General Stages of Human Life
Most theorists agree that the human life can be divided into stages and that these stages proceed from simple to complex. There is disagreement, however, on how these stages are broken down and what the milestone of each stage is. In general, however, human life can be divided into eight stages. Infancy is birth to 1 year. The toddler stage is from 1 to 3 years of age. The preschool stage is years 3 through 5, adolescence is 13 to 19, early adulthood is 20 to 40 years, middle adulthood is 40 to 65, and late adulthood is 65 and older. The three main theories of growth and development are Freud's theory of psychosexual development, Erikson's theory of psychosocial development and Piaget's stages of cognitive development.
Freud and Psychosexual Development
Freud states that there are five stages of development. These include the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, latency and the genital phase. If you fail to move through a phase you develop a fixation (hence, "oral fixation," etc.) The oral phase runs from birth to age 2. In this stage the infant focuses on eating. The breast represents mother's love. Forceful or insufficient feeding results in a fixation. The anal stage (ages 1.5 to 3) focuses on toilet training and the idea of control and choice. The child can choose whether or not to use the toilet. The phallic stage, according to Freudian theory, is the most difficult phase of your development. The child must deal with his attraction to the parent of the opposite sex. He also competes with the same-gendered parent for affection. Latency spans from age 5 to puberty. The child experiences no sexual feelings. Energy is focused on developing other parts of his life. Essentially, the child learns its culture. The genital stage goes from puberty forward. The sexually mature individual begins to seek relationships from the opposite sex.
Erikson and Psychosocial Development
Erikson's stages of development are defined by tasks that must be accomplished. From birth to 1 year the child learns basic trust depending on whether she is held, fed, clothed, etc. During the toddler years a child learns to balance autonomy and self doubt. The preschooler's challenge is testing limits. She feels initiative to participate in adult-like activities and guilt when she is punished for overstepping her bounds. During school age the child will struggle between wanting to be industrious and feelings of inferiority. During adolescence the child must establish an identity. During young adulthood she will either look for relationships or become isolated. In middle adulthood the individual either finds meaning in work and produces a family or she becomes stagnant. The last stage of development is late adulthood, where you are either satisfied with how you spent your life or despairs because you didn't accomplish something.
Piaget and Cognitive Development
Piaget divides development into four phases. In the sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) a child experiences the world solely through physical experience. At about 7 months the child begins to realize that things exist outside of his immediate environment. This is called object permanence. At the end of this stage the child will begin to use some symbolism. During the preoperational stage (toddler and early childhood) the individual is very self-centered. While language and imagination develop, the child cannot think logically yet. In the concrete operational stage (early adolescence) the child begins to understand logical concepts such as number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area and volume. During the formal operational stage (adolescence and adulthood) the individual gains the ability to perform logical operations on abstract things.
References
- Foundations of Nursing, 5th edition, Christensen and Kockrow, 2006.
- Mental Health Nursing, 5th Edition, Fontaine and Fletcher, 2002.
