genetic endowment
■ Phylogenetic function – fns. Common to the race
■ Ontogenetic functions – fns. Specific to the individual – training is important
■ Learning – development that comes from exercise and effort
4. Developmental pattern is predictable

■ Laws of directional sequence of development

– Cephalocaudal law – development spreads over the body from head to Foot
– Proximodistal law – development precedes from near to far – outward from central axis

■ Practical significance of predicting development

– To understand maturation
– Educational planning
– Preparation for next stage
– Vocational planning
– adoption
5. Developmental pattern has predictable characteristics
■ All children follow similar developmental pattern with one stage leading to the next
■ Development proceeds from general to specific patterns
■ Development is continuous
■ Different areas develop at different rates

6. There are individual differences in development

■ Every person is indeed biologically and genetically different from every other
■ No two people have identical environmental influences
■ Consistency within patterns
7. There are periods in the developmental pattern
■ Periods of equilibrium and disequilibrium
– Equilibrium – child makes good adjustments (2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years)
– Disequilibrium – disrupted adjustment (1 ½ years, 2 ½ years, 3 ½ years, 4 ½ years, 5
½ years)
– Between 6 years to puberty equilibrium prevails
■ Normal versus ‘problem’ behavior
– During every period, some normal behaviors are labelled as ‘problematic’ by parents
and teachers as they do not confound to adult standards
8. There are social expectations for every developmental period
■ Social expectation are known as ‘Developmental Tasks’
– They act as guidelines
– Motivating forces
– May indicate immediate and future expectations
■ Failure in mastering developmental tasks – feeling inferior and unhappy, social disapproval
and rejection, achieving the next task would be hindered
9. Every area of development has potential hazards
■ Hazards can be from self or from the envt.
■ Forewarning of hazards is important

10. Happiness varies at different periods in development

■ Most of the parts of babyhood – happy period
■ It will be unhappy phase – for unwanted, neglected and mistreated children
■ Happiness of young childhood is determined by family envt.
■ Puberty – not a very happy period for many
■ Happy children are - healthy and energetic, involve in purposeful activities, show cheerful
expressions, gives strong motivation, accepts frustration calmly, encourages social
activities, it becomes a habit and lays the foundation for success.
FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT
■ Heredity, Environment, and Maturation
■ Heredity: inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents
■ Environments : the world outside the self beginning in the womb, and the learning that
comes from experience.
■ Maturation: Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes.
■ Contexts of Development
■ Family – nuclear family, extended family and joint family
■ Socioeconomic Status and Neighbourhood - family income and the educational and
occupational levels of the adults in the household
■ Culture and Race/Ethnicity
■ Culture refers to a society’s or group’s total way of life, including customs, traditions, laws,
knowledge, beliefs, values, language, and physical products, from tools to artworks—all of
the behavior and attitudes that are learned, shared, and transmitted among members of a
social group.
■ Culture is constantly changing, often through contact with other cultures.
■ An ethnic group consists of people united by a distinctive culture, ancestry, religion,
language, and/or national origin, all of which contribute to a sense of shared identity and
shared attitudes, beliefs, and values.
■ Most ethnic groups trace their roots to a country of origin, where they or their forebears
shared a common culture that continues to influence their way of life.
PAUL B. BALTES’S LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
Baltes et al (1987) have identified seven key principles of a life-span developmental approach

1. Development is lifelong.
■ Each period of the life span is affected by what happened before and will affect what is to
come. Each period has unique characteristics and value; no period is more or less
important than any other.

2. Development is multidimensional. It occurs along multiple interacting

dimensions—biological, psychological, and social—each of which may develop at varying
rates.

3. Development is multidirectional.
As people gain in one area, they may lose in another, sometimes at the same time.
4. Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span.
■ The process of development is influenced by both biology and culture, but the balance between
these influences changes.
■ Biological abilities, such as sensory acuity and muscular strength and coordination, weaken with age,
but cultural supports, such as education, relationships, and technologically age-friendly
environments, may help compensate.

5. Development involves changing resource allocations.

■ Individuals choose to invest their resources of time, energy, talent, money, and social support in
varying ways.
■ Resources may be used for growth (for example, learning to play an instrument or improving one’s
skill), for maintenance or recovery (practicing to maintain or regain proficiency), or for dealing with
loss when maintenance and recovery are not possible.

6. Development shows plasticity.

■ Many abilities, such as memory, strength, and endurance, can be improved significantly with training
and practice, even late in life.

