define human development in your own words essay

Essay on Human Development

Students are often asked to write an essay on Human Development in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Human Development

The concept of human development.

Human development is a process of enlarging people’s freedoms and improving their well-being. It involves increasing the choices and opportunities for all people.

Dimensions of Human Development

There are three main dimensions: health, education, and living standards. Health is measured by life expectancy, education by years of schooling, and living standards by income.

The Importance of Human Development

Human development is crucial. It helps societies to progress, reduces poverty, and promotes equality. It’s a way to help everyone live a productive and fulfilling life.

Challenges in Human Development

Despite its importance, many challenges exist, like inequality, environmental degradation, and political instability. Overcoming these challenges is vital for sustainable human development.

250 Words Essay on Human Development

Introduction, theoretical framework.

The Human Development Index (HDI), introduced by the United Nations Development Programme, quantifies human development. It emphasizes three fundamental dimensions: knowledge, longevity, and decent standard of living. However, human development is not merely a function of these quantifiable elements; it also involves intangible aspects such as freedom, dignity, and autonomy.

Role of Education

Education plays a central role in human development. It equips individuals with knowledge and skills, empowering them to contribute to societal progress. Education fosters creativity and innovation, driving technological advancements and economic growth.

Health and Living Standards

Health is another crucial component. A healthy population is more productive, contributing to economic growth and societal development. Additionally, a decent standard of living, characterized by access to basic needs and services, is vital for human development.

Societal Participation

Active societal participation promotes inclusivity and equality, essential elements of human development. It enables individuals to contribute to and benefit from societal progress, fostering a sense of belonging and mutual respect.

In conclusion, human development is a comprehensive and nuanced concept. It encompasses not only economic growth but also aspects such as education, health, living standards, and societal participation. It is about creating an environment where individuals can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests.

500 Words Essay on Human Development

The biological perspective.

From the biological standpoint, human development begins with genetics. Our genetic makeup, coupled with environmental influences, guides our physical growth and maturation. This includes the development of the brain, motor skills, and health. Understanding the biological aspects of human development allows us to grasp why we are the way we are, and how our physical attributes and health conditions may influence our life experiences.

The Psychological Perspective

The psychological perspective focuses on the development of mental processes, behaviors, and emotions. Cognitive development theory, proposed by Jean Piaget, suggests that individuals pass through different stages of cognitive growth as they mature. This theory underscores the importance of experiences and interactions in shaping our cognitive abilities, personality, and emotional well-being.

The Sociocultural Perspective

Interplay of factors.

It is important to recognize that these perspectives do not exist in isolation. They interact in complex ways to shape human development. For instance, our biological makeup may influence our cognitive abilities, which in turn can be shaped by our sociocultural environment. Similarly, our sociocultural context may impact our physical health through factors such as diet, lifestyle, and access to healthcare.

Human Development Index

To measure human development, the United Nations uses the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, and having a decent standard of living. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare.

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Essay on human development.

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This essay provides information about the human development !

The notion of human development essentially addresses the human in development — all those elements which make a person human not only in terms of what she/he needs for basic survival such as food, clothing or shelter, health, etc., but a sense of dignity, what Adam Smith called the ability to mix with others without being ashamed to appear in public.

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It is the process of enlarging people’s choices. The human development approach looks at income as a means, not as an end, to people’s development, in contrast with the earlier growth models.

It is felt that there is no automatic link between income growth and human progress. HDR, 1990 has the following to say: The term human development here denotes both the process of widening people’s choices and the level of their achieved well-being. It also helps in distinguishing, clearly, between two sides of human development. One is the formation of human capabilities, such as improved health or knowledge; the other is the use that people make of their acquired capabilities.

In contrast with earlier theories and models, the human development approach broadens the concept to not only include issues such as basic needs and income, but also people’s choices — on what people should have to be able to ensure their own livelihood without ending up as mere beneficiaries.

“Human development is, moreover, concerned not only with basic need satisfaction but also with human development as a participatory dynamic process. It applies equally to less developed and highly developed nations”.

Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. In principle, these choices can be defined as infinite and change over time. But at all levels of development, the three essential ones are for people to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have access to resources needed for decent standard of living. If these essentials are not available, many other opportunities remain inaccessible. But human development does not end there. Additional choices highly valued by many people, range from political, economic and social freedom to opportunities for being creative and productive, and enjoying personal self-respect and guaranteed human rights.

Human development has two sides. The formation of capabilities — such as improved health, knowledge and skills; and the use people make of their acquired capabilities — for leisure, productive purposes or being active in cultural, social and political affairs. If the scales of human development do not finely balance between the two sides, considerable human frustrations may result.

According to this concept of human development, income is clearly only one of the options that people would like to have, albeit an important one. But it is not the sum total of their lives. Development must, therefore, be more than just the expansion of income and wealth. Its focus must be people. The choices people make, as the development reports have pointed out, is a process which is best understood in the specific contexts of their time and space, for choices change and are specific to cultures.

Some choices may seem irrational. Over the years, various human development reports have laid stress on different aspects of these choices. The question that comes to mind is if the choices are so wide and specific to cultures, is it possible to measure them and is it possible to make comparisons. The report of 1990 does realise the problem of presenting a complex picture of all the choices people make. It says “Too many indicators would produce a perplexing picture — perhaps distracting policy makers from the main trends. The crucial issue therefore is of emphasis”.

In the initial reports, three indicators were considered most important and comparative figures were provided. The three elements, which were considered essential to human life, are longevity, knowledge and a decent living standard. There is no standard mechanism for measuring human development indicators.

For example, longevity can be calculated by longevity at birth as an indicator. For the second indicator, knowledge, literacy figures are the main indicators, though there are debates about what kind of literacy, the quality of it and so on. But literacy is still the beginning and therefore a good indicator.

As for the third element, decent living, it is very difficult to look for indicators. It requires data on access to land, credit, income and other resources. Except for income, data on other indicators is rarely available. And even the indicator of income does not always tell the whole story, especially since incomes are mostly in the national average. However, by actually looking at purchasing power of income helps in assessing the buying power of the money that people have.

One of the major problems of calculating indicators is that they are shown as a national average. The average does not reveal the wide disparities that may exist in society. For instance, there are wide disparities between male and female literacy as well as between the rich and the poor. These disparities exist for other indicators as well — health, longevity and income. There have been attempts to adjust these disparities. If inequality is seen as reducing the value of average achievement, as given by unweighted average mean that can be adjusted by the use of inequality measures. Such distributional corrections can make a significant difference to an evaluation of a country’s performance.

When it comes to other equally essential elements of human well-beings such as cultural freedom, security, human interactions, it becomes very difficult to conceptualise these categories and equally difficult to measure them.

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• Human Development: Evaluation of Human Development Approach

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• Introduction

Types and rates of human growth

• Boys’ and girls’ height curves
• Different tissues and parts of the body
• Increase in body size
• Development of the reproductive organs and secondary sex characteristics
• Sex dimorphism
• Physical and behavioral interaction
• Larger size and earlier maturation
• Hormones and growth

human development

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• Table Of Contents

human development , the process of growth and change that takes place between birth and maturity.

Human growth is far from being a simple and uniform process of becoming taller or larger. As a child gets bigger, there are changes in shape and in tissue composition and distribution. In the newborn infant the head represents about a quarter of the total length; in the adult it represents about one-seventh. In the newborn infant the muscles constitute a much smaller percentage of the total body mass than in the young adult. In most tissues, growth consists both of the formation of new cells and the packing in of more protein or other material into cells already present; early in development cell division predominates and later cell filling.

Different tissues and different regions of the body mature at different rates, and the growth and development of a child consists of a highly complex series of changes. It is like the weaving of a cloth whose pattern never repeats itself. The underlying threads, each coming off its reel at its own rhythm, interact with one another continuously, in a manner always highly regulated and controlled. The fundamental questions of growth relate to these processes of regulation, to the program that controls the loom, a subject as yet little understood. Meanwhile, height is in most circumstances the best single index of growth, being a measure of a single tissue (that of the skeleton; weight is a mixture of all tissues, and this makes it a less useful parameter in a long-term following of a child’s growth). In this section, the height curves of girls and boys are considered in the three chief phases of growth; that is (briefly) from conception to birth, from birth until puberty , and during puberty. Also described are the ways in which other organs and tissues, such as fat, lymphoid tissue , and the brain, differ from height in their growth curves. There is a brief discussion of some of the problems that beset the investigator in gathering and analyzing data about growth of children, of the genetic and environmental factors that affect rate of growth and final size, and of the way hormones act at the various phases of the growth process. Lastly, there is a brief look at disorders of growth. Throughout, the emphasis is on ways in which individuals differ in their rates of growth and development.

The changes in height of the developing child can be thought of in two different ways: the height attained at successive ages and the increments in height from one age to the next, expressed as rate of growth per year. If growth is thought of as a form of motion, the height attained at successive ages can be considered the distance travelled, and the rate of growth, the velocity. The velocity or rate of growth reflects the child’s state at any particular time better than does the height attained, which depends largely on how much the child has grown in all preceding years. The blood and tissue concentrations of those substances whose amounts change with age are thus more likely to run parallel to the velocity rather than to the distance curve. In some circumstances, indeed, it is the acceleration rather than the velocity curve that best reflects physiological events.

In general, the velocity of growth decreases from birth onward (and actually from as early as the fourth month of fetal life; see below), but this decrease is interrupted shortly before the end of the growth period. At this time, in boys from about 13 to 15 years, there is marked acceleration of growth, called the adolescent growth spurt. From birth until age four or five, the rate of growth in height declines rapidly, and then the decline, or deceleration, gets gradually less, so that in some children the velocity is practically constant from five or six up to the beginning of the adolescent spurt. A slight increase in velocity is sometimes said to occur between about six and eight years.

This general velocity curve of growth in height begins a considerable time before birth. The peak velocity of length is reached at about four months after the mother’s last menstruation. (Age in the fetal period is usually reckoned from the first day of the last menstrual period, an average of two weeks before actual fertilization, but, as a rule, the only locatable landmark.)

Growth in weight of the fetus follows the same general pattern as growth in length, except that the peak velocity is reached much later, at approximately 34 weeks after the mother’s last menstrual period.

There is considerable evidence that from about 34 to 36 weeks onward the rate of growth of the fetus slows down because of the influence of the maternal uterus , whose available space is by then becoming fully occupied. Twins slow down earlier, when their combined weight is approximately the 36-week weight of a single fetus. Babies who are held back in this way grow rapidly as soon as they have emerged from the uterus. Thus there is a significant negative association between weight of a baby at birth and weight increment during the first year; in general, larger babies grow less, the smaller more. For the same reason there is practically no relation between adult size and the size of that person at birth, but a considerable relation has developed by the time the person is two years old. This slowing-down mechanism enables a genetically large child developing in the uterus of a small mother to be delivered successfully. It operates in many species of animals; the most dramatic demonstration was by crossing reciprocally a large Shire horse and a small Shetland pony . The pair in which the mother was a Shire had a large newborn foal, and the pair in which the mother was Shetland had a small foal. But both foals were the same size after a few months, and when fully grown both were about halfway between their parents. The same has been shown in cattle crosses.

Poor environmental circumstances, especially of nutrition, result in lowered birth weight in the human being . This seems chiefly to be caused by a reduced rate of growth in the last two to four weeks of fetal life, for weights of babies born in 36 or 38 weeks in various parts of the world in various circumstances are said to be similar. Mothers who, because of adverse circumstances in their own childhood , have not achieved their full growth potential may produce smaller fetuses than they would have, had they grown up in better circumstances. Thus two generations or even more may be needed to undo the effect of poor environmental circumstances on birth weight.

The great rate of growth of the fetus compared with that of the child is largely due to the fact that cells are still multiplying. The proportion of cells undergoing mitosis (the ordinary process of cell multiplication by splitting) in any tissue becomes progressively less as the fetus gets older, and it is generally thought that few if any new nerve cells (apart from the cells in the supporting tissue, or neuroglia) and only a limited proportion of new muscle cells appear after six postmenstrual months, the time when the velocity in linear dimensions is dropping sharply.

The muscle and nerve cells of the fetus are considerably different in appearance from those of the child or adult. Both have little cytoplasm (cell substance) around the nucleus. In the muscle there is a great amount of intercellular substance and a much higher proportion of water than in mature muscle. The later fetal and the postnatal growth of the muscle consists chiefly of building up the cytoplasm of the muscle cells; salts are incorporated and the contractile proteins formed. The cells become bigger, the intercellular substance largely disappears, and the concentration of water decreases. This process continues quite actively up to about three years of age and slowly thereafter; at adolescence it briefly speeds up again, particularly in boys, under the influence of androgenic (male sex) hormones. In the nerve cells cytoplasm is added and elaborated , and extensions grow that carry impulses from and to the cells—the axons and dendrites, respectively. Thus postnatal growth, for at least some tissues, is chiefly a period of development and enlargement of existing cells, while early fetal life is a period of division and addition of new cells.

What is Human Development, and Why should you study it?

If you enjoy psychology, biology, sociology, anthropology—basically any -ology!—the study of human development might be the right path for you.

What is the study of human development?

Human development is a branch of psychology that studies—and strives to optimize—the elements that help people live healthy and fulfilling lives. This field aims to understand the various changes individuals and their relationships go through as they continue to learn and grow.

The more complex definition of human development in psychology is that it’s a multidisciplinary study of the psychological, biological, and sociological factors that impact people from infancy through adolescence to adulthood.

The study of human development came to prominence in the 1970s. The human development index was created as an alternative to measuring nations by their GDP. People believed that the economy wasn’t enough to reflect what life was like for a nation’s population. The human development index includes health, education, and income. A healthy environment and access to health care, educational opportunities, and a decent standard of living are all keys to freedom and self-actualization.

Why study human development?

Human development is a broad, multi-disciplinary field. While this expansiveness might intimidate some, it’s a wonderful field to study if you’re interested in how different subjects impact, influence, and relate to each other.

Because the study of human development includes biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics, you can further your knowledge in all of these areas. Plus, you can also focus on the interplay of these factors. For example, a human development student could study how factors like how access to health care impacts high school graduation rate or whether nutrition has an impact on test scores.

A human development degree also applies to a wide spectrum of career paths. If you obtain a human development degree, you can go on to work in healthcare, education, public policy, business, law, and so on.

You can tailor your human development degree to focus on areas like childhood psychology or organizational psychology. These specializations can help guide you to specific careers like working in child care, social work, community activism, or human resources.

Human development programs at Pacific Oaks

Pacific Oaks College offers a diverse selection of human development programs . Whether you want to pursue a B.A. or an M.A. or you wish to specialize in social change or early childhood education and development, Pacific Oaks has a program suited for you.

Human Development Psychology Programs at Pacific Oaks College

• B.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Active Learning Across the Lifespan
• B.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Early Childhood Education and Development
• B.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Social Change
• B.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Working with Adults
• M.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Early Childhood Education & Development
• M.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Leadership in Education and Human Services
• M.A. in Human Development at Pasadena: Social Change
• Online B.A. in Human Development: Active Learning Across the Lifespan
• Online B.A. in Human Development: Early Childhood Education and Development
• Online B.A. in Human Development: Social Change
• Online B.A. in Human Development: Working with Adults
• Online M.A. in Human Development: Early Childhood Education and Development
• Online M.A. in Human Development: Leadership in Education and Human Services
• Online M.A. in Human Development: Social Change

Are you interested in learning more about Pacific Oaks College? Fill out the form below to request more information, visit our academic programs page , or you can apply today through our application portal .

