UNIT 4 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

04/14 | Timmy
INTRODUCTION
Life is sexually transmitted. It starts from the moment of fertilization where conception
begins, a journey from womb to tomb. What leads one individual, so full of promise, to commit
brutal acts of violence and another to turn poverty and trauma into a rich literary harvest? If you
have ever wondered why people turn out the way they do, you have asked yourself the central
question we will be exploring in this chapter.

LESSON PROPER
WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?

Development is the pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through
the life span. Most development involves growth, although it also includes decline brought on by
aging and dying.

Basic Terms:
 Life span - The biological limits to life’s length, determined by species-specific
hereditary factors.
 Life-span perspective - the perspective that development is lifelong, multidimensional,
multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; involves growth, maintenance,
and regulation; and is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors
working together.
 Life expectancy - The average length of time that a given age-based cohort is expected
to live
 Life course - The term used by sociologists to refer to the normal, expected set of events
that take place over an individual’s life, determined in many ways by the society’s norms

THEORIES OF LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT

A. Psychoanalytic Theories - theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and

heavily colored by emotion.
1. Freud’s Theory - suggests that a person’s problems were the result of his experiences
early in life. He thought that when children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual
impulses shifts from the mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals.
 2. Erikson’s theory - the eight stages of human development wherein each stage consists of
a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
a) Basic trust versus basic mistrust (0 –18 months): Children must establish a sense of
being able to rely on the environment (and caregivers) to take care of them.
b) Autonomy versus shame and doubt (18 months –3 years): Children learn ways to
be able to act independently from their parents without feeling afraid they will
venture too far off on their own.
c) Initiative versus guilt (3 –5 years): This is the play stage in which children learn to
express themselves creatively without fear they will engage in activities that will get
them in trouble.
d) Industry versus inferiority (5 –12 years): During this stage, children learn to
identify with the world of work and develop a work ethic.
e) Identity versus identity diffusion (12 –21 years): Adolescents establish a sense of
who they are and develop commitments in the areas of work and values.
f) Intimacy versus isolation (21 –30/40 years): Young adults are able to experience
psychologically close relationships with others and develop long-term commitments.
g) Generativity versus stagnation (40–65 years): Middle-age adults feel a sense of
caring and concern for the younger generation and determine what their legacy will
be after they are gone.
h) Ego integrity versus despair (65 years till death): In later adulthood, individuals
come to grips with mortality and with achieving a sense of acceptance about the life
they have lived.

B. Cognitive Theories
1. Piaget’s theory - states that children actively construct their understanding of the world
and go through four stages of cognitive development.

2. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory - emphasizes how culture and social

interaction guide cognitive development.
a) Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the area of knowledge just beyond a
child’s abilities. According to Vygotsky, children learn best when they encounter
information at this level and can interact with a more skilled person.
 b) Scaffolding is the kind of support adults and teachers present when they provide
progressively more difficult problems or ask children to explain their reasoning for
learning (within the ZPD) that enables children to work independently but with help
so they can solve problems and develop their cognitive abilities more generally.

3. Information processing: The information processing approach to cognitive development

proposes that children develop their cognitive abilities in an incremental manner, in some
cases corresponding to the development of the brain. Two concepts important in the
information processing approach are:
a) Metacognition: Children become better at solving problems because they develop
more conscious awareness of their cognitive activities and can use this awareness to
select or change strategies, including better knowledge about how to direct their
attention and effectively use their short-term/working memory and long-term
memory.
b) Development is continuous: Children do not experience discrete changes or move
from one stage to another.

C. Psychosocial Theories
1. Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on Piaget’s cognitive development theory by proposing
that children’s cognitive abilities influence the growth of their ability to make moral
judgments.
a) Preconventional (young children): Right and wrong are thought of in terms of their
immediate effects of pleasure versus pain. No moral principles are invoked.
b) Conventional (middle school children): Moral decisions are made in terms of laws
or general rules about what is right and what is wrong. In this law and order stage, for
example, people base their judgments on whether a law is broken or not.
c) Postconventional (adolescents and adults): Decisions about right and wrong are
based on the notion of moral relativity. A law should be violated if that law violates
basic principles of valuing human life above all else.

