Developmental Psychology: Project Report - Assignment Example

? Developmental Psychology: Project Report School Developmental Psychology: Project Report The child I studied was almost 5 years old boy. There were four members in his family; his father, his mother, his sister, and the boy himself. The boy was about roughly 3.5 ft tall and was in perfect health. The boy was playing with his little sister. The boy was in the mood of fun and enjoyment. The boy was playing his mother assuming his sister to be his daughter. The girl asked the boy for toffee, but he told her to do homework instead in a strict tone like that of his mother. The boy then made a call on the toy mobile pretending to talk to the father and asking him to bring toffees with him on his way back home from office. The boy then guided the girl with her homework, pretended to check it, and occasionally taunt the girl for making wrong calculations. The two children burst into laughter frequently in between the play as if they were fully enjoying it. After about 20 minutes of play, the boy brought his blocks and started arranging them in the pattern of a house as if he was constructing a house from blocks. The girl went upstairs to attend her mother as she had called her. The boy belonged to a nuclear family. Interview with the child’s parents revealed the information that they were Caucasian Americans and had been living in the USA for over four generations. The parents told that they belonged to the working class. Both parents worked to manage the expenses. Sigmund Freud was a famous theorist whose life spanned from 1856 to 1939. Unlike Eric Erikson, Sigmund Freud has classified the development stages from a psychosexual perspective. Although both a child’s psychology as well as sexuality develop as the child advances from one stage of development to another, yet it is hard to identify the sexual development of the child merely by observing his/her behavior, particularly when there is plentiful of scientific evidence that considers puberty as a fundamental pre-requisite of experiences of sexual emotions or feelings. This is the fundamental reason why Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development has conventionally attracted a lot of controversy. Irrespective of the theories proposed by him, Sigmund Freud has had a big influence on psychology. Sigmund Freud’s theories were based on the perceptions that physiological factors are not the cause of all kinds of mental illnesses, and that the behavior and psychology of an individual is affected by cultural differences. Sigmund Freud made a number of publications during his lifetime that included but were not limited to “Studies in Hysteria, …The Ego and the Id, [and] …Moses and Monotheism” (Cherry, 2012). According to Erikson’s developmental stages, the child belongs to the Play Age that spans the age-range of 3 to 5 years. The boy displays several traits that identify with the traits described by Erikson related to the Play Age. For example, the boy was taking initiatives in developing the situations of play e.g. acting and block-building, and the boy played the role of an adult and that too quite maturely and successfully. Sigmund Freud also believes that most of a child’s personality has been established when he reaches 5 years of age. From the child’s behavior, his personality traits could be easily assessed. The child was helpful as he guided his sister with her homework, he was playful as he enjoyed engaging in playful activities like acting and block-building, the child was intelligent as he had accurately copied the sentences and behaviors he had heard and seen his mother execute in daily life. According to the psychosexual stages of development described by Sigmund Freud, the child is in the Erogenous Zone that Freud describes as a stage in which there are inactive sexual feelings. In the stage of Erogenous Zone, the child’s ego and superego develop that play a role in the psychosexual development of the child. The child’s ego reflects clearly in the dominating role he chose for himself in the play as he played the mother of the girl. A sense of empowerment and decision-making ability also reflected from the child’s responses to the girl as her mother as he denied her toffees and asked her to finish her homework. The observed child studies in the kindergarten school, which is another factor that identifies him with the Erogenous Zone described by Sigmund Freud. The way the child dealt with the girl made it quite obvious that he makes a good friend in the social circle and can maintain the peer relationships quite well. According to Sigmund Freud, “[t]he latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions. This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills and self-confidence” (Cherry, 2012, p. 5). No problems as such were identified with the child’s development in the observation; though the child’s parents told me in the interview that the child’s teachers said he is very mischievous in the class. He shares funny experiences with others in the class, sometimes calls others names, and occasionally kisses the girls in his class. However, these behaviors in the class could be the result of environmental and cultural influences on the child. In the present age, even cartoon characters kiss each other, be that Olive kissed by Popeye or Hagrid, or little Miss. Jerry kissed by Mr. Jerry. Likewise, cartoons teach the children new ways of doing mischief. The parents said that the child watches cartoons a lot. So these behavioral problems in the class are likely to subside as the child grows up. “It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him” (Erikson cited in Harder, 2011). One way parents can help alleviate these problems is by making the child see less of cartoons and concentrate more on his studies. References: Cherry, K. (2012). Sigmund Freud Biography(1856-1939). Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/freudprofile.htm. Harder, A. F. (2011). The Developmental Stages of Erik Erikson. Retrieved from http://www.support4change.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47& Itemid=108. Read More