Human Life Cycle 1.

Perspectives on Human Development

OUTLINE
I. Definition and Importance of Studying
Development
II. Aspects of Development
III. Periods of Childhood
IV. Influences on Child Development
A. Normative History-Graded Influence and
Non-normative Life Events
V. Critical Periods in Development
VI. Perspectives on Child Development
A. History
B. Recent Approaches
C. 4 Major perspectives on Human Devt.
1. Psychoanalytic
2. Mechanistic
3. Organismic
4. Humanistic and Maslows Hierarchy of Need
VII. Methods for Studying Child Development
VIII. Ethical Considerations

Reference:
Psychiatric Nursing (A Textbook and A Reviewer), 2004 Edition by Maria
Loreto J. Evangelista-Sia
Ultimate Learning Guide to Nursing Review by Carl E. Balita
Yahoo Images
www.wikipedia.org
Dr. Balderramas lecture and slideshow presentation dated 11/03/2011

I. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING

DEVELOPMENT
Child Development is the scientific study of normative
quantitative & qualitative ways in w/c children change over time.
o Quantitative - Changes in amount or quantifiable measures
(e.g., height, weight, size of vocabulary)
o Qualitative - Changes in kind (e.,g changing nature of
intelligence)

Prenatal - Greatest physical growth, basic body structure and

organs are formed
Infancy and toddlerhood - Dependent on adults but competent
capable of simple learning; attachments to parents and caregivers
Early childhood - Language very important; able to take care of
themselves
Middle childhood - School age; absorb a lot about environment
Adolescence - Search for identity, peer, relations, abstract
thought, culture
o Early adolescence: 11-13 yrs.
o Middle adolescence: 14-16 yrs.
o Late adolescence: 17-19 yrs.

IV. INFLUENCES ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT

*(Baltes, Reese, & Lipsitt, 1980)
Normative age - Graded influence
Normative - Occurs in a similar way for most individuals in a given
group
Age Graded Influence - Related to chronological age
Normative age graded influences - Influences on development
are highly similar for all people in an age group

A. NORMATIVE HISTORY- GRADED INFLUENCE

Biological and environmental influence common to particular
generation or cohort
o Example: Economic depression, political turmoil, diseases;
(culture) role of women, use of anesthesia during childbirth,
impact of computer, early childhood programs
Non normative life events - Unusual events that do not happen to
most people like death, illness and disability

V. CRITICAL PERIODS IN DEVELOPMENT

PRACTICAL IMPLICATION
Child development - Goals include description, explanation,
prediction, modification of behavior
Implications:
o Looking at different factors in a childs life can predict future
behavior
o Predictions hinting future problems can be modified by
training or through treatment

II. ASPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT

Physical - Height, weight, sensory capacity, motor abilities
Intellectual (cognitive) - Learning, language, memory, reasoning,
thinking
Personality - Social-emotional way of dealing with the world, the
way we get along with people, our feelings

III. PERIODS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Prenatal
Infancy and toddlerhood
Early childhood
Middle childhood
adolescence

November 3, 2011
Dr. Balderrama

Conception to birth
Birth to age 3
3-6 years
6-12 years
12-18 years

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Specific time when a given event will have its impact

o Examples: Irradiation, drugs, diseases during first three months
of pregnancy - baby with specific defects

VI. PERSPECTIVES ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT

A. HISTORY
Before seventeenth century - Children seen as smaller, weaker
and less intelligent
1980s - Went through records on how people saw children
differently (bible, diaries, autobiographies, literature); children
different from adults; child rearing as important (like today)
o Reason: Different interpretations, different sources
18th and 19th century, important trends that formed the basis of
child development
(1) Unraveled mysteries of conception, role of hereditary and
environment, discovered germs, immunization More
children survived
(2) Passage of laws protecting children;
(3) Parents and teachers - Met the needs of children in both
homes and classrooms;
(4) New science of human behavior
o Psychology - Led to interest on influences
Adolescence - Only recognized as a stage in human developmentth
20 century

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 After puberty, young people entered an apprenticeship in the

adult world.

