Unit 3: Development Stages in Middle and Late

Adolescence
L 7: Understand Development Theories, Process, Stages, and Tasks:

1. Child Development Theories and Examples

(By Kendra Cherry June 23, 2020)

Child development theories focus on explaining how children change and grow over the course
of childhood. Such theories center on various aspects of development including social,
emotional, and cognitive growth.

The study of human development is a rich and varied subject. We all have personal experience
with development, but it is sometimes difficult to understand how and why people grow, learn,
and act as they do.

Why do children behave in certain ways? Is their behavior related to their age, family
relationships, or individual temperaments? Developmental psychologists strive to answer such
questions as well as to understand, explain, and predict behaviors that occur throughout the
lifespan.

In order to understand human development, a number of different theories of child

development have arisen to explain various aspects of human growth.

Background
Theories of development provide a framework for thinking about human growth and learning.
But why do we study development? What can we learn from psychological theories of
development? If you have ever wondered about what motivates human thought and behavior,
understanding these theories can provide useful insight into individuals and society.

How Our Understanding Has Changed

Child development that occurs from birth to adulthood was largely ignored throughout much of
human history. Children were often viewed simply as small versions of adults and little
attention was paid to the many advances in cognitive abilities, language usage, and physical
growth that occur during childhood and adolescence.

Interest in the field of child development finally began to emerge early in the 20th century, but
it tended to focus on abnormal behavior. Eventually, researchers became increasingly
interested in other topics including typical child development as well as the influences on
development.
How We Come to Understand Changes
Why is it important to study how children grow, learn and change? An understanding of child
development is essential because it allows us to fully appreciate the cognitive, emotional,
physical, social, and educational growth that children go through from birth and into early
adulthood.

Some of the major theories of child development are known as grand theories; they attempt to
describe every aspect of development, often using a stage approach. Others are known as mini-
theories; they instead focus only on a fairly limited aspect of development such as cognitive or
social growth.

There are many child development theories that have been proposed by theorists and
researchers. More recent theories outline the developmental stages of children and identify the
typical ages at which these growth milestones occur.1

Freud's Psychosexual Developmental Theory

Psychoanalytic theory originated with the work of Sigmund Freud. Through his clinical work
with patients suffering from mental illness, Freud came to believe that childhood experiences
and unconscious desires influenced behavior.

According to Freud, conflicts that occur during each of these stages can have a lifelong
influence on personality and behavior. Freud proposed one of the best-known grand theories of
child development.

According to Freud’s psychosexual theory, child development occurs in a series of stages

focused on different pleasure areas of the body. During each stage, the child encounters
conflicts that play a significant role in the course of development.

His theory suggested that the energy of the libido was focused on different erogenous zones at
specific stages. Failure to progress through a stage can result in fixation at that point in
development, which Freud believed could have an influence on adult behavior.

So what happens as children complete each stage? And what might result if a child does poorly
during a particular point in development? Successfully completing each stage leads to the
development of a healthy adult personality.

Failing to resolve the conflicts of a particular stage can result in fixations that can then have an
influence on adult behavior.
While some other child development theories suggest that personality continues to change and
grow over the entire lifetime, Freud believed that it was early experiences that played the
greatest role in shaping development. According to Freud, personality is largely set in stone by
the age of five.

Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory

Psychoanalytic theory was an enormously influential force during the first half of the twentieth
century. Those inspired and influenced by Freud went on to expand upon Freud's ideas and
develop theories of their own. Of these neo-Freudians, Erik Erikson's ideas have become
perhaps the best known.

Erikson's eight-stage theory of psychosocial development describes growth and change

throughout life, focusing on social interaction and conflicts that arise during different stages of
development.

While Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development shared some similarities with Freud's, it is
dramatically different in many ways. Rather than focusing on sexual interest as a driving force in
development, Erikson believed that social interaction and experience played decisive roles.

His eight-stage theory of human development described this process from infancy through
death. During each stage, people are faced with a developmental conflict that impacts later
functioning and further growth.

