Understand_Child_and_Young_Person_Development

Understand Child and Young Person Development 2.3 Explain how theories of development and frameworks to support development influence current practice' Write a brief summary on each of the following theorist Piaget Piaget’s theory results in specific recommendations for a given stage of cognitive development. For example with children in the sensor motor stage, teachers should try to provide a rich and stimulating environment with ample of objects to play with. On the other hand with children in the concrete operational stage, learning activities should involve problems of classification, ordering, location, conversation using concrete objects. Piaget identified four stages in cognitive development which is:- Sensor motor stage (infancy) intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge is limited based on physical interactions/ experiences. Physical development allows them to develop new intellectual abilities and speech begins to develop. Pre operational stage (toddler and early childhood) intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language matures, memory and imagination are developed but thinking is non logical. Concrete operational stage (elementary and early adolescence) intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols relates to concrete objects and their operational thinking develops. Formal operational stage (adolescence and adulthood) intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts and many people do not think formally during adulthood. His views of how children’s minds work and develop have been enormously influential particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation and increasing the capacity to understand their world, they cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. The research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall vision. Today Piaget’s theories have helped to change how people viewed the child’s world and the way they study them he has inspired many theorist to improve on his studies. Piaget’s ideas have been of practical use in understanding and communicating, particularly in education. What he didn’t consider was the effect in the social setting and culture as his studies were mainly on the stages of cognitive development, it was with a handful of participants and his own children. Freud Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind, especially involving the mechanism of repression; his redefinition of sexual desire as mobile and directed towards a wide variety of objects; and his therapeutic techniques, especially his understanding of transference in the therapeutic relationship and the presumed value of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. He is commonly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has been highly influential — popularizing such notions as the unconscious, defense mechanisms. However, his theories remain controversial and widely disputed. He is the most influential psychologist; his theories alter radically in the way that people understand the mind and behaviour, after experimenting with hypnosis on his neurotic patients, Freud abandoned it as ineffective. He instead adopted a form of treatment where the patient talked through his or her problems. This came to be known as the "talking cure" and its goal was to locate and release powerful emotional energy that had initially been rejected or imprisoned in the unconscious mind. He also believed that we often fight with our consciousness which drives the id, ego, and superego which plays a part in the way we behaviour towards the relationships we have with our parents, peers, and professionals. Freud thought that through childhood the stages go in a fixed order and a fixed time scale so by the time you become an adult if there has been a situation in the past that has caused problems; he believes they can be traced back to the issue that happened in childhood. In Freud's view, reasoning occurs in the conscious mind--the ego--but this is only a small part of the whole. The mind also contains the hidden, irrational elements of id and superego, which lie outside of conscious control, drive behavior, and motivate conscious activities. As a result, these structures call into question humans' ability to act purely on the basis of reason, since lurking motives are also always at play. Instincts and drives although we may behave in complex and sophisticated ways, Freud believed that we are still animals, and consequently that our behaviour is governed by the same drives as any other animal. Therefore, at the roots of our behaviour are drives like hunger, thirst, aggression and sex. He also simultaneously developed a theory of the human mind's organization and internal operations and a theory that human behaviour both conditions and results from how the mind is organized. This led him to favor certain clinical techniques for trying to help cure mental illness. He theorized that personality is developed by a person's childhood experiences. Freud’s innovative treatment of human actions, dreams, and indeed of cultural artifacts as invariably possessing implicit symbolic significance has proven to be extraordinarily fruitful, and has had massive implications for a wide variety of fields including psychology, anthropology, semiotics, and artistic creativity and appreciation. However, Freud’s most important and frequently re-iterated claim, that with psychoanalysis he had invented a successful science of the mind, remains the subject of much critical debate and controversy. Maslow Maslow presented the idea that human actions are directed toward goal attainment. Any given behavior could satisfy several functions at the same time; for instance, going to a pub could satisfy one’s needs for self-esteem and for social interaction. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has often been represented in a hierarchical pyramid with five levels. The four levels (lower-order needs) are considered physiological needs, while the top level is considered growth needs. The lower level needs need to be satisfied before higher-order needs can influence behavior. • Self-actualization – morality, creativity, problem solving, etc. • Esteem – includes confidence, self-esteem, achievement, respect, etc. • Belongingness – includes love, friendship, intimacy, family, etc. • Safety – includes security of environment, employment, resources, health, property, etc. • Physiological – includes air, food, water, sex, sleep, other factors towards homeostasis, etc. Deprivation Needs The first four levels are considered deficiency or deprivation needs (“D-needs”) in that their lack of satisfaction causes a deficiency that motivates people to meet these needs. Physiological needs, the lowest level on the hierarchy, include necessities such as air, food, and water. These tend to be satisfied for most people, but they become predominant when unmet. During emergencies, safety needs such as health and security rise to the forefront. Once these two levels are met, belongingness needs, such as obtaining love and intimate relationships or close friendships, become important. The next level, esteem needs, include the need for recognition from others, confidence, achievement, and self-esteem. Growth Needs The highest level is self-actualization, or the self-fulfillment. Behavior in this case is not driven or motivated by deficiencies but rather one’s desire for personal growth and the need to become all the things that a person is capable of becoming. Worked on the needs of children on the ability to learn how to cope with the physiological safety, belonging, self esteem, self actualization he presented this in a hierarchy of needs pyramid but the child can only progress by learning the different stages. He believes that everyone is capable of moving up the hierarchy towards a level of self – actualization, but this is often disrupted by life experiences like divorce, loss of a job, death of a close family member, causing individuals to fluctuate between levels of hierarchy. Eventually we can find a meaning to life that is important to us. Maslow has identified 15 characteristics but we often don’t display all of them. Although through experiences myself, have found people like to tell you their experiences and how they enjoy or hate, express their sense of humour or not, being polite or impolite. Bandura Perhaps this is the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning. His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and behaviors by watching other people. Known as observational learning (or modeling), this type of learning can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviors. There are three core concepts at the heart of social learning theory. First is the idea that people can learn through observation. Next is the idea that internal mental states are an essential part of this process. Finally, this theory recognizes that just because something has been learned, it does not mean that it will result in a change in behavior. Observational Learning Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning: 1. A live model, which involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behavior. 2. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of a behavior. 3. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in books, films, television programs, or online media. Intrinsic Reinforcement Bandura noted that external, environmental reinforcement was not the only factor to influence learning and behavior. He described intrinsic reinforcement as a form of internal reward, such as pride, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment. This emphasis on internal thoughts and cognitions helps connect learning theories to cognitive developmental theories. While many textbooks place social learning theory with behavioral theories, Bandura himself describes his approach as a 'social cognitive theory.' The Modeling Process Not all observed behaviors are effectively learned. Factors involving both the model and the learner can play a role in whether social learning is successful. Certain requirements and steps must also be followed. The following steps are involved in the observational learning and modeling process: • Attention: In order to learn, you need to be paying attention. Anything that detracts your attention is going to have a negative effect on observational learning. If the model interesting or there is a novel aspect to the situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full attention to learning. • Retention: The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process. Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning. • Reproduction: Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time to actually perform the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned behavior leads to improvement and skill advancement. • Motivation: Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Reinforcement and punishment play an important role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can observing other experience some type of reinforcement or punishment' For example, if you see another student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few minutes early each day. In addition to influencing other psychologists, Bandura's social learning theory has had important implication in the field of education. Today, both teachers and parents recognize the importance of modeling appropriate behaviors. Other classroom strategies such as encouraging children and building self-efficacy are also rooted in social learning theory. Skinner Skinner believed as individuals we will repeat experiences which are enjoyable and avoid those which are not, relevant for teaching experiences as for behaviour itself .e.g. a child who learns that it’s enjoyable to work with construction toys will want to repeat this again and again. Children are praised for working at a particular task; this may also reinforce their desire to repeat the experience. Skinner stated that good experiences are positive reinforcement by praising and