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IC103 – General
Psychology
Psychology of
Module 3: Human Growth
and Development
 Module 3: PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN
Module No. & Title
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Hi, students! At the end of this module, we will be able to
appreciate that understanding human development is
governed by the psychological theories that have an essential
Module Overview meaning on the physical, cognitive, emotional, motivational,
social, and moral aspects across the life span and that many
factors should be considered in order to grasp human
development.
At the end of the module, you are expected to:

 define growth and development

 discuss human growth and development under the
psychological framework;
 explain the key concepts and principles of the major
Module theories of developmental psychology;
Objectives/Outcomes  point out the various biological, cognitive, and
psychosocial factors that influence human
development across the life span;
 identify the developmental theorists and their major
theories in human development; and
 relate the major theories on span development.

This module will tackle the following topics:

Lessons in the  Definition of Growth and Development

module  Principles of Human Growth and Development
 Framework of Human Development
 Theories of Psychological Stages

Module No. Module 3: PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN GROWTH

and Title AND DEVELOPMENT
Lesson No.
Lesson 1: Psychology of Human Growth and Development
and Title
1. discuss human growth and development under the
psychological framework;
2. explain the key concepts and principles of the major theories of
developmental psychology;
Learning
3. point out the various biological, cognitive, and psychosocial
Outcomes
factors that influence human development across the life span;
4. identify the developmental theorists and their major theories in
human development; and
5. relate the major theories on span development.
Time Frame 6th – 7th Week (September 20 - October 1, 2021)
Introduction People sometimes mistakenly or probably insufficiently explain
behavior in terms of either heredity or environment. A mother, for
example, would fully explain her son’s high grades in school as a “like
father, like son” matter since the father was himself a high achiever
during his school days.

Actually, both heredity and environment play a part in shaping the

behavior of an individual. These elements start having an effect at the
time of conception. Understanding human development is governed by
the psychological theories that have an essential meaning on the
physical, cognitive, emotional, motivational, social, and moral aspects
across the life span.

Activity Name: _________________________________ Section: _________

Activity Title: I Am What I Am, Partly Because………..

1. Fill out the chart below on a piece of paper. You can fill in many
traits as you like.
My characteristics or My characteristics or
My characteristics or traits most similar to traits not similar to
traits most similar to those of my Mother those of my Father
those of my Father nor of my Mother

(Positive) (Positive) (Positive)

(Negative) (Negative) (Negative)

Analysis 1. Are there more positive traits than negative traits written on your
chart?
2. Compare the traits written on the first two columns with those of
the third column. Are there more physical traits than non-
physical traits that have been transmitted?
3. Why are the traits in the third column not transmitted by our
parents? How are they developed?
Abstraction Definition of Growth and Development

The meaning of the term of human “Growth" and “Development”

overlaps each other, but both work in a process of change with respect
to aspects of physical and psychological individual. “Growth” is more
inclined to 'physical changes' individual wearer. While “Development”
is a series progression of changes that is more inclined with respect to
'psychological changes' that never escape the influence of the
environment. As regards outcomes, the growth is easily measured
directly, whereas development is more difficult, because only through
the theoretical and conceptual framework is the basis of understanding.
In short, the term 'development' involves both quantitative and
qualitative analysis respectively.

Cherry (2012) maintained that “Development” describes the growth of

humans throughout the life span, from conception to death. The
scientific study of human development seeks to understand and
explain how and why people change throughout life. This includes all
aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual,
social, perceptual, and personality development.

Likewise, Sigelman (1999) and Shaffer (2002) (cited in Apruebo, 2009)

defined development as systematic continuities and changes in the
individual that occur between conception (when the father's sperm
penetrates the mother's ovum, creating a new organism), and death.
The common denominator is change, because the term refers to
systematic as it implies an orderly, patterned, and relatively enduring
characteristics. Other transitory changes are appearances, thoughts,
and behaviors. Continuities are also referred as ways with which it
connotes the same or continue to reflect the past.

