Human Development
Overview
Human development examines physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes across the lifespan. The exam tests stage theories, heredity–environment interaction, and key developmental milestones from prenatal life to adolescence.
Core concepts
- Development is lifelong, multidimensional and plastic; it reflects both maturation and experience.
- Piaget’s stages: sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (egocentrism, lack of conservation), concrete operational (conservation, classification), formal operational (abstract reasoning).
- Kohlberg’s moral stages: preconventional (punishment/obedience, self-interest), conventional (social approval, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal principles).
- Erikson’s psychosocial stages include trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame, industry vs inferiority, and identity vs role confusion in adolescence.
- Attachment (Bowlby; Ainsworth) describes secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-ambivalent patterns.
Worked example
A 5-year-old sees water poured from a wide glass into a tall narrow glass and says there is “more water now.” This illustrates failure of conservation, typical of Piaget’s preoperational stage. The child centres attention on height and ignores width-centration. By the concrete operational stage, the child usually recognises that the amount is unchanged because the operation can be reversed.
Traps that cost marks
Do not treat Piaget’s stages as rigid age deadlines; development varies. Do not confuse assimilation (fitting new experience into an existing schema) with accommodation (changing the schema). Object permanence belongs to the sensorimotor stage. Kohlberg’s preconventional morality is not the same as moral indifference. Adolescence centres on identity formation, not only physical growth.
Exam focus
Match a described behaviour to the correct stage or concept and explain the reasoning.