HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

The Ecology of Human Development

The Ecology of Human Development

IntroductionLifespan development

Life span development is the process that explains all the activities one learns concerning some of the cognitive, biological, and psychosocial developments that are likely to occur right from the birth across the life span. These lifespan developments face development in all the three areas, mentioned above (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) and explain how there exists a link between development in one period of life to development in another. It also brings an explanation concerning how culture and social class shape the development of individual thoughts over the course of his or her lifespan.

A Lifespan development entails a sequence of four periods, each lasting for approximately twenty-five years. There are a number of developmental periods within these eras, concentrating on early and middle adulthood. The eras and main lifespan developmental periods are childhood and adolescent, early childhood, middle childhood and late childhood. Each era has its distinct and unifying character of living. Each transition between eras thus requires a basic change in the character of one's life, which may take between three and six years to complete. Throughout all these eras, an individual goes through a series of development on the basis of the factors mentioned above (Sigelman, Rider , 2008).

DiscussionTheories of Erikson and Bronfenbrenner (compare and contrast

Erikson's theory of psychosocial development argues that children develop in a predetermined order. Instead of focusing on cognitive development, however, hit interests him in how children are socializing and how this affects their sense of personal identity. Erikson's theory of psychosocial development consists of eight separate stages, each with two possible outcomes. According to Erikson development continues throughout life, with each of the stages in the development of specific notes for her conflict, favorable resolution of which leads to a transition to a new stage (Lerner, 2002).

According to Erikson, each stage of development inherent include society's expectations that an individual can justify or not justify, and then this would determine either he should be included in society, or reject them. Eriksson theory has a very flexible approach to the consideration of age crises. He constantly emphasizes that life is changing all its aspects and that the successful solution of problems in one stage does not guarantee the rights of the emergence of new problems in other phases of life.

Erickson noted that the sequence of stages of personality development "leaves room for variations in tempo and intensity." This theory emphasizes the fact that society plays a greater role in the personal development of an individual. Erikson in its theory emphasizes that children are curious and active explorers seeking to adapt to their environments, rather than passive slaves biological impulses shaped by their parents. Secondly apart from this, this theory places a lot of emphasizes on the cultural environment as compare to Bronfenbrenner theory.  On the other hand, ecological systems theory, also called development in context or human ecology theory of Bronfenbrenner explains the development stages of a child just like Erickson's ...