Developmental Psychology: Kayla Huggins

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Course Project 1 Developmental Psychology Introduction Kayla Huggins is 17 years old. Kayla's parents are James and Christine Huggins. An only child, Kayla provides a rich example of how one individual progress through the various stages of psychosocial development. Her life highlights some of the key concepts of developmental psychology. Kayla’s prenatal development was uneventful, as her parents were both healthy. Her early and middle childhood periods were characterized by a loving home environment and an active engagement with school activities, especially athletics. Currently, Kayla is a senior in high school. Kayla’s parents can both be described as introverts. This creates an interesting home dynamic because Kayla is an extrovert.…show more content…
She grew steadily in height, and was about average for her age. Her sensorimotor development progressed well. For example, Kayla smiled and giggled in response to adult smiles. She learned how to manipulate objects in her environment, including stuffed toys. The sounds of rattles and other objects delighted little Kayla, and her parents bought her some percussive toys to play with too. Kayla learned how to mimic sounds early in her development and was speaking words and small sentences by the time she was two. She progressed well through the object permanence phase of development and also through Piaget’s preoperational thinking stage as well, during which Kayla talked about “me” a lot, developed a rich creative storyline related to her dolls, and creatively manipulated ideas to suit her unique vision of the world. Kayla also progressed smoothly through Erikson’s first three psychosocial stages of development, from infancy through early childhood to preschool. A deep sense of trust of her parents was engendered during infancy, as both her parents were there to feed and take care of her. During early childhood, Kayla learned control over her body through the process of toilet training. At this stage, Kayla occasionally experienced some frustration and setbacks, as she seemed to feel a sense of shame when she wet the…show more content…
Within the framework of Marcia’s identity statuses, Kayla currently experiences a good degree of identity achievement. When she was younger, she also exhibited the other three identity statuses, but her self-esteem has been remarkably strong. She has never taken drugs, has a strong social support system, and has not permitted the disapproval of her parents to interfere with healthy psychosocial development. Kayla did go through a stage during which she was dieting a lot and working out at the school gym. Her intense body-consciousness never developed into an eating disorder, though. Currently, Kayla is 5’5” and weighs 140

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