Domains
Human development refers to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development of humans throughout the lifespan. What types of development are involved in each of these three domains, or areas, of life? Physical development involves growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness. Cognitive development involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity. Psychosocial development involves emotions, personality, and social relationships.
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.
Key Issues in Human Development
There are many different theoretical approaches regarding human development. As we evaluate them in this course, recall that human development focuses on how people change and that the approaches address the essence of change in different ways. No matter the theoretical approach, they address major issues in developmental psychology. Three key issues in human development include:
- Continuous versus Discontinuous: Is the change smooth or uneven?
- Stability versus Change: How consistent are the personality traits present at birth?
- Nature versus Nurture: How do genetics and environment interact to influence development?
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 Chapter 3).
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 Personality Stable or Does It Change?
Jessie is two years old and has great difficulty adapting to change. His parents have commented that he is often hard to please and gets into bad moods easily often having intense emotional reactions. Will these traits change as Jessie matures into childhood and on into adulthood, or will they be modified by life experiences and how he thinks about himself and the world? Theorists who take a stability viewpoint argue that personality traits change little over the lifespan. Those who argue that environmental factors outweigh genetic influences predict such characteristics will change with development.
How Much of Development is Due to Nature and How Much is Due to Nurture?
Are you tall with a large skeletal frame or short and fine-boned? Is your hair curly like your father’s or straight like your mother’s? Do you worry that the heart disease that runs in your family may become an issue in your own life? These questions point to the influence of nature, a person’s genetic inheritance. Perhaps you have thought about lowering your risk of heart disease by maintaining a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and managing stress in healthy ways. This influence of personal, cultural, and other environmental factors is referred to as nurture. Nature and nurture both play a role in the expression of any facet of a person; it is a constant interaction of both influences.