Course Title: UCU 2103: Health Education

Instructor: Robert Ndambo Ngeti, (MSc)

Office: Swimming Pool Complex
Contacts: 0726753031/0774033102
mwambambarnn@ttu.ac.ke or ndamborobertngeti@gmail.com.
Class Hour: Friday 2:00PM-5:00PM

Office Hours: 10:00 – 11:10 Tuesday and Thursday

Call or stop by for an appointment.
(3 Credit Hours)

Course Purpose
To expose students to issues in health education.
Expected Learning outcomes
On completion of this course, the students should be able to:
1. Describe the meaning, development and significance of Health Education;
2. Explain the various components of Environmental Health;
3. Describe the general principles of physical, mental and sexual health;
4. Describe good nutrition and social habits; and
5. Explain how to provide emergency care and treatment in varied circumstances
Course Description
Introduction to Health Education: Definition, Scope, Development and Significance;
Environmental Health: Public Health, Safety and Hygiene; Physical Health: Stages of Growth
and Development, Significant development disorders and care, Prevalent Human Diseases
(HIV/AIDS, Cancer, Malaria, Diabetes, Emerging Diseases like COVID among others);
Physical fitness; Mental Health: Common Mental Disorders, Stress and Stress Management,
Depression, Suicide and Coping Strategies Social Health: Relationships, Social Virtues, Human
Rights, Gender Equality, Disability Mainstreaming; Sexual and Reproductive Health: Family
Planning and Population Control, Good Sexual habits and Rights, Sexually, Transmitted
Infections; Health and nutrition: Principles of Nutrition, Significant Human Nutrients,
Balanced Diet; Substance Abuse: Common Substances abused and their related effects
(Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana, Other Hard Drugs); Emergency Care Treatment: Overview of
Disaster Management, First Aid.

Teaching Methodologies
Lectures, oral presentations, additional activities e.g. writing on chalk board, exercises, class
questions and discussions or student presentation. Tutorials to give the students more
attention.

Instructional Materials/Equipment
White- board, chalk, white board marker, duster, computer and projector, videos and visual aids

Course Assessment
One sit-in End of semester written Examination=70%; Continuous Assessment 30% (one 1 hr.
Sit-in written test=10%; one assignment=10%; one presentation=10%) Total =100%.

Course Text Books

1. Connolly, M. (2020). Skills-based health education.
2. National, Learning Corporation. (2019). Health Education. Passbooks.

Reference Text Books

1. Gilbert, G. G., Sawyer, R. G., & McNeil, E. B. (2015). Health education: Creating strategies
for school and community health.
2. Sassen, B. (2018). Nursing: Health education and improving patient self-management.
Course Journals
1. Journal of Health Education (1991 - 2000)
2. American Journal of Health Education
3. Journal of Health Education Research & Development

Reference Journals
1. International Journal of Education and Health
2. International Journal of Health Sciences Education
3. African Journal of Health Professions Education

EBooks
1. Benes, S., & Alperin, H. (2016). The essentials of teaching health education: Curriculum,
instruction, and assessment.
2. Doyle, E., Ward, S., & Oomen-Early, J. (2019). The process of community health education
and promotion.
Meaning of Health Education

Health Education is concerned with promoting health as well as reducing behaviour induced
diseases. In other words health education is concerned with establishing or inducing changes in
personal and groups’ attitudes and behaviour that promote healthier living.

Definitions of Health Education:

Health education as the sum of experiences, which favorably influence habits attitudes and
knowledge relating the individual community and social health.

-Thomas wood
Health education like general education is concerned with changes in knowledge, feelings and
behaviour of people. In its most usual form it concentrates on developing such health practices as
are believed to bring about the best possible state of well being
.
–W.H.O technical Report

Definition
Health education has been defined in many ways by different authors and experts. as “a
combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary actions conducive to
health.”

The terms have significant implications in this definition. Combination: emphasizes the
importance of matching the multiple determinants of behavior with multiple learning experiences
or educational interventions. Designed: distinguishes health education from incidental learning
experiences as systematically planned activity. Facilitate means create favorable conditions for
action. Voluntary action means behavioral measures are undertaken by an individual, group or
community to achieve an intended health effect without the use of force, i.e., with full
understanding and acceptance of purposes.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Most people use the terms „growth‟ and „development‟ interchangeably and accept them as
synonymous. But in reality, the meanings of these two terms are different.

GROWTH: CONCEPT AND DEFINITION

Growth refers to physical increase in some quantity over time. It includes changes in terms of
height, weight, body proportions and general physical appearance.

In Encyclopedia Britannica, growth is defined as “an increase in size or the amount of an

entity”. It means growth involves all those structural and physiological changes that take place
within individual during the process of maturation. For example, growth of a child means the
increase in weight, height and different organs of the child‟s body.

Hurlock has defined Growth as “change in size, in proportion, disappearance of old features and
acquisition of new ones”. Growth refers to structural and physiological changes (Crow and
Crow, 1962). Thus, growth refers to an increase in physical size of whole or any of its part and
can be measured.

DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPT AND DEFINITION

Development refers to the qualitative changes in the organism as whole. Development is a

continuous process through which physical, emotional and intellectual changes occur. It is a
wider and comprehensive term than growth. It is also possible without growth.

In Webster‟s dictionary development is defined as “the series of changes which an organism

undergoes in passing from an embryonic stage to maturity.”

In Encyclopedia Britannica is the term development defined as “the progressive change in size,
shape and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potential are translated
into functioning adult system.” So, development includes all those psychological changes that
take in the functions and activities of different organs of an organism.

Development is continuous and gradual process (Skinner).

According to Crow and Crow (1965) development is concerned with growth as well as those
changes in behavior which results from environmental situation.” Thus, development is a process
of change in growth and capability over time due to function of both maturation and interaction
with the environment.

PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Developmental psychologists believe that knowledge of an accurate pattern of development is

fundamental to an understanding of children. There are several basic principles that characterizes
the pattern and process of growth and development. These principles describe typical
development as a predictable and orderly process. Even though there are individual differences
in children‟s personalities, attitudes, behavior and timing of development, the principles and
characteristics of development are universal patterns.

1. Development involves change:- The human being is undergoing changes from the moment
of conception to the time of death. There are different types of change occur such as, changes
in size, proportions, disappearance of old features and acquisition of new features etc. The
goal of these developmental changes is self-realization, which Abraham Maslow has labeled
as self-actualization. Each individual is equipped with certain abilities and potentialities at
birth. By utilizing the innate or inborn abilities one tries to realize and strive for self-
actualization during the total life period. Children‟s attitude toward change are generally
determined by his knowledge about these changes, social attitudes toward this change and the
way people of society treats to children when these changes take place.

2. Development is a continuous process:- Development continues throughout the life of an

individual. This process takes place in interaction with the environment in which a person
lives. One stage of development is the basic framework for the next stage of development. A
child has limited knowledge and experiences about his environment. But as he develops, he
acquires more information through explorations and adds to the skills already acquired and
the new skills become the basis for further achievement and mastery of skills. For example,
the child is able to write and draw, he must have developed a hand control to hold a pencil
and crayon. Thus, a person has vast experiences and knowledge as he grows up.
3. Development follows a direction and uniform pattern in an orderly manner:-

(i) Development proceeds from the center of the body outward.

This is the principle of proximodistal development that describes the direction of development
(from nearer to far apart). It means that the spinal cord develops before outer parts of the body.
The child‟s arms develop before the hands and the hands and feet develop before the fingers and
toes.

(ii) Development proceeds from the head downwards.

This is called the cephalocaudal principle. According to this principle, development occurs from
head to tail. The child gains control of the head first, then the arms and then the legs.

4. Individual Differences in the Development Process:- Even though the pattern of

development is similar for all children but the rate of development varies among children.
Each child develops as per his abilities and perception of his environment. Children differ
from each other both genetically and environmentally. So, both biological factor and
environmental situations have their impact on individual‟s development which leads to
individual differences in development. Understanding this fact of individual differences in
rates of development should aware us to be careful about using and relying on age and stage
characteristics to label children.

5. 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 account
largely for maturation. 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. An
enriched environment and varied experiences help the child to develop his/her potential.
6. Development is predictable:- Human development is predictable during the life span.
Although this development is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors,
however, it takes place in a pre-defined manner. Specific areas of development, such as:
different aspects of motor development, emotional behavior, speech, social behavior, concept
development, goals, intellectual development etc. follow predictable patterns. For example,
the growth of the child in height and weight etc. continue up to a certain age. In general, it is
also found that all children follow a commonality in the development periods of life. All
children generally grow following the periods like prenatal period and postnatal period. The
postnatal period includes infancy, babyhood, childhood, puberty and so on.

