Child Psychology Issues - Research Paper Example

Child Psychology Child Psychology Child Psychology is a specialized branch and one the most frequently studied areas of Psychology. Child Psychology focuses on the behavior and development of children from their birth to adolescence. This document briefly discusses the different contexts of child psychology, how these contextual dimensions interrelate, observational methods, the thinking and psychological process of children, how it differs from those of adults, and a few of the child developmental theories that describe a child’s emotional, mental and social development process. The Ultimate Goal of Child Psychology Child psychology mainly studies the mental and cognitive processes and other factors that combine to give meaning to how a child reacts and use that information to improve parenting, health, education, mental hygiene and other areas devoted to child benefits. Child psychology thus enables us to understand the behavior of children. To understand the child behavior we, therefore, need to consider the child and his or her environment as an arrangement of correlating variables. Viewing behavior, or in fact any set of data in its entirety, in context has been labeled by many analysts as a field (Einstein, 1933; Kohler, 1925; Lewin, 1954). Child Development under the Different Contexts Context is generally defined as the circumstances that surround a particular situation. A child’s growth and development depends on the environmental as well as personal variables that make up the context. For example, the personal variables for a class of kindergarten children may include their genders, age, nature and upbringing; whereas the environmental variables may include the aspects of the surrounding in which the adult and children interact, such as the physical characteristics of the classroom (Parke & Gauvain, 2009; Fishbein, 1984). At later stages in a child’s life these environmental factors have a much larger scope and include factors such as social interactions, gatherings and the culture in which (s)he lives. All these factors eventually have a great influence on how a child grows. The following major factors need to be considered for the study of child psychology: Social Context The most important part of social context includes family, friend, school, and teachers. Interactions with all these people have a significant effect on how a child thinks and nurtures. Cultural Context The culture in which a child lives shapes up the values and beliefs which give a special meaning to the observable elements of behavior, customs and artifacts. Beneath these values and beliefs lie the foundational idea that are called shared assumptions. These assumptions influence the behavior of children and play a great role in developing their perception. Socioeconomic Context The socioeconomic level of people is influenced by many factors including their family background, education, job status, and their nationality. Children rose in families with a high socioeconomic status with good health care, quality education and nutrition have greater access to opportunities than those rose in families with lower socioeconomic status. Such factors also play a major role in child psychology (Schaffer, 2003). One must remember that these three contextual dimensions are constantly interacting and therefore a kid with fewer opportunities due to lower socioeconomic level may have good social relationships and strong cultural values which may affirm his development. Observational Methods To study the child behavior we need information which is obtained from many sources by systematically observing the child behavior and how they react and respond in a particular situation. Parents, teachers, relatives and any other person’s observation and/or direct interaction or interview with a child can provide detailed information in this regard. Tests of personality, intelligence, and other experiments have also proved useful in understanding the children. This information is very helpful in solving the child problems that are faced up in our everyday lives (Pellegrini, 2004). Thinking and Reasoning According to Warren, thinking is a conceptional activity, started by some problem, involving some error and it ultimately leads to a solution or conclusion of the problem. As thinking starts with some problem, children have to exercise their mind and think in order to reach to a solution to the problems they’re facing at any given time. However, a child’s thinking is quite different from that of an adult person (Sharma & Sharma, 2006). Following are the distinguishing characteristics of a child’s thinking and reasoning: 1. A child’s thought are generally more gross and subtle as they contribute to the process of development of concepts in a child. 2. Compared to adults, a child’s concepts are more ambiguous and indistinct, and the clarity of concepts increases with the child’s mental development. 3. A child’s concepts are more indefinite, and they become definite as (s)he advances in mental development. 4. A child’s concepts are simpler. At the age of 27 months a child begins to understand the concept of man & knows that both male and female are human beings. At the age of 42 months a child has the concept of fruits and vegetables and can differentiate them from one another. 