Psychology Human Development - Research Paper Example

? Psychology – Human Development ID Number & Total Number of Words 271 Introduction In the study of psychology, the issue on human development undergoes a series of stages. This study aims to explore the human cognitive development starting from infancy to childhood stage. As part of going through the main discussion, the linkages between social and emotional development and development and memory during the infancy and childhood stage will be tackled in details. Eventually, this study will seek to explore how developing minds could affect the ability of a person to critically think during the adolescence and adulthood stage. As part of analyzing the emotional development of a child, this study will answer the question “does day care harm the emotional development of infants?” at the end of the paper. Initial Hypothesis The emotional, physical, social, psychological, and cognitive development of a person starts during the infancy stage. In this study, it is presumed that a negative emotional, physical, social, psychological, and cognitive experiences at a very young age can make the child unable to develop themselves into a successful and contented person as they reach the adult stage. For instance, infants who failed to receive early mental stimulation are less likely to develop their ability to think critically as they reach the school age or the adolesence stage. Likewise, a person who was able to experience negative emotions caused by bullying by other people can end up finding peace of mind isolating themselves from the crowd. Therefore, a person who was able to experience negative emotions may have more difficulty trying to socialize with other people as compared to individuals who did not go through such experience. Empirical Evidences The human cognitive development starts from infancy to childhood stage. In line with this, Iacovou and Sevilla (2012) examined the impact of on scheduled infant feeding versus on-demand feeding on mothers’ wellbeing and the child’s long-term cognitive and academic development by conducting a longitudinal study of parents and children who were born back in 1990s. Using a sample of 10,419 children between 8 weeks to 33 months old, the authors found out that mothers who were able to feed their child on schedule have bettern wellbeing except for depression and that excessive maternal intervention such as the provision of on-scheduled feeding can make the child become less competitive in terms of their cognitive development as compared to children who were fed based on demand (Iacovou & Sevilla, 2012). To confirm whether or not the kind of family structure wherein the baby is being brought up may also affect the child’s cognitive development, Reyna, Schulz and Laird (2007) conducted a longitudinal birth cohort study among 4,898 children who were born in the United States between 1998 to 2000. After measuring the scores of independent variables for family structure and maternal education (i.e. low education married, low edu­cation unmarried, medium education married, me­dium education unmarried, high education married, and high education unmarried), the authors found out that the educational attainment of the mother have more impact on the child’s cognitive development as compared to the family structure alone. Similar to the research findings of Reyna, Schulz and Laird (2007), Schoon, Jones and Cheng et al. (2011) also found no significant relationship between family instability and the cognitive functioning of a child. The attachment theory between a mother and child plays a significant role in the human development of a child. It simply means that for an infant or a child to be able to grow and develop emotionally, mentally, and psychologically as they enter the school age, the adolcense stage, and the adulthood stage; the infants and very young children need to be exposed and continuously receive warm loving care from their mother (Steele, 2002). Even though the type of family structure does not necessariy affect the cognitive development of a child (Schoon et al., 2011; Reyna, Schulz, & Laird, 2007), the problem with having a broken family is that the mother is more likely to undergo emotional and psychological distress caused by a sudden divorce or separation from their love ones (Mofrad, Abdullah and Abu Samah et al., 2009; Dallaire & Weinraub, 2005). When this happen, a newly separated or divorced mother will not be in the right position to extend warm loving care to their babies or young children. Eventually, this will cause a lot of problems with regards to the child’s emotional and psychological development as they enter the school age, adolescent stage, and adulthood stage. There is a strong link between the social and emotional development of a child. In analyzing how social influences could affect the babies’ gender and emotional development, the research study presented by Truelove (2007) revealed that the kind of toys given to babies are determined by the gender of each child. In most cases, mothers are training their babies based on their gender. For instance, boys are not only trained to explore their environment but also to become physically and mentally active. On the other hand, most mothers spend more time communicating with their female babies and treat them less active as compared to male babies. Because of the differences in the way male and female babies are treated socially and emotionally, it makes sense that social influences at a very young age play a significant role on how male and female child will behave within the society as they reach the adolecense and adulthood stage. In the study that was conducted by Marsiglia, Walczyk and Buboltz et al. (2007), it was confirmed that the use of authoritative parenting style is more advantageous to the psychosocial development of a child as compared to the use of other parenting style such as the use of authoritarian or permissive. In line with this, the authors explained that the child of parents who are using authoritative parenting style have higher psychosocial developmental task resolution as compared to other types of parenting style (Marsiglia et al., 2007). This explains why some children are more mature than the others. Current Opinion There is truth behind the initial hypothesis presented in this study. In line with this, the empirical studies that were tackled in this paper makes a lot of sense when it comes to analyzing the theory behind the psychology in human development. To make the readers understand why it is important to protect the infants and young children from emotional and psychological harm, one should be clear that the human brain is actually composed of the long-term and short-term memory. It simply means that whatever the infant or child would experiences at a very young age will somehow be stored in their long-term memory. Given that the child failed to store their bad experiences in their long-term memory, there is still a risk wherein the child could unconsciously recall his/her bad experiences from other people. Specifically the emotional scar that the child had during his childhood days will be carried over as the child reaches the adolescent and adulthood stage. This explains why there are quite a lot of people who ends up victimizing other people as they enter the adolescent stage. In answering the question whether or not day care centers could harm the emotional development of infants, the answer is it depends on how the caregivers would treat the infant. Given that the caregivers in-charge in taking care of the infants are capable of delivering a tender loving care to the child, then a day care center will not cause harm to the emotional development of the infant. However, given that the caregivers assigned in the day care center would abuse the infant either verbally, physically or emotionally, then the infants’ emotional and psychological development is at risk. References Dallaire, D., & Weinraub, M. (2005). Predicting children’s separation anxiety at age 6: The contributions of infant–mother attachment security, maternal sensitivity, and maternal separation anxiety. Attachment & Human Development, 7(4), 393-408. Iacovou, M., & Sevilla, A. (2012). Infant feeding: the effects of scheduled vs. on-demand feeding on mothers’ wellbeing and children’s cognitive development. European Journal of Public Health, doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cks012. Marsiglia, C., Walczyk, J., Buboltz, W., & Griffith-Ross, D. (2007). Impact of Parenting Styles and Locus of Control on Emerging Adults' Psychosocial Success. Journal of Education and Human Development, 1(1), 1-11. Mofrad, S., Abdullah, R., Abu Samah, B., Mansor, M., & Bt Baba, M. (2009). Maternal Psychological Distress and Separation Anxiety. European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(3), 386-394. Reyna, R., Schulz, J., & Laird, E. (2007). Effect of Marriage on Child Cognitive Development by Maternal Education. Policy Matters, 5(1), 25-30. Schoon, I., Jones, E., Cheng, H., & Maughan, B. (2011). Family hardship, family instability, and cognitive development. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, doi:10.1136/jech.2010.121228 . Steele, H. (2002). State of the Art: Attachment Theory. The Psychologist , 15(10), 518-522. Truelove, R. (2007, August 17). Ball State University. PSYSC 100 The Brain Series: Gender Development: Social Influences. Retrieved July 23, 2012, from http://mediasite.bsu.edu/bsu40/Viewer/?peid=c93896394807435fb836121711348f581d Read More