Observation and Reflection in Educational Context - Assignment Example

Developmental psychology Customer Inserts His/ Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 23, 08, 2010 Site observation The observations analyzed in this paper were collected from Parra Wirra public recreational park. These observations were recorded independently with the subjects having no knowledge of the study being carried out. It was imperative to stay removed from the events to avoid subjects from overly influencing their behavior. The park had a mixture of subjects; mainly guardians (caregivers) with children involved in several recreational activities. They were engaging in different activities including playing soccer, basket ball, badminton, and swimming, jumping castles rollercoaster other children games. Participants was largely clustered into groups determined by the games they were playing, family groupings, age grouping and others based on their favorite games. The diagrammatic illustration of the area under observation is shown below. As stated earlier, children’s engagement in various activities was voluntary, keenly supervised by those who had accompanied them to the park. Depending on the age of the child, some needed assistance through some tasks while others were independent. Children between ages raging 2-3 years were under the close scrutiny of their guardians. The elder ones, between the ages of 4 and above were given greater freedom to play independently without much assistance. The extent of involvement by the caregivers who had accompanied the children was not only dictated by the child’s age. The perceived difficulty of the task played a major role in determining their level of participation. Activities with perceived greater difficulty recorded more assists from the caregivers as compared to activities with relative ease. Safety and security of the children also was one important factor. It was observed that those games that posed greater threat to the safety and security of the minors warranted close involvement by their guardians. Guardians with greater confidence and self-believe in their minors allowed them to freely interact and participate with minimal interruption or assists. The observation recorded variation in participation. Depending on the nature of the activity in view, the children participated either individually or collaboratively. It was observed that activities like soccer required team participation while others showed elements of individualism. Within these two broad clusters of level of involvement, it was also observed that individual initiatives were cherished within the group. This gave the participants some sense of achievement. The people who cheered individual effort within the group were mostly the caregivers. Guardians were proud of the small efforts made by their children in the team. It was noted that the team appreciated selfless individual effort and shunned elements of selfishness within the group. The activities which are recorded in this observation are considered to be of significant influence to the development of the child. The participants were involved in various activities that foster growth in many aspects. It encouraged creativity, initiative, self confidence and self discovery. It helped the children to discover their identity and shape their interaction especially within a group. Some of the tasked required individual effort, while others were team based. Participation in some activities encouraged the children to develop endurance and perseverance through difficult and involving tasks. Question 2 Introduction Development of a child during the later years was largely ignored by parents and the society at large. At the dawn of the 20th century, psychologist developed interest on child developmental psychology with specific focus on children abnormal psychology. There are several theories that have been advanced to explain child’s development right from infancy through to adulthood. These theories are largely categorized into Psychoanalytic Child Development Theories, Cognitive Child Development Theories, and Behavioral Child Development Theories (Peterson, 2010). This paper will consider psychoanalytic and behavioral theories as advanced by Erickson and Bandura. The arguments and deduction will be based on data collected from an independent observation carried out at a recreational park. In this study, the subjects were drawn from children between the range of 2-18 years. The paper will analyze the two theories and establish whether any particular theory has weight over the other and whether the observations can be explain by the two theories. Discussion and Theoretical framework These observations have been summarized by use of two theoretical frameworks which are Ericksonian, and Bandurian. These theories are clearly manifested in the observations given above. The reflections of these theories are well articulated in the following paragraph. Ericksonian theory Erickson was a dedicated student of psychoanalytic theory and therefore his work is largely influenced by the Freudian ideology that early upbringing of a child largely influences the development of an individual in later years. By disagreeing with some of the ideas expressed by Sigmund Freud, he was referred as the father psychosocial ideology, where he articulated the eight stages that human development occurs from infancy to adulthood (Richard, 2003). Erickson argued that in each stage an individual confront challenges which he master or fail to master. If a stage is mastered well, it marks a successful completion of the stage, but when an individual fails to master a stage, he/she becomes fixated to the stage which reappears again at a later stage posing a problem in the individuals’ development. Erickson presented the 8 stages of development as follows; trust vs. mistrust (infants, 0 to 1 year, autonomy vs. shame and doubt (Toddlers, 2-3 years), initiative vs. guilt (Preschool,4-6 years), industry vs. inferiority (Childhood,7-11years), identity vs. role confusion (Adolescents, 12-19years), intimacy vs. isolation, and generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood 35-65 yeas), and ego integrity vs. despair (senior citizens above 65 years). Throughout these stages, an individual has overcome and master how to deal with conflicts in that particular stage. If an individual fails, the stage reappears later in life. The child has to be assisted through every stage by caregivers to handle challenges to ensure that they master every stage and progress in development without being fixated to some stage in the past (Peterson, 2010). In the observation, Erickson’s theory of developmental stages came into play. Children in the childhood stage felt more comfortable in the presence of their caregivers. The more assertive children ventured out of their caregivers hands to explore their surroundings. The less assertive child in the same category showed little confidence and always looked up to the caregiver to assist them. The preschoolers, age 6-11 were more detached from their