Human Development and Family Studies
Human Development and Family Studies
This domain tests principles of growth and development, stage-wise milestones, family types and the family life cycle. Questions often ask you to identify a stage or explain a principle.
Core rules and concepts
- Growth is quantitative (height, weight); development is qualitative (skills, behaviour). Both are continuous, sequential, and follow cephalocaudal and proximodistal directions.
- Rate of development differs between children; milestones give a range, not a fixed timetable.
- Piaget: sensorimotor (0–2), preoperational (2–7), concrete operational (7–11), formal operational (11+).
- Erikson: trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame (1–3), initiative vs guilt (3–6), industry vs inferiority (6–12), identity vs role confusion (adolescence).
- Family types: nuclear, joint, extended; patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal. Functions: reproduction, socialization, economic, emotional and protective.
- Family life cycle stages: beginning, childbearing, preschool, school-age, adolescent, launching, middle-aged, ageing.
Worked example
A 7-year-old cannot understand that water in a tall glass equals water in a wide glass. Reasoning: this is conservation. According to Piaget, the child is in the preoperational stage (2–7), where thinking is perceptual and irreversible. At 7–11, concrete operational thought allows conservation.
Traps
Using growth and development interchangeably; expecting all children to walk by 12 months; labelling a joint family as always better; ignoring cultural variation in milestones.