Introduction
Development is a word that describes the process of growth, adaptation, and changes that people undergo during their lifetime characterized by personality, physical, cognitive, socioemotional, and language developments. The work of developmental psychologists helps the society to understand different developmental theories and how they influence life in various stages of life through various development theories. Development theories describe various factors that influence the development pattern of an individual that include hereditary and environmental factors. On the other hand, other psychological experts argue that development is controlled by nature and nurture that combine to influence biological factors. However, psychological developments today have included a combination of variables like social experiences and inborn factors to explain the development process of a human being (Slavin, 2014). The following paper discusses development theories of Erik Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky.
Discussion
Developmental theories of Eric Erikson
Erik Erikson work on developmental psychology was realized between 1902 and 1994 when he developed some of best-known theories of development. Erik Erikson’s theories of psychological development use two basic principles of psychological development, namely the epigenetic principle and the principle of psychosocial crisis. The epigenetic principle argues that development follows a series of interrelated stages with each stage representing a vital period during the development process. The principle of psychosocial crisis represents turning points that show conflicts among opposing psychological qualities. Eric viewed human development on the personality point of view where he established eight stages of human development from birth to death. The psychologist argued that personality develops from the interaction between people and determines the state of the next stage (Fleming, 2008). The eight stages of personality development as described by Eric are:
Stage I: Basic trust versus basic mistrust
The first stage occurs from the time of birth to when the child reaches the age of one year. In the first year of birth, a child depends on the security of their parents guaranteed through love and affection, and in a predictable environment. A child gains more trust with the environment out of the love given by parents. However, the lack of love and affection through frequent abuses, mistreatments, and negligence makes the child lose trust and find the world more frightening and unbearable.
Stage II: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt
The following stage represents the time when the child learns basic things such as standing, walking, speech development, and feeding oneself. In this stage, children like to control themselves and the environment and parents find it obvious that their toddlers should have a sense of control of bodily functions and motor skills. Parents that allow their children to develop independently without having much help make them develop self-confidence and get to the next stage without many challenges. However, discouraging a child by not allowing them freedom to gain self-autonomy makes him or her more discouraged and interferes with future growth (Fleming, 2008).
Stage III: Initiative versus guilt
The third stage takes place between the ages of three to five where children have more energy, function on imaginations and develop a lot of initiatives. Th child masters peer relationships and language. Parents have a role to play during this stage of personality development by encouraging the child to become more participative and come up with more initiatives. The ability of the child to become more initiative and imaginative eliminates doubts in life that affect his or her future development (Fleming, 2008).
Stage IV: Industry and inferiority
Erik argued that a child at the fourth stage of psychological development learns how to recognize things. The child develops the ability to work hard and achieving an accomplishment from the work performed (industry). Moreover, the child adjusts to rules of the industrial world whereby tools and skills characterize the individual's ego. Children lacking the opportunity of working for themselves and who fail in their projects develop a sense of failure causing a feeling of inferiority during later stages of growth (Fleming, 2008).
Stage V: identity versus role confusion
The fifth stage falls between twelve and eighteen years when the child attains the adolescent age. The stage represents the period of great change of the body and sexual organs as the person become a mature being. Teenagers experience challenges developing a sense of identity/self. Teens start discovering what the world holds for him or her by exploring it and trying to understand people surrounding them. Teenagers who fail to develop their identity become more confused and end up spending the remaining part of their life not understanding themselves or what they want in life.
Stage VI: Intimacy and Isolation
The sixth stage is characterized by a person learning how to take care of other people and contributing to everlasting activities. The stage involves marriage and rearing children where a person develops a sense of intimacy where one feels the need to marry and have children. Young adults experience more challenges advancing from adolescent to maturity and always have difficulties adapting to present stage of development. However, those that get a chance to utilize their talents and contribute towards the growth of the society enjoy the stage more.
Stage VII: Generativity versus stagnation
Erik describes Generativity as the process of taking care of others and helping solve problems in the world. Stage seven occurs to adults aged between 35 and 50 and creates a lot of challenge for many people, especially those that experienced challenges in earlier stages of development. The main activities associated with the sixth stage of personal development include working for the community, using creativity to earn a living, and working in employment sectors. Every individual within the mentioned age group should strive to fulfill provisions of the seventh stage, otherwise develops a sense of restless, boredom, stagnation, and finds life as meaningless (Fleming, 2008).
Stage VIII: Integrity versus Despair
Older adults aged 50 years and above undergo the stage of integrity or despair. People who never made it in previous stages of life experience a lot of despair after attaining 50 years of age. On the other hand, people who accomplished their goals have good perspective towards their lives and become more intelligent as they approach their old age.