Unlike many other developmental theories, Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory focuses on
development across the entire lifespan. At each stage, children and adults face a
developmental crisis that serves as a major turning point.

Successfully managing the challenges of each stage leads to the emergence of a lifelong
psychological virtue.

Behavioral Child Development Theories

During the first half of the twentieth century, a new school of thought known as behaviorism
rose to become a dominant force within psychology. Behaviorists believed that psychology
needed to focus only on observable and quantifiable behaviors in order to become a more
scientific discipline.

According to the behavioral perspective, all human behavior can be described in terms of
environmental influences. Some behaviorists, such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, insisted
that learning occurs purely through processes of association and reinforcement.

Behavioral theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction influences

behavior and is based on the theories of theorists such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F.
Skinner. These theories deal only with observable behaviors. Development is considered a
reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli, and reinforcement.
This theory differs considerably from other child development theories because it gives no
consideration to internal thoughts or feelings. Instead, it focuses purely on how experience
shapes who we are.

Two important types of learning that emerged from this approach to development are classical
conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves learning by pairing a
naturally occurring stimulus with a previously neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning utilizes
reinforcement and punishment to modify behaviors.

Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory

Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person's thought processes. It also
looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the
world.

Theorist Jean Piaget proposed one of the most influential theories of cognitive development.

Piaget proposed an idea that seems obvious now, but helped revolutionize how we think about
child development: Children think differently than adults.2

His cognitive theory seeks to describe and explain the development of thought processes and
mental states. It also looks at how these thought processes influence the way we understand
and interact with the world.

Piaget then proposed a theory of cognitive development to account for the steps and sequence
of children's intellectual development.

Sensorimotor Stage: A period of time between birth and age two during which an infant's
knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities.
Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.
Pre-Operational Stage: A period between ages 2 and 6 during which a child learns to use
language. During this stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally
manipulate information and are unable to take the point of view of other people.
Concrete Operational Stage: A period between ages 7 and 11 during which children gain a
better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete
events but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.
Formal Operational Stage: A period between age 12 to adulthood when people develop the
ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and
systematic planning also emerge during this stage.
Bowlby's Attachment Theory
There is a great deal of research on the social development of children. John Bowbly proposed
one of the earliest theories of social development. Bowlby believed that early relationships with
caregivers play a major role in child development and continue to influence social relationships
throughout life.3

Bowlby's attachment theory suggested that children are born with an innate need to form
attachments. Such attachments aid in survival by ensuring that the child receives care and
protection. Not only that, but these attachments are characterized by clear behavioral and
motivational patterns.

In other words, both children and caregivers engage in behaviors designed to ensure proximity.
Children strive to stay close and connected to their caregivers who in turn provide a safe haven
and a secure base for exploration.

Researchers have also expanded upon Bowlby's original work and have suggested that a
number of different attachment styles exist. Children who receive consistent support and care
are more likely to develop a secure attachment style, while those who receive less reliable care
may develop an ambivalent, avoidant, or disorganized style.

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory is based on the work of psychologist Albert Bandura. Bandura believed
that the conditioning and reinforcement process could not sufficiently explain all of human
learning.

For example, how can the conditioning process account for learned behaviors that have not
been reinforced through classical conditioning or operant conditioning According to social
learning theory, behaviors can also be learned through observation and modeling.

By observing the actions of others, including parents and peers, children develop new skills and
acquire new information.

Bandura's child development theory suggests that observation plays a critical role in learning,
but this observation does not necessarily need to take the form of watching a live model.4

Instead, people can also learn by listening to verbal instructions about how to perform a
behavior as well as through observing either real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in
books or films.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

Another psychologist named Lev Vygotsky proposed a seminal learning theory that has gone on
to become very influential, especially in the field of education. Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed
that children learn actively and through hands-on experiences.5
His sociocultural theory also suggested that parents, caregivers, peers and the culture at large
were responsible for developing higher-order functions. In Vygotsky's view, learning is an
inherently social process. Through interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an
individual's understanding of the world.

