Attachment Theory and Sociocultural Model - Essay Example

Personal Case Reflection Name: Course: Institution: Tutor: Date: Human development is the sequence of activities that face man on his journey from the womb to the tomb or in a lifespan. Generally, a human being goes through the phase of infancy, childhood adolescence, early adulthood, adulthood, middle age and old age (Sigel & Rider 2011). Each of these phases in life is categorised based on age starting from birth with death viewed as the final stage of the journey. However, the actual number of years is of little significance to psychologists as they are more interested in the behaviours evident in the various phases of life. Understanding such behaviour is critical in predicting solutions to common problems and enabling individuals negotiate unique problems that they face in different phases (sec 7). Various psychologists including Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund Freud and Erick Erickson have theorised human behaviour through numerous empirical studies. Thee theories are widely used in practice in various professions such as by motivational speakers and authors, life coaches, education experts and psychologists. As an aspiring psychologist, with an aim of transforming people’s lives by enabling them reach their full potential, I chose to practice my industrial attachment at Creative Dynamics. This is a self-help organization based in Australia headed by renowned lifecoach and motivational speaker, Joseph Ticehurst. This paper discusses how two prominent theories, John Bowlby’s Attachment theory (sec7) and Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural model, (sec 4) apply to my situation as a learning individual and as budding professional during my learning practice. A number of psychological theories resonate with my adult life very well. However, I have only become aware of this after learning about the various psychological theories which I have not encountered at a deeper level before. In the past, issues such as my relationships with people around me did not carry deeper meaning until now. Though I am aware of the fact that I relate well with people even strangers, I never figured out how this could be in any way connected to my childhood experiences. The fact that I relate well with people who more often than not share their problems and experiences with in life with made me to always be that encouraging voice in their lives, the voice that tells them to rise up again and face life headfast despite the odds. The results from such encouraging conversations bore very positive results on their lives. I thus became more appreciative of the importance of social bonding and encouraging people in their lives. This opened up the possibility of me being a life coach, a motivational speaker, or even a psychologist to help people open up about their lives and motivate them to reach for more and to live to their lives to the fullest. After years of doing this and loving it, I thought it wise to undertake the course of development where one of the requirements is to go for practice placement. In my course, working alongside the best in the field, Joseph Ticehurst, formed a memorable learning experience. Through my industrial placement, I gained immensely from working alongside experienced professionals at Creative Dynamics. This is an organization headed by Mr. Joseph Ticehurst, or Joe as he is popularly called within the establishment. It has a lot to offer to budding professional in the field of motivational speaking and life coaching. Mr. Ticehurst comes across as ‘the guy next door’ who will be willing to strike up a conversation with anyone about anything anytime. He is easy to get along with which helps a lot in his job. His friendliness and disarming smile is very influential in helping any uneasy client relax and open up about his or her situation. So how would working in Mr. Ticehurst’s organization help my quest to becoming a competent professional psychologist? Vygotsky’s sociocultural model explains my decision and the purpose of practical placement explicitly. Although the model was originally aimed at explaining how children develop and learn in school, it can be applied in many learning situations in modern day (Sigel & Rider 2011). The fact that I was able to observe the man at work giving motivational speeches to employees and students exposed me to the practice. I picked up a few techniques on how to use my personal experiences in life to make a point. It also showed how experience in the field and awareness of the psychological theories adds up in creating a whole professional. The Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural model stipulates that children construct knowledge or gain cognitive development from social and cultural influences in their environment. The model argues that the development of learning, attention and reasoning are based on the society’s invented mental “tools” such as language, hunting, farming and writing. This implies that the path of cognitive development would vary from one society to the other as determined by the available ‘tools’ and their availability (Crain 2005). During the early phases of life, children learn about these tools from their parents, other family members and from community members. For this reason, children from the same society share many traits that help them in retaining their hegemony. Furthermore, different societies may have common ‘tools’ such as arithmetic and reading but they have been accorded different levels of importance. In the case of my practice, working along the professionals imparted important industry and practice knowledge that I could not have gained in the classroom situation. Specifically working with Mr. Ticehurst exposed me and earned me deeper knowledge of such tools as “Magic's Alive”, which is an acronym for My Attitude Generates Incredible Choices for Success, Active Love Initiates Vibrant Enthusiasm. Crain (2005) indicates this as the main purpose of student attachment practice as they get prepared psychologically about the workplace environment and the likely challenges that they are likely to meet in the field once they start practicing. The strength of the Vyogtksy’s model lies in its ability to explain the interdependence between individual and social processes in constructing knowledge. In the model, Vygotsky conceptualised development as the transformation of socially and culturally shared activities into individually internalised processes. This way, the model rejects the Cartesian classification of knowledge between external and internal. This interdependence is displayed through three major themes in Vygotsky’s works: a) individual development which includes its origins; b) human action mediated by social tools and c) genetic and developmental analysis (John-Steiner & Mahn 1996). This would mean that my ability to communicate and listen to friends problems without training falls