University Psychology: Reflective Essay on Developmental Theories

This reflective essay, submitted by a student, delves into developmental psychology by examining significant life events through the frameworks of Erik Erikson and Gilbert Gottlieb's theories. The author recounts a challenging childhood marked by trauma and adversity, including mistreatment and exploitation, and discusses how these experiences shaped their adulthood, leading to issues with trust and attachment. The essay analyzes the impact of these experiences through Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, focusing on the development of virtues and coping mechanisms, and Gottlieb's probabilistic epigenesis, highlighting the influence of household environment and social factors. The student reflects on their personal responses, the development of coping abilities, and the pursuit of independence and self-sufficiency, providing a detailed analysis of how these theories help to understand the patterns of change and growth in the face of adversity. The essay demonstrates an understanding of the theories and their relevance to the author's life, supported by references to relevant research.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY- REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Psychology- Reflective Essay
Name of the University:
Name of the student:
Author Note:

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Psychology- Reflective Essay
Introduction:
Developmental Psychology is a scientific approach that explains the developmental processes
that a person undergoes since his or my birth till old age. The discourse explain the steps and
the processes of growth, change, cooping ability and consistency that a person undergoes
while growing up(Baltes et al., 2014). It also aims to describe the feelings, and experiences
and the behavioral aspect that a person elicits in the process of growth and development
(Burman, 2016). The psychologists, over the time, have produced a range of theories in order
to incus upon the patterns of change and the system of behaviors, reflected in the process of
development. These theories cover a range of aspects, including the social, behavioral,
environmental or situational, emotional and the cognitive aspects of growth and development
(Baltes, Reese & Nesselroade, 2014). The goals of the developmental theories are to recount,
explain and look into the aspects, methods, features, and process of development and change
elicited by a person.
It has been observed that the childhood was marked with number of disturbing events
which has negatively impacted my growth process and positive development in life. In
order to consider the same and understand the developmental events of my life, two
developmental theories will be undertaken for the purpose of relating the impact of
childhood on my adulthood. The following essay wishes to understand the patterns of
change and growth and the adaptability of the person mentioned by relating to the real
life events through the prism of developmental theories.
Body and discussion
This part of the essay talks about the difficulties and the disturbing situations that I had been
through while growing up. I was faced with ill treatments, molestation, and exploitation, both

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emotional and physical all though my childhood which had impacted heavily on my
adulthood. Since losing my own parents, the girl was brought up with my step mother and
step sisters, who were extremely worse to my and she went through continuous physical
coercions by theme. She had moved from one place to the other with my siblings, and
thought that the changing culture and environments would bring in a change in the behaviour,
but that was never the scenario. I was taken to youth shelter, where she had different kind of
experiences, and it can be said that seeing others going through a similar situation, had
provided her with certain insights, and gave me the perspective that there are many people
who are going through difficult situations as well, and they all are fighting. However, once I
left the youth shelter I went to live with my boyfriend, but there as well, I was tortured, which
was more painful to my, since I had put my heart out to a person for the first time and had got
insult and ill treatment in return. I had returned to my home, expecting that things would have
change after such a long period, but again I was proved wrong. However, I continued my
studies all through these distressed situations. However, all these life events that I had been
through left a heavy impact upon my adulthood. I had grown vulnerable and had distanced
myself from the rest of the society, since I had grown a kind of fear of attachment. I thought
it would be best if I keep a distance. I had also grown trust issues and had grown a kind of
fear of getting involved with people and then getting hurt or tortured in the end. It is much
normal, since I had no one to hold and no one to care for my. Also, my attainment of
education and my experience in the youth shelter had helped me to grow a perspective in life.
I aspired to become an independent and self-sufficient women, therefore, I would not have to
depend on anybody and no one can treat my badly. Though the trust issues and the fear that I
has, and the insecurity that I has grown may not prove to be helpful and affect my mental
health, but my emancipation and my sense of independence can help my walk through that.

