Read Chapter 3.
What factors impact human development? Choose one of the links in the Explore! section below and discuss it. How has your understanding of human development changed since reading this chapter?
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
Provide a list of psychological terms that you used in your comment at the bottom of your post.
Explore!
There are many things that can have an impact on human development, and each has a specific way it could potentially influence that development. I watched the clip of Ash Burnham discussing her reaction to how children would ask her if she was a boy or a girl, a question that arose due to her short hair and more stereotypically masculine way of dressing. I thought this was an interesting video in general, particularly because I have many friends that are part of the LGBTQ* community, and I thought it might be a question that they hear a lot. So that caught my interest initially, but in terms of development, this little girl who asked the question in the video has had a new input and a new perspective thrown into her life, and it may or may not have long term effects on her personality or her worldview later in life, but perhaps it will. Perhaps that is one of the defining moments of her childhood, and it later (with a combination of other factors, of course) allows her to have a greater sensitivity to issues like this in the future, or maybe it contributes to a more liberal outlook on the world in the future. Developmentally, it could change nothing. Or, it could change a whole lot.
One of the most interesting topics in the reading for me was the (briefly discussed) theories of why we age. I thought it was interesting that despite the one outcome—we all get wrinkly and function more poorly—there were numerous ideas on how or why this happens. There is a theory that aging is simply built into our cells (cellular clock theory) and they wear down over time. There’s another theory that suggest that humans simply wear out (wear-and-tear theory) as they put more stress on their body over time. There’s even one other that has weight, called the free-radical theory that provides a chemical explanation for why we age. Though there are many theories, and I have not enough repute or knowledge of any of them to decide which is most likely, I think it is fascinating that there are so many possible explanations, and as far as I know, none have really been discounted as a possibility.
I suppose the most surprising part of this chapter was the time spent discussing infant and child development, because although I knew the basics of how children develop and the stages they go through, I never really thought about the psychology that occurs behind that behavior. I was particularly interested in the development of children from ages 0-2 because I have a cousin who has a little girl who is almost two, but not quite, and I thought it was riveting how the book described all that is happening in children’s development during that stage of life. In addition to the content captivating me due to personal connection, I always find the psychology and growth of children fascinating because it is so fast and very advanced. They learn a lot in a short amount of time.
human development
cellular clock theory
wear-and-tear theory
free-radical theory
Through this chapter and the developmental psychology class that I took last year, I know that there are innumerable factors that affect development throughout a person’s lifetime. Factors experienced while still in the womb, genes, environmental factors, and parenting styles are just a few examples of some of the factors that go into making us who we will be for the rest of our lives. These factors do not only affect us in our development in childhood, but are a part of our development until the day that we die. To me, this aspect of the chapter was absolutely the most memorable. The millions of tiny circumstances that create who each of are as an individual fascinate me. What is even more fascinating is that no matter how far the field of developmental psychology goes, we will never be able to understand exactly how an individual’s development affects who they become.
One of the articles that I chose to read had to do with a dad explaining why he will not bring his young children to sad movies anymore. He explained how because of mass media constantly bombarding us with news on Isis, terrorist attacks, shootings, and other violence, children are exposed to information that could potentially convince them that they do not live in a safe world. The father writing the article believes that this is not a good thing for his daughter’s development. He then explained that he took his daughter to watch what he thought was going to be an enjoyable movie, The Good Dinosaur. However, in the movie the father dies, there is references to drug hallucinations, and there are many examples of nature’s destructive force. The movie made his daughter cry several times. He acknowledges that it is important for children to learn that life isn’t always going to be happy, but he also believes that young children’s innocence should be spared from having to be exposed to the harsh realities of the world so soon. I agree with this father and believe that growing up during the constant bombardment of violence in the media could have a huge impact on the way children view the world and consequently how they behave. I don’t think that he is wrong in believing that movie producers, especially producers for Disney, should focus on making movies that are more kid friendly.
The most interesting part of this chapter, in my opinion, is the one that they spent probably the least amount of time discussing. The area on developmental psychopathology particularly interested me because the psychology behind peoples’ behavior is my favorite field to learn about. The thing that most impacted me in this section were the two concepts that developmental psychopathology came up with: equifinality and multifinality. Equifinality says that different individuals can start out in different places and wind up with the same outcome. Multifinality says that children can start out from the same spot and wind up in many different outcomes. I like these theories because they do a great job of explaining why people from prominent backgrounds go “off the deep end” and why people who experienced immense trials in their childhood can become successful.
