Growth and development

Growth and development
By
Jones H.M
1/19/2021 Jones H.M-MBA/DMS

Definition of Terms
 Growth: Is an increase in weight and size
which also involve the cell size and number
 Development: Is an integrated, differentiation
and growth leading to maturity and
independent action or function.
 It is the special kind of change that is
cumulative and occurs over time in the context
of social setting.

Factors affecting growth and
development (Environment)
 Environment: Psychologists under this school
of thought believe that the environment plays
an important role in developmental
psychology.
 Developmental psychologist like John Watson
(1924 to 1958 ) a prominent American
psychologist wrote “give me a dozen of health
infants well formed and my own specified
world to bring them up in and

Environment as a factor affecting
growth and development
(Environment) cont
 I will guarantee to take any one at
random and train him to become any
type of specialist I might select- doctor,
lawyer, merchant, chief and yes even
beggar and thief regardless of his talent
,tendencies, abilities, vocation, race of
his ancestor’.
 This shows that according to him the
environment tends to influence growth
and development.

development (Genetics)
 Genetics: There is increasing evidence
of the importance of heredity in the
formation of individual personality.
 There is genetic evidence that prove that
physical attributes like height,
complexion, hair texture, etc and internal
structures are inherited.

development (Genetics) cont
 These physical attribute affects personality
structure, e.g. identical twins who, because
they developed from the same original germ
cell are endowed with the same set of genes
and tend to posses the same pattern of
intelligence.
 Non identical twin on the other hand who do
not share the same set of genes present
intelligence only as similar as that found in
ordinary siblings

development (Genetics) cont
 The other example is that persons with
endogenous mental defects certainly
tend to produce mentally defective
offspring.
 Heredity may therefore be likened to a
liquid contained in the bottle of
environment. Both the environment and
heredity are equally important and can
not in reality be consider independently.

Forms of Human development
 Cognitive development: This development of
mental processes that help us to deal with the
environment.
 Language development: This looks at the
development or acquisition of language.
 Personality development: It explore the
development of personality or principle of
underlying self.
 Social development: Development of gender
identity and gender roles

Current theories of growth and
development
 There are a number of theories of
development .some of these include:
 Maturation theory
 Psychosexual theory
 Cognitive development theory
 Social learning theory
 Attachment theory.
In this lecture we shall just discuss cognitive
theory according to piaget and psychosexual
development theory by Sigmund Freud.

Cognitive development (Piaget)
 Piaget was interested in understanding the
mental processes that help us deals with the
environment.
 Jean Piaget (1896-1980) believed that
cognitive development takes place in distinct
stages.
 His study was done through observation of his
subjects.
 He came up with four stages of cognitive
development

Cognitive development (Piaget
 He said man always try to adapt to his
environment. This adaptation process
attempts to bring about equilibrium.
 The adaptation process takes place by
assimilation and accommodation.
 Assimilation: It means taking in new ideas or
experiences to knowledge that was
accumulated through prior experiences .e.g. a
new concept of a train may be assimilated into
the original concept of the car. In as far as the
child is concerned there is no significant
difference between train and car.

Cognitive development (Piaget) cont
 The old knowledge offers a better “fit” to
some of the new experiences than
others. If the fit is poor then something
should be done. This when
accommodation comes in.

 Accommodation: This involves
modification of the existing schemata in
order to understand the new one. e.g.
when a two year old is exposed for the
first time to a cell phone , the child will in
the first place try absorbing it into its
established schemata. acting toward it
as a familiar object, attempting to test it,
bang it, bounce or throw it.

 However once he realizes the unique
properties of the cell phone he will
develop a new schema of action to cover
the concept of the cell phone

Stages of cognitive development
 SENSORY MOTOR STAGE (0-2years)
since infants neither talk nor read and
probably does not think like an adult.
 Piaget asserted that they learn by seeing
,hearing and smelling and through motor
activities by touching, grasping, throwing
things and so on. He therefore called this
stage sensory motor stage.

Stages of cognitive development cont
 During this stage the infant progresses from
basically reflexes oriented activities which are
limited to organism’s awareness of
themselves, other people and objects in their
surrounding e.g..
 O-2 months the child has random activities
they don’t have goals in their activities.
 2-4 months they begin to see purpose in their
activities and become more coordinated with
their hands and eyes.

cont
 4-8 months the child easily bring about desired
consequences e.g. the child can kick or throw
a toy
 At 12 months the child will begin to enjoy
activities like holding and dropping objects
 At 18 months just before 24 months the child
begins to develop some ability of imagination,
planning and creativity. The child also learn to
use language at this very stage.

cont
 PRE OPERATIONAL STAGE (2 -7 years):
 Here the child begins to internalize the world
around it.
 Child engages in symbolic play e.g. use of
stick as a gun or doll as a real baby.
 The schemata is limited because it cant
categorize the world around it.
 There is over generalization e.g. if the child
saw a goat it might point at it and say dog
,because in as far vas the child is concerned
anything on four legs is a dog.

cont
 Here the child also experiences “egocentrism”
inability to consider other aspects of things or
being self centered.
 For example the child might find it hard to
believe that its mother is also its daddy's wife
or its mother is also its brothers mother.
 During this stage the child may also talk to him
or herself.
 There is inability to understand the reverse of
things.

cont
 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE(7-
12 years). This is characterized by:
 Ability to reverse actions, processes and
activities.
 Child is able to over come egocentrism.
The child become a social being.
 They are able to play in groups
 They are able to categorize things in
series

cont
 The problem is that their mind is still
concrete they understand the world in
terms physical objects. If they want to
change their action into cognition, they
need a teaching aid.
 They can not understand abstract things
that have some thing to do with
symbolism.

