DEVELOPMENT

ISHAK AY
FHLS/MSU
Why study human
development?
 Understanding how we come to
be the people we are is a critical
step in understanding ourselves
as we are today as well who we
may become as we grow older.
 From the moment of conception,
we are each headed down a
pathway of change, influenced by
our biology, environment, and
social interactions, to a
destination that is the same for
all of us.
 The twists and turns of the
pathway are what make each of
us unique individuals.
 In this topic, we’ll look at the
influences that help determine
our developmental pathway
through life.
Issues In Studying
Human Development
 Human development is the scientific
study of the changes that occur in
people as they age, from conception
until death
 Three special research methods used
in developmental research :
 Longitudinal design
 One group of people is followed and

assessed at different times as the

group ages.
 Cross-sectional design
 Several different age groups are

studied at one time

 Cross-sequential design
 Combination of the longitudinal and

cross-sectional designs.
 Longitudinal design:
 Advantage – looking at real age-
related changes in the same ind.
 Disadvantage – lengthy, costly,
time constrain, loss and death.
 Cross-sectional:
 Adv. – quick, inexpensive, easier
to accomplish.
 Dis. – no longer comparing the
same ind.
Nature vs Nurture

 Nature refers to heredity, the

influence of inherited
characteristics on personality,
physical growth, intellectual
growth, and social interactions.
 Nurture refers to the influence of
environment on all those same
things and includes parenting
styles, physical surroundings,
economic factors, and anything
that can have an influence on
development that does not come
from within the person.
Germinal, embryonic and
fetal periods.
 The germinal period:
 First 2 weeks of pregnancy
 Blastocyst moves down the fallopian
tube into the uterus
 The embryonic period:
 First 2 weeks of after conception and
ends at eight weeks.
 The vital organs and structures of the
baby form during this period.
 The fetal period:
 Begins from ninth week until the birth of
the baby
 Tremendous growth occurs, length and
weight increase, and organs continue
to become fully functional.
Infancy and childhood
development
PHYSICAL CHANGES:
 4 critical areas of adjustment for the
newborn are respiration, digestion,
circulation and temperature regulation.
 Infants are born with reflexes that help
the infant survive until more complex
learning is possible
 These reflexes include sucking,
rooting. Moro (startle), grasping and
Babinski.
 The senses, except for vision, are fairly
well developed at birth.
 Vision is blurry and lacking in full color
perception until about 6 months of age.
 Gross and fine motor skills develop at
a fast pace during infancy and early
childhood.
COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Learning Outcomes

 1. Explain the Piaget’s

theory in cognitive
development

 2. Describe the Piaget’s

Stages of Cognitive
Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
 Piaget’s Theory (Jean Piaget)
 Children form mental concepts or
schemes.
 Children try to understand new
things in term of schemes they
already possess, a process
called assimilation
 The process of altering or
adjusting old schemes to fit new
information and experiences is
accommodation.
Piaget’s Stages of
Cognitive Development
Stage Cognitive Dev.
Sensorimotor children explore the
(birth – 2yrs) world using their
senses and ability to
move. They develop object
permanence and the
understanding that concepts and
images represents
objects, people, and events.

Preoperational Young children can mentally 2

-7 represents and refer to
objects and events with words or
pictures and they can pretend.
However, they can’t conserve, logically
reason, or simultaneously
consider many characteristics of
an object.
Stage Cognitive Dev.
Concrete operational children are able to
7-12 conserve, reverse their
thinking, and classify
objects in terms of their many
characteristics. They can also
think logically and understand
analogies but only about
concrete events.

Formal operational People at this stage can

12 to adulthood use abstract reasoning
about hypothetical events or
situations, think about logical
possibilities, use abstract
analogies, and systematically
examine and test hypotheses.
Not everyone can eventually
reason in all these ways.
Terms used to describe
cognitive development
 Object permanence(sensorimotor)
 The knowledge that an object exists
even when it is not in sight
 Egocentrism (pre-operational)
 The inability to see the world through
anyone else’s eyes.
 Centration (pre-operational)
 The tendency of a young child to focus
only on one feature of an object while
ignoring other relevant features.
 Conservation
 The ability to understand that simply
changing the appearance of an object
does not change the object’s nature
conservation
Check…….

