HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

 From conception until the moment of death, we not only change physically, but
we also change in the way we think, use language, and develop social
relationships.
 changes are not confined to any one area of a person’s life; they occur in the
person in an integrated manner.
 Development is the pattern of progressive, orderly, and predictable changes
that begin at conception and continue throughout life.
 Development mostly involves changes — both growth and decline, as observed
during old age.
 Development is influenced by an interplay of biological, cognitive, and socio-
emotional processes.
 Development due to genes inherited from parents, such as in height and weight,
brain, heart, and lungs development, etc. - biological processes.
 The role of cognitive processes in development relates to mental activities
associated with the processes of knowing, and experiencing, such as thought,
perception, attention, problem solving, etc.
 Socio-emotional processes that influence development refer to changes in an
individual’s interactions with other people, changes in emotions, and in
personality.
 E.g. A child’s hug to her/his mother, a young girl’s affectionate gesture to
her/his sibling, or an adolescent’s sorrow at losing a match
 biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional processes are interwoven.
 These processes influence changes in the development of the individual
throughout the human lifespan

LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE ON DEVELOPMENT

The study of development according to the Life-Span Perspective (LSP) includes the
following assumptions :
1. Development is lifelong, i.e. it takes place across all age groups starting from
conception to old age. It includes both gains and losses, which interact in dynamic
ways throughout the lifespan.
2. The various processes of human development, i.e. biological, cognitive, and socio-
emotional are interwoven in the development of a person throughout the lifespan.
3. Development is multi-directional. Some dimensions or components of a given
dimension of development may increase, while others show decrement. For
example, the experiences of adults may make them wiser and guide their
decisions. However, with an increase in age, one’s performance is likely to
decrease on tasks requiring speed, such as running.
4. Development is highly plastic, i.e. within person, modifiability is found in
psychological development, though plasticity varies among individuals. This means
skills and abilities can be improved or developed throughout the lifespan.
5. Development is influenced by historical conditions. For example, the experiences
of 20-year-olds who lived through the freedom struggle in India would be very
different from the experiences of 20-year-olds of today. The career orientation of
school students today is very different from those students who were in schools 50
years ago.
6. Development is the concern of a few disciplines. Different disciplines like
psychology, anthropology, sociology, and neuro-sciences study human
development, each trying to provide answers to development throughout the
lifespan.
7. An individual responds and acts on contexts, which include what was inherited, the
physical environment, social, historical, and cultural contexts. For example, the life
events in everyone’s life are not the same, such as, death of a parent, accident,
earthquake, etc., affect the course of one’s life as also the positive influences such
as winning an award or getting a good job. People keep on changing with changing
contexts.

GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, MATURATION, AND EVOLUTI.

 A temporary change caused by a brief illness, for example, is not development.
GROWTH REPRODUCTION
Increase in the size of body parts Process by which an individual
or of the organism. grows and changes throughout the
life cycle.

It can be measured or quantified, development applies to the

for example, growth in height, changes that have a direction and
weight, etc. hold definite relationship with what
precedes it, and in turn, will
determine what will come after.
Development includes growth as All changes which occur as a result
one of its aspects. of development are not of the
same kind.
Thus, changes in size (physical
growth), changes in proportion
(child to adult), changes in features
(disappearance of baby teeth), and
acquiring new features are varied
in their pace and scope level.