Vocabulary: Developmental psychology, genes, developmental psychopathology, equifinality, multifinality
There are many different factors that impact human development that were discussed in detail in Chapter 3. Some of those are during prenatal development including what the mother eats and drinks and whether she decides to smoke. These things impact development in the form of possible birth defects or addictions from exposure to hazardous chemicals and toxins. Some factors that impact human development can be categorized by nature or nurture. For example, some scientists study genetics and how certain genes can lead to diseases, behaviors, or mindsets that have a profound effect on development, growth, and living. Your genes at that point can be a factor in your development starting when you are very little. Some examples of factors within nurture include differing parenting styles. The way that children react to their parents and how their parents react to them involves many factors of human development. In other words, there are lots of different factors that impact human development. Some of them are beneficial and others can be detrimental.
I chose to watch the Youtube video which included a short film of the roles of heterosexuality and homosexuality reversed and what bullying would look like. This film was very well done and dealt a lot with bringing to light many of society’s stereotypes and judgments on homosexuality. The act of bullying, especially during middle school and high school, can have a large impact on how children see themselves in the future and how much they value themselves. With this in mind, I found this video extremely eye opening. It challenged the social normalcy of heterosexuality and really brought to light many stereotypes and awful things that homosexuals in this world have to deal with.
While reading and taking notes over this chapter the topic that really caught my attention the most was Piaget’s theory involving schemata, assimilation, and accommodation. This really caught my attention because I found myself trying to pick out different situations in my life in which I used assimilation and accommodation. This theory was just a unique way to look at developing how to react to different situations and deal with conflicting ideas in the future.
Another topic that really interested me was the different stages of cognitive development, specifically preoperational stage and concrete operations stage. After talking and interacting with children I knew that they did not have a clear grasp on things that were abstract but I had no idea that it went this deep into development and cognitive abilities. I found the concrete operations stage really interesting because it helped to explain why in elementary school students have a hard time with cause and effect and yet when they grow older these ideas are not as hard to grasp and come up with on our own.
One of the most surprising things that I learned about in this reading was the idea of moral development in children. It was amazing to me to read that at such a young age children can already have the makings of what is right and wrong and what should be done in certain situations. Overall, each of the stages in Kohlberg’s theory: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional, were very interesting and really helped me to better understand peoples’ choices.
Prenatal development
Nature
Nurture
Genetics
Genes
Parenting styles
Piaget’s theory
Schemata
Assimilation
Accommodation
Cognitive development
Preoperational stage
Concrete operations stage
Moral development
Kohlberg’s theory
Preconventional
Conventional
Postconventional
Human development is influenced by a number of factors. A huge part of human development takes place before we are even born, during the prenatal period of life. During this period, our genes are formed and give us each our unique set of traits. Our unique traits will influence our temperaments, which influence how we grow and develop and the people we develop into. Before birth, we are also at risk of problems with our development, caused either naturally or by unnatural teratogens such as smoking.
After we are born, we go through certain patterns of growth. So much growth happens in these early years. We have to learn how to move, walk, and talk, and also how to think. Early experiences during this time and other critical periods in which we are more sensitive to the environment have huge effects on our development. Our relationships with our parents and our attachment to them influences how well we develop as children. A safe, secure environment and positive bonds with parents will help put the child on the right track for development.
As we mature into adolescents, we struggle to find our identities and our places in the world. How quickly we find our identities depends on our family background as children. Speaking of family life, many psychologists think that birth order has a lot to do with a person’s development and social and personality tendencies, but this has not been proven. We are also subject to disorders such as conduct disorder that can affect our development and our personalities and actions in general.
We as humans are facing an increasing lifespan, and this is definitely affecting our perceptions of adulthood and when we reach certain stages of development. People are retiring later and later and reaching old age later as a result. Psychologists are still not sure how the increasing lifespan will affect development.
