HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT:
 From conception until the moment of death, we not only change
physically, but we also change in the way we think, use language, and
develop social relationships.
 Development is the pattern of progressive, orderly, and predictable
changes that begin at conception and continue throughout life.
 Development mostly involves changes — both growth and decline, as
observed during old age.
 Development is influenced by an interplay of biological, cognitive, and
socio-emotional processes.
 Development due to genes inherited from parents, such as in height and
weight, brain, heart, and lungs development, etc. all point towards the
role of biological processes.
 The role of cognitive processes in development relate to mental
activities associated with the processes of knowing, and experiencing,
such as thought, perception, attention, problem solving, etc.
 Socio-emotional processes that influence development refer to changes
in an individual’s interactions with other people, changes in emotions,
and in personality. Example:A child’s hug to her/his mother, a young
girl’s affectionate gesture to her/his sibling, or an adolescent’s sorrow at
losing a match are all reflections of socio-emotional processes deeply
involved in human development.
 The biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes are
interwoven. These processes influence changes in the development of
the individual as a whole throughout the human life-span.

Life-Span Perspective on Development

 The study of development according to the Life-Span Perspective (LSP)
includes the following assumptions :
1. Development is lifelong: It takes place across all age groups starting from
conception to old age. It includes both gains and losses, which interact in
dynamic (change in one aspect goes with changes in others) ways
throughout the life-span.
2. The various processes of human development, i.e. biological, cognitive,
and socio-emotional are interwoven in the development of a person
throughout the life-span.
3. Development is multi-directional: Some dimensions or components of a
given dimension of development may increase, while others show
decrement. For example, the experiences of adults may make them wiser
and guide their decisions. However, with an increase in age, one’s
performance is likely to decrease on tasks requiring speed, such as running.
4. Development is highly plastic: Within person, modifiability is found in
psychological development, though plasticity varies among individuals. This
means skills and abilities can be improved or developed throughout the life-
span.
5. Development is influenced by historical conditions:
For example, the experiences of 20-year olds who lived through the
freedom struggle in India would be very different from the experiences of
20 year olds of today. The career orientation of school students today is
very different from those students who were in schools 50 years ago.
6. Development is the concern of a number of disciplines: Different
disciplines like psychology, anthropology, sociology, and neuro-sciences
study human development, each trying to provide answers to development
throughout the life-span.
7. An individual responds and acts on contexts, which include what was
inherited, the physical environment, social, historical, and cultural contexts.
For example, the life events in everyone’s life are not the same, such as,
death of a parent, accident, earthquake, etc., affect the course of one’s life
as also the positive influences such as winning an award or getting a good
job. People keep on changing with changing contexts.
FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT
What causes us to be different from each other but at the same time more
like each other?
The answer lies in the interaction of heredity and environment.
ROLE OF HERIDITY:
 We inherit genetic codes from our parents, which are in every cell of our
body. Our genetic codes are alike in one important way; they contain the
human genetic code.
 Genetic transmission is very complex. Most characteristics that we
observe in humans are combinations of larger number of genes.
 The actual genetic material or a person’s genetic heritage is known as
genotype.
 However, not all of this genetic material is apparent or distinctly
identifiable in our observable characteristics.
 Phenotype is the way an individual’s genotype is expressed in
observable and measurable characteristics.
 Phenotypes include physical traits, such as height, weight, eye and skin
colour, and many of the psychological characteristics such as
intelligence, creativity, and personality.
 These observable characteristics of an individual are the result of the
interaction between the person’s inherited traits and the environment.
 It is the genetic code which predisposes a child to develop in a particular
way. Genes provide a blueprint and timetable for the development of an
individual. But genes do not exist in isolation and development occurs
within the context of an individual’s environment. This is what makes
each one of us a unique person.

ROLE OF ENVIRONMENT:
 Imagine a child, with genotype that predisposes her/him to be
introverted, in an environment that promotes social interaction and
extroversion. The influence of such an environment may make the child
a little extroverted.
 Let us take another example. An individual with “short” height genes,
even if s/he is in a very good nutritional environment, will never be able
to be taller than average. This shows that genes set the limit and within
that limit the environment influences development.
 Parents provide the genes for the child’s development. Do you know
that they also play an important role in determining the type of
environment their children will encounter?
 Sandra Scarr (1992) believes that the environment parents provide for
their children depends to some extent on their own genetic
predisposition. For example, if parents are intelligent and are good
readers they would provide their children with books to read, with the
likely outcome that their children would become good readers who
enjoy reading.
 A child’s own genotype (what s/he has inherited) such as being
cooperative, and attentive is likely to result in teachers and parents
giving more pleasant response as compared to children who are not
cooperative or not attentive. Besides these, children themselves choose
certain environments based on their genotype.
 For example, because of their genotype, children may perform well in
music or sports and they will seek and spend more time in
environments, which will enable them to perform their musical skills;
similarly an athlete would seek sports-related environment. These
interactions with environment keep changing from infancy through
adolescence.
 Environmental influences are as complex as the genes we inherit.

CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT
 Development does not take place in a vacuum. It is always embedded in
a particular sociocultural context.
 Urie Bronfenbrenner’s contextual view of development emphasises the
role of environmental factors in the development of an individual.
 The microsystem is the immediate environment/setting in which the
individual lives. It is in these settings where the child directly interacts
with social agents – the family, peers, teachers, and neighbourhood.
 The mesosystem consists of relations between these contexts. For
instance, how a child’s parents relate to the teachers, or how the
parents view the adolescent’s friends, are experiences likely to
influence an individual’s relationships with others.
 The exosystem includes events in social settings where the child does
not participate directly, but they influence the childs’ experiences in the
immediate context. For example, the transfer of father or mother may
 cause tension among the parents which might affect their interactions
with the child or the general amenities available to the child like quality
of schooling, libraries, medical care, means of entertainment, etc.
 Macrosystem includes the culture in which the individual lives.
 Chronosystem involves events in the individual’s life course, and socio-
historical circumstances of the time such as, divorce of parents or
parents’ economic setback, and their effect on the child.
 Conclusion: In a nutshell, Bronfenbrenner’s view is that a child’s
development is significantly affected by the complex world that
envelops her/him – whether it be the minutiae of the conversations s/he
has with her/his playmates, or the social and economic life
circumstances into which s/he is born.
 Research has shown that children in impoverished environments have
unstimulating environment devoid of books, magazines, toys, etc., lack
experiences such as visits to library, museum, zoo, etc., have parents
who are ineffective as role models, and live in overcrowded and noisy
surroundings. As a result of these conditions children are at a
disadvantage and have difficulties in learning.

Durganand Sinha (1977)

 He has presented an ecological model for understanding the
development of children in Indian context.
 Ecology of the child could be viewed in terms of two concentric layers.
 The “upper and the more visible layers” consist of home, school, peer
groups, and so on.
 The most important ecological factors influencing development of the
child in the visible upper layer constitute the:
(i) Home, its conditions in terms of overcrowding, space available to
each member, toys, technological devices used, etc.,
(ii) Nature and quality of schooling, facilities to which the child is
exposed
(iii) Nature of interactions and activities undertaken with peer groups
from childhood onwards.
These factors do not operate independently but constantly
interact with one another. Since these are also embedded in a
larger and a more pervasive setting, the “surrounding layers” of
the child’s ecology constantly influence the “upper layer” factors.
 However, their influences are not always clearly visible.
The elements of the surrounding layer of ecology constitute the:
(i) General geographical environment: It includes space and
facilities for play and other activities available outside the
home including general congestion of the locality and
density of population
(ii) Institutional setting provided by caste, class, and other
factors
(iii) General amenities available to the child like drinking water,
electricity, means of entertainment and so on.
 The visible and the surrounding layer factors interact with one another
and may have different consequences for development in different
people.
 The ecological environment can change or alter during any time of the
individual’s life-span.

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

 Development is commonly described in terms of periods or stages.
 Human life proceeds through different stages.
 Developmental stages are assumed to be temporary and are often
characterised by a dominant feature or a leading characteristic, which
gives each period its uniqueness.
 During a particular stage, individual progresses towards an assumed
goal - a state or ability that s/he must achieve in the same order as
other persons before progressing to the next stage in the sequence.
 Individuals do vary with respect to the time or rate of development from
one stage to another. It may be noted that certain patterns of behaviour
and certain skills are learned more easily and successfully during certain
stages. These accomplishments of a person become the social
expectations of that stage of development. They are known as
developmental tasks.

Prenatal Stage
 The period from conception to birth is known as the prenatal period.
 It lasts for about 40 weeks.
 Both genetic and environmental factors affect our development during
different periods of prenatal stage.
 Prenatal development is also affected by maternal characteristics, which
include mother’s age, nutrition, and emotional state.
 Disease or infection carried by the mother can adversely affect prenatal
development. For example, rubella (German measles), genital herpes,
and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are believed to cause genetic
problems in the newborn.
 Another source of threat to prenatal development is teratogens -
environmental agents that cause deviations in normal development that
can lead to serious abnormalities or death. Common teratogens include
drugs, infections, radiations, and pollution.
 Intake of drugs (marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.), alcohol, tobacco, etc.
by women during pregnancy may have harmful effects on the foetus and
increase the frequency of congenital abnormalities.
 Radiations (such as X-rays), and certain chemicals near industrial areas
can cause permanent change in the genes.
 Environmental pollutants and toxic wastes like carbon monoxide,
mercury and lead are also sources of danger to the unborn child.

