DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

Villalta

5/14/2015

Psychology I 11:10 – 12:25 TR

Sidney Smith (415)-424-9057

Part I

I was born on February 16th, 1992 at San Francisco General

Hospital to my mother Susan Smith and my father Sidney Hawkins,

Jr. Since then I have gone through many different stages of

development, both physically and mentally. As my environment and

life situations changed, I followed suit. In this paper, I’ll be

discussing the changes I went through and how a few well-known

developmental theorists might explain them. All of the theorists

shared the idea of Harry Harlow who determined that attachment is

very important to a child’s early development.

As a baby, I was taking in information from the world around

me in every way I could: seeing, listening, feeling, smelling and

tasting (admittedly not always things I should have been). Jean

Piaget, a famed developmental psychologist of the twentieth

century, called this the sensorimotor stage. He cited this as the

stage during which children learn how to interact with the world

around them through their senses and actions (see first

attachment). During my time in the early parts of this stage, if

my parents took a toy from me or hid it from sight, I might have

acted as though the toy ceased to exist. That is because at this

point I had no object permanence, which means that I was unaware

that objects out of my line of sight existed at all. Piaget

hypothesized that this skill was not gained by babies until after

6 months old, but later experiments showed that the appearance of

the trait is not perfectly scheduled, and is a bit different for

each child. Another major point he made was that we, throughout

our entire lives, are trying to make sense of what is going on

around us. To help with this we build schemas, or mental concepts

we use to help understand new experiences. When we encounter

something foreign, we first assimilate it to our schemas, meaning

we try to make it fit with our set concepts. But once we

understand that this new thing is unlike anything we’ve seen

before, we adjust, or accommodate, our schemas to take the new

experience into account.

A different psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg, focused more on

children’s moral development through life. As a child, I began to

understand what was considered “right” and what was seen as

“wrong”. Kohlberg would pose moral dilemmas to children and

determined that they had the first of his three levels of

morality, known as preconventional morality. He said that

children under age 9 primarily focused on themselves; making sure

that they obey rules set by those in charge in order to avoid

punishment or obtain concrete rewards, not for "good feelings" as

an adult might. As an infant, I would stop shouting if I knew

that my parents were getting upset so as not to have them perhaps

take a privilege or toy of mine away. Kohlberg called this

obedience and punishment orientation. I'd stop crying if I heard

that a treat awaited me. This was known as naive egotism and

instrumental orientation.

Sigmund Freud had his own idea of how a baby's

brain works. He asserts that for about the first year of our

lives, we are in the oral stage of development. We eat, suck, and

bite things. Piaget talks about this as well, but he says we do

it to figure out our world, while Freud thought we got pleasure

or satisfaction from it. We make noises with our mouths, as well.

I remember chewing on toys and loving food as a child. My parents

told me that when fed with a bottle, I would almost always bite

through the nipple of the bottle, but still seemed to "know" not

to bite my mother's breasts. My mother was a breast cancer

patient, so she could not always feed me "straight from the

source". Freud suggests that frustration during the oral stage

can lead to verbal aggressiveness or mistrust of others to

satisfy our needs. Perhaps there is some truth to that, as I have

exhibited both of those from time to time.

The fourth man whose theories on development I am analyzing

is Erik Erikson. He brought forward the thought that during the

infancy stage, first real fork in the road is whether to have a

basic sense of trust (vs. mistrust) towards others. If our basic

needs are met as infants, Erikson believes that we will have a

stronger sense of basic trust. Now, I didn't exactly want for

much as a child, but growing up in a few dangerous neighborhoods,

namely West Oakland's Ghostown, taught me to be what I would call

"wary" of others at all times.

Part II

Piaget’s second stage is called the preoperational stage.

Here, he says that children are still too young to perform mental

operations, and they use intuitive reasoning rather than logical

to approach problems (see second attachment). Children in this

stage lack the concept of conservation, meaning that they cannot

tell that two different sized containers with the same quantity

of items in them are indeed the same. However, children in this

stage can enjoy pretend play. I used to love grabbing sticks with

my friends and acting like we were sword fighting in my backyard.

Children this age also tend to be egocentric; they have trouble

taking the point of view of another person. I would always stand

right in front of the television as a young child, assuming that

because I could see, so could my parents. But after hearing

comments like, “You’re not made of glass, Sid.” I began to learn

that just about the opposite was true.

Kohlberg thought that during early adolescence, children

went through a stage called conventional morality, where they act

in accordance with society’s laws or rules in order to be

socially accepted. This is also known as good orientation. As a

tween, before I did something, especially around my peers, I

would think about what they would think and the effect it would

have on my reputation, because I thought nothing was worse than

being disliked by my friends.

Freud’s second stage of development is the anal stage.

During this, Freud states that children gain pleasure from

learning to control their bowel movements. I do indeed remember

learning how long I could “hold it” and usually waiting as long

as possible to use the restroom so that I wouldn’t have to stop

playing. Freud mentions that our aggressive id can emerge during

this stage and may show itself by the child intentionally “going”

at inopportune times as a way to lash out at parents. The next

stage is the phallic stage, during which we begin to gain

pleasure from our genitals instead of our mouth or anus.

