My Development and Life Span
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Human development is the process of how people grow and change psychologically over the complete span of the human life; from birth to old age/death. In the past years many theorists have studied human development in five different areas such as physical, cognitive, emotional and social spiritual development. Erik Erikson is one of the most prominent theorists who identified eight stages of human development. One of the stages are identity versus role confusion; which is highlighted in the year of adolescence. Erikson also believed that every human being goes through a certain number of stages to reach his/her full development. Therefore, this essay will examine the five domains in human development namely physical, cognitive, social, emotional and spiritual development within the child hood to early adulthood process. It also demonstrates the biological and environmental influences in human development. I will use my own development narrative as my case study to provide examples of these domains varying from childhood to early adulthood.
I was born and grew up in Ethiopia, a capital called Addis Ababa. On turning seven, I started attending school. My parents were not educated. However, I was very lucky because they always encouraged me to take the opportunities that they themselves did not have. The school I attended was a government school and therefore free of all expenses. On the other hand, my family paid for all my personal expenditures excepting transportation. My class consisted of a mixture of males and females. Some of my teachers were men and some were women. I started learning the English alphabets as well as my Amharic language. The teachers used both songs and games to teach our lessons. I lived nearby and could go home during the lunch-breaks. I enjoyed very much going to school and my favourite subject was drawing and music lessons.
According to Berger (1988), human development is usually divided into three domains:
Human development is the process of how people grow and change psychologically over the complete span of the human life; from birth to old age/death. In the past years many theorists have studied human development in five different areas such as physical, cognitive, emotional and social spiritual development. Erik Erikson is one of the most prominent theorists who identified eight stages of human development. One of the stages are identity versus role confusion; which is highlighted in the year of adolescence. Erikson also believed that every human being goes through a certain number of stages to reach his/her full development. Therefore, this essay will examine the five domains in human development namely physical, cognitive, social, emotional and spiritual development within the child hood to early adulthood process. It also demonstrates the biological and environmental influences in human development. I will use my own development narrative as my case study to provide examples of these domains varying from childhood to early adulthood.
I was born and grew up in Ethiopia, a capital called Addis Ababa. On turning seven, I started attending school. My parents were not educated. However, I was very lucky because they always encouraged me to take the opportunities that they themselves did not have. The school I attended was a government school and therefore free of all expenses. On the other hand, my family paid for all my personal expenditures excepting transportation. My class consisted of a mixture of males and females. Some of my teachers were men and some were women. I started learning the English alphabets as well as my Amharic language. The teachers used both songs and games to teach our lessons. I lived nearby and could go home during the lunch-breaks. I enjoyed very much going to school and my favourite subject was drawing and music lessons.
According to Berger (1988), human development is usually divided into three domains:
References: Berk, L. (2007). Development through the lifespan (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Berger, S. (1988). The developing person through the lifespan (2nd ed.). New York: Worth. Barnes, P. (1995). Personal, social and emotional development of children. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell. Fromberg, P. D., & Bergen, D. (1998). Play from birth to twelve and beyond. New York: Garland. Feldman, S. R. (2006). Development across the lifespan (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice hall. Goswami, U. (2008). Cognitive development: The learning brain. East Sussex, New York: Psychology press. Smith, T. J. (2003). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice hall. Zanden, V., Crandall, L. T., & Grandell, H. C. (2007). Human development (8th ed.). Boston: McGraw hill.