Human Development: An Ever-Evolving Field

 From the moment of conception, human beings begin a process of change that will continue
throughout life. A single cell develops into a living, breathing, walking, talking person who
moves through an ever-changing world, both being influenced by and influencing it. Babies grow
and become children, who grow and become adults. Although we are all individuals and follow
our own unique trajectory, we share a species heritage, many common experiences, and broad
patterns of development.
 The field of human development focuses on the scientific 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.
 The work of developmentalists can have a dramatic impact on people’s lives. Research findings
often have applications to child rearing, education, health, and social policy.
 For example, research has shown that students who go to school hungry have poorer grades and
more emotional and behavioral problems than their classmates, and that this effect is most
striking in students from deprived environments. When breakfast programs are implemented,
students show academic gains, an effect driven partly by improved nutrition and partly by the
decrease in absences that generally accompanies such programs (Hoyland,Dye, & Lawton, 2009).
Research showing that the adolescent brain is still immature has prompted suggestions that
adolescents accused of crimes be exempt from the death penalty .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 LIFE SPAN

 When the field of developmental psychology emerged as a scientific discipline, most researchers
focused their energies on infant and child development.
 Growth and development are more obvious during these times given the rapid pace of change. As
the field matured, however, it became clear that development included more than infancy and
childhood.
 Now researchers consider life-span development to be from “womb to tomb,” comprising the
entire human life span from conception to death. Moreover, they acknowledge that development
can be either positive (e.g., becoming toilet trained or enrolling in a college course after
retirement) or negative (e.g., once again wetting the bed after a traumatic event or isolating
yourself after retirement).
 For these reasons, events such as the timing of parenthood, maternal employment, and marital
satisfactionare now also studied as part of developmental psychology.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT TODAY

 As the field of human development itself developed, its goals came to include description,
explanation, prediction, and intervention.
 For example, to describe when most children say their fi rst word or how large their vocabulary is
at a certain age, developmental scientists observe large groups of children and establish norms, or
 averages, for behavior at various ages. They then attempt to explain how children acquire
language and why some children learn to speak later than usual. This knowledge may make it
possible to predict future behavior, such as the likelihood that a child will have serious speech
problems. Finally, an understanding of how language develops may be used to intervene in
development, for example, by giving a child speech therapy.

 The scientific study of human development is ever evolving. The questions that developmental
scientists try to answer, the methods they use, and the explanations they propose are more
sophisticated and more varied than they were even five years ago. These shifts reflect progress in
understanding as new investigations build on orchallenge those that went before. They also
reflect advances in technology. Scientists now have access to sensitive instruments thatmeasure
eye movement, heart rate, and muscle tension. They are able to use digital technology that allows
them to analyze how mothers and babies communicate. Advances in brain imaging make it
possible to probe the mysteries of temperament or to compare a normally aging brain with the
brain of a person with dementia.
 Development is messy. It’s complex and multifaceted and shaped by interacting arcs of infl
uence. Thus development is best under-stood with input from a variety of theoretical and research
orientations and is most appropriately studied using multiple disciplines. Not surprisingly,the
study of development has been interdisciplinary almost from the start (Parke,2004b). Students of
human development draw collaboratively from a wide range of disciplines, including psychology,
psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, biology, genetics, family science, education, history, and
medicine. This book includes findings from research in all these fields.

