Psychology 5 Marks Question

• In early adulthood, two major tasks are exploring the possibilities for adult living and developing a stable life structure.
• A transition from dependence to independence should occur.

Career and work:

• Adults get new responsibility at work.
• They have to adjust with new challenging situations.
• There are apprehensions regarding differences, adjustments, proving one’s competence and coping with expectations and both employer and self.

Marriage, parenthood and family:

• Adults have to make adjustments while entering a marriage relation and to know their spouse and cope with each other's likes/ dislikes. Responsibilities have to be shared if both are working.
• Parenthood is a difficult and stressful transition in young adults. It depends on factors such as number of children in the family, availability of social support, etc.

The Following are the socio-cultural influences on the development of an individual:

• Socio-cultural factors influence development by providing it with a social context.
• The various socio-cultural consequences that a child meets with are learnt by him/ her and thus, a child develops a personality which is influenced by his/ her experiences.
• The socio-cultural background of an individual has an impact over his/ her interaction with the rest of the society.
• The variable experiences of individuals during their development are dependent upon their social and cultural background.
• These factors include the conditions at home, the quality of schooling and interaction with peer groups.
• Children growing up in an unsupportive family environment find it hard to learn new things and make their own decisions. Children who are exposed to diverse experiences early in life develop a confident attitude and are more able to face challenges.

• Just before birth the newborns have most but not all brain cells. The neural connections among these cells developed at a rapid rate.
• The newborn is not as helpless as we might think.
• Able to indicate what direction a sound is coming from, can distinguish their mother's voice from the voices of other women.
• Can imitate simple gestures like tongue protrusion and mouth opening.

There are various types of abilities occur in the stage of infancy:

1. Motor Development: The newborn's movements are governed by reflexes which are automatic, built in responses to stimuli.

The feature of reflexes are:

1. They are genetically-carried survival mechanisms and are building blocks for motor development.
2. They act as adaptive mechanism.
3. Some are already present in the newborn-e.g. coughing, blinking and yawning persist throughout their lives.
4. As the brain is developing, physical developments also progresses. As the infant grows, the muscles and nervous system mature which lead to the development of finer skills.
5. Basic physical skills include grasping and reaching for objects, sitting, crawling, walking and running.
6. The sequence of physical development is universal with minor exceptions.

2. Sensory Abilities: Newborns prefer to look at some particular stimuli rather than others such as faces, although these preferences change over the first few months of life.

1. The newborn's vision is estimated to be lower than the adult vision.
2. By 6 months it improves and by about the first year, vision is almost the same as that of an adult.
3. In general they are colour deficient and full colour vision develops by 3 months of age.
4. Infants can hear immediately after birth.
5. Newborn respond to touch and they can even feel pain. (A Both smell and taste capacities are also present in the new born).

3. Cognitive Development:

1. Jean Piaget stressed that children actively construct their understanding of the world.
2. Each stage is characterized by a distinct way of thinking and is age related.
3. The child during infancy i.e., the first two years of life, experiences the world through senses and interactions with objects-through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing and grasping.
4. According to “Piaget" children at this stage do not go beyond their immediate sensory experience. i.e., lack object permanence, the awareness that the objects continue to exist when not perceived.
5. Vocalization begins with the infant's bubbling sometime between 3 to 6 months of age.

4. Socio-emotional Development:

1. An infant starts preferring familiar faces and responds to parent's presence by cooling and gurgling.
2. When frightened by a new face or when separated from their mother they cry or show distress. The close emotional bond of affection that develop between infants and their parents is called attachment.
3. Young children have a strong attachment to a favourite toy or blanket.

The child develops physically, gains height and weight, learns to walk, runs, jumps and plays with a ball. Socially, the child's world expands from the parents to the family and adult near home and at school. Now we describe the development takes place in the age of childhood.It is as following:

1. Physical Development: Early development follows the two principles:

1. Development proceeds cephalocaudally: From the cephalic or head region to the caudal or tail region. Children gain control over the upper part of the body before the lower part.
2. Growth proceeds proximodistal trend: from the centre of body and moves towards the extremities or more distal regions.

