Human Development
CBSE Notes for Class 11 Psychology
• Development is viewed as lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic,
historically embedded, multidisciplinary and biological. Cognitive and socio-
emotional processes influence development.
• The ideas about development revolve around three issues: nature and nurture,
continuity and discontinuity and stability and change. Some basic principles
underline the process of development, which can be observed in all human beings.
• There are different stages of development signifying specific developmental tasks
to be accomplished during that period or stage of life.
• Infancy is the period from birth to 18 months of age. It marks the beginning of
language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination and social learning.
• Early childhood years extend from end of infancy to 5 to 6 years of age and are
also called the “preschool year”. The middle and late childhood years is the period
from 6 to 11 years of age. The child is able to master the fundamental skills of
reading, writing and arithmetic, the child also develops physically, socially and
morally.
• Adolescence begins at puberty, and is the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Physical changes in adolescence include the development of secondary sex
characteristics, hormonal changes, and spurt in growth. The major developmental
tasks for the adolescent include identity formation and coming to terms with
biological changes taking place.
• Adult year is the time of establishing personal and economic independence,
starting a career, getting married and starting a family. Middle adulthood is the time
for the individual to adjust to vocational changes, expanding families, changing roles
e.g. grand-parenting etc. Old age is the time to respond to changes in physical and
cognitive capacities, retirement and death of spouse.
• Later adult years represent another segment of life span which are accompanied
by physiological and cognitive changes.
CBSE Notes for Class 11 Psychology
• Development is viewed as lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic,
historically embedded, multidisciplinary and biological. Cognitive and socio-
emotional processes influence development.
• The ideas about development revolve around three issues: nature and nurture,
continuity and discontinuity and stability and change. Some basic principles
underline the process of development, which can be observed in all human beings.
• There are different stages of development signifying specific developmental tasks
to be accomplished during that period or stage of life.
• Infancy is the period from birth to 18 months of age. It marks the beginning of
language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination and social learning.
• Early childhood years extend from end of infancy to 5 to 6 years of age and are
also called the “preschool year”. The middle and late childhood years is the period
from 6 to 11 years of age. The child is able to master the fundamental skills of
reading, writing and arithmetic, the child also develops physically, socially and
morally.
• Adolescence begins at puberty, and is the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Physical changes in adolescence include the development of secondary sex
characteristics, hormonal changes, and spurt in growth. The major developmental
tasks for the adolescent include identity formation and coming to terms with
biological changes taking place.
• Adult year is the time of establishing personal and economic independence,
starting a career, getting married and starting a family. Middle adulthood is the time
for the individual to adjust to vocational changes, expanding families, changing roles
e.g. grand-parenting etc. Old age is the time to respond to changes in physical and
cognitive capacities, retirement and death of spouse.
• Later adult years represent another segment of life span which are accompanied
by physiological and cognitive changes.
