The Ecological Systems Theory
The ecological systems theory was formulated by Urie Bronfenbrenner in an attempt to explain how various inherent qualities of a child and his or her environment interact to influence the manner in which they will grow or develop. Through the ecological theory, Bronfenbrenner postulates that it is essential to study a child in the context of multiple environments to better understand their development (Psychology Notes HQ, 2013) . From the time of birth to adulthood, human beings often find themselves immersed in various ecosystems. These ecosystems mainly range from the most intimate which is the home system to the larger school system and finally the society and culture. More importantly, these systems are in constant interactions with each other thus influencing every aspect of a youngster’s life. The ecosystems theory, therefore, organizes the contexts of human development into five levels of external influence which constitutes the microsystems, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and the chronosystem.
The microsystem is the smallest and the most immediate setting in which a child lives. It is composed of the school or daycare, the daily home, the community environment and the peer group that a child belongs to. When children interact with the microsystem, they develop personal relationships with their teachers, family members, classmates and caregivers, a factor that influences their go back and forth. How various individuals in the microsystem environmental setting interact with youngsters ultimately affects how they will grow (Psychology Notes HQ, 2013) . For instance, while still at the youngster, I was very fortunate to have supportive family members and teachers who nurtured me towards a right path. In this manner, they greatly helped in fostering my development throughout the years. They helped to become the right person who can adequately interact with various individuals within the community to develop stable and prosperous relationships.
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The mesosystem mainly comprises the interactions of various microsystems which a child who is developing finds himself or herself in. In this system both schools and homes, peer groups and family members or family members and church members are linked together (Psychology Notes HQ, 2013) . In this setting, the active involvement of a parent in their children’s friendships greatly influences their development throughout their life. For example, during my younger years, my parents regularly invited my friends over to our house to play together, a factor that helped to foster harmony and like-mindedness between my friends and me. Moreover, I noticed that whenever I was with my friends, my parents gave us words of encouragements and did not criticize my friends. This action on the part of my parents positively influenced my development and had helped me to interact better with various individuals over the years. The exosystem setting involves linkages within the ecosystem that exists between two or more environments, that although may not contain the developing child, will influence their development indirectly (Psychology Notes HQ, 2013) . They include places such as the parent's workplace or extended family members that although does not directly interact with the child still affects them. For instance, in our family, my parents are hardworking, and this has enabled them to get good jobs and good salaries. Therefore, I have never lacked anything, am treated well and have attended the best schools.
The chronosystem influences both change and constancy in a child's environmental setting. It may include a change in the structure of the family, parent’s employment status in addition to changes in economic cycles or even the occurrences of war, all of which influences the development of a child. The macrosystem, on the other hand, is comprised of the cultural patterns, values, dominant beliefs and ideas in addition to political and economic systems associated with the child. For instance, since my childhood, have been made to believe that respecting one's elders results in many blessings, a factor that has helped me to foster good relationships with those older than me in the society.
The Psychological Theory of Human Development
Erik Erikson developed the most popular and influential theory of development that focused on psychological development. According to Erikson, the personality of an individual develops in a series of stages. The psychological theory of human development by Erikson describes how social experiences affect the development of an individual across their whole lifespan. In short, the argument focuses on how social interactions and relationships influence the growth development of people (Cherry, 2018) . The theory involves eight stages that are, trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame and doubt, initiative vs guilt, industry vs inferiority, identity vs confusion, intimacy vs isolation, generatively vs stagnation, integrity vs despair. Each of the stages builds on preceding stages and consequently paves the way for the periods of developments that follow.
Moreover, in each of these stages, people have to experiences conflicts that act as turning points in their development. These conflict primarily centre on developing a person's psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. In these times, although a person has the possibility of achieving the highest personal growth, they also have the potential for failure (Cherry, 2018) .
If an individual successfully deals with the conflicts, they will emerge from each of the eight stages of psychological development with psychological strengths that will adequately serve them for the remainder of their lives. However, failure to effectively deal with the conflicts will result in the inability to develop essential skills needed for the creation of a strong sense of self. According to Erikson, a sense of competence in an individual helps them to motivate their behaviours and actions (Cherry, 2018) . In short, each of the stages is purposely concerned with making an individual competent in various areas of life.
