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Three child development theories
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In “Understanding the Anxious Mind” we are introduced to Jerome Kagan, a Yale Ph.D. graduate and psychology professor at Harvard University. In 1979 he conducts his first longitudinal study at the school to challenge the idea that children are more than just “difficult” or “easy” based on temperament, and recorded the findings and analyzations of over 400 preschoolers exposed to new stimuli and their reactions. Over the years 107 returned to be reexamined in which he found that very few showed signs of change over a period of 5 years and therefore, not much could be determined due to nature vs. nurture being a factor. Kagan conducted a second longitudinal study on temperament and its effects over time in which his test subjects this time were …show more content…
Kagan, however, states that the correlation between brain functioning and disorder is not exactly a straight line, in which it would all depend on the individual’s ability to successfully separate the thoughts and feelings they are experiencing from reality itself, and how well they can overcome the stressors of anxiety. The article goes on to explain Kagans idea that the “persona,” or the outer directed personality as well as the “anima,” an individual’s inner directed thoughts, can cause conflict within an anxious person as one can be controlled while the other cannot. Those who were observed as infants by Kagan were later scanned in an MRI conducted by Dr. Carl Schwartz when they turned 18, and those who were low-reactors as it was observed, had a thinner lining of the prefrontal cortex than those who were high-reactors. The much thicker lining of the cortex of a high-reactive individual supported the fact that the temperament displayed by in these individuals as infants left a mark on those who were “predisposed” to anxiety. Baby 19, however, displayed a much thinner prefrontal cortex despite being high-reactive, in which it was hypothesized that although having a jumpy amygdala she may have lacked a cortex with the capacity to …show more content…
These subjects were tested on the negative affects of their children as well as the presence of any depressive or anxious symptoms and stressors. Through a two-part series of questionnaires parents were asked about their children and their observable behaviors using a five point Likert scale rating. The purpose of this study based on the findings as described in the article abstract is to test the relationship between temperament and stressors as a predictor of youth depressive and anxious symptoms over a 3-month period (Gulley, Hankin & Young, 2016). Although many factors contribute to the onset of depressive and anxious symptoms in early to late adolescence, temperament is often times attributed with directly determining how we externalize and internalize our day to day problems; temperament refers to individual differences in affective reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart & Rueda, 2005). As described in the article, negative affectivity is directly correlated to internalized disorders due to its link to depressive and anxious tendencies. Temperament like we saw in “Understanding the Anxious Mind” is associated with high-reactivity in individuals who were found to possess
Slater, A., and Muir, D., (1998). The Blackwell Reader in Developmental Psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.
Most children, by nature, are very active, spontaneous, and moody. Still, many parents seek psychiat...
Emotional development is however a unique skill base that requires young children to learn to regulate their emotions, feel good about themselves, take risks and develop resilience. Emotional development progresses when the bond of attachment with one or more significant adult is in place. Once this is established, children will gain skills necessary to control fear ,anxiety, excitement, anger and even shyness. A child's temperament does play a part in their emotional development and can affect how confident they feel, how trusting they are of others and what risks they are prepared to take.
Vasta, Ross, Haith, Marshall M., Miller, Scott, A. (1999) Child Pyschocology: the modern science. Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons inc. New York, New York.
To be faced with this type of experiences is why development of good emotional self-regulation and secure attachments is important for children to learn and important for adults to practice. According to Santrock, children are faced with emotions that range from anger and frustration to joy and excitement that starts in infancy where emotions are rooted in the more primitive area of the brain, the limbic system. As the child grows and learns through experiences such as social referencing, changes in their brain will help in gaining better control of their “mood swings” (Santrock, 2013). In studying child development, self-regulation and secure attachments factor into the child’s overall health, physical and emotional well-being, and cont...
A number of theorists, believe that personality traits can be traced back to brain structures and neural
To determine the point of the main issue A Multitrait-Multimethod design with confirmatory Factor Analysis was used. This was used to contrast variation with traits, method and unique variance and to determine the validity and quantification invariance between mother and child reported scales. In the article symptom scales have identified combined symptoms of anxiety and depression, or internalizing problems, as an important emotional syndrome in childhood and adolescence. Some research has supported a one-factor model of anxiety and depression and other research suggests two-factor or three- factor models of anxiety and depression, and that these constructs tend to cluster in distinct groups. Previous studies of the structure of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents have found inconsistent levels of construct
In the developing stages of a child, psychological factors play a huge role in th...
Persuasive support for the significance of patterns is found in research on high and low reactive infant temperaments. In study of infant temperament, Kagan (1994) affirmed the variation in the frequency of avoidant reactions to unfamiliar situations or people among 2-year-old children. In his study the consistently shy, avoidant
Kerig, P., & Wenar, C. (2006). Developmental psychopathology from infancy through adolescence. (5th ed.). Mcgraw Hill.
Undoubtedly, humans are unique and intricate creatures and their development is a complex process. It is this process that leads people to question, is a child’s development influenced by genetics or their environment? This long debate has been at the forefront of psychology for countless decades now and is better known as “Nature versus Nurture”. The continuous controversy over whether or not children develop their psychological attributes based on genetics (nature) or the way in which they have been raised (nurture) has occupied the minds of psychologists for years. Through thorough reading of experiments, studies, and discussions however, it is easy to be convinced that nurture does play a far more important in the development of a human than nature.
Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies used to adjust emotions to a contented level so goals can be accomplished. This requires voluntary, effortless management of emotions (Berk, 2007). Promoting young children’s social-emotional development is essential for three interconnected reasons: Positive social-emotional development provides a base for life-long learning; Social skills and emotional self-regulation are integrally related to later academic success in school, and prevention of future social and behavioral difficulties is more effective than later remediation (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Research on early childhood has highlighted the strength of the first five years of a child’s life in their social-emotional development. Negative early experiences can damage children’s mental health and affect cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional development (Cooper, Masi, & Vick, 2009)....
It is undoubtedly evident that the field of psychology is becoming increasingly reliant on genetic explanations of human behaviour. It’s undisputable power and potential that it holds for the study offers exciting new developments on levels and quantity that many other sciences can simply not match; yet this over reliance on genetic explanations has caused many issues within the field of developmental psychology, where environmental issues are being ignored completely.
Children's heredity becomes influenced by the environment in which they grow up in because a child may be born naturally secure and the environment can eventually cause them to become insecure. Temperament is the personality and includes the traits of easy, difficult or slow. These traits can change as a child grows depending on how the parent deals with each aspect. By the age of nine months a child should be able to express all basic emotions. They can show fear, happiness and even sadness.
Kids Matter: Australian Primary Schools Imitative (2012) How temperament affects feelings, Australia: Australian Government Department of Health and Aging