The National Teachers College

Assignment #1
Developmental Psychology

Submitted by: Suzette Grace A. Bayogbog

Schedule: MWF 11:00am 12:00pm

Submitted to: _________________

1.) Growth Development: According to Hurlock (1982) Growth refers to quantitative changes increase in size and structure. An individual grows physically as well as mentally. Development refers to qualitative changes. It may be defined as a progressive series of orderly, coherent changes: progressive because the changes are directional, they lead forward rather than backward. Orderly and coherent because a definite relationship exists between a given stage and the stages which precede or follow it.

a. PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT The infant begins life as a single fertilized cell. Seventy-two hours after fertilization there are thirty-two cells. These rapidly multiplying cells are packed together to form a systems and other bodily parts. During the period of pregnancy the organism passes through the three stages of development: the GERMINAL STAGE starts from conception and ends after the second week. The EMBRYONIC STAGE

begins when the zygote implant itself in the uterine wall. It lasts until the eight week. Lifegiving oxygen and nutrients are passed on from the mother to the child thus setting the stage for rapid development. Differentiation of bodily structures occurs during the embryos first two months. By the end of the second month, all the major organs have begun to develop and sexual differentiation occurs. The embryonic stage of development is a critical period. Certain drugs and diseases that have little or no effect if introduced at later stages may have harmful effects at this time. If a woman has a German measles during the first two or three months of pregnancy, the infant may show a variety of defects including blindness and deafness. Organs continue to grow and become differentiated and motor behaviour begins to appear during the third month. This is the beginning of the fetal state. The developing infant becomes known as a fetus. It extends up to the period of birth. The first motor behaviour of the infant is reflexive. Spontaneous movement begins to occur and

may be noticed by the mother in the fourth month. The fetus stays in mothers uterus for about 280 days. Within this period, the organismgrows from a one-celled zygote to a multicellular infant about 20 inches long and weighing about seven pounds at birth. The organisms development is essentially a pure maturation during the prenatal period.

b. INFANCY/Neonate Development The neonate is a newly born individual especially in its first month of life. The new born infant is capable of reacting to his environment. His reactions though are inadequate to satisfy his most basic needs. He therefore will need adult care for a long time to come. At birth, the infant has many reflexessimple, automatic responses to stimuli. Many of the neonates autonomic behaviour patterns are defence reflexes which serve to protect him from too much of the wrong kind of

stimulation such as the eyelid and pupillary reflexes which the body makes to intense light. Sucking, swallowing, breathing, sneezing, vomiting and yawning are reflexes present at or shortly after birth. c. BABYHOOD DEVELOPMENT It is interesting to note that based on the findings of the Child and Youth Research Center. A Filipino baby manifests the following progressive changes during his period of development: 1-2monthsTonic-neck reflexes position (t.n.r.).
Rolls partly to side.

3 months On the verge of rolling position. 4 months Turns to prone from supine position.
Symmetrical position head in midposition but t.n.r. is still seen briefly.

5 months

Turns back to supine from prone position.

6 7 months 8 months
position crawls.

Rolls from stomach to stomach

Alternates from prone to sitting to prone

9 months
on to rail.

Pulls himself to standing position by holding

10 11 months
holding on to rail.

Sits with good control. Cruises while

12 months

Walks even if only one hand is held.

d.

TODDLER DEVELOPMENT

Two years old: Creative Aesthetic Development: Babies are most attracted to red and least attracted to brown. They are classified as experimental singers. Dental: The lower molars of 84.61% and the upper first molar of 60.68% of the subjects, respectively, had erupted. No canine teeth had erupted. At 18 months, the lower and upper first molars of 100% of the subjects had erupted. The upper and lower canine teeth of 52.14% of the subjects had erupted. At the age of 24 months, all of the subject had each a total of 16 teeth (4 central incisors, 4 first

molars, and 4 canine teeth) No child in the study had a full complete of 20 temporary teeth. Dental carries were found to be present in 17.09% of the subjects. A total of 1.1% of the subjects had started to brush their teeth. Motor Development: A Filipino baby or child runs, builds a tower of 3 cubes at 18 months, squats while playing, climb stairs by holding on to the bannister at 21 months, walks up to the stairs with feet together before stepping, builds a tower of 7 cubes at 24 months. e. Early Childhood Development 3 years old: Music: At this age, 95.20% are singers and a mere 4.79% producing singers, 5.24% react dancing, 85.71% by singing and by clapping, humming, etc. 4years old: Motor Development: spontaneous develop to to music by 7.14% react