This child development theory also introduced the concept of the zone of proximal
development, which is the gap between what a person can do with help and what they can do
on their own. It is with the help of more knowledgeable others that people are able to
progressively learn and increase their skills and scope of understanding.

A Word From Very well

As you can see, some of psychology's best-known thinkers have developed theories to help
explore and explain different aspects of child development. While not all of these theories are
fully accepted today, they all had an important influence on our understanding of child
development.

Today, contemporary psychologists often draw on a variety of theories and perspectives in

order to understand how kids grow, behave, and think. These theories represent just a few of
the different ways of thinking about child development.

In reality, fully understanding how children change and grow over the course of childhood
requires looking at many different factors that influence physical and psychological growth.
Genes, the environment, and the interactions between these two forces determine how kids
grow physically as well as mentally.
 2. Personal Development Process
(By https://destinysodyssey.com/personal-development/personal-
development/personal-development-process/)

The Personal development process begins with self-discovery and continues to self-actualization.
Before you can development into the person you want to become, you must first start by finding out
who you are and the skills and abilities that you possess. Through the process of continuously
assessing and developing your skills and abilities, you will be able to eventually master your abilities
and yourself. And hopefully, you will ultimately be able to realize your fullest potential and reach self-
actualization.

Self-Discovery

Self-discovery is the first step in personal development. Self-Discovery is the process of gaining a deep
understanding of your own self, character, needs, values, and purpose in life. It is the exploration of
your inner self in an attempt to discover who you are, your potential, your purpose in life, and what
core principles are guiding you to take different paths along the way.

The key components to self-discovery are self-reflection and self-awareness. Self-discovery can also
include exploration of personal interests as well as hopes and dreams for the future. Self-discovery
leads to self-knowledge which will enable you to guide yourself towards situations and experiences in
which you will thrive.

The self-discovery process includes:

Self-Reflection
Self-Awareness

Interest Awareness

Hopes & Dreams

Self-Reflection

The first step in the self-discovery process is self-reflection. You must make the time to stop and really
think about who you are. If you want to achieve self-awareness, you need to take the time to step
outside of your experiences and actions and reflect on them. A person can have numerous
experiences in life, but still lack self-awareness. Quiet meditation and reflection will allow you to
refocus your mind and concentrate on your inner self, and allow you to examine the way you “see”
yourself.

Since we are all different in the way we think, feel, act, learn, and perceive the world, you must take the
time to reflect in order to gain a better insight into yourself. Self-Reflection allows you to explore your
individual personality, natural preferences, values, beliefs, preferred styles and tendencies in order to
become self-aware. You can also reflect on your personal interests and your dreams.

Self-Awareness

Self-reflection leads right into self-awareness. Through reflection of your preferences, values, beliefs,
and tendencies, you become aware of who you are. Self-Awareness can be defined as “having an
insightful understanding of your personality, values, tendencies, and beliefs.” The key areas for self-
awareness includes your personality traits, values, emotions, habits, and the psychological needs that
motivate your behaviors. Some people group personal interests and aspirations into self-awareness.
We, however, break them into three groups; self-awareness, interest awareness, and hope & dreams.
We believe that if they are categorized and viewed as three separate elements, they can be addressed
separately and with different techniques. For many of us, the core of who we are does not change
significantly over time. Our belief, values, principles, and tendencies (what we focus on for self-
awareness) tend to remain fairly constant over our lifetime. If they do change, they usually only change
slightly and slowly over time. In contrast, interests and aspirations can change quite frequently over
time (i.e. what you are interested in today, you may not be interested in a few weeks).
Self-awareness is about knowing and understanding the core of who you are:
« your beliefs and principles

* your own emotions

* what motivates you

« your thinking patterns

* your tendencies to react to certain situations

o what you want out of life

Interest Awareness

Unlike many of the elements of self-awareness, where you explore traits and tendencies that remain
mostly constant throughout your life, your interests often change as you grow and experience life. It is
important to identify what interests you because by knowing what you enjoy you can do more of those
activities.