I read the article on Huffington Post about Anthony Cerniello’s aging simulator. I find it interesting that we fear aging so much, because it’s a natural part of life. Everyone gets old; it happens. I think wanting to know what we will look like when we get older won’t help with that fear, because we really don’t know if we will turn out to look like that. While we spend time worrying about getting older, we are actually wasting away our youth. Cerniello touched on this in the article when he talked about creating his simulator. "The idea was that something is happening but you can't see it but you can feel it, like aging itself.” This quote kind of haunts me, and it makes me really want to live in the moment.
I was really interested in this entire chapter. The most interesting part was how our early experiences and family life really do shape us into adults. I was surprised to learn that the increasing life span might actually affect our patterns of development, as I hadn’t realized that it would.
My understanding of human development has definitely increased since reading the chapter. I didn’t realize how many factors could influence our development. It made me grateful for the background that I had.
Terms: maturation, prenatal period, genes, temperament, teratogens, critical periods, attachment, conduct disorder
There are several factors that can directly or indirectly influence the growth and development of a person which is: heredity, environment, sex, nutrition, race, exercise, hormones, learning and reinforcement.
I clicked on the http://www.scarymommy.com website, I then proceeded to read multiple articles. Most of the articles had something to do with parenting, new mothers, or soon to be mothers, as well as things to share with their kids and friendship. One of the articles I chose to read talked about a mom and why it’s okay to let your toddler fall. She explained how this was her second child and how her daughter was being treated differently, being coddled much more frequently by the adults around her than her son ever was when he was her age. She told by people not to “baby her son,” or they would tell him to, “Jump it off” when he fell, but when her daughter falls they are shocked when she does not rush to pick her up. She then goes on to recount what has happened in the past two days, with people rushing to catch her daughter, yelling to grab her, complaining that her daughter would then have grass stains, but she does not worry. I like this mother’s take on parenting. She makes sure she is there by her daughter in case she needs her, but at the same time she realizes kids will be kids and at that age all a toddler wants to do is keep moving even if they have a bump or scrape. Children take cues from adults, if you do not make a big deal of it, neither do the children generally. Truthfully she just wants her daughter to realize she is just as brave as her brother, sometimes life isn’t fair, it’s okay to cry, and she isn’t defined by her looks. Kids are going to get dirty, their supposed to be the laundry challenge of the house until they are in their teens or later, they are going to fall, and make a mess, but as an adult you have to let them get back up by themselves as long as it is not too extreme of a case. I think more parents should think about this when they become parents.
My understanding has not changed too much after this chapter because I am taking a Dynamics of Human Development class this semester. The most interesting topic that I found was Piaget’s Theory involving schemata, assimilation, and accommodation. I found that this theory had a unique way of developing ways of how to react to different problems in real life and how to deal with them in the future. A memorable thing I learned from the reading would have been Attachment Theory. I just found the different forms of attachment curious in how someone could react in the world. Forming secure attachment, anxious/ avoidant attachment, anxious/ ambivalent attachment, and disorganized/ disoriented attachment.
My understanding of human development has definitely increased since finishing this chapter. This has helped me to better understand peoples trials they may have experienced in their childhood.
Terms: schemata, assimilation, accommodation, attachment
There are a multitude of factors that affect human development from when you’re in the womb, all the way to when you’re in the late stages of your life. This could be from genes, human experience, endogenous factors, exogenous factors, parental interactions, social interactions, temperaments, attachment, and even life events and milestones within life itself. That’s not even scratching the surface, but all in all, there are immeasurable amounts of factors that go into the complexity of the human development and the human experience. Everyone has different life experiences and factors within their life that has shaped who they truly are to this day.
I chose the Ted Talk about Ash Beckham, a lesbian who was asked by a four year old girl whether she was a boy or a girl and I found it to be very profound and insightful. When I first heard this story, I laughed at the fact that, after her response to the girl, basically saying that yes she is a girl and she’s more of just a Jammie’s kind of girl, the four year old shrugged it off and when on to asking about pancakes. This shows the fact of how during the childhood stages of development, we cannot fully comprehend the complex ideas of relationships and what they entail and I think that this response was the simplest yet most profound statement she could make about humanity and the moral development of herself. Now, will this affect the little girl’s development? She might not have as much of a hard time warming up to the idea of women with short hair, who wear ‘men’s cloth’ actually still being women. However, I don’t think that this changed the little girl’s way of thinking as much it would have, an adult because like Piaget and students of his may say, children at this age may not understand the complex and abstract ideas she was portraying by tell the child this. The closets she talked about in her speech, also reminded me of the eight stages of human development that Erik Erikson came up with that have to be meant over time. I found that my understanding human development is now much more complicated than I once thought. There is so much more that goes into it than I once thought and I never even really thought of the social side of development very often. I also found that endless factors go into it and every theory is more or less may be true to different parts of the our lives.
