Thinking about Development

The Study of Human Development—Human development is the multidisciplinary study of how people change and how they remain the same over time. The science of human development reflects the complexity and uniqueness of each person and each person’s experiences as well as commonalities and patterns across people.

The factors influencing life include:

·         Genetic Heritage

·         Family and neighborhood

·         Influence of Culture

·         Sudden changes and Gradual changes

Three fundamental issues that pervade modern research on human development, human development at the individual level is a blend to differing degrees of each concept and the pair that describes the issue:

Nature vs. Nurture – Virtually no feature of lifespan development is due exclusively to either heredity or environment; instead development is always shaped by both. Nature and nurture are mutually interactive influences, we are shaped both by the genes we inherit and by the experiences we have.

Continuity vs. Discontinuity – Continuity of development suggests that once a person begins down a particular path, for example towards friendliness or intelligence, he or she stays on that path throughout life. In the view of discontinuity, people can change from one developmental path to another and perhaps several times in their lives.

Universal vs. Context-Specific Development –concerns whether there is one path in development or several. Some theorists actually argue that despite what look like differences in development, the is only one fundamental development process for everyone. The opposing view argues that human development is inextricably intertwined within the context that which it occurs. Of course it is both, the basic order of development of physical skills for instance in infancy is essentially the same in all cultures, but how those skills are focused or encouraged in daily life may differ greatly across cultures.

When trying to explain why people develop as they do, scientists usually consider four interactive forces. This Biopsychosocial Framework consists of:

Biological Forces– include all genetic and health related factors that affect development. Biological forces collectively can be viewed as providing the raw material necessary and of setting the boundary conditions for development.

Psychological Forces– include all internal, perceptual, cognitive and emotional factors that affect development. Psychological forces are the ones most often used to describe the characteristics of a person (nice, intelligent, honest, ect) and have also received the most attention of the three main developmental forces.

Sociocultural Forces– include interpersonal, societal, cultural and ethnic factors that affect development. Sociocultural forces exist because people develop in the world, to understand human development we need to know how people and their environments interact and relate to each other.

Life-Cycle Forces – The preceding three forces all combine with the lifecycle forces to reflect the differences of how the same event can affect people of different ages. In other words we need to view individuals’ development as part of a much larger system, in which no individual part can act without influencing all other aspects of the system. Of course the point in life when something occurs matters a great deal. The same event can have different effects, depending on when it happens in a person’s life.

(Combining the three developmental forces with Life-Cycle forces provides a view of human development that encompasses the lifespan, yet appreciates the unique aspects of each phase of life.)

Culture is composed of the knowledge attitudes and behavior associated with a group of people. Knowing the culture from which a person comes provides some general information about important influences that become manifest throughout the lifespan. When using general terms to describe a group of people, remember that conclusions may not apply to all subgroups within the group described by some more general term.

Once again, no aspect of human development can be fully understood by examining only one of the forces, all four must be considered in interaction. In fact, integration across the four forces of the biopsychosocial framework is one criterion against which the adequacy of a developmental theory can be judged. From this perspective we can view each life story as a complex interplay among the four forces.