Hopes and Dreams

As your interests are in the here and the now, your hopes and dreams are for your future. Your hopes
and dreams are wishes or aspiration for your future. They are thoughts and mental images of your
futures that conger up positive emotions. These too have a tendency to change over the years. What
you hope for when you were 5 years old may be very different from what you hope for at 15 years old
and 30 years old.

Self-Development

Self-Development is a process of consciously improving yourself in various aspects of your life. It is the
conscious pursuit of personal growth by improving personal skills, competencies, talents, and
knowledge in order to seek self-fulfillment and proactively reach your fullest potential. Self-
development enables you to assess your skills and talents, to set goals, and then take action to help
you to achieve those goals and to maximize your potential.
Self-Development has several elements including;

Self-Knowledge
Self-Assessment

Action Steps (kill Enhancement & Personal Growth)

Self-knowledge

Self-knowledge is the bridge between self-discovery and self-development. Self-knowledge identifies

what you know about yourself. It is the information you accumulate during self-discovery. It is with
self-knowledge you are able to understand your principles, values, and your purpose and are able to
apply it to your life. With self-knowledge you can understand your strengths to build upon, as well as
identify areas where you would like to make improvements.
As we noted above, you do not typically change your personality, your values, or your needs based on
what you learn about ourselves. However, an understanding of your personality and characteristics
can help guide you towards situations and experiences in which you will thrive. Self-knowledge can
also help you avoid those circumstances in which you will experience stress.

In addition to self-discovery, we can also gain self-knowledge through self-assessment. Itis through
self-assessment that we learn where strengths lie as well as determine which areas we can improve
upon.

Self-Assessment

Self-assessment is the process of gathering information about your own aptitude, skills, competencies,
and talents and critically reviewing the quality of your performance and abilities. Self-Assessment is
different from self-awareness and self-discovery in that awareness and discovery is simply a
recognition of something or knowing something exists. Assessment, on the other hand, is determining
or measuring an amount, value, importance, extent, or rate of something.

You can fairly easily assess your skills and abilities. Although more challenging, you can also access and
measure your attitudes, beliefs and judgments you have about yourself. Those assessments may
include your self-image, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-confidence.

Self-assessment gives you the information needed to create an effective development plan. A
development plan involves the making of goals or benchmarks that help define the path that you
intend to follow. By knowing what specific skills you need to develop or work on, you are able to focus
your attention on those skills and making yourself more proficient at them. You force yourself to
focus on the acquisition of knowledge and to organize your resources, thus allowing you to become
more organized and effective. As you become more effective, you can improve both your abilities and
ultimately your performance.

Action Steps - Skill Enhancement

The main component of self-development is the actual development of skills and personal growth. You
should continuously look for ways to develop your skills, abilities, and competencies to enhance your
performance. Through effective skill enhancement, you become more capable, competent, and
confident in yourself and your abilities, and are better able to reach your goals. You should also focus
on developing your personal effectiveness. Personal Effectiveness focuses on personal skills such as
time management, organization, problem solving, and decision making. Developing your Personal
Effectiveness helps enhance your overall ability to perform various tasks and activities in your daily life.
Developments of these skills allow you to become more capable, competent, and confident and
ultimately help you reach your goals.

Personal growth (growing as a person) is also an important part of the action steps. Personal growth
can be perceived as becoming a better person by modifying personal attitudes, traits, and
characteristics (e.g. becoming more patient, becoming more understanding, or developing a more
positive attitude). Personal growth would also include building self-esteem, self-image, and self-
confidence.

Continuous self-development will lead to self-mastery.

Self-Mastery

Self-mastery is the ability to recognize, understand, control, and make the most out of your physical,
mental, emotional, and spiritual self. It is gained thorough awareness, understanding, and control over
your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Essentially, self-mastery gives you control over the one thing you
can control in any given situation: yourself.
Self-mastery over your own thoughts, emotions, words, and actions can change and transform your
life and yourself. When negative thoughts arise, emotions can become unsettled and your resulting
actions can have negative consequences. With self-mastery, you can reign in your thoughts and
emotions, and begin to control your actions. Self-mastery will help you control your emotional
impulses and allow you to make decisions based on rational thinking instead of heightened emotions.