 State the 4 stages of Piaget’s

Cognitive Development.

 Describe what are the abilities

the children can do in these
stages:
 From birth to 2 years old

 From 12 to adulthood
Conclusion…..

 The knowledge on cognitive

development will assist us as a
medical assistant if a child
present to us develop normally or
otherwise.
 Early detection of any
abnormality might help the child
to grow at their pace and will also
help the parent on how to care
for their child.
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky’s Theory

 Stressed the importance of social

interactions with other people,
typically more highly skilled
children and adults.
 Children develop cognitively
when someone else helps them
by asking leading questions and
providing examples of concepts
in a process called scaffolding.
 In, scaffolding, the more highly
skilled person gives the learner
more help at the beginning of the
learning process and then begins
to withdraw helps as the learner’s
skills improve.
Erikson’s psychosocial
stages of childhood
 Stage 1:
 Infant: birth – 1 yr old

 Developmental Crisis:
 Trust vs Mistrust
 babies learn to trust or mistrust
others based on whether or not
their needs-such as food and
comfort- are met.
 Successful dealing with crisis:
 If babies’ needs are met, they
learn to trust people and expect
life to be pleasant.
 Unsuccessful dealing with crisis:
 If not met, they learn not to trust
 Stage 2:
 Toddler: 1 – 3 yrs old
 Developmental Crisis:
 Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt
 Toddlers realize that they can
direct their own behavior
 Successful dealing with crisis:
 If toddlers are successful in
directing their own behavior, they
learn to be independent.
 Unsuccessful dealing with crisis:
 If toddlers’ attempts at being
independent are blocked, they
learn self-doubt and shame for
being unsucessful.
 Stage 3:
 Preschool: 3 – 5 yrs old

 Developmental Crisis:
 Initiative vs Guilt
 Preschoolers are challenged to

control their own behavior, such as

controlling their exuberance when
they are in a restaurant.
 Successful dealing with crisis:
 If succeed in taking responsibility,

they feel capable and develop

initiative.
 Unsuccessful dealing with crisis:
 If fail in taking responsibility, they feel

irresponsible, anxious and guilty.

 Stage 4:
 Elementary school: 5 – 12 yrs old

 Developmental Crisis:
 Industry vs Inferiority
 When children succeed in learning

new skills and obtaining new

knowledge, they develop a sense of
industry, a feeling of competence
arising from their work and effort.
 Successful dealing with crisis:
 Succeed – develop a sense of

industry, feeling of competence and

self-esteem
 Unsuccessful dealing with crisis:
 If fail – feel incompetent, inadequate

and inferior.
Psychosocial development

 The psychological and social

development of infants and
children involves the
development of personality,
relationship, and a sense of
being male and female.
 Although these processes begin
in infancy, they will continue in
many respects well into
adulthood.
 TEMPERAMENT:
1. Easy – schedules, happy, easily
soothed.
2. Difficult – opposite, loud, active,
crabby
3. Slow to warm up – quieter, slow
to adapt to change.
 ATTACHMENT:
 The emotional bond that forms
between an infant and a
primary caregiver.
 Four attachment styles:
 Secure
 Avoidant (unattached)
 Ambivalent (insecurely attached)
 Disorganized-disoriented

 Gender role development:

 Begin to realize at about age 2
 Not knowing the different
behavior expected of male or
female.
 Heavily influenced by cultural
expectations as well as biology,
and referred as gender identity.
Thank
you
ADOLESCENCE
ADOLESCENCE

 Is the period of life from about

age 13 to the early twenties
during which physical
development reaches
completion.
 The clearest sign of the
beginning of adolescence is
“puberty”
 Puberty – the physical changes
in which the sexual organs and
systems fully mature and during
which secondary sex
characteristics such as body hair,
menstruation, deepening voices
and the growth spurt occur.
Cognitive development