7. Early development is more critical than later development:- Milton writes “ The
childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.” Similarly, Erikson views “childhood
is the scene of man‟s beginning as man.” He explains that if parents gratify the needs of the
child for food, attention and love etc., his perception towards people and situation remains
positive throughout his life. He develops positive attitudes, feels secure, emotionally stable
and adjust well with the environment. If negative experiences occur during early life of the
child, maladjustments may take place. Glueck concludes that delinquents can be identified as
early as 2-3 years of age. Different researchers’ view that the preschool year’s age are most
important years of development as basic foundation is laid down during this period which is
difficult to change.

8. Development involves Social expectations:- In every society there are certain rules,
standards and traditions which everyone is expected to follow. Development is determined
by social norms and expectations of behaviors form the individuals. Children learn customs,
traditions and values of the society and also what behaviors are expected from them. They
realize from the approval or disapproval of their behavior. Social expectations are otherwise
known as “developmental tasks”. Havinghurst defines developmental task as a “task which
arises at or about a certain period in the life of an individual. Developmental tasks arise
mainly (a) as a result of physical maturation, (b) form the cultural pressures of society, (c)
out of the personal values and aspirations of the individual. The developmental tasks remain
the same from one generation after another in a particular culture. As societies are evolving,
 changing traditions and cultural patterns of a society are learned automatically by children
during their development process. These developmental tasks help in motivating children to
learn as well as help parents to guide their children.

9. Development has potential hazards:- Development may be hampered by various hazards.

Hazards may be of physical, environmental or psychological type. These hazards may be
originated from the environment in which the child grows or due to hereditary factors. They
have negative impact on physical as well as sociopsychological development of the child.
The growth of the child may be retarded, he may be an aggressive person or he may
encounter adjustment problems. For example, if a child is slurring or stammering and parents
neglect the child, the child may continue with this problem.

10. Happiness varies at different periods of development:- Happiness varies at different

periods in the development process. Childhood is the happiest period of life and puberty is
the unhappy. The patterns of happiness vary from child to child and it is influenced by the
rearing process of the child. Paul B. Baltes stated six principles of development of life span
approach. The six principles of development are mentioned below:
a. Development is a lifelong process- Development is a process which continues
throughout life. It begins at birth and ends in death of an individual.
b. Development includes both gain and loss during life span. The child may develop in
one area and lose in another area.
c. Development is influenced by the biological factor and environmental situations-
The human development is influenced by biological and environmental factors. For
example, the body strength of the child develops in the early period but may
deteriorate during old age.
d. Development involves changing allocation of resources. It states that during
different developmental periods, resources such as; time, money, social support etc.
are used differently. For example, during old age people require more money to
maintain their proper health.
 e. Development can be modified- This principle reveals that through proper training
development can be modified. For example, an individual can maintain his proper
health by doing different exercises even in old age. 6) Development is based upon
historical and cultural environment- The child grows, develops, and acquires
knowledge about the traditions, rules, and regulations of society according to his
historical and cultural environment.

FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is the process in which the changes occur in all the aspects of an
organism from conception to death. It is a natural process for each and every child to
grow. But it is observed that all children do not grow in the similar fashion. Some
children‟s physical growth occur earlier than others, some Individual differences in the
development process Development depends on maturation and learning Development is
predictable Early development is more critical than later development. Development
involves social expectation Development has potential hazards Happiness varies at
different periods of development are physically stronger than others, some are taller than
others and so on. So far as mental development is concerned, some children have better
cognitive ability, memory, reasoning, thinking ability etc. than others. All children also
do not have same type of intelligence. Some have more musical talents, others have more
intrapersonal intelligence, others also have more linguistic abilities etc. So, children differ
from each other because several factors influence on their development. Some of the
important factors have been enumerated below:

1) Hereditary Factors: - Heredity exerts an influence on human development. The child

carries genetic endowments from his/her parents. It is genetically transmitted
characteristics from one generation to the next. The physical characteristics like height,
weight, eye color etc. and psychological characteristics such as intelligence, personality,
and creativity and so on are innately determined and hereditary. The genetic code
provides the base on which brain and body grow and manifest in observable appearance
and behavior.
2) Environmental Factors: - Another important factor of human development is the
environment where an individual lives. The child lives and grows in his environment.
Environment consists of a wide range of stimuli and it provides the necessary input and
experiential base for development of the child. Enrichment or impoverishment of the
environment would produce differences in his abilities. For example, a child may have
inherited music talent from his parents through transmission of genes, but he may not
excel in music field if he does not get the proper environment and support to develop his
innate ability.
3) Home Environment: - Home environment exerts tremendous influence on child‟s
understanding of the external world. It builds self-concept and prepares him to face the
external world. The child begins to acquire knowledge through interaction with parents
and other family members. During his early years of development, the behaviours of the
child are modulated by the home environment. The environment of the family can be
supportive or stressful for the child. If it is supportive, warm and harmonious
environment, the child develops normally. In unsupportive and stressful home
environment, broken families or uncaring parents in the family, children may develop as
maladjusted persons.
4) Cultural Factors: - Culture refers to a system of beliefs, attitudes and values that are
transmitted from one generation to the next. It is a product of past human behavior and is
also a shaper of future aspirations. The development of the child is influenced by family
as well as by the society. The child learns the habits, beliefs, attitude, skills and standards
of judgment through the socialization processes. The socialization processes of the child
take place according to the culture, customs and traditions of the society. For example,
greeting someone is a familiar experience but behavioral experiences are different in
different cultures. In Indian culture, people greet others by saying namaskar, folding
hands or lying down near the feet but in Western culture, people greet by handshake or
kissing or saying hello etc. Zenowledge in many aspects and their normal development
may get hampered. The parenting in high socioeconomic status families would be
different from low socio-economic status families. Children of the high socioeconomic
 groups of the society get better social opportunities, are nurtured with better nutrition,
good medical treatment and are exposed to more intellectual stimulation than low
socioeconomic group.
6) Normative influences: - Normative influences occur in a similar way for majority of
people in a particular group. These influences may be biological or environmental. For
example, biological events like sexual maturity or deterioration in old age. Environmental
events, like entering the school at about 6 yrs. of age, parenthood etc. have the same
influences on individuals. Most of the people of the same age, at same place and time and
generation have common biological and environmental influences such as floods,
famines and other natural disasters. Non-normative influences include the unusual life
events in an individual’s life. For example, death of a parent when a child is young or
birth defects etc.
7) Education and Training: - Each child is equipped with certain abilities which need to
be nurtured through proper education and training. Therefore, the first and foremost step
is to identify and recognize the ability of the child and the next step is to provide
adequate opportunities to develop the same. If proper identification of the ability is not
possible and adequate facilities are not available to the child, then his innate ability may
not be developed. Thus, adequate education and training have influence on human
development.

BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON HUMAN GROWTH AND BEHAVIORS

Human development is a result of the interaction of biological, cognitive, socio-emotional and

ecological processes. Genetic factors are the basic framework of the biological processes of
development. For example, developments of brain, heart, lungs, nervous system etc. ; depend
largely on the hereditary characteristics of the individual. Similarly, changes in the height,
weight, sex characteristics are parts of the biological processes of development. Each and every
individual tries to keep himself/herself both physically and mentally healthy. There are
differences among individuals due to the biological basis of self-preservation. For example, a
child who is physically stronger can overcome various problems that come across in the growing
up than the less physically strong child. Similarly, the child who is emotionally stronger and
stable can face various problems in life than the other child. Thus, physical as well as emotional
strength relates to genetic factors. Due to the genetic factor some children have the desire to live
longer while other children have the death wish is stronger. The biological influences are also
observed in the needs of the children. For example, a child needs food when he is hungry, he
requires water when he is thirsty and so on. These needs are associated with preservation of
one’s life. But how these needs are fulfilled depends upon socio-cultural influences. The biology
of a person is interlinked with his behaviors. Thus, both body and mind are interdependent.
Physical damage can result in mental problems and mental problems may affect physical well-
being. As human being lives in a society, with his biological endowments he interacts with
different stimuli of the environment. Social traditions, culture, beliefs, nationality and others
influence human behavior. Both culture and behavior of the individual are inseparable. Thus,
human development and behaviors are combination of biological, social and psychological
influences. For example, a child has talent in mathematics by birth due to hereditary factor but if
the environment does support to develop his talent, the innate ability may not develop properly.

