CHAPTER 9

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

IMHAPS
Institute of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences

www.imhaps.com [email protected] +91-86101 15082

 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology devoted
to identifying and explaining the continuities and changes that
individuals display over time. It refers to the biological, psychological
and social development of human being throughout the lifespan. It
consists of development from infancy, childhood and adolescence to
adulthood. This type of scientific study is known as Developmental
Psychology.
It is the scientific study of changes that occur in human beings over the
course of their lives such as their physical and sexual growth, cognitive
development, moral and conceptual understanding, language and communication, social and
personality development including formation of self-concept.
Development
It is a 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.
Difference between Development, growth and maturation

▪ Development: The progressive series of changes in structure, function, and behavior patterns
that occur over the lifespan of a human being or other organism.

▪ Growth: The series of physical changes that occur from conception through maturity and
development of any entity toward its mature state.

▪ Maturation: It refers to developmental changes in the body or behavior that result from the
aging process rather than from learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience.
Nature of Human Development
This section explores the processes, periods, & issues in Human development.

Biological, Cognitive, and Socio-emotional

Periods of development
Processes

The Significance of Age Developmental Issues

Biological, Cognitive, and Socio-Emotional Processes

Biological Processes
Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature. Genes inherited from
parents, the development of the brain, height and weight gains, changes in motor skills, nutrition,
exercise, the hormonal changes of puberty, and cardiovascular decline are all examples of biological
processes that affect development.

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 Cognitive Processes
Cognitive processes refer to changes in the individual’s intelligence, thought, and language.
Watching a colorful mobile swinging above the crib, putting together a two-word sentence,
memorizing a poem, imagining what it would be like to be a movie star, and solving a crossword
puzzle all involve cognitive processes.
Socio-emotional
Processes Socio-emotional processes involve changes in the individual’s relationships with
other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality. An infant’s smile in response to a
parent’s touch, a toddler’s aggressive attack on a playmate, a school-age child’s development of
assertiveness, an adolescent’s joy at the senior prom, and the affection of an elderly couple all reflect
the role of socio-emotional processes in development.
Connecting Biological, Cognitive, and Socio-emotional Processes
Biological, cognitive, and socio- emotional
processes are inextricably intertwined. The connection
across biological, cognitive, and socio- emotional
processes more obvious than in two rapidly emerging
fields:

▪ Developmental cognitive neuroscience, which

explores links between development, cognitive
processes, and the brain.

▪ Developmental social neuroscience, which

examines connections between socio-
emotional processes, development, and the
brain.
In many instances, biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes are bidirectional. For example,
biological processes can influence cognitive processes and vice versa.
Biological theories
Course of Prenatal Development:
Typical prenatal development begins with fertilization
and ends with birth, lasting between 266 to 280 days (38 – 40
weeks). It can be divided into three periods:

▪ Germinal / Period of Zygote (Fertilization – end of

2nd week)

▪ Embryonic Period (2nd – 8th week)

▪ Fetal Period (2nd month - birth)

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 Germinal period:
It is the period of prenatal development that takes place in the first 2 weeks after conception. It includes
the creation of the zygote, continued cell division, and the attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall.
The rapid cell division occurs through the process called mitosis.

▪ Blastocyst: The inner layer of cells that develop during the germinal period. These cells later
develop into the embryo.

▪ Trophoblast: The outer layer of cells that develops in the germinal period. These cells provide
nutrition and support for the embryo.

Embryonic period:
It is the period of prenatal development that occurs 2 to 8 weeks after conception. During the
embryonic period, the rate of cell differentiation intensifies, support systems for the cells form, and
organs appear. This period begins as the blastocyst attaches to the uterine wall. The mass of cells is
now called an embryo, and three layers of cells form.

▪ Endoderm: Inner layer that develops into digestive & respiratory system.
▪ Mesoderm: Middle layer, will become the circulatory system, bones, muscles, excretory
system and reproductive system.

▪ Ectoderm: Outermost layer, which will become the nervous system and brain, sensory
receptors and skin parts.

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 Fetal period:
It lasts for about seven months; and is the prenatal period between two months after conception
and birth in typical pregnancies.

▪ Three months after conception, the fetus is about 3 inches long. It becomes active, moving its
arms and legs, opening and closing its mouth, and moving its head.

▪ By the end of the 4th month of pregnancy, the fetus has grown to 6 inches in length. At this
time, a growth spurt occurs in the body’s lower parts. The mother can feel arm and leg
movements.

▪ By the end of the 5th month, the fetus is about 12 inches long. Structures of the skin have
formed. The fetus is more active.

▪ By the end of the 6th month, the fetus is about 14 inches long. The eyes, eyelids, and a fine
layer of hair are formed.

▪ By the end of the 7th month, the fetus is about 16 inches long.
▪ During the last two months of prenatal development, fatty tissues develop, and the functioning
of various organ systems steps up.

▪ During the 8th and 9th months, the fetus grows longer and gains substantial weight.

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 Three trimesters of prenatal growth:
The germinal and embryonic periods occur in the first trimester. The fetal period begins toward
the end of the first trimester and continues through the second and third trimesters. Viability (the
chances of surviving outside the womb) occurs at the very end of the second trimester.

Periods of Development
The interplay of biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes produces the periods of
the human life span.