 Move into Piaget’s final stage of

formal operations, in which
abstract thinking becomes
possible.
 Although headed into an adult
style of thinking, they are not yet
completely free of egocentric
thought.
 Two ways in which this
adolescent egocentrism emerges
are the personal fable and the
imaginary audience
 Personal fable:
 Feel special, unique one of a
kind.
 Feel somehow protected from
dangers of the world and so do
not take the precautions that they
should.
 This may result in unwanted
pregnancy, severe injury or
death, drinking and driving and
drug use.
 “It can’t happen to me, I’m
special” is a risky but common
thought.
 The Imaginary Audience:
 Extreme self-consciousness in
adolescents
 Convinced that everyone is
looking at them.
Moral Development

 Kohlberg’s three levels of

morality:
1. Preconventional morality
(typically very young children)
-the consequences determine
morality; behavior that is
rewarded is right, that which is
punished is wrong.
-e.g A child who steals a toy
from another child and does not
get caught does not see that
action as wrong.
2. Conventional morality:
(older children, adolescents, and most
adults)
 Conformity to social norms is right,
nonconformity is wrong
 Eg. a child criticizes his or her
parent for speeding because
speeding is against the stated laws.
3. Postconventional morality:
(about 20% of the adult pop)
- moral principles determined by the
person are used to determine right
and wrong and may disagree with
societal norms.
-eg. a reporter who wrote a
controversial story goes to jail rather
than reveal the source’s identity
Psychosocial Development

 Erickson’s identity versus role

confusion:
 Must choose from many options
for values in life and beliefs, eg
political issues, career and
marriage.
 Erickson believed that teens who
have successfully resolved the
conflicts of the earlier four stages
are much better equipped to
resist peer pressure and find
their own identity during
adolescent years.
 Those teens who are not as
successful come into the
adolescent years with a lack of
trust in others, feeling of guilt and
shame, low self-esteem and
dependency on others.
 They play the part of the model
child for the parents, the good
student for the teachers, and the
‘cool’ juvenile delinquent to their
friends and will be confused
about which of the many roles
they play are really their own
identity.
Adulthood: Physical &
Cognitive
 Adulthood begins in the early
twenties and ends with death in
old age. It can be divided into
young adulthood, middle
adulthood and late adulthood.
 The twenties are the peak of
physical health; in the thirties the
signs of aging become more
visible, and in the forties visual
problems may occur, weight may
increase, strength may decrease,
and height begins to decrease.
 Women experience a physical
decline in the reproductive
system called the climacteric,
ending at about age 50 with
menopause, when a woman’s
estrogen levels are at zero and
her reproductive capabilities are
at end.
 Men go through andropause, a
less dramatic change in
testosterone and other male
hormones, beginning in the
midtwenties.
 Many health problems such as
high blood pressure, skin
cancers, and arthritis begin in the
middle age, with the most
common causes of death in the
middle age being heart disease,
cancer and stroke.
 Reaction times slow down, but
intelligence and memory
relatively stable.
Issues of work,
relationships, parenting,
aging and death
 Errikson’s crisis of young
adulthood is intimacy versus
isolation, in which the young
person must establish an
intimate relationship, usually with
a mate.
 The crisis of middle adulthood is
generativity versus stagnation, in
which the task of the middle-
aged adult is to help the next
generation through its crises,
either by parenting, mentoring, or
a career that leaves some legacy
to the next generation.
 Erikson’s final crisis is integrity
versus despair, in which an older
adult must come to terms with
mortality
 What are theories of why aging
occurs?
 Remaining active and involved
 The cellular clock theory is based
on the idea that cells only have
so many times that they can
reproduce; once that limit is
reached, damaged cells begin to
accumulate.
 Remain active and involved

The philosophy behind the hospice concept

Is to help a person who is dying to face the
end of life with dignity and as little pain as
possible
 The wear & tear theory of physical
aging states that as time goes by,
repeated use and abuse of the body’s
tissues cause it to be unable to repair
all the damage.
 The free radical theory states that
oxygen molecules with an unstable
electron move around the cell,
damaging cell structures as they go.
 What are the stages of death and
dying?
 The 5 stages of reaction to death and

dying are denial, anger, bargaining,

depression, and acceptance.