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CPCE: Human Growth and Development
Development - ☑️ Systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death. These systematic changes occur in three broad areas: physical development, cognitive development, and psychosocial development.
Categories of Development Theories - ☑️ Theories of how humans grow and develop fall into the following broad categories:
a. learning including behavioral theories, social learning theories, and
information-processing theories
b. cognitive theories
c. psychoanalytic including the neo-Freudian and ego psychology theories
d. humanistic psychology and selftheories
Human growth and development changes can be viewed as...(3 pairs) - ☑️ a. Qualitative: change in structure or organization {for example, sexual development) or Quantitative: change in number, degree or frequency (content changes, for example, intellectual development).
b. Continuous: changes are sequential cannot be separated easily (for example, personality development) or Discontinuous: certain changes in abilities or behaviors can be separated from others which argues for stages of development (for example, language development).
c. Mechanistic: this is the reduction of all behavior to common elements (for example, instinctual, reflexive behavior) or Organismic: because of new stages, there is change or discontinuity; it is more than Stimulus- Response. The organism is involved including the use of cognition. Examples would be moral or ethical development.
Self-Concept - ☑️ Self-concept may be defined as your perception of your qualities, attributes and traits. At birth, infants have no sense of self. In early months this quickly changes. By 24 months, most infants show signs of self-recognition; they can identify social categories they are in such as age and gender, "who is like me and who is not like me"; they exhibit various temperaments. The pre-school child's self-concept is very concrete and physical. By 8 or so, they can describe inner qualities.
By adolescence, self-concepts (self-descriptions) become more abstract and psychological. Stabilization of self-concept attributes continues. Cultural and family factors influence the development of attributes and some traits.
Genotype vs. Phenotype - ☑️ Genotype is the genetic (inherited) makeup of the individual.
Phenotype: the way an individual's genotype is expressed through physical and behavioral characteristics.
Tabula Rasa - ☑️ John Locke's view that children begin as a 'blank slate' acquiring their characteristics through experience.
Plasticity - ☑️ For most individuals lifespan development is plastic representing an easy and smooth transition from one stage to the next.
Resiliency - ☑️ The ability to adapt effectively despite the experience of adverse circumstances. For example, some children, despite experiencing potentially damaging conditions and circumstances, seem to suffer few consequences.
Neurobiology - ☑️ Neuroscience is sometimes referred to as the missing link in the mental health professions. Ivey, D'Andrea and Ivey (2012 -see references) believe that "the mind is the product of the activity occurring in the brain at the molecular, cellular, and anatomical levels, which are in turn impacted by a person's interpersonal relationships, cultural context, and societal experience." Counselors, by using different theories, skills and interventions promote the release of various neurotransmitters which promote related brain changes. Neurotransmitters affect various cognitive, emotional, psychological and behavioral reactions that people have to their life experiences. Neurotransmitters carry messages between neurons that stimulate reactions in the brain. These chemical reactions stimulate different parts of the brain leading to different cognitive, emotional, psychological and behavioral outcomes.
Four Principal Neurotransmitters - ☑️ a. Acetylcholine -important for memory, optimal cognitive functioning, emotional balance and control.
b. Serotonin - affects feelings, behaving, thinking; critical for emotional and cognitive processes; vital to sleep and anxiety control.
c. Dopamine -important for emotional wellness, motivation, pleasurable feelings.
d. GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) - helps reduce anxiety, promotes relaxation and sleep.
Different counseling and therapy skills help promote the production of each of these four neurotransmitters.
Abraham Maslow -
Conditioning Principles: Fixed vs. Variable Interview - ☑️ Fixed interval: reinforce after a fixed period of time.
Variable interval: reinforce, on the average, after every nth (e.g. 3rd) minute.
Conditioning Principles: Spontaneous Recovery - ☑️ After a rest period, the conditioned response reappears when the conditioned stimulus is again presented.
Conditioning Principles: Stimulus Generalization - ☑️ Once a response has been conditioned, stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus are also likely to elicit the conditioned response.
Psychoanalytic Approach/Psychosexual Development - ☑️ There is an interaction between our internal needs/forces and the environment. Freud identified five stages of development: a. oral (birth to 18 months b. anal (2 to 3 years) c. phallic (3 to 5 years) d. latency (6 to 12 years) e. genital (12 to 19; others have said it never ends)
The phallic stage has the Oedipal (son attraction to mother) and Electra (daughter attraction to father) complexes. These are conflictual times for the child. The libido is the basic energy or force of life. It consists of life instincts and death instincts. Fixation: incomplete or inhibited development at one of the stages. Other psychoanalytic concepts include: castration anxiety, penis envy, pleasure principle, and reality principle. Erroenous zones are areas of bodily excitation such as the mouth, anus, and genitals.
Defense Mechanisms: Repression - ☑️ Rejecting from conscious thought (denying or forgetting) the impulse or idea that provokes anxiety.
Defense Mechanisms: Projection - ☑️ Avoiding the conflict within oneself by ascribing the ideas or motives to someone else.
Defense Mechanisms: Reaction Formation - ☑️ Expressing a motive or impulse in a way that is directly opposite what was originally intended.
Defense Mechanisms: Rationalization - ☑️ Providing a reason for a behavior and thereby concealing the true motive or reason for the behavior.
Defense Mechanisms: Displacement - ☑️ Substituting a different object or goal for the impulse or motive that is being expressed.
Defense Mechanisms: Introjection - ☑️ Identifying through fantasy the expression of some impulse or motive.
Defense Mechanisms: Regression - ☑️ Retreating to earlier or more primitive (childlike) forms of behavior.
Defense Mechanisms: Denial - ☑️ Refusing to see something that is a fact or true in reality.