Kips on one foot, jumps down on both feet from 8 elevations, and balances him on one foot. Adaptive behaviour: Imitates a model, copies circle and cross, successfully places all forms in 60-70 seconds (sequin form board). Personal-Social Behaviour: Dresses and undresses by himself, bathe by himself, brushes teeth, engages in dramatic play. Creative-Aesthetic Development: Produces variegated scribblings names the scribblings, attempts to produce symbolic drawings, about of total population painted objects unrecognizable. Color preferences: Green, red and yellow are the first three most preferred colors respectively. Music development: Sings spontaneously, reacts to music by singing and dancing, current hits and popular tunes are the favourite songs.

Displays precise movements to music, prefers music of fast tempo and shows interest in playing musical instruments. 5 years old: Adaptive development: Constructs 3 steps, builds and names dimensional structures, copies squares, triangle, ties and unties a knot in 11-20 seconds , repeats 4 digits, recalls a five word sentence., supplies and names 5 to 6 parts of the incomplete man, successfully adapts all forms in the sequin formboard in 26-50 seconds. Emotional development: Manifest jealousy with siblings, friendliness with family members and playmates of his age, displays aggressiveness when angry but manifests over actions when happy. Personal-Social development: Laces, buckles shoes alone, bosses and criticizes others, carries long conversations, asks more meaningful questions, related

dreams, completes play activities, compete with peers. Language development: Names and identifies 5, 10 centavos, counts 110, answers 7-8 action-agent test questions, tells his name and age. Creative-Aesthetic development: Symbolic drawing was the significant graphic expression of the 5 year old subjects. Sex affected their graphic movements. Their favourite subject matter in their symbolic drawing expressions was a human figure. f. PUBERTY DEVELOPMENT Children develop of industry and curiosity and are eager to learn or they feel inferior and lose interest in the tasks before them. g. ADOLESCENCE 12 years old to the late teens, is a time of passage from childhood to adulthood. Adolescence has been thought of as a period of storm and stress- a time of heighted emotional tension resulting from the

physical and glandular changes that are taking place. While it is true that growth continues through the early years of adolescence, it does so at a progressively slower rate. What growth is taking place is primarily a completion of the pattern already set at puberty. Not all adolescents, by any means, go through a period of exaggerated storm and stress. Most of them do experience emotional instability from time to time, which is a logical consequence of the necessity of making adjustments to new patterns of behaviour and to new social expectations. For example, problems related to romance are very real at this time. While the romance is moving along smoothly, adolescents are happy, but they become despondent when things begin to go wrong. Similarly with the end of their schooling in sight, adolescents begin to worry about their future. While adolescent emotions are often intense, uncontrolled and seemingly irrational, there is generally improvement in emotional behaviour with each passing year. 14 years old are often irritable, are easily excited and

explode emotionally instead of trying to control their feelings. 16 year-olds by contrast say they dont believe in worrying. (Hurlock, 1982). Teen-agers are said to have achieved emotional maturity if, at late adolescence period they do not blow-up emotionally in the presence of other but wait for a convenient time and place to let off emotional steam in a socially acceptable manner. h. ADULTHOOD Young people became able to commit themselves to another person, or they develop a sense of isolation and feel they have no one in the world but themselves. i. MIDDLE-AGE Adults are willing to have and care for children and to devote themselves to their work and the common good, or they become self-centered and inactive. j. OLD-AGE

Older people enter a period of reflection, becoming assured that their lives have been meaningful and ready to face death with acceptance and dignity. Or they are in despairfo their unaccomplished goals, failures and ill-spent lives.

2. Discuss the stages of development: Development concerns itself with the study of human behaviour in all its aspects of growth and development. The entire life of an individual which is divided into the stages of prenatal, neonatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and senescence are scientifically presented with its physical, mental, emotional, social and moral developments during the period. The stages of growth and maturation, the effects of environmental influences upon individual patterns of development and psychological and social interactions between the child and the society into which he is born and in which he is reared.

Man from puberty to later life, approximately from 12 to 20 years old involves the physical and mental maturation of an individual, as well as the attainment of emotional and social maturity.

