Sociology Report: Analyzing Human Growth and Development Theories

This sociology report examines the stages of human growth and development, focusing on two family members, Jenny and Chantelle, and their psychological profiles. The report utilizes five key theories: Marcia's, Erikson's, Maslow's, Piaget's, and Kohlberg's, to analyze their behaviors and developmental stages. Jenny, a 33-year-old woman with a breast tumor, is assessed through Erikson's and Maslow's theories, highlighting her feelings of isolation and unmet needs. Chantelle, a 15-year-old, is analyzed using Erikson's, Piaget's, Kohlberg's, and Marcia's theories to understand her behavioral changes, including mood swings and potential identity issues. The report also discusses how health and social care practitioners (HSPs) apply these theories to understand and support individuals, emphasizing the importance of theoretical underpinnings. Finally, it suggests ways HSPs can guide and assist Jenny and Chantelle, incorporating the use of network systems and counseling.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Topic: Understanding of the main stages human growth and development
Introduction
The chief purpose of this report is to understand the chief stages associated with human
growth as well as development. In this report, two members of a family given in the case study
has been chosen as subjects whose psychology has been analyzed with the help of 5 human
growth and development theories. The two members who has been used for this report includes
Jenny and Chantelle. Jenny is a 33 years old woman who is suffering from malignant tumor in
her breast and lacks effective confidence to cope up with this issue. On the other hand when it
comes to Chantelle, she is a 15 years old girl who is happy-go-lucky to snappy, argumentative
and aggressive. The five theories that has been used for analyzing the behaviours of the two
members includes the Marcia’s theory, Erikson’s theory, Maslow’s theory, Piaget’s theory and
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development theory. First of all, the five mentioned theory will be
used for understanding the development stage each of the two members is in. The 5 theories will
be compared in order to have a better understanding of the behaviour and the reason behind the
behaviour demonstrated by the members. In the second part of this report, a detailed discussion
about the health and social care practitioners (HSPs) apply the theoretical underpinning for
understanding the stages of life development and the importance of theoretical underpinning has
been discussed. Finally, a suggestion on how HSPs can support, advise or guide the two
members has been discussed in this report.
Main body
The term health referred to the mental, physical as well as social wellbeing and as a
resource for living and enjoying life (Weiss 2015). Health is not merely confined to the absence

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of disease but can be defined as the ability of recovering as well as bounce back from illness as
well as other physical and mental problem. Some of the major factors associated with good
health include genetics, environment, relationships as well as education. When it comes to the
term human development, it can be reffered to the biological as well as psychological
development of the human beings throughout the lifespan. Human development is comprised of
development from infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. According to Beckett and
Taylor (2019), the study associated with psychological human development is called
developmental psychology.
When it comes to Jenny, as per the Erickson’s theory, she is in 6th stage of the growth and
development cycle that is young adult intimacy versus isolation. According to the mentioned
theory, people in early adulthood that is from 20s to early 40s are highly concerned with the
intimacy versus isolation. That means in this stage an individual gets ready to share their life
with their loved ones (Capello and Nijkamp 2019). However, in case, the previous stages of
growth of development is not resolved successfully, young adults often perceived trouble to
maintain a successful relationship with one another. The main dispute in this time centres on the
establishment of personal and romantic relations with other people. At this point, success leads to
relationships being fulfilled. On the other hand, a failure may lead to feelings of depression and
loneliness. Jenny, being in this stage, is suffering from a feeling of isolation of loneliness.
Considering the fact that she had got pregnant at the age of 18 and has to go through a good
number of health issues lending to mental issues, her previous stages of growth and development
are not resolved. Unresolved trauma leading to depression has imposed negative impact on her
life in this stage. The fact that she has been diagnosed of a malignant breast tumour, the trauma
of losing his loved ones is holding back Jenny to share this crucial information with her family.