INFANCY:
 The brain develops at an amazing rate before and after birth.
 Just before birth the newborns have most but not all brain cells.
 The neural connections among these cells develop at a rapid rate. The
newborn is not as helpless as you might think. The activities needed to
sustain life functions are present in the newborn — it breathes, sucks,
swallows, and discharges the bodily wastes.
 The newborns in their first week of life are able to indicate what direction
a sound is coming from, can distinguish their mother’s voice from the
voices of other women, and can imitate simple gestures like tongue
protrusion and mouth opening.

Motor Development :
 The newborn’s movements are governed by reflexes — which are
automatic, built-in responses to stimuli.
 They are genetically-carried survival mechanisms, and are the building
blocks for subsequent motor development.
 Before the newborns have had the opportunity to learn, reflexes act as
adaptive mechanisms. Some reflexes present in the newborn —
 coughing, blinking, and yawning persist throughout their lives. Others
disappear as the brain functions mature and voluntary control over
behaviour starts developing.
 As the brain is developing, physical development also progresses.
 As the infant grows, the muscles and nervous system mature which lead
to the development of finer skills. Basic physical (motor) skills include
grasping and reaching for objects, sitting, crawling, walking and running.
The sequence of physical (motor) development is universal, with minor
exceptions.

Sensory Abilities :
 You know by now that newborns are not as incompetent as they look.
They can recognise their mother’s voice just a few hours after birth and
have other sensory capabilities. How well can infants see?
 Newborns prefer to look at some stimuli rather than others such as faces,
although these preferences change over the first few months of life. The
newborn’s vision is estimated to be lower than the adult vision. By 6
months it improves and by about the first year, vision is almost the same
as that of an adult (20/20).
 Colour: The current consensus is that they might be able to distinguish
between red and white colours but in general they are colour deficient
and full colour vision develops by 3 months of age.
 Hearing: Infants can hear immediately after birth. As the infant develops,
proficiency at localising sound improves.
 Touch: Newborns respond to touch and they can even feel pain.
 Both smell and taste capacities are also present in the newborn.

Cognitive Development :
 Jean Piaget stressed that children actively construct their understanding
of the world.
 Information does not simply enter their minds from the environment.
 As children grow, additional information is acquired and they adapt their
thinking to include new ideas, as this improves their understanding of the
world.
 Piaget believed that a child’s mind passes through a series of stages of
thought from infancy to adolescence.
 Each stage is characterised by a distinct way of thinking and is age
related.
 It is important to remember that it is the different way of thinking which
makes one stage more advanced than the other and not the amount of
information.
 This also shows why you at your age think differently from an 8 year old.
 The child during infancy, i.e. the first two years of life, experiences the
world through senses and interactions with objects — through looking,
hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping.
 The newborn lives in the present. What is out of sight is out of mind.
 For example, if you hide the toy in front of the child with which the child
has been playing, the young infant would react as if nothing has
happened, i.e. s/he will not search for the toy. The child assumes the toy
does not exist.
 According to Piaget, children at this stage do not go beyond their
immediate sensory experience, i.e. lack object permanence — the
awareness that the objects continue to exist when not perceived.
 Gradually by 8 months of age the child starts pursuing the object partially
covered in her/his presence. The basis of verbal communication seems to
be present in infants.
 Vocalisation begins with the infant’s babbling, sometime between 3 to 6
months of age.

Socio-emotional Development :
 Babies from birth are social creatures.
 An infant starts preferring familiar faces and responds to parent’s
presence by cooing and gurgling.
 They become more mobile by 6 to 8 months of age and start showing a
preference for their mother’s company. When frightened by a new face
or when separated from their mother, they cry or show distress.
 On being reunited with the parent or caregiver they reciprocate with
smiles or hugs.
 The close emotional bond of affection that develop between infants and
their parents (caregivers) is called attachment.
Study: In a classic study by Harlow and Harlow (1962), baby monkeys
were separated from their mothers approximately 8 hours after birth.
The baby monkeys were placed in experimental chambers and reared for
 6 months by surrogate (substitute) “mothers”, one made of wire and the
other of cloth. Half the baby monkeys were fed by the wire mother, half
by the cloth mother. Regardless of whether they were fed by the wire or
the cloth mother the baby monkeys showed a preference for the cloth
mother and spent a lot more time with her. Result: This study clearly
demonstrates that providing nourishment or feeding was not crucial for
attachment and contact-comfort is important. You too may have seen
young children having a strong attachment to a favourite toy or blanket.
There is nothing unusual in this, as the children know that the blanket or
toy is not their mother. Yet it provides them comfort. As children grow
and become more sure of themselves, they abandon these objects.

