Psychological Theories of Human Development

Psychology for Health
and Social Care

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Different theories of life span development.....................................................................1
1.2 Psychological theories related with different stages of human development across life span
................................................................................................................................................8
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Social and biological factors which influence human behaviour...................................10
2.2 Importance of social roles in relation with health and social care settings....................11
TASK 3 A......................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Application of psychological theories in person experiencing increased level of stress11
3.2 Relating psychological theories to the behavioural disturbances...................................12
TASK 3 B......................................................................................................................................13
3.3 Psychological theories informing about understanding of mental disorder...................13
3.4 Evaluating application of psychological principles influencing behavioural change....14
3.5 Significance of psychological theories in enhancing the understanding in relation with
health and social care............................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Various psychological theories like cognitive, behavioural, humanistic and
psychodynamic are the determining factors of actions and nature executed by human beings in
different stages of development of life span. Psychological theories define the behaviour shown
by a person in different situations and conditions in various human developmental stages (Smith,
2015). These psychological theories are having a significant role identifying various mental
illness like schizophrenia, depression, stress, etc. and concluding to some effective treatment to
the sufferings. This largely contributes in diagnosing and treating the mental illness in health and
social care settings. Various stages of life span follows various psychological theories in order to
develop new skills and actions to react confidentiality in external environment towards the
developmental opportunities across complete life span.
In this particular report, various psychological theories and concepts are being discussed
along with applying same in different stages of human development throughout life span. In this
report, the significant differences between cognitive and psychodynamic theory is evaluated.
Also, application of various theories like humanistic, behavioural in different stages of
development like infancy, early childhood, adolescence, early and late adulthood is studied here.
TASK 1
1.1 Different theories of life span development
Various psychological theories can be applied in different stages of human development
across life style. These psychological theories help in defining the stage of an individual to which
he is going through. Various psychological theories provide a distinctive approach of analysing
the characteristics of diverse stages of developmental level of human across his complete life
cycle (Aveyard, 2014). The difference between various psychological theories applied in
different stages of lifespan development are discussed as below.
Freud psychological theory is based on psychosexual characteristics while the Erikson
theory implements psychosocial aspects of individuals. Some of the differences between Erikson
psychosocial and Freud psychosexual are as follows:
1

Developmental
Stage of human
Stages of
psychosexual
development as
per Freud's
theory
Major
Characteristics
of Freud's Stages
theory
Stages of
psychosocial
development as
per Freud's
theory
Major
Characteristics
of Erickson's
theory
From birth to 12-
18 months
Oral At this stage, the
person is having
high interest in
oral gratification
from eating,
biting, mouthing
and sucking.
Stage of Trust
versus Mistrust
Positive aspect of
this stage is that
the human is
gaining trust from
external
environment
which develops
secured
2
Illustration 1: Erickson model
(Source 1: Basic Trust & Mistrust: Erik Erikson's Theory, 2017)