The Comparison and Contrast of Developmental Theories Essay example

This essay will demonstrate my understanding of developments which occur at each stage of an individual's life cycle. I will relate these developments to two relevant psychological theories and discuss how an individual's needs must be met to enable them to develop.

Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) psychosocial stages of development provide a framework for the different stages of development throughout the human lifespan. These stages of development begin at birth and continue until death, and separate the lifespan into eight stages based on chronological age. Within these eight different aging stages are corresponding psychosocial stages. Each of these psychosocial stages represent a conflict between two characteristics of development for that particular time period in a person’s life.

Another theory of Erikson’s’ is that the successful completion of exploring relationships and developing one that is long term can lead to “happy relationships and a sense of commitment, safety, and care within a relationship. If, not accomplished, one can experience feelings of isolation, loneliness, and sometimes depression. (McLeod, S. 1970) Daniel Levinson contributes that a mid-life transition (occurring from 40-45) one’s life and its structure will be questioned.

When I hear the term life-span development, particularly when utilized in a psychological context, the first thing that comes to mind is that it has to be the investigation of change that occurs throughout the lifespan. This change that is being observed can be in the form of behavior or personality. This field of study is very interesting as it looks at the ways humans develop over the course of their life-span. The purpose of this paper is to explain why I believe an understanding of life-span development is important and why I believe an understanding of human development will be beneficial in my prospective career path.

According to Eric Erickson, those positive and negative environmental factors influence the individual 's development differently when it is experienced during a particular stage of development. Erickson 's psychosocial theory of development asserts that there are eight stages of development that each person passes through over the course of their life. Each stage has a specific goal that can be attained by resolving particular conflicts. This conflict resolution will result in a healthy, well balanced individual. This paper will look at each stage of Erickson 's psychosocial theory of life span development and how it applies to my own development.

Development of a person throughout his or her whole lifetime can be seen either as a continuous process or as a final status to be attained. Psychologists agree

Each stage has age ranges, but also basic strengths and adaptive versus maladaptive ways of coping with everyday life. I agree that at each stage the life of an individual experiences different feelings and that each stage comes with a feeling of hope. For example, in the oral-sensory stage, which is birth to one years old, babies experience trust versus distrust and the feeling of hope. Babies know that if they cry, they will get attention. They know that if they are in a familiar person’s arms, they will be cared for. If these things do not happen, the baby experiences distrust, but continue to be hopeful that they will be nurtured. The second stage is the muscular-anal stage, which ranges from age one to tree. During this stage toddlers are dealing with autonomy versus doubt with a strength of will. The third stage ranges from age three to fix, the fourth stage ranges from ages six to eleven, and the fifth stage ranges from age twelve to eighteen. The sixth stage is young adulthood, which ranges from age 18 to 35. During this stage, young adults are experiencing intimacy versus isolation with the strength of love, overall. Intimacy can lead to love, but love many also lead to isolation in many cases. The last two stages are adulthood that range from age 35 to 55, and the last stage being maturity to old age that is 55 years and older. The way Erik Erikson researched these

First of all, loneliness, a first developmental theme addressed above can be related to John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth’s Attachment theory, where Amy is living with her estranged father after the death of her mother. Initially she spends most of her time living alone as she does not have any friends and her father is busy in his work. It’s seems that both are not attached emotionally with each other which results in the manifestation of her affectionless psychopathy (an inability to show affection or concern for others) (McLeod, S. A. 2007). Therefore, according to Attachment Theory, a strong emotional and physical attachment to at least one primary caregiver is critical to personal development and long term consequences of parental deprivation might include delinquency, reduced intelligence, increased aggression, depression, affectionless psychopathy (McLeod, S. A. 2007).

Generativity versus stagnation is the psychological conflict of midlife and understood as a force on the adult to be committed to improving the life conditions of younger and older generations. It is a sense that one is making a difference in the lives of others (Newman & Newman, 2003). Generativity involves productivity, creativity and merging their personal needs for self-expression. According to research, generativity is also related to class, gender, and race (Hutchison, 2015). It also involves a wide-ranging function of family, relationships, work and society (Slater, 2003). A healthy family is when the parent demonstrated generativity through interest and care in their

Generativity versus stagnation is the seventh stage Erikson's theory .During this time, adults strives to create or nurture things that will outlast them; often by having children or commit to positive changes that benefits other people. Contributing to society and doing things to assist future generations are important needs at the generativity versus stagnation stage of development. At the age of thirty- five her husband had become a solicitor and her family had grown from four to five with an addition of a little girl. They have left their house and move back to the country. She was very believed in discipline but never the less she was very strong minded when it comes to education for her kids. She felt that if she could do anything over,

Theorist Erik Erikson’s developmental theory is best known for its theories on personality. He believed that an individual’s personality is developed in a series of stages impacted by social experiences throughout the whole life span. His model of development was the first offered by a theorist that extended over the entire life span. The massive

The stage that follows early adulthood is known as middle adulthood where people are generally caught between being productive and being stagnant. This stage reflects the need to create a living legacy: they would either need to feel they have become an important figure for the next generation to follow or they would develop a sense of purposelessness which is generally known as a “mid-life crisis”. This crisis can be solved by having the adults care and nurture children or help the fore-coming generation in other ways or means, however if the crisis remains the person would persist in random non-age-appropriate behavior as well as a continued feeling in stagnation. During this stage adults lose some of their physical aspects as their muscular strength, ability and agility weakens. Women will go through a menopausal

There are many theories on how we develop and become the people we are today. From Freud’s’ theory that mainly focuses on sexual development revolving around the idea that how children socialize affects their sense of self. To Piaget's theory that children move through different stages of mental development. Piaget’s theory focuses on the understanding of how children receive knowledge, and also on understanding the nature of intelligence. Erikson’s theory was based on the idea that humans develop throughout their lives, and you cannot move onto the next stage of life before you finish the one before it. Erikson view on how we develop throughout our lives is the theory I can easily connect with my life, mainly the developmental stage Trust

In young adulthood, the task is intimacy. Intimacy is forming emotionally close and trusting relationships with others. If this is not done, the resulting problem is alienation, or the fear of commitment, inability to trust others, and a feeling of isolation. In middle adulthood, the task is generativity, or guiding the next generation and making a difference in other’s lives. If this is not accomplished, the resulting problem is stagnation, or the lack of a sense of connection to future generations and lack of a purpose in life. In late adulthood, the task is ego integrity, or accepting how one’s life has turned out and coming to terms with the end of life. The resulting problem if this is not completed is despair, or the unhappiness and disappointment

Psychosocial development throughout the Life Cycle theory (sometimes known as individual development theory) proposes that each individual has the ability to master their environment at all stages of life (Coady & Lehman, 2008; Hutchison, 2008). The theory had its