HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

2. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT • Development. The systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between conception to death. • Systematic—Orderly, patterned, and relatively enduring • Continuities—Ways in which we remain the same or continue over time • Development. The scientific study of qualitative and quantitative changes that occur in people over time. • Qualitative—Change in kind or structure (i.e., intelligence, beliefs) • Quantitative—Cumulative and measurable changes that occur (i.e., height, weight)

3. WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT • Humans are resilient. • Plasticity. The capacity for change in response to positive or negative life experiences. • People help shape their own development. • Bidirectional. Development is an interplay or symbiotic relationship between the individual and his or her environment. • Knowledge is useful. • For infants, stimulation enhances awareness which later leads to curiosity and pursuit. • Stress elevates when the environment is less predictable, manageable, and controllable.

4. HISTORY OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT • Medieval times (6-15 Reformation (16th century) century) • Preformationism Protestantism (Puritan • Harsh child practices doctrine) • Enlightment (17thScientific Age (18th century) century) • John Locke Charles Darwin • Jean Rousseau

5. Ways of Looking at Development • Nature vs. Nurture • Nature. The hereditary information we receive from our parents at the moment of conception determines our outcomes. • Nurture. Complex forces of the physical and social world that children encounter in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, and communities. • Organismic vs. Mechanistic • Organismic. Change is stimulated from within the organism. • Children are viewed as active, purposeful beings who make sense of their world and determine their own learning (Active beings). • Mechanistic. Children’s development is compared to the workings of a machine. • Change is stimulated by the environment, which shape the behavior of the child (Passive beings). • Continuous vs. Discontinuous • Continuous. A process that consists of gradually adding on more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with. • Discontinuous. Process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at particular time periods.

6. SIGMUND FREUD CONTRIBUTION TO THE DISCIPLINE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

7. SIGMUND FREUD • All behavior is motivated, often by unconscious dynamics • Freud’s theory of dreams emphasized the meaningfulness of dreams as manifestations of the unconscious mind • Early childrearing experiences, especially in weaning, toilet training, and the role of the family in the handling of sexuality and aggression, are seen as significant factors in development • Freud gave new hope to the treatment of psychopathology and changed social attitudes toward the neurotic and psychotic • A major motivating force in human behavior is sexuality, including the idea of infantile sexuality • Freud ascribes meaning to errors, forgettings, slips of the tongue, and other unintended behavior, believing that they are expressions of unconscious forces.

8. The Contributions of Erik Erikson

9. Erikson’s Epigenetic Theory of Psychosocial Development • Basic Premise • Children seek to actively adapt and master their environments • Rather than id impulse being the driving force to development, ego resolution seeks expression through cultural socialization and crisis generation • Ego identity development is a function of eight crises which are both necessary and essential for healthy outcomes

10. Behaviorism & Learning Theory

11. Behaviorism and Learning Theory • Watson’s Ideology & Premise • Movement towards empiricism • Human development is a function of an organism responding to it’s environment…Behavior is the outcome. • Development is continuous, passive, and mechanistic

12. B. F. Skinner • Human behavior is a function of learning habits rooted in operant learning conditioning (outcomes based on animal research) • Inherent behavioral overtones are rooted in experiences which yield favorable outcomes. • Behavioral outcomes can be manipulated by varying the consequence associated with the behavior (i.e., Reinforcer, Punisher) • Reinforcer. Any consequence of an act that increases the probability that the act will occur • Punisher. Any consequence of an act that suppresses that act or decreases the probability of occurrence.

13. Albert Bandura Social Cognitive Theory

14. Albert Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory • Somewhere lodged between the environmental stimuli and the individual’s response is the inherent capacity for thinking and reasoning. • Consequently, this differs us from animals and any attempt to bridge the two outcomes is transductive reasoning. • Learned behavioral outcomes are a function of modeling and learning through observation (Observational learning) • Children are active and continuous

15. Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism • The course of development is bidirectional • Individual. Cognitive and physical abilities; beliefs and attitudes • Behavior. Physical and verbal responses; social interaction • Environment. Physical surrounding; family and community influences Behavioral Outcomes The Individual and his talents The Environment

16. Jean Piaget Cognitive Developmental Theory

17. PIAGET’S BIOLOGICAL PREMISE • Individuals possess the unique capability to engage and respond to their environments and enhance their cognitive abilities through the process of assimilation and accommodation. • Individuals are constantly striving to achieve a cognitive equilibrium or homeostatasis

18. Piaget’s Principles • Schemes. A scheme is any action pattern for dealing with the environment, such as sucking, grasping, hitting, kicking, and looking. • Organization. To implement a series of schemes to complete a certain task. • Development is organismic, discontinuous, and active

19. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor Birth-2 years • Preoperational 2-7 years • Concrete Operational 7-11 years • Formal Operational 11 years on

20. Piaget’s Stages • Sensorimotor. Babies organize their physical action schemes, such as sucking, grasping, and hitting for dealing with the immediate world. • Preoperational. Children learn to think—to use symbols and internal images—but their thinking is unsystematic and illogical. It is very different from that of adults. • Concrete Operational. Children develop the capacity to think systematically, but only when they can refer to concrete objects and activities. • Formal Operational. Young people develop the capacity to think systematically on a purely abstract and hypothetical plane.

21. Information Processing Theory

22. INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY • Alternative view of cognitive theory • Proposes that practice creates well organized cognitive schemes. Consequently, they demand less attention and become more automatic • This theory focuses on the dimensions of memory, attention, and thinking

23. INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY DIVIDES THE MIND INTO: • Sensory Register: The area of the mental system in which sights and sounds are held briefly before they decay or are transformed into working or short-term memory. • Short-Term Memory: The conscious part of a mental system where we active work on a limited amount of information to ensure it is retained. • Long-Term Memory: The part that contains our permanent knowledge base. Knowledge base is limitless.

24. The Basic Components of a Computer • CPU (Central Processing Unit) • Responsible for computational functions • RAM (Random Access Memory) • Responsible for accessing information which is currently being used for data manipulation • Hard Drive • Responsible for the long-term storage of vital information

25. Mental Strategies • In information processing, procedures that operate on and transform information, thereby increasing the efficiency and flexibility of thinking and the chances that information will be retained • Organization. Memory strategy of grouping together related items. Taking notes • Elaboration. Mental strategy of creating a relation between two or more items that are not members of the same category • Rehearsal. Memory strategy for repeating information

26. Mental Strategies Continued • By continuing these mental strategies, you develop greater organization of information and significantly increase knowledge retention. • Failure to apply appropriate mental strategies reduces the amount of knowledge retained

27. Ethology (Evolutionary) Discuss the “Ologies” Sociology Ecology Ethology

28. Ethology (Evolutionary) • Arnold Gesell’s Basic Premise • Human development is a function of pure maturation. • Genetic predisposition becomes the determining factor for developmental outcome • Parents and other social factors are of little importance • Human behaviors are a function of evolutionary principles

29. Ethology (Evolutionary), Cont. • Natural Selection Process • Children are born preprogrammed to display certain behaviors that will enable them to bond with their human family and inevitably survive. • Infant’s cry to signal distress (e.g., ensuring basic needs are being met…even emotional attachment) (Bowlby, 1973) • Infant’s ability to discriminate and determine a familiar face • The course of development has both sensitive periods and critical periods • Early years are optimal for development

31. Theory Development • Develop at least three assumptions that guide your theory of development. • Explain your theory as it pertains to infancy and early childhood. • What are the strengths and weaknesses of your theory. Implications for theory development.