Human Development Across the Lifespan

This article discusses Erik Erikson's psychosocial developmental theory and Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, and compares the effectiveness of both theories. It highlights the second stage of both theories and how they impact the psychological development of children. The article concludes that both theories are effective in describing human growth.

Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Introduction
Human growth is dependent on physical and psychological aspects. The psychological
development of a person would occur from early stage. The development of the psychology can
be seen in different times and stages of the child and these changes can be defined with the help
of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial developmental theory and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological
systems theory. In the following section description of these two theories and the comparison of
the effectiveness and the description of the second stage of both the theories would be discussed
in details.
Discussion
Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is divided into eight stages which
refer to each stage of the human development. The second stage of this theory refers to the
autonomy and doubt of the human mind. This stage focuses on the eighteen month or three year
old child and the doubts of that child with his or her surroundings. The fact of the autonomy
versus doubt stage highlights the process of the development of independence among the
children. It highlights the conflict in mind of children that they can do certain works by
themselves or they need to be dependent on parents or other adults (Knight, 2017). This stage
highlights the control development of the child on his or herself. The independence development
of the child also defines the critical thinking power development as well as the development of
the self-identity. Hence, this stage refers to the first step of the child towards autonomy and
elimination of any doubts in the mind.
The psychosocial developmental theory of Erik Erikson is quite relevant as the
development of the autonomy and owns self-identity is one of the major characteristic of human
being. Thus the effectiveness of the theory can be relatable as the changes of the life with proper

2
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
age range have been discussed in this theory. It has been seen that the autonomy versus doubt
stage is entirely different from the first stage that is the trust versus mistrust (Syed & Fish, 2018).
In this stage, the concern of children is about trust development and entirely dependent on others.
Thus in the second stage the child want to develop his or her own identity which shows the
psychosocial development of the child. Toilet training, functional control over body, food, toy
and clothing preference development are the key developmental changes that defines the Erik
Erikson’s psychosocial development stage 2. Lacking of the mentioned skill sets of the child can
be stated as the psychological distress and required changes are lagging for some reason (Holt,
2016).
On the other hand, Urie Bronfenbrenner developed the ecological systems theory which
states that not only the close familial environment but the surrounding environment impacts over
the growth and development of the human being. This theory dependent on five stages and
mesosystem is the second system of this theory which depicts the interaction between two
microsystems or familial system of the children (Popa, Guillermin & Dedeurwaerdere, 2015).
The connection and the transitions of two microsystems can impact over the psychological
aspect of the child. This impact can alter the growth and development of the child as well (Vélez-
Agosto et al., 2017). Hence, Bronfenbrenner stated that the surrounding effects are the factors
that can clearly impact over the mental health of the child. The interaction of two microsystems
can be identified as schools and the neighbourhood of the child’s home. The transition and the
effects of this environment can be able to change the mental state and the growth of the child in
different manner.
Ecological systems theory helps in the knowledge development about the process of the
emotional development of the child and also the effects of the surrounding over the

3
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
psychological aspect of the child as well. It identifies the factors of the interactions of the
children with their closest environment and the people of that environment. These interactions
and connections show great impact over the mental status and the psychological growth of the
child. Hence, according to Bronfenbrenner the factor of the growth of the children is dependent
on environmental aspect more than the internal attributes. Based on this theory the changes of the
human life in relation to the changes of the environment can be analysed properly. It also helps
in the development of knowledge about the environmental psychology adequately. Hence, the
effects of the environment or the ecosystem can be highlighted as one of the most crucial factor
for the human growth (Eriksson, Ghazinour & Hammarström, 2018).
Here it can be seen that these two theories highlighted the psychosocial growth of the
children properly. However, the factors that impact over the psychosocial growth is different in
both the theories. In case of Erikson’s psychosocial developmental theory the internal attributes
are the factors that can be able to impact over the mental health and growth. It also shows that
the internal conflict can be able to determine the changes of the child and the stage of autonomy
versus doubt highlights the self-identity development of the child (Chung, 2018). Whereas,
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory depicts that the surrounding environment has a
greater role in the psychological growth of a child. The stage of mesosystem highlighted the
interaction and the transitions of the microsystems impacts over the psychological aspect of the
child and changes their behaviour as well (Tudge et al., 2016). Thus it can be seen that both the
theories are focused on the psychological more specifically psychosocial development of the
children. However, the aspects that impact the psychology of the children are different in these
theories.

4
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Conclusion
Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that the process of the development of
the children and human being is very difficult to understand and these depend on different
factors as well. Erikson’s theory and Bronfenbrenner’s theory help in the depiction of the process
of the psychological and behavioural development of the children. These two theories work
based on internal psychological growth and environmental interaction. Hence, both the theories
are effective in the process of proper description of human growth.

5
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
References
Chung, D. Y. (2018). The eight stages of psychosocial protective development: Developmental
psychology. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 8(06), 369.
Eriksson, M., Ghazinour, M., & Hammarström, A. (2018). Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s
ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public
mental health policy and practice?. Social Theory & Health, 16(4), 414-433.
Holt, N. L. (Ed.). (2016). Positive youth development through sport. Routledge.
Knight, Z. G. (2017). A proposed model of psychodynamic psychotherapy linked to Erik
Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development. Clinical psychology &
psychotherapy, 24(5), 1047-1058.
Popa, F., Guillermin, M., & Dedeurwaerdere, T. (2015). A pragmatist approach to
transdisciplinarity in sustainability research: From complex systems theory to reflexive
science. Futures, 65, 45-56.
Syed, M., & Fish, J. (2018). Revisiting Erik Erikson’s legacy on culture, race, and ethnicity.
Identity, 18(4), 274-283.
Tudge, J. R., Payir, A., Merçon‐Vargas, E., Cao, H., Liang, Y., Li, J., & O'Brien, L. (2016). Still
misused after all these years? A reevaluation of the uses of Bronfenbrenner's
bioecological theory of human development. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(4),
427-445.
Vélez-Agosto, N. M., Soto-Crespo, J. G., Vizcarrondo-Oppenheimer, M., Vega-Molina, S., &
García Coll, C. (2017). Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory revision: Moving culture
from the macro into the micro. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(5), 900-910.

6
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN