History of the Study of Human Development

1
History of the Study of Human Development

• Preformation
• Locke, Rousseau, and Darwin
• Six Major Theories
• Current Theoretical Perspectives

2
History

• To a large extent, the study of human development
  is the study of child development.
• Most significant changes take place from infancy
  through adolescence.

3
History

• Life phases evaluated in this course
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Young adulthood
• Middle adulthood
• Late adulthood
• Childhood has been of interest for a long time.
• Adulthood became of interest in the late 1900s.
• Childhood seen as special time of growth and
  change, influenced by child-rearing practices,
  childhood experiences, and environmental
  influences.

4
History

• Since 1900, the older adult population has
  increased dramatically
• Greatest increases up to 2040 will be in the
  85-and-over and 100-and-over age groups.
• A girl born today in the U.S. has a 1-in-3
  chance of living to be 100 years old.
• Changes in adulthood are just as important as the
  changes in childhood
• There are great changes in body, personality, and
  abilities during adulthood.

5
Average Human Life Expectancy (in Years) at
Birth, from Prehistoric to Contemporary Times
77
70
Years
5 4
1900 USA
47
1620 Mass. Bay Colony
41
35
33
Ancient Greece
20
18
19th Century England
Middle Ages, England
2002 USA
1915 USA
1954 USA
Prehistoric times
Time Period
6
The Aging of America
Female
Male
40
30
Americans over 65 (in millions)
20
10
0
1940
2000
2040
1900
Year
7
History

• Characteristics of the life-span perspective
• Development is lifelong.
• Biological, cognitive, and socioeconomic
  dimensions of experiences and psychological
  orientation are very important.
• Development is multidirectional
• Some aspects of dimensions shrink and some
  expand.
• Development is plastic
• it has the capacity for change
• Development is multidisciplinary
• Psychologists
• Sociologists
• Anthropologists
• Neuroscientists
• Medical researchers

8
History

• Development is contextual
• Biological processes
• Sociocultural and environmental experiences
• Historical circumstances
• Life events or unusual circumstances impacting on
  the specific individual
• Development involves
• Growth
• Maintenance
• Regulation

9
History

• Contemporary concerns (in the media)
• Health and well-being
• Lifestyle
• Drug and alcohol use
• Parenting
• Divorce
• Child maltreatment
• Education
• U.S. system
• Bilingual education
• Poverty
• Cooperative learning

10
History

• Contemporary Concerns (continued)
• Sociocultural contexts and diversity
• SES
• Gender
• Context
• Culture
• Ethnicity
• Social policy

11
History

• Life-span psychologists focus on shared
• Characteristics.
• Not individual uniqueness.
• Biological processes focus on
• Physical nature and genetic influences
• Height and weight
• Brain development
• Motor skill changes
• Hormonal changes of puberty
• Cardiovascular decline
• Cognitive processes focus on changes in
  individual thought, intelligence, and language.

12
History

• How should age be conceptualized?
• Chronological age
• Biological age
• Psychological age
• Social age

13
Number of years since birth
Chronological age
Age in terms of physical health
Biological age
Conceptions of age
Adaptive capacity compared with others of the
same chronological age
Psychological age
Social roles and expectations relative to
chronological age
Social age
14
Main Debates
15
Preformation

• Defined (Previous Formation) Development
  involves merely an increase in size.
• Women were merely a housing unit designed to help
  the fathers fully formed child to grow.
• Homunculus (Little Man) Miniature adult that
  inhabits the germ cell and produces a mature
  individual.

16
Locke, Rousseau, and Darwin

• John Locke (1632-1704)
• Tabula Rasa Blank Slate
• Whatever comes into the mind comes from the
  environment.
• Knowledge depends on the experience of the sense
  organs.
• Environment molds the mind.
• Thoughts and feelings develop through
  associations, repetition, and imitation.
• Learn through rewards and punishment.

17
Locke, Rousseau, and Darwin

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• People are always looking for the man in the
  child, without considering what he is before he
  becomes a man.
• Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking,
  and feeling.
• According to Natures Design.
• Created four stages in child development.

18
Locke, Rousseau, and Darwin

• Charles Darwin
• Children develop through evolution.
• Explains mental and psychological traits as
  adaptations and the functional products of
  natural selection.
• To bring the functional way of thinking about
  biological mechanisms into the field of
  psychology.
• Applys to all organisms as opposed to just
  humans.
• Applys to any organism with a nervous system.

19
Six Major Theories

• Psychodynamic Theory
• (Sigmund Freud)
• Epigenetic Theory
• (Erik Erikson)
• Integrated-Attachment Theory
• (John Bowlby/Mary Ainsworth)
• Social-Cognitive Learning Theory
• (Albert Bandura)
• Genetic Epistemology
• (Jean Piaget)
• Cognitive-Mediation Theory
• (Lev Vygotsky)

20
Current Theoretical Perspectives

• Psychodynamic
• Behavioral
• Cognitive
• Humanistic
• Biological
• Evolutionary
• Social