Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Reflecting on child development theories
The strengths of empiricism
Reflecting on child development theories
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Reflecting on child development theories
As the study of child development has evolved, so has many theories of how a child develops. Throughout the centuries three main theories came about to describe child development: original sin, innate goodness and blank slate, with other theories having their roots within these three. Depending on the ideas of Psychologist Old has on child development, his advice to Teacher New would vary between many theories. One of the aforementioned theories is the Blank Slate, or Empiricism theory which was coined by John Locke in the 17th century. This theory suggests that at birth a child is "entirely devoid of any ideas or other mental content” (Buck, 794). Due to this, a child’s development is based solely off of that child’s experiences. Locke further believed that a person or child’s knowledge was based solely off of education and experience.If Psychologist Old believed in John Locke’s Theories he would …show more content…
Watson is most know for his ideas on classic behavioralism. In a study Watson did, known as “The Little Albert Study”, he introduced objects to a nine month old to test how he would react to it. Using white, fluffy objects, such as a rabbit or cotton, produced no negative reactions from Albert. However, when he paired those objects with another stimuli, a loud noise, Albert reacted in a fearful way. This lead to an overall fearful reaction to white fuzzy objects (Plucker, 2669). He used this experiment to show how even things that come to human naturally, emotions, can be manipulated by ones environment to produce a different outcome. Thus proving that a person or child’s environment has a significant role in development. To advise Teacher New on this approach, Psychologist Old would suggest creating an environment where students can interact in a positive way with their learning material and peers to create maximum development in
The next major theory on how one obtains knowledge comes from David Hume’s Empiricism. Empiricism itself is the idea that all knowledge obtained is done so through senses or experiences throughout life. This theory itself clearly contrasts with rationalism as rationalists believe at no point that they should gain knowledge through senses/experiences. Furthermore, as an empiricist, he does not value anything that is not attained through experience. One of Hume’s beliefs is the idea that everyone is born with a mental “blank slate”. Because all knowledge we gain is thought to be gained through experience (which a newborn would have none at that point) the “slate” starts as blank and will filled in as the person learns through experiences. This
John B. Watson at a very young age showed his potential. He was enrolled at Furman University at the age of sixteen, he received his master’s degree there. After receiving his masters at Furman University he transferred to University of Chicago getting his Ph.D. He became an instructor there at the University of Chicago for four years and then becoming a professor at The Johns Hopkins University. Later on Watson became chairman of a well-known journal called Psychological Review. “In this paper, Watson rejected the introspective techniques of the school of structuralism and declared that psychology must become the science Mentalistic concept must be replaced by empirical study of observable behavior only” (Evans, 2). Soon enough Watson was
Theorists such as Piaget looked at the cognitive development of children. Piaget believed that children developed thoughts as a result of their experiences. He also suggested that childrenâ€TMs thinking and learning is different to adults. Children have four stages of cognitive development. Stage 1 is Sensori-motor, from 0-2 years babies learn through their senses and interaction with their environment and understand the world through actions. Stage 2 is Pre-operations, from2-7 years, children learn through experiences with real objects and use words to make sense of the world around them. Stage 3 is Concrete operations, from 7-11 years, children continue to learn through real objects and gain extra information from using language. Stage 4 is Formal operations, from 11 years to adult, children and adults learn to use abstract thinking to understand the world. An example of this theory linking to practice is in school, milk is served in blue cups, but if the milk is served in a pink cup one day they wonâ€TMt believe itâ€TMs milk because of past experiences. Freud has helped influence current practise by making us understand that there is a conflict between our unconscious and conscious thoughts and
Watson was an American psychologist that helped path the way for other researchers in psychology. He was born on January 9th, 1878, in South Carolina. His mother was devoted to religion and she pushed her ideals and morals onto him. She prohibited smoking, drinking, adultery, and other sinful acts. This led to Watson growing up hating religion and eventually, opposing it. Also, Watson was a delinquent when he was young, he was arrested twice and did poorly academically; but, with the help of his mother and her connections, it gave him an opportunity to attend Furman University of South Carolina. This gave him a second chance and he didn’t take it for granted. Watson graduated with a master’s when he was 21. After he finished his years in Furman University, he was presented with an offer from University of Chicago, for his graduates study in psychology. Once he finished his graduate degree, he stayed there as a research
Theories of development are important as they can influence practice and also help us understand children’s behaviour, reactions and ways of learning.
