Studying Erikson, Piaget, And Kohlberg's Theory Of Child Development

Children’s behaviors and reactions have always been so interesting to me. Studying Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg’s different theories on human development has given me a much deeper understanding of these behaviors. Although their theories are different, they do share three assumptions according to an article on SparkNotes.com: 1. People pass through stages in a specific order, with each stage building on capacities developed in the previous stage. 2. Stages are related to age. 3. Development is discontinuous, with qualitatively different capacities emerging in each stage” ("Psychology/Development," 2012, p. 1). While studying these three theorists it has affected my own idea of human development in two ways. Additionally, my view of how a patient has been raised has affected my nursing care. I admit that when I care for a child, a majority of the time I silently blame the parents for the improper actions of the child. It is easy for me to forgo disciplining an adolescent patient. I often say to myself, it is not the child’s fault and excuse them for their behaviors, mainly because I believed that is how they were raised and they don’t know better.
After learning about Erik Erikson’s theory on development, I realized that a child’s development is not solely dependent on the way the child was raised by their parents. There are other contributing factors in development, according to an article that compares Erikson’s views versus Freud’s titles Erik Erikson. McLeod (2013) states that Erikson, “emphasized the role of culture and society”, (p. 1) in the development of personality. After studying Erikson it has changed my understanding of why children behave and react in certain situations. In McLeod’s (2013) article it also mentions...

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...n Simply Psychology, “children at this age like to explore the world around them and they are constantly learning about their environment” (McLeod, 2013, figure 2). Everything dangerous was kept in locked drawers and cabinet, so I thought the child would be safe roaming around the small exam room. Also, the incident involving the child’s eye was traumatizing to him and after the sutures are placed it would cause even more trauma. I explained to the parents that in order to instill autonomy into this child, they must allow the child to explore to overcome any fears that may be brought upon from this traumatic event. That is just one example of how I utilized Erikson’s theories into my nursing practice. I will continue to bring it into my plan of care, because I now have an understanding of why children react and behave in a certain way towards different situations.