The Four Major Theories Of Human Development

1 What are the major theories of human development? How does each one of the theories apply to your life and personal experiences? Provide examples.
There are six different major theories of human development. Psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, ethological and evolutionary, sociocultural and ecological perspective. The first theory we look at is psychodynamic theory, developed by Sigmund Freud. His theory consisted of five stages focused on a particular biological functions. Erick Erickson, a student of Freud’s elaborated on his theory adding three more states, giving it a total of eight psychosexual states. This stage focuses on development milestones and states if one is not successfully completed a person will struggle with later developmental

Each of these basic forces interact together to shape human development. Within biological, psychological and sociocultural forces there is normative age-graded forces, normative history-graded forces and nonnormative forces. The normative age-graded and history graded forces in each area is experienced by almost all at a similar point in the lifespan, as well as across generations. The nonnormative forces aspect in each area are experienced by very few people. The biological force is the first of the four forces. This force represent the genetic and health-related factors that affect development. Puberty is an example of normative age-related, the 1918 flu pandemic is an example of the history-graded forces and certain disease is an example of the nonnormative forces. Secondly is the psychological force which represent the perceptual, cognitive emotional, and personality factors that affect development. Language acquisition is an example of normative age-graded. Technology literacy during the 1970’s or today among millennial is an example of normative history-graded forces. Nonnormative forces example is psychological disorders. Next we move into sociocultural forces which represent the societal, cultural, ethic/racial and interpersonal factors that affect development. Going to kindergarten is an example for normative age-related forces. Normative history-related forces provides the example of the net generation and texting. Professional working woman having children in their late forties is an example of nonnormative forces. Last of the four forces is the life-cycle forces which represent the effects that certain events have on people. They affect people differently depending on the particular person who experiences the event and the particular point in time when the event takes