7. 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.
THEORIES
Theory of Psychosocial
Development (Erik Erikson)
■ Erikson believed that each life stage has a unique
challenge that the person who reaches it must face.
■ And according to Erikson, successful development
involves dealing with and resolving the goals and
demands of each of the life stages in a positive way.
■ The successful outcome of each stage results in
development of a virtue or strength.
 Age Critical Theme Description Virtue
Birth to 12 to Trust versus Baby develops Hope
18 months sense of whether
mistrust
the world is good
and safe place
18 months to Autonomy versus Child develops a Will
3 years balance of
shame/doubt
independence and
self-sufficiency over
shame and doubt
3 to 6 years Initiative Child develops initiative when Purpose
trying out new activities and if
versus guilt
not overwhelmed by guilt
6 years to Industry Child must learn skills of culture Skill
puberty or face feelings of
versus
incompetence
inferiority

Puberty to Identity Adolescent must determine Fidelity

young own sense of self or experience
versus role
adulthood confusion about roles
confusion
Young Intimacy Person seeks to make Love
adulthoo commitments to others; if
versus
d unsuccessful, may suffer from
isolation isolation and self-absorption

Middle Generativity Mature adult is concerned with Care

adulthoo establishing and guiding the next
versus
d generation or else feels personal
stagnation impoverishment

Late Ego integrity Elderly person achieves wisdom

adulthoo acceptance of own life, allowing
versus
d acceptance of death, or else
despair despairs over inability to relieve
life
PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

■ Piaget (1896 - 1980)

■ Swiss Psychologist, worked for several decades on understanding
children’s cognitive development
■ Was intrigued by kids’ thoughts & behavior & worked to
understand their cognitive development
 ■ Central assumption -
■ Best known for idea that individuals construct their understanding, that
learning is a constructive process
■ Assumption that learning is an active process of construction rather than
a passive assimilation of information or rote memorization.
■ Children are active thinkers who are constantly trying to construct more
accurate or advanced understanding of the world around them
■ The child is seen as a ‘little scientist’ constructing understandings of the
world largely alone

Piaget & Learning

■ Two main states – equilibrium & disequilibrium
■ Believed that we are driven or motivated to learn when we are in
disequilibrium
– We want to understand things
■ Equilibration: assimilation & accommodation
■ We adjust our ideas to make sense of reality
■ Children build knowledge through

Constructivis
m

Assimilation
Adding more information to the
schema (a framework for holding
knowledge and organizing it)
Accommodation
Modification of existing concepts or
mental frameworks in response to
new information or new
recognizable dimensions of the
external world
■ Believed that all children develop according to four stages based on how
they see the world.
– He thought the age may vary some, but that we all go through the
stages in the same order.

1. Sensorimotor (birth –2 years)

2. Preoperational (~2-7)
3. Concrete operational (~7-11)
4. Formal operations (~12-15)
■ Birth to about 2 years, rapid change is seen throughout
■ The child will:
– Explore the world through senses & motor activity
– Infant gradually becomes able to organize activates in relation to the
environment through sensory and motor activity (seeing, hearing, touching,
and tasting)
– Early on, baby can’t tell difference between themselves & the environment
– Begin to understand cause & effect - infants gradually learn that there is a
relationship between their actions and the external world
– Basic cause and effect (shaking their legs when in crib will move suspended
toys)
– Circular reaction – baby learns to reproduce desired occurrences originally
discovered by chance
– discover that they can manipulate objects and product effects.
– Can later follow something with their eyes
– Initially -If they can’t see something then it doesn’t exist
■ Object permanence – understanding that a person or
object still exists when out of sight (after 8 months
months)
■ About 2 to about 7
■ Better speech communication - babies acquire the ability to form mental images of objects and
events; language develops to the point at which a young child begins to think in terms of verbal
symbols—words
■ Can imagine the future & reflect on the past
■ Develop basic numerical abilities
■ symbolic play - they pretend that one object is another; marked by 3 shifts – decentration (gradually
making others as recipients), decontextualization(objects can be substituted) and integration
(combining play activities into increasingly complex sequence)
■ Still pretty egocentric (difficulty understanding that others may perceive the world differently than
they do), but learning to be able to delay gratification
■ lack understanding of relational terms such as lighter, larger, softer; lack a grasp of seriation—the
ability to arrange objects in order along some dimension.
■ Decentarion – making others as recipients
■ Decontextualization – objects are made to substitute
for each other (box as car)
■ Integration- combining play acts into increasingly
complex sequences (eg- collecting cars to racing or
taxi services)
■ Thinking is inflexible, illogical and fragmented
■ Ego centrism – inability to understand that others may
perceive the world differently
■ Can’t understand conservation of matter - knowledge
that certain physical attributes of an object remain
unchanged even though the outward appearance of
the object is altered
■ Conservation of matter – understanding that something
doesn’t change even though it looks different, shape is not
related to quantity
– Ex: Are ten coins set in a long line more than ten coins in
a pile?
– Ex: Is there less water if it is poured into a bigger
container?
■ Has difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality (ex: cartoon
characters are real people).
■ From about 7 to about 11
– can solve the simple problems
– mastery of conservation
– gain understanding of relational terms and seriation
– reversibility—the fact that many physical changes can be
undone by a reversal of the original action
– Logical thinking
– Abstract reasoning ability & ability to generalize from the
concrete increases towards the end
■ From about 12 to about 15
– Be able to think about hypothetical situations
– Form & test hypotheses
– Organize information
– Reason scientifically
■ Development happens from one stage to another through
interaction with the environment.

