Question

One page summary of the Four stages of development which includes: The Infant, The child, The adolescent, The adult.

(Refer to the Life-Span Human Development Textbook)

Answer 1

Human development right from forming a life in the womb from a sperm to a completely grown human being who achieves great heights is a very fascinating journey. Some go through it really with all the support one gets from one's environment such as family, friends, school, job and society while others struggle due to lack of support system.
As an infant, one is cared and supported almost all the phases of one's life such as, eating, sleeping, bathing etc. The infant won't be able to think on its own. If it's lucky enough it would get a better environment where it would be supported thus growing as a confident, trusting and happy child. Any deficiency at this stage would create trust issues, attachment issues and confident issues. The initial stage as a confident or weak child would affect the personality to a great extend. All these events would go deep into the infant's unconscious mind only to affect it at a later stage. It would have developed the language but not to a competent level.
As a child it would use whatever it learned during the infancy. The language would have developed completely as it has started going to the school and started learning the components in the culture. It would either develop competency and independency or it would develop inferiority complex and dependency. It would develop analytical skills and would try creative ideas. If it is encouraged and supported, it would continue to flourish or fail and wither. It would do things independently without anyone's help such as eating, bathing, dressing etc. It would form friendship and learn from it's friends.
As an adolescent, one would go through the stresses that the teenage brings such as, relationship problems, peer pressure, identity crisis etc. Adolescents would be more particular about their physical appearance. Those who successfully and confidently completed their previous two stages, would stride towards success and others would look on themselves with doubts as they would be crippled with inferiority complex. They would constantly look for their identity and career. Most of them would spend more time with their friends. It's also a crucial stage where they would be exposed to alcohol, drugs etc. but they would have equal amount of opportunities as well.
In the final stage as an adult, one would have settled in a job, started a family, had children and became more matured. They identify themselves with various institutions thus becoming very active. They will be very productive at job and would strive hard to overcome all the competitions. They would also undergo lots of financial, familial and job pressures but they are capable of coming back and start over. There are also chances that one would become despaired and blame others for all their downfalls.