Human psychological development

Human development is a continuous dynamic process through which an individual's capacities emerge, expand and are integrated, to enable him to cope with the external world. Results of the process are evident in changes in the form, structure and functioning of the individual. Internal genetic factors which stimulate the growth process and set its limits include both physical and mental capacity; and external forces impinging on the process include the physical environment (starting from the prenatal period and continuing throughout life) and the social environment, represented by the individual's interactions with other people.

Controversies concerning the nature of this process exist in the following areas:< 1. The degree to which the child is viewed as active or passive in response to his environment.

2. The degree of continuity to be expected in psychological development (whether by gradual accretions, in sudden dramatic shifts, or segmented into stages).

3. How much development proceeds towards an idealized goal, rather than being an open-ended programme with no special terminal state defining the goal of growth.

Development in this context can be endowed with wide connotations or it can be given a limited meaning within a highly restrictive framework. The precision of definition within any particular theory often depends on whether the writer is more interested in describing the achievement of broad stages or plateaux of behaviour, or in the mechanisms which apparently govern the transitions between stages. How development is defined subsequently restricts what is then observed.