HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Human Growth and Development Theories

Introduction1

Discussion2

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development2

Psychosocial Stages3

Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development6

The psychosexual stages are as:6

Oral Stage6

Anal Stage6

Phallic Stage7

Latency Stage7

Genital Stage7

Havighurst's Developmental Stage and Tasks8

Infancy and Early Childhood8

Middle Childhood8

Adolescence9

Early Adulthood9

Middle Age9

Later Maturity9

Conclusion10

References11HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

Introduction

The development of human is a long process of emotional growth, physical, cognitive and behavioral change. Changes start taking place from the very beginning stage of life; from infancy to childhood, from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood. During this entire process, development of values and attitudes which guide the relationships, understanding and choices takes place (www.advocatesforyouth.org). A set of principles has also been developed which characterizes the process and pattern of growth and development. According to these principles, the human development is an orderly and predictable process. One can predict the way majority of the children will develop and they will develop on same time and same rate as that of other children. Individual differences may exist in the personalities of children, their activity levels and the time of development, the basic characteristics and principles of development are the universal patterns.

The various principles of development are that the development start from head and moves downwards, the development also starts from the body and then it moves outward. The other principles are that the development of human relies on learning and maturation, it starts from the simple and move towards complexity. The development and growth of human is a continuous process and it proceeds from generality towards specificity, the individual rates of development and growth also exist. Through these principles, one can establish a proper plan regarding the activities and stimulation and to enrich the experience of children, it also helps in understanding the way to support and encourage learning of young children (Ruffin n.d., p. 01).

The focus of this assignment is to select three different theories related to Human Growth and Development and the way they might assist the counselors in helping their clients. The three theories that will be discussed in this assignment are as:

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development

Havighurst's Developmental Stage and Tasks

Discussion

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

It is one of the most famous theories of personality in the field of psychology and focuses on the impact that social experience has over the entire life. One of its important elements is ego identity which is the sense of one's own self that is developed by social interaction. This ego identity keeps on changing as we gather new information and experiences by interacting with one another. Erikson also emphasized that the sense of competence is responsible for motivating the actions and behaviors. Every stage in this theory is related to increasing the competency in an area of one's life. When the stage will be handled in a proper manner, the individual will have a feeling of mastery which is the ego quality or ego strength. In case of poor management of the stage, the individual will develop a sense of ...