Naturalistic Observation Of Five-Year-Old Child Psychology

This naturalistic observation studied the developmental process of a five-year-old girl, while in the setting of a daycare. In the classroom, the girl and a few other students were mainly learning and playing. So, based on the observation, the girl exhibited appropriate developmental process for her age. When the girl was hit by her friend, her response indicated that she is in the pre-conventional stage of Kohlberg’s moral development theory. In addition, the girl displayed an awareness of gender identity and gender stereotypes based on external attributes and her play tactics. Moreover, the girl’s behavior suggested that she is in Piaget’s pre-operational stage of cognitive development. Therefore, the observation of the girl’s behavior demonstrated that she is developing properly based on her moral reasoning, concepts of gender, and cognitive development stage.

The five-year-old child was busy reading a

book, until her friend used another book to hit her in order to attract her attention. When the friend hit her, the girl responded by hitting her friend back. This behavior characterized Lawrence Kohlberg’s pre-conventional level of moral reasoning. There are two stages in the pre-conventional level, and in stage 2 children tend to focus their actions on instrumental value, so acting out of self-interest (Murray, 2007). So, when the girl was hit, she did not find it fair and that it would only be fair if she hit her friend back. Thus, returning the hit satisfied the girl’s own interest and resulted in the sense of equal exchange. As a result, moral reciprocity emerged because “if someone hits you, you hit them back,” as indicated by the girl’s response (Zinsser, 2017). Additionally, the girl’s action related to Piaget’s heteronomous moral development, in which the child was “more concerned about the outcome of the action rather than the intention of the person doing the act” (Murray, 2007, p. 1). The friend’s intention for hitting the girl was to get her attention. However, the girl was not concerned about her friend’s purpose for hitting her and instead she was more focused on hitting her friend back. So, the child morally reasoned that it was only fair if she hit her friend back, but she also disregarded the friend’s intent of the hit.
When the teacher asked the girl the difference between the pronouns, him and her, the girl correctly answered the question.

She pointed to herself when the teacher asked her to identify “her” and she pointed to a boy classmate when to identify “him.” So, this understanding demonstrated the girl’s development of gender awareness. Also, children only use external characteristics to identify gender (Zinsser, 2017). Therefore, when the teacher asked the girl how did she know, the girl explained that she was female because only girls have long hair. Additionally, Brown and Jewell (2014) mentioned that “between 3 and 6 years of age, children learn that gender is constant and cannot change simply by changing external attributes, having developed gender constancy ” (p. 4-5). So, when the teacher asked the girl if she was sure about the difference between “her and him,” the girl did not change her answer and was strongly certain because she stated that gender does not change. Although the girl identifies gender by external qualities, she understood that gender is

constant.