encouraging, also giving them tasks they can carry out successfully. So learning is said to take place because the reinforcement is pleasant, satisfying, tension reducing, and so on. Skinner’s observation of the effectiveness of incremental training of animals led him to formulate the principals of programmed instruction for human students, in which the concept of reward, or reinforcement, is fundamental and complex subjects as mathematics are broken down into simple questions, students therefore can answer with an immediate positive reinforcement, giving them the incentive to continue. His work was also influential in the clinical treatment of mental and emotional disorders. In the late 1940’s he began to develop the behaviour modification method, in which subjects received a series of small rewards for their desired behaviour it was considered a useful technique for psychologists and psychiatrist with deeply disturbed patients, behaviour modification has also been widely used by the general population in overcoming obesity, shyness, speech defects, addiction from smoking to drugs and other problems. This extended his ideas to the realm of philosophy, which concluded that all behaviour was the result of either positive or negative reinforcement, and thus the existence of free was merely an illusion. This theory is relatively simple to understand because it relies only on observable behaviour and describes several universal laws of behaviour. Its positive and negative techniques can be very effective in both animals and humans, helping with treatments for disorders such as autism and antisocial behaviour. Watson Watson states that behaviorism is the scientific study of human behavior. It is simply the study of what people do. The first task is to observe behavior and make predictions, then to take determine causal relationships. Behavior can be reduced to relationships between stimuli and responses. A stimulus can be shown to cause a response or a response can be traced back to a stimulus. All behavior can be reduced to this basic component. According to Watson, "life's most complicated acts are but combinations of these simple stimulus- response patterns of behavior." He saw psychology as the study of people's actions with the ability to predict and control those actions. This new idea became known as the behaviourists’ theory. His view of behaviorism was considered radical and was known for its extreme anti-mentalism, it s radical reduction of thinking to implicit response, and its heavy and somewhat simplistic reliance on conditioned reactions. In his earlier years Watson used animal subjects to study behavior. Later he turned to the study of human behaviors and emotions. His famous study for this was called the Little Albert Experiment in which he theorized that children have three basic emotional reactions: fear, rage, and love. He wanted to prove that these three reactions could be artificially conditioned in children. Watson used a little boy named Albert to test his theory. He repeatedly presented Albert a rat in conjunction with a sudden, loud noise to classically condition fear of the rat. Aspects of Watson's theory: • He opposed mentalistic concepts • He used contiguity to explain learning • He considered emotion to be just another example of classical conditioning • He rejected the notion of individual differences • He thought complex behaviors came about through combinations of identifiable reflexes • He was a chief proponent of "nurture" and believed that all human differences were the result of learning • He believed that practice strengthens learning While Watson's position fell short of his goal of explaining human learning, his work is now considered as an early beginning of the development of learning science. Social Pedagogy Takes influence from how society is constructed and shaped by the way it flourishes when embedded into the culture and existing practices, therefore it takes time and constant care. Social pedagogy has been set into 5 different categories which is vital for us to develop our relationships within society today. Well being and happiness: are very individual and subjective so what make s us happy is very different from person to person as for well being it’s a long lasting sense of physical, mental, emotional and social well being. Holistic learning: pleasant anticipation of ones self, it mirrors the aim of well being and happiness, plus contributing to or enhancing our wellness. The holistic process for learning and growth is to realize your own potential in life. Relationship: a person can experience that someone cares for and about them, that they can trust. This gives them the social skills and abilities to build a strong positive relationship with others. Empowerment: crucial to ensure that we get a sense of control over our life, feel involved when decisions are made that affect you and to make sense of our world. This supports people’s empowerment, their independence as well as interdependence. Positive experiences: the power of experiencing something positive makes us feel happy, achieved something, learn’t a new skill, to someone that cares, it raises our self confidence and feeling of self worth, reinforcing our well being, learning, being able, feeling empowered and strengthening our positives. Social pedagogy is about creating learning opportunities, our own potential and how we develop. They use research, theories and concepts from other sciences such as sociology, psychology, education and philosophy to ensure the holistic perspective. The fact that social pedagogy is about process in all these area’s and that once achieved they can easily be forgotten so we need to constantly working on them to ensure that our rights are not violated or neglected. Conclusion My theory on all these theorist’s is what the way they understand how human beings develop, learn, and behaviour is that they all have a point of being right and wrong in their studies, experiments and analysis, as all these theories are used through home life, education, culture and society today.