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However, in order to describe the phases of change that is had gone through the theories of
Erik Erikson and Gilbert Gottlieb will be discussed.
Erik Erikson: theory of
Erik Erikson was German-American psychologist, who essentially worked on the
developmental psychology, and was most famous for coining the term “Identity
Crisis”( Bever, 2017). He is also regarded as one of the major contributors in the
development of the concept of Ego and had worked extensively upon the human personality.
He is much known for his theory of developmental psychology, where his prime focus was
on the adolescent stage of the human (Dovidio et al, 2017). The theory of personality, as per
Erikson, includes eight stages. Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Doubt, Initiate vs. Guilt,
Industry vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. role Confusion, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs.
Stagnation, and Integrity vs. Despair (McLeod, 2013). However, the two key concept
underlying these stages of change are, the change in the attitude and mastering the changes,
by initiating a skill development process.
Key Concept 1:
Erikson was moved by the psychosexual theory of Freud and stated that a person is motivated
by the fact that one must achieve a level of competence in order to achieve and initiate a
successful change in the courses of life (Ewen & Ewen, 2014). Erikson stated that a person is
faced with the mentioned eight stages all through his or my life and the coping ability of the
person and their attitude to the situations will help in initiating the change process (Ewen &
Ewen, 2014).
According to the theory proposed by Erik Erikson, there are appropriate times frame in
everyone’s life like infancy to 18 months, 18onths to 3 years, 3-5 years and the others
stages of development, it has been observed that the theorist believes virtues are developed in

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Psychology- Reflective Essay
the different stages of life in the childhood that has a positive or negative impact in the
adulthood of the individual(Patterson et al.,2017). The development of hope, will, purpose
and competency in lives are development mostly at the early years of life however in case of
my developmental years, there have been number of obstacles which has been reflected in my
adulthood. Since I have been subjected to number of torture, both being physical and mental,
development of positive virtues like will, hope and purpose in life in affected. This
sometimes leads to the psychosocial crisis of mistrust, doubt and same and even inferiority is
being developed. I have been subjected to the feeling of mistrusting everyone which has
reflected all my relationships in life. I have been following the trend of casual dating since I
feel skeptical to trust anyone in relationships. I have developed the idea, that no matter how
good and loving I had been towards others, I had faced abandonment, therefore, I had
changed her attitude towards life, as a result I had developed the trust issues and the sense of
insecurity and abandonment, and also had become indifferent to certain situations so much
that these did not impact her anymore.
Key Concept 2:
The other aspect that Erikson had mentioned was mastering the changed attitude through skill
development(Slater et al., 2017). It refers to the fact that one must understand and develop
certain skills that will help them to cope with the situations that are taking place around them.
Erikson mentioned that at each stage, a person is faced with certain crisis situations, and the
concerned person must develop certain skills in order to cope with the changed situations
(Greene, 2017).
It has been observed that that I had eventually developed the coping abilities required of me
to deal with the exploiting situations that I was faced with. I have been exposed to situations
of crisis, since an early age and with time I had grown the coping abilities, which helped me
to deal with my life events and eventually get a job and be able to continue on my own. I

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Psychology- Reflective Essay
have bee also lacking the understanding of developing skill that can positively contributed to
my lesser number of achievements. I could hardly use my productive years to develop certain
useful skills for future which is why I could enroll myself to the academic courses quite lately
in comparison to other girls of my age.
Gilbert Gottlieb:
Gottlieb was an American psychologist, who had initiated his career in the zoology, and
developed the stages of development among the birds and explained that there are certain
factors that affect the whole development process(Woodhead, 2015). Similarly, he told that
there are certain factors that impact upon the developmental processes of the human beings.
His theory is known as the Probabilistic Epigenesis, whereby he had shown that there are
certain interacting factors that contribute and influence the whole pattern of development
(Lux, 2013). The two main aspects of his research are, household environment and the social
factors.
Key Concept 1:
The first aspect of Gottlieb’s discussion was that the household environment of a person has a
major contribution in the process of development of the same (Gottlieb, 2014). It is extremely
true for the concerned person in my case since I had a very disturbed household environment
throughout my growing years. I have faced immense crisis and exploiting situations at my
household, which had impacted her development and the beliefs and the notions that I held.
The coping ability and the indifferent attitude are all a contribution of the same. While
growing up, I saw my father having two wives which is why some go attention that these
since all of us were not getting the same amount of attention at the same time. It has been
further realized that the household environment of treating the children with utmost disgust
and forcing them to do the household work at the expense of exploiting their productive time

