One of the experiences that is still very vivid in my memory in that of nurturing my first child, this being my first experience at parenting. I could still remember the way my child grew, my contributions, the way I feel and my attitudes at this time. It is even more exciting analyzing this experience using Eriksons psychosexual theory and Piagets Cognitive theory.
There are a lot of similarities as well as differences in these theories and, in using these theories, I discovered more similarities and differences in my actual life experience and what these theories present. I would like to discuss these in this reflective essay. In order to give an in depth description of my childs psychological development and my parenting role, I might have to briefly talk certain aspects of my life starting right from the beginning of my life. I was born and bought up in Pakistan a liberal country. Then, at the age of sixteen, I got married and moved to Saudi Arabia (a male dominative country) with my husband. After fifteen years in Saudi, I moved to Australia. The fact that I have spent my life in three different countries so far gives me a wide range of exposure in personal and psychological development. All these experiences have contributed towards my own psychological and personal development. This, in turn, I believe has an influence on my contribution, as a parent, in my childs growth. Thus, my own psychological development and personality is one of the influencing factor also in my childs growth.
This development of my child as discussed in this essay is analyzed based on the eight stages of human development theory developed by the psychiatrist, Erik Erikson and on Piagets Cognitive theory. According to Piaget, as an individual interacts with his world from birth on, he constructs his mental representations of the world he interacts with based on his experiences and interaction (Olson, 1996). This ongoing process is called adaptation. By this, it means that an individual resorts to his mental representations of his world to interpret issues he is faced with currently. These mental representation are however, based on his previous experience with his world. Piaget highlighted that mans cognitive development consists of four distinct stages. These are sensor motor stage, preoperational stage, concrete stage and formal stage (Piaget, 1950). Erikson, on the other hand, presented his theory of mans psychosocial development. He explained that mans growth and change is an eight-stage development with the stages being interrelated. The development is also such that one stage overlaps into the next and this spans through mans entire life cycle (Erikson, 1950 Erikson, 1959). Furthermore, Eriksons theory focuses the social interactions and conflicts associated with each of the eight stages of an individuals development.
The similarity between these two theories is that they both tend to provide explanations for human development. However, there are differences in the way they presented their theories. One of the major differences is that Piagets theory explains for the development of man until the stage of puberty. However, the stages of development presented by Erickson spans more than this period of puberty. While Erikson believes that there are eight stages that represent different periods in a childs development (Erikson, 1998), Piaget tend to create a concept that explains the reasoning behind the behaviour of a child at each stage of his development. Piaget is of the opinion that mans present view of his world is actually based on his interaction and experiences with that world. A change in his views thus arises as a result of the change in his interaction with his world (Satterly, 1987).
Another interesting difference in the two theories concerns whether people must go through all of the postulated developmental stages. In Eriksons model, if a person lives long enough, he will face each of the developmental crises. This person may or may not resolve these crises but he will pass through it at the given time (Erikson, 1998). This is not the case with the Piagets theory. It maintained that all individual would of necessity experience each of the four developmental stages he presented with no certainty that all will achieve final maturation (Wood, 1998). In Eriksons model, each of the eight stages of development describes different periods of mans development and the interactions and conflicts that are peculiar to each stage. He emphasized that these interactions and conflicts influences each persons personality and behaviour. However, if an individual fails to completely undergo any of the stages, there are consequences to follow. These mostly come as complications for the subject, later in life (Erikson, 1998).
In light of the above theories, I would now like to discuss my experience of having my first child. At the initial stages, I was wondering what to expect as my child develops. I was then living in Saudi Arabia, a country where male dominion is more pronounced. Erikson looks at the society as a means through which a childs initial growth and development can be influenced and modelled. Even religion, an institution that the society created, plays a major role. This was my main concern as a parent. I was conscious of the fact that I am about to raise a child in an environment where the government creates its own laws of religion and forces them upon the residents of its country.
Even though I was born in a Muslim family and I did practice this religion at that time, it was still a huge struggle to understand what the role of the government was as far as the religious affairs of the country are concerned. Hence, my first concern was to ensure that this scenario does not create a situation where the child feels uncomfortable with the supposed religious imposition by the government. This is likely to instil a sense of mistrust on the child and this may lead to a personal uncomfortable feeling in that the child does not have the option of choice when it comes to religion. In the light of Eriksons first developmental change, my fear actually is that my child might tend to start viewing constituted authorities (including my own authority as a parent) with no level of trust. This may not create a positive first stage for my child. He may tend to come out of this stage with no trust for instructions and knowledge especially when it comes from a higher position in hierarchy. Piagets theory explains that a child continually forms an interpretation of his world as he continually encounters new knowledge and experience in interacting with his environment (Piaget, 1967). So, inspite of the fact that the environment was imposing when it comes to religious affinity, I had to create for my child an environment where mistrust will not set in. Though it took me the effort of manipulating my childs environment, I knew that it was for his own benefit and in order to create a positive psychological development for him. I was trying to keep a balanced home environment as otherwise the scenario could be tipped way over on a side where mistrust would later set in for my child. Erikson is of the opinion that mistrust is presented as inclinations to display certain attitudes and characters such as withdrawal, depression, delusion, suspicion and unrealistic reasons to distrust (Erikson, 1998). However, with a properly balanced environment a more positive development can be achieved for the child. At home, we also had to play our parts as parents. With the help of my husband and a few other family friends, we decided that we must advance our learning about Islam in order to be able to distinguish right from wrong.