Development theory of Piaget
Piaget was the first to talk about cognitive development in the field of psychology. He developed the theory with the aim of describing how children think at different stages in life, from zero to eleven years, determine exceptional breadth, and determine the influence of nature and nurture on children growth. The theory acts as the base for judging all other cognitive theories developed later. Piaget developed the cognitive theory of development that aims at describing development patterns. Piaget's ideas on children started developing between the 1920s and 30s where he described children as “empty vessels” that expect to receive knowledge from parents (Robson, 2012).
Piaget used different principles of theoretical development from Erik’s personality theory. Erik's theory focused on the entire development process, from childhood to adulthood, while Piaget's theory focuses on children development. The basic principles used by Piaget are the principles of equilibration and disequilibrium. The principle of equilibration focuses on how a person should organize schemes to create a better understanding of experiences. On the other hand, the principle of disequilibrium provides the perception of a discrepancy between new information and exciting schemes that a person aims at resolving. The two principles play critical roles in understanding the relationship between children cognitive development, the environment, and nature/nurture.
Piaget's cognitive theory of children development makes an assumption of constructivism. The psychologist viewed children actively involved in constructing their understanding of the surrounding environment through self-discovery. The theory's arguments are similar to Erik's theory of personality development in the first three stages of development where the child tries to understand nature through trials, initiatives, and autonomy. Moreover, Piaget describes the role of parents in children development by terming them as facilitators. The parent should provide an appropriate environment for the child to grow and develop (Robson, 2012). Eric argued that children that lack the support of their parents end up experiencing developmental problems at later stages of growth. Similarly, Freud focused on the same aspect whereby parents act as intrinsic motivators.
On the other hand, Piaget’s cognitive theory of children development focuses on nature versus nurture. Cognitive development emerges from the interaction between nature and nurture. Nature represents elements of maturation of the body and brain, learning, acting, and perception. Nurture refers to adaptation that an individual attains upon interacting with the environment and the organization of activities to meet certain goals. Engaging in specific activities promote the natural appearance of children that allow them to grow emotionally, psychologically and physically. Moreover, responding to environmental demands help children achieve the cognitive aspect of nurture that makes them more organized.
Development theory of Vygotsky
Vygotsky also focused on the psychological development of children whereby he argued that a child passed through series of stable and critical development stages. Critical periods are experienced by newborns and during ages of one, three, seven, thirteen, and seventeen years. On the other hand, stable developmental periods occur during infancy (2 months to 1 year), early childhood 91 to 3 years), pre-school age (3 to 7 years), school age (8 to 12 years), and puberty (14 to 18 years) (Gredler & Shields, 2008). Vygotsky describes the period of the separation of the mother from the child during childbirth as the most critical period of child development. The period represents the physical separation of the child from the mother. The child is biologically dependent on the other to provide all needs but develops the ability to respond to external stimuli. During the infancy period, the child is still dependent on adults for various needs. The stage involves an increase in energy and motor control to enable the child to adapt to the external environment. The crisis associated with this period of development is the need for the child to develop speech and learn how to walk.
Vygotsky child development theory challenges traditional teaching methods whereby the teacher is expected to disseminate knowledge to students. However, Vygotsky theory promotes cognitive development where the child learns instructions from the parent/teacher but uses the external environment to learn new things while receiving directions from parents. During the early childhood period, the child learns new things including how to become independent through feeding themselves, walking from one place to another, and asking for something such as food and water. According to Vygotsky, instructions affect cognitive development whereby formal instructions used by teachers in the past affected empirical learning. After the early childhood period, the child achieves the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Snowman, McCown & Biehler, 2012).
ZDP describes the difference between what a child accomplishes under the assistance of an adult and what he or she accomplishes alone. Parents tend to withdraw support for their children as they become more independent. The school age to puberty age represents the period when the child has full cognitive development and they can act on their own without the help of their parents. However, Erik’s personality development theory argued that type of assistance offered to the child during earlier stages of growth determines how fast one adapts to the natural environment at adult age (Fleming, 2008).
On the other hand, the cognitive theories of Piaget and Vygotsky have some contradictions because Piaget argues that formal instructions have a significant impact on the child’s development while Vygotsky claimed formal instructions are only important at the ZPD. Moreover, the two tend to contradict on the role of social interaction where Piaget argued peers have a lot of influence on social interaction while Vygotsky argued only those with advanced intellectual knowledge influence social interaction.
Conclusion
Erik Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky focused on understanding the nature of the psychological development of a human being from the time of birth to death. Erikson theory focused on psychological development while Piaget and Vygotsky concentrated on cognitive development. An evaluation of the three theories reveals that parents play a critical role in the development of a child. Every individual goes through some experiences that shape how they associate with others in the world. Environmental, natural, and biological factors influence the person’s behavior at different stages of development. The analysis of Erik, Paige, and Vygotsky theories of development also shows that a child’s body consists of many interrelated parts that change with growth over time. Moreover, cognitive processes change depending on the individual’s intelligence, thoughts, and language. Finally, the relationship between the individual’s personality and emotions, and those of other people occurs through socioemotional processes.
References
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