Lesson 1 life span development
- 2. DEVELOPMENT ➤ Psychologists refer to development as changes that occur over time
- 3. AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT Physical development involves changes in the body and its various systems, such as development of the brain and its nervous system Social development involves changes in an individual’s relationships with other people and their skills in interacting with others, such as the ability to form and maintain close relationships with others in a group situation. Emotional development involves changes in how an individual experiences different feelings and how these feelings are expressed, interpreted and dealt with; for example, the way in which anger is expressed Cognitive development involves changes in an individual’s mental abilities, such as reasoning, problem solving, decision making, perception, learning, memory and use of languages.
- 4. CONTINUOUS V DISCONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
- 5. SEQUENTIAL NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT Development progresses in a step-by-step fashion. It is orderly, sequential, and proceeds from the simple to the complex. Each achieved behaviour forms the foundation for more advanced behaviours.
- 6. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES So what makes us different? Heredity involves the transmission of characteristics from biological parents to their offspring via genes at the time of conception. In psychology, the term Environment is used to refer to all the experiences, objects and events to which we are exposed throughout our entire lifetime.
- 9. THE ROLE OF MATURATION Maturation refers to the orderly and sequential developmental changes which occur in the nervous system and other bodily structures controlled by our genes.
- 10. PRINCIPLE OF READINESS The Principle of readiness states that unless the necessary bodily structures and processes are sufficiently mature, be they muscles, bones, the brain, nerves, neurons or neurotransmitters then no amount of practice will produce the particular mental process or behaviour.