Discuss knowledge of key concepts in child psychology
Apply and criticize the theories and issues related to various aspects of child development
Development psychology is the scientific study of the reasons as to why and how a human being changes throughout their lives. It majorly aims at looking at how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout their entire life. A life rotates around three aspects of physical development, cognitive development, and social-emotional development. The three aspects are interrelated and work closely with one another towards the full development of a child. The development psychology examines the influences of say nature and nurture on the whole process of human development and the basic concept of change in the context of the element of time. A child’s psychology is different from that of an adult. This article looks at the development of a child’s psychological processes from a child’s birth to the end of adolescence, and how different from one child to another. Psychology focuses on the mind and behavior of a child from prenatal development through adolescence. It doesn’t focus necessarily on physical growth but also mental, emotional, and social development as well.
Looking into the history of a child, they are viewed as small adults. As small adults, children think differently and they are unique and complex. Childhood play an important role in the whole life of a child. Sociology and education are also closely related to psychology. There are some aspects which lead to the normal development and other aspects which leads to psychological problems. An effect on the child’s psychology is caused by several factors like school, parenting, social pressures, and school. All these aspects help a child grow and develop appropriately. Genetics and personal characteristics affect the way a child grows. However influences that arise from within and the environmental factors such as social relationships and the culture in which a child grows play a major and a vital role.
A child’s development is based on several contexts that relate differently and are closely related to one another. First, there is the social context that is associated with the relationship that a child has with its peers and the adults. This relationship contributes directly to the behavior of a child, how they think, and how they learn and develop. The social context is highly influenced by the families, schools, and peer groups.
Secondly there is the cultural context that rotates around the culture in which a child lives in. It contributes directly to the customs, values, assumptions, and ways of living amongst living under a similar spect of a culture. This heavily propels a young mind to stick on to the cultural ground of what they term as right and to deter what the culture term as wrong. Culture plays a vital role in determining how a child relates to their parent, the nature of education that they are given, and also the type of childcare support that they are provided. It is equally important to know that culture creates an ethical ground in the entire life of a child.
The third context of a child’s psychological development is the socio-economic context. This is related to the social class aspect which plays a vital role in the development of a child. This one is associated with a lot of factors which include the level of education of the people around the child, the amount of money that these people earn, the jobs that they hold, and where they live. A child raised in a high socioeconomic class tend to have greater access to opportunities available than those who have been raised in low socio-economic classes. Other things such as health care, quality nutrition, and access to education are equally important socioeconomic factors that can affect a child’s psychology.
These three contexts are directly related and are constantly interacting with each other but they do not necessarily influence a child’s destiny of psychological balance. A child may have a low socioeconomic class, but working on their social relationships and building their cultural background may help deter the effects of the socio-economic class. Different children are affected differently by different factors. A child’s foundation is greatly influenced by her environment and proper care should be taken to build a good bridge towards the child’s destiny.
As a basic way of understanding a child, one of the best ways of understanding a child is by observing them,. Observations can be made as they play, eat, or sleep. You are required to observe how a child behaves in normal and in abnormal circumstances. This one helps us to learn the consistent traits of a child, what they like best, and how they can easily manage change and grasp concepts. Another form of getting information from a child is by talking to them. This helps one in gaining information and understanding about the behavior pattern of a child. Young children relate directly to facial expression and body language which ultimately helps one understand their thoughts and feelings. Relating to them will help them share their feelings with you and will help you know the children better.
Child’s development differs in different children. Some children develop social skills faster than others and their ability to grasp concepts is faster than others. It is important to consider this fact so that a relative measure can be considered while understanding the behavior patterns of different children. A child’s genetics and environment influence their imagination, their reasoning, problem-solving, decision making, memory, learning, and their language understanding and the observation around them.
Interest in the general development of children began to develop in the 20th century which tended to focus majorly on the abnormal behavior. But later people focused on the child’s development as an influence of the world around them. Understanding a child allows fully understanding and appreciation of the cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and educational growth that these children go through from birth to their early childhood.
Different theories have been given in the execution of a child’s psychology. These theories of child development are grand as they attempt to describe the aspects of the child’s development often using the stage approach. Other theories are also called mini theories as they instead focus on fairly limited aspects of the known issues in the child’s development such as the social growth and the cognitive factor of a child’s psychology.
Looking at the psychoanalytic theory as an original work of Freud, he considered childhood experiences and unconscious desires as a major factor that influences their behavior. According to this theory, the conflict that occurs during every stage can have a major and a lifetime influence on personality and behavior. According to Freud, child development occurs in a series of stages that focused on different pleasures of the body. During every stage of this theory, the child encounters conflicts, which play a significant role in the course of their development. Failure to develop as a progress from one stage to another can lead to fixation of that point of development, which Freud believed that could influence an adult’s behavior. As a result of the successful completion of a given stage, there is a build-up of personality and link-up of a behavior pattern. Although some of the other theories suggest that personality continues to change and grow in the entire life of a child, others speculate that the early experiences of a child play a vital role in shaping the life of a child.