Self-Actualization

Self-Actualization is seeking personal growth through peak experiences in order to realize your fullest
potential and reach self-fulfillment. Self-actualization is often thought of or viewed as a destination or a
process, but it is really a state of being. It is when you can say, “l am being all that | am, and all that |
was meant to be.” Self-actualization is the ultimate goal of personal development.
L 8: Evaluating One’s Own Development:

1. 10 tips for making self-evaluations meaningful

(By Rich Hein and Sharon Florentine 15 JUNE 2017)
Whether you think your company uses the information or not, self-evaluations are a necessary device
for professional development. Here’s how to make the most of the dreaded self-evaluation process.

Whether you're a manager or employee, reviews aren't a particularly popular subject; self-evaluations
are particularly despised. It’s hard to know how to highlight your achievements and accomplishments
without sounding like a braggart, not to mention that it often seems companies file evaluations away
and never use them to improve performance. But there are steps you can take to ensure your self-
evaluations help to advance your own career and provide valuable feedback to your organization.

According to John Reed, from Robert Half Technology, companies with effective performance review
processes use self-evaluations for two reasons: to ensure that employees set aside time to evaluate
their performance; and to help managers get a sense of whether an employee has an accurate
understanding of their impact in the workplace.

"The self-assessment is an essential part of performance evaluation because it's an opportunity for you
to assess your own achievements. You own the performance appraisal. You should look across the past
year and tell your manager what you've done and areas you'd like to focus on," says Michelle Roccia,
executive vice president of Employee Engagement at WinterWyman.

Talk about your career map

The self-evaluation should not be focused solely on your job, according to Ford Myers, author of the
book Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring. It should also be focused on your long-term
career plan. "It's an opportunity for you to reflect on how you're doing in your career, not just your job,"
says Myers. Use it to think about where you are going long term and where you are in your career.

From an employee perspective, if there is not a career plan in place, or if there is one but it’s not
consistently followed, then “this is an opportunity to sit down with your manager and say, ‘Hey, this is
what's really important in my career. I want to build these additional skills, I want to be certified, I want
to be a manager, I want a raise... .’ Then you need to map out a plan together and make sure you’re in
agreement. Doing this makes expectations very real and tangible," says Reed.

Keep an open dialogue

Mapping your accomplishments to business value is essential to a more meaningful self-assessment,

especially if your company’s performance reviews have a direct effect on wage increases or bonuses.

"Use [the self-assessment] as an opportunity to build your perceived value, distinguish yourself and
show how strong your contributions are. This is a time to really leverage your accomplishments," says
Myers. In a perfect world, the self-evaluation will open an ongoing dialogue where you can discuss with
your supervisor your career path and performance as it relates to the business by asking, for example:
What are our biggest priorities right now?

Am I on track?

Is there anything you'd like me to focus on?

Where do you think I need to devote more time and energy?

How can I help make your job easier?

Having a dialogue like this makes the annual review and self-evaluation a mere formality. This is how it
should be, according to Myers. "It's ideal to have ongoing conversations with your boss throughout the
year. Keep the dialogue open; otherwise, you can get lost in the dust," says Myers.

Ask how self-evaluations are used

Approach your supervisor and ask how self-evaluations are used by the company. Are they tied to
bonuses, promotions or rewards? Who will they be shared with? Knowing the answers will give you
insight into the tone you should take and how much effort is required.

Ask yourself the hard questions

Experts agree that you should use this as an opportunity to do an impartial self-appraisal of your skillset.
Start by honestly answering these questions:

What could I have done better this year?

What are my strengths?

What are my weaknesses and how can I improve on them?

Where can I take personal initiative and become a stronger employee who contributes more next year?

