Developmental Theories Flashcards
According to Piaget, how do Children learn?
Children learn through interaction with the environment
Piaget is most well known for his theory of cognitive development, broken into four distinct stages with developmental tasks at each stage. The stages include sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations. The preoperational stage applies to preschool children. The formal operations stage applies to adolescents. Piaget emphasized the necessity of gradual acquisition of knowledge via interaction with the environment and subsequent cognitive assessment of these interactions. Of note, the behaviorist theory of development also emphasizes environmental interactions, but does not emphasize the subsequent cognitive processing.
According to Erickson, when do children learn their effort is “worth it”?
Erikson’s stage of Industry vs. Inferiority, which he described as running from age six until puberty, is the stage in which children learn that their effort is worth it. By building on this experience, a work ethic and sense of productivity is either achieved or not. (The values of common justice, safety, and mutuality would not be as characteristic of values learned during this stage.)
What does Margaret Mahler’s theory focus on?
Margaret Mahler’s Object relations theory focuses on relationships with others. The “objects” in question can be people, parts of people, or physical items that represent these.
What is Constructive Play and who described that children learn through play with others how to lead, plan, and be creative in a way that can be immediately validated by peers? How did this person characterize age 3-6 in relation to this kind of play?
There are several types of cognitive play in early childhood. Constructive play is the process of creating or constructing something and is especially common in children ages 3 to 6 years old.
Functional play is common in children ages birth to 2 years and includes repeated motor movements with or without objects. Make-believe play occurs when children act out imaginary roles and is common between the ages of 2 and 6 years. Thematic play is incorrect because it is not a type of cognitive play.
Erikson characterized the ages from 3 to 6 as those of the Initiative vs. Guilt stage. During this time, children learn through play with others how to lead, plan, and be creative in a way that can be immediately validated by peers. If it is not validated or is overly controlled, children can lose their sense of initiative.
Erikson did not say that children learn this concept through introspection, family interactions, or genetic expression.
When do the first signs of empathy in children generally emerge?
The first signs of empathy in children generally emerge between the ages of 18 and 24 months. During this phase, toddlers can usually appreciate that others’ emotions differ from their own, and self-conscious emotions such as shame and guilt begin to emerge.
At 2-3 months, babies are only beginning to respond to adults’ facial expressions. At 3-5 months, infants can match the emotion in voices and faces but are not yet able to be empathic. At 8-12 months, babies have improved understanding of others’ emotional expressions but are still not able to feel empathy toward others.
According to whom, when do children obey authority figures to avoid punishment, and eventually conform to rules to gain rewards? What is this stage of moral reasoning called?
According to Kohlberg, children progress through various stages of moral reasoning.
During the preconventional stage, children obey authority figures to avoid punishment. This is the first part of the preconventional stage.
During the second part, children conform to rules in order to gain rewards. Stacy falls into the preconventional stage because she obeys simply to avoid punishment.
The conventional stage of morality occurs in early adolescence, and it involves a desire to be seen as a “good girl” or a “good boy.” Stacy has not yet progressed to this stage.
Postconventional moral reasoning occurs during adulthood and involves genuine interest in the rights of others, as well as a desire to be morally right.
What are the three stages of adolescence and their attributes?
Many social workers and other theorists divide adolescence into three stages: early, middle, and late adolescence.
Early adolescence is marked by thoughts mostly limited to the present rather than the future, deeper moral thinking, moodiness, an increased desire for privacy and independence, and a tendency to return to childish behavior when stressed.
During middle adolescence, individuals have an increased capacity for setting goals, and they think about the meaning of life.
Emotionally, these individuals experience a continued adjustment to the changing body, they worry about being normal, and they have a continued drive for independence.
During late adolescence, individuals have an increased concern for the future, the ability to delay gratification, development of serious relationships, and an increased focus on cultural and ethnic identity.
Post-adolescence would refer to early adulthood and is not a stage of adolescent development.
What does learning relate to/how does it occur according to Skinner, Maslow, Bandura and Piaget?
The idea that learning is related to behavioral change and via imitation is more characteristic of behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner.
Humanistic theoreticians such as Abraham Maslow believe that learning is meant to help a person reach their unique potential.
The social learning school of Albert Bandura would say that learning is obtained by interactions between individuals and their environment.
Jean Piaget believed that learning is an internal mental process based on exterior stimuli. His theory of cognitive development emphasized that children learn by interacting with their environments AND the internal cognitive processing of those interactions. He broke development into four distinct stages, including sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations.
Whose stages of psychosocial development focus on the ego and break child development into eight stages and what are the eight stages?
Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development focus on the ego and break child development into eight stages. These stages include learning to trust or mistrust, learning to feel autonomous or to feel shame and doubt, initiating activities or feeling guilty, and becoming industrious or feeling inferior.
