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Sensorimotor Stage
At 15 months, I am now able to walk. Within Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development, I am at the sensorimotor stage. During this stage, my behavior is noted by the reflexes I was innately born with: from twitching to crawling to now being able to walk as my body matures. This thus helps me develop physically. -
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Stage
According to Erikson's stages of social development, I would be at stage 2: autonomy vs. shame and doubt, now that I am 4 years old. An example of this is when I became very interested in drawing and I would draw anything from puppies to pictures of me and my family. This was important because it helped me become more autonomous and I started to believe in my abilities to do something, which ultimately allowed me to become a capable and independent individual. -
Initiative vs. Guilt Stage
As I started kindergarten, I went into stage 3: initiative vs. guilt of Erikson's stage of social development. I gained the interest to want to understand the world, thus asking questions more and more to express my curiosity. For instance, when I was 5, I held my newborn cousin for the first time in my arms and even fed him milk in a bottle, all out of curiosity. This was important because it helped me become more independent and thus succeed in life. -
Industry vs. Inferiority Stage
According to Erikson, in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage (from 6 years old to puberty), children learn to apply themselves to tasks where they feel inferior. When I was 6, my father encouraged me to enter my elementary school’s talent show and sing one of my favorite songs, which at the time was Breaking Free by Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron. This was important because it helped instill my self-confidence and my sense of competence, which ultimately helped me progress in my development. -
Preconventional Morality Stage
When I was in the 2nd grade, I did all my late homework so that the school didn't need call my parents as the teacher did with my classmates who didn't turn in their work. By doing this, I advanced to the preconventional morality level. In this level, the child focuses on doing the right to avoid punishment or to gain rewards, thus building their morality. Events like these allowed me to build up to a more advanced level of moral reasoning by knowing what's right and what's wrong. -
Conventional Morality Stage
In the 6th grade, I witnessed my best friend who had alopecia get bullied because she was bald, so I decided to tell my teacher so that they could get in trouble. By doing this, I advanced to the conventional morality level, where moral reasoning is focused on doing the right just because it is the right, without any reward. This was important because it allowed me to take a stand to denounce when something is wrong, thus forming a base for the development of my postconventional morality. -
Identity vs. Role Confusion Stage
At the end of my freshman year, I went from dressing in a feminine manner to dressing in an androgynous manner, and I discovered my true self/my true sense of style. I shied away from conforming with everyone else as I started embracing my androgyny, which thus allowed me to reach the identity vs role confusion stage, where teens work to refine their sense of self. This helped me discover my true self and made me shy away from social norms, which thus allowed me to develop my sense of character. -
Intimacy vs. Isolation Stage
After graduating from college and starting work, I am now coming to a realization that I have no one to share my successes with. While I have been so focused in my career, I am becoming more aware of needing to spend more time with my family and looking for a possible relationship. This thus means that I am going under Erikson's intimacy vs. isolation stage. This is important in my development because it helps me reflect upon/embrace my emotional side so I can avoid feeling socially isolated. -
Post-Conventional Morality Stage
Now that I am married/have a family, I have realized that I'm a full-fledged adult. In Kohlberg's moral stages, I am now in the post-conventional morality stage, the final stage of moral reasoning. During this stage, my moral reasoning is focused more putting others before me, such as the need to support my family financially, making sure my kids are happy, being more ethical, etc. This thus allows my moral reasoning to be at its final form, thus making me a fully mature person. -
Generativity vs. Stagnation Stage
Unfortunately, now that I am reaching old age and my body is aging faster than I thought, I am having trouble with coming to full satisfaction with my life, which therefore means that I’m at Erikson’s Generativity vs. Stagnation stage. People at this stage try to seize control of their lives, even if its out of their capability. An action I would do is how I might impulsively buy a sports car to project that I am still young at mind when I should be focusing more on retirement and relaxation.