▪ The prenatal period is the time from conception to birth. It involves growth—from a single
cell to an organism complete with brain and behavioral capabilities—and takes place in
approximately a 9-month period.

▪ Infancy is from birth to 18 or 24 months and a time of extreme dependence upon adults. Many
psychological activities—language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination, and social
learning, for example—begin.

▪ Early childhood is the period from the end of infancy to age 5 or 6. This period is called the
“preschool years.” During this time, young children learn to become more self-sufficient and to
care for themselves, develop school readiness skills, and spend time to play with peers.

▪ Middle and late childhood is from about 6 to 11 years of age. During this period, the
fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are mastered. Achievement becomes the
central theme of the child’s world, and self-control increases.

▪ Adolescence is the period of transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at

approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 21 years of age. Adolescence begins

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 with rapid physical changes—dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in body contour,
and the development of sexual characteristics. At this point, the pursuit of independence and an
identity are prominent. Thought is more logical, abstract, and idealistic.

▪ Early adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the early 20s and lasts through the
30s. It is a time of establishing personal and economic independence, career development, and
for many, selecting a mate, learning to live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family,
and rearing children.

▪ Middle adulthood is the developmental period from approximately 40 years of age to about 60.
It is a time of expanding personal and social involvement and responsibility; of assisting the
next generation in becoming competent, mature individuals; and of reaching and maintaining
satisfaction in a career.

▪ Late adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the 60s or 70s and lasts until death.
It is a time of life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles involving decreasing
strength and health.

The Significance of Age

Conception of Age

▪ Chronological age is the number of years that have elapsed since birth.
▪ Biological age is a person’s age in terms of biological health. Determining this age involves
knowing the functional capacities of a person’s vital organs.

▪ Psychological age is an individual’s adaptive capacities compared with those of other

individuals of the same chronological age.

▪ Social age refers to social roles and expectations related to a person’s age.

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 Developmental Issues
Nature Vs. Nurture
In the history of psychology, nature vs nurture has caused so much controversy. It questions
whether the human development is primarily the result of nature (biological forces) or nurture
(environmental forces).
▪ By nature (nativist), it means inborn biological givens—the hereditary information we receive
from our parents at the moment of conception. It refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors
that influence who we are—from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics.
▪ By nurture (empiricist), we mean the complex forces of the physical and social world that
influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth. It refers
to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood
experiences, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture.
The nature vs. nurture debate seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are produced by our
genetic makeup and biological factors, and how they are shaped by our environment, including our
parents, peers, and culture.
Active vs. Passive
The active/passive theme is a debate among developmental theorists about whether children
are active contributors to their own development or, rather, passive recipients of environmental
influence.
Stability-Change issue
Involves the degree to which we become older renditions of our early experience (stability) or
whether we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development
(change). It involves the degree to which we become older renditions of our early experience (stability)
or whether we develop into someone different from whom we were at an earlier point in development
(change).
The continuity-Discontinuity issue
It is a debate among theorists about whether developmental changes are quantitative and
continuous, or qualitative and discontinuous (stage-like). It focuses on the extent to which development
involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).
Patterns of growth in Infancy

▪ Cephalocaudal pattern: The sequence in which the

earliest growth always occurs from top to bottom.

▪ Proximodistal pattern - The sequence in which growth

starts at the center of the body and moves toward the
extremities.

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 Principles of life-span development
The life-span perspective includes these basic conceptions:

▪ Development is lifelong;
▪ Development is multidimensional;
▪ Development is multidirectional;
▪ Development is plastic;
▪ Development is multidisciplinary;
▪ Development is contextual;
▪ Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss; and
▪ It is a co-construction of biological, cultural, and individual factors.
Contexts, like individuals, change. Thus, individuals are changing beings in a changing world. As a
result, contexts exert three types of influences:

Three types of
influences

Normative history- graded

Normative age- graded influences:
influences: Non-normative life events:
Influences those are Unusual occurrences that
These are influences that common to people of a
are similar for individuals in have a major impact on an
particular generation individual’s life.
a particular age group. because of historical
circumstances.

Factors in development
A few factors affecting human’s growth and development are as follows:

▪ Heredity: Heredity and genes certainly play an important role in the transmission of physical
and social characteristics from parents to off- springs. Different characteristics of growth and
development like intelligence, aptitudes, body structure, height, weight, color of hair and eyes
are highly influenced by heredity.

▪ Environment: The environment plays a critical role in the development of children and it
represents the sum total of physical and psychological stimulation the child receives. It involves

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 the physical surroundings and geographical conditions of the place the child lives in, as well his
social environment and relationships with family and peers.

▪ Sex: Sex is a very important factor which influences human growth and development. There is
lot of difference in growth and development between girls and boys. Physical growth of girls in
teens is faster than boys. Overall the body structure and growth of girls are different from boys.

▪ Exercise and Health: The word exercise here does not mean physical exercise as a discipline
or children deliberately engaging in physical activities knowing it would help them grow.
Exercise here refers to the normal playtime and sports activities which help the body gain an
increase in muscular strength.

▪ Socioeconomic factors: Socioeconomic factors definitely have some affect. It has been seen
that the children from different socioeconomic levels vary in average body size at all ages. The
upper level families being always more advanced. The most important reasons behind this are
better nutrition, better facilities, regular meals, sleep, and exercise.

