401005: Psychosocial Development in Early Childhood (Western Sydney)

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of psychosocial development in children aged 2 to 5 years, focusing on Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. The essay begins by defining psychosocial development and its significance, highlighting the critical role of social interactions and the resolution of personality conflicts in shaping a child's identity and future behavior. It then delves into Erikson's stages of development, specifically the autonomy versus shame and doubt stage, which is typical for children aged 2, and the initiative versus guilt stage, which is approached as the child nears age 5. The essay uses a case study of a 2.5-year-old child, Andrew, to illustrate the challenges children face during these stages, such as toilet training and language development. It discusses how parental and caregiver responses influence a child's ability to navigate these conflicts and achieve a sense of autonomy and initiative. The essay also references Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development to show how cultural backgrounds affect parental expectations and the way children experience their psychosocial crises. Finally, the essay emphasizes the critical role of nurses in supporting children's psychosocial development by assessing their stage of development and advising parents on how to meet their children's needs. The implications of psychosocial development in nursing are also discussed, highlighting the importance of understanding the children’s progress through the psychosocial development with the help of various theories.

Running head: PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN 1
Important Aspects of Psychosocial Development in Children aged 2 to 5 Years
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN 2
Important Aspects of Psychosocial Development in Children aged 2 to 5 Years
Personality occurs systematically through a sequence of steps. Normally, each stage
forms on the previous phase to enhance psychological development. In each psychological
development, individuals face a personality conflict which is known to play a critical role in
growth. Sometimes, when individuals are trying to build or improve a particular psychological
aspect as a result of the crisis caused by a personality conflict, their identity might be affected.
Having said that, it’s important to acknowledge that associations and social interactions play a
significant role in human development and that an individual’s behaviors heavily relies on the
notion of competence drives. It’s after effectively handling these encounters that an individual
proceeds to the next phase of growth. However, in children aged between 2 to 5 years, managing
the aforementioned issues may prove difficult. That is why children experience prolonged
development of critical skills necessary for self-realization.
In human beings, psychosocial growth is a gradual process that starts from childhood and
becomes even more critical when an individual gets sensitive to various environmental stimuli at
maturational stage (Beijers, Buitelaar & de Weerth, 2014). For an individual to successfully
progress to the next stage, positive development at the previous stage is paramount or else
psychosocial clashes will be experienced (Cliff et al., 2016). Even though the psychosocial
clashes can be resolved later in life, it’s not possible for an individual to fully recover from them.
This means that monitoring and guiding of children as they advance from one level of
psychosocial development to another is of great significance since it helps shape their future
psychosocial performance by eliminating psychosocial clashes. Andrew based in the case study
is 2 and a half years old. At this age, children are known to have surpassed the trust and mistrust
period which according to Erikson's theory is a stage that normally comes first in life. At age 2,

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Andrew is at the second phase which is characterized by autonomy against shame and doubt
(Davis & Juhasz, 2016). At this stage, children experience various conflicts that arise constantly.
This means that parents must be very sensitive with their children to help them overcome these
conflicts. For example, in the case study, Andrew has not trained toilet both during the day and
night despite other children of the same age having learned this ability, especially during the day.
Also, Andrew conveys a message to the parents by only speaking a few words. From this
description, it’s evident that Andrew is going through psychosocial conflict that will shape the
future physiological needs. However, Andrew can gain continence and catch up with others if
careful interventions are employed by the parents.
As aforementioned above at age 2, children like Andrew experience a period of
autonomy against shame and doubt in their psychosocial development. This period is well
explained in Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development. Erickson’s theory of psychosocial
development believes that there are 8 stages that all human beings go through from infancy to
adulthood (Hauser-Cram et al., 2014). Based on this theory, the period of autonomy against
shame and doubt that Andrew is currently in is the second stage of psychosocial development.
This theory explains that children at this stage are mostly known to struggle to conquer things
that happen around them (Hauser-Cram et al., 2014). To do this, children are found striving to
expand their level of sovereignty which will allow them to influence their physical functions
especially bodily needs which can be noticed by either the parent or a caregiver (Hauser-Cram et
al., 2014). That is why at this period, a parent or a caregiver should train a child how to control
bowel functions, how to walk, speak and healthy eating patterns as well as dressing up to help
them assert their will. Even though children need to complete these functions on their own,
parents understand that it’s not possible for children to complete these functions alone and in

