Personal Reflection and Learning Process in Human Development

Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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Author Note:

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT1
The aim of this essay is to discuss the personal reflection and the learning process
through the incidents of life. The similarities as well as the comparisons of the theories
related to the psychological development of the children from the early ages. . As the human
psychology is more critical than anything in the world, hence proper understanding of the
children’s growth during the years from infancy to the teenage or adulthood becomes
difficult. In this regard, discussion will be done on the basis of Erik Erickson and Piaget
theory of human psychological development. This essay will be analysing an incident in the
childhood that helped for my psychological development on the basis of these two theories of
human psychological development.
Since 20th century, the study of childhood development had grown extensively and
recorded in the works of many influential psychologists. These studies have been developed
through observation, historical relevance and social context. Both Erik Erickson and Piaget
have contributed in this area significantly. In order to understand the comparison of the
theories of these two theorists, first we need to point out the most important factors related to
these theories. The theory of Piaget relates to the different stages of childhood and children’s
cognitive developmental phases (Gregory, 2017). This theory argues that these phases are
essential ad gets influenced by various external forces. As the mental structure of the children
are mainly fluid as well as ever changing, they learn something new every time from their
environment (Slentz, 2017). These stages of the development are essentially based on the age
and abilities which are passed through sequentially and include four stages like sensorimotor
stage from infancy to two years old, preoperational stage from two to seven years, concrete
stage from seven to eleven years and formal operational stage from eleven to their adulthood
(Blake, 2015).
On the other hand, theory of Erikson relates to the psychology of the children dealing
with the developing stages. These stages are mainly related to the life hurdles of the children

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT2
developmental process which they are to overcome as the progress to the next stage of the life
(Greene, 2017). Here the hurdles of life from which the children learn their essential lessons
include, trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority,
identity vs. confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation and integrity vs.
despair (Kerpelman & Pittman, 2018). According to this theory, the life hurdles or stages are
mainly dependant on the ages of the children. Therefore, the trust vs. mistrust is first stage
which the children learn their life hurdles. In the ages of one to three, children are completely
dependent upon their caregivers hence their trust mechanism depends on crucial for
developing a sense of ease as well as security in the world (Slentz, 2017). This shapes how
the children will be responding to the next hurdles in their lives like autonomy vs. doubt or
shame. Thus they develop their sense of belonging, identity and find their purpose of life.
In comparing these two theories of child psychology development, the stages of both
these two theories are to be explored. The main differences between these two theories is that
the theory of Erikson has created understanding of development throughout their whole life
and Piaget focuses on the years of infancy to the teenage ages. Erikson’s theory subscribe the
idea that each of the life events create impact on the next one thus the success of the progress
through lives are dependent on prior challenges (Zhang, 2015). On the contrary, Piaget’s
theory examines the thought process of children and how the brain responds to external
environmental factors around them rather than their crises only. Piaget focuses on the
cognitive development but Erikson’s thought process is more focused on the emotional
development (Deutsch & Deutsch, 2017). These also differ from the point of the
fundamentals of the life stages (Green et al., 2018). Piaget believes that experiences decide
the stages of the children’s development while Erikson uses all the stages up to the elderly
years as essential in explaining the stages of child psychological development.