One of the major controversies in developmental psychology Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes that occur in human beings over the course of the life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire life span. This field examines centres around whether development is continuous or discontinuous^[1]. Stage theories of development rest on the assumption that development is a discontinuous process involving distinct stages which are characterised by qualitative differences in behaviour ^[2]. Stage theories can be contrasted with continuous theories, which posit that development is an incremental process ^[3].

There are many stage (discontinuous) theories in developmental psychology including:

• Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "Genetic Epistemology."'s theory of cognitive development The Theory of Cognitive Development, is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence first developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire it, construct it, and use it. Moreover; described how children represent and reason about the world^[4]
• Michael Commons Michael Lamport Commons is an American complex systems scientist, who developed the Model of hierarchical complexity, and is founder of the Journal of Adult Development, and co-editor of the journal Terrorism Research' Model of Hierarchical Complexity The model of hierarchical complexity, is a framework for scoring how complex a behavior is. It quantifies the order of hierarchical complexity of a task based on mathematical principles of how the information is organized and of information science. This model is developed by Michael Commons and others since the 1980s.
• Erik Erikson Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist's stages of psychosocial development Erikson's stages of psychosocial development as articulated by Erik Erikson explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages expanded on Freud's psychosexual stages, he defined eight stages that describe how individuals relate to their social world ^[5]
• James W. Fowler Dr. James W. Fowler III, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Theology and Human Development at Emory University, was director of both the Center for Research on Faith and Moral Development and the Center for Ethics until he retired in 2005. He is a minister in the United Methodist Church's stages of faith development A series of stages of faith development was proposed by Professor James W. Fowler, a developmental psychologist at Candler School of Theology, in the book Stages of Faith. This book-length study contains a framework and ideas, which have generated a good deal of response from those interested in religion theory.
• Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was a Jewish-Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating's Psychosexual stages described the progression of an individual's unconscious desires.
• Lawrence Kohlberg Lawrence Kohlberg was an American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development. A close follower of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive's stages of moral development Kohlberg's stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived of by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Lawrence Kohlberg, while a psychology postgraduate student at the University of Chicago, expanded and developed this theory throughout the course of his life described how individuals developed moral reasoning.^[6]
• Jane Loevinger Jane Loevinger Weissman was a developmental psychologist who developed a theory of personality which emphasized the gradual internalization of social rules and the maturing conscience for the origin of personal decisions. She also contributed to the theory of measurements by introducing the coefficient of test homogeneity, Stages of ego development Jane Loevinger proposed 10 stages of ego development, each of which provides a frame of reference to organize and give meaning to experience over the individual's life course. As the adult ego develops, she said, a sense of self-awareness emerges in which one becomes aware of discrepancies between conventions and one's own behavior. For some,.
• Margaret Mahler Margaret Schönberger Mahler was a Hungarian physician, who later became interested in psychiatry. She was a central figure on the world stage of psychoanalysis. Her main interest was in normal childhood development, but she spent much of her time with psychiatric children and how they arrive at the "self." Mahler developed the's psychoanalytic developmental theory contained three phases regarding the child's object relations Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment. The "objects" of the theory are both real others in one's world, and one's internalized images of others. Object relationships are initially.
• James Marcia James E. Marcia is a Canadian developmental psychologist, and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Image:rik.jpg|thumb|caption Marcia studied psychological development with specific attention focused on adolescent psychosocial development. Erikson had suggested that the normative conflict's theory of identity achievement and four identity statuses .
• Maria Montessori Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, philosopher, humanitarian and devout Catholic; she is best known for her philosophy and the Montessori method of education of children from birth to adolescence. Her educational method is in use today in a number of public as well as private schools throughout the world's sensitive periods Sensitive periods is a term coined by the Dutch geneticist Hugo de Vries and adopted by the Italian educator Maria Montessori to refer to important periods of childhood development of development.
• Abraham Maslow Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist. He is noted for his conceptualization of a "hierarchy of human needs", and is considered the founder of humanistic psychology's Hierarchy of Needs Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.^[7]
• Clare W. Graves Clare W. Graves was a professor of psychology and originator of a Level Theory of Human Development. He was born in New Richmond, Indiana' Emergent Cyclic Levels of Existence Theory Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development introduced in the 1996 book Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Chris Cowan. The book was based on the theory of psychology professor Clare W. Graves, and originally targeted at a business management audience. The American author Ken Wilber has popularized these ideas in a series of books. "Spiral.
• Judith Rich Harris Judith Rich Harris is a psychologist and the author of The Nurture Assumption, a book criticizing the belief that parents are the most important factor in child development, and presenting evidence which contradicts that belief' Modular theory of social development No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality is a book by psychology researcher Judith Rich Harris. It was published in February 2006. Harris attempts to explain why people are so different in personality, even identical twins who grow up in the same home.
• Don Beck Don Beck is an American management consultant and co-author of the book Spiral Dynamics and Chris Cowan, Spiral Dynamics Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development introduced in the 1996 book Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Chris Cowan. The book was based on the theory of psychology professor Clare W. Graves, and originally targeted at a business management audience. The American author Ken Wilber has popularized these ideas in a series of books. "Spiral.

While some of these theories focus primarily on the healthy development of children, others propose stages that are characterized by a maturity rarely reached before old age.

There is also criticism of stage theories of development. The experience of Sudbury model The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States. There are now over 30 schools based on the Sudbury Model in the United States, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The model has two basic tenets: educational freedom and democratic governance. This is a private school, attended by schools shows that a great variety can be found in the minds of children, against Piaget's theory of universal steps in comprehension and general patterns in the acquisition of knowledge. "No two kids ever take the same path. Few are remotely similar. Each child is so unique, so exceptional" (Greenberg, 1987).^[8]

References

1. ^ White, F., Hayes, B., & Livesey, D. (2005). Developmental Psychology: From Infancy to Adulthood. NSW:Pearson Education Australia
2. ^ Ibid.
3. ^ Ibid.
4. ^ Ibid.
5. ^ Ibid.
6. ^ Kohlberg, L. (1987). The measurement of moral judgement.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. ^ Maslow, A.H. (1987). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.), New York: Harper & Row.
8. ^ Greenberg, D. (1987). Chapter 19, Learning, Free at Last, The Sudbury Valley School. Retrieved February 22, 2010.

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• Developmental Stage Theories
• Child Development
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• Prenatal Development
• Developmental Psychology

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