Transcript human development - gozips.uakron.edu

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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)
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.
HISTORY OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT
• Medieval times (6-15
century)
– Preformationism
– Harsh child practices
• Enlightment (17th
century)
– John Locke
– Jean Rousseau
Reformation (16th
century)
Protestantism (Puritan
doctrine)
Scientific Age (18th
century)
Charles Darwin
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.
SIGMUND FREUD
CONTRIBUTION TO THE
DISCIPLINE OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
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.
The Contributions of Erik
Erikson
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
Behaviorism & Learning
Theory
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
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.
Albert Bandura
Social Cognitive Theory
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
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
Jean Piaget
Cognitive Developmental Theory
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
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
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
• Sensorimotor
Birth-2 years
• Preoperational
2-7 years
• Concrete Operational
7-11 years
• Formal Operational
11 years on
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.
Information Processing
Theory
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
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.
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
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
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
Ethology (Evolutionary)
Discuss the “Ologies”
Sociology
Ecology
Ethology
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
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
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.