Sociology

The growth and development of individuals has been a subject for which many people including Erikson and Kohlberg had developed eminent interest. Their studies though developed from different perspectives of life are of significant importance in the understanding of influencing factors that shapes the life of person. First and foremost, human life is better described through several stages which are distinctive and distinguished from one another by the learning and understanding of the different aspects. This depends on the fact that individuals are not islands by their own, but they form a special domain of social animal. Thus, the human behavior portrayed together with the actions that becomes part and parcel of life is a reflection the environment of growth and development. The growth and development of mans life is said to be a sophisticated network such that man cannot live in state of freewill, being immune to environmental influences, but human life is always directly or indirectly connected with the environment (Luckock, 2007).

Factually, this implies that there is a virtual and real dependency on the activities and behavior of human growth and development from their surroundings environment. This view can be related to many developments of human behavior. Erikson posited that individuals character is gained through a general model comparable to the fetal development. Normally, the fetus developmental patterns are believed to be the same similarly, childhood to adulthood developmental patterns for each person is also believed to be a duplicate of the other although individuals have they own uniqueness in their lifestyles. The development of the various character and behavior uniqueness is as a consequence of lack of autonomy in the human brain development. The pre-mature or half baked brain together with the tender physical body anatomy, is compels an individual to depend upon the environment, which may have negative or positive impacts on shaping the incomplete formed body organs and structures such as brain. Confidence, love, trust, hate and anger are some of the behavioral factors that Erikson believes they can diffuse from the parents their offspring. These views of Kohlberg and Erikson mean that they are core in shaping infantile to old age life style (Kritiansson, 2003).

As I focus on my life, I believe and consent with the two theorists Kohlberg and Erikson in the manner of growth and development. The view I have is that the course of my life has not strayed from their hypothetical opinions however, there are substantial congruity in it. This is to say that though I cant classified my personality as discretely  bad or good due to partial knowledge or general lack of knowledge in the context of what other people believe and set my character, I can assert that my personality has been shaped by many intrinsic and extrinsic influencing factors. My character has thus been established and or influenced by biotic and a biotic stimuli, nature and nurture each playing its own role. Of the numerous influencing factors of personality, I feel that social factor has got the greatest influence in my life. This assumption emergence from my consideration focused on the family interaction, the interactions with the neighborhoods, friends and the obsessive interaction with the peers. Having mentioned the a few crucial things, I take this as important moment to flask back and evaluate the very personal developments and progression on the various stages by embracing developmental theory and moral developmental model by Erikson and Kohlberg respectively  (Coles and Patrick, 2006).

The evaluation of my personal development and progress perhaps may appear insufficient and disorganized commencing right from the first day I could utilized my lung organs as air exchangers and then extend it to several moths or years Undoubtedly, the first days, months and even a few couples of years of my life were particularly times which I could seldom remember much.  Even so, I thoughtfully feel persuaded to say that these were days when I acquired most significant part of my life, as it may asserted from the Eriksons theory of development as well as psychological and physiological knowledge. In other words, I consider it as the first and initial stage of my development which I intimately associate it with nutritional and other innate necessities but not excluding the enjoyable parental support I received. I not only had the pleasure of parental support, but I also depended on them in many ways. I may say I had rapid sensational development which was triggered by the maternal comforting style from numerous stumbling, and pinches to direct my nave thoughts to the correct path to maturity. I figure this high parental dependency right from the normal physical body support to extend of aided information acquisition from the surrounding to have been the compelling force for Erikson to define the stage as an oral- sensory stage, however, I perceived things in the way they appeared without having to transcending the physical perspectives as I can do today. Within a short period of almost a year, I doubted not on my parents on the provision of whatever I needed. my trust on them had developed from the previous total dependences, which I think had buried its rival mistrust unless aroused by mistreatment or bullying actions. Thus, I have not entirely poured my trust on the worlds environment, as Im conscious of those untrustworthy persons that are there to hurt my life (Kroger, 2004).

As a child aged between one and three years, I did much which right now I also dont remember very much. But still based on Eriksons information and ideas, I tend to think that I had relieved a tonnage of load from my parents. This was the second developmental level in my life during which I was becoming a bit autonomous. Though what I know about my life at this time is still quite unclear, it was a dual level of development for both figurative and literal matters. I often fed myself besides having to keep rolling plastic ball doll in the sitting room. I therefore see myself being less depended on the parents as I could fully or partially do some of the few things like feeding, dressing and keeping myself busy with things around me (Daiter et al., 2008).