■ Changes from stage to stage may occur abruptly and kids will
differ in how long they are in each stage.

■ Cognitive development can only happen after genetically

controlled biological growth occurs .
■ LEARNING THEORIES –
■ development results from learning , a long lasting change in behavior based on
experience or adaptation to the environment
■ Two kinds of associative learning are classical conditioning and operant conditioning
■ Classical Conditioning - classical conditioning, in which a response (in this case,
salivation) to a stimulus (the bell) is evoked after repeated association with a stimulus
that normally elicits the response (food)
■ Watson – application – Little Albert Experiment
■ Operant Conditioning - BF Skinner – Reinforcement (behavior is strengthened)–
Punishment
■ ABC – Antecedent Behavior Consequence
■ Behavior Modification
■ Social Learning Theory – Albert Bandura
■ Reciprocal determinism —the person acts on the world as the world acts on the person.
■ Learning from - observing and imitating models
■ choice of a model depends on the consequences of the model’s behavior
■ Modelling – important to- learn a language, deal with aggression, develop a moral sense,
and learn gender-appropriate behaviors
■ Updated version – Social Cognition Theory
LEV VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
■ The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky - focused on the social and cultural processes
that guide children’s cognitive development.
■ It stresses children’s active engagement with their environment and cognitive growth
is seen as a collaborative process.
■ Social interactions help internalize their society’s modes of thinking and behaving and
make those folkways their own
■ language —not merely as an expression of knowledge and thought but as an essential
means to learning and thinking about the world
■ adults or more advanced peers must help direct and organize a child’s learning before
the child can master and internalize it – in order to deal with Zone of Proximal
Development
■ ZPD - the gap between what they are already able to do and what they are not quite
ready to accomplish by themselves
■ Responsibility for directing and monitoring learning gradually shifts to the child
gradually
■ Scaffolding - temporary support that parents, teachers, or others give a child in doing
a task until the child can do it alone.
 Mastering
a Task
Scaffoldin
g
ZPD
BRONFENBRENNER ECOLOGICAL THEORY

■ Urie Bronfenbrenner was a Russian born

American developmental psychologist who is most known
for his ecological systems theory of child development
■ Contextual perspective- development can be understood only in its social context
■ This theory present the child development within the context of relationship system
that comprise the Child environment

■ Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory identifies five levels of environmental influence,

ranging from very intimate to very broad:
– Microsystem
– Mesosystem
– Exosystem
– Macrosystem
– Chronosystem
■ A microsystem is the everyday environment of home, school, work, or neighborhood, including face-to-
face relationships with spouse, children, parents, friends, classmates, teachers, employers, or
colleagues. How does a new baby affect the parents’ lives? How do male professors’ attitudes affect a
young woman’s performance in college?

■ The mesosystem is the interlocking of various microsystems—linkages between home and school, work
and neighborhood. How does a bitterly contested divorce affect a person’s performance at work? How
does unhappiness on the job affect a parent-child relationship?
■ The exosystem consists of linkages between a microsystem and outside systems or
institutions that affect a person indirectly. How does a community’s transit system affect
job opportunities? Does television programming that may encourage criminal behavior
make people less secure in their homes?

■ The macrosystem consists of overarching cultural patterns, such as dominant beliefs,

ideologies, and economic and political systems. How is an individual affected by living in a
capitalist or socialist society?

■ The chronosystem adds the dimension of time: change or constancy in the person and
the environment. This can include changes in family structure, place of residence, or
employment, as well as larger cultural changes such as wars and economic cycles.
ATTACHMENT THEORY

■ Attachment - reciprocal, enduring emotional tie between an infant and a caregiver, each
of whom contributes to the quality of the relationship.
■ Attachments have adaptive value for babies, ensuring that their psychosocial as well as
physical needs will be met
■ Ethological theories - Infants and parents are biologically predisposed to become
attached to each other, and attachment promotes a baby’s survival
■ The study of attachment owes much to the ethologist John Bowlby (1951), a pioneer in the
study of bonding in animals.
■ Based on his studies Bowlby became convinced of the importance of the mother-baby
bond and warned against separating mother and baby without providing good substitute
care
■ Bowlby’s Attachment Theory:
■ Attachment theory - parental relationships have such a powerful impact on the
personality of children
■ Created by John Bowlby in the 1940s, and made testable by Mary Ainsworth
■ Based on observations of children who had been separated from their parents in wartime-
England
■ Core idea - children who are deprived of basic socio‐emotional, relational needs grow up
to become deficient in their own relationships - the intergenerational transmission
■ children are born with a psycho‐biological system, the so‐called attachment behavioral
system that motivates them to seek or maintain proximity to an attachment figure
■ The attachment figure is usually a primary caregiver, who is identified by the child as
protecting the child from threat.
■ Proximity‐seeking is thus an inborn or instinctual affect‐regulation mechanism