Masturbation may become a common practice during this time, as we

begin to “discover” ourselves. We also form close, sensual

attachments to our opposite-sex parent and may feel jealousy or

fear toward the other. In a boy, this is called the Oedipus

complex. I was very close with my mother, and my father would

even make jokes about her being closer to me than him, saying

things like “She used to love me!” but these were all in fun. My

parents had a pretty great relationship all the way until her

death when I was a teenager.

Erikson talked about toddlerhood in his studies as well.

During this time he says that children will learn either to do

things for themselves (autonomy) or they will feel shame and

doubt their abilities. As a kid, I always would tell people

things like “Don’t tell me!” or “Let me do it!” Then we continue

on to the preschool phase, where we learn to initiate plans and

attempt to carry them out (initiative). I was sometimes called a

“natural leader” in school, always wanting to help achieve goals

or set new ones.

Part III

Around age seven, I began to think more logically about

things that happened in my life. I learned to be fairly competent

in arithmetic as well. Piaget called this the concrete

operational stage, during which we grasp concrete analogies and

also gain the concept of conservation. I remember loving to pour

water or other substances back and forth into different-sized

containers, like seeing how much a one liter bottle would fill a

one gallon jug.

Another part of Kohlberg’s conventional morality stage is

the authority-maintaining level, in which we make judgments of

situations and other people based on the scruples our society has

programmed us with. If we see someone steal a woman’s purse or

swindle someone out of money, we may call that person “bad” or “a

crook”, even though later in life one of us may end up doing the

same thing, which we will then have to rationalize for our

situation. This relates to Piaget’s idea of schemas, in that we

have our minds already made up about how we feel about something,

but we may accommodate if it suits our purpose.

One of Sigmund Freud’s most important stages is the latency

stage. Here, we put our sexual development on pause in order to

focus more on the world around us. We may dedicate ourselves to

hobbies and pastimes, finding things we enjoy and finding out who

we are. I, for example, am an avid video gamer. Around this time

in my life I got my own systems and played alone, as opposed to

always playing with my father or friends, just because I liked

the challenges and stories of single-player games. As my ego

developed, I began to find my place in this world. (see third

attachment)

Erikson’s elementary school stage is similar to Freud’s

latency stage. In it, he says children learn to take enjoyment in

applying themselves to tasks and carrying them out to completion.

I would get a sense of elation after finally beating that hard

video game level or completing that jigsaw puzzle I worked on for

days. If I got frustrated and felt I couldn’t complete the tasks,

I would feel bad. But that would only make it that much sweeter

when I finally triumphed.

Part IV

Jean Piaget’s last stage of development is called the formal

operations stage, which he says begins around age twelve and

continues onward into adulthood. Here, we gain abstract logic and

mature moral reasoning. When I was fairly young, I decided that I

could not understand why people were religious, and realized that

it was not for me. As I say, I am too logical to be a man of

faith. I also pondered on the morals I had been taught as a young

child. I didn’t always agree with most as to what things were

considered “wrong”. If I found money on the ground, I wouldn’t

really think about trying to find out who dropped it. Rather, I

just thought that they should be more careful next time.

Kohlberg would say that I had reached his final stage,

postconventional morality. I asked myself what I thought would

make society work best, and molded my attitudes around that. I

thought about what rights I felt people should have, such as the

freedom to express any view on religion without prejudice. I

faced many harsh words growing up for my atheism, and I felt that

no one should ever have to deal with that for their personal

beliefs or feelings. I may be a fairly serious non-believer, but

I never instigate arguments with people that are heavily pious.

However, if they bring one to me, I will be glad to finish it.

Freud has the genital stage as his last in development. Once we

hit puberty (which for me began at nine years old), we experience

a renewal of our sexual impulses. I started paying more attention

to the girls at my school, and trying to impress them as well. I

started pursuing girls as romantic interests and finding out what

kinds of girls I preferred. I even found out about a few philias

I have along the way.

Erikson's last few stages begin at adolescence. There, as in

the postconventional morality and formal operations stages, we

begin to establish our own individual identity. If this identity

clashes with our home or social circles, we may feel confused as

to how to act. Luckily for me, my parents were not the kind to

try and force me to be a certain way. So, even if I ran into a

few ignorant people who didn't like me for what I thought, how I

dressed, or the music and entertainment I enjoyed, I knew I was

always accepted where it really mattered. The next stage Erikson

brings up is young adulthood, a stage that most of my classmates

and I are currently in (see fourth attachment). Here, Erikson

says we search for intimacy, that if not found will lead to

feelings of isolation. We try to gain the capacity for intimate

love.

Erikson’s last two stages are ones that I have not reached

yet. The first is middle adulthood, where he says people either

begin to feel that they are contributing to society, or they feel

as though they have no purpose. By that point in my life I would

hope to be well settled into my career and to have found my

“queen” so that I can bring a fourth Sidney into this world (I am

the third). If I have not accomplished these goals by then, I

might enact a type of “rush mode” to try to get to them faster.

More aggressive job hunting and maybe online dating might be a

part of that plan. After middle adulthood comes late adulthood,

about our late sixties. In this stage, we will reflect on our

lives and will feel either content with our accomplishments or

despair for our failures. I try to live without making decisions

I’ll regret, so hopefully that pays off by letting me be happy if

I make it to that part of my life.

A few weeks old

About age 3

Age 8

Age 23