Book: The Story of Psychology Discussion: Developmental psychologists are widely

Question

Book: The Story of Psychology

Discussion: Developmental psychologists are widely varied. They study human development in fascinatingly different ways. Interestingly, just like humans vary in personality and behavior, what developmental psychologists believe to be the important aspects of development can vary by the theorist.

Discussion Questions: Who do you think presents the most valid theory of human development (G. Stanley Hall, Jean Piaget, Mary Ainsworth, Lawrence Kohlberg, Erik Erikson)? Feel free to choose more than one theory or theorist. Is there something you’ve experienced from your life or others you’ve witnessed that leads you to prefer this theory? Please present your examples and how they compare to the empirical evidence.

Explanation / Answer

Eric Erickson's Theory of Psychosocial Development emphasises on individual's relationship with the social environment for healthy development to occur throughout his lifespan. Erickson developed a theory to understand how a person's childhood, adolescence, adulthood affects his entire life. He proposed Eight Stages which every person goes through in their life. Each stage is defined by a conflict which involves an individual's relationship with the social environment (mother, father, immediate relatives, peers, colleagues), that must be resolved in for healthy development to occur over a period of lifetime.

Trust versus mistrust is the first stage of all the eight stages. It occurs from birth to eighteen months of age. It is indeed one of the most important period's of a person's life as it is during this time that the infant develops their trust or mistrust towards the world in their growing years. The only way an infant can seek for attention is by crying, either for hunger, discomfort or fear. The child's trust develops depending on how quickly his/her need is met by the parent, caregiver. Some parents are more receptive than the others. Some caregiver's immediately attend to their child's need whether it is to provide food to eat, or comfort them when they are scared or just when they need someone to hold them and cuddle upto them, while the other caregivers think the baby to be extremely cranky and let them be with a hope that they'll stop crying on their own. The quality of care that an infant receives plays a very important role in how his personality develops in the growing years. By responding as soon as a parent can, a foundation of trust is established.

Some adults are more easily trusting than the others. People who are able to trust more easily are secure adults who as infants received great deal of attention and care from their parent or caregiver. Individuals who find it very difficult to trust other people had caregivers who were emotionally unavailable or inconsistent during their childhood.

Erickson firmly believed that Trust and Mistrust formed during infancy, majorly influenced a person's personality in adulthood which influenced interactions between other people. Forming trust early resulted in people having secure relationships with the world. While mistrust lead to insecurities and devastating relationships with significant others. I reckon, I feel very secure and can trust people around which enhances my self-esteem and self-concept. Erickson has summed the journey and struggles of life through his eight stages of psycho-social development.

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