Characteristics of Biological Influences on Human Growth and Behaviors:-

The human growth and behaviors can be understood from the characteristics mentioned below:

a. Behaviors are reproduced in Successive Generations: Behaviors in species are handed

over from generation to generation. In other words, the particular behavior continues over
several generations. For example, goats live to move in flock.
b. Change in Biological Process determines Change in Behaviors: The changes in human
growth and behaviors are determined by changes in biological processes. If there is a change
in biological structure or process that leads to changes in human growth and behaviors also.
For example, if there is damage in a particular area of the brain of a person, the behaviors of
that person may change as he may express more aggressiveness or emotionality. Similarly,
the intake of certain drugs may change the brain chemistry which have produced behavioral
changes of human beings.
c. Behaviors run in families/ Behaviors are transmitted in families: It has been observed in
families that if a person in the family has mental disorder, other members of the same family
 may have same problem to some extent because they carry some similar genes which are
transmitted over generations.
d. Genes are Evolutionary: Behavioral changes occur through evolutions of genes. The genes
of chimpanzees and human beings are almost similar. So, chimpanzees are closest to human
beings and their characteristics and behaviors are more or less similar to humans which can
be traced on the basis of history of evolution of genes.

PERSONALITY:

Personality is a controversial concept. People used this in various ways. The term „personality‟
is derived from the Latin word „Persona‟ which means a theatrical mask used by actors in those
days to indicate their role in theatrical play. People usually think that personality means physical
attractiveness or reputation etc. So different terms are used to type a person, such as „he is shy‟,
„he is introvert‟ etc. Thus, everyone has got a personality. This personality includes both outer
self and inner self and both of these interact with each other. Several attempts have been made by
sociologists, philosophers and psychologists to define personality in different ways. All these
definitions emphasized on the total person, i.e., his external appearance, his abilities, tendencies,
innate and acquired characteristics. Some of these definitions are discussed below: Coleman
(1960) defined personality as “the individual’s unique pattern of traits, the pattern that
distinguishes him as an individual and accounts for his unique and relatively consistent way of
interacting with his environment”. According to Mischel (1986) personality as “what usually
refers to the distinctive patterns of behavior (including thoughts and emotions) that characterize
each individual’s adaptation to the situations of his or her life”. One of the most appropriate
definitions of personality has been given by G.W. Allport. He defined personality “as the
dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his
unique adjustment to his environment”. Thus, personality is the sum total of physical abilities
and mental traits of the individual which are dynamic and they help one to adjust to his
environment.

Characteristics of Personality
 a. Personality is unique.
b. Personality refers to relatively stable qualities of an individual.
c. Personality represents a dynamic orientation of an organism to the environment.
d. Personality is greatly influenced by social interaction.

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Personality theories have been classified into four groups.

They are:

1) Trait theories
2) Psychodynamic theories
3) Behavioral theories
4) Humanistic theories

Trait Theories

Trait theories attempt to describe personality as the sum of certain traits. According to Kimble
and Garmezy “trait is a stable and enduring attribute of a person which is revealed consistently in
different situations.” Allport believed that the pattern of these traits is unique in each individual
and determines his behaviours. Therefore, traits are consistent personality characteristics and
behaviours manifested in different situations. Trait theorists assumed that all people possess
certain traits, but the degree to which a particular trait applies to a specific person varies and can
be quantified. It is necessary for trait theorists is to identify specific primary traits in order to
describe personality. For example, If we compare the personalities of two persons, one being
extrovert and another being introvert. The extrovert person would be social, happy go lucky and
would make friends easily while the introvert’s behaviour would be shyness, lack of initiatives in
social interactions etc. Gordon Allport suggested that there are three major traits, viz. cardinal,
central and secondary traits in personality. The special trait which provides uniqueness to the
person is known as cardinal trait. The cardinal trait is observed in almost all the behaviours
throughout one’s life. A child who becomes the monitor of the class since beginning tries to be a
leader in the state. Central trait refers to the major characteristics of an individual. These traits
make up the core of personality. Central traits, such as honesty and sociability, they usually
number from five to ten in any one person. Secondary traits are characteristics that affect
behaviours of a person in fewer situations. These traits are less enduring. For example, a person
is invited to attend a marriage party, He may wear sherwani for this purpose but in general he
may like to wear casuals. Personality psychologist Raymond Cattell (1965) viewed that
personality is made of two types of traits – the surface traits and the source traits. He suggested
that sixteen pairs of source traits represent the basic dimensions of personality. He called source
traits as the core factors of personality and they are underlying internal traits responsible for
behaviours. On the other hand, surface traits are some general traits and are possessed by all
which are observable patterns of behaviour. He conducted research on these surface traits and
applied factor analysis. Another trait theorist Hans Eysenck (1992, 1994, and 1995) also used
factor analysis method to identify patterns of traits to discuss about the nature of personality. He
viewed that personality could be described in terms of just three major dimensions: extroversion,
neuroticism and psychoticism. The extraversion dimension relates to the degree of sociability,
the neurotic dimension emphasizes emotional stability and psychoticism encompasses to the
degree to which reality is distorted. Eysenck suggested that behaviour of a person can be
predicted accurately in a variety of situations by evaluating along these three dimensions. The
most influential trait approach contends that five traits or factors – called the “Big-Five” – lie at
the core of personality. Now-a-days the “Big-Five” represent the best description of personality
traits. The “Big-Five” factors are: (a) Extroversion, (b) Agreeableness, (c) Conscientiousness, (d)
Emotional stability and (e) openness to experience. Extroversion refers to a personality
dimension describing someone who is sociable, gregarious and assertive. Agreeableness
describes someone who is good natured cooperative and trusting. Conscientiousness is a measure
of reliability that describes someone who is responsible, dependable, persistent and organized.
Emotional stability characterizes someone as calm, self-confident, secure. The person with high
negative scores can be nervous, anxious, depressed and insecure. Openness to experience
dimension of personality characterizes someone in terms of imagination, sensitivity and
curiosity. Trait theories have also been criticized by some theorists. They have cautioned that
personality traits will not be expressed in the same way across different situations. Walter
Mischel has discussed about trait-situation interaction, in which the situation is assumed to
influence the way in which a trait is expressed. Trait theories do not reveal the origin of different
traits and how do they develop and can be modified or changed. These theories are empirical or
data oriented. Factor analysis theory has been criticized on the ground that individuality is lost.
The advantage of trait theories is that traits can be measured and persons can be compared on the
basis of different traits. Traits can be used to explain consistency in behaviours as well as why
people behave differently in a particular situation.

Psychodynamic Theories of Personality:-

Psychodynamic theories of Personality are otherwise called as Psychoanalytic theories of

Personality. These theories are based on the fact that personality is motivated by inner forces
about which individuals have little awareness and over which they have no control. Sigmund
Freud, an Austrian physician propounded the psychoanalytic theory in the early 1900s. His
theory is based on two forms of observations. He studied maladaptive behaviors of his patients
and also expression of humor and slips of tongue etc.; He tried to explain the concept of instinct
or drive which is known as urges. He argued that much of our behavior is motivated by the
unconscious, a part of the personality. Freud viewed that personalities of people develop through
conflict between their primary drives (sex and aggression) and social pressures; and early
childhood experiences are extremely important in the development of personality.

STRUCTURING PERSONALITY

Sigmund Freud, a clinical psychologist developed a comprehensive theory of Personality. He has

categorized the structure of personality into two:

1) Topographical aspects of mind

2) Dynamic aspects of mind Topographical aspects of mind: Freud has divided the structure
of mind into three levels:

a. the conscious,
b) the preconscious or the subconscious and
 c) the unconscious.

The conscious mind consists of all the things of which a person is aware at any given moment. In
other words, it refers to the experience or awareness of an object at the present moment. Freud
compared the human mind to an iceberg and viewed that only one-tenth part of the mind deals
with conscious experience. The segment of the mind where the readily recallable is to be located
is called by Freud the preconscious or subconscious.

The subconscious is the storehouse of surface memories and are readily retrieved though are not
conscious at the moment. The subconscious process is weak and when it gets some force from
the outside, it comes to the conscious level. Freud emphasized the unconscious mental process
which is about 9/10 part of the mind. He believed that the unconscious part of the mind is the
important determining factor in human behavior and personality. It is the level of mind where
thoughts, feelings, memories and other information are kept that are not easily or voluntarily
brought into consciousness.

Dynamic aspect of mind: Freud in his theory of personality has described that personality
consists of three separate but interacting components: the id, the ego and the superego.
According to Freud, the dynamic aspects of self-refer to the agents through which conflicts
arising in the instincts are resolved.

1) The id:- The primitive part of the personality is id. It is derived from the Latin word which
means „it‟. It is the raw, unorganized and innate part of personality. It is representative of the
unconscious and the storehouse of instinctual desires. The Id is completely amoral part of the
personality that exists at birth which contains all of the basic biological drives related to hunger,
sex, aggression and irrational impulses. Those drives are fuelled by „Psychic energy‟ which
Freud termed as „the libido‟. The id is guided by the pleasure principle, in which the goal is the
immediate reduction of tension and the maximization of satisfaction. The pleasure principle can
be stated as “if it feels good, do it”.
2) The ego: - It begins to develop soon after birth. The ego comes from the Latin word for „I‟
which is mostly conscious and is far more rational, logical and cunning than the id. The ego is
the „executive‟ of personality. The ego maintains balance between the desire of the id and the
realities of the objective, outside world. It is guided by the reality principle. Therefore, the ego
satisfied the demands of the id and reduce libido only in ways that will not lead to negative
consequences. Sometimes ego decides to deny the id to satisfy its desires because the
consequences would be painful.