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Human Development Essay: Topics, Examples, & How-to Guide

A human development essay is a piece of writing that explores how a person or group of people can grow and thrive. Several disciplines study these processes and might require you to get ready with this kind of assignment:

• Biology analyzes human body development issues throughout our lifespan;
• Psychology views human development as gaining or abandoning certain behavioral trends;
• Sociology explains the cause-and-effect relationships between an individual and a group;
• Economics studies the growth of human freedoms through the improvement of their well-being.

This article systematizes the available bulk of knowledge on the importance of human development. We have collected the essential concepts and approaches you can explore through our human development essay topics and samples.

💵 Human Development in Economics

🤯 human development in psychology.

• 🧒 Human Growth Essay Topics
• 📑 Outlining Your Essay
• 1️⃣ HD Theories: Essay Example
• 2️⃣ HD & Economic Growth: Essay Example

The first Human Development Report introduced this notion back in 1990 . But the discussion of the relationship between economic growth and human development started in the middle of the 20 th century.

Now we believe that GDP is not the only indicator of our well-being . Human life is more than just selling, buying, and consuming.

Human development in economics focuses on the creation of equal rights and opportunities for everyone . This approach states that the entire society would prosper from the happiness of each of its members.

In these terms, human development has two dimensions:

• enhancement of human abilities;
• provision of prerequisites for our growth.

The former explores how we could ensure that everyone has access to education, healthcare, and decent living conditions. The latter involves achieving environmental sustainability and equality of rights and opportunities for people of all genders, ages, and ethnic backgrounds.

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) emphasizes that people and their well-being are the criteria for a country’s prosperity, not only its economic growth.

Today, we use HDI to question the efficiency of national policy. It also allows us to compare different countries with the same GDP but different human development levels. Analyzing this data, governments can refocus their priorities and correct past mistakes.

HDI is calculated as the geometric mean of the following normalized indices:

• Life expectancy at birth is used to calculate the life expectancy index, where 85 years is the maximum.
• The education index is the sum of the expected and mean years of schooling divided by 2.
• This index is determined as GNI per capita.

Meanwhile, HDI is not as comprehensive as one might expect. HDRO (the Human Development Report Office) claims that it does not consider human inequalities, the empowerment of minorities, poverty levels, and gender disparity.

Psychology views human development from an individual’s perspective. This discipline distinguishes between three directions of human development.

• Physical changes occur in our bodies. How do we grow from a baby into an adult and from an adult into an older person? How do we acquire new motor skills, and what is the biology of our senses? What do our brains consist of, and how do they change with age? Correct answers to these questions help us explain the next direction.
• Cognitive changes cause the development of human behavior. What goes on in our brain that defines what kind of people we are? This domain focuses on logical thinking, learning, understanding, moral reasoning, and practical intelligence. It searches for the ways we could learn faster and become better versions of ourselves.
• Psychosocial changes track the growth of our social skills and preferences. It all starts with the principal caregiver. Gradually, we begin to interact with more people, such as friends, distant relatives, educators, and colleagues. It is all about our self-image, self-esteem, emotions, and relationships. The psychosocial domain also studies our ways to cope with losses or death.

Human Development Theories

The history of psychology knows many human development theories, many of which are still trusted. We will focus on the two fundamental approaches. They divide childhood into several critical stages that define our character, habits, likes, relationships, and even success in life.

Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s theory is the most widely accepted approach to child development. He believed that children construct knowledge while they manipulate and explore the objects around them. Jean Piaget marked four stages of cognitive development.

• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years). A child learns that objects do not disappear. Their activity is all about experimenting with things to see what happens. This stage should culminate with developing the deferred imitation skill. It involves the ability to reproduce an action or sound made by another person later.
• Preoperational stage (2-6 years). Children use symbols to represent words and ideas. They develop the language and make-believe play but still lack logical reasoning. They are egocentric and cannot imagine that other people may feel or think differently.
• Concrete operational stage (6-12 years). Thinking becomes logical and focused. Children develop inductive reasoning: they observe to make generalizations about the world around them. But they still struggle with deductive thinking.
• Formal operational stage (12 years – adulthood). Abstract thinking emerges. They learn to develop theoretical ideas to explain the world.

Freud’s 5 Stages of Psychosexual Development

The Father of Psychoanalysis believed that human personality consisted of ego, superego, and id. They become unified and inseparable once the child passes the five stages of psychosexual development.

• Oral stage (0-1 year). The mouth is the pleasure center for the infant. That is why everyone is born with a sucking reflex. If the oral needs are not met during the first year of life, the child can start biting their nails or suck a thumb.
• Anal stage (1-3 years). Children gain control over their bodily functions. They experiment with feces. But early toilet training can make a child too obsessed with order.
• Phallic stage (3-6 years). Children find out the pleasure they can get from their genitals. According to Freud, this is when the sexual desire to the parent of the opposite sex emerges. Boys go through the Oedipus complex. They want to replace their father and see him as a rival in the mother’s love. Later, Carl Jung spoke of the Electra Complex, a similar mechanism in girls.
• Latency stage (6-12 years). Sexual instincts give way to the superego. During this period, children adopt the moral principles and values of their parents.
• Genital stage (12+ years). Sexual instincts reemerge. If all the above steps passed successfully, adolescents would show appropriate sexual behavior.

But this theory is too controversial to be taken for granted. Do parents define their child’s sexual and aggressive drives? Nobody knows for sure.

💡 232 Human Development Essay Topics

Since human development is a debatable and scarcely studied area of knowledge, it offers a whole lot of topics to discuss. For your convenience, we have divided them into two categories:

• The first can be used for essays on human development psychology.
• The second includes human growth and development essay topics in economics and sociology.

155 Human Development Topics (Psychology)

Psychology focuses on the emotional, intellectual, and social development of an individual. Scientists traditionally divide this growth into stages, according to the respective age. That is why the topics here can be about early childhood, parent-child relationships, school years, adolescence, marriage, and divorce.

• Child psychology: Theories of development by J. Piaget.
• How can parents facilitate their child’s relationships with peers?
• Divorce: Psychological effects on children.
• Which purposes does attachment play in infants?
• Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development.
• Which ideas of Freud’s psychosexual development theory do you think are valid?
• Find the common features between Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erikson’s psychosocial theory.
• Child development and education.
• Explore the causes of inferiority complex in adolescents.
• Children’s play: An ingredient needed in children’s learning.
• How does one’s sense of self influence their future relationships?
• Corporal punishment and its effects on children.
• Why do we need to reward the feeling of gratitude in adolescents?
• What is the role of the family in shaping our social well-being?
• Developmental psychology in adolescence.
• Describe the principles of caregiving you consider as healthy and beneficial.
• Personal development plan.
• What is social knowledge, and where do we gain it?
• Write a human development theories essay.
• Emotional development in children and adults.
• What do the preferred leisure activities of adolescents tell us about their development?
• Early childhood classroom environment plan.
• Does the gender of the main caregiver matter?
• Study the effect of orphanage education on a child’s psychology.
• The introduction to early childhood education.
• Is a child’s family or school more defining for their development?
• Second life : Professional development and communication.
• How does patriarchal prejudice undermine the intellectual growth in girls?
• Does the lack of college-level education make a person less smart?
• Sigmund Freud’s personality and psychoanalysis.
• How did dr. Maria Montessori use human tendencies for child development?
• Adult learning theories.
• How does a father’s toxic masculinity impact a boy’s emotional well-being?
• Early childhood cognitive-based philosophy.
• Make a research summary of the role of IQ in human development.
• Explore the causes of the “terrible threes.”
• Lifespan human development: perspective and theories.
• Write a reflection about risk-taking behaviors in teenagers.
• Linking human development to the human condition.
• Is poverty the worst factor for a child’s development?
• Early childhood education activities and trends.
• Analyze the consequences of substance abuse in adolescence.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy for depression in adults.
• Do children adopt their same-sex parent’s gender roles in adulthood?
• Child abuse and neglect effects on adult survivors.
• What is the role of creativity in a preschooler’s development?
• Tools of the mind in the early childhood development.
• Do you agree that all psychological disorders of children under 12 are caused by an unhealthy family atmosphere?
• The theories of child development.
• How do we learn to control our emotions?
• How autistic children develop and learn?
• Analyze the major results of gender-neutral education.
• Early childhood education and skills development.
• When is the due time to start sex education of children and why?
• Erik Erikson’s theory of development.
• What is the tole of symbolic function and make-believe play in a child’s development?
• Family structure and its effects on children.
• Why is egocentrism in children normal?
• Infant development.
• Establish the relationship between language development and intellectual growth.
• Biological, cognitive, and socioemotional development.
• Sexism in human development theories.
• How an operant conditioning influences child development.
• Awareness of age-related change helps to live a healthy life.
• Middle childhood and adolescence development.
• The adverse effect of malnutrition in a child’s development.
• Assessment in early childhood: Special education.
• When is stress positive and negative for the psychological development of an individual?
• How video games affect children.
• Analyze human development in multigenerational families.
• Erickson’s psychosocial development and its stages.
• Compare and contrast the American and Japanese approaches to education and their results.
• Theoretical perspectives on human development: Freud, Piaget, and Skinner.
• The role of controlled independence in childhood.
• Technology impacts on the new generation of children.
• Why is periodical boredom necessary for a child to develop?
• Learning and student development theories and factors.
• Why is human development the basic need of any society?
• The development of secure and insecure attachments in children.
• Why is intellectual growth so pleasurable for us?
• Moral and personality development.
• If the human development mechanism is equal for all, why are we so different?
• 21 st century skills development.
• Why do modern sociologists think we should work less?
• Peer pressure on children in high school.
• What could we learn from the indigenous African tribes in terms of the psychological development of children?
• Interaction for child’s development and learning.
• Schools: an unknown war where we miss our childhood?
• Effects of media on children.
• To which degree do genes determine our development?
• Jean Piaget – cognitive theorist.
• Why are foster children less prepared for adult life than their adopted peers?
• When should children start school?
• When do children stop learning through play?
• Managing stress better: Personal development.
• Which socio-emotional factors make aging less depressing?
• Preschool play role in the cognitive development.
• The benefits and drawbacks of grandparents’ raising children.
• Autism as the most prevalent developmental mental disorder.
• How does lifelong learning benefit human brain?
• Teaching and supporting adult learners.
• How does lifestyle influence our cognition?
• Parent-child relationships and parental authority.
• Should adults develop an awareness of their aging?
• Early intervention for young children with autism.
• Why do scientists no longer view aging as a negative process?
• Development and improvement of communication skills.
• Which factors define our ability for emotional regulation?
• Child’s play observation and parent interview.
• Compare the Christian and Muslim cultural differences in human development.
• The early abuse’ impacts on teenagers emotional development.
• Are private nurseries and schools better for children’s development?
• Behavior change in learning processes.
• Why is generation alpha more emotionally intelligent than any earlier-born children?
• Videogame addiction and its impact on children.
• Shout less and explain more: the effect of the modern approach to caregiving.
• Adult education, its objectives and approaches.
• Why should we tell our daughters they are smart rather than beautiful?
• Personal development: Career management.
• How does social change impact the life of an individual? Give examples.
• Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s child development theories.
• Suggest mentoring interventions for at-risk adolescents.
• Adult learning and effective instruction.
• To which extent should we normalize children with developmental disorders?
• Negative impacts of adult cartoon television programs on children.
• Do developmental differences make us more human?
• Social psychology in people’s life.
• Do all families need psychotherapy, like they need a family doctor?
• Childhood sexual abuse and adolescents’ self-esteem.
• Which barriers do LGBT adolescents meet in their development?
• Life-span development and personal life experiences.
• Outline a positive youth development program.
• Understanding learning: theories’ impacts.
• Explain eating disorders as the result of incorrect upbringing.
• The influence of online games on children and adults.
• Describe the changes our brain suffers under continuous stress.
• The psychological effect of 9-11 on young adults.
• Typical vs. Atypical development in children.
• Social psychology: group influence on the self.
• Why is mindfulness important for human development?
• Importance of a teacher in child development.
• We learn behavioral health from our parents.
• Divorce influence on childrens’ mental health.
• How do behavioral phenotypes emerge during early development?
• Child development theories: Comparative analysis.
• Why do many children function differently in home, school, or community settings?
• Communication role in the children’ development.
• Suggest ways to identify co-occurring conditions in developmental disorders.
• Psychological child development theories.
• Describe the existing approaches to establishing healthy schools.
• Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
• Parental autonomy vs. Monitoring: which is better for an adolescent?
• Postpartum depression effect on children’s development.
• How do parents’ beliefs and values determine their parenting strategies?
• Childhood and optimal development analysis.

77 Human Development Topics (Economics)

• How entrepreneurship in the energy sector can pave the way for sustainable development in Africa.
• What are the parties involved in human development, and why don’t they share the same interests?
• Should we care about income inequality?
• Why does totalitarianism entail stagnation?
• Democratic and Economic Development in Asian Countries.
• Do migrant incomes spur economic development in their native countries?
• International human resource development.
• How does the growth of female entrepreneurship favor economics?
• A development of American society.
• How can equal rights and possibilities of all people make governments more efficient?
• Resolving the problems of poverty and income inequality.
• How does the availability of loans benefit human development?
• Development Theory and Human Rights.
• Should towns transform into cities to become more prosperous?
• Resource availability for low to moderate income families in New York City.
• Is feminism a sign of human evolution?
• Rapid urbanization in the developing world is increasing.
• What is the impact of literacy campaigns in socially disadvantaged rural areas?
• Poverty reduction in developing countries.
• Find the relationship between water resources and the level of farming development in a given region.
• Human Rights for Development.
• Explore the growing urban-rural interactions in large cities.
• Employment opportunity for people with learning disabilities in the UK.
• Give examples of win-win scenarios in human evolution.
• Analysing a community development: Case study.
• Why do societies often ignore or resist the advantages of human development?
• How innovation and growth strategy will develop Abu Dhabi economy through Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030.
• Study the role of recreational possibilities for the local population.
• Values of innovation and entrepreneurship in economic development.
• The effect of food availability on human development.
• Millennium Development and Well-Being of Families.
• Do you support transnational social movements, and why?
• Compensation and benefits in an area of human resources development.
• Do religions favor economic development?
• Influence of religion on the development of colonial American society.
• Analyze the impact of socioeconomic context on human development.
• Is nationalism beneficial for a country’s well-being?
• The development of the industrial work environment.
• Which factors impede poor people from growing their capital?
• Crime prevention through social development.
• Is leisure more critical for economic growth than production?
• Alternative Fuels and the US Nation Development.
• Should the government regulate human development, or is it unpredictable?
• Development traps and failure: The negative consequences of disasters on the economy.
• What are the external factors of human development in emerging countries?
• Fiscal decentralisation and local economic development in Ghana.
• Human Development Index (HDI) Vs. Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• National human resource development in Asian states.
• Which aspects would you include in the HDI formula?
• Is late retirement beneficial for a country’s economic development?
• Environment: Sustainable Development in Abu Dhabi.
• Which material conditions affect human evolution?
• The critical points of equal employment opportunity.
• The role of sustainable development in a country’s well-being.
• Globalization drives inequality: Liberalist and structuralist perspectives.
• What is the primary goal of human development for economics?
• The income gap in the US economy.
• Are elevated birth rates a positive or negative factor for economic growth?
• Human resources development in the UK and Australia.
• What is the relationship between foreign capital penetration and human life expectancy in third-world countries?
• Economic and Social Development of the UAE.
• How does ethnic homogeneity influence human development in a given area?
• Gender wage gap and inequality.
• Why is the majority of wealthy countries democratic?
• Human resource development practices to achieve economic growth: The case of Singapore.
• Analyze the role of free medicine in social well-being.
• How can the employment of the disabled favor a country’s economy?
• Assessing why Nigeria LNG has been restricted in development.
• How is the work/family balance of employees important for a company’s prosperity?
• Workforce development and modern trends.
• Explore the effect of an individual’s well-being on a country’s development.
• Small business and development in South Africa.
• How does democratization improve a country’s productivity?
• Regional inequality of Yogyakarta.
• How does English training in third-world countries influence their development?
• Post-disaster development of Haiti.
• New conceptions of adulthood among the youth in the developing countries.