Formal operational stage 12 year
and above
 At this stage the child is able to think like
an adult.
 They are able to understand hypothetical
situation.
 At this stage the person has all the
mental tools needed to adopt to its
environment.
 The child also experience adolescent
egocentrism.

Formal operational stage 12 year
and above
 They become self focused
 They think that the world revolve around
them
 This is seen in talking, walking, dressing
and selection of friends ,even deviant
behaviour.

Implication to nursing practice
 Children may be egocentric ,there the
nurse should exercise patience with the
child.
 Children may not understand
hypothetical situation, therefore the
nurse show be aware of the Child's
limitation.
 Adolescents may be egocentric therefore
should be handled delicately, because
the y may be fragile.

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT(SIGMUNG FREUD
1856-1939)
 PERSONALITY: This refers to one’s
characteristics or trait that set him/her apart
from everybody.
 Sigmund Freud lived at the time when there
was a belief that human being are controlled
by their own rational thinking.
 He was a psychiatrist, did psycho analysis.
 By working with his patients he came up with
the theory that human behavior is determined
by instinct or drives which are largely
unconscious

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT (SIGMUNG FREUD
1856-1939)
 He said there are basically three
hypothetical facets of human personality
i.e. Id. Ego and Superego.

1. The Id
 The Id: This is the part of the mind that
always seeks pleasure and usually the
kind of behavior it seeks is sexual in
nature.
 It operate on the pleasure principle
without regard to what is obtaining on the
ground. it develops right from infancy

1856-1939)
 He said these body parts are what the
child will be focused on at various ages
as it grows.
 He claimed that failure to gain
gratification from these areas will result
in “fixation” in adulthood.
 As a result of this he came up with five
(5) psychosexual stages.

1856-1939)
 He argued that human life is predominated by
sexual instincts or pleasures. He called this
sexual energy “libido”
 This energy is released in order to have the
required satisfaction it craves.
 He also grouped up the will be different outlets
through which libido release will be met.
 He called these areas the ‘Erogenous zone’ or
erogenic zones.

Oral stage (0-1years)
 At this stage the erogenous zone is the
mouth.
 During this time the child enjoys in
mouth manipulation activities, such as
sucking.
 Sucking is directed toward the beast or
feeding bottle.
 If oral needs are not met appropriately in
order to release this sexual energy. Eg.
By restriction of breast feeding.

Oral stage (0-1years) cont
 The child will show sign of “oral fixation”
such as thumb sucking, finger nail
bitting, pencil chewing in childhood,
overeating, chewing of gum and smoking
later in life.

Anal stage (1-3 years)
 Here the erogenous zone shifts from the
mouth to the anal region.
 The child will derive pleasure from anal
activities e.g. holding and releasing urine and
faeces, they may also enjoy excreting faeces
anyhow.
 During this stage toilet training becomes
critical.
 If the parents become too strict with the child it
will show signs of “anal fixation” because the
sexual energy is trapped.1/19/2021 Jones H.M-MBA/DMS

Anal stage (1-3 years) cont
 The manifestation will manifest in form of
extreme orderliness and cleanliness or
messiness and disorder.
 It may even manifest in form of
stinginess.

Phallic stage (3-6years)
 The Id impulse now transfers to the
genitals
 The child feel sexually attracted to the
parent of the opposite sex. This is called
“Oedipus complex” for boys and “Electra
complex for girls.
 At this stage the girl child will show vivid
inferiority as compared to the boy child.

Phallic stage (3-6years) cont
 It will envy having a penis and become
closer to the father.
 At this stage this is important because it
sets a stage for future heterosexual
feelings.
 For fear of punishment the child will give
up this desire, such as castration the
child will start identifying with some sex
parent.

Phallic stage (3-6years) cont
 This is called “identification”
 As a result the superego is formed.
 During the withdrawal period, if the child
over identifies with the parent of the
same sex. This can lead to
homosexuality later in life.

Latent stage/ stage limbo
(6-11years)
 During this stage the sexual instincts die
down, and the superego develops
further.
 The child concentrates on developing
gender roles.
 The child acquires social values from
adults outside the family and from play
with the same sex peers.

Genital stage (Adolescence)
 Puberty causes the same sexual
impulses of the phallic stage to reappear.
 The sexual feeling reappear but this it is
with a higher intensity.
 The feelings will be directed toward the
opposite sex (heterosexual) if the earlier
stages were successful.
 This will lead to marriage and the birth
and rearing of children.

