1.1. Identify the life stages of human development.
Human development is the study of how people change throughout their lives. There are six stages of human development, and they are:
Infancy: This is the first stage of human development; it is the earliest and shortest span for children. It covers the period of development from birth to 2 years. They acquire a distinct personality that will impact the course of their lives later. During this stage, enormous changes occur.
Childhood: They develop self-help skills during this period. Character development is the most common in early childhood. During this time, they gain independent adaptative abilities such as dressing, feeding, and toilet training. During this time, inquisitive abilities improve.
Adolescence: for a good course, the stage of adolescence where identity is created. Individuals in adolescence discover their personalities; they can recognise who they are, and they have more significant goals for success and self-actualization. They accept their new body as well as their isolation from home. Things are either right or wrong, dreadful or pleasant at this point; they are egocentric, which means they focus their attention on themselves. They are constantly self-conscious about their appearance and believe they are being criticized by their peers.
Early Adulthood: Individuals are at their most natural and in good health at this period. At this period, they are more likely to begin a profession; starting a family is likely considered. Young adults continue to improve their critical reasoning skills, create connections based on their beliefs, change their risk-taking strategy and make decisions based on potential implications.
Middle Adulthood: People start to show signs of ageing. Their skin develops wrinkles; health problems increase at this stage, e.g. diabetes, and heart disease are more common during this time. Individuals are more likely to accomplish career aims.
Late Adulthood: Most people at this stage retire from work. They reminisce on their life. During this phase, individuals are not physically fit because their reflexes are slow, they have less muscle, and their immune system doesn’t work as they used to. As a result, they find it challenging to fight diseases. The risk of developing a terminal disease increases. Some of the individuals at this stage might still be active and healthy without any sign of ailment; this may be due to the lifestyle they adopted while growing up.
Other answers in the full document:
- 1.2. Describe social, emotional, cognitive and physical developments within each life stage.
- 2.1. Describe theories of human growth and development.
- 3.1. Explain significant life events that can occur within each stage of human development.
- 3.2. Analyse the impact that significant life events have on individuals.