Jennifer Munoz

PSY 211
April 15, 2022
Southern New Hampshire University

PSY 211 Project Two Case Study Analysis

1. Identify a theorist, summarize their theory, and explain the aspects of that theory that

relate to the biological perspective.

The human body is compulsorily subjected to many developmental changes right from

the infantile stage, and one of the major physical pointers used in gauging such changes

are the sexual appendages. The human sexual organs have always been an important

aspect of human body development used in detecting maturity. There are also the

sociological, physiological and psychological implications attached to the development of

such organs in every human society.

Hence, Lumen Learning (2022) presents Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual

development as a relevant theory that explains the psychological and social implications

of body part development, especially the sexual parts. Freud’s asserted that children’s

pleasure-seeking parts or erogenous zones (oral, latent, anal, and genital) are critical to

their physiological and psychological growth.

Thus, this theory is stating that children’s experiences with their psychosexual

developments can alter or shape their adulthood. One can adduce the relevance of Freud’s

theory to the far-reaching effects of sexual abuse during the infantile, juvenile and

teenage years of a person.

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2. Provide an example of how this biological perspective of life-span development applies

to your lived experience.

A relatable personal experience to the above theory is explained on how many new

generation teenagers and even preteens are having much more rapid growths. This is an

evolutionary trait that is now more widespread than what was obtainable during one’s

time when growing up in the past. This sometimes lead to awkward moments when one

will mistakenly address some teenagers as university graduates or married adults.

3. Identify a theorist, summarize their theory, and explain the aspects of that theory that

relate to the psychological perspective.

[Natalie’s exposition in Study (2021) posits that humans collectively undergo constant

changes in their minds and thoughts as the grow from childhood to adulthood. The

exposition discusses how people's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationships change

throughout their individual lifespans as studied under developmental psychology. The

purpose of developmental psychology in this case highlights the varied paces at which

people grow cognitively based on critical factors like age, environment, parenting,

background, etc.

Natalie further used an imagined scenario to explain varying stages of human cognitive

development. The scenario showed a man named Wes challenging his two kids to think

of how two separate pieces of stick can be put together to form a bigger stick. So in

response to his challenge, the older named Ellen simply drew a diagram of the two pieces

being joined as one while the younger named Ethan toddled over to the pieces to join

them together. Though they were both kids, Ellen was shown to be older and hence more

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 mentally developed to do the task without a physical attempt. The younger Ethan, who

was revealed to still be a toddler, had to physically join the sticks together to get the task.

Thus the example showed how much the factor of age affects human psychological

development.

However, the exemplified scenario above can still be debated due to the fact that several

adults are still stuck in their childhood cognitive developmental stage.]

4. Provide an example of how this psychological perspective of life-span development

applies to your lived experience.

As already stated, personal experience with problems concerning this perspective has

been seen exhibited by many adults despite advancements in age. Stagnant cognitive

development as personally seen exhibited in some adults were signifiers of probable

family dysfunction, individual impairment or extremely impoverished backgrounds.

Some adults still converse like children both in the figurative and actual sense due to the

aforementioned factors. This is why it is stated that some people never truly passed those

childhood stages of cognitive development despite being in adult bodies.

5. Identify a theorist, summarize their theory, and explain the aspects of that theory that

relate to the social perspective.

[Lumen Learning (2022) explained the social aspect concerning lifespan theory through

Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Erikson’s theory posits that human development,

unlike Freud’s theory, is a continuous process throughout people’s lifespans. His theory

stressed on the critical importance of having social interactions with other people in any

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 environment. This will in turn affect a child’s sense of self, identity and life’s purpose.

Also, Erikson’s psychosocial theory proposed that there are eight stages of development

from infancy and through adulthood where there are tasks or conflict to overcome. And

the success of completing these stages of tasks is quite essential in reaching the full sense

of competence and healthy personality for anyone’s development through lifetime. The

theory believed that social interactions are part of such tasks, and how well guardians or

parents build up a child’s trust for such psychosocial active will determine their success

when undergoing the eight stages of growth.

6. Provide an example of how this social perspective of life-span development applies to

your lived experience.

[A personal experience concerning the social perspective of life span was seen in the way

a history teacher made use of ventriloquism and costumes to enhance the interactive

participations of students in a Junior high school class of a friend’s kid. The students,

who used to view the class as the most monotonous and dreadful, became much more

creative and interactive in their consecutive lessons.

Erikson’s psychosocial theory on guidance and mentorship towards achieving progress

and sense of purpose is portrayed in the real life experience stated above.

7. Describe why analyzing the life span from a combined biological, psychological, and

social perspective is important.

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The core reason why such analysis is important is because human life can never be fully

studied and hoped to be understood from one developmental perspective. All of the above

perspectives do reflect what is known as the human psyche which encompasses all three.

One cannot hope to be active or healthy without the activeness of the others. The three

represent the physical properties of a human’s body, the thought processes and the

communicative aspects. Thus, the effort to study the development of human life span lies

in fully understanding the relevance of the perspectives and how much they affect a child

and its adult years in any community.

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References

Lumen Learning. (2022). Lifespan Theories. Principles of Psychology.

/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/psychology2x4master/chapter/lifespan-theories

Natalie, B. (2021). What are Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Development? Study Academy.

#https://study.com/academy/lesson/cognitive-social-and-emotional-development.html