Different Views on Human development

Human development refers to the changes in the psychological, social behavior and the physical characteristics as experienced by persons across their lifespan from the time they are conceived to the time they die (Mayhew, 2016, p. There are plethoras of factors, which affect this development, and they include an individual’s culture, gender, nature, nature, and other relevant forces surrounding an individual. This paper provides a comprehensive view of the meaning of development and outlines some of the factors influencing human development. According to Marlow, development refers to the progressive increase in the capacity and skills and entails maturation or expansion of the cognitive and psychological abilities and the physical structures. The processes involved can either be normal for example in the case of fetus development.

According to Freud, human development is influenced by the inner forces within an individual. Freud believed that the most critical aspects of this forces are an individual sexual being. Freud linked all the development process to sex (Newman & Newman, n. d. , p. The final stage then involves the formal operational stage. The fundamental determinant of human development is parentage. According to Lucia & Fernandes Mendes (2012), family plays an important role in shaping the moral beliefs and the social behavior of an individual, which encompasses development. She points out that the development of social skills such as social confidence, the parents respect to the children and responsibility in treating them is important. According to Aviles, Anderson, and Davila (2006), children tend to depend on the relationship with their parents and caregivers to conceptualize the world they live in.

d. , p. Such situation includes stress conditions, which yields depression. In the contemporary society, development in psychology is hardly limited to nature or nurture but rather provides an investigation on the relationship between the innate and the environmental influences. This has led to the application of the biopsychosocial model, which forms the basis of most of the research work in development(Jaffee, n. According to Broughton (1981), distinct advance including those of highly genetic traits, which include as eye color tends to depend on the heritability and various environmental influences such as the temperature and the oxygen intensities during the growth process. These ecological contributions thus influence the gene expressions. The genetic makeup and the environment work concurrently in shaping the human development in communicating back and forth to create the expressed traits in the development process.

Culture is also an important factor, which influences human development. Culture includes the ideas about what is considered right and what is considered to wrong, what people are supposed to strive for, speak, value as well as the nature of the emotional response to situations.  29) this assumption is disputed by the fact that family and society status are key determinants dictating what an individual does and there are no options. Besides the biological events, also vary in the cultural context. In the US, girls receive information on the menstrual cycle at around fifth grade. The degree at which they are taught about issues such as sexual intercourse, reproduction, and the STDs tend to depend on the school district policy shaped by the state and local community sentiments and standards.