Research Paper on Developmental Stages

Introduction

Humans undergo various changes such as psychological, biological, and cognitive from birth until their adult stage. These changes are greatly influenced by environmental, social, and nurture factors. Thus, various phycologists such as Sigmund Freud, Erick Erickson, Jean Pieget, and Albert Bandura have come up with theories concerning human development. Erick Erickson believed that psychosocial principle is inherently unavoidable in determining human development. Erickson's psychosocial development theory describes the stages individuals pass through in their lives. Erickson asserts that each stage of human development is characterized by crises. Managing each crisis well prepares a person to cope well with the next (Syed & McLean, 2017). I have only traversed through six stages among Erickson's eight stages of development. Currently, I am in the sixth stage that involves forming intimate relationships with others. Individuals pass through various developmental stages that shape their adult behavior.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

I am in the intimacy versus psychosocial isolation stage. This is the sixth stage of Erick Erickson's psychosocial development theory. I believe that I am in stage six because I fall between the age gap of 19 and 40 years. The sixth stage first crisis is the formation of lasting relationships. I am developing close and strong relationships with other people. I have created good intimate relationships.

Additionally, I have developed a close relationship with my family members. These relationships have taught me to be open, and I constantly share my feelings with my friends or family members. I value friendship, thus, I have been able to maintain my friendship for a substantial period. I feel that I have a caring attitude towards my intimate friends because I understand that true affection must be willing to sacrifice for others. I believed that my sense of self-had enabled me to develop and maintain strong and intimate relationships with others.

Many childhood experiences have lifelong effects on people. Childhood experiences shape the future personality of an individual (Newman & Newman, 2017). During my childhood I loved school. At the time I was joining kindergarten it used to rain each morning heavily. My father would drive me to school each day as he headed to his workplace. While in the car, we would speak and every time I heard him encouraging me. Also, when I saw him driving, I would enjoy his company because I admired him. This interaction enabled me to develop a good relationship with my father. I became attached to him from my early years until now. As such, I feel that the rains incident helped me to be closer to my father thus developing a long-lasting relationship with him.

When I was a child, I loved watching cartoons. One night I watched cartoons, and I forgot to do my homework. Unfortunately, my father and mother had gone for a business meeting in another town, and they were to come home the next day. As such I was left under the care of my siblings. That day nobody checked whether I had been given an assignment. As my tendency, I arrived home and switched on the television. I spent several hours gazing on the cartoons and finally went to sleep without writing my homework. When I went to school the next day, our teacher checked the assignment and realized that I had not attempted any question. He called me later after class and enquired why I had not done the assignment. I explained to her that I forgot since I was watching the cartoons and my parents were not at home to remind me. My teacher told me to be self-responsible and to be more serious in my classwork. That day marked my turning point since I prioritized my class work, a behavior that has helped me to be a successful student in my academic life.

In my childhood, I was very selfish, and I did not like to share what I had with others. When my parents bought an item, I would keep it for myself and use it alone. I did not even share sweets with my siblings. When I was six years, my family organized to visit a children's home during the Christmas holidays. My parents went to the stores and purchased different items. They bought many packs of canned food and clothes. We packed all the things in my father's vehicle and set off for the journey. My parents gave out all the items we had bought to the caregivers to distribute among the destitute children. I asked my parents why they gave out all the items we had purchased to others. My father gave me a lengthy explanation and told me about the significance of sharing. I became conscious about caring for others, and from that day I developed a sense of caring. This incident helped me to be aware of the needs of others, a behavior that has enabled me to assist both strangers and friends during times of insufficiencies.

Adolescence is one of the critical stages in one's lifetime. During my adolescent, I had a group of 5 boys that were so close to me. We used to do many things such as assignments, playing, and attending social events. At first, the group was beneficial to me because we would assist each other in classwork. Each friend was an expert in one subject. As such, we complemented each other well in our classwork. Our interactions created a certain level of trust to each other. However, with time some of my friends started abusing alcohol and other drugs. Since I trusted my friends and I didn't want to break the friendship, I was introduced to alcoholism. My academic performance started to decline, and I was no longer doing well in class. My parents noted the performance decline and wanted to know the reasons behind my failure. I was able to get assistance from a counselor and slowly changed my friends. After one term I was able to notice improvements in my performance. This helped me to identify the need to have beneficial friends in my life, a trait that enabled me to keep the right associations in my entire academic life.

