Analysis of Human Development Theories: Erikson and Bronfenbrenner

This essay provides an overview of human development across the lifespan, focusing on two prominent theories: Erik Erikson's psychosocial developmental theory and Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. The essay examines Erikson's second stage, autonomy versus doubt, highlighting the development of independence, critical thinking, and self-identity in children aged 18 months to 3 years. It contrasts this with Bronfenbrenner's mesosystem, emphasizing the impact of the surrounding environment and interactions between microsystems on a child's psychological growth. The comparison and contrast section further elaborates on these concepts, illustrating how both internal psychological processes and external environmental factors shape human development. The essay concludes by emphasizing the complexity of child and human development and the usefulness of Erikson's and Bronfenbrenner's theories in understanding these processes.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

Introduction
 Human growth depends on psychology and
physiology.
 Psychological growth can be seen with
time and in different stages as well.
 Erik Erikson’s psychosocial developmental
theory and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s
ecological systems theory will help in
learning the changes.
 Second stage of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial
developmental theory and second stage of
and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological
systems theory will be described here.

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial
Developmental Theory: Autonomy
Versus Doubt
 Autonomy and doubt of the human mind
develops in 18 months to 3 years of age.
 Independence development of a child.
 Conflict for own independence or
dependency on adults (Cherry, 2018).
 Critical thinking power development of
the child.

Continued…
 Self identity development.
 Age based development.
 Toilet training, functional control over body,
food, toy and clothing preference
development are the key developmental
changes
 Autonomy versus doubt is different from
trust versus mistrust (Syed & McLean, 2017).

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological
Systems Theory: Mesosystem
 Not only the close familial
environment but the surrounding
environment impacts over the
growth and development of the
human being.
 Mesosystem is the second
system of this theory which
depicts the interaction between
two microsystems or familial
system of the children (Popa,
Guillermin & Dedeurwaerdere,

Continued…
 Effects of the surrounding over the
psychological aspect of the child.
 The effects of the environment or the
ecosystem can be highlighted as one
of the most crucial factor for the
human growth (Eriksson, Ghazinour &
Hammarström, 2018).
 It depends on the environmental
psychology.

Comparison and Contrast
Autonomy Versus Doubt
 Independence development of a child.
 Critical thinking power development of
the child.
 Self identity development (Chung,
2018).
 Age based development.
Mesosystem
 Surrounding environment has a
greater role in the
psychological growth of a child.
 Interaction and the transitions
of the microsystems impacts
over the psychological aspect
of the child (Tudge et al., 2016).

Conclusion
 The process of the development of the children and human
being is very difficult to understand.
 These depend on different factors.
 Erikson’s theory and Bronfenbrenner’s theory help in the
depiction of the process of the psychological and behavioural
development of the children based on internal psychological
growth and environmental interaction.

References
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