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Unit 3
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3.1 Characteristics and Developmental Tasks of Different Stages of Human Development:
Human Development is a continuous process. It is integrated form of physical, social, emotional, lingual and moral growth of an individual. It starts from the conception and ends to the death.
3.1.1 Prenatal Period: It is the starting stage of human development and is also known as pre-birth period. It begins from the period of conception and ends with the birth of a child. It covers about nine months and half lunar month of human development. This period is generally divided into three stages: the germinal stage, the embryonic stage, and the fetal stage.
a. Germinal Stage: The two-week period after conception is called Germinal stage.
b. Embryonic Stage: The embryonic stage lasts from the end of the germinal stage to two months after conception.
c. Fetal Stage: The last stage of prenatal development is the fetal stage, which lasts from two months after conception until birth.
Characteristics of Prenatal Period:
a. It is the period of heredity and endowment.
b. It is period of sex determination.
c. It is period of rapid growth and development.
d. It is hazardous period of human development.
e. It is totally dependant period of human life.
3.1.2 Period of Infancy:
It is the beginning and fully dependant stage of human life and learning. It lasts from birth to two weeks. In this period, a newly born infant has to adjust in the new environment with new temperature by breathing, sucking or swallowing liquids or foods and eliminating the waste product for the first time in life. While considering all these 'to do' things, we can explain that infancy is a hazardous period because if a child can't fulfill all these developmental tasks, his life can be in danger.
Characteristics of Infancy period:
a. Infancy is a time of radical adjustment.
b. Infancy is a plateau in developments.
c. Infancy is a preview of later development.
d. Infancy is a hazardous period.
e. Infancy is the shortest of all developmental periods.
Developmental tasks of Infancy period:
a. Crying
b. Breathing
c. Sucking and Swallowing
d. Sleeping and eyes opening
e. Eliminate the waste product
f.
3.1.3 Babyhood Period:
It is second post-natal period. It is the period of the age between two weeks from two years. In this period of development, a baby has to do certain developmental tasks including walking, speaking, sitting, eating and moving all by himself. The development and growth is even rapid in this period than in the infancy period.
Characteristics of Babyhood:
a. Babyhood is a true foundation age.
b. Babyhood is an age of rapid growth and change.
c. Babyhood is an age of decreasing dependency.
d. Babyhood is the age of increased individuality.
e. Babyhood is the beginning of socialization.
f. Babyhood is an appealing age.
g. Babyhood is the beginning of creativity.
h. Babyhood is a hazardous age.
i. Babyhood is the beginning of sex role types.
Developmental tasks of Babyhood:
A developmental task is one that arises predictably and consistently at or about a certain period in the life of the individual (Havighurst, 1948, 1953). The concept of developmental tasks assumes that human development in modern societies is characterized by a long series of tasks that individuals have to learn throughout their lives. Some of these tasks are located in childhood and adolescence, whereas others arise during adulthood and old age (Heckhausen, 1999).
a. Learning to walk;
b. Learning to take solid foods;
c. Learning to talk;
d. Learning to control the elimination of the waste products;
e. Learning to begin sex role types;
f. Achieving physical stability;
g. Learning to differentiate between day and night time.
3.1.4 Early Childhood:
It lasts from two years to six years of age of children. Generally, it begins when a child is able to walk and talk. Children start to go to school from in this period and as a result, it is called pre-schooling age. Children of this age tend to imitate their parents and other members of their society so that it is called the period of imitation by parents. Similarly, psychologists know this period as the age of curiocity.
Characteristics of Early Childhood:
a. It is problematic or troublesome age.
b. It is age of toy.
c. It is negative age.
d. It is pre-schooling age.
e. It is explorative age.
f. It is questioning age.
g. It is age of imitaion.
h. It is creative age.
Developmental tasks of Early Childhood:
a. It is problematic or troublesome age.
b. Learning to take food by ownself;
c. Learning to talk;
d. Learning to walk, run and jump;
e. Learning to control the elimination oof waste products;
f. Achieving physical stability;
g. Learning to begin sex role typing;
h. Getting ready to read and write;
i. Learning to distinguish right and wrong;
j. Built up vocabulary, correct pronunciation and making simple meaningful sentences;
3.1.5 Late Childhood:
Late childhood begins at around age six, approximating primary school age. It ends around puberty, which typically marks the beginning of adolescence. There is no certain age at which late childhood ends in children because it differs from person to person. It is mentioned that, the traits of puberty starts in girls earlier than in boys. n this period, children are attending school, thus developing socially and mentally.