2. Motor Development: Motor development of childhood involve the major accomplishment in gross and fine motor skills:

1. Gross motor skills during the early childhood years involve the use of arms and legs, and moving around with confidence and more purposefully in the environment.

Other types of gross motor skills also develop in childhood:

• In 3 years- Hopping, jumping, running.
• In 4 years- Climb up and downstairs with one foot on each step.
• In 5 years- Run hard, enjoy races.

2. Fine motor skills-finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination improve substantially during early childhood. Other types of fine motor skills also develop in childhood.

• In 3 years- Build blocks, pick objects with forefinger and thumb.
• In 4 years- Fit jigsaw puzzle precisely.
• In 5 years- Hand arms and body all coordinative with eye movement.

3. During these years the child's preference for left or right hand also develops.

3. Cognitive Development: The child's ability to acquire the concept of object permanence enables his/her to use mental symbols to represent objects. Cognitive development in early childhood focuses on Piaget's stages:

• Sensorimotor: 0-2 years- Infant explores the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.
• Preoperational thoughts: 2-7 years-Features of preoperational thought are following:

1. Egocentrism (self-focus) i.e. children see the world only in terms of their own selves and are not able to appreciate other's point of view.

• Children because of egocentrism, engage in animism-thinking ie all things are living, like oneself.
• They attribute life-like qualities to inanimate objects e.g. If a child while running slips on the road he/she might show animism by saying "road hurt me”.

2. Centration i.e. focusing on a single characteristic or feature for understanding an event e.g. a child may insist on drinking a “big glass" of juice, preferring a tall narrow glass to a short broad one, even though both might be holding the same amount of juice.

3. Concrete operational thoughts: 7-11 years– It is made up of operations.

• Mental actions that allows the child to do mentally what was done physically before.
• Concrete operations are also mental actions that are reversible.
• This stage allows the child to focus on different characteristics and not focus on one aspect of the objects.

4. Formal operational stage: 11-15 years. The adolescents can apply logic more abstractly, hypothetical thinking develops.

The growing cognitive abilities of children facilitate the acquisition of language.

4. Social-emotional Development: The dimensions of children's Socio-emotional development are the self, gender and moral development.

1. The child due to socialisation has developed a sense of who he/she is and whom he/she wants to be identified with.
2. According to Erikson, the way parents respond to their self-initiated activities leads to developing a sense of initiative or sense of guilt. e.g. giving freedom and opportunity for play like cycling of skatting etc. and answering children's questions will create a sense of support for the initiative taken. If child becomes deprived from such support then he/she develops a feeling of guilt and low self esteem.
3. Self-understanding in early childhood is limited to defining oneself through physical characteristics. e.g. I m tall or I am a girl.
4. Self-understanding also include social comparison. e.g. I am smart and popular. This development shift leads to establishing one's differences from others as an individual. Once the children enter school their social world expands beyond their families. Thus the increased time the children spend with their peers shapes their development

5. Moral Development: Another important aspect of the child's development is learning to differentiate between the rightness or wrongness of human acts.

• According to “Lawrence Kohlborg", they pass through the various stages of moral development.
• According to him children's approach about right and wrong are different at different ages.

The factors influencing the formation of identity during adolescence are as follows:

• Cultural background: The ideas and opinions of adolescents about the world around them are shaped by their cultural background and the level of their exposure. These determine the norms followed by them and hence, their cultural identity. For example, adolescent behaviour varies among Indian and American cultures.
• Family and societal values: The values of the society inhabited by an adolescent shape their identity. For example, teenagers in USA are conditioned to a materialistic society in contrast to young adults in Tibet who are more spiritually inclined.
• Ethnic background: Adolescents distinguish themselves as members of their ethnic group thus framing their own identity. For example, expectations of teenage behaviour and responsibilities vary across different ethnicities and tribes.
• Socio-economic status: The socio-economic background of an adolescent determines the peer group and the extent of their accessibility to popular lifestyle choices that determine identity. For example, accessibility to expensive gadgets and branded clothing that are popular among teenagers are determined by their socio-economic background.
• Vocational commitment: Adolescents begin to think of their career as a component of their identity. For example, adolescents choose whether to study science or commerce.