2. Attachment theory: According to British psychologist John Bowlby, children develop

an inner representation of their relationship with their primary caregivers. This inner
representation, or working model, becomes the basis for their subsequent adult
relationships.

3. Bowlby’s work became the basis for the research by American psychologist Mary Salter
Ainsworth, who devised an experimental situation to assess a child’s attachment style. In
this experiment, called the strange situation, young children play in a room with their
mother. The mother leaves the room and then returns. The experimenter rates the child’s
 reaction both when she leaves the room and when she returns. The attachment styles are
as follows:
a. Securely attached: The child seems disturbed but not distressed when the mother
leaves and greets her happily when she returns.
b. Insecurely attached: The child may or may not become anxious or distressed when
the mother leaves the room and may either ignore her or be ambivalent about physical
contact when she returns.

4. Harry Harlow showed the importance of maternal attachment bonds in his work with
infant monkeys. Raised with wire monkeys that fed them or cloth monkeys that provided
physical stimulation, the monkeys preferred the cloth mothers. This research, though
controversial, was vital in establishing the importance of early bonding through contact
comfort with caregivers

D. Sociocultural Theories
1. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory - development reflects the influence of
several environmental systems.

The theory identifies five environmental systems:

a. microsystem - setting in which the individual lives (person’s family, peers, school,
and neighborhood).
b. mesosystem - involves relations between microsystems or connections between
contexts (relation of family experiences to school experiences, school experiences to
religious experiences, and family experiences to peer experiences.)
c. exosystem - consists of links between a social setting in which the individual does not
have an active role and the individual’s immediate context.
d. macrosystem - involves the culture in which individuals live.
e. chronosystem - consists of the patterning of environmental events and transitions
over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances.

2. Baltes: Life span developmental psychologist Paul Baltes identified three social
influences on the course of development. These interact in ways that result in the
patterning of specific life events:
a. Age-graded normative influences: The expectations associated with specific ages
reflected in a given culture.
b. History-graded normative influences: The effects of living in a given time and
place that have similar influences on people within that society.
c. Nonnormative influences: Random, unpredictable influences that are idiosyncratic
to each individual
 PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE NEWBORN

The three stages are:

a. Zygote: Conception to 2 weeks

b. Embryo: 2 to 8 weeks
c. Fetus: 8 weeks to birth

1st  Fertilization occurs

Month:  Zygote implants itself in the lining of the uterus ending the zygote period
 Rapid cell division occurs
 Embryonic stage lasts from end of the 2nd week to end of the 8th week
 Cells differentiate into three distinct layers: the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and
the endoderm
 Nervous system begins to develop
 Embryo is 1/2 inch long

2nd  Heart and blood vessels form

Month:  Head area develops rapidly
 Eyes begin to form detail
 Internal organs grow, especially the digestive system
 Sex organs develop rapidly and sex is distinguished
 Arms and legs form and grow
 Heart begins to beat faintly
 Embryo is 1 inch long and weighs 1/10 ounce

3rd  Head growth occurs rapidly

Month:  Bones begin to form rapidly, which marks the transition to the fetal stage
 The digestive organs begin to function
 Arms, legs, and fingers make spontaneous movements
 Fetus is 3 inches long and weighs 1 ounce

4th  Lower parts of the body show rapid growth

Month:  Bones are distinct in X-ray films
 Reflex movement becomes more active
 Heartbeat detected by physician
 Sex organs are fully formed
 Fetus is 7 inches long and weighs 5 ounces
5th  Mother begins to feel reflex movements
Month:  A fine, downy fuzz covers the entire body
 Vernix (a waxy coating) collects over the body
 Ears and nose begin to develop cartilage
 Fingernails and toenails begin to appear
 Fetus shows hiccups, thumb sucking, and kicking
 Fetus is 12 inches long and weighs 14 ounces