3. Discuss the natural history language of children Includes every means of communications in which thoughts and feelings are symbolized so as to convey meaning to others. The differences in the versatility of human beings are most evident with respect to the acquisition of the verbal tools of problemsolving. The newly born infant communicates first by crying. Crying means many things as he grows older. It will mean specific situations. In addition to crying, a baby makes many simple sounds during the first months of life like grunts of pain, squeals of delights, yawns, guttural sounds, growl, etc. These are known as cooing sounds but some will develop in babbling. He utters syllables like da, na,

ma. Later, these sounds became ma-mama or da-da-da. Babbling, as Hurlock (1982) has pointed out, is a verbal practice that lays the foundation for developing the skilled movement required in speech. Babbling becomes prevalent around the fifth month. It obviously indicates greater control over the speech mechanisms than the earlier unpattern sounds. Later, syllables will combine to form words. The average child says his first word by the time he is a year old. He is able to comprehend words though long before he can utter them. By age two, he has a fair-sized vocabulary of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. The period of greatest vocabulary increase is between the ages of two to four. By the time he is six, the average child has a vocabulary of about seven to eight thousand words (Hilgard, Atkinson and Atkinson, 1996). The development of vocabulary continues for many years. Language is influenced both by maturation and environment.

4. Discuss the principles of development An average baby 7 and half pounds at birth,15 pounds at 6 months about 22 pounds at one year and 30 pounds at the age of a year Development is more rapid in early age: This is true both in physical as well as mental development. Principles of Development & This principle suggest the important of the preschool and early school years because speech habits, attitudes, concepts and patterns of conduct and personality are acquired during this period. A child of 2 years has a vocabulary of about 300 words and at 8 years 3000 words. It is not as rapid after 8 years. A half. These changes are often as silent and gradual as to be almost invisible over a long duration but some time they are as fast as to be noticed quite easily. For example, shooting up in height and sudden change in social interest, intellectual curiosity and emotional make- up. Principle of lack of uniformity in the developmental rate. Development though continuous does not exhibit steadiness and uniformity in terms of the rate of development in various dimensions of personality or in the

developmental periods and stages of life. The changes, however small and gradual, continue to take place in all dimensions of ones personality throughout one 'life. Principle of continuity. Development follows the principle of continuity which means that in ones life it is never- ending process. It starts with conception and ends with death. Principles of Development such as by calling all men daddy and all women mummy but as he grows, he begins to use these names only for his father and mother. For example, when a newborn infant cries, his whole body is involved in doing so but as he develops, it is limited to the vocal cords, facial expressions and eyes etc. Principle of proceeding from general to specific responses. While developing in relation to any aspect of personality, the child first picks up general responses and learn to show specific responses afterward. Thus, infancy, pre-childhood, later childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age is the sequence of development in the human beings. Principle of uniformity of Pattern. Development occurs in an orderly manner and follows a

certain pattern and sequence. Principle of interaction. The process of development involves active interaction between the forces within the individual and the forces belonging to his environment. What is inherited by the organism at the time of conception is first influenced received in the womb of the mother and after birth by the forces of the physical and socio-psychological environment for its development. A healthy body tends to develop a healthy mind. Inadequate physical or mental development may result in a socially or emotionally maladjusted personality. Principle of interrelation. The various aspects or dimensions of ones growth and development are interrelated. What is achieved or not achieved in one or other dimension surely affects the development in other dimensions. For example with the knowledge of the development of the bones of a child it is possible to predict his adult structure and size. Principle of Predictability. Development is predictable, which means we can forecast the general nature and behavior of a child in one or more aspects at any particular stage of its

growth and development. This means that childs arms develop before the hands. The hands and feet develop before the fingers and toes. Principle of Proximodistal tendencies. According to Proximodistal tendencies development proceeds from the center of the body outward. That is why, before it becomes able to stand ,the child first gains control over his head and arms and then on his legs. Principle of Cephalocaudal tendencies. According to cephalocaudal tendencies development proceeds in the direction of the longitudinal axis (head to foot).

5. Discuss the principles of heredity Mendel's principles of heredity Definition: Two principles of heredity were formulated by Gregor Mendel in 1866, based on his observations of the characteristics of pea plants from one generation to the next. The principles were somewhat modified by subsequent genetic research. Mendel's Law of segregation:

The characteristics of the offspring are derived from both maternal and paternal factors. Every individual has a pair of genes governing a particular characteristic (e.g. the color of the eyes). During the formation of sex cells each pair is separated (segregated) so that each sex cell (egg or sperm) carries only one form of each gene. The offspring thus receives one from each parent and this pair of genes determines how the characteristic is expressed (e.g. whether the child's eyes are blue or brown). Mendel's law of independent assortment: When considering more than one gene, Mendel noted that two characteristics do not always appear together. For instance a mother with blonde hair and blue eyes may have a blonde-haired child with brown eyes. Thus different characteristics can be independently inherited.

