Human development can be defined in many ways. Human development is mainly defined as a process of enhancing the opportunities, well-being, and freedom that people are given (Measure of America, n.d.). There have been many people that have created different stages of development. However, there are two people that created two similar models, Erik Erickson and Sigmund Freud. The first stage of development is infancy, which defines the person from birth to eighteen months. This stages crisis is called trust versus mistrust stage because the infant has to learn to trust or mistrust from the mother. Early childhood is the next stage from eighteen months to three years. This is where the person wants to become familiar with more skills. The crisis in this stage is called the autonomy versus doubt stage. This is where the child gets a sense of independence. Middle childhood is continued on from three to five years of age. This stages crisis can be called initiative versus guilt. This is where the child will learn not to do something again, and if they do it they will most likely feel guilty. Late childhood is ages five to twelve. This is where the child really starts to grow as a person. The crisis within this stage is industry versus inferiority. This is where success brings a good feeling and failure brings about a bad one. Adolescence is moving the child into their teenage years. The ages of this stage are twelve to twenty. This is where the person will completely change due to puberty. This is where the person will find himself or herself. Early adulthood is the next ten years after the adolescence stage. This is where the person will find a job, a life, and a mate. The crisis in this stage is called intimacy versus isolation. Mature adulthood is middle-aged people, thirty to sixty-five. This is where the crisis in life is generativity versus stagnation. In this stage, people want to have children and watch them grow as individuals. Old age is the end period of a person’s life. From sixty-five and on, the crisis in this stage of life is integrity versus despair. This is where the person accepts their life for what it was or is. If they do not accept their life, they will face despair as they deteriorate (Sharma, 2015).
The Ecological Systems Theory (EST) is very interesting. A man named Urie Bronfenbrenner created the theory. This theory is defined as how a person grows due to the intense relationships the person endures in their environment. Inside this theory is five different sections. The five different sections are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and dynamic, ever-changing system, or chronosystem (Berk, 2014).
The microsystem is what the person’s activities and relations consist of in their direct surroundings. This is the innermost part of this theory. The microsystem’s relationships are with the people they would see every day, such as teachers, friends, family, and etc. (Salem Press, 2018). The next section is the mesosystem connects the relationships within the microsystem. This is an important section in the EST because if an ex-husband and an ex-wife do not talk to each other, the child might because confused as to what is going on at which house (Salem Press, 2018). But these divorced parents are communicating the child will be less puzzled. The third section is the exosystem. This section describes the factors that the person has not caused, but has been affected by them (Berk, 2014). This could be where a child is being bullied in school and is being affected by it. The Macrosystem are the laws, values, origins, and culture that the person grew up with (Berk, 2014). For example, parents have set values, such as respect for other people. This is the value that the child/person is to follow as well. The largest layer of the EST is called the chronosystem. This section looks at how a person’s interactions change or stay the same in a time frame. A child in the early childhood stage would not be able to solve the same issues as an adult from the Adolescence stage (Salem Press, 2018).
The EST is a model that is neither continuous nor discontinuous. In this specific model, there are many courses of development. The EST has many courses of development because of biologically induced factors. The biological factors combine with the environmental forces that meet in different times and ways that cause development (Berk, 2014).
Human development is something that is beautiful to watch and interesting to learn about. There are many stages of development in life. In each stage, there is a different crisis that people face. The Ecological Systems theory is a great way to look at how people are brought up and affected throughout their life. This shows why the person is the way they are. There are five layers within the model that describe different effects brought on by biological and environmental factors. The EST has many courses of development. If one thing changes within one of the layers, then they change as well.