Developing Through the LIfe Span Blog

I thought that learning about the different theories of development was pretty interesting. As far as understanding what they were saying, I think that Piaget's theory made a lot of sense. For the most part, I thought that he had an accurate theory on the stages of life. In my case the stages fit pretty well. Before age two, (not that I really remember this stage) I didn't do much imaginary playing or talking. In the next stage I did a lot of talking and a lot of imaginary games like 'house' or 'restaurant' with my younger brother. In the next stage I had started school and I started doing a lot more thinking into different things and I understood how to do more advanced school work. On the negative side of Piaget’s theory, the years he gave didn't always line up with my life. The stages I went through all happened a lot like Piaget predicted, but at a little bit different ages. By the time I was 1 1/2 years old I could say over twenty words and could put a lot of the words with pictures. On the other side of that, by the time I was eight years old, I still did a lot of pretend playing with my little brother. (I was always told I had a crazy imagination.) So while Piaget had the right ideas, I don't think that the ages held true in every case.
With Erikson's theory, I had a lot harder time relating to it, and didn't have as good of an understanding on what it was saying. I think some of it made sense, like children under one developing a sense of basic trust, but again, I think the flaw in his theory is in the ages listed. There were a lot of the things listed that happened to me at some point in my life, but a lot of what happened occurred before the ages Erikson said it would.
Learning about parent attachment really showed me that parents matter. It helped me see that kids need to develop a sense of trust in their parents in order to develop in a healthy way. I thought that the study that the Harlows did with the monkeys was good proof that children need to be nurtured and share an attachment to their parents. The picture of the little monkey cowering with his hands over his eyes on page 190 really helps show how important it is to have some form of parent to be attached too. When that attachment was taken away the monkey didn’t know what to do. In my own case, I know this is true. I've always been pretty attached to my parents. As a kid I cried when I had to go to school for the first time, and I always felt safer in public when my parents were with me. If I hadn't grown up with that attachment I think I'd have been a different person today. I probably would be a lot less caring about others and a lot more afraid to socialize with other people because I wouldn't have grown up with that sense of security we get from being around other people.
For now, most of the changes I expect later in life are pretty predictable. I think the biggest life changes will be going to college, getting married, getting my first real job, and eventually retiring. As far as answering what has prepared me to manage these changes, I think that I still have a long way to go before I'm prepared for most of them. For now I can prepare for college by staying in school and giving it my best. Then I can use college to prepare for my future career, and I can use my career to prepare for my retirement. It goes to show that most of the things we do in life often come back to prepare us for the next major switch that will occur.
The most interesting concept I came across was in the four styles of parenting. I thought it was weird that three of the four styles of parenting could lead to the same negative results. In the neglectful parent, the permissive parent and the authoritarian parent families it showed that possible outcomes for the kids all included anxiety about social comparison, lack of initiative, and poor communication skills. I thought it was weird because each style is so different, yet could be equally harmful for the kids.
One question that the chapter raised was related to maturation and infant memory. The book said "our earliest memories seldom predate our third birthday." From personal experience I actually have at least four or five memories from when I was two years old. I remember the night that I broke my arm when I was two and a half, and I also remember going to the doctors to get the cast off three months later. Now, I know the theories of development that we learned about are relative and the ages aren't strictly proven, but I did come up with one theory as to why my memories started so early. See, by the time I was one and a half I had a bigger vocabulary than most of the babies around the same age. So to pull away from my personal bragging time, I'll get to my question in all of this. Do you think that the earlier we learn to talk makes us start making memories earlier? And by talking earlier, do we gain a better understanding of the world around us at a younger age?