Essay on Human Development: Personal Experience and Theories

This essay provides a personal reflection on human development across the lifespan, focusing on the author's experiences as an adopted child and how these experiences relate to cognitive and psychodynamic theories. The essay begins with an introduction to the author's journey and the chosen theories, namely Piaget's cognitive development theory and Erikson's psychodynamic theory. The main body delves into the author's adolescence, discussing the development of identity and the impact of being adopted. The essay explores the author's childhood, using Piaget's theory to analyze the stages of cognitive development. The author discusses how learning, social interaction, and personal experiences shaped their understanding of the world. The essay also touches upon the influence of family, teachers, and friends during the childhood development process. The conclusion summarizes the key takeaways and emphasizes the importance of parents, family, and teachers in child development. The essay references relevant literature on human development, including works by Payne and Isaacs, and Newman and Newman, to support the arguments made throughout the text.

Human Development across
the life span

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
This has been my fascinating journey from prenatal birth to old age. The aim of this
research is to present my philosophy and understanding about various phases of life. Increased in
span development has enabled me to demonstrating the way I can use my Skill and Knowledge
within the area of specialisation and leadership study. I have selected two theories for explaining
two different development stages of my life.
Main Body
As I am adopted child and I understand the feeling of other children those who are being
adopted by their Parents. I had selected two major development theories these are Cognitive
development and Psychodynamic theory. I had chosen Psychodynamic Theory in order to
demonstrate my experience at the stage of adolescence.
According to Erik Erickson theory stages that psychological development comprises
eight stages from infancy to adulthood. According to this theory individual faces a psychological
crisis which could have positives or negative impact on personality development. When I Was at
my adolescent age I was able to establish sense of trust with other people, I was able to develop
sense of identity in society. It has helped me to prepare next generation for future. At this stage
of my life, I was able to develop integrated set of life skills and abilities. I believe that
adolescence is an important stage for developing identity. Being an adopted child My
psychological needs are never being Fulfilled and that has affected my Adolescence stage as
well which has lead to reduced ability in me to complete my further stages. This has further
impact on my personality as an adult and it has creased Sense of self felting in me. At my
adolescence stage I begin to assert my independent. As I was adopted child there was lack of
mutual understanding between my mother and me. I used to walk away from my mother. I was
always being criticised by my parents for failures and accidents. When I was at my adolescence
stage I feel various physical changes in me and I used to feel very uncomfortable. I like to do
various experiment with different lifestyle.
At my adolescence stage I was a competent thinker. I have to face many complexities.
Piaget theory focuses on importance of schemas in cognitive development. This theory viewed
intellectual growth as a proves of adaptation. I liked to gather variety of information in order to
enhance my personal development process. I used to feel very frustrated when I fail to gather the
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information and I seek to restore balance by mastering new challenges.I was able to develop
various abilities to think about abracts, various concepts and logical test hypotheses.
. I had selected cognitive development theory as I thought that using this theory I will be
able to demonstrate my childhood experience in better way. This theory is related with the work
of Jean Plaget which has focus on understanding the way children view world. According to my
experience I believe When I was at my infant stage My learning and knowledge were based on
my metal structure. Due Biological maturation and environmental experience has great effect on
my mental process (Wrosch,Jobin and Scheier, 2017) My parents told that and I have
experienced this at my teenage also that I was very much active in developing my knowledge I
was very much capable of adapting change quickly.
But at this stage I was not having ability to make judgement, There was lack of thinking
power in me. I was very much androcentric and I face very difficulty in analysing various things
surrounding me. I was unable to express my point of views on various facts. I was engaged in
monologues activities. This the activity in which individual person is able to talk to other person
but not able to interact with others (Huebner, 2017.) Being an infant child I used to have focus
on single aspect of situation and many other aspects were not been identified by me. I have also
realised Lack of reversibility in me, that is I was unable to understand that working backwards
has the ability to restore whatever existed before. I used to gain knowledge and learning by
observing thing around me and by conducting various activities such as through dramatic play
(Newman and Newman,2017) At pre operational stage I was very interested in developing skills
through learning such as drawing, languages and other group activity. When, I was in nursery
class I was only able to understand the concept of shapes, objects and drawing. I have
experienced that besides parents , teachers, other families and friends has helped me a lot during
my childhood learning process. When I was at age of 2 years according to my parents and family
members I was more engaged in imaginary games. At this level of development phase I used to
use my six senses and movements for analysing and identifying various things. I believe that
playing activities plays significant role in supporting child to develop knowledge, skills and
abilities.
Cognitive development theory has played important role in shaping my character values
in order to make me better person in my life. As I studied in catholic school That has forced me
to become more religious. Then I became the most religious person that has allowed me to make