🧒 Human Growth and Development Essay Topics

• The impact of aging on human development.
• How do role models promote moral and behavioral development in the 21st century?
• Socioeconomic factors and their value in growth and development.
• The development of moral predispositions at an early age.
• The value of professional development of a person.
• Genetic regulation of growth in height and weight in teenagers.
• The role of initiative and guilt in the preschool age group.
• What are the main red flags in growth and development?
• Child health and human development over the lifespan.
• Emotional development of a person from birth to old age.
• Regulation of early human growth: the main peculiarities.
• COVID-19 and its role in children’s social development.
• How does environmental pollution affect human growth and development?
• The language development in humans and its key stages.
• How does maternal physical activity influence fetal growth?

Haven’t found the perfect topic in the lists above? Use our essay topic generator !

📑 Human Development Essay Outline

1. Introduction. By the end of your essay, your readers will surely forget what you wrote here. But do not underestimate the effect of a well-composed introduction on your audience’s expectations! Do your best to sound inspiring and upbeat in your human development essay introduction. Tell yourself, why did you select this topic? If it is an exciting issue for you, the readers will also get interested. So, the introduction speaks about the topicality and urgency of a problem. The thesis statement culminates your introduction. You should explain your position in a single sentence. Here are some good and bad examples:

Need to formulate a thesis statement? Use our thesis-making tool !

2. Main body. The primary rule here is structure. It is hard to read one long paragraph with many ideas. Introduce each argument from the new line. Give a topic sentence at the beginning of each section and then elaborate on it with examples and reflections.

3. Conclusion. In the field of human development, the conclusion of an essay should provide the prospects of the tendency you analyzed. Imagine yourself an analyst consulting an international company. What will happen if they continue doing the same? How can they reach different results? Once again, try to sound inspiring.

1️⃣ Human Development Essay Example #1 (Psychology)

Below you will find a sample of human development essays for a psychology-related discipline. It illustrates the outline we have mentioned above based on the topic Why Is Freud’s Developmental Theory considered outdated?

Human Development Theories Essay

1. Introduction. In the XXI century, we are all obsessed with development. We would like to become a better version of ourselves, develop our country, and humanity as a whole. Unfortunately, there is no axiom confirming the mechanism of human development.

Thesis statement. This essay explores the pitfalls of Freud’s developmental theory and questions its applicability.

2. Main Body.

Argument 1. Freud drew his theory from memories of his patients. But certain experiences people believe are true often turn out to be inaccurate. Sometimes, we fabricate our memories due to how we felt back then or would like to feel now. Thus, Freud used unreliable sources of information about child development.

Argument 2. Freud’s theory revolves around sexuality. But as Jung and Adler noticed, human life is more complicated than that. Oversimplification reduces us to instincts, which is not true. People have their subconscious fears and desires, but sexual energy is only one of their aspects.

Argument 3. Sigmund Freud only worked with adults. All adults are former children, but the researcher never studied children in their games, education, or frustrations. Freud had six kids, but his career never allowed him to spend much time with family. It is questionable how someone could draw conclusions about a child’s mental processes without actually speaking to a child.

3. Conclusion. Sigmund Freud largely contributed to modern psychology. He was the first to question our rational thinking and intellectual sobriety. But his five stages of psychosexual development are far from reality. First, they are constructed based on inaccurate and unreliable reports of mentally disturbed people. Second, sexuality is only one of the many things that make us who we are. Third, the scientist never did live research on children. That is why his theory is outdated now.

2️⃣ Human Development Essay Example #2 (Economics)

If you need to write an essay on human development while studying economics, you may use the following sample. It illustrates how to write an essay on the relationship between human development and economic growth.

Human Development and Economic Growth

1. Introduction. What happened first, human development or economic growth? The early signs of economic growth appeared when the first people started exchanging their goods with the neighboring tribes. They had to develop a new skill and change their picture of the world to catalyze economic growth.

Thesis statement. This essay aims to confirm the two-way linkage between the development of individuals and economic growth.

Argument 1. If that first exchange of crops and cattle did not work out, we would have never got as developed as we are now. The economic growth that happened once we had mastered “business negotiations” gave us the necessary resources to develop other skills.

Argument 2. Human development is hardly predictable. The most significant improvements in technology, medicine, construction, and science happened during the most challenging times for humanity. The two world wars showed that we could develop when the economy is in decay. But the new production methods and scientific achievements give us an opportunity to grow the economy when things get better.

Argument 3. Economic growth without human development is limited. For example, when a third-world country receives an external capital inflow, its economy stabilizes or even grows. But if its population does not acquire new models of doing business, the money will end. Such a country will return to its previous poor condition.

3. Conclusion. It would be wrong to say that human development caused economic growth or vice versa. None of the two are possible without the other. Human development happened first, but further knowledge acquisition required economic growth. Improvement of the economy does not guarantee human intellectual growth. Meanwhile, it is an indispensable prerequisite for our development.

❓ Human Development Questions & Answers

What does the science of human development seek to understand.

This science tries to find the reasons why people tend to change over time or why they remain at the same level. It establishes the mechanisms through which we become more educated, moral, organized, and civilized. The science also describes the benefits and drawbacks of human development for the economy, sociology, psychology, and ecology.

What is Human Development and Family Studies?

Human Development and Family Studies focuses on the health and psychology of individuals throughout their lifespan. This area of knowledge discusses human life in the context of their family relationships and social roles. It is an interdisciplinary science that involves psychology, economy, and sociology.

How does culture affect human development?

Culture defines the way we perceive society and the world as a whole. It affects our vision of reality from early childhood. Culture influences our beliefs, values, and purposes. Moreover, it is a decisive factor for our self-image as an individual and a member of society.

What makes the study of human development a science?

The study of human development explores how we learn, mature, and adapt to changes and adverse conditions. It is largely related to psychology but also involves sociology, economics, anthropology, and biology. It is a science because it aims to describe, predict, and understand the changes in human behavior that bring us to development.

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• Human Development: Meaning, Objectives and Components

Let us make an in-depth study of the meaning, objectives and components of human development

Meaning of Human Development:

The term ‘human development’ may be defined as an expansion of human capabilities, a widening of choices, ‘an enhancement of freedom, and a fulfilment of human rights.

At the beginning, the notion of human development incorporates the need for income expansion. However, income growth should consider expansion of human capabilities. Hence development cannot be equated solely to income expansion.

Income is not the sum-total of human life. As income growth is essential, so are health, education, physical environment, and freedom. Human development should embrace human rights, socio-eco-politico freedoms. Based on the notion of human development. Human Development Index (HDI) is constructed. It serves as a more humane measure of development than a strictly .income-based benchmark of per capita GNP.

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The first UNDP Human Development Report published in 1990 stated that: “The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environ­ment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives.” It also defined human development as “a process of enlarging people’s choices”, “and strengthen human capabilities” in a way which enables them to lead longer, healthier and fuller lives.

From this broad definition of human deve­lopment, one gets an idea of three critical issues involved in human development interpretation. These are: to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated, and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Barring these three crucial parameters of human development as a process enlarging people’s choices, there are additional choices that include political freedoms, other guaranteed human rights, and various ingredients of self-respect.

One may conclude unhesistantly that the absence of these essential choices debars or blocks many other opportunities that people should have in widening their choices. Human development is thus a process of widening people’s choices as well as raising the level of well-being achieved.

What emerges from- the above discussion is that economic growth measured in terms of per capita GNP focuses only on one choice that is income. On the other hand, the notion of human development embraces the widening of all human choices—whether economic, social, cultural or political. One may, however, contest GDP/GNP as a useful measure of development since income growth enables persons in expanding their range of choices.

This argument is, however, faulty. Most importantly, human choices go far beyond income expansion. There are so many choices that are not dependent on income. Thus, human development covers all aspects of development. Hence it is a holistic concept. “Economic growth, as such becomes only a subset of human development paradigm.”

Objectives of Human Development:

In the traditional development economics, development meant growth of per capita real income. Later on, a wider definition of develop­ment came to be assigned that focused on distributional objectives. Economic development, in other words, came to be redefined in terms of reduction or elimination of poverty and inequality.

These are, after all, ‘a goods-oriented’ view of development. True development has to be ‘people- centred’. When development is defined in terms of human welfare it means that people are put first. This ‘people-oriented’ view of development is to be called human development.

It is thus clear that per capita income does not stand as a true index of development of any country. To overcome this problem and to under­stand the dynamics of development, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) developed the concept of Human Development Index (HDI) in the 1990s. This index brought in revolutionary changes not only in development, but also in the policy environment in which the government was assigned a major role instead of market forces.

Economic development now refers to expan­ding capabilities. According to Amartya Sen, the basic objective of development is ‘the expansion of human capabilities’. The capability of a person reflects the various combinations of ‘doings and beings’ that one can achieve. It then reflects that the people are capable of doing or being. Capability thus describes a person’s freedom to choose between different ways of living.

For example:

Can people read and write? Are food­stuffs distributed among people in a universal manner? Do poor students get midday meal in schools? Do the poor children get adequately nourishing diets at home? No one would doubt that an illiterate poor person cannot have the same capabilities that a rich literate one gets. Thus capability failure leads to poverty and deprivation. This perspective of development, as enunciated by A. Sen, suggests why development economists put greater emphasis on education and health.

There are many countries in the world which —despite high levels of per capita GDP growth/ real income—experience high mortality rate, undernourishment rate, poor literacy, and so on. This is a case called ‘growth without development’. M. P Todaro and S. C. Smith assert: “Real in­come is essential, but to convert the characteristics of commodities into functions…. surely requires health and education as well as income.” In other words, income does not define peoples’ ‘well- being’ adequately.

Well-being, although a diverse notion, should consider health and education, in addition to income. Sen’s intellectual insights and fundamental ideas induced UNDP to formulate HDI as a comprehensive measure of development. It may be reiterated that the HDI as used in the Human Development Reports to compare different countries in the world has been designed as alternative to per capita GDP/GNP. Today, it is the most single commonly used measure to evaluate development outcomes.

Components of Human Development:

The noted Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq considered four essential pillars of human development.

i. Equality,

ii. Sustainability,

iii. Productivity, and

iv. Empowerment.

If development is viewed in terms of enhancing people’s basic capabilities, people must enjoy equitable access to opportunities. Such may be called equality-related capabilities. To ensure equality-related capabilities or access to opportunities what is essential is that the societal institutional structure needs to be more favourable or progressive.

In other words, the unfavourable initial asset distribution, like land, can be made more farmer-friendly through land reform and other redistributive measures. In addition, uneven income distribution may be addressed through various tax-expenditure policies. Economic or legislative- measures that interferes with market exchange may enable people to enlarge their capabilities and, hence, well-being.

Further, to ensure basic equality, political opportunities need to be more equal. In the absence of effective political organisation, disadvantaged groups are exploited by the ‘rich’ to further their own interests rather than social goals. However, participatory politics gets a beating by the inequality in opportunities in having basic education.

It is to be added here that basic education serves as a catalyst of social change. Once the access to such opportunity is opened up in an equitable way, women or religious minorities or ethnic minorities would be able to remove socio­economic obstacles of development. This then surely brings about a change in power relations and makes society more equitable.

Sustainability:

Another important facet of human development is that development should ‘keep going’, should ‘last long’. The concept of sustainable development focuses on the need to maintain the long term protective capacity of the biosphere. This then suggests that growth cannot go on indefinitely; there are, of course, ‘limits to growth.’

Here we assume that environment is an essential factor of production. In 1987, the Bruntland Commission Report (named after the then Prime Minister Go Harlem Bruntland of Norway) defined sustainable development as ‘… development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic needs.’ This means that the term sustainability focuses on the desired balance between future economic growth and environ-mental quality. To attain the goal of sustainable development, what is of great impor­tance is the attainment of the goal of both intra- generation and inter-generation equality.

This kind of inequality includes the term ‘social well-being’ not only for the present generation but also for the people who will be on the earth in the future. Any kind of environmental decline is tantamount to violation of distributive justice of the disadvan­taged peoples. Social well-being thus, then, depends on environ-mental equality.

Productivity:

Another component of human development is productivity which requires investment in people. This is commonly called investment in human capital. Investment in human capital—in addition to physical capital—can add more productivity.

The improvement in the quality of human resources raises the productivity of existing resources. Theodore W. Schultz—the Nobel Prize-winning economist—articulated its importance: “The decisive factors of production in improving the welfare of poor people are not space, energy, and crop land; the decisive factor is the improvement in population quality.” Empirical evidence from many East Asian countries corroborate this view.

Empowerment:

The empowerment of people—particularly women—is another com­ponent of human development. In other words, genuine human development requires empower­ment in all aspects of life. Empowerment implies a political democracy in which people themselves make the decisions about their lives. Under it, people enjoy greater political and civil liberties and remain free from excessive controls and regu­lations. Empowerment refers to decentralisation of power so that the benefits of governance are reaped by all peoples.

It focuses on grassroots participation which promotes democracy by enfranchising the disadvantaged groups. Unfortu­nately, benefits are cornered by the elites because of lack of empowerment of people. Participation as a goal is a feature of ‘bottom-up’ development strategy rather than ‘top-down’. Further, develop­ment policies and strategies male-dominated. But the benefits of development are to be made ‘gender-sensitive’.

Discrimination against women in health and education is very costly from the viewpoint of achieving development goals. Education of women can lead to a virtuous circle of lower fertility, better care of children, more educational oppor­tunity, and higher productivity. Above all, as women’s education rises, women’s independence in making their own choices also increase.

Anyway, decentralization and participation empower people, specially the women and the poor. It then breaks the ‘deprivation trap’. Mahbub ul Haq asserts: “If people can exercise their choices in the political, social and economic spheres, there is a good prospect that growth will be strong, democratic, participatory and durable.”

