Family and Human Development
Family and Human Development focuses on growth across the lifespan and the family as an interactive system. Exam items ask you to apply developmental theory, distinguish parenting styles, analyze family structures, and select appropriate support strategies.
Developmental frameworks
- Erikson: psychosocial stages; adolescence centers on identity vs. role confusion; young adulthood on intimacy vs. isolation.
- Piaget: cognitive stages; formal operational thought emerges in adolescence.
- Bronfenbrenner: ecological systems-microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem.
- Family systems: roles, rules, boundaries, communication patterns, and adaptation to stress.
Parenting and communication
Baumrind’s styles combine warmth and control. Authoritative parenting is high warmth plus high, explained expectations and typically predicts better self-regulation. Authoritarian is low warmth/high control; permissive is high warmth/low control; uninvolved is low both. Use “I” messages and active listening to reduce defensiveness.
Worked example
A 15-year-old asks for a later curfew. A parent says, “I worry about safety. Let’s agree on 10 p.m. and a text check-in, then review in two weeks.” This is authoritative: firm limits, warmth, reasoning, and growing autonomy. An authoritarian response would impose a curfew without discussion; a permissive response would set no limit.
Traps that cost marks
- Reversing authoritarian and authoritative.
- Assuming single-parent or blended families are deficient rather than analyzing resources and stress.
- Treating one theory as universal while ignoring culture, disability, or context.
- Labeling a developmental milestone delay without considering range and environment.