 Human babies also form an attachment with their parents or caregivers

who consistently and appropriately reciprocate to their signals of love
and affection.
 According to Erik Erikson (1968), the first year of life is the key time for
the development of attachment. It represents the stage of developing
trust or mistrust.
 A sense of trust is built on a feeling of physical comfort which builds an
expectation of the world as a secure and good place. An infant’s sense of
trust is developed by responsive and sensitive parenting.
 If the parents are sensitive, affectionate, and accepting, it provides the
infant a strong base to explore the environment. Such infants are likely to
develop a secure attachment.
 On the other hand, if parents are insensitive and show dissatisfaction and
find fault with the child, it can lead to creating feelings of self-doubt in
the child.
 Securely attached infants respond positively when picked up, move
freely, and play whereas insecurely attached infants feel anxious when
separated and cry due to fear and get upset.
 A close interactive relationship with warm and affectionate adults is a
child’s first step towards healthy development.

CHILDHOOD
 The child’s growth slows down during early childhood as compared to
infancy.
 The child develops physically, gains height and weight, learns to walk,
runs, jumps, and plays with a ball.
 Socially, the child’s world expands from the parents to the family and
adults near home and at school.
 The child also begins to acquire the concepts of good and bad, i.e.
develops a sense of morality.
 During childhood, children have increased physical capacities, can
perform tasks independently, can set goals, and meet adult expectations.
 The increasing maturation of the brain along with opportunities to
experience the world, contribute to development of children’s cognitive
abilities.

Physical Development :
 Early development follows two principles :
(i) Development proceeds cephalocaudally, i.e. from the cephalic or
head region to the caudal or tail region. Children gain control over
the upper part of the body before the lower part. This is why you
would notice that the infant’s head is proportionately larger than
her/his body during early infancy or if you see an infant crawling,
s/he will use the arms first and then shift to using the legs
(ii) Growth proceeds from the centre of body and moves towards the
extremities or more distal regions — the proximodistal trend, i.e.
children gain control over their torso before their extremities.
Initially infants reach for objects by turning their entire body,
gradually they extend their arms to reach for things.
 These changes are the result of a maturing nervous system and not
because of any limitation since even visually impaired children show the
same sequence.
 As children grow older, they look slimmer as the trunk part of their
bodies lengthens and body fat decreases.
 The brain and the head grow more rapidly than any other part of the
body.
 The growth and development of the brain are important as they help in
the maturation of children’s abilities, such as eye hand coordination,
holding a pencil, and attempts made at writing.
 During middle and late childhood years, children increase significantly in
size and strength; increase in weight is mainly due to increase in the size
 of the skeletal and muscular systems, as well as size of some body
organs.

Motor Development :
 Gross motor skills during the early childhood years involve the use of
arms and legs, and moving around with confidence and more
purposefully in the environment.
 Fine motor skills — finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination —
improve substantially during early childhood. During these years the
child’s preference for left or right hand also develops. The major
accomplishments in gross and fine motor skills during early childhood
years are given in Table 4.3.

Cognitive Development :
 The child’s ability to acquire the concept of object permanence enables
her/him to use mental symbols to represent objects.
 The child at this stage lacks the ability that allows her/him to do mentally
what was done physically before.
 Cognitive development in early childhood focuses on Piaget’s stage of
preoperational thought
a. The child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not
physically present. You may have observed children draw designs/
figures to represent people, trees, dog, house, etc. This ability of the
child to engage in symbolic thought helps to expand her/his mental
world. The progress in symbolic thought continues.
b. A salient feature of preoperational thought is egocentrism (self focus),
i.e. children see the world only in terms of their own selves and are
not able to appreciate others’ point of view.
c. Children because of egocentrism, engage in animism - thinking that all
things are living, like oneself. They attribute life-like qualities to
inanimate objects. For example, if a child while running slips on the
road, s/he might show animism by saying “road hurt me”.
d. As children grow and are approximately between 4 and 7 years of age
they enter a stage that Piaget called the stage of intuitive thought.
e. Another feature of thought during preoperational stage is
characterised by children having a tendency for centration, i.e.
focusing on a single characteristic or feature for understanding an
 event. For example, a child may insist on drinking a “big glass” of
juice, preferring a tall narrow glass to a short broad one, even though
both might be holding the same amount of juice.

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL THOUGHTS:

 As the child grows and is approximately between 7 and 11 years of age
(the period of middle and late childhood) intuitive thought is replaced by
logical thought. This is the stage of concrete operational thought, which
is made up of operations — mental actions that allow the child to do
mentally what was done physically before.
 Concrete operations are also mental actions that are reversible . In a
well known test, the child is presented with two identical balls of clay.
One ball is rolled by the experimenter into a long thin strip and the other
ball remains in its original shape. On being asked which has more clay,
the child of 7 or 8 years, would answer that, both have the same amount
of clay. This is because the child imagines the ball rolled into thin strip
and then into a ball, that means s/he is able to imagine reversible
mental action on concrete/real objects.

 Concrete operations allow the child to focus on different characteristics

and not focus on one aspect of the object. This helps the child to
appreciate that there are different ways of looking at things, which also
results in the decline of her/his egocentrism.