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Human Development - Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Human development encompasses the process of growth and maturation from infancy through adulthood. Essays might discuss theories of human development, stages of development, and the factors influencing physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Furthermore, discussions could extend to the societal and environmental factors contributing to human development, and the impact of policy on human development outcomes. We’ve gathered an extensive assortment of free essay samples on the topic of Human Development you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Nature Vs. Nurture: Unraveling the Threads of Human Development

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Human Development in Different Perspectives Across the Life Span: Differences and Similarities between Childhood Versus Adulthood

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Effects on Children in Long-Term Foster Care

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Domains in the Growth Process of Children

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Effects of Puberty in Children and Adolescence

Ideally, puberty involves changes that individuals, explicitly children, undergo mentally, physically, and socially in variations such as anxiety issues as they adapt to the mature bodies (Viner,2017). Puberty stage differs depending on the reaction of the individual; some may experience new changes as early as seven years old while others may experience the changes in their late stages. Physicians widely recognize adolescence as a critical change that opens gateways altering the life course of an individual and may affect their […]

Pecularities of Foster Care System

Foster Care is a system in which a minor is being put into a group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family member approved by the state. Instead of being safely returned with their families or moved quickly into adoptive homes many will be forced to remain or bounce around different foster homes or institutions for years. Frequent moves in and out of the homes of strangers can be […]

Child Abuse Means a Physical Maltreatment

Child abuse means a physical maltreatment or sexual molestation of a child. When a child is starting to experience abuse, they change. They suddenly don't show affect for a certain relative or they don't want to go over to that relative's house. They get an attitude or change their behavior. Most people just see this as they are growing up and rebelling. When children start making sexual remarks or start displaying sexual behaviors with other young children, those are signs […]

Education in the Foster Care

Youth in child care and grown-ups who some time ago were put into consideration have lopsidedly high rates of enthusiastic and conduct issue. Among the zones of concern has been the absence of exhaustive psychological wellness screening of all youngsters entering out-of-home consideration, the requirement for more careful distinguishing proof of youth with passionate and conduct issue, and deficient youth access to high caliber emotional well-being administrations. In view of the magnificent quality and extensiveness of these announcements, the Casey […]

A Mission of Foster Care

Foster care is a temporary living arrangement made by the state for a child. Children are often placed in foster care because either a child protective service department employee or a court appointed judge has deemed the home unfit for a child to stay at. Foster care not only affects the child's life now but it also creates a barrier for future opportunities. Children are often placed in foster care because of the risk of maltreatment, including neglect, physical and […]

Childhood Obesity and Adolesence

Childhood obesity can be prevented in many ways. Parents are the main ones with a say so on obesity. They allow their children to digest all kinds of bad foods. Parents should introduce on a daily basis different kinds of healthy foods. They should also promote is by showing children how healthy food are good for the body. You have some children that won’t eat healthy things because of the color and the way it looks. Obesity is one of […]

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Main Pecularities of Foster Care Homes

Foster care protects and takes care of children or teenagers who have been saved from their families following allegations of abuse and neglect or both. A foster care system is an arrangement where a minor is placed under a private home, group home or ward that has been certified by the government. The minors are taken care of by foster parents, and they are closely monitored by social service or government agencies (Geiger, 26). It is meant to provide a […]

The Cause and Effect of Childhood Physical Abuse in the Home

Abstract Sadness, fearfulness, loneliness, and depression are some result of some sort of abuse that a child experience. Physical abuse happens when people hurt a child and causing broken bones, burns, bruises, or cuts. Childhood abuse in the home is a central social problem. This is significant to me because people never knows what really happens to children behind closed doors. Childhood abuse can have long-term effects that continue in adulthood. The overall purpose of this study is to see […]

Importance of Foster Care Agencies

The foster care agency takes in about 250,000 kids every year. Having that many children entering the system increases the issues of finding the proper caregiver for a child. Just as these problems are created, many effects can develop for the child that can last short-term and possibly long-term. Luckily, there are many ways to help these obstacles. Foster care agencies may construct unfavorable situations due to the choice of caregivers and the overabundance of problems that are created in […]

NIH Principles of Substance Abuse Prevention for Early Childhood

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The Foster Care Independence Act

Operating from 1853-1929, the Orphan Train Movement transported around 250,000 children. The children on the bus consisted of those who had been abandoned, did not have a home, and whose parents were deceased. They were brought to Canada and the United States and were placed throughout to their new homes (DiPasquale, n.d.). The purpose of this movement was to get children that did not have a home and were poor off New York streets and to bring them to the […]

Teen Pregnancy

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Children in Foster Care

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• What is Human development?

What is human development?

In 1990 the first Human Development Report introduced a new approach for advancing human wellbeing. Human development – or the human development approach – is about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on people and their opportunities and choices.

People:  human development focuses on improving the lives people lead rather than assuming that economic growth will lead, automatically, to greater wellbeing for all. Income growth is seen as a means to development, rather than an end in itself.

Opportunities:  human development is about giving people more freedom to live lives they value. In effect this means developing people’s abilities and giving them a chance to use them. For example, educating a girl would build her skills, but it is of little use if she is denied access to jobs, or does not have the right skills for the local labour market. Three foundations for human development are to live a long, healthy and creative life, to be knowledgeable, and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. Many other things are important too, especially in helping to create the right conditions for human development, and some of these are in the table below. Once the basics of human development are achieved, they open up opportunities for progress in other aspects of life.

Choice:  human development is, fundamentally, about more choice. It is about providing people with opportunities, not insisting that they make use of them. No one can guarantee human happiness, and the choices people make are their own concern. The process of development – human development - should at least create an environment for people, individually and collectively, to develop to their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading productive and creative lives that they value.

As the international community moves toward implementing and monitoring the 2030 agenda, the human development approach remains useful to articulating the objectives of development and improving people’s well-being by ensuring an equitable, sustainable and stable planet.

The human development approach, developed by the economist Mahbub Ul Haq, is anchored in the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities, often framed in terms of whether people are able to “be” and “do” desirable things in life. Examples include

Beings:  well fed, sheltered, healthy

Doings:  work, education, voting, participating in community life.

Freedom of choice is central to the approach: someone choosing to be hungry (during a religious fast say) is quite different to someone who is hungry because they cannot afford to buy food.

Ideas on the links between economic growth and development during the second half of the 20th Century also had a formative influence. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and economic growth emerged as leading indicator of national progress in many countries, yet GDP was never intended to be used as a measure of wellbeing.. In the 1970s and 80s development debate considered using alternative focuses to go beyond GDP, including putting greater emphasis on employment, followed by redistribution with growth, and then whether people had their basic needs met. These ideas helped pave the way for the human development (both the approach and its measurement).

One of the more important achievements of the human development approach, as embodied in successive HDRs, has been to ensure a growing acceptance of the fact that monetary measures, such as GDP per capita, are inadequate proxies of development. The first Human Development Report introduced the  Human Development Index (HDI)  as a measure of achievement in the basic dimensions of human development across countries.

This somewhat crude measure of human development remains a simple unweighted average of a nation’s longevity, education and income and is widely accepted in development discourse. Over the years, however, some modifications and refinements have been made to the index. Indeed, the critics of the HDI and their concerns have stimulated – and continue to stimulate - adjustments to the index and the development of companion indices which help paint a broader picture of global human development.

Mahbub ul Haq (1995) “The Advent of the Human Development Report” Chapter 3 from “Reflections on Human Development”, Oxford University Press.

Amartya Sen (1999) “The ends and means of development” Chapter 2 from “Development as Freedom”, Oxford University Press.

Selim Jahan (2002) “Evolution of the Human Development Index,” Section 2 from “Handbook of Human Development”, Oxford University Press.

France Stewart (2013) “Capabilities and Human Development: Beyond the individual – the critical role of social institutions and social competencies”,  Human Development Report Office Occasional Paper, 2013/03 .

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What is Development?

Human Development or Lifespan Development is the scientific study of the ways in which people change, as well as remain the same, from conception to death. You will discover that the field, known more broadly as developmental science , examines changes and stability across multiple domains of psychological and social functioning. These include physical and neurophysiological processes, cognition, language, emotion, personality, moral, and psychosocial development, including our relationships with others.

Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence and more recently, aging and the entire life span. Previously, the message was once you are 25, your development is essentially completed. Our academic knowledge of the lifespan has changed, and although there is still less research on adulthood than on childhood, adulthood is gaining increasing attention. This is particularly true now that the large cohort known as the “baby boomers” are beginning to enter late adulthood. The assumption that early childhood experiences dictate our future is also being called into question. Instead, we have come to appreciate that growth and change continues throughout life and experience continues to have an impact on who we are and how we relate to others. We now recognize that adulthood is a dynamic period of life marked by continued cognitive, social, and psychological development.

You will also discover that developmental psychologists investigate key questions, such as whether children are qualitatively different from adults or simply lack the experience that adults draw upon. Other issues they consider include the question of whether development occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge or through qualitative shifts from one stage of thinking to another, or if children are born with innate knowledge or figure things out through experience, and whether development is driven by the social context or something inside each child. From these questions, you may already be thinking that developmental psychology is related to other applied fields. You are right. Developmental science informs many applied fields, including, educational psychology, developmental psychopathology, and intervention science. It also complements several other basic research fields in psychology including social psychology, cognitive psychology, and cross-cultural psychology. Lastly, it draws from the theories and research of several scientific fields including biology, sociology, health care, nutrition, and anthropology.

Learning Objectives: Lifespan Perspective

• Explain the lifespan perspective and its assumptions about development
• Differentiate periods of human development
• Identify key assumptions and major meta-theories underlying lifespan development 
• Identify major historical and contemporary theories focusing on lifespan development

Lifespan Perspective

Paul Baltes identified several underlying principles of the lifespan perspective (Baltes, 1987; Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006).

• Development is lifelong . Lifespan theorists believe that development is life-long, and change is apparent across the lifespan. No single age period is more crucial, characterizes, or dominates human development. Consequently, the term lifespan development will be used throughout the textbook.
• Development is multidirectional and multidimensional.  Lifespan researchers hold that different people follow different developmental pathways, and proceed along pathways at different rates. Even within the same person, different dimensions or domains of development can change in different ways.
• Development includes both gains and losses . Lifespan theorists do not agree with the traditional view of development that childhood is a period characterized by developmental gains, whereas old age is a time of loss. Instead, the lifespan approach holds that at every age, we may show gains in some areas of development, while showing losses in other areas. Every change, whether it is finishing high school, getting married, or becoming a parent, entails both growth and loss.
• Development is characterized by plasticity. Plasticity is about malleability , or our potential to change and to follow a wide range of developmental pathways.  For instance, plasticity is illustrated in the brain’s ability to learn from experience and the many ways it can recover from injury.
• Development is embedded in historical and cultural contexts. Lifespan researchers believe that d evelopment is influenced by the many social contexts in which it unfolds. How  people develop will depend on their societal and cultural contexts, and on the historical period during which their development takes place.
•   Development is multiply determined. Lifespan theorists argue that development is caused by multiple factors, and is always shaped by  both biological and environmental factors. In addition, the individual plays an active role in their own development.
• Development is multidisciplinary. As mentioned at the start of the chapter, human development is such a vast topic of study that it requires the theories, research methods, and knowledge bases of many academic disciplines.

Contextualism as paradigm.  Baltes (1987) identified three specific developmental systems of influence, all of which include biological and environmental forces.

• Normative age-graded influences: An age-grade is a specific age group, such as toddler, adolescent, or senior . Humans experience particular age-graded social experiences (e.g., starting school) and biological changes (e.g., puberty).
• Normative history-graded influences: The time period in which you are born (see Table 1.1) shapes your experiences. A cohort is a group of people who are born at roughly the same period in a particular society. These people travel through life often experiencing similar historical changes at similar ages. History-graded influences include both environmental determinants (e.g., historical changes in the job market) and biological determinants (e.g., historical changes in life expectancy).
• Non-normative influences : People’s development is also shaped by specific influences that are not organized by age or historical time, such as immigration, accidents, or the death of a parent. These can be environmental (e.g., parental mental health issues) or biological (e.g., life threatening illness).

Table 1.1. Which generation (cohort) are you?

adapted from Lally & Valentine-French, 2019

Domains of development. We change across three general domains/dimensions; physical, cognitive, and psychosocial. The physical domain includes changes in height and weight, sensory capabilities, the nervous system, as well as the propensity for disease and illness . The cognitive domain encompasses the changes in intelligence, wisdom, perception, problem-solving, memory, and language. The psychosocial domain focuses on changes in emotion, self-perception and interpersonal relationships with families, peers, and friends. All three domains influence each other. It is also important to note that a change in one domain may cascade and prompt changes in the other domains. For instance, an infant who has started to crawl or walk will encounter more objects and people, thus fostering developmental change in the child’s understanding of the physical and social world.

Contextual perspectives , like the lifespan approach, highlight societal contexts that influence our development. An important societal factor is our social standing, socioeconomic status, or social class. Socioeconomic status (SES) is a way to identify families and households based on their shared levels of education, income, and occupation. While there is certainly individual variation, members of a social class tend to share similar privileges, opportunities, lifestyles, patterns of consumption, parenting styles, stressors, religious preferences, and other aspects of daily life. All of us born into a class system are socially located, and we may move up or down depending on a combination of both socially and individually created limits and opportunities.

Families with higher socioeconomic status usually are in occupations (e.g., attorneys, physicians, executives) that not only pay better, but also grant them a certain degree of freedom and control over their job. Having a sense of autonomy or control is a key factor in experiencing job satisfaction, personal happiness, and ultimately health and well-being (Weitz, 2007). Those families with lower socioeconomic status are typically in occupations that are more routine, more heavily supervised, and require less formal education. These occupations are also more subject to job disruptions, including lay-offs and lower wages.

Poverty level is an income amount established by the federal government that is based on a set of thresholds that vary by family size (United States Census Bureau, 2016). If a family’s income is less than the government threshold, that family is considered in poverty. Those living at or near poverty level may find it extremely difficult to sustain a household with this amount of income. Poverty is associated with poorer health and a lower life expectancy due to poorer diet, less healthcare, greater stress, working in more dangerous occupations, higher infant mortality rates, poorer prenatal care, greater iron deficiencies, greater difficulty in school, and many other problems. Members of higher income status may fear losing that status, but the poor may have greater concerns over losing housing.

Today we are more aware of the variations in development and the impact that culture and the environment have on shaping our lives. Culture is the totality of our shared language, knowledge, material objects, and behavior. It includes ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, as well as what kinds of emotions are called for in certain situations. Culture teaches us how to live in a society and allows us to advance because each new generation can benefit from the solutions found and passed down from previous generations. Culture is learned from parents, schools, houses of worship, media, friends and others throughout a lifetime. The kinds of traditions and values that evolve in a particular culture serve to help members function and value their own society. We tend to believe that our own culture’s practices and expectations are the right ones. This belief that our own culture is superior is called ethnocentrism and is a normal by-product of growing up in a culture. It becomes a roadblock, however, when it inhibits understanding of cultural practices from other societies. Cultural relativity is an appreciation for cultural differences and the understanding that cultural practices are best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture.

Culture is an extremely important context for human development and understanding development requires being able to identify which features of development are culturally based. This understanding is somewhat new and still being explored. Much of what developmental theorists have described in the past has been culturally bound and difficult to apply to various cultural contexts. The reader should keep this in mind and realize that there is still much that is unknown when comparing development across cultures.

Lifespan vs. Life expectancy: At this point you must be wondering what the difference between lifespan and life expectancy is, according to developmentalists. Lifespan , or longevity, refers to the maximum age any member of a species can reach under optimal conditions . For instance, the grey wolf can live up to 20 years in captivity, the bald eagle up to 50 years, and the Galapagos tortoise over 150 years (Smithsonian National Zoo, 2016). The longest recorded lifespan for a human was Jean Calment who died in 1994 at the age of 122 years, 5 months, and 14 days (Guinness World Records, 2016). Life expectancy is the average number of years a person born in a particular time period can typically expect to live (Vogt & Johnson, 2016).

Conceptions of Age

How old are you? Chances are you would answer that question based on the number of years since your birth, or what is called your chronological age . Ever felt older than your chronological age? Some days we might “feel” like we are older, especially if we are not feeling well, are tired, or are stressed out. We might notice that a peer seems more emotionally mature than we are, or that they are physically more capable. So years since birth is not the only way we can conceptualize age.