The part of the reading that I found to be most interesting was about Psychopathology. Psychologist have found risk factors within our lives that we may or may not take and these risk factors can contribute to our healthy development or our development of conduct disorders. The part of this that I found most interesting was about equifinality where people start out in different places and end up acting in similar ways, and multifinality where people start out the same way and end up with any number of outcomes happening to them.
Most surprising or memorable thing in reading was Quantitative v. Qualitative development. I’ve always thought of development as more quantitative, but I could see how parts of life are qualitative especially through Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s research. I made so many connections with this concept to how I have learned in the past and I think it’s interesting how learning can be a mix of qualitative and quantitative.
Terms - Quantitative, Qualitative, conduct disorder, risk factors, Psychopathology, Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development, temperaments, attachments, exogenous/endogenous factors, genes, human development
It seems like the list of things that impact human development is endless; environmental factors, how a parent reacts to the child, how the parent treats the child, genetic factors, ect. I chose the Michael Mclntyre video about how people with kids have no idea. I’ve noticed that a lot of comedians use this topic of childless people not understanding what it’s really like to have kids. And most of the time, the comedian just sounds frustrated that their kids can’t understand the process or reason behind simple (to adults) tasks. After reading this chapter, it’s very evident to me that the child’s brain hasn’t reached a state of understanding yet; they’re not intentionally trying to cause a problem. For example, he discussed that in order to get his son to leave the house, the family had to pretend to leave him behind and he would come running down the stairs to join the rest of the family. This need to join the family is a sign of attachment – needed to stay close to a trusted person who will take care of him and protect him.
The topics that interested me the most where early cognitive development and how we grow socially. With early cognitive development, I think it’s very interesting how the neuro-pathways in the brain are constantly growing and (surprising to me) disappearing. I’ve taken my fair share (and more) of biology classes and each time we discussed this topic, there was never mention of synaptic pruning. It seems odd that during this time of growth, the brain is already trying to keep everything efficient by getting rid of pathways it doesn’t need. Another topic that caught my attention was that on conservation. To me, the idea that you can change something in front of a child and they do not understand that the object remains the same is ridiculous (even though, I’m certain I would’ve done the same thing as a child). I was also interested in Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. I thought it was interesting how he hypothesized that there was a task to complete in each stage of your life and the completion of that task would ever lead to a positive outcome, or a negative one.
What really surprised me about the reading was that neurons continue to form even into adulthood. I always believed that you were born with x neurons and you never made new ones, and the neurons would die for any number of reasons and that this death was one of the main reasons for aging.
Attachment
Synaptic pruning
Conservation
From the “Explore!” section I watched “People with No Kids Don’t Know” on youtube. The video took the struggles of living with children in a comical way but the speaker was speaking from painfully frustrating personal experience as he discussed the difficulties of his everyday life. While I don’t have any children of my own, I can understand the difficulties of dealing with children from my experience as a camp counselor, swim instructor and babysitter. It was a funny watch.
As for the chapter, I found in the reading that there are many factors responsible for every different type of human development. What effects your development also changes with age. Babies for example are extremely dependent and the type of attention they receive shapes who they will become. Everything from your genetic make up to your parents’ behaviors will affect how you develop as an individual. Genetics will affect more of your physical being, the example most used in the text was the ability to roll your tongue. Some people are built with the ability to roll their tongue and other people simply don’t have it in their genes. In that same vein, genetics have also been studied as an impacting factor of behavioral traits. Behavioral traits can also be affected by the way you spend your time and the people you spend that time with. I was very interested in the developments of early childhood and reading about how drastically the brain changes in the first few years of life. I was astounded by all of the reflexes that new born children have and although I was previously aware of some of them, it is still amazing to me that there are parts of the human experience that are not learned but instead instinctually known. I was also amazed to see the large range of times that might be taken for individuals to develop certain motor skills such as walking, I always assumed that developments like that would be more similar throughout.
