Life-Span Development - Assignment Example

Developmental Psychology Development is something that happens in every thing that exists under the surface of the earth. Human development can simply be defined as the growth of an individual from childhood the maturity. In their book, life-span development, Carol K. Sigelman, Elizabeth A. Rider define development as the systematic changes and continuities that occur in the individual from conception to death. Normal people are expected to grow from one stage of development to the other. In some situations however, an individual may skip one stage or fail to completely undergo each stage appropriately. This will automatically lead to complications in a person’s life. These problems will vary depending on people’s genetic make up or rather composition and environmental effects. Carol Sigelman and Elizabeth rider acknowledge that these continuities and development occur in three main domains, namely; physical development, cognitive development and psychosocial development (Sigelman &Rider 154). Physical development mainly involves the physiological changes that occur in the individual which involves the growth in the body and its organs. Cognitive development is the changes that take place in an individual’s mental processes that includes things like speech among others. Psychosocial development on the other hand encompasses all the changes that occur in an individual’s personality in his emotions, social skills, life skills, just to mention a few. As people grow up however they develop some issues that will affect them in he above named three domains of development. Many scholars have come up with various theories to try and explain both development and developmental issues in the life span of an individual from conception, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and even to the death bed (Lerner 202). Given the fact that they are theories, some have worked whereas others have not come up to prove their workability in some special situations. As different people pass through each of there stages, the experiences, challenges among other internal and external factors differ and this leads to the difference in the personality of people in our immediate environment. Some of these may include the availability of basic needs, the environment we grow in and the availability of other social amenities that at times brings about all these differences. Adolescence is known to be a critical stage when mostly most of these changes take place in the life of any individual and most people face a whole range of issues in their development to adulthood. It is in this stage that people make choices that affect them either negatively or positively for the rest of their lives. Work, commitment to goals, exploration, relationships, coping with the rapid body changes among others has proved to be a great challenge to most adolescents. Most have career needs and goals that they desire to accomplish and attain as they enter adulthood (Sigelman &Rider 154). Relationships and the management of changing relationships challenge most adolescents in their endeavor to try and cope with the labor market demands and education systems. They need their peers for emotional support and their parents who they see as backward for informational, emotional and material support. This shall be the center of discussion. Questionnaire This questionnaire is aimed at help us collect some important information on the behavior of adolescents especially in their relationships. The research is aimed at helping in the guidance and counseling of our youth. The information you provide will be kept private and will remain undisclosed. Personal information Name: ----------------------------------- (not necessary) Sex: -------------------------------------- Age: -------------------------------------- 1. Who is an adolescent:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What are the physical changes that you know that take place during this stage:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How does this affect them: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Why do most adolescents start relationships during this stage:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Do you think they are important to them?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Which types of relationships would you encourage them to start?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- reason:---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Why do they start involving their parents in less of the issues that affect them? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Why do they shift their trust from adults to their peers?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Comment on how peer pressure affects them---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Who do you think would be the mot reliable and appropriate source of information to them? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reason: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. What about the media? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interviewee’s responses 1. Any one aged between 13-21 years 2. They grow big in their body sizes, boys grow beards, girls grow breast on their chests, and they all grow hair in their private parts and armpits 3. Some deny these changes and grow self esteem 4. They want to be accepted by their peers to help them achieve their dreams 5. They are. Who doesn’t need a relationship? 6. Both; same sex and opposite sex. To help them grow wholly socially 7. They think they are backward. 8. They fear to say some things to their parents and therefore share with their peers. 9. Some, and in this case most of them are carried away and end up abusing drugs, fornicating and even engaging in criminal activities. 10. Everyone; friends, parents, teachers and even counselors. Everyone is important. 11. The media is important too. Though they need to be selective and careful. Sigmund Freud, the proponent of the psychoanalytic theory, lived between 1856 and 1939. According to Carol K. Sigelman, Elizabeth A. Rider; “This revolutionary thinker’s psychoanalytic theory challenged prevailing notions on human nature and human development by proposing that people are driven by motives and emotional conflicts of which they are largely unaware and that they are shaped by their earliest experiences in life”. Freud suggests that among the basic needs of human beings is the satisfaction of their urges and drives. He talks of the two major sub-sections of the mind; the conscious where there are the instincts that fuel ones behavior towards new adventures in life as they develop and the unconscious section where the unwanted instincts like anger are stored though they at times surface and influence an individual’s behavior unaware in some circumstances. He even goes further to explain that as a child grows to adulthood, he has psychic energy that drives behavior in three components; the id which is irrational, the ego that is the rational part and finally the super-ego that is a persons moral standards. These three components however are always internally conflict within an individual with one always wanting to overshadow the others. Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a psychologist from Sweden on the other hand stresses that people do not just learn from the environment alone. He says that people will develop their own worlds in their minds as they move from stage to stage in the human development cycle. He summarizes this cycle into four main stages. The sensorimotor stage, the very first one lasts from 0-2 years where the child learns through his/her senses by coordinating their sensory system. The second stage the preoperational stage is where the individual develops the symbolic thought and logical reasoning. This is usually followed by the concrete operational stage (7-11 years) where one is able to perform operations and even think intuitively. Lastly is the formal operational stage that goes up to 15 years and a child think abstractly and more logically. Since it comes with adolescence, they usually tend to develop the images on an ideal circumstance (Sigelman &Rider 2009). They even might try to think about what really an ideal parent is like and therefore the temptation of comparing their parents to this ideal standard they form. They also begin to entertain the possibilities for the future and are fascinated with what they can be in relation to their dream career they had from childhood. In problem solving, the people in this stage are more systematic, developing hypotheses and why something is happening the way it is, and then twisting these hypotheses in a deductive fashion. In relation to the case we had since most adolescent are in the Piagetan formal operational stage, they will run away from their parent since they in most cases doesn’t reach the standard which they set of who an ideal parent is according to them. This will always make them admire other people’s parents thinking that they are the best. On the other hand, their common behavior to entertain the possibilities for the future and are fascinated with what they can be in relation to their dream career they had from childhood as stated in the earlier paragraph will make them associate and try to seek guidance from people they think can really help them reach their goals (Lerner 202). This will make hem change relationships and most friends. Some however do it out of pee pressure and end up making wrong choices that ruins their lives in their future. This theory by Jean Piaget agrees with the response we get from the interviewee though if we put into consideration the effect of environment on behavior, we get the difference in behavior exposed. Sigmund Freud’s theory also explains some of these issues that challenge the adolescents. Their behavior to hide some of their actions to their parents is actually the actual working of the id that suppresses the other two domains. More so the psychic energy in them will make most of them spend their excess energy to do some activities like criminal activities that satisfies some unexplainable things in them. The desire of these aspiring adults to do things that will give them ‘joy’ justifies Sigmund’s theory and explains the fact that everyone has things in him/her that they want in most cases satisfied no matter what the cost may be. In conclusion, it is very important for parents and even aspiring parent to fill themselves with the knowledge of these developmental changes that take place in their children. This will help them in understanding these children and end up in the long run bringing up a well groomed child. These issues are key to a person’s development and they need o be taken care of for these adolescents to feel accepted, appreciated and needed in the family and society. This will help in the boosting of their esteem. References http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/teens_stages.shtml http://www.essortment.com/all/piagetjeancogn_rkje.htm Lerner M. “Developmental psychology: historical and philosophical perspectives.” Michigan: University of Michigan. 2008. P. 202. Sigelman, C.K. and Rider, E.A. “Life-span Human Development (6th edn.)” Belmont, C.A: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009, P. 154 Read More

Personal information Name: ----------------------------------- (not necessary) Sex: -------------------------------------- Age: -------------------------------------- 1. Who is an adolescent:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What are the physical changes that you know that take place during this stage:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.

How does this affect them: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Why do most adolescents start relationships during this stage:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.

Do you think they are important to them?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Which types of relationships would you encourage them to start?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- reason:---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.

Why do they start involving their parents in less of the issues that affect them? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Why do they shift their trust from adults to their peers?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9.

Comment on how peer pressure affects them---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Who do you think would be the mot reliable and appropriate source of information to them? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reason: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11.

What about the media? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interviewee’s responses 1. Any one aged between 13-21 years 2. They grow big in their body sizes, boys grow beards, girls grow breast on their chests, and they all grow hair in their private parts and armpits 3. Some deny these changes and grow self esteem 4. They want to be accepted by their peers to help them achieve their dreams 5. They are. Who doesn’t need a relationship? 6. Both; same sex and opposite sex.

To help them grow wholly socially 7. They think they are backward. 8. They fear to say some things to their parents and therefore share with their peers. 9. Some, and in this case most of them are carried away and end up abusing drugs, fornicating and even engaging in criminal activities. 10.

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