Lifespan development Essay

Order ready-to-submit essays. No Plagiarism Guarantee!

Note:  All our papers are written from scratch by human writers to ensure authenticity and originality.

Lifespan development essay

Check before you submit. Get the Turnitin report your professor sees.

Get the exact same Turnitin report your professor uses. Join 50,000+ students who submitted their essays with confidence this semester.

Get Turnitin Score Report Request Human Rewrite

The aim of this essay is to discuss and describe the five stages of lifespan development and included in this essay will be two psychological theories to support this which are Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages and Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages. I will also connect these stages to the strands of development which are physical, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural.
Two well-known theories of life development are Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Erik Erikson’s lifespan development was influenced by Freud’s and in comparison to the theories, Erikson believed in life we go through eight stages in life development from conception to death unlike Freud who believed we only have five stages and stop at the adolescence stage. Erikson believed that throughout each stage of life we are set new life tasks of which we need to overcome. Failure to succeed in the life tasks set or if the individual has lacked proper parenting it may have consequences on the individual’s personality development or the individual may be engrossed in a stage of development. (psychology.about.com)
‘’Erikson thought that an individual would develop a healthy personality if they were able to resolve the basic psychological conflicts they meet at different stages of their lives’’ (Baker et al.,2007,p.160)
‘’In terms of individual differences, some individuals will fail to achieve milestones and/or norms and this can impact later stages of development ‘’ (Connor, MacLennan, and Price 2009.p.75)
The lifespan development begins in infancy (0-2 years). Many strands of development are experienced within this stage such as psychical, emotional and cognitive. Psychical development is experienced when the child begins to sit without any support this then leads to crawling and walking. Cognitive development occurs in this stage when the child is able to take in their surroundings, they learn to recognise faces and voices and also some vocabulary is learned such as ‘mum, dad’. During infancy the child shows emotion by crying and this indicates their needs. Further emotion is developed and the child may show signs of separation anxiety from the mother.
With regards to Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development the first conflict occurs, Trust vs Mistrust at (0-1 years). The child develops feelings of trust to which is based on the parenting by the child’s primarily care givers. If the child is given a high quality of care through this stage this will impact on the trust they implant into others in later life. The second conflict occurs in later infancy (1-2 years), Autonomy vs Shame and doubt. Children learn to be independent at this stage and rely on praise from their caregiver. If the child is not allowed to exercise independence or lack praise they may start to doubt they are able to do things for themselves.

In relation to Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, ‘’According to Freud, children’s pleasure-seeking urges (governed by the id) are focused on a different area of the body, called an ‘’erogenous zone. (Boundless). The first stage of life is called the ‘Oral Stage’, during this stage the child gets pleasure from inserting objects into the mouth and sucking, this is how a child is able to explore objects and tastes. If the individual does not meet the needs of this stage during infancy they may develop negative habits in later life such as nail biting. Another stage during infancy is the ‘Anal Stage’. In the Anal stage the child has a fixation on regulating bowel and bladder movements and during this stage toilet training begins. The child feels a sense of independence and accomplishment if this stage is completed successfully.
During childhood (2-12 years), The child’s strands of development have expanded greatly and at this stage the child’s emotional development is about personal identity and developing their own character. At this age challenging behaviour is also involved such as ignoring orders or talking back as the child learns to rebel against parents rules, this is normal for this stage of development and is able to be rectified before transition to adolescence. During childhood social development takes place when the child learns to socialise with different group settings and is able to establish a friendship and bond with other children. During this stage as children start school they may be introduced to children from different back grounds and this is where cultural development takes place. Children are able to recognise the norms and roles of different family structures.
Erickson’s third conflict takes place at preschool age (3-6 years), Initiative vs Guilt. During this conflict stage the child should explore their own initiative and approaches. If the child is unable to do so feelings of guilt and doubt may arise. The fourth conflict of Erikson’s occurs at (7-12 years), Industry vs Inferiority. Children learn to be able to complete activates that are valued by adults and friends, failure to do so the child may feel inferiority.
In relation to Freud, the third and fourth stages of his theory occur during childhood. The Phallic stage occurs at the age of (3-6 years) and the Latent stage occurs at the age of (7-12).

During the Phallic stage the child recognises sexual desires and they have a desire towards the opposite sex parent. The child becomes highly poss…………………………….