under category (a). Learning gained from psychology classes falls under category (b) while the ability to combine the two categories of knowledge fall under category (c) theories and pursuing psychology as a career. Vygotsky further asserts that “Every function of cultural development, especially for children comes on the fore twice, first in the social later in the psychological, first in relations between people as an interpsychological category” (John-Steiner & Mahn 1996, p. 192). Put in context, children learn things first from the people they interact with others including family and peers. They later apply gained knowledge to solve problems later and even have the confidence to take on larger problems and activities. Vygotsky viewed, every child has an inborn problem solving capacity usually genetically obtained. However, there is more potential in the same child if problem-solving skills are guided. Vygotsky called this difference in such knowledge ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) (Peterson, 2010, p. 55). I personally have observed this concept of learning from others in my own life. This kind of learning fits well with experience in academics all along. Through my academic journey since I was small, I have oftentimes come across new or more complex concepts which I don’t understand. In most cases, what I do is observing how other people have handled these complexities with success. Vygotsky calls this scaffolding where the more experienced person structures the learning process by choosing what to teach or train and gaining the attention of the learner and maintaining it (Crain 2005). However, the teaching and training process cannot be done arbitrarily. It must be matched with the learner’s developmental level (Siegel 2010). This explains why everyone including myself had to start learning about the alphabet in kindergarten. My developmental level at that time could only allow me to learn that much. While the alphabet and ‘simple’ numbers could have seemed a huge problem, my interaction not only with my tutor but peers also enabled me to understand them. Over the years, the same thing has been repeated over and over again. For every course I have taken it always starts with the simple basics during introductions. As the course progresses, more complex formulas and concepts are introduced to match with my development level. This is the same concept that I have observed at work during my placement. While at work, Mr. Ticehurst applies Vygotsky is coaching other people about their lives. The lifecoach starts simply by seeking to gain the trust and attention of his clients. His topics are easy and can be directed to diverse groups of people from high school students to professionals in various fields. The idea in the Vygotsky comes around in starting with small and simple analyses of minute problems and building on the experience and knowledge gained to tackle larger ones (Crain 2005). For Mr. Ticehurst, he would for instance start a conversation with a client on whether he was update with a current issue. For instance, one man expressed his disinterest in news just to keep away from the news about the Arab uprising going on then in the Middle East. Mr. Ticehurst managed to convince the client that no matter how much he hated the new son the Arab uprising, it had an impact on his life in one way or another. Being informed on such developments would keep him better prepared for the impact. The lifecoach used this conversation to understand the man at a deeper level. He picked this as a way of reviewing the man’s tendency to run way from his fears and problems rather than confront which the client admitted was a major problem in life that barred him from reaching his goals. . John Bowlby’s Attachment theory as expanded by Mary Ainsworth seeks to relate childhood attachments with later social development of individuals. As a child psychiatrist, Bowlby developed this theory from observing children’s behavior and relating it to issues they faced during their childhood stage (Siegel 2010). For instance, in one of his early studies in a school for maladjusted children in London, Bowlby observed that majority of the children who were affectionless and prone to stealing had histories of maternal deprivation and separation (Bretherton 1992). Generally the theory thus seeks to show the influence early family relationships have on personality development such as the building of attachments. This theory contradicted Klein’s earlier theory which held that “children’s emotional problems are almost entirely due to fantasies generated from internal conflict between aggressive and libidinal drives, rather than to events in the external world” (Bretherton 1992, p. 3). This explains the important role played by parents in guiding behavior for children in later life. For children with a secure base, they are willing to venture out and take risks in the belief that they can always fall back to their secure haven in case of failure in their ventures. Scholars explain that such behavior in later stage of development is evidence by wiliness of people to interact with strangers besides their secure circle of acquaintances (Siegel 2010). For my ability to interact and listen to strangers and be a shoulder to lean on not only tells me a lot about my childhood but also explains my tendencies in other areas. My choice of working with Mr. Ticehurst in his organization explains my willingness to take on risks and new challenges in life. As has been discussed in this paper, taking my practicum at Creative Dynamics working with experienced professionals in the industry such as Mr. Ticehurst and his team could have far reaching impact in my life and professional skills. This matches well with the arguments presented under the Vygotsky’s sociocultural model which also says that association with experienced hands facilitates the transfer of knowledge from the experienced to the not-so-experienced such as me. This therefore means that I pose to gain a lot from my practicum which I can put into practice and develop my professional career. References Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28, pp.759-775. Barbara M. N. & Philip R. N. (2011). Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach, (11th edition). New York: Cengage Learning. Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing Developmental Psychology. London: Routledge. Crain, W. (2005). Theories of development: concepts and applications. New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall John-Steiner, V. & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. Educational psychologist, 31(3), pp.191-206. Peterson, Christopher (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sigel & Rider 2011. Life-Span Human Development. Sydney: Cengage Learning. Siegel, D. J. (2010). Making sense of our lives: Attachment and the storytelling brain. In Mindsight: Change your brain and your life (pp. 166-189). Read More