Before reading this chapter I was unaware that there was so much information about development later in life. I always thought of early life as the time for development. I am now aware that there are many different changes in human development at later stages in life. From here forward I will no longer consider development as something that happens and then is finished but rather as something that is a constantly ongoing part of life.
human development, genetic, behaviors, dependent,
Human development is affected by many factors including cultural, societal, and even environmental influences. In the article that I read in Times magazine titled “How To Make Your Kids Smarter: 10 Steps Backed By Science” it lists some interesting cultural and societal factors that support how the influences listed make children smarter. While there are some simple straightforward answers that many people might already know, there are certainly some steps that parents may not know. For instance one answer that people have heard is that children who play musical instruments show greater increase in IQ but what many might not know is that older people benefit from musical training as well because it counteracts some of the effects that aging causes in older people. Another answer that most people know is that those who exercise more have a better memory than those who don’t. One of the steps mentioned that I found interesting was the correlation between sleep and intelligence. The article states that, “a loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to two years of cognitive maturation and development”. As a college student I find myself sleeping less and less every day which according to this article is not a great thing to do. I have heard of similar statements made between sleeping and academic performance like it is better to sleep than to stay up late and cram for a test but to know that losing one hour a sleep can be detrimental to my development makes me want to improve my sleeping habits.
My view on human development prior to reading this chapter is that people are definitely born with certain traits but there is also a list of cultural and societal influences that shape a person to become who they are. This chapter made me realize that human development is a much complex subject that I thought it would be. There are clearly several stages one goes through and each one us hits critical points through their development. Our development begins before we are even born, during our prenatal period. Then we start to hit cognitive development which according to Jean Piaget has four stages within its area. As humans we are constantly developing and experiencing different physical, social, and emotional changes within the stages of life-infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
The topics that most interested me from this chapter were the nature versus nurture argument, attachment theory, and parenting styles. I don’t really think that there is a correct answer for the nature versus nurture argument because both sides have evidence to support it. It is always interesting to see what others think of this issue. The attachment theory is one that I hear people talk about not necessarily by the actual name but some women with children mention that their child does not like when other people hold them or that they never leave their side. When my mother used to take care of children I would see the children’s reactions when it came time to leave their mother especially when they were young children. Some of the children wouldn’t even talk when they came over but just used gestures to communicate. Perhaps the most interesting topic covered in this chapter was the parenting styles. I have heard of them before and often see examples of them in public.
Vocabulary: critical points, prenatal period, cognitive development, and attachment theory
I watched Anthony Cerniello’s Aging video from the explore links. I’m not sure what drew me to it, but I’m fascinated by it. It’s very simple, and yet incredibly complex. It’s four minutes of watching someone age from a baby to an elderly person. At first, you aren’t really sure if anything is happening, because the changes are so small and subtle. But after a minute, you realize that the face you’re looking at now isn’t the same one you were seeing a little bit ago. It’s fascinating to watch, and almost a little creepy. The article accompanying the video mentions its “haunting effect”, and I don’t think I could put it into better words. It’s a little unsettling to watch someone age so completely and naturally before your eyes, especially in such a short amount of time, and especially when you don’t notice the changes, sped up though they are. It makes me wonder how much my appearance has changed as I’ve aged, without me really noticing. Plus, there’s something about having a four minute staring contest with the person in the video that feels a little strange. As I watched, I kept expecting something to happen, but nothing ever did, except for Danielle gracefully and gradually aging.
My understanding of human development has grown incredibly while reading this chapter. I have a terrible memory, and I’m terrible at relating to kids because I generally don’t remember what it was like to be their age. Everyone has heard the expression “dumb baby”. I never really took it seriously, but I also never really knew how smart babies are. I figured their actions were mostly based on instinct; I had no idea they were able to do math and recognize words and voices relatively shortly after birth. The whole concept of habituation was fascinating to me too. Although we take it for granted in adolescents and adults, I’m amazed that babies can go from having zero concept of object permanence to being able to remember and become bored by repeated events in such a relatively short span of their life.
