COU103A: Analyzing Childhood and Adolescence Through Theories

This essay provides a reflective analysis of childhood and adolescence stages of human development, drawing upon Erikson's psychological development theory and Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory. It examines the key events and milestones experienced during these periods, relating them to the theoretical frameworks. The essay explores concepts such as trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, and the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. Personal reflections are included, detailing how these stages and theories influenced the author's self-awareness, listening skills, and overall development. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of early life stages and parental influence in shaping adult personality and behavior. Desklib offers a wealth of resources for students, including similar essays and study materials.

Running Head: REFLECTION ON THE CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT
Reflection of Childhood and Adolescent Stages of Lifecycle
Student’s Name:
Institution Affiliation:

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 2
Introduction
Human being growth and development undergoes through various stages in the life cycle
that starts from the conception to the time of death. The other stages include childhood,
adolescence, adulthood, and then death (Berk, 2014). The infancy stage is the critical stage as it
determines the rest of the human life .During these stages, children undergo different body,
behavioral changes that determine the nature of their adulthood. For the purpose of this paper,
childhood and adolescent stages will form the basis of discussion.
Childhood period is divided into different stages that are the early childhood, age
between 3-6, middle childhood age between 6-8 and late childhood age between 9-11 (Golenia,
2018). During all these stages of youth, the rapid increase in body size averagely 2-3 inches in
height and 5 pounds in body weight are observable in the first two years (Findlay, 2006).
Physical changes such as sitting, walking, and hand-eye coordination are mastered. As month’s
passes, children tend to grow thinner as girls retain body fat while boys become more muscular.
At the age of between 3 -6, skeletal growth is evidential as the bones tend to harden as the
growth rate slows down and development of inner subjective self, and besides developing a
spoken vocabulary of about 300 to 1000 words (Dawes et al., 2015). The stage allows the images
from the outer world into the unconscious mind thereby determining the later life of artist,
scientist, and writers. At the following stage of childhood, the child develops some technical and
social skills that allow them to solve practical problems and attain everyday responsibilities
(Sigelman, & Rider, 2008). The adolescent stage ranges from the ages of 12-20 and is mainly
characterized by the biological developments such as sexual desires, emotional, spiritual, and
cultural passions (Jensen & Chen, 2013). The adolescent stage allows the child to move towards

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 3
a more mature sense of self and purpose regarding intimacy and healthy relationship,
understanding of ideas with moral viewpoints and many others.
Several studies have developed theories to explain human development. Among the
theories are the Erikson's psychological development, Sigmund Freud psychosexual theory,
Attachment theory, and many others (Platz & Arellano, 2015).
Erickson theory was developed by Erik Erikson that centered on the psychological
development of an individual from the time of birth to the time of death (Dunkel & Harbke,
2017). The theory is made up of 8 series of personality development stages that are; trust vs.
mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs.
confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. Each of
the stages helps in building the preceding stage, and the experience gained on those stages offer
the turning points of the human development (Westen, Burton, & Kowalski, 2006). The
experience can either develop or fail to establish the psychological quality of an individual, and
either way affects the rest of the life of the individual.
According to Dr. Feud, he believed that the ways parents were dealing with their
children's primary sexual and aggressive desires shape the future personalities of the children
developed Sigmund Freud theory (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2005). According to Freud,
children development to adulthood is through sexual development stages known as the Oral,
Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital.

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 4
Stages Theories Phase Analysis
Childhood
stage
Erikson’s theory
and Sigmund
Theory
Trust vs. Mistrust
And oral stage
According to Erikson’s theory, the
first stage of psychological
development occurs between birth and
the age of one year. At this stage, the
infant depends on the adults for food,
love warmth, safety and nurturing,
therefore, trust id developed on the
quality of the care given. Consistent
providence of those requirements
makes the infant gain trust and feel
comfortable in the world, and
unavailability of those features, the
child loses trust and tens to reject the
caregivers.
The oral stage of the Sigmund theory
starts from birth, whereby the oral
cavity is the primary focus of libidal
energy. The infant finds pleasure in
suckling and therefore, like the
Erikson, trust is gained on the
caregiver that offers adequate oral
pleasures. Infants that get frustrated at

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 5
this stage lack psychological pleasure
and this affects their confidence.
Autonomy vs.
Shame and doubt
And the Anal stage
According to Erikson’s theory, the
child develops personal control to be
independent. At this stage, the child
performs major necessary actions on
their own like toy preferences, food
choices hence making them more
secure and confident than those that
fail to go through this stage.
The anal stage is the second stage of
the Freud's theory and takes place
between one-half years. At this stage,
the child is obsessed with erogenous
zones and therefore is the phase of
toilet training. At this stage, the child
is in dilemma of meeting his/her
desires or the parent’s demands; hence
those that derive pleasure from the
expulsion of feces tend to grow into
careless and defiant children who help
themselves anywhere. Conversely,