The Study of Human Development: Basic Concepts

-Developmentalists study processes of change and stability in all domains , or aspects, of development
throughout all periods of the life span.
DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT
 Developmental scientists study three major domains, or aspects, of the self: physical, cognitive,
and psychosocial.
 Growth of the body and brain, sensory capacities, motor skills, and health are parts of physical
development. Learning, attention, memory,language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity make up
cognitive development. Emotions, personality, and social relationships are aspects of
psychosocial development.
 Although in this book we talk separately about physical, cognitive, and psychosocial
development, these domains are interrelated: each aspect of development affects the others. For
example, physical development affects cognitive and psychosocial development. A child with
frequent ear infections may develop language more slowly than child without this physical
problem. During puberty, dramatic physical and hormonal changes affect the developing sense of
self. In contrast, physical changes in the brains of some older adults may lead to intellectual and
personality deterioration.
 Similarly, cognitive advances and declines are related to physical and psycho-social development.
A child who is precocious in language development may bring about positive reactions in others
and thus gain in self-worth. Memory development reflects gains or losses in physical connections
 in the brain. An adult who has trouble remembering people’s names may feel shy in social
[Link] finally, psychosocial development can affect cognitive and physical functioning.
Indeed, without meaningful social connections, physical and mental health [Link] and
self-confidence are important contributors to school success, whereas negative emotions such as
anxiety can impair performance. Researchers even have identified possible links between a
conscientious personality and length of life.
 Although for simplicity’s sake we look separately at physical, cognitive, and psychosocial
development, development is a unified process. Throughout the text, links among the three major
domains of development are highlighted.

PERIODS OF THE LIFE SPAN

 Division of the life span into periods is a social construction: a concept or practice that is an
invention of a particular culture or society. There is no objectively definable moment when a
child becomes an adult or a young person becomes old. Because the concept of childhood is a
social construction, the form it takes varies across cultures. In contrast to the relative freedom
children have in the United States today, young children in colonial times were expected to do
adultlike tasks such as knitting socks and spinning wool(Ehrenreich & English, 2005).
 Inuit parents in the Canadian Arctic believe that young children are not yet capable of thought
and reason and therefore are lenient when their children cry or become angry. But parents on the
PacifI c Island of Tonga regularly beat 3- to 5-year-olds, whose crying is attributed to willfulness
(Briggs, 1970; Morton, 1996).A similar construction involves adolescence, which is a recent
concept that emerged as society became more industrialized. Until the early twentieth century,
young peoplein the United States were considered children until they left school, married or got a
job, and entered the adult world. By the 1920s, with the establishment of comprehensive high
schools to meet the needs of a growing economy and with more families able to support extended
formal education for their children, the teenage years became a distinct period of development
(Keller, 1999).
 In some preindustrial societies, such as the Chippewa Indians, the concept of adolescence still
does not exist. The Chippewa have only two periods of childhood: from birth until the child
walks, and from walking to puberty. What we call adolescence is part of adulthood (Broude,
1995). In this book, we follow a sequence of eight periods generally accepted in
Westernindustrial societies. After describing the crucial changes that occur in the fi rst
period,before birth, we trace all three domains of development through infancy and
toddlerhood,early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, emerging and young adulthood,
middle adulthood, and late adulthood (Table 1).
 For each period after infancy and toddlerhood,we have combined physical and cognitive
development into a single [Link] age divisions shown in Table 1 are approximate and
somewhat arbitrary. This is especially true of adulthood, when there are no clear-cut social or
physical landmarks, such as starting school or entering puberty, to signal a shift from one period
to another.
 Although individual differences exist in the way people deal with the characteristicevents and
issues of each period, developmentalists suggest that certain basic needsmust be met and certain
tasks mastered for normal development to occur. Infants, for example, are dependent on adults for
food, clothing, and shelter as well as for human contact and affection. They form attachments to
parents and caregivers, who also become attached to them.
  With the development of speech and self-locomotion, toddlers become more self-reliant; they
need to assert their autonomy but also need parents toset limits on their behavior.
 During early childhood, children gain more self-control and become more interested in other
children.
 During middle childhood, control over behavior gradually shifts from parent to child, and the
peer group becomes increasingly important.
 A central task of adolescence is the search for identity—personal, sexual and occupational. As
adolescents become physically mature, they deal with conflicting needs and emotions as they
prepare to leave the parental nest.
 During emerging adulthood, an exploratory period in the early to mid twenties, many people are
not yet ready to settle down to the typical tasks of young adulthood: establishing independent
lifestyles, occupations, and families. By the 30s, most adults have successfully fulfIlled those
tasks. During middle adulthood, some decline in physical capabilities.

