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Key theories of child development
Developmental theories psychology
Theories on child development
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Key theories of child development
Developmental theories psychology
Theories on child development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Introduction: Many people all over the world have been told “it is who you are in the end that matters” or “it is who you are on the inside that matter." However, are these statements necessarily true? Particularly, our identity is changed a lot because of external factors. As for statments, it's not right to say that only the inside of us matters.
Child psychology, also called child development, is the study of the psychological processes of children and especially, how they develop as young adults and how they differ from one child to the next. It basically tends to map onto children’s physical, cognitive and social/emotional development. Psychologists attempt to make sense of every aspect of child development, including how children learn, think, interact and respond emotionally to people around them and understand emotions and their developing personalities, temperaments and skills. It also includes how individual, social and cultural factors may influence their development. Child study is of comparatively recent origin.
Child psychology, also called child development, is the study of the psychological processes of children and especially, how they develop as young adults and how they differ from one child to the next. It basically tends to map onto children’s physical, cognitive and social/emotional development. Psychologists attempt to make sense of every aspect of child development, including how children learn, think, interact and respond emotionally to people around them and understand emotions and their developing personalities, temperaments and skills. It also includes how individual, social and cultural factors may influence their development. Child study is of relatively recent origin.
External influences, influence us everyday, and everywhere. They are all around us, influences can range from a friend to an animal to a god. These influences shape how you are, how you act, and who you become. This stands out in the article Technology, and in the Ted Talk “Are we in Control of our own Actions?”. Both of these connect to external influences.
Language skills Language skill is one of the milestone achievements of the first two years of life. Children are born with innate schema of communication, such as body language or facial expression to communicate with parents or caregiver. The acquisition of language starts from phonology, which is an important skill for a child to master where he or she is to absorb the sound and identify the sounds form one language to another. This was nurtured both at home and in school where Alexander has to absorb sounds from native (Cantonese) and foreign languages (English).
It starts with infancy and continues to adulthood. By gaining knowledge about child development, a synopsis of what children can do at various ages can be formed. Following are the three theoretical perspectives of child development: i. Maturationist’s View of Child Development : Maturationism is a premature childhood educational philosophy emphasizing the child as a growing individual in which knowledge exists. Based on Arnold Gessell’s work, maturationists suggest that “genetic factors play a bigger role in development than environmental ones” [8].
Thus when we talk of development we need to understand the patterns of biological, cognitive and socioemotional changes that a child goes through from birth to lifespan which is why it is important to introduce a child to age appropriate education else a child may not be able to pick up for eg if we introduce a child to writing at an early age he may not be able to do so as he is still developing his fine motor skills. When we talk of biological development it’s the changes in physical growth of the child and is genetically inherited and will also include the brain and motor skill, cognitive will emphasise the child’s ability to think, language development and problem solving skills and the socioemotional development will look at the child’s relationship with other people and changes in ones emotions and personality. There are various stages of development like infancy from birth to about 24 months where the child is completely dependent on the adult where many activities like language development, sensory and motor coordination , social interaction and
Development is a gradual and continuous process. The development of children is greatly influenced through interactions with the family, friends and culture. Children learn from seeing how they are treated, overhearing the interactions of the people around them and observing the things we do all throughout the day. Fully understanding how children grown and change over the course of childhood requires us to look into various child development theories such as psychosocial, cognitive, behaviourist and ecological theories, to name a few.
A major debate in the field of child cognitive development is whether certain aspects of development are learned or innate. It is a continuation of the classic dispute between the nature vs nurture elements of development. The chapter and articles delve into this debate with visual and auditory perception in children and provides empirical evidence towards whether or not infants are born with the ability to detect and distinguish these perceptions. There is a large consensus that perceptual functioning in children reaches adult like levels fairly quickly during the first year of development Siegler (2005).
The nature vs. nurture debate centers on whether human behaviour and personality are inherited (nature) or acquired (nurture); in other words, whether a person’s environment or a person’s genetic inheritance determines their behaviour and personality. Goldsmith and Harman (1994) adopt a neutral position, in which both nature and nurture influence people, stating that they “believe that the fundamental issue concerns the interplay between characteristics of the individual and of the relationship” (54). Goldsmith and Harman discuss temperament and attachment for infant, with temperament being linked to the nature side of the debate and attachment being linked with the nurture side; as a result, the infant’s temperament influences the attachment bond between the infant and the mother, but the attachment bond influences the temperament of the child as well. Therefore, both nature and nurture interact with each other to produce people’s behaviour (Harman et al. 54). Andersen and Berk (1998) take on the nurture perspective, while Leary (1999) claims that nature is the determining factor of a person’s personality.
Developmental psychology is a scientific approach that describes growth, change and coherence throughout life. Developmental psychology looks at how one's thoughts, feelings and behavior change throughout his or her life. An important part of the theories within this discipline focus on development in childhood; because it is the time that elapses throughout the life of the individual when the most change occurs. Developmental psychologists examine broad theoretical domains such as biological, social, emotional, and cognitive processes. Prenatal development refers to the process of development of a baby from a single cell after pregnancy to embryo and then to a fetüs.
Introduction: In this assignment I will apply development theory to real life scenarios. Dr. Berger an author and professor at the City University of New York states, “A developmental theory is a systematic statement of general principals that provide a framework for understanding how and why people change as they grow older.” Therefore, I will be analyzing and applying real life scenarios to the life of my son Christopher Ramirez and explain how his development is associated with very specific theories or a theorist. This developmental theory will be applied to all four age ranges which are: the first two years (0-2), the play years (2-6), the school years (7-11), and the adolescence years (11-18).
Social psychology is psychology perspective that studied how perceive themselves and others, and how people influence each other’s behavior (social, culture, feeling and behavior). Developmental psychology is a psychology’s perspective that study human from the origin to the end (death) “humanity”. Clinical psychology: is psychological perspective that tend to study the origin and treat mental, emotional and behavior disorder. Individual differences: Personality psychology is the study of
Nature and Nurture Influences on Child Development Karla White ECE 205: Introduction to Child Development Instructor: Alesia Lane October 2, 2017 Nature and Nurture Influences on Child Development Describe the relationship between nature versus nurture. The nature vs. nature debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture, behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture. Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors. Our genes determine the different traits that we have, such as eye color, hair, ear size, height and other traits.
DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY: REFLECTIVE ESSAY In life of an individual there are several developmental changes or events which occur as continuity of span of life. Some of life developmental stages include infantile, adolescence, maturity, and adulthood. These phases have biological, social, psychological and physiognomic reasons to which an individual completed the course of life. Psychological analysis upon the developmental stages include the focus on characterization, demarcation and the social interaction of individual’s life (Baltes & Schaie, 2013).