John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) has become well known for being the founder of behaviorism as a school of thought throughout American psychology. His view on psychology consisted of seeing it as a science of observation on behaviors. He believed that one must first observe a behavior in a certain environment or situation, then predict and determine the connection between the two. Much of his theory was based on the work of Ivan Pavlov’s observations through classical conditioning. Watson claimed that the process of classical conditioning could be used to explain any behavioral factor in human psychology. Classical conditioning involves the pairing of two different stimuli in producing a learning response from the participant. His belief on the topic was that single differences in behavior were caused by different experiences of learning.
John Watson, the founder of behaviorism, was born in South Carolina on January 9th, 1878. Watson grew up in a very religious family, however he ended up entering adulthood opposing religion. Watson was a very troubled adolescence he got into fights and had disorderly behavior and even got arrested, He performed poorly academically. Luckily Watson’s life turned around when he got accepted to Furman University, with the help of his mother and her connections, his academic career took a turn for the better-graduating with a masters degree at 21. Later on Watson entered a graduate program at the University of Chicago this is where he studied psychology and began to develop his behaviorist ideas. Vladimir Bekhterev and Ivan Pavlov strongly influenced
As children develop, they begin to develop certain traits and behavior that they have picked up from the environment that they have been exposed to. They begin to respond in certain ways based on experiences that have had. Infants in particular are an example of the way these certain behaviors are brought to surface. They will begin to develop either positive or negative perspective towards certain items. One way in which a child develops these perspectives and experiences is through a Behavioral Approach influenced by John Watson. The idea behind it is that a child’s behavior based on their environment (McLeod 1). It is based off of the observation made by the child.
...stically present the three overarching perspectives that guide today's researchers and practitioners of developmental psychology, David Bjorklund and Carlos Hern? CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT: AN IINTEGRATED APPROACH shows how the major perspectives on human development must be integrated? Rather than presented as contrasting and sometimes contradictory ways of looking at development? In order to meaningfully understand infants, children, and adolescents as well as how they develop.
In the Enlightenment, empiricism emerges as one of the greatest ideas which bring huge influence to the rhetoric. One of the important figures of empiricism is John Locke. Extending the epistemological ideas of Bacon and the experimental scientist, John Locke turns to be a celebrated figure who promotes searching “for truth in the physical world and attempts to understand knowledge as a psychological phenomenon” (Bizzel and Herzberg 814) which is in contrast to the traditional doctrines. Locke believes that the knowledge comes by things we experience. His viewpoint is considered as a major contribution to philosophy where he postulates that “knowledge does not exist a priori but emerges from experience” (video lecture Rhetoric). According to
Many theories have been created on how a child develops from many different theorists. Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget are two theorists that based their theory off of the belief that life is a series of stages. Erikson focused on the psychosocial side of development while Piaget focused on the cognitive development. Each theorist has their own beliefs and neither is wrong. Both theories have helped us understand how children development and how to teach them.
In conclusion, the theory of behaviorism is based on observable behaviors for easier quantification and data collection. Effective techniques such as behavior intervention and discrete trial training originate from this school of thought. The approaches are very essential in altering the maladaptive behaviors in adults and children (Cherry, 2011). Today, conditioning and the use of reward and punishment are used to help people learn accepted behavior and in other cases to help them stop problematic behavior (Coon & Mitterer, 2008). This has made behavior modification and training easy and possible. Therefore, Dr. John Watson played a tremendous role in the transition of psychology from the work of earlier scholars to the modern scholars.
A person's ability to develop is due to two factors, maturation and learning. Although maturation, or the biological development of genes, is important, it is the learning - the process through which we develop through our experiences, which make us who we are (Shaffer, 8). In pre-modern times, a child was not treated like they are today. The child was dressed like and worked along side adults, in hope that they would become them, yet more modern times the child's need to play and be treated differently than adults has become recognized. Along with these notions of pre-modern children and their developmental skills came the ideas of original sin and innate purity. These philosophical ideas about children were the views that children were either born "good" or "bad" and that these were the basis for what would come of their life.
There are many types of development theories, Psychoanalytic theories, Cognitive theories, Behavioral and social cognitive theories, ethological theories and ecological theories. Development is how a person changes throughout their life, from the time they are conceived to the time they die. Everyone processes and interprets things and information differently. After researching these various developmental theories ecological theories best describe development. Urie Bronfenbrenner is the researcher that created the ecological theory. Psychoanalytic theories least describe development. Both Ecological and Psychoanalytic theories have certain aspects that I personally believe to make a valid point and certain aspects that do not make a valid point when it comes to development. Eclectic theoretical orientation takes pieces of each theory that makes the most sense when it comes to lifespan development and follows that system. Ecological theories are everyone and everything having an impact on a child’s development, even if those people and events have no direct contact with the child.
The theories of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg contributed greatly to the field of psychology. They are similar in some ways and distinct in others, but both theories served to lay the foundation for a major facet of modern developmental psychology.