Understanding Human Development: A Guide to Evolutionary Psychology

Posted on Sep 10, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology studies the individual mind (thinking, memory, attention), stressing that it undergoes changes throughout a person’s life – physical, social, cultural, emotional, cognitive, and so on.

Development:

Development refers to the changes in behavior, thinking, acting, feeling, and experiencing throughout a person’s life. It encompasses:

  • Growth: Quantitative changes, such as increased body mass.
  • Aging: Morphological changes, both biological and those not related to learning.
  • Learning: Changes determined by life experiences. The stage of life and its features influence the type of learning a person is inclined towards.

General Characteristics of Development:

  • Orderly succession of changes
  • Increase in quality and quantity
  • Integrative process (new behaviors depend on previous ones)
  • Subject to internal and external changes
  • Increasing capabilities and complexity as development progresses

Factors Affecting Development

External Factors:

  • Food and Nutrition
  • Health and Hygiene
  • Environmental variables (quality of life, cultural and social conditions, etc.)

Internal Factors:

  • Heredity:
    • Sealed Content (cannot be altered by individual experience)
    • Open Content (acquisition and development opportunities)

Theories Explaining the Relationship of Inheritance

Nativist Conception:

This theory posits that skills and behaviors are primarily determined by heredity.

Environmentalist Conception:

This theory argues that behavior is primarily determined by environmental characteristics.

Main Theories of Development

1. Behavioral or Mechanistic Theories:

These theories emphasize the role of experience, suggesting that development is largely shaped by external factors. They do not recognize qualitative changes, focusing instead on the means provided. Key authors include:

  • Pavlov: Proposed classical conditioning, where an unconditioned reflex, when associated with a conditioned reflex, becomes reinforced. Without reinforcement, the conditioned reflex weakens and disappears.
  • Watson: Believed in three innate basic emotions: fear, anger, and love. He argued that the full spectrum of adult emotions develops through learning. According to Watson, development encompasses changes in learned behavior, and emotional responses are a consequence of learning and conditioning. By controlling stimuli and consequences, we can control behavior.
  • Skinner: Similar to Watson, Skinner believed that internal phenomena should be excluded from study. He is known for operant conditioning, which posits that an action followed by a reward (positive reinforcement) will be repeated, while an action followed by an unpleasant consequence will cease (negative reinforcement).

2. Structuralist or Organized Theories:

These theories propose that development occurs in a sequence of stages, each qualitatively different from the previous one. This orderly and predictable series of changes culminates at the end of adolescence. They believe that babies develop knowledge by enhancing their capacity to think, explore, compare, and organize. Key authors include:

  • Freud: Viewed psychological development as a succession of stages marked by shifts in the libido, ultimately leading to adult genital sexuality. His theory stemmed from his work with children and psychoanalysis of adults.
  • Piaget: Focused on intellectual development, aiming to describe and explain the transition from the biological state of a newborn to the highly organized abstract knowledge found in adults.

3. Life Cycle Theory:

This theory posits that development is a continuous process from birth until death, influenced by multiple factors and capable of progressing in various directions. It emphasizes the interaction of biological and cultural influences. This theory acknowledges both normative influences (related to culture and history) and non-normative influences (affecting the development of a particular person).

4. Psychometric Movement:

This approach focuses on measuring the level of development attained and comparing it to age-related averages. Arnold Gesell, a key figure, established different developmental stages characterized by typical features and distinguishing patterns of behavior. These include:

  • Conduct Plant: Overall coordination (balance, control, posture, etc.)
  • Adaptive Behavior: Problem-solving (puzzles, etc.)
  • Social Behavior: Learned behaviors influenced by the cultural environment (habits, etc.)
  • Conduct of Language: All forms of verbal and non-verbal communication

This movement emphasizes that development is progressive and determined by the maturation of the nervous system.

5. Cognitive Perspective:

This perspective focuses on the study of intelligence. Key figures include:

  • Ausubel: Based on observation, interviews, and testing, Ausubel distinguished three categories of significant learning, hierarchically related:
    1. Representative: Learning the meaning of symbols or words as symbolic representations.
    2. Concept: Recognizing the characteristics or attributes of a particular concept, as well as the constants in events or objects.
    3. Propositional: Learning the meaning beyond the sum of the meanings of words or concepts that make up the proposition.
  • Piaget: Focused on how knowledge is constructed, viewing the mind as a tool for humans to adapt to their environment. He emphasized intellectual development, aiming to understand the transition from a newborn’s biological state to the organized abstract knowledge found in adults. Piaget believed that the goal of development is adaptation, achieving an adequate response to the problems an individual encounters. He emphasized:
    • Logical Significance: The content of learning should be meaningful.
    • Psychological Significance: Relating learned subjects to new information.
    • Speaker’s Attitude: For meaningful learning to occur, the child must be willing to learn.

Stages of Development According to Main Theories and Authors

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages:

Freud’s theory focuses on personality development, with each stage marked by a shift in the pleasure zone of the body. The five stages are:

  1. Oral (0-1 years): Pleasure centered around the mouth.
  2. Anal (1-3 years): Pleasure focused on the anus (retention and expulsion of feces).
  3. Phallic (3-5 or 6 years): Children become interested in touching their genitals.
  4. Latency (6 years to puberty): Sexual interest decreases, and children focus on intellectual and social development.
  5. Genital (puberty onwards): Renewed interest in genitals due to physiological changes and the emergence of pleasure in relationships with the opposite sex.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development:

Piaget viewed intelligence as a process of adaptation to the environment. His stages of cognitive development are:

  1. Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 years): Infants learn about the world through their senses and motor actions. This stage is further divided into six substages.
  2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): Children develop symbolic thought and language but still struggle with logical reasoning.
  3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years): Children develop logical thinking but still struggle with abstract concepts.
  4. Formal Operational Stage (11-16 years): Adolescents develop abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking.

Life Cycle Theory Stages:

Unlike other theories, the Life Cycle Theory views development as a lifelong process, not ending at puberty. It emphasizes the influence of biocultural changes and life experiences. The stages are:

  1. Intrauterine Gestation Period (until birth)
  2. Infants (up to the first year)
  3. Early Childhood (1 to 3 years)
  4. Early Childhood (3 to 6 years)
  5. Second Childhood (6 to 12 years)
  6. Adolescents (12 to 18 years)
  7. Youth (18 to 30 years)
  8. Adulthood (30 to 60 years)
  9. Old Age (60 and over)

Principles of Learning:

  • Significant Learning: New content is best learned when associated with previously learned information.
  • Functionality: Learning is enhanced when it can be applied to real-life situations.
  • Major Mental Activity in Children: Children are active learners who construct their understanding of the world.
  • Social Interaction: Learning is enhanced through interactions with others.
  • Positive Attitude: A child’s positive attitude, along with trust in their parents or educators, facilitates learning.

The Adult’s Role in Child Development:

  • Provide a quiet, cozy, and safe environment.
  • Encourage independence when age and capabilities allow.
  • Make daily routines special and motivating.
  • Communicate regularly using simple and clear language (avoiding baby talk).
  • Stimulate the senses.
  • Turn everyday activities into games.
  • Convey a sense of love and support.
  • Focus on strengthening:
    • Personal Development (self-knowledge, intimacy)
    • Sensory Development (reception through the senses)
    • Social Development (learning values and attitudes)
    • Language Development (form, content, and use)
    • Cognitive Development (motivating environments)