Main Stages Human Growth And Development

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1SOCIOLOGY
Topic: Understanding of the main stages human growth and development
Introduction
The chief purpose of this report is to understand the chief stages associated with human
growth as well as development. In this report, two members of a family given in the case study
has been chosen as subjects whose psychology has been analyzed with the help of 5 human
growth and development theories. The two members who has been used for this report includes
Jenny and Chantelle. Jenny is a 33 years old woman who is suffering from malignant tumor in
her breast and lacks effective confidence to cope up with this issue. On the other hand when it
comes to Chantelle, she is a 15 years old girl who is happy-go-lucky to snappy, argumentative
and aggressive. The five theories that has been used for analyzing the behaviours of the two
members includes the Marcia’s theory, Erikson’s theory, Maslow’s theory, Piaget’s theory and
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development theory. First of all, the five mentioned theory will be
used for understanding the development stage each of the two members is in. The 5 theories will
be compared in order to have a better understanding of the behaviour and the reason behind the
behaviour demonstrated by the members. In the second part of this report, a detailed discussion
about the health and social care practitioners (HSPs) apply the theoretical underpinning for
understanding the stages of life development and the importance of theoretical underpinning has
been discussed. Finally, a suggestion on how HSPs can support, advise or guide the two
members has been discussed in this report.
Main body
The term health referred to the mental, physical as well as social wellbeing and as a
resource for living and enjoying life (Weiss 2015). Health is not merely confined to the absence

2SOCIOLOGY
of disease but can be defined as the ability of recovering as well as bounce back from illness as
well as other physical and mental problem. Some of the major factors associated with good
health include genetics, environment, relationships as well as education. When it comes to the
term human development, it can be reffered to the biological as well as psychological
development of the human beings throughout the lifespan. Human development is comprised of
development from infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. According to Beckett and
Taylor (2019), the study associated with psychological human development is called
developmental psychology.
When it comes to Jenny, as per the Erickson’s theory, she is in 6th stage of the growth and
development cycle that is young adult intimacy versus isolation. According to the mentioned
theory, people in early adulthood that is from 20s to early 40s are highly concerned with the
intimacy versus isolation. That means in this stage an individual gets ready to share their life
with their loved ones (Capello and Nijkamp 2019). However, in case, the previous stages of
growth of development is not resolved successfully, young adults often perceived trouble to
maintain a successful relationship with one another. The main dispute in this time centres on the
establishment of personal and romantic relations with other people. At this point, success leads to
relationships being fulfilled. On the other hand, a failure may lead to feelings of depression and
loneliness. Jenny, being in this stage, is suffering from a feeling of isolation of loneliness.
Considering the fact that she had got pregnant at the age of 18 and has to go through a good
number of health issues lending to mental issues, her previous stages of growth and development
are not resolved. Unresolved trauma leading to depression has imposed negative impact on her
life in this stage. The fact that she has been diagnosed of a malignant breast tumour, the trauma
of losing his loved ones is holding back Jenny to share this crucial information with her family.

3SOCIOLOGY
The Erikson theory helps HSPs to identify the possible behaviour of Jenny behind
suppressing the vital news from her family members (Capuzzi, Stauffer and O’Neil 2016). The
fear of being left alone and lack of confidence to be able to cope up with unpredictable
situations, which she had once dealt with can be pointed to be major reasons behind her act of
keeping her health issue a secret. However , while the Ericson’s stages helps the HSPs to
understand the stages an individual in and form a rough idea behind his or her crisis, it does not
allow the HSPs to have an effective understanding of emotional changes an individual is going
through or the emotional needs that is resulting in development of particular behaviour. In order
to identify this, one of the major theories that are used by the HSPs includes Maslows
Hierarchical theory (Faggian, Modrego and McCann 2019). This theory, demonstrates the
hierarchy of needs, that is usually presented in a triangle.
The five levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy include Physiological Needs, Safety Needs,
Love/Belonging, Self-Esteem and Self-Actualization. The behavior demonstrated by Jenny
points out that Jenny is in the third level of Moslow’s hierarchical pyramid that is love and
belonging. Considering the fact that she has stable financial background her Physiological Needs
and safety needs has been fulfilled. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, for
avoiding issues like anxiety, loneliness as well as depression, it is highly crucial for individual to
feel loved as well as accepted by his/her loved ones (Kropf and Greene 2017). Personal
relationship with family, friends as well as lovers also plays a crucial role here. Jenny is afraid
that the amount of effort she had to give in order to have a stable loving family may all go in
vain if her family comes to know about her health issue.
When it comes to Chantelle, according to The Erickson theory of growth and
development, she is in the 5th stage that is Adolescent or Ego Identity vs Role confusion stage.