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Human development or lifespan psychology is defined as the scientific study of the growth,

development, and behavioural changes of humans, from conception through old age. Thus, as a

future counselor, this is a foundation that we have to master and we should learn in the first

semester. In this reflection paper, I will like to share some of my own experiences and my ideas

towards Freud’s psychosexual development stages. Furthermore, I will also draw out my opinion

on how the knowledge of human development can help in our counselling services. 

I strongly agree with Dr. Melati’s statement in the beginning of the class. She mentioned

that childhood experiences affect our life deeply. She did give a few examples on how one's

childhood experiences affect their life later. In this context, I feel the same way for myself. I grew

up in a single-mother family since my father passed away when I was 13, the starting time as an

adolescent. Before that, I had a very strong bonding with my father. Hence, my father’s leaving

means a big loss to me. As a result, I became extremely insecure and lost confidence in starting a

family. This also unknowingly affects my mating conditions. I don't want to have children or get

married. In addition, because in the rebellious period, in order not to cause trouble to my mother, I

tried to suppress my feelings, which also led to my persistence in all aspects later in my life.

However, after losing my dad, I received help from many people. This is a positive effect. Upon

this experience, I also want to return to society when I am able. This leads me to my current

passion for counselling.

From my own experience, I cannot disagree with Freud’s assumption. I always believe that

human behavior is mostly affected by the subconscious mind, as Freud hypothesized. Freud

postulated three early stages of development that often bring people to counseling when not

appropriately resolved (Corey, 2013). For example, at the anal stage, the child has to learn to be

toilet trained, which mean he has to control his bodily needs. The child has to learn the complex

cognitive and motor responses plus the need to abide by rules and regulations, frustration may

arise. Hence, failure at this stage may lead one to deal with the inability to recognize and express

anger, leading to the denial of one’s own power as a person and the lack of a sense of autonomy
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(Corey, 2013). As a counselor teacher in primary school, I got a lot of students referred by

teachers due to their inability to manage emotion. Hence, I can relate to this era where both

parents need to work, children are usually sent to nurseries. It is inevitable that they have not

experienced good toilet training, which leads to their emotional deviations later in their life.

So, why do we study about lifespan? This is because studying lifespan provides a

framework for understanding human aging together with the characteristics of the lifespan

perspective. By deepening our understanding of lifespan, we could relate one’s early experiences

to his or her current situation. This helps us to be more empathetic towards their situation, hence

enabling us to provide pertinent advice in order for them to overcome their problem. Moreover,

Jaafar (2015) stated development is a lifelong process. Scientists believe that development at any

stage can be explained better by looking into the overall framework of lifespan. For instance,

someone who has low self-esteem could very well have suffered from abusive parents when she

or he was much younger.  

Besides, Jaafar (2015) also stated development is multiply influenced. This assumption

concludes that human development is a product of many factors, which cannot be determined and

understood within a single-framework. It involves factors that are internal (biological) as well as

external (environmental). Upon this understanding, it helps the counselor to identify the causes of

the problem more easily and to provide more professional and appropriate advice and assistance

to the client. From this point of view, it also reminds me as a counselor, I must always be open-

minded to accept the different background problems of our clients. This is an attitude that a

competency counselor should have. 

As a conclusion, I would like to quote what Dr. Melati had said in the class. She said,

“Counseling is about putting yourself in others shoes. Counseling is understanding the issues from

a client perspective.” Thus, by understanding a framework of lifespan, it provides us a wide

perspective about how life progresses differently in every individual then helps us in improving our
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counselling services. Lastly, I couldn’t agree with Dr. Melati more than a counselor will be able to

understand humans better through the knowledge of lifespan.

References

Corey, G. (2013). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy . Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Jaafar, J. L. (2015). AMCD 5103 Human Development Across the Lifespan. Open University Malaysia.