Human Behavior > Man as a Developmental Being
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Man as a Developmental Being
Man as Developmental Being
Schematic Presentation
 Introduction The concepts of reproduction, growth and development stand in direct connection with the concept of life. When the sciences want to classify something as living or nonliving, there will always be referred to the elements of movement, growth and natural development. One of the human being’s most cardinal characteristics is then also his natural course of life which consists of different phases of development. The development of a human being thus doesn’t occur in a specific period of his life-cycle, but is an ongoing process which begins with conception, and continues until the end of his/her life in the present physical sphere. The study of the development of the human being over the total course of life is often described as the development psychology of the human being (D.A.Louw 1992:3). Seeing that the development is a natural and self-sufficient process, the purpose of this science is not to explain and initiate development as a process, but to describe and explain the changes that take place and to get to know and control the factors that influence development, differentiates relevant and non-relevant changes from one another: changes that are relatively permanent of nature, changes referring to one another and changes which fit into a pattern. The goal of this study isn’t however to examine and describe the phenomenon of development, but rather to describe the meaning of development as human characteristic and to acknowledge this dimension of being human effectively in a therapeutical program. Rather than looking at permanent changes that take place, there will be looked at the impact of unnatural influences which will influence the normal development and the unwanted impact on further development. Thus is the connection between temporary and permanent changes of cardinal interest. Although the acknowledgment of these patterns are important, a thorough study of the nature and extent of these patterns are not that important. The emphasis will rather be on the fact that there is a kind of pattern in the changes that take place during development and that it forms part of the healthy natural process. Disturbance hereof can have results that are important for the process of assistance. In the studying of development, theoretical approaches differ from one another as they stress different developmental processes. Where the emphasis for some is on maturing, and for the other on learning, it is however a better approach to see all processes as evenly important and to give credit to the unique meaning which all the different processes give to the process of development. Although certain processes are more prominent in specified phases of life, it doesn’t mean that a less prominent process doesn’t exist or is of less importance. To limit the extent of our study, there will be concentrated on the most important aspects of development which have an influence on the therapeutical process. The ability of child development is no unique quality. Childhood is rather only a phase in the complete process of development of the human being. This phase can however also be divided into stages of development which are featured by unique happenings in life and developmental tasks. When development is looked at superficially, it can be described as changes during a person’s course of life. According to Louw all changes are not necessarily relevant to the science of developmental psychology. Louw distinguishes between three main characteristics which differentiates relevant and non-relevant changes from one another: changes that are relatively permanent of nature, changes referring to one another and changes which fit into a pattern. The goal of this study isn’t however to examine and describe the phenomenon of development, but rather to describe the meaning of development as human characteristic and to acknowledge this dimension of being human effectively in a therapeutical program. Rather than looking at permanent changes that take place, there will be looked at the impact of unnatural influences which will influence the normal development and the unwanted impact on further development. Thus is the connection between temporary and permanent changes of cardinal interest. Although the acknowledgment of these patterns are important, a thorough study of the nature and extent of these patterns are not that important. The emphasis will rather be on the fact that there is a kind of pattern in the changes that take place during development and that it forms part of the healthy natural process. Disturbance hereof can have results that are important for the process of assistance. In the studying of development, theoretical approaches differ from one another as they stress different developmental processes. Where the emphasis for some is on maturing, and for the other on learning, it is however a better approach to see all processes as evenly important and to give credit to the unique meaning which all the different processes give to the process of development. Although certain processes are more prominent in specified phases of life, it doesn’t mean that a less prominent process doesn’t exist or is of less importance. To limit the extent of this study, there will be concentrated on the most important aspects of development which have an influence on the therapeutical process. |