PSYC 2740 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Pubic Hair, Muscular Development, Cerebral Cortex
9 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
The body is constantly changing between infancy and adulthood. Height and weight increase rapidly during the first two years. Growth becomes more gradual across middle childhood. In early adolescence, there is a rapid growth spurt when height and weight again increase rapidly. The shape of the body and body proportions also change because various body parts grow at different rates. Physical development follows a cephalocaudal (head-downward) and a proximodistal (centre- outward) direction: structures in the upper and central regions of the body mature before those in the lower peripheral regions. Bones become longer and thicker and gradually harden, completing their growth and development by the late teens. Skeletal and muscular development parallel the changes occurring in height and weight. Muscles increase in density and size, particularly during the growth spurt of early adolescence. The brain, the reproductive system, and the lymph tissues mature at different rates. There are also sizable individual and cultural variations in physical growth and development.