Defense Mechanisms: Sublimation - ☑️ May be viewed as a positive defense mechanism wherein anxiety or sexual tension or energy is channeled into socially acceptable activities such as work.
Erik Erikson - ☑️ Erikson identified eight stages wherein a psychosocial crisis or task is to be mastered.
Erikson viewed life as in constant change; the social context is important in the development of personality.
Erik Erikson: Trust vs. Mistrust - ☑️ Birth to 1.5 years, Hope (Ego virtue)
Infant develops trust if basic needs are met.
Erik Erikson: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt - ☑️ 1.5 to 3, Will (a sense of self)
Infant asserts self; develops independence if allowed.
Erik Erikson: Initiative vs. Guilt - ☑️ 3 to 6. Purpose (goal setting)
Children meet challenges; assume responsibility; identify rights of others.
Erik Erikson: Industry vs. Inferiority - ☑️ 6 to 11. Competence.
Children master social and academic skills or feel inferior.
Erik Erikson: Identity vs. Role Confusion - ☑️ Adolescence. Fidelity (ability to commit)
Individual establishes social and vocational roles and identities or is confused about adult roles.
Erik Erikson: Intimacy vs. Isolation - ☑️ Early adulthood. Love.
Young adult seeks intimate relationships or fears giving up independence and becoming lonely and isolated.
Erik Erikson: Generativity vs. Stagnation - ☑️ Middle Adulthood. Care (investment in future).
c. Postconventional: Stage 5: Social contracts and utilitarian orientation exists; most values and rules are relative. Stage 6: A self-chosen principled orientation prevails; universal ethical principles apply.
Daniel Levinson - ☑️ Levinson wrote: The Seasons of a Man's Life. He identified three major transitions/times occurring between four major eras of life: a. early adult transition (17 to 22) b. mid-life transition (40 to 45) c. late adult transition (60 to 65).
In adulthood, the individual copes with three sets of developmental tasks: a. build, modify, and enhance life structure b. form and modify single components of the life structure such as: life dream, occupation, love- marriage, family relationships, mentor, and forming mutual relationships c. tasks to become more individuated.
Levinson believed that the majority of the men he studied experienced midlife crisis, a time of questioning their life structure including their career. This occurred in the transition period of age 40 to 45.
Urie Brofenbrenner - ☑️ Brofenbrenner took an ecological approach to the study of human development, i.e., he believed it was important to look at all levels and systems impacting a person.
For example: A troubled adolescent is a part of several systems such as family, school, peers, community, etc. We must be sensitive to influences of all of these systems.
Social Learning Theory - ☑️ Social learning model (we can think about the connection between our behaviors and the consequences) by Albert Bandura. One of the central concepts of this cognitive-behavioral approach is self-efficacy, the belief that we can perform some behavior or task. Self-efficacy can help explain how it is that people change. One's self-efficacy is facilitated through four mechanisms which are: modeling after others' behavior, vicarious experience, i.e., watching others perform the behavior, receiving verbal persuasion from others that one can do a task, and lastly, paying attention to one's own physiological states such as emotional arousal or anxiety involved in doing the behavior.
William Perry - ☑️ Perry developed a scheme for intellectual development and ethical development.
He identified three general categories and nine positions:
a. Dualism i. authorities know ii, there are true authorities and wrong authorities ili. good authorities may know but may not know everything yet
b. Relativism is Discovered i. there may not be right or wrong answers; uncertainty may be OK ii. all knowledge may be relative
iii. in an uncertain world, I'll have to make decisions
c. Commitment in Relativism i. initial commitment ii. several commitments—and balancing them iii. commitments evolve, and they may be contradictory
Nancy Chodorow - ☑️ One of the first to speak out against the masculine bias found in psychoanalytic theory.
Jean Baker Miller - ☑️ Toward a New Psychology of Women: indicated that a large part of women's lives has been spent helping others develop emotionally, intellectually, and socially. This 'caretaking' is a central concept differentiating the development of women from men.
Judith Jordan - ☑️ and others affiliated with the Stone Center, Wellesley College, presented a developmental theory of women in 1991 which was referred to as self-in-relation theory. The principal components of this theory included:
a. people grow toward relationships throughout life. b. mature functioning is characterized by mutuality and deepening connections. c. psychological growth is characterized by involvement in complex and diversified relational networks. d. mutual empathy and empowerment are at the core of positive relationships. e. growth-fostering relationships require engagements to be authentic f. growth-fostering relationships stimulate growth and change in all people. g. goals of development are characterized by an increasing ability to name and resist disconnections, sources of oppression, and obstacles to mutual relationships. This theory of development is now known as relational-cultural theory.
Harriet Lerner - ☑️ Wrote The Dance of Intimacy; believed women needed to re-evaluate their intimate relationships which may not be working, and choose a healthier balance between other-oriented and self-absorption. Competent relationships allow for each person to be appreciated and enhanced, and the woman should show strength, independence and assertiveness.
Carol Tavris - ☑️ Wrote The Mismeasure of Woman; indicated that women are judged and mismeasured by their fit into a male world. In fact, both genders are more alike than different but they are perceived as different because of the roles they have been assigned. Society also 'pathologizes' women.
Carol Gilligan - ☑️ In A Different Voice and other writings; believed that women view relationships and experience of relationships differently than men do. Their communication patterns are also different.
Theories of How Women Develop -
☑️ This is the concept that implies nearness or proximity. For example, in selecting a partner, one is most likely to become involved with someone who lives nearby or works at the same location.
Midlife Crisis - ☑️ Stress may occur as an individual encounters various transitional periods/stages.
Although Levinson believes that most men experience midlife crisis, many writers do not. Both men and women may experience a painful self-evaluation process but not at a crisis level.
Propinquity - ☑️
