These perspectives allow recantations to examine things from different points of view to determine and explain why they happen. For example, certain conditions that children have can be explained by the different perspectives. Each perspective will explain the condition in a different way and provide different reasons for the condition and its causes. The perspectives are the psychodrama approach, the behaviorism approach, the cognitive approach and the physiological/biological approach. This assignment will be discussing these perspectives in more detail and will be discussing the ways that the perspectives influence current practice.
There are a number of issues in developmental psychology. These are as follows: Nature Vs. Nurture – this is in relation to how children learn and develop. The nature side of the debate involves psychologists who believe that children already have the ability to learn and develop. They also believe that on this side of the debate, children take influences from the environment and learn as they grow rather than learning from the support from other sources such as parents and teachers. Psychologists on the nurture side of the debate believe that children need to be taught things to learn how to do them.
Psychologists also live that in the nurture side of the debate, children learn mainly from the support of teachers and parents around them and supporting them. Ideographic Vs. Monotheistic – this looks at how individual we are or whether we share the same characteristics as each other. The ideographic side of the debate looks at whether or not we are all unique and the monotheistic side of the debate looks at whether or not people share the same characteristics and only have certain differences. This looks at differences and similarities in terms of personalities.
Continuity Vs. Discontinuity – this basically looks at whether or not development s a continual process or whether or not we develop in set stages that have gaps in between them. The Psychodrama approach was originally founded by Sigmund Freud in around 1880. This theory focuses on the idea of the mind. There is no actual physical evidence to support the idea that the mind exists, however it cannot be disproved that the mind does not exist. Freud began his theory when he observed women in Vienna who were suffering with hysteria and did not understand why.
Freud believed that this behavior was due to bad experiences that were being held in the unconscious mind. Freud believed that the mind is plot up into three sections. These are as follows: The conscious mind – aware of everything that is happening Subconscious mind – aware of some but has been pushed to the back of the mind Unconscious mind – completely unaware of what goes on in this. This section often holds very dark and primitive instincts and thoughts Freud also believed that life is full of conflicts that need to be resolved.
We are unaware of these conflicts however, as they exist in the unconscious mind. According to Freud, these conflicts occur in childhood. Fraud’s first theory of childhood conflicts is the physiological stages of development. These are as follows: Oral stage – This stage is from the age of 0-2 years and focuses on the pleasure drives in the mouth which can be taken from sucking. If the child is prevented from doing this, they may become fixated. This can also occur if the child is allowed to suck too much. As a result of this, the child may become stuck at this particular stage of development.
This is thought to shape our adult personality. If the child is prevented, they may be very independent in their adult life and may find it difficult to work effectively as part of a team. If the child is allowed to suck too such, they may be clingy and needy and dependent on others. They may also be immature and willing to bale other people for their own actions rather than taking responsibility for their own actions. Anal stage This stage is from 2-4 years and focuses on toilet training and its effect on adult personalities.
If a child has been toilet trained strictly, they may often hold onto things and be very possessive over their own possessions. If a child has not received strict toilet training, they may be more willing to give things away too easily and be too trusting in other people. The phallic stage This stage focuses very strongly on genetics and how they help us identify our gender. There are two main focuses in this stage. These are as follows: 1. Boys – have an Oedipus complex which occurs between the ages of 4 and 10. This generally occurs in the unconscious mind and the children are unaware of it.
In this focus, boys desire their mothers and see their as a threat and believe that if their father ever found out their feelings, they would castrate the boy. As a result of this, the boys are afraid of their fathers and replicate their behavior to hide this. 2. Girls – have an Electra complex which Freud believed to lead them o develop penis envy. He also believed that girls see themselves as boys who have been castrated. Girls therefore copy their mother’s behavior. This includes wanting to have children and wanting a nice home. The latency stage – In this stage there is very little interaction between boys and girls.
This is because at this age children struggle to express their feelings and in particular regarding the opposite sex. The genital stage – During this stage children begin to experience the onset of puberty which brings about many different life changes. For example, hormones begin to cause heir bodies to change and new emotions are also felt because of it. Many relationships also change. New relationships can be formed and current relationships can be made deeper, also family deaths or changes in the make up of the family can also affect the lives of children in different ways.
The relationships that we form and the quality of these relationships is also believed to shape the relationships and our personalities in adult life. The physiological/biological approach focuses on the nature side of the Nature Vs. Nurture debate. This is because this approach uses science and nature to explain behavior and how it links to our genetic make up. This being the case, this approach can be proven and backed up by physical evidence. The main idea in this approach is that the way that we think and the way that we act is influenced by our brain.
