Psychosocial Stages of Development

The assignment discusses the psychosocial stages of development in children between 2 and 5 years, including toddlerhood and early childhood. It explains that during this stage, children develop self-reliance, initiative, and purpose, but may also experience guilt if not encouraged. The assignment highlights the importance of understanding these stages for nurses to provide sound nutritional advice and alternative ways for parents to interact with their children.

Running Head: PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 1
Psychosocial Stages of Development in Children between 2 and 5 years
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PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 2
Developmental stages are essential, the gradual changes that occur in a person during
his/her lifespan (Jenkins & Astington, 2016). Psychosocial developmental stages occur as early
as during infancy to late adulthood. According to the psychoanalytic theory, although all phases
are present at birth, they only begin to unfold depending on the natural scheme and person’s
environment and cultural factors. Sure, the outcome of one stage is never permanent and thus
modified by experiences. Several stages appear between ages 2 to 5 years and include; infancy,
toddlerhood and early childhood. Each step is vital in that; it provides a crisis through which
successful completion results to the child emerging from the stage with a corresponding virtue
that guides them throughout their remaining life stages.
Generally, the ages between 2 to 5 years involve the pre-school years during which
children express immense changes from the clumsy toddlers onto lively, understanding, curious
explorers of their environment. Honestly, children do not just increase in size as they grow but
develop, evolve and mature mastering complex understanding within their worlds. They gain an
understanding of the outside world, the objects they interact with, their close parents, brothers
and the family. According to a study done in the 20th century, Erik Erikson the father of
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development along with Joan Erikson compiled a detailed
report on the general pattern and sequences of development (Smith, Cowie, & Blades, 2015).
Arguably, a child develops in these main areas: -
• Cognitive development. The child gradually learns to think and reason. He/she
becomes intellectually aware and can thus learn colours, counting and letters of the
alphabet. The cognitive development stage sets phase for later learning, understanding
and memory of life events that occur in one’s lifetime.

PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 3
• Physical development. The child gains physical balance. Undoubtedly, the physical
stability is crucial for adequacy in the general world. This stage sets phase for the child’s
physical interaction with his/her environment.
• Emotional and social development. Between 2-5 years, children slowly master the
language and learn how to control their feelings. By age five they realize that friends are
essential. They gain the feel for others, empathy, and can relate to other beings
emotionally.
• Language. At this age (2 to 5 years), most children can speak important words. They
can articulate the syllables and make up understandable short words. This stage is crucial
for speech development.
• Sensory and motor development. At this stage of development, children gain senses.
They can feel using their hands; they can see by use of the eyes and can hear with the aid
of their ears.
for instance, an infant entering into the early childhood stage (purpose and initiative vs guilt) and
acquires more purpose and initiative that guilt, then he/she will carry the virtue of initiative to
their remaining life stages (Karmiloff-Smith, 2018). .
Toddlerhood – will / Autonomy vs shame and doubt (2-3 years)
During this stage, children begin to develop self-reliance. They can walk away from their
mothers (Hartup, 2015). They have initiative and can decide on the toy they want to play with.
They can even feed themselves with little or no mother’s assistance. The parents, should
ultimately encourage the child and positively support them. They develop courage, confidence
and self-esteem as a virtue.

PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 4
On the contrary, if the child is not encouraged and controlled from his/her independence,
then the result would be an extremely dependent person with low self-esteem and may lack
confidence. Here, the children have a significant relationship with their parents, and thus mothers
are encouraged to let the children at this stage, do what they intend on their own with little or no
assistance to boost their independent character moulding them into highly confident individuals.
According to Fosnot, & Perry (2014), parents should be advised to let their children
choose toys they like, and give them ample room for their freedom to move as far as possible
from their mothers to foster the virtue of self-reliance. Knowledge of the concepts of this stage is
helpful to nurses. It aids in providing the right guidance to the parents during nursing lessons and
consultancy periods. By knowing the correct age of a child, the nurse can accordingly advise on
the developmental strategies to keep the children lively and confident in their future.
Early childhood - Purpose / Initiative vs guilt (3 – 4 years)
At this stage, children have a significant relationship with their family. At this stage, the
existential question being “is it okay for me to move and act? “. The children tend to explore
using tools or making art while playing with clay. The child may begin to plan and arrange
activities. They may plan for games and try to hang out with other children. When encouraged to
do all these things by themselves, they develop self-security and start making decisions. They
even can lead others. However, when he/she is discouraged from such activities or controlled,
then they may end up developing a sense of guilt instead (Buss, 2015). They become shy at
making decisions and hence have no sure arrangements.
At this stage, the parents are advised to give their children the support they need. Let
them arrange and make their decisions on any topic of their interest with minimal guidance.

PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 5
Understanding this stage is important in making wise decisions as a nurse to help guide parents
and children in the society. Nurses can as well provide nursing services to the children and
families with children within this stage. Despite there being a general pattern, it is amazing to
realize that the rate, character and quality of development vary significantly among different
children.
According to Erikson’s developmental theory, “external world and one’s culture has a
massive effect on an individual’s personality “(Levine, 2018). For instance, some contributing
factors include but are not limited to culture, social interactions, age, genetic composition and
gender (sex). Such events and circumstances alter the time and periods of each child
psychosocial stage unfolding. In some children, their developmental stages may reveal early
while in others, their tick time may be very late.
In a nutshell, it is of paramount importance for a nurse to understand the various
psychosocial stages of development along with the determinant factors that influence the rate,
time and occurrence of psychosocial stages. This eventually helps nurses develop sound
nutritional advice to the parents with children at various stages as well as providing alternative
ways for parents to interact with their children.

PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 6
References
Buss, D. (2015). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Psychology Press
Fosnot, C. T., & Perry, R. S. (2014). Constructivism: A psychological theory of learning.
Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice, 2, 8-33.
Hartup, W. W. (2015). Social relationships and their developmental significance. American
psychologist, 44(2), 120.
Jenkins, J. M., & Astington, J. W. (2016). Cognitive factors and family structure associated with
theory of mind development in young children. Developmental psychology, 32(1), 70.
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2018). Précis of Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on
cognitive science. In Thinking Developmentally from Constructivism to
Neuroconstructivism (pp. 64-94). Routledge.
LeVine, R. A. (2018). Culture, behavior, and personality: An introduction to the comparative
study of psychosocial adaptation. Routledge.
Smith, P. K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2015). Understanding children's development. John
Wiley & Sons