Developmental Stage - Research Paper Example

Human Development Theory as an Adult Learner Human Development Theory as an Adult Learner Remembering the pastexperience is a great start for a personal journey. The curiosity on the beginning of life is something addressed by the study of human development. Many factors have affected the development of human beings from experiences to blood-related phenomena. The journey of being a child to an adult is greatly tackled scientifically through human development studies and it is a multidisciplinary study about changes occurring to people.

The study involves medicine, biology, chemistry, sociology, demography, psychology, sociology, economics and anthropology. Through the study, the uniqueness is unveiled to everyone. Theories and research back up the understanding of human behavior (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2010, p. 3). The human development has several theories that tend to explain various stages of growth in different perspectives. Three main factors of theories had been made to categorize the theories to prevent confusion: biological factors, environmental factors and person-environment interaction factors.

Biological factors contain the theories that explain the physical growth and appearance of human beings. On the other hand, environmental factors are theories that discuss the impacts of the surroundings and ecosystems in the human development. The last is person-environment interaction factors which are responsible for showing the relationships and effects of both person and the environment and how the self-directed action of the person affects his growth in response to the environment. Biological factors consist of the following theories: evolutionary theory, psychosexual theory, and cognitive developmental theory.

On the other hand, environmental factors have the following theories: learning theories, social role theory, and life course theory. The person-environment interaction factor has the following theories: psychosocial theory, cognitive social-historical theory, and dynamic systems theory (Newman and Newman, 2007). Lifelong learning gets the attention of many people today especially in the international education policy. In the concept of lifelong learning, adult people are encouraged to continuously study not just based upon the books but also through experiences and interactions.

According to the traditional psychology of learning, age does not matter when it comes to learning. All people learn from different ages as proven by researchers who study the decisive and basic mechanisms of learning through laboratory studies. Many claimed that adult learning is very similar to the way of learning of children. Childhood learning is a continuous process of knowing the world. The learning of children is uncensored and comprehensive which means the children get all of the things they need to learn without biases.

Another point is the children put a big trust to the adults around them. They aim to learn from the adults around them. Adult learning is a bit different since they tend to choose the desired topics or fields of endeavor that they want to learn. They also use the past learning as a resource to gain more information and learning. They are also take responsibility in what they want to learn and they cannot learn easily the things that they are not very interested in (Crowther and Sutherland, 2006, pp. 16-17). Life course theory or life course perspective is a good theory to use to identify the current situation of the author about his reason for pursuing a master degree.

It is a multidisciplinary paradigm that is concerned with the lives of people and social change. Time, context, process and meaning are very important parts being described by the theory. Personal background and meaning are both big factors that affect the motivation to learn. Graduate school is not pursued by all people since it is for the people who want to advance their career, help people and for personal and family reason (Newman and Newman, 2007).ReferencesCrowther, C. and Sutherland, P. (2006). Lifelong learning: Concepts and contexts.

Oxon: RoutledgeKail, R. and Cavanaugh, J. (2010). Human development: A life-span view. USA: Wadsworth.Newman, B. and Newman, P. (2007). Theories of human development. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.