Human Developmental Stages, Free Essay Sample

The human developmental stages outline clear stages for the development of children all the way to adulthood, and in this way, it is possible for parents and other interest persons to track the progress of children. These stages touch on the psychosexual development, cognitive development, and emotional development as well, and these guidelines offer parents, guardians and other members of society to provide an ample environment for these children to attain maximum development cognitively, socially and emotionally. Brandon is a six-year-old preschooler who is very active physically and cognitively. Placing him on the different psychological, developmental stages, Brandon falls within Eric Erikson's industry versus inferiority, Freud Sigmund's phallic stage and partially the latent stage, and the preoperational stage of Piaget. These, however, will not be the only stages for determining his development, as I will also be looking at the previous stages and decide whether or not they were a success, or he is fixated in any way.

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Eric Erikson presented his eight cognitive developmental stages based on how infants go about their cognitive development from their young age all the way through adulthood. The first stage is that of trust versus mistrust (Crain 2011). In this stage, a child will develop confidence towards the world and the people around them depending on the urgency and consistency attached to their needs by caregivers and parents. If not, they will gradually grow to view the world with mistrust. Brandon seems to have some sense of trust in the people, and the family around him, and often sure that the mother will provide for any needs of his. Just hopping out of the initiative versus guilt, Brandon exhibits signs that he is well aware of his capabilities, from the knowledge of spreading the bed to soccer and this has granted him a level of self-confidence. He could have felt inferior from the mom not wanting him to execute specific tasks on his own, but he supplements this feeling with the parts he is certain he is perfect at. He is proud of himself as he brags of how much better he is at joining the Legos as compared to his peers at school, and this form of superiority gives him an upper hand at accomplishing things in life. This can be evident from his excellent academic performance as the mother reports. The level of competitiveness in this stage is most definitely undeniable.

Brandon continually talks about "mom says," "Mom wants" and "mom does" an indication that he often executes an action based on what mom will think, feel or say. There is no instance that he talks about his dad, and this could be a minute yet significant form of the Oedipus complex. He might not possess the "kill the father" instincts, but he possesses the "please the mom" feeling (McLeod 2017). Stepping into the latent stage, Brandon is successfully and effectively developing into a social being, with his value of relationships outside the family elevates. He talks of Sam visiting him and him visiting Sam and sounds sad that the mother does not allow other friends to visit. He is establishing his interests in hobbies like soccer and basketball. Brandon, however, seems fixated in the anal stage. The strict nature of upbringing evident from his constant mentioning of what the mother wants of him has made him not stringent but reluctant to share his toys with others at school. It could also be that the anal stage was a little bit untrained as he clearly hates cleaning up, and now the mother is trying to rectify this failure by asking him to clean after his breakfast mess.

Brandon has already mastered object permanence as he is well aware of the existence of things even though they are present at that time (Cherry 2018). His ability to draw the mom and dad present his ability to explain their presence symbolically through the drawing. He also can clearly distinguish colors and has developed a liking on the color blue. Pretend play is one of the significant signposts to the preoperational stage, as Brandon sees himself as a firefighter responding to a fire. His recognition of the presence of fire from the fight truck sirens clearly shows a formation of a linkage between the concrete and abstract world, and this is for the plus column of his developmental stages.

Assessing Brandon's developmental stage using Eric Erikson's psychosocial stages, Freud Sigmund's psychosexual stages and Piaget's cognitive development, it is evident that this young boy is on the right side of development. With minor fixation, he exhibits extraordinary cognitive and social skills, coupled up with a high level of creativity. He is gradually incorporating into the society he exists in by being part of the soccer team. Brandon shows recognition to authority as he is ever referring to his mother's directives. He also possesses an extraordinary sense of self-love going by the fact that being a soccer player, he has never sustained an injury while playing. It is therefore practical to predict Brandon's future successes as a social and intelligent person, as soon as this might be.

References

Cherry Kendra (2018). The four stages of cognitive development. Very well mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457

Crain, William (2011). Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

McLeodSaul (2017). Psychosexual stages. Simply psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html