Question

In the early days of psychology, theories stopped describing development after around 12-14 years of age. This is because theorists thought that once a person reached puberty their development was mostly finished. After thinking about this for a minute, please respond in writing to the following:

"Do you agree that development is finished (or determined) by around age 12 (approximately the age of puberty)? If so, why? If not, why not?" In your answer, please differentiate between physical, social, and psychological development, and be sure to state when you think each aspect of development might start and/or stop.

Answer 1

According to me development is not finished by around the age of puberty.

The term development is generally used to refer to the dynamic process by which an individual grows and change throughout its life span.It is often thought of as the process of qualitative changes taking place from conception to death. In this way development is a broad term and deals with all areas including physical, motor, cognitive, psychological, social, emotional and personality. It should be noted that development in all these areas are inter-related. For example,a 13 year old girl undergoes physical and biological changes in her body and such changes are in turn related to her mental, social and emotional development.

Life begins at conception when mother's ovum fertilized by the father sperm and a new organism is created. From that point till death an an individual keeps on changing. Development is best viewed as a gain-loss relationship in which newer and different kinds of changes that take place. Older behaviour patterns may lose their salience while New once may emerge.

Genetics determines several aspects of a person's physical structure and functioning as well as some psychology characteristics to a certain extent. Various aspects of the child's ecology ( e.g, physical facilities, social institutions and rituals, and school) influence the development of outcomes in important ways.'Growth' generally refers to the quantitative additions or changes in the organic structure. For instance as we become older,the body size, height, weight, proportion of parts of our body change in measurable ways. Also,the vocabulary increases. On the other hand,is a broader term which often includes growth,but is used more to refer to functional and qualitative changes in cognitive ability, perceptual ability, personality and emotional development and so on. 'Maturation' is a term that refers to the natural unfolding of changes with increasing age,e.g hormonal changes as the individual reaches puberty.

In social development,itrit to the process by which a child learns to interact with others around to them. As they develop and perceive their own individuality within their community, they also gain skills to communicate with other people and process their actions.The examples of social developments are babies make eye contact, imitate facial expressions, and respond to voices. As children age, they interact more with other children and adults, which helps them to learn additional social skills.

Psychological development,the development of human beings congnitive, emotional, intellectual, and social capabilities and functioning over the course of the life span, from infancy through old age,I already pointed these.Developmental psychologists help us better understand how people grow, develop and adapt at different life stages. They apply this knowledge to help people overcome development challenges and reach their full potential.A degree in psychology can lead to a fulfilling career that makes a difference in people's lives.

In Erikson's 8 stages of psychosocial development include:

Trust vs Mistrust, Autonomy vs Shame and Doubts, Initiative vs Guilt, Industry vs Inferiority, Identity vs Role confusion, Intimacy vs Isolation,Generativity vs Stagnation,Ego integrity vs Despair.