Development refers to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth of humans across their lifespan. It encompasses what happens to the body, the senses, and motor skills; learning, memory, and language; and emotions, personality, and relationships.
The field of development often works at a large scale with multilateral organisations like the United Nations and the World Bank, but it also exists at a smaller, local level with non-governmental organisation such as community centres and schools. At a business level, there are many benefits of investing in the training and professional development of employees. It helps to create a culture of learning, increases the amount of knowledge shared within your team and beyond, and can help foster stronger and more trusting relationships between staff.
For example, when employees attend training courses on new technologies or ways of working, they can bring this back to their teams and use it to improve services for customers, whether internal or external. This can lead to increased productivity and a more efficient service, as well as creating a better workplace environment.
Maturational meta-theories imply that the way people develop is determined by the genes, hormones, and brain systems they are born with. They are based on ideas such as the search for “traits” and the belief that some things, like aggression, are irrevocably fixed in an individual’s DNA or their hormone levels. This is sometimes called the mechanistic view of development because it assumes that people change in the same way that machines do.