Characteristics of Late Childhood:
a. It is problematic or troublesome age.
b. It is sloppy age.
c. It is quarrelsome age.
d. It is critical period.
e. It is gang age.
f. It is age of confirmity.
g. It is creative age.
h. It is play age.
Developmental tasks of Late Childhood:
a. Learning to get among with agemate;
b. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating;
c. Developing concepts neccesary for everyday life;
d. Developing a conscience of morality and seals of values;
e. Achieving personal independence;
f. Developing attitute toward social group and institutions;
g. Beginning to develop appropriate feminine and masculine social roles.
3.2 Puberty:
3.2.1 General Introduction:
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that stimulate libido and the growth, function, and transformation of the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts and sex organs.
On average, girls begin puberty around ages 10–11; boys around ages 11–12. Girls usually complete puberty around ages 15–17, while boys usually complete puberty around ages 16–17.
The major landmark of puberty for females is menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between ages 12–13; for males, it is the first ejaculation, which occurs on average at age 13.
Derived from the Latin puberatum (age of maturity), the word puberty describes the physical changes to sexual maturation.
The age at which puberty begins varies between individuals; usually, puberty begins between 10 and 13 years of age. The age at which puberty begins is affected by both genetic factors and by environmental factors such as nutritional state and social circumstances.
3.2.2 Characteristics of Puberty:
a. Puberty is an overlapping Period:
Puberty is known as operlapping period of human development because it overlaps both late childhood and adolescence. It means there is no exact age barrier that borders these stages from eachother. For instance, if a child is in puberty age, he can be sharing the characteristics of late childhood or adolescence too.
b. Puberty is a short period:
It lasts only for 2-4 years making significant overall changes so it is supposed to be a short period of human development after infancy or babyhood.
c. Puberty can further be devided into other stages:
This period can further be devided into three stages:
i. Pre-pubescent stage:
It is overlapped with the ending one or two years of late childhood. Some general traits of puberty such as appearance of pubic hair, body or facial hair, change in voice, breast development in girls etc. start to develop in this period.
ii. Pubescent state:
It is the actual time period between late childhood and adolescence. In this period, menarche in girls and first ejaculation in boys take place. It is a pure puberty age.
iii. Post pubecent stage:
It is overlapped with the beginning one or two years of adolescence. An individual gains full physical and functioal maturity in this period as an adult.
d. It is the period of rapid growth and development:
In a general sense, puberty is stage in which individual grow into full physical maturation. They attain the ability to reproduce, achieve the maximal adult height, maximal gonadal size, or adult sex hormone levels. Accordingly, they gain abstract change in their behaviours too.
e. Puberty is a negative stage:
Due to rapid change in their physical structure, boys and girls tend to do unstable things, feel unsafe, and unable to accept their physical changes. Accordingly, there can be many psychological tensions if occurance of puberty in them is early or late than usual.
f. Puberty-occuring age varies among individuals:
There is no actual age at which puberty occurs. It means puberty occurs after an end of late childhood or after an individual gains maturity to reproduce which differs from person to person depending on various genetic factors as well as environmental factors such as nutritional state and social circumstances.
3.2.4 Causes of Puberty:
Puberty is the body's natural process of sexual maturation. Puberty's trigger lies in a small part of the brain called the hypothalamus, a gland that secretes gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). GnRH stimulates the pituitary gland, a pea-sized organ connected to the bottom of the hypothalamus, to emit two hormones: luteinizing (pronounced LOO-tee-uh-nize-ing) hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). These two hormones signal the female and male sex organs (ovaries and testes, respectively) to begin releasing the appropriate sex hormones, including estrogens and testosterone, which launch the other signs of puberty in the body.
a. Precocious Puberty:
In approximately 90% of girls who experience precocious puberty, no underlying cause can be identified—although heredity and being overweight may contribute in some cases. When a cause cannot be identified, the condition is called idiopathic precocious puberty. In boys with precocious puberty, approximately 50% of cases are idiopathic. In the remaining 10% of girls and 50% of boys with precocious puberty, an underlying cause can be identified.
Sometimes the cause is an abnormality involving the brain. In other children, the signs of puberty occur because of a problem such as a tumor or genetic abnormality in the ovaries, testes, or adrenal glands, causing overproduction of sex hormones.