▪ Hormones: Hormones belong to the endocrine system and influence the various functions of
our bodies. They are produced by different glands that are situated in specific parts of the body
to secrete hormones that control body functions. Their timely functioning is critical for normal
physical growth and development in children.

▪ Nutrition: Growth is directly related with nutrition. The human body requires an adequate
supply of calories for its normal growth and this need of requirements vary with the phase of
development.

▪ Learning and Reinforcement: Learning involves building the child up mentally, intellectually,
emotionally, and socially so they operate as healthy functional individuals in the society.
Reinforcement is a component of learning where an activity or exercise is repeated and refined
to solidify the lessons learned

Successful Aging:
With a proper diet, an active lifestyle, mental
stimulation and flexibility, positive coping
skills, good social relationships and support,
and the absence of disease, many abilities can
be maintained or in some cases even
improved as we get older.
Even when individuals develop a disease,
improvements in medicine mean that
increasing numbers of older adults can still
lead active, constructive lives. Being active is
especially important to successful aging.
Older adults, who exercise regularly, get out and go to meetings, participate in church activities, and
go on trips, are more satisfied with their lives than their counterparts who disengage from society.

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 Older adults who are emotionally selective, optimize their choices, and compensate effectively for
losses increase their chances of aging successfully. Successful aging also involves perceived control
over the environment.
In recent years, the term self-efficacy has often been used to describe perceived control over the
environment and the ability to produce positive outcomes. Researchers have found that many older
adults are quite effective in maintaining a sense of control and have a positive view of them.
Theories of Development:
A theory is an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain phenomena and make
predictions. It may suggest hypotheses, which are specific assertions and predictions that can be tested.
Psychoanalytic Theories:
Psychoanalytic theories describe development as primarily unconscious (beyond awareness)
and heavily colored by emotion. Psychoanalytic theorists emphasize that behavior is merely a surface
characteristic and that a true understanding of development requires analyzing the symbolic meanings
of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind. Psychoanalytic theorists also stress that early
experiences with parents extensively shape development.
Freud’s Psychosexual stages of development:
Freud thought that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from
the mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals. As a result, we go through five stages of
psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Freud used the term fixation to
describe what occurs when a person fails to progress normally from stage to stage and remains overly
involved with a particular stage.
▪ Oral stage begins at birth. Both the needs and gratification primarily
involve the lips, tongue and, the teeth. The basic drive is to take in
nourishment and to relieve the tensions of hunger, thirst, and fatigue.
During feed and sleep, the child is soothed, cuddled, and rocked, which
is associated with pleasure and tension reduction. The mouth is the 1st
area of the body that the infant can control. Adults have well-
developed oral habits and a continued interest in maintaining oral
pleasures expressed through eating, sucking, chewing, smoking, biting, etc. Constant nibblers,
smokers, and overeaters may be partially fixated in the oral stage.

▪ Anal stage: As the child grows, new areas of tension and gratification
come into awareness. Between the ages of 2 and 4, children generally
learn to control their anal sphincter and bladder. The child pays
special attention to urination and defecation. Toilet training prompts
a natural interest in self-discovery. Adult characteristics that are
associated with partial fixation at the anal stage are excessive
orderliness, parsimoniousness, and obstinacy.

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 ▪ Phallic stage starts as early as age 3, when the child moves into the
phallic stage, which focuses on the genitals. It is the period when a
child becomes aware and conscious of sexual differences. Freud saw
children in this stage reacting to their parents as potential threats to
the fulfillment of their needs. A boy internalizes masculine attributes
and behaviors when he is forced to identify with his father.
Castration anxiety is a young boy’s fear that his father will castrate
him as punishment for his rivalrous conduct. Oedipus complex is
Freud’s term for the conflict that 3- to 6-year-old boys were said to experience when they
develop an incestuous desire for their mothers and a jealous and hostile rivalry with their
fathers. Similarly, Electra complex is a psychoanalytic term used to describe a girl’s romantic
feelings toward her father and anger toward her mother. The term Electra complex is
frequently associated with Freud, it was actually Carl Jung who coined the term in 1913. Freud
actually rejected the term and instead, used the term feminine Oedipus attitude for Electra
complex.

▪ Latency stage: This phase, from age 5 or 6 until the onset of puberty,
is called the latency period. It is a time when the unresolvable sexual
desires of the phallic stage are successfully repressed by the superego.
For both parents and children, this is a relatively calm and
psychologically uneventful time. For resolving any struggle, most
children seem to modify their attachment to their parents sometime
after 5 years of age and turn to relationships with peers and to school
activities, sports, and other skills.

▪ Genital stage: The final period of biological and psychological

development, the genital stage, occurs with the onset of puberty and
the consequent return of libidinal energy to the sexual organs. Now
boys and girls are made aware of their separate sexual identities and
begin to look for ways to fulfill their erotic and interpersonal needs.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory:

Erikson’s model of the stages of human development—a model called epigenetic —details the
human life cycle from infancy to adulthood and old age. According to Erikson, the psychological
growth of the individual proceeds is similar to that of an embryo. Epigenesis suggests that each
element develops on top of other parts (epi means “upon” and genesis means “emergence”). At each
stage, a unique developmental task confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved, which is
a turning point marked by both increased vulnerability and enhanced potential. Resolving the crisis,
leads to healthier development.

