Human Development: Milestones and Erikson's Stages

• Human development occurs from birth to death

Life Events

• Developmental milestones are significant events or markers in personal development
• Developmental tasks are essential to master for optimal development, such as learning to read or adjusting to sexual maturity
• Psychosocial dilemmas involve conflicts between personal impulses and the social world

Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Dilemmas

• Stage One: Trust versus Mistrust involves situations where children are completely dependent
  • Trust is established when babies get warmth, touching, love, and physical care
  • Mistrust is caused by inadequate or unpredictable care and rejecting or indifferent parents
• Stage Two: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt focuses on doing things for themselves
• Stage Three: Initiative versus Guilt can result where parents criticize, prevent play, or discourage a child’s questions
• Stage Four: Industry versus Inferiority
  • Industry occurs when a child is praised for productive activities
  • Inferiority occurs if a child's efforts are regarded as messy or inadequate
• Stage Five: Identity versus Role Confusion
  • Identity: Adolescents have problems answering, “Who am I?"
  • Role Confusion happens when adolescents are unsure where they are going
• Stage Six: Intimacy versus Isolation centers on the ability to care about others and share experiences
  • Isolation involves feeling alone and uncared for
• Stage Seven: Generativity versus Stagnation
  • Generativity involves interest in guiding the next generation
  • Stagnation centers on being only concerned with one’s own needs and comforts
• Stage Eight: Integrity versus Despair
  • Integrity involves self-respect developed when people have lived richly and responsibly
  • Despair occurs when previous life events are viewed with regret, causing heartache and remorse

Childhood Problems

• Toilet Training: On average completion is 30 months old, but some children will take up to six months longer
  • Enuresis: Lack of bladder control; bedwetting, and is more common in males.
  • Encopresis: Lack of bowel control; soiling, and is not as common as enuresis
• Feeding Disturbances:
  • Overeating: Eating in excess of daily caloric needs due to the convenience of fast foods
  • Anorexia Nervosa: Self-starvation or sustained loss of appetite of psychological origin
  • Pica: Eating or chewing inedible objects or substances

Speech and Learning Disturbances

• Delayed Speech: Speech that begins after the normal language development age
• Stuttering: Chronic hesitation or stuttering in speech, involving speech timing mechanisms in the brain
• Learning disorders include problems with reading, math, or writing
• Dyslexia: Inability to read with understanding, reversing letters, and affects 10-15% of school-age children

ADHD & Autism

• ADHD: Behavioral problem involving short attention span, rapid speech, and impulsivity, and is more common in boys than girls
  • Treated with:
  • Ritalin (methylphenidate): A stimulant that may lengthen attention span
  • Behavior Modification: Applying learning principles
• Autism: Severe disorder involving mutism, sensory spin-outs and blocking, tantrums, and unresponsiveness to others
  • Echolalia: Autistic children parrot back everything said, like an echo

Child Abuse

• Child Abuse: Physical or emotional harm caused by manipulation, violence, mistreatment, or neglect
• 3.5-14% of children are physically abused by their parents
• Abusive parents typically have a high level of stress
• About 1/3 of parents who were abused as children mistreat their own children
• One method of preventing child abuse is to change attitudes

Adolescence

• Adolescence: Culturally defined period between childhood and adulthood
• Puberty: Hormonal changes promote rapid physical growth and sexual maturity
  • Increases body awareness and concerns about physical appearance
• Growth Spurt: Accelerated growth rate
• Social Markers: Tangible signs that indicate a person’s social status or role
• Imaginary Audiences: People adolescents imagine watching them
• Peer Group: People who share similar social status

Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

• Moral development involves acquiring values, beliefs, and thinking abilities
• In Preconventional morality thinking is guided by consequences (punishment, reward)
• Conventional morality involves reasoning based on the desire to please others
• Postconventional follows self-accepted moral principles
• He is a stage theorist, like Freud and Erikson

Developmental Challenges Based on Age (Gould)

• 16-18: Escape from Dominance
• 18-22: Leaving the Family
• 22-28: Building a Workable Life
• 29-34: Crisis of Questions
• 35-43: Crisis of Urgency
• 43-50: Attaining Stability
• 50+: Mellowing
• Empty Nest Syndrome: Women may become depressed after their last child leaves home

Middle Age Issues (Mid-Life Crises)

• Menopause: Menstruation ends
  • Estrogen levels drop, sometimes causing mood or appearance changes, like hot flashes
• Climacteric: Men experiencing a significant change in health, vigor, or appearance between 40-60 years

Gerontology

• Gerontologists study aging and its effects
• Fluid Abilities: Abilities of rapid learning based on perceptual and motor abilities
• Crystallized Abilities: Learned knowledge and skills; including vocabulary and basic facts
• Disengagement Theory: It is normal and desirable for people to withdraw from society as they age
• Activity Theory: Remaining active physically, mentally, and socially will help adjust to aging
• Ageism: Discrimination or prejudice based on age

Death and Dying

• Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is a thanatologist, as she studies reactions to death and dying
• Ross described five basic reactions to death in order
  • Denial and Isolation: Denying death’s reality to isolate oneself from death information
  • Anger: Asking “why me?” projecting anger onto the living
  • Bargaining: Terminally ill will bargain with God
  • Depression: Feelings of futility, exhaustion, and sadness
  • Acceptance: Accepting death calmly
• Hospice: Medical facility or program for terminally ill
• Living Will: A person does not want to prolong life artificially, also known as a Do Not Resuscitate order (DNR)
• Bereavement and Grief includes:
  • Bereavement: Period of adjustment after death
  • Grief: Intense sorrow following death
  • Shock: Emotional numbness
  • Pangs of Grief: Intense yearning
  • Resolution: Acceptance of loss
• Happiness includes:
  • Subjective Well-Being: Feelings of well-being
  • Happier People Tend To Be
  • Married
  • Comfortable with work
  • Extraverted
  • Religious
  • Optimistic