Biological age: Another way developmental researchers can think about the concept of age is to examine how quickly the body is aging , this is your biological age . Several factors determine the rate at which our body ages. Our nutrition, level of physical activity, sleeping habits, smoking, alcohol consumption, how we mentally handle stress, and the genetic history of our ancestors, to name but a few.

Psychological age: Our psychologically adaptive capacity compared to others of our chronological age is our psychological age . This includes our cognitive capacity along with our emotional beliefs about how old we are. An individual who has cognitive impairments might be 20 years of age, yet has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. A 70- year-old might be travelling to new countries, taking courses at college, or starting a new business. Compared to others of our age group, we may be more or less active and excited to meet new challenges. Remember you are as young or old as you feel.

Social age: Our social age is based on the social norms of our culture and the expectations our culture has for people of our age group . Our culture often reminds us whether we are “on target” or “off target” for reaching certain social milestones, such as completing our education, moving away from home, having children, or retiring from work. However, there have been arguments that social age is becoming less relevant in the 21st century (Neugarten, 1979; 1996). If you look around at your fellow students at college you might notice more people who are older than traditional aged college students, those 18 to 25. Similarly, the age at which people are moving away from the home of their parents, starting their careers, getting married or having children, or even whether they get married or have children at all, is changing.

Those who study lifespan development recognize that chronological age does not completely capture a person’s age. Our age profile is much more complex than this. A person may be physically more competent than others in their age group, while being psychologically immature. So, how old are you?

Table 1.2 Age Periods of Development

Table 1.2 shows the developmental periods that will be explored in this book, starting with prenatal development and continuing thought late adulthood to death. Both childhood and adulthood are divided into multiple developmental periods. So, while both an 8-month old and an 8-year-old are considered children, they have very different motor abilities, social relationships, and cognitive skills. Their nutritional needs are different and their primary psychological concerns are also distinctive. The same is true of an 18-year-old and an 80-year-old, even though both are considered adults.

Prenatal Development : Conception occurs and development begins. All of the major structures of the body are forming, and the health of the mother is of primary concern. Understanding nutrition, teratogens , or environmental factors that can lead to birth defects , and labor and delivery are primary concerns.

Infancy and Toddlerhood : The first two years of life are ones of dramatic growth and change. A newborn, with a keen sense of hearing but very poor vision, is transformed into a walking, talking toddler within a relatively short period of time. Caregivers are also transformed from someone who manages feeding and sleep schedules to a constantly moving guide and safety inspector for a mobile, energetic child.

Early Childhood: This period is also referred to as the preschool years and consists of the years that follow toddlerhood and precede formal schooling. As a two to six-year-old, the child is busy learning language, gaining a sense of self and greater independence, and  beginning to understand the workings of the physical world.

Middle and Late Childhood: The ages of six to the onset of puberty comprise middle and late childhood, and much of what children experience at this age is connected to their involvement in the early grades of school. Now the world becomes one of learning and testing new academic skills, and assessing one’s abilities and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and others.

Adolescence : Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall growth spurt and sexual maturation, known as puberty . It is also a time of cognitive change as the adolescent begins to think of new possibilities and to consider abstract concepts such as love, fear, and freedom. At the same time, adolescents have a sense of invincibility that puts them at greater risk of accidents or contracting sexually transmitted infections that can have lifelong consequences.

Emerging Adulthood: The period of emerging adulthood is a transitional time between the end of adolescence and before individuals acquire all the benchmarks of adulthood. Continued identity exploration and preparation for full independence from parents are negotiated. Although at one’s physiological peak, emerging adults are most at risk for involvement in violent crimes and substance abuse.

Early Adulthood : The twenties and thirties are identified as early adulthood. Intimate relationships, establishing families (of all shapes and sizes), and work are primary concerns at this stage of life.  For adults with children, developmental changes can become organized around the family life cycle.

Middle Adulthood : The forties through the mid-sixties are referred to as middle adulthood. This is a period in which aging becomes more noticeable and when many people are at their peak of productivity in love and work.  At this age, some people are negotiating adolescent children and aging parents at the same time.

Late Adulthood : Late adulthood is sometimes subdivided into two categories: The young-old who are from 65-84 years and the oldest-old who are 85 years and older. One of the primary differences between these groups is that the young-old are still relatively healthy, productive, active, and the majority continue to live independently. With both age groups the risks of diseases such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, and cerebral vascular disease increase substantially.

Meta-theories of Human Development

The study of development is guided by the assumptions researchers hold about the nature of humans and their development. These assumptions are called meta-theories . “Meta” means “above” or “beyond,” like “meta-physics.” Other terms used to describe meta-theories are “world views,” “cosmologies,” “perspectives,” or “paradigms,” as in “paradigm shifts.” Explicit discussions of meta-theories are found most often in philosophy.

What are meta-theories of human development?

Meta-theories (or world views or paradigms) of human development are sets of assumptions people hold about the nature of humans and the meaning of development — what it looks like, how it happens, what causes it. These assumptions are important because everyone has them, including researchers, but they are often implicit, meaning we are not always consciously aware of them. In the study of development, such assumptions influence everything about how research is conducted: the questions we ask, the measures and methods that are used, and the interpretation of data. For example, if researchers assume that development ends at 18, they do not look for developmental changes after that age. Or, if researchers assume that aging is a process of decline, then they never look for characteristics that might improve as people get older.

All researchers have meta-theories, since assumptions are baked into the theories and methodologies they use. But researchers are often unaware of them, and so these assumptions are rarely acknowledged. It is important to note that meta-theories are not just cold cognitions. They are often deeply held convictions that researchers will fiercely defend. Typically researchers think that their assumptions are self-evident truths. They are often convinced that their assumptions are right and everyone else’s are wrong.

Researchers holding different meta-theories can have difficulty communicating with each other. Since they are asking different questions and using different truth criteria for research, they often argue past each other or misunderstand each other. One group of researchers will offer what they consider to be irrefutable proof of their ideas, which other researchers then dismiss as irrelevant. Discrepancies, inconsistencies, arguments, and furor often characterize an area of study in which researchers from multiple meta-theories are working.

What kinds of assumptions guide the study of human development?

We consider six key assumptions. You may have heard of many of them, since they are perennial issues in the study of development. They include:

• Assumptions about human nature : whether people are born as blank slates ( tabula rasa ) or whether people are inherently good or inherently bad.
• Assumptions about the causes of development : whether development is determined by nature (genes, biology) or determined by nurture (environment, learning).
• Assumptions about the role of the individual in his or her own development: whether people are passive participants, reacting to external forces or whether they are active in choosing and shaping their own development.
• Assumptions about stability vs. change : whether traits, characteristics, and experiences early in life have permanent effects or whether people are malleable and open to change throughout life.
• Assumptions about continuity vs. discontinuity : whether development involves quantitative incremental change or qualitative shifts.
• Assumptions about universality vs. context specificity : whether development follows a universal pathway or depends more on specific experiences and environmental contexts.

Nature of humans. What is the nature of humans? These assumptions refer to beliefs about the underlying qualities of our species– whether humans are born as blank slates ( tabula rasa ) or whether we all bring intrinsic human characteristics with us into the world. For example, these different assumptions are readily apparent in alternative conceptualizations of motivation—some theories assume that motives and motivation are all acquired, whereas others assume that all humans come with intrinsic motivations.

Nature and Nurture: Why are you the way you are? As you consider some of your features (height, weight, personality, being diabetic, etc.), ask yourself whether these features are a result of heredity or environmental factors, or both. Chances are, you can see the ways in which both heredity and environmental factors (such as lifestyle, diet, and so on) have contributed to these features. For decades, scholars have carried on the “nature/nurture” debate. For any particular feature, those on the side of nature would argue that heredity plays the most important role in bringing about that feature. Those on the side of nurture would argue that one’s environment is most significant in shaping the way we are. This debate continues in all aspects of human development, and most scholars agree that there is a constant interplay between the two forces. It is difficult to isolate the root of any single behavior as a result solely of nature or nurture.

Active versus Passive: How much do you play a role in your own developmental path? Are you at the whim of your genetic inheritance or the environment that surrounds you? Some theorists see humans as playing a much more active role in their own development. Piaget, for instance believed that children actively explore their world and construct new ways of thinking to explain the things they experience. In contrast, many behaviorists view humans as being more passive in the developmental process.

Stability versus Change: How similar are you to how you were as a child? Were you always as out-going or reserved as you are now? Some theorists argue that the personality traits of adults are rooted in the behavioral and emotional tendencies of the infant and young child. Others disagree, and believe that these initial tendencies are modified by social and cultural forces over time.

Continuity versus Discontinuity: Is human development best characterized as a slow, gradual process, or is it best viewed as one of more abrupt change? The answer to that question often depends on which developmental theorist you ask and what topic is being studied. The theories of Freud, Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg are called stage theories. Stage theories or discontinuous development assume that developmental change occurs in distinct stages that are qualitatively different from each other, and that unfold in a set, universal sequence . At each stage of development, children and adults have different qualities and characteristics. Thus, stage theorists assume development is discontinuous. Others, such as the behaviorists, Vygotsky, and information processing theorists, assume development is a more slow and gradual process known as continuous development . For instance, they would see the adult as not possessing new skills, but as using more advanced skills that were already present in some form in the child. Brain development and environmental experiences contribute to the acquisition of more developed skills.

Universal vs. context specific . A final assumption focuses on whether pathways of development are presumed to be (1) normative and universal, meaning that all people pass through them in the same sequence, or (2) differential and specific, meaning that a variety of different patterns and pathways of developmental change are possible depending on the individual and the context. Some theorists, like Piaget or Erickson, assume that everyone progresses through the same stages of cognitive development in the same order, or that everyone negotiates the same set of developmental tasks at about the same ages. Other theorists, who endorse lifespan or ecological systems approaches, believe that development can take on a wide variety of patterns and pathways, depending on the specific cultural, historical, and societal under which it unfolds.

What are the guiding meta-theories in human development?

These six basic assumptions are clustered into “packages” that go together. Clusters are organized around metaphors, which are at the root of meta-theories of humans and their development. We consider four meta-theories, each with its own metaphor: (1) humans as seeds , as depicted by Maturational meta-theories; (2) humans as machines , as depicted in Mechanistic meta-theories (3) humans as butterflies , as depicted in Organismic meta-theories; and (4) humans as participants in a tennis game, conversation, or dance , as depicted by Contextualist meta-theories. For an overview of these guiding meta-theories, see this chart [pdf] .

• Maturational meta-theory : Maturational meta-theories can be understood using the plant as a metaphor. It is as if humans develop the same way as plants. The important thing to study is people’s “seeds,” that is, their genetic make-up. People are assumed to be passive, the product of their genes. The environment can provide support and nutrition (rain, sun, and soil), but can’t change a person’s nature (poppy seeds will always produce poppies). The role of the person is to be reactive—to their genes. The course of development will be continuous or discontinuous depending on the genetic program, although acorns always grow into oak trees.
• Mechanistic meta-theory : Mechanistic meta-theories can be understood using the machine as a metaphor. It is as if humans change the same way as machines. People are assumed to be made up of pieces that can be studied apart from the rest of them. They are passive, with the energy coming from outside (like gasoline for a car). Development is continuous and people do not develop into something else (a car stays a car). The person can only react to the environment that is controlling them (like a car responding to the gas pedal or the brake). All causes for development come from the outside, from environmental forces.
• Organismic meta-theory : Organismic meta-theories can be understood using the butterfly as a metaphor. It is as if humans develop the same way as butterflies. People are assumed to be made up of structured wholes. Their nature is to be curious, interested, and open to growth. They are active and develop through discontinuous qualitatively different stages (like the caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly). People construct their own next steps in development based on the affordances and opportunities provided by the environment. Development is caused by imbalances that lead to structural reorganizations. Development is progressive (gets better) and only goes in one direction (from caterpillar toward butterfly) and not the reverse.
• Contextual meta-theory : Contextual meta-theories can be understood using the tennis game (or dance) as a metaphor. It is as if humans’ development is like a game of tennis or a dance. The important thing to study is the back and forth between the person and his or her context, both of which are assumed to be proactive and acting on their own agendas. Development can be continuous or discontinuous depending on how the game is played. Both person and environment are active partners in the system, which can lead to transformations in both.

What are examples of theories that fall within each meta-theory?

Nested within each higher-order meta-theory are sets of lower-level approaches or theories called “families” of perspectives or theories to denote that they share common properties, based on their similarity to the root metaphors and characteristics of the guiding meta-theories. This table contains several examples of “big” theories of development and provides an analysis of their defining features according to the meta-theoretical assumptions we have been discussing [pdf]. Based on this analysis, we indicate the higher-order family to which we think each big theory or approach belongs.

Although maturational meta-theories were prevalent in the beginning of the 20th century, their popularity has waxed and waned since then, and they have taken on many different forms. These include some formulations of behavioral genetics, sociobiology, evolutionary, ethological, neuroscience, temperament, and personality theories. Maturational assumptions are signaled by concepts such as “trait,” the search for “the aggression gene,” the discovery of the brain system, hormone, or neurotransmitter responsible for a specific condition, or any other terms that suggest development is solely the product of innate or immutable characteristics of individuals. Although they are not typically referred to as “maturational,” there are many kinds of theories that place all the active ingredients of behavior or development inside the head (or more specifically the social cognitions) of the person. Even if they are not direct descendants, these theories can be considered cousins of Maturational meta-theories because they are exclusively focused on the role of the individual.

The prototypic Mechanistic theories are behaviorist, operant, and classical conditioning learning theories, like social learning theory. This family of theories dominated psychology from the early to the mid-20th century, but Mechanistic theories are still alive and well in many areas, such as learning and motivation, and especially in many theories that have been adapted for use in educational systems. New kinds of machines serve as prototypes for mechanistic theories of memory, learning, and automatic functioning—focusing on the computer, the robot, and the automaton. Such assumptions have even pervaded our understanding of biological systems, as seen in metaphors like “the brain is a computer.” And although the “cognitive revolution” was supposed to have overthrown behaviorist assumptions, some cognitivistic theories treat humans as if they were information processing machines.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are also mechanistic assumptions embedded in certain progressive analyses of the effects of societal and social conditions, such as poverty, oppression, racism, and discrimination, which sometimes seem to imply that these external forces are the sole determinants of the development of stereotypes or implicit attitudes. In this case, because all people are presumed to passively internalize these societal prejudices, psychological phenomena are modeled after the metaphor of the “Xerox machine.” Just as in Maturational meta-theories, where humans could be seen as “hosts” to their genes, who were really running the show, in Mechanistic meta-theories, humans can be seen as “hosts” to their own behaviors, which are automatically reflexively produced based on previous social programming.

The prototypical Organismic theory is Piaget’s constructivist theory of cognitive and affective development, and the several neo-constructivist theories that were inspired by Piaget, for example, Kohlberg’s theory of the development of moral reasoning. Other theories living under the Organismic umbrella include Werner’s comparative psychology, focusing on the orthogenetic principle of differentiation and integration, and Erikson, who posited universal age-graded developmental tasks. Other theories that claim kinship with Organismic meta-theories (e.g., theories of intrinsic motivation) do not typically include notions of universal stages or tasks, but focus instead on Organismic assumptions about the nature of humans, specifically, that humans are innately active, curious, and interested, and inherently desire to explore, understand, and fit in with their social and physical environments. With the rise of radical contextualism and cultural relativism in psychology, theories of “universal” anything (e.g., psychological needs, stages, developmental tasks) have come increasingly under attack.