3) The superego: - The final part of personality is called the superego. The superego is derived
from the Latin word which means „over the self-‟. It develops in childhood as the child learns
rights and wrongs of society and modeled by parents, teachers and other significant individuals.
The superego is guided by the moral principle. There are two parts to the superego: the ego ideal
and the conscience. The ego ideal is the sum total of all the behaviors which the child has learned
about from parents and others of the society. The conscience is another part of the superego that
makes people feel pride when they do the right thing and guilt, when they do the wrong thing.
The superego works at both conscious and unconscious level.

According to Sigmund Freud, both the id and the superego are unrealistic. They do not consider
the practical realities imposed by the society. As a result, the ego acts as a mediator between the
demands of the id and the superego. When the ego is pressurized with anxiety by id and
superego, it uses a number of defense mechanisms to release the anxiety and save the personality
from disintegration. The use of defense mechanisms is a common phenomenon and used
normally by everyone. The defense mechanisms function in the unconscious level. Sigmund
Freud conceived that much of the work on development of defense mechanisms was done by his
daughter, Anna Freud. According to Lynn M. Levo “Defense mechanisms are a means of
distancing, transforming or falsifying a person’s reality which reduce anxiety and allow the
individual to cope with whatever he/she is facing.” Defense mechanisms can be healthy or
unhealthy depending on the situations and the way the person uses them.

TYPES OF DEFENSE MECHANISMS

 These defense mechanisms are described below:

SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE MECHANISM:

(i) Sublimation :
It is considered as the most complete and successful of all defense mechanisms.
It is the transformation of sexual and aggressive urges into creative work into
socially acceptable directions. Thus, it is the form of channeling socially
unacceptable impulses and urges into socially acceptable behaviour. For example,
a person who is very aggressive becomes a professional cricket player.

UNSUCCESSFUL DEFENSE MECHANISMS:

(i) Denial :
It is a type of defense mechanism in which the person refuses to acknowledge a
threatening situation. It is the most primitive form of defense mechanism. For example, a
person who is a drug addict denies being a drug addict.
(ii) Regression:
It is a form of defense mechanism in which a person falls back on child like patterns of
responding in reaction to stressful situation. It refers to a state where an adult behaves
like a child. For example, a six year old baby starts wetting his bed after his parents bring
home a new baby.
(iii) Repression:
It is a primary defense mechanism and it is a direct method of dealing with anxiety.
Repression is a defense mechanism in which the person refuses to consciously remember
a threatening or unacceptable event, instead putting those events in to the unconscious
mind. For example, a person who was sexually abused as a child can not able to
remember the incident because bad memory has got repressed inside.
(iv) Projection:
The literal meaning of projection is “throwing out”. It is commonly used by everyone.
Projection is a form of defense mechanisms by which one transfers the blame of his own
shortcomings, mistakes and misdeeds to others and attributes to others his own
 unacceptable thoughts. For example, a lady is attributed to her friend’s husband but
denies this and believes the friend’s husband is attracted to her.
(v) Rationalization:
It is the invention of unconsciously acceptable motives by the ego to cover up those
unconscious motives which it cannot accept. In other words, it refers to the substitution
of a socially approved motive for a socially disapproved one. In this type defense
mechanism a person invents acceptable excuses for a unacceptable behaviour. For
example, a person who gives a lot of donation to charity may consider himself to be a
very generous but in fact he is motivated by guilty conscience.
(vi) Reaction Formation:
It is the defense mechanism by which a person forms an opposite emotional or
behavioural reaction one’s true feelings. Reaction formation is the development of
behaviour which is opposite to the unconscious desires of the person. For example, a
person is very angry but overtly he may state that he is not angry by showing smiles.
(vii) Displacement:
Displacement is commonly found in dreams of normal adults. It implies that redirecting
feelings from a threatening target to a less threatening one. In this defense mechanism
the discharge of an unconscious impulse by shifting from one original object to a
substitute takes place. For example, a child may be angry with his mother, he may not
express his anger towards his mother due to social restriction, but may do so by breaking
his doll into pieces.
(viii) Identification:
It is a mechanism which is very often used by normal people. In this defense mechanism
a person tries to become like someone else to deal with anxiety. For example, a student
may identify himself with a bachelor professor whose qualities he may like.
(ix) Compensation:
Compensation is also called as substitution. In this defense mechanism a person makes
up for inferiorities in one area by becoming superior in another area. In the process of
compensation a person tries to maintain balance of his weaknesses by overemphasizing
strengths in other areas. For example, a person who is not a good player, he may put all
his energises to become a good academician. Besides the above mentioned defense
mechanisms there are some other mechanisms like isolation, fantasy, fixation, etc. people
use to overcome their unpleasant experiences. When the ego of the individual is
threatened, the various defense mechanisms are used to resolve conflict and the person
would have able to maintain a balanced personality. However, excessive use of defense
mechanism is dangerous for the ego. Defense mechanisms are generally learned by the
person during childhood.

DEVELOPING PERSONALITY: PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

Sigmund Freud provided with a view that personality develops through a series of five
psychosexual stages. According to him failure to resolve conflicts at a particular stage
can result in fixation. He proposed that experiences and difficulties during a particular
childhood stage may predict specific characteristics in the adult personality. The process
of personality development of the child is divided into the following five overlapping
stages:
1. Oral Stage (birth to 12-18 months)
a) Oral sucking
b) Oral biting
2. Anal Stage – (12-18 months to 03 years)
a) Anal Explosive b)
Anal Retentive
3. Phallic Stage (3 to 5 – 6 years)
4. Latency Stage (5 – 6 years to adolescence)
5. Genital Stage (Adolescence to adulthood)

In the first stage of psychosexual development the mouth is the primary site of a kind of
sexual pleasure. If there is frustration at oral stage, it may result in verbal hostility. The
second stage of psychosexual development which begins from 12 months and continued
up to 03 years, during this period the area of getting pleasure changes from mouth to the
anus and the child gets pleasure by retaining and controlling feces and urine. The phallic
stage begins at about age of 03 years. During this stage the sex energy is localised in the
genital organs. In this stage the child must also negotiate the important hurdle of
personality development, the oedipal conflict through the process of identification. After
the resolution of oedipal conflict, the child enters in to the latency stage of psychosexual
development which lasts until puberty. In this period, the sexual interest becomes
dormant. The last stage is the genital stage which extends until death. At this stage the
sexual instinct starts to develop with the aim of reproduction. This theory has been
criticised on the ground that it lacks scientific validity. Freud made his observations by
observing few patients and developed his theory. His theory has had an impact on
western culture. This theory emphasizes that personality of the individual is influenced
by childhood experiences. This theory neglects the importance of healthy personalities.
The other psychodynamic theories have been advanced by Carl Jung and Adler.
According to Carl Jung we have a universal collective unconscious which means a
common set of ideas , feelings, images, and symbols that we inherit from our relatives,
the whole human race and even nonhuman animal ancestors from the distance past. Jung
proposed that collective unconscious contains archetypes, universal symbolic
representations of a particular person, object or experience of good or bad. Another
important contribution of Carl Jung was his interests in the concept of introversion (a
turning inward) and extroversion (a lowering outward). Alfred Adler, another Neo-
Freudian psychoanalyst proposed that the primary human motivation is a striving for
superiority. People do not have any control over their experiences during childhood
period. So they grow with a feeling of inferiority. As they grow old they try to cope with
this feeling. Those people who are able to cope effectively this feeling, they become
normal adults where as those fail to cope or have continuous anxiety over this, they
develop inferiority complex. However, these theories are criticized for their
overemphasis on heredity factor and childhood experiences in determining behaviours.
Behaviour or Learning theories

The trait and psychodynamic approaches have focused on the “inner” person whereas the
behaviour or learning approaches to personality focus on the “outer” person. According
to learning theorist personality is the sum of learned responses to the external
environment.
 Learning theorists’ view that personality is best understood by taking account the
person’s environment. In early 1940s, Dellard and Miller developed a scientific theory
and emphasized the role of learning.

The main tenets of this theory are observable behaviours and processes. All of us
possess certain innate needs like food, water, oxygen etc. which have to be fulfilled.
These needs are inherited but the way to fulfill these needs people learn to respond. The
researchers remarked that any response that reduces our need is reinforced and that
response is repeated to strengthen by fulfilling need in future. Thus, they learn to elicit
responses to different needs.

B. F. Skinner, the learning theorist viewed that personality is a collection of learned

behaviour patterns. He did certain experiments on animals and gave an idea about how
personality functions. Dollard and Miller analyzed the internal processes such as;
motivation, drives, etc., whereas Skinner emphasized upon observable behaviour only.
Skinner is less interested in behaviour across situations than in ways of modifying
behaviour.

