Human development is the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live. It is about giving people more freedom to live lives they value. In effect this means developing people’s abilities and giving them a chance to use them.
Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. It is an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases. There are thirteen major branches of psychology which are: * Abnormal Psychology - is the area that looks at psychopathology and abnormal behavior. * Behavioral Psychology - is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. * Biopsychology - focused on the study of how the brain influences behavior. * Cognitive Psychology - is the branch of psychology that focuses on internal states, such as motivation, problem solving, decision-making, thinking and attention. * Comparative Psychology - concerned with the study of animal behavior. * Cross-Cultural Psychology - a branch of psychology that looks at how cultural factors influence human behavior. * Developmental Psychology - looks at development throughout the lifespan, from childhood to adulthood. * Educational Psychology - branch of psychology concerned with schools, teaching psychology, educational issues and student concerns. * Experimental Psychology - psychology that utilizes scientific methods to research the brain and behavior. * Forensic Psychology - a specialty area that deals with issues related to psychology and the law. * Health Psychology – branch of psychology that focuses on how biology, psychology, behavior and social factors influence health and illness. * Personality Psychology - focused on the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make a person unique. * Social Psychology - focused on the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make a person unique.
Behavior is a manner of conducting oneself. It is how someone or something reacts or does. It is how he handles things. A response of any individual to any action.
Nervous System is the control and communication system of the body. Its job is to send and receive messages. Your nervous system controls all your thoughts and movements. It is the highway along which your brain sends and receives information about what is happening in the body and around it.
Neurons are the cells that make up the nervous system are called neurons. Long, stringy neurons are perfect for carrying the electrical messages that are the "language" of the nervous system.
Theories of Mind is a specific cognitive ability to understand others as intentional agents, that is, to interpret their minds in terms of theoretical concepts of intentional states such as beliefs and desires. It has been commonplace in philosophy to see this ability as intrinsically dependent upon our linguistic abilities.
Theoretical Perspective of Human Development: * Psychodynamic Perspective – the interaction of various conscious and unconscious mental or emotional process especially as they influence personality, behavior and attitudes. This emphasizes the unconscious components such as conflicts, instinctual energies, etc. * Cognitive Perspective - is concerned with advances in the study of attention, memory, language processing, perception, problem solving, and thinking. * Behavioral - rejects the theory of unconscious conflicts, focusing instead on observable behaviors that people learn from their environments. * Humanistic Perspective - it is an approach to psychology that emphasizes empathy and stresses the good in human behavior. * Biological Perspective - is a way of looking at psychological topics by studying the physical basis for animal and human behavior. It is one of the major perspectives in psychology, and involves such things as studying the immune system, nervous system and genetics.

We all experienced being a kid. Lots of activities we wanted to do, lots of things we never knew that were possible, lots of thoughts inside our minds. As what typical kid does, way back then, I also wanted to play all day long with my playmates. Have new toys, cool stuffs and everything a kid would ever wish for. I also never wanted to take afternoon siesta. Mom still decides for what I wear every day. When I entered elementary, I met lots of friends with different behaviors. Being surrounded by a lot of kids were extremely fun because we all have the same thought, to play. We were just enjoying every moment with our playmates. We don’t have something to worry and stress about since we were just kids. No pressures, no stress and no problems. But, as time goes by, I am leaving the elementary life by and by. I noticed that I’m gradually changing. I’m slowly entering the life of being adolescent. My urge to play, to have new toys, and other kids do got lesser. My attitude changed though my childish act is still there but not as childish as I was before. I’m also starting to be attracted to someone. My taste of music also changed. Almost everything about me has changed. Even my body has changed its figure. In this early stage of my life, I experienced being into a relationship with opposite sex. I don’t know if it was “love” already or was I just curious about what grownups do. Time flies so fast. I have experienced a lot I never have thought I could. I entered high school life with joy and full of excitement because I knew I would face and have to deal with an extremely different life compared to what life I used to live with. I was really excited to grow up, to make my own choices, to choose what I want, to go wherever I want to go and to do what I want. I adapted some of my friends’ attitude and behavior. I also got influenced because curiosity struck me. I could tell, being a high school student is fun and at the same time, miserable. But despite of all the consequences and challenges I have faced, I am still enjoying my life because I know all of these are just part of growing up. I’m starting to act and be matured enough to take care of myself and handle things for myself. I learned a lot from my high school life. It taught me so much about life, how to become a better person, how to have a better life in the future. None of us could take away the memories and experiences that taught us. I am now in college. My likes, what I want and what I love are now so different from what I used to like. I don’t spend my whole day playing anymore. I noticed that being an adult or grown up isn’t a good idea to comfort myself. It’s like, the thing I never wanted to do when I was a kid is the now the thing I really want to do. Just like getting enough sleep and free time to enjoy life. I somehow understand that not all things will remain as it is. I am now taking another step of my life for my better future but the “change” hasn’t stopped yet. However, despite these struggles I continued to have a desire to develop and learn. In this formal operational stage my reasoning continued to improve. Attention and memory strategies became more complex and improved regularly. Everybody watched me and just some understood my way of thinking. I now know this to be common among adolescence. As an emerging adult, I became more understanding and willing to accept the unique and individual me. Language and vocabulary improved as normal. Ideas about quality of life and occupation became constant.