Seifert, Hoffnung, and Hoffnung (2000) (cited in Apruebo, 2009)

identified major ways in understanding human development as
followed:

1. Providing realistic expectations for children, adolescents, and

adults. For example, when babies start talking, or when school
children demonstrate reasoning abstractly that bring issues to
the parents and grandparents.

2. Helping one to respond appropriately to a person's actual

behavior. It helps answer questions or problems by indicating
sources and significance of many patterns of human thought,
feelings, behavior, and growth.

3. Recognizing the wide range of normal behaviors thus when

departures from normalcy, are truly significant. For example,
when a child talks very little by age two, should the parents or
doctors be alarmed? What if the child does not talk by age four?
Such questions are answered if there is a personal knowledge
 both what usually happens and what happens to people as they
move through life.

4. Studying development can help one to understand a person.

5. Making a person a more professional advocate for the needs

and rights of people of all ages, be either young or old, or in the
middle age. By understanding in detail the capacities of people
of diverse ages and backgrounds, a person will be in good
position to convince others and their importance and value.

Principles of Human Growth and Development

(Source: Apruebo,2009)

Principles characterized the pattern and process of growth and

development as described below:

1. Change occurs in broadly predictable patterns or developmental

sequences. Sigelman (cited in Apruebo, 2009) identified predictable
patterns that govern such changes as stated below:

a. Development proceeds from the head downward. This

is called the 'cephalocaudal principle' or 'head to tail'
with which the upper portion of the body develops more
quickly than the lower part of the body. This principle
describes the direction of growth and development as
illustrated by the size of infant’s head at birth in
relationship to the rest of his body. In this principle, the
child gains control of the head first, then the arms, and
then the legs. Infants develop control of the head and
face movements within the first two months after birth.
In the next few months, they are able to lift themselves
up by using their arms. By 6 to 12 months of age, infants
start to gain leg control and may be able to crawl, stand,
or walk. Coordination of arms always precedes
coordination of legs.

b. Development proceeds from the center of the body

outward. This is the principle of 'proximodistal
development' or 'near to far' with which the middle part
of the body develops more quickly than the outer part of
the body.

c. Development depends on maturation and learning. Maturation

refers to the sequential characteristic of biological growth and
development. The biological changes occur in sequential order
and give children new abilities. Changes in the brain and
nervous system account largely for maturation. These changes
 in the brain and nervous system help children to improve in
thinking (cognitive) and motor (physical) skills. Also, children
must mature to a certain point before they can progress to new
skills (Readiness). For example, a four-month-old cannot use
language because the infant's brain has not matured enough to
allow the child to talk. By two years old, the brain has developed
further and with help from others, the child will have the capacity
to say and understand words. Also, a child cannot write or draw
until he has developed the motor control to hold a pencil or
crayon. Maturational patterns are innate, that is, genetically
programmed. The child's environment and the learning that
occurs as a result of the child's experiences largely determine
whether the child will reach optimal development. A stimulating
environment and varied experiences allow a child to develop to
his or her potential.

d. Development proceeds from the simple (concrete) to the more

complex. Children use their cognitive and language skills to
reason and solve problems. For example, learning relationships
between things (how things are similar), or classification, is an
important ability in cognitive development. The cognitive
process of learning how a “langka" and a “durian" are alike
begins with the most simplistic or concrete thought of describing
the two. Seeing no relationship, a preschool child will describe
the objects with regard to some property of the object as color.
Such a response would be, a "langka" is a yellow green and a
“durian" is also a yellow green. A "langka" and a “durian" are first
level of thinking about how objects are alike will give a
description or functional relationship (both concrete thoughts)
between the two objects. A "langka” and a “durian” are alike
because children eat them as sweet dessert or candy are typical
responses of three-, four- and five-year-olds. As children
develop further in cognitive skills, they are able to understand a
higher and more complex relationship between objects and
things; that is, that a “langka” and a “durian” exist in a class
called fruit. The child cognitively is then capable of classification.