6. Trace the history of child development and take note of psychology behind: The notion that children "develop" seems an intuitive, obvious, and even self-evident

idea. Children are born small, knowing the world in limited ways, with little or no understanding of other people as separate from themselves in body or mind, and no understanding of social relations or morality. They grow larger, learn about the physical and social worlds, join different cooperative social groups, and cultivate a more and more complex sense of right and wrong. Psychologists, teachers, and others who deal with children constantly invoke the term development as a way to understand the child's status and to rationalize practice. The language of development permeates child psychology and the child centered professions. Practitioners in these areas speak of such things as "developmentally appropriate practices" for early childhood education, developmental "readiness" for reading, and "stages" of cognitive, moral, and social development. Policymakers often turn to developmental psychologists to help justify social programs on behalf of children. If "highquality" child care enhances a child's development, then providing such care is good public policy.

The idea of development is used extensively to give order and meaning to changes over time in children's physical, cognitive, psychosocial, and moral development. Development provides the rationale for myriad practices and policies related to children. There are, however, several concepts embedded in the idea of development that, upon closer inspection, may not be quite so obvious. What is not as obvious as the idea of development itself are the mechanism(s), direction(s), and end(s) of development. When one thinks about development in these terms and considers more deeply the origins and meaning of the idea of development, the obvious does not appear quite so obvious any longer. Development is a teleological conceptit must have a direction and an end. The presumption is that later stages build on earlier stages and are more developed and "better" than earlier stages. The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (18961980) proposed formal operations as the universal end of cognitive development. For Piaget, formal operations provided the most comprehensive and logically

powerful organization of thought. Extending Piaget's work, Lawrence Kohlberg elaborated a stage-based theory of moral development. He too invoked a universal end based upon increasingly abstract conceptions of justice. Both Piaget and Kohlberg have been criticized for their initial presumptions about universality: more differences across cultures and between genders exist than either expected. These variations have rattled the bones of those seeking a universal, timeless developmental psychology but, at the same time, opened the doors to a more pluralistic notion of development. Still, typical notions of development (universal or not) presume that development proceeds in a specific direction and that later stages are "better" and more comprehensive than early stages. Direction and end are axiomatic to development. At the very core of the idea of development are values and ideas about the "good" for individuals and societies. Later stages are not only more comprehensive, they also represent better ways of being because the end is highly valued as a good for human existence. If development is going somewhere,

if later states are "better" or "higher" than previous states, then the "end" must represent some pinnacle of human excellence; the end must be good. On what bases are these ends grounded? These questions are critical for any inquiry into the meaning of development. The idea of development is as much grounded in values as in empirical facts. Can science provide values? (It should be noted that this entry does not address development in domains that are highly "canalized"domains that are highly driven by genetics and physiology, for example, aspects of perceptual or motor development.) This entry explores the meaning of development by first introducing the historical context out of which the idea of development in children arose in American thought. Second, the entry briefly explicates the work of two prominent American thinkers whose ideas about development were founded upon dramatically different assumptions about the source, mechanisms, and ends of development. James Mark Baldwin elaborated an enormously complex notion of natural development under a thinly disguised divinity.

For Baldwin, the direction and end of development inhered in nature itself, conceived as good, true, and beautiful. In stark contrast, John Dewey resisted the temper of the times and rested his ideas about development on a set of explicitly chosen values. The contrast illustrates the fundamental difference between conceiving development as a natural or as a socially guided processthe child as a natural or as a cultural being. The Historical Origins of the Idea of Development in Children The idea of development did not begin or end with children. The idea of development in children arose from a set of older ideas about natural and human history. By the midnineteenth century, ideas about evolution, development, and progress formed a virtual trinity. Evolutionary history (phylogeny), individual development (ontogeny), and social change (history) all illustrated and revealed development. When systematic child study began in the United States, it entered through an ideological prism of evolution, progress, and development.