Influences on Development
 What makes each person unique? Although students of development are interested in the
universal processes of development experienced by all normal human beings, they also study
individual differences in characteristics, influences, and developmental outcomes.
 People differ in gender, height, weight, and body build; in health and energy level; in
intelligence; and in temperament, personality, and emotional reactions. The contexts of their lives
differtoo: the homes, communities, and societies they live in, the relationships they have, the
schools they go to (or whether they go to school at all), and how they spend their free time.
 Every person has a unique developmental trajectory, an individual path to follow. One challenge
in developmental psychology is to identify the universal infl uences on development,and then
apply those to understanding individual differences in developmental trajectories.
HEREDITY, ENVIRONMENT, AND MATURATION
 Some influences on development originate primarily with heredity: inborn traits or characteristics
inherited from the biological parents. Other influences come largely from the environment: the
world outside the self, beginning in the womb, and the learning that comes from experience.
Which of these two factors has more impact on development? The issue of the relative
importance of nature (heredity) and nurture (environmental influences both before and after birth)
historically generated intense debate.
 Today scientists have found ways to measure more precisely the roles of heredity and
environment in the development of specific traits within a population. When we look at particular
person, however, research with regard to almost all characteristics points to a blend of inheritance
and experience. Thus, even though intelligence is strongly influenced by heredity, parental
stimulation, education, peer influence, and other variables also affect it. Contemporary theorists
and researchers are more interested in fi nding ways to explain how nature and nurture work
together than in arguing about which factor is more important.
 Many typical changes of infancy and early childhood, such as the abilities to walkand talk, are
tied to maturation of the body and brain—the unfolding of a natural sequence of physical changes
and behavior patterns. As children grow into adolescents and then into adults, individual
differences in innate characteristics and life experience play a greater role. Throughout life,
however, maturation continues to influence certain biological processes, such as brain
 development. Even in processes that all people undergo, rates and timing of development
[Link] this book, we talk about average ages for the occurrence of certain events:the
first word, the first step, the first menstruation or nocturnal emission, the development of logical
thought, and menopause. But these ages are merely averages, and there is widevariation among
people with respect to these norms. Only when deviation from the average is extreme should we
consider development exceptionally advanced or delayed.
 To understand development, then, we need to look at the inherited characteristics that give each
person a start in life. We also need to consider the many environmental factors that affect
development, especially such major contexts as family, neighborhood, socio-economic status,
race/ethnicity, and culture. We need to consider how heredity and environment interact. We need
to understand which developments are primarily maturational and which are not. We need to look
at influences that affect many or most people at a certain age or a certain time in history and also
at those that affect only certain individuals. Finally, we need to look at how timing can accentuate
the impact of certain influences.

