Blog Post Number One

This is the second psychology course I am taking at Millersville, in fact it’s the second psychology course I’ve taken in my entire life so most of the information I read in this chapter was all new to me. After reading the chapter I started to really think about what I’ve just learned and I’ve never realized it until the start of this class that every event in your life can effect your development either mentally or physically. From using a plastic baby bottle that contains phthalates to dealing with a parent’s divorce at a young age all effects who you are today. The science of human development seeks to understand how and why people of all ages change over time. Scientist using the scientific method and empirical sciences studies development. Which means that data and real life observations are used to understand the development of humans.  There are many factors to take into consideration when studying the development of humans like context, direction, culture, and discipline. Each can affect development in their own way.  One example that I found interesting was the study done by Brody in 2009 where he had mothers from both the United States and China read picture books with no words to their children. The Chinese mother’s tended to point out that a dandelion could be picked or smelled, while U.S. mother’s explained the dandelion using verbs and nouns, pointing out the leaves, stem and petals. Each parent raises their child in their own way, but the country they come from tends to effect how the parents choose to raise their kids, because parents tend to teach and raise children based off how they were raised and taught.