9.2: Maendeleo ya Lifespan Ni nini?
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Malengo ya kujifunza
- Kufafanua na kutofautisha kati ya nyanja tatu za maendeleo: kimwili, utambuzi na kisaikolojia
- Jadili mbinu ya kawaida ya maendeleo
- Kuelewa masuala matatu makubwa katika maendeleo: mwendelezo na kuacha, kozi moja ya kawaida ya maendeleo au kozi nyingi za kipekee za maendeleo, na asili dhidi ya kulea
Moyo wangu unaruka juu wakati mimi tazama
Upinde wa mvua mbinguni:
Hivyo ndivyo ilivyo sasa mimi ni mtu;
Basi iwe nitakapokuwa mzee,
Au napenda kufa!
Mtoto ni baba wa Mtu;
Ningependa siku zangu ziwe
Amefungwa kila mmoja kwa uchaji wa asili. (Wordsworth, 1802)
Katika shairi hili, William Wordsworth anaandika, “mtoto ni baba wa mtu huyo.” Je! Taarifa hii inaonekana isiyo na maana ina maana gani, na inahusiana na maendeleo ya maisha? Wordsworth huenda akipendekeza kwamba mtu aliye kama mtu mzima hutegemea sana uzoefu aliokuwa nayo wakati wa utotoni. Fikiria maswali yafuatayo: Kwa kiasi gani mtu mzima unaathiriwa na mtoto uliyewahi kuwa? Kwa kiasi gani mtoto ni tofauti kabisa na mtu mzima anayekua kuwa?
Hizi ni aina ya maswali wanasaikolojia wa maendeleo wanajaribu kujibu, kwa kusoma jinsi wanadamu wanavyobadilika na kukua kutoka mimba kupitia utoto, ujana, utu uzima, na kifo. Wanaona maendeleo kama mchakato wa maisha yote ambayo inaweza kujifunza kisayansi katika nyanja tatu za maendeleo-kimwili, utambuzi, na maendeleo ya kisaikolojia. Maendeleo ya kimwili yanahusisha ukuaji na mabadiliko katika mwili na ubongo, akili, ujuzi wa magari, na afya na ustawi. Maendeleo ya utambuzi yanahusisha kujifunza, tahadhari, kumbukumbu, lugha, kufikiri, hoja, na ubunifu. Maendeleo ya kisaikolojia yanahusisha hisia, utu, na mahusiano ya kijamii. Tunarejelea nyanja hizi katika sura.
CONNECT DHANA: Mbinu za utafiti katika Saikolojia ya Maendeleo
Umejifunza kuhusu mbinu mbalimbali za utafiti zinazotumiwa na wanasaikolojia. Wanasaikolojia wa maendeleo hutumia mbinu nyingi hizi ili kuelewa vizuri jinsi watu wanavyobadilika kiakili na kimwili kwa muda. Mbinu hizi ni pamoja na uchunguzi wa kiasili, masomo ya kesi, tafiti, na majaribio, miongoni mwa wengine.
Uchunguzi wa kiasili unahusisha kuchunguza tabia katika mazingira yake ya asili. Mwanasaikolojia wa maendeleo anaweza kuchunguza jinsi watoto wanavyoishi kwenye uwanja wa michezo, kwenye kituo cha huduma za mchana, au nyumbani kwa mtoto. Wakati mbinu hii ya utafiti hutoa mtazamo wa jinsi watoto wanavyoishi katika mazingira yao ya asili, watafiti wana udhibiti mdogo sana juu ya aina na/au masafa ya tabia iliyoonyeshwa.
Katika utafiti wa kesi, wanasaikolojia wa maendeleo hukusanya habari nyingi kutoka kwa mtu mmoja ili kuelewa vizuri mabadiliko ya kimwili na kisaikolojia juu ya maisha. Mbinu hii ni njia bora ya kuelewa watu binafsi, ambao ni wa kipekee kwa namna fulani, lakini ni hasa kukabiliwa na upendeleo mtafiti katika tafsiri, na ni vigumu kuzalisha hitimisho kwa idadi kubwa ya watu.