What theory uses these four directions: ideas, feelings, spirituality, and action?
The deep ecology theory uses four directions: ideas, feelings, spirituality, and action.
IDEAS: The central idea of Deep Ecology is that we are part of the earth, rather than apart and separate from it. This idea is in contrast to the dominant individualism of our culture, where seeing ourselves as separate from our world makes it easier not to be bothered by what’s happening in it. This century, two key ideas have emerged out of scientific thinking that support the view of ourselves as part of the earth. The first idea comes from Systems Theory and the second idea is called Gaia Theory.
Systems Theory sees our world in terms of ‘systems’, where each system is a ‘whole’ that is more than the sum of its parts, but also itself a ‘part’ of larger systems. For example, a cell is more than just a pile of molecules and itself is a part of larger systems eg. an organ. An organ is on one level a whole in itself, but on another, it is a part of a system at the level of an individual person. A family and a community can both be seen as ‘systems’ where the ‘parts’ are people. (Gaia Theory takes this idea further and applies it to the whole planet. All of life on earth can be seen as whole that is more than the sum of its parts, this whole being like a huge super-organism that we call ‘Gaia’ (after the name for the ancient Greek goddess of the earth). Living systems have a tendency to keep themselves in balance but also to adapt and evolve over time. Scientists have found that the earth also has these tendencies, with feedback mechanisms to ‘keep in balance’ the temperature and oxygen levels of the atmosphere, just as our bodies maintain the temperature and oxygen levels in our arteries. (Gaia Theory is simply stating that the earth is alive and that we are part of it. This is something that many cultures have known for centuries.)
“We are part of the earth and it is part of us”
From Chief Seattle’s speech, possibly spoken in North America, 1854.
FEELINGS: Facing the scale of social and ecological crisis in our world can leave us feeling numbed, overwhelmed and powerless. Yet there is often little place for such feelings in conventional politics or in our society at large. The dominant response is to deny or distract ourselves from any uncomfortable feelings about the state of the world, and to carry on with ‘business as usual’.
If we see ourselves as part of the world, it becomes possible to see that such uncomfortable feelings may serve a valuable function. Just as it hurts when we put our finger over a flame, ‘pain for the world’ alerts us to the injuries of our world and can move us to respond. Allowing ourselves to feelfor our world also opens us to a source of energy and aliveness, and a strength that comes from connection to something more than just our narrow selves.
SPIRITUALITY is to do with our inner sense of connection with something larger than ourselves and with our relationship with what we see as sacred. This can give our lives a sense of meaning and purpose beyond material success and those special moments where we feel that connection more deeply can provide an important source of strength in difficult times. If we see ourselves as part of the ‘Tree of Life’ - the interconnected web of beings we call Gaia, then a Deep Ecological approach to spirituality might emphasise our relationship with this larger whole. We may look at life itself as being sacred, and see the possibility of the larger force of life acting through us in our work for earth recovery. This ‘life-centred spirituality’ can be an important source of inspiration to face and respond to the problems of our world.
ACTION: When we integrate our beliefs, ideas and values into our behaviour, we bring them alive and give them the power to influence our world. If we see ourselves as separate from the world, it is easy to dismiss our actions as irrelevant or unlikely to make any difference. From the Deep Ecology perspective, we are part of the world and every choice we make will have ripples that extend beyond us. What may seem tiny and insignificant by itself always adds to a larger context, so that every time we act for life, we put our weight behind the shift towards a life-sustaining culture.
Deep ecology is a social and environmental philosophy that encourages people to view nature as having inherent value and to change their relationship with it:
Deep ecology is based on the idea that all living things have value and that humans are not more important than any other living thing. It also promotes the idea that humans should protect all life on Earth as they would protect their own family.
Deep ecology is a social movement that sometimes has religious and mystical undertones. It’s based on a holistic vision of the world, where the survival of any part is dependent on the well-being of the whole.
The term “deep ecology” was coined by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess in 1972. Naess and American environmentalist George Sessions developed a platform of eight organizing principles for the movement.
Some critics of deep ecology argue that it’s Eurocentric, assumes an impossible knowledge of non-human interests, and is overly utopian.
What trend refers to the pattern of growth from a person’s or animal’s head to their tail?
The cephalocaudal trend refers to the pattern of growth from a person’s or animal’s head to their tail. When a fetus is in utero, the head develops much more rapidly than the lower part of the body, yet by age 2 a child’s head measures only one-fifth of the entire length of the body.
Proximodistal trend is the growth of the body from the center outward, referring to the fact that the trunk, head, and chest grow first, followed by arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes. Cephalocaudal growth is considered to be normal, not abnormal, growth, and applies to both humans and many types of animals.
