Human Growh and Development - Essay Example

Development is a lifelong, multidirectional process, involves both gain and loss. There is much plasticity in human development, and it is shaped by its historical and cultural context, is multiply influenced and understanding development requires multiple disciplines. (Adapted from Sigelman [1999], According to Ethological Perspective and Attachment Theory, (John Bowlby (1980) it depends on innate human survival mechanism and this connects to maintain proximity, secure base which would help to stabilise emotional security.

Historically, childhood was ignored in the Middle Ages. Methods of disciplining the children have varied through years. Terrorising children with frightening stories and punishing them is discouraged today. Environment influences the child every minute and it reflects on its behaviour. ""Piaget considered that the environment in which the child lives may affect the rate at which she does through the developmental sequence, because the quality of experience is an important source of stimulation and mental exercise," Nicolson (1989, p.14). Human development, a continuous process also depends on maturation and learning.

Growth and development proceeds from the general to specific, depends on individual rate of it. Coming to the Ca Coming to the Case Study, adolescent pregnancy might not have been easy to Megan and as a teenager, she already had the trauma of giving a child away to foster care and separation from boy friend. Still at 16 she shows the maturity of looking after a child on her own as a single parent, which must have been tough. During those turbulent and difficult days, she befriends Gareth's father, whom later she remembers as a mistake, and as a result, Gareth had never known his father, who remains a dark, brooding rather unpleasant presence in the shadows, even to Gareth.

With a lot of care and responsibility to shoulder, Megan is depressed and a social worker visits her regularly. Jane seems to be more of a foster mother than sister having a matured attitude towards life and hence, there is no rivalry between Jane and Gareth. John is the secure child, with his father taking care of him financially, emotionally and John is happy with his father's family and it shows his emotional security of the boy. Cerys, is a small baby and Cerys' father is living with Megan and is well liked by the rest of the family.

Gareth is the odd one out, as he has recently shown aggressive behaviour at school with friends and teachers. Gareth could be jealous to see Cerys' father at home, when he does not even know his own. He could be of another colour, race or culture that might upset Gareth. Gareth might have considered himself as the 'man of the house' and now a bigger man's presence might have shattered this assumption in make-believe world. One of the cognitive theorists Piaget says that the mind is not a blank slate and child is capable of abilities in conservation (judging and logical thought), assimilation (process new information), accommodation (changing the thought process to accommodate a new thought), schema (sharp mental structures that process new thought) and equilibration (basic process in human adaptation).

While applying Piaget's theory to Gareth, we can choose Accommodation and a part of