Although arguments for development in both natural and human history were not new, the nineteenth is most famously known as the century of "history," "development," and "progress." Prior to the publication of the theories of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (18091882), the Scottish publisher and author Robert Chambers (18021871), in his influential 1844 anonymously published book, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, maintained that alongside gravitation there was one great law of lifethe law of development. Just as inorganic matter was governed by the principle of gravitation, so all of life was governed by the principle of development. The English philosopher Herbert Spencer (18201903) captured the optimistic spirit of the times when he wrote that the ultimate development of the ideal man (in his words) was logically certain; progress was not an accident for Spencer, it was a necessity. Civilization, Spencer wrote, was not artificial, but part of nature and all of a piece of a developing embryo or the unfolding of a flower. This was no mere analogy for either Spencer or the American culture that so warmly welcomed him.

Amidst the din of development, Darwin remained (arguably) neutral. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, as set forth in his seminal work, On the Origin of Species (1859), served not only as a radical secular theory of the origin of humans; it also provided a new scientific sanction for a set of older beliefs. Though Darwin himself was not committed to the notion that the evolutionary record implied development or progressthat human beings are necessarily more "developed" than other species, or that species perfect themselves through evolutionary changemany of his predecessors and proponents were just so committed. Darwin's theory of gradual, no progressive evolutionary change was assimilated into a culture that was ideologically prepared to receive and transform Darwin into a spokesman for development in general. Armed with the authority of science, developmental zealots seized upon the new and secular science to confirm and extend a set of older ideas. Biologists, philosophers, historians, and many of the blossoming new social and political scientists seized Darwin's theory of evolution as a platform for demonstrating development in fields far and

wide. So-called evolutionary theists worked hard at reconciling the Biblical account of human origin with the new science. Many solved the dilemma by assimilating natural law as a visible demonstration of God's work. Riots of analogies were drawn between the development of different animal species, human races, civilizations, and children. The idea of development, broadly construed and expressed in fields as divergent as evolutionary theory, philosophy, anthropology, and history formed, the dominant intellectual context for the systematic study of development in children. The child's development served to demonstrate the connection between development in evolution and the development of civilization. The child became a linchpina link between natural and human history.
Development: The Natural, the Social, and the Good

Both James Mark Baldwin (18611934) and John Dewey (18591952) were distinguished philosophical psychologists. Baldwin was a brilliant theorist whose theory is now recognized as an anticipation of Piaget's work. More recently, Baldwin's work has inspired a number of both historical and

empirical inquiries. His psychology was complex, comprehensive, and brilliant in many ways. Baldwin rested much of his work on a platform of evolutionary theory to explain development in general, across natural and human history. John Dewey was a first-rate philosopher who focused his many lines of inquiry around education. Both men wrote about evolution, child development, and history but in profoundly different ways. Baldwin found natural lines of development in evolution, child development, and historical change. Nature governed and directed these developmental processes toward truth, beauty, and goodness. Dewey saw no inevitable, automatic, or general development in any of these passages of change over time. He believed that the direction and ends of individual and social development were based on culturally negotiated values. The contrast between Baldwin and Dewey is powerful. It illustrates the vastly different implications of understanding child development as a naturally occurring process in which the end resides in nature or in culture and history. Both theories

are anchored in values, but the source of those values differs. James Mark Baldwin. Baldwin entered Princeton University (then the College of New Jersey) in 1881 and soon fell under the influence of minister, professor, and college president James McCosh. McCosh was one of many liberal clergy who struggled to reconcile science and scripture. He taught the young Baldwin that human beings were fundamentally good and that just as science revealed divine handiwork in nature so moral philosophy demonstrated moral purpose and design in human affairs. Moral law was as real and inexorable as gravity, and both indicated the presence of a divine governor of the world. When Baldwin elaborated a thinly empirical but richly theoretical account of child development, he maintained his professor's conviction that to describe normal social practice was also to prescribe ethical behavior. Through his many written volumes Baldwin specified ends of development founded upon presumably natural causes. In so doing, Baldwin proposed a basic concurrence between the natural and the good.