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 Cognitive theories of Development:
Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
It states that children go through 4 stages of cognitive development as they construct their
understanding of the world. Two processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world:
organization and adaptation.
Organization is the process by which children combine existing schemes into new and more complex
intellectual schemes. For example, an infant who has “gazing,” “reaching,” and “grasping” reflexes
soon organizes these initially unrelated schemes into a more complex structure—visually directed
reaching—that enables him to reach out and discover the characteristics of many interesting objects
in the environment.
The goal of organization is to promote adaptation, the process of adjusting to the demands of the
environment. According to Piaget, adaptation occurs through two complementary activities:
assimilation and accommodation.

▪ Assimilation is the process of interpreting new experiences by incorporating them into

existing schemes.

▪ Accommodation is the process of modifying existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt

to new experiences.
Piaget identified four major periods, or stages, of cognitive development:

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 i. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years):
It is Piaget’s first intellectual stage, from birth to 2 years, when
infants are relying on behavioral schemes as a means of exploring and
understanding the environment. It comprises of 6 sub-stages showing
the development of Problem solving abilities:

1. Simple Reflexes

2. Primary Circular Reactions

3. Secondary Circular Reactions

4. Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions

5. Tertiary Circular Reactions, novelty, curiosity

6. Internalization of schemes.
Voluntary imitation becomes much more precise at age 12 to 18
months. Deferred imitation—the ability to reproduce the behavior of
an absent model—first appears at 18 to 24 months of age. One of the
more notable achievements of the sensorimotor period is the
development of object permanence, the idea that objects continue to exist when they are no longer
visible or detectable through the other senses.
A-not-B error is the tendency of 8- to 12-month olds to search for a hidden object where they
previously found it even after they have seen it moved to a new location.
ii. Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years):
Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development, lasting from
about age 2 to age 7, when children are thinking at a symbolic level but
are not yet using cognitive operations.
▪ Symbolic function Sub-stage (2-4 years): Piaget’s first sub-stage
of preoperational thought, in which the child gains the ability to
mentally represent an object that is not present (between about 2
and 4 years of age). Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish
between one’s own perspective and someone else’s (salient feature
of the first sub-stage of preoperational thought). Animism is the
belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable
of action.
▪ Intuitive thought Sub-stage (4-7 years): Intuitive thought sub-
stage Piaget’s second sub-stage of preoperational thought, in which
children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the
answers to all sorts of questions (between 4 and 7 years of age).
Centration is the focusing of attention on one characteristic to the
exclusion of all others. Conservation in Piaget’s theory, awareness

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 that altering an object’s or a substance’s appearance does not
change its basic properties. Reversibility-the ability to reverse, or
negate, an action by mentally performing the opposite action
(negation)—is missing in preschoolers.
iii. Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years):
Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development, lasting from about
age 7 to age 11, when children are acquiring cognitive operations and
thinking more logically about real objects and experiences.
They now are capable of mental seriation—the ability to mentally
arrange items along a quantifiable dimension such as height or weight.
Concrete- operational thinkers also have mastered the related concept of
transitivity, which describes the necessary relations among elements in
a series.
iv. Formal operational stage (11 years and beyond):
Piaget’s fourth and final stage of
cognitive development, from age 11 or 12
and beyond, when the individual begins to
think more rationally and systematically about abstract concepts and
hypothetical events.
The benchmark of formal operations is what Piaget referred to as
hypothetico-deductive reasoning—a formal operational ability to
think hypothetically.
Inductive reasoning is the type of thinking that scientists display, where
hypotheses are generated and then systematically tested in experiments.
Imaginary audience is a result of adolescent egocentrism; adolescents
believe that everyone around them is as interested in their thoughts and
behaviors as they are themselves.
Personal fable is the part of adolescent egocentrism that involves an
adolescent’s sense of uniqueness and invincibility (or invulnerability).

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) argued that children actively construct their knowledge. However,
Vygotsky (1962) gave social interaction and culture far more important roles in cognitive development
than Piaget did. Vygotsky’s theory is a sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture
and social interaction guide cognitive development.
Vygotsky portrayed the child’s development as inseparable from social and cultural activities. He
maintained that cognitive development involves learning to use the inventions of society, such as

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 language, mathematical systems, and memory strategies. Thus in one culture, children might learn to
count with the help of a computer; in another, they might learn by using beads.

▪ It’s a social constructivist approach that emphasizes the social contexts of learning and that
knowledge is mutually built and constructed.

▪ He states that children’s social interaction with more-skilled adults and peers is essential /
indispensable to their cognitive development. Through this interaction, they learn to use the
tools that will help them adapt and be successful in their culture.

▪ ZPD - Zone of Proximal Development refers to the tasks too

difficult for children to master alone but that can be mastered
with the assistance of adults or more-skilled children.

▪ Scaffolding means changing the level of support. Over the

course of a teaching session, a more-skilled person (a teacher
or advanced peer) adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the
child’s current performance

▪ Private speech - young children (3-7years)use language to

plan, guide, and monitor their behavior. This use of language
for self- regulation is called private speech.
Vygotsky proposed that we should evaluate development from the
perspective of four interrelated levels in interaction with children’s
environments—
▪ Microgenetic development,
▪ Ontogenetic development,
▪ Phylogenetic development, and
▪ Sociohistorical development.
Behavioral Theories:
Behaviorism essentially holds that we can study scientifically only what can be directly
observed and measured. Out of the behavioral tradition grew the belief that development is observable
behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment.
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
According to B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), through operant conditioning the consequences of a
behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence. A behavior followed by a
rewarding stimulus is more likely to recur, whereas a behavior followed by a punishing stimulus is
less likely to recur. In Skinner’s (1938) view, such rewards and punishments shape development. For
Skinner the key aspect of development is behavior, not thoughts and feelings. He emphasized that
development consists of the pattern of behavioral changes that are brought about by rewards and
punishments.

