Essay about Lifespan Development and Erikson's Stages of Development

     Going back forty-five years is not an easy task to complete because I can’t remember some of the finer details of my childhood. I know I was born on a hot August afternoon in Birth Year at Place Of Birth in City ands State. My mother was just twenty-two at the time and was already the mother of two, I was her third child. My father was twenty-one and already a workaholic, I know because my mother would constantly remind me not to be like that. My mother and father were good parents and they tried to give us the best upbringing they could. My father was the kind of person that believed he should provide and protect his family, and he did a very good job of doing that.

The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan is called lifespan development. Lifespan development takes a scientific approach in its study of growth, change, and stability. This development emphases on human development. Developmentalists study the course of development in nonhuman species, the most popular examine growth and change in people. In contrast I will focus on the ways people and myself change and grow during our lives, with the consideration of stability in our live span. Together, these findings suggest that we will go through

This paper serves to apply the knowledge learned throughout the course, COUN 502, to the development and growth in my lifespan. I will aim to demonstrate a working knowledge of the theories, terminology, and concepts of human growth and development. I will show how these disciplines apply to my own life experiences and how I did throughout my key life events, through the use of empirical studies.

Prenatal Development and the newborn: The focal point of this section was conception and the development of life before birth. I’ve read that every woman is born with a number of eggs that will later be released. Out of that number 1 in 5,000

Life span developmental psychology takes a scientific approach to human growth and change, focusing on change during the life span. There are three main aspects to life span development: cognitive, social, and physical development. This class is not simply a discussion of nature vs. nurture, it explores the interaction between genetic and environmental factors that orient us towards specific behaviors. Initially, my views on life span development were limited to more sociological factors, and did not take into consideration physical developments of the brain. In relation to my personal and professional identity this course has made me realize that development occurs on a spectrum and that not everyone develops at the same time, in the same ways, making me more understanding and compassionate towards those who developed differently than me. The three most important lessons I have learned from this class are that development occurs throughout the entire life span, infants begin learning at a very young age, and that senescence begins as early as young adulthood.

As human beings age, according to Erik Erikson, they go through developmental stages that help to create and transform their personalities. If needs are met and the ego is gratified, then the individual is able to move on to the next challenge. Onward they march in life and in stage until they find the end level: integrity versus despair. This has been categorized as adults 65 years and older by Erikson. Here, people are to reminisce and judge their lives in terms of merit or disappointment. Erikson himself had a lot to comb through in his later years.

Before you can enhance Erikson’s first stage of human development you must understand it. Feldman (2017) says that it is called Trust versus Mistrust. Erikson named this stage trust versus mistrust because, it is a period during the first 18 months of a child’s life where an infant must learn to gain a sense of trust or mistrust from the people caring for them (Feldman, 2017). Infants unable to communicate or fend for themselves are strongly influenced by their environment around them. At such a young age their brains are still able to be modified because they are experiencing things for the first time (Feldman, 2017). This can be where behavior and where a development of structure in their lives comes from.

My entire family and myself are of Hispanic heritage born in Mexico and Spanish speakers.

Joe transitioned the conversation from early adulthood to middle adulthood. He stated that nothing really changed when he transitioned into middle adulthood. He said his health had started to decline and as if his body was betraying him. When asked about the relationship between him and his only son, that is when change appeared. Joe stated that they began to see each other more once he was out of the military. During his son’s early stages in life, Joe was gone for six months in Japan and then once he came home to the United States, he was deployed once again. Like Joe, many middle aged adults find that their relationship with their children improve as they both age. In 2009, the United States Census Bureau found that two-thirds of older adults live close to at least one of their children and often have contact through visits or phone calls.

Crain (2011) addressed Erikson’s developmental stage of initiative versus guilt, typically found in the age range of three to six year old children. In this stage, children explored their abilities to plan activities and set goals to attain their desired outcomes (Crain, 2011). Children experienced a type of crisis when they realized they could not attain all of their desired goals (Crain, 2011). This stage influenced children to form a superego, in which they formed new ideas about what society expected out of their behaviors (Crain, 2011). Crain (2011) stated that children began to analyze their behaviors and consider them through the aspects of the superego. The children referred to the superego through self-observation or self-control of new behaviors and already established behaviors (Crain, 2011). In result, the children exhibited less daring behaviors and controlled their actions through the learned rules of the superego (Crain, 2011).

What does it mean to live? Is it simply to eat, work, sleep, and repeat? Is that going to be enough of a reason by the time one is retired and is in “integrity versus despair” stage of life as Erik Erikson describes in the final stage of his psychological development theory? Personally, I disagree. I believe in order for life to have any meaning, one needs to create and achieve goals that impact the world in a way that is meaningful to them. As I see it, realizing one’s potentials and interests and setting realistic goals based on those is the key to developing integrity rather than despair later in life. For me, my greatest goal is to become a physician in the future.

Erik Erikson is most famously known for his eight stages of human development. As a former student of Freud, Erikson was interested in the going ons of early childhood development and what the outcomes can be. With such an interest came his eight stages, each with a positive outcome and a negative outcome, depending on the environment in which the individual develops. The first five stages are the ones that are dependent a lot on how a parent reacts with their child, considering it covers the first 18 year of life. The first five stages are the ones which will be discussed concerning baby Jude.

According to Erikson, a failure in a stage does not necessarily result in another failure; rather, it aggravates the next stage (crisis) and thereby increases the challenge. Erikson, instead of pursuing the very idea that a failure does result in another one in the next stage, says this: A new life task presents a crisis whose outcome can be a successful graduation, or alternatively, an impairment of the life cycle which will aggravate future crises” More specifically, he does not see success, i.e., predominance of the positive aspects of a psychological stage more than the negative ones, as necessary for a healthy personality as long as the conflict can be reworked in a future crisis. Therefore, as a whole, it would not be a misconception

"It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him". This was a quote stated by Erik Homburger Erikson the creator of the 8 stages of life. Erikson believed life is organized into eight different stages that start from they day you are born and continue until the day you die (Harder). Since adult life tends to last longer then childhood or teen years Erikson broke down the stages in experiences naming them young adult, middle aged adults, and older adults

Erikson’s theory of growth and development had eight very distinct stages. His theory assumes that a life crisis occurs during each stage of development. In Erikson’s case the crises are psychosocial in nature because they include the psychological needs of a person that conflict with societal needs. In the theory it states that successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and certain strengths that help one’s ego resolve sticky situations throughout life. Failure to complete any of the stages can result in an unhealthy sense of self, but they can still be resolved later on in life.