WHAT ARE THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT? - PSYCHOLOGY - 2026

The theories of human development are various psychological approaches that try to explain the development of man according to his characteristics of behavior and personality. They are also called developmental psychological theories.

No theory of development is broad enough to explain all the aspects involved in the constitution of the human being. Some give more importance to the internal factors of the individual and others consider that the environment and society are determining factors in the development of the human being.

In the light of this new millennium, most psychologists admit that both currents of thought have their part of truth, since all these factors are important in the development of the personality.

Different psychological theories of human development

The various theories that attempt to explain the development of man are divided into two approaches:

-The psychodynamic, which studies the development of personality, where theorists such as Freud and Erickson are found

-The cognitive approach, which studies the development of thought, where the theories of Piaget and Colbert, among others, are circumscribed.

Next we will make a brief explanation of some of these theories.

Sigmund Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development

Sigmund Freud, one of the fathers of modern psychology. Source: Max Halberstadt

Freud's research was limited to the observation of children aged 0-5 years and their interaction with parents and other children.

These observations determined common patterns, especially in relation to impulses oriented towards sexual energy –also called libido-, which led him to conclude that the biological instincts in those early years are innate and decisive in the development of the personality.

These drives are innate and change at each stage. The child will seek to satisfy those instinctive needs of each moment; the non-satisfaction of the same, could create in the adult certain fixations or changes in the personality.

According to this theory, pleasure is successively focused on various organs:

-The mouth (oral stage), which is the earliest

-The anus (anal stage), between 2 and 3 years old, where children control their sphincters

-Genitals (phallic stage) between 4 and 5 years, where the libido is focused on the genitals and the child begins to obtain pleasure by masturbating. According to Freud, it is a stage in which it is desired to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the other, which is known as the Oedipus or Electra complex.

-Then comes the latency stage, between 6 and 12 years. In this stage, psychic forces are developed that inhibit the sexual impulse and redirect it towards other more culturally accepted activities.

Freud called it a period of sexual calm, which then reactivates after the age of 13, where the psychosexual maturity that will define the subject in his adulthood begins.

Erickson's theory of psychosocial development

Erik Erikson. Source: See page for author

Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory is one of the most accepted within psychology and its central statement is actually a reinterpretation of Freudian theory, in which more emphasis is placed on social rather than sexual aspects as important factors in the human development.

Erikson, like his colleague Freud, also proposes consecutive phases to explain the development of the personality, but emphasizes that social problems are more important than those related to the satisfaction of biological instincts.

Erikson also contradicts Freud in the aspect of the duration of the development of the personality, since he affirms that this continues throughout the life of the individual and is not limited only to the first years of childhood.

The stages of development, according to this scholar, are eight, in each of which the individual faces a crisis that has two possible solutions: one positive and one negative.

The development and ability to solve problems in future life will depend on the effectiveness with which these crises are resolved.

These stages are:

1-Trust-distrust (0-1 year)

2-Autonomy-shame (2-3 years)

3-Initiative-guilt (4-5 years)

4-Productivity-inferiority (6-11 years)

5-Identity-confusion of roles (12-18 years)

6-Intimacy-isolation (young adult)

7-Creativity-stagnation (middle age)

8-Integrity-despair (old age)

Theory on cognitive development of Jean Piaget

Jean piaget

Piaget stressed the importance of biological maturation in the thought process. He argued that the body adapts to the environment through biological mechanisms, as its intellectual growth occurs.

The acquisition of cognitive abilities is therefore the responsibility of both the child's level of maturity and their learning experiences.

Piaget explained that man adapts to his experience (assimilation) and then organizes the content of those experiences (accommodation).

The stages of cognitive development according to Piaget are the following:

1-Sensory-motor (0-2 years): where children divide the world between what they can suck and what they cannot. They begin to organize their experiences by assigning categories and schemas to them, which are the first step in intentional behavior and problem solving.

2-Pre-operational (2-7 years): oriented towards action, their thinking is linked to physical and perceptual experience; their ability to remember and anticipate grows and they begin to use symbols to represent the external world. They are able to focus on one thing that catches their attention, ignoring everything else.

3-Concrete operations (7-11 years): they acquire flexibility of thought and the ability to correct and redo it. They learn to see the problem from different angles.

4-Formal operations (11-14 years): develop the ability to understand abstract logic. They can differentiate the probable from the impossible in a hypothesis; they anticipate, plan, understand metaphors, construct theories, and try to find meaning in their lives.

Lawrence Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

The relevance of this theory is that Kohlberg introduces a novel aspect in the study, such as morality, and considers it an important part of the child's cognitive development.

This development divides them into three levels, and each one of them subdivides them into two stages in which moral judgments are acquired. This happens gradually and in a certain order, namely:

1. Pre-conventional morality (0-9 years)
   1. Orientation towards obedience and punishment
   2. Individualism and exchange
2. Conventional morality (9-adolescence)
   1. Agreement and conformity (good interpersonal relationships)
   2. Social agreement and conflict (maintain social order)
3. Post conventional morality
   1. Social contract and individual rights
   2. Universal ethical principles

Kohlberg dismisses the theories of Freud, Erikson and Piaget, concluding that these stages do not occur as a result of the genetic maturation of the individual or by social experience or the teaching of new ways of thinking -although all this collaborates-, but rather emerge of the individual's own mental processes about moral problems.

References

1. Theories of human development. Recovered from portalacademico.cch.unam.mx
2. Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development. Recovered from scoop.it
3. Theories of human development. Recovered from psychopsi.com
4. Personality theories. Recovered from elalmanaque.com
5. Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development. Recovered from psicologiaymente.net
6. Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Recovered from cepvi.com