Life Span Development Theories (Essay Sample)

Life span theories-Boeing
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LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
Introduction
Lifespan development is the science that studies escalation patterns, transformations and constancy of conduct that occurs throughout the lifespan of a human being (from birth to death). Developmental psychology is the study of pre and post-natal growth, behavioral maturation, developmental stages and experience effect on human development.
Task 1
There are three developmental types in every person’s life; physical, cognitive, and personality and social development. Physical type of development emphasizes on physical parts of a human life; the brain, the nerves, muscles, the senses and the basic needs. Cognitive part of life focuses on the intellectual ability of human; the memory, problem solving and learning abilities. Personality and social development focuses on the features that differentiate one person from the other, interactions and how relationships change with time.
Stages of development are the pre-natal which is the stage before birth, infancy (from birth to the age of 3), preschool which is between the age of 3 and 6, middle childhood (between the age of 6 and 12), adolescent which is between the age of 12 and 20, young adulthood (between the age of 20 and 40), middle adulthood which is between the age of 40 and 60 and late adulthood which is above the age 60. CITATION Win11 \l 1033 (Windley)
Lifespan theories
Many theorists have expressed their thought on the issue of life span development. These theories are very diverse in terms of the way ideas are presented. There are two main psychological theories.
Erick Erickson lifespan theory
Erickson recommended a theory of how people develop the sense of who they are and how the society impact people’s development along their life basing his argument on Freud’s theory. This theory was developed by observing children clinically. Having stages of development that have essential divergence and imperative events that manipulate growth, this theory is referred to as ‘Stages of Psychosocial Development’. It is also based on personality and social development type of development.
There are eight stages discussed in Erickson’s theory grouped in terms of age. During the stage between birth and 12 years, there are four phases. The first stage is trust and mistrust which occurs between the infant and its mother. It is important for the infant to complete this stage to avoid anxiety, fear of the world, insecurity and mistrust.
The next important phase is autonomy versus shame and doubt. This occurs when a child is starting to support itself because it’s the phase that involves maturation of the child’s muscle to coordination and support. In this phase the child is taught how to toilet. The child needs to be encouraged to make sure that their self-confidence and sense of security. If over controlled the child feels inadequate in their capability to survive making them dependent on others, not have self-esteem, and have a sagacity of shame and doubt in their capabilities.
The third phase in this theory is initiative versus guilty. In this stage the child is well developed and are able to communicate and can easily ask question about stuff. The child is now willing to learn and this improves his imagination. A child should be given room to develop in this stage, it is able to initiate things and fells secure. Incomplete development in this stage makes them have guilt in them.
The next stage is industry verses inferiority and it occurs between 6 and 12 and involves planning, working and associating with others. Well completion of this stage makes them confident and industrious. Inferiority and doubting of ability is experienced when reinforcement by parents and teachers is not well suppressed.
In high school there is only one stage; identity verses role confusion. The adolescents here starts to identify what they prefer, their interactions and their roles. The important thing in this stage is relationships and if this does not happen, the person becomes confused and it becomes difficult to identify his role in the world.
Intimacy verses isolation is very important in young adulthood, which depends on how the previous stage was developed. The next is generativity versus stagnation where people in this stage assist the young generation. If this is not done, it depicts stagnation. The last stage is integrity versus despair where late adults evaluate their life. If all stages were well developed, integrity is acquired and if not, a feeling of despair is experienced. CITATION Wen97 \l 1033 (Sharkey)
Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud developed his psychoanalytic theory which discusses the unconscious mind and its role to human behavior. It is divided into three; theory of consciousness, theory of personality and the theory of motivation and instinct.
Theory of consciousness discusses the unconsciousness that happens without someone’s acquaintance. The next division is the preconscious mind which includes information that is not current remembered but can be remembered. Conscious mind contains what can be remembered always.
There are three parts of personality; id, superego and ego. The id is a component that includes one’s instincts and is found in the unconscious mind. Superego is someone’s conscience that reminds someone what is considered wrong. Ego is the part of personality that helps one make his/her decision and faces consequences.
The stages found in Erickson’s theory are the same as the ones in Fraud except for the naming. Freud’s stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stage. This theory was mainly sexually focused making it face a lot of criticism. CITATION stu15 \l 1033 (study.com)
Comparison between Erickson’s and Freud’s theories
* Erickson’s theory has 8 stages while Freud’s has 5.
* Erikson’s theory is based on sociology while Freud’s is based on sexuality.
* What brings a person’ development according to Freud is driven by personal needs and biological forces while this is brought about by social and environmental needs according to Erickson.
* While Freud mainly focuses on child development, Erikson expands his theory to adulthood.
Task 2
Consider a combined lower and upper primary school. There are very important activities taking place inside the school but the main activity in this case is education. A lot of children from diverse places come in daily expecting to learn something new. In this case, there are children in lower primary school and pupils in upper primary school. Studying the phases of life span is very important in this case to make sure that a child that came in knowing nothing goes out having acquired knowledge and most importantly have undergone all the phases of life successfully.
There are certain phases of life that are found in this social care setting. In the lower primary, there are the small kids who are being introduced into education in the elementary school as well as those in upper primary who have defined reasons for studying. The various phases involved in this case, according to Erick Erickson are initiative versus guilty, industry versus inferiority, identity versus role confusion
When a child is 3 years old, they are old enough to ask questions on various issues about life, since he or she can move around easily and his imagination has developed. This child then is old enough to go to school. The child loves to play with others and is willing to learn quickly. In this case the child has no importance of education and the only thing that they think of is play and doing things independently. It is very important for a child to be given the freedom during this stage.
In this stage a child’s sense of security and initiative is developed. If the child is not given freedom to use her thoughts in this stage, the child develops the feeling of guilt and may feel like a bother to others. This is a crucial stage in childhood and what is perceived in this stage is very important. It may affect the child’s whole life in terms how they think and put their ideas through, their confidence and their way of life generally.
Industry versus inferiority is the next stage in primary school. It starts when the child is able to observe how things are done and is able to learn from them. The child can now invent things plan their own work and share ideas with others. Play now is less and they are able to compare and make decisions on what is good, better and what is not good at all.
It is very important for the teacher to reinforce the child’s initiative ability to boost the child’s confidence and industrious capability. If this is not done well, the child feels inferior and starts to feel inadequate. This can be very damaging to the child’s sense of identity since, at some point, this child starts thinking that what he or she lacks establish social worth and what they have is not enough or is not fine. The child can for example despise their skin color and their financial status.
Peer influence in this stage matters a lot to its members and is a major source of self-esteem. They also develop the need to win approval from the society. This makes them do things in the society demonstrating their industriousness and feels proud after the accomplishments. Recognition and appreciation from the members of the society matters a lot to them hence boost their self-confidence.
The next phase occurs in upper primary and in high school. In this phase the student is able to identify what they really like, what they are good in and what they...