5. A child looks at everything in it’s entirety as a whole, in other words he does not have the knowledge of individual components or parts forming the whole. He thus perceives everything as a whole and first forms the concept of the whole and later on that of the part. 6. Compared to adults, many concepts of a child are wrong. He develops right concepts by means of education. Adults should tell them the mere truth so that they don’t form the false concepts that later lead to maladjustment. So proper education and training is necessary for the development of child’s thinking (Sharma & Sharma, 2006). The Middle Childhood Period During middle childhood, children increasingly take part in wider social contexts that exercise significant influences on their behavior pattern and development. When a child starts going to a school, (s)he experiences new things and meets new people which promote the development of his/her interpersonal & intellectual competencies (Harwood, Miller & Vasta, 2008). According to Erikson (1968), a “sense of industry” or a sense of cooperation & mutuality in social interactions during school time and outside home, is critical to healthy development of a child. Conversely, if a child fails to develop such skills, Erikson stated that a “sense of inferiority” would originate that could have a negative effect and could hinder a child’s psychological growth and interpersonal well-being. Child Development Theories The child development process that occurs from birth to adolescence was not given much attention throughout the history. During early years of the study of psychology children were simply viewed as the smaller versions of adults (Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 1998). The child development theories can be classified into two categories: The theories that describe every aspect of the development process are called Grand Theories; others that focus on limited or individual aspects of development such as social and mental growth are known as Mini Theories (Slee & Shute, 2003). In the following paragraphs a few child development theories proposed by different researchers and theorists are briefly discussed. Sigmund Freud He proposed theories that signified the importance of events and experiences during childhood and focused on mental disorders rather than normal functioning. Freud describes the child development as a series of “psychosexual stages”. Satisfaction of libidinal desire is involved in each stage which later serves a great role in adult personality. If any stage is not successfully completed by a child, it would later influence his/her behavior and adult personality. Erik Erikson Erikson’s theory is also based on different stages, but his theory covered not only child growth but the human growth throughout the entire life. Erikson described that each stage of the developmental process involves overcoming a conflict. For example such stage is instituting a sense of personal identity during the period of immaturity (or adolescence). Success or failure in addressing the conflict would have an impact on development process (Erikson, 1968). Cognitive Child Development Theories - Jean Piaget This theory is also called the cognitive child development theory. It emphasizes the positive and free will aspects of human behavior. According to Jean Piaget, children can be seen as “little scientists” who develop their knowledge through thought, experience and their understanding of the world. Behavioral Child Development Theories Behavioral theories are environmentally based i.e. a child’s development is influenced by his/her environment. These theories deal with the observable behaviors alone. Therefore, punishments, reward, love, hatred and reinforcement all are considered to shape a child’s behavior. Social Child Development Theories The social development of a child has gone through a lot of research. The two well-known and earliest theories under this head include that of John Bowlby and Albert Bandura. Bowlby stated that the relationships at the initial stages of childhood with parents and caregivers have a significant influence over child development and they regulate the social interactions and relationships throughout the entire human life. Albert Bandura’s theory is known as Social Learning Theory. According to this theory children learn from their environment by observing the actions of other people to gain new knowledge and develop new skills. The difference between Social Learning and Behavioral theories is that the Social Learning theory takes the effect of both external reinforcement (such as punishment, reward, stimuli etc.) and intrinsic reinforcement (such as satisfaction, accomplishment and sense of pride). Whereas the behavioral theories hold the view that external reinforcement was the only way of making people learn new things. Final Thoughts As discussed above, some of the well-known thinkers have proposed theories to explain different views of child development and psychology. Today’s contemporary psychologists realize that child psychology is complex and off times a variety of views and unique perspectives are put forward to better understand the different aspects of child development, behavior and thoughts (Balter & LeMonda, 2003). References Balter, L., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2003). Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues. (1 ed.). Psychology Press. Bjorklund, D. F., Pellegrini A. D. (1998). Applied child study: A developmental approach. (3rd ed.). Mahwah, New Jersey London: Psychology Press. Crandell, T., Crandell, C., & Zanden, J. V. (2008). Human development. (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Fishbein, H. D. (1984). The psychology of infancy and childhood: Evolutionary and cross- cultural perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Harwood, R., Miller, S. A., & Vasta, R. (2008). Child psychology: Development in a changing society. (5th ed.). Wiley. Hoch, J., Pellegrini, A. D., & Symons, F. J. (2004). Observing children in their natural worlds: A methodological primer. (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Psychology Press. Parke, R. D., & Gauvain, M. (2009). Child psychology: A contemporary viewpoint. (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Schaffer, H. R. (2003). Introducing child psychology. (1st ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. Sharma, R. N., & Sharma, R. (2006). Child psychology. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. Slee, P., & Shute, R. (2003). Child development: Thinking about theories. Hodder Arnold Publishers. Read More