Skinner discussed about two important concepts such as: generalization and
discrimination. People learn to elicit similar responses in similar situations and learn to
discriminate among responses.

Behaviour theories involve two types of conditioning:

(i) Classical conditioning and
(ii) Operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning was developed by Ivan Pavlov. It is learning a connection between two
stimuli, a neutral or conditioned stimulus and unconditional stimulus. For example, if a child is
ill, he associates his illness with the doctor from whom he may receive medicine. In operant
conditioning, B.F Skinner suggests a kind of learning in which a person learns to associate his
behaviour with the consequences of his own behaviour. For example, a child learns to respond
the answer of a question in a similar manner, in which the answer has been rewarded earlier.

Social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel. These theories of
behaviour emphasize role of cognitive processes. According to Skinner internal cognitive
processes such as thinking or feelings are not very important to behaviours. But social learning
theories emphasize the cognitive interpretation as being important in shaping the personalities.
Social learning theory holds that children learn by observing and imitating models.

Bandura’s theory is based on three components: (i) the behaviour of a person, (ii) the
environment in which one interacts or behaves others and (iii) to understand that a particular
behaviours would achieve the goal.

These three factors help in interaction in shaping behaviours. People are able to assess various
situations on the basis of their experience and also their capabilities to deal with various
situations. The behavioural and social learning theories emphasized upon social factors which
play an important role in developing and changing the personalities. These theories also indicate
as to why certain behaviours continue and same behaviours may change from situation to
situation. Skinner’s theory neglects the importance of hereditary factors. It does not take into
account the internal forces. But learning theory believed that events have cognitive analysis
dimensions. The behaviourist theorists were interested in modifications of behaviours. They
emphasized that the interaction between cognitive factors and environmental factors result in
modification of behaviour.

Humanistic Theories
A group of psychologists founded the association of Humanistic Psychology in the year
1962. They developed the theories, called as Humanistic theories, which gave
importance to the growth potential of human beings. These theories are the outcome of
researches on healthy persons.

Humanistic approaches discussed about people’s inner goodness and their tendency to
grow to higher levels of functioning. These approaches are based on the assumption is
that the personality of a person cannot be assessed by looking at his environment and
responses he elicits to the environment. Each individual is motivated to develop and tries
to develop his full potential and capabilities. Self-concept of a person grows from
infancy to adulthood on the basis of the accumulation of experiences.

During this process the person develops his self-image. All people possess the need for
self-actualization. According to Roger conflict may grow between people’s experiences
and their self-concept. In other words, Roger believed that self-image is the „real self-‟
of the person. A person strives for an ideal. This is termed as „ideal self-‟. If there is a
vast gap between the real self and ideal self the person became labelled as maladjusted
person. Roger suggests that unconditional positive regard provides people the
opportunity to evolve and grow both cognitively and emotionally and to develop more
realistic self-concepts.

Another Humanistic theorist Abraham Maslow developed a need hierarchy theory of

needs that motivate human behaviour. In everybody’s life there is hierarchy of needs
which starts from basic needs to end up to self-actualization. People strive to fulfil their
basic needs and when the basic needs are satisfied, then people go for higher order needs.
Maslow viewed that there are some deficiency needs and some growth needs have to
fulfil. In humanistic approach self plays an important element of human personality to
understand the concept of personality. One important criticism of this theory is that self
is purely subjective and vague concept. Self is an abstract term which cannot be
scientifically verified and experimented.

Self-perception of the society is subjective and on the basis of that behaviours cannot be
explained. These theorists also ignore experimental factors in shaping the behaviours of a
person. Another criticism of humanistic approach is that whether unconditional positive
regard does, in fact, lead to greater personality adjustment. This approach is also
criticized on the ground that people are basically „good‟ – that is unverifiable. In spite of
these criticisms humanistic theories have been important in highlighting the uniqueness
of human beings and guiding the development of a significant form of therapy to
alleviate psychological problems.
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

In this chapter students will be able to learn

 Issues involved in human development

 Different stages of development
 Various models of human development
 Physical, social and emotional aspects of development in different stages

Human development is a lifelong process. This development focused on describing behaviour in

order to derive age norms. Developmental psychologists tried to explain causes of behaviours, to
predict behaviours and try to modify behaviour through training or therapy. There is a sequential
pattern of development for each and every child. This development is different for different
children. Various forms of development like physical, social and emotional aspects of
development take place from infancy to old age. There are various stages of development and
development occurs in different manner in these different stages. It is essential to explain some
of the issues involved with development.

ISSUES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Developmental theories differ from each other on three basic issues.

They are:

(i) the relative importance of heredity and environment,

(ii) the active or passive character of development (continuous process), and
(iii) The existence of stages of development.

1. Heredity vs. Environment

Human development can be explained in terms of both heredity and environment. There is a
debate among theorists that heredity is important in the development of human beings or
environment influences development. It has been observed that some children are introvert while
others are extrovert.
The argument is that these characteristics are hereditary or environmentally determined. John
Locke, a philosopher remarked that the child’s mind is just like a blank state and things are
written in interaction with environment and experiences. John Watson was a behaviourist who
argued that it is the environment that influences development of human beings. He said, “If I get
some children, I can make them what I want to make”. J. J. Rousseau and Gesell were of the
view that heredity influences development of individuals. It is revealed from the research studies
that both heredity and environment influence human development. In Indian settings, it may be
observed that children who are reared up in enriched environment behave differently than to their
peer groups who raised in impoverished environment.

2. The Active or Passive character of development

There is a question that whether people are active in their own development or they are more
passively shaped by external forces. Some theorists believe that human beings always try to
discover and shape their own environment for their development. For example, children are
curious creatures and they actively construct their environment during their role playing games.
Some other psychologists emphasize that developments of human beings are controlled by
outside environment. For example, teachers and parents are blamed for not providing good
environment… … if a child does not perform well in his study.

3. Stages of Development

This issue relates to the importance of various stages of development. Development is a

continuous process. Early experience of the child is more important than later experience,
Therefore, if the proper experiences are not provided to the child at the right time, development
process may get affected. Developmental psychologists have observed that there are critical
periods of development. The impact of appropriate stimulation during that period is optimal in
specific kinds of behaviour than prior or later to that period. Several studies have been conducted
on animals (K. Lawrenz, 1937; Harry Harlow, 1978) and later on human beings to see whether
there are critical periods on human development. It has been observed that first six months are
critical period for health, emotional and social development of the child. Although some other
research studies reveal the adverse experiences in early childhood can be mitigated (amended) to
a certain extent in the later stage of life.
STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Human development is described in terms of stages covering the period from conception to
death. Each stage of development includes a time period during the life span and has its own
characteristics and a specific rate of development. But people vary with respect to time and rate
of development from one stage to another. Even though there is no consensus on classification of
various stages of development, the human life span can be divided into eight developmental
stages:

1. The prenatal period (conception to birth)

2. The stage of Infancy and Toddlerhood (birth to age 3)

3. The early childhood (3 to 6 years)

4. The middle childhood (6 to 11 years)

5. The period of Adolescence (11 years to about 20 years)

6. Young Adulthood (20 to 40 years) 7. Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)

8. Late Adulthood (65 years and above)

ERIKSON MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT

Erik Erikson (1902 – 1994) was a German born psychoanalyst, a pioneer in a life span
perspective. Erikson viewed that ego development occurs through one’s life time. Erikson’s
(1950, 1982) theory of psychosocial development covers eight stages across the life span.
According to Erikson each stage involves a “crisis” in personality – that is important at that time
and will remain an issue to some degree throughout the rest of life. In each stage there is the
balancing of a positive tendency and a corresponding negative one. Initiative vs. guilt is a
conflict children face between their urge to form and carry out goals. When they fail to reach
 their goals, they feel guilty. The sense of right and wrong morality emerges as a result of
identification with the parents. Children can resolve this crisis to acquire the virtue of purpose.
Erikson defines it as the courage to envisage and pursue valued goals. Children can then develop
into adults who combine spontaneous enjoyment of life with a sense of responsibility. Those
who cannot resolve this crisis may become repressed. If initiative dominates, they must continue
to believe. Erikson’s last stage is ego-integrity. The virtue of this stage is wisdom.

As Erikson mentioned different stages of human development, crisis is very typical of each stage
and resolution of it is a must. Resolution requires balancing a positive trait and a corresponding
negative trait. Both are required for healthy development. If either of the two predominates, there
will be imbalance and the conflict remains. Hence, the development of ego suffers.

