Development Styles in Psychology - Essay Example

Development Styles in Psychology Development Styles in Psychology Development in human beings starts from conception until death. Development is the growth that is manifested in human beings throughout their lifespan. Development styles are aimed at shaping how one thinks and acts throughout their life (Grusec 2006). Development styles are mostly focused on nature or nurturing one into well behaved and good character individual as they grow. Teaching and parenting are good examples of developmental styles in human beings.

Parenting plays a major role in modeling a human being. This starts all the way from conception. What the mother feeds on will facilitate the development of the foetus in the womb. The development of the brain and the body of the foetus will highly depend on the woman bearing the child (Grusec 2006). The genetics of the foetus contributes a part in this development but later on the environment will place its hand on developing the child into an adult of desirable qualities. There are arguments on which plays a major role in development nature or nurturing but in reality both play an important role in the development of a human being from conception to death.

Despite the fact that every child is born with his or her own temperaments, traits and or abilities, it is the environment that determines how some of these mentioned characteristics are manifested in the child throughout their lives (Grusec 2006). Children who are brought up well turn out to be well developed adults; in control of their future and those that come thereafter. There are various domains that are associated with the development of a child to an adult, they include; physical development, emotional development, intellectual development and social development.

Parenting styles is an excellent example of development style for human beings (Bornstein 2002). There are various styles or types of parenting. They include authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and unresponsive parenting styles. In authoritarian parenting, the parents set rules to be followed by the children. Failure to adhere to the stipulated rules follows punishment to the wrong doer. Although rules are good in molding a child in authoritarian parenting, the child has no clue why the rules are imposed on them.

They cannot question or rebel, instead they are forced to submit to the rules that are stipulated to them. Children that develop in such environments are bound to be proficient in their work, obedient to everyone but are not entirely happy. In fact they have low self-esteem and poor social competence. Authoritative parenting is also another way for developing a child. Like authoritative parents they have set ground rules and guides to be followed by their children. The good thing is they are more liberal or democratic.

These kinds of parents are willing to listen to children and discuss the matters that led to breaking the ground rules or guides set by them. They are more forgiving and focus less on punishment like the authoritarian parent. Studies state that this type of parenting is aimed at monitoring and impacting on the standard of conduct of the child (Bornstein 2002). This kind of parenting is more of problem solving. It is supportive and less punitive and intrusive to the child. The aim for this is to let children develop into cooperative all rounded beings that are self-responsive and regulated.

This is important as the children develop into assertive adults. These kinds of children turn out to be successful and happy with themselves and life in general. Permissive parenting on the hand is parenting is where the parent or guardian has less demands for their children. They are known for their indulgence. The measures taken by these parents to punish their children are rare and this is attributed to the low expectations they have for their children on aspects such as self-control and or maturity.

According to studies the parents with this trait are more responsive than they are demanding. They would rather they not approach a problem directly or confront their children on mistakes they have made. They tend to allow for a small amount of self-regulation. Despite the communication that is evident between the parents and the children who are developed under this type of parenting style the children tend to have low self-esteem and are rarely happy. The parents on the other hand assume the role of a friend rather than that of a parent to their children in this style (Grusec 2006).

Uninvolved parenting is the type of parenting where the parents have very few demands, little or no communication and non-responsiveness to their children. They have let nature take its course for their children. Despite their attentiveness to children’s basic needs, they are absent or rather detached from the lives of their own children. There are exceptional cases where these kinds of parents may completely ignore the needs of these children. The eventualities to this kind of parenting is children with absolutely no self-esteem and control over their lives.

The children turn out to be less competent and proficient than their peers. Parenting as a development style varies depending on so many factors for example socio economic background, education levels, culture, personality, religion and many others. Parenting style does matter a lot in development of an individual’s character and personality as how they were brought up shapes them in all ways (Bornstein 2002). References Bornstein MH. (2002) Handbook of Parenting. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Grusec JE, (2006) Hastings PD. Handbook of socialization: Theory and research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.