Stay positive

According to Myers, don’t use your self-evaluation to bash your manager, your company or strategic
direction, because this could come back to bite you later on. Employee remarks should be 90 percent
positive comments and 10 percent what Myers refers to as "areas for development" comments. Use this
10 percent of the self-evaluation to explain your own plan to grow and develop in specific areas over the
next year. Don't bash bosses, co-workers or vendors, instead focus on you, your accomplishments and
your professional development, he says.

How to handle your shortcomings

"Try to do a balanced self-assessment," says Reed. We all have areas for improvement and he
recommends beating your boss to the punch. "If you give yourself great marks in all areas, that tells me
that you're not really thinking about how you can improve," says Reed.

Instead, Reed suggests calling out the areas where you think you fall short and using "developmental
language" to explain that you really want to improve in these areas and how you are going to achieve
that.

For example, Myers says, you could explain that over the past year you noticed your software skills
needed some work in a particular environment, for example, in HTML5. Then, according to Myers, you
could say something like, "My goal for this year is to take some advanced courses in HTML5 because we
are using it more and more as our site evolves," he says.CIO CAREER COACH

CIO Career Coach: How to build your brand

Frame any shortcomings not as problems or things you did wrong, but as areas for development and
improvement. "They should always be approached as how you can make a stronger contribution to the
company," says Myers. It should appear more like an area where you want to learn more, do better and
contribute at a higher level than a negative mark on your report card.

Ask for training

Once you've outlined the areas where you'd like to grow, it's a good idea to demonstrate a plan for how
to get there. Use this as an opportunity to ask for whatever type of training could help you contribute
more, whether it's attending an SEO conference or taking a course on the newest version of SQL Server.
Now is a good time to put in the request.

Document your achievements

Be specific. Cover the achievements you completed and be sure to include how and who it helped, as
well as the impact on the business. Whether it's adding numbers to the bottom line or streamlining
processes to create a better tech support workflow, using specifics makes sure everyone is on the same
page and that you concisely tell the full story including the problem, the fix and the end results, instead
of simply describing a deployment. "As long as you can tie it to tangible data points and facts, you can
use it to your advantage," says Reed.

"This is really your chance to let your boss know all the good things that you've achieved. You can do
that without braggadocio or tooting your own horn too loudly about the things you've done. As long as
it’s fact-based, there is nothing wrong with this," says Reed.

Myers agrees. "Be very, very specific," he says, and recommends keeping a ‘success file’ or ‘achievement
journal’ throughout the year to write down all your contributions as bullet points throughout the month.
At the end of the year, you'll have twelve documents to reference for your self-evaluation.

"I personally like the idea of sending this to your boss at the end of each month," says Myers, as it keeps
your performance right in front of your manager or supervisor. He says he has seen people get raises
and promotions based on this type of documentation. This way, says Myers, "they are ready to give you
a raise or promotion, instead of wondering whether to give you a raise and/or promotion."

Differing points of view

But what happens if your self-assessment differs wildly from your manager’s assessment of your
performance? If the performance review and the self-assessment diverge significantly, according to
Reed, this likely indicates that you and your manager are not meeting often enough and that a
discussion needs to be had in order to sort out expectations from the employee and management
positions.

"If I'm doing an annual review and we're off by this much, that tells me that we're not talking and
putting in place corrective actions and adjustments throughout the course of the year," says Reed.

Ask for guidance, direction and mentoring

Believe it or not, there are businesses and managers out there who never offer feedback or
performance reviews, even as employee satisfaction, engagement and morale become important
business metrics and issues that affect the CIO. If your employer refuses to give any kind of feedback,
Roccia says, you may want to question if you are in the right environment.

"Employees need feedback and need to know how they are doing. I've heard managers whose style is, 'If
you're not hearing anything from me, you're doing a good job,' but I don't subscribe to that
management style. In fact, I would send that manager to management training," says Roccia.