6th  Eyes and eyelids fully formed

Month:  Fat is developing under the skin
 Fetus is 14 inches long and weighs 2 pounds

7th  Cerebral cortex of brain develops rapidly

Month:  Fetus is 17 inches long and weighs 3 pounds

8th  Subcutaneous fat is deposited for later use

Month:  Fingernails reach beyond the fingertips
 Fetus is 17 inches long and weighs 5 pounds

9th  Hair covering the entire body is shed

Month:  Organ systems function actively
 Vernix is present over the entire body
 Fetus settles into position for birth
 Neonate is 21 inches long and weighs 7 pounds

Reflexes, temperaments, and abilities of newborns

A. Motor development milestones or stages (provided in respective average ages):

a. 1 month: Rolls over
b. 1 month: Grasps rattle
c. 6 months: Sits without support
d. 7 months: Stands holding on
e. 8 months: Grasps with thumb and finger
f. 11 months: Stands well alone
g. 12 months: Walks well alone
h. 15 months: Builds tower of two cubes
i. 17 months: Walks up steps
j. 24 months: Jumps in place
B. Reflexes present at birth (mediated by the hindbrain and spinal cord):
a. Grasping reflex: Holds a finger or other object firmly
b. Rooting reflex: Turns head when touched on cheek
c. Gag reflex: Clears the throat
d. Startle reflex: Flings out the arms, fans the fingers, and arches the back in response to a
sudden noise
e. Sucking reflex: Sucks objects placed in mouth
f. Babinski reflex: Curls toes when outer edge of sole of foot is stroked

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES

Nature-Nurture Issue
Stability-Change Continuity-Discontinuity
issue Issue

Involves the extent to Debate about whether Focuses on the

which development is we become older degree to which
influence by nature and renditions of our early development
by nurture. Nature experience (stability) involves either
refers to an organism's or whether we develop gradual, cumulative
biological inheritance, into someone different change (continuity)
nurture to its from who we were at or distinct stages
environmental an earlier point in (discontinuity).
experiences. development
(change).

INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

Perceptual abilities and intelligence

A. Habituation, the decrease in response to a stimulus that occurs after the same stimulus is
repeatedly presented, is used to measure an infant’s awareness. If the stimulus is changed
enough, dishabituation occurs, and the infant shows an awareness of the change. The
processes of habituation and dishabituation can be used to study attention, sensory and
perceptual discrimination, and memory in infants.
B. Within a few days of birth, infants can recognize their own mother’s voice, can
distinguish between their own and foreign languages, and can discriminate between
closely related sounds.
C. By 7 months, infants can discriminate all sounds relevant to language production. content
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D. Newborns show a preference for sweet tastes.
 E. Visual perception proceeds rapidly:
a. 1 month: color perception
b. 4 months: focus on near or far objects
c. 4-5 months: recognition of two- and three-dimensional objects
d. 7 months: different responses to different facial expressions, such as smiles or frowns

Childhood: Physical and motor development

a. In the first 12 months, children triple their birth weight and double their height.
b. From age 3 to age 13, children gain about 5 pounds and 3 inches’ height per year.
However, the proportions of the body also change such that the head grows at a slower
rate than the rest of the body

Parenting Styles
a. Authoritarian parenting - A restrictive, punitive style in which parents exhort the
child to follow their directions and to respect their work and effort. The authoritarian
parent places firm limits and controls on the child and allows little verbal exchange.
Authoritarian parenting is associated with children’s social incompetence.
b. Authoritative parenting - A parenting style in which parents encourage their
children to be independent but still place limits and controls on their actions.
Extensive verbal give-and-take is allowed, and parents are warm and nurturing
toward the child. Authoritative parenting is associated with children’s social
competence.
c. Neglectful parenting - A style of parenting in which the parent is uninvolved in the
child’s life; this style is associated with children’s social incompetence, especially a
lack of self-control.
d. Indulgent parenting - A style of parenting in which parents are highly involved with
their children but place few demands or controls on them. Indulgent parenting is
associated with children’s social incompetence, especially a lack of self-control.