For instance, in infants, they are utterly dependent, so their development of trust is based purely of the quality and dependability of their caregivers. During the early years of a child's development, they entirely depend on adult caregivers for all their needs. If a caregiver fails to provide for the needs of a child adequately, the youngster will come to mistrust adults or even feel that he or she cannot depend upon the adults in his or her life. Where’re, if the child successfully develops trust they will feel secure and safe in this world. Additionally, caregivers who are inconsistent, rejecting, and emotionally unavailable often contribute to the feelings of mistrust that a child might develop while growing. Consequently, the failure to build trust will result in the fear and belief that the world is unpredictable and inconsistency. Erikson however further stresses that since no child hundred percent of trust and hundred percent of doubt, successful development depends on striking a balance between these two opposing sides.
Consequently, when children start to gain a little bit of independence, they often begin to perform essential functions of their own and may make simple decisions on their preferences. For example, decisions on what they want to wear or want they prefer to eat. Allowing kids to make their own choices and gain control of their own self’s helps them to develop a sense of autonomy while growing up. During this process, it is crucial to train youngster how to control their bodily functions. In this way, children can develop a feeling of control and a sense of independence, a factor that helps them to feel more secure and confident.
Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget is among the well-known psychologists of our time who discovered various interesting facts behind childhood development and intelligence. In the method of cognitive development, Piaget stipulates that youngsters often go through specific stages of development according to their intellects and their ability to perceive mature relationships (Weisz, 2018) . Although these occurrences are similar for all children regardless o background or culture, they vary according to age. In theory, Piaget utilizes two concepts that are assimilation and accommodation. The accommodation process involves taking new information in an individual’s immediate environment and altering the information to fit the intended new information thus establishing how a person takes in new concepts (Weisz, 2018) . On the other hand, assimilation involves how people perceive adapt to new information. More importantly, these two concepts cannot exist without each other in that for one to assimilate an object into an existing idea; they first need to accommodate the particulars of the object to a certain extent.
Piaget further stresses that during childhood, youngsters have a natural cognitive development stage where they learn to think or interact with the world they live in. However, to achieve this, a child has to go through various evolutionary changes that are marked by a series of stages throughout their childhood, from their birth to pre-adolescent. The first stage is the sensorimotor and occurs in children of age zero to two, the second is the preoperational stage occurring in children between two to seven years, the third is the concrete operational stage occurring between age seven to eleven while the fourth is the formal operational stage occurring from age eleven onwards (Weisz, 2018) .
For instance, after the birth of a baby, their only way of communicating is through crying since they still cannot produce another sound. During their first months after being born, their communication method is entirely pre-linguistic, that is through smiles and crying involuntarily. However, as they grow and develop, their communication becomes voluntary when they learn to use them communicatively. However, on the part of the parents, they can understand the meaning behind their child's smile or cry, a factor which makes this an unintentional form of communication. Consequently, at about six months, a baby learns to babble and make consonant-vocal sounds such as "ba ba ba" while they utter their first words at about twelve months.
Moreover, when a baby repeats specific actions such as shaking rattles, it shows that they like that particular sound. Parents are thus faced with circular reactions and may respond by repeating the same effect on a different surface to make a different sound. This action can help the baby learn that by modifying stimulus, sound changes, and a factor that teaches them the art of exploring.
Consequently, during the preoperational stage, language is of most importance. During this stage, youngsters become more skilled and start engaging in pretend plays even though they still have a real thought of the world around them (Weisz, 2018) . However, although they learn through pretend play, they still struggle with logic in addition to taking points of other people’s views. In short, they struggle to understand the idea of constancy. For instance, one may take a lump of clay and divides it into two equals pieces then give a child to play with. If one of the pieces is rolled into a compact ball while the other piece is smashed till flat, the child will choose the flat shape since it looks larger even though both of the two parts are practically the same.
References
Cherry, K. (2018, October 29). Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. Retrieved November 2018, from Very well Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740
Psychology Notes HQ. (2013, November 03). What is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory? Retrieved November 2018, from The Psychology Notes HQ: https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/bronfenbrenner-ecological-theory/
Weisz, E. R. (2018, May 07). Piaget Theory: Childhood cognitive developmental stages. Retrieved November 2018, from CogniFit: https://blog.cognifit.com/piaget-theory/
