Psychology

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Course
Lecturer
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Developmental psychology
The textbook has various topics and subsequent subtopics written in details under them. For this essay I decided to write extensively on the adolescence stage of developmental psychology. This is one of the stages that children go through before adulthood. The other stages that appear in developmental psychology include infancy, early childhood as well as the later childhood which are the stages that precede adolescence stage. Adulthood comes after adolescence and that starts at the age of 18. This stage of development is mostly shaped by the society as well as close family members. At the level of the society, most of the socialization processes at this stage is derived from peers or individuals of the same age. The individual at this stage tends to be on the verge of self-realization and gets understand their attraction and sexuality to the individuals of the opposite sex.[Kathleen, Stassen. The Developing Person Through the Lifespan. 8th Edition. Berlin: Worth Publishing Company.2002. Print]
Understanding of this stage is that since this age is too close to adulthood, it is the perfect time for the adolescents to make decisions regarding their future. These decisions include that which regards career and raising a family. They start making decisions on the kinds of friends they should have and what to buy with the money they have acquired. There starts to be some sort of distance between them and their parents. They still manage to view their parents and other close elderly relatives as role model and so they should provide reliable guidance to these teenagers in regards to how they should approach issues in life. Guidance should be availed to these teenagers on such fields like getting along with others or simply just about future jobs.[Havighurst, Robert. Developmental tasks and education. New Jersey: David McKay. 1952. Print]
Adolescents face developmental issues and a wide range of them at that. Some of the issues involve relationship and work. Commitment to goals and intimacy come in as some of the factors that these adolescents face. Adolescents also face the desire to be independent and to be cognitively functioning adults who have developed well to face escalating and rapid changes that are occurring in the labor market and the challenges that they have to face after secondary school. Study has shown that the adolescents face difficulties as they leave high school quite unprepared for realities that they get to face as soon as they are out of the controlled school environment.[Havighurst, Robert. Developmental tasks and education. New Jersey: David McKay. 1952. Print]
At this stage in life the adolescents require various guidance and counseling strategies so as to help them facilitate a rather smooth transition. These strategies include developing multiple plans and not just depend on a rigid plan that they have to follow religiously the career paths they had chosen. Instead of leaving high school with few alternatives they should be guided to have open and multiple expectations. Self-advocacy as well as marketing is the other instance that should be guided well so as to enable these teenagers has the skills needed to market themselves. There is also a need to learn communication skills and organizational adaptability so as to enable them gain needed knowledge on how to cope on the expanding job market. Skills that are needed for coping with stress, meeting basic needs, managing changing relationships, coping with loss and bridging programs.[Gelatt, Hall. Positive uncertainty: A new decision making framework for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1999. Print] [Havighurst, Robert. Developmental tasks and education. New Jersey: David McKay. 1952. Print]
Guidance and counseling therefore needs encompass larger range of issues. Friends and families make up very strong base that is needed for the support and that career issues and personal ideas are intertwined especially for the individuals at this stage of development. An individual who studies guidance and counseling psychology needs to learn these skills so as to be able to help the teenagers at the adolescent stage of life to cope with various issues that could be of hindrance to their wellbeing or that would interfere with their social life. At this stage of development guidance is really needed so as to assist the adolescents from all the hardships that come with this stage.[Kathleen, Stassen. The Developing Person Through the Lifespan. 8th Edition. Berlin: Worth Publishing Company.2002. Print] [Erikson, Erik. Identity youth and crisis. New York: W. W. Norton. 1968. Print]
Psychosocial development also falls under developmental psychology in the adolescent stage. Erikson's theory is one of the best theories that discuss psychosocial development and one of the recurrent ideas in this theory is that of ego identity and its development. The theory seeks to describe the impacts that social experiences have across the entire lifespan of an individual. Ego identity is described as that sense that an individual develops of self through social interactions. Erikson explains that ego identity is changing in a constant vector because of new experiences as well as the information that we acquire daily in our interactions with others..
Erikson explains that when psychologists talk about identity, in most case they are often referring to beliefs, values and ideals that are responsible for guiding and shaping the behavior of a person. Personal identity gives one the cohesive and integrated sense that one endures and uses to continue to grow with age. Erikson believed that competence as a sense can motivate actions and behavior. The stages that Erikson talked about were concerned with helping an individual become competent in a specific area of the individual's life. The moment an individual realizes that a stage has been handled well then this person gets a sense of self fulfillment and mastery and this is what often referred to as ego quality or ego strength. However, if a single or more stages are not managed well, there exists some sense of inadequacy. Erikson believed in the psychosocial theory that people experience conflicts that serve as some sort of turning point as seen in the development process.[Erikson, Erik. Identity youth and crisis. New York: W. W. Norton. 1968. Print]
The psychosocial stages include
1 Trust vs. mistrust
This is seen as the first stage in Erikson's theory It occurs between the times one is born up to the age of 1 year. This is the most fundamental stage according to Erikson. At this age in life, the infant is dependent and hence it is important for the infant to develop trust that is majorly based on dependability just as it is dependent on the quality of the caregivers of the infant. This stage leads on to successful later stages like adolescence especially if the child successfully develops trust. The infant will feel secure and safe but in the cases that the caregivers are not consistent, or even emotionally absent end up contributing to mistrust in these infants and this will eventually give them the belief that the world is an unpredictable place that is full of inconsistencies. This would affect their levels of trust as they develop into other stages of growth and development. Erikson believes that this stage can be considered successful if the infant can develop a balance between trust and mistrust simply because the child cannot trust everyone or mistrust everyone. In the case that this balance gets achieved in the mind by the infant, they get hope that can be seen as openness to experience what life may bring from either side of trust or mistrust.[Gelatt, Hall. Positive uncertainty: A new decision making framework for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1999. Print] [Havighurst, Robert. Developmental tasks and education. New Jersey: David McKay. 1952. Print]
2 Autonomy vs. shame
This stage happens during early childhood and hence this involves teaching children the sense of control. Erikson believes that toilet training, just as Sigmund Freud believed, is a very important aspect in this stage. Erikson thought quite differently about toilet training though. This is because according to Erikson, when one learns to control bodily functions then this leads to an independence and control sense. This stage helps individuals make controlled choices over such things as toy preferences, clothing and food choices. This goes on to assist adolescents in future to make controlled choices with confidence. The chi...