Chapter 1:

THE STUDY OF
HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Human Development:
The field of human development focuses on the scientific c
An Ever-Evolving Field study of the systematic processes of change and stability
in people.
Developmental scientists (or developmentalists)—
individuals engaged in the professional study of human
development—look at ways in which people change from
conception through maturity as well as at characteristics
that remain fairly stable.
An understanding of adult development can help people
understand and deal with life transitions: a woman
returning to work after maternity leave, a person making a
career change, a widower dealing with loss, someone
coping with a terminal illness.
STUDYING THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
LIFE SPAN TODAY
Life-span development Concept of human As the field of human development itself
development as a lifelong process, which can developed, its goals came to include
be studied scientifically. description, explanation, prediction, and
Life-span development to be from “womb to intervention.
tomb,” comprising the entire human life span
from conception to death.
For these reasons, events such as the timing of
parenthood, maternal employment, and
marital satisfaction are now also studied as part
of developmental psychology.
The Study of Human Development: Basic Concepts

DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT PERIODS OF THE LIFE SPAN

Developmental scientists study three Division of the life span into periods is a social
major domains, or aspects, of the self: construction: a concept or practice that is an
physical, cognitive, and psychosocial. invention of a particular culture or society.
Growth of the body and brain, sensory There is no objectively definable moment
capacities, motor skills, and health are when a child becomes an adult or a young
parts of physical development. Learning, person becomes old. By the 1920s, with the
attention, memory, language, thinking, establishment of comprehensive high schools
reasoning, and creativity make up to meet the needs of a growing economy
cognitive development. Emotions, and with more families able to support
personality, and social relationships are extended formal education for their children,
aspects of psychosocial development. the teenage years became a distinct period
of development (Keller, 1999).
INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT HEREDITY, ENVIRONMENT,
AND MATURATION
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
Heredity
Differences in characteristics, influences, or Inborn traits or characteristics
developmental outcomes inherited from the biological parents.
Every person has a unique developmental Environment
Totality of nonhereditary, or
trajectory, an individual path to follow. One
experiential, influences on
challenge in developmental psychology is to
development.
identify the universal influences on
Maturation
development, and then apply those to
Unfolding of a natural sequence of
understanding individual differences in
physical and behavioral changes.
developmental trajectories.
 FAMILY
CONTEXTS OF Nuclear family
DEVELOPMENT .Two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of
one or two parents and their biological children, adopted children, or
Human beings are social beings. stepchildren.
From the beginning they develop Extended family
within a social and historical Multigenerational kinship network of parents, children, and other
context. For an infant, the relatives, sometimes living together in an extendedfamily household.
immediate context normally is the
family, but the family in turn is
subject to the wider and ever- Socioeconomic Status and Neighborhood
changing influences of
Socioeconomic status (SES)
neighborhood, community, and
Combination of economic and social factors describing an individual or
society.
family, including income, education, and occupation.
Risk factors
Conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental
outcome.
Culture and Race/Ethnicity The Historical Context

Culture At one time developmentalists paid little

A society’s or group’s total way of life, attention to the historical context—the time
including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, in which people live. Then, as early
language, and physical products— all longitudinal studies of childhood extended
learned behavior, passed on from parents to into the adult years, investigators began to
children. focus on how certain experiences, tied to
Ethnic group time and place, affect the course of people’s
A group united by ancestry, race, religion, lives. Today, the historical context is an
language, or national origins, which important part of the study of development.
contribute to a sense of shared identity.
Ethnic gloss
Overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural
group that obscures differences within the
group.
NORMATIVE AND
NONNORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Normative
Historical generation
Characteristic of an event that occurs in a
A group of people strongly influenced by a
similar way for most people in a group.
major historical event during their formative
Normative age-graded influences period.
Are highly similar for people in a particular Cohort
age group. The timing of biological events is
A group of people born at about the same
fairly predictable within a normal range. For
time.
example, people don’t experience puberty
at age 35 or menopause at 12. Nonnormative

Normative history-graded influences Characteristic of an unusual event that

happens to a particular person or a typical
Are significant events (such as the Great
event that happens at an unusual time of life.
Depression or World War II) that shape the
behavior and attitudes of a historical
generation: a group of people who
experience the event at a formative time in
their lives.
TIMING OF INFLUENCES: CRITICAL OR SENSITIVE PERIODS
In a well-known study, Konrad Lorenz (1957), an Austrian zoologist, showed that newly hatched ducklings
will instinctively follow the first moving object they see, whether it is a member of their species or not. This
phenomenon is called imprinting, and Lorenz believed that it was automatic and irreversible.

Imprinting Critical period Plasticity Sensitive periods

Instinctive form of learning Specific time when a given Range of modifiability of Times in development
in which, during a critical event or its absence has a performance when a person is
period in early specific impact on particularly open to certain
development, a young development. kinds of experiences.
animal forms an attachment
to the first moving object it
sees, usually the mother.
 The Life-Span
Developmental
Paul B. Baltes (1936–2006) and his colleagues (1987; Baltes & Smith, 2004; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 1998; Staudinger &
Bluck, 2001) have identified seven key principles of a life-span developmental approach that sum up many of the concepts discussed in
this chapter.
1. Development is lifelong. Development is a lifelong process of change. Each period of the life span is affected by what
happened before and will affect what is to come.
2. Development is multidimensional. It occurs along multiple interacting dimensions—biological, psychological, and
social—each of which may develop at varying rates.
3. Development is multidirectional. As people gain in one area, they may lose in another, sometimes at the same time.
4. Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span. The process of development is influenced by
both biology and culture, but the balance between these influences changes.
5. Development involves changing resource allocations. Individuals choose to invest their resources of time, energy,
talent, money, and social support in varying ways.
6. Development shows plasticity. Many abilities, such as memory, strength, and endurance, can be improved significantly
with training and practice, even late in life.
7. Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context. Each person develops within multiple
contexts— circumstances or conditions defined in part by maturation and in part by time and place. Human beings not only
influence but also are influenced by their historical-cultural context.
THANK YOU!