Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organs grow and develop,

and is closely related to Ontogeny. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic
control of cell growth, differentiation and morphogenesis, which is the process that gives
rise to tissues, organs and anatomy, but also regeneration and aging.
Human development may refer to:
Human development (biology), the process of a human becoming biologically
mature
Human development (humanity), as it relates to economics and standards of living
Human development (psychology) or developmental psychology
Human Development nde!, an inde! used to ran" countries by level of human
development
Human development theory
Personality development
#ersonality traits are defined as the relatively enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors that distinguish individuals from one another.
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'he dominant view in the field
of personality psychology today holds that personality emerges early and continues to
change in meaningful ways throughout the lifespan.
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)vidence from large*scale, long*
term studies has supported this perspective.
+dult personality traits are believed to have a basis in infant temperament, meaning that
individual differences in disposition and behavior appear early in life, possibly even
before language or conscious self*representation develop.
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'he -ive -actor Model of
personality has been found to map onto dimensions of childhood temperament,
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suggesting that individual differences in levels of the /big five0 personality traits
(neuroticism, e!traversion, openness to e!perience, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness) are present from young ages.
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a
child1s development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual
s"ill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development and cognitive
psychology compared to an adult1s point of view. n other words, cognitive development
is the emergence of the ability to thin" and understand.
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+ large portion of research has
gone into understanding how a child imagines the world. 2ean #iaget was a ma3or force in
the establishment of this field, forming his 4theory of cognitive development4. #iaget
proposed four stages of cognitive development: the sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete operational and formal operational period.
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Many of his theoretical claims
have since fallen out of favor. However, his description of the more prominent changes in
cognition with age (e.g., that it moves from being dependent on actions and perception in
infancy to an understanding of the more observable aspects of reality in childhood to
capturing the underlying abstract rules and principles in adolescence) is generally still
accepted today. #erhaps e5ually importantly, #iaget identified and described many
cognitive changes that must be e!plained, such as ob3ect permanence in infancy and the
understanding of logical relations and cause*effect reasoning in school age children. 'he
many phenomena he described still attract the interest of many current researchers.
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated by )ri" )ri"son, e!plain
eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late
adulthood. n each stage, the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges.
)ach stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. 'he challenges of
stages not successfully completed may be e!pected to reappear as problems in the future.
However, mastery of a stage is not re5uired to advance to the ne!t stage. )ri"son1s stage
theory characteri6es an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of
negotiating his or her biological forces and sociocultural forces. )ach stage is
characteri6ed by a psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces (as shown in the
table below). f an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring
the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), he or she emerges from the stage with the
corresponding virtue. -or e!ample, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs.
shame 7 doubt) with more trust than mistrust, he or she carries the virtue of hope into the
remaining life stages.
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Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality
from infancy through adulthood. n the field of moral development, morality is defined as
principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to 3ustice, others8
welfare, and rights. n order to investigate how individuals understand morality, it is
essential to measure their beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to
moral understanding. 'he field of moral development studies the role of peers and
parents in facilitating moral development, the role of conscience and values, sociali6ation
and cultural influences, empathy and altruism, and positive development. 'he interest in
morality spans many disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, biology, and political
science) and speciali6ations within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, and cultural).
Moral developmental psychology research focuses on 5uestions of origins and change in
morality across the lifespan.
Physiological Basis of Behavior
Overview Ob!ectives: 'he ob3ective of this course is to introduce the student to the study of
the biological basis of behavior. 'he emphasis will be on central nervous system functions and
their relationships to behavior. 9ourse topics include but are not limited to: %) the anatomy of the
brain and spinal cord, () the neurochemical and electrophysiological properties of neurons, ,) the
methodologies employed in biological psychology, .) the rationale for using animals in biological
research, :) sensory processes, with an emphasis on vision and audition, ;) motor movement, <)
emotional behaviors, =) learning and memory, >) recovery from brain damage, and %?) drug
effects on behavior, %%) neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, schi6ophrenia and
+l6heimer1s disease. 'he ultimate goal of this course is to help students gain a greater
understanding of how behaviors are affected by the biology of the nervous system and develop an
appreciation for the ways in which biology impacts their lives. n doing so, it is also hoped that
students become better consumers of neuroscientific and biomedical information.