Theories of Human Development - Stages of Development

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Theories of Human Development

Stages of Development

 

It is easy to see life as a series of stages, which people pass through. Babies look and behave very differently from young children, but adolescents are very different children. Infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age can be seen as different stages in life.

In past centuries Europeans often saw the human life-span as being like the four seasons of the year. Infancy and childhood were like spring, full of new beginnings and possibilities. Adolescence and early adulthood were like summer – the most exiting and best time of our lives. Adulthood was autumn, a time of harvest and fulfillment. Old age was a winter – a time of decline and death! Shakespeare saw the male life cycle as having seven stages. He runs through them in a famous speech in a play As You Like It, Act 2: scene 7.

  1. Infancy
  2.  The school boy
  3. The lover
  4. The soldier (or warrior)
  5. The justice (or judge)
  6. The shrunken, impaired old man
  7. Last of all, ‘second childishness and mere oblivion’

These theories of life stages were picked up by Charlotte Buhler (1933). According to her theory, biological stages of development create a basis for understanding our lives. There are five stages of biological development as listed over leaf.

Charlotte Buhler’s Stages of Development

  • 0-15 years                       Progressive growth but no                      

                                             reproduction ability.

  • 15-25 years                     Progressive growth but with the

                                             onset of reproduction ability.

  • 25-45 or 50 years            Stationary growth with

                                             reproduction ability.

  • 45-50-65-70 years           Beginning decline with loss of

                                                              reproduction ability in women.

  • 65-70 years- Death           Biological decline.

Buhler’s view of life can be seen as a trajectory. A shell fired from a gun has a trajectory. If it is fired in the air, it will curve upwards, along and then downwards. Life can be seen a a pattern where the biological forces of growth and decline interfere to create an inevitable physical pattern of development. Buhler believed that biology provided the framework for psychological development. The five biological stages gave rise to people’s understanding of themselves. People would begin to form life goals and ambitions between 15 and 25. they would attempt to achieve these goals between 25 and 45. Between 45 and 65 people would assess their success. After 65, people would experience a sense of fulfillment, or a resignation to fate or of failure. In this perspective, life can be understood in terms of a biological clock, which is ticking away, your ambitions and views change as your body changes.

Arnold Gasell also worked within the perspective of biologically determined development. Gasell introduced the notion that human development could be measured in terms of biological maturation. Maturation is the genetically programmed ’unfolding’ of abilities and behaviour.

Gasells main work was carried out from the 1930s to 1950s and he is responsible for mapping out milestones of development in physical, language, adaptive, personal and social skills. This became known as normative development or measurement.

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Any child that did not meet the milestone development map became labeled as ‘abnormal’. Nowadays, this is thought to be inappropriate by many people, particularly those working in the field of learning disability. The measurement was a comparison between children in age bands, not linked to any criteria. He devised his scale of normative measurement by observing and filming thousands of children over years using building blocks, bells and wooden cups. This is why you may come across phrases such as ‘can build a tower of six or more blocks at the age of 2 years’. Today, normative measurement ...

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