Cast your mind back to your understanding of human development before you started this course.
What personal insights or theoretical knowledge would you like to share with your pre-HD self?
Human development is holistic, interconnected, fluid, and a never ending endeavour. It is not too late to reflect and change aspects of yourself you do not like
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It allowed me to look deeper into my own childhood development, and the portfolio uncovered things about my childhood I didn't realise!
I would share the attachment theory, cognitive and psychosocial theories.
That there are many individuals theories that have been developed over time. You don't need to agree with every one, but you can take what you desire into your personal kete of knowledge and understanding.
That there are many different theories and insights to each stage of development. One big thing I learnt that was unknown before was the psychosocial theories. I found that really interesting as I only considered beforehand physical cognitive theories. Everyone goes through similar processes in life but every person is different.
That all of these developments are a shared experience, but still highly individual.
I learned that no matter what kind of upbringing or lifestyle a person has, everyone fits into certain stages of development in some way. I don't really agree with Freud’s theories, but I find Erik Erikson’s ideas much easier to understand and more relatable.
I would pass on to my previous self the valuable insight of reading the chapter summaries instead of getting lost in the weeds of the textbooks. Learning from a top-down position as much more useful to these early papers.
Also that you're not that weird for thinking about death.
I found the Bowlby Attachment Theory interesting, as I have always wanted to know more about attachment from a young age and how important and influential it is. It was interesting to learn the 3 general styles of attachment, (Ainsworth), and I found involving my daughter and our experiences in this learning quite helpful. Structural changes in the brain at different stages were intriguing especially Jean Piagets formal operational stage referring to adolescence.
Erikson
Attachment theory and Erickson's 8 stages of development. These provide great foundations for understanding human development.
Erickson's stages of development, especially to my earlier self when my children were young so I could be more help to them as they navigate the stages.
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Eriksons stages of development is extremely interesting as is Freud