Katika mfano mmoja classic ya njia hii ya utafiti kuwa kutumika kwa utafiti wa maendeleo lifespan Sigmund Freud kuchambuliwa maendeleo ya mtoto inayojulikana kama “Little Hans” (Freud, 1909/1949). Matokeo ya Freud yalisaidia kuwajulisha nadharia zake za maendeleo ya kisaikolojia kwa watoto, ambayo utajifunza kuhusu baadaye katika sura hii. Jini Little, somo la utafiti wa kesi iliyojadiliwa katika sura ya kufikiri na akili, hutoa mfano mwingine wa jinsi wanasaikolojia wanavyochunguza hatua muhimu za maendeleo kupitia utafiti wa kina juu ya mtu mmoja. Katika kesi ya Genie, malezi yake ya kupuuza na matusi yalisababisha kuwa hawezi kuzungumza mpaka, akiwa na umri\(13\), aliondolewa katika mazingira hayo yenye madhara. Alipokuwa amejifunza kutumia lugha, wanasaikolojia waliweza kulinganisha jinsi uwezo wake wa kupata lugha ulivyotofautiana wakati wa kutokea katika maendeleo yake ya hatua za marehemu ikilinganishwa na upatikanaji wa kawaida wa ujuzi huo wakati wa uchanga kupitia utotoni (Fromkin, Krashen, Curtiss, Rigler, & Rigler, 1974; Curtiss, 1981).
Njia ya utafiti huwauliza watu binafsi kutoa taarifa muhimu kuhusu mawazo yao, uzoefu, na imani zao. Njia hii maalum inaweza kutoa kiasi kikubwa cha habari kwa muda mfupi; hata hivyo, uhalali wa data zilizokusanywa kwa njia hii hutegemea uaminifu binafsi taarifa, na data ni kiasi kidogo ikilinganishwa na kina cha habari zilizokusanywa katika utafiti wa kesi.
Majaribio yanahusisha udhibiti mkubwa juu ya vigezo vya nje na kudanganywa kwa kutofautiana kwa kujitegemea. Kwa hivyo, utafiti wa majaribio inaruhusu wanasaikolojia wa maendeleo kufanya kauli za causal kuhusu vigezo fulani ambavyo ni muhimu kwa mchakato wa maendeleo. Kwa sababu utafiti wa majaribio lazima kutokea katika mazingira kudhibitiwa, watafiti lazima wawe waangalifu kuhusu kama tabia aliona katika maabara kutafsiri kwa mazingira ya asili ya mtu binafsi.
Baadaye katika sura hii, utajifunza kuhusu majaribio kadhaa ambayo watoto wachanga na watoto wadogo wanaona matukio au vitendo ili watafiti waweze kuamua wakati gani uwezo maalum wa utambuzi unaoendeleza. Kwa mfano, watoto wanaweza kuchunguza kiasi cha kioevu kilichomwagika kutoka kioo fupi, cha mafuta kwenye kioo kirefu, cha ngozi. Kama majaribio wanavyouliza watoto kuhusu kile kilichotokea, majibu ya masomo husaidia wanasaikolojia kuelewa wakati gani mtoto anaanza kuelewa kwamba kiasi cha kioevu kilibakia sawa, ingawa maumbo ya vyombo hutofautiana.
Katika nyanja hizi tatu-kimwili, utambuzi, na kisaikolojia-mbinu ya kawaida ya maendeleo pia inajadiliwa. Njia hii inauliza, “Ni maendeleo gani ya kawaida?” Katika miongo ya mwanzo ya\(20^{th}\) karne, wanasaikolojia unaozidi kuongezeka alisoma idadi kubwa ya watoto katika umri mbalimbali ili kuamua kanuni (yaani, umri wa wastani) ya wakati watoto wengi kufikia hatua muhimu za maendeleo katika kila moja ya nyanja tatu (Gesell, 1933, 1939, 1940; Gesell & Ilg, 1946; Hall, 1904). Ingawa watoto huendeleza kwa viwango tofauti kidogo, tunaweza kutumia wastani wa umri huu kama miongozo ya jumla ya kulinganisha watoto wenye wenzao wa umri sawa ili kuamua umri wa takriban wanapaswa kufikia matukio maalum ya kawaida inayoitwa hatua muhimu za maendeleo (kwa mfano, kutambaa, kutembea, kuandika, kuvaa, kutaja rangi, kuzungumza katika hukumu, na kuanzia ujana).
