A look at Psychology: Human Development

[Android-18]

Chapter 3: Human Development

Patterns of Development :

? Not all humans experience development at the same rate.

Some general principles of development

? Development follows a pre-determined pattern.
? One pattern occurs in the early development of infants. In babies, it goes from head to feet, also outward from the central part of the body to the wrists and fingers.
? Lifelong continuous process, it has one start and one stop point. But there is no point where a task vanishes completely or where one suddenly appears.
? Each stage has unique features. Each one is expressed differently depending on the environment in which the stages take place.

Critical periods

? The periods where certain development behaviors are learned more easily.
? Before or after this period the behaviors are harder to learn.
? Psychologists believe the most important critical period for language is from birth to age 6.
? If language is not learned by age 12, it becomes harder for them to learn it later.
? First few hours after birth are the most critical for bonding, attachment between mother and child which is critical for the emotional development later.
? Sensitive period is used instead of the term critical period because adopted hildren who are deprived of the bonding to the mother, developed normally.

How do Psychologists study development?

? Modern methods of observation, records are kept to determine behavior.
? Longitudinal method involves selecting several individuals and studying their behavior over a certain amount of time.
o Time consuming.
o Expensive.
o Keeping in touch with the same group.
o Location changes.
o Age variety too wide.

? Cross Sectional method selects people from different ages in order to study them at the same time.
o Less time consuming.
o Might not have right age variations.
o Grow at different times.
o Hard to know differences because of maturity levels or background experiences.

Physical Development :

? The growth of an individual?s body.

The development of height and weight

? The two most common examples of an individual?s physical growth are height and weight.
? Increases in spurts.
? Greatest percentage of growth is in the earlier stages.
? Girls grow faster in height than boys until about age 13.
? The largest percentage increase in weight also occurs during the first five years of life.

The effect of physical development on personality

? An early-maturing male is one who develops physically faster than other males of his own age.
? Early-maturing males tend to feel more self-confident and independent.
? In the junior high school years, both early - and late ? maturing females usually have more prestige than average maturing females and participate more as leaders in school activities.
? Late-maturing females may view themselves as less adequate.
? Probably the most important single factor, though, is the individuals own attitude toward his or her development.
? Having a good attitude about yourself is very important.

Motor Development :

? Is the development of control of the muscles in the body.
? Very important area in total development of individual.
? Related to good physical and mental health.
? Games and activities a person gets exercise and practice necessary for better physical development.
? Motor development is related to making social contacts
? Learning to walk and run increases the number of people, events and situations a person can encounter.
? Motor development is also related to a persons self-image
? Contributes to an individuals growing awareness of being awkward or coordinated, dependant or independent.

Motor Development in a baby

? Development in the head region takes place at a rapid rate after birth.
? Babies not even a day old can track a triangle with their eyes.
? Infants that were two weeks old can make certain facial gestures made by researchers.
? When researchers stuck out their tongues the babies responded with similar gestures.
? Also been shown that in babies that are two months old, they can adjust the focus of their eyes.
? Physical development proceeds from their head down, the trunk area develops next.
? After babies develop head movement they can learn how to turn over completely.
? Learning to turn over is a gradual response.
? Physical development proceeds from the body?s center to the arms and hands.
? Babies will make general responses to an object put in from of them.
? They can see the object before they have the coordination to reach it.
? They can?t grasp objects until the 4th month or pick up objects till the 9th month.
? Most individuals are physically ready to walk between 9 and 15 months of age.
? They progress through crawling, creeping, pulling-up, and standing alone stage before walking.
? Most babies are walking within one month of standing alone.

Motor development in childhood, adolescence, and old age

? Motor development in early and late childhood increases more slowly than in the period immediately after birth.
? Many studies have shown that motor coordination increases considerably during the adolescent period.
? The appearance of awkwardness in adolescence often seems to be the result of adolescents? lack of assurance toward themselves and their abilities.
? The development of an individual?s motor abilities generally increases until about early to middle twenties.
? There is a slight decline until the age of 50, and more of a decline to age 65.
? Not all older adults experience such a decline.
? Older adults in good physical health can perform various tasks just about as well as younger persons can.
? They lack their speed, not their ability to complete a task.

Hand-eye coordination

? Psychologists performed an experiment with monkeys to find out if organisms must be able to see their arms and hands before they can reach for something.
? One group had a shield before their eyes, and could not see their arms and hands. The other group had a shield over their eyes but could see their arms and hands.
? Each monkey was trained to reach for a string with candy close enough to eat.
? Being unable to see their arms and hands from birth did affect the experimental group of monkeys.
? They seemed to reach for the string as if they were blind. And once they found it, their hands fumbled with it rather than grasping it firmly.
? Human beings who were born blind and later gained their sight have shown similar behavior in leatrning to reach for objects.

Language Development :

? Has certain common features
o Has vocabulary of 10?s to 1000?s of words
o Grammar must be followed
o All consist of sounds and symbols that have certain meanings.

Do animals have a language?

? Psychologists raised chimpanzees in their homes and tried to raise them like human children, and tried to teach them to speak.
? Animals don?t have the proper vocal structure to make the sounds of human speech.
? A female chimp, Washoe, was taught sign language and by the end was anle to use 160 signs.