Some of the better-known members of the Contextualist family include Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model and the lifespan approach, both of which arose in reaction to dominant meta-theories of their day (experimental child psychology and Piagetian psychology, respectively), with their almost exclusive focus on the child as a developing individual. The “contextualist” moniker reflects these perspectives’ insistence that development unfolds within and is shaped by higher-order multi-level ecological or contextual forces outside the individual, such as microsystem settings, and societal, cultural, and historical contexts.

Does the field of psychology have meta-theories?

During different historical periods, specific meta-theories dominated the field of psychology. For example, during the 1940s and 1950s, behaviorism held sway. In the 1960s, Piaget’s theories were introduced to the United States and captured the field’s attention. Some fierce theoretical and empirical battles were fought between behaviorists and Piagetians.

When a specific meta-theory governs the field, it becomes very difficult for researchers from opposing meta-theories to work—they have trouble getting funding, they have trouble getting their research findings published, and they are marginalized by other researchers. For example, when the area of motivation was dominated by behaviorists (who believed that all behavior was motivated by rewards and punishments), it was very difficult for researchers to study and publish research on intrinsic motivation.

What is the dominant meta-theory in the field today?

“Cognitivism” is a guiding meta-theory in the field of psychology today. “Cognitivism” is the assumption that all the causal factors that shape human behavior and development are inside the mind or belief system of the person. You can hear the assumptions in the theories of the field: self-efficacy, self-esteem, attributions, perceived social support, values, sense of purpose, goal orientations, internal working model, identity, and so on.

The paradigm that is currently taking over the field of psychology is neuroscience . That is, the brain is in charge of behavior, and neurobiology is destiny. Some branches of neuroscience are predominantly Maturational , as seen in discussions of the brain systems responsible for certain actions, predilections, and characteristics. Other branches are more Contextual , for example, research on neuroplasticity, which examines the way that social contexts and interactions shape the developing brain.

News flash : In the field of psychology outside developmental, most researchers assume that people don’t develop. In personality, social, cognitive, and industrial-organizational psychology, researchers largely examine individual differences as indicators of people’s permanent characteristics.

Who else has meta-theories?

Everyone has meta-theories about human nature and development: parents, teachers, nurses, social workers, doctors, business people, artists, politicians, and so on.

For example,

• doctors assume that weight loss is all about diet and exercise (nurture), so no one can do research on physiological differences in metabolism (nature).
• teachers have assumptions about whether students come with motivation (nature) or have to be motivated from the outside (nurture), and organize their classrooms accordingly.
• parents often argue about the nature of children’s development, whether it’s just the child’s personality (maturational), or the child is going through a normal stage (organismic), or if they are rewarding the wrong behavior (mechanistic).

What is the meta-theory that guides our class and this book?

Our class endorses a life-span perspective on human development, a contextualist perspective that fought its way through the dominant perspectives in child psychology (e.g., development ends at age 18), starting in the 1980s to become one of the dominant meta-theories governing the field of developmental science today. Note that your instructors chose your book, so their meta-theory is influencing the meta-theoretical filter through which you are learning about development.

What is the correct meta-theory?

There is no single correct definition of development or meta-theory. Really. Even the lifespan approach has its drawbacks.

However, as research accumulates, many theories derived from certain meta-theories have been found to be incomplete—so far researchers have not found any significant aspect of development that is caused only by nature or only by nurture. Therefore, most researchers currently say they favor interactionist metatheories, like contextualist or systems meta-theories. However, it is important to look carefully at researchers’ actual work, because sometimes they say that they have one meta-theory, but their work seems to be guided by assumptions from a different meta-theory.

Do I have a meta-theory about development?

Yes, you do. And you can figure out what it is. Although it’s not easy, you can discern your own assumptions about development—by thinking about which assumptions make the most sense to you. You can also see which kinds of theories you prefer and what kinds of recommendations you would make about how to structure development, like how people should parent, teach, or make policies. The hardest part about discovering your own meta-theory is realizing that it is made up of assumptions you have (based on your experiences and messages from society)—that aren’t necessarily true. Our meta-theories sure seem true to each of us!

How do I get rid of my meta-theory?

It’s not really possible to get rid of all of our assumptions. It is our goal to be aware of our own assumptions or meta-theories, to realize that they are not the truth but are our current working models of how the world operates and people develop. The most important thing is to be explicit about our assumptions and to be cognizant of how they are guiding our actions. It is a goal of this class to help students figure out their own assumptions and to help them become (or remain) open to alternative viewpoints.

Adapted from : Ellen Skinner, Glen Richardson, Jennifer Pitzer, and Cynthia Taylor. Portland State University. July 2011.

Historical Theories of Development

Preformationist View : Well into the 18th century, children were merely thought of as little adults. Preformationism , or the belief that a tiny, fully formed human is implanted in the sperm or egg at conception and then grows in size until birth, was the predominant early theory. Children were believed to possess all their sensory capabilities, emotions, and mental aptitude at birth, and as they developed these abilities unfolded on a predetermined schedule (Thomas, 1979). The environment was thought to play no role in determining development .

John Locke (1632-1704): Locke, a British philosopher, refuted the idea of innate knowledge and instead proposed that children are largely shaped by their social environments, especially their education as adults teach them important knowledge. He believed that through education a child learns socialization, or what is needed to be an appropriate member of society. Locke advocated thinking of a child’s mind as a tabula rasa or blank slate , and whatever comes into the child’s mind comes from the environment. Locke emphasized that the environment is especially powerful in the child’s early life because he considered the mind the most pliable then. Locke indicated that the environment exerts its effects through associations between thoughts and feelings, behavioral repetition, imitation, and rewards and punishments (Crain, 2005). Locke’s ideas laid the groundwork for the behavioral perspective and subsequent learning theories of Pavlov, Skinner and Bandura.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): Like Locke, Rousseau also believed that children were not just little adults. However, he did not believe they were blank slates, but instead developed according to a natural plan which unfolded in different stages (Crain, 2005). He did not believe in teaching them the correct way to think, but believed children should be allowed to think by themselves according to their own ways and an inner, biological timetable. This focus on biological maturation resulted in Rousseau being considered the father of developmental psychology. Followers of Rousseau’s developmental perspective include Gesell, Montessori, and Piaget.

Arnold Gesell (1880-1961): Gesell spent 50 years at the Yale Clinic of Child Development, and with his colleagues he studied the neuromotor development of children. Gesell believed that the child’s development was activated by genes and he called this process maturation (Crain, 2005). Further, he believed that development unfolded in fixed sequences, and he opposed efforts to teach children ahead of schedule as he believed they will engage in behaviors when their nervous systems had sufficiently matured.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Freud was a very influential figure in the area of development. Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our personality and behavior. In our natural state, we are biological beings and are driven primarily by instincts. During childhood, however, we begin to become social beings as we learn how to manage our instincts and transform them into socially acceptable behaviors. His assumptions were that personality formed during the first few years of life. The ways in which parents or other caregivers interacted with children were assumed to have a long-lasting impact on children’s emotional states. His beliefs formed the psychodynamic perspective and his theories of psychosexual development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry until the growth of behaviorism in the 1950s.

However, Freud’s theory has been heavily criticized for several reasons. One is that it is very difficult to test scientifically (Crews, 1998). Freud suggested that much of what determines our actions were unknown to us, and as scientists we cannot measure these unconscious concepts. A second criticism is that Freud’s case studies were not validated and cannot be used as evidence for his theories. Many later theories, particularly behaviorism and humanism, came about as challenges to Freud’s views.

Contemporary Theories on Development

Erikson (1902-1994) and Psychosocial Theory: Now, let’s turn to a less controversial psychodynamic theorist, Erik Erikson. Erikson presents eight developmental stages that encompass the entire lifespan. For that reason, Erikson’s psychosocial theory forms the foundation for much of our discussion of psychosocial development.

Erikson (1950) proposed a model of lifespan development that provides a useful guideline for thinking about the changes we experience throughout life. Erikson broke with Freud’s emphasis on sexuality as the cornerstone of social-emotional development and instead suggested that social relationships fostered development. Erikson proposed that each period of life has a unique challenge or crisis that the person who reaches it must face, referred to as psychosocial crises . According to Erikson, successful development involves dealing with and resolving the goals and demands of each of these psychosocial crises in a positive way. These crises are usually called stages, although that is not the term Erikson used. If a person does not resolve a stage successfully, it may hinder their ability to deal with later stages. For example, the person who does not develop a sense of trust (Erikson’s first stage) may find it challenging as an adult to form a positive intimate relationship (Erikson’s sixth stage). Or an individual who does not develop a clear sense of purpose and identity (Erikson’s fifth stage) may become self-absorbed and stagnate rather than work toward the betterment of others (Erikson’s seventh stage).

However, most individuals are able to successfully complete the eight stages of his theory (See Table 1.3).

Table 1.3 Erikson's Psychosocial Stages

Erikson’s theory has been criticized for focusing so heavily on crises and assuming that the completion of one crisis is a prerequisite for the next crisis of development. His theory also focused on the social expectations that are found in certain cultures, but not in all. For instance, the idea that adolescence is a time of searching for identity might translate well in the middle-class culture of the United States, but not as well in cultures where the transition into adulthood coincides with puberty through rites of passage and where adult roles offer fewer choices.

Learning Theory: Also known as Behaviorism , is based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behavior itself. The most famous behaviorist was Burrhus Frederick (B. F.) Skinner (1904–1990), who expanded the principles of behaviorism and also brought them to the attention of the public at large. Skinner used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of rewards or reinforcements, to train pigeons and other animals. In addition, he used the general principles of behaviorism to develop theories about how best to teach children and how to create societies that were peaceful and productive (Skinner, 1957, 1968, 1972).

The behaviorists made substantial contributions to psychology by identifying the principles of learning. Although the behaviorists were incorrect in their beliefs that it was not possible to measure thoughts and feelings, their ideas provided new insights that helped further our understanding regarding the nature-nurture debate as well as the question of free will. The ideas of behaviorism are fundamental to psychology and have been developed to help us better understand the role of prior experiences in a variety of areas of psychology.

Social Learning Theory , or learning by watching others , was developed by Albert Bandura (1977). His theory calls our attention to the ways in which many of our actions are not learned through conditioning, as suggested by Skinner . Young children frequently learn behaviors through imitation. Especially when children do not know what else to do, they learn by modeling or copying the behavior of others.

Bandura (1986) suggests that there is interplay between the environment and the individual. We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we influence our surroundings. There is interplay between our personality and the way we interpret events and how they influence us. This concept is called reciprocal determinism . An example of this might be the interplay between parents and children. Parents not only influence their child’s environment, perhaps intentionally through the use of reinforcement, etc., but children influence parents as well. Parents may respond differently with their first child than with their fourth. Perhaps they try to be the perfect parents with their firstborn, but by the time their last child comes along they have very different expectations, both of themselves and their child. Our environment creates us and we create our environment.

Other social influences: TV or not TV? Bandura, Ross and Ross (1963) began a series of studies to look at the impact of television on the behavior of children. Bandura began by conducting an experiment in which he showed children a film of a woman hitting an inflatable clown or “bobo” doll. Then the children were allowed in the room, where they found the doll and during their play they began to hit it. The children also demonstrated novel ways of being aggressive toward the doll that were not demonstrated by those children who did not see the aggressive model. Bandura’s research raised concerns about the impact of violence on young children. Since then, considerable research has been conducted on the impact of violent media on children’s aggression including playing video games.

Cognitive Theory: The cognitive theories focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over time . Three important theories are Jean Piaget’s, Lev Vygotsky’s, and Information-processing.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the most influential cognitive theorists in development. He was inspired to explore children’s ability to think and reason by watching his own children’s development. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s intelligence differs from that of adults (Piaget, 1929). He became interested in this area when he was asked to test the IQ of children and began to notice that there was a pattern in their wrong answers. He believed that children’s intellectual skills change over time and that maturation, rather than training, brings about that change. Children of differing ages interpret the world differently. Piaget theorized that children progressed through four stages of cognitive development (see Table 1.4).

Table 1.4 Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget has been criticized for overemphasizing the role that physical maturation plays in cognitive development and in underestimating the role that culture and experience plays. Looking across cultures reveals considerable variation in what children are able to do at various ages. Research has shown considerable overlap among the four stages and that development is more continuous.

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who wrote in the early 1900s, but whose work was not discovered by researchers in the United States until the 1960s and became more widely known in the 1980s (Crain, 2005). His sociocultural theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities . Vygotsky differed with Piaget in that he believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized if given the proper guidance from others. Vygotsky developed theories on teaching that have been adopted by educators today.

Information Processing is not the work of a single theorist, but based on the ideas and research of several cognitive scientists studying how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and remember information . This approach assumes that humans gradually improve in their processing skills; that is, cognitive development is continuous rather than stage-like. The more complex mental skills of adults are built from the primitive abilities of children. We are born with the ability to notice stimuli, store, and retrieve information. Brain maturation enables advancements in our information processing system. At the same time, interactions with the environment also aid in our development of more effective strategies for processing information.

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) developed the Ecological Systems Theory , which provides a framework for understanding and studying the many influences on human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Bronfenbrenner recognized that human interaction is influenced by larger social forces and that an understanding of these forces is essential for understanding an individual. The individual is impacted by several systems including:

• Microsystem includes the individual’s setting and those who have direct, significant contact with the person, such as parents or siblings . The input of those is modified by the cognitive and biological state of the individual as well. These influence the person’s actions, which in turn influence systems operating on him or her.
• Mesosystem includes the larger organizational structures, such as school, the family, or religion. These institutions impact the microsystems just described. The philosophy of the school system, daily routine, assessment methods, and other characteristics can affect the child’s self-image, growth, sense of accomplishment, and schedule thereby impacting the child, physically, cognitively, and emotionally.
• Exosystem includes the larger contexts of community . A community’s values, history, and economy can impact the organizational structures it houses. Mesosystems both influence and are influenced by the exosystem.
• Macrosystem includes the cultural elements, such as global economic conditions, war, technological trends, values, philosophies, and a society’s responses to the global community.
• Chronosystem is the historical context in which these experiences occur. This relates to the different generational time periods previously discussed, such as the baby boomers and millennials.

In sum, a child’s experiences are shaped by larger forces, such as the family, schools, religion, culture, and time period. Bronfenbrenner’s model helps us understand all of the different environments that impact each one of us simultaneously. Despite its comprehensiveness, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system’s theory is not easy to use. Taking into consideration all the different influences makes it difficult to research and determine the impact of all the different variables (Dixon, 2003). Consequently, psychologists have not fully adopted this approach, although they recognize the importance of the ecology of the individual. Figure 1.9 is a model of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory.

Figure 1.9. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

Supplemental Materials

• This article discusses the importance of critical reflection on the underlying assumptions of developmental psychology as a science.

Teo, T. (1997). Developmental Psychology and the Relevance of a Critical Metatheoretical Reflection. Human Development, 40 (4), 195–210. https://doi.org/10.1159/000278723

Baltes, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of life span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23, 611-626.

Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (2006). Life span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology , 6th edition (pp. 569-664). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory . New York: General Learning Press.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive theory . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bandura, A, Ross, D. &. Ross S. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66 , 3-11.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Crain, W. (2005). Theories of development concepts and applications (5th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.