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The Erikson theory helps HSPs to identify the possible behaviour of Jenny behind
suppressing the vital news from her family members (Capuzzi, Stauffer and O’Neil 2016). The
fear of being left alone and lack of confidence to be able to cope up with unpredictable
situations, which she had once dealt with can be pointed to be major reasons behind her act of
keeping her health issue a secret. However , while the Ericson’s stages helps the HSPs to
understand the stages an individual in and form a rough idea behind his or her crisis, it does not
allow the HSPs to have an effective understanding of emotional changes an individual is going
through or the emotional needs that is resulting in development of particular behaviour. In order
to identify this, one of the major theories that are used by the HSPs includes Maslows
Hierarchical theory (Faggian, Modrego and McCann 2019). This theory, demonstrates the
hierarchy of needs, that is usually presented in a triangle.
The five levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy include Physiological Needs, Safety Needs,
Love/Belonging, Self-Esteem and Self-Actualization. The behavior demonstrated by Jenny
points out that Jenny is in the third level of Moslow’s hierarchical pyramid that is love and
belonging. Considering the fact that she has stable financial background her Physiological Needs
and safety needs has been fulfilled. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, for
avoiding issues like anxiety, loneliness as well as depression, it is highly crucial for individual to
feel loved as well as accepted by his/her loved ones (Kropf and Greene 2017). Personal
relationship with family, friends as well as lovers also plays a crucial role here. Jenny is afraid
that the amount of effort she had to give in order to have a stable loving family may all go in
vain if her family comes to know about her health issue.
When it comes to Chantelle, according to The Erickson theory of growth and
development, she is in the 5th stage that is Adolescent or Ego Identity vs Role confusion stage.

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According to this theory in adolescence, an individual chief aim is to developing the sense of
self. In these stage adolescents like Chantelle tries to explore several roles and ideas, set goals as
well as attempt to discover the adult selves. In this stage, failure to establish a sense of identity in
the society may lead to role confusion. While the Erickson model, helps the HSPs to understand
the stage Chantelle is in, this theory cannot provide effective insight or reasoning behind her
behavior. For this, HSPs often uses the Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development theory. As er
this theory, Chantelle is in her formal operational stage. In this stage teenagers start thinking
about philosophical, ethical, moral, social as well as political issues that involves abstract and
theoretical reasoning (Bouzenita and Boulanouar 2016). However, this is not the case for
Chantelle. She has developed unpredictable mood swings ranging from happy-go-lucky to
snappy, argumentative and aggressive. Moreover she has developed an aggressive and abusive
nature along with the habit of smoking and alcohol abuse. Chantelle’s behavioral change can be
better explained with the help of Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development. As per theory,
Chanttele is in stage 5 that is the Social Contract Orientation. In this stage, an adolescent
consider them to be holding different opinion, rights and values from the rest of the world.
Adolescents like to make their own rule and find their own way to happiness.
While the Kohlberg’ theory can help the researcher to understand the reason behind
sudden behavioral change in Chantelle, Marcia’s Identity Status theory possess the potential to
provide a deeper insight of the behavioral issue demonstrated by the same. As per the theory,
Chantelle is in Identity Moratorium state. In this stage, adolescence faces an acute state of crisis.
She strives constantly to regain her voice, but also does not commit or has just made very brief
commitments (Fallatah and Syed 2018). This lack of commitment has resulted in sudden change
of behavior, aggression and even wrong decision making like smoking and alcohol abuse.

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HSPs while dealing with clients with behavioral changes applies the theoretical underpin
to understand the stages of development. The first and foremost theory used by the HSPs
includes the Erik Erikson Theory of growth and development. This framework helps the HSPs to
understand at which stage the client is and what are some of the common behaviors displayed by
individuals at this stage. However, Ericson theory is confined to a specific framework and does
not allow the HSPs to have more in depth understanding the behavioral changes and
psychological issues faced by the clients. In order to deal with this limitation of the Erikson
theory, HSPs uses a range of theories like the Maslow’s psychological needs theory, Kohlberg's
stages of moral development theory, Marcia’s self identity theory and Piegets’s 4 stages of
cognitive development theory (Knight 2017). The Maslow’s psychological needs theory are used
to understand the stage at which the client is in. This theory helps the HSPs to understand the
specific needs of the clients leading to his psychological issues or behavioral changes.
However, one of the major limitations of Moslow’s Hierarchy theory is that it assumes
that people experiences needs in the same order and thus have failed to recognize the individual
and cultural differences. Especially when it comes to Adolescents, like Chantelle, it is highly
crucial for professionals to have an effective understanding of the individual differences. For
this, HSPs uses the Marcia’s self identity theory. This theory helps the HSPs to understand the
developmental crisis faced by the adolescents that are leading to his or her behavioral changes.
However, this theory categorizes the adolescents in to 4 categories and this does not explains the
other major factors apart from commitment that may be responsible for the change in behavior.
For this, the HSPs use Piegets’s 4 stages of cognitive development theory and Kohlberg’s Stages
of Moral Development theory. The Piaget’s theory used by HSPs to understand the major
characteristics of adolescents in a particular stage. While Erikson theory can also be used for