CONTEXTS OF DEVELOPMENT

 Human beings are social beings. From the beginning they develop within a social and historical
context. For an infant, the immediate context normally is the family, but the family in turn is
subject to the wider and ever-changing influences of neighborhood,community, and society.
 Family -The nuclear family is a household unit consisting of one or two parents and their
children, whether biological, adopted, or stepchildren. Historically, the two-parent nuclear
family has been the normative family unit in the United States and other Western societies.
However, instead of the large, rural family in which parents and children worked side by side on
the family farm, we now see smaller, urban families in which both parents work outside the
home and children spend much of their time in school or child care.
 The increased incidence of divorce also has affected the nuclear family. Children of divorced
parents may live with one or the other parent or may move back and forth between them. The
household may include a stepparent and stepsiblings or a parent’s live-in partner. There are
increasing numbers of single and childless adults, unmarried parents, and gay and lesbian
households (Dye, 2010; Hernandez, 2004; Teach-man, Tedrow, & Crowder, 2000).
 In many societies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and among some U.S. families that trace
their lineage to those countries, the extended family —a multigenerational network of
grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more distant relatives—is the traditional family form.
Many people live in extended-family households , where they have daily contact with kin. Adults
often share breadwinning and child-raising responsibilities, and older children are responsible
for younger brothers and sisters.
 Today the extended-family household is becoming slightly less typical in many developing
countries due to industrialization and migration to urban centers (Kinsella &Phillips, 2005).
Meanwhile, in the United States, economic pressures, housing short-ages, and out-of-wedlock
childbearing have helped to fuel a trend toward three- and even four-generational family
households. In 2009, almost 17 percent of households could be characterized as
 multigenerational (Pew Research Center, 2011).Multigenerational households have become
more common in recent years for avariety of reasons.
 First, both men and women are marrying at later ages, and thus remaining at home for longer
than was previously typical. This has become particularly common with recent downturns in the
U.S. economy. Second, there has been an influx of immigrant populations since 1970, and these
immigrants are more likely than native-born families to seek out multigenerational homes for
reasons of practicality as well as preference. Indeed, even among nonimmigrants, race and
ethnicity play a part. Latinos, African Americans, and Asians are all more likely to live in multi-
generational families than are whites. In addition, people are living longer, and elderly parents
may sometimes benefi t from inclusion in their children’s households (PewResearch Center,
2010b).
 Socioeconomic Status and Neighborhood A family’s socioeconomic status (SES)is based on
family income and the educational and occupational levels of the adults in the household.
Throughout this book, we examine many studies that relate SES to developmental processes
(such as mothers’ verbal interactions with their children) and to developmental outcomes (such
as health and cognitive performance). SES affects these processes and outcomes indirectly,
through such related factors as the kinds of homes and neighborhoods people live in and the
quality of nutrition, medical care, and schooling available to them. More than 1.2 billion people
lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2008.
 Although this is a large number, it has fallen by approximately 25 percent in the last 30 years,
most nota-bly in China and India, which account for the majority of change in poverty levels
(Figure1; Olinto, Beegle, Sobrado, & Uematsu, 2013). The expanding global economy is one
ofthe major factors contributing to the overall decrease in poverty (United Nations, 2009).
 In the United States, where poverty thresholds depend on family size and composition, more
than 16 million children—21.9 percent of all children under age 18—livein poverty, and 7.41
million children—almost 7 percent—are in extreme poverty( Children’s Defense Fund, 2012;
DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2012).* Virtuallyall progress made with respect to child
poverty since 1974 was wiped out by the current recession (Foundation for Child Development,
2010).
 Poverty, especially if it is long-lasting, can be harmful to the physical, cognitive,and psychosocial
well-being of children and families. Poor children are more likely than other children to have
emotional or behavioral problems, and their cognitive potential and school performance suffer
more (Evans, 2004). The harm done by poverty may be indirect, through its impact on parents’
emotional state and parenting practices and on the home environment they create. Threats to
well-being multiply if, as often happens, several risk factors —conditions that increase the
likelihood of a negative outcome—are present.
 The composition of a neighborhood affects children as well. Living in a poor neighborhood with
large numbers of unemployed people makes it less likely that effective social support will be
available (Black & Krishnakumar, 1998). Still, positive development can occur despite serious risk
factors. Consider the Pulitzer Prize–winning author Maya Angelou, the country singer Shania
Twain, and former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, all of whom grew up in poverty (Kim-Cohen,
Moffi tt, Caspi, & Taylor, 2004).
 Affluence doesn’t necessarily protect children from risk. Some children in affluent families face
pressure to achieve and are often left on their own by busy parents. Suchchildren have high
 rates of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression (Luthar &Latendresse, 2005). Although poor
families are often less positive about their neighbor-hoods and feel less safe in them, a number
of strengths can be found within the immediate family context. Parents report being just as
close with their children, they attend church with their families just as often, they feel just as
safe at home and school, and they eat meals together as a family more often than wealthier
families. It may be thatthe scientific community has focused too strongly on the negative effects
of povertyand not paid enough attention to the strengths and resiliencies found in lower
SEShomes (Valladares & Moore, 2009).