TABLE: ERIKSON’S PSYCHOLOGICAL STAGES OF CHILDHOOD, ADOLSCENT

AND ADULT

State/Stage Age Developmental Crisis Successful Unsuccessful

Dealing with Dealing with Crisis
Crisis
1 Birth to 1 year Trust versus If babies‟ needs f babies‟ needs are
old Mistrust Babies learn are met, they not met, they learn
to trust or mistrust learn to trust not to trust
others based on people and expect
whether or not their life to be
needs such as food pleasant.
and comfort are met.
2 1 to 3 years old Autonomy versus If toddlers are If toddlers‟
Shame and Doubt successful in attempts at being
Toddlers realize that directing their independent are
they can direct their own behaviour, blocked, they learn
 own behaviour they learn to be self-doubt and
independent shame for being
unsuccessful
3 3 to 5 years old Initiative versus If preschoolers If preschoolers fail
Guilt Preschoolers are succeed in taking in taking
challenged to control responsibility, responsibility, they
their own behaviour, they feel capable feel irresponsible,
such as controlling and develop anxious and guilty.
their exuberance when initiative
they are in a
restaurant.
4 5 to 12 years old Industry versus When children If children fail to
Inferiority succeed at develop new
When children learning new ability, they feel
succeed in learning skills, they incompetent,
new skills and develop a sense inadequate, and
obtaining new of industry, a inferior.
knowledge, they feeling of
develop a sense of competence and
industry, a feeling of self-esteem
industry, a feeling of arising from their
competence arising work and effort.
from their work and
effort
5 Adolescence Identity versus Role Adolescents who Adolescents who
Confusion succeed in fail to define their
Adolescents are faced defining who they identity become
with deciding who or are and find a role confused and
what they want to be for themselves withdraw, or want
in terms of develop a strong to inconspicuously
occupation, beliefs, sense of identity. blend in the crowd
 attitudes, and
behaviour patterns.
6 Early Adulthood Intimacy versus People who Adults who fail at
Isolation succeed in this this task will be
The task facing those task will have isolated from other
in early adulthood is intimate people and may
to be able to share relationships. suffer from
who they are with loneliness.
another person in a
close, committed
relationship.
7 Middle Generativity versus Adults who Adults who fail will
Adulthood Stagnation The succeed in this be passive, and
challenge is to be challenge will be self-centered, feel
creative, productive, creative, that they have done
and nurturant of the productive, and nothing for the next
next generation. nurturant, thereby generation, and feel
benefiting that the world is no
themselves, their better off for their
family, being alive.
community,
country, and
future
generations.
8 Late Adulthood Ego Integrity versus Elderly people Elderly people who
Despair The issue is who succeed in fail will feel that
whether a person will addressing this their life is empty
reach wisdom, issue will enjoy and will fear death.
spiritual tranquility, life and not fear
sense of wholeness, death.
and acceptance of his
 or her life

FREUDIAN MODEL OF PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

Sigmund Freud (1953, 1964a, 1964b) proposed that people are born with biological drives that
must be redirected so as to live in society. The personality of the child is formed in childhood, as
children deal with unconscious conflicts between these inborn urges and the requirements of
civilized life. These conflicts occur in an unvarying sequence of five maturational based stages
of psychosexual development, In different stages of development, sexual pleasure shifts from
one body zone to another, i.e. from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals. According to
Sigmund Freud there are five stages of development. Freud believed that personality is formed in
first three stages which includes first few years of life, as children deal with conflicts between
their biological, sexually related urges and the pressures of the society. At each stage there a
change in the main source of gratification. Each stage is characterized by a typical pleasure
gaining behaviour as well as a conflict due to the social pressures. These stages are named
according to the source of pleasure at the particular stage.

They are:

Oral Stage (birth to 18 months):

It begins at birth and extended till 12 to 18 months. In this stage the mouth is the primary organ
of giving pleasure. The experience of the child and mother relationship has an impact on
unconscious mind of the child. This stage relates to the activities like feeding, crying, teething,
biting and thumb sucking, etc.

(Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years):

The child gets sensual gratification from withholdings and expelling feces during this stage.
Anus is the chief source of pleasure. The child’s real experiences during this stage have an
impact upon the unconscious and behaviours. Pleasure derived from body parts are the centre of
the world during this stage.
Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years):

During this period the child derives pleasure from genital region. Many of the normal sexual
behaviour of human personality develop in this period. The child’s sexual longing is intensified
at this time. This is the stage in which conflicts related to reproductive issues are resolved.

Latency Stage (6 to Puberty):

This stage is a stage of learning skills rather than a psychosexual stage. There is no sexual
development takes place during this period. This is the time of relative calm between more
turbulent stages. Previous experiences, fears and conditioning have shaped many of the child’s
feelings and attitudes.

Genital Stage (Puberty onwards):

This the time of mature adult sexuality. In this stage many hormonal and physical changes take
place. Children are engaged in sex-related thoughts and feelings. Narcissism takes place during
this stage.

PHYSICAL AND PSYCHO-SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN VARIOUS STAGES OF LIFE

1. Infancy and Toddlerhood

Stage Developmental psychologists used the term infancy to denote the period of development
that generally is from birth to two years of age. The word infant means “without language”.
Infancy includes development in the areas of cognition, perception, motor activity, emotion,
sociability and language. In the beginning of infancy period infants can recognize human faces
and after that they can differentiate between known and unknown faces and react differently.
Development on different areas take place through infancy to toddlerhood, i.e., the first three
years of life.

(I) Physical development:

It refers to the changes in the body. This development is rapid during infancy. Infants
increase their body weight almost triple and increase in height by about one-third during
the first year alone. Not only body size and weight of the infant increase but also brain
size expands rapidly during the first 18 months and brain weight of the infant reaching
more than half of the adult brain due to rapid growth of dendrites and axons within the
brain and glia cells. Physical development also includes development in vision, hearing,
perceptual development etc. Infants’ motor development takes place in a sequential
order and this type of development proceeds from head towards the limbs. Infant first
controls his head and trunk, then lift his chest, sit upright, crawling, creeping, stand with
help, stand along with holding some objects, walking and so on. This development
occurs due to improvement of skills and control of other body parts like legs, arms, etc.
Gradually children develop their eye, head and hand coordination and are able to pick up
things. In the early life, infant’s vision, hearing and perception are not clear and
focussed. The neonate prefers to perceive brighter colours and which are nearer to him.
These senses develop as the child matures from infancy to toddlerhood. The new born is
well equipped with sensory functioning for life. The child is capable to turn his head
toward a loud noise or clapping. Gradually he tries to locate the source of noise and he
can differentiate between the voice of mother and the father and also recognizes the
voices of other people. Another capacity of the infant is his ability to learn from
experience. For example, the child learns to suck faster when sucking is pleasant. Piaget
noted that the sensory motor stage of cognitive development occurs during infancy.
During infancy period there are development in vision, control of muscles and nervous
 system, start to eat and sleep on regular intervals, sit on their own and to hold objects
themselves.

(II) Social and Emotional Development:

Infants at about two months old demonstrate social smiling in response to human faces.
When they are four months old, they show laughter and express anger, sadness and
surprise by six months. By 8 or 10 months, they actively seek information about other
people’s feelings. They learn to respond when somebody calls them by their names at
about age six to twelve months. They also have face to face contact. They are afraid of
when their parents or care-taker leaves them. They start expressing anger if their needs
are not met. Thus, social and emotional development starts during the period of infancy
to toddlerhood itself Children start expressing their feelings of trust, fear, confidence,
love, etc. They express affection as a form of emotion to others as a part of social
emotional development.. If a child is neglected during this period, it affects his social
emotional development negatively. During this period as children are attached with their
care givers, parents and other siblings, etc., so children develop separation anxiety if they
are separated from them. This appears at the age of nine months.

(III) Cognitive Development

Infants express their intellect by making various sounds like gurgling, cooing, etc. They
observe their own hands and feet. They gradually learn the relationship between their
actions and the external world. They can manipulate various objects to produce effects.
Infants seem to acquire knowledge about the world only through motor activities and
sensory impressions. They try to focus their eyes on various objects and people, put
everything in their mouth. Children develop ability to form mental representation during
infancy. Around the end of the 9th month infants demonstrate object permanence. By
babyhood stage they learn to make sounds like mama, papa, they try to copy various
activities as others do. By 12 months of age many children are able to say some words
which can be understood by others. During infancy children start developing language
ability, learn through their sense organs and explore the world in their own ways. In this
period children are dependent on others where as in toddlerhood stage, creativity and
 socialization begins. In infancy period emotions are of simple type but in toddlerhood
emotions are of varying types and growth is faster than other periods of life.

2. The Childhood Stage:

This stage includes two sub-stages:

One is early childhood and another is late childhood. This period covers the period between the
ages of 3 to 11 years. Sometimes the girls at 13 years and boys at 14 years of age are considered
as adolescents and till then the child is considered being in the childhood stage. During this
period significant physical and psychological changes take place. But compared to infancy,
growth rate is slow but stable during the childhood. In this stage, children gain 2 to 3 inches in
height and 5 to 6 pounds in weight every year. They learn to walk, run, jump and play. They can
gain knowledge to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. Their physical capacities
increased independently, they perform tasks and meet adult expectations in several ways.