I also found the section on attachment interesting. My first semester of college, I took a course called Human Identity and Relationships. We talked briefly about the differing attachment styles and ensuing behaviors, not only between babies and their mothers but also in adolescent and adult relationships, including both romantic and platonic relationships. We briefly discussed how the styles differed from each other, but this chapter specified the difference between an anxious/avoidant and anxious/ambivalent, which was not something we covered. Although that class was a year and a half ago, I remember watching a video that was very similar to the Strange Situation procedure, in which the baby is left with a stranger and then reunited with its mother. This was repeated with babies that had different attachment styles in order to demonstrate their different reactions to the situation.
Habituation, object permanence, attachment, behavior
The number and kind of factors that impact human development are numerous and diverse. There is the age-long debate on nature vs. nurture and which area has the greatest impact on human development. There is qualitative vs. quantitative shifts in development, whether it occurs in specific stages or is a continuous process. Going back to the idea of nature vs. nurture, it is very apparent that both elements are very present and influential. Without either, humankind would not be how it is today. Biological elements help create the physical human life form, from conception, to the growth of a baby, to infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Biological elements such as genes also help establish some of who we are as humans and how we develop, such as our temperament. Cognitive development is also influenced by biological elements, but this is where our environment starts to come into play. While synaptic pruning and myelination help the brain develop and produce more complex thinking, environmental influences can also change our thinking; Informational-processing theory is an example of this. Social and emotional development is a major area that is largely influenced by our environment as opposed to genetics. This can be seen in how different parenting styles result in different behaviors and characteristics in their children. As we move past infancy and childhood and more into adolescence, environmental influences become more prevalent, as adolescents look more to their surroundings and peers on how to act, and this influences their development. Biological factors also come more into play as puberty begins, dramatically changing human’s bodies once again. Finally, adulthood is again a mixture of environmental and biological factors that play into development, though they are less prevalent. Many of the environmental aspects have already influenced many adult’s lives, leaving them with more concrete beliefs and understandings. Biological factors start to become more important as the aging process begins, leading to the end of the person’s life. Again, the amount and nature of factors that influence human development are innumerable and diverse, but this gives an understanding of a few of them.
My understanding of human development has greatly increased since reading this chapter. I was aware that human development is a diverse and complicated topic, but I had never really delved into the specifics and learned much about it. I now feel much more versed on the topic and much more aware of all the complexities and the general explanations for them each. The most interesting part of this reading to me was the section on aging. From my own assumption, I was under the impression that we aged and eventually died because our cells ultimately could not keep reproducing forever. I was surprised to learn that there are actually other theories for why we age and die. This was very eye-opening for me and provided me with more knowledge than I had before.
I chose to watch the video on Huffington Post that Anthony Cerniello created depicting the aging process of his friend Danielle. My first impression was that it was absolutely remarkable how he created the video in the first place. It seems like it would have been a very painstaking process to put all the images together and then match them fit how Danielle looks and how she is assumed will age. I also found it very interesting that during what seemed like the first approximately 20 years of her life, not a lot of major changes occurred in her face. Yes at 20 she looks much more mature than she did at 2, but the overall structure and appearance of her face is generally the same. After that though, more major changes begin to take place. Most obvious is the wrinkling of the skin. This contributes to a change in face shape and skin starts to sag, giving a boxier look to what was once a round face. Overall, I found this video really interesting and a great insight into how the aging process can look different in 5 minutes as opposed to the natural 80 or so years it naturally takes.
Terms: stages, genes, temperament, cognitive development, synaptic pruning, myelination, informational-processing theory, puberty
While very lengthy, I thought this chapter was pretty good because it offered a multitude of information on human development. Human development, as described in chapter 3, is affected by many different aspects of a person's life. There are factors that can affect a life even before it has begun, in fact. Aspects of human development can be looked at in the nature vs. nurture debate. For instance, some argue that a person's development is based upon their genes. These people believe that development is predetermined. On the other hand, there are those that argue that other societal influences determine how a person develops. I think that both sides have many valid points and that human development can be determined and influenced by both factors.