Crews, F. C. (1998). Unauthorized Freud: Doubters confront a legend . New York, NY: Viking Press.

Dixon, W. E. (2003). Twenty studies that revolutionized child psy chology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society . New York: Norton.

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Skinner, B. (1957). Verbal behavior . Acton, MA: Copley.

Skinner, B. (1968). The technology of teaching . New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Skinner, B. (1972). Beyond freedom and dignity . New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Thomas, R. M. (1979). Comparing theories of child development . Santa Barbara, CA: Wadsworth.

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OER Attribution: “Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective, Second Edition” by Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0

Additional written material (Meta-theories of Human Development) by Ellen Skinner, Glen Richardson, Jennifer Pitzer, and Cynthia Taylor, Portland State University is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 .

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Module 1: Lifespan Development

Defining human development, learning outcomes.

• Describe human development and its three domains: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development
• Explain key human development issues about the nature of change: continuous/discontinuous, one course/multiple courses, and nature/nurture

Domains in Human Development

Figure 1 . Human development encompasses the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that occur throughout a lifetime.

Physical Domain

Many of us are familiar with the height and weight charts that pediatricians consult to estimate if babies, children, and teens are growing within normative ranges of physical development. We may also be aware of changes in children’s fine and gross motor skills, as well as their increasing coordination, particularly in terms of playing sports. But we may not realize that physical development also involves brain development, which not only enables childhood motor coordination but also greater coordination between emotions and planning in adulthood, as our brains are not done developing in infancy or childhood. Physical development also includes puberty, sexual health, fertility, menopause, changes in our senses, and primary versus secondary aging. Healthy habits with nutrition and exercise are also important at every age and stage across the lifespan.

Cognitive Domain

If we watch and listen to infants and toddlers, we can’t help but wonder how they learn so much so fast, particularly when it comes to language development. Then as we compare young children to those in middle childhood, there appear to be huge differences in their ability to think logically about the concrete world around them. Cognitive development includes mental processes, thinking, learning, and understanding, and it doesn’t stop in childhood. Adolescents develop the ability to think logically about the abstract world (and may like to debate matters with adults as they exercise their new cognitive skills!). Moral reasoning develops further, as does practical intelligence—wisdom may develop with experience over time. Memory abilities and different forms of intelligence tend to change with age. Brain development and the brain’s ability to change and compensate for losses is significant to cognitive functions across the lifespan, too.

Psychosocial Domain

Development in this domain involves what’s going on both psychologically and socially. Early on, the focus is on infants and caregivers, as temperament and attachment are significant. As the social world expands and the child grows psychologically, different types of play and interactions with other children and teachers become important. Psychosocial development involves emotions, personality, self-esteem, and relationships. Peers become more important for adolescents, who are exploring new roles and forming their own identities. Dating, romance, cohabitation, marriage, having children, and finding work or a career are all parts of the transition into adulthood. Psychosocial development continues across adulthood with similar (and some different) developmental issues of family, friends, parenting, romance, divorce, remarriage, blended families, caregiving for elders, becoming grandparents and great grandparents, retirement, new careers, coping with losses, and death and dying.

As you may have already noticed, physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development are often interrelated, as with the example of brain development. We will be examining human development in these three domains in detail throughout the modules in this course, as we learn about infancy/toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood development, as well as death and dying.

Who Studies Human Development and Why?

Many academic disciplines contribute to the study of development and this type of course is offered in some schools as psychology (particularly as developmental psychology); in other schools, it is taught under sociology, human development, or family studies. This multidisciplinary course is made up of contributions from researchers in the areas of health care, anthropology, nutrition, child development, biology, gerontology, psychology, and sociology, among others. Consequently, the stories provided are rich and well-rounded and the theories and findings can be part of a collaborative effort to understand human lives.

The main goals of those involved in studying human development are to describe and explain changes. Throughout this course, we will describe observations during development, then examine how theories provide explanations for why these changes occur. For example, you may observe two-year-old children to be particularly temperamental, and researchers offer theories to explain why that is. We’ll learn a lot more about theories, especially developmental theories, in the next module.

Key Issues in Human Development

• Is the change smooth or uneven (continuous versus discontinuous)?
• Is this pattern of change the same for everyone, or are there different patterns of change (one course of development versus many courses)?
• How do genetics and environment interact to influence development (nature versus nurture)?

Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?

Continuous development views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills (Figure 2). With this type of development, there is a gradual change. Consider, for example, a child’s physical growth: adding inches to their height year by year. In contrast, theorists who view development as discontinuous believe that development takes place in unique stages and that it occurs at specific times or ages. With this type of development, the change is more sudden, such as an infant’s ability to demonstrate awareness of object permanence (which is a cognitive skill that develops toward the end of infancy, according to Piaget’s cognitive theory—more on that theory in the next module).

Figure 2 . The concept of continuous development can be visualized as a smooth slope of progression, whereas discontinuous development sees growth in more discrete stages.

Is There One Course of Development or Many?

Is development essentially the same, or universal, for all children (i.e., there is one course of development) or does development follow a different course for each child, depending on the child’s specific genetics and environment (i.e., there are many courses of development)? Do people across the world share more similarities or more differences in their development? How much do culture and genetics influence a child’s behavior?

Stage theories hold that the sequence of development is universal. For example, in cross-cultural studies of language development, children from around the world reach language milestones in a similar sequence (Gleitman & Newport, 1995). Infants in all cultures coo before they babble. They begin babbling at about the same age and utter their first word around 12 months old. Yet we live in diverse contexts that have a unique effect on each of us. For example, researchers once believed that motor development followed one course for all children regardless of culture. However, childcare practices vary by culture, and different practices have been found to accelerate or inhibit the achievement of developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, and walking (Karasik, Adolph, Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 2010).

For instance, let’s look at the Aché society in Paraguay. They spend a significant amount of time foraging in forests. While foraging, Aché mothers carry their young children, rarely putting them down in order to protect them from getting hurt in the forest. Consequently, their children walk much later: They walk around 23–25 months old, in comparison to infants in Western cultures who begin to walk around 12 months old. However, as Aché children become older, they are allowed more freedom to move about, and by about age 9, their motor skills surpass those of U.S. children of the same age: Aché children are able to climb trees up to 25 feet tall and use machetes to chop their way through the forest (Kaplan & Dove, 1987). As you can see, our development is influenced by multiple contexts, so the timing of basic motor functions may vary across cultures. However, the functions are present in all societies.

Figure 3. All children across the world love to play. Whether in (a) Florida or (b) South Africa, children enjoy exploring sand, sunshine, and the sea. (credit a: modification of work by “Visit St. Pete/Clearwater”/Flickr; credit b: modification of work by “stringer_bel”/Flickr)

How Do Nature and Nurture Influence Development?

Are we who we are because of nature (biology and genetics), or are we who we are because of nurture (our environment and culture)? This longstanding question is known in psychology as the nature versus nurture debate. It seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors, and how they are shaped by our environment, including our parents, peers, and culture. For instance, why do biological children sometimes act like their parents—is it because of genetics or because of early childhood environment and what the child has learned from their parents? What about children who are adopted—are they more like their biological families or more like their adoptive families? And how can siblings from the same family be so different?

We are all born with specific genetic traits inherited from our parents, such as eye color, height, and certain personality traits. Beyond our basic genotype, however, there is a deep interaction between our genes and our environment. Our unique experiences in our environment influence whether and how particular traits are expressed, and at the same time, our genes influence how we interact with our environment (Diamond, 2009; Lobo, 2008). There is a reciprocal interaction between nature and nurture as they both shape who we become, but the debate continues as to the relative contributions of each.

• Psyc 200 Lifespan Psychology. Authored by : Laura Overstreet. Located at : http://opencourselibrary.org/econ-201/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Family picture. Authored by : Wazzle. Provided by : Wikimedia. Located at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:African_Family.jpg . License : CC BY: Attribution
• What is Lifespan Development. Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : https://opentext.wsu.edu/ospsychrevisions/chapter/what-is-lifespan-development/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Margaret Clark-Plaskie for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Key issues in Human Development. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-psychology/chapter/what-is-lifespan-development/ . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Developmental Psychology. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_psychology . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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Home / Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs / Online Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Studies / Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Studies Resources / Stages of Human Development: What It Is & Why It’s Important

What Is Human Development and Why Is It Important? What Is Human Development and Why Is It Important? What Is Human Development and Why Is It Important?

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Tables of Contents

• Eight Stages of Human Development?
• Theories of Human Development

Human Development vs. Developmental Psychology

What are the genetic factors that affect human growth and development, why do we study human growth and development.

Imagine two children born in the same town and the same year to families with similar socioeconomic statuses. One child grows up to be assertive and confident, while the other grows up to be timid and shy. The study of the stages of human development can help explain the reasons for these differences and much more.

What is human development, exactly? Human development is a branch of psychology with the goal of understanding people — how they develop, grow, and change throughout their lives. This discipline, which can help individuals better understand themselves and their relationships, is broad. As such, it can be used in various professional settings and career paths.

What Are the Eight Stages of Human Development?

If human development is the study of how people change throughout their lives, how and when does this development happen? Many scientists and psychologists have studied various aspects of human development, including ego psychologist Erik Erikson. He examined the impact of social experiences throughout an individual’s life and theorized that  psychosocial development happens in eight sequential parts . What are the eight stages of human development?

Stage 1 — Infancy: Trust vs. Mistrust

In the first stage of human development, infants learn to trust based on how well their caregivers meet their basic needs and respond when they cry. If an infant cries out to be fed, the parent can either meet this need by feeding and comforting the infant or not meet this need by ignoring the infant. When their needs are met, infants learn that relying on others is safe; when their needs go unmet, infants grow up to be less trusting.

Stage 2 — Toddlerhood: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

In addition to autonomy versus shame and doubt, another way to think of the second stage is independence versus dependence. Like in the first stage, toddlers go through this stage responding to their caregivers. If caregivers encourage them to be independent and explore the world on their own, toddlers will grow up with a sense of self-efficacy. If the caregivers hover excessively or encourage dependence, these toddlers grow up with less confidence in their abilities.

For example, if a toddler wants to walk without assistance in a safe area, the caregiver should encourage this autonomy by allowing the independent behavior. If the caregiver insists on holding the toddler’s hand even when it’s not necessary, this attention can lead to doubt later in life.

Stage 3 — Preschool Years: Initiative vs. Guilt

During the preschool years, children learn to assert themselves and speak up when they need something. Some children may state that they’re sad because a friend stole their toy. If this assertiveness is greeted with a positive reaction, they learn that taking initiative is helpful behavior. However, if they’re made to feel guilty or ashamed for their assertiveness, they may grow up to be timid and less likely to take the lead.

Stage 4 — Early School Years: Industry vs. Inferiority

When children begin school, they start to compare themselves with peers. If children feel they’re accomplished in relation to peers, they develop strong self-esteem. If, however, they notice that other children have met milestones that they haven’t, they may struggle with self-esteem. For example, a first grader may notice a consistently worse performance on spelling tests when compared with peers. If this becomes a pattern, it can lead to feelings of inferiority.

The key components of Erikson’s model of human development include stage one, infancy, trust versus mistrust; stage two, toddlerhood, autonomy versus shame and doubt; stage three, preschool years, initiative versus guilt; stage four, early school years, industry versus inferiority; stage five, adolescence, identity versus role confusion; stage six, young adulthood, intimacy versus isolation; stage seven, middle adulthood, generativity versus stagnation; and stage eight, late adulthood, integrity versus despair.

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Stage 5 — Adolescence: Identity vs. Role Confusion

The adolescent stage is where the term “identity crisis” originated, and for good reason. Adolescence is all about developing a sense of self. Adolescents who can clearly identify who they are grow up with stronger goals and self-knowledge than teenagers who struggle to break free of their parents’ or friends’ influences. Adolescents who still deeply depend on their parents for social interaction and guidance may experience more role confusion than teenagers who pursue their own interests.

Stage 6 — Young Adulthood: Intimacy vs. Isolation

In young adulthood, which begins roughly at age 20, people begin to solidify their lifelong bonds; many people enter committed relationships or marriages, while others form lifelong friendships. People who can create and maintain these relationships reap the emotional benefits, while those who struggle to maintain relationships may suffer from isolation. A young adult who develops strong friendships in college may feel more intimacy than one who struggles to form and maintain close friendships.

Stage 7 — Middle Adulthood: Generativity vs. Stagnation

In middle adulthood, people tend to struggle with their contributions to society. They may be busy raising children or pursuing careers. Those who feel that they’re contributing experience generativity, which is the sense of leaving a legacy. On the other hand, those who don’t feel that their work or lives matter may experience feelings of stagnation. For example, a middle-aged adult who’s raising a family and working in a career that presumably helps people may feel more fulfilled than an adult who’s working at a day job that feels meaningless.

Stage 8 — Late Adulthood: Integrity vs. Despair

As adults reach the end of life, they look back on their lives and reflect. Adults who feel fulfilled by their lives, either through a successful family or a meaningful career, reach ego integrity, in which they can face aging and dying with peace. If older adults don’t feel that they’ve lived a good life, they risk falling into despair.

Other Theories of Human Development

Although widely used, Erikson’s psychosocial development theory has been critiqued for focusing too much on childhood. Critics claim that his emphasis makes the model less representative of the growth that people experienced in adulthood. Erikson’s model of the stages of human development is only one theory addressing growth and change throughout life, as many other psychologists have researched their own  theories of human development , including the following:

Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget developed the theory of cognitive development. Piaget’s theory is widely used in education programs to prepare teachers to instruct students in developmentally appropriate ways. The theory is based on four stages:

• Sensorimotor —  In the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years old), children learn object permanence, which is the understanding that people and objects still exist even when they’re out of view.
• Preoperational —  In the preoperational stage (2-7 years old), children develop symbolic thought, which is when they begin to progress from concrete to abstract thinking. Children in this stage often have imaginary friends.
• Concrete operational —  In the concrete operational stage (7-11 years old), children solidify their abstract thinking and begin to understand cause and effect and logical implications of actions.
• Formal operational —  In the formal operational stage (adolescence to adulthood), humans plan for the future, think hypothetically, and assume adult responsibilities.

Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg created a theory of human development based on moral development concepts. The theory comprises the following stages:

• Preconventional —  In the preconventional stage, people follow rules because they’re afraid of punishment and make choices only with their best interests in mind.
• Conventional —  In the conventional stage, people act to avoid society’s judgment and follow rules to maintain the systems and structures that are already in place.
• Postconventional —  In the postconventional stage, a genuine concern for the welfare of others and the greater good of society guides people.

Psychosexual Theory

Sigmund Freud popularized the  psychosexual theory . The theory comprises five stages:

• Oral —  In the oral stage (birth to 1 year old), children learn to suck and swallow and may experience conflict with weaning.
• Anal —  In the anal stage (1-3 years old), children learn to withhold or expel feces and may experience conflict with potty training.
• Phallic —  In the phallic stage (3-6 years old), children discover that their genitals can give them pleasure.
•   Latency —  In the latency stage (roughly 6 years old through puberty), they take a break from these physical stages and instead develop mentally and emotionally.
• Genital —  In the genital stage (puberty through adulthood), people learn to express themselves sexually.

Ideally, children move through each phase fluidly as their sexual libidos develop, but if they’re stuck in any of the phases, they may develop a fixation that hinders their development.

