Lecture
1. Characteristics of the basic categories of developmental psychology.
1.1. The category of development in developmental psychology
1.2. The category of instruction in developmental psychology.
1.3. Upbringing as a category of developmental psychology.
2. The interrelation of the categories with one another.
3. Principles of developmental psychology.
One of the basic categories of developmental psychology – development.
There are 7 main approaches to understanding development as change:
1) development as growth;
2) development as maturation;
3) development as improvement;
4) development as universal change;
5) development as qualitative, structural change;
6) development as quantitative-qualitative change;
7) development as change that entails further changes.
The biological aspect of development.
Genotype – the totality of the genes of a given organism,
inherited by it from its parents.
Phenotype – the totality of all the internal and external features and
properties of an individual formed on the basis of the genotype.
When speaking of the process of development in accordance with the genetic plan,
the term maturation is used. The process of maturation consists of a
sequence of pre-programmed changes not only
in the organism's external appearance but also in its complexity, integration,
organization and functioning.
Maturation occurs at different rates. Every organ or
ability has its own point of optimal maturity. The term growth
typically refers to an increase in the size, functional
capacities and complexity of an organ or of the organism as a whole up to the point
of optimal maturity. The term aging refers to the biological
changes occurring after the point of optimal
maturity has been passed.
The social aspect of development
The influence of the environment can be temporary or permanent in character.
Environmental influences can delay or stimulate the process
of development.
The environment influences human development through the processes
of learning and socialization.
Learning – the main process by which the environment produces
stable changes in behavior. It occurs as a result of
acquiring individual personal experience or performing a series of
exercises.
Socialization – this is the process by which a person becomes
a member of a social group (family, class, etc.). Socialization includes
the assimilation of all the attitudes, customs, life values, and roles of a particular
social group. This process continues throughout life. Socialization
is understood as a two-way process. The process of socialization
continues at all stages of life.
In psychology there are several points of view on the extent to which
our behavior is determined by maturation and to what extent – by learning,
what is the role and relationship of internal and external factors in the formation of
a person:
1. The biologizing approach. – All the psychic features of a person
are innate. And psychic development – is the gradual
quantitative unfolding, the maturation of inherited biological
structures.
2. The sociologizing direction. – The psychic qualities
characteristic of a person arise under the influence of external conditions (the
«tabula rasa» theory of J. Locke). The main factor of psychic development
is considered to be the social environment.
Both of these directions proceed from a mechanistic conception of development,
which regards the person as a passive object.
There is not a single psychic quality that depends on only one of
the factors. A child's development is determined by the unity of external and internal
conditions.
Instruction – the purposeful, sequential transmission of socio-historical, sociocultural experience to another person under the specially
organized conditions of the family, school, university and other communities.
Instruction presupposes a certain level of development. It always
leads to the next level of development, but does not itself bring it about.
1.3. Upbringing as a category of developmental psychology.
Upbringing – the purposeful formation of stable personality
traits that determine a person's behavior and activity.
The relationship between instruction, upbringing and a child's development is one of
the central problems of developmental and educational psychology. There exist
different points of view on resolving this issue:
1. Instruction is development itself. (W. James, E. Thorndike, J. Watson and
others). The nature of instruction is understood differently by each of them.
2. «Instruction trails behind development». That is, instruction is
only an external condition of development. (W. Stern, J. Piaget).
3. «Instruction runs ahead of development». That is, upbringing and instruction
play the leading role in a child's psychic development (L.S. Vygotsky).
A principle is a certain unambiguous requirement of
strict fulfillment or observance of a certain norm.
1. The principle of development.
This principle is one of the fundamental principles
of psychology. According to this principle, all life phenomena must
be considered in their dynamics, in motion.
2. The principle of determinism.
According to this principle, everything that exists in the world has its own
cause and its own effect, that is, definite connections exist
between the phenomena of reality.
3. The principle of systematicity.
This principle requires that phenomena be studied in their dependence on
the internally connected whole that they form, acquiring thereby
the properties inherent to that whole.
4. The principle of instruction.
According to this principle, anyone can be taught anything, that is, a person
cannot be considered apart from instruction.
5. The principle of an individual approach.
According to this principle, a unique personality must be seen in each
person, and the process of instruction and
upbringing must be built accordingly.
6. The principle of activity.
According to this principle, a person is not only a subject of contemplation,
of reflecting reality, but also a subject of activity, actively
influencing the external environment.
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