Research Paper on:
Life and Personal Development

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
cognitive development are seen as being dichotomized between nature and nurture or between innate (born within the individual) and, or, external social forces. The student will want to consider  what they know and see of and in the world around them. The famous authority on child development, Piaget, based all of his theories on the observation of his  own children as they grew. Think: when you are watching a baby - what seems to have the most impact, the interactions with the world or suddenly knowing what  or how to do something. This paper provides an example of what may be considered. The student will want to use this as a foundation for deciding what  they believe has the most influence in the life of the human as they develop to and through maturity. Possibly the most referred to theory and theorist of  human development is Eric Erickson. The stages he proposed were based on the confrontation and solution to specific crisis that occur at different ages. The infancy stage is  the first year-of-life and is defined by trust versus mistrust. The toddler stage (two years old) is defined by autonomy versus shame and doubt while the preschooler (years 3-5)  is confronted with the choice between initiative and guilt. During the elementary school years the primary crisis for the child is thought to be defined in terms of competence  versus inferiority. This continues on into the adolescent stage where identity versus role confusion is added. Intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus despair and integrity versus despair encompass the  choices that need to be made by the individual entering young, middle and late adulthood (cited in Cross, 2001). "According to Erikson, as the individual negotiates a crisis at