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 6
those children that don’t have
expulsive pleasure may spit on the
parents hence the stage needs proper
toilet training.
Initiative vs. Guilt This is the third stage of the Erikson’s
theory that allows children to acquire
the power to play and interact with
others.
Industry vs.
inferiority
Is the fourth stage and happens
between the ages of 5-11, whereby the
child starts to develop a sense of pride
in their achievements. At this stage,
those children that get encouraged,
commended by parents and teachers
tend to believe in their skills that
eventually affect their psychological
development unlike those that don’t
receive encouragements that develop
inferiority character.
Adolescen
t stage
Erikson’s theory
and Sigmund Freud
Identity vs.
confusion and
Identity vs. confusion is the fifth stage
of the Erikson’s theory whereby the

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 7
theory Phallic stage children develop a sense of personal
identity such as beliefs, ideal and
values that guide the behaviors that
conform to the societal standards.
The phallic stage the child’s
erogenous zone is the genital region,
thereby the child becomes interested
in personal and other children areas.
At this stage, the child tends to be
more close to the opposite sex parent.
Boys tend to have a conflict of the
motherly love since most of the libido
energy is transferred to the genital
region. However, the feeling is
suppressed by the availability of the
father. As the boy child realize that is
unable to possess the mother, he
copies the lifestyle of the father to
possess the mother. The same happens
to the girl child who tends to love the
father more than the mother.

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 8
Intimacy vs.
isolation and
Latency period
The intimacy and the is the stage that
the child tends to explore personal
relationships. Individuals that pass
through this stage successfully tend to
have secure and enduring
relationships.
The latency stage is psychosexual
whereby the child develops sexual
desires.
Personal Reflection
This essay examines personal development in two stages that are the childhood and the
adolescent stages. According to the two theories by Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud theories,
myself awareness and listening skills were influenced during those two stages. From the stories
told by mother, my breastfeeding period was short since my mother conceived our second born
within eight months after my birth; fortunately, I was well nourished that enable me to gain
motor skills such as crawling and walking at the early age of 7 months. Having close attachments
with my mother, enabled to trust her because she was always there to care for me (Jones et al.,
2014). Also, the availability of my cousin who was older than me by eight years enabled me to
grab more fine motor skills and cognitive aspects. Apart from my parents, my cousin was very
supportive during my early stages of life, who introduced me to a number of his teenager's
friend. The association with a diverse number of older children developed my today’s self-

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 9
awareness. At the age of 8, I was able to ride a bicycle with the help of my cousin, and this
impressed my father who went ahead and bought me a personal bicycle.
At early stages of my childhood, I was considered as an easy child, who could not listen
to instructions and follow orders hence was unable to perform well in academics. This attributes
to the amount of the parental love that was offered by both parents. The trait affected me in my
pre-school as many times I was on the wrong side of the law. However, the support from the
parents and the teachers from the school enable me to realize other people’s emotions and
listening skills that shaped my behavior that eventually enable me to be awarded as the best
discipline boy in grade three. The award motivated my self-esteem and realized that I could top
the class even if not through academic performance, therefore, I started creating more time for
academic work that saw me winning more school fair projects. During my adolescence stage, I
developed more opposite-sex friend because they found me social and fun to be around (Wiley et
al., 2011). The frequent associations with girls led to the loss of my virginity at the age of 13.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Human behaviors and characters depend mostly on the initial stages of life
such as the childhood and adolescent. Therefore, it is upon the parents to ensure that every child
receives the best during the initial stages of life. It will help those with the desire to have a good
personality in the adulthood stages.

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 10
References
Berk, L.E. (2014). Development Through the Lifespan: International Edition, 6th Edition,
Pearson Education, USA Recommended reading Textbooks
Capps, D. (2012). Erikson's Schedule of Human Strengths and the Childhood Origins of the
Resourceful Self. Pastoral Psychology, 61(3), 269-283. doi:10.1007/s11089-011-0400-5
Cavanaugh, J. & Blanchard-Fields, F. (2005) Adult Development and Aging, 5th Edition,
Cengage Learning, USA
Dawes, P., Cruickshanks, K. J., Moore, D. R., Fortnum, H., Edmondson-Jones, M., McCormack,
A., & Munro, K. J. (2015). The Effect of Prenatal and Childhood Development on
Hearing, Vision and Cognition in Adulthood. Plos ONE, 10(8), 1-16.
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Dunkel, C., & Harbke, C. (2017). A Review of Measures of Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial
Development: Evidence for a General Factor. Journal Of Adult Development, 24(1), 58-
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Findlay, B. (2006) How to Write Psychology Research Reports and Essays, 4th Edition, Prentice
Hall, Frenchs Forest.
Golenia, L., Schoemaker, M. M., Otten, E., Mouton, L. J., & Bongers, R. M. (2018).
Development of reaching during mid-childhood from a Developmental Systems
perspective. Plos ONE, 13(2), 1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193463

CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT STAGES OF LIFE 11
Jensen, L. A., & Chen, X. (2013). Adolescent Development in a Diverse and Changing World:
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