Human development and involution of behavior

The way for man, as an individual, to reach psychic fullness is complex and reflects, in some way, the way of the evolution of species. This evolutionary path is known as ontogeny, or development of the living being from its beginning to its adult state. On the other hand, the study of behavioral ontogeny serves to mark the course of the individualization process that the human species undergoes.

Evolutionary psychology is mainly the specialty of Psychology that studies the ontogeny or development of man.

The so-called life cycle of the human being is the form of evolution of existence, from birth itself until death. In it, three main periods are mainly distinguished: development, maturity and involution. The development goes from birth to the initiation of maturity, including infancy, childhood, adolescence and youth. Maturity is a period of relative stability and fullness of life; it covers from the end of youth to the beginning of old age. Finally, the involuntary period or old age.

This differentiation of the periods is quite variable, since there are a multitude of biological and ecological factors that participate in the evolution of existence, such as: the climate, the type of life, the constitution of the individual, etc. All this makes it impossible to establish fully precise periods, either from a chronological point of view or from the perspective of their very nature.

Development as a whole is a unitary and continuous process, although in reality neither its unity nor its continuity can be considered completely perfect, since the continuity of development is interrupted by the existence of stages or phases, with which development it breaks its progressive character; and its unity is not complete either, since various components participate in it that make it vary according to how they differ from each other.

The stages of human development

Long before the human being has a developed consciousness, from the moment of birth and even in the prenatal period, the subject manifests a behavioral activity through which he contributes essentially to the maintenance and development of his life. Thus, before reaching the proper phase of the adult, the human psyche goes through a series of stages or phases of development, which have been studied in detail by various psychologists. These are the so-called evolutionary stages, through which every normal organism must inevitably pass. These stages could be defined as those parts or moments of development that are difficult based on certain homogeneous characteristics. Every stadium, therefore, must have the following characteristics:

a) It must have a clearly defined beginning and end.

b) It must have a pre-established order of succession, one with respect to the other, in such a way that there is a hierarchy of the modes of behavior, so that the new stages rest on the previous or past ones.

c) Each stage must have critical periods that train the individual for possible learning and behavior.

The concept of the stage has been applied with too much generosity in child psychology despite its complexity, and there have been numerous classifications of the stages of human development that have been made. Infancy, childhood and adolescence are the phases of development most studied by psychologists, since the unfolding of human behavior in these phases is very noticeable.

It is in infancy and childhood that the notion of a stadium has had its widest scope. Many authors such as Freud, Piaget, Gessell, Wallon and Erikson etc., have made use of descriptive categories for these phases, all of them being very heterogeneous among themselves.

As development is a bio-social process, and the existence of different societies is a reality, it is not uncommon for different evolutionary stages to take place. This is a reason that hinders the homogeneity of the classifications, thus producing a large number of classification systems. On the other hand, it is true that during the first year of man's life, social influences are very deep, which also makes uniformity of classification difficult, to such an extent that it is completely impossible to integrate them into a coherent whole.

Then, instead of presenting an integrated version of all of them, it will be better to present a summary of the classification systems of the most representative stages of development, choosing as such on the backs of Piaget, Wallon and Erikson.

Piaget (1896-1980)

Piaget's classification system is based on the cognitive aspect of behavior. On the other hand, Piaget's emotional models are subject to certain social conditions, which affect, for example, the age of the appearance of the stages.

Piaget tries to explain the development of knowledge, that is, he tries to explain how a person passes from less true or simpler knowledge to more true or complex knowledge. For him, each of the periods they describe completes the previous one and exceeds it. Piaget initially points to four periods or stages:

The pre-operational phase covers the child's first two to four years. In this phase, the child maintains an egocentric posture, which incapacitates him to adopt the same point of view from others. Also in this phase, the way of categorizing the objects is done globally, based on an exaggerated generalization of the most outstanding characters.

The instinctive phase lasts up to seven years, and is characterized by the fact that the child is able to think things through the establishment of classes and relationships, and the use of numbers, but all this intuitively, without being aware of the procedure used..

