Ontario Grade 12 HHG4M Human Development throughout the Lifespan (Grade 12, University/College Preparation)
Chapters: 5
1. A. Research and Inquiry Skills
A1 Exploring · A2 Investigating · A3 Processing Information · A4 Communicating and Reflecting
- Human Development Throughout the Lifespan – Human development is how people change from before birth to old age. Change happens in three areas: body (physical), thinking (cognitive) and feelings and relationships (social-emotional). Theories help us explain it: Piaget for thinking, Kohlberg for right and wrong, Erikson for the self, and Bowlby and Ainsworth for attachment. The brain is plastic: used connections grow strong and unused ones are pruned, so early care and stimulation matter a lot. Some things put development at risk (poverty, neglect, violence, toxins before birth); others protect it (a caring adult, good school, healthy community, fair policies). When supports outweigh risks, a person shows resilience: they do well despite hard times.
2. B. Developmental Theories, and Risk and Resilience
B1 Theoretical Perspectives · B2 Risk and Resilience
- Human Development: Meaning, Life-Span View and Influences – Development is the pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the whole life. It includes growth (increase in size), maturation (changes that unfold on a biological timetable) and learning from experience. The life-span view says development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, shaped by history, studied by many disciplines and contextual. It involves biological, cognitive and socio-emotional processes that affect each other. Development results from heredity (genotype) and environment working together to produce what we see (phenotype). Contexts matter: Bronfenbrenner described nested systems (micro, meso, exo, macro and chrono), and Durganand Sinha described the Indian child's ecology as inner and outer layers that change over time.
- Human Development Throughout the Lifespan – Human development is how people change from before birth to old age. Change happens in three areas: body (physical), thinking (cognitive) and feelings and relationships (social-emotional). Theories help us explain it: Piaget for thinking, Kohlberg for right and wrong, Erikson for the self, and Bowlby and Ainsworth for attachment. The brain is plastic: used connections grow strong and unused ones are pruned, so early care and stimulation matter a lot. Some things put development at risk (poverty, neglect, violence, toxins before birth); others protect it (a caring adult, good school, healthy community, fair policies). When supports outweigh risks, a person shows resilience: they do well despite hard times.
3. C. Understanding Physical Development
C1 Physical Development and Brain Physiology · C2 Sensory and Motor Development · C3 Factors Affecting Physical Development
- Human Body Systems – Your body is organised in levels: cells make tissues, tissues make organs, organs make organ systems, and all systems together make you, the organism. Each system has a main job: skeletal (frame), muscular (movement), circulatory (transport), respiratory (gas exchange), digestive (food), excretory (waste), nervous and endocrine (control), immune (defence), integumentary (skin, hair, nails) and reproductive. No system works alone: during exercise the muscles, heart, lungs and nerves all change together to keep the inside of the body steady (homeostasis).
- Force on a Current-Carrying Conductor, Motor and Induction – A wire carrying current inside a magnetic field feels a push. The push is biggest when the wire is at 90° to the field and zero when it is parallel. Fleming's left-hand rule gives its direction. A motor uses this push to spin a coil; a generator does the reverse and makes current by moving a coil or magnet.
- Human Development Throughout the Lifespan – Human development is how people change from before birth to old age. Change happens in three areas: body (physical), thinking (cognitive) and feelings and relationships (social-emotional). Theories help us explain it: Piaget for thinking, Kohlberg for right and wrong, Erikson for the self, and Bowlby and Ainsworth for attachment. The brain is plastic: used connections grow strong and unused ones are pruned, so early care and stimulation matter a lot. Some things put development at risk (poverty, neglect, violence, toxins before birth); others protect it (a caring adult, good school, healthy community, fair policies). When supports outweigh risks, a person shows resilience: they do well despite hard times.
4. D. Cognitive Development, Language Development, and Intelligence
D1 Cognitive Development · D2 Language Acquisition and Development · D3 Intelligence · D4 Factors Affecting Cognitive Development and Language Use
- Human Development Throughout the Lifespan – Human development is how people change from before birth to old age. Change happens in three areas: body (physical), thinking (cognitive) and feelings and relationships (social-emotional). Theories help us explain it: Piaget for thinking, Kohlberg for right and wrong, Erikson for the self, and Bowlby and Ainsworth for attachment. The brain is plastic: used connections grow strong and unused ones are pruned, so early care and stimulation matter a lot. Some things put development at risk (poverty, neglect, violence, toxins before birth); others protect it (a caring adult, good school, healthy community, fair policies). When supports outweigh risks, a person shows resilience: they do well despite hard times.
- Human Body Systems – Your body is organised in levels: cells make tissues, tissues make organs, organs make organ systems, and all systems together make you, the organism. Each system has a main job: skeletal (frame), muscular (movement), circulatory (transport), respiratory (gas exchange), digestive (food), excretory (waste), nervous and endocrine (control), immune (defence), integumentary (skin, hair, nails) and reproductive. No system works alone: during exercise the muscles, heart, lungs and nerves all change together to keep the inside of the body steady (homeostasis).
- Intelligence: Theories, IQ and Emotional Intelligence – Intelligence is the ability to understand the world, think clearly and use resources well to meet challenges. Psychometric theories break it into factors: Spearman's g and s, Thurstone's seven primary abilities, Guilford's many abilities. Gardner lists eight separate intelligences. Sternberg's triarchic theory has componential, experiential and contextual parts. The PASS model sees intelligence as planning, attention-arousal and simultaneous-successive processing. IQ = mental age ÷ chronological age × 100; most people score 90-110. Culture shapes what counts as intelligent. Emotional intelligence is the skill of knowing and handling feelings.
5. E. Social-Emotional Development and Personality
E1 Social Emotional Development · E2 Personality and Identity · E3 Factors Affecting Social-Emotional Development
- Human Development Throughout the Lifespan – Human development is how people change from before birth to old age. Change happens in three areas: body (physical), thinking (cognitive) and feelings and relationships (social-emotional). Theories help us explain it: Piaget for thinking, Kohlberg for right and wrong, Erikson for the self, and Bowlby and Ainsworth for attachment. The brain is plastic: used connections grow strong and unused ones are pruned, so early care and stimulation matter a lot. Some things put development at risk (poverty, neglect, violence, toxins before birth); others protect it (a caring adult, good school, healthy community, fair policies). When supports outweigh risks, a person shows resilience: they do well despite hard times.
- The Self: Concept, Esteem and Culture – The self is the total of our experiences, ideas, thoughts and feelings about ourselves. It has a personal identity (what makes me unique) and a social identity (the groups I belong to). The self is both the knower (subject) and the known (object). Self-concept is how we see ourselves; self-esteem is how we value ourselves across areas like studies, friends, body and family. Self-efficacy is belief that we can succeed; self-regulation is managing our own behaviour, helped by self-observation, self-instruction and self-reinforcement. Indian culture sees the self with flexible borders that include family and community; Western culture draws a firmer border around the individual.
- Culture and Socialisation: How We Learn to Live Together – Culture is the whole way of life that a group learns and shares: its ideas, rules and things. It is learned, not born with us. Culture has three sides: cognitive (what we know and believe), normative (rules for how to behave) and material (tools and objects). Socialisation is the lifelong process by which a baby becomes a member of society by learning this culture. It happens through agencies: family, peer group, school, mass media, and others like work, religion and community.