ADOLESCENCE AND EMERGING ADULTHOOD

Puberty is a brain-neuroendocrine process occurring primarily in early adolescence that

provides stimulation for the rapid physical changes that take place during this period of
development. It is the most important marker of the beginning of adolescence.

 The search for an identity during adolescence is aided by a psychosocial moratorium,

which is Erikson’s term for the gap between childhood security and adult autonomy.
During this period, society leaves adolescents relatively free of responsibilities and able
to try out different identities.
 Adolescents who do not successfully resolve this identity crisis suffer what Erikson calls
identity confusion. The confusion takes one of two courses: Individuals either withdraw,
 isolating themselves from peers and family, or they immerse themselves in the world of
peers and lose their identity in the crowd.

 James Marcia (1980, 1994) reasons that Erikson’s theory of identity development
contains four statuses of identity, or ways of resolving the identity crisis:
1. Identity diffusion is the status of individuals who have not yet experienced a
crisis or made any commitments. Not only are they undecided about occupational
and ideological choices, they are also likely to show little interest in such matters.
2. Identity foreclosure is the status of individuals who have made a commitment
but not experienced a crisis. This occurs most often when parents hand down
commitments to their adolescents, usually in an authoritarian way, before
adolescents have had a chance to explore different approaches, ideologies, and
vocations on their own.
3. Identity moratorium is the status of individuals who are in the midst of a crisis
but whose commitments are either absent or are only vaguely defined.

4. Identity achievement is the status of individuals who have undergone a crisis and
made a commitment

ADULTHOOD AND AGING

Major physical changes

A. Although there are predictable changes in the body associated with adulthood and aging,
many changes are in fact preventable. Normal age-related changes should be differentiated from
diseases; the major chronic diseases in later adulthood include arthritis, cardiovascular disease,
and diabetes. These are also preventable, particularly with control of diet and proper exercise.

B. Here is a brief summary of the changes that occur gradually throughout adulthood:
1. Skin: Changes in elastin and collagen lead to wrinkling and sagging. (―Photoaging‖
refers to sun damage due to sun exposure.)
2. Body build: Body experiences loss of bone mineral content, increase in subcutaneous fat
around the torso, loss of height.
3. Muscle mass: Body experiences loss of muscle mass (called ―sarcopenia‖).
4. Joints: There can be an increase in cartilage outgrowths and loss of articular cartilage
thickness.
5. Aerobic capacity: The maximum cardiac output may decrease.
6. Hormone changes: Climacteric involves the diminution of sex hormones; the complete
loss of fertility in women is called menopause.
7. Nervous system: Changes in circadian rhythms lead to increase in early rising. There are
also decreases in numbers of neurons and synapses.
 8. Vision changes: Presbyopia (far sightedness) and cataracts may occur.
9. Hearing changes: Presbycusis (loss of ability to hear high-pitched tones) is another
change.
10. Balance: Loss of balance can increase the risk of falling

Personality and Aging

A. The midlife crisis is a concept that is constantly being discussed in the media, but
researchers do not find that it is a widespread phenomenon at all. Most people develop
gradually through adulthood without undergoing a distinct transition in their 40s. The
debate about whether personality is stable versus whether it can change in adulthood
seems to have subsided as researchers investigating long-term patterns of personality find
that shifts can occur even into the decades of the 80s and beyond.
B. Socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that as endings occur, people try to focus on
their relationships that are most positively fulfilling; consequently, as a theory of aging,
the theory proposes that older people prefer to spend time with people who enhance their
wellbeing.
C. Other personality theories of aging propose that as people get older, they are better able
to manage their emotions, cope more effectively with stress, and engage in fewer self-
defeating and acting-out behaviors.

BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF AGING

1. Evolutionary Theory of Aging - natural selection has not eliminated many harmful
conditions and non-adaptive characteristics in older adults because natural selection is
linked to reproductive fitness, which is present only in the earlier part of adulthood. For
example, consider Alzheimer disease, an irreversible brain disorder that does not appear
until late middle adulthood or late adulthood. In evolutionary theory, if Alzheimer disease
occurred earlier in development, it might have been eliminated many centuries ago.