 Thinking becomes more flexible, and children can think about

alternatives when solving problems, or mentally retrace their steps if
required.

 Even though the preoperational child develops the ability to see

relationships between different properties of an object, s/he cannot do
abstract thinking, i.e. s/he still cannot manipulate ideas in the absence of
objects. For example, steps required to complete algebraic equations, or
imagining line of longitude or latitude of the earth.

Socio-emotional Development :
 The important dimensions of children’s socioemotional development are
the self, gender and moral development.
 During the early years of childhood, some important developments in
the self take place.
 The child due to socialisation has developed a sense of who s/he is and
whom s/he wants to be identified with.
 The developing sense of independence makes children do things in their
own way.
 According to Erikson, the way parents respond to their self-initiated
activities leads to developing a sense of initiative or sense of guilt.
 For example, giving freedom and opportunities for play like cycling,
running, skating, etc. and answering children’s questions will create a
sense of support for the initiative taken.
 In contrast, if they are made to feel that their questions are useless, and
games played by them are stupid, the children are likely to develop
feelings of guilt over self-initiated activities, which may persist through
the children’s later life also.
 Self understanding: Early childhood is limited to defining oneself through
physical characteristics: I am tall, she has black hair, I am a girl, etc.
 During middle and late childhood, the child is likely to define oneself
through internal characteristics such as, “I am smart and I am popular”
or “I feel proud when teachers assign me responsibility in school”.
 In addition to defining oneself through psychological characteristics,
children’s self descriptions also include social aspects of self, such as
references to social groups like being a member of school’s music club,
environment club, or any religious group.
 Children’s self understanding also includes social comparison. Children
are likely to think about what they can do or cannot do in comparison
with others. For example, “I got more marks than Atul” or “I can run
faster than others in the class”.
This developmental shift leads to establishing one’s differences from
others as an individual.
Once the children enter school their social world expands beyond their
families. They also spend greater amount of time with their age mates or
peers. Thus the increased time that children spend with their peers
shapes their development.
 Moral Development :
 Another important aspect of the child’s development is learning to
differentiate between the rightness or wrongness of human acts.
 The way children come to distinguish right from wrong, to feel guilty, to
put themselves in other people’s position, and to help others when they
are in trouble, are all components of moral development.
 Just as children pass through the various stages of cognitive
development, according to Lawrence Kohlberg, they pass through the
various stages of moral development, which are age related.
 Kohlberg interviewed children in which they were presented with stories
in which the characters face moral dilemmas.
 Children were asked what the characters in the dilemma should do, and
why.
 According to him, children approach thinking about right and wrong
differently at different ages.
 The young child, i.e. before 9 years of age, thinks in terms of external
authority. According to her/him, actions are wrong because s/he is
punished, and right because s/he is rewarded.
 As the child grows, i.e. by early adolescence, s/he develops moral
reasoning through set of rules of others, such as parents or laws of the
society. These rules are accepted by the children as their own. These are
“internalised” in order to be virtuous and to win approval from others
(not to avoid punishment). Children view rules as absolute guidelines,
which should be followed.
 Moral thinking at this stage is relatively inflexible. As they grow, they
gradually develop a personal moral code
 Language develops and the child can reason logically. Socially the child
has become more involved in social systems, such as family and peer
group. The next section traces changes in human development during
adolescence and adulthood.
CHALLENGES OF ADOLESCENCE
 The term adolescence derives from the Latin word adolescere, meaning
“to grow into maturity”.
 It is the transitional period in a person’s life between childhood and
adulthood.
 Adolescence is commonly defined as the stage of life that begins at the
onset of puberty, when sexual maturity, or the ability to reproduce is
attained.
 It has been regarded as a period of rapid change, both biologically and
psychologically.

Physical Development :
 Puberty or sexual maturity marks the end of childhood and signifies the
beginning of adolescence, which is characterised by dramatic physical
changes in both, growth rate, and sexual characteristics.
 Puberty is not a sudden event, but is part of a gradual process.
 The hormones released during puberty result in the development of
primary and secondary sexual characteristics.
 The primary sex characteristics include those directly related to
reproduction and the secondary sex characteristics include features or
signs of achieving sexual maturity.
 Pubertal changes in boys are marked by acceleration in growth, facial
hair, and changes in voice.
 In girls, rapid growth in height usually begins about two years before
menarche, the onset of menstruation.
 The growth spurt generally begins at the age of 12 or 13 for boys and at
the age of 10 or 11 for girls.
 It is normal to have variations in the pubertal sequence. For example,
among two boys (or two girls) of same chronological age, one may
complete pubertal sequence before the other has begun it.
 Both genetics and environment play a part in this . For example,
identical twins reach menarche closer in time than do fraternal twins; on
an average, girls from affluent families go through menarche earlier than
girls from poor families; and historical trends show that the age of
menarche is declining in industrialised nations reflecting better nutrition
and advances in medical care.
 Physical development during adolescence is also accompanied by a
number of psychological changes.
 Around puberty adolescents show an increase in interest in members of
the opposite sex and in sexual matters and a new awareness of sexual
feelings develops.
 This increased attention to sexuality is caused by factors such as
individual’s awareness of the biological changes taking place and the
emphasis placed on sexuality by peers, parents, and society.
 Many adolescents lack adequate knowledge or have misconceptions
about sex and sexuality. Sex is a topic parents find difficult to discuss
with children, so adolescents tend to become secretive about sexual
concerns which make exchange of information and communication
difficult.
 The concern over adolescent sexuality has become intense in recent
times because of the risk of AIDS, and other sexually transmitted
diseases.
 Another important developmental task during adolescence is accepting
one’s physical self/ maturity.
 Adolescents need to develop a realistic image of their physical
appearance, which is acceptable to them. It is important to keep in mind
that puberty also involves cognitive and social changes along with
physical changes.

