CHAPTER 1 | THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ✓ Cognitive Developments- Abilities to learn and

remember and to respond to sensory stimuli are ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Personality traits
Human Development: An Ever-Evolving Field developing. and styles become relatively stable, but changes
Human Development ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Fetus responds to in personality may be influenced by life stages
• The field of human development focuses on the
mother’s voice and develops a preference for it. and events.
scientific study of the systematic processes of
2. Infancy and Toddlerhood (birth to age 3) 7. Middle Adulthood (ages 40 to 65)
change and stability in people.
✓ Physical Developments- All senses and body ✓ Physical Developments- Slow deterioration of
Studying the Life Span
systems operate at birth to varying degrees. sensory abilities, health, stamina, and strength
Life-Span Development
✓ Cognitive Developments- Abilities to learn and may begin, but individual differences are wide.
• Life-span development to be from “womb to
remember are present, even in early weeks. ✓ Cognitive Developments- Mental abilities peak;
tomb,” comprising the entire human life span from
conception to death. ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Attachments to expertise and practical problem-solving skills are
Human Development Today parents and others form. high.
• As the field of human development itself 3. Early Childhood (ages 3 to 6) ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Sense of identity
developed, its goals came to include description, ✓ Physical Developments- Growth is steady; continues to develop; midlife transition may
explanation, prediction, and intervention. appearance becomes more slender and occur.
The Study of Human Development: Basic Concepts proportions more adultlike. 8. Late Adulthood (age 65 and over)
• Developmentalists study processes of change ✓ Cognitive Developments- Thinking is somewhat ✓ Physical Developments- Most people are healthy
and stability in all domains, or aspects, of egocentric, but understanding of other people’s and active, although health and physical abilities
development throughout all periods of the life perspectives grows. generally decline.
span. ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Self-concept and ✓ Cognitive Developments- Most people are
Domains of Development understanding of emotions become more mentally alert.
Physical Development complex; self-esteem is global. ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Retirement from
• Growth of body and brain, including patterns of 4. Middle Childhood (ages 6 to 11) workforce may occur and may offer new options
change in sensory capacities, motor skills, and ✓ Physical Developments- Growth slows. for use of time.
health. ✓ Cognitive Developments- Egocentrism Influences on Development
Cognitive Development diminishes. Individual Differences
• Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Self-concept • The universal processes of development
learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, becomes more complex, affecting self-esteem. experienced by all normal human beings, they
reasoning, and creativity. 5. Adolescence (ages 11 to about 20) also study individual differences in
Psychosocial Development ✓ Physical Developments- Physical growth and characteristics, influences, and developmental
• Pattern of change in emotions, personality, and other changes are rapid and profound. outcomes.
social relationships. ✓ Cognitive Developments- Ability to think Heredity, Environment, And Maturation
Periods of The Life Span abstractly and use scientific reasoning develops. Heredity
• Division of the life span into periods is a social ✓ Psychosocial Developments- Search for identity, • Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the
construction: a concept or practice that is an including sexual identity, becomes central. biological parents.
invention of a particular culture or society. 6. Emerging and Young Adulthood (ages 20 to 40) Environment
Eight Typical Major Developments in Eight Periods ✓ Physical Developments- Physical condition • Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential,
of Human Development peaks, then declines slightly. influences on development.
1. Prenatal Period (conception to birth) ✓ Cognitive Developments- Thought and moral Maturation
✓ Physical Developments- Conception occurs by judgments become more complex. • Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and
normal fertilization or other means. behavioral changes.

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Contexts of Development Timing of Influences: Critical or Sensitive Periods
• Human beings are social beings, from the • A newly hatched ducklings will instinctively follow
beginning they develop within a social and the first moving object they see, whether it is a
historical context. member of their species or not. This phenomenon
Family is called imprinting.
• The nuclear family is a household unit consisting The Life-Span Developmental Approach
of one or two parents and their children, whether Seven Key Principles of a Life-Span Developmental
biological, adopted, or stepchildren. Approach
Socioeconomic Status 1. Development is lifelong- Development is a lifelong
• Combination of economic and social factors process of change.
describing an individual or family, including 2. Development Is Multidimensional- It occurs along
multiple interacting dimension—biological,
income, education, and occupation. psychological, and social—each of which may
Culture and Race/Ethnicity develop at varying rates.
• Ethnic and cultural patterns affect development 3. Development is multidirectional- As people gain in
by their influence on the composition of a one area, they may lose in another, sometimes at the
household, its economic and social resources, same time.
the way its members act toward one another, the 4. Relative Influences of Biology and Culture Shift Over
foods they eat, the games children play, the way the Life Span- The process of development is
they learn, how well they do in school, the influenced by both biology and culture, but the
occupations adults engage in, and the way family balance between these influence changes.
members think and perceive the world. 5. Development involves changing resource allocations-
Immigrant Families Individuals choose to invest their resources of time,
• Immigrant families must navigate a different energy, talent, money, and social support in varying
culture, religion, and language, and often ways.
different ethics and values. 6. Development shows plasticity- Many abilities, such as
Ethnic Gloss memory, strength, and endurance, can be improved
• Overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural significantly with training and practice, even late in
group that obscures differences within the group. life.
Normative 7. Development is influenced by the historical and
• Characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar cultural context- Each person develops within multiple
way for most people in a group. contexts—circumstances or conditions defined in part
Historical Generation by maturation and in part by time and place.
• A group of people strongly influenced by a major
historical event during their formative period.
The Historical Context
• The time in which people live.
Normative and Nonnormative Influences
• Two types of normative influences: biological or
environmental events