Sio matukio yote ya kawaida ni ya kawaida, maana yake hayana uzoefu na watu wote katika tamaduni zote. Mambo muhimu ya kibiolojia, kama vile ujana, huwa na kuwa ya kawaida, lakini hatua muhimu za kijamii, kama vile umri ambapo watoto wanaanza shule rasmi, sio lazima wote; badala yake, huathiri watu wengi katika utamaduni fulani (Gesell & Ilg, 1946). Kwa mfano, katika nchi zilizoendelea watoto wanaanza shule karibu na umri wa miaka 5 au 6, lakini katika nchi zinazoendelea, kama Nigeria, watoto mara nyingi huingia shule katika umri mkubwa, ikiwa kabisa (Huebler, 2005; Shirika la Elimu, Sayansi, na Utamaduni la Umoja wa Mataifa [UNESCO], 2013).
Ili kuelewa vizuri mbinu ya kawaida, fikiria mama wawili wapya, Louisa na Kimberly, ambao ni marafiki wa karibu na wana watoto karibu na umri huo. Binti wa Louisa ana umri wa\(14\) miezi, na mwana wa Kimberly ana umri wa\(12\) miezi. Kwa mujibu wa mbinu ya kawaida, umri wa wastani mtoto anaanza kutembea ni\(12\) miezi. Hata hivyo, kwa\(14\) miezi binti Louisa bado hajatembea. Yeye anamwambia Kimberly yeye ni wasiwasi kwamba kitu inaweza kuwa na makosa na mtoto wake. Kimberly anashangaa kwa sababu mwanawe alianza kutembea alipokuwa na umri wa\(10\) miezi tu. Lazima Louisa awe na wasiwasi? Je, anapaswa kuwa na wasiwasi ikiwa binti yake haitembei kwa\(15\) miezi au\(18\) miezi?
Masuala katika Psychology ya
Kuna mbinu nyingi za kinadharia kuhusu maendeleo ya binadamu. Kama sisi kutathmini yao katika sura hii, kukumbuka kwamba saikolojia ya maendeleo inalenga katika jinsi watu mabadiliko, na kukumbuka kwamba mbinu zote sisi sasa katika sura hii kushughulikia maswali ya mabadiliko: Je, mabadiliko laini au kutofautiana (kuendelea dhidi discontinuous)? Je, mfano huu wa mabadiliko ni sawa kwa kila mtu, au kuna mifumo mingi ya mabadiliko (kozi moja ya maendeleo dhidi ya kozi nyingi)? Je, maumbile na mazingira yanaingilianaje ili kuathiri maendeleo (asili dhidi ya kulea)?
Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous?
Continuous development views development as a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills (See figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). With this type of development, there is gradual change. Consider, for example, a child’s physical growth: adding inches to her height year by year. In contrast, theorists who view development as discontinuous believe that development takes place in unique stages: It occurs at specific times or ages. With this type of development, the change is more sudden, such as an infant’s ability to conceive object permanence.
Is There One Course of Development or Many?
Is development essentially the same, or universal, for all children (i.e., there is one course of development) or does development follow a different course for each child, depending on the child’s specific genetics and environment (i.e., there are many courses of development)? Do people across the world share more similarities or more differences in their development? How much do culture and genetics influence a child’s behavior?
Stage theories hold that the sequence of development is universal. For example, in cross-cultural studies of language development, children from around the world reach language milestones in a similar sequence (Gleitman & Newport, 1995). Infants in all cultures coo before they babble. They begin babbling at about the same age and utter their first word around 12 months old. Yet we live in diverse contexts that have a unique effect on each of us. For example, researchers once believed that motor development follows one course for all children regardless of culture. However, child care practices vary by culture, and different practices have been found to accelerate or inhibit achievement of developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, and walking (Karasik, Adolph, Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 2010).
For instance, let’s look at the Aché society in Paraguay. They spend a significant amount of time foraging in forests. While foraging, Aché mothers carry their young children, rarely putting them down in order to protect them from getting hurt in the forest. Consequently, their children walk much later: They walk around \(23-25\0 months old, in comparison to infants in Western cultures who begin to walk around \(12\) months old. However, as Aché children become older, they are allowed more freedom to move about, and by about age \(9\), their motor skills surpass those of U.S. children of the same age: Aché children are able to climb trees up to \(25\) feet tall and use machetes to chop their way through the forest (Kaplan & Dove, 1987). As you can see, our development is influenced by multiple contexts, so the timing of basic motor functions may vary across cultures. However, the functions themselves are present in all societies (See figure below).
