Developmental Stages

Nicanor M. Domingo III, MAN, RN

Erik Erikson's stages of development. Erik Erikson proposed a theory of

development that continues throughout the life span. His theory states that there
are universal life stages and that a specific psychosocial dilemma occurs at each
phase of development. These problems (crises) must be resolved before an
individual can move to the next developmental stage. Erikson's theory has been
credited for accounting for continuity and changes in personality development. It
has also been criticized for vagueness and has not stimulated a great deal of
empirical research.

Developmental Stages
Nicanor M. Domingo III, MAN, RN

Freud (1905) proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of fixed
stages. These are called psychosexual stages because each stage represents the fixation of libido
(roughly translated as sexual drives or instincts) on a different area of the body. As a person grows
physically certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration (erogenous
zones), pleasure or both. Freud believed that life was built round tension and pleasure. Freud also
believed that all tension was due to the build up of libido (sexual energy) and that all pleasure came from
its discharge. In describing human personality development as psychosexual Freud meant to convey that
what develops is the way in which sexual energy accumulates and is discharged as we mature
biologically. (NB Freud used the term 'sexual' in a very general way to mean all pleasurable actions and
thoughts). Freud stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the formation of adult personality.
The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social demands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated
wishes and social norms. The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and direct the
need for gratification into socially acceptable channels. Gratification centers in different areas of the body
at different stages of growth, making the conflict at each stage psychosexual.

Developmental Stages
Nicanor M. Domingo III, MAN, RN

Developmental Stages
Nicanor M. Domingo III, MAN, RN

Cognitive development refers to the process through which a childs understanding

of his environment rapidly changes as a function of his age and experience.
Theories of cognitive development, therefore, attempt to explain qualitative and
quantitative improvements in intellectual development.
Sensorimotor Stage (0 2 years)
The preverbal childs thinking at this stage is governed by actions as demonstrated
by his attempts to learn about the world by grasping, watching, sucking and
manipulating objects. The child is ruled by his sensations and actions and, as such,
learns by sensing and doing. From an infant who is at the mercy of reflexes and
responds through random behavior, the child now develops into a goal-oriented
toddler with more complex cognitive and behavioral schemas. Schemas comprise
categories of knowledge that help people interpret and understand their world.
Preoperational Stage (2 7 years)
The use of language is one of the most significant developments during the
preoperational stage. The child can now make use of internal representational
systems to describe people, his feelings and his environment. Symbolic play
likewise evolves at this stage, allowing the child to engage in pretend play using
available objects to represent something else, such as a spoon being waved in the
air to represent an airplane.
The preoperational child is so engrossed in egocentric thought which limits the
childs view of the world to his own perspective, believing that this view is shared by
everyone else. The child cannot comprehend that there are other ways of looking at
situations and interpreting information. As such, a child who plays hide and seek
and merely closes his eyes while standing in plain sight, believes that no one else
can see him since he himself cannot see.
Concrete Operational Stage (7 12 years)
The growing understanding of some aspects of the principle of conservation signals
the entry to the concrete operational stage. Conservation of volume and weight,
however, will take the child a few more years to fully comprehend. The child now
begins to think with logic but is still constrained by his affinity to the concrete,
physical realities of the here and now. Hence, he still has some difficulty
understanding questions and problems of an abstract or hypothetical sort.
In addition to mastering some aspects of conservation, the child acquires greater
proficiency at tasks that require logical reasoning, distinguishing fact from fantasy,
classification of objects, deduction and induction, formulating judgments about
cause and effect, spatial thought, seriation, and knowledge of numbers.
It is also during this stage that the child begins to shed off some of the egocentrism
characteristic of earlier stages.
Formal Operational Stage (12 years to adulthood)
At this stage, the childs thinking is no longer bound to observable, physical events.
The child now utilizes abstract, logical and formal thinking in order to make sense of
his environment. The child is able to approach and resolve problems systematically
by formulating hypotheses and methodically testing them out. Piaget maintained,

Developmental Stages
Nicanor M. Domingo III, MAN, RN
however, that not all individuals reach this stage of development and are capable of
formal operational thought.
Piagets theory has been very influential and has proven invaluable, particularly in
the field of education. In particular, his theory has guided the direction in which
educational curricula proceed and in designing strategies for teaching children.