Precocious puberty can be divided into two categories, depending on where in the body the abnormality occurs—central precocious puberty and peripheral precocious puberty.
i. Central Precocious Puberty:
this type of early puberty, also known as gonadotropin-dependent precocious puberty, occurs when the abnormality is located in the brain. The brain signals the pituitary gland to begin puberty at an early age. Central precocious puberty is the most common form of precocious puberty and affects many more girls than boys. The causes of central precocious puberty include:
a. Brain tumors
b. Prior radiation to the brain
c. Prior infection of the brain
d. Other brain abnormalities
Often, however, there is no identifiable abnormality in the brain; this is called idiopathic central precocious puberty.
ii. Peripheral Precocious Puberty:
This form of early puberty is also called gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty. In peripheral precocious puberty, the abnormality is not in the brain but in the testicles, ovaries, or adrenal glands, causing overproduction of sex hormones, like testosterone and estrogens. Peripheral precocious puberty may be caused by2:
a. Tumors of the ovary, testis, or adrenal gland
b. In boys, tumors that secrete a hormone called hCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin (pronounced kawr-ee-ON-ik goh-nad-uh-TROH-pin)
c. Certain rare genetic syndromes, such as McCune-Albright syndrome or familial male precocious puberty
d. Severe hypothyroidism, in which the thyroid gland secretes abnormally low levels of hormones
e. Disorders of the adrenal gland, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia
f. Exposure of the child to medicines or creams that contain estrogens or androgens
b. Delayed Puberty:
Many children with delayed puberty will eventually go through an otherwise normal puberty, just at a late age. Sometimes, this delay occurs because the child is just maturing more slowly than average, a condition called constitutional delay of puberty. This condition often runs in families.
Puberty can be delayed in children who have not gotten proper nutrition due to long-term illnesses. Also, some young girls who undergo intense physical training for a sport, such as running or gymnastics, start puberty later than normal.3
In other cases, the delay in puberty is not just due to slow maturation but occurs because the child has a long-term medical condition known as hypogonadism (pronounced HI-poe-GO-nad-iz-uhm), in which the sex glands (the testes in men and the ovaries in women) produce few or no hormones. Hypogonadism can be divided into two categories: secondary hypogonadism and primary hypogonadism.
i. Secondary hypogonadism (also known as central hypogonadism or hypogonadotropic hypogonadism), is caused by a problem with the pituitary gland or hypothalamus (part of the brain). In secondary hypogonadism, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland fail to signal the gonads to properly release sex hormones. Causes of secondary hypogonadism include4:
a) Kallmann syndrome, a genetic problem that also diminishes the sense of smell
b) Isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, a genetic condition that only affects sexual development but not the sense of smell
c) Prior radiation, trauma, surgery, or other injury to the brain or pituitary
d) Tumors of the brain or pituitary
ii. In primary hypogonadism, the problem lies in the ovaries or testes, which fail to make sex hormones normally. Some causes include4:
a) Genetic disorders, especially Turner syndrome (in women) and Klinefelter syndrome (in men)
b) Certain autoimmune disorders
c) Developmental disorders
d) Radiation or chemotherapy
e) Infection
f) Surgery
3.2.5 Physical Changes During Puberty:
An individual growing from childhood to a mature adult gains full physical maturity at puberty stage with rapid physical growth and change. They body size seems to be unusual because of development of sex characteristics. The major physical changes during puberty can be enlisted as below:
a) Change in body size:
The first manifestation of pubert characteristic is physical change which seems to be rapid. The height of an individual increses by 4-6 inch in this period. It continues in girls from the former period of mentruation to one year after menstruation. Its rate decreases with an end of puberty stage. In contrast, height increses during 12.8 to 15.2 ages in boys introducing maximal rate at age 14. This process gradually stops at age of 20-21. The height-growing period of boys is longer than that of girls so they are likely to be heighty than girls. However, it is affected by many factors such as heredity, nutritious foods, environmental factors etc.
Along with increase in height, puberty introduces rapid growth in weight. Due to growth of bones and muscles along with increased ammount of cholesterol, they weigh more.
b) Change in body proportion:
Onset of puberty brings many physical changes in boys. Their chest and shoulders broaden and their muscles get bigger and stronger. Similarly, they gain weight because of increase in size of most of the body parts including hands and legs.
Similarly, girls' bodies become curvier and hip bones wider. There is weight gain, particularly in the hips. Muscles get bigger and stronger but they do not show up as much as boys' muscles. Breasts also starts to develop.
c) Primary sex characteristics:
Development of primary sex characteristics means to be mature to reproduce which varies from boys to girls.
For instance, the penis of boys get longer and bigger to be able to reproduce. They become capable of ejaculating which is ejection of semen through the penis. The first ejaculation marks the attainment of sexual maturity in a boy's life.
For girls, puberty introduces primary sex characteristics such as breast development, onset of menstruation and development of other internal parts of vagina to gain sexual maturation.
d) Secondary sex characteristics:
Apart from primary sex characteristics, boys and girls are exposed to other secondary sex characteristics too in this period.