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 Ethological Theory:
Ethology stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is
characterized by critical or sensitive periods. These are specific time frames during which, according
to ethologists, the presence or absence of certain experiences has a long-lasting influence on
individuals. Bowlby stressed that attachment to a caregiver over the first year of life has important
consequences throughout the life span. In his view, if this attachment is positive and secure, the
individual will likely develop positively in childhood and adulthood. If the attachment is negative and
insecure, life-span development will likely not be optimal.
In Lorenz’s view, imprinting–the rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to the first moving
object seen–needs to take place at a certain, very early time in the life of the animal, or else it will not
take place. This point in time is called a critical period. A related concept is that of a sensitive period,
and an example of this is the time during infancy when, according to Bowlby, attachment should occur
in order to promote optimal development of social relationships.
Ecological theory:
While ethological theory stresses biological factors, ecological theory emphasizes
environmental factors. One ecological theory that has important implications for understanding life-
span development, created by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917–2005) holds that development reflects the
influence of several environmental systems.
The theory identifies five environmental systems:
▪ Microsystem is the setting
in which the individual lives.
These contexts include the
person’s family, peers,
school, and neighborhood. It
is in the microsystem that
the most direct interactions
with social agents take
place—with parents, peers,
and teachers.
▪ Mesosystem involves
relations between micro
systems or connections
between contexts. Examples
are the relation of family
experiences to school
experiences, school
experiences to religious experiences, and family experiences to peer experiences.
▪ Exosystem consists of links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an
active role and the individual’s immediate context.

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 ▪ Macrosystem involves the culture in which individuals live, that culture refers to the behavior
patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passed on from generation
to generation.
▪ Chronosystem consists of the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life
course, as well as socio-historical circumstances.
Different aspects of Development
Motor development:
Developmentalist Arnold Gesell (1934) observed and discovered that infants and children
develop rolling, sitting, standing, and other motor skills in a fixed order and within specific time
frames. These observations showed that motor development comes about through the unfolding of a
genetic plan, or maturation.
According to dynamic systems theory, infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting.
According to Esther Thelen, to develop motor skills, infants must perceive something in the
environment that motivates them to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their movements. Motor
skills represent solutions to the infant’s goals.
Motor development is not a passive process in which genes dictate the unfolding of a sequence of skills
over time. Dynamic systems view states that, even universal milestones, such as crawling, reaching,
and walking, are learned through the process of adaptation (repeated cycles of action and perception
of the consequences of that action): modulate their movement patterns to fit a new task by exploring
and selecting possible configurations.
During Infancy, The new behavior is the result of many converging factors:

1. The development of the nervous system

2. The body’s physical properties and its possibilities for movement

3. The goal the child is motivated to reach &

4. The environmental support for the skill.

Reflexes are built-in reactions to stimuli that
govern the newborn’s movements, which are
automatic and beyond the new-born's control.
Reflexes are genetically carried survival
mechanisms, which allow the infant to respond
adaptively to their environment before they had
the opportunity to learn.
▪ Rooting reflex A newborn’s built-in
reaction that occurs when the infant’s
cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth
is touched. In response, the infant turns

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 his or her head toward the side that was touched, in an apparent effort to find something to
suck.
▪ Sucking reflex A newborn’s built-in reaction to automatically suck an object placed in its
mouth. The sucking reflex enables the infant to get nourishment before he or she has associated
a nipple with food and also serves as a self-soothing or self-regulating mechanism.
▪ Moro reflex A neonatal startle response that occurs in reaction to a sudden, intense noise or
movement. When startled, the newborn arches its back, throws its head back, and flings out its
arms and legs. Then the newborn rapidly closes its arms and legs to the center of the body.
▪ Grasping reflex A neonatal reflex that occurs when something touches the infant’s palms. The
infant responds by grasping tightly.
Gross motor skills involve large muscle activities, such as walking. As a foundation, these skills
require postural control. Posture is a dynamic process that is linked with sensory information in the
skin, joints, and muscles, which tell us where we are in space; in vestibular organs in the inner ear that
regulate balance and equilibrium; and in vision and hearing. Locomotion and postural control are
closely linked, especially in walking upright.

Fine motor skills involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity. Infants refine their
ability to grasp objects by developing two types of grasps.
Palmer grasp: Initially, infants grip with the whole hand.
Pincer grip: Later, toward the end of the first year, infants also grasp small objects with their thumb
and forefinger. Their grasping system is very flexible. Perceptual-motor coupling is necessary for
the infant to coordinate grasping. Which perceptual system the infant is most likely to use in
coordinating grasping varies with age.

