“Lifespan (human) development and its changing roles through Health & Social Care settings, describing the psychological intervention that would be useful in health promotion (lifespan development to death - understanding the health and social care service users)”
The development of a human being covers a broader area. It does not begin from birth but it traverses through the time when the mother conceived. Development that starts inside the mother’s womb is equally critical in deciding how the baby would continue to be in the later years of life. Initially, this phase of development was largely believed to be a period of maturation where the genetic development largely occurred. However, when psychologists and biologists looked further into the pre-natal period, they understood that this phase was not merely an outcome genetic constraint (Decasper, 1994).
Environment may affect the fetus greatly. All the development that takes place during the initial phase, it consists of psychological aspects too. The actions and the reactions that the baby would be exposed to will actually become responsible for the development that takes place. This essay explores the different aspects of lifespan development that originate through social, psychological, biological and psychoanalytical perspectives.
The major questions asked by the life span psychologists’ centers around the development of the individual. How does physical development take place? How does our worldly perception keep changing throughout our life span? How our attitudes, beliefs, traits, thinking pattern are get shaped by the psychosocial factors? How do our personalities and social developments continue to change as we progress further ahead in our lives?
A famous discovery in the 1990s was the birth of the first test tube child named Louise Brown. Her pattern of conception and development continued to be reminded to her in her social circles. Later on, everyone became aware of test tube babies (Decasper, 1994).
In vitro fertilization in which the mother’s egg and father’s sperm is fertilized outside the womb is a common method used nowadays. This was a new entry into the life span development and allowed researchers to investigate further into this kind of development. More and more studies emerged and various researches were unveiled pertaining to the understanding of how development occurs.
Another example was the birth of twins by an elderly woman in the United Kingdom. A 67 year old woman gave birth to twins. Fertility science has opened doors to bigger opportunities (Decasper, 1994).
These are the changing perspectives encircling lifespan development. In the past decades, health promotion that centered on development was limited. Over the years, when the number of opportunities has increased, when fertility sciences and psychological and sociological behaviorists have generated further topics, much has changed enormously.
For the test tube baby and for the twins born to an old woman, different life span researchers would generate different arguments. Each one would pick up a different topic to study about them. Life span theorists who focus on the genetic perspectives would keep themselves restricted to the biological framework. The ones whose major focus is psychoanalysis would look into the developmental areas specific at birth (Steinberg, 2010)
Biological scientists would argue in favor of genes while health psychologists and developmental psychologists would side with their beliefs on attachment theories and various stages of development. The psychologists who focus on the psychical aspects of development would compare the two different birth forms with regard to the differences that they pose when compared with the traditional birth forms.
The social psychologists focus on how they developed friendships and interacted in their social environment with all other people. Even for the individuals who were subject to such birth such as Louise’s birth, the psychologists studying the thinking patterns would certainly pay attention to the way thinking of these children developed over the years as well as how their understanding of selves shaped.
The number of fields that have emerged over the years, each one of them has paved way for various psychologists to come up with new theories. Therefore, lifespan development is not merely a battle of nature or nurture. It is a complicated mix of the two which are further entangled with each other on subtle levels. Technology has opened new doors.
A lot of patterns of understanding human development have showed up. Various lenses have sprung up through which one could look into certain behavioral forms. Nonetheless, in all the various fields that have taken form, all of them intend to study the development of a child from pre-natal times to death. They are all subject to comprehending the growth and change that occurs during the lifetime of a person (Steinberg, 2010).
Among all the psychological models that have been established, they all focus on the human being and his development. So, lifespan development, as the name suggests, encompasses the entire span from birth to death.
In this essay, a discussion of life span development with regard to four primary arguments; Exploration, analysis, selection and criticism of the lifespan development that takes place in the individual’s life, is present The different theories of lifespan and then we will analyze how the behavior is determined in a health care or social setting which would be furthered through the selection of any theories and how they apply to daily lives. In the end, we will criticize how the theories influence the health promotion and social care strategies.
a) Theories of lifespan development
When looking into the development of a child between ‘womb to tomb’, one major aspect that requires mention is the family. The development is incomplete without looking into the basic socializing agent i.e. the family of the individual. Having a family or not affects the individual’s growth and development in any case. As discussed initially, development begins inside the womb. The connection with the mother builds inside the womb and strengthens when she milks her child.
