Every adult was once a child and the experiences face during childhood shape

the character of the resultant child. Given the importance of such experiences,
the study of developmental psychology is very important. This is the study of the
growth and maturation of an individual over an extended span of time. There are
two main subsets: Child Psychology: Study from birth to the beginning of
adolescence and Adolescent Psychology: concerns the beginning of Adolescence
to its end (usually 18).

Freuds Theory of Psychosexual Development:

Freuds theory has been very influential in the way that psychologists and
parents think about sexual development as well as child rearing practices. There
are 5 stages:

1. Oral 2 years oral exploration
2. Anal 1-2 years (toddler) withholding and expelling faeces
3. Phallic 3 years (Pre-schoolers) ends at 6yrs- self stimulation
4. Latency starts at 6 years of age and ends the beginning of puberty
5. Genital aware of sexual maturation and desire for the sexual partners
begins

In order to understand Freud, one must understand Libido; a psychosexual
energy that Freud hypothesised is invested in different zones of the body during
different stages of development.

Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson was a pupil of Freud and though he maintained respect for him, he
expanded on his theory. Psychosocial development refers to the characteristic
way in which people respond to others. Erikson introduced the concept of social
world referring to the constellation of people that we interact with.

There are 8 stages of Psychosocial Development:

1. Trust vs. Mistrust - infancy
2. Autonomy Vs. Shame and Guilt - toddlers
3. Initiative Vs. Guilt Pre-schoolers
4. Industry Vs. Inferiority 6-12yrs
5. Identity Vs. Role Confusion adolescence
6. Intimacy Vs. Isolation early adulthood
7. Generativity Vs. Self-absorption - Adulthood.
8. Integrity Vs. Despair old age (how is death, for example, faced)

In each of the above, the first is considered to be a positive trait, whilst the
second is a negative one. At each stage of development, the individual will be
challenged by a life event. Depending on whether or not an individual has a
positive or negative outlook on life, they will take either a positive or negative
stance.



Paigets theory of cognitive development

Paiget concentrated his work on the childs ability to think; or how we come to
think we know what we think we know. He utilised the phenomenological
method characterised by asking a child particular a series of carefully worded
questions that direct the childs attention to a particular detail of the childs
immediate world. According to Paiget, there are 4 stages of cognitive
development:

1. The sensorimotor stage
2. The preoperational stage
3. The concrete operations stage
4. The formal operations stage

Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development
According to Kohlberg, high moral sense is built on a foundation of high
cognitive strength; as he favours more of a learning model. There are 3 principle
stages:

1. The pre-moral level
2. The conventional level
3. The principled level

The pre-moral stage relies on the idiom of might is right. A child does not defy
his or her parents because they are stronger than the child. Guilt and moral
conscience does not play a part in decision-making; the individual in amoral.
Dictator and those who rule by brute force tend to not outgrow this stage

The conventional level is associated with late childhood and adolescence and
most adults will stay at this level of moral development. This relies on the
concept of the general consensus dictate whether something is right or wrong.
Morals are dictated by what the Law, and by proxy, the majority deems correct

The Principled level is only achieved by a tiny minority of individuals and they
tend to be free thinkers. These are people who have clearly defined sets of
principles by which they live and will place them above all else.

Saints, great leaders and prophets fall under this category.


It follows that the adopted parenting style will define the direction that an
individual will take along each of the above developmental paradigms.
Researchers in the University of California have distilled parenting into two
distinct dimensions of bipolar opposites:

1) Authoritarian Permissive

Authoritarian controlling, demanding, possessive and overprotective
Permissive easygoing, overly agreeable, detached, and easily manipulated by
the child or adolescent.

2) Accepting Rejecting

Accepting A lot of love is afforded to the child regardless of his or her
behaviour. However, negative behaviour can still be rejected without rejecting
the child.

Rejecting Provide either conditional love or no love at all. These children are
only provided the tokens of love (a kiss, hug, praise) if it has been earned.

In conclusion: The development of an individual from birth to adulthood and
even approaching death is very complicated and continuous. There are many
different types of development occurring at the same time and at varying rates.
Whether they are influenced by ones own genetic codes or the result of ones
upbringing is still a point of contention.

However, it is of paramount importance to understand these stages in order to
best deal with any problems that people may have that start to impede their
functioning within their society and their ability to conduct their day to day life.