Nevertheless, this was just but a limited freedom of my life. Speaking of autonomy means that I could make some interaction with the things within my environment. This demarcated the transition to the next developmental third stage. Strolling around the rooms and within the home yard gave the opportunity of utilizing all the senses, first, I spotted them and then dared to touch or tasting without the consideration of whether there might be any underlying dangers such burning or oral poisoning. My mother would always keep watch over my steps, direction and more than often kept on warning when my actions were leading to danger. To me this was the most hectic time that my mother would have experienced, first being nagged with the bombardment of unclear questions and secondly physical disturbed by my ambitious nature to know more about my surroundings. However, I think she had similar understanding like those of Kohlberg to define this as period of self-interest orientation. At this stage, which I experienced between three and six years had further advance the level of my independence  but this is not to say that I could attain much without parental assistance. This is simply in the view that was gaining more understanding of my surrounding perhaps with new vision and interpretations (Coles and Patrick, 2006).

The lapse of the third stage pave the way for the fourth developmental stage, composed of the next six solid years. In this six year duration, I engaged in a number of different activities which would also become my favorites in the future.  Schooling occupied most of my time from where I also began to get in touch with friends from different ethnic groups and races of far and near neighborhoods. A part from involving and dissipating much of my efforts on studies, my attention was also being drawn to people older than. It was not a surprise that I recognized special parents and adults whom sharpened my mental thinking together with shaping social behavior such that I could live in harmony with my peers as pupils. Teacher occupied this core special group that made me to be industrious.  I hated disrespect such that I think I owe a lot to my obedience character, which I have always extended to those in authority, parents and the entire adult age group. This notion relates to the conformity and the interpersonal accord. It was my expectation that as I pay attention to the adults, this will replication the appreciations and praise. Unfortunately, I realized that the expansion of the social domain also led to the expansion of the disciplinary measures with different authorities being incorporated (Brown and Eicher, 1996).

The teenage or adolescent stage had its own uniqueness but difficult situations were salient feature in the entire period. Actually, I feel that the adolescence developmental changes decimated the invisible life. It was like a bad turning point, which crushed the precious part of the past life. I wondered why more than often, I disregarded the guidance and advice of my parents on numerous simple issues, whom I had held with high esteems of honor and respect in the previous year. It was so dissatisfying to down look at authority including the administration in my secondary schooling which almost led to pre-mature termination of my studies. All in all, I could only blame myself and the peers whom instigated an uncontrolled anti-authority power drive that even brought about the overshadowing family need and order. Definitely, there was no a chip of social perfection within my surrounding.

The exposure to peers at the adolescence stage ruined my personal development through the exposure of my life to delinquency behavior and other ant-social acts (Kroger, 2004). Things that had remained like unreal or abstract such as robbery with violence, drug abuse and trafficking, unreasonable fights, murder and the likes became no longer fantasies but realities. Realizing of the kind destructive life I was leading, it was a lifestyle of great remorse that required immediate decline. Though, it was hard to isolate from my peers due to the fear of living lonely live, I gradually eliminated one after another and simultaneously replaced them with models that would change my personal development. However, the family members were the main steering group of the change.

My new lifestyle took its full course of direction immediately after the eighth year. I had recently sought for enrollment of BA studies which I believed would build and shape my young adulthood life. It was a great relieve to have escaped from entangles of adolescent peers with their negative influences in my life. It was therefore my decision not to look back on the perilous lifestyle, but to tread on my ways to victory through complete rejection of anti-social behavior. This is connected to the Kohlbergs explanation of social contracts that composes the last part of my personal development.

As I conclude, my personal development is profoundly entrenched under the context of social environment. This is depicted by the fact that my life was impacted by people since the time of birth. I discovered that my parents, whom have nurtured me right from my tender age, formed the basic social environment that influenced my life. While I began socializing with my parents, the chain has elongated and branched forming a net-like structure. However, the adolescent peer friends had a significant negative impact in modeling the personal development, whereas teacher, parents and most recent peers have molded my life in the positive side.