Erikson developed an eight-stage theory that was equally influential in the first half of the twentieth century. It was a slight expansion of Freud’s idea s which gave him a ground to develop his own. This theory describes growth and change throughout life while focusing on the social interaction and conflicts that arise during the different stages of the development process. It has a major focus on social interaction and experience as major determinants of the decision that people make. It describes the process of development from infancy through death. In each stage people are faced with major developmental conflicts that dearly impacts later functional and distinct growth of the child. It is clear that this theory focuses on managing the challenges successfully and using success as a turning point to another stage hence a lifelong psychological virtue.
According to the Behavioral Child’s development theories, observable and quantifiable behaviors were major points of considerations. According to the perspective of behavior, the major determinant of behavior in the environment. The environment majorly influences the pattern of behavior in a child’s psychology. This is a critical substance as it directly influences =s the way a child behaves and can relatively develop a pattern in their adulthoods. This theory gives no considerations into internal thoughts or feelings. Instead, it purely focuses on the experiences that shape who we are. In theory, people can learn through pairing natural stimuli with a neutral stimuli or by reinforcement of punishment to modify their behaviors. It gives us a clear indication that whatever happens to us today determines what we are and whatever happens to us tomorrow. In other words our future behavior pattern is can be considered by the relationship we directly have with our environment. It is therefore important to control our direct environment so that our children can enumerate good behavior patterns that will shape up their lives. It also is seen as difficult to change an already instilled behavior because as a matter of concern it’s formed a pattern that Is very hard to break.
The cognitive theory is majorly concerned with the development of a person’s thoughts and processes. It focuses on how these thoughts processes influence how we understand and interact with the world. It focuses on the aspect of the mind and the mental states. Ideally it looks at ho these thoughts and processes on our behavior pattern which attribute to our general attitude towards life. Piaget then proposed that this theory, to account for the steps and sequences of the children’s intellectual development. The sensorimotor stage looks into the period between birth and that time in which an infant knowledge of the world is limited to his senses and the motor activities around them. The pre-operational stage looks at the period between and 6 where the child learns how to use a language. During this time a child cannot comprehensively understand a concrete language nor can they mentally manipulate the information. The concrete operational stage is the period between seven and eleven during which the children gain a better and good understanding of the mental operations. They begin to think logically about concrete events but have difficulty understanding abstract concepts. The Formal Operations stage is the period between the age of twelve and adulthood when the children develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. At this stage, the children can plan systematically, can logically think, and also can deductively season.
John Bowlby contributed greatly to the aspect of a child’s development. He proposed that children are born with an innate need to form attachments, This kind of attachments are major aids to a child’s survival by ensuring that the child receives care and major protection. Further these basic attachments are influenced by behavior and their motivational patterns. Ideally, children and caregivers directly engage in the behaviors which are designed to ensure their proximity. As the children struggle to be close and stay attached to those close to them or their caregivers a sense of belonging is created. Security and care are guaranteed under the arms of the caregivers, and this forms a base of exploration. We can derive the fact that the children who receive major support and care from their parents tend to develop a secure attachment style as compared to those who receive less reliable care and this may develop an avoidant and ambivalent style. Security and care creates a child’s supportive actions towards other people and confidence in handling activities.
The social learning theory is based on the fact that conditioning and reinforcement processes cannot sufficiently explain human learning. Ideally children observe the actions of others, including parents and the peers around them forms a basis for the development of their new skills and acquiring new information. However observation plays a major and critical role in learning but does not necessarily need to take a form of watching a live model. Instead people can learn by listening to verbal messages about a behavior pattern that can majorly influence their change.
Vygotsky proposes a seminal learning theory that is influential in the field of education which believes that children learn through hands-on experiences. The theory suggests that’s parents, caregivers, peers and the basic culture are responsible for the development of higher-order functions. As a result of interacting with others, it is true to say that learning becomes integrated into an individual’s understanding of the world. The zone of proximal development is the gap between what a person can do with help and that which a person can do without help or that which they can do on their own. A person can progressively learn through others, as people will help others increase their skills and their scope of understanding.
These theories help us understand and explore the different aspects of a child’ s development. They have a major influence on our understanding of a child’s development, how they grow, how they behave, and how they think. However, they have not fully exhausted the different ways of thinking about a child’s behavior and development but rather gives us a snapshot of the behavior patterns around the children. In the real sense, fully understanding of the behavior patterns, the change and growth from childhood to adulthood requires us to look at many but related factors that influence physical and psychological growth. The genes, the environment and the interactions around these children determine how they mentally and physically growth
In a nutshell, understanding a child’s psychology is vital. The Ultimate goal of studying a child is to know a child into detail and understand their behavior. This one helps in understand different children and their different behavior. By having a heavy understanding of the growth and development of children, it can help reduce the effects of the basic conceptualization of child to their future. The interactions among the personal characteristics, individual behavior, and the environmental factors which include the social context play an essential role in the child’s developmental psychology. Close monitoring of the interrelationship between these factors can create an ideal transition of childhood into adulthood. Proper transition aspires to a conducive environment of growth, independence, and maturity. This cordially enhances positive intellectual, physical, and emotional development and influences their thinking, their behavior, and the nature of their decision-making styles which impacts their lives comprehensively. Therefore childhood ought to be closely monitored.