Personal, Social and Emotional Development in Children and Negative Behavior Handling Techniques - Term Paper Example

1.0 Social and Emotional Development of Children1 In the 1960s and 1970s British psychologist John Bowlby and American psychologist Mary Ainsworth introduced the concept of attachment. They proposed that infants and young children form emotional bonds to their caregivers because, throughout human evolutionary history, close attachments to adults promoted the survival of defenseless children. In the 1970s and 1980s American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner sought to describe child development in terms of ecological and cultural forces. In his model, environmental influences on the child extend well beyond the family and peer group, and include schools and other community agencies, social institutions such as the media, political and economic conditions, and national customs. Aside from the view of these researchers, there are other theories regarding the social and emotional development of children. At the end of the 19th century, Austrian physician Sigmund Freud developed the theory and techniques of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic theories emphasize the role of unconscious, instinctual drives in personality development. Some of these drives are sexual or aggressive in quality, and their unacceptability to the conscious mind causes them to be repressed in the unconscious mind. Most psychoanalytic theories portray development as a series of stages through which all children proceed. According to Freud, child development consists of five psychosexual stages in which a particular body region is the focus of sensual satisfactions; the focus of pleasure shifts as children progress through the stages During the oral stage, from birth to age 1, the mouth, tongue, and gums are the focus of sensual pleasure, and the baby develops an emotional attachment to the person providing these satisfactions (primarily through feeding). During the anal stage, from ages 1 to 3, children focus on pleasures associated with control and self-control, primarily with respect to defecation and toilet training. In the phallic stage, from ages 3 to 6, children derive pleasure from genital stimulation. They are also interested in the physical differences between the sexes and identify with their same-sex parent. The latency phase, from ages 7 to 11, is when sensual motives subside and psychological energy is channeled into conventional activities, such as schoolwork. Finally, during the genital stage, from adolescence through adulthood, individuals develop mature sexual interests. An American psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson, proposed a related series of psychosocial stages of personality growth that more strongly emphasize social influences within the family. Erikson’s eight stages span the entire life course, and, contrary to Freud’s stages, each involves a conflict in the social world with two possible outcomes. In infancy, for example, the conflict is “trust vs. mistrust” based on whether the baby is confident that others will provide nurturance and care. In adolescence, “identity vs. role confusion” defines the teenager’s search for self-understanding. Erikson’s theory thus emphasizes the interaction of internal psychological growth and the support of the social world. Learning theorists emphasize the role of environmental influences in shaping the way a person develops. In their view, child development is guided by both deliberate and unintended learning experiences in the home, peer group, school, and community. Therefore, childhood growth is significantly shaped by the efforts of parents, teachers, and others to socialize children in desirable ways. According to learning theories, the same principles that explain how people can use a bicycle or computer also explain how children acquire social skills, emotional self-control, reasoning strategies, and the physical skills of walking and running. One kind of learning occurs when a child’s actions are followed by a reward or punishment. A reward, also called a reinforcer, increases the probability that behavior will be repeated. For example, a young child may regularly draw pictures because she receives praise from her parents after completing each one. A punishment decreases the probability that behavior will be repeated. For example, a child who touches a hot stove and burns his fingertips is not likely to touch the stove again. American psychologist B. F. Skinner devoted his career to explaining how human behavior is affected by its consequences—a process he called operant conditioning–and to describing the positive and constructive ways that reinforcement and punishment can be used to guide children’s behavior. Another kind of learning, classical conditioning, occurs when a person makes a mental association between two events or stimuli. When conditioning has occurred, merely encountering the first stimulus produces a response once associated only with the second stimulus. For example, babies begin sucking when they are put in a familiar nursing posture, children fear dogs whose barking has startled them in the past, and students cringe at the sound of school bells that signal that they are tardy. Classical conditioning was first studied by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in the early 1900s and later by American psychologist John B. Watson. A third kind of learning consists of imitating the behavior of others. A boy may acquire his father’s style of talking, his mother’s tendency to roll her eyes, and his favorite basketball player’s moves on the court. In doing so, he also acquires expectations about the consequences of these behaviors. This type of learning has been studied extensively by American psychologist Albert Bandura. His social learning theory emphasizes how learning through observation and imitation affects behavior and thought. In the cognitive field, understanding how children think is crucial to understanding their development because children’s perceptions of life events often determine how these events affect them. For example, a five-year-old who believes that her parents’ marital problems are her fault is affected much differently than an adolescent who has a better understanding of marriage and relationships. Cognitive theorists focus on the development of thinking and reasoning as the key to understanding childhood growth. The best-known theory of cognitive development was developed by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who became interested in how children think and construct their own knowledge. Based on his studies and observations, Piaget theorized that children proceed through four distinct stages of cognitive development: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete-operational stage, and the formal-operational stage. During the sensorimotor stage, which lasts from birth to about age 2, understanding is based on immediate sensory experience and actions. Thought is very practical but lacking in mental concepts or ideas. In the preoperational stage, which spans the preschool years (about ages 2 to 6), children’s understanding becomes more conceptual. Thinking involves mental concepts that are independent of immediate experience, and language enables children to think about unseen events, such as thoughts and feelings. The young child’s reasoning is intuitive and subjective. During the concrete-operational stage, from about 7 to 11 years of age, children engage in objective, logical mental processes that make them more careful, systematic thinkers. Around