Appepearance of body hair, pubic hair and facial hair, temporary increase in breast, bulky voice etc. are seen in boys.
Accordingly, development of breasts, wide and round hips, appearance of pubic hair and hair in the armpit, change in voice can be observed in a girl passing puberty period.
3.2.7 Effects of Puberty Change:
The direct effect of puberty goes to physical health of individuals. Additionally, they come up with the affected behaviours or attitudes. Even these effects seem to be temporary, they make effect in their personality and bahaviours. The effects of puberty change are mainly the points mentioned below:
a. Effects on Physical Well Being:
The effects of rapid physical growth and development causes some troubles in the physical health of boys and girls at puberty period. They need more nutritious food for adequate energy to support their growth being healthy. In shortage of energy, they mostly feel tired, deactivated, lazy and so forth. To fulfill the energy shortage, they have to serve nutritious foods and also, they may suffer from anemia caused by digestive disturbance. It's more prominent in girls.
Additionally, boys and girls have to face many other health issues. Especially girls suffer from headache, backache, vomitting, abdominal pain during the period of first menstruation. They also face problems of skin irritaion, sowelling of legs and ankles. Because of such effects, puberty can be considered as a sickly period.
b. Effects on attitudes and behaviours:
Puberty changes the attitudes and behaviours of children. Even the society treats them in double standards. While judging them, elders will not be satisfied seeing their child-like behaviours even being grown up. Even if they act as an adult, they may be rejected for being over-confidence in early ages. All these behaviours make the children unhappy.
Main effects of puberty on attitude and behaviour of children are as follow:
i. Desire for isolation:
Children of these age feel uneasy or uncomfortable about the rapid changes with them. They do not want to tell all these with elders. They feel that elders will tease at them for the changes. Also, they want to have their own space without accepting the standards of their society. And as a result, they want to be alienated from all.
ii. Boredom:
These children can not adjust easily anywhere. They stay alienated from their society and peers for the unusual physical changes. They seem to be unusual. And as a result, they feel boring about everything going aroud them.
iii. Inco-cordination:
During this period, they think themselves being able to choose their own standards. They stay differentiated from their parents and society because of inquality in their standards. They want their own space without being irritating guidance from parents and suggestions from elders. As a result, they miss the co-ordination with elders.
iv. Social antagonism:
They have negative thinking about social values, norms and conditions that makes them limited. They do not accept these social beliefs and they stay against these social standards.
v. Heightened emotionality:
Since their body undergoes many changes, they feel uncommon and uncomfortable about them and become overly sensitive about their physical appearance. They may feel irritated, lose their temper or feel depresed easily. Due to shifting levels of hormones in their bodies and other changes taking place during puberty, they may also experience frequent and sometimes extreme changes in their moods.
vi. Loss of self-confidence:
Since they are not completely adult and not a child anymore, they have to face uncertain times during puberty. They may start thinking about their unfamilier and new aspects of life such as career, livelihood and marriage. Even they think about taking greater responsibilies in a family and in society. But not knowing how, they can not work with self-confidence.
vii. Excessive modesty:
During puberty age, children feel uncommon for their rapid physical growth. Doubting their peers and other elders to be teasing at them, they become exessively modest. And also, this point is added because the children feel uncomfortable at puberty age.
References
3.2.9 Unhappiness at Puberty:
Puberty stage is one of the hazardous period among developmental stages of human life. It brings rapid growth and development in children causing them to feel uncommon and uncomfortable. They lay somewhere in transitional period between childhood and adulthood. Seen physically grown up, the family and society have much more to expect from them. But they want to have their own space without irritating circumstances of the guidance and expectations from elders of society. When thinking about their own future, career, family and so forth for the first time, they happen to stick to uncertainity about their future. Due to this restlessness, they can't perform adult-like activities and are blamed for this. The chilldren of this age remain unhappy because they always doubt whether or not society will accept them for their actions; whether or not they will get affection from elders and whether or not they will be able to achieve more like adults.
These three points can be enlisted as below to describe:
a. Acceptance:
It means if a child is appreciated in his family and society, he can be happy and vice versa. It is based on the theory that every human being has desire to be important. To be happy, one has to be accepted in his surrroundings for what he has and what and he does. The major source of unhappiness at puberty age is that the children are stick to the doubt of not being accepted.
b. Affection:
Affection is kind of simple word but children have a lot to do with this. They can remain unhappy for this. If a child is not provided with affection, it will have negative effect upon his emotional, mental growth too. By providing affection, we can make them feel important. So if they think they are important, they will be happiest.
c. Achievement:
There is direct linkage between achievement and happiness. It means children can't be happy without achievement. They want to achieve more of what they want. At puberty stage, they start to think about fulfilling some goals, and they are ready to pay anything for result because they want to be important in family and in society. And then if they become unsuccessful, they can't be happy for sure.