He is easy to get along with which helps a lot in his job. His friendliness and disarming smile is very influential in helping any uneasy client relax and open up about his or her situation. So how would working in Mr. Ticehurst’s organization help my quest to becoming a competent professional psychologist? Vygotsky’s sociocultural model explains my decision and the purpose of practical placement explicitly. Although the model was originally aimed at explaining how children develop and learn in school, it can be applied in many learning situations in modern day (Sigel & Rider 2011).

The fact that I was able to observe the man at work giving motivational speeches to employees and students exposed me to the practice. I picked up a few techniques on how to use my personal experiences in life to make a point. It also showed how experience in the field and awareness of the psychological theories adds up in creating a whole professional. The Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural model stipulates that children construct knowledge or gain cognitive development from social and cultural influences in their environment.

The model argues that the development of learning, attention and reasoning are based on the society’s invented mental “tools” such as language, hunting, farming and writing. This implies that the path of cognitive development would vary from one society to the other as determined by the available ‘tools’ and their availability (Crain 2005). During the early phases of life, children learn about these tools from their parents, other family members and from community members. For this reason, children from the same society share many traits that help them in retaining their hegemony.

Furthermore, different societies may have common ‘tools’ such as arithmetic and reading but they have been accorded different levels of importance. In the case of my practice, working along the professionals imparted important industry and practice knowledge that I could not have gained in the classroom situation. Specifically working with Mr. Ticehurst exposed me and earned me deeper knowledge of such tools as “Magic's Alive”, which is an acronym for My Attitude Generates Incredible Choices for Success, Active Love Initiates Vibrant Enthusiasm.

Crain (2005) indicates this as the main purpose of student attachment practice as they get prepared psychologically about the workplace environment and the likely challenges that they are likely to meet in the field once they start practicing. The strength of the Vyogtksy’s model lies in its ability to explain the interdependence between individual and social processes in constructing knowledge. In the model, Vygotsky conceptualised development as the transformation of socially and culturally shared activities into individually internalised processes.

This way, the model rejects the Cartesian classification of knowledge between external and internal. This interdependence is displayed through three major themes in Vygotsky’s works: a) individual development which includes its origins; b) human action mediated by social tools and c) genetic and developmental analysis (John-Steiner & Mahn 1996). This would mean that my ability to communicate and listen to friends problems without training falls under category (a). Learning gained from psychology classes falls under category (b) while the ability to combine the two categories of knowledge fall under category (c) theories and pursuing psychology as a career.

Vygotsky further asserts that “Every function of cultural development, especially for children comes on the fore twice, first in the social later in the psychological, first in relations between people as an interpsychological category” (John-Steiner & Mahn 1996, p. 192). Put in context, children learn things first from the people they interact with others including family and peers. They later apply gained knowledge to solve problems later and even have the confidence to take on larger problems and activities.

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