 Maturation refers to the changes that follow an orderly sequence and are largely
dictated by the genetic blueprint which produces commonalities in our growth
and development.
 For example, most children can sit without support by 7 months of age, stand
with support by 8 months and walk by one year.
 Once the underlying physical structure is sufficiently developed, proficiency in
these behaviours requires adequate environment and little practice.
 However, special efforts to accelerate these behaviours do not help if the infant
is maturationally not ready.
 These processes seem to “unfold from within”: following an inner, genetically
determined timetable that is characteristic of the species.
 Evolution refers to species-specific changes.
 Natural selection is an evolutionary process that favours individuals or a species
that are best adapted to survive and reproduce.
  The evolutionary changes are passed from one generation to the next within a
species.
 Evolution proceeds at a very slow pace.
 Emergence of human beings from great apes took about 14 million years. I
 t has been estimated that the ‘Homo sapiens’ came into existence only about
50,000 years ago.
FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT
 People differ with respect to intelligence, learning abilities, memory, and other
psychological characteristics besides physical characteristics such as light-
coloured skins, colour of your hair and eyes are different, some of you are tall,
others short, some are quiet or sad while others are talkative or cheerful.
 We differ from each other but at the same time more like each other. The
answer lies in the interaction of heredity and environment.
 We inherit genetic codes from our parents
 Our genetic codes are alike in one important way; they contain the human
genetic code.
 It is because of the human genetic code that a fertilised human egg grows into a
human baby and cannot grow into an elephant, a bird or a mouse.
 Genetic transmission is very complex.
 Most characteristics that we observe in humans are combinations of larger
number of genes.
 It is also not possible to possess all the characteristics made available to us by
our genetic structure.
 The actual genetic material or a person’s genetic heritage is known as
genotype.
 However, not all this genetic material is apparent or distinctly identifiable in our
observable characteristics.
 Phenotype is the way an individual’s genotype is expressed in observable and
measurable characteristics.
 Phenotypes include physical traits, such as height, weight, eye and skin colour,
and many of the psychological characteristics such as intelligence, creativity,
and personality.
 These observable characteristics of an individual are the result of the interaction
between the person’s inherited traits and the environment.
 the genetic code predisposes a child to develop in a particular way.
 Genes provide a distinct blueprint and timetable for the development of an
individual.
 But genes do not exist in isolation and development occurs within the context of
an individual’s environment.
 This is what makes each one of us a unique person.
 Imagine a child, with genotype that predisposes her/him to be introverted, in an
environment that promotes social interaction and extroversion.
 The influence of such an environment may make the child a little extroverted.
 An individual with “short” height genes, even if s/he is in a very good nutritional
environment, will never be able to be taller than average.
 This shows that genes set the limit and within that limit the environment
influences development.
 they also play an important role in determining the type of environment their
children encounter.
  Sandra Scarr (1992) believes that the environment parents provide for their
children depends to some extent on their own genetic predisposition.
 For example, if parents are intelligent and are good readers they would provide
their children with books to read, with the likely outcome that their children
would become good readers who enjoy reading.
 A child’s own genotype such as being cooperative, and attentive is likely to
result in teachers and parents giving more pleasant response as compared to
children who are not cooperative or not attentive.
 Besides these, children themselves choose certain environments based on their
genotype.
 For example, because of their genotype, children may perform well in music or
sports and they will seek and spend more time in environments, which will
enable them to perform their musical skills; similarly an athlete would seek
sports-related environment.
 These interactions with environment keep changing from infancy through
adolescence.
 Environmental influences are as complex as the genes we inherit.
 If your class monitor is selected on the basis of being academically bright and a
popular student, do you think it is because of her/his genes or the influence of
the environment?
 If a child from a rural area who is very intelligent, is not able to get a job
because of her/his inability to express herself/himself fluently or handle
computers, do you think - it is because of genes or environment?

CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT
 Development does not take place in a vacuum.
 It is always embedded in a particular socio-cultural context.
 transition during one’s lifetime such as entering school, becoming an
adolescent, finding jobs, marrying, having children, retirement, etc. all are joint
functions of the biological changes and changes in one’s environment.
 The environment can change or alter during any time of the individual’s life-
span.
 Urie Bronfenbrenner’s contextual view of development emphasises the role of
environmental factors in the development of an individual.
 The microsystem is the immediate environment/setting in which the individual
lives.
 It is in these settings where the child directly interacts with social agents – the
family, peers, teachers, and neighbourhood.
 The mesosystem consists of relations between these contexts.
 For instance, how a child’s parents relate to the teachers, or how the parents
view the adolescent’s friends, are experiences likely to influence an individual’s
relationships with others.
 The ecosystem includes events in social settings where the child does not
participate directly, but they influence the child’s experiences in the immediate
context.
 For example, the transfer of father or mother may cause tension among the
parents which might affect their interactions with the child or the general
amenities available to the child like quality of schooling, libraries, medical care,
means of entertainment, etc.
 Macrosystem includes the culture in which the individual lives.
 Chronosystem involves events in the individual’s life course, and socio-historical
circumstances of the time such as, divorce of parents or parents’ economic
setback, and their effect on the child.
 In a nutshell, Bronfenbrenner’s view is that a child’s development is significantly
affected by the complex world that envelops her/him – whether it be the
minutiae of the conversations s/he has with her/his playmates, or the social and
economic life circumstances into which s/he is born.
 Research has shown that children in impoverished environments have
unstimulating environment devoid of books, magazines, toys, etc., lack
experiences such as visits to library, museum, zoo, etc., have parents who are
ineffective as role models, and live in overcrowded and noisy surroundings.
 As a result of these conditions children are at a disadvantage and have
difficulties in learning. Durganand Sinha (1977) has presented an ecological
model for understanding the development of children in Indian context.
 Ecology of the child could be viewed in terms of two concentric layers.
 The “upper and the more visible layers” consist of home, school, peer groups,
and so on.
 The most important ecological factors influencing development of the child in
the visible upper layer constitute the:
 (i) home, its conditions in terms of overcrowding, space available to each
member, toys, technological devices used, etc.,
 (ii) nature and quality of schooling, facilities to which the child is exposed, and
 (iii) nature of interactions and activities undertaken with peer groups from
childhood onwards.
 These factors do not operate independently but constantly interact with one
another.
 Since these are also embedded in a larger and a more pervasive setting, the
“surrounding layers” of the child’s ecology constantly influence the “upper
layer” factors.
 However, their influences are not always clearly visible.
 The elements of the surrounding layer of ecology constitute the:
 (i) general geographical environment. It includes space and facilities for play
and other activities available outside the home including general congestion of
the locality and density of population,
 (ii) institutional setting provided by caste, class, and other factors, and
 (iii) general amenities available to the child like drinking water, electricity,
means of entertainment and so on.
 The visible and the surrounding layer factors interact with one another and may
have different consequences for development in different people.
 The ecological environment can change or alter during any time of the
individual’s life-span.
 Therefore, to understand differences in the functioning of an individual, it is
important to see the individual in the context of her/his experiences.
What would your life be if you lived in a rural area or a small town, devoid of all
amenities, which you are used to in a city (or vice-versa)? Discuss in small groups
keeping in mind factors like poverty, illiteracy, pollution, population, etc.
OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
 Development is commonly described in terms of periods or stages.
  You must have observed that your younger brother or sister, or parents, and
even yourself, all behave in different ways. If you observe people living in
your neighbourhood, you would find that they too do not behave in a similar
manner.
 This variation is partly because everyone is in a different stage of life.
 Human life proceeds through different stages.
 Developmental stages are assumed to be temporary and are often
characterised by a dominant feature or a leading characteristic, which gives
each period its uniqueness.
 During a particular stage, individual progresses towards an assumed goal - a
state or ability that s/he must achieve in the same order as other persons
before progressing to the next stage in the sequence.
 Of course, individuals do vary with respect to the time or rate of
development from one stage to another.
 It may be noted that certain patterns of behaviour and certain skills are
learned more easily and successfully during certain stages.
 These accomplishments of a person become the social expectations of that
stage of development.
 They are known as developmental tasks.

Prenatal Stage
 The period from conception to birth is known as the prenatal period
 Typically, it lasts for about 40 weeks.
 genetic blueprint guides our development during the prenatal period and
after birth.
 Both genetic and environmental factors affect our development during
different periods of prenatal stage.
 Prenatal development is also affected by maternal characteristics, which
include mother’s age, nutrition, and emotional state.
 Disease or infection carried by the mother can adversely affect prenatal
development.
 For example, rubella (German measles), genital herpes, and Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are believed to cause genetic problems in the
newborn.
 Another source of threat to prenatal development is teratogens -
environmental agents that cause deviations in normal development that can
lead to serious abnormalities or death.
 Common teratogens include drugs, infections, radiations, and pollution.
Intake of drugs (marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.), alcohol, tobacco, etc. by
women during pregnancy may have harmful effects on the foetus and
increase the frequency of congenital abnormalities.
 Radiations (such as X-rays), and certain chemicals near industrial areas can
cause permanent change in the genes.
 Environmental pollutants and toxic wastes like carbon monoxide, mercury
and lead are also sources of danger to the unborn child