Language development in human beings

? Stage 1 ? birth ? three weeks old. Covers first cries, gurgles and coughing of the baby.
? Stage 2 ? 3 weeks to 5 months ? crying variations in tone and length.
? Stage 3 ? 5 months to 1 year ? babbling sounds that are similar to vowels.
? Stage 4 ? 1 year and up ? formal parts of language use are developed.

Some explanations for how children learn language

? Reward plays a role in development of language.
? Children learn other ways to express what they need before language development.
? Language development is not just repeating words and sounds because we have heard them before.
? Studies show that parents reward the pronunciation rather than the grammatical structure.
? Some psychologists believe that we are born with the ability to develop the rules for language, while others believe that all of it is learned through the environment.
? Infants make similar sounds, even if they are in different countries, but even deaf children make those same sounds. Thus questioning the theory that learning comes from the environment around them.
? Psychologists disagree as to whether language is mostly learned or biologically determined.

Emotional Development :

? Refers to the individual?s awareness and expression of an affective (emotional) experience.

What emotions are present at birth?

? No specific emotions can be determined n the newborn infant, only a general state of excitement.
? Even one-day-old babies may be able to tell the difference between a real cry of another baby and a computer cry.
? Psychologists know that children often fear strangers at about eight months of age.

How does emotional behavior change with age?

? When young children become angry, they usually show open aggressive or hostile behavior. They learn this is not socially acceptable as they get older.
? In middle ages, individuals become less aggressive and hostile.
? In later life emotions become more related to ourselves and individuals and less involved with the social world around us.
? Society believes that the elderly have fulfilled their socital obligations. It encourages them to rest and relax, yet on the other hand, it is forcing the elderly into a life of uselessness.

Fear as a common emotion

? Everyone experiences love, anxiety, worry, anger, or jealousy.
? Another common emotion is fear.
? As children grow older, they begin to develop fears involving social situations.

Intellectual Development :

? Intellectual development is the development of an individual?s mental ability.
? Thought of as the increase and decrease of the traits and abilities that makes up individuals intelligence.
? Jean Piaget provided another way of studying the development of intelligence, reasoning, and thinking.
? He became interested in the reasons children gave for responding as they did.
? Piaget began conducting studies of children?s intellectual development using this approach.

Sensory-motor period (birth to about two years)

? During the sensory-motor period, children use their senses and various muscular movements to interact with the environment.
? By making things happen, children develop an appreciation of cause and effect.
? Children at this stage do not realize that a toy squeaks because of something inside of it.

Preoperational period (about two to seven years)

? During this period children become more than just ?sensory-motor? organisms.
? They learn to use symbols and language.
? During this period the child also tends to attribute human characteristics to objects.

Concrete-operational period (about even to eleven years)

? The period when children begin to think logically and realize that quantities remain the same although their shape may change.
? Before this stage, children decide if things are equal by how they appear.

Formal-operational period (about eleven years and older)

? Even though people in the formal-operational period are no longer self-centered, they re still centered with their own problems.
? They can experiment with cause and effect until they discover the cause of events.
? Piaget made great strides in promoting research in the area of how a child thinks.
? Formal operations are found in only about 30 to 40 percent of adolescents and adults in the United States. Formal operations may not appear in some societies.

Moral development :

? Some people think we go through moral development at the same time as motor, emotional, social and intellectual growth.
? Moral development means an individual develops the knowledge between right and wrong.
? Lawrence Kohlberg believes there are six stages of moral development, each more complex than the one before it.
? These stages are the same for everyone.
? Moral development may stop at any stage though.

Measuring moral development

? One way to measure moral development is to present individuals with moral dilemmas.
? With moral dilemmas, an individual must decide what the right thing to do is.

Six stages of moral development

? Stage 1 ? Children base their answers on what won?t give them a punishment.
? Stage 2 ? Children make moral decisions on to what behavior will benefit them, bring them rewards, or cause someone to return a favor.
? Stage 3 ? People make decisions based on what will please other people and to avoid disapproval.
? Stage 4 ? Makes moral decisions with a respect for authority and ones duty as a citizen. Judgments are determined by what the society says is right and wrong.
? Stage 5 ? People make moral decisions, based on the welfare of the community and the rights of others.
? Stage 6 ? People decide on the basis of their own principles of justice.
? Stages 5 and 6 people have more developed their own standards for morality than at previous stages.
? Stage 5 recognizes that different societies or groups have different viewpoints of what is right or wrong.
? Stage 6 shows that there are universal points of view on which all societies should agree.

Criticisms of Kohlberg?s theory

? Not all psychologists agree with Kohlberg.
? Those who disagree point that moral development may not occur automatically in stages.
? Depends on the home environment within which the child is raised.
? Some question as to if moral reasoning is the same as moral behavior
? Individuals will say they will do a certain thing in a moral dilemma but when faced with it will do something else.

[Reijin]

Android 18 - 1 Article

[Hellfighter 17]

Nice job, 18, very informitive. I especially enjoyed the "Moral Development" section. One thing, though, I would have found it more compelling if there were more of your thoughts in it. Though, it can be good to just have cold, straight facts, I would like to know your insight on the issues. Also, I found that I skipped a couple bullets here and there because of this. Otherwise, nice job summing things up. *thumbs up*

[Android-18]

Yes well it was all due in...3 days? I had to get it done asap lol.