08 Theories of Human Development

Have you ever thought about why children are different from adults and require specific attention? Have you ever considered how different pe...

Sablum Pani
Sablum Pani

Have you ever thought about why children are different from adults and require specific attention? Have you ever considered how different people behave in different situations? These are only a handful of the many fascinating characteristics of "human evolution." This unit on Theories of Human Development introduces you to a variety of theories that will help you understand all of life's interesting features. Theories are similar to fantasies in that they transport you to a realm of ideas and propose ways for investigating human behavior.

 1-PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES

Sigmund Freud, a proponent of this idea, thought that human behavior is influenced by inner forces over which the individual has little control. He believed that both conscious and unconscious elements influence an individual's personality.

The Personality Structure: Sigmund Freud compares the human mind to an iceberg. We are just conscious of the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of our mental ideas and impulses. He proposed three personality components: the id, the ego, and the superego.

The Id: 

The Id is the raw, unorganized, inherited portion of us whose primary objective is to relieve stress caused by our primal wants urges like hunger, thirst, sex, violence, and so on. Id works on the pleasure principle, with the goal of quick fulfillment of demands and the reduction of tension induced by their appearance. 

The Ego

The Ego is the "I" of a person's personality. As the youngster interacts more with the world, he or she develops an executive. It serves as a barrier between the id and the facts of the world. The ego's role is to meet the wants d's while also taking into account the reality of the circumstance. Higher cognitive functions such as intelligence, thoughtfulness, and learning are controlled by the ego.

Super Ego

The moral part of the personality is the Superego. According to Freud, as a child learns to obey parents and caregivers by regulating the various Id unpulses, as a child learns to let training, as a child learns to let training, as a child learns to do things as required by parents, the child also learns to do things in corporations. The superego represents society's rights and wrongs. It is divided into two sections: the conscience and the ego-ideal. The conscience prevents the youngster from engaging in ethically reprehensible behavior. The youngster is motivated to accomplish what is ideal by the ego-ideal. The superego aids in the control of the urges, d's resulting in less selfish and ethically right behavior.

Topographical Model: According to Freud, the majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses, are not accessible to us on a conscious level. He proposed the concepts of consciousness, preconsciousness, and unconsciousness.

 Here are several examples: Everything that is in our awareness is included in the conscious mind. This is the part of our brain processing that we can rationally think about and discuss. For example, we are aware that we must undergo a painful test. However, on the day of the test, we forget about the appointment.

 

2-Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory (1902-1994)

Erikson, like Freud, was a psychoanalyst, although he differed from him in terms of psychosexual development. This suggests he believes Freud's concepts are fundamentally correct. Erikson's theory is called Psychosocial rather than Psychosexual since it is far more culture-oriented than Freud's.
The principle of epigenetics The epigenetic principle governs the development, which means that our progress through each stage is influenced in part by our success (or lack thereof) in the previous stages. Positive outcomes (psychosocial virtues or strengths) Each stage entails specific developmental objectives that are psychosocial in character, as well as a specific optimal period. If a stage is well-managed, we gain a virtue or psychological strength that will serve us well throughout the remainder of our life.
Malignancies and psychosocial maladaptations (negative outcomes) If a youngster is able to successfully navigate through the many stages and stages of development, one can anticipate a positive and healthy adult. However, if a person experiences more failure than success, he will develop an unhealthy personality. 'Maladaptations' and 'Malignancies' are the negative consequences of an unfavorable encounter at each level of the crisis. . If we do not properly handle the work, we may acquire maladaptations and cancers, putting our entire future development at risk. Maladaptation, on the other hand, involves too much of the positive and too little of the bad, as in a person who does not trust at all, whereas malignancy involves too much of the good and too little of the negative, as in a person who trusts too much.

3-HUMANISTIC THEORIES

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) and Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) released their first books presenting significant humanistic principles in the early 1960s, paving the path for this new approach to understanding personality and improving individual pleasure (Matlin 1999). These theories mostly include Abraham Maslow's and Carl Rogers' theories.

Abraham Maslow created the Hierarchy of Wants paradigm, which states that human beings are motivated by unmet needs, and that some lower needs must be met first before higher needs can be met.
1-Representations: 
The most common representation of Maslow's hierarchy of requirements is a pyramid. The most fundamental requirements, such as food, water, sleep, and warmth, are represented at the bottom of the pyramid, while the more complicated demands are represented at the top.. As people climb up the pyramid, their psychological and social requirements become more important. Love, companionship, and intimacy become increasingly crucial as time passes. As one climbs the pyramid, the need for self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment becomes more important.
ii-Deficiency needs: The lower four layers of Maslow's pyramid contain "deficiency needs," or "d-needs," such as physiological (including sexuality), positional stability, friendship and love, and esteem. If these "deficiency needs," with the exception of the most basic (physiological) needs, are not supplied, the body gives no bodily evidence, but the individual feels anxious and tight.
iii- Growth Need: Maslow defined growth need as the highest level of the pyramid (also known as being needs or B-needs). Growth requirements arise from a desire to develop as a person, not from a lack of anything. 

4-Carl Roger’s Theory

In the twentieth century, he was the most important therapist. His hypothesis is based on Combs and Snygg's "phenomenal field" personality theory (1949). Rogers thought that everyone had a natural desire to grow, or 'Actualisation,' in order to maintain and improve their lives. The purpose of life is to meet this desire on any of these levels: 
1) Physical – eating, staying warm, avoiding physical danger, and so on. 
2) Psychological – self-actualization is about putting our abilities to the test and realizing our potential. We seek out new experiences, learn new skills, leave dull professions in search of more interesting ones, and so on.
Rogers has presented two key concepts.
1-He discussed healthy development in terms of an individual's perception of themselves. According to him, a healthy person will perceive similarities between their sense of self (self) and who they believe they should be (ideal self). While no one has complete congruence all of the time, the degree of congruence is a good measure of health.
2- Rogers' concept of the conditions for healthy growth, as well as the function of a therapist in supporting healthy growth, is the second fundamental idea. Rogers used the term "person-centered therapy" to describe this method.

His theory was based on nineteen propositions
  • All individuals (organisms) are at the center of a constantly changing world of experience (phenomenal field).
  • As the organism experiences and perceives the field, it reacts to it. For the person, this perceptual area is "reality."
  • The organism reacts to this phenomenal field as a cohesive whole. 4- The self increasingly differentiates a segment of the overall perceptual field.
  • Interaction with others forms the framework of the self, which is an organized, fluid, but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions.
  • The organism has only one basic desire: to actualize, sustain, and improve the experiencing organism.
  • Emotion accompanies, and in general aids, goal-directed behavior, with the type of emotion being related to the behavior's perceived importance for the organism's maintenance and enhancement. 
  •  Values are directly experienced by the organism, and in some cases, values are inherited from others but seen in a skewed manner as if they had been directly experienced. 
  •  As events in an individual's life occur, they are either symbolized, perceived, and organized into some relation to the self,
  • ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self-structure, or ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self-structure.
BEHAVIOURISTIC THEORIES
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Sablum Pani

Social work postgraduate, UGC-NET qualified educator, writer and trainer exploring social issues, human behaviour, public policy and everyday life through research-backed storytelling.

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