e. Growth and development is a continuous process. As a child

develops, he or she adds to the skills already acquired and the
new skills become the basis for further achievement and
mastery of skills. Also, one stage of development lays the
foundation for the next stage of development. For example, in
motor development, there is a predictable sequence of
developments that occur before walking. The infant lifts and
turns the head before he or she can turn over. Infants can move
their limbs (arms and legs) before grasping an object. Mastery
of climbing stairs involves increasing skills from holding on to
walking alone. As in maturation, in order for children to write or
draw, they must have developed the manual (hand) control to
hold a pencil and crayon.
 f. Growth and development proceed from the general to specific.
In motor development, the infant will be able to grasp an object
with the whole hand before using only the thumb and forefinger.
The infant's first motor movements are very generalized,
undirected, and reflexive, waving arms or kicking before being
able to reach or creep toward an object. Growth occurs from
large muscle movements to more refined (smaller) muscle
movements.

g. There are individual rates of growth and development. Each

child is different and the rates at which individual children grow
are different. Although the patterns and sequences for growth
and development are usually the same for all children, the rates
at which individual children reach developmental stages will be
different. By understanding individual differences in rates of
development should be careful about using and relying on age
and stage characteristics to describe or label children. There is
a range of ages for any developmental task to take place. This
dismisses the notion of the "average child". Some children will
walk at ten months while others walk a few months older at
eighteen months of age. Some children are more active while
others are more passive. This does not mean that the passive
child will be less intelligent as an adult. There is no validity to
comparing one child's progress with or against another child.
Rates of development also are not uniform within an individual
child. For example, a child's intellectual development may
progress faster than his emotional or social development. An
understanding of the principles of development helps
developmental psychologist in planning appropriate activities
and stimulating and enriching experiences for children, and
provides a basis for understanding how to encourage and
support young children's learning.

Framework of Human Development

Understanding human development involves in various perspectives in

both meaningful and manageable framework. A framework provides
with those categories in bringing together bits of information on
development. These categories are major domains of development,
processes of development, and timing of developmental events
(Seifert, Hoffnung, and Hoffnung (2000)).

Major Domains of Development: The realm of psychological

functioning of human development is represented by the three
fundamental domains as described below:

1. Physical Development. This refers to a biological change that

includes changes in the body itself and how a person uses his
or her body. Physical changes often span very long periods.
Such changes include the growth of the body and its organs
 during childhood; the functioning of physiological systems; and
the appearance of the physical signs of aging during adulthood.

2. Cognitive Development. This involves changes that occur in

mental activity associated with changes in sensation,
perception, memory, thinking, reasoning, and language.
Moreover, young people become capable of dealing with
hypothetical situations, and they achieve the ability to monitor
and control their own mental experiences and thought
processes (Apruebo, 2013). As cited by Seifert, Hoffnung, and
Hoffnung (2000), cognitive development involves all
psychological processes by which individuals learn and think
about their environment. For example, a child will learn to read
more easily, if parents and teachers provide lots of personal
support for child's effort, cognitive changes of reading belong to
the helpful adults as well as to the child who acquires them.

3. Psychosocial or Emotional-Social Development. This

includes changes in an individual's personality (personal identity
or sense of self), emotions, and relationship with others (Seifert,
Hoffnung, and Hoffnung (2000)). Likewise, Sigelman (cited in
Apruebo, 2013) relates emotional-social development as
changes and carryover in personal and interpersonal aspects of
development, such as motives, emotions, personality traits,
interpersonal skills and relationships, and roles played in the
family and society at large. Hence, the unique individual can be
described as the result of interaction between the “self” and his
social environment. Individuals are whole beings with which the
changes in one aspect affect the other.

Processes of Development. The important processes underlie

developmental change are growth, maturation, and learning
(cited in Apruebo, 2009).

