HAVIGHURST'S THEORY of PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

HAVIGHURST'S THEORY OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Another Psychologist that further elaborated on Erickson's view on personality development was Robert. J Havighurst. He asserted that "Erickson's analysis of stages of development could be applied in a different way to shed light on other facets of development. He suggested some development tasks for different age levels, starting from the pre-school and kindergarten age.
pre-school/kindergarten age: According to Havighurst, this age ushers in an era of formation of simple concepts of societal and physical reality. It is a familiarity seeking stage with the social surroundings including every day objects. Children are curious at this stage asking questions. The questions if answered expose them to experiences they hitherto do not have. The child would want to relate emotionally with his parents, siblings and other people around mostly through imitation. He would like to distinguish right from wrong and develop a conscience.
The tasks appear to be incompatible with the age whose accomplishment would be difficult. The personality of children at this age is just beginning to take shape, and assuming that children are in a position to undertake these developmental tasks will amount to impossibilities.
However, teachers are expected to serve as desirable role models and expose children to many objects and experiences. They should patiently answer their curious questions.
Elementary Grade: Nine (9) developmental tasks have been identified for this age grade. They include learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games; building wholesome attitudes towards oneself as a growing organism; learning to get along with age mates; learning appropriate masculine or feminine roles; development of fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculations. Others are developing concepts necessary for everyday living; developing conscience, morality and scale of values; achieving personal independence and developing attitudes towards social group and institutions.
Teachers have a stake in ensuring that children emerge from these Herculean development tasks successfully. They must bring to bear all the teaching principles and methods in the teaching/learning situations. They should emphasize socially acceptable behaviors, health and eating values to their students. They should make effort at seeping and integrating curriculum materials and experiences that would lead to the accomplishment of masculine and feminine tasks.
Secondary grades: At the secondary grade, nine (9) developmental tasks have been similarly identified by Havighurst, which are related mostly to adolescents and adult behaviors. The list comprises of :
Achieving new and mature relations with age mates of both sexes;
Achieving masculine or feminine social role;
Accepting one's physique and using the body effectively;
Achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults;
Achieving assurance of economic independence and selecting and preparing for occupation;
Preparing for marriage and family life;
Developing intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic competence;
Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior; and
Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior.
Havighurst emphasized the importance of timing and teachable moments in addressing issues related to the achievement of the developmental tasks, failing which there would be an adverse repercussion in later aspects of development. These issues have also been discussed under psychology of adolescence.
FACTORS AFFECTING PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Based on the general assumption that personality refers to the peculiar thinking of the individual, his emotions and behaviors in adapting to the world, some psychologists proposed five major factors that make it up. These include emotional stability, extraversion and openness to experience. The other two are agreeableness and conscientiousness.. Apart from these major factors, however, there are other equally important ones such as how positive or negative and how self assertive a student can be. By positive and negative, they mean how joyous or happy and how angry or sad a student is respectively.
EMOTIONAL STABILITY
The emotional stability of an individual affects his personality by determining whether he is calm or anxious in his approaches. It also tells whether he considers himself as secure to perform or insecure to participate in activities. And whether he is self satisfied with his tasks or is self pitying is also indicated by his emotional stability.
EXTRAVERSION
This factor is responsible for indicating whether the student is sociable or retiring and whether he is run-loving or usually somber. It also shows how affectionate or reserved one is in his association with others or during events.
OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE
The student's imaginative power or his practicability is known by his openness to the relevant experience. It indicates whether he is more interest6ed in variety or in routine and whether he is more independent in his dealings or simply conforming to others instructions and suggestions.
Agreeableness
It matters a lot to determine whether the student is softhearted or ruthless in his dealings with others. Is he a trusting type or generally a suspicious person? We need to know his position when it comes to whether he is helpful or uncooperative in his behavior.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Lastly, the factor of conscientiousness affects the personality of an individual by helping to determine whether he is usually organized, careful or careless. It also suggests whether he is a disciplined individual or is normally given to impulsive behavior.
PERSON - SITUATION INTERACTION
In relation to factors that affect the personality of our students, it is noteworthy however that the description of the personality of each of them is not strictly speaking a straight jacket affair. The situation in which the subjects find themselves must get put into consideration before conclusion is drawn to label them according to the traits enumerated in the factors that affect their personality. This is because their interactions may vary from one situation to another. Therefore, it is for the teacher to observe the situations that are more comfortable to their respective students, to provide cognate learning activities for them.