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providing this understanding, unlike the Pieget’s theory, it is not focused only on the Adolescents
(Ngam and Jick 2016). Instead of using the Erikson theory, several HSPs are found to prefer the
Pieget’s theory for assessing the behavioral changes for adolescents. While The Piegets theory,
focuses on the thought process of the adolescents, the Kohlberg’s they focuses specifically on
moral development of the same. The Kohlberg’s theory helps the HSPs to understand the area of
class between the society and the adolescents that is responsible for the behavioral change of the
later.
Generally, HSPs apply the theoretical underpinnings for identifying and analyzing the
responses of the clients. A questionnaire is developed by the HSPs for understanding as well as
assessing individual or cultural factors leading to the change in behavior of the clients. The
questions are designed keeping in mind the growth and development theories discussed above
(Hanfstingl, Benke and Zhang 2019). Once the interview with the client is over, the answers
given by the client is analyzed with the help of the theories in order to reach to a conclusion and
understand the potential motives behind behavioral changes and action performed by the clients.
The HSPs can support families who are facing physiological issues like stress and
depression due to sudden behavioral changes in several ways. One of the most effective ways is
the network of system wheel. With the help of this process, HSPs can enhance the awareness of
behavioral changes during each stage of human development, its positive and negative impact in
the society (Lind 2017). In a wheel network, information flows to and from a single person and
thus allowing faster spreading of information. Along with this therapies and counseling can also
be conducted by HSPs to deal with this issue. For instance, in case of Jenny, the first step that
can be taken by the HSPs in order to help Jenny is to conduct an open ended motivational
interview session with her (Khalil 2019). The interview session should be conducted in order to

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understand her perspective about keeping her breast tumor a secret from her family. After
gaining an insight of her perspective, The HSPs can guide her about the merits and demerits of
the decision taken by her. For instance, one of the major demerits of keeping health issues
secrete from the family members is deterioration of the heath condition of Jenny. The HSP
should point out how this can impose negative impact on her family members that is her husband
and children (Morsunbul et al. 2016). On the other hand, the merits of stating her health
condition to her family members should be highlighted. While treating Jenny, the HSP should
keep in mind that she is keeping her heath condition secret in order to prevent emotional
breakdown of her family members. Along with this, she is afraid of loneliness and isolation. She
should be reassured that effective medication will help her recovering from this health issue. Not
only this, the emotional support she will be gaining from her family members will motivate her
to stay strong during this critical period. Along with this, the HSPs need to implement strategies
to strengthen Jenny emotionally. For this, examples of other members of the society who have
effectively overcome health issues with the support of their family members needs to be given to
Jenny.
When it comes to the case of adolescents like Chantelle, the HSP needs to provide her
with effective therapies so that she can eradicate her abusive and aggressive behavior along with
the bad habits of smoking and alcohol abuse. Like Jenny, the first step that should be taken by
the HSP for Chantelle is to conduct a motivating interview. Along with his counseling of the
adolescents to help them identifying themselves and motivating them to select the right track for
gaining success is also important.
Conclusion

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From the above discussion, it can be pointed out that it is highly crucial for HSPs to have
an effective understanding of the main stages of Human development in order to effectively
support families suffering from behavioural changes leading to psychological issues like
depression and anxiety. In order to analyze the changes in behaviour of two members of the
given case study 5 theories, namely the Marcia’s theory, Erikson’s theory, Maslow’s theory,
Piaget’s theory and Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development theory has been used. The
Erikson theory helps HSPs to identify the possible behaviour of Jenny and Chantelle behind
suppressing the vital news from her family members. The Maslow’s law has been used to
identify the specific stage of Jenny’s hierarchical needs. . The behavior demonstrated by Jenny
points out that Jenny is in the third level of Moslow’s hierarchical pyramid that is love and
belonging. Considering the fact that she has stable financial background her Physiological Needs
and safety needs has been fulfilled. For Chantelle , the three other theories has been used. It has
been found that lack of self confidence, self identity and the urge to identify self are the chief
reasons behind her sudden change in behavior.

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