1. Growth. Sigelman (cited in Apruebo, 2009) defined growth as

the physical changes that occur from conception to maturity.
Human beings become biologically mature and physically
competitive during the early part of the life span. It also involves
aging, in biological sense, the deterioration of organism that
leads inevitably to death. Biologically, development does involve
growth in early life, stability in early adulthood, and the declines
are associated with aging in later life.

2. Maturation. Snaffer (2002) considered maturation as biological

unfolding of the individual according to a plan contained in the
genes - the hereditary material passed from parents to their
children at conception. Both growth and maturation involve
biological change. In growth, there is an increase in the number
of an individual’s cells. In maturation, the concern is the
development of the individual's organs and limbs with respect to
the ability to function. Biologically, a growing human's nervous
 system, for example, changes systematically and automatically
without results in predictable changes in bones and muscles.
The plan contained in the genes asserts that changes in
human's nervous system are programmed at conception. For
example, baby crawls before he walks, and that a child is an
early or late developer at puberty is a part of genetic
programming. In short, changes in maturational process are
relatively independent of environmental events, as long as
environmental conditions remain normal.

3. Learning. Shaffer (2002) and Sigelman (cited in Apruebo,

2009), more or less, agree on the definition of learning as the
process through which experiences produce relatively
permanent changes in a person's feelings, thoughts, and
behavior. A certain physical maturation is necessary for a
person to develop but many of his/her abilities and habits do not
merely mature on his/her own. Parents, teachers, and significant
others show and influence a person to behave or act in new
ways, thus change in response to his/her environment in all the
external physical and social conditions and events that can
affect him/her. Bear in mind that learning differs from maturation
in that maturation typically occurs without any specific
experience or practice. Learning then depends on both growth
and maturation underlying a person's readiness for certain kinds
of activity, physical, and mental function.

Timing of Developmental Events. A passage of time has been

considered synonymous with chronological age. There has been an
emphasis on the changes that occur within individuals as they grow
older. In most recent, developmentalists broadened their focus on
with which time relatively plays the essential role in the
development. In this regard, Paul B. Baltes (cited in Apruebo, 2009)
a developmentalist, identified these influential changes as described
below:

1. Normative Age-Graded Influences. This has a strong relative

to chronological age. These influences in the early life span
include the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes.
Sigelan (cited in Apruebo, 2009) described the influence as
'age-grade' or age stratum. Each defined age group as a socially
assigned to different status, roles, privileges, and
responsibilities. For example, adults (18 years old and above)
had acquired the voting privileges that do not impose on
children. Age, like gender and other significant human traits
means different things in different societies. Each society has its
own ways of treating the individuals who fall into different age
groups.

2. Normative History-Graded Influences. Considering society

changes over time, the members of different 'age-cohorts' (also
called a birth-cohorts - is a group of persons born in the same
 time interval), age in different ways. Each generation tends to
fashion a somewhat unique style of thought and life. As pointed-
out by Sigelman (cited in Apruebo, 2009), this influence is called
age-norms with which society, after establishing age grades,
also referred to the expectations of what people should and
should not be doing at different points in the life span.

Bear in mind that age-cohort is being implied here as society that

expresses ways on how people should act their age. As Sigelman
(cited in Apruebo, 2009) pointed out Bernice Neugarten's explanations
as regards importance of age norms as described below.

1. They influence people on how to lead their lives. As Neugarten

termed, 'social clock,' a sense of when things should be done and when
one is ahead of or behind the schedule dictated by age norms.

2. They affect how easily people adjust to life transitions. Norman

milestones, such as a challenge to experience puberty as an 8 or 17
years old or become a new parent at 13 or 48.

3. Normative Life Events. This involves unique turning points at which

people change some direction in their lives. A person might suffer
severe injury in an accident, win millions in a lottery, give birth to
multiple children at one time or set on a new career at midlife or later.

