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Theories of human development
Continuity versus discontinuity IN HUMAN DEVELOPEMNT
Theories of human development
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Development is a process that revolves around growing and changing. Everyone experiences development. While some contend that human development is a gradual and continuous process, others assert that it is a discontinuous process, in which there is a succession of distinct stages. Sigmund Freud indubitably believed in continuity, while Jerome Kagan clearly supports contentions relating to discontinuity. The overall debate revolves around whether development is systematic and a smooth progression or a a series of abrupt changes or shifts. With regard to my own life, I see both continuity and discontinuity in various aspects of it. With that being so, my experience is suggestive of the claim that development is a combination of continuity and
As babies, we begin “cooing” and “babbling.” Then we progress to using single words, which gradually turns into two words and then complete sentences. This progression is a continuous process. Nevertheless, development does not happen at one fixed pace or rate, which makes it feasible to say that continual development doesn 't really occur “continuously” – it occurs in gradual stages, which can either be abrupt or progressive. This leads me to believe that continuity and discontinuity both play a role in development. When we are taught new concepts and information at school, our educators typically set it up in a way that we are building on our prior knowledge. Would be able to understand certain concepts if we had never heard of anything like it previously? We quite possibly could and it could just be this social construction that has caused us to learn in a continuous manner, rather than discontinuous. Similarly, in language development, an individual may quite possibly be able to go from “cooing” to using two words at a time. This may seem atypical, but it is
Nevertheless, it can be seen that continuous development occurs in change that is typically age-related, whereas discontinuous development can include quite abrupt, but significant shifts. Discontinuities can quite possibly be adaptations, which is also suggestive of plasticity. We do not necessarily always act as we did as young children and our personalities tend to change as we develop and grow. Our attitudes and behaviors are not always preserved through our lifespans. For example, my way of thinking now varies greatly from the way I used to when I was eleven. This was not a gradual process, but an abrupt one. We all think in different ways, based on our age and stage of development. Our thinking is not as consistent as we
As years go by in the life of a human being, it is inevitable to not see a change in that human being, regardless whether those changes are physical and or mental. Supposing that every human being stayed with the mentality of a child, the world would be incoherent because none of the humans would be capable of passing that phase of their life and gaining the knowledge and experience that would allow them to continue to the next phase of their
Schuster, C. S., and Ashburn, S. S., (1980). The Process of Human Development: A Holistic Approach. Boston: Little, Brown and Company Inc.
Lifespan development is essential, as it is the changes that happen to us throughout a person’s lifespan. Our development occurs at ages stages where we develop from infancy till death. This essay will contain my life story to display the domains in 5 age stages in my lifespan development. The domains I will be exploring is in this essay is physical, emotional, cognitive, social, cultural and moral domain. The influence of biological and environmental play a significant role in my development. Development is influenced by nature or nurture and its affect will occur throughout lifespan. The changes that occur during development have stage. Each theorists has stages of development where they display the changes. This essay will explore my development that will support theorist such as Erikson, Vygotsky, Berk, Piaget and other theorist. The age stages of prenatal will display physical and emotional domain, Infancy (0-2) will portray social and emotional domain, young children (2-6) will show cognitive and social domain, middle childhood (6-12) will display socio-cultural and moral domain and adolescence will portray nature vs. nurture and cultural domain. Development is crucial for a healthy wellbeing. As a physiotherapist it is significant to understand development in age stages, as it will aid knowing how young children will react compared to an adolescence who is more development mentally, emotionally, physically, socially and culturally.
Piaget was firm in his concept of these stages. He was convinced that a person had to progress from one stage to the next, that this was a natural biological process influenced by the environment and experiences. Biology limits the point in time, but the environment determines the quality of development.
Human development describes the life stages of human beings that progress from birth to death. This essay will use theorists Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson to compare early adulthood to middle adulthood focusing on their physical, cognitive, and social development. The essay will also define stress and discuss the best ways to cope with stress.