(I) Physical Development:

Early childhood stage covers the age range from 3 to 6 years. Children begin to develop athletic
appearance and they lose their babyish roundness. As abdominal muscles develop, the trunk,
arms and legs grow longer. Their brain and head grow rapidly than any other parts of the body.
The late childhood period extends from 6 to 11 years. This period is known as pre-adolescence.
The different parts of the body become stronger during this period. Children learn to use their
body parts appropriately with speed and for proper behaviours. During late childhood period
some of the habits like table manners interactions with others, eating appropriately, etc. may also
be modified wherever needed. In this period importance is given to physical strength of children.
If a particular child is not growing physically at per with other children of his age, the child may
be emotionally and socially depressed.

Psycho-Social Development:
In early childhood stage children can say full sentences, express their feelings and emotions and
communicate their needs and feelings and emotions and communicate their needs and feelings
with others. During early childhood children have better control of their physical movement and
can have better coordination of their body parts. They also learn how to cooperate with other
children and conflict resolution when they are about the age of five or six years they are
independent in various ways. There are three important socio-emotional developments, such as;
development of self, gender roles and moral development, take place during childhood period.
Through the process of identification the child comes to know who he is and differentiates from
who he wants to be. The child is aware of this process through his observation and imitation of
parents and significant others. The child’s personality is laid down by this identification. The
child learns the socially appropriate behaviours by observing and participating in the social
events. When the children are about the age of 5 to 6 years they can understand that they belong
to a particular gender and also learn to behave gender roles. When the children enter into school,
their interaction changes from supervising adults to classmates. As the social environment
changes the children begin to experience feelings of independency and freedom from authority
through negotiation, compromise and discussion. Social identification and social comparison
help them to describe themselves. For example, I am a student of DAV Public School,
Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar and I got more marks than Dinesh. Parenting style plays an
important role in psycho-social development of children. A balanced parenting style which is
neither permissive nor authoritative is acceptable and helps in social and emotional development
of children. But children of authoritative parents are afraid of their parents and children of
permissive parents are impulsive and immature. Besides parenting style peer group influence has
also an impact on socialisation process of children. During childhood period the children can
able to differentiate between right and wrong. They experience feeling of guilt by doing a
mistake, feel sorrow and happiness for them. These are experienced by the children due to their
moral development.

Cognitive Development:

The childhood period is important for cognitive development of children. Children are curious to
know the answers of questions like, “why”, “Where” and “How” for everything that happens.
Cognitive abilities include memory, reasoning, perception, problem solving and thinking abilities
which continue to emerge throughout childhood. Jean Piaget worked on childhood cognitive
development. He concluded that children are not less intelligent than adults but they simply think
differently. Piaget explained that human beings acquire knowledge through interaction with the
environment in which he lives in, Piaget named early child hood (2 to 7 years) as the
preoperational stage of cognitive development which there is a great expansion in the use of
symbolic thought, or representational ability. But they are not able to use logic. In this stage
children do not need to be in sensory motor contact with an object, person or event in order to
think about it. They are aware that superficial alternations do not change the nature of things and
also understand the cause-effect relationship. They develop the ability to classify objects, people
and events. Children can count and deal with quantities. They become more able to imagine how
others might feel and aware of mental activity and the functioning of the mind. For example,
Ranu saw a pencil rolling down from behind and she looks back for the person who threw it.
According to Piaget children enter the concrete operational stage during middle childhood period
which begins at about age 7 and ends at age 12 years. In this period children can use mental
operations to solve actual problems and they can think more logically. They can perform many
tasks at a much higher level than before. They have developed abilities to use maps and models
and to communicate spatial information improve with age. They have a better understanding of
cause and effect relationship, of categorization of inductive and deductive reasoning and of
conservation.

Adolescence

The term adolescence is derived from the Latin word adolescere, which means to sprout into
maturity. It is the intermediate period between childhood and adulthood. This period is otherwise
called as the age of teenagers. It includes three sub periods, such as: early adolescence (12 yrs. -
14 yrs), middle adolescence (14 yrs -17 yrs) and late adolescence (17 yrs -19 yrs). Adolescence
is the developmental transition between childhood and adulthood entailing major physical,
cognitive and psychological changes. During this period physical changes that occur are
universal, but social and psychological changes largely depend on the cultural contexts. As this is
the transitional phase of life adolescents’ rebel against their parents and society most often.
Therefore, this period is labelled as storm and stress period.

Physical Development

Sexuality and identity formation are two major challenges of the period of adolescence. During
this period the most rapid physical growth occurs. There are changes in the growth rate, sexual
characteristics, and behaviour. Adolescent boys and girls develop in their height, weight, strength
and development of bones, muscles, etc. Puberty and sexual maturity for both boys and girls
marks the beginning of the adolescent period. Growth spurts and development of secondary sex
characteristics signal about the onset of adolescence. Menstruation is the first sign of puberty for
girl whereas appearance of few whiskers is the sign of puberty for boys. The approximate age for
sexual maturation is 12.5 years for boys and 10.5 years for girls. Puberty begins in response to
changes in the hormonal system. Sex hormones like testosterone in males and estrogen in
females are secreted from the sex glands. The secretion of sex hormones help in pubertal
development and also closely associated with emotions. During this period emotion like
aggression is found in boys and depression is marked in girls. They try to imitate their idols.
Girls are conscious about their shapes and do what their friends do while boys try to go for body
building.

Psycho-Social Development

During this period the physical changes in adolescents bring about a wide variety of
psychological changes. Adolescents become innovative and take interest in learning various
skills with great interest. They feel that no one understands them, and they often consider
themselves to be „superman‟. Their sense of uniqueness is expressed in the form of personal
fable around them away from the world of reality. They are argumentative and they have a
tendency to find fault with the authority figures. They do not able to differentiate between ideal
and real. Adolescents are very self-conscious and it is expressed in the concept of imagery
audiences. These imaginary audiences criticise, encourage and motivate an adolescent. Peer
group influence is very important during adolescence. They want to do what their friends are
doing, Adolescents abuse alcohol and drugs under peer pressure. Developmental psychologists
viewed that adolescence as a period of risk, turmoil, uncertainty and conflict, if proper care is not
taken during this period children became antisocial, abusive or depressed. They also develop
eating disorders if they are not getting proper love and affection from the parents. In this period
if adequate atmosphere is provided to them and they get high parental support, then they can
develop their abstract thinking, reasoning skills and other social behaviours. The important task
of adolescents is to establish an identity independent of their parents. They do not like anyone to
interfere in their opinions, trust, believes and decision making process. They have their own
expectations and they are also very emotional during this period. Adolescents suffer from
different problems like teenage pregnancy and juvenile delinquency. So, positive relationship
with parents, peers, siblings and adults play an important role during adolescence period.

Cognitive Development

During adolescence not only there are changes in body structures occur but also they think
differently from younger children. Jean Piaget opined that adolescents enter the highest level of
cognitive development, i.e. formal operational stage of cognitive development. During this
period adolescents thoughts change from concrete objects to abstract events. They can think
flexibly enough about the world. They accumulate knowledge through interaction and apply the
learned concepts to new tasks. Teenagers develop their reasoning skills and engage in
hypothetical deductive reasoning. As adolescents develop their logical thinking, they are
becoming aggressive and argumentative. They are able to understand abstract concepts such as
congruence and mass and they think in terms of theoretical concepts. They are conscious about
others opinion regarding them and curious enough to know about spirituality, traditions and
beliefs. Thus, during adolescence people deal with problems on an abstract level, to form
hypothesis and to reason from proposition that are contrary to fact. Paget’s theory of cognitive
development has been criticised on the following grounds:

a) Piaget has given too much emphasis on physical maturation based on cognitive development.
b) He has not included environmental factors and experiences that people accumulate during the
process of growing up.
c) He has overlooked the concept of the individual differences in his theory
Adulthood

Stage An adult is someone who is responsible, mature, self-supporting and well integrated into
society. Also people do not develop these attributes and characteristics at the same time and with
same skills. This adult stage has three sub-stages of development. First stage is early adulthood,
second stage is middle adulthood, and third stage is late adulthood. In early childhood period
adults are at the peak of physical health, strength and energy. Sensory and motor systems are at
their highest functioning. Adults gain weight and their height increases. They develop intimate
relationships, they marry and begin their families. At this period of life adults take many
important decisions of life like choice of career, type of friends, residence, etc. independently
and accept responsibility and consequences for their own decisions. Every adult tries for
recognition, job security and to excel in his job. Middle adulthood period is explained in terms of
a gradual decline in one’s physical abilities, physical health, stamina etc, but the decline is
gradual in nature. Both men and women feel tired easily. In this period people experience stress
due to the double responsibility of caring for the aged parents and the growing children. Women
usually experience hormonal changes which results in the loss of ability to reproduce, a process
called menopause. Many psychological and intellectual changes occur in middle age. During this
period, women express more assertiveness and men are more nurturant. The term “late
adulthood” is roughly equivalent to old age.