How Do Nature and Nurture Influence Development?
Are we who we are because of nature (biology and genetics), or are we who we are because of nurture (our environment and culture)? This longstanding question is known in psychology as the nature versus nurture debate. It seeks to understand how our personalities and traits are the product of our genetic makeup and biological factors, and how they are shaped by our environment, including our parents, peers, and culture. For instance, why do biological children sometimes act like their parents—is it because of genetics or because of early childhood environment and what the child has learned from the parents? What about children who are adopted—are they more like their biological families or more like their adoptive families? And how can siblings from the same family be so different?
We are all born with specific genetic traits inherited from our parents, such as eye color, height, and certain personality traits. Beyond our basic genotype, however, there is a deep interaction between our genes and our environment: Our unique experiences in our environment influence whether and how particular traits are expressed, and at the same time, our genes influence how we interact with our environment (Diamond, 2009; Lobo, 2008). This chapter will show that there is a reciprocal interaction between nature and nurture as they both shape who we become, but the debate continues as to the relative contributions of each.
DIG DEEPER: The Achievement Gap - How Does Socioeconomic Status Affect Development?
The achievement gap refers to the persistent difference in grades, test scores, and graduation rates that exist among students of different ethnicities, races, and—in certain subjects—sexes (Winerman, 2011). Research suggests that these achievement gaps are strongly influenced by differences in socioeconomic factors that exist among the families of these children. While the researchers acknowledge that programs aimed at reducing such socioeconomic discrepancies would likely aid in equalizing the aptitude and performance of children from different backgrounds, they recognize that such large-scale interventions would be difficult to achieve. Therefore, it is recommended that programs aimed at fostering aptitude and achievement among disadvantaged children may be the best option for dealing with issues related to academic achievement gaps (Duncan & Magnuson, 2005).
Low-income children perform significantly more poorly than their middle- and high-income peers on a number of educational variables: They have significantly lower standardized test scores, graduation rates, and college entrance rates, and they have much higher school dropout rates. There have been attempts to correct the achievement gap through state and federal legislation, but what if the problems start before the children even enter school?
Psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley (2006) spent their careers looking at early language ability and progression of children in various income levels. In one longitudinal study, they found that although all the parents in the study engaged and interacted with their children, middle- and high-income parents interacted with their children differently than low-income parents. After analyzing \(1,300\) hours of parent-child interactions, the researchers found that middle- and high-income parents talk to their children significantly more, starting when the children are infants. By \(3\) years old, high-income children knew almost double the number of words known by their low-income counterparts, and they had heard an estimated total of \(30\) million more words than the low-income counterparts (Hart & Risley, 2003). And the gaps only become more pronounced. Before entering kindergarten, high-income children score \(60\%\) higher on achievement tests than their low-income peers (Lee & Burkam, 2002).
There are solutions to this problem. At the University of Chicago, experts are working with low-income families, visiting them at their homes, and encouraging them to speak more to their children on a daily and hourly basis. Other experts are designing preschools in which students from diverse economic backgrounds are placed in the same classroom. In this research, low-income children made significant gains in their language development, likely as a result of attending the specialized preschool (Schechter & Byeb, 2007). What other methods or interventions could be used to decrease the achievement gap? What types of activities could be implemented to help the children of your community or a neighboring community?
Summary
Lifespan development explores how we change and grow from conception to death. This field of psychology is studied by developmental psychologists. They view development as a lifelong process that can be studied scientifically across three developmental domains: physical, cognitive development, and psychosocial. There are several theories of development that focus on the following issues: whether development is continuous or discontinuous, whether development follows one course or many, and the relative influence of nature versus nurture on development.
Glossary
- cognitive development
- domain of lifespan development that examines learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity
- continuous development
- view that development is a cumulative process: gradually improving on existing skills
- developmental milestone
- approximate ages at which children reach specific normative events
- discontinuous development
- view that development takes place in unique stages, which happen at specific times or ages
- nature
- genes and biology
- normative approach
- study of development using norms, or average ages, when most children reach specific developmental milestones
- nurture
- environment and culture
- physical development
- domain of lifespan development that examines growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness
- psychosocial development
- domain of lifespan development that examines emotions, personality, and social relationships