guardians. They played and executed their task with ease. Those with difficulty in executing task exhibited some level of frustration by yelling and demanding they be assisted. Some completely removed themselves from the groups because they were lacked basic skills to effectively participate in the group. Finally the adolescence group, (12-18 years), exhibited some level of responsibility. They are aware of those they are involved with in executing some tasks. According to Kundu (2008) in reference to Erickson’s theory, most of these children under the observation had mastered their stages of development. After the children are well acquainted with eliminative function, they start exploring their surroundings. Erickson argued that parents are still the base of strong security where the child defines their will and purpose in life. If the parent is patience and offers encouragement to the child, the child develops autonomy; however, if they are too restrictive they instill the sense of doubt in the child. Therefore the observation shows that most of the kids who were above the age of 8 had developed independence after successful. However, for preschoolers, Erickson emphasized that initiative contributes to autonomy in the quality of undertaking, preparing, and executing a given task. During this stage a child is able to successfully initiate task and complete them. However, if the child fails to attain his/her own desires, he/she develop some sense of guilt. This is reflected in the observation where some children exhibited violence and aggressiveness towards others due to failure in completing some tasks. The observation also reflects Erickson’s ideas on development of industry in children in the age 7-12 years. If the child fails master this stage the develop sense of inferiority. At this stage, children develop awareness and work extra hard to attain acceptability through being good to others, showing they are responsible. The children are more acquainted with society’s moral, culture values and acknowledge the individual differences. These interaction activities are very important according to Erickson. He stated that elementary level has significant development of self actualization, self-confidence and if children are encouraged at this level, they start showing industry. And if they fall short in attaining this task they develop inferiority complex. Bandurian theory Bandura was a remarkable behavioral scientist who came up with social learning theory that still has influence on various academic fields. Behaviorists are scientists who believe in empirical research which is more objective in measuring a phenomenon. They focus on variables that are observable; that can be measured and manipulated to avoid subjectivity (Goodman, 2009). Albert Bandura is known for his enormous contribution on social learning theory were he asserted that the environment influenced behavior and vice versa (reciprocal determination). He later began looking how personality interacts with environment, individual behavior and mental process of a person. Through his observations he came up with observational learning where he used the bobo doll studies to illustrate learning by observation, by imitation and learning by enforcement through reward and punishment. Bandura after a lot of variation on his research he establish steps involved during the modeling process. First, he said that for one to learn something he must pay attention, second he must remember, thirdly, he must be wiling to reproduce what he has learn, lastly one must have motivation. During the observation, it was noted that majority of the children learned their way around tasks by observing what others were doing and going ahead to imitate them. The children first observe, and then recall observation and final stars reproducing the activities. In a clear interaction of the two theories, when a child became aggressive because they had not achieved, the caregivers intervened by withdrawing the child from team as punishment. This reflects the use of reward and punishment by Bandura and initiative vs. guilt by Erickson. The desire is enable the child to develop self regulations towards undesirable action that are punished and emulate the actions that are rewarded. The behavior and morals of a child as advanced by Bandura were also analyzed during the observation. The concept of admission of guilt in case they offended others was observed. While some children clearly admitted guilt and felt remorseful, others resorted labeling and dishonesty. The caregivers played a role in enforcing these behaviors and morals on these young people. By being defensive towards their kin, they reinforced the very bad behavior or defended the child good morals. There are instances where fellow children took sides to defend their friends’ actions. The defense was either objective, founded in truth or just an exercise to clear their friends of guilt. These behaviors and morals are thought to be a manifestation of their upbringing and social interactions. The theories utilized in this paper seem to overlap and each theory manifested itself during the observation. As demonstrated by the arguments advance in the paragraphs above, while one theory psychoanalytically looks through several stages of child development, the other one studies the general behavior of the child and his/her interaction with the environment. Behavioral child development theory advanced by Bundara, attempts to explain the child’s interaction with the environment. It mainly focuses on the observable features of the child’s behavior and response to rewards, punishment, motivation and reinforcement. The theory puts more weight on conditioning the child to be what they can be through stimulation, rewarding and reinforcing positive traits and punishing undesirable traits. It was clear that for caregivers who encouraged good behavior and morals will impart the same values to their subjects. However, those who defended undesirable traits ended reinforcing the very bad traits. Erickson’s theory of psychoanalytic child development examines the development through the human lifespan. It is based on the belief that every stage of human development offers unique challenges and opportunities to an individual’s life. The key successful development therefore is to master how to overcome these challenges, in every stage. If a particular challenge is not effectively mastered, it will reoccur at a later stage in life. This explains why children or adults never outgrow some activities in life. The observations gathered supported the theory to greater extent. References Goodman, G.S. (Ed). (2009). Education psychology: An application of critical construction. New York. Peter Lang Publishing Inc. Kundu, C. L. & Tutoo, D. N.(2008). Education psychology. New York. Stering Publisher Private Limited. Richard, K (2003), Development psychology: How the nature and nurture interact. New Jersey. Macmillan. Peterson, C. (2010). Looking forward through the lifespan: Developmental psychology (5th ed.) Frenchs Forest, NSW: Education Australia. Read More