Cognitive Developmental Changes :

 Adolescents’ thought becomes more abstract, logical, and idealistic; they
become more capable of examining their own thoughts, others’
thoughts, and what others are thinking about them.
 Adolescents’ developing ability to reason gives them a new level of
cognitive and social awareness.
 Piaget believed that formal operational thought appears between the
age of 11 and 15. During this stage adolescent thinking expands beyond
actual concrete experiences and they begin to think more in abstract
terms and reason about them.
 In addition to being abstract, adolescent thought is also idealistic.
Adolescents begin to think about ideal characteristics for themselves
and others and compare themselves and others with these ideal
standards.
 For example, they may think what an ideal parent is like and compare
their parents with these ideal standards.
 In contrast to trial and error approach used by children in earlier stages
of development, adolescent thinking becomes more systematic in
solving problems — they think of possible courses of action, why
 something is happening the way it is, and systematically seek solutions.
Piaget called this type of logical thinking — hypothetical deductive
reasoning.
 Logical thought also influences the development of moral reasoning.
 Social rules are not considered as absolute standards and moral thinking
shows some flexibility.
 The adolescent recognises alternative moral courses, explores options,
and then decides on a personal moral code. For example, individuals at
this age might participate in a protest march for a cause rather than
adhere/ conform to college norm.
 Adolescents also develop a special kind of egocentrism.
 According to David Elkind, imaginary audience and personal fable are
two components of adolescents’ egocentrism.
 Imaginary audience is adolescent’s belief that others are as preoccupied
with them as they are about themselves. They imagine that people are
always noticing them and are observing each and every behaviour of
theirs.
 Example: Imagine a boy who thinks that all will notice the ink spot on his
shirt, or a girl with a pimple feels, all people would think how bad her
skin is. It is this imaginary audience, which makes them extremely self-
conscious.
 The personal fable is part of the adolescents’ egocentrism that involves
their sense of uniqueness. Adolescents’ sense of uniqueness makes
them think that no one understands them or their feelings. For example,
an adolescent girl thinks that none can sense the hurt that she feels
because of being betrayed by a friend. It is quite common to hear the
adolescent say to the parents; ‘you don’t understand me’.
 Personal fables are often part of adolescent diaries.

Forming an Identity :
 Identity is who you are and what your values, commitments and beliefs
are.
 The primary task of adolescence is to establish an identity separate from
the parents. During adolescence a detachment process enables the
individual to develop a personalised set of beliefs that are uniquely her
or his own.
 In the process of achieving an identity the adolescent could experience
conflict with parents and within herself or himself.
 Those adolescents who can cope with the conflicting identities develop a
new sense of self.
 Adolescents who are not able to cope with this identity crisis are
confused. This “identity confusion”, according to Erikson, can lead to
individuals isolating themselves from peers and family; or they may lose
their identity in the crowd.
 Adolescents on one hand, may desire independence but may also be
afraid of it and show a great deal of dependence on their parents.
 Rapid fluctuations between self-confidence and insecurity are typical of
this stage.
 Adolescents may at one time complain of being “treated like a baby”
whereas on other occasions they may seek comfort by depending on
their parents.
 Seeking an identity involves searching for continuity and sameness in
oneself, greater responsibility and trying to get a clear sense of who one
is, i.e. an identity.
 The formation of identity during adolescence is influenced by several
factors. The cultural background, family and societal values, ethnic
background, and socioeconomic status all prevail upon the
adolescents’ search for a place in society.
 Family relationships become less important as the adolescent spends
more time outside the home and develops a strong need for peer
support and acceptance.
 Increased interactions with peers provide them with opportunities for
refining their social skills and trying out different social behaviours.
 Peers and parents are dual forces having major influences on
adolescents.
 At times conflicting situations with parents lead to increased
identification with peers. But generally parents and peers serve
complementary functions and fulfil different needs of the adolescents.
 Vocational commitment is another factor influencing adolescent
identity formation. The question “What are you going to be when you
grow up?”, requires the ability to think about the future and to be able
to set realistic and achievable goals.
 In some cultures freedom is given to the young people to choose an
occupation, whereas in certain other cultures the option of making this
choice is not given to the children. Here parents’ decision is likely to be
accepted by the children.
 Career counselling in schools offers information regarding appraisal of
the students for various courses and jobs and provides guidance in
making a decision about career choices.

