Development of human behaviour across the life span

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Development of human behaviour across the life span

This paper assesses the development of human behaviour across the lifespan of a human being. In examining the development of human behaviour, the paper focuses on the stages a child goes through during growth. The paper concentrates on questions of growth, development, and behavioural transformation through the human lifespan.

The study of human development of behaviour is widely influenced by the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin. In the study, the main assumption is that every child before he or she is born has a psychological energy known as libido. It is also assumed that every child’s libido is consecutively concerned with the various parts of the body during the course of emotional development. During the first postnatal year, the libido focuses on the mouth together with all the activities the mouth carries out which helps other resources. The other stage of development is the genital stage, which seeks its intention from the heterosexual love with any other. It is also believed that the emotional problems experienced are always directly linked with the deficiency suffered during the early stages of both oral and phallic stages. It is further assumed that a child who was libido gripped or tampered with during these stages mentioned above; in adulthood portray some particular character traits for instance anxiety.

There is also a different theory devised in relation to the development of behaviours known as the personality structure. The theory assumes an unconscious mental setup, which may include an individual’s inborn, hereditary forces directly linked with the major psychological energy. From the infant stages to adulthood, the character traits related to the personality are developed to complement the personality. At this stage, the ego employs a diversity of conscious and unconscious mental states to try and suit identity instinct as well as preserving the comfort ability of an individual within the surroundings. Though the identity, impulses are continually aimed at getting an immediate satisfaction of a person’s instinctual pleasure, the ego is aimed at limiting the different systems and processes. During this stage, as the child continues to develop or to mature, the pleasure principle is slowly being controlled by the reality principle. It is at this point in life the child starts understanding that the surroundings. The theory in simple terms means that child development or behaviour development is mainly concerned with the appearance of the role of the ego, which is vital as far as intellectual is concerned and making judgments.

The most important role this theory plays is helping to understand what takes place in someone’s mind, to interpret a patient’s mind, and to see what is taking place in the unconscious mind among others. Today there are various examples that can cite to demonstrate the development in behaviours in life span. For instance, obsessive washing of hands in an individual may be indicating how the particular individual suffered from serious trauma during those days. In some instance, nail biting can also be as a result of anxiety that reminds him or her of a childhood event and some other behaviour.

In conclusion, it is important to note that both hereditary factors and environmental factors have a great impact in the development of behaviour in a human’s life span. The personality structure is a theory related to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in conjunction with other processes like the pleasure principle and the reality principle shape the development of behaviour in human beings.

References

Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. Moral emotions and moral behavior. HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_Review_of_Psychology” o “Annual Review of Psychology”Annual Review of Psychology. (2007) 58, 345.