Lifespan Development and Self-actualization - Essay Example

Self Reflection: Lifespan Development Coming into this world completely helpless, we all go through a range of development and socialization stages that help us evolve from a mere biological entities into the full-fledged personalities and members of society. The complex combination of factors and influences coming from the environment we exist in contributes to our cognitive and psychological development, personal features and accomplishments on each of the lifespan stages we go through. According to theorists, our lifespan is generally divided into four major steps related to certain peculiarities of personal development: infancy and childhood, adolescence, then young and middle adulthood, and later adulthood. Each of these phases implies a set of typical milestones of development – biological, psychological and social – that occur to most people, the milestones changing our physiology, psyche and social interaction capabilities. Balanced adjustment of psychological, biological and social changes to certain periods of lifespan makes them normal and predetermines successful and sufficient actualization of a person in the society in all developmental stages. Looking at the lifespan from this viewpoint, I would like to consider myself as a personality and an individual going through the lifetime stages and create a consistent image of the stage I am currently in. In evaluating and analyzing my personal development, it is necessary take into account both biological characteristics and the social experience that I obtained in the course of my life. However, as it is shown in practice, social factors produce greater impact on identity formation, because we are all social beings incapable of shaping our personalities autonomously. Anyway, biological aspect of development is the most elemental one, traced in every person throughout his/her life: during the phases of childhood and adolescence, our bodies grow and develop preparing to perform the natural functions. I remember growing up clearly, yet I realize that it was not only my physiology that changed during childhood and adolescence, but also my consciousness and brain. The way social, psychological and physiological aspects interact in the process of personal development is, to my thinking, clearly demonstrated in such a great milestone of development as getting pregnant and having a child. I am sure that it isn’t enough to be biologically ready to have a child, biological readiness comes hand in hand with a proper frame of mind and psychological aptitude. Moreover, the social factor played a great role in this decision, as we always absorb experiences of our parents and peers in the process of socialization: in my environment, it was a frequent phenomenon, to have children at a rather early age. Therefore, I admit that the combination of these three aspects has produced an impact on my development in the stage of young adulthood, particularly, on actualizing myself as a mother at the age of 21 and having two more children in my early 20’s. Viewing my personal way of lifespan development, I can state that I am currently in the phase of middle adulthood, as I am 29. This means that the person I am now is the fruit of three periods of development, when society and my social experiences affected formation of my identity, values, views, abilities and weaknesses. The social experience I got in childhood and in adolescence produced impact on my self-sufficiency: I have absorbed willing to take care about myself and work hard to achieve the goals. Moreover, I clearly realize that such value as self-dependence is a fruit of socialization in the immediate surroundings of my family: based on their example, I worked in two jobs and was finishing college, when I had my first child. I believe that this experience has played a great role in my further personal development. Looking at the stage I am currently in, I would say that I am a person formed emotionally and psychologically, I am a harmoniously developed personality. I can confirm that my life now is the result of the impact of the world around me as well as my “inner” perception. Moreover, biologically, I am an individual useful for community - my age allows me to realize myself at full physical capacity. Having a degree in early childhood education and sociology and working as a pre-k teacher in a local daycare, I am also looking for an opportunity to contribute to the society’s well-being, working on my degree in social work. Being at the stage of integration now, I have the desire to find the place in society, which would enable working closely with people, strengthening ties with my social group and creating a sense of unity and cooperation with other people. I appreciate my destiny as the current moment also for the reason that I am parent. For me, family is one of the main priorities, a sign of success. It was the most important, but not least issue that divided my life into “before” and “after”. Talking about social responsibility, I had a goal to raise a human who will not become antisocial or marginal personality, who will become a good and useful member of the society, and in my middle adult years, I am in the process of raising decent social elements. In addition, as far as I work as with children in a daycare, I happily undertake the task of contributing to development not only of my own but also other’s children. The most important thing that motherhood gave me was the awareness of personal responsibility for life of yet helpless, but close creatures. I can name myself a socially active person due to my professional activities: I work with people and children regularly. My progress in professional and personal areas was affected by numerous social systems, in which I happened to move. Starting with childhood, the very first systems I (and every other person) encountered were school and family. In my childhood, I had many friends that influenced the formation of my character and the acquisition of appropriate communication skills. This communication instilled in me a love for people in general. Later, moving forward to college and then to my current working environment, I obtained experience helpful in professional development. I believe that my current study in college will contribute to my self-actualization. Of course, external factors have produced the impact on my progress on the global scale: it is natural that economic, cultural and political conditions influence the process of socialization. However, I would say that no dramatic historical turns left an imprint on my development. Furthermore, such factor as discrimination or oppression raised no difficulties in my life. Although we live in a patriarchal society and women still face certain discrimination in terms of salary or professional development, I am happy enough to have avoided this, as the area I work in requires female character and maternal prudence. In my further career in social work, women are also welcome, as they tend to inspire confidence. I can say that personally I do not feel the pressure of gender question, the equality in which is a serious battle now. I think that there are activities intended for men and performed by them better. Similarly, I consider social work, education and other humanitarian occupations to be female-dominated. Speaking about the predictions I have about my further lifespan development, it becomes obvious that – first of all – my children are to be properly raised and assisted in their socialization (like my parents helped me in my cognitive and social development). Once a person has a child, turning the child into a full-fledged and useful member of society becomes the core task born throughout the life and the major prospect of psychological and social development for the great part of it. Biological changes that are to occur to me in the later lifespan stages have little importance to me, because I consider social and psychological aspects to be of greater significance. However, the main biological aspect to be kept in mind (especially considering environmental and ecological factors) is doing everything possible to preserve one’s health and remain a useful and sound member of society as long as possible. Going beyond family and health, I see the prospects of my professional development. This area of self-actualization is subject to a rather simple scheme: more willing – more experience – higher position – better living conditions. Moreover, I am getting into center stage of development of the adult personality. There are positive symptoms of this stage that I notice or I hope to notice: good mood, interesting job, childcare and big ambitions in terms of further professional actualization and lending assistance to people. Read More