3.2.10 Control of Unhappiness:
The major points to follow for controlling unhappiness at puberty can be enlisted as below:
a. Guardians and teachers should show affection toward them.
b. Everyone should be conscious about the problems and their solutions of puberty-age children.
c. The surroundings must accept them positively no matter what and how they do.
d. They must be accepted in society to make them feel important.
e. They must not be forced to obey the social standards rather they must be encoraged.
f. Everybody has to help them achieve more of what they want.
g. They must be accepted for their uncommon physical changes.
h. Even when they do wrong, they must be responded positively and they need proper guidance and suggestions.
i. They must be taught health and physical education so that they will not be scared while confronting new natural physical changes during puberty.
3.2.11 Hazards of Puberty age:
Like other developmental stages, puberty stage is equally troublesome age for all concerned including children themselves as well as family and society. We can categorize all the hazards seen during puberty into two categories i.e. physical and psychological hazards.
a. Physical Hazards:
Physical hazards at puberty age is temporary. However, it has severe impact on physical, psychological, mental, social health of children. Due to rapid physical change, they feel unusual, uncommon and uncomfortable in peer group, family as well as in society that leads them to tension. Some of physical hazards seen are as follows:
i. Illness: When children are to adjust in a new setting or environment, they can be physically sick.
ii. Accident: The children are likely to do any dangerous act to prove themselves being brave but it may result into accident causing serious injury that can make effect on their allround growth and development. Thus it is one of physical hazards.
iii. Suicide: If the children are not given attention and affection for the changes they have gained when they do not know about it as being normal physical process, they may be scared of changes. So they want to stay alienated from peer group, family and society, and as a result they stick to depression. They fear of being unaccepted and not affection-deserving children in their society, that will ultimately pursuade them to commit upto suicide.
iv. Lack of adequate energy: The puberty-living children are likely to feel tired or lack of energy. If they are not served foods with lots of vitamins and nutritions, they will have problems in their physical and psychological growth and development.
v. Malfunctions of Endocrine Glands: The appearance of puberty depend upon the functions of endocrine glands. If a child enters into puberty earlier or late due to malfunction of these glands, they seem to feel uncomfortable. They will remain alienated from their peer group, family members as well as from their society. Although it is normal, they will feel bad about themselves and they can fear of being unaccepted in their settings.
b. Psychological Hazards:
The effects of psychological hazards seen at the age of puberty lasts for lifetime in one's life. So these hazards are more important and case sensitive than physical hazards. Such hazards include:
i. Unfavorable Self Concept: It takes place due to uncommon physical changes. The children are likely to develop poor self concept about themselves not knowing how to interpret as usual with those uncomfortable changes. They lose self confidence while starting to think about their life, career, family for the first time. And even sometimes, they stay alienated from themselves by being scared of the possible unacceptance from peer group, family as well as society.
ii. Under achievement: It one of the notable psychological tension for the children crossing puberty. They desire to be important by accomplishing some extra dreams but they are unlikely to achieve those dream-like realities. This is because they are just like day-dreamers. They just delve into imagination without any base. But the society expects them living and achieving in reality.
iii. Lack of preparation for change: Not being ready for change is human nature. But it makes profound effect on children at puberty. They never imagine of being changed rapidly like they have to be at puberty. So they grow physically beyond imagination, that is going to create some internal tension in their mind. And it can be considered as psychological hazard of puberty.
iv. Acceptance of changed body: During puberty period, an individual is exposed to primary and secondary sex characteristics. Due to this, they become able to reproduce. But this growth is not easily acceptable for the first time but they have to accept it at any cost. There is then, some psychological alienation between the boys or girls and their matured body.
v. Acceptance of changed social role: Being grown up in the society with lots of values, beliefs, systems, perceptions and so forth, the children of puberty age have to act according to their particular gender, caste, religion and like. Due to overnight physical change, they are expected to perform these social roles. But it comes as a difficuty for them and creates psychological tensions.
vi. Deviation in Puberty: Late or earlier appearance of puberty proves to be a matter of tension for all concerned. If it is earlier than usual, children will see a barrier between other peers and they will stay away from the group being frustated even when it is natural. Similarly, if it is late, it will make them feel inferior and they will doubt whether or not they willl be accepted in their society and family like other usual children. This feeling of inferiority has negative effect upon their psychological growth and development.
Unit 3