‘Families matter!’ is the point that the developmental researchers are asserting on incessantly through the countless researches. Be it Bowlby’s attachment theory, ecological and developmental systems theory by Bronfernbenner in 1979 or the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, they are all aimed at explaining the influences of family association on a child’s outlook as a whole. Not surprisingly, families also have been the targets of many kinds of interventions aimed at altering family interaction or parenting behavior in order to change the course of child development (Clarke-Stewart, 2006)
In this relation, the major agent is family. How you one end up socializing later would largely depend upon the interactions that took place in his family. The importance could further be emphasized by the theories on social learning presented by Bandura. Children, being immature, learn to imitate others.
Since the early few years of their life, they are lavished with familial attention; the child starts by imitating or modeling his family members. It is has been noticed a daughter copies mother by wearing her heels or a son asserts his authority in a similar manner to his father? Kids watch parents so their behaviors would be the ones they are going to copy. Learning, according to Bandura, occurs through observational learning.
Freud’s psychosexual developmental stages affecting lifespan development
Founder of the model of psychoanalysis, Freud placed emphasis on the child development which critically affects his adulthood. He proposed a number of stages which must be gratified for a child to develop normally. If he gets fixated at any of the stages, the development would be distorted and the distortions would show either in the social interactions or they would reveal in the sexual aspects of the person’s life. These stages consist of the oral stage where the pleasure principle is centered on the mouth. The next stage is the anal stage where the area of pleasure changes and then the phallic, latency and genital stages where the pleasure areas keep varying (BJÖRKQVIST, 1992).
All these stages are basically left unsatisfied because the biological needs are in conflict with the social requirements. Each stage’s dissatisfaction would cause a child to develop relevant problems in the later years (Thomas and Bouchard, 2004).
Self-theories affecting development during adulthood
During the early teenage years, an issue pertaining to identity develops. The child experiences an identity crisis causing him or her to start the ‘search of self’. In an attempt to identify with their real self, teenagers at this stage are subject to a lot of issues. Peer pressure is another major issue and the self-theory that explains how a person looks for his real self identifies most strongly with his peers.
(b) Analyze social and biological determinants of behavior relevant to Health and Social Care content from a psychological perspective
Behavior is shaped by society and genetics. The social and biological determinants of behavior consist of the mixture of nature and nurture influences. The social theories of behavior focus on how individual develop in their social environment. This area is catered by social psychology which examines the relation of individuals with their social environment.
Bowlby’s attachment theory (Biological determinant)
When children come to the world, they are trained to form attachments with others. They are biologically programmed to enter into this phase where they would formulate relationships with others. The attachment behavior is innate i.e. biological in nature. It is going to get activated immediately as fears develop. The importance of attachment is basically because of the need of survival. No individual could exist in loneliness. Forming relationships and attachments is crucial to survival.
When a child is born, he starts by forming an attachment with his or her mother. This gives him security, comfort and builds trust in his mother. Children who are deprived of parental love in the first few years of life are susceptible to psychological dysfunction of various sorts. These individuals become engulfed in fear and a web of insecurities which start to reveal themselves as they grow up.
Carl Roger’s personality theory (social determinant)
Carl Roger’s personality theory is a sneak peak into the humanistic perspective. His theory on personality development intends to explain the behavior largely through the consideration of humans as a rationally positive being. Man is a ‘trustworthy organism’ overall.
The basic feature of his theory is the actualizing tendency which allows the organism to develop in the direction of his potential. This tendency is present in every organism. None of the organisms lack the tendency to drive reduction. It is mainly believed to be the ‘biological pressure that forces an organism to complete the genetic blueprint’ All the organisms move towards the realization of their potentials.
The portion of self is central to this theory of personality development as proposed by Carl Rogers. In his theory, he attempts to emphasize on the individual’s potential. All of us are intended to realize our personal growth. However, how the growth takes place and how we move towards our growth and development is decided by the social factors. Our interaction with society is responsible for it.
(c) Application of psychological theories to selected aspects of life (Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs for example
Psychological theories are not only proposed uselessly. They have a certain role.All theories are proposed so that they are applied in daily lives. When psychologists come up with certain proven theories, they are done so that they could advance and use them in certain areas of lives. The health care institution is one essential place where these theories are implemented.
