I. Purpose of paper: Child Psychology, study of children's behavior-including physical, cognitive, motor, linguistic, perceptual, social, and emotional characteristics-from birth through adolescence. Child psychologists attempt to explain the similarities and differences among children and to describe normal as well as abnormal behavior and development. They also develop methods of treating social, emotional, and learning problems and provide therapy privately and in schools, hospitals, and other institutions. Two critical problems for child psychologists are (1) to determine how environmental variables (such as parental attitudes) and biological characteristics (such as health) interact and influence behavior, and (2) to …show more content…
Behaviorists encourage experimental studied and were responsible for moving child psychology into the mainstream of psychology. Although they contributed much to the study of children, their concepts eventually were viewed as being overly narrow (The Volume Library 1990: Volume 2). In the early 1960's attention was focused on the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who since the 1920's had been writing about children's cognitive development. Piaget called himself a genetic epistemologist-that is, a person who studies the origins of human knowledge-and his theories led to more advanced work in child psychology. This work involves both experimental and observational methods and, in accounting for behavior, integrates biological and environmental variables. Thus, current studies have their origins in Darwin's theory of evolution but also consider Watson's concern for environment (Kroll 1995). A theory of development should reflect an attempt to relate behavioral to chronological age; that is the diverse behavioral characteristics should be related to specific stages of growth. The rules governing the transitions between these growth states also must be identified. The dominant developmental theories are Freud's theory of personality development and Piaget's theory of perception and cognition. Both explain human development in terms of interactions of biological determinants
It is difficult for researchers to isolate specific causes of child behaviour because each child’s environmental settings and values are different from one to another.
For ease of review in discussing the developmental theorists and their theories of human development I have subdivided each theorist into their respective schools of psychology. These schools include the psychoanalytic school, behavioral school, humanistic school, cognitive school, and the individual schools of psychology. Each developmental theorist holds their own unique ideas and theories about various components of human development. I will be discussing the contributions of each of these theorists.
*** Children cannot feel loveable if the targeted person/parent is seen to have surrendered her/him and does not love her/him. The unavoidable result is that they "will look for love in all the wrong places throughout their lives.
I am a freshman at Walla Walla University, with a psychology major, planning to go into child psychology. For the past two years, I have tutored students from grades K-6th grade at the elementary school in Texas. I would tutor in mostly math, but I have done other subjects as well. I have worked with children from all ages, and I have worked with children with disabilities. My goal here is to help as much as I can, and I plan to be completely devoted to my
He produced great work which has significantly brought new styles and approached the field of psychology. The development of psychology might have been confined in a set framework if the views of Jean Piaget and his approach to development did not make a marginal place in the 19th century. His worked focused on the adaptation of the biological adaptation in the psychology of the human and its analysis. He depicted himself as a genetic epistemologist, someone who makes constant struggle and endeavors to map out the origin of the nurturance in the adults from the actions of the sensory motion in infancy to operations of logical and formal cognition, which is focused on studying how knowledge development takes place in ontogenesis. The development stage theory provided by him is predominantly a cognitive domain named as on causal, logical beliefs and thinking (Kallio, 2015).
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) in his early years of age was a biologist who originally studied molluscs but later he moved into the study of the development of children 's understanding, through observing them and talking and listening to them while they worked on exercises he set. He started his tests with his own children on describing the mechanism by which the mind processes new information. His views of how children’s minds work and develop have been enormously influential for parents, scientists, philosophers, and most particularly influence the educational theory (Siegler, 2005).
The study of Developmental psychology is how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the life span. This perspective
Jean Piaget was a cognitive theorist who was born in Switzerland in the late 1800’s. He began his life with a concentration in the natural sciences, particularly the subject of mollusks, and later developed an interest in cognitive theory (“Jean Piaget Biography,” n.d.). His subsequent research and findings greatly influenced the field of developmental psychology, particularly childhood cognitive development theory. According to Saul McLeod, an instructor at the University of Manchester, prior to Piaget’s work “the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults” (McLeod, 2009). Instead, Piaget suggested
Jean Piaget studied processes, and how children change with age. Piaget’s ideas are what serve as our guide to cognitive theory because of his extensive studies, and thoroughness of his work. He became the foremost expert on development of knowledge from birth to adulthood. He studied children, and became fascinated with children’s incorrect responses. Focusing on the children’s wrong answers, he noticed that the children gave similar kinds of wrong answers at certain ages. Because of this, Piaget launched a lifelong study of intelligence, and he believed that children think in fundamentally different ways from adults. Piaget’s theory relies on both maturational and environmental factors. Piaget also believed that all species inherit
Child Psychology is a very interesting career, and has been to people for a long time. This career allows people to help people with anything they need, including interacting with other kids.
Many psychologists have persevering hope that several inherent issues will be resolved. Today, environment versus genetics has complicated developmental psychology for thousands of years, when the idea was debated by the philosopher Plato (Cherry 2015). Theorists such as Descartes argue that children are born with the cognitions they are meant to have, while later scientists such as John Locke insist that children are shaped by external forces after their birth (Cherry 2015). Regardless of this discrepancy, scientists seem to agree that the two coincide in most respects. For example, a child living in poverty may be depressed for this reason, but this also may be a disorder inherited from their parents or a temporary hormonal imbalance as a precursor to puberty. In addition, newer contributions have raised questions in regards to the checkpoints children should have met at certain ages. According to the Childhood Development Institute, a child between the ages of seven and nine months should be able to crawl, sit upright, and control the movements of their appendages (2015). A child that is unable to do these by the age of one is considered abnormal, but they may ultimately turn out to be a functioning, healthy person. Overall, these expectations are an average of abilities most children have at this age (The Institute of Childhood Development, 2015). However, revision may be necessary to adequately
Developmental psychology denotes to the psychological ways in which human beings progress from birth to adulthood. For the purposefulness of this paper, the focal point will be on childhood developmental psychology. The subject perceived will be my five-year-old nephew Richard Tafoya. Furthermore, the interactive methods utilized throughout my observations will include: games, test of conservations, interviews, and cognitive assessments. This paper will indicate which physical actions were observed, verbal statements given, and what activity the child was doing in relation to one or more of the various theories of development.
Psychology involves studying the mental functioning and general behaviors of both humans and animals. Social behavior and mental functioning of an individual are explained by exploring the neurological and physiological processes. These include emotions, cognition, perception, motivation, attention, brain functioning and personality. Child psychology is as well stated to be the application of psychological techniques to children where it involves carrying out research on mental states and development of children. The development of the child both physically, mentally and emotionally, with the help of a parent allows the identification of helpful information to any evolving challenges in child’s behavior and
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 tend 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. Notable psychologists namely Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein and
Two critical problems for child psychologists are (1) to determine how environmental variables (such as parental attitudes) and biological characteristics (such as health) interact and