In this period, the child first develops the capacity to preserve the substance, then develops the capacity to preserve mass, and later that of weight and volume.

Piaget points out that the passage from the sensorimotor period to this second period occurs fundamentally through imitation, which the child individually assumes, and which produces the so-called mental image, in which language has a great role.

Wallon

Following a neo-Piagetian line, Wallon also proposed a classification system for stages of development. For him, the object of psychology was the study of man in contact with the real, ranging from primitive reflexes to higher levels of behavior.

It raises the need to take into account the organic and social levels to explain any behavior, since, according to this author, man is an eminently social being.

For Wallon, the human being develops according to the general level of the environment to which he belongs, so for different means there are different individuals. On the other hand, psychic development is not done automatically, but needs learning, through contact with the environment.

This author considers that human childhood has its own meaning and a fundamental role that is that of the formation of man. In this process of childhood, critical moments of development occur, where certain learning is easier.

In the development of categorical thinking, two phases are differentiated:

1st phase (from 6 to 9 years old). In which the child states or names things, and then realizes the relationships between those things.

2nd phase (from 9 to 12 years old). It goes from a definition situation (which is the first phase) to a classification situation. The child in this phase classifies the objects that he had previously stated, and classifies them according to different categories.

Characteristics of the involutionary period.

After studying the periods of development and maturity of the so-called life cycle of the human being, the third and last period is the involutionary or senile call.

Involution period characteristics

This period begins with the deterioration of the physical and mental functions, and continues with a progressive collapse of these functions.

If in the involutionary period (or development) the passage from one stage to the next involved an integration of the various elements in increasingly differentiated structures of adaptation, in the involuntary period the passage from one stage to the next involves a process of disintegration, so that the new stages that appear now suppose less differentiated adaptation structures.

The disintegration of functions begins with those that were later acquired in the period of psychological development. Senile involution runs in the opposite direction through the development of cognitive functions, so senile behaviors can be compared to infantile ones, although reaching both through different processes. In this period there are physical circumstances, such as the climacteric or period of sexual involution, and socio-labor circumstances, such as retirement. The latter produces feelings of frustration, anxiety and restlessness, which can be avoided by seeking new activities that will have social significance, personal satisfaction and economic stability.

Each person's reaction to aging is specific to each individual and closely depends on the subject's previous personality type. This reaction to a state of insufficiency involves a change of attitude that produces social and family maladjustments.

However, aging also involves something positive, such as spiritual maturation. Thus, educated and well-structured personalities deteriorate less when they reach old age, and therefore it is not necessarily a time of disorganization and chaos. Many of humanity's great works were performed in old age.

Studies on old age or old age in evolutionary psychology are much more scarce and incomplete than those of childhood and adolescence. Today research on this period of life is progressing further.

Involution period modifications

In this period the deterioration of the physical and intellectual functions becomes evident, and as a consequence there is a change in affectivity.

It is difficult to clearly decide on the form and amount of deterioration and destruction of psychological functions in old age. But what can be said to be happening is a disintegration of the functions that have appeared throughout the psychological evolution.

The deterioration of the mental faculties is not independent of the way in which man accepts his old age, and that is why his affectivity and emotionality influence.

If the deterioration of the intellectual functions is far from being clarified, much less is the deterioration or change of affectivity as a consequence of the involution processes.

In senescence, an inability to adapt emotionally to the environment is acquired, with a decrease in the control of emotional reactions, although their sensitivity remains extreme.

Personality, in senescence, becomes self-centered, mainly due to resistance to change, its conservative and authoritarian way, and the need to reaffirm its personality.

Psychopathological disorders of the involuntary period

Aging is a normal physiological process, which sooner or later gives rise to the state of senescence, which is already properly pathological.

In the presenectude period, mood and character disorders of the subjects manifest themselves, with an aggressive and suspicious attitude towards others. Neuroses and psychoses (especially involuntary depression due to climacteric) are becoming frequent.

In the period of senescence, the typical psychological manifestation is senile dementia (loss or irreversible deterioration of intelligence). This occurs with different chronology according to the subjects, and is the result of aging that affects the brain.