That said, you should try opening a dialogue with your boss to set up a schedule for continuous review
and assessment. Myers advises that you get your boss on board. "Try talking your boss into having
meetings at least every month or so. Ask for guidance, direction and mentoring," says Myers. However,
if he/she refuses to budge, the experts agree, it may be time to look for greener pastures.

The same goes when applying for jobs. "If you're applying for a job where the boss says, 'Forget it, that's
a waste of time,' I suggest you go find another job. Who wants a boss who refuses to give feedback and
guidance throughout the year?" says Myers.

2. Reviewing and Revising Personal Development Plans

(https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/reviewing-personal-development.html)

Evaluating Your Personal Development

It is worth taking time to review your activities against your plans on a regular basis, probably every
quarter or so. Less often, and you may find that you are not placing a high enough priority on your
development activities, and letting progress slip. More often, and you are likely to find that you have not
made enough progress, or that you are tempted to put the review off, because the last one was so
recent.

Regular review will ensure that you keep tabs on your activity, and are not tempted to make personal
development a lower priority.

It is easy to forget about personal development, especially if you have just started a new job or course of
study. But a regular review of your development plan keeps the process on track.

A Possible Review Process

Set aside time for your review. It is no good trying to reflect meaningfully in just five minutes. Make sure
you are in no rush, and also that your environment is conducive to quiet reflection.

See our page on Learning Preferences for more about this.

Find your original plan, with your goals and planned activities. You need to know what you said you
were going to do.

For each planned activity, assess how far what you have done by way of activity was in line with your
plan.

You need to be honest with yourself:

How much did you do?

Was it as much as you were expecting to achieve?
Did you do something different, but more effective?
Consider how successful you feel your development has been in getting you to your goals.

Have you made progress towards your goals?

Have you identified more activities that will need doing that might slow down your progress?
Are your goals (and their timing) still realistic?
Decide what you need to do next.

Is it more of the same, or something different?

Do you need to take more time, or find some external support, perhaps?
Revise your plan to set out your new activities.

It is helpful to document your thinking during the review process. This means you can look back next
time and remember why you changed your goals or activities. It also helps to articulate the reasons
behind the decisions, and make sure that they are not just ‘I couldn’t really be bothered’.

Reviewing Your Goals

Every year or so, it is also likely to be helpful to review your personal development goals. As with the
review of your planned activity, it is important to set time aside for this process. Again, it is also helpful
to document it, because this forces you to articulate your reasoning.

Ask yourself:

Are these goals really what I want to achieve more than anything else?
Do they inspire me to take action?
If the answer to either of those is ‘no’, then you probably have the wrong goals.

Take a look at our page on Setting Personal Goals to see if you can develop new and more inspiring
goals.

Changing the picture

If you are struggling to identify your real goals, try doing something different. For example, take yourself
away for the weekend and go for a long walk. Walk up a hill and sit and look at the view.

Think about what matters to you. What do you really want out of life?

The advantage of going somewhere outdoors is that the landscape has been there a long time, and it
has a way of making things look simpler. But you can try doing almost anything that takes you away
from your usual environment and gives you time to think.

It is fine if the answer is ‘I don’t really have any goals right now, because I’m pretty happy with my life’.
In that case, give yourself a break and don’t worry too much about personal development for a bit. But
do come back to it in a few months, a year at most, and make sure that this is still the case.

The answer, however, is more likely to be ‘yes, but…’

In other words, yes, that is still more or less what you want, but you have refined your thinking
consciously or unconsciously. In that case, tweak your goal until you are feeling more inspired, and it
really is what you want to achieve more than anything else.

Once you have your revised goals, you can then go through the process of deciding what activities you
need to develop your skills.

Moving Towards Reflective Practice

In time, regular review and reflection on what you have achieved should become a habit. You may find it
helpful to read our page on Reflective Practice to understand more about this.

The process outlined on this page of reviewing your plans and goals on a regular basis is a step in that
direction. It ensures that you set aside time for reflection, and hopefully, that you start to document
your thinking and progress on personal development.

Remember, though, that there is no rush. There is a reason why personal development is sometimes
called ‘lifelong learning’…