Theories of Psychological Stages

(Source: Dacey and Travers, cited in Apruebo,2009)

Understanding human behavior governed by the psychological

theories on growth and development has significant bearing on the
physical, cognitive, emotional, motivational, social, and moral aspects
across the life span.

Sigmund Freud's Psychosexual Stages

The five psychosexual stages are described below.

1. Oral Stage (0 to 1 1/2 years old). The oral cavity (mouth, lips,
tongue, gums) is the pleasure center. Its function is to obtain an
appropriate amount of sucking, eating, biting, and talking.

2. Anal Stage (1 1/2 to 3 years old). The anus is the pleasure

center. The main concern is a successful toilet training.

3. Phallic Stage (3 to 5 years old). The glans of the penis and the
clitoris are the pleasure centers in this stage and the two
remaining stages. The focal point is the healthy development of
sexual interest, which is achieved through masturbation and
unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex.
Resolution of the conflicts caused by desire (called the Oedipal
conflict in males and the Electra conflict in females) is the goal.
 4. Latency Stage (5 to 12 years old). During this stage, sexual
desire becomes dormant, which is especially true for males
through the defense mechanism of introjections. Boys refuse to
kiss or hug their mothers and treat female age-mates with
disdain. Because the society adheres to a more tolerant of the
daughter's attraction toward her father, the “Electra Complex” is
less resolved and girls’ sexual feelings may be less repressed
during this stage.

5. Genital Stage (12 years old and older). At this stage a surge of
sex hormones occurs in both genders, which brings about an
unconscious recurrence of the phallic stage. Normally, however,
youths have learned that desire for one's parents is taboo, and
so they set about establishing relationships with members of the
opposite sex who are own age. If fixation occurs at any stage,
anxiety results, and defense mechanisms will be used with it.

Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

As opposed to Freud's psychosexual theory, Erikson viewed human

development as the interaction between genes and the environment.
Human life progresses through a series of eight stages. Each of these
stages is marked by a crisis that needs to be resolved so that the
individual can move on. Erikson used the term crisis in a medical
sense, that is, it is like an acute period during illness, at the end of which
the patients take a turn for the worse or better.

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory in Tabular Form

Psychosocial Psychosocial Core Environmental
Age Ego Strength
Stage crisis Pathology Influence
Trust vs Maternal/Immediate
1 Infancy Hope Withdrawal
Mistrust caregiver
Autonomy vs
Early Both parents or
2-3 Shame and Will Compulsion
Childhood guardians
doubt
Initiative vs Parents, family,
4-5 Preschool Purpose Inhibition
Guilt friends
Middle Industry vs
6-11 Competence Inertia School
Childhood Inferiority
Identity vs
12- Role
Adolescence Identity Fidelity Peers
18 Repudiation
Confusion
18- Young Intimacy vs Partners:
Love Exclusivity
35 Adulthood Isolation Spouse/Lover, Friends
35- Generativity
Middle Age Care Rejectivity Family, Society
65 vs Stagnation
Over Integrity vs
Old Age Wisdom Disdain All humans
65 Despair
Jean Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory

Dr. Jean Piaget, a Swiss Psychologist, was interested in cognitive

stages of development as shown in Figure below:

Dr. Piaget posited that children progress their mental operation through
four stages as stated below (Apruebo, 2013):

1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to age 2). Children organize their

experiences on a sensorimotor scheme, what they can see,
hear, smell, taste, and touch. What they cannot use by their
senses do not occur for them. Things exist for them only so long
as they sense or perceive. As they acquire more experiences
with their environment, they learn to perform skills. In infancy,
babies can suck or swallow things carried to their mouth, later
they learn to grasp the things and bring them to their mouth. In
this period, they also start to develop object permanence.
Children learn to see for objects that are moved out of their sight,
although they do not yet understand these are objects. Toward
the end of the sensorimotor period that Children can realize that
these objects can be moved from place to place although they
do not actually see those objects being moved around thus the
final realization of object permanence.

2. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years). Children are action-

oriented. They cannot think with actions. Their thinking and
understanding are based on physical and perceptual
experiences. They develop a new capacity called
representation. They can think of some actions even though
they are not being worked, events when they are not in
occurrence, and object although they are not present. Children
start to be able to represent the external environment internally
with symbols, like words. They focus their children on a single
dimension of a stimulus. Their thoughts are irreversible.
Children cannot bring back their thoughts to the starting point of
their mental process. Thinking is centered on themselves, not
because they are selfish, but because they do not know that
 other perspectives develop. The tendency to perceive human
features in objects, because they have not yet learned to discern
human beings and objects. The inability to direct their own
thinking without external cues.

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years). Children ways of

thinking are more similar to the adults. They can retrace their
thoughts, correct themselves, and begin again if warrants;
include more than one aspect at a period; see a single object or
perceive problem in various ways. Thinking in this period is
attributed to three mental operations, such as combining,
reversing, and forming associations. More often than not,
children would think or perceive in concrete and not abstract
way.

4. Formal Operational Stage (11 to adult). Children who attain the

formal operation period are capable of thinking logically and
abstractly. They can also reason theoretically. Piaget
considered this the ultimate stage of development, and stated
that although the children would still have to revise their
knowledge-base, their way of thinking is as powerful as it would
be.

SUMMARY

Development is defined as systematic continuities and changes in the

individual that occur between conception and death. The term change
is systematic because it implies orderly, patterned, and relatively
enduring characteristics. Other transitory changes are appearances,
thoughts, and behaviors. Continuities are also referred as ways with
which it connotes the same or continue to reflect the past. Likewise, the
psychological changes are associated with crucial social, emotional,
and Cognitive changes that are seeking for independency and are
moved toward adulthood.

Understanding human development is governed by the psychological

theories that have an essential meaning on the physical, cognitive,
emotional, motivational, social, and moral aspects across the life span.
Psychological stages theories are Freud's Psychosexual Stages,
Erikson's Psychosocial Stages, and Piaget's Cognitive Development
Theory.
Application Name: __________________________________ Section: ________

I. Modified True or False. Write T if the statement is true and if the

statement is false, change the underlined word to make the statement
correct. Write your answer on the space provided on the left side.

1. Development is a systematic continuities and

changes in the individual that occur between
conception and baptism.

2. Cephalocaudal principle proceeds from the center

of the body outward.

3. Proximodistal principle proceeds from the head

downward.

4. Cognitive Development involves all psychological

processes by which individuals learn and think about
their environment.

5. Physical Development is wherein the unique

individual can be described as the result of
interaction between the “self” and his social
environment.

6. Physical Development refers to a biological

change.

7. Learning refers to the sequential characteristic of

biological growth and development.

8. There are universal rates of growth and

development.

9. Framework of Human Development includes Major

Domains of Development, Process of Growth, and
Timing of Developmental Events.

10. Normative Life Events involves unique turning

points at which people change some direction in their
lives.
 II. Specify Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Stage as regards
Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete, and Formal to the
following associated concepts.

Stage Associated Concepts

1. Knowledge-Based

2. Combining

3. Object Permanence

4. Abstract Thinking
5. Representation

6. Adult
III. Specify Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Stages to the following
associated concepts.
1. The mouth is the pleasure
center.
2. Oedipal Complex
3. Sexual desire becomes
dormant.
4. Toilet training
5. Surge of sex hormones occurs
in both genders.
6. The anus is the pleasure
center.
IV. Specify Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages to the following
associated concepts.
1. Ego Strength: Competence

2. Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt

3. Generativity vs Stagnation
4. Core Pathology: Disdain

5. Ego Strength: Hope

6. Ego Strength: Love

7. Initiative vs Guilt
8. Core Pathology: Role
Repudiation

Well done! You have just finished Module 3. Should there be some
Closure parts of the lesson which you need clarification, please ask your
instructor during your consultation schedule.