Human Development: A Lifespan Perspective
Aging
Organizational, neurophysiological, and biochemical changes independent of environmental conditions, experience, and practice.
Experience
Environmental events that allow certain skills to develop.
Sealed Content
Undisturbed characteristics and potential (e.g., the capacity to build something new).
Open Content
Acquired traits (e.g., language, intelligence) where potentialities are developed and operate fully.
Progressive Centralization
Continual improvement of individual functions.
Qualitative Changes
Transformations of structures and functions; changes in quality, not easily observed (e.g., embryo to fetus).
Quantitative Changes
Measurable and observable genetic learning; changes in quantity (e.g., crawling, walking).
18th-Century Studies
Emergence of infant studies due to major discoveries, Protestantism, the French Revolution, industrialization, and the rise of psychology.
Stages
Sets of relevant facts occurring close in time within an individual.
Mechanistic Perspective
Behavioral; person likened to a machine; observable quantitative changes; conditioning determines behavior; environment shapes interest.
Organismic Perspective
Piaget’s theory; human as an organism; development begins from within; qualitative, not easily observable changes; focus on the process of development.
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Two states in conflict, related to psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, genital).
Id
Source of unconscious motives and desires; seeks immediate gratification; pleasure principle.
Ego
Reason and common sense; reality principle.
Superego
Represents moral reality; develops around 4-5 years old; morality principle.
Key Figures in Development
- Piaget: Cognitive intelligence.
- Freud: Psychoanalysis (oral, anal, phallic, genital stages); personality development.
- Erikson: Social learning.
- Maslow: Holistic view of the human being; hierarchy of needs leading to self-actualization.
Prenatal Period (Conception-Birth)
- Germinal Stage: Fertilization to 2nd week.
- Embryonic Stage: 2nd to 8th week; development of major organs; critical period of pregnancy.
- Fetal Stage: 8th week until birth; overall development.
Stages of Labor
- 1st Stage: 12 to 24 hours; uterine expansion.
- 2nd Stage: Approximately 1.5 hours; baby’s delivery.
- 3rd Stage: A few minutes; expulsion of the placenta and umbilical cord.
Early Childhood (Birth-3 Years)
Lack of sphincter control.
Infant States
- Regular Sleep: Closed eyes, regular breathing, no movement, not easily awakened.
- Irregular Sleep: Closed eyes, irregular breathing, minor movements, sounds or light may cause smiles or gestures.
- Drowsiness: Open or closed eyes, some activity, irregular breathing, may smile in response to stimuli.
- Quiet Alertness: Open eyes, calm, limb movements.
- Active Alertness and Crying: Open eyes, significant motor activity, reacts to stimuli.
Development of object manipulation, object permanence, understanding of space, time, causality, and reality; goal-oriented behavior; recognition of a permanent world.
Motor Development
Sits with support (4 months), sits in a chair (6 months), sits unaided (7 months), crawls (9-10 months), walks with assistance (9-11 months), walks independently (15 months), runs (18 months), jumps (20 months).
Cognition
How people perceive, learn, think, and remember.
Principles of Cognitive Development
- Organization: Integrating processes into a complete system.
- Adaptation: Creating structures to interact with the world, including assimilation and accommodation.
- Assimilation: Integrating new objects, experiences, or concepts into existing schemas.
- Accommodation: Modifying existing schemas to fit new objects or situations.
Cognitive Stages and Language Development
Symbolic function (around 2 years): Representing objects, events, and people in their absence; using symbols and signs.
- Symbols: Individual representations.
- Signs: Socially agreed-upon representations.
Communication begins around 18 months.
- Babbling: 3-4 months; vocal practice.
- Lallation: 6 months; imperfect imitation; attention to ambient sounds.
- Echolalia: 9-10 months; imitation of sounds without understanding.
- Expressive Jargon: 2nd year; phrases with pauses and rhythms resembling sentences, but without meaningful words.
- Holophrases: 1 year; single words expressing complete thoughts.
- Telegraphic Speech: 2 years; noun-verb combinations.
- Verbal Expressions: 3 years; language mastery; vocabulary of 900 words.
Psychosexual and Psychosocial Development
- Oral Stage: Birth-2 years; focus on oral gratification; dependence and passivity.
- Anal Stage: 12-18 months-3 years; pleasure from bowel movements; potential for obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
- Crisis I (Trust vs. Mistrust): Oral stage; birth-12 to 18 months.
- Crisis II (Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt): Anal stage; 18 months-3 years.
Early Childhood (3-6 Years)
Egocentric and magical thinking; symbolic function; thought linked to the real, present, and concrete.
- Signifiers: Symbols (images) and signs (words, numbers).
- Signified: Objects and events.
- Deferred Imitation: Mimicking an action without the model present.
- Symbolic Play: Using objects to represent something else.
Preoperational Thought
Egocentrism, centration, irreversibility.
Psychosexual and Psychosocial Development
- Phallic Stage: 3-5 years; interest in genitals; potential for authoritarianism or rebellion.
- Oedipus Complex: 3-6 years; child’s sexual desire for the opposite-sex parent; development of the superego.
- Crisis III (Initiative vs. Guilt): Development of initiative and autonomy; analysis of motives and actions.
Middle Childhood (6-12 Years)
Parenting Styles
- Authoritarian: Children may become insecure, suspicious, and withdrawn.
- Permissive: Children may become immature, insecure, anxious, and lack self-control.
- Democratic: Children tend to be secure, confident, assertive, and self-reliant.
Concrete Operational Stage
Understanding conservation, reversibility, and transitivity.
- Operations: Internalized and organized actions.
- Conservation: Understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance.
- Reversibility: Understanding that an operation can be reversed.
- Transitivity: Recognizing relationships between objects.
Operational thinking; expanding vocabulary (2500 words); realism, animism, artificialism.
Psychosexual and Psychosocial Development
- Latency Period: Resolution of earlier conflicts; potential for regression, repression, sublimation, reaction formation, and projection.
- Crisis IV (Industry vs. Inferiority): Sexual latency and rapid cognitive development.
Adolescence (12-18 Years)
Puberty and Sexual Development
Development of primary and secondary sexual characteristics; onset of menstruation and semen production.
Psychosexual and Psychosocial Development
- Genital Stage: Reaching sexual maturity and developing heterosexual relationships; resolving personality conflicts.
- Identity vs. Identity Confusion: Exploring identity; Marcia’s identity statuses (foreclosure, moratorium, identity achievement, identity diffusion).
Formal Operational Stage
Abstract thought, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, metacognition.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
- Heteronomous Morality
- Individualism
- Mutual Expectations
- Social System and Conscience
- Social Contract and Individual Rights
- Universal Ethical Principles
Early Adulthood (18-40 Years)
Decision-making period; peak physical performance; decline in fluid intelligence; development of crystallized intelligence; dialectical and postformal thinking.
Schaie’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- Acquisition Stage
- Achieving Stage
- Responsibility Stage
- Executive Stage
- Reintegration Stage
Psychosocial Development
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Middle Adulthood (40-65 Years)
Re-evaluation, goal modification, mature thinking, wisdom.
Late Adulthood (65+)
Senescence, aging, potential for senile dementia; crystallized intelligence remains; adaptation challenges.
Psychosocial Development
Ego Integrity vs. Despair
Attitudes Toward Death
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Irreversibility: reversible temporary phenomenon.
Causality: death is a phenomenon that happens to others but not him or his loved ones.
Universality: think they can do things to avoid.
Oedipus Period: death is a punishment, he feels guilty, there is the castration, or see death as a courage and take risks.
In adults the fear of death becomes more familiar.