This also encompasses our nervous system and our hormones. This approach also highlights the idea that our personality and out behavior (what make us individual) are affected by our genetics. Again this can be proven by physical evidence. The behaviorism/social learning theory can also be known as the learning approach. This approach consists of two main theorist groups. These are the behaviorist’s and the social learning theorists. Originally there were only the behaviorist’s. The social learning theorists were a group of behaviorist’s who broke away and followed up on the work of the behaviorist’s.
The social learning theorists however altered the behaviorism approach and decided to include the reason for children behaving in certain ways. Although the two groups have separated, they still use similar ideas and work from the same original idea. The behaviorist’s wanted the ability to make developmental psychology scientific with every theory that was made, provable. This means that all the research and theories needed to be scientific and have physical evidence for everything. Behaviorist’s do not agree with psychodramas because of this and in the Psycho dynamic approach, there is no physical evidence.
The basic principal of the behaviorism is that they are only interested in investigating things that can be seen and physically proven. This is where social learning theorists differ. They were concerned with how the behavior is learned. The behaviorist’s were only interested in the behavior itself and not the cause for the behavior. There are two main theorists for this approach. They are Pavlov and Skinner. Pavlov believed that people learn through association. This means that we learn through association. Pavlov tested this theory by carrying out experiments on dogs.
These experiments involved ringing a bell and giving a dog, food. After a while the dog came to learn to associate the bell with food and would salivate at the sound of the bell even before the dog’s food arrived. This works in a similar way for children. If a child is rewarded for good behavior with a treat, they will learn to associate their good behavior with a treat. This is known as classical conditioning. The basic idea of the social learning theory is that children observe a certain type of behavior and this behavior is internalized or thought about. The behavior is then displayed in the child.
This then leads onto operant Skinner developed the theory that children learn through consequences. This is known as operant conditioning. There are three consequences to behavior. These are as follows: 1. Positive reinforcement – if a child shows good behavior, they will be rewarded and then learn to carry on this behavior 2. Negative reinforcement – this involves the child achieving the desired attention or effect y behaving badly. For example, if a child is disrupting a class in their learning, the teacher will react in a negative way by giving the disruptive child the attention that they want.
The child will also have achieved what they wanted to do by disturbing the class group. 3. Punishment – this involves the reinforcement of the behavior being taken away. This will then stop the unwanted behavior. Cognitive psychology refers to a number of different things. All of these are our internal mental processes. These are as follows: memory language movement problem solving thoughts perceptions feelings omniscience ‘the self’ ‘The self refers to how a person views themselves in terms of who they are and what kind of person they are.
Theorists who are working in relation to this approach, view the brain and the mind to be a series of inputs and outputs like a computer. Information enters out brain, it is processed and then the input is given as either a reaction or word. Ellis developed a theory in terms of cognitive therapy. This is known as the BBC model. This theory used cognitive therapy to identify initial problems in the mind. This therapy is common but can be very time consuming. There are three tepees to the BBC model. These are as follows: 1. Activating event 2. Belief – rational or irrational 3. Ensconce Here is a small diagram of how this approach would work: activating event – a child is being bullies and is being called father believing – rational (the child will ignore it) or irrational (the child will believe it to be true) consequence – ignored it meaning no consequences and healthy weight loss can begin believed it meaning that the child may become depressed and withdrawn and may develop and eating disorder This theory is neither on the nature or nurture sides of the debate as it states hat we are all born with a brain and the ability to learn.
Although this is the case, we still need to interact with people in the environment so that we can learn. This theory is also monotheistic as it believes that children share the same characteristics but have slight differences in relation to personality. The main theorist for this approach is Piglet as he proposed stage theories in relation to how children develop cognitively. This is shown below in the table. Stage description Sensors-motor 0-2 yr This is where the children has basic reflexes and learns to move through their senses Pre-operational 2-7 yr
This is where the child begins to develop symbolic play and literacy skills are developing quickly. The child is very egocentric Concrete operational 7-12 yr The child is developing structured and logical thought but still relates to concrete activities. Towards the end of this, children are learning to understand abstract ideas Formal operational 12+ Abstract thinking is more visible and children have developed a greater understanding of ethical issues and the truth. Not all adults make it to this stage The biological/physiological approach has similarities to the psychodrama approach and they also have many differences.
Both psychodramas and the physiological/biological approach incorporate the idea of the brain influencing our behavior. However psychodramas believes in the mind. There is no way of proving that the mind exists where in the physiological/biological approach, there is physical proof to back everything up. It can be proved that the brain and our genetics can influence our behavior and determine our personality. Although this is different for the two approaches, both ideas are following the nature side of the nature Vs. nurture debate.