Then, we would be able to create an environment for our children and teach them the correct way of thinking. It is not just the religion we were trying to learn. Rather, we were more concerned with the teachings about the principles of life presented in the religion. Instead of focusing on the imposition of the religion by the government, we were more conscious to make the children see the good teachings on the principles for living that the religion has to offer. I did not want my child to be lost or get the wrong impression of Islam or that about the principles of life from the surrounding he was living in. In this regard, we organized classes for young kids every Friday to teach about the tenets of the religion. This in essence helped in developing the right moral value. I understand that the acquisition the right moral teachings as applied to the way of living and societal interaction is one of the major things my child had to learn (Allen and Marotz, 2000).
My child started school at the age of 3 years also in Saudi Arabia. I sent him to a private multicultural environment type of school till the age of seven. I was careful to choose this school to be sure that the environment will enhance the acquisition of the necessary cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills for my child (Huitt Hummel, 2003). I could say I was not disappointed on the long run. In fact, most of the kids in that school were of parents who had similar concerns as I do. If these parents (who were looking for a place similar to that which I was looking for) could bring their wards to a place like this, I was more convinced that I had made the right choice. When my child turned eight, I decided to send him to a different school for his elementary education bearing in mind the views of Erikson that the nature and character of the elementary school impacts greatly on the development of self-confidence for the child. Thus, I had to be selective in my choice of schools. Eventually, I decided to send him to an International Embassy School in Jeddah. If I had sent him to a Saudi Arabian school instead, I guessed he would have been acquired a limited or dented view on different aspects of life (especially religion and politics). A person does not have freedom of speech in such a country as Saudi Arabia whereas in the school I sent my child, the tendency is high that he will develop a free mind and a way of reasoning on any issue in life.The adolescent stage is considered a difficult time of life and one in which a number of changes occur as the individual grows in various aspects of his personality. Some theorists, such as Piaget, were concerned about the adolescent stage, seeing the stage as the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. Another category (to which Erikson belonged) are of the view that the transition stage is not only limited to the adolescent stage. Rather, the whole life cycle of an individual consists of eight stages and each of the stages transits into the next in a continuous manner (Flavell, 1996). However, both Piaget and Erickson agreed that the stage of adolescence is a major stage in a childs development in that it leads in transition to adulthood (Flavell, 1996).
In addition, Erikson referred to the adolescent stage as the fifth stage in his 8-stage model. Successful developing through this stage earns the individual the acquisition of the fidelity virtue (Erikson, 1959 Erikson, 1968). In explaining this, he referred to fidelity as being loyal especially to the society that one has found himself irrespective of the shortcomings attributable to such a society. With this knowledge, I saw the need for my child to successfully pass through the adolescent stage. He has learnt to create a level of trust for his society as suggested by the first stage of Eriksons model. I was sure his adolescent stage is now the time for him to imbibe the attitude of loyalty for his society despite any imperfections that he may observe as peculiar to that society. The loyal skill that anyone can notice in my son today stems more from my understanding of Eriksons theory and my effort at working on its realization in my sons life. This was really a hard work for me but the end definitely justifies the means.
At the adolescent stage of my child, we got a chance to migrate to Australia (then my child turned thirteen). This further caused more difficulties for my child. He had to cope with changes in culture, language and a very different environment. It was difficult for him to express himself. To help him a little, I had to put him in an Islamic school (to provide an environment familiar to that which he is coming from, at least) instead of a public school. However, I must say that it was very challenging to be able to fit into a very different environment especially at that age. In the views of Piaget mans cognitive development stages could be regarded as orderly and highly predictable. Armed with this, I was more confident that I would be able to help my child through his growth especially during the adolescent period. Since growth and development in attitudes and characters are predictable, it was easy to prepare in anticipation of the changes that came about in my child. My goal actually was to help my child to be able to confidently deal with the issues and challenges of any stage of his life. I was very successful at this. Thanks to the depth of my understanding of the propositions of the theorists I have used.
Today, the end result of my efforts was a child that is versed and well developed in all the aspects of development as suggested by Piaget (cognitive, affective and psychomotor). Educationally, he has been the best in his fields of academic endeavour. In addition, his contributions to the society at large are laudable. Thanks to the theories of Piaget and Erikson.Looking back at what I have done over the years and the level of development that my son has achieved, I could submit that the that experiences in life, the changes one goes through, achievements gained, the influence of child rearing, societal changes and culture all have a really important role on human development. Eriksons psychosocial crisis life cycle model - the eight stages of human development model of psychosocial development is a very significant, highly regarded and meaningful concept. Life is a series of lessons and challenges, which help us, grow. Eriksons wonderful theory helps us in understanding a childs development into adulthood. Moreover, Piaget propositions ensure that a child is developed in a more balanced way. Cognitive development only does not make for full development. Total development is more robust and encompassing than this. This understanding has also been very instrumental to my success as a parent.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment