What Is Human Development?
- Development is the pattern of change in human capabilities that begins at conception and continues throughout the life span.
The pattern of development is complex consisting of:
- Physical Processes
- Cognitive Processes
- Socioemotional Processes
Do Early Experiences Rule Us for Life?
- Some psychologists believe that unless infants experience warm, nurturant caregiving in the first year or so of life,they ill not develop to their full potential.
- The early-experience doctrine suggests that after a period of early development, we become relatively fixed and permanent in our makeup.
- Some psychologists emphasize the power of later experience and liken development in later years to the ebb and flow of the tides. The later-experience advocates argue that children are malleable and that sensitive caregiving is just as important later as it is earlier.
How Do Nature and Nurture Influence Development?
- Environment includes all the surrounding physical and social conditions and influences that affect the development of living things.
- Biologists who study even the simplest animals agree that separating the effects of the animals’ genes from the effects of their environment is virtually impossible.
Genotype and Phenotype
- Genotype is an individual’s genetic heritage, the actual genetic material
- Phenotype is the expression of an individual’s genotype in observable, measurable characteristics.
Exploring Nature and Nurture
- Nature is an organism’s biological inheritance.
- Nurture is an organism’s environmental experience.
- At one time, psychologists argued about what percentage of human development was due to nature and nurture. That debate no longer seems productive.
- Psychologists are starting to agree thatmuch complex behaviour have some genetic loading that makes people likely to develop in a particular way. At the same time, our actual development also depends on what we experience in our environment. And that environment is complex, as is the mixture of genes that we inherit.
- Environmental influences range from the things we lump together under “nurture” to biological encounters.
Optimal Experiences
- Some psychologists believe we can optimize what our genetic inheritance and our environment give us. They argue that a key aspect of development involves seeking optimal experiences in life.
Child Development
- The focus of this section is on the three fundamental developmental processes— physical, cognitive, and socioemotional.
- Prenatal Development
- Germinal Period
- Embryonic Period
- Fetal Period
- Threats to the Fetus
- Ateratogen is any agent that causes a birth defect. The drug heroin is an example of a teratogen.
- Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a cluster of abnormalities that occur in children born to mothers who are heavy drinkers. Apreterminfant, who is born prior to 38 weeks after conception, is at greater risk for developmental problems, such as difficulties.
- Threats to the Fetus

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