This is the final stage of physical change. Robert Havinghurst lists major tasks in the middle
years:  Accepting and adjusting to physiological changes, such as menopause.

 Reaching and maintaining satisfaction in one’s occupation.

 Adjusting to and possibly caring for aging parents.

 Helping teenage children to become responsible adults.

 Achieving adult, social and civic responsibility.

 Relating to one‟s spouse as a person.

 Developing leisure time activities. Some people suffer from depression due to middle age crisis
by thinking that some important years of their lives are over while some others try hard to
achieve their goals by changing their life styles. Some people engage themselves in creative
activities to get self-satisfaction. Other people get worried about the future of their children and
some start worrying about their post retirement activities.

Physical Development

Physical growth and development is at its maximum during this period. Physical strength usually
is more than previous years due to mature physical structures. Strength, speed, coordination and
endurance for activity is greatest during this period. A number of sensory and neural functions
are optimal levels during this period. Full brain weight and mature brain wave patterns are
observed at this stage of development. Changing life style pattern has an impact on growth and
development. In the middle adulthood period (during 20s) there is a decline in our physical
stamina and health. At that time physical functioning are generally perfect, but physical
attractiveness declines and biological changes in the sexual life occurs. The physical changes like
loss of elasticity of the skin, resulting in facial lines as well as looseness in other parts of the
body are easily noticeable through external physical appearance. There is a marked change in
visual activity. People suffer from presbyopia – the far sightedness associated with aging. The
auditory problem is also associated with increasing age, i.e. presbycusis. It means progressive
loss of hearing. In this period loss of taste, smell and sensitivity to touch also occurs. Some
physiological changes like enlargement of prostrate gland, less enzyme secretion in the
gastrointestinal tract, diminished ability to pump blood, reduced kidney functioning, etc. take
place

Psycho-Social Development

During early years of adulthood, people face the problem of choosing, preparing for and
entering into careers brings a lot of social changes in the adult. They have cordial relationships
with their siblings. They spend very few times with friends because their energies are consumed
for family and work. Middle adulthood people have children of adolescent age. It is very difficult
to handle their problems. Conflicts occur between parents and children regarding „giving‟ and
„getting‟ independence. Parents have to help their children in their search for identity. Middle
aged adult also have important responsibilities towards their parents. In this period they also try
to b satisfied at work place. People are worried about their jobs and pay packages because they
have to meet the daily needs of themselves and of the family.

Cognitive Development

Intellectual ability and cognitive skills are high in early adulthood. Middle adulthood people can
not learn new skills. Recent research suggests that intellectual development continues into late
adulthood. Intellectual development continued and that are influenced by the accumulation of the
experiences of life, i.e. verbal skills, social knowledge and moral judgements. During this period
people show changes in logic and morality. It is observed that creativity peaks in the early
adulthood but forms of creativity that require experience, revision and interpretation either
remain unchanged or increase in middle age. People utilise their cognitive skilss and creativity
particularly at the work place in order to get recognition. Studies revealed that intelligence
declines with age, but there is no certainty that intelligence and age are related with each other.

Late Adulthood

The term late adulthood is rightly equivalent to old age. This is the final stage of physical
change. It is difficult to consider the exact age of a person for being old. The onset of old age
may vary from country to country. Although the retirement age is considered as one of the
criteria of old age, it varies from job to job. For example, in India the retirement age for
government organisation is 58 years while for Universities it is 62 years and in some other
institutions like IIT and IIM it is 65 years. Now-a-days people beyond 70 years are considered as
old. It is the period of decline where the person thinks that he has done what he wanted to do and
most of his life span is over. Today researchers used two categories to describe old age people.

(i) The young Old:

This category of older people irrespective of their actual age, are vital, vigorous and active.

(ii) The Old:

Those older individuals who are infirm, inactive and suffer from physical problems include in
this group. As most of older persons suffer from physical problems, they became less active.
There are changes in body like wrinkles in face, rough skin, gray hairs, problems in hearing and
eye sight, bones and joints problems, change in voice, etc. They may suffer from various
diseases. Old people also suffer from irreversible mental problem, which is organic in nature and
is called „Alzheimer’s disease. During late adulthood period significant changes take place
which are mentioned below.

(I) Physical Development

The experiences of old age are not same for everybody. Some people are worried about old age
particularly those who are single or there is nobody in the family to support them economically
or have continued physical ailments. It is a period in one‟s life span that is characterized by
physical decline.

There are two types of physical changes during old age.

They are (a) Primary ageing and (b) Secondary ageing.

Primary ageing is that in which bodily deterioration occur by the passage of time or by genetic
factors which is gradual and inevitable. Secondary ageing results from disease, disuse or abuse of
body which is preventable. Many structural and functional changes occur as people reach old
age.

Common physical changes like decrement in sensory abilities of vision, hearing, taste,smell and
other senses, skin becomes inelastic, decrease in fat and muscle tissue, loss of teeth, deterioration
of bone tissue, decline in height due to compression of spinal disc and postural strop etc. occur
due to primary ageing. Physical changes occur due to secondary ageing are also different for
different people. For example, physical changes of diabetic people are different from persons
who are suffering from arthritis.

Old people are also inefficient in sensory-motor coordination. They can not respond to the
physical demands of stressful situations as quickly or efficiently as possible. They are prone to
accidents due to decline of reserve capacity of physical energy. Thus, ageing affects appearance,
sensation and motor abilities of a person. However, despite the problems of old age some people
lead a happy life due to their positive thinking towards life and they are physically fit by doing
yoga and exercises. They are developing and enjoying their hobbies and their perception of old
age for relaxation help them free from different ailments.

(II) Psycho-Social Development

Many psycho-social changes happen to people during old age. The statement that old age is a
period for waiting death can prove to be a myth. Commonly people believe that old age is a curse
so far as physical and psychological aspects of life are concerned. According to Erikson during
late adulthood the outcome of a well-integrated person is wisdom.

Wisdom means accepting life as it is, accepting imperfections in self, parents and in life and
having no regrets. Old people remain in a state of inward depression and dissatisfaction. These
internal feelings are manifested in reaction formations for which they become over sensitive and
demanding. Some old people depend on their children to a large extent.

This undue dependence makes them sad. But those people who are independent and less
expectations from their children and other support system, they are happy in their old age and
they engage themselves in various activities. They think that old age is the golden age because
they are free from family responsibilities and burdens of job. There are many social and cultural
factors influence3 the process of successful ageing. Financial security and close relationship with
children or other relatives or good friends make people healthy in old age. Ageing is a process of
growing old.

The most important theory that explains the psychosocial aspects of ageing are:

(i) The activity theory, and

(ii) The disengagement theory.

(i) The Activity Theory :

This theory states the relationship between keeping active and ageing well. According to this
theory, persons who age successfully keep themselves busy in many activities and they find
substitutes for activities which they have lost due to retirement and also they perform many roles.
As role decreases, ageing increases.

(ii) The Disengagement Theory:

This theory reveals that successful ageing by mutual withdrawal between society and the older
person. Generally, older people voluntarily minimize their activities by retiring and also society
encourages this by making individuals retire.

(III) Cognitive Development

People commonly believe that with old age intellectual decline occurs. Intellectual decline is
associated with respect to certain functions such as; speed, perceptual integration ability,
memory and inductive reasoning. People show variability in intellectual functioning in late
adulthood period. Researchers classified intelligence into two types.

They are:

(1) Fluid intelligence and

(2) Crystallized intelligence.

Fluid intelligence declines as age increases. Fluid intelligence involves ability to perceive
relations, form concepts and reason abstractly. Crystallized intelligence involves the ability to
remember and use learned information. Fluid intelligence includes reasoning, memory and
information, processing capabilities, whereas crystallized intelligence is the acquired knowledge
of the person. During old age people forget that may lead to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease
which is possible due to Fluid intelligence, because it relates to neurological functioning. On the
other hand, crystallized intelligence helps in storing information. Therefore, in old age people
should keep their minds active by mental exercises such as problem solving analysis and other
operations etc.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. Describe the various issues in human development with suitable examples.

2. Differentiate between Erikson’s and Freud’s stages of human development.
3. Explain the physical developments of human being since infancy to old age.
4. “Old age is a golden age” – Elucidate.
5. Explain the physical, psychological and cognitive development during adolescence.
“Adolescence is a period of storm and stress” – Explain.
6. Describe the middle age crisis by citing suitable examples.
7. Why infancy period is a critical period in development?