Some Major Concerns :

 As adults when we reflect on our adolescent years and recall the
conflicts, uncertainties, occasional loneliness, group pressures, we feel it
was definitely a vulnerable period.
 Conforming to peer pressure can be both positive and negative.
 Adolescents are often confronted with decisions regarding smoking,
drugs, alcohol, and breaking parental rules, etc. These decisions are
taken without much regard to the effect they can have.
 Adolescents may face periods of uncertainty, loneliness, self-doubt,
anxiety, and concern about themselves and their future, they are also
likely to experience excitement, joy, and feelings of competence as they
overcome the developmental challenges.
 Some of the major challenges faced by adolescents like delinquency,
substance abuse, and eating disorders.
 Delinquency : Delinquency refers to a variety of behaviours, ranging
from socially unacceptable behaviour, legal offences, to criminal acts.
 Examples include truancy, running away from home, stealing or burglary
or acts of vandalism.
 Adolescents with delinquency and behavioural problems tend to have a
negative self-identity, decreased trust, and low level of achievement.
 Delinquency is often associated with low parental support, inappropriate
discipline, and family discord.
 Often adolescents from communities characterised by poverty,
unemployment, and having feelings of alienation from the middle class
perform antisocial acts to gain attention and to be popular with their
peers.
 Reducing delinquency: Change in their peer group, becoming more
aware of their social responsibilities and developing feelings of
 selfworth, imitating positive behaviour of the role models, breaking
negative attitudes, and overcoming poor self-concept.
 Substance Abuse : Adolescent years are especially vulnerable to
smoking, alcohol and drug abuse.
 Some adolescents take recourse to smoking and drugs as a way of
coping with stress. This can interfere with the development of coping
skills and responsible decision making.
 The reasons for smoking and drug use could be peer pressure and the
adolescents’ need to be accepted by the group, or desire to act more
like adults, or feel a need to escape the pressure of school work or social
activities. The addictive powers of nicotine make it difficult to stop
smoking.
 It has been found that adolescents who are more vulnerable to drugs,
alcohol, and nicotine use, are impulsive, aggressive, anxious,
depressive, and unpredictable, have low self-esteem, and low
expectation for achievement.
 Peer pressure and the need to be with their peer group make the
adolescent either go along with their demands to experiment with
drugs, alcohol, and smoking or be ridiculed. Drug use if continued long
enough can lead to physiological dependency, i.e. addiction to drugs,
alcohol or nicotine may seriously jeopardise the rest of the adolescents’
lives.
 Positive relationships with parents, peers, siblings, and adults play an
important role in preventing drug abuse.
 In India, a successful anti-drug programme is the Society for Theatre in
Education Programme in New Delhi. It uses street performances to
entertain people between 13 to 25 years of age while teaching them
how to say no to drugs.
 The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) has
chosen the programme as an example to be adopted by other
nongovernmental organisations in the region.
 Eating Disorders :
 Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves relentless pursuit of
thinness through starvation.
 It is quite common to see adolescents eliminate certain foods from their
diets or to eat slimming foods only.
 The media also projects thinness, as the most desirable image and
copying such fashionable image of thinness leads to anorexia nervosa.
 Bulimia is another form of an eating disorder in which the individual
follows a binge-and-purge eating pattern.
 The bulimic goes on an eating binge, then purges by self-induced
vomiting or using a laxative at times alternating it with fasting.
 Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are primarily female disorders more
common in urban families.