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most cases, they don’t allow them to do the same on their own. Since children want to complete
the functions on their own against the wish of their parents, the rivalry between the parent and a
child is normally created (Holt, 2016). As a result, a child might feel ashamed with the lack of
control of these functions, for example, when Andrew attempts to use the toilet to meet bowel
needs like other kids and the parents show anger since Andrew is not trained to use the toilet, the
parents increase Andrew’s humiliation. Humiliation creates embarrassment which is against the
autonomy that a child is seeking.
However, since parents and caregivers influence the growth of children in different ways,
they will determine how children will manage the psychosocial crises during the period of
autonomy against shame and doubt. Therefore, parents need to be patient with their children as
they institute ideal rules necessary for children to develop courteous behaviors. This means that
parents must be careful about how they are controlling their children since over-controlling risks
depriving children the feeling of autonomy (Jo et al., 2015). Therefore, to encourage
psychosocial development, parents must exercise a balanced regulation. Also, the ability of
children to handle their psychosocial crisis can be influenced by cultural background as proposed
by Vygotsky theory of cognitive development. This is so because the parent anticipations of a
child’s behavior vary across cultures. For example, children in native communities are not taught
how to use the toilet but rather, children learn on their own over time. On the other hand,
children standards in the urban Australian society are more restrictive even though generally, the
guidance from the parents might make children feel humiliated (Newman & Newman, 2017).
Lastly, as aforementioned Andrew is in the second phase nearing the third phase that is
characterized by initiative against guilt psychosocial stage. At this stage, children can be found
initiating events and asserting control over their actions through the interaction with other kids

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN 5
(Ragelienė, 2016). Since development is influenced by both social factors and oedipal complex,
it’s important for the conflicts that arise in the third stage also to be dealt with (Shapiro &
Margolin, 2014). This is so because factors such as childhood sexuality and incest prohibition
merge to create a specific human conflict. Successively, children’s association with both parents
will lead to them adopting either of the parent’s functions depending on sex. According to (Shin
et al., 2016) watching and imitation help the child to learn the parent’s roles. This arises during
replication when the conscious of the child feels as if it’s competing with that of a parent since,
during this process, a child views the parent to be very powerful. Also, an increased range of
activities enables a child to realize this initiative. This is so because children exhibit high levels
of activity and mobility at this stage, for example, children will want to experiment, learn, play
and learn more even though parent’s overemphasis will still instill guilt to them.
From the discussion above about psychosocial development in children, it's evident that
nurses play a critical role in the development of children. This is so because most parents are not
informed of the stages of child development and respective needs that are required in every
stage. Its, therefore, the responsibility of nurses to assess children to understand the stage at
which the child is in and advise the parent or the caregiver on how to respond to the needs at that
stage. This means that it's important for nurses to understand all aspects related to the
psychosocial development of children for them to be able to advise the parents and caregivers
accordingly. The implication of psychosocial development in children in nursing is that it’s
possible for nurses to gather information about the children’s progress through the psychosocial
development with the help of various theories such as Erickson’s theory of development provide
the necessary support for children.

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In conclusion, children are at their decisive period at the ages of 2 to 5 years. Even
though at this age children are still young, they have a desire to learn and experiment. That is
why creating a good foundation by closely monitoring and offering necessary support to children
at this stage is great significant since it will enable psychosocial conflicts to be effectively dealt
with which is good for the personal growth of children. At age 2, Andrew needs close monitoring
and necessary support not only from the parents but also from the caregiver at the daycare to
help deal with the constantly disturbing crisis. By resolving this crisis, Andrew’s development
cannot be compromised.

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