People are good because God directs nature toward the good. Baldwin acknowledged evolutionary biology as the "handmaiden" to individual development. Darwin identified natural selection as the mechanism of evolutionary change. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (17441802) proposed that animals may, through effort, modify their form to better adapt to the environment and transmit these adaptations to progeny. Without resorting to simple Lamarckian theory, Baldwin, by a series of rather ingenious moves, invented a second mechanism of evolutionary transmission, organic selection, in order to explain apparently inherited acquired characteristics. (The notion of organic selection, also known as the Baldwineffect, is still recognized by evolutionary biologists as a mechanism that can account for various kinds of local adaptations in species.) Baldwin elaborated and transposed principles of evolutionary development onto wider and wider platforms to include both the child and society. He depicted children's social development as a dialectical process in which

notions of self and other developed concurrently toward an increasingly comprehensive understanding of both. Moral development was part and parcel of social development. As one of the late-nineteenthcentury idealist thinkers, Baldwin maintained that a sense of self that is good and lawabiding must be a public self in which private ends and social ideals were one and the same. The naturally developing social self is good, and it demonstrates the unfolding of more highly developed forms of self-realization, or Mind. The source, direction, and end of development are thus transcendent, beyond the reach of ordinary human experience. In 1884 Baldwin declared that the embryology of society is open to study in the nursery, and that any theory of social organization and social progress must be consistent with individual psychology. The individual and society are two sides of a naturally growing whole; the dialectic of individual development must hold true on the level of social organization. Thus, social progress occurs through a dialectic process strictly analogous to the dialectic of personal

growth in the child. Human history cannot move in a direction that violates those states of mindthe ideal, social, and ethical states that have enabled the individual to come into social relationships. Baldwin was convinced that social progress proceeded toward the pursuit of moral and social ends because "this is the direction that nature itself pursues in social evolution" (Baldwin, p. 163). The child and society both develop by means of natural law expressed in traditional Christian values. Naturally occurring "facts" or descriptions of development reveal values because values are inherent in nature. Mind, when fully revealed, is true, good, and beautiful. Development leads naturally to God made manifest in nature. John Dewey. There were skeptics, however, who did not believe in the trinity among development in evolution, child development, and social progress. They were minority voices barely heard above the din of development. Dewey was one of those skeptics, and he too wrote about the meaning of changes over time in evolution, child development, and history. Highly critical of

those around him who found the source and end of development in nature, Dewey once remarked that the idea that everything develops out of itself was an expression of consummate juveniles a relic of an older mode of thinking made obsolete by Darwin. Dewey's ideas about development are most visible in his writings on education, his philosophical center. In a direct assault on Spencer, Dewey found false the common analogy between a child's development and the unfolding of a flower. Dewey remarked that the seed's destiny is prescribed by nature, whereas the growth and destiny of the more plastic child is open and variable. More flexible outcomes are possible for richly endowed human beings than for a seed. The child may possess "germinal powers," according to Dewey but, playing on the analogy of the child as seed, he asserted that the child may develop into a sturdy oak, a willow that bends with every wind, a thorny cactus, or even a poisonous weed. Dewey rejected any idea of development that suggested or invoked the unfolding of latent powers from within toward a remote goal. Development does not mean

just getting something out of the child's mind; development is manifested through lived experience. Dewey recognized the need to specify direction and ends to growth. He understood that one cannot know what development is desirable without antecedent knowledge of what is good. It is just this presumed antecedent knowledge on which those purporting "natural" development depend. Dewey's philosophical psychology is, first and foremost, a social psychology. He acknowledged a rapidly changing American landscape and lived through a period of extraordinary social change. He contended that ideas and institutions must change with social change. He urged philosophers to stop worrying about the problems of philosophers and worry more about the problems of people. In response to the complex nature of the American industrial social order, Dewey leaned most heavily on schools to provide an institutional setting for children's development. He proposed that education serve as a lever of social change and charged schools with a mandate to become places that set

development in the right direction. Dewey maintained that teachers should strive to provide a designed environment in which particular ideals of development are fostered through lived experience. Specifically, Dewey found those ideals in democratic governance and scientific inquiry, the latter broadly construed and akin to the term critical thinking. If the classroom could become a miniature model of a community based upon democratic governance and critical inquiry rather than arbitrary authority or sentiment, then that would provide, Dewey maintained, the best guarantee of a good society. Children arrive at school with certain native interests or curiosities. These dispositions are beginning points for teachers to guide children toward particular socially desired ends. It is the business of school to set up environments that make possible the creation of small cooperative groups; the task of the teacher is to direct natural tendencies toward systematic inquiry and democratic governance. Systematic inquiry into the biology of plants may thus emerge from the children's collectively