ADULTHOOD AND OLD AGE

 Adulthood An adult is generally defined as someone who is responsible,
mature, self-supporting, and well integrated into society.
 There is a variation in developing these attributes, which suggests that
there is a shift in timing when an individual becomes an adult or
assumes adult roles.
 The best time for some of the most important life events (i.e. marriage,
job, having children) might be quite different in different cultures but
within a culture there is similarity in the course of adult development.
 In early adulthood, two major tasks are, exploring the possibilities for
adult living and developing a stable life structure.
 The twenties represent the novice phase of adult development.
Gradually, a transition from dependence to independence should occur.
This could be marked by an image of the kind of life the young person
wants, especially in terms of marriage and a career.
 Career and Work :
 Earning a living, choosing an occupation, and developing a career are
important themes for people in their twenties and thirties.
 Entering work life is a challenging event in anyone’s life. There are
apprehensions regarding different adjustments, proving one’s
competence, performance, dealing with competition, and coping with
expectations both of the employers and oneself.
 It is also the beginning of new roles and responsibilities. Developing and
evaluating a career becomes an important task of adulthood.
 Marriage, Parenthood, and Family :
 The adjustments that young adults have to make when entering a
marriage relate to knowing the other person if not known earlier, coping
with each other’s likes, dislikes, tastes, and choices.
 If both the partners are working, adjustments are required regarding
sharing and performing roles and responsibilities at home.
 In addition to getting married, becoming a parent can be a difficult and
stressful transition in young adults, even though it is usually
accompanied by the feeling of love for the baby.
 How adults experience parenting is affected by different situations such
as the number of children in the family, the availability of social support,
and the happiness or unhappiness of the married couple.
 Death of a spouse or divorce creates a family structure in which a single
parent either the mother or the father has to take up the responsibility
of the children.
 In recent times, women are increasingly seeking employment outside
the home thus creating another type of family in which both parents
work.
 The stressors when both parents are working are quite the same as of a
single working parent, namely, taking care of children, their schoolwork,
illness, and coping with workload at home and in the office, etc.
 Despite the stresses associated with parenting, it provides a unique
opportunity for growth and satisfaction and is perceived as a way of
establishing concern and guiding the next generation.
 Physical changes during middle ages are caused by maturational changes
in the body. Though individuals may vary in the rate at which these
changes occur, almost all middle aged people notice gradual
deterioration in some aspects of their physical functioning such as
decline in vision, sensitivity to glare, hearing loss and changes in physical
appearance (e.g., wrinkles, grey hair or thinning of hair, weight gain).
 It is believed that some cognitive abilities decline with age while others
do not. Decline in memory is more in tasks involving long-term memory
than short-term memory. For example, a middle-aged person can
remember the telephone number immediately after s/he has heard it
but may not remember it so efficiently after a few days.
 Memory tends to show greater decline, while wisdom may improve with
age. Remember that individual differences exist in intelligence at every
age and as not all children are exceptional, neither do all adults show
wisdom.

Old Age
 Traditionally, the age of retirement was linked to old age.
 Now that people are living longer, age of retiring from work is changing,
and the cut-off point for the definition of “old age” is moving upward.
 Some of the challenges, which the aged have to cope with include
retirement, widowhood, illness, or death in the family.
 The image of old age is changing in certain ways. Now there are people
who have crossed seventy years of age or so and are quite active,
energetic, and creative. They are competent and are therefore, valued
by society in many walks of life.
 In particular, we have aged people in politics, literature, business, art
and science. The myth of old age as an incapacitating and therefore,
frightening phase of life is changing.
 The experience of old age also depends on the socio-economic
conditions, availability of health care, attitude of people, expectations of
society and the available support system.
 Work is most important during early adult years, then family becomes
most important and beyond that health becomes the most important
issue in the person’s life.
 Successful ageing for much of our adult life focuses on how effective we
are at work, how loving our relationships are in our family, how good our
friendships are, how healthy we are, and how cognitively fit we are.
 Retirement from active vocational life is quite significant.
 Some people perceive retirement as a negative change . They consider it
as a separation from an important source of satisfaction and self-
esteem.
 Others view it as a shift in life with more time to pursue their own
interests. It is seen that older adults who show openness to new
experiences, more striving and achievement oriented behaviour prefer
to keep busy and are better adjusted.
 Older adults also need to adjust to changes in the family structure and
new roles (grand parenting) that have to be learnt.
 Children usually are busy in their careers and families and may set up
independent homes. Older adults may depend on their children for
financial support and to overcome their loneliness (after children have
moved out).
 This might trigger-off feelings of hopelessness and depression in some
people.
 In old age feeling of loss of energy, and dwindling of health and financial
assets, lead to insecurity and dependency.
 The elderly tend to look towards others to lean on and to care for them.
Indian culture favours dependency of elderly on their children, for old
age needs caring.
 In fact, parents in most oriental cultures rear their children with the fond
hope that they will care for them during old age. It is important to give
the elderly a sense of security and belonging, a feeling that people care
for them (especially in the time of crisis), and to remember that we all
have to grow old one day.
 Death is more likely to occur in late adulthood, death can come at any
point in development.
 The deaths, especially of children and younger adults, are often
perceived to be more tragic than those of others.
 In children and younger adults, death is more likely to occur because of
accidents but in older adults it is more likely to occur because of
chronic disease.
 The death of a spouse is usually seen as the most difficult loss.
 Those left behind after the death of their partner suffer deep grief, cope
with loneliness, depression, financial loss and are also at risk of many
health related problems.
 Widows by far out number widowers, because studies show that women
live longer than men and tend to marry men older than themselves.
 During such times, support from children, grandchildren, and friends can
help the individual cope with the loss of spouse.
 People in different cultures view death differently. In the Gond culture in
our country, it is believed that death is caused by magic and demon. In
the Tanala culture of Madagascar, natural forces are thought to cause
death.