 Culture and Race/Ethnicity Culture refers to a society’s or group’s total way of life,including its
customs, traditions, laws, knowledge, beliefs, values, language, and physical products, from
tools to artworks—all of the behavior and attitudes that are learned,shared, and transmitted
among members of a social group. Culture is constantly changing, often through contact with
other cultures. Today cultural contact has been enhanced by computers and
telecommunications. E-mail, texting, and social media sites offer almost instantaneous
communication across the globe, and digital services such as iTunes give people around the
world easy access to one another’s music and movies.
 An ethnic group consists of people united by a distinctive culture, ancestry, religion,language, or
national origin, all of which contribute to a sense of shared identity and shared attitudes, beliefs,
and values. By 2050, due to rising immigration and high birthrates among immigrant families,
ethnic minorities in the United States are expected to become the majority. In fact, in 2008,
roughly a third of all children and nearly half of children under the age of 5 were from a minority
group (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008a, 2009d). It is predicted that by 2050, 62 percent of the
nation’s children will be members of what are now minority groups, and the proportion of
Hispanic or Latino/a children—39 percent—will surpass the 38 percent who will be non-Hispanic
white (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008a;

 Ethnic and cultural patterns affect development by their influence on the composition of a
household, its economic and social resources, the way its members act toward one another, the
foods they eat, the games children play, the way they learn, how well they do in school, the
occupations adults engage in, and the way family members think and perceive the world (Parke,
2004b). For example, children of immigrants in the United States are nearly twice as likely as
native-born children to live with extended families and are less likely to have mothers who work
outside the home (Shields &Behrman, 2004).

NORMATIVE AND NONNORMATIVE INFLUENCES

 To understand similarities and differences in development, we need to look at two types of

normative influences: biological or environmental events that affect many or most people in a
society in similar ways and events that touch only certain individuals(Baltes & Smith, 2004).
  Normative age-graded influences are highly similar for people in a particular age group. The
timing of biological events is fairly predictable within a normal range. For example, people don’t
experience puberty at age 35 or menopause at 12.
 Normative history-graded influences are signifi cant events (such as the GreatDepression 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. For example, the generations that
came of age during the Depression and World War II tend to show a strong sense of social
interdependence and trust that has declined among more recent generations (Rogler,2002).
Depending on when and where they live, entire generations may feel the impact of famines,
nuclear explosions, or terrorist attacks. In Western countries, medical advances as well as
improvements in nutrition and sanitation have dramatically reduced infant and child mortality.
As children grow up today, they are infl uenced by computers, digital television, the Internet,
and other technological developments.
 Social changes,such as the increase in employed mothers and the increase in single-parent
households,have greatly altered family life.
 A historical generation is not the same as an age cohort: a group of people bornat about the
same time. A historical generation may contain more thanone cohort, but cohorts are part of a
historical generation only if they experience major, shaping historical events at a formative point
in theirlives (Rogler, 2002).
 Nonnormative influences are unusual events that have a major impacton individual lives
because they disturb the expected sequence of the lifecycle. They are either typical events that
happen at an atypical time of life(such as the death of a parent when a child is young) or atypical
events(such as surviving a plane crash). Some of these infl uences are largelybeyond a person’s
control and may present rare opportunities orsevere challenges that the person perceives as
turning points. Onthe other hand, people sometimes help create their own nonnorma-tive life
events—say, by deciding to have a baby in their midfifties or taking up a risky hobby such as
skydiving—and thus participateactively in their own development. Taken together, the three
types of infl uences—normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and nonnormative—
contribute to the complexity of human development as well as to the challenges people
experience in trying to build their lives.