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more friends which has further helped to increase my confidence to become participative in
school social activities. This has provided me way to enter into society(Drewelies,Wagner,
Tesch-Römer, Heckhausen and et.al.,, 2017.) This has provided me opportunity to help other
people. I had realized from Cognitive development theory that one has to treat children
differently at each stage of their life. They have assisted me in solving various problems in my
life. I believe that these people play significant role in helping a child to develop various skills in
them and to become successful person in life. I referred this phase as scaffolding as the zone of
proximal development period. AT my childhood day I love to play with blocks .I love to plays
with blocks but I was not able to fit them properly then my school teacher has fit one block for
me and by observing such I was able to fit all blocks. This has helped in increasing my
confidence level. I used to learn from my experiences. I gain experience through exploration
with hand on activities. I believe that learning is not unlimited and it can be developed at any
development stage. Through my experiences and knowledge I can say that social interaction and
guided learning support child to move to their next development phase (Payne and Isaacs, 2017)
I had analysed by interacting with my parents and family members that When I was at the age of
4 years I used to watch other children playing And when I was at age of four years I rememberer
that I used to play with other children and share their toys. As I was adopted child I used to have
limited toys as compared to others. I believe that playing activity supports mental and social
abilities assist child in developing learning with regards to express their feelings. I used to feel
that my parents have more attention toward my sibling. My both parents were working and they
used to have very less time for me I used to feel very much ignored. This the reason I used to
take lot of time while mixing with other people of society. I had identified according to my
experience and analysis that The child ability to recognise the thing they want to do and by doing
that thing, This process facilitate them to transform their thought process. At age of four I Was
able to understand and follows rule of various games that I used to play. At this stage I was very
much interested in playing games rather than learning and experiences things and information.
I had analysed that various events in my childhood phase has great impact on my
behaviour as an adult. As I am adopted child I feel free to make various choices in my life. I
believe that my behaviour is determined by the unconscious mind and my childhood
experiences. Phys dynamic is the theory as well as it is therapy too. (Payne and Isaacs, 2017)I
had analysed that it is the original and inspirational theory. I get very inspire and motivated by
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this theory. This theory has encouraged me to develop my own philosophy about various phases
of life. After reading this theory I believed that human mind is like ice burg and people learn
things by observing them. In my phase of childhood also used to learn by observing thing
surrounding me. I believe that this is an effective way of retaining learning for long period.
According to my experience and analysis I think that child can use play to develop their
understanding, knowledge and experiences.
I had experienced that learning from complexities at each stage as a child has affected by
next stage. I feel that raising a child is highly difficult because as I was being adopted by my
parents I have to many adjustments regarding my needs and wants. It is difficult as I have
realized that even single mistake by me can create very bad consequences for me. During the
identity versus Role As a teenager I was confused and I started wondering about my relation
with other persons in my family and I was trying to find the ways in order to connect myself
with society. I believe that it is important for teenager to identify their identity at earlier stage as
this would assist them in knowing themselves in a better way.
By observing other children and personal experience I consider language as the
significant factors in human development process as it is the way for social interactions.
When, I was at the age of 1 to 2 years I was able to communicate only through various
fixed Symbols. At this age I was able to speak only one or two words. I used to speak only two
to three words. But at the age between to 6 years I was able to frame complex sentences. The
problem was that I was not able to complete my sentence in Flow. Due to this reason my friends
used to laugh on me. When, I was at the age of developing understanding I had realised that I
had overcome this weakness only through my parents support (Newman and Newman, 2017)
Conclusion
This is concluded from the report that parents, family and teachers plays significant role
in child development process. The project has concluded the way child constructs their mental
model. It has been proved by psychodynamic theory that childhood experience is the significant
factor responsible for shaping their personality.
It is suggested from the report that parents should treat children according to the
development stage of Child. They should behave in various ways at different child development
stages.
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REFERENCES
Payne, V.G. and Isaacs, L.D., 2017. Human motor development: A lifespan approach.
Routledge.
Newman, B.M. and Newman, P.R., 2017. Development through life: A psychosocial approach.
Cengage Learning.
Wrosch, C., Jobin, J. and Scheier, M.F., 2017. Do the emotional benefits of optimism vary
across older adulthood? A life span perspective. Journal of personality. 85(3).pp.388-
397.
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Huebner, E.S., 2017. Quality of life and personality development: A reply to Land and Michalos.
Social Indicators Research. pp.1-5.
Drewelies, J., Wagner, J., Tesch-Römer, C., Heckhausen, J. and Gerstorf, D., 2017. Perceived c
control across the second half of life: The role of physical health and social integration.
Psychology and aging. 32(1).pp.76.
Payne, V.G. and Isaacs, L.D., 2017. Human motor development: A lifespan approach.
Routledge.
Newman, B.M. and Newman, P.R., 2017. Development through life: A psychosocial approach.
Cengage Learning.
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