Senile dementia begins to manifest itself through small memory disorders, character changes, and depressive symptoms accompanied by hypochondriacal ideas or distressing experiences. Subsequently there are changes in orientation in space and time, which can be more or less intense.

The language, in senile dementia, has both motor coordination disorders as perseverations automation, and alterations of symbolic functions.

Illusions and false recognitions in perception are frequent

The attention is becoming weaker, gradually losing the ability to concentrate.

In general, the evolution of senile dementia becomes progressively deeper, which, together with physical deterioration, determines an upcoming end.

Apart from dementia, there are other types of psychopathological manifestations, since in old age there are all kinds of psychological conflicts.

BIOGRAPHY OF JEAN PIAGET

Piaget, Jean (1896-1980), Swiss psychologist and logician, known for his pioneering work on the development of intelligence in children. His studies had a great impact in the field of child psychology and education.

Born in 1896 in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Piaget wrote and published his first scientific work when he was only ten years old. He studied at the University of Neuchâtel, and after obtaining his doctorate in biology at the age of twenty-two, he began to take an interest in psychology, a discipline he studied and in which he developed his research first in Zurich and later in the Sorbonne, Paris, where he began his studies on the development of cognitive abilities. In 1955 he was director of the International Center for Epistemology at the University of Geneva, and later co-director of the International Bureau of Education. He died in 1980.

In his works, Piaget distinguished four stages in the child's intellectual development. In the sensorimotor stage -from birth to two years-, the child deals with acquiring motor control and knowing the objects of the physical world, but does not yet form symbols of these objects. Later, in the preoperational period, from two to seven years old, the child takes care of acquiring verbal skills and begins to elaborate symbols of the objects that she can already name, but in her reasoning she ignores the rigor of logical operations. It will be later, at the stage of concrete operations, from seven to twelve years old, when the child will be able to handle abstract concepts such as numbers and establish relationships. The child will work effectively following logical operations,provided he does so with symbols referring to concrete and non-abstract objects, with which he will still have difficulties. He lives from twelve to fifteen years (ages that can be advanced by the influence of schooling), in the formal operational stage, if he reaches this stage, because according to Piaget, not all the population reaches this level, and will operate logically and systematically with abstract symbols, without a direct correlation with the objects of the physical world.without direct correlation with objects in the physical world.without direct correlation with objects in the physical world.

Among his many writings include The Thought and Language of the Child (1926), Judgment and Reasoning in the Child (1928), The Birth of Intelligence in the Child (1954), Six Studies in Psychology (1964) and Psychology and Pedagogy (1970).

CONCLUSION

In the document we have carried out a study of behavior development. This study has been proposed through the works of three well-known authors: Piaget, Wallon and Erikson.

Throughout the document we have been able to verify how the three authors coincide in their studies; They basically divide the stages of behavior development into: childhood, adolescence, maturity and involution. Although some of them make subdivisions of these stages.

This coincidence is due to the fact that an objective study of behavior development should lead, by pure logic, to the same results. The level of study deepening is what defines these subdivisions.

It would be very interesting to be able to verify what has been learned here with acquaintances of different ages: this way we could observe the egocentrism of our little brother or the involuntary depression of our grandfather.

I have included Piaget's biography for being the most important in this field. The study of his works would be an ideal complement to this document, that is why they are cited at the end of the author's biography.

We see how special attention is paid to the study of the resolution of complex operations, basing on this data the change in the maturity of people (the greater and more complicated the operations that the subject can perform, the greater will be their maturity); however Wallon is based on the intellectual activity of the subject (differentiates an impulsive stage, a collective stage and a personal one). However, Erikson differentiates them in his study attending to relationships with others and with himself. Despite these differences we see how the three make very similar divisions with which, joining them, we would get a perfect (or almost) study of the development of human behavior.

We treat the behavioral involution separately because it is an inverse period to all the previous ones; here the evolutionary process is reversed and the subject begins to decline, begins to suffer psychopathological disorders and physical, psychological and affective modifications.

BIBLIOGRAPHY