Concept of human development. Recorded in Power Point Mode.

1. Concept of Human
Development
Dr. Rajesh Verma
Asst. Professor in Psychology
Govt. College Adampur, Hisar, Haryana
(Background image courtesy: Shri Madbhagwad Geeta)

2. Development in Indian Literature
BG: 2.28 – “All bodies are latent in the
beginning, they manifest in the middle, O
Bhaarata. In the end, they will become latent
again, so why should you grieve about this”.
It means that life emerges from oblivion,
manifests itself and finally dissolves into
oblivion. ‘Manifests itself’ is the space where
development occurs in the city of nine gates (BG:
5.13). The control & purification of ‘mind’ is the
fundamental in the process of development
during the manifestation process.

3. BG: 13.6 – The field of activities (body) is
composed of the five great elements, the ego, the
intellect, the unrevealed primordial matter
(prakṛiti), the eleven senses (daśhaikaṁ) (five
knowledge senses, five working senses, and mind),
and the five objects of the senses.
(i) pañcha-mahābhūta (the five gross elements—
earth, water, fire, air, and space),
(ii) Five knowledge senses (ears, eyes, tongue,
skin, and nose),
(iii) The five working senses (voice, hands, legs,
genitals, and anus), and
(iv) mind.

4. BG: 13.7 – Desire and aversion, happiness and
misery, the body, consciousness, and the will—all
these comprise the field and its modifications.
The body is the field of activities. It undergoes
six transformations until death
(i) asti (coming into existence),
(ii) jāyate (birth),
(iii) vardhate (growth),
(iv) viparinamate (reproduction),
(v) apakṣhīyate (withering with age),
(vi) vinaśhyati (death).
It supports the soul in its quest for happiness.

5. Psychologists who Studied Development
(i) Jean Piaget (Cognitive Development),
(ii) Urie Bronfenbrenner (Contextual View of
development),
(iii) Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Social
Development Theory),
(iv) Durganand Sinha (Ecological Model),
(v) Harry Frederick Harlow (Effect of
Attachment on social and cognitive development),
(vi) Erik Erikson (Psychosocial Development), and
(vii) Lawrence Kohlberg (Moral Development).

6. Meaning of Development
The gradual qualitative and
quantitative changes or acquiring new
stages over life span by human being from
conception to birth and to old age is the
process of development. The development
is a structural and functional flow through
the cycle of life. The pattern of
development is similar but the
manifestation of it is unique in each human
being.

7. Major Developmental Stages
(i) Prenatal Stage (40 weeks/9 months)
(ii) Infancy (up to 2 years)
(iii) Childhood (3 to 11 years)
(iv) Adolescent (12 to 17 years)
(v) Adulthood (18 to 60 years)
(vi) Old age (> 60 years)

8. Definition - “Development is the pattern of
progressive, orderly, and predictable changes
that begin at conception and continue
throughout life”. It involves both growth and
decline in physical, psychological and social
domains of human being.
(Image courtesy: https://www.bloemfonteincourant.co.za/ouderdom-nie-vir-sissies/)

9. Few Examples of Developmental Changes:
(i) Physical – Muscular & bone strength
changes etc.
(ii) Psychological – Changes in cognitive
system such as thinking pattern, problem solving
ability, attention and perceptual process etc.
(iii) Social – Changes in interpersonal relations,
social adaptation, social behaviour etc.
http://www.korospress.com

10. Development is not an isolated phenomena, it is
the interplay of Biological, Cognitive and Socio-
emotional processes.
(i) Biological – The genes inherited from parents
influences the development of height, weight, brain,
heart, lungs, and physiological features comes under
biological processes.
(ii) Cognitive – The changes in mental faculties such
as memory, recognition, understanding abstraction
etc.
(iii) Socio-emotional – The changes in social
interaction, emotional response and in personality etc.
For example child’s hug or manifestation of sorrow
by an adolescent on losing a competition etc.

11. Life Span Perspective on Development
(i) Development is life long (gain and loses).
(ii) Development is multidirectional.
(iii) Development is highly plastic i.e. within
person it is modifiable (skills and abilities can
be improved)
(iv) Development is influenced by historical
conditions. For example the experiences of 20
years olds who lived through the freedom
struggle in India would be very different from
the experiences of 20 years olds today.

12. Continued……
(v) Development is studied by psychology,
anthropology, sociology, neuroscience etc.
(vi) The individual responses are context
dependent i.e. individual responds on the
basis of inheritance, immediate environment,
social set up and cultural factors.
https://www.wits.ac.za

13. Major Terms
(i) Development – A process by which an
individual grows and changes throughout the life
cycle.
(ii) Growth – It refers to an increase in the size of
body parts or of the organised as a whole. It can be
measured or quantified.
(iii) Maturation – It refers to the changes that
follow an orderly sequence and are largely dictated
by the genetic blueprint which produces
commonalities in our growth and development.
(iv) Evolution – it refers to species specific
changes. Emergence of human beings from great
apes about 14 million years ago.

14. Next Lecture
Principles of Human
Development

15. Thanks
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