Child Development: Heredity, Environment, and Key Stages
1. Child Psychology
1.1 Definition
Child psychology studies the psychological changes throughout the human lifespan. This includes quantitative changes (like height, weight, and vocabulary) and qualitative changes (changes in nature) in typically developing children.
1.2 Objectives
The objectives are to describe, explain, predict, and modify behavior. The focus encompasses the entire lifespan and the psychological changes that occur.
2. Child Development
2.1 Conceptual Determinations
Child development considers the whole child: physical, intellectual, and socio-emotional aspects. These areas often overlap and interact.
- Physical Development: Changes in height, weight, sensory abilities, motor skills, brain development, and health.
- Intellectual Development: Learning, language, memory, thinking, and reasoning. These skills change over time and relate to both motor and emotional aspects.
- Socio-Emotional Development: How we interact with the world, how others understand us, and our feelings. These aspects affect both physical and cognitive development.
2.2 Periods of Childhood
- Prenatal: The period of greatest physical growth, from a single cell to birth at approximately nine months.
- Infancy (0-2 years): Infants are surprisingly competent and capable of simple learning.
- Early Childhood (18 months-3 years): Children develop language and motor skills, become more independent, and show interest in other children.
- Early Childhood (3-6 years): With access to symbolic capacity, language becomes more important. Children learn self-care.
- Middle Childhood (6-12 years): Children adopt aspects of their culture, although specific activities vary.
- Preteen/Teen (12-18 years): This period involves a search for identity, physical changes, and cognitive development. Adolescents engage more with peers.
2.3 Influences on Development
Children inherit genes from their parents, but development is also affected by various influences:
- Age-Related Influences: Normative events occurring in most individuals (e.g., starting school).
- History-Graded Influences: Cultural factors and historical events affecting a generation (e.g., economic crises).
- Non-Normative Life Events: Unusual events impacting an individual’s life (e.g., birth or death of a family member).
2.4 Critical Periods in Development
Specific times when certain events have the greatest impact. The same event might be less influential if it occurred at a different time.
3. Heredity and Environment
The debate about the relative contributions of heredity and environment to development is ongoing. While nativists emphasize genes and environmentalists focus on experience, a more nuanced view recognizes both “closed” and “open” aspects of development.
Closed aspects are genetically determined and define us as a species. Open aspects relate to learning and development, enabled by genes but shaped by interactions with the environment. Early development is more influenced by genes, while later development is more open to environmental influence. Education, whether from family, school, or peers, plays a crucial role throughout development.
Contemporary evolutionary psychology emphasizes a plurality of approaches rather than a single dominant perspective.