2. Cellular clock theory is Leonard Hayflick’s (1977) theory that cells can divide a
maximum of about 75 to 80 times, and that as we age our cells become less capable of
dividing. The answer may lie at the tips of chromosomes, at telomeres, which are DNA
sequences that cap chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become shorter
and shorter. After about 70 or 80 replications, the telomeres are dramatically reduced, and
the cell no longer can reproduce. The consensus of research is that telomere shortening
does play a role in aging.

3. A second microbiological theory of aging is free-radical theory, which states that people
age because when cells metabolize energy, the by-products include unstable oxygen
 molecules known as free radicals. The free radicals ricochet around the cells, damaging
DNA and other cellular structures.

4. Mitochondrial theory states that aging is due to the decay of mitochondria.

Mitochondrial theory views emphasize that this decay is primarily caused by oxidative
damage and loss of critical micronutrients supplied by the cell.

5. Sirtuin theory - Sirtuins are a family of proteins that have been linked to longevity,
regulation of mitochondria functioning in energy, possible benefits of calorie restriction,
stress resistance, and lower rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

6. mTOR pathway theory - The mTOR pathway is a cellular pathway that involves the
regulation of growth and metabolism. TOR stands for ―target of rapamycin,‖ and in
mammals it is called mTOR. Rapamycin is a naturally derived antibiotic and immune
system suppressant/ modulator that was discovered in the 1960s on Easter Island. It has
been commonly used and is FDA approved for preventing rejection of transplanted
organs and bone marrow. Proposals have been made that the mTOR pathway has a
central role in the life of cells, acting as a cellular router for growth, protein
production/metabolism, and stem cell functioning.

7. Hormonal stress theory argues that aging in the body’s hormonal system can lower
resistance to stress and increase the likelihood of disease. When faced with external
challenges such as stressful situations, the human body adapts by altering internal
physiological processes. This process of adaptation and adjustment is referred to as
allostasis. Allostasis is adaptive in the short term; however, continuous accommodation
of physiological systems in response to stressors may result in allostatic load, a wearing
down of body systems due to constant activity.
SUMMARY
o Development is the pattern of change that begins at conception and continues
through the human life span. It includes both growth and decline.
o The life-span perspective includes these basic concepts: development is lifelong,
multidimensional, multidirectional, and plastic; its study is multidisciplinary; it is
contextual; it involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss; and it is a co-
construction of biological, cultural, and individual factors.
o The nature-nurture issue focuses on the extent to which development is mainly
influenced by nature (biological inheritance) or nurture (experience).
o The stability-change issue focuses on the degree to which we become older renditions
of our early experience or develop into someone different from who we were earlier
in development. A special aspect of the stability-change issue is the extent to which
development is determined by early versus later experiences.
o Developmentalists describe development as continuous (gradual, or cumulative
change) or as discontinuous (abrupt, or a sequence of stages). Most developmentalists
recognize that extreme positions on the nature-nurture, stability-change, and
continuity-discontinuity issues are unwise. Despite this consensus, there is still
spirited debate on these issues.
o The nature-nurture issue focuses on the extent to which development is mainly
influenced by nature (biological inheritance) or nurture (experience).
o The stability-change issue focuses on the degree to which we become older
renditions of our early experience or develop into someone different from who we
were earlier in development. A special aspect of the stability-change issue is the
extent to which development is determined by early versus later experiences.
o Developmentalists describe development as continuous (gradual, or cumulative
change) or as discontinuous (abrupt, or a sequence of stages). Most
developmentalists recognize that extreme positions on the nature-nurture, stability-
change, and continuity-discontinuity issues are unwise. Despite this consensus, there
is still spirited debate on these issues.
o A psychosocial moratorium during adolescence allows the personality and role
experimentation that are important aspects of identity development. James Marcia
proposed four identity statuses—identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and
achievement—that are based on crisis (exploration) and commitment.