Social and Developmental Essay Example for Free

Social and Developmental EssayPsychodynamic theories of record have impacted greatly on the Developmental Psychology of today. They originated with the work of Sigmund Freud in the later part of the nineteenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. Freud, Jung, Erickson and Fromm all focussed on the unconscious mind and the effects of early childhood experiences on the festering of personality. Freuds psychosexual model is based on 5 stages with the first five years of life beingness most crucial to victimization of personality.Erikson proposed an 8 stage psychosocial plan, which placed importance on the whole lifespan, leaning that development does not cease at a certain age. According to Hayes (2000) two Freud and Jung argued that personality was set by childhood experiences and was due partly to maturation and partly to the influences of close family. Fromm on the separate hand recognised both factors as well as acknowledging society as a trinity factor in the forma tion of personality.A more current view based on both the psychoanalytical and biologic approaches is that of Bowlby (1969) who studied attachment in children. His Affective perspective concentrates on emotional development and has had an impact how children are cared for whilst away from their central carer for example whilst in childcare or hospital. Genetic and biologic explanations propose that each individual is born with genetically determined characteristic patterns of personality.Studies of twins show that same twins brought up apart share much more in common than fraternal twins. The manganese twin study, (Bouchard, 1984 as cited by Bee 2000 p266) not only demonstrated this point, but also uncovered outstanding similarities in aspects such as taste in clothes, hobbies and interests, posture, body language etc. in homogeneous twins who had never met each other. The biological approach to personality is strongly supported by a large amount of empirical research and as su ch is difficult to dispute.As Bee (2000) explains there is evidently no refuting the fact that built-in genetic and physiological patterns underlie what we think of as both tendency and personality. (Bee 2000 p269) Some studies show that as much as 60% of our personality is genetically determined. A that strength in the biological explanation is that it is interactionist, thereby acknowledging the role of the environment in addition to the biological factors. The biological approach has one main weakness in that it does not account for change as temperament is not necessarily permanent.