Monday, November 30, 2009

Human Development

Concept of Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is one area of psychology that explains the course of physical, social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development over a person's life span.

Development refers to the progressive series of changes of an orderly and coherent type toward the goal of maturity.

"Progressive" means the changes are directional, leading toward something positive.

"Orderly" and "coherent" suggests that development is not of a haphazard, usual type but rather there is a definite relationship among the stages in the developmental sequence.

Developmental psychology is a chronology of different aspects of human development or a lifelong process from conception to death.

The goal of developmental changes is to enable people to adapt to the environment in which they live. To achieve this goal, sometimes called, self-actualization, is essential.

Types of Change in Development

In the development of a human being, major types of changes are manifested as follows:

Change in size . There is a change in physical and mental growth.

Change in proportion. Physical development is not only limited to size. It is also apparent in mental development. At first, a child is interested in himself alone, and later in others and in toys. Finally, his interests are directed toward members of opposite sex.

Disappearance of old features. Some features that disappear are the thymus glands, baby hair, Darwinian reflex, Babinski reflex, and baby forms of locomotion such as creeping and crawling.

Acquisition of new feature. New features are acquired such as the primary and secondary sex characteristics as well as new mental traits like curiosity, sex urge, knowledge, moral and standards, religious beliefs, forms of language and types of neurotic tendencies.

Factors of Development

There are two factors considered important in the development of an individual: maturation and learning:

Maturation is the development or unfolding of traits potentially present in the individual considering his hereditary endowment.

Learning is the result of activities or day-today experiences on the child himself.

Maturation and learning complement one another in the development of the individual.

Rate of Development

The rate of development of any human being may either be rapid or slow.

A rapid development is observed during the prenatal period and continues throughout the babyhood (except for the first two weeks which is known as "plateau stage" when no physical development takes place) up to the first six years.

Slow development starts from six years to adolescence. In adolescence, the rate of development is once more accelerated.

Activity (to be submitted on December 3, 2009 in a sheet of paper)

1. Show how maturation is related to heredity; learning to environment.
2. Explain what determines development, nature or nurture. Cite foreign and local researches to support your answer.

(Source: Developmental Psychology by Adelaida C. Gines, et al., Rex Bkstore, 1998)