B. RECENT APPROACHES
Theories - Framework to make sense of the data, facts from
scientific study; No single theory is universally accepted by
developmentalists nor can a single theory can explain all facets of
development.
Allow us to make general statements
Hypotheses

C. FOUR (4) MAJOR PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN DEVT.

1. PSYCHOANALYTIC
Unconscious forces motivating human beh. (id, ego, superego)
Sigmund Freud - Taken by other theorists in other directions
like Erik Erikson
o Id - Present at birth, unconscious source of motives and
desires, pleasure principle
The one that demands gratification for certain need thereby
increasing libidinal energy to desire for certain need like food. Thus
it operates the PRIMARY PROCESS (translation of need to
drive).
o Ego - Reason, common sense, reality principle, executive
functions, intervenes between id and ego
The conscious hooks the person to the world through the senses. During
infancy, as the conscious mind interacts with the world, it discovers that
it is an individual separate from the world and the ego develop. Since it
operates the reality principle, the ego uses problem-solving based on
how it judges reality there by called secondary process thinking. Since
it is part of the personality interacts with the environment, it is alos one
that represents the personality to others.
Imagine a floating iceberg.
Ego: Composed of CONSCIOUS aspects that have contact w/ reality.
Partial part seen above water: PRECONSCIOUS/SUBCONSCIOUS
which contains partially forgotten memories (can be recalled at will).
o Serves as a watchman by preventing unacceptable and anxietyproducing memories from reaching the conscious awareness.
o Seen nearly above or below the waterline.
UNCONSCIOUS: Largest, deepest among the three in the iceberg.
o Comparable to the largest part of the hidden part of the iceberg
under the water.
o Serves as a signal to ego when there is something bad or anxiety.
o Anxiety can be REALISTIC (common from actual threat/fear),
MORAL (came from internalized social world of super ego like
feeling of shame and guilt or punishment) and NEUROTIC (fear of
being overwhelmed by impulses e.g., losing control, going insane).
o Superego - Does not develop til 4-5 years values, should and
should not (remember Jiminy Cricket; CONSCIENCE)
Ego Ideal - Reward person with feeling of wellbeing and pride when
person conforms to the demands of the superego
Conscience - Punishes the person with guilt feeling when person
deviates from the demands of the superego
The super ego is not completed until seven (in some books) or eight
(according to Dr. Balderrama) years of age and in some people it is
never completed. It develops last as the person incorporates standards,
restriction, taboos, ideals and taboos imposed by parents and other
individuals with whom the child associates with to guide behavior,
thought and feelings.
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Figure 1. The Iceberg Model

Freud : Diff. stages of Psychosexual Development (see index)

o Gratification shifts from one body zone to another from
mouth (oral), anus (anal), latent then genitals (genital stage)
Erik H. Erikson: Psychosocial Theory (see index) - The eight
crises societys influence on developing personality

2. MECHANISTIC
Learning Theories
o Sees people as RESPONDERS, rather than initiators, like
machines that react automatically to outside stimuli.
o Views human development as response to events,
discounting purpose, will and intelligence as well as
unconscious forces.
2a. Behaviorism (Traditional Learning):
o Interested only in behaviors that can be seen, measured and
recorded through Immediate, observable factors
o Views the environment as much more influential
2b. Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov):
o One learns a response to a stimulus that does not originally
bring that response, after the stimulus has repeatedly been
associated with stimulus that does not bring the response.
Social Learning theory - Children learn by observing and
imitating models; learned behavior is then reinforce by a
system of rewards and punishment (The leading social learning
theorist is Albert Bandura.)