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did not give the positive virtues to aspire something big in life. Showing favoritism for the
other siblings had generated the feeling in me that I was inferior and did not need the required
care and attention. Abusive is one of the curses that can radically reduce the level of
development for an adult. Even though I have been able to come out of this situation and look
for positivity all around me, things have haunted me throughout which are quite difficult to
omit.
Key Concept 2:
The second aspect of his theory is the environmental factors, which includes the socio
cultural system of a place. Education is also a huge factor (Greenberg, 2014). According to
this theory, since education is thought to be one of the contributing actors of the development
of childhood and its reflection on adulthood, I had been able to get the best of educational
degrees. In this case, I got education quite late in my life since I was restricted in every stage
of life to gain better and healthier life. Irrespective of knowing the significance of education
in my life, I could manage to do the English course later in comparison to other teenagers of
my age. I was exposed to a continuous change of society and culture, which had majorly
contributed in my attitude development. The cultural aspects of a place had initiated the
belief that the experiences that I am exposed to are undeserving for her. Also my experience
in the youth shelter had a role in my attitude development. It can also be stated that my
attainment of education also induced in my sense of empowerment and had helped me to
cope and be financially independent.
Conclusion:
I was faced with many crisis situations that had affected my growth and development and
made it a discontinuous development; however the social factors and my own understanding
had enabled me to cope with the changing situations. Both the theories that have been used

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intricately describe my life events and my coping abilities. The developmental theories talk
about the stages of development and the adaptation processes that one makes while growing
up and the ways these steps influence upon their adulthood. Therefore the theory of Erikson
upholds the coping abilities that I had shown in my childhood and the theory of Gottlieb had
upheld the implications of these coping abilities that I had grown.

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References:
Baltes, P. B., Reese, H. W., & Nesselroade, J. R. (2014). Life-span developmental
psychology: Introduction to research methods. Psychology Press.
Berscheid, E. S., & Regan, P. C. (2016). The psychology of interpersonal relationships.
Psychology Press.
Bever, T. G. (2017). Regressions in mental development: Basic phenomena and theories.
Routledge.
Borich, G. D. (2019). Educational Psychology A Contemporary Approach.
Burman, E. (2016). Deconstructing developmental psychology. Routledge.
Crain, W. (2015). Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications: Concepts and
Applications. Psychology Press.
DeVellis, R. F. (2016). Scale development: Theory and applications (Vol. 26). Sage
publications.
Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., Schroeder, D. A., & Penner, L. A. (2017). The social
psychology of prosocial behavior. Psychology Press.
Ewen, R., & Ewen, R. B. (2014). An introduction to theories of personality. Psychology
Press.
Gottlieb, G. (2014). Synthesizing nature-nurture: Prenatal roots of instinctive behavior.
Psychology Press.
Greenberg, G. (2014). How new ideas in physics and biology influence developmental
science. Research in Human Development, 11(1), 5-21.

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Greene, R. R. (2017). Eriksonian theory: A developmental approach to ego mastery.
In Human behavior theory and social work practice (pp. 107-136). Routledge.
Lux, V. (2013). With Gottlieb beyond Gottlieb: The role of epigenetics in psychobiological
development. International Journal of Developmental Science, 7(2), 69-78.
McLeod, S. (2013). Erik Erikson. Retrieved August, 9, 2013.
Patterson, G. R., DeBaryshe, B. D., & Ramsey, E. (2017). A developmental perspective on
antisocial behavior. In Developmental and life-course criminological theories (pp. 29-
35). Routledge.
Slater, A., & Bremner, J. G. (Eds.). (2017). An introduction to developmental psychology.
John Wiley & Sons.
Woodhead, M. (2015). Psychology and the cultural construction of children’s needs.
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