This approach also differs from psychodramas as it believes that our Armonk levels determine our masculinity and femininity and even our levels of aggression. In the psychodrama approach Freud believed that our gender is determined by our childhood experiences. For example, Freud believed that boys are jealous of their fathers and learned their gender by watching their fathers and learning how he acts. Girls; he believed, see themselves as boys that have been castrated and therefore look to their mothers to learn how to act learning their gender in that way.
The physiological/biological approach sees gender as how feminine or masculine we are and how we learn through this. Again this is different as psychodramas looks to the idea that the mind controls our gender. This has no physical proof as the mind cannot be proven to exist. The physiological/biological approach looks at hormones to determine our gender and how it develops. This has physical proof to back it up. The psychodrama approach differs from the learning approach as everything in the learning approach can be proven using science. Psychodramas has no proof of the theories therefore is not a scientific study.
The physiological/ biological approach is based on the idea of science and everything can be physically proven. This makes this similar to the learning approach as everything in the learning approach can also be proven by science and can also be backed up with scientific proof. The learning approach believes that children learn through association or conditioning. For example, children learn through associating certain actions and behaviors with rewards and punishments. If a child has shown positive behavior and has produced good work, they may get a sticker or a certificate.
This is known as positive reinforcement. If the child has disrupted a lesson or has displayed negative behavior, they will be sent to another classroom or put in detention. This is punishment for their actions and proves that children learn through experiences which lead to association. The psychodrama approach also believes that children learn through experiences in childhood. These are both similar ideas as they both focus on the idea of learning through experiences that the children have. These are also both on the nurture side of the Nature Vs. Nurture debate also making them similar.
Cognitive psychology focuses on the idea that children are born with a brain and the ability to learn. The children do however need to interact with other people to learn. This theory is on both sides of the Nature Vs. Nurture debate which makes it different to the other theories and approaches. The other approaches to psychology are on one side of the debate not both and believe that either children learn through experiences developing their ability to learn or external influences playing a part in the learning and development of children. This theory also focuses on the idea that children learn in stages.
These were written by Piglet and describe children’s abilities in terms of learning. The other approaches state that children learn through their own experiences and through people helping them such as teachers and parents or career. The cognitive approach also focused on the idea of the mind. This is similar to psychodramas, however the cognitive approach sees the mind as a series of inputs and outputs that help the children to learn and develop their own personalities. For example, if a children is told something, this is the activating event.
The child then either believes it or does not believe it. This then leads onto the consequence. The idea of consequence is similar to the learning theory approach as both follow the idea that certain behaviors and actions hold consequences. The different perspectives have all influenced current practice in some way. These were all observed in early years settings and are as follows. I have observed the psychodrama approach in an early years setting. The children that I observed however were not copying the behavior of their parents unless the children were playing in the home corner.
They were copying the behavior of the practitioners and of the other children of the same gender. For example, the boys in the setting were all using the same behavior and copying each other in terms of the games that they were playing and the language they were using. They were also similar in the way that they dressed. The boys all played with the same toys that involved building and were gender stereotypical for boys. I observed the boys in the home corner reading the newspaper and watching the television.
The children may have witnessed this behavior at home and as a result of this took this as the behavior that they should adapt. The girls in the setting tended to mimic the behavior of the each other, their mothers and of the teacher. The girls sat and talked with each other and styling each others hair. This is typical behavior for girls and is also very stereotypical. The girls mimicked their mothers in the role play area by tidying up and cooking. This is also gender stereotypical behavior as it is generally thought of as the role of the mother in the house to clean and cook.
The girls have observed their mothers doing this and have adopted it as their behavior. In terms of mimicking the behavior of the practitioner in the setting, the children were reading each other stories and were playing teachers games. This included pretending to teach the children and using the home corner as a school environment. This has influenced early years practice as practitioners provide toys and play equipment for both genders and by providing children with a home corner where they can practice behavior that they are witnessing at home.
By doing this, children are given the opportunity to practice the behavior that they are witnessing and adapting this behavior to express their personality. There are a number of strengths and weaknesses in terms of the influence that this approach has had on early year’s practice. These are as follows. Strengths – children are given the opportunity to explore their gender during free play and are able to openly show it and learn from others. For example, children can use experiences from home in role play in the home corner. This can include re- enacting the behavior of their parents and add their own personality to this.