The Life-Span Developmental Approach

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. Together these
principles serve as a widely accepted conceptual framework for the study of life-span development:

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. Each period has unique
characteristics and value. No period is more or less important than any other.
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. Children grow mostly in one direction—up—both in size and in abilities. Then the
balance gradually shifts. Adolescents typically gain in physical abilities, but their facility in learning a new
language typically declines. Some abilities, such as vocabulary, often continue to increase throughout
most of adulthood; others, such as the ability to solve unfamiliar problems, may diminish; but some new
attributes, such as wisdom, may increase with age.

4. Relative infl uences 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. Biological
abilities, such as sensory acuity and muscular strength and coordination, weaken with age, but cultural
supports, such as education, relationships, and technologically age-friendly environments, may help
compensate.

5. Development involves changing resource allocations. Individuals choose to invest their resources of
time, energy, talent, money, and social support in varying ways. Resources may be used for growth (for
example, learning to play an instrument or improving one’s skill), for maintenance or recovery
(practicing to maintain or regain profi ciency), or for dealing with loss when maintenance and recovery
are not possible. The allocation of resources to these three functions changes throughout life as the
total available pool of resources decreases. In childhood and young adulthood, the bulk of resources
typically goes to growth; in old age, to regulation of loss. In midlife, the allocation is more evenly
balanced among the three functions.

6. Development shows plasticity. Many abilities, such as memory, strength, and endurance, can be
improved significantly with training and practice, even late in life. However, even in children, plasticity
has limits that depend in part on the various infl uences on development. One of the tasks of
developmental research is to discover to what extent particular kinds of development can be modifi ed
at various ages.

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. As we
discuss throughout this book, developmental scientists have found signifi cant cohort differences,
forexample, in intellectual functioning, in women’s midlife emotional development, and in the flexibility
of personality in old age.

Human Development:An Ever-Evolving Field

• Human development is the scientific study of processes of change and stability.

• Developmental research has important applications invarious fi elds.

• As researchers have become interested in following development through adulthood, life-span

development has become a fi eld of study.
• The study of human development seeks to describe,explain, predict, and, when appropriate, intervene
in development.

• Students of human development draw on such disciplines as psychology, psychiatry, sociology,

anthropology, biology,genetics, family science, education, history, philosophy, and medicine.

• Methods of studying human development are still evolving,making use of advanced

[Link] development life-span development

The Study of Human Development: Basic Concepts

• Developmental scientists study change and stability in alldomains of development throughout the life
span.

• The three major domains of development are physical,cognitive, and psychosocial. Each aff ects the
others.

• The concept of periods of development is a social construction. In this book, the life span is divided
into eightperiods:

prenatal, infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood,middle childhood, adolescence, emerging and young

adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood.

In each period, people have characteristic developmental needs and tasks.

physical development social construction

cognitive development

psychosocial development

Influences on Development

• Influences on development come from both heredity and environment. Many typical changes during
childhood are related to maturation. Individual differences tend to increase with age.

• In some societies, the nuclear family predominates; in others, the extended family.

• Socioeconomic status (SES) affects developmental processes and outcomes through the quality of
home and neighborhood environments, nutrition, medical care, and schooling. Multiple risk factors
increase the likelihood of poor outcomes.

• Important environmental infl uences stem from culture, race/ethnicity, and historical context. Race is
viewed by most scholars as a social construction.

• Infl uences may be normative (age-graded or history-graded) or nonnormative.

• There is evidence of critical or sensitive periods for certain kinds of early development.
individual differences heredity

environment maturation

nuclear family extended family

socioeconomic status (SES) risk factors

culture ethnic group

ethnic gloss normative

historical generation cohort

nonnormative imprinting

critical period plasticity

sensitive periods

The Life-Span Developmental Approach

• The principles of the life-span developmental approachinclude the propositions that

(1) development is lifelong, (2) development is multidimensional,

(3) development ismultidirectional, (4) the relative infl uences of biology andculture shift over the
life span, (5) development involves changing resource allocations,

(6) development shows plasticity, and (7) development is infl uenced by the historical

and cultural context.