Human Growth and Development Study
Guide - WGU
Multidirectional -
☑️ Some dimensions expand and others shrink
Multidimensional -
☑️ Has biological, cognitive, and socioemotional dimensions
Plastic -
☑️ The capacity for change
Lifelong -
☑️ Early adulthood is not the endpoint of development; no age period dominates
development
Multidisciplinary -
☑️ Various areas of study have an interest in the field of development through the life span
Contextual -
☑️ All development occurs within a context, or setting (social, cultural, and historic
factors)
Nature -
☑️ Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance.
Nature Example -
☑️ We walk before we talk, speak one word before two words, grow rapidly in infancy and
less so in early childhood, experience a rush of sex hormones in puberty, reach the peak of our
physical strength in late adolescence and early adulthood, and then physically decline.
Nurture -
☑️ Nurture refers to an organism's environmental experiences
Nurture Example -
☑️ Experiences run the gamut from the individual's biological environment (nutrition,
medical care, drugs, and physical accidents) to the social environment (family, peers, schools,
community, media, and culture)
Continuity -
☑️ focuses on the degree to which the development involves a gradual, cumulative change
continuity example -
☑️ An oak grows from a seedling to a giant oak, it becomes more of an oak - its
development is continuous
discontinuity -
☑️ focuses on the degree to which development involves distinct stages
,Discontinuity example -
☑️ as an insect grows from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly, it passes through a
sequence of stages in which change is qualitative rather than quantitatively different. Similarly, at
some point a child moves from not being able to think abstractlyl about the world to being able to
do so.
Stability -
☑️ Debate about whether we become older renditions of our early experience
Stability Example -
☑️ Many argue that if an individual is shy throughout life, this stability is due to heredity
and possibly early experiences in which the infant or young child encountered considerable stress
when interacting with people
Change -
☑️ We develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in
development
Change example -
☑️ Developmentalists who emphasize change take the more optimistic view that later
experiences can produce change. Recall that in the life-span perspective, plasticity, the potential
for change, exists throughout the life span.
Freud's Theories -
☑️ Freud believed that people's problems were the result of experiences early in life. He
thought that as children grow up, their focus on pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from the
mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals. As a result, we go through five stages of
psychosexual development: Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
Erikson's Theory -
☑️ Focuses on Psychosocial. Eight Stages of human development. Each stage consists of
unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
Trust versus mistrust -
☑️ Erikson's first psychosocial stage, which is experienced in the first year of life. The
development of trust during infancy sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be
a good and pleasant place to live.
Autonomy versus Shame and doubt -
☑️ Erikson's second stage. This stage occurs in late infancy and toddlerhodd ( 1-3 years)
after gaining trust in their caregivers, infants begin to discover that their behavior is their own.
They start to assert their sense of independence or autonomy. They realize their will. If Infants and
toddlers are restrained too much or punished too harshly, they are likely to develop a sense of
shame and doubt.
Initiative versus guilt -
☑️ Erikson's Third stage of development occurs during the preschool years. As preschool
children encounter a widening social world, they face new challenges that require active
purposeful, responsible behavior. Feelings of guilt may arise, though, if the child is irresponsible
and is made to feel anxious.
, Industry versus inferiority -
☑️ Erikson's fourth developmental stages, occurring approximately during the elementary
school years. Children now need to direct their energy toward mastering knowledge and
intellectual skills. The negative outcome is that the child may develop a sense of inferiority --
feeling incompetent and unproductive.
Identity Versus identity confusion -
☑️ Erikson's fifth developmental stage that occurs during adolescent years. If adolescents
explore roles in a healthy manner and arrive at a positive path to follow in life, then they achieve a
positive identity, if they do not, identity confusion reigns.
Intimacy versus isolation -
☑️ Erikson's sixth developmental stage, which occurs during early adulthood. Individuals
face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships. If young adults form healthy
friendships and an intimate relationship with another, intimacy will be achieved; if not, isolation
will result.
Generativity versus stagnation -
☑️ Erikson's seventh developmental stage that occurs during middle adulthood. By
generativity Erikson means primarily a concern for helping the younger generation to develop and
lead useful lives. The feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is stagnation.
Integrity versus despair -
☑️ Erikson's eighth and final stage of development which occurs during late adulthood.
During this stage a person reflects on the past. If the person's life review reveals a life well spent,
integrity will be achieved; if not the retrospective glances will likely yield doubt or gloom.
Piaget's cognitive Developmental Theory -
☑️ Children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct
their understanding of the world. Two processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world:
organization and adaptation. To make sense of our world we organize our experiences.
Sensorimotor stage -
☑️ Piaget's first stage that lasts from birth to 2 years old. Infants in this stage construct an
understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (Such as seeing and hearing) with
physical, motoric actions
The preoperational Stage -
☑️ Piaget's second stages that lasts from 2-7 years of age. Children begin to go beyond
simply connecting sensory information with physical actions and represent the world with words,
images, and drawings. They are not able to internalize mental actions
Concrete operational stage -
☑️ Piaget's third stage that lasts from 7-11 years of age. Children can perform operations
that involved objects, and they can reason logically when the reasoning can be applied to specific
or concrete examples. concrete operational thinkers cannot imagine the steps necessary to
complete an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for thinking at this stage of development.