age 12 children attain the formal-operational stage, when they can think about abstract ideas, such as ethics and justice. They can also reason about hypothetical possibilities and deduce new concepts. According to Piaget, children progress through these four stages by applying their current thinking processes to new experiences; gradually, they modify these processes to better accommodate reality. This occurs not through direct instruction, but rather through the child’s own mental activity and internal motivation to understand. Cognitive theories provide insights into how a child’s mental processes underlie many aspects of his or her development. However, critics argue that Piaget underestimated the sophistication of the cognitive abilities of young children. Information-processing theorists have also been faulted for portraying children as little computers rather than as inventive, creative thinkers. Many developmental scientists believe that children do not proceed through universal stages or processes of development. To sociocultural theorists, children’s growth is deeply guided by the values, goals, and expectations of their culture. In this perspective, children acquire skills valued by their culture—such as reading, managing crops, or using an abacus—through the guidance and support of older people. Thus, developmental abilities may differ for children in different societies, and development cannot be separated from its cultural context. One of the pioneers of sociocultural theory was Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, whose writings in the 1920s and 1930s emphasized how children’s interaction with adults contributes to the development of skills. According to Vygotsky, sensitive adults are aware of a child’s readiness for new challenges, and they structure appropriate activities to help the child develop new skills. Adults act as mentors and teachers, leading the child into the zone of proximal development—Vygotsky’s term for the range of skills that the child cannot perform unaided but can master with adult assistance. A parent may encourage simple number concepts, for example, by counting beads with the child or measuring cooking ingredients together, filling in the numbers that the child cannot remember. As children participate in such experiences daily with parents, teachers, and others, they gradually learn the culture’s practices, skills, and values. 2.0 Negative Behavior Handling Techniques The emotional attachments of young children to their parents and other caregivers remain a cornerstone of psychological well-being in early childhood. But as young children develop their sense of self and learn to negotiate, compromise, resist, and assert their own preferences, they are likely to come into conflict with their caregivers. At the same time, caregivers increasingly set limits and expect compliance, based on the child’s developing capacities for self-control. According to Grennberg and his colleagues (1990) and Richman et al (1982), there are a variety of methods and techniques in dealing with negative behavior of students. These are listed below together with a description and appropriate situation where it can be applied. Activity Reinforcement Negative behavior is prevented from offering attractive prizes for behaving. For example, students may be told that they will be listening to music once they finish a less preferred activity or if they stop kicking and having tantrums. While this kind of influencing behavior works with all very young students, it should not be exercised all the time as the child may grow accustomed to such. This means that he may commit a negative behavior just to obtain a promise of a preferred activity. Antiseptic Bouncing This technique involves the removal of the student in a classroom setting once he becomes frustrated and agitated so that negative behavior is prevented from occurring. The idea behind this is when you get the student away from the source of frustration, the student will have a chance to calm down and avoid embarrassment. Examples of bouncing include sending the student to an errand such as taking a note to a colleague. Contract A written, mutually created contract is made between teacher and student that specify behavioral expectations from the student, rewards for complying and consequences of failing to meet the commitments. When the student begins to display negative behavior, he/she is reminded of the contract in a friendly manner. Direct Appeal Appealing to the sense of fairness of the student is one method available to the teacher. For example, the teacher can say to the student: "Stop this behavior because...", or "Thank you for not doing... because". However, one should remember that this can only be effective if there is a positive relationship between teacher and student and that the student is aware of the consequences of not complying. Hurdle Helping Working on the premise that negative behavior can result from frustration with tasks, hurdle helping involves offering encouragement, support and assistance of the teacher to the student. Examples of this technique include forming partnerships between students, giving additional information or hints and providing enabling equipment. Interest Boosting Another source of negative behavior is lost of interest or boredom. The teacher can influence the behavior of student by praising the work that has been accomplished so far and encouraging them to carry on with their work. Make-A-Date (Short Student Conference) This technique is not detention per se but a short conference between teacher and student after class. To avoid embarrassing the student in front of his classmates, the teacher gives the student a note telling him to see the teacher after class. It would give them the opportunity to settle the problem privately. Physical Interactions A simple pat on the back, a high five or even a quick hug could do wonders on a negatively behaving child. It gives them a sense of security, attachment and love which are very crucial for the emotional foundation of the child. However, the teacher must be careful to know the physical interaction tolerance of the student. Reinforce the Positive Some students will do anything so that the focus of attention is on them. The problem is that students often get attention by behaving inappropriately. Teachers must learn to appreciate the student’s good behavior more than acknowledging the negative behavior of the child. Removal of Seductive Objects There are certain items which divert their attention and make them angry for not being able to play with it. Examples of these include toys, magazines, lipstick, an insect and more. These items must be confiscated but with the information that it will be given back after class with the additional requirement that they behave. References: Belsky, J., (1988) The “effects” of infant day care reconsidered’, Early Child Research Quarterly, 3, pp. 235-72. Dowling M. (2000) Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Paul Chapman Publishing Grennberg, M.T., Ciccchetti, D. and Cummings, E.M. (1990) Attachment in the Preschool Years, Chicago Ill., University of Chicago Press. Richman, N., Stevenson, J. and Graham, P. J. (1982) Pre-School to School: a behavioural study, London, Academic Press. Sameroff, A. J. (1991) ‘ The social context of development ‘ in Woodhead, M., Carr, R. and Light, P. (eds) Becoming a Person, London, Routledge. Webster-Stratton (1999) How to Promote Children’s Social and Emotional Competence, Paul Chapman Publishing, also Liebermann A, The Emotional Life of the Toddler, Freeman New York. Read More