3. ORGANISMIC
View of people as ACTORS, not reactors
Emphasis on qualitative change (e.g., changes in the way
people of different ages think, instead of changes in
quantitative aspects like increases in the number of words)
More on process than product
Concerned with how a person believes certain things
Jean Piagets Cognitive Stage Theory - The way children think
is due to his creative inquiry; inborn ability to adapt to
environment
Lawrence Kohlbergs Cognitive Developmental Approach to
gender identity and moral reasoning
4. HUMANISTIC
Views people as having the ability to take charge of their lives
and foster their own development
Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs that motivate people
Emphasize peoples ability to do things in healthy, positive ways
through the distinctively human qualities of choice, creativity
and self realization

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VII. METHODS OF STUDYING CHILD DEVELOPMENT

NON-EXPERIMENTAL METHODS:
1. Case studies -Iindividual patients/notes
2. Naturalistic observation - Children in normal setting
3. Clinical method - Observation with careful individualized
questioning
4. Interview method - Asks people to state their attitudes or
opinions or relate information
5. Correlation studies - Measure relationship between two
factors
EXPERIMENTAL METHODS: Controlled procedure in which
investigator manipulates variables

VIII. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

4 RIGHT-TOs:
1. Privacy - Predicting who will be criminals someday (publishing
the data)
2. Tell the truth - e.g., Children are told that it is a game: Can you
protect them?
3. Informed consent - Children are not always asked to give their
consent
4. Self-esteem - Built into the study is the certainty of failure
(progression of difficult questions): Is there conscious effort to
see that the child succeeds? What are long term effects?

Figure 2. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

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INDEX
FREUDS FIVE STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
STAGES
Oral

TIME
0-18 mos.

Anal

18- 36mos.

Phallic

3-6yrs

Latent

6-12yrs

Genital

12-20yrs

Gratification via mouth

Complete dependence period
Task: distinguish self to mother
Concept of self-image and body image
Pleasure via anus like retention and excretion of feces
Behavior: control of holding on and letting go
Develops concepts of power, punishment, ambivalence, concern with cleanliness and being dirty
Learns independence
Pleasure at genitals
Elektra/Oedipal complex
Behavior: masturbation and touching of genitals
Since Elektra/Oedipal complex, it develops the guilt and fear of punishment by parent of same
sex (castration complex); thereby the child imitates the parent of same sex to gain its affection to
parent of opposite sex and internalize it.
Focused on gaining new skills and knowledge.
Sense of industry and mastery
Learns to control over aggressive and destructive impulses as child conforms to rules and
restrictions
Acquires friends, is preoccupied with peers of same sex.
Pleasure through genitals
Becomes independent of parents, responsible for self
Develops sexual identity, ability to love and work

ERIKSONS EIGHT STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

STAGE
(AGE by
years of age)
I (0-1)
Infant
II (2-3)
Toddler
III (3-6)
Preschooler
IV (7-12)
School-age

PSYCHOSOCIAL
CRISIS (VS)*

SIGNIFICANT
RELATIONS

PSYCHOSOCIAL
MODALITIES

V (12-18)
Adolescence
VI (the 20s)
Young Adult
VII (late 20s
to 50s)
Middle Adult
VIII (50s and
beyond)Old Adult

Trust
Mistrust
Autonomy
Shame and Doubt
Initiative
Guilt
Industry
Inferiority

Mother

Hope, faith

Parents

To get, to give in
return
To hold on, to let go

Family

To go after, to play

Purpose, courage

Neighbourhood
and school

To complete, to make
things together

Competence

Ego-Identity
Role-Confusion
Intimacy
Isolation
Generativity
Stagnantation (self
absorption)
Integrity
Despair

Peer groups,
role models
Partners, friends

To be oneself, to
share oneself
To lose and find
oneself in a another
To make be, to take
care of

Fidelity, loyalty

To be, through having

been, to face not
being

wisdom

Household,
workmates
Mankind or
my kind

PSYCHOSOCIAL
VIRTUES

Will, determination

Love
Care

MALADAPTATIONS &
MALIGNANCIES*
Sensory distortion
Withdrawal
Impulsivity
Compulsion
Ruthlessness
Inhibition
Narrow virtuosity
Inertia
Fanaticism
Repudiation
Promiscuity
Exclusivity
Overextension
Rejectivity
Presumption
Despair

*In every psychosocial crisis, it should be balance and must develop the virtue during certain period. If for example, too much
trust was given it will have a conflict result to MALADAPTATION while too much mistrust it will have a conflict resulting to
MALIGNANCY.

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