The formal operational stage -
Guide - WGU
Multidirectional -
☑️ Some dimensions expand and others shrink
Multidimensional -
☑️ Has biological, cognitive, and socioemotional dimensions
Plastic -
☑️ The capacity for change
Lifelong -
☑️ Early adulthood is not the endpoint of development; no age period dominates
development
Multidisciplinary -
☑️ Various areas of study have an interest in the field of development through the life span
Contextual -
☑️ All development occurs within a context, or setting (social, cultural, and historic
factors)
Nature -
☑️ Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance.
Nature Example -
☑️ We walk before we talk, speak one word before two words, grow rapidly in infancy and
less so in early childhood, experience a rush of sex hormones in puberty, reach the peak of our
physical strength in late adolescence and early adulthood, and then physically decline.
Nurture -
☑️ Nurture refers to an organism's environmental experiences
Nurture Example -
☑️ Experiences run the gamut from the individual's biological environment (nutrition,
medical care, drugs, and physical accidents) to the social environment (family, peers, schools,
community, media, and culture)
Continuity -
☑️ focuses on the degree to which the development involves a gradual, cumulative change
continuity example -
☑️ An oak grows from a seedling to a giant oak, it becomes more of an oak - its
development is continuous
discontinuity -
☑️ focuses on the degree to which development involves distinct stages
,Discontinuity example -
☑️ as an insect grows from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly, it passes through a
sequence of stages in which change is qualitative rather than quantitatively different. Similarly, at
some point a child moves from not being able to think abstractlyl about the world to being able to
do so.
Stability -
☑️ Debate about whether we become older renditions of our early experience
Stability Example -
☑️ Many argue that if an individual is shy throughout life, this stability is due to heredity
and possibly early experiences in which the infant or young child encountered considerable stress
when interacting with people
Change -
☑️ We develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in
development
Change example -
☑️ Developmentalists who emphasize change take the more optimistic view that later
experiences can produce change. Recall that in the life-span perspective, plasticity, the potential
for change, exists throughout the life span.
Freud's Theories -
☑️ Freud believed that people's problems were the result of experiences early in life. He
thought that as children grow up, their focus on pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from the
mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals. As a result, we go through five stages of
psychosexual development: Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
Erikson's Theory -
☑️ Focuses on Psychosocial. Eight Stages of human development. Each stage consists of
unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
Trust versus mistrust -
☑️ Erikson's first psychosocial stage, which is experienced in the first year of life. The
development of trust during infancy sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be
a good and pleasant place to live.
Autonomy versus Shame and doubt -
☑️ Erikson's second stage. This stage occurs in late infancy and toddlerhodd ( 1-3 years)
after gaining trust in their caregivers, infants begin to discover that their behavior is their own.
They start to assert their sense of independence or autonomy. They realize their will. If Infants and
toddlers are restrained too much or punished too harshly, they are likely to develop a sense of
shame and doubt.
Initiative versus guilt -
☑️ Erikson's Third stage of development occurs during the preschool years. As preschool
children encounter a widening social world, they face new challenges that require active
purposeful, responsible behavior. Feelings of guilt may arise, though, if the child is irresponsible
and is made to feel anxious.
, Industry versus inferiority -
☑️ Erikson's fourth developmental stages, occurring approximately during the elementary
school years. Children now need to direct their energy toward mastering knowledge and
intellectual skills. The negative outcome is that the child may develop a sense of inferiority --
feeling incompetent and unproductive.
Identity Versus identity confusion -
☑️ Erikson's fifth developmental stage that occurs during adolescent years. If adolescents
explore roles in a healthy manner and arrive at a positive path to follow in life, then they achieve a
positive identity, if they do not, identity confusion reigns.
Intimacy versus isolation -
☑️ Erikson's sixth developmental stage, which occurs during early adulthood. Individuals
face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships. If young adults form healthy
friendships and an intimate relationship with another, intimacy will be achieved; if not, isolation
will result.
Generativity versus stagnation -
☑️ Erikson's seventh developmental stage that occurs during middle adulthood. By
generativity Erikson means primarily a concern for helping the younger generation to develop and
lead useful lives. The feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is stagnation.
Integrity versus despair -
☑️ Erikson's eighth and final stage of development which occurs during late adulthood.
During this stage a person reflects on the past. If the person's life review reveals a life well spent,
integrity will be achieved; if not the retrospective glances will likely yield doubt or gloom.
Piaget's cognitive Developmental Theory -
☑️ Children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct
their understanding of the world. Two processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world:
organization and adaptation. To make sense of our world we organize our experiences.
Sensorimotor stage -
☑️ Piaget's first stage that lasts from birth to 2 years old. Infants in this stage construct an
understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (Such as seeing and hearing) with
physical, motoric actions
The preoperational Stage -
☑️ Piaget's second stages that lasts from 2-7 years of age. Children begin to go beyond
simply connecting sensory information with physical actions and represent the world with words,
images, and drawings. They are not able to internalize mental actions
Concrete operational stage -
☑️ Piaget's third stage that lasts from 7-11 years of age. Children can perform operations
that involved objects, and they can reason logically when the reasoning can be applied to specific
or concrete examples. concrete operational thinkers cannot imagine the steps necessary to
complete an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for thinking at this stage of development.
The formal operational stage -