This will in turn help to support children in the development of their own gender characteristics and will help them to learn how to express their own gender and personality. Children are able to explore and express their own personalities through play. The toys and activities that children take part in and the way they use play to express themselves, helps to build up their personalities. The friends that children help to build the personality of the child as children will share lay experiences and build up their personalities together. Hillier are given the opportunity to follow the lead of other children and learn other aspects of their gender through play opportunities and through interaction with other children. This gives children the opportunity to become part of a social group. This can be positive and can have a good effect on the development of children’s personalities and can encourage them to imitate the behavior of the others in this group. In one gender groups, children can identify with this behavior and learn their gender through this. Lilied are provided with a number of different role models in early years settings. These are in terms of practitioners at the setting and how they portray their gender. Children follow this example as well as the example of their parents and adapt these to how they express their gender and personalities. Children do not copy practitioners just to develop their gender. Children will copy the practitioners and their parents to learn important life skills. By providing children with a role play area, practitioners are giving children the opportunity to put into practice what they are observing at home.
This will also help children to develop their gender as they are able to practice typical behavior in a controlled environment where there are other influences to support them. Weaknesses although children are given the opportunity to develop the behavior that they are seeing at home in a positive environment, the behavior that children witness at home may not always be positive. These aspects may be negative and may result in the children being withdrawn or displaying negative and sometimes abusive or racist behavior.
For example, if a child has witnessed abusive behavior at home, they will adapt this behavior into their personality ND display it in the setting environment often influencing the behavior of other children who may also perceive this as the correct way to behave. Fifths is the case, special measures need to be taken in terms of observing the negative behavior and then reporting it to the appropriate people including the child protection officer in the setting or even in severe cases where children are replicating abuse at the setting in the home corner social services may need to be contacted.
Children may not always be given the play opportunities that they need to learn how to express themselves fully. For example, children may not be able to get the opportunity to play with certain toys due to the fact that they are not the stereotypical gender for these toys. For example, boys may not get as many opportunities to play with the play house or with the dolls or prams as the girls may be playing with them and there is not enough room for the boys. This can be the same in the case of the girls.
For example, the girls may want to play with the cars or the bricks and may not have the opportunity because the boys are playing with them and there is not enough room. If this is the case then the recantations in the setting should devise a plan where children can play with the toys they wish to regardless of their gender. In terms of observing the physiological/biological approach I have witnessed aggression in children. This behavior can be caused by certain levels of different hormones in the brain. The hormone that causes children to become aggressive is testosterone.
The more of this in the system, the more aggressive the child is. An example of this in an early years setting is as follows. I have worked with a number of children who have been very aggressive. One one occasion, two Hillier were playing in the book corner, they both wanted the same book and one child became very aggressive towards the other child, screaming and throwing toys at the other child. Another example for this approach was one of the children at one of the primary schools that implemented a placement at. One of the children showed very strong aggressive behavior to another child.
This eventually led into a fight occurring. This has influenced early years practice as children have become more aggressive and practitioners need to make provisions to prevent this from becoming a problem. This includes providing the children with anger management classes and methods of calming them down such as counting up to ten or down from ten if they are able to do this. Due to the fact that aggression is more common in today’s society, practitioners are better trained in dealing with it and are able to provide more forms of release for children rather than letting them show their aggression through negative behavior.
In terms of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach in current practice there are a number of each. These are as follows. Strengths by providing children with the opportunity to lessen their aggression and learn o control it, practitioners in settings are enabling the children to form a more controlled and at ease personality. This will also result in the children becoming more positive and outgoing and they will achieve higher through being able to concentrate more rather than becoming frustrated and giving up with what they they are doing.
Children can be provided with opportunities of controlling their anger and frustration. These can include art therapy, sports and creative activities. These will provide children with an outlet with which to direct their frustrations and angers. By providing these to children staff will be minimizing the level of frustration and anger in the children and will also be able to educate the children with less difficulty and fewer distractions and disturbances. This will overall effect the children by ensuring that they receive adequate support from the practitioner and that it it not just one child that receives attention.
Weaknesses if the practitioner is not qualified or trained enough in dealing with aggressive behavior the child will suffer and therefore so will the class. For example, if a child is expressing severe aggressive and negative behavior, and the class recantation cannot cope with this, the child will not be receiving the help and support that they need and the class group will also suffer as they will not be receiving the standard and quality of education that they require.
There may also be a negative atmosphere in the classroom that will result again in the children not receiving the education and support in their learning that they need. This can then lead to developmental delay and delays in the children’s learning. If the setting is not able to provide the children with an outlet for their frustration and anger, the negative behavior can increase and become more severe. This can then lead to the child injuring themselves or a member of staff through the aggressive behavior.