The link that I chose to visit was the very first one. I chose it simply because it was at the top of the list and therefore the easiest to click on. The link took me to an age simulation video. The video was five minutes long and showed the aging transformation on a girl named Danielle. It began with her as a child and progressed through adulthood. The simulation was made by taking photos from the family members who had the greatest resemblance to Danielle and turning them into a composite. The simulation looks very real, as if it could truly be her. It is interesting to see how the body ages. It seems as if it moves in slow motion and then the next thing you know, you realize huge changes have been made. You can begin to see her face and head increase in size, her nose gets larger, she begins to have bags under her eyes, fine lines appear, and finally her hair turns gray. All of these changes don't happen at once. They are very gradual, but it is an example of the wear-and-tear theory. The idea that the mileage we put on our bodies eventually begin to wear us down.
My understanding of human development has definitely increased since reading this chapter. Previously, I did not realize that there were so many different stages in the development process. It seems like each stage of developmental psychology also has many subcategories. It's also crazy to think about the fact that there is still so much unknown about human development even though there are numerous theories out there already such as the information processing theory, cellular clock theory, free-radial theory, and many many others.
One of the most interesting and surprising things from this chapter, to me, was the science behind it. I had been told in science classes before that we stop making new neurons when we reach a certain point, however this book stated that it is likely that we continue to produce new neurons throughout our entire life. I found this to be exciting because the brain is so complex and it's great to know that we are making some progress in understanding how it all works. I also did not realize that synapses that are not used begin to weaken and ultimately dissipate over time. This process is known as synaptic pruning. I found all of this information very surprising and interesting because I am extremely interested in science and I like how the book applied all of that along with a great deal of other information.
Vocabulary Terms: genes, wear-and-tear theory, stage, developmental psychology, information processing theory, cellular clock theory, free-radical theory, synaptic pruning
Developmental psychology aims to study the changes in our mental process and behaviors and the involving factors that influence these changes. There are many factors that affect human development throughout our lifetime, stretching even before we are born until later adulthood. These changes in our life can be driven biologically through inherent genetic means (and are meant to happen eventually) or influenced by our experiences and environment. These nature-vs-nurture debates also lead researchers to investigate the nature of the changes in human development – whether they are ‘qualitative’ ‘jumps’ that mark one’s milestones in their lifetimes, or that they are ‘quantitative’ accumulation of small, gradual changes that eventually cumulate in one’s developmental changes.
I took interest in the Life Expectancy Calculator. You need to input your gender, race, age, physique, education level, marital status, income, fitness and lifestyle for the Calculator to generate an approximated life expectancy of yours. I myself am estimated to have a life expectancy of 82, so that’s good news (I guess). This tool is based on a statistical analysis of more than 550,000 respondents. Their findings were quite straightforward as you would expect. Exercising more, smoking less (or not at all), positive health outlooks all contribute to a longer life expectancy. Interestingly enough, from the study, people who do not consume alcohol actually have a shorter life expectancy than those do reasonably (2 – 7 drinks a week). Perhaps this shows that moderate consumption of certain alcohols (red wine) could actually result in better overall health. Another reason could lie behind the social benefits that potentially come from alcohol consumption. I am curious, however, at the reason of including genders and races in this study and whether there is any discrepancy in life expectancy between different genders and / or races. In addition, if there is any difference between the different groups, whether the reason for these differences would be inherently biological or whether the social experience plays a bigger role.
From the reading, I found the moral development section most interesting. The book discusses two theories of moral development, between which I found Kohlberg’s closer to my experience. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development argues that children’s morality is shaped at first by obeying adults, after which the attention will shift to their surrounding peers as they get older and become more independent. In my case, I was taught, at a very young age, certain ‘morality values’ and that I should obey them no matter what. This corresponds to the ‘conventional’ stage in Kohlberg’s Theory, whereas morality is based on obeying society or some forms of authority. In fact, it is true that I seemed to accept these ‘morality values’ without questioning their validity. I might agree that I should not steal from people because it is wrong, but I only ‘know’ that it is wrong simply because I was told not to steal. It never crossed my mind that there might be some situation in which stealing can be a morally ambiguous deed and that morality requires much more consideration than orders from older, superior adults.
Terms: • Developmental psychology • Nature vs. Nurture • Qualitative vs. Quantitative • Moral development • Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development • Conventional moral stage