Nursing is one field which is critically essential in the health care institutions these days. Applying the psychological theories in this field will enable nurses to make better health care decisions. They would be able to adjust to the changing demands as well as provide better health care facilities and understand and harmonize with the needs of the patients.
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its implementation in Nursing
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has a practical application in nursing arena. Maslow’s need hierarchy stresses on the fact that all needs must be gratified in a specific order so that the individual could actually feel gratification and security. Nurses, in a social setting, could apply these need theory principles in their social setting when giving patient healthcare services (Stimpson, 2006).
They could go in a specific order so that the needs of the patients are fully gratified for recovery to be ensured. The basic need is physiological need which could be satisfied by taking care of their food timings and establishing a bond of friendship with them so that their loneliness or safety element surfaces and they do not feel alien in the environment they are brought for treatment.
d) Evaluation of how psychological theories influence health improvement and care strategies
Psychological theories could be used to promote health. The theory proposed by Carl Rogers could encourage client-centered therapists to boost their patients’ morale. They could guide these patients towards their goals and remind them of their ability to achieve all of them without trouble. Moreover, while organizations intend to spread awareness, they could also use the phenomenology of ‘self-actualization’ to find these patients their lost potentials.
The theory of development that Freud has proposed aims to explain the developmental patterns of certain psychological disorders mainly impulse control disorders which tend to occur largely because the individual needs are left unfulfilled. In the field of health, emphasis would be placed on children and the institution of health would further ensure how to give full and undivided attention to children to prevent them from getting fixated. Moreover, in this case parents would also be given instructions regarding how they must raise their children which would not make them susceptible to any kind of trouble.
The theory of social learning proposed by Bandura aims to explain the importance of observational learning. Modeling leads to behavioral change. This theory could also be used by the health care specialists when they are trying to teach their patients how to comply with health care services (Decasper, 1994). Children as well as adults could be made to model or imitate the positive behaviors and health promotional strategies generally make use of this theory of observational learning to inculcate healthy behavioral practices in their children (Hindle, 1999).
The theory of hierarchy of needs presented by Maslow can be used in health care and health promotion strategies. When patients are not complying with the medical practices, they should be reminded how each of their needs are contingent upon all others and if some of the needs are left ungratified, then others would also suffer consequently (Clarke-Stewart, 2006).
Conclusion
Therefore, all the theories have several applications in the health care system. Individuals could learn to applying these healthcare models in their daily learning and then they could become accustomed to newer and well-informed behaviors promoting a healthier and a better society overall.
The theories mentioned above are some of the innumerous theories of lifespan development. With so many theories that can be implemented, psychology continues to look for other evidences and find newer researches so that the points could be proven. The theories are being examined and re-examined with several people providing a number of evidences in this field of psychological development.
3 idiots. 2009. [Film] Directed by Rakumar Hirani.
Clarke-Stewart, A. J.D., 2006. Families count: effects on child and adolescent development. illustrated ed. Cambridge University Press.
Beauregard, A., 2007. Family influences on the career life cycle. In Ozbilgin, M.F. & Malach-Pines, A. Career choice in management and entrepreneurship: a research companion. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp.101-26.
Bester, G., 2007. Personality development of the adolescent:peer group versus parents. South African Journal of Education, 27(2), p.1 7 7 – 1 9 0.
Hindle, D., 1999. Personality development: a psychoanalytic perspective. reprint ed. Routledge.
Decasper, A.J., 1994. Fetal Reactions to Recurrent Maternal Speech.
Commendador, K,A., 2010. Pubmed.gov. [Online] Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20687307 [Accessed 9 November 2011].
Steinberg,L., 2010. Lifespan Development: Infancy Through Adulthood. Cengage Learning.
Stimpson,P., 2006. Business Studies- AS and A level. England: Oxford University Press
BJÖRKQVIST,K., 1992. Parental influence on child's self estimated aggressiveness. Finland: Wiley-Liss.Inc Abo Akarlemi University.
Pearson, 2010. Orientatation To Lifespan development. Pearsonhigher education.
Pope, T.P., 2011. About us: Counselling Central. [Online] Available at: http://counsellingcentral.com/the-impact-of-peer-pressure-on-teenage-decision-making/ [Accessed 22 Novemeber 2011].
Thomas J. and Bouchard, J., 2004. Genetic Influence on Human Psychological Traits- A survey. American psychological society, Vol 2, No:4
