Key Differences Between Child Psychology And Childhood Study

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What are the key differences between child psychology and childhood studies?
There are several differences between the way child psychology and childhood studies view and study children, however this discussion will concentrate on two of the key areas in which they differ.
Childhood studies is an approach to studying children that believes childhood is shaped by social, cultural, historical, political and economic factors. Its primary focus of research is targeted around the child and its social environment.
Child psychology is an approach to studying children that is concerned with understanding and explaining physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. It concentrates on the individual child and the influence of internal factors. …show more content…

Psychology looks at the child itself and focuses on looking at development internally before looking at outside influences whereas childhood studies is interested in children as a social group and recognises development as a product of external factors. An example of looking at children’s development, through a psychological perspective, is that of the work of Jean Piaget, (Piaget, 1929, cited in Gjersoe, 2014) an influential theorist in psychology. Piaget was interested in the cognitive development of children and based on his work, developed a theory that children reach stages of development in the same order at around the same time. He believed that these milestones were innate to the child. Information-processing accounts is a recent theory that utilises Piaget’s perspective on childhood development. It explains that children undergo a transition through stages whilst growing up, from a very simplified way of processing information to a more advanced way of processing information and this transition is believed to be a natural process. Childhood studies, however, believes that children are socially constructed. Social construction looks at the external factors involved in development and recognises that children’s development and experiences can differ dependent on outside

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