Psychological development of a human being
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Psychological development, the development of human beings’ cognitive, emotional, intellectual, and social capabilities and functioning over the course of the life span, from infancy through old age. It is the subject matter of the discipline known as developmental psychology. Child psychology was the traditional focus of research, but since the mid-20th century much has been learned about infancy and adulthood as well. A brief treatment of psychological development follows. For full treatment, see human behaviour.
Infancy
Infancy is the period between birth and the acquisition of language one to two years later. Besides a set of inherited reflexes that help them obtain nourishment and react to danger, newborns are equipped with a predilection for certain visual patterns, including that of the human face, and for certain sounds, including that of the human voice. Within a few months they are able to identify their mother by sight, and they show a striking sensitivity to the tones, rhythmic flow, and individual sounds that make up human speech. Even young infants are capable of complex perceptual judgments involving distance, shape, direction, and depth, and they are soon able to organize their experience by creating categories for objects and events (e.g., people, furniture, food, animals) in the same way older people do.
Childhood
The second major phase in human development, childhood, extends from one or two years of age until the onset of adolescence at age 12 or 13. The early years of childhood are marked by enormous strides in the understanding and use of language. Children begin to comprehend words some months before they themselves actually speak. The average infant speaks his first words by 12–14 months, and by the 18th month he has a speaking vocabulary of about 50 words. The child begins to use two- and then three-word combinations and progresses from simple noun-verb combinations to more grammatically complex sequences, using conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and tenses with growing fluency and accuracy. By the fourth year most children can speak in adultlike sentences and have begun to master the more complex rules of grammar and meaning.
Adolescence
Physically, adolescence begins with the onset of puberty at 12 or 13 and culminates at age 19 or 20 in adulthood. Intellectually, adolescence is the period when the individual becomes able to systematically formulate hypotheses or propositions, test them, and make rational evaluations. The formal thinking of adolescents and adults tends to be self-consciously deductive, rational, and systematic. Emotionally, adolescence is the time when the individual learns to control and direct his sex urges and begins to establish his own sexual role and relationships. The second decade of life is also a time when the individual lessens his emotional (if not physical) dependence on his parents and develops a mature set of values and responsible self-direction. Physical separation and the establishment of material independence from parents mark the adolescent’s transition to adulthood.
Adulthood
Adulthood is a period of optimum mental functioning when the individual’s intellectual, emotional, and social capabilities are at their peak to meet the demands of career, marriage, and children. Some psychologists delineate various periods and transitions in early to middle adulthood that involve crises or reassessments of one’s life and result in decisions regarding new commitments or goals. During the middle 30s people develop a sense of time limitation, and previous behaviour patterns or beliefs may be given up in favour of new ones.
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