This approach has become the stimulus for a number of similar theories which share the same assumptions on psychological development, yet differ in detail. (Gross, R, 2007) Erik Erikson, a neo-freudian himself accepted Freud’s theory but whereas the psychodynamic approach focuses on five main stages of development until adulthood, Erikson theorised that development is lifelong and continues throughout life until death. (Psychology for A Level 2000)
Erik Erikson introduced us to eight stages of development that happens over a person’s lifespan. At each stage, there is a developmental task with a crisis that will need to be resolved to successfully go through that stage development. During these tasks, vulnerability is increased and there is enhanced potential. If the task is handled successfully, then we can see healthy development occurring. This idea of people going through different stages helps to explain why people develop differently and how one develops during childhood can directly affect how they will be and/or act during later years in life. This paper will examine my personal
Development is defined as the process of change, a pattern that occurs from birth throughout the lifespan of the individual (Keenan and Evans, 2009). In the UK it is usual to cover child development between birth and nineteen years. Development is often categorised into different areas of development; physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social. Smidt (2006) suggested that all areas of development are interrelated. Therefore development has to be approached with a holistic view; whilst looking at one area of development all areas of development need to be considered. "The holistic ideology values the whole child understanding the young child as an individual within the context of his or her family, community and culture” Wood (1998). With this in mind practitioners need to be aware of a child’s background. Children usually progress through a set pattern of stages, unless a child has additi...
The difference between Continuous and Discontinous change is Change happens continuously over time. Discontinuous change is unexpected and can be abrupt. Ashford and Lecroy discusses theories and controversy in the Life-Span perspective section as this relates to research of whether discontinuous or continuous change are traits or propensities. An example of a continuous change is an individual that is diagnosed with Substance Use Disorder and has a family history of substance use. Member is receiving services and the efforts to make positive changes in their life to maintain sobriety takes time. This is a continuous change that is a slow process but ongoing. A discontinuous change would be that another individual finishes SA services in
For my reflection paper I chose to write about chapter 9 that talks about lifespan development. This chapter grabbed my attention and I found it most interesting. In the textbookit discusses how there are certain factors that uncontrollably make us who we are. Those factorsare "unique combination of genes you inherited from your biological mother and father. Another is the historical era during which you grew up. Your individual development has also been shaped by the cultural, social, and family contexts within which you were raised." (Pg.352) The patterns of our lives are because of developmental psychology. "Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain growth, change and consistency though the lifespan. Developmental
Development is the process of growing, forming or creating into something slightly more advanced than before. Development starts during conception and ends during death. Development consists of three developmental domains which are, physical development, cognitive development, and psychosocial development. Each of which involve some form of growing or changing including the changes of moods throughout the lifespan. The Nature versus Nurture concept are issues that are found in stages of development as well. Nature which relates to the behavior that is inherited by genetics, and Nurture which relates to the behavior that is inherited or learned from the environment. With every developmental change or growth in a person’s life the mood of the
During this stage, children will be building up their incidents or encounters through adaptation and slowly move on to the next stage of the development as they are not able to have logical or transformational ideas in the preoperational stage (Mcleod, 2009).
When people hear the term Child Development they automatically think of how the baby is forming inside of the mother. Child Development means so much more than that, it is also the term used to describe how children learn and grow as they age into adults. Another term that is used for child development is developmental psychology (enter in-text citation). The actual definition of child development is the biological, physical, and emotional changes that occur from birth until the end of adolescence. There are many different stages of development, it starts in the womb.
The continuity theory according to theorist proposes that a person’s adaptations to young and middle age will predict the person’s pattern of adaptation to old age (Hillier & Barrow, 2015). With continuity theory the adjustments made throughout life do not depend on activities or the disengage theory, but on the changes in personality (Hillier & Barrow, 2015). Personality may not change once a person reaches middle age and may be set up through their older years. A life review is a review of events and changes that happened in the person’s life and within continuity theory there are other theories that are considered including the trait theory. The trait theory states that lives change but fundamental personality characteristics do not, these changes are what we review in the course of writing a person’s life review (Hillier & Barrow, 2015). Traits help develop a person as they age and are normally developed through events that happen in life or how a person was raised. The events that we discuss in a life review help to show why a person has the traits that they do and how those traits influenced their
No matter who you are I believe that everyone will go through stages in their life that will get them to where they are on today. I am a person who has a very interesting story; this is the first time it will be told in full. We were asked to use Erik Erikson’s theory of development as a guideline to telling the story of our lives. At first I was very nervous; however, I soon realized that this would be a fun task. Erik Erikson has eight stages of Development (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman). I will be walking you though my life using each one of his stages drawing out the map of my life. Within my life I have had some very interesting encounters. I have been through foster care, abuse, rape, molestation, starvation, adoption, depression, and success. Although my life may not be perfect, I believe that I have overcome these battles and become the person that I am on today. I will be talking about a few crises, milestones, and some of the people that were set in place to help me and or hurt me.