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 Sensory and Perceptual Development:
Sensation occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors. Perception is the
interpretation of sensation.
Created by the Gibsons, the ecological view states that we directly perceive information that exists in
the world around us. Perception brings people in contact with the environment to interact with and
adapt to it. Affordances provide opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our
capabilities to perform activities.
Visual Perception: Researchers have developed a number of methods to assess the infant’s perception,
including the visual preference method, habituation and dishabituation, and tracking. Habituation is
the name given to decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus.
Dishabituation is the recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation. The infant’s
visual acuity increases dramatically in the first year of life. Infants’ color vision improves as they
develop.
Young infants systematically scan human faces. At as early as 3 months of age, infants start to show
size and shape constancy. At approximately 2 months of age, infants develop the ability to perceive
that occluded objects are complete. In Gibson and Walk’s classic study, infants as young as 6 months
of age indicated they could perceive depth.
Other senses: The fetus can hear during the last two months of pregnancy. Immediately after birth,
newborns can hear, but their sensory threshold is higher than that of adults. Developmental changes in
the perception of loudness, pitch, and localization of sound occur during infancy. Newborns can
respond to touch and feel pain. Newborns can differentiate odors, and sensitivity to taste may be
present before birth.
Cognitive development:
Piaget founded the field of cognitive development, discovered many important principles
about developing children, and influenced thousands of researchers in psychology and related fields.
Although Piaget seems to have adequately described general sequences of intellectual development,
his tendency to infer underlying competencies from intellectual performances often led him to
underestimate children’s cognitive capabilities. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes social
and cultural influences on intellectual growth.
He proposed that we should evaluate development from the perspective of four interrelated levels in
interaction with children’s environments: microgenetic, ontogenetic, phylogenetic, and sociohistorical.
Each culture transmits beliefs, values, and preferred methods of thinking or problem solving—its tools
of intellectual adaptation—to each successive generation.
Thus, culture teaches children what to think and how to go about it. Information-processing theorists
use the analogy of the mind as a computer, with information flowing through a limited-capacity system
composed of mental hardware and software. The multistore model depicts the human information
processing system as consisting of a sensory register to detect, or “log in,” input; a short-term store,
where information is stored temporarily until we can operate on it; and a permanent or long-term store.
Also included in most information-processing models is a concept of executive control processes, or

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 meta-cognition, which includes processes by which we plan, monitor, and control all phases of
information processing.
Language development:
Language is a form of communication, whether spoken,
written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols. Language
consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying
and combining them.
Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of
meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.

▪ Overextension is the tendency to apply a word to objects that

are inappropriate for the word’s meaning. For example,
children at first may say “dada” not only for “father” but
also for other men, strangers, or boys. With time,
overextensions decrease and eventually disappear.

▪ Under-extension is the tendency to apply a word too

narrowly; it occurs when children fail to use a word to name
a relevant event or object.

▪ Telegraphic speech The use of short and precise words

without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary
verbs, and other connectives.
Language consists of four subsystems:
(1) phonology, the rules governing the structure and sequence of
speech sounds; (2) semantics, the way underlying concepts are
expressed in words; (3) grammar, consisting of syntax, the rules by which words are arranged in
sentences, and morphology, markers that vary word meaning; and (4) pragmatics, the rules for
engaging in appropriate and effective conversation.
Newborns are capable of categorical speech perception and are sensitive to a wider range of speech
categories than exists in their own language. Between 6 and 8 months, infants start to organize speech
into the phonemic categories of their native tongue. In the second half of the first year, they have begun
to analyze the internal structure of sentences and words. Adults’ use of infant- directed speech (IDS)
eases language learning for babies. Infants begin cooing around 2 months, babbling around 6 months.
Over the first year, the range of babbled sounds expands. Then, as infants get ready to talk, sound and
intonation patterns start to resemble those of the child’s native language.
At 10 to 11 months, babies’ skill at establishing joint attention improves, and by the end of the first
year they actively engage in turn taking games and use two communicative gestures, the
protodeclarative and the protoimperative, to influence others’ behavior. By the second year, caregiver–
child interaction contributes greatly to language progress.

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 Semantic development: Language comprehension develops ahead of production. For most children,
the rate of word learning increases steadily and continuously from toddlerhood through the preschool
years. To build vocabulary quickly, children engage in fast-mapping. Girls show faster early
vocabulary growth than boys, and temperamentally shy or negative toddlers acquire language more
slowly. Low-SES children, who experience less verbal stimulation, usually have smaller vocabularies.
Most toddlers use a referential style of language learning; their early words mainly refer to objects.
Some use an expressive style, producing more social formulas and pronouns.
Early vocabularies typically emphasize object words; action and state words appear soon after. When
first learning words, children make errors of under- extension and over-extension. Their word coinages
and metaphors expand the range of meanings they can express.
Reading contributes enormously to vocabulary growth in middle childhood. School-age children can
grasp word meanings from definitions, and comprehension of metaphor and humor expands.
Adolescents’ ability to reason abstractly leads to an appreciation of irony, sarcasm, and figurative
language.
Moral Development:
Moral Feelings: Feelings of anxiety and guilt are central to the account of moral development
provided by Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. According to Freud, to reduce anxiety, avoid punishment,
and maintain parental affection, children identify with parents, internalizing their standards of right
and wrong, and thus form the superego, the moral element of personality. Other emotions, however,
also contribute to the child’s moral development, including positive feelings and empathy (Perspective
talking).
Piaget’s theory on Morality (Moral Reasoning):
Piaget concluded that children go through two distinct stages in how they think about morality.
1. Heteronomous morality (4-7 years)
Children think of justice and rules as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the
control of people. They believe in immanent justice.
From 7 to 10 years of age, children are in a transition showing some features of the first stage of moral
reasoning and some stages of the second stage, autonomous morality.
2. Autonomous morality (10 & older)
They become aware that rules and laws are created by people, and in judging an action they
consider the actor’s intentions as well as the consequences.
Conscience - An internal regulation of standards of right and wrong that involves an integration of
moral thought, feeling, and behavior.
Lawrence Kohlberg theory of Morality:
Piaget’s cognitive stages of development serve as the underpinnings for Kohlberg’s theory, but
Kohlberg suggested that there are six stages of moral development.

