Week 1 - O'Brien - Interpretations and Views on Chapter One

Week 5 Blog Post by Miles O'Brien Chapter 8 outlined the beginning parts of adolescence and how the human develops through this period in their life. A huge part of the adolescence stage in our lives involves puberty. Puberty is a process of physical changes that take place in the body that evolves us humans to adults. As the human develops through adolescence, they develop hormonal changes that make them question their personality and who they are. Influences from peers and successful people they see on television can greatly determine how the adolescent grows up. They can often see false representations of how the human should be which can lead to disorders or behaviors that are not healthy. Body image as described on page 190 explains that adolescence can often become obsessed with their appearance and develop disorders, such as anorexia, to try and justify their appearance. It is in this cognitive developmental period that Piaget called the Formal Operational Stage. Cogniti...

  Week Four Blog Post by Miles O'Brien Chapter 6 dove deep into understanding the physical and motor development of early childhood. Reading through the chapter, the reader was able to compare how the physical and mental developments related on an intrapersonal level. Understand the prefrontal cortex is critical when studying the young child. This part of the brain helps them organize their attention and actions as shown in figure 6.2 on page 131. Along with attention and actions, the young child also begins to develop different motor skills both fine and gross as show in Table 6.1. Gross skills include running and climbing and fine motor skills include throwing balls at around the age of 2. This leads us to theories from Piaget. He introduced the preoperational period, in which he theorized that this was an age in which kids couldn’t take two things into consideration at the same time. There are also other influences that should be considered when understanding the physic...

Week Three Blog Post By Miles O'Brien In chapter three: Pregnancy and Prenatal Development we started discovering about the beginning journey of life. I dove deep into understanding pregnancy and the prenatal process. This chapter followed the process from conception, all the way to birth and it covered every detail. I particularly found the different prenatal periods to be very interesting. I also enjoyed how the chapter brought in biological processes to help the reader further understand. On page 66, the embryotic period described how it was a time of rapid development and great sensitivity. I related this to the” Through the Ages” handout by understanding statistics on different defects the fetus can develop such as FAS or cerebral palsy. Chapter 4 discussed the birthing process and different sequences that can be followed. This also lead to understand different complications that can develop during the birthing process. Page 87 talked about anoxia, which can occur when t...

Week Two Blog Post By Miles O'Brien The reading for Chapter Two: Theories of Development outlined different positions on how lifespan development is interpreted. The psychoanalytic theory as described on page 29, is the foundation for which modern psychology is based. Figure 2.1 lays out the Freudian Stages of Development. This chart explains different pleasures that humans develop based on wants and needs. He argues that “The location of the pleasure center changes with development, and unless this pleasure center is satisfied, a person cannot resolve the inner conflict” (pg 30). Freuds theories also describe structural developments in the mind that are fueled by libido. The Id, Ego , and Superego . The Id is the basic instinct that we are all born with that has the soul purpose to secure pleasure. On the opposite side of the spectrum is the Superego that determine things from right and wrong. To balance both sides is the Ego. When I reflect on this, I image the scenario ...