CHAPTER 1

 BiologicalProcesses involve changes in a

child’s body.

 Cognitive Processes involve child’s thinking,

intelligence, and language.

 Socioemotional Processes involve changes in

the child’s relationship with other people,
changes in emotion and changes in
personality.
 Development is a lifelong process.
 Development is multidirectional.
 Development always involves both gain and
loss.
 Development is characterized by lifelong
plasticity.
 Development is shaped by its
historical/cultural context.
 Development is multiply influenced.
 Understanding development requires
multiple disciplines.
 1. Assumptions about Human Nature
2. Nature VS Nurture

 Nature refers to the behavior and

characteristics manifested because of the
influences of biological forces.

 Nurturerefers to the influences brought

about by the exposure to the environment.
3. Activity and Passivity

 Active
creatures orchestrate their own
development by exploring the world around
them or by shaping their own environment.

 Passivecreatures are largely products of

forces beyond their control—usually
environmental (biological) influences.
4. Continuity and Discontinuity

 Discontinuity theorists picture the course of

development as more like a series of stair
steps, each of which elevates the individual
to a new level of functioning. (Qualitative
changes)

 Continuity theorists view human

development as a process that occurs in
small steps, without sudden changes.
(Quantitative changes)
5. Universality or Context Specificity

The extent to which developmental

changes are common to everyone (universal)
or different from person to person (context-
specific).