All human beings undergo different stages in their lives from the point where they are conceived, become infants then children, grow into their adolescence stage, become adults and even through their aging process. Development often encompasses the changes that the human beings undergo during their lives and often involve a change in their thinking capacity, feelings and their general behaviors. Many studies geared towards understanding the different stages of human development often identify three areas that development often occurs in the lives of human beings including their physical state, cognitive ability as well as their social development (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010).
In that regard, there are different aspects that determine and influence the development process in the human beings including the aspects of cultural upbringing, the impact of nature and nature among other changes. In psychological field, numerous studies and theories have been espoused based on the topic of development with different scholars keen to provide an understanding of the entire process and the impact that it has on the growth. In order to understand the process of development better, it is imperative that an understanding of the various stages of growth and development and the respective changes that take place in the lives of the human being. The various stages and the respective changes are thus discussed below Infancy Infancy connotes the period between the birth of a child and a year to two years when they are able to acquire their first language and express their feelings. During the stage, most of the aspects of development are often visible and are directly influenced by the environment with a parent/guardian having a great role to play.
When a child has been conceived, they often inherit numerous reflexes from their mothers that are responsible for them to cope in their immediate environment. Some of the obvious reflexes that are observable in the infant include the ability to obtain nourishment. For instance, they will be willing to push anything in their mouth when they feel hungry hoping that the item or object pushed into their mouth will help them reduce the hunger. In addition to these, many infants are often equipped with an inherent ability that rapidly develops over time ensuring they are to make different predilection on sounds. Observing infants over their next few months also reveal that they get to uniquely identify their mothers by sight distinguishing their mothers from other people whom they do not have that strong attachment. Aside from identifying their mother with sight, they will slowly start to make sense of other things within their environment including becoming sensitive to individual sounds and producing sounds that make human speech, rhythmic flows and tones.
Whereas most of these events occur in the initial stages of the infant lives, they often proceed to develop rapid advances in areas such as memory and recognition. They usually tend to make sense of the environment much more as they engage and interact with their environments. In fact, many infants tend to improve their cognitive ability by making sense of the object permanence which asserts that items or objects in the external environment often exists independent of their perception. As they proceed in the development stages, they are also able to attempt creating mental images of events and outcomes. When infants get to about three amounts, they begin to display behavioral reactions. Such behavioral reactions tend to suggest that they are able to make sense of matters such as excitement, surprise, distress and relaxation. When at that stage, children who are in a state of calmness r in relaxed mood will be able to display anger, fear or anger when they encounter states that create a discomfort in their environment.
When they get to six months in their infancy, one eminent observation in their lives of the children is the fact that they tend to be more attached to their primary caregivers and mothers. They develop a sense of trusting, loving and depending on their mothers. Many studies usually indicate that these is one of the most critical stages in the development of the infants as it tends to prepare them for the upcoming stages. Childhood The childhood phase is often touted as the major phase of the development process in the human beings as it ultimately shapes the character as well as the behavior of the children as they proceed to the adulthood and other stages of life. The childhood phase often extends from year one or two all the way to the age of 13 when they are just about to begin their adolescence stage.
In terms of development, children usually make huge strides especially when it comes to understanding the languages as well as making attempts to speak the languages such that by the time they are about a year and a half, they will be able to speak the language. Mostly, the children tend to progress slowly by uttering simple words, making a combination of more grammatically complex words and then proceed to sharpen their fluency and accuracy. By the time they reach 4 years, children usually proceed master the languages. A part from the languages, the cognitive ability of the children often undergo major transformation. As part of the evidence to suggest that the children have undergone better cognitive ability, they usually try to exhibit experimental or goal directed behaviors rather than making general assumptions. During such a period of development, the children also try to apply logical reasoning to solve problems.
They start to understand numbers, times and even classify their ideas before they are able to present. Children at this stage also have major improvements in their emotions. Children tend to understand the different their states of emotions, characteristics and the emotional influence that their actions or inaction will have in the society. During this stage, many children usually interact with other people apart from their family. They usually tend to factor in the emotions of other people. They develop empathy that is usually critical in appreciating the feelings, perceptions and point of view other people. The emotional aspects and empathy ensure that the child is able to develop their moral capability. They often have concern on matters or actions that would bring pain and punishment o themselves and those that they love and as such they enhance their social skills and functioning. Adolescence The adolescence stage usually begins when puberty starts at the age of 12 or 13 and the stage will continue until the age of 19 or 20 years. It is one of the most important phase in the development of the human beings given the fact that it espouses the desire of the adolescents to be more rational, independent and the need to develop, test and make decisions on hypothesis that are formulated.
One of the most evident process of growth and development stage in the life of an adolescent is their sexuality. Many adolescents usually undergo sexual development with sexual urges and feelings becoming a norm and as such, many of the adolescents tend to learn about the sexual urges. It is at this period where the adolescents will be keen to develop different sexual relationships. Many parents and caregivers often allude to the fact that it is one of the most fragile stages in the upbringing of children. Many times, the desires of the adolescents to be independent leads them to a part of sexual discovery that usually leads them to a collision part with their parents and other members of the society. For most of the adolescence, it is the stage where they will gradually reduce their emotional dependency on the parent and they set on a part of self-discovery. While some of the adolescence may develop to adopt mature set of values and responsible self-decisions, others tend to make errors and mistakes including bowing down to peer pressure that would lead to matters such as drug and substance abuse as well as early pregnancies.
In this stage also, environment that the adolescence develop or the nature often has a huge impact on the way that the adolescence will develop. That is simply because most of the learnings and development of character comes from what they are able to see and experiment rather than what was instilled in their character development. At the culmination of the adolescence phase, many of the adolescence will have accomplished physical separation and total independence from their parents and that will definitely lead to the transition to the adult phase of live. Adulthood This stage marks the period where individuals have attained optimum mental functioning. It is at the level where most individuals have completely grown and evolved to attain the best intellectual, emotional and social capabilities in their lives. It is at the stage where individuals are capable of making better decision on matters to do with career, marriages and children. It is worthwhile noting that the development process has not yet been completed and individuals will continue with the development. Whereas others will not undergo major development compared to the previous stages as elucidated in the earlier stages, there are some aspects of development that individuals tend to experiment with most of them being manifested in the physical bodies as opposed to the other aspects of life.
For instances, many others will undergo changes in the eay that their bodies are able to respond to the various needs in life. Since the adults are able to make better decisions, they might tend to manage their intellectual, spiritual as well as emotional beings. Impact of nature and nurture on the development Many scholars and studies have often focused on the impact of nature and nurture on the development process. Arguably, a child will bank on what they have inherited from their parents and what they have learned in their immediate surrounding as they grow into young adults. Nurture has often been depicted as the most important determinant especially in the cases where the children are still young and depended on other people. When the independence reduces, people tend to rely mostly on nature as they grow as most of the things that they end up learning would be from what they see or experience rather than from what they inherited. It is from the stage of childhood going forward that culture, nature and the way that the children have been nurtured play a significant role in determining the way the person will turn out to be in life.
The influence of culture, nature and nurture in the development process forms a broad topic of discussion especially in the contemporary society. As societal beings, human beings often belong to different cultural upbringings. Culture often depicts ideas, social behaviors and even customers that are ascribed to a particular group of people in a society. It usually forms an important environment that shapes the upbringing of an individual. Cultural development often parts of the natures influence upon the growth of an individual. The nurturing of a person depends on what form of characters or disciples and moral upbringing has been instilled in a person.
