Human Development: Evolving Field

Monday, 28 August 2023 7:52 pm

- scientific study of processes of change and stability

- Dev research has important applications in various fields

◦ Human Development - focuses on the systematic processes of

change and stability in people
- Process of enlarging people's freedom and opportunities and improving
their well-being.
- All about real-freedom of ordinary people that decides who they want to
be, what to do, and how to live.
- Understand how people grow, develop, and change throughout their
lives

◦ Life-span Development - A concept of human development as a life-

long process, which can be studied scientifically.
- "womb to tomb" compromising the entire life-span from conception to
death.
- Gives individuals a deeper understanding of both themselves and others.
- Studies how humans learn, mature, and adapt from infancy to adulthood
to elder phase of life.

Basic Concepts in Human Development

◦ Physical Development - Growth of the body, sensory capacities, motor

skills, and health.
- Growth and refinement of motor skills, which in other words , it is the
ability to use and control their own bodies.

◦ Cognitive Development- Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as

learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
- How and individual think, explore, and figure things out, which helps
people, especially children to understand more about the world around
them.
- More of the result of biological maturation and environment experiences
- Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
- Allows people to understand the relationships between ideas, to grasp
the process of cause and effect and to improve their analytical skills.

◦ Psychosocial Development- Pattern of change in emotions, personality

and social relationships
- Erikson's eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced
process of development of the ego, or self.
- How person's personality develop. And how social skills are learned from
infancy through adulthood.

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