designed and cultivated garden. From a class trip to the zoo might emerge shared inquiry into the history or ecology of zoos or to the natural habitats of different zoo animals. Growth occurs through lived experience. Dewey hoped that transforming social experiences in classrooms would guide children to grow "in the right direction." The classroom becomes a place in which the conditions of democratic governance and inquiry free from arbitrary authority or sentiment can and must exist to ensure that democracy and science thrive in the wider society. Education, growth, and experience thus become synonymous with one another. Knowledge and politics become one, as science in the classroom becomes democracy in action. Schools thus become agents of both individual development and social progress. Dewey thought of schools as laboratories in which scientists can learn about the possibilities of human development. In 1896 he began one such "laboratory" school at the University of Chicago. In schools, Dewey maintained, citizens may project the type of society they want. Dewey wanted schools to

become places in which children would grow and carry intelligence into a social democracy. Science and democracy demand one another, because science is the most democratic means of knowing and democracy is the most objective means of governance. Dewey promoted science and democracy as ideal ends for both the child's individual development and society's progress as well. In this sense, he resembles Baldwin and others in yoking individual development to social progress. While not inscribed in nature, science and democracy approach the status of absolute goods because they are, in Dewey's judgment, the best ways of solving an enormous range of problems. Science and democracy are not inevitable ends of history; they demand constant nurture and reformulation. The solution to the problem of values, endemic to the idea of development, lies not in natural law for Dewey but in socially agreed-upon values. Natural law conceptions of development avoid the problem of specifying values because the ends of development, the good, are presumed to be inherent in nature itself.

Having rejected development as a natural process, Dewey posed and answered just the sorts of questions demanded by the idea of development. Rather than postulating development as a natural unfolding of latent powers, Dewey maintained that development is a function of socially acknowledged goods for self and society. In his judgment, democratic governance and objective thinking were the best guarantees of a good, just, and experimenting society. Like the nineteenthcentury English philosopher John Stuart Mill, the German physiologist and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (18321920), the American psychologist Hugo Mnsterberg (18631916), and others, Dewey sought a social and developmental psychology based upon understanding people in relation to their cultural circumstances. In this view, culture itself becomes a mechanism of development. He thought that this social psychology could stand beside the older and more entrenched experimental psychology and become a "second psychology." By the early 2000s, "ecological," "socio-cultural," or socio-historical developmental psychologists perhaps best represented Dewey's perspective. Following on

the heels of the great Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (18961934), contemporary psychologists such as Urie Bronfennbrenner, Michael Cole, Barbara Rogoff, and Jerome Bruner have all proposed models of and mechanisms for a cultural-historical approach to development. These are developmental psychologists who situate development in a social context and understand development as incumbent upon culturally valued goals and social practices. Theories of the Late Twentieth Century and Beyond From the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, a persistent string of philosophers, historians, and psychologists have argued again that psychology traffics in values in spite of its persistent hopes to be a value-free, objective science. Development is a value-laden idea, sometimes derived not as closely from empirical data as some might like to believe. Dewey illustrates how once one renounces natural ends to development, one must become politically and morally engaged in a process to determine that which shall constitute good development and how it might

be achieved. Science cannot identify what those goods are, but it can suggest different ways to achieve different ends. Once one renounces fixed and naturally determined ends, development becomes historically contingent. The philosopher Marx Wartofsky wrote that there are no values in nature; people create them. In this view, development does not lurk directly in the people studied but resides in the perspective used. Jerome Bruner has argued that theories of development require a meta-theory of values about the good person and the good society. If developmental psychologists fail to examine those values and hide behind the veil of nature, developmental theory risks becoming a mere handmaiden of society's implicit values rather than a consciously implemented goal. Sheldon White has suggested that while the idea of development may be proposed in the context of analysis, it becomes the idea of the Good in practical affair; and that while the idea of development is a systematic idea, it is likely to be treated as an ethical ideal. Bernard Kaplan (1983) and William Kessen (1990) have also drawn our attention to the value-laden nature of the idea of development. The "end"

of development reflects that which people value and toward which people steer their children's development. These developmental values have varied tremendously across history and cultures. If development points the way to the good, then it is good to help development. In the midst of his youthful struggles to reconcile religion with science, the young Piaget wrote that "to hasten evolution is to do well". Developmental psychology began as a search for values and continues to do so today. REFERENCES
Custodiosa A. Sanchez, PH. D. Paz F. Abad, PH. D. Loreto V. Jao, ED. D. GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY, fourth edition Darlene D. Pedersen Psych Notes, Clinical Pocket Guide Frk Niazi GCET Mianwali Principles of Development Mendel's principles of heredity Source: Green Facts Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society