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 1. Preconventional reasoning (Before 9): It is the lowest level of moral reasoning. At this level,
good and bad are interpreted in terms of external rewards and punishments.
▪ Stage 1. Heteronomous morality is the first stage of preconventional reasoning. At this
stage, moral thinking is tied to punishment. For example, children think that they must
obey because they fear punishment for disobedience.
▪ Stage 2. Individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange is the second stage of
preconventional reasoning. At this stage, individuals reason that pursuing their own
interests is the right thing to do but they let others do the same. Thus, they think that what
is right involves an equal exchange. They reason that if they are nice to others, others will
be nice to them in return.
2. Conventional reasoning: It is the second, or intermediate. At this level, individuals apply
certain standards, but they are the standards set by others, such as parents or the government.
▪ Stage 3. Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal
conformity. At this stage, individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others as a basis
of moral judgments. Children and adolescents often adopt their parents’ moral standards
at this stage, seeking to be thought of by their parents as a “good girl” or a “good boy.”
▪ Stage 4. Social systems morality. At this stage, moral judgments are based on
understanding the social order, law, justice, and duty. For example, adolescents may
reason that in order for a community to work effectively, it needs to be protected by laws
that are adhered to by its members.
3. Postconventional reasoning: It is the highest level in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
At this level, the individual recognizes alternative moral courses, explores the options, and then
decides on a personal moral code.
▪ Stage 5. Social contract or utility and individual rights. At this stage, individuals reason
that values, rights, and principles undergird or transcend the law. A person evaluates the
validity of actual laws, and social systems can be examined in terms of the degree to which
they preserve and protect fundamental human rights and values.
▪ Stage 6. Universal ethical principles. At this stage, the person has developed a moral
standard based on universal human rights. When faced with a conflict between law and

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 conscience, the person reasons that conscience should be followed, even though the
decision might bring risk.
Socio-emotional Development
Emotion, Feeling, or Affect that occurs when a person is in a state or interaction that is
important to him or her. Emotion is characterized by behavior that reflects (expresses) the pleasantness
or unpleasantness of the state a person is in or the transactions being experienced. Emotion consists of
more than communication; in infancy it is the communication aspect that is at the forefront of
emotion. According to Cohen Social- emotional development includes the child's experience,
expression, and management of emotions and the ability to establish positive and rewarding
relationships with others. It encompasses both intra- and interpersonal processes. The major aspects of
socio-emotional developments are

▪ Emotions
▪ First form of Communication Emotional Expression : Smile & Cry
▪ Temperament
▪ Attachment.
Michael Lewis (2008) Primary emotion Vs Self-conscious emotion:
▪ Primary emotions - Emotions that are present in humans and other animals and emerge early
in life (first 6 months of life span) Primary emotions include surprise, interest, joy, anger,
sadness, fear, and disgust.
▪ Self-conscious emotions - Emotions that require self-awareness, especially consciousness
and a sense of “me”; Self-conscious emotion include jealousy, empathy, embarrassment,
pride, shame, and guilt, most of these occurring for the first time at some point in the second
half of the first year through the second year.
Chess & Thomas’ basic types or clusters of Temperament:
▪ Easy child: A child, who is generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines
in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences. (40%)
▪ Difficult child: A child who tends to react negatively and cry frequently, engages in irregular
daily routines, and is slow to accept change. (10%)
▪ Slow-to-warm-up child: A child who has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and
displays a low intensity of mood. (15%)
In their longitudinal investigation they have found that 35 percent did not fit any of the three patterns.
Kagan’s Behavioral Inhibition:
It’s another way of classifying temperament focuses on the differences between a shy, subdued,
timid child and a sociable, extraverted, bold child. Jerome Kagan regards shyness with strangers (peers
or adults) as one feature of a broad temperament category called inhibition to the unfamiliar. Inhibited
children react to many aspects of unfamiliarity with initial avoidance, distress, or subdued affect,

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 beginning about 7 to 9 months of age. Inhibition shows considerable stability from infancy through
early childhood. Inhibited temperament is associated with a unique physiological pattern that includes
high and stable heart rate, high level of the hormone cortisol, and high activity in the right frontal lobe
of the brain. This pattern may be tied to the excitability of the amygdala, a structure of the brain that
plays an important role in fear and inhibition.
Rothbart & Bates’ Classification (2006):
They argued that three broad dimensions that characterize the structure of temperament.

▪ Extraversion/surgency - includes “positive anticipation, impulsivity, activity level, and

sensation seeking”. Kagan’s uninhibited children fit into this category.

▪ Negative affectivity - includes “fear, frustration, sadness, and discomfort”. These children are
easily distressed; they may fret and cry often. Kagan’s inhibited children fit this category too.

