Slide 1

This presentation is focused on theories, perceptions and philosophies of human development in social
cultural context. It will contain creative visual representations about this topic and also how it relates to
my own context, which in this case my home country Tonga.

Slide 2
This slide basically focuses on how I perceive or what I think about human development in socio-cultural
contexts. Growing up in Pacific island countries I think everything we do is collective; families, villages,
churches etc. we help each other complete tasks. Human development in countries like in the Pacific is a
matter of collective or many people working together as one in order to survive. As you can see from
Figure 1 it shows a circle and this circle has different layers and different factors in each respected layer.
This basically shows us all the factors that affect the development of a person. So in my understanding
of human development; it is basically everyone’s responsibility and we can only develop by adapting or
using these factors to provide and guide us so we can properly develop.

Slide 3
I will discuss a few of the western theories on human development. Three theories I will use which is
“Erickson’s psychosocial theory, Vygotsky’s social development theory and Piaget’s theory of cognitive
development.”
Slide 4
Now let’s talk about Erickson’s psychosocial theory. Erik Erikson was a psychologist whose theories were
influenced by Sigmund Freud a psychoanalyst. As you can see from this table, it displays a timeline that
portrays the different stages of psychosocial development according to Erickson. But what is
psychosocial development exactly? Erikson believed that there are different stages that our personality
develops in. His theory explains how social interactions impact our growth and development. There are
8 stages of psychosocial development with each stage have different role and objectives.

Trust vs Mistrust

It’s a just a matter of how the infant develop trust or mistrust from the people that raised them. Good
caregivers will gain the trust of the infant, not so good caregivers will not gain the trust of the infant.
Those that develop trust will feel the safe and secure while the infant that fail to trust will have fear and
a feeling that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable (Cherry, 2016).

Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt

This stage is all about control, decision making and a little independence. The child began to make their
own little decision like food they like, clothes, toys etc. when a child can successfully do this that is what
called as a sense of autonomy and they will feel confident but those that fail this will feel doubt and
shame. Erickson believed that achieving a balance between these two will result in the child able to act
with intention within reason and limits; and this is what we call will (Cherry, 2016).

Initiative vs Guilt

This point is about pre-school stage. Children start to socialize and begin to assert their power and
control over the world. Those that gain this skill will have a sense to lead others and feel capable of
doing things. Those that fail to acquire this skill will feel guilty and lack of initiative (Cherry, 2016).

Industry vs Inferiority

This stage is when the child feels pride in their accomplishments and achievements through social
interactions. Those children that encouraged by parents and teachers will believe in themselves and
those that aren’t encouraged by his peers or teachers and parents will doubt their ability to become
successful. If the child can balance between these two, the child can develop competence or believing
that they can use their abilities to complete tasks given to them (Cherry, 2016).

Identity vs Confusion

This stage plays a vital role in developing a sense of personal identity which will affect the behavior and
development of a person for the rest of his life. Those that are well taught and encouraged through
personal exploration will have a strong sense of self and feel independent. Those who are not well
encouraged will feel unsure about their identity, their beliefs and ultimately their future. (as cited in
Cherry, 2016) by successfully completing this stage, it will lead to fidelity which is the ability to live by
society’s standards and expectations.

Intimacy vs Isolation

This stage is all about forming relationships. Those that can develop successful bonds and relationships
will have the virtue called love; our ability to form lasting, meaningful relationships with others. Those
that are not committed to their relationships will suffer emotional isolation, loneliness and depression
(Cherry, 2016).

Generativity vs Stagnation

This stage is when we build our family and focus on our duties and careers. Those people that are
successful in this stage are those that contribute to this world more by taking care of their families and
give back to the community. They will be proud of their accomplishments, develop a sense of unity with
their partner and ultimately this is a virtue we call as ‘care’. Those who fail will feel unproductive and
less committed to the world. (Cherry, 2016)

Integrity vs Despair

This is the final stage and this is when the people look back into their life and evaluate if they are happy
with the life they lived or they regret things they did and not did. Those that unsuccessful in this stage
will feel their life has been a waste, they will feel bitterness and despair but those that are successful in
this stage will have a few regrets but mostly satisfaction on the life they lived. This is what we call
‘wisdom’ and they aren’t affected by the thought of death (Cherry, 2016).
Slide 5
Vygotsky’s theory of social development. Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) was a Russian psychologist who
believes in his theory that social interactions precede development; consciousness and cognition are the
end product of socialization and social behavior (Davey, 2014). Vygotsky’s theory consists of 3 major key
elements; social interactions, the more knowledgeable other (MKO) and the zone of proximal
development (ZPD).

Social Interactions

Lev Vygotsky believes social interactions to precede development. (as cited in Davey, 2014) he states,
“Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on
the individual level; first , between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child
(intrapsychological).”