Genital stage (Adolescence) cont
 However if the were not the person will
have strong feeling towards same sex
(homosexuality).
 The child will also be selective of the
friends he/she chooses.
 These experiences go into the
unconscious as repressed material.
These repressed material manifest in
form of wet dream and slip of the tongue.

2. The ego
 The ego screens the Id or materials from
the Id
 It operates on reality principle and
attempts to protect the self from un
desirable or threatening situations by the
use of the defense mechanisms such as:

Functions of the ego
The common defense mechanism used by the Ego are:
 Repression
 Denial
 Projection
 Reaction formation
 Sublimation
 Compensation
 Introjections
 Identification
 Rationalization
 displacement

Projection
 It is a mechanism where the guilt laden wish or
action by an individual are rejected by the
person and instead blamed on another person.
E.g.
 A nurse on duty who wants to knock off early
asks the fellow nurse to give a report on her
behalf and if that person refuses, that he or
she is busy the person will accuse that person
that you have refused because you just want
to go and meet your boy friend.

Repression
 This happens when the demand comes
from the Id that is inapproppriate.
 The ego will take into consideration the
situation obtaining on the ground.
 The ego will push this demand into the
unconscious.
 This demand does not die but may find
its expression in the dream or slip of the
togue.

Repression cont
 E.g. if the a nurse feels attracted to the
patient, then he/she realizes that this is
unprofessional
 This may come in form of this nurse
addressing this patient as darling only to
realize that this is inappropriate he/she
may she sorry its just the slip of the
tongue.

Denial
The ego does not only protect the self
from the id alone but the environment as
well e.g.. The ego may protect the self
from painful and stressful experiences
and feelings by denying their existence.
For example when a patient is told of the
life threatening disease such as AIDS
he/she may say that its not true.

Reaction formation
 It si a defense mechanism where instead
of portraying your exact emotion about
something, you portray the exact
opposite.
 E.g. a person feels attracted to a certain
person instead of accepting the exact
emotion, he may say he really irritates
me.
 This is in order to hide the exact feeling.

regression
 This is where a person avoid s tension
by reverting to a behavior pattern which
belong to an earlier developmental
stage.
 E.g. a an old man aged 90 who is about
to die may start calling out his mother’s
name in a desperate attempt to return to
an earlier source of solace and support.

Sublimation
 This usually occurs when the directy
fulfillment of love and hate outlets is
denied us by the environment, then it
become necessary to rechannel the
frustrated tension energy into alternative
socially acceptable love and hate outlets.

Sublimation cont
 For example a young pediatric nurse
may successfully rechannel of her own
frustrated maternal love fulfillment drive
into love fulfillment with her child patient.
 This is a positive rechannelled love outlet

Introjection
 This is where one unconsciously absorbs
unto one self tension outlet.emotional
attitudes ,standard and ideals from
people around one.
 E.g. a person who grows up in a violent
environment may consider violence as a
best solution to resolving differences.

Compensation
 A mechanism concerned with alternative
satisfaction when motivation for
recognition, honour and physical powers
are frustrated by real or imagined
inadequacy within the individual.
 E.g a compensatory sense for blindness
may be a sense of smell, hearing and
taste.

Compensation cont
 However it may be a responsibility of the
nurse and occupational therapist to
anticipate the sense of loss in the patient
and thus introduce compensatory
activities before depression,
uselessness, isolation and despair sets
in.

Rationalization
 Here a person unconsciously justifies ideas
and behaviour about one feels guilty, inferior
or anxious.
 For example wre an incompetent nurse is told
by the in charge that she is unreliable and
useless and without any prospect of success.
 Instead of letting this destroy her self image,
she may simply say that sister does not like
me.

Displacement
 Is where one transfers the emotion
concern with one person onto another
usually weak individual.
 For instance a nurse may be angry with
her ward in charge ,but because she
cant dare not reveal her true aggressive
feeling to the sister, she takes out on her
patient in a domineering behaviour,
aggression or unkindness.

Identification
 Is a way by which a person identifies
with the agroup or individual, sharing his
emotions .
 E.g. when a person joins a group, he/she
may want to be like them
 The pattern of tension expresion adopted
by the group governs the way its
members are expected to behave or
express themselves.

Identification cont
 Identification may prove very valuable in
achieving happy and peaceful outlets in
a hospital ward
 When the nursing staff create a happy,
confident and friendly atmosphere in the
ward.

Identification cont
 Individual patients will identify with them,
directing their own tension energy into
positive outlets such as friendly
conversations, and helpfulness.

THE SUPEREGO
 Apart from the ego the Id requires control
from the Superego.
 The superego is a collection of moral
values of society. For instance when you
see some one beautiful you feel
attracted to the even if thy are
someone's wife r husband.
 The superego will tell the Id that that is
unacceptable in this society.

Superego cont
 The stronger the morals values the
society one lives in the stronger the
superego is going to be.

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