▪ Effortful control (self-regulation) - includes “attentional focusing and shifting, inhibitory

control, perceptual sensitivity, and low-intensity pleasure”. Infants who are high on effortful
control show an ability to keep their arousal from getting too high and have strategies for
soothing themselves. By contrast, children low on effortful control, are often unable to control
their arousal; they become easily agitated and intensely emotional.
Attachment and Its Development:
Attachment is a close emotional bond between two people. Three
theorists proposed on the development and nature of the attachment.
▪ Freud emphasized that infants become attached to the person or
object that provides oral satisfaction. For most infants, this is the
mother, since she is most likely to feed the infant.
▪ Harry Harlow’s study clearly demonstrated that feeding is not
the crucial element in the attachment process and that contact
comfort is important.
▪ Erikson’s View: According to psychosocial perspective of
development, the first years of life represents the stage of trust vs.
mistrust. Physical comfort and sensitive care is the key to
establishing the basic trust in infants.
▪ John Bowlby’s Ethological Perspective on Attachment: Bowlby maintains both infants and
their primary caregivers are biologically predisposed to form attachments. He argues that the
newborn is biologically equipped to elicit attachment behavior. The immediate result is to keep
the primary caregiver nearby; the long-term effect is to increase the infant’s chances of
survival.

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 Bowlby Stages of Attachment:

▪ Pre-attachment / Phase 1(Birth – 2 months) - Infants instinctively direct their attachment to

human figures. Strangers, siblings, and parents are equally likely to elicit smiling or crying
from the infant.

▪ Indiscriminate / Phase 2 (2 – 7 months) - Attachment becomes focused on one figure, usually

the primary caregiver, as the baby gradually learns to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar
people.

▪ Discriminate / Phase 3 (7 – 24 months) - Specific attachments develop. With increased

locomotor skills, babies actively seek contact with regular caregivers, such as the mother or
father.

▪ Multiple / Phase 4 (From 24 months on) - Children become aware of others’ feelings, goals,
and plans and begin to take these into account in forming their own actions.
Individual Differences in Attachment:
Mary Ainsworth, studies about Strange Situation - an
observational measure of infant attachment in which the
infant experiences a series of introductions, separations, and
reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in a
prescribed order. Based on the baby's response to the strange
situation researches has developed 4 different attachments
styles:

▪ Secure Attachment: Babies that use the caregiver as

a secure base from which to explore the environment.

▪ Insecure Avoidant: Babies that show insecurity by avoiding the caregiver.

▪ Insecure Resistant: Babies that often cling to the caregiver, then resist the caregiver by fighting
against the closeness, by kicking or pushing away.

▪ Insecure disorganized: Babies that show insecurity by being disorganized and disoriented.

Gender Development:
Alice Eagly’s Social Role theory is a theory that gender differences result from the contrasting
roles of men and women. In Eagly’s view, as women adapted to roles with less power and less status
in society, they showed more cooperative, less dominant profiles than men. Thus, the social hierarchy
and division of labor are important causes of gender differences in power, assertiveness, and nurturing.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory of Gender - The preschool child develops a sexual attraction to the
opposite-sex parent, by approximately 5 or 6 years of age renounces this attraction because of anxious
feelings, and subsequently identifies with the same sex parent, unconsciously adopting the same-sex
parent’s characteristics. However, Developmentalists have observed that gender development does not

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 proceed as Freud proposed. Children become gender-typed much earlier than 5 or 6 years of age, and
they become masculine or feminine even when the same-sex parent is not present in the family.
Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory claims that children are self socializers and must pass
through basic gender identity and gender stability before reaching gender consistency, when they
selectively attend to same-sex models and become gender typed. However, research suggests that
gender typing begins much earlier than Kohlberg thought and measures of gender consistency do not
predict the strength of gender typing. According to Martin and Halverson’s gender schema theory,
children who have established a basic gender identity construct “in-group/out-group” and own-sex
gender schemas.
These schemas serve as scripts for processing gender-related information and developing gender roles.
Schema-consistent information is gathered and retained, whereas schema-inconsistent information is
ignored or distorted, thus perpetuating gender stereotypes that may have no basis in fact.
Social cognitive theory of Gender: A theory that emphasizes that children’s gender development
occurs through the observation and imitation of gender behavior and through the rewards and
punishments children experience for gender appropriate and gender-inappropriate behavior.

▪ Gender identity: The sense of being male or female, which most children acquire by the
time they are 3 years old.

▪ Gender role: A set of expectations that prescribes how females or males should think, act,
and feel.

▪ Gender typing: Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

Gender Schema theory States that gender typing emerges as children develop gender-schemas of
their culture’s gender-appropriate and gender- inappropriate behavior. A schema is a cognitive
structure, a network of associations that guide an individual’s perceptions. A gender schema organizes
the world in terms of female and male. Children are internally motivated to perceive the world and to
act in accordance with their developing schemas. Bit by bit, children pick up what is gender-
appropriate and gender-inappropriate in their culture, and develop gender schemas that shape how
they perceive the world and what they remember
Diana Baumrind, she has described four
different parenting styles as follows
1. Authoritarian
2. Authoritative
3. Indulgent
4. Neglectful
Four types of Child Maltreatment include Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual abuse and Child
neglect.

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