• Proximity‐seeking – wants to be with

the attachment figure,
The attachment • Secure base - derives comfort and
behavoral system security from the attachment figure
rests on several • Separation - protests when the
important claims attachment figure is unavailable
■ Mary Ainsworth in the early 1950s, attempted to study attachment in African babies in
Uganda through naturalistic observation in their homes

Strange Situation -
laboratory-based The Strange Situation
Sample – Mothers and
technique designed to consists of a sequence
infants of 10-24 months
assess attachment of episodes and takes
old
patterns between an less than half an hour.
infant and an adult.

the mother twice leaves the baby in an unfamiliar Room:

the first time with a stranger, second time she leaves the
baby alone, and the baby’s response each
time
the stranger comes back before the mother does.
the mother returns was
The mother then encourages the baby to explore and noted
play again and gives comfort if the baby seems to need it

Secure attachment
Two forms of anxious, or insecure, attachment:
Avoidant
Ambivalent, or resistant
 • They cry or protest when the mother leaves and greet her
Secure happily when she returns.
Attachme • They use her as a secure base, leaving her to go off and explore
but returning occasionally for reassurance.
nt • They are usually cooperative and relatively free of anger.

• They rarely cry when the mother leaves but avoid her on her
return.
Avoidant • They tend to be angry and do not reach out in time of need.
• They dislike being held but dislike being put down even more.

• They become anxious even before the mother leaves and are
Ambivalen very upset when she goes out.
• When she returns, they show their ambivalence by seeking
t, or contact with her while at the same time resisting it by kicking or
Resistant squirming.
• Resistant babies do little exploration and are hard to comfort
■ Main & Solomon, 1986 has identified a fourth attachment pattern, disorganized-
disoriented attachment
■ Babies with this pattern seem to lack an organized strategy to deal with the stress of the
Strange Situation.
■ Instead, they show contradictory, repetitive, or misdirected behaviors
■ Eg. seeking closeness to the stranger instead of the mother
■ They may greet the mother brightly when she returns but then turn away or approach
without looking at her.
■ They seem confused and afraid.
■ This may be the least secure pattern.
■ It is most likely to occur in babies whose mothers are insensitive, intrusive, or abusive or
have suffered unresolved loss
KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
■ As children attain higher cognitive levels, they become capable of more complex
reasoning about moral issues.
■ Their tendencies toward altruism and empathy increase as well.
■ Heinz’s problem is the most famous example of Lawrence Kohlberg’s approach to
studying moral development.

Heinz’s Dilemma: A woman is near death from cancer. A druggist has discovered
a drug that doctors believe might save her. The druggist is charging $2,000
for a small dose—10 times what the drug costs him to make. The sick woman’s
husband, Heinz, borrows from everyone he knows but can scrape together only
$1,000. He begs the druggist to sell him the drug for $1,000 or let him pay the rest
later. The druggist refuses, saying, “I discovered the drug and I’m going to make
money from it.” Heinz, desperate, breaks into the man’s store and steals the drug.
Should Heinz have done that? Why or why not? (Kohlberg, 1969).

■ By asking respondents how they arrived at their answers to such dilemmas, Kohlberg
concluded that the way people look at moral issues reflects cognitive development.
■ Kohlberg’s Levels and Stages - On the basis of thought processes shown by responses
to his dilemmas, Kohlberg (1969) described three levels of moral reasoning, each
divided into two stages

Level I: Preconventional morality.

People act under external controls.
They obey rules to avoid punishment or reap rewards, or they act out of self-interest.
This level is typical of children ages 4 to 10.

Level II: Conventional morality (or morality of conventional role conformity).

People have internalized the standards of authority figures.
They are concerned about being “good,” pleasing others, and maintaining the social
order.
This level is typically reached after age 10; many people never move beyond it, even in
adulthood.

Level III: Postconventional morality (or morality of autonomous moral principles).

People recognize conflicts between moral standards and make their own judgments on the
basis of principles of right, fairness, and justice.
People generally do not reach this level of moral reasoning until at least early adolescence, or
more commonly in young adulthood, if ever.
■ Freud's Psychosexual Developmental Theory

■ Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory

■ Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory
■ Behavioral Child Development Theories
■ Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
■ Bowlby's Attachment Theory
■ Bandura's Social Learning Theory
■ Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
Thank You