The close emotional bond of affection that develops between infants and their parents is called attachment. Human babies form an attachment with their parents or caregivers who consistently and appropriately reciprocate to their signals of love and affection. According to Erikson (1968), the first year of life is the key time for the development of attachment. It represents the stage of developing trust or mistrust. A sense of trust is built on a feeling of physical comfort which builds an expectation of the world as a secure and good place.
An infant’s sense of trust is developed by responsive and sensitive parenting. If the parents are sensitive, affectionate, and accepting, it provides the infant a strong base to explore the environment. Such infants are likely to develop a secune attachment. On the other hand, if the parents are insensitive and show dissatisfaction land find faults with the child, it can lead to creating feelings of self-doubt in the child.
Securely attached infants respond positively when picked up, move freely and play whereas insecurely attached infants feel anxious when separated and cry due to fear and get upset. Thus, a close interactive relationship with warm and affectionate adults is a child’s first step towards healthy development.

The child’s ability to acquire the concept of object permanence enables her/ him to use mental symbols to represent objects. However, the child at this stage lacks the ability that allows her/ him to do mentally what was done physically before. The child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not physically present. Children draw designs/ figures to represent people, trees, dog, house. This ability of the child to engage in symbolic thought helps to expand her/ his mental world. The progress in symbolic thought continues. Children see the world only in terms of their own selves and are not able to appreciate other's point of view. Children having a tendency for centration, i.e. focusing on a single characteristic or feature for understanding an event. As the child grows and is approximately between 7 and 11 years of age (the period of middle and late childhood) intuitive thought is replaced by logical thoughts. Concrete operations allow the child to focus on different characteristics and not focus on one aspect of the object. This helps the child to appreciate that there are different ways of looking at things, Thinking becomes more flexible, and children can think about alternatives when solving problems, or mentally retrace their steps if required. The growing cognitive abilities of children facilitate the acquisition of language.

The main features of life span perspective on development are as follows:

1. Development is lifelong i.e., it takes place across all age groups starting from conception to old age. It includes gain and losses which interact in dynamic ways throughout the life span.
2. The various processes of human development i.e., biological cognitive, and socio-emotional are interwoven in the development of a person throughout the life span.
3. Development is multi-directional some dimension or component of given dimension of development may increases, while other show decrement. For example, the experience of adults may make them wiser and guide their decisions. However, with an increase in age, one's performance is likely to decreases on tasks requiring speed, such as running.
4. Development is the concerns of number of disciplines. Different disciplines like psychology, anthropology, sociology and neurosciences study human development, each trying to provide answers to development throughout the life span.
5. Development is highly plastic, i.e., within person, modifiability is found in psychological development though plasticity varies among individuals.
6. Development is influenced by historical conditions. For example, the career orientation of school student today is very different from those students today is very different from those students who were in schools 50 years ago.
7. An individual’s responds and acts on context, which includes what was inherited, the physical environment, social historical and cultural contexts. For example, the life events in everyone lives are not the same, such as, death of a parent, accident, earthquake, etc. Affects the course of one life as also the positive influences such as winning an award or getting a good job. People keep on changing with changing contexts.

Certain patterns of behaviour and certain skills are learned more easily and successfully during certain stages. These accomplishments of a person become the social expectations of that stage of development. They are known as developmental tasks. The newborns in their first week of life are able to indicate what direction a sound is coming from, can distinguish their mother’s voice from the voices of other women, and can initate simple gestures like tongue protrusion and mouth opening.
As the infant grows, the muscles and nervous system mature which lead to the development of finer skills. Basic physical skills include grasping, walking and running.
Newborns have also sensory capabilities. They can here immediately after birth. With development, proficiency at localising sound improves. Newborns respond to touch and can feel pain. Both smell and taste capacities are also present in the newborn.
The child during infancy experiences the world through senses and interactions with objects through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing and grasping.
Babies from birth are social creatures. An infant starts preferring familiar faces and responds to parent’s presence by cooing and gurgling. They become more mobile by 6 to 8 months of age and start showing a preference for their mother’s company. When frightened by a new face or when separated from their mother, they cry or show distress. On being remited with the parent or care giver they reciprocate with smiles.