Behavioral Theory

The behavioral theory focuses solely on a person’s behaviors rather than the feelings that go alongside those behaviors. It suggests that behaviors are conditioned in an environment due to certain stimuli. Behavioral theorists believe that behavior determines feelings, so changing behaviors is important because this will in turn change feelings.

The  attachment theory  focuses on the deep relationships between people across their lifetime. An important attachment theory finding is that children must develop at least one strong bond in childhood to trust and develop relationships as adults. The attachment theory comprises four stages:

• Asocial or  pre-attachment   (birth to 6 weeks old)
• Indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks old to 7 months old)
• Specific or discriminate attachment (7-9 months old)
• Multiple attachments (10 months old or later)

Social Learning Theory

The social learning theory builds upon the behavioral theory and postulates that people learn best by observing the behavior of others. They watch how others act, view the consequences, and then make decisions regarding their own behavior accordingly. The four stages in this theory are:

• Reproduction

In the attention stage, people first notice the behavior of others. In the retention stage, they remember the behavior and the resulting consequences. In the reproduction stage, people develop the ability to imitate the behaviors they want to reproduce, and in the motivation stage, they perform these behaviors.

Sociocultural Theory

The  sociocultural theory  ties human development to the society or culture in which people live. It focuses on the contributions that society as a whole makes to individual human development. For example, children who are raised to play outdoors develop differently from children who are raised to play indoors.

An important part of this theory is the zone of proximal development, which is an area of knowledge and skills slightly more advanced than a child’s current level. The zone of proximal development helps teachers think about and plan instruction, so sociocultural theory plays a large role in preservice teacher training.

Resources: More Information on Theories of Human Development

• BetterHelp, “Behavioral Theory, Behavioral Psychology, or Behaviorism? How Behavior and Personality Intersect ”
• Encyclopedia Britannica, “Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development”
• Healthline, “What Are Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development?”
• PositivePsychology.com, “What Is Attachment Theory? Bowlby’s 4 Stages Explained”
• Psychology Today , Social Learning Theory
• SimplyPsychology, “Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory”
• SimplyPsychology, Theories of Psychology
• Verywell Mind, “The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development”

What are the differences between human development and developmental psychology? These terms are closely related. In fact, the study of developmental psychology is most people’s entry into human development.

Developmental psychology  is defined as a scientific approach to explaining growth, change, and consistency throughout a lifetime. It uses various frameworks to understand how people develop and transform throughout their lives. The goals of developmental psychology are to describe, explain, and optimize development to improve people’s lives. In the real world, developmental psychology is used in the study of physical, psychological, emotional, social, personality, and perceptual development.

The  study of developmental psychology  can lead to careers in several different fields. Developmental psychologists often work in colleges and universities and focus on research and teaching. Others work in healthcare facilities, clinics, assisted living facilities, hospitals, mental health clinics, or homeless shelters. In these applied settings, their focus is more on assessing, evaluating, and treating people. According to June 2020 data from PayScale, developmental  psychologists earn an average annual salary of about $68,000 .

One more key element of human growth and development left to explore is  genetics . Genetics influences the speed and way in which people develop, though other factors, such as parenting, education, experiences, and socioeconomic factors, are also at play. The multiple genetic factors that affect human growth and development include genetic interactions and sex chromosome abnormalities.

Genetic Interactions

Genes can act in an additive way or sometimes conflict with one another. For example, a child with one tall parent and one short parent may end up between the two of them, at average height. Other times, genes follow a dominant-recessive pattern. If one parent has brown hair and the other has red hair, the red hair gene is the dominant gene if their child has red hair.

Gene-Environment Interactions

Humans’ genetic information is always interacting with the environment, and sometimes this can impact development and growth. For example, if a child in utero is exposed to drugs, the child’s cognitive abilities may be impacted, thus changing the developmental process. In addition, even if a child’s genes would indicate a tall height, if that child experiences poor nutrition as children, it may impact their height.

Sex Chromosome Abnormalities

Sex chromosome abnormalities impact as many as 1 in 500 births. The following syndromes are examples of sex chromosome abnormalities that can impact development:

• Klinefelter syndrome  is the presence of an extra X chromosome in males, which can cause physical characteristics such as decreased muscle mass and reduced body hair and may cause learning disabilities.
• Fragile X syndrome  is caused by a mutation in the FMR1 gene that makes the X chromosome  appear fragile . It can cause intellectual disability, developmental delays, or distinctive physical features such as a long face.
• Turner syndrome  happens when one of the X chromosomes is missing or partially missing. It only affects females and results in physical characteristics like short stature and webbed neck.

Down Syndrome

Down syndrome  is another common example of how genetics can impact development. This chromosomal disorder may cause some individuals to experience physical or intellectual development differences. Down syndrome occurs at the 21st chromosomal site, in which people with Down syndrome have three chromosomes rather than two.

Those with Down syndrome often have different physical characteristics and may be prone to physical problems like heart defects and hearing problems. Most individuals with Down syndrome have intellectual impairment, but the degree of this impairment varies from person to person.

The top reasons for studying human development are to gain an understanding of your own life experience, help others understand what they’re going through, understand the relationship of society and individual growth, lead more effectively, and support the physical and mental health of others.

The study of human growth and development offers a wealth of value for personal and professional growth and understanding. Many reasons exist for why we study human growth and development.

Common benefits include the following:

• To  gain a better understanding  of one’s own life experiences. This can help people personally reach an understanding of what childhood events shaped their adulthood.
• To  gain knowledge  of how social context impacts development. This knowledge can be invaluable for professionals like teachers as they gain a deeper understanding of their students.
• To  help others understand and contextualize  the ups and downs of life. This helps therapists and psychologists better aid their clients in self-discovery.
• To  understand how societal change can support growth  and development. This understanding helps decision-makers in schools change the educational culture for the better.
• To  become a more effective research, teacher, or leader  in many different industries. Understanding human development deeply and in context has many professional benefits that can lead to greater insight.
• To  support the physical and mental health of individuals  throughout their life span. Professionals like doctors, nurses, and therapists must understand human growth and development to better support their clients.

Students may choose to study human growth and development because of its array of applications across many professional fields. For example, students who want to become elementary school teachers may take courses on the stages of human development to understand cognitive development and how children’s brains grow and change.

Human development is a wide-reaching and ever-changing discipline. A knowledge of human development can be invaluable to people personally as they continue to learn and grow throughout their lives and professionally as they learn to apply what they’ve learned to their careers.

Infographic Sources

Financial Express, “The Eight Stages of Human Development”

VeryWell Mind, “5 Reasons to Study Human Development”

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5 Reasons to Study Human Development

At a glance.

Even if you’re not majoring in developmental psychology or pursuing a career in the field, learning about human development can help you in your daily life.

Developmental psychology  courses are required for many college majors, but you might want to take the course even if you don’t need it for your degree. Knowing how people grow and change throughout life is essential if you want to work in a variety of fields, such as:

• Social work

Even if you aren’t working in these fields and don’t plan to, understanding human development can be incredibly useful in your daily life. Here are five reasons you should learn about human development.

You’ll Appreciate Life's Changes

We often think of human development as a process that’s done when we’re adults. But it’s an ongoing process that continues throughout life.

If you understand how you’ll grow and change as time passes, it will help you appreciate whatever stage of life you’re in, as well as manage the challenges and opportunities that come with it.

For example, middle age is often a time for thinking about how you’ve arrived at where you are in life and contemplating the future. As you are confronted with the reality of an aging body, your mind might turn to the legacy you want to leave behind.

You’ll Learn About Yourself

Learning more about  how children develop can give you some insight into how you grew up. What experiences shaped your personality and preferences? How did your upbringing influence who you are today?

For example, you may realize that the experiences you had as a child influenced how you view the world and relate to others. You may see patterns or trends in your behavior, emotions, and relationships that are rooted in something that you learned as a child. You can ask yourself if these lessons are helping you now or if they’re something you may want to try to leave in the past.

Answering these questions may even let you see into your future. Being informed about the aging process will help you feel more prepared for the realities of getting older.

Understanding human development can empower you to:

• Address end-of-life concerns.
• Develop and maintain supportive relationships.
• Make informed choices about your lifestyle habits and medical care that support your health.
• Plan for your needs as you age so you can stay safe and independent.

Aging doesn’t always follow a defined path. Many factors determine the path your life will take. But the earlier you understand and recognize those factors, the sooner you can start working on them.

You’ll Find New Ways to Interact with Kids

Alistair Berg / Getty Images

If you plan on having or working with children someday, studying human development can improve your interactions with them. For example, you’ll learn how to:

• Communicate in age-appropriate ways.
• Encourage age-appropriate play.
• Help children express and understand their emotions.
• Reinforce positive behaviors.

Once you understand the stages of development, you’ll be more comfortable talking, playing, and being around kids. Of course, these skills will be most important if you want to pursue a career that involves working with children .

For example, if you’re intimidated by striking a balance between “talking down” to kids and speaking to them in a way that “goes over their head,” understanding child development will help you learn to tailor your speech patterns and vocabulary to the child you’re spending time with.

You’ll Understand Your Children Better

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If you’re a parent or plan to be, one of the best things you can do for your family is learn about child development. A lot takes place in the years between infancy and adulthood, and you’ll want to understand what happens at each stage along the way.

Understanding how kids grow helps caregivers support their children and work through challenges. Human development gives you greater insight into how (and why) your children behave, think, learn, and feel the way they do.

Child development is a complex process. Learning more about how kids grow physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively can lead to a deeper understanding of the children in your life.

For example, there are a lot of firsts to experience after you become a parent. While no two kids are alike, if you have an idea of what is usually going on in the mind of a two-year-old, you won’t feel caught off guard when they start asserting their independence and testing boundaries.

You'll Be Equipped to Recognize Challenges and Offer Help

Marc Romanelli / Getty Images

The earlier developmental problems are detected, the sooner intervention can begin. No matter what the situation, early detection and treatment can lead to better outcomes.

While everyone is different, human development tends to follow a predictable pattern. Once you have studied the process, you'll have a sense of what is typical at certain ages and stages.

When you understand what to expect in early childhood, it’ll be easier to spot possible signs of cognitive , ​social, or emotional development disorders. You will also be more prepared for struggles that may come up later in life.

For example, you may notice that a child in your life isn’t speaking as much as would be expected for their age or that they’re having a hard time with motor tasks like learning to throw and catch a ball.

The earlier in life that developmental challenges are noticed, the sooner a child can get the support they need to thrive.

UC Davis. Human development majors study people from womb to tomb .

APA. Understanding developmental psychology .

Maryville University. What is human development and why is it important? .

Eckerd College. Human development .

Pacific Oaks College. What is human development? .

Hartshorne JK, Germine LT. When does cognitive functioning peak? The asynchronous rise and fall of different cognitive abilities across the life span . Psychological Science . 2015;26(4):433-443. doi:10.1177/0956797614567339

Costello EJ. Early detection and prevention of mental health problems: Developmental epidemiology and systems of support . Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 2016;45(6):710-717. doi:10.1080/15374416.2016.1236728

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

The Life Span Perspective of Development Essay

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• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The Aspects of the Life Span Perspective of Development

Freud and erickson’s theories of life span development, interaction of the heredity and environment.

During the life, people change significantly with references to their physical appearance and characteristics and with references to their mental and emotional progress. The life span perspective of the human development is based on the idea that a person moves through several stages of development during the whole life (Berger, 2011, p. 7).

Thus, certain changes are typical for the definite stages of life, but it is also important to pay attention to the individual character of experienced changes because all the people are different. From this point, the life span perspective aims to explain the human development with the focus on separate phases completed during the whole life; and all the stages of the human development are taken into consideration in spite of the fact that the followers of this perspective are inclined to determine phases according to different criteria.

The life span perspective of the human development is characterized by the complex approach to analyzing all the aspects of the people’s changes observed during different life stages. As a result, it is possible to speak about the multidimensional character of the approach because all the aspects are discussed in their connection.

According to Berger, the human development presented as the life span is multidirectional, multicontextual, multicultural, multidisciplinary, and plastic (Berger, 2011, p. 10-18). This statement means that it is irrelevant to discuss the human development as started at one point and moving to another one; or as dependent only on one context, including only the family or social status; or as dependent only on one culture.

The people’s development is the complex process because a person is influenced by a lot of environments, cultures, and situations during the life span. This person interacts with many people belonging to different cultures and ethnic groups and develops the specific personal traits during the whole life (Berger, 2011, p. 10). Each detail associated with the person’s life, such as the family, socioeconomic status, and character, matters to explain the aspects of the person’s life span development.

There are many theories of the life span development which differ in criteria according to which psychologists determine different stages of the people’s life. Freud and Erickson’s theories are similar in focusing on the age-related steps, but they are different in criteria to state the fundaments for the stages’ progress. Thus, Freud’s theory depends on a range of psychosexual phases because the theorist is inclined to associate the man’s sexual nature with the psychological development.

Freud concentrates on the childhood as the period when a child experiences some crises which determine the oral, anal, phallic phases, and the period of latency. These periods lead to the genital stage lasting during the adolescence and adulthood. According to Freud, the stages depend on the centers of pleasures important during different stages (Berger, 2011, p. 43-47). As a result, the human sexual nature is chosen as the criterion to propose the life span stages.

Erickson’s theory is based on the social aspect. If Freud’s theory depends on psychological crises associated with the sexual development, Erickson’s theory depends on psychological crises associated with the people’s social interactions. Erickson states that people move through a range of stages during which they are impacted by the peculiarities of the environments and interactions with people.

People’s activities and behaviors during different stages are explained with references to their attitude to their society and personal interactions. As a result, at different stages, people are influenced by the conflicts between their identity or independent life and society which can be represented as the family, relatives, friends, and other people (Berger, 2011, p. 51).

A person can be discussed as an individual only with references to the unique combination of the heredity and environment’s impact on his or her development. Today, scientists cannot provide the single opinion on the role of nature and nurture in the person’s development because it is impossible to state what factors affect the personal development drastically. Heredity makes people different in their appearance and physical qualities when nurture makes people different in their vision of the world, education, and lifestyle.

It is important to note that nature and nurture are in ongoing interaction to affect the person’s individual development. The unique complex of the genetic material and environment produces a unique person who should be discussed only with references to combination of heredity and environment (Berger, 2011, p. 9). Inherited qualities should be combined with the environment’s impact to influence the individual’s development.

The life span perspective of the human development depends on the idea that people move through many stages during their life, but this movement should be discussed as the multidimensional process rather than as the linear movement. Such aspects as the interaction of nurture and nature can influence the person’s development significantly because various inherited qualities or life situations can affect the people’s life differently.

Berger, K. S. (2011). The developing person through the life span . New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

• Theory of Child Development
• Skinner’s Theory of Radical Behaviorism
• Influence of Heredity and Hormones on Human Behavior
• Heredity and the Different Types of Inheritance
• Genes, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), and Heredity
• Concept Of “Four Idols”
• How ADHD Develops Into Adult ADD
• The Effect of Emotions and Desires on Individual Development
• Workplace Motivation Theories
• Psychosocial Theory of Development by Erick Erikson
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2018, November 28). The Life Span Perspective of Development. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-life-span-perspective-of-development/

"The Life Span Perspective of Development." IvyPanda , 28 Nov. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-life-span-perspective-of-development/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Life Span Perspective of Development'. 28 November.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Life Span Perspective of Development." November 28, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-life-span-perspective-of-development/.

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IvyPanda . "The Life Span Perspective of Development." November 28, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-life-span-perspective-of-development/.

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Self Reflection Essay: My Journey of Self-development

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