The more knowledgeable other (MKO)

This refers to another person who has more knowledge than the learner. This can be thought of as a
teacher, coach or adults that have more understanding of the situation then the learner. But it’s not
always adults it can be a teenager for instance who have more knowledge how to play ps4? Son or
grandpa? It can be peers even computers.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

The ZPD, Vygotsky defined to be, “the distance between the actual development of a child as
determined by the independent problem solving, and the level of potential development as determined
through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more peers.” (as cited in Ozer,
2004, para. 11). According to Vygotsky, a particular age cognitive development is limited to a certain
range. Through social interaction, it can widen up that range results in more knowledge which enhance
cognitive development. This can be done by assisting of a mentor or just socializing with peers, the
learner can then be able to use the skills and knowledge from the mentor or peers to successfully
complete require tasks and can do it on his own in the future.
Slide 6
Human development in my own context. Growing up in the kingdom, human development is a process
that everyone is responsible for. Our development stated at home with the parents and family. They
nurture us in ways that would help us grow and develop in the correct way. As you can see in Figure 4 it
displays students reading and completing school activities. To prepare us for the complete living is the
function which education has to discharge (Monteiro, 2005). Education is a process that prepares and
equips us for the future, it develops our brain to work so we can have good education, get good careers
and be able to be independent.

Figure 5 is an image of a chapel in Tonga. This represents a type of development that is heavily
participated and encouraged. This develops our state of mind, soul, our way of thinking etc. so we can
make the right choices in life. By making the right choices we can properly develop as a human being
and being useful in the society and the community.

Now, on Figure 6 it expresses an adult teaching a little girl how to make souvenirs. This symbolizes how
older people help the younger generation to accomplish certain tasks. In our villages, communities we
live in hierarchy and we do things differently to other countries. Elders in the village are the people that
are full of knowledge about our heritage, our culture, history and our tradition. The perceptual,
attention, and memory capacities of children are transformed by vital cognitive tools provided by
culture, history, social context, traditions, language, and religion (Ozer, 2004). These factors work
together to fully develop younger generations so they can be successful by having the right mindset and
the right equipment to develop properly and be successful.
Slide 7
We will now look at the current perspective on human development. I will use John Locke’s perspective
of “The Human Understanding” to explore some views on human development. John Locke was a great
philosopher and a political theorist from the 17th century. One of his greatest works was The Essay
Concerning Human Understanding which he expresses different mechanism of learning, thinking
processes and how we interpret certain things in this world. Locke talks about ‘ideas’ and how it reflects
our cognitive processes. Ideas are the sole entities upon which our minds work (Connolly. The Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy). But what is an “Idea?” John Locke briefly defines ‘idea’ (as cited in Connolly.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. part2, sec. a, para. 2) to be “whatsoever is the Object of the
Understanding when a Man thinks…whatever is meant by Phantasm, Notion, Species, or whatever it is,
which the Mind can be employ’d about in thinking.” So in order to have an understanding of what’s in
front of us we got to have some idea of that situation or object in order for us to understand it. There
are factors about that situation or that object which can provide us with that idea. By saying that, we
can use one of Locke’s philosophies to give us an outline and this would be the ”Ideas from experience.”
Locke divides up two types of experience:

1st he labeled as sensation; our outer experience which gives us ideas through our 5 senses like sight
provides us with ideas about different colors while our hearing can give us ideas of different tones and
sounds. My ideas of a red color are because I see an apple. 2nd type of experience Locke labeled as
reflection which means our inner experience. This refers to our imagination, memories, doubt, judgment
and choice. We receive reflection ideas when our mind performs these tasks. Locke continues on to
differentiate ‘idea’ into simple and complex ideas. Simple ideas are those that you get from sensation
and reflection experience. Complex ideas are those that can be confusing and that we receive from
constructing simple ideas that we receive from experience. Complex ideas are divided into 3 groups:
substances, modes and relations.

Substance ideas are the ideas of those that can exist independently like a house, spoon or human. These
are individual substances but when we think about a town, it consist of many houses, a rugby team
consist of many human. So this is called collective substance ideas. Modes ideas are ideas that we can
say they are dependent on substance ideas. They are complex or compounded ideas and they can be
divided into two types which are simple and mixed modes. When you combine a large number of simple
ideas of one kind together you get simple mode ideas. Locke used this to express our idea or how we
think about different number of topics that relates to pleasure, time, pain etc. Mixed modes are the
ones that we get when we combine together simple ideas of more than one kind. Murder, theft and like
all are count as moral ideas which all fall in this category. Lastly, the idea of relation. Relations are ideas
of more than one substance. For example, when I think about my teacher, I don’t just think about him as
an individual man, it’s automatically different substances comes into my mind like his wife, children,
what car he drives etc. all these Locke called it as ideas of relation.
Slide 8
Why is it important to know about this module? By studying about human development in socio-cultural
context we can have more understanding of ourselves and what is going on around us. We can learn the
different stages of development so we can adjust our life to successfully complete all those stages of
development. As you can see the picture Figure 8 it’s like a metaphor for human development, it is fully
developed and full of green color representing life. We can look after ourselves and others so we can
together develop in the right way. This module can widen our knowledge and understanding of how our
body and mind works in terms of development.
References
Cherry, K. (2016). Erick Erikson’s stages of psychological development. Retrieved from
https://www.verywell.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740

Davey, K. (2014). Social development theory (Vygotsky). Retrieved from https://www.learning-t

heories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html

Ozer, Ozgur. (2004). Constructivism in Piaget and Vygotsky. Retrieved from h

ttp://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/CONSTRUCTIVISM-in-Piaget-and-Vygotsky

Monteiro, Ternan. (2005). Rousseau’s concept of education, Philosophy of education, Education.

Retrieved from http://snphilosophers2005.tripod.com/ternan.pdf

Connolly, J., P. (n.d). John Locke (1632 – 1704). Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/#H2