Early adolescence was a challenging time during my developmental stages. I was beginning to lose confidence in my life, and every day my relationship with teachers and other students deteriorated. My confidence started to decline one day when I started to think deeply about my life status. Our family was not extremely rich like the families of other children that were my peers. Some of my friends would afford to travel abroad for family trips during vacations. My family was only able to take me for local trips .I felt that I was in a lower social class and this affected my perspective of life. I felt inferior to my colleagues who could afford expensive trips. However, one day my father realized my frustration and called me for a meeting in his room. He told me never to compare my life with that of others. He advised me to accept me and appreciate my life according to my level. My father enabled me to understand that different people have different status in life and people need to live and recognize their conditions. I was able to improve my confidence and developed a different view of life. The confidence I acquired from that time has enabled me to be a serious student who never compared himself with others.

I think during my adolescent years I was becoming unruly. My parents were losing influence over me every day. I was growing self-willed and non-compliant with parental guidance. Although I was not active in exerting resistance to their advice and guidance I was ignorant of their advice in most cases. I remember one day we had a strong argument with my father over whether to attend a tournament while an assignment was waiting for my attention. My father wanted me to concentrate on my academics while I was inclined to sports. I tried to bring out my argument to enable my father to change his mind against preventing me from attending the tournament. I think my self-willed behavior was cultivating a culture of disobedience in my life during adolescence. However, I feel that this trait has enabled me to pursue different things in my life that have helped to develop my academic life. I have been able to pursue projects that initially my friends and family members had discouraged me from initiating. I have been able to make independent decisions that have positively affected my life.

My adulthood has been relatively good. I have had a seamless transition from an adolescent. After I have reached my adulthood, I have been able to cope well with different people. However, I was able to come along with one psychology book that changed my life. The book was explaining how one can boost their level of happiness and live a healthy life. The book described how gratitude could help conquer stressors in life. An individual can overcome stress and negative thoughts by reflecting on three good things that happen every day. The book was saying that if individual educate themselves on ways of counting their blessing each day, then they can live a healthy life that is free from negative thoughts. The realization of this idea enabled me to know that I am responsible for maintaining a positive lifestyle. This book has changed my perspective about life and has helped me to maintain positive thoughts that help me to pursue all challenges optimistically.

In my adulthood, I have had meaningful academic trips across the country. The trips have been instrumental in shaping my perspectives about various things in life. I have been able to travel and interact with different people. However, one trip that impacted my travel to the south where I had an encounter with people who had been segregated for a long period. I visited a center that had got history of the communities that lived in that region during the time of the slave trade. I was able to interact with the descendants of those who suffered during the slave trade. Most of them related the experiences they faced personally, and others told what their parents endured. My heart was touched by the harsh and severe encounters they had as a people. The trip transformed my mind greatly and helped me to develop sensitivity towards other people's problems. Additionally, I was able to develop a sense of respect for all people, a behavior that has helped me to be cooperative with diverse cultures. The mutual respect that I have developed has enabled me to work collaboratively and deliver excellent results with culturally diverse people.

I have met a very inspiring person in my adulthood. It happened one day that we went for a youth congress during the December vacation. There was one speaker who narrated his life story to rise as one of the senior chief executive officers of a multinational company. The speaker said that he came from a humble beginning, but through persistence and hard work he was able to ascend to a top position in a big corporation. I was significantly moved by his life story and realized that with the right attitude everything is possible in life. The keynote speaker encouraged me to move on in life and spearhead my aspirations in life. His speech was input in my life since it gave me strength and resilience to keep on working hard and trying different things that can give me success in life. I have been able to make remarkable achievements because of the energy he offered me through his speech. I am now able to try and do many things in life that initially seemed difficult.

Parental responsibilities start after the birth of a child and perform a significant role in shaping a child's behavior. Parental influence plays a critical role in the development of a child (Lindon & Brodie, 2016). A large number of parents form their parenting style based on factors such as child's personality, influence on the parenting style exercised on their lives, what they have been trained by the surrounding culture, and what they have observed from other...